Transcript - Episode 27: The Butterfly Factory (Part 2)
Audio for The Butterfly Factory Part 2
The Butterfly Factory Part 2
Wed, Feb 11, 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
This actually may be a halfway decent time to get one of those secondary titles, since it is kind of a transitional moment.
cuppycup 00:09
Say the words, Ross. You got to say the words. Are you pushing the roll?
Ross Bryant 00:12
Yeah. Let's push the roll, so to speak, yeah. [laughter] Now that we've met our characters and their elements and they seem to be set on their course. Yeah, let's push the roll to see how we can throw a wrench into these well-oiled works.
cuppycup 00:33
Who wants to roll the second one?
Ross Bryant 00:35
I'd be happy to if no one else will,
cuppycup 00:37
You're gonna do it, Ross?
Paula Deming 00:38
You do it, Ross. You take responsibility.
Nic Rosenberg 00:41
Yeah.
cuppycup 00:41
Yeah, for once,
Paula Deming 00:42
Yeah, for once in your life.
Ross Bryant 00:43
For once in my damn life! 82.
cuppycup 00:45
Oh, man, I gotta scroll.
Nic Rosenberg 00:47
Wow.
Ross Bryant 00:48
Yes, give us the title...
cuppycup 00:49
Okay.
Ross Bryant 00:50
...that I will either incorporate seamlessly into our story so far or totally ignore.
cuppycup 00:55
Oh yeah. This one's no problem for you. All right. This is,
Ross Bryant 00:58
Hey, don't say that! Say it's hard. Say "How will he do it?"
Paula Deming 01:02
Then it'll be more impressive when he does it.
Nic Rosenberg 01:05
Lower expectations. Come on!
cuppycup 01:07
Yeah. I can't wait to see how you flash your skill with this one. It comes from user Helge. Helge - H. E. L. G. E.
Paula Deming 01:15
I don't know Helge, but hello, Helge.
Nic Rosenberg 01:17
Thank you, Helge.
Ross Bryant 01:19
Hello, Helge,
cuppycup 01:21
And the title is "Rolling Past Midnight."
Paula Deming 01:25
Ooh.
Ross Bryant 01:27
I mean, [chuckling] it's kind of- it's quite natural.
cuppycup 01:31
Do you need a re-roll for a harder one?
Ross Bryant 01:34
[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.
Ross Bryant 02:25
[bong. bong. bong.] Of course, you can hear the clock striking midnight as your taxi pulls up to the address on the flyer, the ticket, the key into the door of the Butterfly Factory. [car doors closing] See a huge brownstone there in front of you. This appears to be rather anonymous, this building. None of you have really remarkably noticed it before, except perhaps Allen Clay, who has seen it in black and white in a particular photograph. You have left Bruno Banks in the dust and are moving to something a little more outre. A little more now. A little more next. A little more groovy, perhaps? Yes, the door is right in front of you up a flight of stairs.
Nic Rosenberg 02:40
Willow is up those stairs and eagerly trying the handle and pushing the door open.
Ross Bryant 03:42
It opens at your touch, and you are kind of now in a little, kind of foyer with another door in front of you.
Willow (Nic) 03:51
We're expected. This is so cool.
cuppycup 03:54
And I think Velvet is going to reach out and stop Margot like he has something important to say.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 03:59
Oh.
cuppycup 03:59
And he's gonna turn the ticket over in his hand and say,
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 04:02
Look, Margo, this isn't a ticket. It's a prophecy.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 04:07
What?
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 04:08
Admit one. Admit one. But it doesn't say anything about leaving. Did you notice that? If you lose it, you might wake up married. Just look out is all I'm saying.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 04:21
Okay. Thanks, I guess? Um...
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 04:26
It's called matchbox poetry. I'm just kind of trying to-
Margot Marceau (Paula) 04:29
Yeah,
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 04:29
Okay, yeah.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 04:30
Definitely. No no, no, no. That was- it was really good. It was really good. Yeah, I feel inspired to have a totally wild, mysterious night.
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 04:41
Groovy.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 04:43
Yeah,
Paula Deming 04:44
Turning to Allen Clay, if he's there.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 04:47
Do you know what he is talking about?
Allen Clay (Brennan) 04:49
Oh, Velvet?
Margot Marceau (Paula) 04:51
Yeah.
Allen Clay (Brennan) 04:52
Well, Velvet, you know, it's like the name suggests, Velvet Bloom. I think about a flower made of fabric. Something beautiful, but ultimately artificial.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 05:05
Oh, I get it. Yeah, groovy. [laughs with Allen]
cuppycup 05:11
Not only the insult. He's a better poet than me. [laughter]
Allen Clay (Brennan) 05:15
Margo, you've been working for Bruno for some time. Have you ever seen Bruno come by this little establishment here?
Margot Marceau (Paula) 05:25
No, no, I haven't. I actually had never even heard of Ivy Wilde until I was given this invitation to the party tonight. Um, Bruno... [sighs] Bruno likes when people come to him. You know what I mean?
Allen Clay (Brennan) 05:40
No, absolutely,
Margot Marceau (Paula) 05:41
Yeah. He doesn't really go to other people. He doesn't really offer anything to other people. He's really about saying what he wants to say, and then hoping that all the people will come to him. And they usually do.
Allen Clay (Brennan) 05:56
Do they?
Margot Marceau (Paula) 05:58
Mmhmm.
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 05:59
He's earned that. He's a genius.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 06:01
Oh, um, yeah. You know, yeah, he's a genius. Um. And sometimes geniuses are difficult [laughs], but that's fine, because I'm learning so much, so much from him. Yeah.
Allen Clay (Brennan) 06:18
That's great.
Nic Rosenberg 06:20
Willow’s head pops out from the door.
Willow (Nic) 06:21
I'm not waiting for you guys, so um, let's go.
Ross Bryant 06:26
Great, and in you go. As I said, it was unlocked. You've kind of walked through the foyer, and now this conversation takes place through the foyer and now into the landing. There you're facing sort of a staircase going up. There's a hallway going back deeper into the building. There's doors on either side of you leading into parlor rooms. And this feels as though you've walked back in time. This whole space is appointed like a Victorian manor of brownstone. It looks like it's almost like stuck in time. There's stained glass and Tiffany lamps all over the place. The carpet is heavy and crimson. Wood paneling adorns the staircase and the walls. There are paintings on the walls, but these are the one feature that do not appear to be of that particular era. They're kind of hard to discern from this vantage point, and suddenly, a door underneath the staircase opens up and a figure walks out in a dark coat and a sharp, pointed Van Dyke beard. Couple of you have met this person before. He walks out and he's trailing a little leather rope, and he kind of walks towards you. It looks like a leash. And as he walks towards you, the leash terminates, and you notice that it's on a man, around his neck, and this man is walking on his knees towards you. He is dressed all in black. His hair is completely slicked back. He has a face of white makeup and really severe blush on. And the man is walking him towards you like a dog.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 08:17
Oh, artist. Thank you for the invitation here, sir and the taxi the other day.
Man with Van Dyke Beard (Ross) 08:30
Ah yes, the budding artist.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 08:35
No one's actually ever called me an artist before.
Man with Van Dyke Beard (Ross) 08:39
And our accomplished poet, I see as well.
Ross Bryant 08:41
He gives a little bow to you, Velvet Bloom.
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 08:46
That's me.
cuppycup 08:48
To everyone else. (laughter)
Margot Marceau (Paula) 08:53
We assumed, Velvet.
Ross Bryant 08:57
And he looks over at-
Willow (Nic) 08:58
I love this.
