Transcript - Episode 23: Horror at the Innsmouth Inn (Part 1)
Audio for Horror at the Innsmouth Inn Part 1
Horror at the Innsmouth Inn Part 1
Wed, Jan 14, 2026
“Push the Roll with Ross Bryant” is produced for the ear and includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.
Ross Bryant 00:00
Welcome to Push the Roll with Ross Bryant. Oh man, I'm so stoked, folks, because we have a certified collection of bangers here today. We've got our friend Cup. How you doing man?
cuppycup 00:12
Hi, I'm doing well. Thank you.
Ross Bryant 00:14
We were just chatting about how you're coming to us from the great state of Texas, where you record your audio from.
cuppycup 00:22
The great city of Houston, we'll say.
cuppycup 00:23
[laughter] The great city of Houston.
Paula Deming 00:24
Fair enough.
Ross Bryant 00:25
Yes, yes, home of UGK, [laughter] Pimp C and Bun B, forever. And we've also got Paula Deming.
Paula Deming 00:33
Hello. I'm back once again. Here I am. This is me. I sound like this. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 00:40
Yes. Astute listeners may have clocked that we are doing these deliberate introductions so that we can differentiate one another's voices for the aid of our listeners.
cuppycup 00:52
People just can't tell me and Paula apart.
Ross Bryant 00:54
That's right.
Paula Deming 00:55
It's so, a lot of comments have been "I just am not sure when it's Cup and when it's Paula," and we're here to help.
Ross Bryant 01:02
The timbres of these voices are so similar, but, um, strikingly different with a completely different grain to their voice. We have Mary Lou,
Mary Lou 01:15
Hiiiiii! [laughter] Hi, hello, yeah, I'm totally different. Nobody ever confuses me and Paula, ever.
Paula Deming 01:20
It's never happened.
Ross Bryant 01:22
Never, not once.
Mary Lou 01:23
Never happened.
Paula Deming 01:24
That's great. All my pals are here. Today we also have our very special guest. I want to thank you so much for being here. Oscar Montoya.
Oscar Montoya 01:32
Yay! Hi everyone.
Paula and Mary Lou 01:34
Yaaay!
Oscar Montoya 01:35
I'm so glad to be here. [laughter]
Mary Lou 01:39
I just said, nobody's ever confused our voices ever and then we say the exact same thing at the exact same time in the exact same way.
Paula Deming 01:46
It is something that Mary Lou and I do frighteningly often, actually.
Mary Lou 01:51
Yeah, but we're just so excited to have Oscar.
Paula Deming 01:54
We are!
Ross Bryant 01:54
Gosh, yeah, I am too. I feel like, we all Mary Lou, Paula, and Oscar know each other from the sort of LA improv world. So yeah, we're so stoked to have you here. And I also know Oscar that you are, this just comes from my ambient awareness of your social media, that you have a relationship with horror media. This is a horror comedy sort of podcast, and I particularly was really thrilled that you expressed a deep love for one of my favorite horror movies, Basket Case.
Oscar Montoya 02:23
Oh my god, it's my favorite movie.
Mary Lou 02:26
Whoa.
Oscar Montoya 02:26
It's so great. I always say it's the unholy trinity of horror movies. All the best horror movies are directed by one man. His name is Frank Henenlotter, and it's Basket Case, Brain Damage and Frankenhooker,
Mary Lou 02:39
Oh my goodness.
Oscar Montoya 02:41
No notes, 10 out of 10.
Mary Lou 02:43
Consider me Frankenhooked. [laughter]
Oscar Montoya 02:46
It's so amazing. It's great.
Mary Lou 02:50
Is that a Frankenstein sex worker? Is she a good guy or is she a bad guy?
Oscar Montoya 02:56
She's a good guy. Well, I don't want to spoil anything...
Mary Lou 03:01
Don't!
Oscar Montoya 03:01
...but it's great. It's great and really cool and amazing and weird and cool.
Mary Lou 03:06
Okay,
Ross Bryant 03:06
Hard to say if they're good or bad. Frankenhooker is morally gray. It's a deeply complex text.
Mary Lou 03:12
Okay, love that much like Frankenstein itself, wow.
Oscar Montoya 03:16
It's a layered tome.
Ross Bryant 03:17
Yes, yes,
Mary Lou 03:17
I'm so glad it's obviously engaging in the scholarly discourse. That is so cool.
Ross Bryant 03:23
A core memory of mine is going into the old video store in my college town, and they had on display the Frankenhooker VHS case, which you could press the front, and it had a little audio chip inside it, and you could hear Frankenhooker saying "Wanna date?"
Mary Lou 03:38
Oh my gosh.
Oscar Montoya 03:40
"Wanna date?"
Paula and Mary Lou 03:41
Wow.
Mary Lou 03:41
I just Google imaged her, and she is my dream girl.
Oscar Montoya 03:45
She's iconic.
Mary Lou 03:46
Like, actually, actually, she's incredible.
Ross Bryant 03:50
Who knows what we may today? We may experience some 1980s pulp, latex monsters.
Mary Lou 03:56
Maybe we will.
Ross Bryant 03:57
Like Belial from Basket Case.
cuppycup 03:59
Today's title is "Frankenhooker." Whoa. [laughter]
Oscar Montoya 04:03
We're just gonna read the screenplay,
Mary Lou 04:05
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 04:06
But that's neither here nor there. That just kind of shows this sort of psychic space that we're all at. But who knows how this title will inspire us. Because, of course, we are going to take a title as submitted by our Patreon subscribers. If you'd like to submit titles, you can submit your own by joining our Patreon at pushtheroll.com. Cup, you've got our list of titles as submitted. Oscar, would you like to do the honors and roll a d100 to randomly select one of the titles off this list?
Oscar Montoya 04:35
I would love nothing more. Thank you so much. Oh my gosh, the pressure, the honor.
cuppycup 04:41
It feels like an honor, but it's really so Ross can deflect. [laughter]
Oscar Montoya 04:46
No blame it on me, like, let me be the villain of this podcast. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 04:52
Looks like you rolled a 37 cup. What is 37 on our list?
cuppycup 04:55
This is the first time in these recordings that I'm really worried about pronouncing the user's name. So this comes from Jeff Poupore? P-O-U-P-O-R-E.
Mary Lou 05:05
Sure. [French accent] Poupore! Yes, it's French. Poupore!
Paula Deming 05:10
I think it's "pow-poor."
cuppycup 05:12
If we say it enough ways, we'll get it right. One of them will...
