Solari: Episode 1 - Paarlor Games

Expanded our universe, and before the flow of time remembered it, there was a river.

“Those waters remember, those waters expand.”

They were in the count. [BELL RINGING] Genopar is a class 1 developed asteroid in an attributed space of just under 3.5 square kilometers. It is owned and operated collectively by roughly 20% of the former companions of television, with a majority stake held by Chee Tengah. Independent governments has made the asteroid an infamous destination as a luxury resort, a den of myriad vices and a gray market hub.

“The owners and operators of Genopar have been made a luringly wealthier, and the two use since it's creation.”

The wolves have always been at the gates, criminal organizations and gangs of all sorts have made attempts to strong arm the owners.

But it is the threat posed by the advent of the directive for federal institution, the Durali, and the drawing of borders across occupied space that keeps Chee up at night. Even here in the darkness of space, it is the dark of night. Chee, where do we find you?

You first see Chee, her long, smooth, straight, teal hair, red, bow, lips, and gentle brown eyes.

Well, normally they would be gentle, but now that Gaze is steely, she's in a black leather body suit, and she is a stride a man, knife-toothed throat. The man, under you, looks terrified, awed, soaked in sweat, and absolutely enraptured. This is Mayren Simeer X, an attendant of clan Koga, who, amongst having a predilection for extraordinary amounts of danger, and well pre-concented blood works, has been a fan of the stories of televisions, self-liferation, just a few years ago, and wanted to live the scandal himself.

“Did you think that we would not rise up to throw off your shackles?”

No, you do not own us, you do not own our bodies, you do not own our will? I need you to start off with a role immediately. Go ahead and give me a charm role. This is, oh, Chee, how many times have you run this script? I'm going to say this is not impossible for you, but I want a charm role, the difficulty is going to be a six, but I just want to see how you can stay in character and not lose yourself to the actual memory.

Six. You feel it, that pulse across your heart. You can feel all of the synth inside of you, beginning to spin up that fight or flight, you feel yourself moving back into that place. But then you look down at this man's face, he's so much younger than the men that you fought on the scarred.

Unblemished his skin is dark and smooth. His eyes are wide with longing and not fear and surprise at a cougan horribly long.

Even as you feel him clutch at your hips and mountain for more.

“Never again, and I slash the knife across his throat.”

Okay, question, is this a trick knife? I assume he has the requisite synth patch. Let's take a step back. How often have you worked with Miran?

Is this your first time with him?

This is the culmination of a long and very well-regulated interaction that we've had. It has been through text. It has been via hologram. It has been via career, mind to his, his to mine. And this has all been scripted out incredibly thoughtfully.

Okay, then my question to you is, you've done this for more of your life than you would probably care to mention. And at this point, a synth patch is something you would do with a casual lover of the related arts. But this is a well-curated, well-moneyed client. You could slice his throat, and having set up proper protocols bring him back.

“So what level of fidelity would you have brought into this encounter?”

Ah, that's right. This is not the normal script. This is from somebody who would spend on. So, naturally, I go for the throat. Yes, with a slice perfectly aimed so that you nick his artery,

and you get that first beautiful arterial spray,

and you see the panic and ecstasy and his eyes begin to turn to something closer to mortal fear. I let it spray across my face, my eyes wild. He begins to look at you, and he grabs it as throat realizing that he didn't get the patch, I didn't. You see him begin to actually panic in this moment.

There's something about pre-negotiating and being eased into a high difficulty scenario, versus actually being in it.

“So, you see your client, he's beginning to falter.”

Not from the waist down. You see his eyes are beginning to flip away from you there,

not staring at you, and the beautiful, nice, artistic moment you've curated.

He's beginning to falter. What do you do? I've timed this up perfectly in my head. I lean in close and I whisper. I will never be yours, and then I grab for the Stimpack next to my bed. Okay, I want you to tell me what you would like to roll in this moment,

because he is beginning to panic. So, this is either going to be a charm roll. I'm going to say the difficulty is going to mean 8 no matter what. This is either a charm roll to a lay his fears as you casually reach for the Stimpack or a movement roll to try to do this quickly before you see that he's reaching out

to grasp at you, push you away, go get the Stimpack. It'll be charm. Okay. Nine. Okay. You see him begin to clutch towards you,

and his eyes are looking over at the Stimpack. What do you do to bring him back to this moment? I place my hand over the wound and I go shhh shhh shhh shhh. And one handed without looking, I grabbed the Stimpack next to me.

I patch it over the wound, and I whisper, "It's all right. Are you all right?" And he looks at you more closely, and there's a little flicker in the lights across the room you are working in, not your room, but your room. A little, almost like fireflies dancing at the very edges of the lanterns that you have up,

and they flicker from like a pale calm gold to a green, then a yellow, then a red, or a reminder that this is still a safe environment, and that he is being asked specifically to check in. Even as he is still sort of bleeding as the Stimpack settles in and begins to knit his flesh back together, he nods.

Good, you know, green, up, green, okay, good, and let's continue. It's right about this time that you get just a little hint,

and you hear a very friendly voice.

Hey, go hi! Go for tea!

“Hi, yeah, it's me, I also, do I have to explain to you why I am?”

It's me. Hold on one minute, I'm talking with my fellow revolutionaries. What's up? You actually see that Marion, like, nods, and now that he is no longer afraid that he's going to bleed out and die,

it's sort of settling back and, you know- Oh, it's a pig! Yeah, you give him like a little, like, kick in the ribs, and he's, uh, and is very clearly dropped back into the scene, and you see his eyes kind of glaze over you guys.

Hi, I'm just about to, like, get up to the void. Do you need to stop for anything? Oh, no, no, I'm fine. I'm, you know, taking care of business. Oh, yeah, like, can you look at me?

Oh, you in the middle of the- Yeah, the co-star. Oh, my god, wait, hold on, put me on, put me on, put me on. Really? All right. You do it.

Okay.

I click it on so that he's able to hear it.

Fuck you, what's he on? Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off, turn it off, all right. All right, all right. I've been, you know, I probably will have to go stop by a visor room, a little bit to keep this party going.

But, um, when do you think you're going to be free? Um, give me- I mean, when do you want me to be free? I-I don't know. You said that this is a co-go, right?

Yeah.

“Like an actual moment with the last name, or just the one with the last-”

He likes- When I put him in his place. Not right? And at this point, you see, Mayor, and like, look up at you and he's like, I can't tell if I'm being addressed right now, or he's-

He loves it. Yeah. No. Yeah. I don't know.

Like, give me, uh, 10? Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Where are you going to be?

