Ep. 4: A Saga Begins

Previously on the Adamless. A Zon-P. Ike. She. My name is Theoriak. What's up? My name's Skye. Welcome to the patchwork, my dudes. There is a crystal in the center of this room. You touch it, there is this do-do-do-do-do. And the crystal just falls into your hand. And you hear... Hello, and bring together. Oh, I actually have a video game. But he promised that he would get me something suitable for fall, and I'm very excited. I'm not a big fan of energy companies, you know.

They always seem to take more than they give. You're a believer, Biriak. I am, yeah. How did you get so good at killing things? I don't know, I like video games. I'm expected. I have to meet with Quinn. I'm sorry, Ike? Was it? Mm-hmm. Yeah, they left. She pulls up to text or send a message to Quinn. You're not here, but your drinks are! On my way to Saga now. I'll find a lift. Right, to Saga? To Saga. To Saga. The patchwork has been in the air for about two days now.

It's rickety halls, grown under the weight of its travel. Its new bones are deeply loved, but have the strength of a very old body. Scrap has asked everyone to pitch in whilst you travel through the Atma Sea towards Saga, where you're all going to sell the hall that you got from the Leviathan's Eye, and where Ike is going to meet her friends. Scrap sits in the pilot's bay, alone on an ancient threadbare egg chair.

They flick switches and dials on the fancy console that sits in front of them, that's clearly been stolen from a capital ship. They've drawn the heavy theatre curtains that separates the pilot's chamber from the rest of the patchwork. They sit with a well-worn piece of paper in their hand, used till it basically resembles tissue paper. Saga is in sight now, it's bigger than the dot on the horizon that it once was.

The heavy smog that is billowing out of the lower decks is viewable from here, but it looks cleaner when battled by the red Aesir sun and the colours of the Atma Sea. It seems peaceful, like a calm, kind place.

Scrap stares at his home in quiet contemplation through the window that covers the full 180 degrees of the front of the patchwork, until a green light brightens the pilot's chamber, and there's a screeching of a fax machine that prints the words, the incoming transmission from Saga Airspace stretches out pulling a typewriter connected to a series of different wires that feed back into the console, and they type on keys and then they hit the paper rail,

making a receiver for a two-way radio pop out of the capital ship's console. Yeah! Hello, this is Saga Airspace. We notice your ship is travelling toward us. What's your intention? Err, my name's Scrap. I'm going to be travelling with four others. We're just going to visit for a few days before leaving again. Okay. Further questioning will be given when you get about 12 hours of Saga. Please get all your documentation ready.

Scrap flicks a light and, er, flicks a switch and the light turns to orange. They sigh, sit back down and looking back at the place that used to be their home, and they open the piece of paper in their hand and it reveals a photo of a far younger Scrap, his face fuller, without the metal plating that covers their eye and their ear. They still look as dirty, but there's a lot of youth in their eyes. They're smiling and carrying a smaller Yosuke rap child on their shoulders.

They look happy and they're stood in the sunlight. Scrap smiles, their metal eye studies the photo before the antenna that has now replaced their eye flashes a little signal. They close the photo immediately and hide it in their chair and they stand up and they walk out of the curtain. What is everyone's jobs on the ship? Over the last two days, what have people been busying themselves with? Like, how would they find themselves to be helpful on the ship?

Thiriak has continued to study both the slugs that they have captured from both Lothlhais and Xai, as well as the crystal that Aig asked them to study. I believe Aig requested it be named Spot, as well as cooking for everyone on the ship. Making sure everyone is fed and has good nutrition. Do you want to give me a role if you're using your lab to study the crystal again? I think I will. You think you will? Last time, I believe you rolled physical science.

For the crystal, I rolled physical science and then I rolled life science. There we go. Which one are we going for now? I want to do life science again, baby. Nice. I got 25 answers. Hand them over. Through your tests, you've found out that this seems to have four different states of matter within it. It has the energy of gas flowing through it. The inner parts seem to be liquidy. There is some plasma state that flows throughout it and the outside is clearly a solid.

Whilst you're studying, you get some sense that there is something akin to a form of data inside of this crystal. A message, almost. You're not quite sure what it is because you would need a bigger lab or someone who can decode or communicate in some way with a form of crystal or decode this type of thing to be able to understand it. But there is something that lies in weight in the different forms that are shifting.

This isn't an unusual thing, mind. This crystal is old. Hellishly so, but a lot of things in the galaxy are. Sometimes these little messages, these little things are writings from an older civilization. Sometimes they are just semi-organic notings of plants. They can denote time and things like that. There are different forms of communication between many forms of the galaxy. This crystal seems to have something in it.

Okay. Could I, instead of making another physical science check, could I instead make a either culture or mysticism check? Yeah. I'll give you a... This depends on what type of information you want from it. I am specifically looking for any connections this has with the photo religion. That, I think... Is there not a specific religion-based skill? I believe mysticism is the closest to religion. I would say, let's call this a 25.

Oh, I wouldn't be able to make that. I don't have a plus two to mysticism. Well, I'll tell you what. Roll anyway and let's see how close you get. Because I'll still give you some information for looking at it. Looking for these things. Oh, that's a 17. Everything is connected. That is one of the main pieces of the religion. Is that everything in some small way shares something with something else. This having all four of these states of matter is pretty unique as far as things go.

You don't specifically recall any tales about this specific thing, but the knowledge that everything is connected is brought up in your mind. Okay. All right. That's what Theorix has been doing. How are the rest of the crew of the Patchwork doing? Cleaning. Nervously. Probably inappropriately. Probably there are things that just look dirty, but they just are that way. But mostly just cleaning things around and tidying up a lot.

Oh, it is difficult work cleaning up, especially after specifically where these things are from. These are all from an actual scrap yard. This is scrap that people have thrown away and then scrap. Pick these things up and reassess them, rebuild them, build them into a solid ship. But also, Skye is a teenager and scrap is a rat. And they have been living here for quite some time. This place is fucking gross. I'm also a rat. Thank you very much. You're welcome. It's not even a productive cleaning.

It's just the cleaning that you do when you're nervous and anxious about something and you just start washing the sink or whatever it is. Pick something up, Yannick, and put it back down again. Yeah. Yeah. So I imagine she's getting underfoot a lot and kind of taking things away before people are done using them. Kind of being a little bit of a pest about it. But nonetheless, that's been her role.

I'm sure sometimes it's helpful. Is it like a super obvious, like super obviously, she's very anxious? Well, I don't know. It might be super obvious to anyone who's done that before. But maybe not. We've only been on the road for a few days, so not everyone knows. Maybe they just think she's like that. Yeah. I saw a sky. I know. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Go for it. Doing the same thing I do every day, making sure this beautiful bucket of bolts stays together.

Roll me in engineering. This is purely just flavor rolling. Eleven. I'm still cursed. I can't function when I don't know where my third pile of dirty laundry is all of a sudden. That's it. You spend like half the day looking for one thing because you have an outfit. You have an engineering outfit and it's all of a sudden swept away. But the patchwork is humming beautifully. There are some bits and bleeps that you don't remember and can't place.

You know when a fire alarm needs testing and goes boop every 20 minutes? It just long enough for you to forget about it. There's that that you've just clocked into and you can't fucking find where this fucking beeping is coming from. There's just a beeping on the ship somewhere. Azam, I'll be up too. So like Azam's kind of lost. He offers to help other people with their jobs. Mostly tries to learn more about how technology has progressed in the past couple decades.

Because he's considering he's been missing for most of it. And I would like, if possible, to take upon the quest of the weird beep. Can you also along the way try and find my corkscrew wrench? I don't know the actual name of it. It just kind of looks like a corkscrew. Yeah, a corkscrew wrench. Looks like a corkscrew. Okay. I'm cool to roll either. Can I roll perception to see if I can find these with a beep?

Oh yeah, let's go for it. Yeah. I tell you what, if you... Yeah, no, roll. Yeah, just roll. It's fine. Roll. If I roll? If you roll. I was gonna make you have a choice, but I won't. Depending on how good your rolls are, you'll be able to find one or the other. So that was a 16 plus 6, that's 22? You find the wrench. It's like second day of travel. And in the... There's a small alcove just off of the main, I would say, bridge. You find the corkscrew wrench there and above there is seemingly a...

Literally a fire alarm that has been fused half into the upper scaffolding. You... Switch it off. You leave into the main bridge. And as you do, you see a hand open the curtain into the pilot's room. Hey, you got a second? Sure, yeah. I wander on over and close the curtain behind me. What's happening? They look around, they look behind at the curtain and then they put their thumbprint on this small blue square and then there is a...

Of a blue screen, just to soundproof backstage to theaters and is now currently soundproofing this little pilot's deck. You seem very upfront, like a good person. You haven't really told us much of what's going on, but I feel like I can read you pretty well. We're heading to Saga, as you know, and do you trust this crew? Good question. I'll reply by saying I haven't trusted anyone in a very long time. Not really. Yeah, that's what I was worried about. Why?