Oscar Montoya 05:15
Yeah, I think so. I think,
Ross Bryant 05:16
That's right.
cuppycup 05:17
So Jeff P,
Mary Lou 05:18
There you go.
Ross Bryant 05:19
Jeff Poupore.
cuppycup 05:20
This is a good time to invite you to, you can add the pronunciation too when you fill these forms out, if you'd like. I'm stalling because the title is amazing and I'm excited about it.
Mary Lou 05:30
What is it?
cuppycup 05:31
The title today is "Horror at the Innsmouth Inn."
Mary Lou 05:38
Oh, a classic.
Paula Deming 05:40
"Horror at the Innsmouth Inn."
Ross Bryant 05:44
[MUSIC: melancholic guitar theme] The cosmos is a cyclopean infinity of chaos, infinite branching paths stretching off to vistas in the distance that will drive the mind mad. Shall we shrink in the face of all this? Or will we climb aboard the chaos and ride it to the end, letting chance guide the way? This is Push the Roll. We're rolling dice against your Patreon suggestions to create improvised Call of Cthulhu adventures in real time with themes of eldritch horror, the weird, the transhuman, the transmundane, the cyberpunk, the splatterpunk, the anything punk. We don't know until we roll. Anytime, anyplace, anything can happen when you push the roll.
Mary Lou 06:38
Now Innsmouth, is that where the like fish people are? That's the isn't that the classic Lovecraftian town? Yeah, in Maine, or where?
Ross Bryant 06:50
You should feel no obligation to pay homage to the actual HP Lovecraft story "Shadow Over Innsmouth" which is a tale about a far flung town that conceals a strange cult and also a bloodline that seems to affect most of its citizens, where they're like part fish.
cuppycup 07:10
If you head what northeast from Arkham, you end up in Innsmouth. I think that's the geography of it.
Oscar Montoya 07:17
Oh,
Mary Lou 07:18
Massachusetts, not Maine. I was confusing Stephen King, yeah, Lovecraft, I know they both like an "M"state. [laughter]
cuppycup 07:28
You know what? There could be multiple Innsmouths, right?
Mary Lou 07:31
Yeah, maybe this one is an Innsmouth, Maine?
Paula Deming 07:35
Yeah, okay.
Ross Bryant 07:36
Just outside of Derry. But speaking of Stephen King, I mean, obviously, we have here the evocation of an inn. And when I think of scary and haunted hotels, of course, the Overlook Hotel from The Shining is very top of mind.
cuppycup 07:50
Oh yeah.
Ross Bryant 07:51
So yeah, we got the "Horror at the Innsmouth Inn." Interesting. Hotels are, I think, what we've started to refer to online as liminal spaces.
Mary Lou 08:02
Oh, yeah! .
Ross Bryant 08:02
Do people know what I mean? Like when you walked into a hallway in a hotel, sometimes it feels like you're in a place that is betwixt and between.
Paula Deming 08:10
Yes,
Ross Bryant 08:12
That any given door might lead you down a garden of branching paths.
Mary Lou 08:16
The kids call it the back rooms.
cuppycup 08:21
Have you all heard a podcast called The Hotel? It kind of really leans into this idea of hotels being a liminal space. Each episode is a kind of a different story, of a new guest checking in, and the room always has some kind of, you know, new horror associated with it. It's actually really cool.
Paula Deming 08:36
No, but I did do some visual effects work on a TV show called Room 104, which is a very similar kind of premise.
Oscar Montoya 08:44
Whoa,
cuppycup 08:45
Excellent.
Mary Lou 08:46
I've listened to the Eagles "Hotel California."
Paula Deming 08:48
There you go.
Oscar Montoya 08:50
I've been to a hotel before,
Mary Lou 08:52
Yeah!
Ross Bryant 08:55
So we all have experience in this fruitful territory. Cool, but yeah, hotel horror is a unique kind of feeling and vibe. I like that. Now it may just be, Oscar, because you were, you were talking about those wonderful practical horror movies, but I like to find a way into these games in terms of eras. And there's nothing to me that's particularly evocative of an era necessarily, in this title. But I know as a kid, it was always very special to me to stay at a hotel. And just the way that hotels in my childhood, the atmosphere of them was kind of thrilling and a little bit creepy sometimes. So maybe inspired by our pre-show conversation, let's set this in the 80s. Let's set this in the 1980s.
Paula Deming 09:44
Yeah.
cuppycup 09:45
So we have free HBO at this inn?
Ross Bryant 09:48
That's right, yeah. It's not TV, it's HBO. [laughter] Yeah. So let's, let's set this in Innsmouth. And I love what you're saying, Mary Lou, there are many places all over this great land that bear many different names. This is Innsmouth, Maine.
Mary Lou 10:04
Yeah.
Oscar Montoya 10:07
Is there a year that you're thinking specifically?
Ross Bryant 10:10
Wow, No one ever holds me to this level of specificity. I love it.
cuppycup 10:15
He said he wanted to be the villain of the podcast.
Oscar Montoya 10:17
The 80s was 10 years.
Ross Bryant 10:20
You're right. No, you're right.
Mary Lou 10:21
Okay, yeah, late 80s or early 80s? That'll make a huge difference.
Paula Deming 10:25
Yeah,
Ross Bryant 10:25
The difference between 1980 and 1989 is vast.
Oscar Montoya 10:29
Are we talking disco, or is disco officially dead?
Ross Bryant 10:32
I think I want to err on the side of early 80s. So disco is still very much in the ether. In fact, let's set this in the year of Basket Case. It's 1982.
cuppycup 10:46
I have the advantage of having been alive at that time. [laughter] Just barely.
Ross Bryant 10:51
Here's another thing about inns and hotels is that they provide not only a way station for people on their way places, business people, families on the move. There are also sites, especially in the 80s, where people might gather for little niche conventions. This might be a place where you'd go to maybe do like a self-help seminar or an AA meeting, or a sales convention, or a sci fi convention, or people playing computer chess together.
Paula Deming 11:24
Could be something like, what were those? Like, ML- well, they didn't call them MLMs then, but there was a lot of, like, motivational cassette tape stuff?
Mary Lou 11:33
I was thinking like, Amway.
Paula Deming 11:35
That's what I'm thinking of. Amway, yes.
Ross Bryant 11:37
Oh, god yeah. The true horror: multi-level marketing.
Oscar Montoya 11:40
Yeah. [laughter]
cuppycup 11:42
Amway and Avon and Tupperware. Yeah.
Mary Lou 11:44
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 11:44
Yeah, I love it.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 11:46
I'm scrolling through our little- we have some modern pre-gens. There's a lot in here. Trying to see, oh, there is a sales person.