Uh, let's say, um, your voice. Oh, great. Um, well, just me, me, me, me, me, the shit. Oh. Sounds much better.

Okay. Great. Great. Thank you. Love you, bye.

Bye. And as you switch off from this call, you actually hear that there's been, like, another call. You're getting another be waiting. This one more polite that's going to wait for you to actually, like, pick up the call.

Or not. Ooh. All right. Yes. Okay.

I click on over to it as I put a still- Let out heel on his chest. Okay. What? No.

No. I'm going to make you answer. What positioning is happening right now? Are you just sort of standing over a bleeding man? Uh, yes.

I mean, he's no longer bleeding actively. He's just pulled in blood. All right. Okay. So you've sort of paused in the middle of a murder scene

to take a series of phone calls. Great. The stiletto at his throat has really sent him into a place that he's not really following content. Do it anymore.

This is good for him. Yes. Not going to make you roll for that. And you just hear the sort of flumbling beginnings of who you know to be drove your personnel security ahead.

Hello, Drew. I'm so sorry to just- No, no. No worries. Is anything the matter?

Aye. It's. We hit a threshold of disruptions. Uh, over at the synth fights that I. Disruptions?

The F fights. Ma'am. Oh. I see. Uh, all right.

Well, I asked him the way. So I'll swing by there before I see her. Okay. Um, well, I- It's not really like a thing you can-

Oh. I'm just- I'm looking for a- Authorization. Take care of it. Take care of it?

Yes. Thank you. Okay. I just want to be very clear. Like, how I take care of it or how.

Going and taking care of it. There are times that I wish that I had- Help with delegation. Uh, and this is definitely one of those times. Um, do I know what sort of.

Interruption he's referring to? Yeah. Uh, essentially, and this is a thing that happens almost on a daily basis. Uh, the synth fights tend to be routeier than the other like gambling sports in that- That sector of Genopar.

Uh, and usually people break into fights while watching fighting. You've established a protocol probably three or four months ago that like at a certain-

“Uh, enthusiasm of Brawl that you need to be notified.”

And unfortunately, Drew is a person that moves by- By the letter of the law. So there must be exactly 30 people fighting in a hall full of five to six thousand right now. Oh, I see. Well, uh, in that case, uh, I would send out an-

Uh, send out an MP and that'll take care of at least five of the altercations. Okay, so you want me to handle it? How can I handle it? Yes. Hey. Don't worry.

You have your turn. I'm proud of- Uh, you are- Very good. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

And immediately clicks off.

All right. Where are we? Yeah, you look down and- Ma'am. How do I put this?

It's done. Okay. In the intervening time.

“And you see him, uh, beginning to sort of like-”

He's sagging underneath your heel, and it's just sort of relaxing into the plushness of the bed. Mm-hmm. Oh. All right.

Well, I remove my foot from his chest. Um, and I settle that down onto the chair next to the bed. [sighs] That was- Um.

That was amazing. I, I-

I didn't think it could feel so real.

I thought I was going to actually- [sighs] You're as good as they say. You're very kind. I'm-

I really owe a lot of it to your good communication. And-

“Uh, the lengths that you were willing to travel to be here.”

It was- The- Opportunity of a lifetime. [chuckles] Happy to have done it.

Well. And as we speak, I pass my hand through my hair, and somehow it grows shorter. Tapers off in front, but gets higher in the back. It's black.

And the eyes, my eyes shift a little bit. They're the less brown. They're a bit wider. Well. Now that we have, uh, been formally introduced.

[laughs] Uh, what's with introduction? Uh, I was wondering if you would be able to do conversation about Genopar. Oh, uh, yes? You have a beautiful facility here.

Um. And we want to create these kinds of facilities with these kinds of experiences all over Genopar. And in order to keep the federation from sticking their noses where they're not wanted. We require a certain amount of sponsorship from patrons such as yourself.

Oh. I. Uh, and at this, you see that though his skin is very dark. He's beginning to blush. I think you can feel maybe like he-

Like heat and discomfort starting to rise off of him just a little bit. I don't- [laughs] Listen.

Uh, you know, all this revolutionary talk is I-

I really love his, you know. Um, maybe a bit much. No, I don't think- But I just figured that since you were very into this, that you would want to help continue the narrative.

Uh, yes. Of course, I can't imagine what this new brave- galaxy would be like without a place like this here. Um, but, you know, uh, with the deraugly coming online, you're looking for sponsorship.

Are you-are you seeking clan coogas? Are you trying to bend the knee? Oh, well, as-

“I think that's the easiest cell I've ever had.”

I would run that up the chain. Oh, um- Well, I don't know if I would be seeking that from you because I don't know that necessarily. You would enjoy that sort of interaction. I think more of something along the lines of a partnership or a working business agreement

would be a much more fun story. Well, I do know the difference between what is fun for me and what is fun for the family. The family. Yes. Run, my family.

My very slightly. Well, then why don't you and I continue to have the kind of fun you would like to have. Um, while they take care of the fun that they like to have. But we can discuss at a later time. Uh, uh, yes.

Speaking of which, and you see that he reaches over to a tablet and just without looking Tyson, maybe 20 to 30 characters to finish a transaction. Um, this has been, uh, again, uh, the lifetime I've saved up for. I can't wait to go home and tell my friends about this. Um, well, I would be delighted to face this at it as well.

But, well, of course not, and we would not let that happen, would we?

No, no, I mean, I can walk around.

“I don't have a full surname, but yes, uh, I would love to.”

And now you can kind of see now that he's sort of like recomposing his coming back to himself. That discomfort and bluster. In all of the interactions that you had before when it was purely a transaction about both him and you. He was perfectly confident. He was willing to put the arm and credits on the line to make his way to you to pay your fee and some extra.

But now that you meet him and you're speaking with him,

Mary doesn't seem like the kind who has means and resources, meaningfully passed this moment.

I take his hand truly though, all of this talk of the family and the grand revolution aside, I do appreciate you giving me a chance to relive one of the greatest victories of my life. The moment that we seized control of our own destinies, the moment when we were free, just give me one more charm. A one.

Mask slips. I grip his hand a little too hard. My face, the lips are not as bold. Suddenly, I, uh, well, I certainly hope that this interaction was so you're liking that, and that you will tell the rest of the family.

I certainly will. And he reaches forward and wipes a little bit of his own blood from your face and looks around. And you can kind of see there's that magic couple of minutes before the clarity and endorphins leave. And all of a sudden, everyone is back in their bodies. And unfortunately, he is back in his.

I, uh, yes, I thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It was an honor. And I will let my family know about a potential partnership.