Viriak works at Wild Time, big company. I is hiding something. I don't know, meeting on the VA-11 and then jumping ship back to Saga? That screams big company to me. Skye's fine, she's good. We've been traveling for a little while now. And I don't know what your deal is, because I can... I'm okay. I say I trust you, and I do. You seem very upfront, but I have feelings. I'm the exact opposite of a company man. Exact opposite. Alright.

I don't have a job right now, or a purpose really, but I'm not a fan of any big corporation. I can see, I've seen actually, first-hand the damage those places can do. Planets wrecked apart, homes destroyed, culture gone. Yeah, it's not me. Alright. Okay. Skye, what are you... Sorry. What? No, gone. What? Say a piece. What do you do? This, I build stuff. I steal from places, repurpose goods. What?

I... Something to do. I'm good at it. Hey listen, I'm from this planet, and it is corrupt and awful, but it is literally the most beautiful place in the world. The people there are stunning, but I had to get out, because they are trying to choke you to death. Literally, in a lot of cases. I was happy building stuff, selling it to people, reusing things that had been thrown away, and giving those things purpose.

I just needed to know that you are, you know... I... There's more people I don't trust on this team than there's people that I do trust, and listen, I'm all for one big bout, a mission, let's go steal some shit and leave each other. It's been three, four days now. We're going back to Saga. I'm just a little on edge. It is well said. Thiriyak isn't hiding much, but Thiriyak is lying to themselves about what their place actually does.

Which means it's probably not really in the pocket of a big corporation so much as being bamboozled by one. Iger's very secretive. It feels like an in-veh-been-hurt-before kind of way. I don't think any people here... We're our own people, we have our own needs and desires and yadda yadda yadda, but I feel like you can trust them. If you want to. Oh, I like trusting. I don't think anyone doesn't. My problem isn't if these people are bad people. I don't think anyone is ever a bad person.

But I think people are easily manipulated by people who need something. That's what I'm scared about. Yeah. And do you know what's the easiest thing to manipulate? People without purpose. I don't know what your deal is. I don't care where you came from. I don't know what you were doing three years ago, four years ago. I need to know that you're not going to find that purpose and that purpose isn't going to be shooting me in the back.

Let me ask you something, Scrap. Do you want to hurt the people I love? I don't know. Do you love company people? No. Then you're pretty much alright for me. Then I'm not going to shoot you in the back. Simple as that. Any purpose that would require me shooting friends in the back, no purpose I want. Or in the front, or in the side. Yeah, I'll make it swift right to the head. I appreciate that. Thank you. Don't want you to suffer. Where are your friends now? Probably on my home planet. Which is?

Erem. That's a long way from here. It's a very long way, yeah. Looked on a map and I was quite confused. Well, if we get that drift core work and then we can... No, no. No trouble. I'm happy where I am right now. I should probably get going. Yep. Just give Skye her wrench back. Right. Okay. I don't know who your friends are and that's a big reason why I don't want to hurt them. I don't like hurting people. Your friends are far away and if they've changed, we'll re-discuss this at another time.

Yeah. They put their thumb on the little blue thing and then they scream. Yep. And with that another word, I just walk out. Is there anything we'd like to do before we hit saga, before we hit planetsite? Anybody want to play another round of...what was the game? Ynet. Ynet. Ynet. My goal this round is just to grind, make as many weapons as I can. I focus on having the computer glitch as often as possible to double weapons every once in a while. Double output.

Now, how did you end up with 256 gunmen? I'm just really good at this game. Azam, we're teamed up, right? You want me to trade you some weapons for some stuff? What do you want for all of that? I don't know. I just need to know that you and all your resources are in my corner when the time comes. What time? What corner? This is not the time for questions, Azam. This is the time planning. Actions will come another day. I'll just give you some credits and you can spend it on whatever you like.

Yeah, that works. After like a little while of you all playing your game, there is an old dial telephone that rings. Scrap, you hear. That's saga for documentation. Can someone answer it? Hello? Hello? Are you looking to come planet side? We're the Patchwork serial number S2KKF25. I also just wrote that down. I made that up on the spot. That's not an actual thing. No, it's canon. Okay. Wonderful. Quick question. Where are you looking to go when you get here?

We're looking to... Scrap, it was the lower decks? Upper decks? Where are we going? We are landing in lower. I don't know if they're going to have a problem with that. We're looking to land at the port of the lower decks, please. Oh. Okay. That is quite cool. The ship's registration number you've already answered. That's fantastic. Do you have any contraband aboard? I mean, not to my knowledge. Okay. I'm going to need you to answer seriously. Do you have any contraband aboard? No, sir.

Okay. So where exactly are you going? You say port side lower decks, but where exactly? We've got a couple of people aboard, so just give me a second to rally the crew. Where exactly are we going? We're going to the... What's the market? What's it called? It's called the overflow. Overflow? And Sky knows we're going to the overflow, yeah? Don't tell them we're going to the overflow. Just tell them we're going to the... You could say that we're dropping me off in the lower decks.

Fair in the lower decks, because they know we're going to the lower decks. I could tell... Who are your friends that were hanging out? They'll be on the upper decks. Matt, quick little question. Absolutely. Go for it. Is there... Can we... I don't know if we said a neighborhood that Ike lives in, but can we make one up real quick? I would literally love to. Absolutely. Hell yeah. Let's go. Wait, Ike's from here too? Ken.

Atil, would you want to... We can go to the dockyard. Just call it the dockyard. So you, Ike, would also know of this place called the overflow, because of the work that you do. The overflow is a black market type place that operates in the overflow of the sewers underneath the lower decks. But it is in the dockyard where you live. It's in that region. Okay. Perfect. Sky, just tell them that you're going to drop me off at home in the dockyard. Oh. Okay. We're headed to the dockyard?

Okay. Thank you so much. What is your purpose of visiting? Sightseeing. Have you heard about joining the lawmen to get out of the lower decks? Oh yeah, no. How can you not hear about it? It's everywhere, right? Do you have any interest? I mean, oh boy do I, but we're going to have to hold off on registration today. Very busy. Are you sure I have time now? What is your name? I can take that. Oh, but I don't. So many sights to see, you know?

Alternatively, have you heard about joining the Ulf Hestnard to be able to leave the lower decks? Listen here, dude. We're going to the lower decks. I have no interest in leaving the lower decks until all of the sights are seen. Absolutely. Okay, that is registration number S2KKF25, the password. There is. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day. Oh, you too. I didn't know you grew up on the lower deck. Weird time for you to say that.

Well, I don't really live there anymore, so I didn't think it would be important to say. When did you move? Oh, um, officially. Um, it's recently. When did you move unofficially? Um, less recently. I've been in between for a while and then I... Oh, you're an upper decker. I... I guess so. I guess so. I mean, there's no shame in it, depending on how you became an upper decker, you know? I... No, I... I'm not ashamed of that. So how did you make the transition, if I might ask?

Oh, well, my friends helped me, got me some very good jobs and doing work, but that's all. Still are. Mm-hmm. But it will be nice to see the lower decks and spend some time. Do you have any family we could go visit? Oh, I don't think so. You don't think so? You don't know so. Well, it's just that they might be busy or something. I mean, if you're family, I'd sure love to take time away to see you. Not if she's from the lower decks. Pretty typical of families to be busy, you know?

What on earth is this? I've never been to this planet. I feel like... I'm... Let me give you the gist. It's pretty straightforward. There are two layers to Saga. There's the upper decks. Fancy schmancy. Everything's clean. People are in suits a lot. Then you got the lower decks. That's where Scrap and I and apparently I are from. And that's where the people from the upper decks literally dump their garbage. Along with the people living there, who are also most likely garbage.

So you have a really regimented class system. Yeah. That's what I told you. Like, a couple days ago, we're very economically imbalanced. Right. Right. But... Ag's family doesn't want to see her because... That's the part I'm confused about. Because family, you know? I didn't say they didn't want to. That's what you said. I just... don't... Busy. Right. Right. Busy. I do have friends, still. Like, contacts. Down in the lower decks, there's people.

You know, I'm not judging. I haven't seen my family in... fine, you know? We do what we have to. I have a keychain to sell. Right? No, Snowglobe. Just Snowglobe. I didn't know you really wanted to meet my parents so bad. I mean, where I'm from... You can't go one moment without being recognized by your parents, being dragged into family dinner, and then seeing every single sibling you've had. If you walk within like a 40 kilometer radius of city. Or a hundred... 400 kilometers, actually.

My parents are fast. It's lovely. I mean, I grew up with three parents before my dad and one of my moms died. She never let it... She let it show. She was sad. But I never felt alone. You know what I mean? I didn't feel like a supreme man or lost like a kid would at that age. Because I'd walk into the city and everyone, you know, who knows me, family members invite me to dinner. I just... I never had a moment to collapse because I was surrounded by people who loved me.

And when I met my partner, it was the same. Family, you know? No. Well... I get it. That's okay. We can be family now. I literally just met you guys, but I'll keep that in mind. Thank you. Again, Tess. Your cultural concepts of family are quite interesting. Yeah, don't you have a family theory, Yak? Uh... My own planet doesn't really have blood familial lines. We're kind of raised in what are called bushels, which are different generations of my people. So we don't really have parental units.