Ross Bryant 11:54
There you go.
Oscar Montoya 11:56
Ooh,
Paula Deming 11:56
That's kind of interesting.
Ross Bryant 11:59
Maybe think of something like Mary Kay.
Paula Deming 12:03
Yes,
Ross Bryant 12:04
This was such a big moment. I mean, especially if we're thinking in terms of Mary Kay and a lot of these MLMs were ways for women to try to establish these kind of entrepreneurial businesses.
Mary Lou 12:18
I was thinking, one of my favorite movies is Working Girl, but that's 1988
Ross Bryant 12:24
But that's still in the milieu, right?
Mary Lou 12:26
Yeah
Ross Bryant 12:27
This is a time of working girls. This is coming out of the heights of the "Women's Liberation Movement" of the 70s. So you have a lot of women entering the workforce. It's one of the reasons that the Satanic Panic was so prominent at this time, because so many women were entering the workforce that so many children were being put into daycares. The sort of cultural anxiety of this rupture in the traditional family structure was creating all these strange moments of paranoia.
Mary Lou 12:57
I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to go full Working Girl, because that's, like, one of my favorite movies ever. I saw it at a young age, and it, for some reason, was so formative. And I'm gonna be an accountant,
cuppycup 13:08
That's great.
Mary Lou 13:09
but she's like an unlikely accountant, right? She's like gum-popping, big hair, blue eyeshadow, but she's got a head for business and a body for sin. [laughter]
Oscar Montoya 13:23
Okay,
Mary Lou 13:25
A line from the movie, one of my favorite lines.
cuppycup 13:27
Oh, yes.
Ross Bryant 13:28
You know what? I'm now much like the Frankenhooker case, I'm kind of moving through my video store and maybe seeing a poster on the wall that just says "The Horror at Innsmouth Inn" and a big 80s photograph of like a hotel lit from within, with a light cascading out of its orifice-like windows, and maybe the silhouette of a woman with a valise at the doorway that says "She had a head for business and a body for sin."
Oscar Montoya 13:57
Yes, yes.
Mary Lou 13:57
Perfect, it's perfect.
cuppycup 14:00
Was it Melanie Griffith? Is that who played the character, Mary Lou?
Mary Lou 14:03
Yes.
cuppycup 14:04
It's sort of in my brain, but it's so long ago, too. At the same time.
Mary Lou 14:08
She was so young, but it was Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver.
cuppycup 14:13
It was like a movie I wasn't quite allowed to watch when it was popular.
Mary Lou 14:17
Yeah, I don't know why I got to watch it at such a young age, because it's like, I don't know, it's pretty sexy, but it's also like, a feminist masterpiece.
Ross Bryant 14:25
That's awesome.
Mary Lou 14:26
I love it. Sigourney Weaver, Harrison Ford, and Melanie Griffith at their best. Oh, and! Joan Cusack as the best friend. Oh, my goodness,
Oscar Montoya 14:35
Oh yes
Mary Lou 14:36
So good. At her Joan Cusack finest. Yeah. And Alec Baldwin. A young Alec Baldwin. That's the evil ex-boyfriend. It's stacked.
Paula Deming 14:44
Wow. This is a stacked cast.
Mary Lou 14:47
It is so good, you guys. Great movie.
Ross Bryant 14:50
So we've got Paula is cooking up this salesperson and we've also got Mary Lou cooking up this accountant. One of the many things I love about Call of Cthulhu is that you can play an accountant.
cuppycup 15:03
[laughing] Yes.
Oscar Montoya 15:04
Incredible.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 15:05
I think, as my salesperson, Lou Ann, but she'll go by Lou. I think, like, maybe I'm like, at kind of the top of the Mary Kay, or maybe we make up our own name of a company for legal purposes, I don't know, but, I'm at the top, kind of, of the pyramid, and so maybe I like to think at least that I'm very inspirational to everyone coming in, getting ready to sell, like, these eyeshadows, these blushes, these lipsticks. Ooh! And maybe we're about to release some perfume, you know, like, this is a new thing. This is a new venture we have. That's why we're doing this big like gathering is because we're gonna show all of you this new perfume, and you have to buy it first and store in your garage, but then you'll sell that to everyone else in your neighborhood.
Oscar Montoya 15:56
Ooh, that's incredible.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 15:57
My last name is, well, inspired by what we were just talking about. How about Griffith? Lou Ann Griffith,
Oscar Montoya 16:05
Oh,
cuppycup 16:05
That's good!
Paula Deming 16:06
I think I'm like 30, you know? Just old enough to be really inspirational to everybody else.
Oscar Montoya 16:13
Ooh, nice.
Paula Deming 16:14
And I have, well, I only have one kid, but she is enough to keep me busy. You know?
Ross Bryant 16:21
I'll offer that, of course, family relationships might be the way that our party knows each other. If somebody doesn't have an idea, maybe this daughter is one of you. You could very well be other people at this event, I want to say that, yes, this is not Mary Kay. This is a rival to Mary Kay, moving up fast in terms of multi-level marketing. It's called Beauty by Sylvie.
cuppycup 16:41
I love it.
Paula Deming 16:42
Beauty by Sylvie. And I have met Sylvie, and let me tell you, y'all, she is something else.
Oscar Montoya 16:49
Oh, so Sylvie is a person?
Ross Bryant 16:51
Yes, she might actually be here.
Paula Deming 16:53
I heard a rumor that that might be the big surprise they have planned for the end of the weekend.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 16:58
I think this is Val. Val is a sort of soft spoken. She's from down in New York. Maybe she's cousins with Lou Ann? I'm her younger cousin. I think she's only like 23. She's just graduated from the city college, and she, you know, wants to make a name for herself. She doesn't exactly want to be a mom just yet.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 17:28
Oh, well, it is about time for you to start, like, looking at getting married and stuff, though, you know.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 17:34
And everybody is saying that, my mom, your mom, my aunt, is also saying that. And I just, I know that someday I'll be a mom, of course, but I just, I have other things that I want to do first.
Ross Bryant 17:52
Fantastic. I love Lou Ann and Val.
cuppycup 17:54
Amazing.
Ross Bryant 17:55
Cup, is someone coming into focus for you?
cuppycup 17:57
I think so. So I am trying to go in a different direction with the convention. I'd like to play a student from Miskatonic University, a student of marketing, who is here to observe and report and maybe work on a little project for his class.
Ross Bryant 18:13
Oh, great.
cuppycup 18:14
So I think that this is Doogie Wilson.
Paula Deming 18:17
[laughing] Doogie?