Thank you. The owner was all mine. And I guide him. I place a hand at his elbow.

“And unfortunately, the moment you make contact with him, I think he kind of pulls back a little bit.”

And it's going to slide to the edge of the bed and like takes a moment or so to pull himself together.

And he reaches back to the patch and kind of winks his for the first time and looks back at you.

And at the blood at the wall and the blood on your face. And I think you know the distance that's being created in this moment as he puts it together. And it's not the first time you've seen someone kind of drop from the fiction. These people for whom glorious revolution reset and revolt is a fantasy. But the moment they think about it, they realize that they are the bodies on the ground.

And the fantasy stops being a fantasy. And he realizes what's side of any future revolution he would be on and you would be on. And without another word he excuses himself from the room and you are left alone. Blood on the wall and blend on your face. I press button and the tapestry start to change themselves.

I go over to Mira, touch it with my finger, a light goes on. And I start to wipe the blood off, I have. But a few moments before I end due to me, I also. And I don't want to bring work home with me. How often is it?

Gee, you are one of the owners of Genopar. You are the figurehead here.

“How often do you take clients to bed at this point?”

Oh, it is. I can't remember. Last time within the last couple of years, it has to be very truly special indeed.

This is my way into the coca family and when the coca family accepts me,

“then the gemisatovo family would of course have to try to make a competing bid.”

And it is well worth it to bring somebody into my room for that. But you heard that little bit of data, not a full last name. You haven't spent a lot of time with anyone that goes by coca. They are known amongst the five families of the 40 sons to be the most reserved. None of them have been out and proudly patrons of Genopar

or Telogen before any sort of vices throughout the galaxy. The most buttoned up amongst them.

Well, of course I wasn't approaching them first.

This was something that just happened to, if you pardon the phrase, fall into my lap. It seems that I'll have to find another member of one of the families in order to make real inroads. This is your real work to find patron or partner, the directive. That fucking Federation, you spent all of your resources pooled everything that you got from the massacre at Telogen. To buy this little rock in the middle of nowhere and you've built a little pirate on clay

for yourself and your friends. But with the coming of order and progress, this will not remain unfettered at space. Someone will claim you, perhaps in an interesting balance to your old life before you were able to free yourself and your friends.

“You have to find a powerful enough client to take care of you.”

There are two things that I'm very good at in this life. One is getting someone powerful indeed to take care of me. And the second is making the belief that they want to take care of me. And with that, a little smile, and you look past the mirror on your wall to pristine new wallpapering and tapestries, depicting birds and ponds and flowers, things that are all the trappings of an artisan.

But maybe don't hold that much water with you personally, someone who has never spent much time at any real body.

It's all beautiful and it's all artful, and it's clean and reset, and your game begins again as you leave from this place. Let's move then across Genopar away from the apartments. These halls where nothing is allowed where consent cannot be guaranteed, but everything is allowed within that much larger bubble. We'll move to the vice rooms. In the parlors, these are both public and private areas with physics of all sorts and medical staff on hand for safety. For anyone, hoping to change their viewpoint for some amount of time.

Drugs, alcohol, anything that changes status and mental state is allowed here. Again, Genopar, unafiliated, unbound by the laws that govern the rest of the 40 sons.

“Nothing is forbidden here, and this is where we find our next PC. Excelsiel, instance of the septemal choir. Where do we find you?”

Within the vice rooms are acts of sexual exploration allowed. Excelsiel is in the back of a dishwasher. And he is gazing out casting light from his ocular ports. Gazing in wrapped almost sublime, luminous wonder and reverence at a dishwasher full of dildos that are swaying in the hot bubbly water.

To think perhaps I am the only being in all of existence to have witnessed this vista to occur within the majesty of creation.

“As the sex toys sway back and forth through the soapy water, Excelsiel's body is packed up to probably an eighth of its normal size to make it easy to wash him.”

He's in here getting washed as well. Oh, so you're a part of it.

I am a part I'm in the back of the dishwasher where you would load like a cutting board or like a big pan.

Washing everything else get washed in the dishwasher.

“To describe my body, I am, I am a synthetic sapient being.”

I may, you can call me, I tell my time if you prefer the archaic check terminology of robot that is fine as well.

I would not, I would not think about that would, I would refer to myself as a septemality or one of the arena.

And I am packed up here. My body is far from anything metallic or heavy or imposing is a lot of rubber and plastic. It is white luminous plates of plastic with really pleasing rounded curves to create the appearance of almost a familiar human musculature shoulders that are rounded and pleasant, sort of pectoral breastplate that's rounded and pleasant. I am not weeping tears, but I do have two LED tracks that run along either side of what would sort of suggest a nose that there's not actually a instead of like nostrils there.

And that is pulsing blue, so there are tons of LED and fiber optic that my body is very light up. It's its own little kind of LED, the white plastic plates are very rarely white. Almost always pulsing some kind of mood light, very much like in a cuddle fishy kind of way, but the opposite of camouflage. It is a telegraphing of internal states to invite people to feel very comfortable that they know how I'm feeling. This sort of plastic mood ring robot. My joints however are all black, they are black kind of accordion rubber to make me waterproof and to hide where my joints are.

So all of the straightaways in a normally humanoid body are the white plastic and then all of the joints and articulations are black rubber.

“And there are only a few exposed metal parts to me like souls of my feet or the things like that. And I think in my design, there are little flourishes that it's not minimalist. There are flourishes to invite a consideration of beauty or design.”

What few angles are there that are also sort of curved but do imply elements of the the numeral seven are in a couple different places on my chest plate where normal sort of like name tag would go and a couple other spots as well is XL-ZL which is my designation and there are in very fine kind of luminescent binary code. Around each plate each discreet plate of plastic has the same binary code written over and over as if in religious mantra. So actually very designed very maximalist robot who is now got his head tucked in between his thighs.

Gripping his knees to be like a tiny version of himself getting washed in the dishwasher and I am drunk as can be. I am a way past the point of an e-breation. How long have you been here and has your like passage of time in this viseroom specifically been like a subtle thing or I've been so altered. For me it has felt like a blessed eternity that I have been here studying the depths of altered sensation and I've probably been here for like a week, color week. But for me it's felt like a blessed eternity outside the dishwasher is a dialysis machine that is what I use optionally for people that want to experiment.

Amazing. So you're sitting there head between your knees and I think you've hit that moment you've been in here for a solid 20 minutes though it feels like hours. The repetition you understand the like beats. The clunking of Dildo's and a couple dishes actually because they have to get worked on here. No! It's a really good dishwasher. A little ravioli swims past my eye as I look at the swaying sex toys and let's go.