I mean, we didn't... Well, we have parental units, but we don't have blood connections. We're not... Well, it's strange. It gets fertilized. It gets, you know, placed in large hatches. Those who want to be parents just pick one up, wait for a dach. So it's basically like a culture of adoption? Yeah. Exactly. That's quite fascinating. A long time ago, it was said that we were a bit more formal, but nothing's changed.

Plus, on top of it, you know, I've learned from a lot of people, apparently, families are usually very strictly nuclear, some people, you know what I mean? But we're not like that. I guess the culture of adoption. I can imagine that system working real well because there's a lot of people born in the lower decks that I feel like their parents wish they weren't, you know, or at least they act like it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're incubated by lava, so I don't know if it's...

That's so sick, dude. What? That's awesome. You were born from lava? Well, I was... my egg was placed in a lava pool, yeah, bubbled there for about two decades, picked up, got born. That's so rad. Is it? It is interesting. You do take on a more humanoid appearance, but you were born from an egg? Yeah. It's weird. We don't talk about origins as a species very often. But we seem to appear in several other cultures, species, people who are partly fire, who come from the earth or something.

It's strange. I've heard human tales very similar to, you know, me. Oh, well, according to those human tales, I also live in a different dimension and fly, which I don't fly. That would be very, very interesting if you could fly or levitate. Yeah, it seems like very... no. Flying is bad. I like ground. Ground is reliable. You know, we're flying right now. Yeah, but... I'm sorry. I heard it as I said it. Yeah, yeah. It's OK. I just don't spend a lot of time on ships, so I'm not very used to it.

It's ground, right? I just like tap my foot on and probably hear a gigantic groan. There's like an echo that goes down. Like you're standing on sheet metal. I got to remember to bring in like pots and pans next time we record so I can just have some effects. Theoriak, do you keep in touch after you leave the bushel? Well, most people don't leave the bushel. Most of my people are still on Raxal. Why did you leave?

Well, you could call it a call to action, science... I feel like you have an inquisitive mind and usually people are curious don't stay in one place for too long. That's certainly part of it. There were lots of conflicting ideas about what my interpretation of the religion I grew up in was. They weren't especially keen on my inquisitiveness into what the mysteries of the universe entailed. So I had to crawl out of that petri dish. And start wild times.

That wasn't a specific goal, but yes, I did do that. Maybe you could send them a seasonal pass or something. I have a lot of relatives. You own the park! What are you going to do, go bankrupt? Like you said, I don't leave the planet very often. They're also not very keen on technology. That's one of the primary reasons. It becomes a nice gesture that they never use, I guess. It's a rather strange cultural taboo to not use any deep space mechanics.

I meant if you gave them a season pass, they'd be like, oh, thank you, and they won't use it. Oh, I suppose it would be a very... But they wouldn't know what it was, would they? They don't really... they're disconnected. In that case, if you have some season passes, you're not going to have a... I do not have season passes. We don't... we're not even open yet. It's weird that you run the park and don't have season pass on it. I... I...

It seems like you have a weird lack of power at the theme park that you co-created. I don't run the park. You don't run the park? But you co-founded the park. Correct. They kick you out? No, I still work at the park. You work at the park that you created? Yes. Seems like a downgrade. Who runs it? That's maybe a conversation for another time. Should we get... have we run it? You all notice that there is the big neon sign that tells you to take your seats.

It has been lit and is now flashing as Scrap is clearly flicking the sign on and off since no one has sat down behind him. You all take your seats and you approach into Saga. Ophiria, what was your first time leaving home like? Well, there were some ships that landed on Raxle. Some people were quite perturbed by their arrival. I went over to investigate and they asked me what I do and I said I am a scientist and they said we need one of those. So they said, do you have a degree?

I did not have one yet so I lied and said yes. Then I got on and it was too late for them to take me back. But they knew I was smart so that's how I got to where I am. Honestly, who cares about a fancy degree if you know what you're talking about? Exactly. It's about what you carry with you, not what you have on you. Yes. I mean, I don't have a degree. My answers were bakers. I got street smarts. I'll whack a street smarts. That definitely counts. I've read a lot of books. I like books.

Do you have books? Yeah, I got a book. I literally reach up behind my vest and just pull out a hard... It's an old fashioned hardback actual book. Nice. That thing looks ancient. Oh yeah. A traveler came by and sold it to me for... Well, nothing really. It was not a story for none time. What's it about? It's about this little girl and she sees a rabbit, whatever that is, and wanders off into a mirror and then is surrounded by fungi. How'd she get in the mirror? I don't really know.

Is it like a like a plastic mirror? How can a girl keep up with a rabbit? Those things are really fast. Have you seen a rabbit? Eh? Have you seen a rabbit? No, but I'm caught up on like, you know, the culture of the planet I came from or whatever. I mean, apparently rabbits are a collector because they're late for something. Can a rabbit be late for anything? They don't have a schedule. I'm not sure. I don't know. This book sounds like it would break my immersion.

Can I see it? I have a book too. I pulls. She's got a book hanging from one of her many straps on her hips. And she like very, very gently, gently, gently, gently pulls it off. What is it? Is it dictionary? You carry around the dictionary? Heck yes. I gingerly take it. I gingerly take it. That's the only book I ever saw. Can I? Right? Yeah. I have books too, but they're nothing like that. I reach under my seat and I take out a stack of comic books.

You are welcome to browse the library at any point. I have finished all of them multiple times. Are these histories? Are they like events that have happened? No, I'm not a nerd. Well, I'll just keep my books to myself then. Probably share them with Ike. I've never met anybody that carries around the dictionary. Look, I just, we didn't see books. I'm rather verbose myself. I don't blame her for carrying around a dictionary. It's certainly quite useful. Utilitarian even.

Using or expressing in more words than a needed adjective to. It's very good for that. It takes some time. I got a phone recently and it's been much faster. I have a phone too. I pull one out that's like 30 years old. It's way too old. Oh my god, maybe we can get you a new phone on Saga. It's called the features. I can answer calls. Well, I certainly hope a phone can do that. I do want to ask, did everyone get into the seats? Because I imagine that they're flicking it.

Scrapfully comes through like, what the fuck is going on guys? I mean flicking the sign for like to pass that one. No, we got into our seats. We're just having this conversation while seat belted. No, go on. Go on. Keep the seat belt. Ike just gives the book back and... Sorry, can I have the dictionary back? Of course. Thank you. Ike, read this on the way to Saga. It's about Kron-Dar the Terrible. He's a viking. Superpowers. What's a viking? What's a superpower?

It's a helmet with horns on the head. Why would you wear a horned helmet? Right, most of the species don't have horns. I think it's just for aesthetics. Aesthetics? No, like how something looks. No, I'm... Are you having it? Um... As you're all sat down, you can see Saga through the patchwork's skylights and front window. The calm, clean fog, as you get closer, shows its true face, one of thick darkness.

As the patchwork flies into Saga's airspace, the red aces sun smiles upon the metropolis named the Upper Decks, coating the city in a warm red light. The patchwork weaves through tall skyscrapers in the busy buildings of the Upper Decks, and you watch as people walk through the streets on their way to work for the thousands of companies that call the Upper Decks home.

We follow the thick, dark smog bellowing up from a large hole in the planet, showing that the Upper Decks is built upon plates that are held up by the city below. As Scrap weaves the patchwork through the smog, almost like you're breaching the clouds for a second time, the sun disappears and through the smog you see its replacement.

Large UV lights hang from the plate that separates the Upper Decks from the Lower Decks, hanging like cruel chandeliers, and through what might be a cruel joke or bad luck, dirty mud-filled water falls down to the neon city below like rain. The smog that has been created from broken buildings and old petrol cars in the Lower Decks disperses as Scrap flies toward a bright patch of light.

In the distance you can see large mechs carrying shipping containers of rubbish and throw them down from the Upper Decks to a pile in the Lower Decks. This pile grows and grows and then is quickly dispersed by a series of robots who organise the rubbish into piles. The antenna that has replaced Scrap's ear blinks and the robots move piles of rubbish out to clear a zone as Scrap moves the patchwork into land. Right, congratulations everyone, we have safely landed in the Lower Decks.

Before I open up the ramp, Azzam, Theriac, they put their hand into the pilot's chamber, they pull out these things, these what looks like small masks, but seem to have been fitted for you almost. Theriac, yours is very large, seems to take up all of the reeds in your head, this big glass container, almost like a portable plant carrier. Azzam, yours is this, it seems to be plated all with metal so that you don't accidentally burn through this mask.

People who aren't from here can't breathe the air of the Lower Decks, so you need to be taking that if you're going to go journeying around. I'm going to be here, I'm going to be attaching the drift core to the ship, I might need some extra parts but they'll be knocking around the dump I'm sure. But when you put those on, I'll lower the ramp. And welcome to the scrapyard, this is my home. Are you going to come out with us?