Mary Lou 18:18
[stressing the -oo] Doogie.
cuppycup 18:19
And Doogie has kind of that, you know, that, like, bushy 1980s hairstyle, kind of like Napoleon Dynamite look to him,
Paula Deming 18:28
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
cuppycup 18:28
And he's got wire-rimmed glasses, and I have to imagine, he's got like, a polo shirt tucked into corduroy pants. He's, like, a very earnest kid, but also, like, super nosy. He wants to do really well on this project, because he has a 4.0 and he's not about to lose it because of Beauty by Sylvie. So yeah, he's just kind of monitoring, interviewing. He has, like, one of those really clunky 1980s cassette recorders with him. And yeah, he's here to research,
Ross Bryant 18:57
Wow. Yeah, you're here to research marketing. And what a beautiful representative of the power of the free market here in the Reagan 80s [laughter] Beauty by Sylvie. Oscar, are you cooking up somebody over there?
Oscar Montoya 19:12
Yeah, it's giving like Maniac Mansion, which is very funny for me. I kind of want to play an older character. So I know that in the early 80s there was a Tylenol recall, because, like, people died taking these pills, because I think that they were laced with cyanide in the pills.
Mary Lou 19:31
What?!
Ross Bryant 19:32
Yes,
Oscar Montoya 19:33
When you said the year, I was like, oh, that happened that year. So I was looking at the sheet, and I found pharmacist in there. And so I want to do a character that is a pharmacist that sold one of the capsules...
Ross Bryant 19:49
Oh, man,
Mary Lou 19:50
Oh, wow
Oscar Montoya 19:51
...to someone in Chicago. And I feel like he, as a way for him to get out of Chicago and away from the stress and the guilt of selling this medicine to someone...
cuppycup 20:04
Yeah, holy cow.
Oscar Montoya 20:06
...they decided to go on a nice getaway, as far away as he could with his budget, to Maine to just check out and relax. Unbeknownst to him, there's a huge convention, so that's weird. That's weird to him [laughter], because he wanted, like a solo retreat, sort of like a way to process everything, after all the insanity that was going around. I feel like he's older, maybe in his like, mid 50s, aviator glasses, like six two, thin framed. Yeah, kind of very sullen, like has not aged the best you know, kind of just very weary, and it shows all over his demeanor. Disheveled in appearance, incredibly intelligent at what he does. But, yeah, I think his name is like Gerson. Gerson Meyers.
Paula Deming 21:05
Gerson Meyers, love it.
cuppycup 21:07
It was so ingrained in my brain that we have to use Miskatonic University. But I do think, since we're in Maine, I'd like to pick a local college, that's also made up, but in the universe of HP Lovecraft. So I will do Kingsport College...
Ross Bryant 21:20
Oh, great.
cuppycup 21:21
...is actually where I go to school.
Ross Bryant 21:23
Attending the Kingsport School of Marketing. [laughing] Wonderful!
Lou Griffith (Paula) 21:28
I've heard good things about that program, you know?
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 21:30
Yeah, I have a 4.0 what could be better than that?
Lou Griffith (Paula) 21:33
Wow, that's really, that's real impressive.
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 21:37
Thank you. Yeah, I've finished all my electives, so now it's time to really dig into the marketing classes.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 21:42
Oh yeah. Well, hopefully you enjoy them, you know, otherwise, you're gonna have to change your major.
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 21:47
Oh god.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 21:47
I mean, don't question it. It'll be fine!
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 21:50
You know, I just got done taking the accounting program at CUNY Bronx.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 21:57
Actually, I would love, yeah, you two should know each other and like, talk or something you know, like, Val, this is, umm.
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 22:05
Doogie. Doogie, yeah, remember I introduced myself a minute ago?
Lou Griffith (Paula) 22:09
Oh my gosh, yeah, you did say your name. Val, Doogie. I'm sorry.
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 22:13
Pardon me, I'm sorry. You're in front of the bagels.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 22:18
Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry.
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 22:20
Do you mind? I'm sorry.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 22:22
We're so sorry. Bless your heart. You're just trying to get this breakfast, this free continental breakfast. Okay,
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 22:27
That's right, yes.
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 22:28
I'm so sorry. Do you would you like cream cheese, sir?
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 22:31
Oh, yes, yes. Sorry. You're right behind the cream cheese.
cuppycup 22:34
No, he's like, jumping in to try to prepare your bagel for you.
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 22:37
Oh!
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 22:37
Do you like it toasted on like medium, like three, or do you want me to crank it up to five? A well-done bagel?
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 22:43
I think I'm quite capable of...
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 22:45
Oh, okay,
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 22:47
...preparing a bagel for myself.
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 22:48
Right? No, no, of course.
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 22:49
Thank you.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 22:51
Doogie.
Ross Bryant 22:52
Wow. In this little scene, maybe took place by the breakfast table in the morning at the Innsmouth Inn. But now it's night time. Innsmouth, Maine. It's not too, too far from Bar Harbor, Maine. It's near the Acadia mountains in the Acadia forests. Huge stands of trees weighed down with greenery. Beautiful, crystal clear glacial lakes, a rocky shoreline with waves bursting and cascading over the gray rocks as gulls wheel overhead. And here in this little, little town, a picturesque town, not as thriving as Bar Harbor is, but much like Innsmouth, its sister town to the south in Massachusetts. This is a place where maybe people come to take in some rustic charm and beauty. A rather far flung place, and it has a historic inn. So as you drove here, past buildings with gambrel roofs and through forests and large puddles, perhaps seeing a deer through the trees as you drove the winding roads away from civilization, deeper and deeper into the forest.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 24:11
Wow, a deer. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 24:15
You come finally to the picturesque Innsmouth Inn, where you had this little interaction over the bagel table. The Beauty by Sylvie convention chose this as a beautiful and bucolic spot for the Northeast division kickoff convention. But now, as I said, the sun has dipped in the west. The clouds have rolled in off the ocean. If you look out the windows of the Innsmouth Inn, which are, of course, lit from within, with light beaming out of the big windows there on the second story, which, if you were standing out on the street would look almost like two eyes, as if the hotel itself has a face. And you, as you approached it walked through its mouth, so to speak, as you entered its door. And now suddenly, just see on its window a little spatter of rain, and suddenly the clouds that are rolling in off the ocean let loose a deluge of water. Each window is streaked with rain as just gouts of rain fall down on the Innsmouth Inn, but inside it's warm and cozy. In Blueberry Conference Room 1, the door is open. Maybe Gerson, if we can kind of put you in the hallway. Perhaps there was a reading room around the corner, where the proprietor of the Innsmouth Inn, an old woman with a tight Snow White bun, signed you in and gave you your physical metal key to your room. And maybe saw you over to a rocking chair there, but you overheard some commotion down the hallway, and as you approach the Blueberry Room, you can see the people that you met at breakfast, Lou Griffith, Val, and in the back haunting the back tables, Dougie Wilson, or I should say, Doogie Wilson,
cuppycup 26:09
Thank you.
