Transcript - Episode 9: What Makes That Windmill Bleed So? (Part 1)
Audio for What Makes That Windmill Bleed So? Part 1
What Makes That Windmill Bleed So? Part 1
Wed, Oct 8, 2025
“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
Wow. Who knows what's going to happen? We got Abu, Josephine Cup, Scott in the building. Yes, uncertainty swirls all around, but soon the bright light of certainty will break through the mist. Let's figure out what the heck we're going to do. I am delighted to be reunited with my friends from Haunted City, Jo and Abu. Would one of you like to do the honors? Would one of you like to roll a die just to select?
Abubakar Salim 00:24
Oh, shit, I just rolled a d100 and I got 13. [laughter]
cuppycup 00:30
Oh, okay, so the title today comes from David Winterman on patreon.com/pushtheroll. You can submit titles too. So David Winterman suggests the title, "What Makes That Windmill Bleed So?"
Josephine McAdam 00:48
Not me thinking these weren't gonna be as good as they are.
Abubakar Salim 00:53
Damn.
Ross Bryant 00:53
The titles have been bangers, I gotta say.
Josephine McAdam 00:56
That's great.
Ross Bryant 00:59
What Makes That Windmill Bleed So?
cuppycup 01:03
Yes. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 01:07
Oh man.
Ross Bryant 01:14
[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 02:03
What Makes That Windmill Bleed So? Okay, windmill has already taken us back to the past, but what really sends my imagination hurtling back in time is just the syntax of that sentence. "What makes that windmill bleed so?" is a rather archaic way of expressing that sentiment. Windmills. The most famous windmills in culture, probably from Don Quixote, yeah? We're tilting at windmills.
cuppycup 02:29
Or Frankenstein, right?
Josephine McAdam 02:31
I was thinking Moulin Rouge, but...
Ross Bryant 02:34
Oh gosh, now that had not popped in my head. But yeah, the Moulin Rouge is maybe the other big, famous windmill, other than the windmill that he hides out in in Frankenstein. Moulin Rouge is very interesting. Okay, yeah, Moulin Rouge makes me... Okay. What makes that windmill bleed so? which is exactly like how they would translate French in like a Penguin Classic, if you were translating like a work of Baudelaire or Rimbaud or Proust. [laughter] Oh, I love this. Maybe. Okay, okay, yeah. Moulin Rouge, the fin de siècle, the sort of decadent and absinthe drenched bohemian world of late 19th century, early 20th century, Paris. Okay, let's go there. Let's set it in Montmartre. Josephine can be on hand to correct all my egregious French pronunciation.
Josephine McAdam 03:29
No, no, go on.
Ross Bryant 03:31
So yeah, let's think of that as our era.
Josephine McAdam 03:33
Okay.
Ross Bryant 03:34
And maybe let's look at this through the lens of like the Baz Luhrmann aesthetic.
Abubakar Salim 03:41
Great. With English accents, fantastic. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 03:46
Precisely. Everyone has an English accent except John Leguizamo's Toulouse-Lautrec, who is doing on his own from another planet. [laughter]
cuppycup 03:54
Perfect.
Ross Bryant 03:56
So yes, let's do fin de siècle by way of Baz Luhrmann. So bright colors.
Josephine McAdam 04:01
Yes.
Ross Bryant 04:02
Swooping cameras and all accents are very much on the table. [laughter]
cuppycup 04:07
Just imagine an American doing a British accent, that sounds American, to play a Frenchman.
Josephine McAdam 04:14
Yeah, yeah.
Abubakar Salim 04:15
Great. Okay.
Ross Bryant 04:17
So yeah, let's think of the sort of themes we've got cooking here. We've got the wave of bohemian pleasure seeking, breaking with convention and the rigid 19th century conformity of the time. And wine, song, dance, the intoxications of poetry, but also, of course, the rigidly stratified social world where you've got old families who didn't die in the revolution are still hanging on. The old titled aristocracy from the Ancien Régime. But then you've got all the parvenu aristocracy who were put into place by Napoleon. So you've got...
Josephine McAdam 04:53
Of course!
