Ep. 11: Through The Gateway

Previously on the atom myth. Azan, he- Oik! She! Uh, my name is Theoriak. What's up? My name's Sky! Welcome to the patchwork, my dudes! More research regarding the crystal. And you find data like someone has imprinted this thing with a- almost a message. Everybody stop! Put your hands on your heads! Has the seat taken? All I want is to settle down and start a proper life. My name is Mr. Highlock. Hear that I'm lucky enough to have you interview to work with me? I think I'm the lucky one.

Ayyy! No, no, no, no, no. I don't know what you're here, but I'm not buying anything. Hype sent me. What's your name? House- uh, Skyscraper. Scrapyard. Welcome to the Hef. How can I be of service these days? My name is Dr. Theoriak. I work with Wild Times. Some of the people I have employed have been arrested. Unfortunately I cannot divulge information to people aboard. But if you find a superior officer, they can give you a clearance pass. Allow me to tell you more. Has the seat taken?

I don't remember all this. My name is Mr. Highlock. I'm sorry, did we do this before? I don't know what you're here, but I'm not buying anything. This might sound a little immature, but have you ever read a comic book? Yeah, you know what? This isn't working. Can we rerun Simulat- Just concentrate, that's all. Focus as hard as you can. As you all break out of this memory loop and you gain full autonomy, the ship raises and the patchwork takes off. And you are all in deep space.

A thousand eyes stare at a hulking, multi-horned creature sulking in the darkness of a cave. The creature stretches a powerful paw out in front of it, attempting to grasp at the straw it lays on, as its sharp toothed jaw widens in a yawn before its eyes examine its home. Rucky outcroppings, the fresh water dripping off stalactites. Its eyes follow and stares, sadly, at a smooth wall that it knows holds the eyes that stare at it.

It stands uneasily unsure of the body that it inhabits, and it lurches toward a pile of bones nearly stripped of their meat and sniffs. Then sadly, to the joy of the thousand eyes staring at it, it crunches into its new meal. It shambles back to its bedding, and as the creature lays down and looks out to the rest of the cave in front of it, we see recreational environments stretch out, joys and wonders to be had in abundance, but the eyes won't stop watching, unmoving and unblinking.

The patchwork has been in the air for three days at this point. Scrap took the long way around to avoid the Leviathan's Eye, as Ran is in a position now where you'd be coming past it if you just flew straight there. However, Idun is now in view. The little intercom system flicks on. Hey, so we're about four hours out of Idun. We're gonna have to make a stop off at its moon and then get in from there, but everyone suit up. It's bring your crew to work day. The intercom flicks off.

Did everyone download the experience app? What? What is that exactly? Oh, you can check the wait times for certain exhibits, and it shows you what stores are gonna have sales and stuff. There's this neat little scheduling section, and every time you open up the app, the tiger thing gives a little thumbs up. You can also mobile on this thing. Yeah. Get your food prepared ahead of time. It's neat.

If you all have to buy tickets, I'm going to throw- I'm going to make an executive, like, decision to just bypass you all. There's no reason you all should not be able to get in. You are technically employees of Wildtimes as per the contract. Wait, what? Oh, yeah, are those contracts real? Oh, God, yeah. Doctor. Wait, hold on. We've been on this ship for three days and you didn't care to mention that you hide us? It's not real. Okay. But it's very handy legal work.

Okay. I almost wish you hadn't have told me that I am a technical employee of a theme park we're about to enter because it's already gone to my head. Also, I know it's not a theme park. It's a zoological facility. I'm so sorry. It's not. I don't want to hear the T word for the rest of this trip. Do you understand? Yes, Dr. Thirriak. Thank you. What about z- what about a zed word? Zoological. Yeah. That's easy to fix because you could be like, you know, the zoooooological facility.

Exactly. There's a chance to recover. You can't recover from- We could also just- we could just call it Wildtimes. It has a name. It does have a name. Did you choose the name? Excuse me. Hi. Everyone should pack. We should all individually pack alone. Yeah. Everyone just plan what you're going to wear. Make sure you've got, you know, your bottles of water, libations, snacks. It's really expensive. Okay. I just like look nervously at Thirriak because I don't want this conversation to continue.

Does anybody want to spare fanny pack? I already have one. Thank you. Oh, I've never had a fanny pack before. That's, that's literally so funny that you say that Moe because I fully was going to have a joke that that you and Scrap have collected like from just places that you've just taken shit from. You have like a whole box of different fanny packs. So that's very fun that we synced up there. Take the fanny packs. There's like a whole box of them just like over there.

Wait, I have a question. What we need like, um, sun protection. Is it very sunny? Is there? It's very sunny. Yes. I recommend if you have skin to wear proper. I don't. Do I need sun protection? You have fur. So. Rats can get burnt. Matt says as Scrap. Right? I don't know. I've never had to think about that before. If you if you have exposed skin, such as your ears, your your muzzle, your hands or your tail, you should wear sunscreen on those bits.

That's true. And also, I we have been on the lower decks for most of our lives and I'm pretty sure that the sun hits us differently. So we might get actually pretty burnt. So, yeah, I can. I don't have sunscreen, but if you have dense fur. Oh, that's true. Dense fur. Maybe. All my fur is matted. Dr. Zariak, you don't sound too excited to be going back to your zoological facility. Isn't this like the first time you're going to get to see it with like people?

Oh, I'm very excited. I'm just working right now. Oh, what are you working on? I'm doing the actual paperwork for the slugs. Oh, for burger and fries. Wait, hold up. We've had them for ages. Yes, I've been feeding them what food we've had left. But why didn't... never mind. Why didn't what? Nothing's fine. I'm just going to keep packing and keep to myself. All right. Well, I'm going to go say goodbye to burger and fries. Can I come? Yeah, please.

You all walk out in the kitchen. I imagine burger and fries is in the kitchen, since that's where Theory Act does the most of their work. Yeah, so it's like there's like the Spy Kids 1 themed fabricator that makes the majority of like the protein food and the coffee and things. And there's like a recycled water sink that Scrap is very recently installed on Saga, as well as your chairs that you picked out and the drift core in the middle.

And you can see that Scrap is... has the curtains to the pilot seat open. So you can see out all in front of you and see all the Adamless Sea and the Edun, which is increasing. You've actually now been matched by other ships. This is the most ships you've seen in like one condensed area when you're not like like taxiing to get into a planet. Like you were taxiing to go into Saga for a little bit and Helium as well when you were going into Helium.

But now it's like you're just on the space highway and you're seeing like two, three other ships next year. This is actually kind of exciting. Oh my god, I'm so excited. This is gonna be great. I'm like so excited to see it with like people walking around with everything all open, you know. I think it'll be very exciting. I've never been this far from Saga View. Me and Scrap made a stop. Don't tell Dr. Theriac, okay?

Oh my gosh, okay. I might have made a little stop at Wild Times before it was open. You know, we just wanted to scope the place out so I know where all the bathrooms are. When did you do this? It was very minor. I know we like left Saga. Went to Wild Times and picked you guys up. That's how we found out about the Leviathan's Eye. Scrap, how'd you get here? I'm the pilot. I'm on the pilot's chair. I'm like in the same room as you. Wait, is Dr. Theriac here?

No, Dr. Theriac is like further away than I am. That's how we found out about the Leviathan's Eye because we were coming back from Adun, saw the Leviathan's Eye collide with the asteroid belt, and then we met up with the BA-11 and then found you guys. Okay, so yeah, this is just very interesting and I'm kind of excited to see Dr. Theriac in their element, you know?

Yeah, and I didn't get to see any of the animals or anything. There was just a bunch of hotels and stuff, so I'm excited to get the full Wild Times experience, you know? Do you think we'll be like very important guests because we are with, you know, the very important Wild Times founder, Dr. Theriac? I think you're always very important. That's extremely sweet. I don't know how we're gonna get treated once we get down there.

I'm getting some weird vibes from Theriac in terms of the backend production of this zoological facility, you know? Like what? I mean, so there's a spectrum of ways this could go in my imagination. We're gonna get down there. They're gonna roll out a red carpet. Trumpets will sound and a round of applause and confetti from the audience as we wave as we walk out of the patchwork. That's over here. That is one scenario.

On the other end, I'm worried we're gonna get there and the people running the park are gonna be like, Dr. Theriac, who? Are you on the list? And then we're gonna have to kill somebody because that ain't right. Well, those are very different in very extreme ways. I hope maybe it's somewhere in the middle. I kind of don't... I think it's probably gonna be somewhere in the middle. No, I think I trust Dr. Theriac and I think that this will go very well.

And Burger and Fries are gonna be so happy. They're gonna be with so many other animals. Yeah, can I pick up Burger and Fries' carrier and be like, you're gonna be a big star, kid. You're gonna go places. Theoretically, physically, you're probably gonna be in one place forever. Theriac will walk in at that point and say, put the slug down. That is a parasite. Please put it back in its facility. And they're ready for their big debut.

They are not your friend. Do not stab the slugs. Please put the... Oh yeah, I'm putting down the carrier, but Dr. Theriac, it's hard for me to not disturb anybody. First of all, you are not a disturbance. You are not a nuisance. I should probably try harder then. You are an esteemed... I feel like you're missing the point. But these are going to be... We want these specimens in good health and to not be, you know, out of sorts when they arrive at the health... At the veterinary clinic.

Now, Dr. Theriac, let's say hypothetically. I'm not saying this... I can neither confirm nor deny that this has or has not happened. But if whilst you were not actively looking at burger and fries, someone slipped them a few cheesy puffs at 2 a.m., would that matter? I'm sensing you didn't know that anyone has done that, so I'm going to say no, it does not. If someone did do that. Are these slugs omnivorous? Yeah, yeah. They're like parasitic, so are they opportunists? Yeah, they're everything.

That's fine for these slugs. That would be fine for these slugs if someone were to do that. I do not advise you to do that in the future unless you have specifically asked me to do so, because some animals can get very sick if you feed them the wrong things. Dr. Theriac, can I feed burger and fries cheese puffs at 2 a.m.? What time is it now? It is... coming to idun time... 11? In the morning? Yeah. Sorry, yes. Yes, because you will not be able to interact with them for much longer.

Okay. But thank you for asking, I appreciate that. I guess I need to go and pack and find... sunscreen. So I'm going to go figure that out. Very well. I'm going to go check on Azzam, see if he needs anything before we land. I'm going to hang out with burger and fries for the last moments we can. Yes. Say your goodbyes, your farewells. Yes or no to cheesy puffs. Just one? They're old times. Feed them the cheesy puffs. Thank you. You're welcome. And the Theriac will start by Azzam's. Azzam?

Something wrong? Are you doing alright? Why wouldn't I be? It's packing for a... zoological trip. So I've got everything I need. It's easy enough. I just know you are not... you do not endorse how... how this facility came to be. So I wanted to check that you are okay to actually enter the premises. What do you think I'm going to do? Walk up to every cage? Break the animals free? Let them roam wild over the countryscape? I know you're joking, but that does give me anxiety.

Theriac, I told you before. I don't have a problem with you or with wild times. I have a problem with how... I think you don't realize what this place is. Well, without this conversation we don't need to have... I understand. I understand your positioning. And... and in some ways I do agree with you. Know that. It's good to know, but what scares me is that if you agree with me, what are you planning on doing? Continuing to run the best operation that I can within my given capabilities. Okay.

I've... I've been actually doing lots of drafts for some modifications to the site. Possibly some ideas for different exhibits. Just some standard of life improvements, I believe. That would be of benefit for both our specimens and our guests. So... Always room for improvement. Sure, Theriac. Sure. Just... if you do get disappointed... Be careful not to... Let yourself fall apart because something didn't work out where you intended. I lay a massive hand on Theriac's teeny tiny little shoulder.

Just like pat... pat. I look at him quizzically. Okay, then. Well, I should... visit little Freit's room. Ah. Yes, don't let me impede you. And we'll go back. Check on Scrap. Yeah, Scrap's flying in. There's a little... their motherboard is essentially all junk. They have a fax machine which is printing out small reports and little words... pictures.

Which are just all made up of words of just like the general look ahead of them and little scans around them. There's a typewriter that they're occasionally tapping on that contacts other ships around. Yeah, they're just having a little fly on their console in this like deep granddad chair. That is the pilot's chair that they have. As you walk up, they're like, ah, hey, big shot. Wanna see?