Ross Bryant 08:59
-you Willow. And is like,
Man with Van Dyke Beard (Ross) 09:01
I'm sorry you were saying?
Willow (Nic) 09:02
Oh, I just, I love what you're doing with this whole, um...
Nic Rosenberg 09:06
And she's gesturing towards the guy on the leash.
Willow (Nic) 09:08
I saw something exactly like this at one of Truman Capote's parties.
Man with Van Dyke Beard (Ross) 09:12
Hmm. Ah yes, Miss Wilde has had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Capote as well. A very charming gentleman, but not nearly as charming as some others.
Ross Bryant 09:23
He reaches out his hand, which is gloved, to take yours to kind of like give it a chivalric kiss on the back.
Nic Rosenberg 09:31
Ah, straight into this, yeah. Like almost into his face, offered the hand,
Man with Van Dyke Beard (Ross) 09:37
And you, sir, I... I don't recall giving you your invitation, either. Now I've seen Miss Willow's work, of course. May I see your ticket, sir?
Allen Clay (Brennan) 09:52
My ticket?
Man with Van Dyke Beard (Ross) 09:53
Yes.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 09:53
And I'll produce the ticket that I got from my friend Curtis. Produce it and say,
Allen Clay (Brennan) 10:01
Here you are my friend.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 10:02
And I'll look at the guy on the leash, and I'll go,
Allen Clay (Brennan) 10:07
How you doing, chief? Nice to meet you. I'm Allen.
Ross Bryant 10:14
He looks up at you and just sort of paws at his face like a cat and gives a little like [purring noise]
Margot Marceau (Paula) 10:19
[laughing ] Mmm, performance art.
Man with Van Dyke Beard (Ross) 10:25
Yes, I know you've come from Mr. Banks's, and I think some of you have worked there as well.
Ross Bryant 10:31
He says, looking at you, Margot.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 10:34
Yes, for three years as Mr. Banks's first assistant.
Man with Van Dyke Beard (Ross) 10:41
I think you will find the proceedings this evening to be far newer, far more visceral, far more experiential. Please give your ticket to Sebastian.
Ross Bryant 10:57
And the little fellow on the leash just opens his mouth. [laughter]
Nic Rosenberg 11:02
Willow looks at him and goes,
Willow (Nic) 11:04
Puppy want a treat?
Nic Rosenberg 11:06
And then shoves the thing in his mouth.
cuppycup 11:11
Velvet will bend down and kind of pat him on the head like a dog and put it in his mouth and whisper in his ear,
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 11:19
A polite leash asks before it strangles.
Paula Deming 11:25
Yeah. Margot is like,
Margot Marceau (Paula) 11:27
I'm ready. I'm ready for what's next. That's what's important. What's next.
Paula Deming 11:32
And we'll gently put her ticket in Sebastian's mouth.
Ross Bryant 11:38
He's kind of inspecting your ticket, Allen Clay, looking it over front and back. And, just maintaining eye contact with you, slips it into Sebastian's mouth. It's like
Man with Van Dyke Beard (Ross) 11:49
Wonderful. Right this way, please.
Ross Bryant 11:53
And with a similar gesture with which he beckoned you into the taxi, Margot, he's beckoning you through the door underneath the stairs.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 12:02
I'll turn to the man in the Van Dyke and tip my head towards the dog man and go,
Allen Clay (Brennan) 12:09
So did you find him in central casting?
Man with Van Dyke Beard (Ross) 12:13
Oh. Oh, Mr... Your name, sir?
Allen Clay (Brennan) 12:20
Clay.
Man with Van Dyke Beard (Ross) 12:22
Yes, Mr. Clay. It would not be fair to say I found him at any casting. It would rather be more fair to say he found himself.
Ross Bryant 12:29
And again, gesture down the stairs.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 12:33
In Allen's head, he's just thinking to himself, this is only acceptable, like, this weird- these two men engaging in this weird puppy play. It seems likely that this is a communist perversion, or unless the dog guy is being financially exploited to be here, in which case, this is a-okay. [laughter] If he's doing it for free, then this is communism,
Ross Bryant 13:02
Yes.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 13:02
And it's perverted. So Allen is like fingers are twitching thinking about going to the small pearl handled revolver hidden on his person.
Ross Bryant 13:13
Someone's added something to their inventory, I see. [laughter] Wonderful. People can make Spot Hiddens if you're making your way through the door.
Nic Rosenberg 13:26
Oh, hell yeah.
Paula Deming 13:27
Oh yeah, definitely looking around, trying to observe... everything.
Ross Bryant 13:33
Great.
Paula Deming 13:36
I got a hard success, a 24 under 50.
Nic Rosenberg 13:42
Willow got a regular success. 24 under 35.
cuppycup 13:48
An exact success, not that there's any benefit for that, but 45 over 45.
Ross Bryant 13:53
So we got a couple of regulars and a hard. So you notice, Velvet, that the sort of like Victorian nature of all this decor around here, it's very finely worked and done, and you begin to notice that there are many like terminal heads, so to speak, on the top of plinths and on the banisters. They are worked into sort of humanoid faces at the end of the banister looming up over the top of chairs. A lot of the woodwork has this sort of like circuitous shape that terminates in a face. Willow, you recognize this as rather reminiscent of the ironwork in your studio.
cuppycup 14:44
Ross, if I could just ask, is there any like anything small that I could potentially steal, that Velvet could steal to use in his poetry, with a face on it?
Ross Bryant 14:57
Yeah, absolutely. You know, there's like a little bowl, a little pewter bowl, on a table nearby. And as you're moving by, you notice that it has a tiny little spoon in it with a little face on the end. It looks like it's a little cup full of star anise seeds and little candies that you could scoop into your mouth as a sort of breath and just a nice little pop of licorice flavor.
cuppycup 15:27
Oh, yeah.
Ross Bryant 15:28
But you could, you could spirit that into your pocket. That is, of course, if you make a Sleight of Hand roll.
Nic Rosenberg 15:32
Oh, please fail. Please fail.
cuppycup 15:35
Right. And that's his cover. He is going to take some mints and then try to put in his pocket.
Ross Bryant 15:41
Yeah, if you don't want to be noticed,
cuppycup 15:42
Okay, I will fail this real quick.
Nic Rosenberg 15:46
Come on, yeah.
cuppycup 15:47
Oh, wow, yeah, I'm not going to push that, because it's 89 over 10.
Paula Deming 15:53
Oof, oof.
Ross Bryant 15:55
89 over 10? Okay, great.
cuppycup 15:57
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 15:59
Don't worry, nobody saw you.
cuppycup 16:01
Hmm.
Nic Rosenberg 16:02
I don't know about that. Okay, and actually, Ross, you know, life is short, fingers crossed, so I'm gonna spend 17 luck to get this down to an extreme success, just for funsies.
cuppycup 16:14
Oh,
Paula Deming 16:17
Ooooh!
Ross Bryant 16:18
Okay, um, well, I'll say for the hard success, you get a little gander at those paintings.
Nic Rosenberg 16:25
Mmhm, yes,
Ross Bryant 16:26
As I said, they are unlike the rest of the decor and that these seem to be of no, you barely have a reference point for these. They're like geometric patterns and shapes, curlicues, lines that taper off and squiggle off. It looks not so much like the type of artwork that you'd expect in a Victorian setting, but rather like the artwork that you're familiar with in the world of Bruno Banks, because it looks almost industrial, sharp, jagged lines.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 17:01
What a fascinating juxtaposition.
Ross Bryant 17:03
Yes. And Willow with that extreme success. You look at all this stuff on these paintings and realize that it is reminiscent of ultra-modern musical notation,
Nic Rosenberg 17:21
Huh.