Ross Bryant 04:53
You've got all those people running around still, and of course, you've got all kinds of wealthy middle class and industrialist and banking families and all the sort of people riding their coattails and attending smart salons all over Paris. So if you're thinking in terms of character archetypes, maybe you're thinking like an old soldier who has come back from battle and is enjoying the high life. Maybe you've got a poet like a Baudelaire, a Rimbaud, or a Verlaine type. Maybe you've got a real like, a bohemian weirdo, like a Jarry.
Scott Dorward 05:30
Oh God.
Ross Bryant 05:31
Or an eccentric like a Proust. Maybe you're an aristocrat, maybe you're a can-can dancer. Maybe you're a demi-mondaine, a high class courtesan. [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 05:42
I love pretending that I know all of these references and I'm as smart as Ross Bryant. [laughter] Like yes, yes, just like that one. Yes, just like them.
Ross Bryant 05:55
And if all that sounds too highfalutin, you can just be Ewan McGregor. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 06:02
You know what? I have no idea what the hell is going on. So I am just going to allow you to paint a picture for me of my character, and then I'll kind of... I'll just "yes and" you, buddy. And I will go with this, because I love it. I love the danger. So yeah, throw a bone whenever you can.
Ross Bryant 06:21
Great. When I think of Moulin Rouge and that sort of atmosphere, especially in that movie, you've got that ocean of gentlemen coming in with their top hats and their tailcoats and everything. And these guys kind of symbolize either the aristocratic or the wealthy upper crust of Paris who were coming to the Moulin Rouge, to like, really live, to get a taste of the high life, to blow off some steam and live an evening of decadence away from the cosseted world in which they make all their money. And maybe you are someone like that. Maybe you are an aristocrat or a dilettante. I always like the archetype of the sort of faded aristocrat.
cuppycup 07:04
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 07:04
The disappointing son of a powerful family who's a wastrel who's like, spending his family's money on wine, women and song. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 07:12
Yeah, I love it. That's the vibe. I love that.
Ross Bryant 07:15
And this is Cthulhu, of course. So it's always good to have in mind, or just like, imagine why this person would want to pursue an investigation of a sort, as loosely as that might be.
Josephine McAdam 07:26
What about ex-dancer who now cleans this place?
Ross Bryant 07:32
Love it. That's... I love that.
Josephine McAdam 07:35
So I spent a lot of time in the basements, yeah, with the cleaning supplies and...
Ross Bryant 07:39
Perfect.
Scott Dorward 07:40
Ross has put the idea of Alfred Jarry in my mind, and so I'm kind of stuck there. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 07:46
Oh yeah, baby. So Scott, can you take the archetype pataphysician? [laughter]
Scott Dorward 07:53
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 07:54
See, Scott is the only person I know who might get that bit. But those of you true freaks listening in, I see you and love you. Anything coming into focus for you Cup?
cuppycup 08:06
I think what's coming into focus for me is how weird he's gonna be.
Ross Bryant 08:11
Great.
cuppycup 08:11
He builds human simulacra music boxes [laughter] with like wax cheeks and glass eyes embedded. Locks of hair, stuff like that. And the occult crowd's buying them up by the dozen. He's an antiquarian, but, you know, not a bookshop. He's more into mechanical works.
Ross Bryant 08:31
Awesome.
cuppycup 08:32
And he has, like, a little clockwork shop that, you know, since we're in France, they specialize in music boxes. And the stuff he uses is functional, like he has a drawer full of porcelain teeth and uses those as resonators in the boxes. [laughter] And they kind of give like this, I don't know, curious tone.
Ross Bryant 08:51
Yeah, I love that. This also just makes me think of another story of this era. There's a Theophile Gautier story called "The Mummy's Foot," where a little shop of curios and knickknacks, and maybe there's some little automata there as well.
cuppycup 09:05
Oh yeah.
Ross Bryant 09:05
Maybe your character runs a little shop. like that. A music box guy.
cuppycup 09:11
The old music box dealer.
Ross Bryant 09:13
Love that. So, yeah, if jotting down just kind of looking at your sheet right now, what you know right now is all you need to know. The fun part of this is, like the characters will come out and play.
Abubakar Salim 09:23
Great.
Ross Bryant 09:23
We'll learn about them on the fly. Obviously, early as we go, we'll kind of move the camera around to introduce our party of investigators.