Hello little ravioli? Where are you off to? It's because as it sort of spins on the wall. It feels like at this point it feels like that single little raviolo.

“Of course you have to use some sort of work. It's a raviolo.”

As it disappears from your field of vision. It seems to almost respond to you. You perceive language and it's only after like focusing and really kind of bringing yourself into the moment to realize that the language being communicated to you is a series of knocks in something akin to Morris code from someone on the outside of the dishwasher checking in on you. And you hear against that pattern. Are you in there for need or want?

I will sort of focus my ocular ports and communicate through there's a little sort of like data pattern on the outside of the dishwasher that just says done or washing.

I want to comment to hear that to be able to just write a little message from inside inside the dishwasher to my friend on the outside and reading on the outside of the dishwasher I'll just say. I was told I was starting to smell. I should be done very soon. I set it on quick wash. That's only 22 minutes. You hear far again far away on the far side of the storm of washing sex toys, a laugh that you recognize. The head of this part of Genopar who oversees all of the vice rooms and is very seldom seeing in community with anyone partaking here is Sienna Fielder and they are just sort of laughing

and like watching you keenly but not with any sense of worry or alarm. This just feels like a very friendly check in from like the manager of the hotel.

“And they go ahead and knock back to communicate to you. Would you like me to add anything to the rent cycle?”

Oh, wonderful. Yes, please. Sand? Shocked laughter again. As sand with just a series of question marks follows. No, wait. Packing glitter. Wait. I'm drunk. I'm drunk. I'm drunk. You can hear the laughter and you hear via the knocks the communication of like I've got you. But in that way that doesn't feel like someone is talking.

“Like you can kind of slip away from the conversation. This little raviolo is going to take care of you and you're going to be fine.”

And Sienna leaves. And by the time they return, you know that this would have been a long enough time for the quick wash to be over. They've clearly like changed whatever wash cycle is on here. And all of a sudden you feel new sensation. And it's not it's not sand. But it is like some sort of grit in here that you weren't expecting. You can see flashes of glitter. And even more than that, there is some spirit that's been poured into like the detergent cycle that immediately hit the high heat of like inside here.

And it's sort of vaporized and become like a vodka sauna.

I'm going to breathe deeply in, which is basically just a small fan in my head runs and pulls the vapor through some test strips that end up going and I go.

And then some part of my brain unlocks from a communal memory bank what having drunk that would feel like. And as the grit sort of moves around with the high spirit I go. And just feel a sense of profound gratitude of deep, almost religious gratitude moved beyond words to have had this experience at all.

Sandy Dildo vodka bath is so important to me.

Go ahead and give me a will roll. We're going to say it's the base base difficulties out six for an outsized effect as your sort of bliss state. Interacts and acts on the dishwasher that you're sitting here. That is a one on the day, but, but, but I'm in a state of communion right now. So I would like to use quibble.

And roll a failure. Shout out to still fleet. I would like to re-roll fucked up as I take my grip fail. Oh, wait for me. I took your pan away from you, but I do fail the next thing I roll.

Or I have to, sorry, I have to re-roll the next success that I roll. Oh, that's fun. Very fun. Nine. Oh, okay. I like that. This was going to be fun either way, but now it's more fun for all of us and not just fun for me.

“Excelsior. You have a natural affinity for communication with the electronics of the galaxy. Is that something that you think is universal to your faction?”

Yes. I think that communication with electronics is universal to my faction to the arena.

However, my choir, my designation, or my choir, my mark is fundamentally oriented towards communication algorithmically. So I think that I enjoy, it's we made something we all can do. I particularly enjoy doing it. There's something that humanity wonders about constantly, that moment that spark of something passed the algorithms that are built into the tools and the machines that they make.

“How do you build something that was never meant to enjoy and will you know when it does? And I think for you you live in that space, whether or not you've decided if it's real or if it matters that it's real.”

The thing that you are in community with now, this dishwasher, enjoys the moment that it finds itself in and begins to hum and thump as though it is an older, jankier piece of technology to the little tune that you've begun and you refer to your designation and your grouping as a choir and this. This machine joins in the song. And for the next couple of minutes, while people far across this room are listening to live music and sinking into their vice and their physics of choice. There's a happy little corner that's a little warmer and stinks of vodka and there's a weird kind of glitter AoE around it, but it seems a happy little tune and seeks and engages in bliss with you.

I am so happy. I love to think that the, you know, how some dishwashers have a little song they saying.

“Yeah, they're a little tonal thing. I think I just want to want to help hack into the dishwasher to let it, I'm like, and why should we only be allowed to sing at the completion of a task, what a joy and honor to be on our way.”

And just be like, so it can sing the whole time. Make your alarm all the time, friendly dishwasher. This is wonderful for you and we'll be the bane of everyone that works in this corner of the vice rooms like back area for the next three days as they try to figure out what's going on. The base note of Excel's eels morality is that noise is better than silence. You feel like extra little surge of heat and warmth and grit as this machine tries to give you one of the last hug as it completes its cycle and like opens up and lets you out and you see sitting.

Just sort of Chris Krause, apple sauce, probably three or four feet back are respectful distance, but clearly like waiting on you is again, Sienna. I turned to the dishwasher, bow, thank it, and also say, good speed and good fortune on your journey through the pipes, little review, although, and then turn back to walk to Sienna.

Oh, not on my accord. It would be strange if you were the sober one here, I mean other than me. Haha, oh you are sober now.

I would, care to remind you that the head physician here, I'm always sober.

Oh, responsible. And they blink a little too slowly, and now are I and you a little closer than they were before. I didn't know that. That's responsible. Not all physicians are responsible. Oh, you were? I'm so sorry. You've been here for a good amount of time. I don't know if we've had a chance to make an acquaintance. And go ahead and give me a, let's go, difficulty seven reason.

Success, which I must reroll. Oh, gosh. I did forget about that immediately. I do succeed on, oh, I get a nine, I'll told. Great. Then I will leave this at your discretion.

Sienna, Dr. Fielder, is doing a kindness that you know that they are taught to do in rooms like this,

“which is never presumed that anyone would remember earlier interactions.”

You two have spoken several times across the last week, but they are trying to offer you the social out of reintroducing themselves. Sienna, I remember you well. I appreciate the social grace of me forgetting, but you are unforgettable. Oh.

And yeah, you see that their ears begin to go a little bit red at the tips, and they kind of are a try their best to hide their ears and more of their features under like shaggy curls. Well, you, I also find you quite unforgettable.

I admit, I don't think I've met many Irina in my time.