No, I don't want to risk anything. I'll stay here, I'll make sure the patchwork is all up and ready to go. Azzam says that he's going to take care of all the buying and selling and whatnot. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you left Azzam in charge? I thought me and you had a connection. Oh I'm not in charge, I'm just frontman. Just frontman. Okay, that makes sense, yeah. There you go. Yeah, Sky, you know where the overflow is so you can take everyone there. Let me be your guide.

If you need anything, we can find some kind of travel for you but it's basically on foot, unless of course you want to boost a car or something. Could I, just for one moment, could I get this on, it's a lot. Yeah sure, I can help you out if you want. And like, has to fully close up the dome around their head, they look like a walking terrarium with legs and arms. This feels a little excessive. You're the one with that air and it's not.

Yeah, you're who I was worried about actually, most people can survive the air, they just get really, really sick for a few days to a week and then their body just kind of gets used to it. You are entirely a plant and we don't have plant life down here, it is unsustainable, so I don't know if you'll be able to handle it. I don't mean to brag but we are a rather resilient people. I live on a planet covered with volcanoes and we still have plants. Yeah, this, yep, they're trying to kill us.

It sucks, you could say it sucks. Yep. I mean, if I were to describe hell, this is what it would look like, yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, none of that. This is the best planet in all of the galaxy. It's just, it's being abused by bad people. But the people here on the lower decks, they are the best. They are kind and they care about each other, they are just being pushed in the wrong direction. Tell you what, Doc, you only have to keep it on till we get to the upper decks.

Are you going to the upper decks? Well, I would be interested perhaps, but I'm really quite interested in seeing what you have here since there's no botany perhaps. You know, this is a very unique ecological site to be so toxic and no form of sunlight, eternally nocturnal. There are some places that have sunlight. They haven't built over all of us yet. There are places near the dockyard that haven't been built over, but they are definitely trying.

Yeah, but watch your head if you enter any place with sunlight because that's usually where the garbage is coming down from. We have some, but again, we are pretty much a scrap heap, so we don't really have much but dust. Anyway, lower the gangplank. Is everyone ready? I grabbed a cart full of stuff. Ready. All right. Okey dokes. Welcome to the lower decks. And they flick a switch and the ramp lowers down. There is this plume of smog that fills the patchwork.

And out, laid out in front of you, past this very small patch of questionable red sunlight from the ACES sun is neon. As far as the eye can see, there's neon. There is analog cars that have to be driven on the road, which is a rare sight in especially now at times. There is only a few cars which are seen flying above, but all of them seen flying above immediately circle around. And they go past the smog road, which is this large...

They just follow the columns of smoke and go up to the upper decks, and you see all these people on these ladders climbing up. These other columns which seem to have these lift systems, or elevators, these elevators that not a lot of people are using. They're opting to use through other options. And you are in this sand... this like sand bank of this scrapyard. These little bots are minding their own business, flying to and fro.

Okay, follow me gang. We're going to the... what was that? Undertow? Overflow. We're going to the overflow. Alright. Ike takes a couple of the satchels off her tail and travels by swinging along random pipes and stuff. Down here. What? Like Spider-Man? No, like a rat. Oh. Spider-Rat, Spider-Rat. I think the Iriak has their journal and is like typing out on their holographic screen a script that's like, The Lower Decks, land eternally shrouded in darkness and toxic waste.

No plant life can survive in these areas. Fully making a documentary, holy shit, David Abra. Can I place my hand on your holograph and push it down and be like, nah, you're not going to want to look new. Right. Noted. So, you are in the main scrapyard. Where are we going first? Overflow. Go to the overflow? The overflow. Mm-hmm. Brilliant. You all weave your way through these different city streets. Everything is so condensed and compact here. There is room for like two cars on these roads.

Everything is back alleys and neon signs and bars and the people here are... A lot of them are just normal people who are just trying to get by, but everyone is kind of covered in... Is like a... Is covered in a little bit of smog. There... You pass through a lot of certain sections. Again, there's a lot of like loud club music coming from a lot of different places. This one street in particular, as you're walking down this one neon lit alley, you hear these light sirens fly above you overhead.

And there is a searchlight that falls over these two Shirins, these bug type people. It hovers over them for a second and then keeps looking past. And you see these searchlights and these hover cars with these searchlights passing by every so often. You can also hear from this big main square, these large televised advertisements, which you can hear echoing throughout the city. And they're always... Would you like to leave the lower decks and come live a beautiful life in the others?

Join the foreman and make sure people stay in line and you get yours. And different adverts like that are being repeated throughout the city. Guy, those searchlights... Who are they looking for? I don't know, they're always looking for somebody. Why? Anyone who's broken the law or something? Pretty much the only way to get out of here is to break the law or to enforce it. Oh. Right. Or to have friends on the upper decks like our buddy lady here. Or that. Although... yeah.

Are you a lawbreaker, Ag? Are you a troublemaker too? No! I don't actually break the law, but I guess it's a little bit of a gray area sometimes. Oh, there it is. But very rarely. I guess you need to become an alamin. Or a... or a hefner. Or a hefner. Anyway, it's left. I take the left. Theriac will look down the right. And then go left. Every once in a while, I will lift a sleeve and just squeaker clean the glass jar that is on Theriac's head. Oh yes, absolutely. All the perspiration.

No, no, the smog buildup on the glass. Oh yes, on the exterior, yes. You arrive at a large sewer grate, which is... It looked like it did have a chain and was locked a few times and seemed to have been fused locked at some point, but has been fully taken off the wall in a clear show of... The people who are closing this door and people who are opening it are trying to one-up each other with how far they'll go to make sure people can get into here. Or lock them out.

There's this sludged path of footsteps that lead off. There's a small trickle of what seems like sewage water. Maybe it's just smog. Like condensed smog that you follow. And it leads you to this large overflow of the sewer system. You can tell where it is purely based on the smell, because again this is a sewers, before you see any people. But when you do cross the corner, this overflow is filled with these different boats from these different cultures and people.

And people have seemed to either made it themselves or stolen something or taken it or just brought it with them. Huge neon lights cover light all of the water and almost this whole chamber of tens and tens and dozens and dozens of different boats. There is music coming from places all over and there is people on the side who are selling paintings and jewelry, necklaces. You see people selling... People come over to you and you're like, hey I got a couple of weapons if you're interested.

Big neon signs which are advertising for gun merchants, armor merchants. There's this one place with this large crystalline structure that seems to be bursting from a basic normal wooden boat. There is this ethereal music and this magical arcane energy seem to be flowing around it. There are people who are just sitting alone at tables waiting for people to come up to them and just give them a credit stick. And they put it away and then they whisper stuff in their ear.

People writing things down, moving it to people and then they take it, read it, rip it up and throw it away. There is an energy to this place of art and information and life seemingly free from the eyes of the upper decks. Hey God, I'm assuming I know a guy, right? Yep, you do. Where's the guy? You know a Le Chante, which is the race of people who have these little antennas on their heads.

You know someone called Pill and she owns Pill's Pistols, which is a small little weapons shop which is in the overflow. You normally sell things to them and they will then pass it on. They pretty much buy and sell everything. Cool. Alright gang, we're gonna go see my buddy named Pill. Let's go. Pill? Yeah. Well I could... If you're gonna hang out in the lower decks for a little bit, you're gonna have to wrap your head around fake names really fast, my dude. Fake names? Oh, that's an alias.

Probably. Alright, I will adjust. Let's go. Anyone here have an alias? I mean amongst us. Yeah. I have a mononym. What is that? You've got a dictionary. I look it up. A mononym means like a single word for a name. So do you mean that like your name is Theriac and that's your full name? Like there's no last name or middle name or initials or anything? You are Theriac. Like Sunny and Cher? Akira? Who and what? Akira. Like I said, I'm up to date on the culture of which I came from.

Where do you come from? We're some really old famous artists. Well, I was not born. I don't know where I was born. I was dropped off here, but my people come from a planet called Earth, which is like light years away. Yeah, I've heard of Earth. A lot of humans. I've heard about Earth, yes. You say that like it's a bad thing. Their reputation is quite muddy in some circles. Earth are humans. They have not been very keen on maintaining the ecological balance, let's say.

Well, I mean, things have turned around, I think, right? You can all roll me a culture check if you want to know what the state of Earth is. What's the state of Earth? Oh my god. That's another 22. 19, which makes sense. I got on an 11. That's really bad. I didn't roll. Oh, they did. I don't know. There was a point where it was looking quite dire for Earth in the way that it was going, but there was this very large collective uprising.

It lasted for like a little bit, and then things started to turn around. Earth isn't super inhabited, but there was a lot of technological boons that allowed humans the ability to drift travel. There was a socialist uprising, and it's good now. That's my story of Earth. Even though there's not a lot of people on it anymore. Oh yeah. In comparison to other planets in the solar system, there's not a lot of people on Earth. How common are humans in general? Like seeing them?