Abubakar Salim 09:35
There is like improv, and then there's like Ross Bryant improv. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 09:41
We're going hard.
Abubakar Salim 09:42
Three years of drama school has not ever trained me for this. [laughter]
cuppycup 09:48
Anyone with a PhD in History is welcome to apply. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 09:52
Oh, boy.
Ross Bryant 09:54
I'm leaning into an era that I actually really enjoy reading about. So if this had been something else, I would be super stumped. A la when we did "Sex and the City," I was... [laughter] I did not have as much facility over the archetypes of that canon.
Ross Bryant 10:12
Paula had a handle on that.
cuppycup 10:15
Are people feeling somewhat ready?
Josephine McAdam 10:19
Yeah.
Scott Dorward 10:20
Close as I'll get it.
cuppycup 10:22
Same.
Ross Bryant 10:23
I love this. [laughter]
cuppycup 10:26
Scott looks worried. I'm not going to do a French accent, Scott. [laughter] I'll be Scottish.
Scott Dorward 10:35
No.
Josephine McAdam 10:37
Fucking A.
Abubakar Salim 10:38
Great.
cuppycup 10:39
I would never, not to Ross.
Ross Bryant 10:42
One question for you, Josephine, our only...
Josephine McAdam 10:45
Oui?
Ross Bryant 10:46
Because you speak multiple languages, how would you translate? How would you render "What Makes That Windmill Bleed So?" in French, like if you had to do some on-the-fly translation?
Josephine McAdam 10:59
I'm just double-checking now. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 11:02
Famously tough language, okay.
Josephine McAdam 11:04
Que fait ce moulin saigne?
Ross Bryant 11:06
[MUSIC: foreboding orchestra] We see that phrase up on our screen, [laughter] and then it sort of melts, reconfigures itself, though still in beautiful art nouveau script now reading "What Makes That Windmill Bleed So?" [laughter] The text itself seems to bleed off of the darkness of the screen, and now you just hear creaking. [SFX: windmill blades] And then a curtain parts and see Montmartre. See the sails of the Moulin Rouge, the red windmill red as blood, turning in the sky over Montmartre as we pull back over a street. See the crowds of gentlemen in high top hats, fine ladies in elegant dresses pouring out of carriages. The street teems with people. The cathedral, Sacré-Cœur looms off in the background, casting its shadow over Paris, since all of this is up on a hill. And the hustle and bustle of the bohemian set and those who seek to enter and enjoy its delights are here in Montmartre this evening, poets, demi-mondaines, sorcerers, dancers, madmen have all come here to Montmartre. And not least among them are the four that make up your little salon here in the Belle Époque, where so many have been touched by death, and where death looms off in the distance, sharpening its scythe. There is still room for a little pleasure before the final curtain falls. And here are our four friends, perhaps emerging from carriages or coming out of this crowd, reflected in the glass of the monocles on countless faces as they move towards the doors of the Moulin Rouge to see the dancers there this evening. Why don't we start with Scott? Why don't you introduce your character? Who do we see as our camera sort of moves out of the sky in a very Baz Luhrmann-y way past a colorful mist, a chain of fairy lights. [laughter] And it's over-cranked and speedy, and it swoops into the crowd, and then it lands on you.
Scott Dorward 13:32
Getting out of the carriage is this rather awkward-looking young man with unfashionably long hair that's been slicked back into a rather scruffy looking Van Dyke beard, and he's moving very stiffly. [SFX: paper rustling] And it isn't until the camera comes in close enough that we can actually hear the sound that you realize the reason for this is because his suit is made entirely out of paper, and it's sort of crinkling as he moves. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 14:10
Fantastic.
Ross Bryant 14:11
One for the Jarry fans out there.
Ross Bryant 14:14
One for the Jarry heads. Slight footnote for those of you who don't know, I urge you to look up Alfred Jarry, one of the true freaks of literature who made his life into a work of art. Actually lived, apparently, in a... He was very short, lived in an apartment that was like a half apartment, like in "Being John Malkovich," so everyone had to stoop instead of him. [laughter] I think he, like, kept a pet owl. Would like, just shoot a gun at random. And he wrote "Ubu Roi."
