Episode 18 – A Rolling Blade Gathers No Dark

Pickaxe You've seen them around, they sell sweets by the pound They're aware of the famously tasty So here I sing, singing to you Of crimes involving chemistry Clover's the whisperer, she makes all the sweets She has a coin of addiction Benton's the sly, she sleeps the same And writes vampire fanfiction Franklin's the cutter, his fighters strength Despite his dance, his heart Best and brightest, they may not be But that's my favorite part So gather round, friends Endless in clothes For the tale's about to start Welcome to Speltmore Mall Brats Downtime!

We're hot off the Myochemical Run Romance Job The Cool Treat Kids have had dates of varying degrees of success Franklin's went great, wonderful Benton has retroactively decided that he was not on a date Because he does not like Penny I know that I was on a date, I just realized I didn't like her Because she's so weird Yeah, and that's a lot coming from Benton Oh god, yeah, you're telling me He says as he gets out of a hot tub that just has melted chocolate in it That is not good for your pores, man I know, it's so itchy And Clover's date exploded before her eyes The job itself went off Not without a hitch, there were hitches for sure Including the ire of Danny the Hawk Taberna Who, hopefully his jurisdiction only extends to the theater itself So he's not trying to track you down for your transgressions Seems like a bit of a vigilante though He might do this shit for free Yeah We, uh, we're gonna do this shit for free We became friends with, uh, King Oh right, that mysterious man Kingsley Remington Tarksell Tarksell the Fourth Yeah Yeah Uh, who's just out and about, but you're pals with him now?

He got an ornate knife and like a weird saffron colored sash Yeah He's McCollin, he was wearing like a big leather jacket I think He's like a real tough dude Yeah, he looks like he's in the Hell's Angels But he also is maybe plus Sikh, maybe or something, you know what I mean?

Yeah, totally Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Whoa, that's really cool Uh, you brought sentience to a woolly pig whose name is now Rudley Hmm Either Rudley the First or Rudley the Second, depending on if you had a goldfish that lived in a fountain And Clover took the fall for the gang and got kicked out Right Wow Yeah And that is where we find our heroes now It's probably been a few weeks since the show Yeah So we've got some downtime activities that we're gonna, uh, take a look at But first, we're gonna talk about heat and entanglements Mm-hmm After a score or a conflict with an opponent, uh, the crew takes heat Add plus one heat for high profile or well-connected targets We'll call that plus one Add plus one heat if the situation happened on hostile turf No No No, it was kind of neutral ground Yeah Plus one heat if you're at war, you're not at war with anybody Not currently Uh, plus one Unless you count a war of the heart happening over here Yeah Yeah We were all at war with our dates Yeah Or ourselves With our dates I feel like you guys have been teetering on the edge of being at war with the hot meat boys for a while This might have pushed it over the edge Who knows Maybe, yeah Plus the wild hogs are just a pain in our ass Wild nogs Thank you Yeah, the wild nogs are just dicks Yeah Uh, plus two if killing was involved No No Certainly not Uh, okay, so would we call this smooth and quiet, contained, loud and chaotic, or wild?

Wild and devastating Ooh, was it loud and chaotic or wild and devastating? Definitely not the other ones It wasn't contained? Did the pigs just sneak away quietly? No, they smashed their way out and then there was an explosion And they escaped into the mall Great Might have been devastating Oh, I guess it was kind of wild and devastating, wasn't it, at the end there?

Yeah, because Bert's bubbles exploded Yeah, you destroyed part of the theater This is devastating Oh, man So now they have to repair it Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah It looks a bit like that Roman Colosseum or whatever Yeah, just a hole in the roof Oh Yeah, totally Yeah Uh, so that means six heat I like that there's a lot of different, uh, like, beasts of burden that have been let go in the mall And they kind of congregate Like, there's different areas where there's roaming packs of different Oh, totally, yeah, definitely Like the rats Mm-hmm Yeah, but the rat man controls the rats, right?

He controls? Uh, so, I'd hate to break it to you guys, but I'm not sure if you guys are going to be able to see it But you now have one wanted level Oh, nice Oh, no Do we get posters? Do we get posters? Ooh Clover's insane Finally We all, we're making our own wanted posters Dead or alive Porvo's like, what are you doing?

We put our own rewards on it Yeah Six rats, that's the reward on mine Mine's a smooch Wow, cute Uh, the good news is that, like, it kind of changes how entanglements work So, like, you can't do anything about it I roll a number of dice equal to your wanted level, which is thankfully just one Mm-hmm Uh, and I read the result according to your heat, which is one as well, because it rolled over Okay Uh, so let's see what this is Ooh, that's Big number, five Okay, alright Rivals A neutral faction throws their weight around They threaten you, a friend or contact, or one of your vice prefers Forfeit one rep or one coin per tier of your rival or stand up to them and lose one status Okay So, basically, you can pay, there's gonna be a gang What gang, neutral gang, would be throwing their weight around with you guys?

I feel like the Wapnogs Yeah, maybe God, but they've been throwing their weight, yeah, that makes sense Yeah, because they are technically neutral, like, it's not like they're in conflict with you all the time So, a few weeks after, a few weeks after the Myochemical Romance show With this high-profile explosion of carbonated, naturally-essence beverages that you guys caused Oh, and also with the loss of bubbly libations in the mall Oh, yeah Their sales have gone through the roof, so they're getting all high and mighty Yeah, they're slinging nog like nuts And, uh, a few weeks after the show, you're all chilling in the sugar shack And you hear, hey!