Ross Bryant 26:11
Perhaps they're all at a circular table there, as they all enjoy a breakfast-for-dinner pancake supper, while a speaker wraps up on stage behind a large microphone at a lectern at the front of the conference room. This is Grace Sylvester. She's the top seller of the Northeastern region.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 26:32
I've heard her speak before, and y'all, she is something else. This is a real treat, a real treat.
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 26:39
I'm trying to record the speech.
Grace Sylvester (Ross) 26:41
[microphone tapping] Girls, you don't have to be looking like a model to look beautiful. If you believe in yourself, if you value yourself, if you have a positive mental attitude about yourself, people are just naturally attracted to you. And that's all that we're doing here with Sylvie, is encouraging people to express their natural beauty and their natural confidence. [slight applause] When you become a Sylvie's Professional Beauty Consultant, you are showing how good you can feel about how you are. And that's infectious! To have a positive mental attitude that radiates out from your spirit and radiates out from your perfect complexion, provided to you by the palette of wonderful Beauty by Sylvie foundations. [applause] You will learn which skincare products will make your skin radiant, to show the radiance of the soul within. You will learn which cosmetics bring out your best features, the ones that you love the most and want to share with the world. And you'll learn how to apply Sylvie's beauty products to yourself. So you won't just look terrific day by day. You'll look terrific every day, and be a walking proclamation for the Sylvie promise: that we bring the inside outside. [applause]
Oscar Montoya 28:11
While this speech is happening, I'm gonna try to do a Stealth check, if I can just try to sit at the conference room as quietly as I can. Is that okay?
Ross Bryant 28:21
And, yeah, roll your Stealth. And this is a game where you want to roll low.
Oscar Montoya 28:25
My Stealth is a 20.
Ross Bryant 28:28
Okay, so this is a risky move,
Oscar Montoya 28:31
[laughing] Yeah, exactly. Yes, so I rolled a 41, I believe. I bang my foot against a table and knock everything over. [laughter]
cuppycup 28:43
The stale bagels go tumbling to the ground.
Mary Lou 28:46
Go rolling! They go rolling.
Paula Deming 28:49
But pancakes!
Ross Bryant 28:51
Not only that, Gerson, I think Grace has gone to great pains to make this rather humble, scenic inn room with dark wood panels a carpeted floor, little sconces up above look a little bit more presentable. And there are tablecloths that she has provided. And on each table there's like a seashell with some potpourri in it. And you not just the bagels and the pancakes. I think your shoe catches on one of those tablecloths, and you drag the whole thing off, and [laughter] suddenly, there's a pancake syrup on the carpet, and every face in this room swivels around to look at you.
Oscar Montoya 29:35
Is it possible to not be aware that my foot got caught in the tablecloth. So as I'm walking over to a table, which I think I'm doing a really good job sneaking, the thing drags behind me like a train, and I only noticed what I did when everyone sort of stares at me.
Ross Bryant 29:52
Yeah, you hear a commotion from behind you, and suddenly you feel eyes upon you.
Oscar Montoya 29:57
Yeah, I hear the commotion, and I'm like, someone's making a lot of noise.
Mary Lou 30:00
Who is that? [laughter]
Ross Bryant 30:03
And the table that you've stopped at that you were maybe attempting to get to, where there was one seat open only has three other occupants in an empty chair. Those three people, of course, being Val Lou and Doogie.
cuppycup 30:14
And I like to think Doogie might be the only one in the room who didn't turn to look, because his hand is, he shot it up straight in the air once Grace had a pause in her speech.
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 30:24
Oh, I- I'm terribly sorry, everyone I, uh...
Oscar Montoya 30:29
I'm gonna try to roll for Charm. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 30:32
Oh yeah. Yeah. You can see a quizzical look on Grace's face, up on the lectern, clearly thrown as she's been interrupted as she was trying to wind up her speech.
Oscar Montoya 30:45
21. Okay! My Charm is, in fact, a 30.
Mary Lou 30:51
Hey.
Oscar Montoya 30:51
Wow,
Ross Bryant 30:52
Great. Okay, so that's a regular success. I would like to see how, can you give me a little taste of how Gerson Meyers, charms his way out of this situation?
Oscar Montoya 31:01
I realize all the faces are looking at me, and I look at the mess that I've done, and I'm like,
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 31:06
I'm so sorry.
Oscar Montoya 31:07
I sort of sort of scratch my disheveled hair, and I chuckle, and I say,
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 31:13
I didn't mean to interrupt such a beautiful speech. I was transfixed by your words. I'm sorry. Let me just clean up after myself,
Oscar Montoya 31:21
and I'll just try to pick as much as I can.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 31:25
Oh, honey, bless your heart. Just sit down with us. It's fine. Just listen to the end of the speech. You're so adorable. Keep going, Grace! Keep going.
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 31:32
Thank you.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 31:32
Doogie. Put your hand down. She's not done.
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 31:34
Oh, okay. Are they gonna take questions, though? Because I have a whole notebook full of them.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 31:38
No! Not in the middle of the speech.
Ross Bryant 31:42
Grace, up at the front of the room clocks this little interaction, and you have charmed the room, as it were, with your success and Grace kind of leans over the lectern. Is like,
Grace Sylvester (Ross) 31:54
Could you come up here, sir? Ladies, this isn't an accident. There are no accidents, only opportunities.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 32:06
Wow,
Grace Sylvester (Ross) 32:07
Could you come up here, sir? Let's give him a round of applause.
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 32:09
Oh
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 32:10
Yes.
Ross Bryant 32:10
And suddenly everyone's applauding for you. [applause]
Lou Griffith (Paula) 32:13
Go. Go on.
cuppycup 32:15
Doogie, very awkwardly, started to go up when, when she said, please come up here, sir. And then realizes they're applauding Gerson, and sits back down. [laughter]
Mary Lou 32:24
Oh, Doogie,
Ross Bryant 32:25
Yeah, it's pointing at himself like "Me? No? Oh yeah"
Oscar Montoya 32:31
I comply, slowly walking, sort of overwhelmed by all this attention, but I slowly make my way to the front.