Scott Dorward 14:39
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 14:40
A real, real maniac. But perhaps Jarry is on the other side of Paris at the moment. We have here, perhaps the person that he modeled his whole persona after. [laughter] This gentleman who is moving through the crowd, crinkling as he goes. A woman casts an eye down at you and is like, looks at you from behind her fan, sort of like "ooh!" [laughter] Almost swoons from shock at this cut against the grain of what is accepted in society.
cuppycup 15:07
What's your character's name, Scott?
Scott Dorward 15:10
Let's say, Henri Roi.
Ross Bryant 15:12
Henri Roi.
cuppycup 15:15
I'm supposed to spell this?
Scott Dorward 15:16
Henry with an i and then R-O-I.
cuppycup 15:20
Oh. Love it.
Ross Bryant 15:22
Henri Roi. To those our American, to our English listeners, Henry King. [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 15:26
Yeah, I was like, okay, okay.
cuppycup 15:30
Can I just call him Hank? [laughter]
Scott Dorward 15:33
I'm sure that'll delight him.
Ross Bryant 15:37
Now, Josephine, did you say that you're thinking an ex-dancer who now cleans the joint?
Josephine McAdam 15:42
Yeah, so she's, she's already there most likely. She, I think she might be outside doing some touch-ups. [SFX: busy street] She is hunched over. She's got like, a skirt that's hiked up on one side. It's like a 56-year-old woman here. She's got a tight little bustier on. She's weathered. She's got long hair piled on top of her head, kind of like clipped in a place with long strands surrounding her face, and she's smoking a cigarette. It's hanging out of her mouth. [SFX: paint bucket moving] She's got a paint bucket in one hand and a brush in the other, as she's smoking and slapping on this like, red, red paint over this section.
Ross Bryant 16:24
Awesome. Yes, some final touch ups, enormous wheatpaste, posters advertising other entertainments to come.
Josephine McAdam 16:32
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 16:33
This lady's a tough broad.
Josephine McAdam 16:35
Oh, yeah.
Ross Bryant 16:36
And perhaps has tread the boards herself in a previous time.
Josephine McAdam 16:40
Yeah, she's been here. She's seen people come in and out many, many years. Her name is Margot Abadie.
cuppycup 16:50
If I was to not know how to spell the last name, Josephine.
Josephine McAdam 16:54
Abadie, it's A-B-A-D-I-E. But what's fun is it sounds like she's a baddie, because she is! [laughter]
Ross Bryant 17:01
A baddie. Abadie. Henri Roi. [laughter] Margot, you hear from behind you in the crowd a telltale crinkling like a newspaper being balled up. [laughter]
cuppycup 17:16
Paint the suit! [laughter]
Ross Bryant 17:20
And you see the memorable form of Henri Roi striding out of the crowd, crinkling as he goes. His hair slicked back. This, of course, is a friend known to you.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 17:34
How's it's going? It's good to see you.
Henri Roi (Scott) 17:39
My dear.
Scott Dorward 17:40
And I'll give you a very exaggerated bow that stops just short of being a full bow, because you can just hear the sound of paper splitting. [SFX: paper tear]
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 17:50
It's a new suit?
Scott Dorward 17:53
Every day, every day.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 17:56
Every day. I admire this. We'll get it off you soon enough. Ha ha! [laughter]
Ross Bryant 18:03
Two rather tall gentlemen walk by with icy sang-froid, monocles in their eyes, looking down at the two of you and just like, (in character) "Hmph. Bohemians," as they walk their way past. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 18:15
Margot, just like turns and goes,
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 18:17
(hissing sound) [laughter]
Ross Bryant 18:22
You, of course, are coming here for entertainment. You work here. This implies to me that perhaps you give those in the know, maybe backstage access to entertainments at the Moulin Rouge that are not for the general public.
Josephine McAdam 18:35
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ross Bryant 18:37
Yes. Then coming out of the crowd, Cup, what is it that you look like?
cuppycup 18:43
I'm picturing broad shoulders and wood polished stained fingers, filings on his cuffs, and as he walks, [SFX: winding mechanism] he's winding a box that sings pretty sweetly. [MUSIC: elegant music box off key] It's a rather alluring tune, but there's something unsettling, just like one wrong overtone, and it's probably because of the, I don't know, the teeth or something that he's using in the box. But he is the local artisan music box maker, an antiquarian. [SFX: box closes]
Ross Bryant 19:15
Great. [laughter]
cuppycup 19:17
As there always is.