Yeah. So that explains why, because a lot of them left, so that's why they're everywhere now. So this culture that is sort of your home planet, like culturally, how did you discover it? Discover where I was from? Well, the culture, I mean, it's very far away from what you've told me. I found a Shakira album at one point. It's pretty good. I can lend it to you if you want. What's a Shakira? Oh, you're going to find out. Anyway, should we go talk to Bill?

I mean, this book, I pull out the book again. This is from Earth. Earth is fine, but yeah, they find a way everywhere. You know what I mean? Earth's culture spreads throughout every corner of the galaxy. Like a weasel. Or like a beautiful ray of sunlight. It hits you wherever you are. Let's go talk to this Dan Pill. You find a rickety little boat. It seems like a boathouse that has clearly been converted in some way. There is this large neon sign that has been custom made to say, pills, pistols.

And there is little tables and desks clearly foraged from other places that have a whole array of different weapons and armor. And there's some like actual pills and like medications that are on offer. And there is a inside, you can see a grey greenish skinned humanoid with these two little antennas. They seem to hit just about like six and a half foot. They are fully stood up inside their small little cabin.

And have this large crate of different weapons in front of them that they are pulling out, checking and then putting them into the one of two piles. They don't seem to notice you as you clamber on a board. You have to go across this quite rickety like actual like two, three wooden planks that have been laid out across from where you are across the overflow to the boat itself. What's up dude? You got a second?

When you yell you see the little hatch opens up and they pop their head and they're like, hi how are you? It's so nice to see you again. I thought you got off. I did but I'm back with some shit to sell. Do you want to buy anything? Got a whole cart full. I would love nothing more than to buy some stuff. Stock today is not great. You've brought some friends. Oh we're about to make your day. My name is Pell. Day She. It's nice to meet you. What are your names? Zom. E. Theriac. Day. Ike. She.

Hello, it's nice to see you. Are you looking to, I know that you're looking to sell. Are you looking to buy as well? Your words are primarily antibiotics? No, no. The things that I make, I make this small collection of some medications and things to get you up and at them. If you're in a stressful situation or if you need medication it's there. But we also mainly do weaponry. Some of which I've tinkered with to try and upgrade it a little. Others we've found from other places.

It depends on how much our stuff sells for. Got any grenades? Do I? Yes, yes of course I have grenades. Yes, come aboard. How many grenades? I don't know. How many grenades are we thinking? Are we looking to go absolutely to this? It depends on how much our stuff is selling for. I love it. Give me your things. Let me look at them. Right, so where did we get this? Well, we did a trip to the Leviathan's Eye and got a couple fun souvenirs.

Before or after? After. Oh we've been completely honest. Yeah after. Well you started it. Some of his stuff is labeled. I mean a Leviathan's Eye keychain. He's not going to sell for much if it's not from Leviathan's Eye. No, no. I love that. That's brilliant. We have some collectors and people are getting quite excited. Leviathan's Eye adults would pay. Oh, just one second. Sorry. I just sequester from the pile the drinks and I just grab those and hang on to them.

Okay, so I guess everything else. Hey, is that a bunch for your snow globe? Yeah. Right. I pick up the snow globe. It's not for sale. I just tuck it in my pocket. Like collectors will collect snow globes. That's probably a good chance to keep one for yourself because they're going to skyrocket in price a little bit. Okay, is this it? Things from Leviathan's Eye you didn't find anything else you're selling?

I mean we didn't bring the crystal thing with us, right? I don't know, did you? That's also not for sale. We did not bring the crystal with us. We would have been smarter. I was just making sure. Yep, this is it. Okay, yeah sure. I can do this for... I can sell this for about a grand. Grand? Yeah. Well what about... you know a card itself is not something you need. It's part of this. Branded and everything. Okay, I can give you one thousand and five credits for it.

A cotton candy card is only worth five credits for you. Come on. It's just a cotton candy card. And I'm sure it's very nice. Does it work? Can I hold Ike and Thiriak back and say, no, no, no, no, no. I keep talking. I imagine it was still fully functional. Okay, give me a second. They pull a small generator type thing. They go inside their heart and they rumble around a bit. They pull out this generator, prop it up and plug it in.

It spins alright, heats up. Fully functional, branded cotton candy card. I was just going to say I'd like to slap the side of it and go, this baby can hold so much cotton candy. A lot of people can hold cotton candy darling, it's just sugar. You don't think I know how much a human body can hold in cotton candy? Look at me. Look at my age. Look at every pill. How long have we known each other? You think I'm not an expert. You think I'm not an expert on how much sugar one person can consume.

Yes, I'm sure we're getting very heated here. People are looking at us yelling about cotton candy. Does Skye look like a cotton candy amateur to you? No, no one seems like a cotton candy amateur. Please. Thiriak will. We'll bring Skye back. No one is questioning your ability to ingest glucose. It's okay. Very impassioned speech I can give you. And it does work, that's true. It's got a decent bag of sugar. I guess I can do it for one 100. One 100 and throw in five grenades.

No. What's the chance a diplomacy role could increase our output? You are welcome to do a sense motive to see if you're being low-balled, or you can also do a diplomacy to just try and wangle your way out. I want to do the diplomacy to sense if we're being low-balled. The sense motive you mean? The sense motive, yeah. Absolutely, go for it. Diplomacy check I shall do then. Diplomacy is 25 plus...hold on, I need to add a D6 to that.

Can I also do a sense motive? I feel like I would have a good sense of this after haggling for so long. Momo is not good at tabletop diplomacy though. Shit, that's a seven. I'm just too heated about someone questioning my ability to contain calories in my tiny body. 15. 15 is pretty good. I got a 21. Nice, that's very strong. For the diplomacy check to get more money, I rolled a 27. Extraordinarily good. I, Theriak, you know that you're fully being low-balled.

This is a first offer from a...you do this shit. You've done this before. This is the black market. You're being low-balled. Theriak, you're looking at the stock and you're like, that is not worth a grand. That is worth a grand retail price. That's ridiculous. That's like a grand's worth of stock. Not even a grand's worth if you sold it at the park. Yeah, as you tell the same, you're being low-balled like wild. What do you say to try to raise this price?

Pill, pill. I know we've just met each other, but I feel like we're friends. You can call me Zama, I can call you Pill, yeah? Sure. This stock is some of the only merchandise you're going to get from Leviathan's Eye. You know how I know that? Because we were there and it was full of snail-ridden zombies. I'm not even joking about that. It's just fact. That's weird. Okay. Yeah, so people going there are going to end up dead. Not good people to bring much back.

These are not just collector's items, mate. These are limited edition runs. And you're telling me it ain't worth even stock price? Stock price. Come on now. We're friends. We're friends. You know it's better than that. Okay, we've just met. I'll take the... You may have just met a zombie, but I recognize like one fifth of the crap back there and I helped supply it for you. Okay, okay, okay. All right. I could dig it somewhere else if you'd like.

No, no, no. I'm not going to do that. It's ridiculous. Come on. I mean, I do know some other guys. That's a great idea. Yes, but no one's going to fucking talk to you, Sky. I know this. It's fine. Whatever. Okay. What was your name again? P.I.L.E. My name's P.I.L.E. P.I.L.E.? Do you have something you fancy from Topside? Like what? You know, the little sparkling waters or the smokes or I don't know, maybe like the little toys that they have, the little trinkets. You can get Topside? Mm-hmm.

Sky, you know her? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. Did I not properly introduce my friend I who just happens to be a Topsider? Anyway, as I was saying, I know a couple other people in the overflow that we could probably go talk to and sell this stuff because it's clear that my friend P.I.L.E. here just does not want it. Oh, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. If you're going to lowball us that much, I might as well take you somewhere else. Are you lowballing this P.I.L.E.?

They seem to be like staring off slightly into the middle distance. Can you come with me for a second? And they open up the little houseboat. All of us? Yeah. Right, okay. Bring the cart. Yeah, I'll bring the cart. Keep the cart on board. No one's going to take it. You can trust my ability to keep my stock safe. I'd neatly put it somewhere slightly out of view and I go inside. This inside is, it seems to be a very classic houseboat. Doesn't seem to be changed much.

There is these two quite large bins that you saw them earlier sorting items into with these huge amount of boxes with different random labels in different languages all scribbled across all of them. There's these faux wooden floorings and a little booth table all with faux wood and the table has this plastic covering on it and has a lot of different parts of different weaponrys and armors scattered all about it. Screwdrivers, things like that. As the last person enters they pale shut the door.

How easily can you get topside? See his pie. You get like in and out and not be caught? There's nothing to catch. They are building again. But this time it's above the skylight. So when they finish we are in darkness. This smoke is going to cover all of us. They have only built the scaffolding so far. So they haven't fully fixed in all the inner workings that they're going to need to start covering.

If a shipment of their inner working electronics left it's going to take them a very long time to finish building this plate. I'll give you 50 grand for it. I could... I would have to... we would have to have some time to discuss something. I heard 50 grand and I'm good. Do you have plans for where the shipment is going to be handed over or the route it takes? No, I don't know.