Ross Bryant 32:38
Grace detaches the microphone from the stand on the lectern, and with a little squall of feedback, steps off the dais and walks towards you.
Grace Sylvester (Ross) 32:47
What is your name, sir?
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 32:50
Hello. My name is Gerson Meyers.
Grace Sylvester (Ross) 32:54
All right, everybody, let's give a warm round of applause for Gerson Meyers.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 32:58
Woo, Gerson!
Lou Griffith (Paula) 32:58
Hi, Gerson!
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 32:59
Oh, no, you're- Please. Please, don't. Thank you.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 33:02
He's so brave.
Grace Sylvester (Ross) 33:04
Now, what might be considered a setback, an embarrassing accident, in fact, is an opportunity for us all. I know a lot of us limit our vision. We don't believe that we can sell to anyone. That we can't just knock on our friends and neighbors and say, "Let me make you more beautiful. Let me help you show the beauty inside to the world." And I bet that most of you don't think that you could sell the beautiful Sylvie products to anyone that you meet. Someone like a Mr. Gerson Meyers. Now let me ask you this, Mr. Meyers, when was the last time someone told you you were beautiful?
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 33:43
[nervous laugh] I, uh, well, to be quite honest, not since my ex wife, uh, yeah. Fifteen years ago, I would say.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 33:58
Awww,
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 33:58
Bless his heart,
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 34:01
But I don't need to hear that at all. I don't know, it's not a quality that I put at the front of, I don't know, it's not a quality that I, that is paramount to my existence, in any way.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 34:15
"Paramount" big word.
Ross Bryant 34:17
Not paramount to your existence. Now what I'm hearing from Gerson here is, in so many words, is a "No. It's not paramount to my existence. It's not something I care about." But what else do we hear? "It's not something I've heard for 15 years." Well, I think, ladies, that Gerson deserves to hear it and deserves to hear it right now.
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 34:38
No, I don't think that that's a good idea, actually.
Paula Deming 34:40
Lou Ann stands up from the table and says,
Lou Griffith (Paula) 34:43
Gerson Meyers, you are beautiful!
Grace Sylvester (Ross) 34:45
Who said that?
Ross Bryant 34:47
And she looks,
Lou Griffith (Paula) 34:49
It's me!
Grace Sylvester (Ross) 34:49
Get up here!
Ross Bryant 34:51
And she's calling you up as well.
Paula Deming 34:54
Lou goes right on up. She's very confident.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 34:57
Oh, my goodness.
cuppycup 34:58
Of course, Doogie's hand was still up, so he thought she was calling on him. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 35:03
Now, sometimes when you're in sales, you cold call someone, but sometimes the universe cold calls you. And that's what Gerson is for us here today. We didn't knock on his door. He knocked down our door. So...
Ross Bryant 35:14
She looks down at your name tag. Everyone has a name tag.
Grace Sylvester (Ross) 35:17
So Lau...
Lou Griffith (Paula) 35:18
Lou, it's Lou.
Grace Sylvester (Ross) 35:20
Lou Griffin, make a sale.
Ross Bryant 35:23
And she hands you the mic, and she's challenging you to sell Gerson Meyer on Beauty by Sylvie,
Lou Griffith (Paula) 35:32
Mr. Meyers, you do deserve to feel beautiful and be told that you're beautiful. This is not just a thing for ladies, it's for everybody. And you know what? We have a great product line. Let me show you our moisturizers. It'll just, you know, the way your skin as we get older. You know, I'm 30 now, so I know all about being older. And you know, it dries out, it dehydrates, but all you need is to restore your natural glow. And because we can see that glow on the inside of you. Can't we everybody? We can see Gerson's natural glow on the inside. Let's bring it out to the outside! [applause]
Paula Deming 36:08
And I will pull, like, from my pocket a little sample of our moisturizer.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 36:13
[mic feedback] Just let me,
Paula Deming 36:13
and I'll squirt a little on the back of my hand, and then I'll, like...
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 36:16
Oh.
Paula Deming 36:16
...dab it on his face...
Gerson Meyers (Oscar) 36:17
Okay.
Paula Deming 36:18
...and like,
Lou Griffith (Paula) 36:19
Ah! Look at you. Don't you just feel better?
Ross Bryant 36:23
I'm just curious. Gerson, how does this make you feel?
Oscar Montoya 36:26
Incredibly uncomfortable. [laughter] There's a younger woman touching my face.
Ross Bryant 36:33
You're in a room with a lot of, I want to say there's, let's say 30 people in this room. Make a Spot Hidden for me, Gerson.
Oscar Montoya 36:42
Okay.
Ross Bryant 36:43
Because you're kind of in the center of this room, I imagine you're kind of feeling all these eyes on you. As you said, this is kind of an uncomfortable situation.
Oscar Montoya 36:53
Oh, wow. I rolled a 55 and I have a 60,
Mary Lou 36:57
Nice,
Ross Bryant 36:59
Wonderful. That is a regular success. I think probably all of us can notice to some extent that what's happening is performative. Both of you are being put on the spot, as it were.
Paula Deming 37:11
Yeah,
Ross Bryant 37:11
But you noticed something else, Gerson. There are windows along the wall here. The door that you came in feeds into this Blueberry Conference room. Blueberries are big in coastal Maine. The rain is battering the window, and you are the focal point to the room. So you're facing out in a way that no one else is, so that when the thunder cracks from outside [peal of thunder] and just, like a strobe light, illuminates the forest outside, for a moment. You're the only one who sees five human figures in the forest looking through the window.
Oscar Montoya 37:49
I see that. I take a moment, and then I focus back to Lou, sort of dabbing my face, and I sort of get like a flash cut of like the thunder-like flashing lights. It sort of reminds me of the photographer's light bulb going off. I see Lou sort of turn into a reporter pushing their microphone in my face, asking me about the deaths in the Tylenol sort of like travesty that happened. And they were trying to get my sort of opinion about the whole thing, and the reporter asking me, like, how does it feel to be an accessory to murder? And that sort of, that, sort of like flashes back to Lou, [another peal of thunder] and I slap her hand out of my face, [slap] and I sort of take a moment and look around, recognizing that I'm the focus, and I excuse myself, and I sort of quickly leave the room.
Ross Bryant 38:50
Okay, gosh, I didn't even realize how much guilt is knocking around in the head of Gerson Meyer, and how unsettling that is. How threadbare your mental state may be and how desperately you needed this retreat in the natural environment of Innsmouth, Maine. I'm sorry that this was so upsetting, but it sounds as though I might need you to make a Sanity roll.
Oscar Montoya 39:19
Uh, oh. What? [laughter]
cuppycup 39:21
Have you done?