Morning, Captain. It looks out to Edun, which is just this beautiful little tropical planet with greens and blues and all sorts of colors. Like you can even see the reefs from up here and how bright they are. It's beautiful. Yeah. Feels good. Yes. We never had time, but you did real good on Helium getting us here. You've been doing real good this whole time. I'll be honest, Doctor, I'm going to be absolutely gutted to lose you as part of the crew.

Yes, it's unfortunate, but that was our agreement when I took the job to get the mollusks. Once I got back here, I'd be returning to work. Absolutely. Well, hey, if you ever need any slugs needing picking up from any planet, you know, Sky and I are always gonna be knocking around. You have our numbers. Feel free to hit us up. You always have a place on the patchwork if you need it.

I appreciate that deeply, and I'll be sure to that you and all the crew compensated with, if not lifetime passes, then seasonal passes. I didn't even have to ask. That was literally going to be the next question right out of my mouth. You have more than earned that, more than earned that, that prize, I would say. It's been an absolute honor flying with you. Same to you, Captain. Alright, go take your seat. Strap in. We're about an hour out. Alright. Sit their ass down.

The little ding of the pilot light comes on instructing everyone to go sit down and strap in as the patchwork weaves its way toward Adun. Adun could not be more different from Saga, and that's never more clear as you approach as the planet is covered in a lush green landscape, deep blue seas, worming around the planet, the reefs, the atmosphere is beautiful. It is stunning. A planet, even though you know that there is this huge park on it, it is almost entirely untouched by anyone.

Adun's one moon, which has recently taken the name Gateway, shows thousands of ships to and from the planet. Hanging over the moon is this one humongous starship that almost covers the entire surface of it called a Bifrost. It's a cruise vessel built to carry travelers from all throughout the galaxy, throughout the drift to all of the destinations that they want. It essentially has built in multiple drift engines and just travels.

It's one of the only ships that can go not only solar system to solar system, but full galactic plane to galactic plane. It is an incredible ship. You get the green light to land in the docking bay on the moon. As you park, you see a huge palace-like structure, its walls going on into the horizon and a huge grand dome that reaches a spiked point on top of the building.

The entrance is met either side by two humongous holograms of creatures that keep changing what animal they are to show, from a quadruped horse-like creature with tentacled faces to large birds with tens of eyes on their wings. A brightly lit wooden sign above the decadent door says, Entrance to Wildtimes, the number one xeno-ecological educational facility in the galaxy.

Your ears are buffeted by the sounds of wildlife, coring birds, roaring predators, and the chirp of different aesthetic sounding insects. As you walk up to it, you see vines and plants crawling up the walls, fake waterfalls and streams that are flowing throughout the building and down the walls, under glass pathways that you walk. Excited park-goers walk over them whilst collecting tickets or waiting in line.

Holographic animals bound their way throughout the waiting spaces through light fixtures on the floor, running up to children and offering to be pet by them, and then when they tap them on their little head, a little twos of an information card pops up telling them a little information about that animal. One such creature, a holograph of a pink monkey with a sharp whip-like tail, curiously walks up to you all. It stares at you all for a minute as you enter into the gateway to Wildtimes.

Can't pet it! Can't pet the monkey! Are we supposed to? You can pet... It's a holograph. It is a holograph, but it's a futuristic holograph, so it's very good. As you pet it, there's a little dot that appears on it and a line showing a little card. This little critter survives on bugs and buries on a dune and is found in warm climates.

For more information, buy the Explorer's Pack for unlimited access to all animals' habitats and fast passes to rides, as well as exclusive Wildtimes meal kit by the Adventurers Kit. It has a little sign above it that says, uh, Kau-Kau-Kariki is the name of this little pink monkey. And it goes, bap-bap-ba-dap! So advanced! Why are you waving? This is so cool! I'm losing my marbles, dude! I'm losing my theory because I'm going to write enough of that salesmanship!

It's... The Karakuri is a very interesting species, but first of all, I did not endorse this interactive exhibit, and I thought that we had agreed that all basic educational information for these animals would be readily available, in plaques and holograms like these, but not... ...behind paywalls. Not ones that you could pet! I mean, I don't even know what a Kaulikiki was until I pet this one, and it's just... it was asking me to be pet!

It's designed to... it's not how it would actually interact with you. I know, but, you know, it's accessible to me, the target audience, who is easily distracted by loud noises and bright colors. I cannot fault you for that. Azam is, like, trying his best to stare directly at the floor. You're doing very well. You're standing above one of these fake rivers.

There's these two waterfalls that fall either side of the Great Entrance, and the water goes in and then worms its way through, and at the minute you are standing on this very large plane of glass that has this water river flowing across it, and there's some holographic fish that occasionally swim past. Uh, Thierak, did you say that you shoo the Kaulikiki away? Go on. As you do, you click the X and swipe it away. It sits and its eyes widen just slightly.

Doctor! Thank you so much for coming back! Well, if you'd like to follow me, we can take you through the back room. I would appreciate that. Thank you. Is this an artificial intelligence, or is this someone on a communicator? I am the artificial intelligence that worms its way all the way through the gateway. I am cut off from the AI through wild times, but are from the same material. Very well. I do have some crewmates that I've been traveling with that will also need access.

Very well. If you follow me, you can speak to Mr. Lepore, who will be able to give you access. Thank you. And we'll march forward. Thierak, you would know Mr. Helo Lepore is one of the board members. There are six board members, seven including yourself, who reside over wild times. I'm not going to bombard you all with information. Helo Lepore, Mr. Lepore is one of them.

This little pink monkey skitters and bounds over out of this gorgeous set area that holds all the cues and all these interactive animals flying around, and next to the toilets just a very basic looking door. They stop just before the hallway down. At the end of this hall, you will find the door that leads into the back rooms and Mr. Lepore. Camouflaged very well. Thank you very much. And we'll open the door. I believe here you call them backstage?

Yes, it would be considered that. Yes, backstage. This is so cool. I feel so exclusive. Oh, the back rooms, they're going to be finger food. This is definitely pretty exciting. Well, our Furiak is a big wig. That's even cooler, like a rock star. All right, let's get to move on. You walk on down the hallway, leads into a hallway, leads into a hallway. Which leads into this huge room that these absolutely massive windows look out upon wild times.

A bunch of different monitors, tens of people all typing, clicking, speaking to each other, making sure the ships from the planet coming back from the moon and trading places and all that is all working smoothly. It's essentially like an airport operating area, but exclusively for wild times. There's also people to make sure the tickets go through and all that jazz.

You see a man, middle aged human in a t-shirt, a suit jacket, it has jeans on, and they're leaning over speaking to someone who is just dealing with some random ticket things. They don't seem to notice you as you go in, they're busy looking at other things. Oh my god. Hello. Oh, Furiak. Lapore. It's been ages. Where have you been? You are looking great and you have, who I imagine is friends.

These are the crew mates that I've been traveling to on a mission to acquire more specimens for the facility. We'll go up and shake Lapore's hands. Oh yes. Lin told us about your personal excursion. That is very exciting. Thank you so much for... We're going to have to open up our first off-world exhibit. If you do more of that, am I right? Can I go up to them and offer my hand and say, Sky, employee in training for wild times?

It's an absolute honor. Mr. Hila Lapore. I am he, him. It's nice to see you. Pleasure doing business with you. Yes, it's a pleasure doing business with you, of course. Yes, hello everyone. My name is Hila Lapore. I'm one of the board members next to Thiriak. I'm the one who's been keeping the wheels greased, keeping everything turning since our Lord on High has been off gallivanting through the solar system.

I've heard that you've led a very exciting life over the last few weeks. The board are quite excited to catch up and talk about it. Have you seen the new facility since we've opened? There's a new facility already? Not new facility. No, no, no. Have you? Oh, a tour of the grounds. Yes. Have you had it since we opened? I've done a tour of the grounds prior to it opening. I've not seen it fully in action.

Wonderful. We're going to show you it. It is an absolutely magical experience. We're going to take the... We could go down privately. We're not going to do that. We're going to go through the public routes and we're going to take the public ship down because it's quite magical. Bassett has really done some magical things. That's why they were hired for the job.

Bassett is LaShunta, who is essentially the head imagineer of the park facility as the park runs. Not a member of the board, but high up in the design aspect. Yes. This will be very exciting, won't it? And to be going through the sort of processes in the shoes of a visitor will be sort of a good proofing of our facility. Absolutely. I'm terribly sorry about missing the grand opening. That is very unfortunate. I wish I could have been there. But by all accounts, it went over well, yes?

Oh, yes. It's gone swimmingly. We had a bit of a scare. Obviously, it's not the same since you've been gone. But we've found our own path. Lynn has really stepped up when it comes to running that side of the things. They've come to me with a lot of things. And the whole board has really been doing a lot of overtime and really filling in your vision for what the park is. So we should be all great to go. Right! Yes. And you are talking about Tulen Malodin, is that correct?

Yes. You trained them exceedingly well. They seem to know exactly what they're doing. They've taken your ways with the animals and have really inspired the team. Of course, you're always the boss. Can I roll a sense motive check on this person? Okay. I want to see if we're being sold a story here. Or if this is... if they actually believe in these in theory.

They seem to be... they are just kind of a high up company person. They're wearing like a t-shirt and jeans, even though they're like a high up CEO. So you can kind of tell that they might be trying to seem cool and chill. But it is... everything is very flippant that they're saying when it comes to like, theory act going and like them caring. They're not saying anything to do with them.

Which is poignant, but you're not sure as to why they're not talking about them caring about if theory act left or not. It's always the board. Right! To the park? Onward. Onward to the park. Fantastic. To the park! Should we get burger and fries? I mean, subject 2074 settled in first, maybe? 2074 and 2075. I believe these are two separate species. Oh, burger and fries. Oh, okay. Yeah, I knew that. They're right in front of me, of course. Pleasure doing business with you.

We will need to work on a common name. When we bring these to the... to the... to the clinic. Oh, no, I... I... I... I'm a huge fan. Theory act goes that confusing naming conventions always gets me all turned around. It's 015F and 6478 and all that. I can never understand it. The fact you gave them a name is... is... is wonderful. I know, I'm gonna be honest. I made up that number. I don't remember what it is, but I've remembered burgers and fries for like weeks.

No one ever does. Theory act is the only one who remembers their names. And Lin. Lin is now very good at this. You should meet Lin. You'll meet Lin, you'll love him. It's very... it's very important for categorization. Let's continue. Let's... before... before we leave to the next spot, Matt, can I ask you a question out of character? Yeah. How big in roughly cubic feet is Spot the Crystal? Um, I don't know what a cubic foot is. It's this. A cubic foot? It's like this?

Is this a... yeah. A little bigger. You have about four cubic feet. Okay. All right. This, so it's four cubic... If that's a crystal, that's heavy. Yeah. That's heavy. Yeah. I mean, it's... it's... it's... it's like... Ah, dang it. Okay. Like, each of you have carried it at different points, and it is... like, it is a thing that you can carry, like, under an arm, and it's not... it's not wildly heavy. Which, again, for a crystal... It's not wildly heavy?

It's not wildly heavy, no. It's like... would you say it's comparable to the size of a soccer ball? You know what? Absolutely. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Great. Okay. That's something we all have our... Can I... can I... can I say, as long as it's all right with Dr. Thiriak retroactively, can I say that I have the crystal? Yes. I would have encouraged that. And... in my mouth, yes. In your mouth? Oh, my fucking God. Are you... Okay. That's a... Absolutely unhinged?

I... okay, I'm not... So this whole time, I used to be like, oh yeah, no, totally, I'm over it. No! I have... I have cheek pouches that can store up to one bowl. You still speak weird. Honey, put it in your fanny pack. Just put it in your fanny pack. I... don't... don't... don't... please. Okay. You can put it in your mouth, that's fine. There's a weird electric energy. No, no, I'll do something normal. It is... it is essentially... you've seen so much electricity coming from this thing.

It's essentially... it is putting a large battery in your mouth, is what you're doing. That's what it tastes like. Have you ever put your tongue on a battery? It sucks. Yeah, don't do that. That's me, Andre speaking. Don't do that. Yeah! All right, I'll just carry it. I'll carry it. I'll tell you what, I'm gonna take a Sharpie out of my back pocket and bite the lid off, and I'm gonna draw in the fanny pack two little mouse teeth. So it kind of looks like a mouth, it can go like...