Ross Bryant 17:21
Of like programmatic Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis-esque music. And in fact, when you look at it with your extreme success that you are so lucky to get, [laughter] it's as if you hear it in your head. It's as if you can almost pick out the, I wouldn't say melody, but the tone, the deep and potent tone that is being described. Your luck has given you momentary synesthesia, and for a moment you hear the painting. Can you roll Sanity for me?
Nic Rosenberg 18:02
Oh, thank goodness you asked. I would love to.
Paula Deming 18:05
Oh, my God,
Brennan Lee Mulligan 18:06
It's on. It's on!
Paula Deming 18:08
Oh, you spent 17 points of luck. I'm gonna make you roll Sanity.
Nic Rosenberg 18:13
Oh, we love it, though. Ah, boo, I passed with a 22. [laughing]
Ross Bryant 18:17
That's fine. You take 1 point of Sanity loss, Willow. Just 1.
Nic Rosenberg 18:22
Okay.
Willow (Nic) 18:24
Far out.
Ross Bryant 18:26
Yeah. You have a sense of the way that sound resonates in the air. And you almost feel like pushed against by this painting or drawing, engraving, whatever it is. What it's describing almost resolves in the air between you and it, and for a moment, you're not only hearing it, but you can almost see it. And it is that sort of like synesthetic psychedelic experience that sort of diminishes your sanity for a moment, just a moment, as you're suddenly aware of the potential of sensation. You were promised, a visceral experience, and it's already begun.
Nic Rosenberg 19:08
And I think Willow takes this as some sort of sign that she is somehow chosen, or her, you know, her artistic sensibility is so heightened and refined that she is experiencing something that not many other people are privy to, and so I think that you know her normal haughtiness and obliviousness ticks up with that Sanity loss.
Ross Bryant 19:30
And great, are we all going down the stairs?
Paula Deming 19:33
Yes,
Ross Bryant 19:34
Of course, it's stairs. You walk through a door that encloses you in near total darkness. You can hear Sebastian sort of thump thumping down the stairs in front of you, and as you go down, down further than you think you should be going down in such a place, this brownstone sits above quite a recess. You go down and you're beginning to hear a low drone of one of those droning instruments, like a sitar or a hurdy gurdy, is sort of like wafting up at you. You come out of this little stairwell, and you've opened up into a space that looks not unlike the club that you left, sort of Victoriana style. This brownstone apparently seemed to have like a little subterranean ballroom or dance floor. Maybe society gatherings were held here in years gone by. It's a rather large open space. There are tables on either side, mirrors, there's a big curtain of red velvet that drapes on the back walls. You kind of emerge from the stairs. Looks like there's a little bar, and there are people walking around, some of whom you recognize from "the scene" and there is someone sitting at the far end by the curtain, draped in fabric. You can't see any of their features, but they are working this droning instrument that looks sort of like a sitar, but it has like a little crank. It's no instrument you've ever seen before, but it's creating a sitar-esque like hum that reverberates in the room.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 21:09
Is there any alcohol anywhere?
Ross Bryant 21:13
There's a bar right to your left, yeah.
Willow (Nic) 21:16
Margot...
Margot Marceau (Paula) 21:17
I'm just so nervous, and I really want to be open to experiencing the new thing, because I want to be the new thing, but I feel like I need a little... great.
Paula Deming 21:29
Margot will go over there and get a drink.
Ross Bryant 21:32
Great. There is a young man tending the bar, and he has a sort of, like, Prince Valiant-esque haircut. He has no shirt on and, rather like, and there is a collar on him as well, sort of connecting him onto a little bracket on the wall.
Bartender (Ross) 21:57
What's your pleasure, madam? What is your pleasure?
Margot Marceau (Paula) 22:00
[To herself] Um, I'm an artist. I can prove it. [To the bartender] I'll have some absinthe.
Bartender (Ross) 22:08
Someone has a taste for anise.
Ross Bryant 22:10
And yeah, a large green bottle comes up from under the bar, [sounds of glasses clinking] and he's pouring it into the little glass, doing the whole little ritual, the little sugar cube goes over the rim. It's like pouring a spout of water over it. It turns cloudy and green. Make a Spot Hidden.
Paula Deming 22:30
Oh yeah. Regular success, 47 under 50. But I have a lot of Luck. So if you think would be awesome, I could make it better.
Ross Bryant 22:43
Um.
Paula Deming 22:43
I'll save it because I know something really bad is going to happen later, and I might want the Luck for then.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 22:49
Wow, interesting. Everyone's so like, tied up in here. But I thought art was supposed to be about freedom. Huh.
Ross Bryant 22:58
If you whisper that out loud,
Paula Deming 23:01
Yeah, totally,
Ross Bryant 23:02
Yeah,
Bartender (Ross) 23:04
Tied up, yeah. What you don't understand is that you're much more tied up than me. Don't worry, tonight you're gonna get a taste of freedom.
Ross Bryant 23:20
And he's stirring your cloudy green drink with the little paddle that the cube dissolved in, slides it over to you.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 23:29
Thank you. You know, you might be right about that. Been pretty emotionally tied up working for Bruno all this time. I don't know what it is about being here that's making me speak my inner monologue, like, out loud, but... whew.
Bartender (Ross) 23:47
No, it's groovy.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 23:49
Yeah?
Bartender (Ross) 23:49
If you could do anything in the world, what would you do?
Margot Marceau (Paula) 23:53
I don't know, jump off a building, but like, fly, not like, in a weird way. But then you like, you soar, you know? Like, that's, I don't know. That's how making art, studying art, and looking at art. That's how it makes me feel, you know?
Paula Deming 24:09
She like, has a big sip of her absinthe.
Ross Bryant 24:14
Oh, good.
Bartender (Ross) 24:16
Well, you never know. Tonight, you just might fly.
Ross Bryant 24:20
He smiles at you and goes to take the next order.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 24:24
Okay.
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 24:25
A glass of milk with a cherry. [laughter] You want one, Allen?
Bartender (Ross) 24:30
If that's your pleasure, sir.
Allen Clay (Brennan) 24:32
I'll take mine without cherry. Thank you. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 24:37
Great. Yes. He plop some maraschino cherry in the milk glass. Hands you a glass,
Bartender (Ross) 24:42
Excellent choice,
Ross Bryant 24:46
And you've got a nice cold glass of cherry milk and just some regular, delicious cow's milk, Allen Clay,
Brennan Lee Mulligan 24:52
I think Allen has been pretty like he's been- his internal monologue is so dark and warped, but he's been keeping it mostly under wraps. I think he goes,
Allen Clay (Brennan) 25:02
Thank you there, chief. I appreciate it.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 25:04
And drinks the milk in the most disturbing way. It's like the first insight into his inner darkness. He's like, thank you, chief. [muffled gulping and struggling noises] Snorts milk out of his nose. [laughter]
Allen Clay (Brennan) 25:18
Ahh, that's cold. You got to get it down cold.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 25:23
Yeah, Allen, yeah! Just really feel it, experience it. That's what we're here for, right?
Allen Clay (Brennan) 25:28
Oh, for sure. This is a gas. And I'm not just talking about the very small amount of bubbles I take in my cold milk. [laughter]
cuppycup 25:37
Velvet is so desperate to sell his poetry that he tries to imitate this behavior. [laughter]
Nic Rosenberg 25:44
Wait, what happens when he gets to the cherry?
cuppycup 25:46
Yeah, he probably just chokes on it. He's choking
Allen Clay (Brennan) 25:48
Exactly. That's why-
Brennan Lee Mulligan 25:50
I'm gonna Heimlich.