Hey, get out here! Cool Tree Kids, get out here! Borbo Borbo Borbo, wake up! What? Somebody, somebody! What? And he comes up and his hands are like, In knife position He's like, what's up? What's going on? Someone's calling us out Oh, yeah?

And he gets up And he stumbles a little bit out of his hammock Because his legs are, like, healing, but he's still a little sore Okay Okay, give me a sec Just give me a second, kids And he goes outside Wait, I want to put a bandana on you There Oh, alright, thank you Put a bandana around the rest of your face with just your eyes Cool Here, put one of these boxing gloves on Just one? Just one Does this look intimidating?

And he's standing there in his shorts, in his security crop top With two bandanas on his face and a boxing glove on his left hand And then, Fenton, he draws abs over top of Borbo's abs You just gotta, like, naturally accentuate the abs Contour Okay, are you guys gonna come with me or am I just gonna go out there by myself? No, we'll wait here Yeah, we'll wait back here Okay And he goes outside and as he's walking out, he's like, what the fuck is up?

And he walks out the door And then a couple seconds later He comes back in covered head to toe In eggnog and he's like They mean business The noggs Yeah what did you guys do Well I mean where do we start I guess he had like a little Tiff with them at the concert What do they want They want protection money Oh no They're asking like they're trying to extort you Trying to roll us and look Normally I wouldn't let that happen Because they're like 13 14 years old But there's an acre of them There's like 15 people out there Do we roll a move I mean yeah you guys tell me what you want to do I guess we should just talk to them But we should armor up Yes Basically how this is gonna Basically how I think this kind of This game wants you to roll it Is you either say Okay You're better than us and your rep will go Down Yeah right Or you pay them the money that they're gonna be asking for Semi-frequently Or you say how about you shove it up your ass And then you will have A negative relations with the wild noggs And this could get bad Okay Alright Yeah I'm feeling a shove it up your ass kind of move Yeah I feel 15 Shoving it up their asses coming on Yeah Give me that boxing glove Alright Give me that abs crayon Okay yeah here you go I mean I can come with you it's just like I'm not technically a cool treat kid I feel like even like aren't there kind of like Laws and strictures Of the youth gangs in the mall Yeah once you're an adult You can't be in a kid gang anymore Right you can age out Yeah like if anything I should be in like a gang gang Yeah Do we tell them that maybe you're in a gang gang And that if they don't get out of here then your gang gang Will gang up on their gang Totally Yeah Yeah let's go try it let's try it Okay let's go What's the should we come up with a gang name Together We all come up with one word for One word per person Yeah okay Nuts Nut crush nut crushers The The nut comma the Yeah you're right that's great The last one was the In the front Yeah Nice The nut crushers or the nut crushers The nut crackers Nut crackers way better And this is gonna be a Christmas episode now Charles Eve has come Charles Eve has come again Fuck Alright so Clover goes and gets her ballerina outfits Especially the skirts Yep Nice Okay and does what with them Puts it on Borbo like ties around his face Oh cause they're the nut crackers Yeah Okay yeah pretty good Alright And I give him my cane skirt I go here you go It is also functions as a cane And I wrap a little ribbon around it To make it look more Christmassy Charles Eve This doesn't function as a cane It is a cane That functions as a sword Okay how do I look now I wanna give you a rat Give him a rat I have a rat There He just is holding a rat in his hand Yeah kids hate rats How many of these do you guys have So many rats Okay Well let's go Lead the way Did you have another thing No I wanted to put like A little tinsel around the rat Yeah totally Great Christmas rat Charles Eve rat Yeah so he's decorated too Aw cute Yeah he does that little thing with his paws Where he like wipes his whiskers And they look all shiny Now that he's all tinseled up Alright let's go Come on Okay let's do it I'll have like a dramatic entrance Okay So you go outside And there are like a dozen At least wild nogs here With their leader at the front On his uh You know those like banana seat bikes That are kind of like Oh yeah Like Harleys Yeah And they all have those um Nog canisters on the back And yeah their leader at the front He's got a jean jacket And long blonde hair And the beginnings of a wispy teenager mustache Oh it's so intimidating Oh no Oh my god Yeah And this is You've seen this kid around Uh this is Saddler Triumph Oh and he's smoking A real cigarette Oh yeah And he looks like a real cigarette He's gonna throw up Cause he's When he sucks in the smoke He chews it in his mouth Cause he thinks that's what you have to do Yeah Oh my god I love to smoke a cigarette Burps in a big cloud of smoke I wanna come out behind Borbolo On my bike And in like the handles I've stuffed incense And I've lit them So it's like smoking Oh shit Fuck yeah What do you guys want?