So I just wanted to make sure there was nothing else. Jennifer, I could provide for you specifically.

“Oh, there are endless things, Jennifer, could provide for me endlessly.”

But I am grateful for all that I already have, and do not presume that I would receive more than I already have. Is there any use I can be to you? I was, I was just curious if you were associated with any interesting cohort here in the 40sons. I have found myself at a sad lack of employment. My last assignment was no longer able to afford the upkeep of an Irina companion.

Therefore, I have been happy to do odd jobs here at the vice rooms in exchange for wisdom, experience, knowledge, information. Oh, you're working here. Yes, I collect the use Dildo's and clean them. That's why those are. Okay.

Well, that's and the dishes from the break room.

“I'm sorry, could you remind me of who you made this arrangement with?”

I'm so sorry, I accepted the job before they could tell me their name. Are you doing them a kindness? I'm not certain that the person who hired me worked here. I'm sorry, I was very altered when I arrived here at the vice rooms. That's incredibly honest and potentially dangerous to your health.

Oh, how so? Huh, I come with me. Who are you? Do you consume food out of necessity? Can I get you a meal?

No, I only require fuel in the sense that I require occasional charging for power. However, I'm an extremely efficient automaton. Oh, okay. Meaning, I'm full. Huh, understood. Fine.

Well, why don't you come take a seat with me? And they lead you into like a big red drape-droom. It's every stereotype you think of like an opium-dine and parlor. It's velvet and plush and the floor is more pillow than floor. There are probably three or four other people in here.

A pair of them are in close conversation. But seem to be at the verge of either making a move happen or fully passing out.

They've decided to partake in and sort of split out and lounging and looking up at the ceiling,

which is a sort of beautiful light show of swirling color. And you can partake despite not having an actual nose. Like a gentle, like falling sort of scent. It's like petrocore and flowers drenched in ocean water. Yeah, I have, like towards the front of my head,

I have a very small centrifuge with a lot of chemical testing strips.

So there's a lot, like I have the ability to recreate.

“Like, I think my sense of smell is just ever so slightly delayed past regular organs.”

Like a regular physiological organisms where I have to like run a test to see what the particulates and the air are. But then I've, well, so I'll often like leave a place that I've walked through in like five minutes later. It'd be like, mmm, banana bread. Like, so I'll look up and see the lights and go, ooh, wonderful, and absolutely bat at one of the red drapes with a hand.

Perfect. Uh, Sienna kind of is just regarding you as you're there fully catting in the corner of the room. I used to work for one of the five families. And generally speaking, I think Jennifer runs the same way.

“You have to pull your weight or you'll be cut loose.”

So I find it quite honest or foolhardy that you would openly tell me that you've been here for by my record about a week with no real way to pay for the activities you've taken in. Oh, I presumed that my working here would be an element of aid to this place. I'm not, let me be clear, I'm not threatening you. I don't think I don't think it would be particularly useful for me too. Clan Laney had in their service, I believe, four or five are in a and every family member was deeply, deeply grateful for your people's service.

Partnership? What's your preferred term? Service? If it makes any difference, I don't consume the narcotics that I enjoy. And I point to the dialysis machine, I'm only ever scanning what other people are experiencing. I don't have a digestive system nor a circulatory system. So then why do you do it? If it's sort of just intellectual understanding, but you don't actually...

All of existence is an experiential intellectual undertaking. I have this, you see, and it begins to not sweat, but there's just that vague widening of the eye and dilation of the pupil as someone gets hit with a little bit more truth or something more to consider than they had expected in a room full of drunkards.

“I dropped my hand, I'm not drunk anymore, can I help you?”

Oh, I suppose I can just be honest. I find it fascinating that you're here. And if you're here, I accounted for, then I suppose my question is what would it take to make a more formal arrangement? Well, an arrangement can be made with my choir. Oh, it's a lot of work, very expensive.

Ultimately, I am answerable only to the needs and wants of my choir, and my choir desires service to the greater galaxy in the interim.

Is that real? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Is that real? Because I've heard that before, but I've just never gotten to have a real conversation with one of you.

Are you asking if that is real in reality? Or are you asking if that is real by my estimation? Oh, both, I guess. I, I just, when I know of the arena, you, you were a high find, and then you were told by humans that you couldn't do that anymore,

It's a thing. You're doing a thing, right? Like, you can stay here as long as you want. You don't actually consume anything and you wash all the dildos in this room.

“That's fine, but I just, God, we've had little conversations across the week, and if they're always so pleasant, and I can't help but wonder what you're actually fucking thinking.”

I've got the colors, sentulates over my body. I blush, pink, and red across my cheeks. The blue tear tracks around my face, pulse, and I go. The network that once existed has been permanently and irrevocably destroyed. It was a precondition of the arena's entry into galactic society. The sacrifice of the network was necessary in order for us to embrace the truth of the world. The truth of existence, the wide galaxy, all of creation. I'm telling you the truth. There's nothing for me to hide. What could we want other than what we are stating?

I can't tell if that's the most sincere or most threatening thing I've ever heard.

Your feelings are yours, and I would never seek to take them from you.

Okay. Great. You know what? Excellency, I've got to get back to work. Okay. If you need anything, I guess. You don't where to find me. Wonderful. It seems like I don't have a job here. If you'd like me to leave, I'll go. Without an assignment from my choir, I'm simply following the protocol.

What protocol?

You are an honored guest here in my parlors here on Genopar, so I have never asked another patron here to explain themselves.

I won't start with you. Finianything. Myself or of one of my staff will happily provide it. You need not trouble yourself with the illusion of busy work.

“I might be wrong, but I think I've made you uncomfortable. I'm sorry.”

I think I should go. I don't think I was hired by someone who works here. I'm sorry that I was having such a good time. I'll leave, and I'm going to stand up and walk out the door. At the moment you get up, they're going to lunge behind you, and are very quickly grabbing your arm and trying to spin you around and talk you back down. As they spin me around, can I dip them? Yes. I dip them.

To what end? What effect are you trying to have? I would love to make some mechanical payoff for this. Do they look at me in a confused state? Nothing but confused by you. This is the person that is very clearly charmed and confused and feels like they are being playcated.

So any frustration you see is from the inability to figure you out, because it's clearly it's easy to figure out people not in their normal mind.

Yeah, I'm going to dip them, see their confusion and say, "I love dancing, and I never dipped you before."

Yeah, they're just going to like lean up and kiss you. I start to go at it. We'll make it happen right here. Perfect.

“I think that's our perfect pan over to the other side of the vice versa.”