Allen Clay (Brennan) 25:51
No, Velvet! This is why you can't add the cherry no matter how much you want it, no matter how many times you ask mama for it. Don't get the cherry. You'll choke! [laughter]
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 26:04
Ke-keep it pure. Yeah, I got it. Oh shit, that was an experience, that was a rush. Damn. Damn Allen.
Ross Bryant 26:11
Allen and Velvet. You both can make a Spot Hiddens as well. Only an extreme will tell you anything.
cuppycup 26:21
Oh, my God, I fumbled. Mother fucking fumble. Yeah, I fumbled 98.
Paula Deming 26:25
Too busy choking on that cherry,
Ross Bryant 26:28
Noted
Brennan Lee Mulligan 26:29
I got a 57. Oh, Spot Hidden. Spot Hidden is 60. I got a 57, I got a 60.
Ross Bryant 26:38
Okay, that's a regular success. So you, um, all I can tell you is for that, it's weird, everything's weird since you came down here.
Nic Rosenberg 26:49
What can you say?
Brennan Lee Mulligan 26:49
Can I can I spend I have 65 Luck. How much would I have to spend [laughter] to get it to success?
Ross Bryant 27:00
50 to- well, it'd depend. You'd just have to get it down to the number of your extreme success. So if you had a...
Brennan Lee Mulligan 27:05
So a fifth of 60 is 12, so 57 minus 12 is 45 I can spend 45 of my 65 Luck to get this to a success.
Ross Bryant 27:16
You certainly can.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 27:17
And that's exactly what I'm gonna do, Ross. [laughter] Exactly what I'm gonna do.
Paula Deming 27:21
Brennan has more nerve than me. I like it.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 27:23
I am spending it.
Nic Rosenberg 27:24
Yeah, we love it.
Ross Bryant 27:26
Remove that luck from your total.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 27:29
It's removed, baby.
Ross Bryant 27:31
What a lucky break. I'm gonna say that the reason this is lucky. It was lucky that you drank it so fast. It was lucky, Allen Clay, that some of it went up into your sinuses, and you were kind of sputtering a little bit as you helped Velvet Bloom Heimlich out that cherry from his windpipe. [laughter] Because the reason it's lucky is because it's still kind of post nasal dripping into your throat. And so this taste of it is lingering. It's lucky that that's happening because you've got an extreme success on your Spot Hidden, because you've had time to dwell on it, luckily, and you can taste that it's not just milk that you have consumed, that there's something else in that glass. And I'll tell you for free, because you spent so much Luck, when that dawns on you, you're almost certain that, um, the hue of those sugar cubes, one of which was one that was just dissolved into the glass of absinthe hastily consumed by Margot Marceau, they aren't pure white. It's as though someone's hit each and every one of them with a little dropper.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 28:46
Okay, so this Prince Valiant has dosed our drinks.
Ross Bryant 28:51
Correct.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 28:52
I am going to vault over the bar. I want to grab Prince Valiant by his bowl cut, and I want to pull his head back down and look at him and go,
Allen Clay (Brennan) 29:03
What's the big idea, mister? Thought you could give me a little dose of something extra. Well, I'll tell ya, Lucy might be in the sky with diamonds, but you're down here with me!
Brennan Lee Mulligan 29:12
And I draw my gun. [laughter] I'm gonna point it at him, and I'm gonna say,
Allen Clay (Brennan) 29:18
Tell me who you're working for! Belarusians? The Russkies themselves?
Ross Bryant 29:23
[frightened gasping] He's like, the hair is like, taut against his scalp. He's- you've pulled him back, and you're almost- it's hard for him to breathe. He's sort of like pinioned against your hand and the collar that's bracketed into the wall. It's like,
Bartender (Ross) 29:36
[struggling to speak] Eve... everyone... is..
Allen Clay (Brennan) 29:39
I've toured every dairy farm in the United States of America. I love milk more than I love life itself. And I think I know if I got anything other than pure ice cold 2% [laughter]
Ross Bryant 29:56
You see something in his eyes almost change. And he's like.
Bartender (Ross) 30:00
Do it. Do it.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 30:05
My finger flutters over the trigger, and instead, I am going to pull his head down onto my knee, rising up fast to try to knock him unconscious and begin searching the bar frantically for an antidote.
Ross Bryant 30:20
I'd like a Fighting (Brawl) roll from you. See how well you execute it.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 30:26
Rolled a 58 so I'm gonna spend 18 of my remaining 20 Luck points to make that a success. I have 2 Luck points left.
cuppycup 30:35
Yes.
Nic Rosenberg 30:36
So good. We love this.
Paula Deming 30:39
[laughing]
Ross Bryant 30:41
Because he failed, you have successfully bashed him.
Paula Deming 30:46
Oh, man.
Nic Rosenberg 30:48
At this point, Willow has wandered back over and she's somehow found, like a separate mini bar, or like smaller bar somewhere, and she wanders back over, and it's like,
Willow (Nic) 30:57
Allen?! What the hell are you doing?
Nic Rosenberg 30:58
And she's holding a White Russian, [laughter] and just kind of like aghast at this scene,
Ross Bryant 31:04
Hm, a White Russian? Why, one of the ingredients of that is cream, is it not?
Nic Rosenberg 31:08
Yeah, I think it is.
Ross Bryant 31:10
Yeah. Good. You noticed the photographer that gave you the invite across the room snapping a picture kind of looks over at you and gives you a little wave.
Nic Rosenberg 31:19
Never mind! Willow is off like no longer concerned with one of her party members beating a fairly innocent-looking man.
Ross Bryant 31:28
Okay, great.
Paula Deming 31:31
Margot's eyes are just wide while this is happening. Is like,
Margot Marceau (Paula) 31:35
Is this part of what I'm supposed to be experiencing? Are you in on it? Is this part of it? Is this part of the performance art? What's happening?
Ross Bryant 31:40
Great. Yes, you're looking around the room, whipping around the room. Velvet Bloom, likewise, this is a lot of commotion...
cuppycup 31:47
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 31:47
...that suddenly has broken out.
cuppycup 31:49
I think he's just like
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 31:49
Allen! Allen! It was just a cherry. I- It was my fault I choked on it!
Allen Clay (Brennan) 31:53
Velvet, don't you worry.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 31:55
Yeah, and now I'll just start frantically looking for that antidote wherever I can try to find it.
Ross Bryant 31:55
Maybe you don't know what you've been given. So you don't know what you're looking for, really. So I would like to get a Natural World roll off you...
Paula Deming 32:09
Ooh, interesting.
Ross Bryant 32:10
...to see if you have a sense of what the hell it is that you have taken.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 32:14
Oh, yes, yes, yes. Okay, let's roll here. That is an 11. Do I have this skill?
Ross Bryant 32:22
Very good.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 32:23
It's called Natural World? I don't have this skill,
Paula Deming 32:27
But the base is 10, yeah.
Nic Rosenberg 32:29
Cool.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 32:30
Okay, so my base is 10. I have 2 points left. I will spend half...
Nic Rosenberg 32:34
Wow
Brennan Lee Mulligan 32:34
...of my remaining points to get down to a 10. [laughter] One point left.
Ross Bryant 32:39
Excellent. The group's Luck is rapidly running out. But,
Paula Deming 32:44
Oh, boy!