Rrrr, rrrr, rrrr, feed me, I... I don't really know how to explain why, but that did help, thank you. You're welcome. Powerful energy. As you all walk down the hallway, and this conversation's going on, Miss Lapporteur's turn to you, the colourful group you've got. I see you've stretched out in social circles. Extremely hell-iful. Can I try to overhear this? Quite a variety, then. Uh, yeah, sure. Yeah, try to overhear it.

I imagine it's Lapporteur, Theriac, Azam, behind them both, and then Aig and Sky at the back. Is Scrap coming? That's what I'm... Scrap is outside, like, Scrap had to park up the ship, you all left, went inside, and Scrap is going to meet you in the hallway. I feel like Azam would want to be last in this little group. Oh yeah, sure, you can be last. But I did get a 27. Yeah, you heard... you don't know what exactly the words were, but you definitely heard the tone.

As you exit the hallway, you see a scruffy little rat that you know with the little antenna and the eye, but now is wearing, like, a vest, like a white vest, a little, like, Hawaiian t-shirt, and, like, little jean shorts with a fanny pack over. You see Scrap, who's just all dressed up and ready to go to a park with a Hawaiian shirt and a fanny pack and a white t-shirt, looking like a dad. Sandals? Socks? Absolutely. You kidding? Give me more.

That's what Scrap's looking like, it's you, Wilentu. He's like, hey! Scrap, look and fly! Thank you so much, this is my holiday outfit. I haven't been able to wear it yet, so I'm excited. It's extremely spiffy. Scrap, this is Mr. Vapore, he is a member of the board, and will be escorting us across the grounds. Wonderful. We are just about to head on down to Wild Times. You ready to join us? I would. Yes? Alright. Come on, guys, let's go.

Right, I'll, uh, obviously, because you're all friends of our co-founder, all the tickets are already comped, so don't worry about that. You'll have full access to all the things, just not like the inner workings of the facility, but all park means you can go. Theoretic, are we staying long? You are, but are your colorful crew staying long? I'm not sure. That's for them to decide. My contract with them terminates once I return back to work, so that's fully up to them.

How long do you think it's going to take for us to see everything in Wild Times? Is it like a three day...? You could easily spend a week going through all of the different exhibits, if you take your time and really immerse yourself. Week? Week? I'm okay to stay for a bit. If we're going to do that, can we get food vouchers? It seems expensive here. Yeah, of course. I'll tell you what, I'll comp the tickets so you have like a 50% off, and then I'll throw in the food vouchers for free.

We don't need to get it now. Obviously, I can comp like one night if you're staying, but a whole week with all the tickets and things, so just pay that whenever you're ready, and then we'll set you up with the hotel room in Raven's Roost, and you'll all be set up and ready again. Matt, would TheoryAx's home be able to accommodate everyone, or is it like a studio apartment? No, no, no. It's big. TheoryAx's house is big, but it is a one bedroom and an office, but everyone could very...

It's like bigger than the patch... Your room is bigger than the patchwork, but it doesn't have multiple beds. I assume you're going to get comped a hotel. For one night. For one night. One night in the hotel. Hotel for one night, but after that, you all are more than welcome to stay at my personal residency on a dune. Sleepover? Yes! Wait, is this place... I hate to ask it, you know, I feel very uncomfortable asking it, but is this place your size, or is it fit for people my size?

No, it is fully able to fit everyone. More than everyone. It's meant to fit several large species inside of it. For parties, right? So it is not for parties, it's primarily for business. Nice. What was your name again? I forgot. Lepore. My name is Lepore. Mr. Lepore. Lepore. Listen, come here. Come here, dude. What are your pronouns? He-him. Dude, come here. Come here. Let's level with each other, alright? Business person to business person.

I know that businesses around the galaxy have taken investments from some shady organizations, so be real with me here, man. Is there any void associations in wild times? Hmm. Turns to Theriac. That's definitely an interesting question to ask out in the public. That's... okay. I'm young and curious, that's why I'm here. Very charming. On the target demographic. Very charming. Would we? Let's get down to the park. Theriac and we need to have a conversation.

Wow, what a long and suspicious way to say no. I understand, yes. Please, no more questions until we get to the facility. Okay. Alright. Um... Miss Lepore. Yo, I'm gonna get fired. Do you understand? I'm gonna get fired. You can't get fired, this is your park. Hi, board member. Are there any fucking criminals who are murderers who are in your park under your employee right fucking now? Or is it just me? I'm a teenager. This is a corky question.

Hi. Hey, San Diego Sioux. Do you have any trips in your facility? Do you have any, like, bloods working, the food stands or anything? What's up with that? I understand that you just watched the co-founder of this park step off a hunk of junk ship with a teenager, a rat, and a rebel leader. I'm just wondering, are there any murderers on board?

Anyway, Miss Lepore funnels you all into a ship that looks like a large, generic white pod, almost like an egg, but it has the Wild Times logo embossed into the side. Oh! Sorry. I forgot. I have my Wild Times shirt on. Did you just realize that? Yes. No fucking way! Does that exist? You're my favorite. You're my favorite. Hey everybody. Quick plug. Quick real life plug. Go to my Redbubble. Yeah, there's Wild Times merch. An actual Wild Times shirt.

I haven't had a Wild Times shirt in this episode. I fully meant to buy a Wild Times merch for this episode. I'm genuinely gutted that I forgot it. It's okay. There's always next time. We're gonna be here real well. There's always next time before the next one. We're gonna be here one week. One week. Oh yeah, it's gonna be canonical when the gang buys Wild Times merch. Everyone buys that exact t-shirt.

Let's step inside this large egg-like ship. The inside is covered with leaves and plants with a classic looking like safari jeep that is sat in the middle of it. A bubbly staff member welcomes everyone on board.

They're like, come on in guys. We've been waiting for you. It needs to be explored and we can't do without you. Come on, hurry up, hurry up. And there's excited kids all getting in, strapping in, and there's parents who are helping kids set up as there's all of this ambience of the middle of the jungle playing all around you.

As everyone sits, there's ambient lights that are like fake fire on these torches as you're going through. Okay, is everyone strapped in? The journey to Wild Times begins now. The room goes fully dark as these flamed torches go out and the ambient lights darken, and you all sit in silence with only the sounds of excitable kids and worried parents who are making sure the kids are strapped in tight for this small rocket ship ride down.

The sounds of animals and nature get louder and then the room brightens as a hologram of a purple, slightly translucent lion humanoid appears and walks just past you. But where the mane of this lion would be sit a wreath of tentacles that kind of dance in place. They sway softly and the face is far more humanoid than it should be for people who know this animal, but I imagine Theriac is the only one who actually knows what this animal looks like.

And they're wearing classic adventurers clothes. They have like that beige jacket with the little like explorer cap on. And as they walk in front of the ship, you can hear them muttering to themselves and they have a little map and they're like, now where is it? Where is it? I know it's around here somewhere. And they turn to you. Oh, hey, I didn't see you there. My name is one. So I'm looking for a place where I can find and learn about the most wonderful creatures in the galaxy.

I followed this map to here, but I never paid attention to my map reading class. So I'm all turned around. Hey, you all seem like a smart bunch. Could you help me? Do you know where I can find a place that has all the strongest, the coolest, the cutest creatures in all the galaxy? Right here, right here in wild times. You do? Do you know where I can find them? Yeah, right here, right here in wild times. Wild times. Why, of course. I can't believe I didn't think of that before.

And if I'm right, wild times should be right. They walk over to the right side of the ship here and they pull back a holographed collection of leaves. And as they pull it back, there's a large there's a large quadruped with these clawed feet, sharp teeth and it has like porcupine spines all down their back. It roars and then one's oh, let's go with the leaves covering up and is like, oh, it's not there. That's a Dex free. You don't want to go messing with those.

Maybe walks around and then goes over to the left side of the ship. It's here. They pull back a kernel of leaves and reveals a bird with these eyes throughout its wings that's showering in that classic cartoon way. It notices you all and then does a little screech and they're like, oh, one's oh, puts all the leaves back and it's like, oh, sorry, I didn't mean that, ma'am. You keep on showering. Oh, it's not there. Where could it be?

I know walks over to the front of the ship. I have it. Everyone. Welcome to Wild Tams pulls back leaves and as it does, the shutters of the ship open up and stretch out in front of you is Wild Times, a huge park that stretches out for miles in front of you.

You can see hundreds of animals, just teeny tiny small as you're all entering the atmosphere playing in habitats, these huge exhibitions with these absolutely humongous creatures being fed as a bunch of people just sit around and watch these creatures being fed. You can see children riding on creatures the size of islands as they step off into the distance. Families getting on rides and roller coasters that fly and shoot around the park.

You can also see a large floating orb in the sky that towers amongst everything else. This has restaurants, hotels, people are going in for food and it has offices as well for the employees. The ship lowers gets onto ground level as all of these big sites get bigger and bigger as you get closer and closer and gracefully lands at the docking port and the doors open to Wild Times. As you all step off children excitedly going out.

The hologram of one zoe whiffs away and there's a and then Lepore is next to you clapping. I love that ride. It was very marvelous. Very good. So, we like to move on. Theriac, of course, I know that you have, I can gather the board and get them all sorted and we can go up to Raven's Roost pointing to the large orb that floats in the sky. It has this embossing all along the side of it of these two huge wings that kind of make from certain angles.

It looks like a giant raven but has this like moon esque texture to it. There are there are numerous like little ships and there's like a train that that kind of floats up to it and then stops off and then floats down the other end. They point to it when we have the meeting and Raven's Roost so I can get. Gather the board and we can all meet. But would your friends like to just enjoy the park as things go on? Would they like to join us or get situated in the hotel?

Sky has not gone far enough to like Alyssa getting lost, but she is running around like a teenager at a theme park and like taking selfies next to big statues and like reading signs and stuff. So you see her zipping about. Sky, can you can you please come back here please? Yes, sorry Dr. Theria. Am I on the clock? No, but this is a decision that requires your input.

Do you want to sit in on the meeting that I'm going to be having with my fellow board members or would you rather just continue to peruse through the park? Well, as an employee in training, I feel it is important for me to sit in and yes, business. Right, like I'm thinking like sit like not in the office but nearby getting you know you can get the hotel and sit outside of the offices of course, but it's a board meeting. It is a board meeting.

Oh, the closer I can get to the beating heart of industry. That's where my young heart craves to be. I like this kid. I don't know why I said that like a pirate. I wear the long. Hi, welcome. Welcome to wild times. I'm a pirate, but I also love industry booms. Me, the businessman pirate. I'm the business pirate I am. Hit me me, the stock grabber. Different voice for sky every session. Today she is a pirate. The best thing to do with your booty is invest it.

Sorry, that was it. That was my last joke. Please go on. Yeah, I'll go wherever I need to be. Azam? Yeah. I'm just like looking around bewildered. I go scrap. Um, I... Dr. Theriac, should I, should I go? You have all rights to be an standby. You won't be in the meeting, I would like to reinstate, but... No, I... I would not expect that. You do not. This is not an everyday occurrence to be invited into the executive building. I will go. I think that we should go.

Don't you want to see where Theriac works? I quite... I do, yes. You work multiple places, I would like to clarify. Well, actually, this is a thing which we'll talk about in the meeting, of course, but... We have some things which we think are quite exciting, and if you would like, if, of course, if the boss allows it, then... Yeah, you can go see the... The actual... The actual workplace of Theriac, the board meetings, I know, is not your favorite place, but... That, hopefully, I can...

Do some convincing and have you all come into the actual laboratory that I work in. And that's awesome! It'll be exciting, yeah. Oh, yes, I do want to see that. Alright, let's go up to the roost. And we'll lead the group towards the train, which is... I imagine it's more like a monorail than like a choo-choo train. Yeah, that's way better. Yes, that's what I was thinking of. And everybody hops on board. Theriac will, like, swipe their work ID to open the door.

As you do, there's a little do-do-do of a red, like, not allowed in thing. The poor goes, oop! And then swipes theirs. We had some changes. We'll figure that out. We'll get you sorted with a new pass. And as they swipe, the doors open, and you all get on the monorail. The monorail is like this. You get onto the first-classed version of it for the business executives. It's very different vibe. It's very nice. It's got nice plush seats and little waters and sparkling waters on the side.

And all of it has the embossed Wild Times logo on each cushion going up. The rest of it seems like a mixture of a normal monorail, like a train car, and also kind of has some of the leaves of Wild Times, kind of that, like, chic Bohemian aesthetic. And you take the monorail up to Raven's Roost. The monorail stops. Doors open. You'll get off. And you are in an extremely, like, modern-looking...there's, like, nightclubs and restaurants, and there's, like, a main street that you can walk down.