If you're able to get rid of their construction capabilities, a few cranes, broken... a shipment of the wires and the electronics, the things that will control and they'll be able to build upon, if you get rid of those then it'll slow them down for months, maybe a year. Okay. Let me get this straight. You don't want us... you just want us to delay the construction of this thing above your house? Essentially. I'm questioning if you've got concerns. This wasn't what we were offering.

Yeah, you offered a pack of smokes and now we're doing corporate sabotage. Exactly. I think that our goods are worth more on their own and I was offering to do a little bit extra to sweeten the deal for you a little bit. But what you're asking is something very different and very high risk and very... Okay. I get it. I understand. I tend to get carried away with...

No apologies needed. First things first, our items, our goods. Let's settle on a price for that and we'll see if we're interested in the other thing. Of course. Four grand. I can do them for four grand. That is absolutely fine, Loffer. I apologize for taking up your time. I want some grenades as part of that. I'm giving you four grand and you want grenades? You want extras added on? How much are the grenades? I can go for fifty a piece. Fine, give us... I can purchase those.

No, no, no. Give us three thousand eight hundred and we'll take a small box of grenades as well. Fine. Three thousand eight hundred I can give you some grenades for a discounted price. Especially for the... Are we splitting it between all four of us evenly? Five ways because of scrap. Pleasure doing business with you, Pill. Maybe next time a month's doggo we can grab a drink or something. Maybe so. If you want to buy something, I'll be back. Give me a few minutes.

That's seven hundred and sixty credits for each of us. Quick maths. Seven hundred and sixty you said? Yes. Oh, well, mind giving me a little second with our friend Pill here? Just a second. Sure? Sure. How many grenades did I get? They gave you a box of ten. Whoa! You got a real discount. As a discount, damn. Okay, we'll leave you alone with Pill. Bye. Thanks. Where is the shipment right now? I close the door behind me and I say that. The shipment of the electronics?

Yeah. It's ready for construction. What time does construction go all throughout? A place like this or... of break times? Listen, I appreciate it. I saw Skye. She was supposed to be off world. I saw someone who can get up to the upper decks. Two people who are clearly from off world. I got over excited. This is too big. Pill, don't need to apologize. It wouldn't be my first rodeo. I'll look into it. As for the others, I can't promise anything for them, but I'll look into it.

You won't, because I'm telling you not to. If this comes back to me, I'm worse than dead. Rule number one, doesn't come back to any of us. If I can't do it without it coming back to you, I won't do it. At least let me look into it, yeah? Who are you? You're always desperate. What's your game in this? Like I said, I've done something very similar before. I know we always like to be crushed. Well, we're quite good at fighting back. Someone should ask, I'm not going to say no.

I'm not even in charge of this. I just, I got, speak to Tommy. Tommy works at the augmentation den. They will, they know everything. They're the one who is heading this. They've also been topside, but they don't have an easy way in. If you want, speak to Tommy. But I... I can vault. You can't be poking around this. This is lower decks. This is lower deck business. Okay?

I'm just suggesting I'm going to do a little bit of information searching before then, and I'll talk to Tommy. It won't come back to you, I promise. This is already way more than I thought would happen today. Fuck. Yes. It's nice to meet you for the 15 minutes we've met. This is... Oh yeah. I know, I'm pretty intense. It's, I've been told I give off a lot of heat. That's a fun joke. And thanks for grenades and everything. Yeah, I caught myself. I'm a normally better salesperson than this.

No, you did great. I'm just also a very good negotiator. And I open the door. What did you guys talk about? I was asking if those grenades were legitimate or not. Why couldn't you ask that in front of us? I know a lot about grenades. Could have been helpful in that conversation. It's mostly just negotiator to salesperson, you know. Not to push any buttons. Is there really somewhere private we could talk? I mean, there's a lot of dark alleyways and shady corners in the overflow.

Shady corners sounds good right by now, yeah. I know a good shady corner just a few blocks away. Can I sense motive? Yep. Well, if you can decide DC, you can roll against. 16. Zom's usually better at bluffing, but I rolled an 8. Oh god. It's pretty clear Zom's dancing around the issue of what he actually talked about for all these reasons. Sorry, can I add in, just impose as to why that check succeeded. It's not because of Zom.

You look past and you look into the room and you see Pill clearly a little stressed out about letting slip that there is something happening and just asking. You can tell that the conversation shook them up a little. More than just, hey thanks for the grenades. There's a slight twinge of something is being lied to, but you can tell from looking somewhere else. I really hate to do this, but I do actually have to get these to my friends. I do actually wish that you could.

When I say that it's difficult to get people up there, that is the one cargo I can't actually cross topside with. I mean, I guess I could try. How about this? Let's do the buddy system. Why don't you take the plant based creature that is most likely to die down here if their gas mask ever slips. All right. Topside. Am I wrong? I feel my honor is being. Yes, I believe you are. Why don't we put that to the test? The test then?

I you take theory up topside and mean I as I'm will go find a shady corner. All right. We have a way to contact each other. I have a commuted. Yeah, everyone has a phone. Yeah. It's sweet. Be back as soon as possible. Okay. Yes. Try. See you guys later. Can I tell that I was trying to hide something to you? You can roll. Decide the DC. Have a not roller. Just tell him.

Yeah, just roll and 17. She as far as you know, everything that she she has had to do this has had to bring these things up topside. She's told you all of that. She's maybe just more that I guess it's a it feels like a non sequitur. Like maybe this could have waited a little bit longer, but not that she's particularly hiding anything that you that you haven't already been suspicious of. Going with theory act. Does that make her more nervous or less nervous?

Would I know that? Oh, she looked you rolled by the 17. Yeah, she looks concerned for theory act. But but but but but not not more nervous. She looked just a little concerned. Let us know if you need anything. I'm sure we can find a way to meet if things go weird. Of course. Also, at least you won't look like a walk in terrarium anymore. OK, I think I've had my fair share of slander today. I mean, I look like I'm being bred for captivity. I've got horns, a big face mask.

It looks like I'm being muzzled. I mean, there's a lot of tougher looking people down here. I think you fit right in. The mask does kind of give you away as a tourist, though. I mean, what's the cost being sick for a couple of days? Something like that. Yeah. Right. Shall we go find a shady corner? Yeah. All right. Are we in the shady corner? You find a bar which is in the overflow. You can hear music coming from it.

And as you enter, there's this old Android who is singing a song on on a keyboard, a very slow, soft, echoing song and has a lot of people around in the bar in Raptured. This is a place which you know is a good place for information, but also will keep you to do whatever you do. It is just a little pop up hidden bar in the overflow. You can easily find a table. Werewolf. I'm going to take a little narrative liberty.

You can tell me if you'd prefer we rolled on it or something, but I'd like for Zom and Sky to sit down and for her to turn to him and be like, we're doing the job, right? That's what you're talking to Pile about. Are we doing the job? I'm looking into it. I promise we'd look into it. Yeah. OK, so I sent Eigen theory act to do whatever they're going to do. And maybe you and me can do some reconnaissance stuff. I think it's a great idea. So you this entire time you figured out that's a yes.

Really? I have a good sense for when deals are being done behind closed doors and the grenade excuse wasn't actually that good. Yeah, no, it wouldn't have been. I couldn't think of another reason. It's OK. The rest of the dealings that you did was like you fit right in in the overflow, dude. Bothering is a pretty important part of my culture. You'd be surprised with a pound of flour can go like if if you know the right person or you don't. One second. I'm actually going to text theory act.

I'm going to. Hey, area. Me and a Zom might do the fifty thousand grand job. Are you in? And she spells are like the letter like are you in? Question mark, winky face emoji. I just want to point out that when theory gets this text message, like I has theory act on like a mile high ladder.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, I tell you what, instead of instead of having that their whole scene like happen, it's fully like cuts to there is active sludge being poured onto both of them as they climb single handedly for a lot of this. Yes, absolutely. That is what happens. I think theory act is like like there's like a break between the sludge being poured and theory act like is like reaching up as like their phone vibrates and they like almost like lose their whole balance and like.

I got the message. We'll read the message and then we'll type back in a very formal way. Hello, Sky, Colin. On the ladder, you're on a ladder. One arm is like wrapped around the bar. Every text with one hand is horrible. It's just asking like, I would need to know specifics about the actual mission. If we would have to gather any extra materials. If there are other compatriots involved, risks, any information regarding the mission would be warranted. Signed, Dr. Theory Act, founder of Walters.

And that's just like that's just the signature at the at the end of the email that just goes on everything. It's anyway. Okay, theory access a little bit more details and I'm going to be honest, I think I do too, because everything that Pills said kind of just went whoop other than we need to delay a construction of some kind. It just really sounded like I could blow something up, which sounded really fun.

Well, a good idea. I mean, so apparently there's going to be a lot of mechanics there, so you'd probably fit right in. Getting me in would be a bit disconcerting. She said to talk to someone named Tommy. Yeah, I know Tommy. I know Tommy. Yes, you know Tommy. Apparently, they're the one in charge. Basically, your friend Pills very scared and very ashamed that they open their mouth, so to speak, and don't want us to meet. Whatever we do, it can't get back to them. You know what I mean?