Oscar Montoya 39:22
Wait, huh? [laughter] Oh, geez, Louise.
Paula Deming 39:29
Oh, good!
Oscar Montoya 39:30
[laughing] Okay, I rolled a 24 and my Sanity is a 25.
Everyone 39:35
[gasps of shock]
cuppycup 39:35
25?!
Mary Lou 39:36
Oh my god, your Sanity is so low. Oh, my God,
Paula Deming 39:40
Holy moly.
cuppycup 39:43
Oh. It fits your character, though, so well.
Ross Bryant 39:45
That tells me a lot about Gerson Meyers. I think that the Tylenol murders, a real thing where poison was put into bottles of Tylenol and killed people in the Chicago area, for real. One of these came from your shop, and the guilt has been weighing on you. God, if this can fall through the cracks in what, in what way are you responsible? And suddenly you were thrown back to reporters thrusting microphones in your face, flash bulbs going off, your picture appearing in the Chicago Sun Times with the headline, "Local pharmacist implicated. Swears innocence." But you rolled under your Sanity. You succeeded. It's okay. You're only gonna lose one point of Sanity.
Oscar Montoya 40:27
[laughing] Okay.
cuppycup 40:30
You can lose four more until you completely lose it.
Paula Deming 40:33
Oh my gosh, I cannot..
Oscar Montoya 40:35
Wait, really 20 is when I go cuckoo?
cuppycup 40:38
Because it started so low. Yeah.
Ross Bryant 40:39
Here's the thing about this game, is that if you lose a fifth of your starting sanity in one day, you are, the exact verbiage? Remind me, it's...
cuppycup 40:49
Indefinite insanity.
Ross Bryant 40:51
Thank you. I always, always blink on this. You are indefinitely insane. But don't worry. But don't worry.
Oscar Montoya 40:58
It makes sense with the story, I guess.
Ross Bryant 41:00
Don't worry, Gerson, that's not going to happen. [laughter] This is a relaxing and beautiful place, and that was a very intense feeling, and perhaps you were able to rationalize and push down the brief image of not only the flashback to the troubling invasion of your privacy by the press when those poor people met their ends. But also, if you're able to totally compartmentalize those people that you saw out in the woods, they probably weren't even there. It was probably just the trees.
Oscar Montoya 41:32
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 41:33
Gerson, you're walking back to your room, you said?
Oscar Montoya 41:35
Yes.
Ross Bryant 41:36
Great. So we'll touch base with you in a moment. But um, Grace now turns to you, Lou,
Lou Griffith (Paula) 41:47
Well, I mean, it's okay if not everyone is going to be receptive. And that's not a reflection on the individual sales person, right? [awkward applause]
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 42:03
I'll buy, I'll buy some! I'll buy it.
Ross Bryant 42:06
And you can see Grace winding up to really, like, admonish and kind of humiliate you in front of this room more than you already have been. But suddenly Doogie breaks in. She whips over, like,
Grace Sylvester (Ross) 42:18
Excuse me?
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 42:20
I'll buy some. When she said that he looked beautiful, it really, it resonated with me, because no one's ever told me that. And I want to buy some. I want to be beautiful.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 42:30
Wow. Lou made a sale.
Ross Bryant 42:32
I haven't really described Grace, but she's wearing a pink power suit with the most enormous shoulder pads you've ever seen. She is just, she is shaped like a Dorito, and she [laughter]
cuppycup 42:43
Incredible.
Ross Bryant 42:45
And the judgmental look on her face when she's looking at you, Lou as Doogie intervenes, turns into a bright, shining smile, and she turns to the group with the microphone after taking it out of your hand...
Paula Deming 42:56
Yeah,
Ross Bryant 42:56
...rather aggressively, almost like wrestling it out of your hand.
Grace Sylvester (Ross) 43:00
You see? You see? We never admit failure. When someone says "No," it's only the opportunity to move to the next "Yes," and here we go. Someone was resistant, resistant to a wonderful pitch,
Lou Griffith (Paula) 43:16
Oh, thank you.
Ross Bryant 43:17
You can see in her eyes that she's saying that a little bit pointedly,
Grace Sylvester (Ross) 43:22
But still, you managed to close a deal anyway. Let's give it up for Low Griffith!
Lou Griffith (Paula) 43:29
It's Lou, [laughter] thank you everyone,
Paula Deming 43:32
And as people are hopefully clapping, I will go back to my tables.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 43:37
Doogie, thank you. Val, I just I've never had that happen before. Usually I sell so much of this product, I just it's really unusual. Should we go? I feel like we should go talk to that guy and find out what, why would he say "No" to me!
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 43:50
You were great. You were great. He's just shy.
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 43:55
And I meant what I said. It wasn't just because you were the only two who talked to me at the bagel table this morning. It was really good, your sales pitch. I'm in Principles of Personal Selling and we've had to do demonstrations, and it was the best one I've ever seen, I think.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 44:08
Oh, well, thank you.
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 44:10
And I have acne, so I really want the product.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 44:14
I think that man was just overwhelmed and a little shy.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 44:18
Well, maybe when we're done here, I think we just go. We just go, we find him, and I think we just ask him, like, what was wrong with my sales pitch? Because normally it works, and I think I'm gonna have to, I'm not gonna be able to let this go...
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 44:32
Oh, Lou.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 44:32
...I'm just telling everybody right now.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 44:34
No, forget about him. He's no one.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 44:37
All right.
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 44:38
And my sales pitch to him to make his bagel failed too. I think he's just completely got a wall up. He just won't buy anything.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 44:46
You know what? I don't back down from a challenge. And we are gonna sell him moisturizer by the end of this weekend. And Doogie here,
Paula Deming 44:52
and I'll like, reach into my little like, caboodle that I have with me, then open it up and give like, pull out five samples of moisturizer.
Lou Griffith (Paula) 44:55
You just have these. You just have these, son, all right?
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 45:05
oh, my God, these samples are free?
Lou Griffith (Paula) 45:07
Yeah, of course they are. They're samples.
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 45:09
Thank you. Thank you.
cuppycup 45:11
He's gonna start applying them immediately.
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 45:14
Okay, don't put too much on, Doogie. You don't want to clog your pores.
cuppycup 45:17
[laughing] He looks like a full clown.
Ross Bryant 45:23
Oh, boy. So you're now getting a full beat. You're getting your face all [laughter]
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 45:29
Here, yes, um, yeah,
Oscar Montoya 45:31
That's not moisturizer. That's foundation.