Ross Bryant 32:46
Okay, you rolled Natural World, and you understand something about what it is that you have taken. Perhaps this is due to the taste, your studies? We don't know much about Allen Clay's past in the company, but maybe you've done some work of this sort with drugs and pharmacology. What this is appears to be of natural origin. You can discern that. It appears to be, it's a plant extract, maybe some sort of argot, some or no, no. Yeah, mycelia… mushroom. It's some variety of rhizomal mushroom that you've taken that's that bitter taste that was underneath the creamy and delicious all-American milk that you tasted. That this mushroom source is not from the Lower 48 you know that much. As far as an antidote goes... okay, here's what I will give you. You flashback, I want to say, to a little presentation. Maybe this is in Langley. See a guy with the most enormous glasses you have ever seen, like clicking through a slideshow of black and white photographs, and just like [click-click-clack] a cactus,
Dry Scientist Presenter (Ross) 34:05
The peyote button is used for ritual purposes by the Native Americans of the American Southwest. Efforts to deploy this used for mind control purposes have, of yet, proved unsatisfactory, as recipients of the dose were more inclined to wish to listen to music or lay down for a comfortable afternoon rather than follow orders. [laughter]
Brennan Lee Mulligan 34:34
Looking at this in my seat as like a rookie, like a just freshly-joined cadet at Langley. I'm just sitting there clenching my fists so hard that my fingertips start bleeding, going,
Allen Clay (Brennan) 34:45
You gotta get mind control! [laughter]
Dry Scientist Presenter (Ross) 34:53
Now forgive me for wandering into the realm of crypto-botany, but [click-click-clack] This mushroom is only-
Ross Bryant 35:04
And you're looking now at a slide, and it's a picture of a picture, and the picture is of one of those Mesoamerican books that were sort of like, taken by the Spanish. You're looking at like, with like images, like Quetzalcoatl and these ancient deities, and sprouting from one of their heads is this mushroom. It's like,
Dry Scientist Presenter (Ross) 35:28
We have yet to discern precisely the natural origin of this particular mushroom and only of its legendary qualities. There are several actual samples that may be the rhizomal mycology in question. Although legendarily this allowed passage, the God in question allowed you passage, to other worlds, through gates that would be unlocked through the branching pathways. At least, this is what our translators can discern. It may be that this is all myth and hokum, but it could be that there is an all too rational explanation, in which case it would be in our interest to find such a button. The only antidote, legendarily, for the properties of this mushroom, according to the Codex here pictured, is to drink the human blood of a virgin. [laughter] You can see, of course, why we're dealing here in the realm of legend. But often this conceals a rational explanation. [ka-chink]
Brennan Lee Mulligan 36:52
I flash back to this present moment, milk streaming down my chin, [laughter] and I go,
Allen Clay (Brennan) 36:58
My God! Thanks, Uncle Sam! Every lesson you taught me has come just in the nick of time,
Brennan Lee Mulligan 37:05
and I'm going to bite down hard on my own wrist and start sucking my own blood directly. [continued laughter]
Allen Clay (Brennan) 37:12
I knew there's a reason I never knew the dirty touch of a partner. [sound of tearing flesh as Allen bites into his wrist]
Nic Rosenberg 37:17
Great results, fantastic.
Paula Deming 37:20
[laughing] I'm sorry if I'm watching a man bite his own wrist and drink his own blood, I think I have to roll with some Sanity. That is wild.
Ross Bryant 37:31
But Margot Marceau, that's not what you're watching.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 37:34
Oh, what am I seeing?
Ross Bryant 37:35
He's not just sucking his blood.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 37:37
What's he doing?
Ross Bryant 37:37
His whole arm is disappearing down his throat.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 37:40
Oh!
Ross Bryant 37:40
It's as though it's his arm has turned into some sort of python
Margot Marceau (Paula) 37:44
Oh.
Ross Bryant 37:44
That is like moving down his esophagus.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 37:47
Oh, no.
Ross Bryant 37:48
He's consuming himself.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 37:49
Oh, no.
Ross Bryant 37:49
He seems to be becoming the Ouroboros itself...
Margot Marceau (Paula) 37:52
Oh, oh no...
Ross Bryant 37:52
...the serpent that underlies all of reality.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 37:55
[mild panic] Cool.
Ross Bryant 37:56
So, yeah, please do roll Sanity.
Paula Deming 38:01
Oh, [laughing] I rolled a 5 under 60. So I'm just like, this is just a hallucination brought on by the drink that I had, and me being open to the experience. This is an artistic expression. It's fine.
Ross Bryant 38:20
You're right. You're absolutely right. And as soon as you think that, as soon as you are capable of rationalizing that the vision that you've been given warbles away and you see the much more mundane image of Allen Clay self-sucking there by the bar.
Nic Rosenberg 38:37
Great phrasing, yeah.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 38:39
Oh, God! Oh, Allen. Stop, stop!
Paula Deming 38:44
And I'll try and like, grab him.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 38:46
Stop, stop. What are you doing?! Stop this!
Allen Clay (Brennan) 38:46
Don't you understand?
Margot Marceau (Paula) 38:47
No!
Allen Clay (Brennan) 38:47
It takes the blood of a virgin to stop Quetzalcoatl, the wind serpent, from emerging from the top of your skull. The peyote button, they didn't give us mind control. We're gonna have to find another way. You think Sputnik's not up there casting a new beam into your head to get you to march to the beat of their drum. I don't think so. If I have to drink my own mother's milk right out of my wrist, because I bleed red, white, like milk and blue, like these blue bloods out here that are trying to buy up all this art. Don't you understand? This is an investment. You think you're an artist? Here's what you do. You're just another factory. And it might be beautiful little creatures. You're making little butterflies flying around, but it's a factory, after all! These assets sit in the bank. These people pay for forgeries of the work to get made and hang that up while the real work sits in a vacuum sealed pressure chamber...
Paula Deming 39:44
I put my hands on both sides of Allen's face and I say,
Margot Marceau (Paula) 39:48
Wow, Allen. All this time, I thought you just dealt art, but you truly make your own. You are an artist. Let's go listen to this sitar.
Paula Deming 39:59
And I'll try and grab him and drag him over to the sitar music.
Ross Bryant 40:03
I'm afraid the commotion is far too great for that. As Allen Clay finishes that diatribe, and you were kind of talking him down. There's a round of applause all around you. [sound of crowd clapping] It's like, oh, what a delightful little performance this has been. Truly an experiential and visceral evening. Blood has been shed. Ooh, and you can hear people one or two of whom seem to be in little masks, some of whom are wearing those collars that are sort of like attached to each other by the neck. It's like very wonderful. Oh, to shed, yes to pass through the gate of flesh. Delightful. What is your pleasure? Wonderful. Yes. And I'm curious, you were over by that photographer friend of yours, yes? Or were you making your way over there, Willow?
Nic Rosenberg 40:51
Willow was making her way over there. But then, I think gets kind of pulled into the music of the sitar playing, or this musical instrument that's being played. And I think that there's something maybe a little reminiscent of the music that she heard from the painting. And so I think that she starts to try to, like recreate a little bit of that harmony that she was experiencing. And so maybe she's kind of like slowly walking towards this sitar player and starting to hum some like slightly discordant, but somehow still also like amplifying tune that is that's being played.
Ross Bryant 41:31
Oh, great, yes, wonderful. Please do that. And Allen Clay, perhaps you noticed just the rather blase way in which your outburst has been absorbed by the party goers here as they applaud your performance. And it sounds almost as if, yeah, you haven't found the antidote quite yet. Although you're sucking, you're sucking, you're sucking, but it sounds as though this thing may have gotten on top of you somewhat with your little firehose of anger. [laughter]
Allen Clay (Brennan) 41:56
God, maybe it's not pure enough virgin blood. I have had all those impure thoughts. God, I hate the impure thoughts!