I know what you mean. That's like irregular. And if we're talking to Tommy, it's lower decks business. So that's pretty big. You think it's a good idea? You know this place better than I do. No, I don't think it's a good idea, but I want to do it. Right. In that case, I'm in. Yeah. Let's go. I wonder what Theriac and Iger are doing right now. You get up and you go to leave, and then I can Theriac. The ladder that you've been climbing, you've reached a...

This ladder isn't one of the main central vent, or like the hatch ladders. This is far more secretive. People don't watch you climb this. You are able to reach up to a service vent that you have both been following down for 15, 20 minutes at this point. It is blowing... It is attempting to be a ventilation shaft for the lower decks. It is working in a sense, but is more covered, caked in this muck than a healthy vent should be.

But has this streak of clean, which indicates whenever Iger's been through this before. Iger's clearly the only person that knows or uses this ventilation shaft to get up. Are you going to say something? Did you create this? The shaft? No. No, of course not. Topside, they put it here to ventilate down below. I find that it's easier to travel this way when you have things to carry on your back, or that you don't want to be seen. Are you a smuggler?

I... I... that's... I guess if you wanted to, you could kind of describe me as something like that. I apologize. Let me... let me start over. Do you work in cargo? Yes! Yes, I do. That's all. Don't mean to step on your toes or anything of the sort. No, you didn't. It's just that I don't want anybody to think that what I do is crime, because I don't do crime. So, what sector do you work in? I primarily work on the upper decks.

What sort of businesses are you most... ah, this business language I've never gotten quite the hang of. I know. I'm getting used to it, too. What sort of trade, I'm trying to ask. All kinds of things, yeah. You're currently carrying consumables? Yes, and actually, I do a lot of that. See, there's a very popular booze that we make down in the lower decks that they really like up here. So, I do transport that a lot, but then sometimes there are other things, other odds and ends and goods.

But none of it's... nothing is outlawed. It's not illegal. Right. It's not contraband. No! No, not at all. We have to get you cleaned up. We have to get me cleaned up, actually, before we... Does anyone else know about this ventilation system? No, no! And could you not tell anyone? I'm sorry. I should have said that before we came in. I know that's a lot to ask, but I mean, just not to tell anyone in... How do you know no one knows?

Oh, well. And then she just does a little thing where she just motions for Theriak to stand still. And she walks through the pipe, and the part of the pipe that is dust-free, both on the bottom and across the top, you see that it's across the bottom, just matches the width of her footpath, and across the top are just two little earmarks that match exactly where she's going, and there's nothing else. No other paths in the dust have been cleared. Just me. Alright. We'll be on our way.

You... I... Where do you think this vacant nation chef comes out? I think that it comes out, I think that because of Ike's very new status here in the upper decks, I think that her apartment is kind of inconveniently located according to people who live up here. I think according to Ike, it's very conveniently located, and is kind of right next to this ugly ventilation system.

There is a shift, like a tangible, noticeable shift in atmosphere when Ike, you pop the main fan and grate of this side of the ventilation open. The light from the red sun is beckoning down the... You can hear water when you break open, and you know that it doesn't sound the same as the water on the lower decks. The water on the lower decks sounds thicker.

It sounds like there are things in it, but this sounds clean, and you can smell plants and actual life, and you can actually hear birds and squirrels and rodents and things. You pop the vent, and you end up behind a main street of a small shopping district. You crawl out onto the soft dirt and brush some weeds past, and you are able to make your way through these back doors of these different restaurants and shopping areas, retail stores.

Through the back of all these, you are able to find the stairs that lead up to a small apartment complex that you live in. When you get in, you can feel the reeds on the top of your head react to the sunlight immediately. You feel a shift, even though you are breathing canister oxygen, you can feel the plant life that is your body react in a very positive way to being topside, being in the upper decks.

I think as the react breathes in real air, they just kind of like... I don't mind the walking terrarium, but it's... No, take it. It's rather nice up here. You can use your notebook now, if you want. Oh, I won't be ousted. No, no, no. Very well. We'll pull up the notebook again. The upper decks. A pristine landscape of fresh oxygen, nitrogen, and maybe some foreign substances.

And it's just like taking in the landscape a little bit of like people up here dressed a little bit spiffier and the like. Do you just go straight to your apartment or are you going to stop by... There is, you know that a few blocks away from here is the main headquarters for the brewery mining company where you know Quinn would be now. Oh, no, we can't go there right away. So just popping in real quick. This is my apartment. It's not... I just moved in.

Really. So there's nothing in here. Really. We're just going to go in and then I just get to cleaned up because you know some of the things they get caught in your hair and in your ears and on the way up. So... Goodness for you. I don't have hair or ears. I know, but there's just... Well, you're actually you're fine because the glass. But I do have to pop in really quick. See you. Perfectly fine. Okay. And she like fumbles with the key chain and opens the door.

Is there a new stand anywhere nearby? Yes, the market would have one. Would I be safe going to the market by myself? I would not give them bad advice. Matt... It's safe up here. It is. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Just pop across the street and go ahead. Why don't you know what? Why don't I take the key so that when I come back, I can just get in because I do want to get a little bit of, you know, room for myself and just see the sights a little bit. Okay. Okay. And you will... You'll bring this back?

Yes. Okay. Yes, I don't plan to do anything else besides carry it with me and put it right in that lock right there. Okay. Okay. And she pops inside. What is... What does I.X.A. Palmer look like? Very, very nice walls. And pretty much nothing else. There is a, I think, maybe a table with one chair. And there is a bed that is nice. Somewhere in a room somewhere. I think that the nicest thing in I.X.A. Palmer's apartment is the shower. The pre-built-in shower? Yeah.

This is rather homey. It reminds me a lot of my lab. Does it really? Yes. I believe we use the same paint. The same color. Your lab is pink. It's more of a rose gold. It is. Well, I like that. They quite like their eccentric colors at wild times. I guess that fits the name and everything. Is it there? Do you have... Can I ask you something? Do you have to sit in hard chairs to do science? I just... it always seems like in pictures I've seen they're always sitting in hard chairs.

It is not prerequisite. Science is a sort of... you work at science. You don't relax at science. So... When you're really in the throes of conducting an experiment and testing your hypotheses, you're not really worried about the physical space. You're in your mind. You're all focused up here. So the physical surroundings are not necessarily your number one priority, besides, of course, cleanliness and sterilization of the lab and safety protocols.

There are lots of actual... there's lots of physical consideration. You understand. It's mental, not physical. I am rather peckish. So I'm going to go. Okay. I'll be right here in my ID pocket. You won't lose it. Okay. And I will meet you back here. Yes, I will go drop these drinks off and I will meet you back here. All right. Wonderful. Be safe, although you will have no problems. As you split, we cut back far, far, far lower, miles lower, into the overflow again.

You've been... you've gone to go meet Tommy? Mm-hmm. And then in issue 27 of... I forget the name. I said Junko the Great. Kron-Dor the Terrible, actually. I wrote it down. I said Kron-Dor the Terrible. Kron-Dor the Terrible. Kron-Dor the Terrible. And then in issue 27 of Kron-Dor the Terrible, he fights his arch nemesis, Flavkar, the rabid rabbit. He inherits his powers that the rabbit stole from his girlfriend, who he killed to take the powers from her.

It gets really convoluted. But around issue 40, they sort of even it out. Anyway, we're here now. You're outside of what looks like a... almost dentistry. There is a lot... there's like that classic little barber... actually, it's more like a barber's than a dentistry. I don't know why I said dentistry. There's that barber's signpost outside. And there is a big neon sign that says, uh, augmentation expectations. It's all lit up in numerous different colors. It has flashing LEDs above.

Inside, you can see a bunch of different barber's chairs with different people sat under them. There is blood covering the floor and falling into drains as people get these new augmentations on their body. There's people like switching arms, getting like full jaw replacements. People are getting like different eyes changed in and out. People are just getting like hidey holes in their chests, you can see. And that's what you can see before you even go in. Is it a scrap or he's, um, replacements?

Um, I don't know. Maybe. Never bothered to ask. Did he go? Yeah, yeah. Right. I walk in and go, yo Tommy! Are you in, dude? Turning around from a patient that they are over, the patient already has a robotic arm which is fully splayed open and Tommy seems to be attaching a small hidden pistol into their arm. They look up and you see that they are an android.

Short, this like short multicoloured hair and like half of their faces is a full like pale green and the other half is seeming trying to mimic just human like a darker human skin tone. They look up as you approach. Ah! Alright there, Sky, I thought you'd go off planet. I did and I'd like to go even further off planet but in order to do that I need a lot of money and I was told that I can talk to you about that. Are they knocked out cold? Did they hear me say that?

They did as well as the two other people saying that. Give me two minutes, mate. They get up and they walk up and they're like, alright, well, it seems like you came back with a friend. Alright, Tommy, how's it going? Yeah, this is a zombie. Nice, it's nice to meet you, pal. Right, where the fuck did you hear I have any money at all? Well, we should talk in the back now that I've recognised that there's two people here. Fucking hell.