Doogie Wilson (cuppycup) 45:35
Miss Jenson, was it? Do you have, like, a compact or something, a mirror?
Val Jansson (Mary Lou) 45:39
Of course.
Mary Lou 45:40
And Val starts to like, yeah, do your makeup
cuppycup 45:44
Perfect. [laughing]
Ross Bryant 45:46
At this moment, maybe Grace is kind of encouraging people to go off into little breakout groups where they can talk amongst themselves, share strategies. But of course, I want to move the focus to Gerson. You're headed back to your room, you said?
Oscar Montoya 45:58
Yes, I'm going back to the, I'm like, fumbling with my keys, my hands visibly shaking. I'm determined to just look at the room that I'm staying and open that door and sleep for as long as I can.
Ross Bryant 46:14
Okay, you pass that front desk, the woman with the white hair and the tight bun just kind of nods at you as you go by. And you go up stairs, you're headed to room 241, and you turn the corner down a long hallway. There are paintings at intervals on the hallway, and you know you're down at the end.
Oscar Montoya 46:35
Is it empty? What's the...
Ross Bryant 46:38
Yeah, it's empty.
Oscar Montoya 46:39
Nothing's happening there.
Ross Bryant 46:40
It's just a hallway,
Oscar Montoya 46:41
Okay,
Ross Bryant 46:42
But you can make a Spot Hidden for me if you want to see if there's anything.
Oscar Montoya 46:45
Sure.
Ross Bryant 46:45
If you're looking.
Oscar Montoya 46:47
I just don't want there to be, I'm like, discombobulated, visibly, and that's really not something that I've allowed people to sort of see. I'm like, broken, I'm like, starting to unravel, and I think seeing other people there will add to that unraveling. So I want to make sure I'm...
Ross Bryant 47:10
There's a smell of wood, of carpet, of underlying dust, kind of due to the astringent smell of rooms that maybe haven't been stayed in for a long time. You can tell that maybe this hotel is seasonal, and it probably lays vacant a good portion of the year. And for the first time, you have the sense of this being a sort of a relic that you're staying in.
Oscar Montoya 47:34
Yeah, just make it to my to the door, and I try to unlock the door, open the door, try to get in.
Ross Bryant 47:39
Your key finds the lock and opens up.
Oscar Montoya 47:44
I look at the, what does the room look like?
Ross Bryant 47:49
There's a beige carpet on the floor, a bed with kind of brass posts. This is an old place, a scenic inn. It's playing up its rustic charm. There is a painting on the wall of a woodland scene, tall trees, boulders. It looks rather like the landscape around the inn. There's a rotary telephone on a night stand and a little lamp. And there's a door leading into a combination closet and bathroom with porcelain fixtures and a little silver tap. The toilet is so old, it's one of those ones where it's got a pull string to flush.
Oscar Montoya 48:34
I move over to the window and I open the curtains, and I'm trying to, without even thinking about it, I am trying to pinpoint where I saw these five figures, if I can see them from the viewpoint of my room.
Ross Bryant 48:52
Okay, you're now facing an altogether different direction from the Blueberry Conference Room. When you open the window, instantly, you're spattered with rain. It's coming down so hard still. And moist mist wafts into the room. You smell even the sea. The touch of the sea is in the breeze, you're so close to the coast.
Oscar Montoya 49:13
It's Maine, after all.
Ross Bryant 49:15
It's Maine, after all, and you smell foliage as well. It's so dark. It's kind of hard to see anything. This is another time where you might want to do a Spot Hidden.
Oscar Montoya 49:25
I rolled a 25 and Spot Hidden is a 60.
Mary Lou 49:29
Nice. That's a hard success.
Ross Bryant 49:34
You don't see anything out there, really. The parking is around the way there, and the lot is rather small. You're kind of looking into the forest, and it goes up a hill. You're seeing the branches waving under the pelting rain. There's another low rumble of thunder, and that's when you see him. It looks like a man down there. It's a hard success. You can tell he's dressed in what looks like white linen shirt, sort of dungarees. He's facing away from you, just looking into the forest, standing very still as you peer closer. That is when suddenly his head just turns slowly around and meets your gaze, looks back at you. And in the ambient light of the lamp in your room, you can see the makeup running off of his face in the rain. Roll Sanity for me. [laughter]
Oscar Montoya 50:35
Oh my gosh. 32.
Paula Deming 50:40
We're gonna lose Gerson so fast. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 50:44
I mean, this is a, things are not looking great for our buddy Garson
Mary Lou 50:48
Gerson.
cuppycup 50:50
Well, indefinite insanity, you can still hang in there. It's just gonna be a rough ride.
Paula Deming 50:54
You can still, yeah, you're not out of the game. You're just, uh...
Ross Bryant 50:57
That's right.
Paula Deming 50:58
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 50:59
I'm afraid you're losing two more points of sanity.
Oscar Montoya 51:01
[laughing] Okay.
Ross Bryant 51:03
When you lose sanity, it always comes with an involuntary reaction. You already kind of improvised that last time when you ran out of the room. How do you think that manifests this time? It might be like you screaming or...
Oscar Montoya 51:16
Okay, so what I just saw is someone turning around and makeup sort of,
Ross Bryant 51:21
Yeah, you're seeing makeup cascading off their face. The ruby red lipstick on his mouth is like dripping down, and it's sort of a strange frown. It looks like dark eyeshadow is cascading off of each eye. The moisture of the rain is washing some dusky foundation off, and you can see the pallor of the skin underneath is like the pallor of a fish's belly.
Oscar Montoya 51:44
Oh my gosh. Okay, yes, yes, yes. So yes, all of that, like dripping gooey stuff, like, not like physically knocks me back away from the window, the open window and the open curtain. There's images of like powders, dusts, just like stuff that I use every time. But then of death, of just like cadavers in my mind, not really placing a single person just like images of like death.
Ross Bryant 52:22
That underlying musty smell, you now realize is concealing a smell of death. That may be part of why your gorge is rising right now.
Oscar Montoya 52:33
Yes. And sort of that makes me nauseous, and I run to the bathroom and I vomit.
Ross Bryant 52:39
You vomit into the toilet,
Oscar Montoya 52:41
Yes.
Ross Bryant 52:41
and as you're heaving there, your hand gropes over to the sink. And you didn't really unpack much, but you've knocked something into the sink that you don't remember being there.
Oscar Montoya 52:54
I look up to see.
Ross Bryant 52:57
The bottle of Tylenol with one or two pills, kind of...
Paula Deming 53:01
Ross!
Ross Bryant 53:01
...circling the drain and going down the sink.
cuppycup 53:07
You monster.