Ross Bryant 19:20
A fixture in any town. A pillar of the community. Yes, and what is his name?
cuppycup 19:27
Marcel Dubois.
Ross Bryant 19:29
Great. Marcel Dubois. This tells me that you maybe have built things special for the Moulin Rouge and maybe for some of its wealthier clientele.
cuppycup 19:40
Oh, yeah. I think he also makes music boxes inspired by the music he hears, the things they play.
Ross Bryant 19:45
Wonderful. So perhaps you have given such gifts as this to the artisans and patrons of the Moulin Rouge, and you are here again to indulge. And then sweeping out of the crowd, making up our foursome, Abu, who do we see?
Abubakar Salim 20:02
The fear that has kind of rushed into me as you've asked me this question. [laughter] What you see is a man completely bollock-naked, running. [laughter] [SFX: running footsteps] Running. [MUSIC: jaunty French music] Running for his life. As you can hear shouting behind him, basically being, (in French accent) "That's my wife!"
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 20:31
Sorry, John, I didn't know that. I just did my thing! [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 20:35
And I'm just running towards where the group is.
Ross Bryant 20:42
Abu, I love this so much.
Josephine McAdam 20:45
Yeah, we've seen this before, though, for sure.
Abubakar Salim 20:48
You see a grappling hook in one hand, music sheet in the other and on my armpit, I have a telescope, a handheld telescope, and I'm just running. I'm like,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 20:58
I'm so sorry.
Abubakar Salim 20:59
I'm just running.
Ross Bryant 21:02
Awesome. [MUSIC: old timey French piano] In the sort of Baz Luhrmann of it all, I just want to imagine, smash cut. You're looking through a stereopticon, one of those things with a handle that goes over your eyes where you can see, like a three-dimensional picture. This was a form of parlor entertainment at the time. And see an image from several hours ago of Abu's character seated at a piano, fully dressed, sheet music in front of him, a woman sitting next to him. Another slide enters the frame. They're sitting a little bit closer. [laughter] Another slide enters the frame. She is draped over the piano. It is slammed shut. [laughter] Another slide enters the frame. Oh, the authorities would censor this. This is far too scandalous. Another enters the frame. A husband burst through the door. A look of shock on his face. The final stereopticon slide enters, and Abu's character is hurling a grappling hook out of the window as he attempts to make good his escape. [laughter] The woman pleading with her husband, but he is already giving chase. And that brings us back to the present moment. What is the name of your character, Abu?
Abubakar Salim 22:08
Bill Buckaroo. [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 22:11
Oh, my God.
Scott Dorward 22:14
Brilliant.
Ross Bryant 22:14
Great. Bill Buckaroo, who I can assume based on his patterns of speech...
Abubakar Salim 22:18
It's an alias.
Ross Bryant 22:19
Yeah, an alias, yes, wonderful,
cuppycup 22:22
And one that I can spell, at last. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 22:27
Alright, so I think our first mission is help our friend, Bill...
Josephine McAdam 22:31
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 22:32
... elude his imminent death. There's a man behind you. He is in a waistcoat, a large mustache, like a walrus, coming off his face. There is a kitchen knife in his hand, and he is dashing down the street. It's like...
Wronged Husband (Ross) 22:49
[MUSIC: jaunty French music; SFX: running footsteps] My wife, my wife, sir! I demand satisfaction.
Ross Bryant 22:54
He's like in hot pursuit of you as you hotfoot it past and the three of you see your friend being chased.
Josephine McAdam 23:02
I'm gonna bust open a back door to make sure he's got a clean entryway into the Moulin Rouge. [SFX: door opens]
Ross Bryant 23:10
So ducking around the side, you open up a stage door?
Josephine McAdam 23:14
Yeah, stage door.
cuppycup 23:17
At the same time, Marcel is gonna reach into his pocket and just pinch some spare porcelain molars that he's carrying and just kind of like flick them across the cobbles. [SFX: teeth scatter on stone]
Ross Bryant 23:29
I'm sorry, Marcel, are you attempting to "Home Alone" this guy with your pocket full of teeth? [laughter]
cuppycup 23:35
Just hoping his pursuer slips or something, yeah.