This, although is, like, a big orb in the sky, it feels like a cool, like, nighttime area. They have, like, street lamps that light your path, and it's still very bright. They still have, like, the daytime lights on, but there are street lamps going down. As well as restaurants and gift shops and all those little, little fun, fun things. There's a collection of hotels. There's signs pointing you toward each of them. If there's not...if y'all are all staying straight on the path...

Path to business. Mm-hmm. I think we should prioritize that, but I do want to go to the gift shop. Oh my god, yeah, no, absolutely. Also, I don't know if it's all these ads I've been seeing, but I could really go for a Blitz-o-burger right now. Blitz-o-burger, anybody, once we're done here? Blitz-o-burger. Get your Blitz in a burger. You hear that announcement? There's a lot of advertising here. A Blitz of flavor! Guess they gotta pay for the animal food somehow. That's right.

You walk through the buildings, as are you, you bring that up. That's true. The young lady is very right. We needed money to get things off the ground, and then when we did, we all put it into new parts of the area. Paying staff, paying people who work here, getting food from other planets, all that jazz. It all feeds for itself. It is quite bright here, I will give it that. We do have an abundance of solar panel-powered operations, which is reducing much of our financial expenditures.

So where's all the extra money going to? What do you mean? Well, if you needed to start up, and you've started up, and now you're getting a lot of money, and if you have all forms of energy reduction, why are prices so high? Where's the extra money going to? Where's the profit going to?

We do have some money collecting in a pot. We do have sizeable emergency relief, should anything come up regarding cutoffs for different food sources for the animals, if there's problems with our power grids or anything of that nature. But also, just a larger amount, should anything go larger than just a simple, huge day emergency arise.

And also, a lot of our funding goes to a thing which I'll mention in the meeting, which is the World Times Charity, which is all down to funding animal conservation efforts not only here, but also on other planets. Is it a for-profit institution, or a non-profit? Well, the charity is non-profit. That sounds very nice, actually. Do I need a role to realize that he felt the need to specify that charity was non-profit in the World Times as a whole? No, it's very on the surface.

Because I don't want to look at animals on an empty stomach. This is very convenient. Well, yes, if you want food, I can comp your meals as I go with Therriak to have this meeting. There is a cafe in the executive building, is that correct? Yes, and it is phenomenal. So good. I could go for some caffeine. It's brilliant, it's really nice. As long as it's coffee, I'm drained. Yeah, no, you can get whatever you want. Right, come, come.

Take an elevator up, and the ambient sounds of music die out as the lift goes up into the more executive areas. And as it opens, there is, out in front of you, an extremely nice area, but very corporate. They don't do so much with furnishings up here because people normally don't get here very often, so there's not that much need. However, there is a cafe and a little restaurant, a little eatery. They kind of have the Google feel.

There's a few, like, a nap area and then a little employee game zone. But again, it's a very corporatized version of all these things. Right, have your reign. Don't bother employees, but the four of you can go do whatever. Scrap's like, hell yeah, because I just remembered that Scrap was a therriak. Would you like to come with me? We'll gather the... Yes, sir. Gather the Knights of the Round Table. Good luck with the business. You've got this. Thank you. Lapore? Come, come.

You both walk off and go down the way and into a large meeting room. Huge, like, big skylight. Not skylight. What's the term for the windows that are like floor-to-ceiling windows that stretch from one end of the wall to the other? Floor-to-ceiling windows. Floor-to-ceiling windows.

All along the side of this whole meeting area that looks out over the park, there is this really nice oval table and a bunch of these chairs that float slightly off the ground so you can adjust heights to how you want. I will call the rest. It shouldn't be five minutes. They're all in the building, I imagine. Please, boss, go take a seat. Very well. Sit in one of these very large executive chairs. You know the ones, the super way too tall backs.

Is it normal-sized with Thiriak, or is it already oversized and Thiriak sitting in it? Oh, Thiriak looks immensely small. Tiny little pea. Tiny bulb of garlic. Time goes on. Not as long as Lepore. Lepore doesn't open conversation unless you speak back to them, but they're on their phone for a lot of time as you wait. And a series of people walk in.

There is Sir Mincil, who is a Kshathar, who is the classic looking, the long heads that stretch back, but where their long head ends early, it ends about halfway to the length of the normal Kshathar's heads stretch. And the second half is a clean glass chamber that's filled with water and multicoloured fish that are swimming around inside into the back of their head. They are wearing this very nice white suit as they step in.

There is an android who walks in in this real nice, about as fancy, about as business casual in a dress that you could pull off. An android called Theed, who walks in and as they do, they look at you and go, ah hello! Thiriak, it's so nice to see you back again. It's so nice to have the boss themselves, we were worried about you. Oh, it's quite alright, Theed. I am in tip-top shape. They take their seat. A Shiren comes in, like a... what looks like an older portly gentleman comes in.

Not looking like a centipede like a lot of other Shiren, but kind of looks like a bit more like a stink bug coming in with these big pincers, walking in kind of nervously rubbing their hands and they nod to you and they're like, oh it's nice to see you again, and goes and sits down. Who is this? This is Loric Dorin. The door opens, but from the way you're sitting at the table you don't see anyone walk in.

But after you lift yourself up a little bit, you see Lin, a little Screepy Deep in a nice little waist-coated purple jacket. Screepy Deep is like a Chihuahua, they look pretty much like a bipedal Chihuahua. He walks in and hops on like, oh hello, Theriac, it's good to see you back. I was looking forward to your arrival. I have heard on the grapevine that you've brought us some exciting new... an exciting new little specimen. Which should be very fun to see again. I'm excited to see it.

It's been a minute since we've acquired a new species, so I figured I'd take the first step in introducing the first since the park's opening. As the conversation starts, Lapora's like, right. So as we all know, Kisak is on holiday, so they're not going to be joining us. Kisak is another Shiren who you know normally is a bit of a workhorse, however is apparently on holiday.

They were never keen on any of the animals. They were here to fund the park. They disliked the animals so much that they did not live on Edun, even as the park was being built. They live in the gateway on the moon. They went back and they would travel back every day. Yes, so they're on holiday, so she's not going to be joining us today. That's good for them. I'm sure that they take the time off as needed.

Lapore is he-him. Serminsel is she-her. That's the kash'thal with the fish tank replacing the back part of their head. Fied is she-they. Lin is he-him. Lorik Doran is he-they. And Kisak is she-they as well. Right, so I feel like we should start with the elephant in the room, don't you? Theriac, where have you been?

I've been acquiring the specimen. Doing some offworld research on that. Unfortunately, the crew that I was traveling with had some other stops to be making, but I tried to come back and it was a reasonable time, but I died. Now, Serminsel says, now, do you not think that it was important for you to tell us? Lin said that you sent an email, but you sent an email about a week and a half into your disappearance, which-

If you would give me one moment, I will pull up their phone and then click a button and it'll screencast. As per this email that I sent the day before I left, I had put in the time off requested. This was up to two weeks, right? Right. Well, I didn't receive such an email. No, I didn't either. I don't think any of us did receive this email. You are all listed here as recipients.

Yeah, no, we see that these things happen, of course, with, you know, the way that these things work. Of course, of course. Yes, of course. Next time, you can do what you want. You've worked very hard here. You are the boss after all. Maybe speak to someone in person next time because, of course, we have a lot of email now. I concur with Lin and Serminsel. I didn't receive anything either.

And of course, like, you know, I look and we can all check the emails. I don't- I understand that my email is in it, but Well, I don't- I didn't receive that, but that is fine. You're back now. We've recovered and we are all- We are all back and that's good and business can start again. Speaking of, F.E.A.D. has introduced some things and then Lin also will step up and say some things that they have also set up to the park, again, to enact your vision of what the park is.

Yes. Well, so we wanted for the gift shop, since we didn't have- for the merchandising rights, what we decided to do was have Lin reach out to some scientists and I also did, who came and worked for us and we have a very exciting project to show you, which I will show you after this meeting. But it should, if everything goes correctly, and of course it's going to because we know us, the park is going to have a lot of new merchandise, which will be very exciting to see.

Lin has of course been doing a lot of good work with rehabilitating animals, as per your training, Theodayak. They've done a very good job and that means that our new cave exhibit has gone on wonderfully and we've been releasing some animals back into the wild, which is ones that have fully regone their rehabilitation from being injured and we've done that.

We've opened a new hotel, which is on the outskirts of Wild Times, which is more on the ground floor so people can look and- well rather, we haven't opened but we've started plans- we've opened the plans to start building this new park, this new hotel, sorry. So yes, we have a lot of very exciting things which is happening, I just would like to let you know.

The, again, Lin, I'm so sorry, the news that came out, Beck, who was the reporter at the time, who wrote the- she wrote the initial report on you. She, after writing the report, has visited a few times and we believe that she is still on the premises and asking a lot of questions, but we have threatened her with legal action if she continues to talk to the visitors, disrupting their time in these opening few weeks.

Lin? Right, yes, so, yeah, as Fede was saying, I have taken it upon myself to create something that I'll show you, since you know how we work, I'd rather show you than tell you about it, a new thing which will help definitely with merchandising. We've gotten the ACer board to give us the go ahead on that, so we're all good with it.

Also, we, Theriak, after you left, we have had to upgrade the AI that runs the park to take on more responsibility now that you weren't here, and I needed to step up into your position, so I do a lot of the biohacking and Vidar, who is the AI, has taken on a lot of the managerial responsibilities of- Sure. Yes, of the park. And that's been running smoothly? That's- Yes, no. Is that why my ID didn't work because it was on the order system?

Yes, of course. Thank you, Theriak, so much for bringing that up. Yes, Theriak's pass didn't work, so Lin, if we could get that sorted. Yep, no, that's fine, I'll get that sorted. Okay, brilliant. I believe that that's everything that we've been doing, catch up on. Theriak, of course, I'm sure you're burning with questions, do you have anything to ask us? Well, I have some questions regarding this new exhibit, the new project that Lin seems to be very excited about regarding merchandising.

Yes. As far as opening reception, I haven't been able to keep track with a lot of the news as of late, has that been going well, is publicity- obviously we have the attendance to support the facility, but is public word positive, are there any- Yes, no, absolutely. I know that Beck had been a bit of a thorn in our side, but has everything else been going rather well?

Everything else is- absolutely, it's been going swimmingly. We did have the minor setback, but that seemed- it was kind of a no-press-is-bad-press situation where a lot more people found out about the park, it was kind of free advertising, and it wasn't the biggest story in the world since you answered the questions pretty wonderfully, I will be honest.

But if you do see Beck again, feel free to give the same response, since they are essentially asking the same questions about these stupid hunting zones in the park. I don't know where on earth she got that idea of hunting zones, there's no plans whatsoever in place of that.

It's ridiculous. It's just hearsay, we're a new park, we have a lot of people that is- we are, you know, Siminsil, you have, you know, Siminsil is part of Hermoid Tech, and people love to hate big companies, and we are just a new big company and people are trying to grab whatever they can, you understand. But yes, and you have that, and then there was another question that you had, I believe, with opening reception, yes, that's all going wonderfully.

There was another one. What was your other question that you asked? I am- have there been any major updates as far as the specimens in attendance? Has there been any issues regarding the gardening staff or any of the botany houses that we've implanted? No, it's been- again, it's been going absolutely wonderfully. This Vidhar, this new AI has been doing wonders.

I purchased it, and I gave it to Lin to mess around with, and we implemented it as you were gone, but it's truly been going swimmingly well. They've been sorting out all- everyone's timetables, all that, so we can really focus on big pitch stuff. That was it. I do have another thing that I need to tell you. I apologize, I did forget about this.

So, you have the final line on this, because it's a thing that I want to do, and I think that majority board is willing for, but Basset, you know, the creative types, they're always like this. We, you know, just to get some money rolling and have like a solid state of income, we've been reached out by the Heth advertising board, the Ulfhefner advertising board, who wants to just have some minor adverts in the park.

They won't be very intrusive, just the things that they have on every space station. It's only going to be in the gateway, so it's not going to be intrusive at all. Just one, two boards saying, you know, join the Ulfhefner, they can get us some form of, you know, some form of safety, we can call upon them in case any big threats come, which, you know, it's the modern day, so none of that will happen, but just in case. And we'll get a lot of money in return.