Bunny you should go to the bathroom You should go to the bathroom You should ask Uh I think it's time that you and your uh Cool treat nerds Start to learn to pay a little bit of respect To some of the gangs around here Huh If only there was a respectable gang around here Spit on the ground in front of them Spit boys And they all go Don't spit at us We spit at you And the defendant goes Spit everybody spit Yeah Fuck Fuck Spit boys Spit harder And it goes on for 15 minutes And everybody's got a dry bone dry Franklin runs inside Grabs a jug of water And brings it out for a cool treat kids There's adults passing by Just being like What the fuck is going on Somebody gets a drip on their head Looks up Fits dribbles in their face Mall security walks by And it's like Cause it's kind of a semi-abandoned part of the mall right On their patrol And they're just like What the fuck I just imagine A janitor comes up Cause they've got the call And they're just waiting With their phone and stuff In the back of the mall Waiting off to the side The wet floor sign God damn kids Spitting all over the floor And yeah Creamy nog spit Gross Yeah they're all re-nogging After the spitting's done It's so slippery now So what do you think kids You gonna pay up Or are we gonna have a problem here I don't know if you think a problem is Shoving it up your ass This is how it's gonna be Is this how it's gonna be Yeah you know it Yeah you're not gonna get shit from us You little dick piece of shit Whoa Whose little kid is this He's our little kid And we're the only good gang around here Well alright Okay Look I didn't want it to have to be this way But I hope nothing bad happens to your shop And I hope nothing bad happens to your bikes And then Fenton pulls his little wiener out And pisses on one of the bikes And then he's like Alright this is like The kid Once you say I hope nothing happens to your bikes They all stand up straight off their bikes And the kid that you start peeing Just pushes you to the ground Oh shit I can't stop I jump in and deck him Oh yeah Yeah candy knuckle in the face Roll up What is it Fight What's it called Scrap Something Skirmish Oh skirmish yeah okay So this is going to be You're in a controlled position Cause he's distracted Pushing his bike He's pushing a friend Fenton over It's a little savage I roll just one cause I don't I have skirmish Yeah skirmish and prowess Yeah Yeah so you're rolling two And take the high one Yeah and this is a This is just risky Ooh Three's my highest number Oh right we don't sum them Yeah that's not good So you hit this kid Describe how you hit this kid He walks up when he pushes Fenton over And then he steps on his right foot And then pushes him You know when you do that Oh Yeah Steps on his right foot And pushes him into his friends And all the bikes With like dominoes through them And they fall in their own spit So he knocks down his nog Oh shit They're slipping in the spit And Fenton's still pissing He really had to go When they showed up And all their nog You got me You got me All their nog canisters Hit the ground And start spilling So there's nog spit And piss Everywhere And that janitor is crying I knew this day would come And after ten minutes Of slipping and sliding The wild nogs get up And Sadler Triumph goes Boys I'm not going to Let's get out of here But you haven't seen The last of the wild nogs And then he does a He tries to do a A wheelie on his bike And it skids in the nog And the spit And the piss And then they They start riding away And Borobo goes So you guys decided To do the piss thing Yeah you're more For like Intimidation factor Cool Cool Cool Cool We do a flashback to When we're talking about Different ways to deal With a large group And they're The top of the list It says The piss thing The piss thing Step one Fenton starts pissing On something To make them mad Step two Franklin Does that move There's a diagram Of Franklin Stepping on somebody's foot And pushing them Yeah And then Borobo Borobo was after But we were like Sorry it was finished Before that Clover's drawn A little rat With a tinsel necklace Down the corner Of the chalkboard He's part of the piss plan You guys all come back inside And you're like All went according to plan This is why we practice guys So We do this more often Okay so yeah Wild nogs Not going well with them Okay so You get An experience point If your character Expressed their beliefs Heritage Drive or background Yeah I think I did Yeah Oh for sure Mmhmm Yeah there was a lot of you guys Doing what you felt Was right for you Oh but But not I don't know Franklin was Being a character The whole time That's true Broke out of it At the end When you guys Started dancing Oh That was like The real Franklin Oh yeah okay Yeah you can get one for that Okay If you struggled with issues From their vice or traumas I think Clover did Mmhmm Cause Seamus was definitely Like a vice thing Mmhmm If the group expressed The goals drive Inner conflict Or essential nature Of your crew Yeah Just chaos Yeah Uh okay so If your character Addressed a challenge with Franklin Violence or Coercion Uh yeah The The flute dance Yeah Yeah Yeah Uh so yeah You get a point for that Deception or influence Yeah totally That's how I got into the back Mmhmm Yeah So you get a point for that Kinda didn't tell the truth Once I think Knowledge or Arcane power Not Not really But not arcane Well I mean the mushroom Oh yeah Oh yeah So remember it's not Arcane like wizard stuff It's like your hippie shit Oh I see okay Yeah so you get a point for that Uh did anybody get enough To level up Okay So yeah I can I have six Total XP's Cool Yeah I'm gonna raise four of those And Raise one of your attributes From zero to one Or you can choose A new Action What would you Recommend Uh well it depends on What you want to get Better at I don't know I feel like narratively The insight love Of being like You know what I'm fine on my own Yeah I don't need him anymore Right Yeah I'm gonna pick one insight Sweet Anybody else level up Yeah I can level up Sweet I think Fenton might be getting A bit smarter So I might be getting A little bit more insight Or the ability What's survey Survey is like Getting information From your surroundings Okay Yeah And then tinker is like Building stuff Yeah fixing things Fucking with stuff What do you guys think Survey or tinker I think survey He seems to be getting Yeah more More spy like Oh yeah Like a little spy He puts a little Bola clava Like no that's not A bola clava It's this mask A little domino mask Yeah a little domino mask Double O zero That's the thing Is his fanfic Has changed from vampires Cause the date went so poorly And now he's like Doing spy stuff Spy fiction I love it Romance is boring It's time for spies It would be fun If he ended up Tinkering into Like making his own Spy kit Yeah that would be cool That's so funny You get some really weird Yeah like instead of That like zip thing That like lowers you down It's gum Yeah You gum that you Stick to the butt Of your pants And then Like bubble tape Yeah And then you eat Your way back up So yeah Now you guys can take Your downtime activities You get two each Unless you want to Spend some coin On getting more So I want to Make a visit to Greg And show him Some of the mushrooms I found To indulge advice And to Gather information Oh yeah I guess like I Want to know what they Do So you can like Use them Yeah So that could be A long term project Okay To have these available To you all the time Or it could be Temporary asset To just have the mushrooms For the next session Long term project Is kind of cool Because then you have to Like find the pigs Be like give me more Of these mushrooms Make a deal with the pigs Or be like hey Greg Like how would I Grow these mushrooms Like Oh or that Oh I think I would Want to grow them I don't want to Hunt down the pigs Okay They're busy A bit of their fur To inoculate a substrate Of your own Yeah We could mash those Together it could be A stress reliever So you clear three stress And we'll make it A four segment clock Yeah I think I'm gonna Take Greg out For lunch And are you taking him To like the food Court zones I am yes Okay So Greg meets you At A fountain That he He lives in the Near the pipes Underneath the fountain Yeah So you guys Communicate sometimes Via this pipe He like bangs on it Or whatever And you listen to the water You hear a toilet flush And the fountain Like dies down And then rises up And Greg comes out Like And he rolls out Into the food court In his wheelchair He doesn't come Above ground Very often No So he's wearing sunglasses He is Yeah And his wheelchair Is steam powered Nice Whoa So it's like Like as he moves along And he Is like Oh Clover It's been so long Since I've seen you How you been girl Oh I've been so good Most Well kind of Um You know that boy Seamus I had a crush on Oh Seamus Oh so dreamy From what I hear Honestly he really was But then he showed His true colors When he didn't want to Have a relationship In public He wanted to Keep it all secret To protect his reputation And so I thought Maybe not Man I know You made a good choice though I had a girl Like that Long time ago Didn't want to be seen With me Oh I'm sorry Greg Didn't you know She was She was a high class Lady And I was just A down in the dirt Spearman And uh You know it was just A lot of heartbreak Yeah You made the right choice Thank you Let's get you a corn dog Okay thank you I also have to buy A new diary Because I filled up All the diaries at home Oh you want to go To a stationary place too I do After After lunch After lunch After lunch Okay after lunch After lunch Never go to the diary store On an empty stomach No You're too sad And uh he goes Alright let's go Get some food Hop on And he spins around And he clicks a button On his wheelchair And two little foot pedals Pop out of the back Woohoo Sick Grab on That's awesome Yeah I jump on Oh my god he's a steam engine This is amazing I can't wait Until the third act of this When his wheelchair Turns into a giant spider I'll show you Just like Loveless Let me have to wear it out And he uh He starts Uh he starts heading Through the mall To the food court Where do uh Greg and Clover go You know Now that Seamus has tainted The corndog Stand I have to find a new place Oh is your vice changing Mmhmm Oh To what I was just saying What's the Like who's the rival Of the corndog people Oh Oh is there a thing That has bread on the inside And meat on the outside Maybe Subway Like a taco Burrito That's the one you sang about Yeah I did sing about burritos Yeah But I can't want you to do Like a French accent So Great I wanted to go to A patisserie A patisserie Okay Where they have Sausage rolls Which is like a corndog Okay But fancy And Seamus always talked about How he hated How pretentious they were Yeah And this is uh This is great Oh There's a little French boy there Yeah And this is a This patisserie is ran by a gang Called Les Tortillers Yeah Okay Does that mean the torturers?