Ross Bryant 42:06
But I will say that as you say that, "God, hate the impure thoughts." The impurity. Just, oh God, the impurity that has descended upon you. It is though, yes, you have been the victim of a ravishment by this mushroom, or whatever it is that you've drunken unawares, but you're able to kind of get on top of it and press it down. And maybe, maybe it is because you have dined upon the blood of a virgin. Maybe the slideshow was correct. You're approaching the sitar, and as you do Willow singing as you go, do you have an Art/Craft Music roll, by any chance, or Performance?
Nic Rosenberg 42:47
I have an Art/Craft, but I don't have anything kind of specific. But I also do like the idea that she's a terrible singer, that she just doesn't have a good voice at all. But I'm happy to roll on my Art/Craft, if you'd like.
Ross Bryant 43:00
I'd love for you too, yeah. Like many models, perhaps you dabble in other artistic endeavors as well.
Nic Rosenberg 43:09
Well, I did fail that, I feel like it's worth a push.
Paula Deming 43:13
Yeah!
Nic Rosenberg 43:13
I think that she's not getting the kind of same experience, the same, you know, like vibe that she was getting from the painting, so I'm literally just gonna start singing louder.
Ross Bryant 43:26
Great, go for it. Push that roll.
Nic Rosenberg 43:29
Basically screaming at this point. Well, [laughing] I did fail again.
Paula Deming 43:36
Oh no!
Nic Rosenberg 43:37
I failed again, so...
Ross Bryant 43:38
So love that.
Nic Rosenberg 43:39
...Oops.
Ross Bryant 43:40
Oops. You sing a discordant note with the drone of this instrument, this sitar-like instrument. And the person that was playing, draped in these sort of diaphanous robes, you see the head lift underneath those robes. The music kind of fades out, and all you can hear now is the smattering of applause and the in the murmurs of the crowd and the continuing shouts against impurity coming from Allen Clay.
Nic Rosenberg 44:10
Totally thinks the applause is for her, though, [laughter]
Willow (Nic) 44:13
Yes, yes, yes.
Ross Bryant 44:15
The robes are lifted back, the instrument is set down, and rising in front of you now is a tall and statuesque woman. A very angular haircut falls over her face, her dark eyes regard you. You have never seen this person before, though it can be perhaps assumed who she may be, and you failed your push.
Nic Rosenberg 44:45
I did.
Ivy Wilde (Ross) 44:48
I see what you are trying. It is admirable. The attempt is admirable.
Willow (Nic) 44:58
The painting upstairs. It was so beautiful, and...
Ivy Wilde (Ross) 45:02
Yes, but I'm afraid, darling, [with more emphasis] darling, the singer's art is not for you, but this is not why you have been brought. You have been brought..
Ross Bryant 45:14
She reaches out to you and sort of like caresses your cheek for a moment,
Ivy Wilde (Ross) 45:18
...because you are beautiful, because you're scouted.
Willow (Nic) 45:24
Oh, that's so flattering. I mean, I think everybody says it, it's true. But to hear it from someone as beautiful as yourself, quite the compliment.
Ivy Wilde (Ross) 45:35
You have a quality, yes,
Ross Bryant 45:38
She nods to the photographer who like snaps a picture of her and like kind of winks at you. She pulls a large brocade cord next to that enormous curtain on the back wall and tugs it. It falls away, tumbling to the ground in folds that cascade and pile there on the floor, revealing a wall-sized modular synthesizer, just a bank of machinery, coils of wire and patch bays running the entire length of the wall.
Willow (Nic) 46:13
Oh. Not what I was expecting.
Ivy Wilde (Ross) 46:15
How could you expect it? How could the mind think it? How could the ear hear it? How could yours? For you are not a singer, and this is an experiential night for us to make a masterpiece in flesh.
Ross Bryant 46:35
She clicks a button on the synthesizer and a tone comes out. A low bass rumble fills the room and resonates throughout it.
Ivy Wilde (Ross) 46:53
Yes, the tone. Hear and be its masterpiece.
Ross Bryant 47:03
And think back to, if you will, those geometric patterns on the painting as you walk through the sound that they described that almost resolved between you. You don't maybe recognize those images. Maybe Allen Clay would recognize from a slide a picture of a Mesoamerican deity, from an ancient and forgotten book with a mushroom sprouting from the head of a figure, because those same writings are scrawled beneath it, describing the resonating frequency with which the doors are opened. You failed a pushed roll, and now you see the sound.
Ivy Wilde (Ross) 47:47
[voice distorted, almost echoing] A masterpiece in flesh. Let us fabricate a masterpiece.
Ross Bryant 47:58
She's saying, her voice resonating and altering as the room itself becomes a resonating chamber for this sound. All of you hear this. All of you hear this.
Nic Rosenberg 48:08
Willow understands what is required of her. She fully disrobes, goes to the middle of the room and opens her arms wide and says,
Willow (Nic) 48:18
I'm no longer an artist. I am now the medium. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 48:24
Wonderful, and that is 100% true. And now you feel the will behind the sound, the thing that is speaking through it, the dialog between the chemical in your blood and the sound in this room and now the pain in your back as you can feel your shoulder blades begin to part and warp as the rest of you now see in the center of this room as silhouetted in a spotlight there in the center of this dance floor as just like, "Ah yes," in rapturous ecstasy as the ribs on Willow's back begin to shift and move under her flesh. Everybody roll Sanity.
cuppycup 49:14
I've failed my SAN check.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 49:17
Oh,
Ross Bryant 49:17
Love that.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 49:17
100!
Paula Deming 49:19
[gasps]
cuppycup 49:19
Oh, that's amazing.
Nic Rosenberg 49:21
We love that.
cuppycup 49:22
That's the max SAN loss.
Nic Rosenberg 49:24
Then I've also failed my SAN, great.
Paula Deming 49:27
I have another extreme success with a 3.
cuppycup 49:30
Wow,
Nic Rosenberg 49:31
God damn!
cuppycup 49:32
This is Margot's jam.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 49:33
I am an artist. I've told you all this time. If only Bruno was here, I could handle it.
Ross Bryant 49:38
Great. Yes, you are an artist, so you kind of maybe stay in control a little bit.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 49:43
Yeah,
Ross Bryant 49:44
You only lose 2 points of Sanity.
Paula Deming 49:46
Great.
cuppycup 49:47
Uh-oh,
Paula Deming 49:47
This is so weird, though.
Ross Bryant 49:51
Willow and Velvet, you each lose 5, I'm afraid. Allen Clay, you lose the maximum because you fumbled.
Nic Rosenberg 49:59
Hell yeah.
Ross Bryant 50:00
You lose 8 points of Sanity.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 50:02
How many do I have?
Ross Bryant 50:03
I don't know that that takes you to the threshold of permanent insanity yet. So this means that we come to the most Lovecraftian mechanic in this game. You've lost 5 or over points of Sanity. What I need from you each now is to make an Intelligence roll. This is a roll that you want to fail, because if you succeed, then you will have understood something about what you are bearing witness to, about what this artistic happening is really conjuring at this moment, about what sort of artistic experience is being fabricated by the medium that is there in the center of the room, and the tone, and the chemical. Please roll Intelligence and tell me if you succeed or failed.
Nic Rosenberg 50:50
I can't believe it.
cuppycup 50:51
I failed.
Nic Rosenberg 50:53
I also failed with a 70,
cuppycup 50:55
Oh wow!
Nic Rosenberg 50:55
With a 70!
Brennan Lee Mulligan 50:57
I rolled a 12.
Paula Deming 50:59
Oh!
Nic Rosenberg 51:00
This is so good.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 51:02
If my Intelligence is 85 then what does a 12- what does a 12 mean?