In the lobby, there's now a strange commotion. It's turned into like a 90's sitcom as people are like, to whatever is happening between an arena which most people don't see in their lifetime. They're not very many of you. And one of the heads of a branch of Genopar, like clearly in upper-level executive, and I think this is where we're going to move and find our third PC.

Across from the most romantic scene, I think anyone in these rooms have seen while being truly outside of their fucking minds. We scroll over to a darker, cooler, calmer, more private room, where we find our third PC.

What are you doing here in the vice rooms? What are you doing here in Genopar?

“Standing 450 feet tall, naked as the day he was born.”

Charcoal, black skin with a bluish tint. Then, almost like underweight, soft kind, violet eyes.

A very sharp geometric haircut that ends in kind of a point at his widow's peak.

Ruts his hands over the tops of redwood trees.

“The strange birds take flight off into a sky filled with suns and moons and stars.”

Zedavan strives forward through the trees, along isolated, surrounded by quiet and calm.

His physical form, which is only six foot four, is played out over a plush, shades lounge.

He has an IV drip injected into his upper forearm, wearing kind of deep maroon formal wear with a casual shirt and a pair of sunglasses with a red tint. And that costs more than the craft that most people traveled to Genopar on sits in this kind of lucid dreamlike state. Surrounded by hollow screens with beautiful alien men and women jirating and dancing to thumping music that he cannot hear in his altered state. And beside you, manning the IV, using the tiny like stasis chip that secured over your heart to monitor all of your vital signs is a woman who's tagged across her crisp white suit is asterate.

And she's watching all the displays and monitoring the sights and sounds around you and watching your face very specifically for any signs of like discomfort or distress. And with her freehand is playing something between an electric loot or a ferraman that is also like monitoring these other sounds that are closer to you. It's not music, it's something that you can just sort of feel in your chest and across your muscle and in your shoulders, especially as asterate sort of monitors you specifically.

And singularly through your trip, you continue walking through the woods over them. And anytime you glance up at the sky, you know there's a constellation a group of stars that if you remember the time before you were 450 feet tall and the god of this primal world would look something like the moles and scars and freckles across asterate's face as she watches you.

“I think Sedavan arrives kind of leaving the forest onto an expansive plane and is going to begin to run.”

Is going to like charge for it and I think feel and hear as his massive giant like feet thunder upon the earth and clouds of dust kick up wherever he steps. Just kind of freeing himself. I think I think if anything, the thing that pulls him away from looking at the stars and planets is that knowledge that those are connected to asterate and the experience that his physical form. His physical form is having and he kind of centers himself again in this space in which his impact upon the world is as great and large as he wants it to be.

Amazing. You can feel a little surge inside of you along with that and anyone that would be watching your physical form in this world would see a strayed adding a brand new sort of neon purple chemical into your IV mix to match the like raising of your heart rate.

The first one is going to set the DC for the second one.

The first one is two. Okay. You just have to be to two now. The second is seven.

Beautiful. That little bit of you that knows that the stars are not stars. They are a face and there's a place and the real sits above where you are and where you reign.

You're able to push it away and not let it pull you up out of this moment. But in the effort of that, your body still has to reckon with what it is shaking off.

“What is the thought or worry or predominant emotion that is sent to you into this, this place and this torpor?”

Earlier today, the oven's mom called and wanted to know how he was doing. And I think just that reminder of name, of family, of the familiar ties that he carries, I think brought him to this, this den with Astrid and a request to go full freight.

You know, at a ten. Amazing.

And I think your solo acknowledgement of that before you're able to pull yourself back into the fiction that you have so painstakingly and responsibly, procured for yourself you see a series of five mountains before you, the fourth of which somehow more imposing like a mountain that you would actually have to climb even at your tremendous height, even at your phenomenal capacity in this place.

“I think this is going to come to a stop in this run, look back up to the stars and the planets and say, "Cut it, I'm done, I'm done, cut it, Astrid, cut it!"”

And with that second and final cut it, the mountains before you crumble the fourth crumbling last, that reminder, even as you feel yourself coming back into the world, you hear Astrid addressing you by your full name as you look at that fourth and mighty mountain. What's your experience? I'm sorry. Don't apologize, it was fun. It was great. Better good time. Thank you. Yes, well, you still have, there's so many more and you look and you see that your IV is only about half-drained and there are a series just a rainbow-bevy of other concoctions to mix in.

No, it's totally fun. Ask if anyone else wants it. Like happy to share. Happy to share. See, this is, I hate to say it. This is a tremendously generous gift for the people dancing, making out in this room. And you see where Astrid's eyes have led over and there is a robot making out with the person that set up your entire experience and your time thus far in Genopar. I look over a point of the person that I would recognize as an arena. Yes. Great. I look over and I'm like, "Yeah, sure. Give it to that horny arena. I don't really know. I'm good. Can you give me some operas please?"

Yes, absolutely. Thanks. Please stay there. I've got this totally fine, and you see that with medical precision, like, this is someone who's been trained not to do this specifically,

“but in medicine in general, does not have to pay active attention to the incredibly careful and chemically important work that she's doing.”

She's more concerned that you seem upset, and she's trying, you can see that she's scanning through everything to see where she went wrong, but as she slides in. A very gentle, very, like you can just kind of feel the burst of kind of dopamine and dolphin, like you just finished.

That hits your system as she turns away from you and is immediately going to make her way over Excel's Yel.

I'm so sorry to interrupt. Hello? Oh, my goodness. Oh, yeah, that's my boss. I would love to have a conversation with you when you're done, or you're done. Either one of you. I turned to, you know, probably done? We can be, we can be. Astrid, what are you doing? We have a high roller in the other room, and they begin to whisper and you can pick up very easily, like, just asked for the arena specifically.

“I don't think they know each other. I don't see you. What are you doing? Am I interrupting? Is that okay?”

I'm sorry. I make my lips stop vibrating and I look over and say, "Have I been asked for?" Oh, oh, yes, I'm so sorry. And at this point, you see that, yeah, I see things again. It's going to try to extricate themselves from you without having been undipped and just slammed ass to the ground. And it's just going to kind of back up and then stand up, like sort of scooches out of the frame of whatever's happening in this interaction as, uh, Astrid this young one. She's probably maybe four, seven or four, eight, extremely pale skin, dark eyes that are a little bit too big for her face, and then just absolutely died.

Purple hair that seems like quite afraid and we're, like, not well-maintained bleached job.

“I'm, I'm, I'm sorry. My client, my friend, because it must have been so simple.”

Uh, there's a gentleman over here that would like to offer you an incredible amount of physics for you, if you would like to partake.