It means the meat pies Oh okay Hold on Are you one of the torturers?

I'm not going there No way And there's always been this rumor That they like put people In their meat pies And they're like No we do not That these are too fucked up That's a hot meat boy Spreading that rumor Yeah It's pretty good PR though Really I mean any press is good press I know whenever they see Somebody really gross come in They're like They think there's people In the meat pies Get out Like a vampire It's just a meat pie Yeah vampire Hello It's been a slow week Can I have one of the Special meat pies?

They are just meat pies There is no people In our meat pies How much for just the filling?

There is no people In our meat pies Stop asking Yes It's just pork Wink I'll have one with the Other other other white meat I swear to god We got to close this fucking place All of our accents Are shifting so much I'm trying to do French Canadian And I cannot do it It's because you have to do it slower It is a meat pie kind of thing Yeah So you go with Greg To the patisserie And Is it called the patisserie?

The la patisserie Is what it's called The la patisserie Yes Oh god We got too many questions About what la meant So we had to put it on the sign And you go in And there's a There's a I gotta pick a name I gotta pick a name What about Dominomic Fly? Dominique Yeah Dominique Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Dominique Dominique La Fly Or like La Fly Yeah Yeah What does Dominique La Fly look like?

He has Shoulder length brown hair Kind of short and skinny Mm-hmm Clover's type For sure Short scrawny And he has a really Long nose And glasses Nice And you A sensitive word Yeah He writes poetry You enter La The The la patisserie And he says Welcome to The la patisserie I am Dominique McFly I don't need to La Fly Sorry My family changed our name When we came to the mall And I don't know why I told you all this about myself Do you want the pie?

Um yeah Yes please Could I have two of the sausage rolls? Ah Ah oui Thank La thank you And uh Greg kind of elbows you And he's like Good job Thank you They love when you speak Their own language to them Yeah Poorly They love it so much I'm doing a really good job At the la frances Oh Si senorita And uh He comes back with two Sausage rolls Is this for Uh here or to go? Uh to go Thank you Mm Uh that will be Um two spearbuck Okay Okay Thank you very much What is uh your name? For order? The order?

This accent is So hard to maintain No way No worries Uh It's also hard to speak The la your language But I can also speak In francaise Accent If it helps Uh Can you? It cannot hurt I will do my best And uh Dominique says So what is your name for the order?

My name is Clover Okay I got a notch in the accent Sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry Dominique No it's okay You really tried I appreciate it You're welcome Um it's Clover? Yes It's very nice to meet you Clover Uh thank you Also nice to meet you I guess Are we gonna have to do this every time I come here?