Ross Bryant 51:11
It means you're insane. [laughter]
Paula Deming 51:14
You understand everything that's happening to you.
Ross Bryant 51:17
You understand everything. So, okay, you've lost quite a bit of Sanity Willow and Velvet, but you failed your Intelligence roll. So you're not experiencing a Bout of Madness right now, but you have lost a significant amount of Sanity. And I should also let you know that, of course, you have had a White Russian, you have drunk your milk, you had a cherry in your throat. You're seeing what's actually here. You are probing what is being conjured in this moment. But Allen Clay, you understand part of what is happening in this moment, and it makes sense that you understand it, because, in a way, you're coming into this experience armed with the most knowledge. At Langley you have dealt with people who were the architects of programs like MK- Ultra, the attempt to use psychedelic drugs to create perfectly obedient soldiers, to literally brainwash prisoners, to mind control people at will so that you could gain the upper hand in the fight with Communism. And so you have delved into these strange pharmacologies and the strange mythos that surrounds them in the hopes that one day their power may be unlocked by Uncle Sam. But it seems, alas, that someone has gotten there first. Not a government, but rather an esthete and Ivy Wilde has conjured, with this chemical and with this sound, a gateway to an entity that is allowing her to rewrite the fabric of reality. The fabric of reality is now her medium. It is her factory, and you are all her medium. But at the moment, very particularly, it is Willow, and you are watching her, as it were, become the winged serpent. And you, perhaps more than anyone, know that in those ancient codexes found by conquistadors and stolen from Mesoamerica, that those writings describe something that even their original, the tellers of these tales did not precisely understand: that they were exposed to an entity of nameless age, of impossible power, that wore many faces, that appeared as humanoid creatures and spoke to them through mushrooms and in the language of music. And now it is speaking again in the voice of a synthesizer. And it is turning Willow into a form of winged serpent as her back breaks and wings of flesh sprout from her spine. And Willow is right now turning, it seems, into an angel right in front of you. [splatter of flesh]
Nic Rosenberg 54:03
A flesh angel. [laughing]
Ross Bryant 54:05
Yeah.
Margot Marceau (Paula) 54:05
Looks just like my sketches!
Ross Bryant 54:08
Willow, make a Power roll.
Nic Rosenberg 54:09
I'd love to. I failed by 5. I don't care. I failed.
Ross Bryant 54:19
Wonderful, wonderful. Your back is in agony. You failed your Power roll, so let's see how many hit points you lose right now. 4, as your back distends, warps, breaks and re-knits to form these wings. And you've also failed, because now you feel as though your will, in a way, is not your own. In the way that a model sometimes must be the vessel for the photographer, you are now a vessel for a much more ancient force. And because you have failed that Power roll, there is a collar of sorts around your neck. It is a collar of sound being woven by this synthesizer. It is connecting you with Ivy Wilde. Her will is your will.
Nic Rosenberg 55:06
Am I getting any kind of directive or anything?
Ross Bryant 55:10
I think, at the moment, right now, she's an esthete. She just wants you to dance. In fact, she wants you to fly. And Allen Clay, I want you to color this madness. I've given you what you understand. But how do you think? What compulsion or phobia do you think this gives to Allen Clay at this moment?
Brennan Lee Mulligan 55:29
I want to whip around to see Margot. Margot, who understands that Bruno Banks is an empty figure that was selected by the CIA to be the next genius. I've seen her look at him and have a deeper understanding. I want to whip around to find Margot, if I can, as I see what's happening here, I'll turn to look at her and be like
Allen Clay (Brennan) 55:52
You see it. You understand. Kid, you're the real artist here, not Bruno Banks, not whatever this is, don't you understand? Virgin blood. But blood is not with a lowercase b, it's an uppercase B. Blood for the Gods. Human sacrifice. The antidote isn't blood medically, it's blood mythically. And if we're gonna beat a winged serpent, we need our own God. Colmbia brought to bear in a new age, the spirit of liberty writ large, freedom, market, enterprise, good old Uncle Sam. And if she can be a conduit...
Brennan Lee Mulligan 56:33
And I point to Willow,
Allen Clay (Brennan) 56:33
...then so can I, because that's America!
Brennan Lee Mulligan 56:36
And I shoot myself under the jaw
Margot Marceau (Paula) 56:38
[gasps]
Brennan Lee Mulligan 56:39
through the brain to create a channel for Uncle Sam to rise up in this moment.
Nic Rosenberg 56:46
Fucking yes!
Ross Bryant 56:47
Boom! There is now a resonating chamber within the empty skull of Allen Clay, as the sound of this synthesizer [sounds of reverberation] is humming in your noggin, now vacant of brain as you have blown it out. But Margot, yes, you understand, because you're the only one who wasn't driven insane.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 57:07
As the spume of blood goes out of the top and my brain scatter across the ceiling, as a like chicken with its head cut off, I want whatever remaining thought power I have left in my spine alone to salute Margot as I fall backwards onto the floor. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 57:25
Wonderful. His last spasm creating a smart salute as he topples to the floor. Margot, that's what you've heard. I'm not going to tell you what to do. You have a sense right now that what he said is, in a way, true, and that maybe your only way out of here without being changed, is to attempt to be an Ivy Wilde of sorts and have your own vessel. And if you make a Power roll right now, you can begin to write your masterpiece in flesh with Allen Clay. And I'll say you can have advantage on this roll if you drink the blood of a virgin.
Paula Deming 58:05
I look down. I look up. Yes, of course, I am the true artist, and all I ever wanted was for someone to recognize it. And Allen, he did. and I will, gosh, this is wild, that I am fully sane and doing this. But this is what art does to somebody, and I will put my hand into the empty vessel that is his head, pull it out, dripping with blood and viscera,
Ross Bryant 58:36
Mmhmm. Mmhmm.
Paula Deming 58:37
And lick my fingers and attempt to channel my own work of art.
Ross Bryant 58:47
And remember, you have advantage, so you can roll your 10s die twice to see if you make it.
Paula Deming 58:52
So here's my bonus die. My first roll was a 73 which is a failure, but my second roll was a 53 which is a success under 60 and...
Ross Bryant 59:03
Wonderful.
Paula Deming 59:05
...I will, you know what? I will spend. I would need to spend... [growls of frustration] Math! 23 Luck to get that to a hard success. And I want it so bad. So I'm going to spend 23 Luck to make that a hard success, because I have 60 points of Luck.
Nic Rosenberg 59:26
Beautiful.
Ross Bryant 59:28
Ivy Wilde has turned Willow into a winged creature. Are you going to take Allen Clay's advice and fabricate Columbia herself here [laughing] in this room?
Paula Deming 59:44
Y-yeah.
Ross Bryant 59:47
You've used your Luck. You have participated in the ritual.
Paula Deming 59:52
Yeah. And I think I want to have like notes, you know, harkening back to my sketches of that ethereal, you know, sense of flight and heaven and angels and all of that. I want there to be touches of that. This is what those sketches were actually for, I'm realizing.
Ross Bryant 1:00:14
Amazing. In a way, you're not being called to a cult adventure. You're an artist, and this is a commission,
Paula Deming 1:00:23
That's right.
Ross Bryant 1:00:24
And yes,
Paula Deming 1:00:25
By the greatest gallerist, taste-maker this country has ever known: Allen Clay. God bless America! [laughter]
Ross Bryant 1:00:37
Before Uncle Sam, before Thomas Nast, there was Columbia, the personification of America...
Paula Deming 1:00:44
Yes!
Ross Bryant 1:00:45
...the home of the free and the land of the brave. And watch Allen Clay's face knit itself back together, the skull reshape becoming more feminine, a little- a diadem flaming on her brow...