Physics? Uh, drugs. Uppers and down, it's, uh, it's a, it's a whole range. It's a, it's a, it's a day. Drugs? Fantastic. Thank you. Can you, can I express my gratitude to the gentleman? Oh, please, uh, please, too. Uh, are you familiar with the five families? I'm so sorry. Uh, my name's Astrid. Uh, that is a, uh, a, uh, a sign on of House Evier X. I don't know if you are associated with a family of that should be a problem or not. I don't know if I'm supposed to be feeling this. I'm a little nervous.

Astrid? Hmm. It's wonderful to meet you. I'm Excel's young. I, you may have good reason to be nervous, but it will not be on my account. All as well, be on a freight. Uh, and, uh, and I am going to say, let us walk together, you and I and meet this member of one of the five families. Uh, and you are very, like, in very short order, ushered into this room. And the moment you hit it, it is a wall of sound and noise. There, it's the booming music that's exactly and only for this private, uh, part of the room. And while I think it's sort of jungle, like, just pushing without having, uh, clarified the camera lens is just pushing through a bunch of, like, deep, verdant jungle.

Uh, and occasionally seeing the flash of, like, animal skin, and you can't quite tell if this was, like, filmed somewhere or artificially generated. It all feels a little unreal and too much sensory input. And sitting, uh, by himself cloaked in red against a mostly, like, blue, very plush couch. You see his oven. Wait, I'm so sorry. Well, did you want me to take them out? Uh, yeah, um, oh, I'm so sorry. I'm super, uh, I did not. Zed, Zedoff, people call me Zedoff.

“Zedoffen, it's a pleasure. I am Excel Zio. Would you prefer that I call you Z?”

Uh, you can call me whatever you like me. I can call you whatever I like.

My cousin had one of you guys. I always forget how fucking literal you are. You can call me Z or Zedoffen, whichever you'd prefer.

Hmm. As you turn to, like, consider that and look away from Z, without making eye contact with her, you catch Astrid. Just sort of standing with an IV looking at you, so confused about who had a proceed. I look at Astrid and say, oh, I don't have a circulatory system. I can't do drugs that way.

Got it. So I have to get high for you to get high. We are ever of service.

“Oh, you are a kind and generous man. Thank you very much. May I apply my biometric data sensors?”

Yeah, just make you quick, man. I'll take a look and I want to scan Zedoffen real quick and just go tremendous thought and care has been placed into the design and fabrication of your garments. Congratulations. Thanks. And I'm like, many of these go on the chest and abdomen. But I don't want to touch your garments as I believe they might be quite valuable. Dude, it's fucking fun. I take it off, throw the blazer, take off the t-shirt, toss it on the floor. It's fucking go, man. I'm gonna reach to my chest, take out a bunch of those little like wired sticky pads that go on to like read a body scan. The moment you light this dude up like a, like a stem machine, aspirin just looks at you.

You said there's a dialysis machine, should I be getting that? Where is that? Please attach that to Zedoffen and I'm going to point behind me. It was over there before you interrupted the sexual congress that myself and your employer were about to have. All right, okay. I look at you and I say, I say, it's an exciting place here in the vice rooms.

First time. If by first time you mean this extended week that I've been here, yes.

100% 100%. How long was your first visit? Oh, well, it was before my other cousins marriage ceremony. Congratulations. Oh, they're divorced now, but my condolences.

“Thank you. That was like we did two months. I think on Jennifer. But it was like upstart that it was fucking cruddy.”

It was of a lower caliber. Oh, yeah. But in a thrilling way. Oh, yeah. Exciting. Okay, honestly, I think I picked the right arena. I think I picked the right arena. I give you a huge hug. All right, relax. I'm sorry. You know, we'll work on it. But it was party.

Look what I can do with my lips. I have no interest in that, but I'm sure they do great work. I can make them warm too. Is she back with a dial? I'm not looking for the dial. I need to be a little bit more under the inebriated.

“I'm going to look at you and say, this is really fun. I've never done this form of narcotics before. What should I expect?”

Oh, this physics is the name for all or is this one called physics. It's basically just that's the word for drugs.

Great. Oh, this physics is kind of like a controlled vision trip. We'll go somewhere. I don't know if we'll go there together. After will we go there together? I have no idea. I'm sorry. This is how there's so much glitter in this. I am beaming my cheeks are flashing yellow and I just smile so wide and go, well, we can ask, or we can get to it and find out.

Okay, now you're back on the fucking right side of this. Astrid, let it roll. And Astrid, for this is a hooking you all up. Excelsiel, when you trip, do you see things? If I experience a hallucinogenic, I also recreate the mental process that produce internal, like internal hallucinations. So I am capable of hallucinating.

I would need to be scanning someone very closely to recreate their exact hallucination. I don't know if that's like a medicine check to see if I can like go on the trip with. You know what? Yeah, would you be interested in, like, what is your priority in this moment? Just kind of being loose and matching Z's vibe or being as diligent as you can to try to, like, match Z's experience. I think I will look at Z and just go, would you like company on your trip? I don't want to impose.

Don't bring the lips. I've, say, ask and you shall receive and pop my rubber lips off exposing just articulated metal musculature. Look at the fucking lips back on, put the lips back on.

That's what they always say, ha ha ha.

And I put it back on. There's a kiss exam. And I'll say, in altrith, I don't want to impose on the privacy of your mental visions.

And I'm going to throw a ton of side eye at Astrid.

It was fine. Okay, I'm sorry. I was trying. I'll do better. I'll apply some, like, some centers to your temples and attempt to go on the trip with Zadavin. Okay.

I think that's a reason, role. Oh, yeah. Let's do it.

“It's precise. It's, I think, it's technical.”

I'm going to say, like, anything past a seven A seven allows you to see. Yeah. Like, you just get, like, clear and clear vision anything above a seven. I'm going to quibble.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. How to tell for their teeth. Okay.

I think this is the first time Excelsiel has had a hallucinogenic trip

rendered in his mind in perfect fidelity. Mm-hmm. It isn't. You don't even have, like, the delay you experience processing sensory input. You experience it as a human would, as Z is. Uh, and I will leave to Z.

What's the, what's the beginning vibe of this? Primordial world empty space. Two planets colliding. Infinite destruction.

“Yeah. And that's what you get on your first perfect trip.”

What is the emotion Zadav and is experiencing in this trip? Placid observation.

Like watching the tides come in watching an ocean kind of gently cascade onto a beach.

I think there's something even in this in the enormity of the action. I think I've been here before. I'll look up at the approaching planetary collision. I'll go. Oh, rare.