Uh I don't know what you mean No of course not Here is your uh sausage uh sausage rollie And I will take the spearbuck and you can go Okay Thanks Bye And he's like blushing so hard And he takes the spearbucks and he dips Clover just negged the shit out of me Just negged the shit out of that guy it's fucking great Are we gonna do this every time I come in? What? And uh you walk back to Greg and he's like holy You don't like that boy? He was fine why?

Oh no no no reason no reason No Greg no what's going on?

Let's get out of here hop hop on And he uh he rolls to the door and uh he presses another button And a little arm comes out of his chair and grabs the door and opens it And then he slides through and you guys go find a table outside under the Table outside under an awning Uh huh Uh and he's like I just you know I think I think that boy I think he liked you Oh well that's nice but I don't I don't I'm not looking for any sort of romance right now I totally understand I totally understand A lot of people including yours truly when uh romance takes a dip they usually kinda bounce you know from Right Person to person They wanna find more romance Yeah Okay I kinda get it but I think I have to work on myself Exactly you gotta work on yourself it's good to be alone with your thoughts kind of uh open up the mind you know expand your consciousness Not yet not until you're 18 No but But expand your consciousness Greg What?

Speaking of expanding my consciousness I found these mushrooms I needed your knowledge about them You got some new stuff for me?

I do so I open a bag and I've got the weird glowing slimy mushrooms in there He takes the bag and he looks in he puts his whole face in it and goes And he takes his face away and goes Well that is something else I found them on the woolly pigs Oh woolly pigs that is some of the best mushroom growing ecology there is They got woolly stems Oh and he like holds one up to the light and it's like translucent but still glimmering Uh huh Wow any idea they do anything?

Yes so uh we fed it a woolly pig He pops it in his mouth Okay Oh Jesus Oh no It's okay I'm experienced I've been doing this longer than you've been alive But Greg uh the woolly pig gained sentience and He just starts winking His eyes his pupils dilate so hard what would this do to an already sentient being?

Maybe he sees the universe I don't know Yeah I was thinking like it gives him He like floats above himself Uh yeah he oh he astral purges Whoa His pupils dilate and he's totally still for a minute Greg And you hear next to your ear Clover What? Clover Clover I'm over here Where? Here here here This is insane Clover I'm flying Where are you? Can't see you I'm in the astral realm What? Just a sec How long you gonna be up there?

I don't know could be a long time could Never mind I'm back Okay yeah you're fine Yeah you're fine Wow Food was getting cold and I was like yum You can have it Okay Things I seen That's nourishment enough for old Greg Maybe just one bite Actually yeah here you gotta take a little bit This is good Uh I don't know what these are these are new I've never had anything like this before Wow okay I left my body Clover My spirit left my form and I was uh I was nothing but uh uh ether What's that mean?

I don't know but it's what I heard I was in between perception Oh were you in the spirit realm? Who's this who are you we're having a private conversation Sorry dude This is something that he hears in his head Oh who said that who said that?

It's Abdul it's Abdulazee Oh no the fourth wall it's crumbling What's canon canon canon Yeah I don't know I'm gonna have to do a little bit more research on this Cause I don't know quite where I was but I'm gonna be honest this would be way too much for anybody that is not me Okay well then I'll just take one I'm begging you Clover to not take any of that Okay Come see me uh in a couple weeks and I'll tell you where I'm at Okay thanks Greg Yeah anyways let's uh let's finish our meal Okay And there's a nice you just have a nice kind of early uh lunch with Greg in the food court And he tells you about his life and uh About the wizard war and listens to your life and your problems Yeah I hear you that wizard war sounds awful anyways the boy I like doesn't like me back Oh shit that actually sounds weird So there I was I was in the trenches the wizard had turned into a tower of ice My friends froze to the left and right of me I gripped my spirit yeah this boy just didn't want to talk to me And I go on and on I'm like look I even made a mixtape about my emotions A mixtape why didn't you tell me give me that mixtape And he pops it into his Walkman and he starts crying at the table Uh yeah so you mark a tick on that Okay Um yeah so you can uh and you erase three stress as well I did Okay perfect Um now anytime that you choose long term activity as a downtime action you can mark another tick And you can spend coin to do more ticks So you could technically theoretically spend three coin right now and finish it but we're gonna wait I also had an idea Uh huh If these mushrooms help you get to the spirit realm and Shathane is in the mall Mmm Oh Like he would be Maybe I'll sell them Yeah to Shathane to try and save his family Oh my god oh That can that would be a nice connector of how Shathane got into the spirit world for the first time That's so cool That's really neat Or he may have discovered a realm that we have not heard of yet Yeah Maybe we don't sell them maybe we trade them to him for him to help us fake a gang called the nutcrackers Hahaha He could be the other adult in the gang That's great Hey there Fenty Beasley here A guy gave me six spear bucks to break into the PA system for the mall and play this bottle full of ads for you So get ready here it comes Hi my name is Dr.

Dan DeGlawd DMD Esquire MSN.BC Shathane Shathane Shathane Shathane MSN.BC I'm representing you hopefully in the future Dan's Divorce Got married recently? Congratulations Hahaha Not going as awesome as you thought Well here at the High Spear Mall there's a statute of limitations on how long you have to be married Let me show them the door Dan's Divorce The best part of waking up is divorcing your cup Are you looking for a D&D show? Are you looking for a D&D podcast with actual stakes?