Hey, can you cover a shirin who is just sitting reading a magazine on a little holiday because it's like, yes, of course I can, gets up and goes over and then puts their arm on the person who Tommy was looking over and is like, it's so nice to see you, it looks great, I hope you're doing well, don't worry, I'm going to take over, keep calm and it clearly has very good bedside manner.

As a lot of the people in this pseudo barbershop replacement augmentation zone has, they're all talking very kindly or passionately to the people that they're changing up. What a tidy operation you've got. Well, yeah, when we're cutting off pieces of people and replacing them with someone else, we kind of have to go for good bedside manner, don't we? Yeah, yeah. So, they lead you onto a small office with two chairs on one side and one chair on the other.

So, why the fuck are you coming into my place screaming that you know I'm going to give you money? I take a seat with my legs flopped over the side and say, pill told us. Cool, you can sit on a chair when you're in my office, thank you. I'm sat on a chair. You can sit on it properly. I'm sat on it properly. Sit on it properly or we're done. She sighs dramatically and sits properly in the chair. You heard it from pill? Mm-hmm. Why do they think that I have any money?

Something about something was being built above their house. I don't know. I'm not a very detail-oriented person. We heard that you want construction for the new plate shutdown or at least temporarily. Fuck. Look, don't blank, Hill. They get up and they walk over and they make sure the door's locked and they walk back. I already made... I will say the moment is something. Literally will not keep their fucking mouth shut to anyone who can listen. No, we're not hiring. It's done, all right?

What do you mean it's done? Someone's doing it or you're not going to? No, I mean we are done here. We're not hiring for this, all right? This isn't a job for people I don't fucking know. But is it a job for people that you never want to see or hear from ever again? Mate, do me a favor. I'm saying, stop. He turns back to sky. I'm saying this now. You're going to watch your fucking tone when you're in my room, all right? But I do. Mate, do me a favor. Look up a plan for me. Eram. E-double-r-u-m.

For fuck's sake. Look back 30 years. Listen, if you want information on stuff, you're speaking to the wrong guy, right? You should just speak to Bruchus. Look, look, just trust me, please. Go back 30 years. Should be reckoned to have riots, all sorts of nasty stuff, disrupting local operations. Happy Little Energy Company came in, got disturbed by some local population. Mate, I'm that local population. Am. Look, I'm not saying you know me, or I know you.

I'm not saying there's any reason you can trust me. Believe me, I've been in your position before, but... If people are that desperate to go up to anyone with help, desperate for help, then you're lucky. I heard it. Because I can do something about it. And more importantly, I'm someone who can be trusted. We don't need to know each other or like each other, but we're in the same line of work. You and me. You told me to do this free, I would've.

You brought me to diplomacy, you gotta get advantage because you got a good little speech going. Good little reasoning there. Okay, and rolling that D6, because I've got expertise, that's another 27. It could have been a 14, but it was 27. Good. Listen, I'm not having you disrupt the plate. I appreciate that you might have been in the same position as me, and really do. I also appreciate I don't need to know or like you for you to be able to do this. But I need... You're not...

You weren't even supposed to fucking know about this at all. I... Fuck. I know. Listen, we've got things in place, things in motion, to get just... Stop construction on the plate, just so we can breathe a little easier. But I can't just go handing shit over to two people that I don't fucking know. How can we help? We all got people on it that probably need assistance. We can do that. I have maybe a small thing that you can help me out with. There is a race going on.

And we... the winners of the race, which is a lot of the lower deck, whoever wins it is... is big money involved, money that we need. Now, it's low stakes. If you lose, you lose. But if you're into it and you want to help, there's shit that... There's shit you can do. Wait, you asking us for a dragger, a pilot? You want a pilot? I think Tom, you want a pilot as well. I want a pilot. I need a group of people... Do a race. That can build a car. They can join this race and win.

Tommy, I'm your dude. Where and when? The person who is in charge of this race is a guy named Track. And he knows an interesting contact. Someone who knows a lot of big players down here. I need you to win the race. Or just look fucking cool. So Track comes over and speaks to you. And I need you to get Track his contact, which is a person who we believe is called Skool. And we need you to get them on our side on this.

Rootman, you're looking for allies. You're looking for money. Okay, I understand. We can do it. Skool like a... teaching. Like Skool? Like Skool. And Track? Like a racetrack. Yeah. Like a racetrack. Yeah. Like a racetrack. Like a racetrack. Like a racetrack. Like a racetrack. Listen, when you're down here in Lodox, sometimes you get used to people using fake names. These aren't fake names. They're part of a group called The Void.

They pretty much own all of Down here and a lot of places in the galaxy. They've been known to travel. Oh, I see. The first people they kill, they take the name of where it was. Skool, a Skool, Track. Track, a track. A racetrack. Fucking hell. Yeah, they're bad news. They're bad people, but they are fucking powerful. If we can convince them to join our little cause, we don't need people to go up. We can just ask them for help. They're as down here as we are. I already told you who I am, sort of.

So I'm going to only ask this once, and whatever answer you have to say, I'm not going to judge you for it. But at the end of the day, if you win, you're going to have to contend with these people. You realize that, right? Because people like us profit off of chaos. Are you comfortable with that? Is it worth the cost? I'm happy if we slow the upper decks down. These Void, they're with us. They're down here.

They don't believe in the cause yet. Yeah, they're part of chaos, but they're still part of this planet. They're fucking powerful, but if we can get a small sec to them, if we can get a couple of members, wannabe members, we can rinse that whole plate. We can take it apart. Okay. Wait. What did Pills say that she'd pay you? Oh, I can't remember. 50 large. Fuck off. No, I ain't paying you that. That's fucking ridiculous.

I thought it was too good to be true, although she was asking for a very different sort of scenario. How much do you win if you win this race? You win about 100 grand. 100 grand. And you want us to give that to you? We want that. I can give you 10 grand. That's five each. Are you still running with scrap? 10 grand to win a race where you win 100 grand and you don't want to pay us 50 grand? Tommy, can you help me out with the math here? I'm young and never went to school. We need the money.

That's 10%. We need the money. We can get other people in the race. I am doing this favor for you. I know it seems like you're doing it for me, but we have other people that can race. And we have people who are willing to go topside. But if we get the money and if you are able to get this contact with the void, you'll be helping it. Fuck. 20. That's 10 each. Wait. What you do? What you do? Where are we going to get the parts from? You want us to build a car and is there a cover?

Well, are you still running with scrap, Skye? Yeah, I was just about to say there's probably a bunch of crap in the junkyard we could use. He's like the actual king. I don't give a fuck. Booster car. Okay, fine. Cover? Is there a cover? Travel upper decks and steal the lawman's. That'll look good. Is there a cover? Is there a cover? B. Get into the race. Some of them have them. Some of them don't. No. Right.

This is a... This is kind of a... Yeah, this is sign up for big entertainment. This is... This ain't really a... Yeah, yeah. ...actual join up thing. Sign us up. We're in. Alright. Just the two of you? Uh, we might have to talk to our compatriots about whether or not they want to join up. Scrap will be in. Alright. Hey. You say the scrap will be in, but he doesn't run well with these people. I've got your number, right? I can keep you updated on how many people might be involved?

No. You're not going to use a public... No. You will come to the person you can tell me. Scrap will be in. I can tell you that for sure. He doesn't... He supports your costs. So he'll be in. The other two I'm worried about. Hey. You can get as many people as you want to join in. It's your prize money that you're losing. Or... other stuff you're losing. Right. Good to go then. Alright. Bye. Need a raise? Sure. You're... It's been fun, Tommy. You're two weeks. Find something by then. Come back.

Can I do you for anything? Get you fitted with a pet carrier for rats or new arm? I like hold my arms in front of me. I think I'm good. I'm going to let my body finish growing first and then maybe I'll come back to you. Yeah. That's a good idea. We're going to do that. Alright. Bye. See you. We're going to be in a raise. Oh my god. I'm so freaking excited. I'm going to get to go fast.

You know what? Yeah. With the announcement of the fact that you have just signed up for a raise, we are going to leave it here. Why are you all in a raise? What are you doing? Thank you all so very much for joining us here today. Thank you to our Patrons, which you also definitely do, because their ambience has taken this podcast to a whole new level. It's so good it makes me want to scream. That is patreon.com forward slash Michael Gelfie, which is M-I-C-H-A-E-L-G-H-E-L-F-I.

The song that you're listening to right now is by Matt Harris, Strange Stuff, and it is also a thing we have the license for, because it's very useful and it's fucking amazing. I love this song very much. This is not coming out, as well as Conundrum Company, Off The Rails, which are their two major shows, as well as so many more beautiful things. I cannot speak higher of the team. They've helped us and me out so much. I love them. I love you. If they've listened this far, I love you.

And yeah, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you so much, and I hope that the next time that this little crew takes off into the atomless sea, I hope you're there to join us. beautiful rest of your day. Bye bye.