Paula Deming 1:01:01
Yes.
Ross Bryant 1:01:02
...a blazing torch of freedom in her hand, the wings of Margot's designs blossom on her back as what was Allen Clay now takes flight to join Willow there in the air,
Nic Rosenberg 1:01:15
Fuck yeah!
Paula Deming 1:01:16
As though a butterfly bursting from its chrysalis.
cuppycup 1:01:22
[laughs]
Ross Bryant 1:01:22
Oh boy. We are really rolling after midnight now. [laughter] All the pupils are dilated. We are rolling and we are tripping balls. Beholding what you were seeing, Velvet Bloom. What are you doing? I haven't touched base with you in a while.
cuppycup 1:01:40
I've seen so much since you spoke.
Ross Bryant 1:01:43
Oh yeah, you just saw Allen- you both just saw Allen Clay turn into a personification of America. Please roll Sanity.
cuppycup 1:01:51
Yeah, I think he's mindlessly drinking milk again out of the glass while he's watching all this. And he is gonna roll Sanity again and fail with an 84
Ross Bryant 1:02:03
Love that for you.
cuppycup 1:02:05
Always, always
Ross Bryant 1:02:07
Six points of Sanity lost for you, Velvet Bloom. Can you make an Intelligence roll for me?
Paula Deming 1:02:12
You got this.
cuppycup 1:02:13
I don't know that. I need to. I don't need to because I've lost 11 and 10 was my threshold.
Ross Bryant 1:02:19
Great.
cuppycup 1:02:20
Yeah, I'm definitely insane.
Ross Bryant 1:02:22
All day, perhaps to the past year, you've been out in the outer limits of poetry, finding beauty and profundity in the mundane. A gum wrapper is a coffin, a nickel is the moon.
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 1:02:37
That was a good one.
Ross Bryant 1:02:39
What could be more material? The stuff that is insouled. What else does the poet have to offer but themselves?
cuppycup 1:02:52
Oh, okay, I have an idea that fits with my stupid poetry style. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 1:02:58
Yes. How do you express yourself in this moment, now that you are well and truly indefinitely insane?
cuppycup 1:03:07
I think, since he does like that pocket change poetry, he just kind of is rummaging through his pockets, and he pulls out his house key, and he stands up on the bar and he's gonna hold it up and he's gonna say
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 1:03:19
Every key is a liar. I've tried every single key that I've encountered in my life, and none of them, none of them opened my heart.
cuppycup 1:03:29
And he's gonna, like, poke at his chest, which is obviously already exposed with the little tuxedo jacket and he actually has a scar there, like he's literally tried to open himself up with different keys that he's found, and he's saying,
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 1:03:43
That's, that's not what I needed. I didn't need entry. I didn't need entry. I needed... I needed hunger.
cuppycup 1:03:49
And then he's gonna pull out that little spoon that he stole, and he's gonna start trying to dig into his chest with the spoon...
Paula Deming 1:03:57
Oh no,
Ross Bryant 1:03:59
Yeah.
Paula Deming 1:03:59
Oh no, [laughing]
cuppycup 1:04:00
...with as much force as he possibly can,
Velvet Bloom (cuppycup) 1:04:03
I was starving for myself.
Ross Bryant 1:04:07
This is the poetry of the visceral. It is happening to Velvet Bloom. It is happening all around you. People in those leashes are throttling each other out. One person seems to be devouring another. It is an absolutely carnivalesque atmosphere of madness and bloodshed. And there are two winged creatures in the center of this space
Nic Rosenberg 1:04:31
We gotta fight.
cuppycup 1:04:34
[laughing] Amazing.
Ross Bryant 1:04:35
So much power is flowing back and forth here between these two. I would like to just get one let's do an opposed Power roll right now between Margot and Willow. Whoever succeeds, succeeds in this battle.
Paula Deming 1:04:35
Oh, baby,
cuppycup 1:04:38
This is our best PvP of all time.
Paula Deming 1:04:53
I have a hard success at 23 under 60.
Nic Rosenberg 1:04:58
Heroic because I failed [laughing] at 61, over 50.
Ross Bryant 1:05:01
Great. Tell me how you destroy this imposter here, this empty vessel, Margot Marceau.
Paula Deming 1:05:12
I take my own work of art, my own vessel filled with my artistic, creative spirit, and I say
Margot Marceau (Paula) 1:05:20
She stands in your way, this false prophet.
Paula Deming 1:05:25
To direct what was Allen Clay to rip apart this false work, this commercial enterprise. That's not true art. What a sellout.
Ross Bryant 1:05:41
This is something real, and that is maybe the last thing that goes through your head, Willow, as you feel the fists of Columbia on your wings, and your wings are rent off of your back in a gout of blood as this all falls down. And I do mean all falls down, because for a moment, Margot Marceau, a face resolves in the sound, and for the first time, you see the thing behind the music, the thing singing through the mushroom chemical in your blood that's dilating your eyes, that is rolling through your bloodstream, whose voice speaks in the sound warbling out of the speakers connected to the massive synthesizer. Its face resolves in front of you. It is neither serpent, it is neither bird, it is neither human, it is beyond description. And it beholds you, not with indifference, but gazing at you, and you feel a sense of mutual respect. This is some sort of mad creator deity, and it sees a portion of itself in you. And that is the last thing that you ever think as the entire building collapses under the weight of this...
Nic Rosenberg 1:06:50
Yeah,
Ross Bryant 1:06:51
...creature from elsewhere, manifesting in sound. [rumbling sound of building collapse] It's 15 years later. The empty lot that used to be the brownstone of Ivy Wilde is overgrown with plants and trees. Nothing else has ever been erected here. It's the peak of this early 80s time. You see people over a barrel fire there. There's a lot of graffiti all over and a kid is like jogging through the bricks and the fallen stone. They're chasing a ball that's rolled into the vacant lot where no kids ever come, because the rumor is it's cursed, and reaching down for the ball, just sees something that catches their eye and picks it out and looks at it. It's a spoon, with a little face on one end and a strange, dark ichor on the other. What could that be? What a strange place. There's still something hanging in the air here. And far away deep, deep in the bowels of an office building down, down in Virginia, just see a man with glasses looking over a microfiche passing by an image of a Mesoamerican god, of a mushroom, of a diagram of sound, jotting it down, jotting it down, and then closing the book. And just see the name of the file, "Pharmacological Interventions for Domestic Disturbance," and just see a smile on his lips, looking up on the wall at a picture of the President and just pass for a moment over a list of names of fallen agents there in the hallways. The clandestine hallways where people don't come unknown to the public. And just see a headshot staring back at you, determination in his face, pride in his country, in his eyes, the type of complexion that only comes from a diet rich in Vitamin D milk: [laughing] Allen Clay, rest in peace. And that's where we'll leave it.
Nic Rosenberg 1:09:36
[laughing] Amazing.
cuppycup 1:09:39
Wow.
Ross Bryant 1:09:39
Oh. Thank you so much for joining us, Brennan.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 1:09:42
What a hoot, gang,
cuppycup 1:09:43
Yeah, thank you, Brennan.
Paula Deming 1:09:44
Thank you, Brennan.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 1:09:45
That was a true delight, a true delight.
Paula Deming 1:09:48
Oh, man.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 1:09:49
It's really hard to be freakier than just a really American guy, you know? Like that's what I think,
Paula Deming 1:09:55
Yeah, yeah
cuppycup 1:09:56
The true horror.
Brennan Lee Mulligan 1:09:57
The true horror. Thanks so much for having me. What a privilege.
Ross Bryant 1:10:02
Great. Thank you so much!