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All right, that was all the ads that were in the bottle, I think, unless I fucked it up somehow and nothing played. Anyway, he gave me six beer bucks, so jokes on that, loser. Bye! Okay, who's next for downtime? I'll do it. I'll go. Okay. I'm going to… Franklin would like to clear one harm, because I've got minus one. And where does he go to clear harm? Well, I guess he knows a doctor. It's been a long time. Oh, it goes to Bill? But he knows Bill Hook. Oh, yeah.

Who is a doctor slash fence, I think we suggested last time. He, like, buys and sells contraband. Huh. Because last time you were there, he was like, don't look over there. And there was a pile of, like, liquor and stuff in the corner. He's like, don't worry about that. He's a guidance counselor, a doctor, a fence, and a chiropractor. Physiotherapist, acupuncturist. Yeah. And he's the ology DMD. Yeah, he does not have a license. He's also a mortgage broker.

He actually does have a license for that. Non-practicing. Yeah, so you go to Dr. Hook's office. Yeah, and he's giving, like, a little… Yeah. It's been a long time, Franklin. Oh, God. Yeah, just breathe in. Breathe in deep for me. Breathe out. And he rock bottoms you onto a table. He picks you up and slams you onto a table. And he's like, no, I'm a child. Did that fit? And you hear a huge pop as your shoulder goes back in. Wow. It actually feels way better. Thank you so much. Hey, no problem.

Don't tell anybody I do that. Okay, well, I don't even really talk about you at all. You know what? And he touches his nose and he points at you. Good boy. Thank you. So, been a while. How you been? Oh, you know, pretty good. Pretty good. I got a girlfriend now. Oh, my boy. Pats your shoulder. Thank you very much. Good to hear. Good to hear. Where are you living at? Oh, it's the same place up at the sugar shack there. Nice. Yeah. Any still mostly abandoned? I mean, I mean, if you don't.

I mean, yeah. I mean, don't tell anybody that I told you this, but I've been hearing that the food court has aims on redeveloping that part of the mall. What? There's just, there've been a lot of talking. There's a lot of prime real estate in that zone that they're thinking they might want to get their groovy little mitts out again. So classic. Yeah. You know, ain't that the way. Well, what do you think we can do to help stop the spread of development in the mall? Stop gentrification? Oh, boy.

That might be outside of my wheelhouse. But you have a pretty big wheelhouse. You understand why I asked you? I do. I understand. I guess I am a mortgage broker. I could technically get you a new property depending on your ability to put a down payment on a place. Yeah. There's a problem there. That's what I thought. Do you know who at the food court is looking to expand? Uh, it's, it's the, the, the council, the food court itself. Okay. They're thinking of going all in on this.

I'll talk to my contact there. Yeah. Sounds good. Speaking of which, if you've got any contacts who are looking for some merchandise to get moved, he's winking a lot. You lost me. In fact, one of his eyes is just closed. Is it your contacts? Is it some solution? What's going on? His eyes actually been closed since you got here. I hurt my eye a long time ago. It don't open no more. But yeah, you know, I'm not going to do that. Well, I'm always looking for opportunity. So here's my card. Huh?

Okay. Yeah. Good. Thanks. I'll, I'll pass this along. No problem. If anyone's looking for any contacts. Yeah. And put some ice on that shoulder. I will. Thank you very much. All right. It's good to see you. It's good to see you too, boy. I'm glad to hear you're doing well. Thanks. Later. He tips his cowboy hat. Wow. You have biocondios, partner. I'm just trying. I'm trying this out. What do you think? I don't know, man. You don't know? If you're trying to be conspicuous, it's, uh.

It's got a little bird skull on the front. That's pretty cool. Yeah. I saw that. All right. And he takes it off and he throws it onto a pile of other cowboy hats that are in the corner. With little skulls on the front. I'm trying to move these. Trying to make them a fake. Yeah. Actually, you know what? Here you go. And he gives you a cowboy hat. Okay. I'm writing that down. Tell, tell people these are cool. Okay. Thanks, man.

Uh, and also Franklin would like to indulge his vice to clear some stress. All right. So I get to clear three. Three. Clear three stress. So this is what? Franklin. Is just going to a dance. Going to dance in the mall. I mean, he spent, uh, he got a little bit of the steam off the, the anti-goth steam off his chest by dancing with Mindy, right? They kind of broke down and doing their non-goth thing, but he goes and does like puts on the happiest, dumbest, like just cheesiest rag time.

Everything. I am happy. And he does like a real song, like painful alone in his own, uh, him and, uh, Gref, Gref Schmushlin. Schmushlin. Have been corresponding. Oh, cause Gref is still trying to get you to come to the Academy. Yeah. And he's been sending him sides for this like production. So he's, he's like, ah, he's running the sides and doing this set. Like, it's like step ball chain to switch step ball chain switch and hands. And he, it's his real cheesy, but very happy.

He's got to un-goth and. Where is this happening? Oh, I assume in the sugar shack. Oh, you're hiding it. Yeah. He's hiding it. The chocolate factory. Like inside the actual factory. Oh, I see. Oh, I see. Oh, I like that. Yeah. Like you've got a little zone that you've carved out for your, like, it's got like all the foot lamps and stuff like that. You've made a little rag time stage. I've made tap shoes with toffee. Yeah.

I was going to say, he said the dark chocolate zone, like maybe it's too bitter for us. So we just shut it down. Yeah. And when there once and was like, fuck, God damn it. This is disgusting. It was so mad that nobody goes there. Divorcee moms are like, there used to be a super bitter chocolate around here. We always see them hovering. Trying to get that deep, dank, dark chocolate. The dankest chocolate in the mall. Yeah. The one to make you feel, forget about your divorce. Oh my God.