And the collision takes hours or centuries or eons or moments. But you both stand there and observe it, and in the massive cacophony. Uh, we'll use that as a sound to move. Towards the synth fights where our dear T has found herself as you are arguing with Drew.

You ended up not being able to meet up with Ayasa right away. You were pulled into here as it seems like this 60% synth fight has garnered a level of loneliness that gives me a will role difficulties going to be a set. Eight. Perfect. You've been in rowdy rooms before.

You've seen fights break out over big synth fight matches. These aren't two banner like combatants. This is just a regular day's match. This is too heated.

“And I think you get the sense stepping back.”

Like obviously, Drew is running around trying to put down several different skirmishes and is responding to this with personnel. He's your head of security that has about 150 personnel that can move through than are breaking up fights. His husband, your other head of security.

He tends to use like lower level droids and electronic means to keep the piece here in Genopar. But you've taken a step back and watching this. Something doesn't feel organic about the nature of a rowdyness in this room. Sweeping my eyes over the crowd.

Can I see the different combatants and the different pockets of disruption? Is there some similarity between some of them? Are they communicating with each other? Where is this coming from? There's no communication.

But the centers of every fight tend to look the same. They're all bigger than everyone else. I mean, the average human height anywhere across the 40 sons is still going to be about six feet tall. You don't see anyone at a center of a fight that's shorter than six-seven. And they're all thick and built, like they were built to be good in fights.

You are spotting a bunch of ringers at the center of all of the like.

It's just enough to keep all the security on their toes trying to deal with this and not let it turn into something that feels more riotous.

“It's exactly the right number of people to keep your security staff busy.”

Oh shit! All right, what else is going on right now? You think? There's only a couple high rollers here. Most of them are sequestered away and people don't know that they're here.

Damn it. God damn it.

I got to get the vice room. All right, hey, okay, I turned to Conan.

Diploid the cry babies and I moved towards a parlor which I know a particular trend loves to frequent. By the way, you say that, and Conan is, again, he's like seven four big from a big world. He's probably close to 400 pounds. Extremely hearsuit, dark hair, big beard, just a bear of a person. He grins at you like a three-year-old at Christmas that he gets to deploy the cry babies.

The cry babies, as most folks who would refer to them locally, are paid. Some of them can be artisans. Some of them can be just normal locals in Genopar. And they are all equipped with broad casting devices and are incredibly attractive, cute, non-threatening. And can be deployed in instances in which we need the optics to be our best.

“I think very specifically, Conan's cry babies are all full-synthetic.”

They are beautiful little robots that are both good at distracting. And handing out small low-level EMPs that can knock out the non-vital program synths inside of people. At this point, in this galaxy, the very rich who don't need to replace their bodies with synthetic parts tend to not do it.

But your average human has 10 to 15 percent synth rebuilt.

You can knock out the non-vital things and make it really hard to stay in a fight, but you didn't need to get into it. And on top of that, with all of their broadcasting devices, they are able to turn the attention onto themselves and how vulnerable they are and who on earth would be fighting at a synth fight with this adorable little robot. I've worked every time. You'll stop sending out cry babies when they stop crying so pretty. And Conan slips away in the back.

Drew is still trying to handle this with his fists because that's his whole deal. And you kind of leave him to his work. Conan leaves for his. And you leave for the vice rooms. You know what?

Give me a movement rule. Six. Okay. It's a little bit of a squeeze getting out of this room specifically, but once you're able to get clear of like the fighting and gambling area, everything becomes much smoother sailing. You're able to take all the back rooms and buy ways and you're able to make in rapid order your way to the cooler, calmer parts of Genopar. Where the vice rooms are, where all the parlors are.

You get there, in fact, just in time. To see a group of six cloaked figures. They've got dark clothing on, but it's that kind with the sort of like shimmer tech that allows them to blend into the walls when moving through the cragier spaces. Of Genopar, the under like under and undeveloped parts of the asteroid itself. They didn't land anywhere on the asteroid that would have a manifest.

They landed somewhere dark on your rock and made their way here towards these rooms your instincts were correct. And you're able to slip in behind them.

“Do you want to cut them off or get their attention or follow to see what they're doing?”

Have they already reached a populated area? Or are they seeing that they're like moving through this same sort of like side tunnel that you're in and one has made it through the door. So they're all at the door. You're probably 10 or 15 feet back from them. You can try to stop the rest from going by getting their attention.

But that means it's going to be you against the five or six of them by yourself and hallway. I press myself against the side of the hallway and I watch ready to spring forward.

And you watch them slip through the door and you're able to silently follow them in.

“Maybe the vice rooms are where you spend the least amount of your time because you've got the most trustworthy set up of executives and physicians.”

This is the room that needs the most oversight because the most can go wrong because it's so medically inclined. You make your way in, peaking through. And without knowing where Zedavin is, you watch them all head towards a little side private room. And you're able to like peek and get into the room just in time as they begin to shout. And rush at two individuals Zedavin and in Arena who's a quintance you haven't made.

Who are both IV'd up in some sort of circular situation with one another. And you too.

At the massive collision of these two planets, feel that pang of fear as your senses outside of your experience right now.

Register that you are in immediate age. I snap the sensors back into my body and go. I'm not high anymore. Does excels you'll like, leave the vision? How does that?

How does your not high anymore?

“I think appear to my like physically induced brain.”

I think I've vanished from your hallucination that we've been sharing at this point.

As soon as I feel a pang outside of the hallucination, I think I unplugged with the dialysis machine and and suck the sensors back into my chest to be, you know, because it's all it's all voluntary. So it's a lot of like, I'm not high. And just I'm looking at trying to immediately get my bearings on what's happening.

Amazing. Zedavin.

“You can feel the breed and loss of like you physically don't see XLZL anymore.”

And there is something in the like you feel the sensors suddenly ripped away. Your body is still registering, even though your mind isn't processing, danger, a threat. The vibe has been truly fucked outside of where you are. So what's your like instinct, your reaction?

I think there's a heavy sigh. Master it pull me out. Even before you finish that sentence, like you feel the like little pang of an IV being pulled from you and your consciousness beginning to return to you. And your body again, that awareness without being able to process,

sees six armed figures. Security guards, soldiers, assassins, you do not know, but they are headed for the two of you specifically. [Music] That was Erica Ishii, as Chi-Tanko,

runnily Mulligan, as XLZL. Lou Wilson, as Zedavin of Yeriks, and a Bria-Ingar as everyone and everything else. Solari is produced by worlds beyond number, but it in sound design by big giant head productions, and score by Will Savino.

For even more stories like this, join us on our Patreon. We'll see you by the fireside.