I know that we have a limited staff as it regarding, you know, if there are any animal outbreaks, which the glorified security. Glorified security, yes. But should there be any serious occurrence, if there was, God forbid, some sort of attack or anything of the like? Yes, I think that would be something we should be. Okay, wonderful. Yes, I'll tell them that it's all okay to advertise Heth things here, and that is wonderful.

Now, boring stuff aside, are you all done? Are you have any more questions? I did. I on on my way through the gateway. There was something regarding the packs. Was it. Yes, adventurous pack explorers pack. Exactly. I think that was implemented. It's a it's a way for every holograph on the gateway and every pack that we come across is going to every like animal has very basic pieces of information. What it eats, what habitat it lives in.

We thought what a wonderful thing we could do is have these walk around experiences. You buy a slightly bigger pack. It could be for themed around one animal. It could be themed around all of the all different animals that the the basic normal pack comes with a little bit more information about every animal that you come across. However, the big adventurous pack comes with.

You can walk around you can learn about all of the animals that that exist, you can get a holograph companion, which can attach to your phone and you can use it to summon it on your phone which is from some in cell who implemented that from from hermetic and possibly most exciting. There's a thing which you can also buy in the gift shop but it's included in the adventurous pack, you can get a, an AI personality for your ship that we thought was really exciting so you can customize the animal.

It tells you all the normal things that most ship ships AIs do but it really has that wild times brand on it, which is really what we're trying to sell and it's, you know, of course, you don't need these things to get into the park you just get your normal ticket, or you can have it with ship AI fast pass animal companion, all of these exciting new things that honestly have been have been quite big hits people are really enjoying them.

I would like to ask you, what sort of facility is this again. What sort of facility is, is wild times. It's a zoo. Incorrect. On the boards that we passed by on in the gateway. What did it read. Right. A zoological exhibit. It is a xeno ecological educational facility. Now, I don't need to explain to you that education is of course referring to the knowledge that we provide here at at at wild times. Yes.

So, why pray tell are we excluding so much of the information that is required to in fact teach the people here about the species about the environment they come from about the environment destruction is happening. If there is no supplemental information for them.

Why. There is that is the purpose of their there is information you can get the basic tickets come with basic information on all of the animals, and you can go to the actual exhibits look at the, look at the, the walks and the tours and all of that this is just extra incentive to help with some management things. I do not understand why this information is not readily available in publicly accessible holographs that's this should be available in plaques. It should be.

We should be having, you know, educators outside giving chats, like I like I had suggested in some of the meetings prior to we did have that information, the adventurous pack has talks you can you can get a tour guide who will take you around there are specific guides for these people that that that get the adventures and the explorers packs that should be readily available for all of our visitors. Understand we've already sold some, that's fine. However,

this is an educational Zeno ecological facility. Not a zoo, not a theme park. I understand that we have merchandise to in order to, and specific guided experiences to supplement our monetary expenditures, and to feed the animals and house them and to pay our staff I understand that. But we cannot forget that this is for the purpose of teaching people. Is that clear? You're the boss. Fine. We'll have a talk. I'll speak with Bassett, and we'll, we'll get a dialogue going with this.

With this new thing. Okay. Should. I would like to reinstate. This is not the first time this has happened. I'm not willing to approach Mr. Wilde himself should this get out of hand again. Is that clear? He has put a lot of faith and trust into this, into this venture. Okay. Sure. Shall we go see this new merchandising idea that we have. I will be glad to. Whilst this meeting is going on.

What are the other, what are the other rest of the rest of the, I would, I will say, four of you, because scrap is there looking like exceedingly bored. Like Scrap is so like twiddling his thumbs in like a fucking Hawaiian shirt looking a bit like a Ace Ventura if Ace Ventura was a rat on a chair. But what are the what were the three, three you're doing. I want to have a space coffee in my hand speaking to the closest people I can find in suits and being like.

So anyway that's when I raised the stocks up to 15% and I said bye bye bye. You know. Oh yes well I'm not a stocks person but that does seem like a good thing that stocks people will do. Oh yeah we do it all the time. Yes you seem very accomplished how old are you. 30. They look so good for their age don't they Doreen. Aye they do they look very good for their your age. I don't know why there's two grannies in this fucking. What the fuck works here. Isn't she just the granddaugher.

Isn't she just the most. They work as secretaries you know. They work as secretaries that's true it's just the secretary is sitting down. Their grandson is a big important person in wild times they thought they wanted to be close to their grandson. Yes my. They're married obviously. Of course yes well our grandson is. He's really high up in a company is good lad he's he's he's you know he'll he's going to be the owner of wild times one day he told me.

And hey maybe you could put in a good word for him. Sure yeah I got lots of people up top that I can rub elbows with. You got it. You should tell him to take a number though because that Dr. theory act God running the place so good. What a smart little bowl. What a smart little bowl. They've done all this they made the whole park all outside I've seen the animals amazing. I forgot the original character voices I was doing they're just old ladies now. What a truly educational facility. Right.

Zoological yes exactly. That's all that's all guys doing. I want I want to walk around I also want to get a space coffee and then I want to I want to look around this place I know because I've been fancy offices before. And I want to see if Dr. theory act has any accolades like hung up around I want to see if I can find any like you know just plaques or honorifics or things that that you just that you do actually in the in a hallway.

Out of view of some of the other people office it people with the offices are turned to the other way. It's a it's like a picture. It has all of the board and theory act in the center looking very proud as there is a there's a construction of wild times behind them and there is this like translucent purple tentacles like lion type creature in front of theory act and theory act has their hand on the line

and they're very like they it's a very peaceful like the lion is sat looking at the camera and the rest of the board is behind is behind theory act all looking very proud and it it has a small small plaque on on the frame that says moving subject one into their new home the first person to move into wild times. I'm a song come look come look come look that's our doctor right there. Oh that's such a big picture. So I know. Good Lord.

So is that what the mascot based off of. Oh, I guess I guess so. Yeah, I guess it does kind of look like that. Um, can I get a picture of the picture. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, of course. Okay, ready. One, two, three. This is so exciting. Yep. You know, they always said that they the co founder of wild times but it didn't doesn't really hit until we're here does it. We have been. We've been flying with royalty almost very, very dedicated scientist and really someone very rich. Yeah, I.

That's funny. I didn't get that impression. But no, just. Huh. Um, that creature that theory X got their hand on that. I'm surprised that looks like they'd be pretty vicious, you know, but it seems like that. I don't know what theory X thing is but isn't that like the point of here is weird animals that are like trained really well or something. And that what theory X little, little shooters do little bolts or whatever they.

I don't think that that's Dr. Theory X message at all I think it's educating people on the, the, the creatures that naturally exist in the world and also maybe preserving nature and life so that it doesn't

go out. They also did say they're like a what natural hacker or something so I. I think they did mention that they do something biohacker I think they did mention that they do something to make the animals less aggressive but what better way to learn about animals that you wouldn't normally be able to get up close and personal with than the ability to get up close and personal actually. Right. I mean you're right you're right. E pubs exist you could just open up a document.

That's not the same. Quite frankly that's not very accessible to me I can't understand any of those papers for the life of me documentaries, you can watch them on your. Never mind I'm just gonna sit here. Well, whatever whoever they are they make a damn good. They make a damn good park. I want to, I want to, I want to go on rides, really bad. Oh my gosh. Oh, we can actually go on the rides here. We were at a park and we couldn't. Yeah, we could.

I mean how long is there yet going to be in this meeting do you think I, according to my experience app the, the line for the line for Raven and roaring is nice. Hell yeah. And it's not it's not too far from here. Oh, well should we go too far. And then we could do but then we have to catch the monorail back down though because we're in the rain Raven's Roost so down and all that. Yeah, we do. We have a week. Why don't you all have some fun if you want to always have a very nice phone.

I don't want to get split up. I don't bad things happen whenever we split up. I rather not. We're out of park. We're not in the midst of a look at the grannies trouble. It's just a little park. I don't know what's the worst that could happen. What's his face acted real weird when I was like have you guys accepted money from the void. So I don't want to take any chances with that.

I you're a you're a teenager asking a board member if they've accepted like drug money essentially I think it's a it was a fair a fair thing. It was so is one syllable and could have ended the conversation. The thing about people like that you know I mean always considering bottom lines are always thinking what's the right answer. What the actual answer is. I mean look it's why I asked this place for profit. You know what they said. Charities nonprofit. You see how you see what they did.

Oh yeah absolutely. No no this place is an absolute fucking nightmare and is dreadful and literally every single piece of it is sucking the money out of people that work really hard for it. Hi there employee. You can keep going. But and theory I can surrounded by yes by yes men and bloodsuckers. But I do believe in theory. We haven't known for very long but they seem like a good person to me. What's a bloodsucker. They wouldn't let her.

They have the right. Yeah. In mind here and it seems like they're the charity effort is actually quite noble. They're not just conserving life here on this planet but other planets too. And also which is that's that's true. Something tells me it's probably for tax reasons but that's how most companies work. Who knows if theory accept this up then maybe it's just like three times as much money as any non for profit. So is it really non for profit if they're making three times the profit.

Well I don't know what they're plus you can excuse spending money as a non for profit if you like. Well it's full of a bonus of you know so you could get away with like buying a house on by a non for profit if you really want to. Everyone I just you know theory acts not even here right now. I'm not sure I can I've already had this. No I think theory acts great. It's what I'm saying is what I'm saying or I'm trying to say is it's a park. Go have fun. And we will.

Soon as the theory comes back and we can all go together. Hey but real quick just small thing the pic. Ike you taking the picture is like the cutest thing. I kind of want the picture. Do you think we can lift this it's not big. But this is theory acts place of business. We are not going to do anything to dishonor their right. Roll here. Where is it. And you're right you're right.

Theory act theory act like now as that final thing the doors open which is like just down the hall and then theory act comes into the general. I see the scrap as theory act. Yes just ask for your if you if they have a copy. You can have one for your ship it'll just be a copy is fine. What's what's that. We found this great picture. Okay everyone's talking at the same time. One moment please theory act we think you look very cute in that photograph. We'd like a copy of possible for scrap.

Yeah. Second we can't yeah for scraps ship the patchwork where I'm sure it will end up in a common area. Also we want some of us want to go have fun and we were waiting for you so we could all do it together. That covers it. I mean I kind of like this picture of the picture I got because it's got all of us in it. Right. Weird. That's true. Oh you already. Oh. Very good. Well we should take as many pictures as we can because theory act's not coming with us. What. Right. Right but you can.

I know you're not coming back to the patchwork with us but you can spend some time with us. I am going back to work. Oh okay. So I can guide you around the facility but that won't be any rides. But if you if you all want to ride the rides. Well how about you show us your laboratory first and then we'll we'll get the rides on our own time you know what I mean. All right.

Well a little bit there as you as you have this little conversation a little Chihuahua looking humanoid in this purple little waistcoat like kind of sidles up. Hello everyone theory acts friends. I'm not going to bother you feel free to keep talking but if you want to tour of the everyone. Lynn this is members of the patchwork crew patchwork crew this is to learn Madolin this is my my lab assistants and. Business with you. And with you too my fair maiden. Hi. I'll take it. Absolutely.

I was all all is almost going to say is that he doesn't understand that because trade language is a language he speaks but it's not his first language. Another one. Yeah. Well it's more so I didn't mean anything by it it's just like it was a. Anyway I don't want to get into it. Dead woman she's not hundreds of years old. Like we can explain this to you later. There's a yeah well.

So we have a new I understand that you all want to go through the labs which is a very exclusive tour only only adventurers only adventure packs get through but we'll have the VIP tour of course when we can just walk in because they are you know. The theory I got myself runs the the science wing and we have a very exciting little thing to show you theory act which we will do we'll do with everyone. Very excited.

You've been doing from what I have been doing very hard work, maintaining the laboratory and all the other expenditures for the, you know, for maintaining the specimens and cleaning and hygienic procedures. Yep, absolutely. I've been doing everything that you've taught me and we and now I've, I've taken on the mantle, as you went off gallivanting. So don't you worry everything is being in very safe hands. Can I do a sense motor check I want to. This person is giving me. I may.

I may not be happy about my lot in life vibes and I just want to make sure I'm correct. Yeah, sure. Give that role of sense motor. Well, it's already a 24 but let's roll that expertise died see what happens 26. They, they are they, they are like, are happy with with what they've gotten.