This chocolate is so dark. That makes me think I'm married still. So he's doing, yeah. Step ball chain, tap dancing, which is embarrassing because he's a fighter. I like this a lot. Yeah. So you've got like, I imagine it's like an alcove that used to, I don't know, have valves and stuff in it, but there's like little lights set up. There's little curtains. There's a vat of chocolate that is hardened over because there's no, it's not turned on anymore. So it's hard.

And then he's got, and he's carved out white chocolate squares and he's made like a checkered floor. Oh, so cool. Yeah. And it's on the edge of the river, like the chocolate river that was in here. That's still kind of burbles. It still moves, but it's long rancid. The burbling chocolate river covers my taffy taps. Yeah. And it also covers the sound that you've tried. You try to ignore every once in a while. You hear, or see some things moving in the river and you try and ignore that. Yeah.

Try as I may. And you hear noises like far off because the chocolate factory is enormous. There's a lot of stuff in here that you guys have never seen. I've always imagined it as like a forest in there. Almost. There is rumors that there's a section that is like a chocolate forest. There's rumors also that there's spiders that weave webs of candy cotton. Whoa. And there's always been the, the tails that, that keep you guys out of the chocolate factory for the most part are of the dairy queen.

Oh yeah. Right. Isn't she like a ghost or something? No one. So some people say she's a ghost. Some people say she's a woman, an immortal woman who's lived there forever and has gone mad. Some say she's made out of chocolate. There's a lot of stories about the dairy queen. Whoa. Cool. Oh, I just realized that that this doing this action would take a clock on my project clock, but I'm not allowed to do, Oh, if I spend coin, if you spend a coin, great, I'll spend a coin.

Cause that just makes narrative sense. What's your project clock? The dance routine. Oh, with Mindy. Right. Right. So this is part of the dance routine. That makes sense. Yeah. There's an annual talent show. It's rolled over. I think once or twice since you've started preparing, you've been like, I'm not ready yet, but it's coming up. Cool. All right. That's exciting. Great. Uh, and that is your downtime activities. Yes, please. All right. Benton. Um, I had a couple of ideas.

I kind of want to start another project clock. Okay. Cause we found out who our patron was. So that might be cool. But I also think, uh, he wants to indulge his voice. So I think he can combo those two into the same scene where he's, he's over at Penny's house and he's trying to gather information on Guy Fierro to figure out if he's got it in for the, uh, cool tree kids. Oh, interesting. Okay. So he's like, Penny's like come over and he's like, okay, sure.

I'll come over just like a regular, little boy would just a normal kid. Is he going in disguise at all? Yeah. He's totally disguised himself. How, what does this disguise look like? Domino mask. Wow. Spectacular. Um, no, I think he tries to look just like a regular kid. Um, I guess he wears like a sweater vest over top of like a button down shirt. And then he wears a sweater shorts as well. Yeah. That's what kids wear for sure. Yeah. Normal kids are wearing like sweater stuff, right? Yeah.

Is what he says to Clover. He's like, right? Like it's just sweater stuff, sweater vests, sweater shorts, and sweater button down shirt. I mean, it could be, I, I haven't had to go clothes shopping ever. Uh, what a spectacular disguise. Uh, I will. Oh, so. And he puts on a pair of glasses and he gets on going down to Penny's house. Uh, I will. I will say you wouldn't need to gather information to find out if the barbecue Kings had a problem with you. Cause they do. Oh, okay.

They don't like hate you, but they're like, those kids, they really fucked us that one time. Okay. Then maybe I'll start a longterm project. Yeah. And like Doris said that there's like stuff happening at the top level that like is like kind of a big deal. And that could be why I'm over at Penny's house. Cause Guy Fierro is in the food court, right? He's head of the barbecue Kings. He's head of the barbecue Kings. The barbecue Kings aren't part of the food court. Okay. Like the food court.

No, the food court, as far as you guys know, is like a council of individuals. Okay. Uh, it's what? Orange Julius, the burger King. Like it's those, it's like people. But is, are any of the vineyard in there? I think the vineyard is, uh, probably just below the food court in terms of power. And then the barbecue Kings are below them. So maybe he goes over to see if Penny's mom has any information on. Yeah. On the, on what the food court is doing. Yeah. That's cool.

Try and figure out what the vineyard is up to. Maybe that'll give them a sense of what the food court is doing. Uh, okay. So you go to Penny's house, which is like all other houses in, uh, in the food court or in the mall is just a really nice apartment with many rooms, more rooms than you Fenton have ever seen. What are these all for? What do you mean? I mean this, you have like a dining room in a dinette area. What does this mean? Yeah. What is the difference between those two things?

Well, in the dining room we dine and in the dinette we dinette. Okay. And this is a room for sitting and this is a room for talking and this is a room for, uh, where we keep our furniture. Okay. I don't know why. And this is my room. Oh, and it's huge. Wow. Holy shit. Cavernous. This is a bigger than the sugar shack is. Uh huh. Whoa. And it takes her a long time to get to her bed cause she's so short. Yeah. Is it like a two story room? Like she's got stairs going. Oh yeah. A balcony.

Two stairwells coming down like a rich. Yeah. And you see. She's got like a play area up there. Yeah. And then on the top and on the balcony you see another dinette area and there's a chef up there cooking food for her. Oh my God. Who's that guy? That's Gunner. Gunner? Yeah. He's making me lunch. Do you want lunch? Yes. Hey, hey Gunner. And he turns and goes, yes. Make it. Make it. Make it. Make it. Make it. Make it. Make it. Make it. Make it. Make it for two. And he goes, yes.

And he turns and he starts chopping even harder. So what do you want to do? Um, I was, Oh, you know what? Like, I was wondering, is your mom around? I don't know. Probably. Well, you know what? We should talk to her a little bit. Okay. Okay, cool. And she goes over to the side of the wall and there's a little horn sticking out of the wall and she, uh, walks up to it and flips a, like twists a little dial and goes, mom, mom. Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom. And then you just hear, yes, yes, darling.

Yes. Yes. Come on. Come to my room. Fine. And about 15 minutes later, before she gets there, he's like, what's your mom's name? Our name is Chardonnay. Chardonnay. Okay, cool. Do they get renamed wine names when they join the, wow. That's the story. It's either that or they exclusively recruit from women named Chardonnay. Yeah. Rosé, you're in. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Carol, not. You're out.

Uh, and she shows up about 15 minutes later and she is very like, um, like a wine rich mom from a movie and she's got a blazer and she's got a ruffly white shirt. Mm. Uh, she's got a dark skin and long curly dark hair. Mm-hmm. Really well done up nails. Yeah. She's got a hat that's like angled. Whoa. I was a real Carmen San Diego over here. And she's holding a glass of wine in her hand. Yeah. She looks, she's got a red, a red trench coat, a red hat. She's like, what is it darling? Who's this?

Who's your little friend here? Like, good evening, Mrs. Chardonnay. It's good to meet you. Uh, I might, and then he, he puts his hand out, uh, to shake her hand. Does she shake my hand? Yeah. Does she finish what they're saying as they're putting their hand out? Uh, people, my name is, uh, my name is, uh, uh, uh, grim, oh shit. I should have thought of this first. She's just staring, standing there staring at you. My, uh, my name is, uh, uh, Teddy bear and I'm here to introduce myself.

I'm your daughter's new boyfriend. I would like to, um, declare my intentions on her love. And he's holding his hand out like fingers splayed to shake her hand. And she reaches out and she's like, oh, I'm sorry. And she reaches out and she just puts her hand limply in front of you and says, oh, shantay. And he takes her hand and he goes down on one knee and then he pushes his forehead against her, the back of her head.

And he's like, I pledge, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And she takes her hand away and she kind of wipes it on her. Yeah. His forehead's pretty greasy. Penny, your new boyfriend is so strange. So funny. Such a funny boy. She's like, yeah. So what did, what did you need?

I just wanted to introduce myself and let you know that I'm hanging out with your daughter so that it's all above board and to show you my sweater vest so you can see how normal I am and just to get a sense of, you know, what your vibe is and what you do on a regular basis. Right. Yeah. Well, it's a cute sweater vest. Thank you. I have to go now. Okay. I have work to do. Okay. You two kids, you two kids have fun. What work are you doing? Uh, you know, this and that. Anyways.

And she starts like, like tiptoeing backwards out of the door and she goes, Gunner. And he goes, yes. She goes, nothing with dairy. And he goes, yes. And he turns and he throws a bunch of stuff in the garbage can. Oh, thank God. I would've had diarrhea for sure. Is that, I guess that's like, you know, now. Yeah. Chardonnay. Yeah. Fiero. Yeah. I mean, I think that's a, a Carmen San Diego type. Maybe you see her go into a study too.

Oh, and maybe when she opens the door as it swings shut, there's like a, a plan, like a blueprint. Oh yeah. With a red string. Yeah. Or a thumbtack. Yeah. And a big circle around the target. The sugar shack. And it's, oh, and it's maybe, oh, there's something in the chocolate factory they're trying to get to. Yes. Yes. They want the dark chocolate. They want the dark chocolate. They're the mom. Of course. Yes. Of course they do. Yeah. Oh, spectacular. It would pair so well with the wine. Yeah.

Spectacular. That's their plan. They're good. Wow. Fenton is maybe a genius if like it was like swung open and then literally all of this information went into his head. Okay. That's gathering information on a plan the vineyard has. Okay. Cool. That's something the vineyard wants to do. You know, there's something super valuable in the chocolate factory. Okay. And if you were to get it, you would be able to sell it to the vineyard. Oh. Or use it as leverage. Cool.

And it is apparently the perfect dark chocolate. Wow. Perfectly aged cocoa beans. But that's my stage. Great. Cool. And what was your other one? It was do spy fan fiction. So is this Fenton relaying the story of how he snuck into Guy Fierro's mansion? Okay. That maybe is a better idea. I was going to just be like, Penny, do you want to pretend to be spies? Yeah. Oh, you want to play spies? Yeah. And then it's a lot of them like jumping over the table. Yeah.

And then it's a lot of them like jumping over the table. Yeah. And then it's a lot of them like jumping over the table. Yeah. And then it's a lot of them like jumping over the table. Yeah. And then it's a lot of them like jumping over the second floor of her room into her bed. Oh, nice. Because she's got a massive four poster bed. Yeah, totally. And being like, catch me, gunner. And then gunner's down there. Yeah.

And he's just catching you kids, putting you on the ground, catching you, putting you on the ground. Yeah. Cool. That is that. Yeah, that's relaxing. Cool. So three stress. And that is the end of the downtime activities. We've learned a lot in terms of potential stress. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree.

I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. Kids always up to no good so tiny and greedy and angsty they be as they navigate crime and puberty and though our journey may be like a conclusion we will not leave you without a resolution return next week to the chocolate store as the cool treat kids plan their next score and for you I'll gladly spout now