But they are happy being in charge, they are that they are the top, the top of their thing that they're like, you can you can sense that Lynn does, like, like theory act as, as they see theory because a mentor but now it's a mentor who they're like, feeling like kind of outgrowing and can, you know, do things on my own. I'm not doing any of this Game of Thrones little fingers. Today. Let's stay but we can start our little later. Yeah. Right, would be like to go to the sides.

Yes, please. Okay, let's get it going. Wait, hold on. You have a fanny pack. I do. Good. Let's go. Okay. Do be do be do you you leave Raven's Roost fully you go down you walk back through the little mall section and you get on the monorail and the moral takes you takes you back to the entrance. And you kind of take like a few side streets.

And then Lynn like swipes their card on on a few doors that need it. And you walk through, and you walk underground and keep going and things get more sterile, the colors go, the, the, the leaves are no longer present as you get to a door, the small glass planes that I think only over. Well, so this is the, this is, this is, you know, the behind the scenes. This isn't anything that the public could go to just us. This is how our scientists get in and out.

This facility opens the door to a huge area, it's massive. There are cages like lining all the walls, and there are like, 10s and 10s and 10s of scientists who are tending to these creatures some of them are like let out and and are like playing in a, in a big, like small area, but there are also a series of like minor guards that all have the the lignjector that that theory at has who are standing and just watching things go as scientists jot things down, there is a

large, like this like very heavy atmosphere of like, pseudo tension and scientific learning as people are jotting things down on pieces of paper but also a lot of these animals that you can see it's like as soon as you like look out.

These are not the animals that are free to be on top, they are like spikier, more aggressive some of them are like lunging slightly at scientists as they like back up and they, they kind of talk them down and they have food and are writing more more things down on paper

a lot of the ones that have that are like playing in this in this recreational zones are seem to be extremely well trained there are scientists with little clickers that are that as they click that these little creatures run around everything from birds to big bear like creatures to like tiny little squirrels that seem to be entirely made up of these like

knife spikes are all present and all running around. Well, this is the facility it runs almost the entire way through the park. We have certain chambers for when animals needs to come in for veterinary services they get brought from their specific area on top to a little recreational area where we can study them.

Of course, this is also the training area for the new creatures that we have in the park or planning on putting in the park so some of these are a little dangerous so maybe like, don't go too near any creatures. The cages are a lot of animals that are no longer conscious because we, you know, because we just knocked them out and we put them in cages and all of them are size sizeable for each individual creature, they're just prepped being prepped for us to do some bio hacking on it.

But I'm sure theory I can walk you through theory, would you like to explain what we do here. Surely. So, bio hacking sounds like a very intense sort of process and it's really not. And basically what we're doing is we are going into, we are we are providing an injection to an individual specimen that has a chemical formula that will modify the alleles within any given organisms genetic sequencing, specifically targeting behaviors, and for some of them certain features

that may be more aggressive, so that they can reside in a facility like this without being constantly on the verge of an attack or experiencing a high level of stress, besides what they might experience in the natural habitat.

We of course are trying to emulate the natural habits of that's that they exist in already, but understanding that these are much smaller spaces than some of the territories that they might experience in their natural abodes, we want to make sure that they are properly compensated for. Thanks for this captive experience that they are going through. If you look up Yes, I got a loaded question.

So, when we were hanging out on top of the patchwork, and you were like, it's my religious belief that all people have to have. I asked that all personal questions be, be put until.

I have a, he said that all people have to have like solids and gases and errors and blah blah blah blah blah. Do you take out specifically like one of those from the animals, or, because I was thinking it's like, oh, like the solid part of me is like stubborn and like opinionated and stuff and like the area, more flowy and stuff so like, if one of the animals had those which which part did you take out. Sky, that, that is a metaphor. It's not. Wait, hold on. Is, I gotta ask.

Is the kind of like a zodiac of this world based upon the four states of matter. Um, ah, that's an interesting thing I. I don't think it's exclusively based on that but there are certain people that probably follow some form of something like that I would think that almost each planet has like kind of a different zodiac, considering that they

like, you know, that's the positioning of the stars and all the constellations and things and then as, and that is like in rooted itself so much in culture that when eventually that those people went to the stars, they spread that and it's like, oh well, it Dunions zodiac is this stuff and all like saga zodiac is this and things like that but there might be a like some people who, you know, I'm way more of a gas. What's your state. What's your state. That's a cool part of this world.

I want that I do have no it's interesting. Yeah. It's okay. So, you, you alter the these creatures, most of them to take out behaviors that are more aggressive and potentially dangerous. Do you ever, we are not. I would like to clarify we are not removing these behaviors, we are reducing the likelihood that that these your inhibitor. So, it is an inhibitor, can you do the opposite. Do you ever. So like, if a creature is super cuddly you can like amp up the cuddliness.

I mean it's entirely theoretical but yes that would suppose that would be a booster, rather than an inhibitor but. But hold on, hold on, is, is it really accurate education, so to speak, if people observe these creatures in a concealed habitat where they've been inhibited to be less like their natural selves. Is that accurate education or is that you know a sacrifice needs to be made. Well, I'm sure I apologize there you're very welcome to take this but the way I see it.

Offering people the chance to get up close and personal and really study these, these creatures, whilst telling them in their normal habitat, these will be very dangerous things, these are creatures that most I would never be able to, to look at these creatures in their natural habitat.

A lot of these would eat me entirely alive, we have almost entire living islands, which are walking around on top, those are some of the most dangerous things that a lot of people don't see and we are giving them the chance to learn physically next to these things.

So it's all well and good picking up a documentary or, or just trying to learn these things in school. It's an entirely different experience being up close and seeing how the tendrils move and, and what the acid that's in them, like smells like what is that what is that breath in habit, is it a case in a carnivorous thing

that should eat something but smelling it you could learn its diet you can learn what is the acid that pours from the tongue of this creature, the same acid that helps this other creature get up in the air with this little jet stream.

It's, it's, it, although it isn't entirely the same, the point of here is education and a lot of people like it. This is this, you know, getting up close and personal I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna put a child next to something that could spit acid in his face, instead we make sure it can't spit acid and it wants to be, you know, it doesn't view the child as something aggressive.

Couldn't you use animatronics and scent manufacturing capability to simulate, simulate, sorry trade, simulate, I say right, simulate this experience instead of you know, actually using real creatures. We had discussed at an earlier point of development using animatronics, but the ideas behind what the animatronics were for were, I believe, very antithetical to the purpose of the park.

The purpose of this park is to show the populace, what these things are, most of these creatures that you are seeing both here behind the scenes as well as out in the grounds are lots of them, many people don't even know they exist, they've never seen them before. These are, these are real, actual living creatures.

It's not only that they are ambassadors to the species that are actually threatened beyond the, the, the hub that we built here at wild times, they're more out there further in the jungle, they're more in the ocean, just beyond the beach, not far from the hotel. As well as other species that we've brought in from other planets from the ASIA system.

The idea of an animatronic to, you know, act on loop and give a very, a sterilized sort of, you know, quite literally manufactured experiences is against the ethos of wild times itself. And we, and we pride ourselves on making sure that people have the chance to, to witness these real species without fear of bodily threat. Could you argue that, you know, by biohacking them, you're in a sense making a, well, biologically manufacturing their behavior to some extent.

Actually, you know what, this is probably good for like a coffee conversation later on. Can I hold you back for a split moment? I believe we have some more, more to get through. Please. Which of these animals can I touch? Well, I, I can take the three of you to, to go see some of some other things that we have made. Therac, are you okay? We'll be right back. I can discuss with Azam. Okay, wonderful. Great. Sure. Come with me, you three. I'll be with you soon. Sorry about all that.

Before we slaviquit, I have to ask, do you intend to do anything with, you know, crystal here? Well, regarding that, I'm hoping to take it to the lab and do some more analytical, analytical observations with higher tech than I have in my personal laboratory that I bring with me. But as far as biohacking it, I'm not even sure that's necessarily even possible. I mean, we're talking about a crystal, right?

We're not even sure if there's organic matter to speak of, though there seems to be signs of a bio more that this is an organism of some kind. I have a lot of cultural knowledge, I'll admit, this crystal is beyond my ken. What I'm asking is, what do you need to make that possible for you? Do you want me to, would you need us to come back after dark? Whatever the equivalent on this planet is, do you want us to wait until everyone is gone?

Right now, I guess a crystal, and I'm assuming we don't want, we want to reduce the amount of people interacting and knowing about it as possible. That's why I held you back. I am sorry about that. I understand that you have a lot of questions and you want to make sure that this is going well, but just make sure that the crystal is in my hands before you all go off and go towards the rides in the amusement park. Knock on my eye, I'm a bit too old for rides.

I'm not certain you would be allowed within the deeper areas of the laboratory where my office is primarily set up. This is a very publicly accessible, walkable area. I can find other things to do, I just want to know how I can help you beyond just handing you a crystal and walking away. Just try not to be too auspicious, and I think that would be of great benefits. To stop asking any questions about biohacking? That would be a help. Alright, that's fine. Might as well join the others, come on.

We move back to Scrap-Eye, Skye and Lin. Lin is taking you into a smaller holding area, but the animals here are freely moving about. Early on in my career, after I started getting more of the responsibility from Theriak, I tried to see what I could do when it came to biohacking and how far I could push it. Theriak is far greater than I am at this, but these are some of the things I have managed to biohack.

This is one of my slightly less successful experiments when it comes to advanced biohacking. There's a tiny little raccoon with a broom in its hand who just walks around as Lin points them out, they turn to you and go, I'm just a little guy. And then keeps on sweeping as they're just like, I'm just a little guy. Yeah, all he does is sweep and say I'm just a little guy.

So I kind of messed it up. I was wondering if we could make it so that some of the animals become staff members. That's about as far as I got. I think that's remarkable. That animal's talking. Not really. He keeps sweeping that one patch for about two weeks now. He's really not very good at either sweeping or talking. Could you just scoot him? Could you scoot him along? I could, but then I would be cleaning up like a rumba on very low battery. I guess I could just push them along.

I'm just a little guy. You're doing great. You're doing so well. Yeah, that's what I'm like. Oh, hey. And then the two of you approach. Hello? Oh, these are yours. Yeah. Yeah. This is my. These are mine. Some of them are ready to go up and be full exhibits. It's quite exciting. Very good. This place is so dope. Very cool. I'm sorry to interrupt. Where did the broom come from? Oh, that guy. Yeah. That's just a spare broom that we gave him.

It's it's we couldn't give them like a normal one. So we just like this one did it like we needed a bunch of new stuff. So we just cut the broom in half and gave him like the bottom half of the broom. He seems to like it, though. Doesn't really have opposable thumbs is still very much a raccoon. Just a normal earth based raccoon. Just a little guy. What was the capability of speech unlocked by the never mind. It's done with I. So I feed and I have been working very closely with feed feed.

Yeah. With things that we could do with the park. And she has she's an android, so she has, you know, a voice box, which is manufactured. I thought that I could put a voice box in an animal. Maybe it could give some of its cognitive thought. I might have biohacked too much. Lynn, no, this is an animal. Not a toy. You can find those at the gift shop. But it could have been more. There's a point when, you know, one of these animal.

What if you could talk to the animals and they could give you information back to you? Lynn. No. This is not a toy. This is an organism. We should be showing you over to the. To the new exhibit we have all the new merchandising idea. Yes, Sky. I don't mean to have an opinion or weigh in on this by any means, but I mean, hypothetically, what if an animal could be like. I don't like this food. You need to be giving me space bamboo or something.

And you could better care for the animals if they were able to communicate their needs directly to you. See, that that's what the point is, is. People could learn by observation, but imagine learning by first hand. I will not. No more questions until we get to the next area. We'll leave them. You all walk off. All right. The merchandising idea isn't here, but it's just a little way on. We can take one of the cars. And then gets in a little car.

You all hop in, drives off, goes upstairs and back into like the open. The open area of World Times, the actual area of World Times and. Goes to a an area that as the park is like stripped away, it seems. The park starts getting stripped, stripped away as. You go more into the wilderness, the trees start coming back in big ways. Everything seems like a bit more, a bit more wild. You start you have to go on a dirt road. Lynn turns off. So this is a little further away. It's a it's a thing that.

You know, we need a big open area for some of the subjects and that we need a more. You know, it's it's it's it's an area where we are more free to experiment with this new thing. Because, you know, it's still an idea that we're batting around. There's still some kinks that we need to work out of it. But here we go. It's it. The the car drives up and stops. There is this large. Dome that. Stops at like it's like it's a dome that drops off like half a sphere that's that's in the ground.

This shimmering blue shield over one half of it. And on the inside, you can see that there is computers and a desk. And outside are these animals that are getting led to in front of this. This this dome, they're getting led to like the front of the break of the semicircle. Yes. So, common, it's probably better to show you what we're doing and what we're what we're planning on doing. They they walk in and there's a few scientists.

There's like two people who are working at the desk like, hey, guys, you're going to take five. We're just going to we're just going to show theory act and friends the new thing that we have. So these animals are beautiful than we have here on a doom. They are cool and creative and they are exciting to be around. But there are two main problems for us. Sometimes we need things that we need to be a little more up close to them to see what's wrong with them.

Maybe they have an ailment that we don't quite understand. Maybe they're too small to properly view. And the other thing is merchandising. These things are great, but they're too big and you can't really take them home. There is this large lizard, which is hanging out in front of the the thing that the this half dome.

So what we've done is they click a button and this small laser shoots out and then the animal shrinks in front of you all to tiny, tiny size like palm size from this hulking six foot lizard creature down to this itty bitty little palm sized one. You can take the animals home with you to watch and look and experiment with.

And that is, you know, that's that's such it was such a great thing for that we all thought of together because, you know, what is better than being able to take the wonder of wild times home? And if it, you know, if we need to maybe do surgery on a creature, or if we need to learn more about a thing, but it's just too small, we can do this.

They turn a knob and they push another button and the creature grows back and grows past the six foot that it was before all the way to like this large 12 foot beast. We can get up closer and we can figure it out. We can. Yes, young lady. What's stopping you guys from having a really terrible Kaiju fight situation by mistake. Well, the this machine only works with one of the boards so far so theory can also work it and as can as can the board.

And it doesn't it it stops after a certain height because animals that are not used to their bodies aren't used to the size and the gravitational weight. After a certain point they just they die. And there's also creatures that are too big that we can't make grow small. Sorry. Did you say, did you say people can bring them home to do experiments on?

Not experiments, no, but it's like if we, one of the board, one of the higher up scientists needed to experiment on a thing, experiment on a creature, but it was it's too dangerous to take with them just them on their own. Then of course we can supply that. But these things are just meant just to take home and have as a pet. Have it on your desk. It'll be have it on a ship. You can have a ship's pet. It doesn't need to eat as much. Speaking of food, I feel like I am hungry.

Let's stop bothering nice Dr. Firiak and our friend Lin and then go get something to eat. Yeah, everyone. Everyone say thank you to Dr. Lin for the demonstration. Thank you. Is it Otter? Yes. Just around the corner you'll find some Blitzburgers. Oh, you wanted one of those, Skye. Yeah, dope. Oh, hold. I, do you mind if I borrow your pack? We left Firiak's things in there. We might as well give it to him now. Oh, yes, I will take your pack. Right now? Yes, please.

Don't worry. You'll get it back. All right. Okay. She'll take it off and give it directly to Firiak. Run along. Blitzburgers aren't going to eat themselves, are they? What about milkshakes? I've always wanted to have a milkshake before. Yes, go on. Enjoy your milkshakes. As soon as they leave. What on the Cultivator's Green Gardens is this? We are doing what? You are trying to merchandise the organisms, the specimens? Is that not what you, is that not what you were doing? Look at the park.

You realize that you are running, you are running a, you are running an, and I would like to remind you, an illegal pet trade. That is what this is. Do not get your lines mixed up, Lin. You are taking these organisms and you are selling them to the public. What part of that upholds the tenet of conservation around, like throughout the Aesir system? Explain that to me. What part of selling organisms is part of conservation?

This is, this is so we can help improve conservation efforts. We can have these, we can have a slug, we can have a slug grow five, fifty times its size and understand how it works. To understand how it works. Why? Why do they need to do that? That is for the purposes of our research facility and for our veterinary clinics so that we can better treat the animals here. There is no reason this should be in the hands of the public. It's not in the hands of the public, but the creatures.

You are selling these creatures made by these devices to the public. Yes, like people have dogs, people have cats. You don't think that there is a way to... It's, it's, it's... These are not dogs! These are not cats! These are wild beasts! Not after you've dealt with them. Then they're passive. They don't know how to think anymore. They're nothing.

You take, you put things in their head and then you stop them understanding what it, we've had, we've had carnivorous, we've had carnivorous creatures here after your experiments. Not being able to eat meat. Their teeth start to wind down. I have told you of the risks of biohacking. That was explicitly stated when you took this line of work. There were? This is a thing. Biohacking as we know it is basically just be, it's a thing that you have made.

And, Theriac, you're my, you are a, you are a genius beyond things that any of us know. But you are so stringent on, on the rules and your religious beliefs that you haven't experimented. You haven't seen how far we can take this. We can take it so much further. I, I know where I want to take this. I have my own plans in place, Lin. Well, it's a good thing you're not the only owner. There's a board. We agreed on this collectively.

We got sign off from the ACA board because they are no longer violent. These creatures. In a, in, on a dun, which was essentially completely uninhabited before we started doing this. Inhabited by wild creatures. You, do you understand that the point of wild ties was to pro, was to signal to everyone that the conservation of natural spaces like the one we had on a dune before all of the development happened was for the purpose of conserving that area.

That's, that's the point is to educate people about the risks that these creatures are going through. Well then we don't sell. We don't. What? We don't. Why do you want to sell? To, to make money to keep this park going. This park doesn't work on just belief and hope. It works on funding. No, it works on food and water and shelter like every other organism does. Lin. You have to understand this is against the very foundation of wild times.

Sometimes foundations need to change for something to grow. Do you ever think that your foundations just don't fit anymore? I do. I do. And my projects I will be working on will do that just. I can't reveal it to you yet. It's still in the process of being developed. I promise you it will be better than trying to sell animals, wild animals. They are not wild anymore. They are wild creatures. I don't think it's about us taking away the dangerous aspects of them.

Of those behaviors. That's what it started out as. It was just the behaviors that were dangerous. Don't think I haven't seen some of the other specimens that have been on display with the Knife Squirrel. I saw that. It went from a standard blade to rounded edges like a butter knife. That they use that feature to crack open their food sources. You are actively in hip... I think perhaps maybe we should do a little bit of restructuring as far as what we've been doing.

I think maybe all of us need to talk. Reconvene with the board of people who run the park. That's how we started the project. That's how we do it. We continue to... I don't know how this is any different. I'm also making money off the animals just like you were. That's just like you still are. It's not about money. There's a greater purpose beyond just money.

I intend to make this place as perfect as I can. I'm not going to let some crubby little executives stick their oily fingers in my project like this. I won't. We are not doing this. This is equipment only meant for the veterinarian clinic. And merchandising needs to come. We'll stop the merchandising and the expansions for now. We will have a conversation about what the plan is. We have other sources of money coming in and things that we can use for now.

I have conceded so many times for this project. When will you all concede to me? I think we need to have a meeting. Another one. I'm going to go back to my lab. Do some work. If you wish to continue showing the members of the batch work around, you are more than welcome. Please let them know that I will be in my lab. Working. And that I will meet them wherever they end up being going. Okay, I will do that. You have a nice time back at the lab. I will see you tomorrow.

The scientists that were at the desk left a while ago. They bounced as soon as everything started getting heated. The Firiak is going to go over to the machine and turn the lizard and... what was the other thing? Who's just the lizard? Who's just the lizard? Can I turn the lizard back to its normal size? It shrinks. It's still in a containment bubble, but is its normal size now.

They still don't understand. They still don't get it. We'll pull open the little fanny pack. The crystal's in there. Yep. Alright, let's go get you a look at the lab. Nice. The rest of you, is there anything that you would like to do? One burger, please. You all go down the side alley. You're driven by just one of the members of staff. They get you to a little chain restaurant eatery.

The vibes in there were certainly interesting, weren't they? Um... I-I-I mean, I guess it felt a little tense, but... Well, I seemed fine up until... well, I guess right before we left. Um... Yes, um... did... Yeah? Did... Theiriak ask you to do that? Yes. I asked them how I could best help them with their answers for the crystal. They said, just before you go, make sure I have it in my hands. So... Maybe working on the crystal will cheer Theiriak up a bit.

Yeah, of course. I'm sure they're perfectly fine right now. Well... they seemed a little upset. Well... It's a difficult thing knowing that something you created has changed. Right. Give them time to come to terms with it. And after a bit, they'll... they'll decide how they want to feel and what they want to do in the future. Well, I... I think... I think that Theiriak knows quite... well... um... what they... wanted from this place.

It just seems like... it's not quite what I imagined, just based on what they've said. So... um... I'm sure that that's a little upsetting. Yeah, of course it is. But... Scope changes as time goes on. Nothing stays exactly the way you want it. And I think Theiriak is learning that right now, coming to terms with it. And whether they argue, change it back, or try to reconcile with what's changed, that's a future thing. And it's not something we can decide for.

No. That is not at all what I would want to do. Um... I just... You hope they're okay? I... I... am actually feeling a little worried about them. Um... but... also... That's all. Yeah. You think there's anything we can do? I... Could write, like, a really bad review. I don't think that would help them, their names attached to this place. It's true, but I could be really specific, like... Ugh! Too much advertising! Didn't learn enough! Everyone but Dr. Theiriak was trash!

That would be kind of fun, actually. I don't know. I mean, they did say they'd be along after us, right? So we can just ask them... what... are they... Well, Theiriak's got a lot of work to get done. They told me that we should have fun while we're here, while they get work done. Oh... There's a clattering as Scrap puts a tray down with, like, a bunch of burgers and meals for everyone. This place is fucking expensive. Scrap, are you gonna eat all that?

So... this is for everyone. I ordered food for all the tables. Oh, Scrap! That's very nice! Yeah, I'm not gonna eat the whole thing. Um... So how is everyone doing? Sorry, I cut you off. I noticed you were about to say something. No. I'm good. Just a little awkward now, I think. Hmm. Yeah. I kind of feel bad for them. Hey, everyone. Mm-hmm? Let's wait until next time we hear from Theiriak before we jump to any more conclusions. And... yeah, I'm worried too. But...

They'll confront it when we're ready to. They'll talk to us then. Until then... Yeah. What? We've got burgers! They're, like, the smartest person I've ever met. And I'm a... I don't know if... I'm a people person. I meet loads of people. And Theiriak is, like, the smartest one of, like, all of them. You meet a lot of people in a junkyard? I didn't... I didn't live my whole life in a junkyard. I met people. I do. I'm curious. I was quite the socialite when I was younger. I'll have you know.

I can imagine that! I bet you'd look great in a suit! I... yes, I did. Before... before my medal me. Oh, even now. I look better. I look better now in this! Look at this. You don't like my look? It's got a nice flowery shirt and everything. I'm just curious. Were you a spy? Were you a secret agent? Were you a company man? Uh... definitely wasn't a company man. Uh... I don't know. I've... I've... My fingers are in every pie. I had so many pies with my fingers in. I've done all sorts.

Oh, were you a chef? I have been. Not a good one. Pod wash. Can I text Theriac? Gonna say, whoa, that was pretty gnarly. I'm here if you need me for anything. I think wild times is dope. Delete that. Delete that. Delete that. Um... here if you need me, period. Send. Uh, Theriac, you get a... and you're fine. I think just as they're opening the door to their lab... Sky. Semicolon. I appreciate the sentiment. I am managing okay. I am currently in the midst of conducting some research.

I will convene with you and the rest of the crew of the patchwork when I am done. Please enjoy yourselves while you're here. I would hate to be impeding you from having a good time here at the facility. Best regards, Theriac. Send. I guess I'm real sad that Theriac probably isn't gonna hang out with us anymore. That's really bumming me out. I'm gonna be honest.

I don't know. I guess I just thought that it's like they'd hang out with us. I don't know. They just seem real anxious to get back to work and to never talk to us again. We have one day in the hotel and then we're gonna stay with him. So, we're gonna see a lot of him. Yeah, we got a whole week here. More importantly, you know, like I said, they probably just need time before we're ready to interact with us. You know, time to figure out exactly what's going on. We... Give them time.

We are just... I know. I know. Trust me, I know. There's no sense worrying about it too much now. Hey. This is kind of, you know, what this life is like. Pick people up, they stay with you for a little bit, and then they leave. Doesn't mean Theriac's gonna mean any less. It's why I wanted that picture. That's not what just happened. Right? They seem like a very busy person. They still like us enough, but this was their whole point. This is why they wanted to get back, is to get back to this.

This is who they are. Listen, Scrap, I get it. I know that. I'm so used to people coming and going, and I've never given a shit when they've gone. That's why I'm freaking out. Because I care. I care that Theriac, the dude we've been hanging out with for so long, is talking to me like a business intern. They talk to everyone like a business intern. I know, but suddenly I care that they love me. They do. That's just how they text, actually. May I? For a split second.

Theriac is defaulting to this business like exterior because that's the safe place. We all have one, right? We default to something when we feel threatened. Theriac is feeling threatened right now. I know it doesn't matter. By what? By the fact that their company has changed underneath their roots, okay? Well... Circumstances change dramatically. You get defensive. Theriac is getting defensive. So yes, treating you like an intern, telling me to shut up, it's normal.

Well, I don't think I'm telling you to shut up. Well, you weren't there for an entire conversation. But to be fair, I did offer. It doesn't matter. My point is, this disconnection is not real. It's not really Theriac. You've had better pep talks, my dude. I think everybody's hypothesizing about what... So give them time. Why is that so hard? Alright, what are we gonna do in the meantime? I point to a world of rides. They have a plate full of burgers. A table full of burgers. Rides outside.

Skye, if you're that anxious, just ask Theriac. Ask them if they like you. Well no, because that's the last thing you want to do when you think somebody doesn't like you, is if you ask them if they like you, they're definitely not gonna like you. Who knows? Otherwise? Dr. Theriac is very kind and likes all of us very much. That I do not have any... Skye. Theriac. Theriac and I, like, we work together to get you out of that facility. That, that, on the ship, the Heth ship.

Theriac did so much. They came up with so many ideas. They were willing to sacrifice a lot of things to get the three of you out. They went with me to school even though they very much didn't want to because it was very, very inconvenient and very, very risky and very, very scary. And they did it anyway because I was scared. So... I, you know... There's just no... There's no reason for all of this.

No reason to panic. Let's just enjoy our trip. Let's have a one day in the hotel. Hopefully there's a hot tub. And tomorrow we'll go hang out with Theriac a little bit more. We'll spend some time in the house. See what Theriac gets you behind closed doors. Have a good bit of fun. Everything will be fine. Promise. Or my name isn't... It's tacky. I'm not gonna do that. Cheers. Cheers. These are all... Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

As they all cheers, we're gonna move on back over to Theriac. Why did you pay extra for this? Theriac, what are we up to? Theriac just sent off the text to Sky and has entered their lab. Which is sort of a combination of a veterinary clinic, a greenhouse, like an archive room. It's this very mishmash sort of place. And the lights are low. Primarily just the lights over the plants since there's no direct sunlight anywhere.

They've installed UV lights directly over the plants that they do have in their lab. And Lin has been taking care of them while they're away. And goes towards this draft table. Where before they had left, they were working on some ideas for future exhibitions and possibly other parks in the future. They should throw that to the side. Toss it off the table. And they will pull out a bunch of different pages from both the scientific textbooks that they had with them.

And a few other pages that they've copied from the almanac. I'm gonna put them up. Some of them are like texts. A few of them are illustrations. And then we'll pull out the crystal. And look at it. Alright. You and I have some convening to do. And we'll go over towards this big science-y looking machine. And we'll put it in between two anti-grav things. And we'll put it in the middle and it will float in place. As there's a big light scan across it.

And it makes a little matrix trying to determine the composition of it. And then we'll go back towards the library. And pull out some books. And it begins to devise a blueprint. It's not necessarily for an exhibit, but it's a lot of scrapped ideas. A lot of documents are being put in those like, I want to make it a specific location for worship. No, that's terrible. It's gonna be some evangelical looking. Incorporating four elements into exhibits?

Possibly. It's a little kitschy. And then we'll look to one of the documents from the almanac of the Cultivator. And the Cultivator appears to be this almost arthropod humanoid looking person with this multi-tool that's like a spade and a rake and a watering can and a bunch of different gardening tools. And then we'll look at that and then look back down at the board. And then look at it again. It grabs it. Looks it over. It's like running their fingers across the contour of the Cultivator.

Could I... Puts it down immediately and we'll start scribbling furiously. While the lights are down. As you are scribbling furiously this new idea that has hit you, you hear a small bump and a shh of paper moving. You walk around and you see from the door that you came in is a small note that's been pushed under the door. It's on paper and scribbled with pencil. It says,

The board cannot be trusted. I need to meet you at... and it gives you a place which you would know is next to where this merchandising experiment has happened is taking place. And it says, bring arms. Is there a time? Yes, there is a time. Sorry. Yeah. Theiriak will... Look this over. What time is it? Like, how long has it been? You have been in your lab for about two hours now. And this note is for in 45 minutes. Just got started.

And we'll quickly put away all of the notes that they had been accumulating back into their briefcase. We'll check the machine. Has the machine found anything, diagnostically? The machine has. Could you roll me a... let's do a... you can do a physical or a life science and you can do it with advantage. Yay! All right, give me one second. Life science or physical science, you say? Or physical. You can choose. I'll do life science. Ooh, baby. How is a 32? 32 is exceedingly good, pal.

You just needed a bigger lab. Just something. Just something slightly more high tech than your tiny little... tiny little hand experiments. Because with this, you punched in all the information you already knew onto this machine. So it didn't scan for any of those. And the thing that comes up is the three numbers that came up before.

Which this new machine clocks as not just three numbers, but three numbers in a sequence of nine. And because the machine is just slightly more advanced, a title comes up above it that says coordinates with a little question mark. Next to the second series of three numbers, which are all question marks at the minute since they're not sure what they are, is a line and a scan that says it is 100% complete.

And points you to the Vanir system. There's a different system outside of this solar system. It's a few away. It's quite far. But it points you toward a specific planet on... in the Vanir system. And there is a little note with something is here as the computer is trying to figure out what is there. And we'll take the crystal, go into the computer, wipe the data. We'll stuff the crystal back in the fanny pack. It's going to run to meet with everybody else to get them towards this secret meeting.

You all are set. You finish up your burgers after you have this conversation and Theriac arrives at the door. Just as you're all kind of getting ready to leave. Uh, hi. I first of all apologize for my behavior. Secondly, do you have your weapons? I guess. Yeah, I'm always packing. Yeah, always. Pockets of grenades. Come with me. And we'll lead them towards the meeting and we'll explain along the way. I received a note saying that the board cannot be trusted and to meet with this person.

Well, what person? I'm not sure. But they said to bring arms. So... Can I ask you a separate question? What was your work? I kind of grunt awkwardly. Do you like us? What? Do you like us? Yes, I think you're all swell. Thank you. I needed reassurance. Panic sometimes. Of course, it'll just pat the zombs. Pat a zombs shoulder and say maybe you should be less of a baby.

I'm growing ego, am I right guys? Where are we going? But I figured if this turns out to be some sort of, you know, some sort of a stand up or something, you know, we'll have arms. Listen, boss, this could go. I don't appreciate being called that. You're literally the boss, though. I am the boss of this. Yeah. And I am the employee of this. So you're my boss. You're not an employee.

You're my contract. That's a fake contract. You can call me Doc, as you had been previously. I much prefer that. I'm being very sassy for someone who is requesting my services and I am not on contract. What did you want to say? Should we unionize? Should we unionize?

We should always unionize. That's very important. Should I just ask a question, please? Not boss. Dr. Theriak. This could go so bad for us, you know, getting ready to rumble in the middle of your family friendly establishment because a note said not to trust your coworkers. This could go so horribly. So I don't trust them. No, I know. I know. I just. I will follow you. You all understand me, right? Like why I'm doing this.

I'm not alone in the. Like, I'm not. I'm not the crazy one here. No, you are absolutely not. Everyone has been talking absolute nonsense besides you since we entered through the doors of this godforsaken place. So absolutely. I understand. And I think we should check this out. Okay, that was just me asking, are we sure? But if we're sure. Azzam? You know, I'm reminded right now of a saying I heard from a pirate. Never mind. You don't know till you know. So let's go so we can know.

Can I, before we skip skip off though, Matt, can I just while we were sitting there waiting for Theriac, can I have, can I have just, Ike's been avoiding it, but can, can I check to see, has there been any response on my phone? There has. There's a message, a text. Okay. Haha, comma. It's a place where kids play? Do they not have that in the lower decks? Hey, do you want to grab a coffee later today? Where are you? Um, I text back. I would love a coffee. When I get back home.

Picking up a little extra work. But I'll be back soon. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm looking over your shoulder. I know that's like super duper rude. No, it's okay. I'm going to send you the picture of you and the CEO of wild times, okay? Oh my gosh. Yeah. I am a co founder and the lead on on on the scientific department. I'm not the CEO. I just, they're all synonyms for boss for me. I'm sorry. I'm in a truly very different positions. Still look important. Thank you.

Still send it to me. Yeah. Would you prefer if we call you Thierry? Yeah, I don't like that. Doc is already so formal. The doctor did call me captain earlier today and that felt extremely good. I appreciate you asking me. All right, Kathy. What Thierry feels a little what kind of title or name works for you for your friends. Doc is perfectly suitable. Well, there you go. So we're good. Yeah. And can I find a wild times waste bin? Yeah. And I want to dump it out and just gather

Oh hell yes. I kicked one. Get me some more empty souvenir cups. And I build myself a little sword out of wild times. A wild times merchandise. I want to actually just like say wild times across the blade. Yes, absolutely. Garbage. You have this. You have this this sword that looks like that has the wild times logo on it like runes of an ancient blade. Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. I completely misinterpreted that and got way too excited about burning.

I just the energy really got me a little amped up anyway. So I someone want to burn. Yeah. Kick some ass. I got a flame rifle. Someone wants to burn something. We are not going in. We are not going in guns blazing. We are preparing just in case. Just in case. Diplomacy first. Agreed. Right. I mean we could engage in aggressive negotiations. Conversational combat.

You all arrive at this kind of experimentation area and lit by the lights coming off of the coming off of this this like half sphere experimentation zone. Theoretic you see a plump Sheeran who you know is Loric who is one of the board members. As you walk they are rubbing their hands and they're like, Oh, thank thank God. I didn't know if you'd be here in time. Loric. What's this about? I don't know what is happening to the park, but things are going really very weird.

I don't think Kiskeg went on holiday at all. I'm constantly being watched. I think everyone else is and I think that and then there is a shot that rings out as this purple energy is sucked out of Loric's head and they fall down. This energy falls into this experimentation chamber that starts to buzz and crack and this huge bolt of energy shoots out and hits all five of you and you slowly begin to shrink. Before before before hits. I do want to take one.

I'm good enough to know this kind of thing. I want to take one shot in the direction of the shot that initially came before I shrink. Okay, that will be inside the chamber. Yes, you can. You can have that shot since you are ready. Yes. And you all and you all begin to shrink and your bodies and and the trees grow larger and larger and the grass meets you as you all shrink to a tiny form. Azam what was did you roll? That's 20. That hits, of course.

Azam you fire off into the into the holding as everybody shrinks down and that is where we're going to leave our session. I have Honey I shrunk to the kids to you. Giant lizards. Thank you all very much for my weird fucking little arc. I watched Honey I shrunk to the kids two weeks ago and I was like that sounds fun. Thank you all everyone for getting into our little thing. Hi there beautiful souls. Thank you so much for listening to the Adam list.

I have a few quick thank yous before I shout out everybody involved with the show. Our music today was provided by Marty Eisenberg. We also had music by Artlist under their fair use license and our soundscapes were by Michael Gelfie again under their fair use. You should visit both of them on Patreon because the show would not be what it is without them. A big thank you to our hosts that welcome in.

If you want to listen to the full version of this episode head on over to their YouTube where you can find all the unedited unedited Adam lists. And all the other beautiful shows they have on there. We seriously would not be here without them. Our players today were Momo O'Brien playing Sky. Super Dylan playing Ike. Nour Nali who is where Wolf feels on socials who plays Azam. Andre Rivera Art who played our wonderful garlic thiriyak.

And Matthew Eckberg Captain Krayle on all things who did all of the GMing and voiced all the pew pews. Thank you so much for listening. I give you a kiss and the next time we fly through the Adamless Sea I hope you'll be there to fly with us. I love you.