Ross Bryant 23:38
Wow, that's... that's... Okay. [laughter] That seems like you should maybe roll for that. It doesn't seem to me that anything comes into play here, other than maybe Throw or perhaps just Luck. So I'm going to need you to roll a hard success on a Luck roll in order to make this man slip on your cascade of teeth.
cuppycup 24:05
54 under 60. Oh, I need a hard success. Ugh.
Ross Bryant 24:09
A hard success.
cuppycup 24:10
Okay, that was just an instinctive thing that he did, and then he realizes that he's just gonna step over the teeth. [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 24:20
Damn. Forgot that people got legs.
Ross Bryant 24:23
I think what happens is he maybe skids on the teeth, but he does not go down. A group of women nearby look down at the ground. They're like, (in character) "Shocking!" as they see what you've done, but the man with the knife wheels now on you, Marcel.
cuppycup 24:38
That's fair.
Ross Bryant 24:39
Like his eyes burning holes into you. It's like,
Wronged Husband (Ross) 24:43
My quarrel is not with you, sir, but with that blaggard who seeks to cuckold me.
Ross Bryant 24:47
And he takes a swing at you with his knife. We're into this now, baby.
Abubakar Salim 24:53
Oh, my lord.
cuppycup 24:55
I'd like to dodge that.
Ross Bryant 24:56
Great. Here we go. He fails.
cuppycup 25:00
I have a regular success. I like to think I'm not dodging so much as dropping to the ground to collect my teeth. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 25:09
This well-timed tooth retrieval causes his knife to swing wide, and you have effectively dodged his stroke, but now he kind of backs up from you, sees Bill disappearing towards the stage door along with Henri, I assume, and he shouts after you.
Wronged Husband (Ross) 25:26
Stop!
Ross Bryant 25:27
As he attempts to now chase you down.
Scott Dorward 25:30
What Henri wants to do is just put a hand on Bill's back and lead him through the stage door. And says,
Henri Roi (Scott) 25:36
It's alright, Monsieur Buckaroo, we shall deal with this sensibly.
Scott Dorward 25:42
And I'll start taking my clothes off and handing them to you. [laughter] They're like five sizes too small for you, but he's still handing them to you.
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 25:51
It's fine. It's fine. I don't need your clothes. They're all good, man. Just, just keep them on. It's all good. [laughter]
Henri Roi (Scott) 25:58
No, no, no, no, no. We need to deal with this like gentleman,
Scott Dorward 26:01
I'll say, and I'll walk out towards the knifeman, naked.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 26:05
Boys, there's plenty of clothes inside. Get your butt inside.
Ross Bryant 26:11
Great. So this little negotiation is taking place. Did you say that you're walking back toward the knifeman, Henri?
Scott Dorward 26:17
Yeah, stark naked.
Ross Bryant 26:18
Great.
Josephine McAdam 26:19
I would love also to still be outside, like I've opened the door, but I'm waiting outside.
Ross Bryant 26:24
Okay.
Josephine McAdam 26:24
If knife man gets anywhere close to the door, let me know.
Ross Bryant 26:28
Now, I don't know the precise geography of the Moulin Rouge, but let's in our Baz Luhrmann-y way, have the camera sort of dangling from the sky as we see Margot there holding the door open, Bill like halfway through the door, trying to get these tiny paper clothes on. They're sort of bursting at their seams. [laughter] Henri moving back down the alley towards the knifeman behind whom is Marcel, putting his teeth back in his pocket. So what would you like to do, Henri, to help stop this imminent stabbing?
Scott Dorward 26:59
I'm just going to raise a hand and say,
Henri Roi (Scott) 27:01
Monsieur, I understand you're looking for a naked man. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 27:05
Great. What roll is this, would you say?
Scott Dorward 27:08
Would you settle for Fast Talk?
Ross Bryant 27:10
Fast talk. Yeah, I think so. This sounds like just the sort of surreal and... the sort of surreal nonsense that Henri Roy traffics in. He almost creates an alternate reality with his nonsense. Let's see how his Fast Talk goes.
Scott Dorward 27:28
Indeed, that is 45 under 60.
Ross Bryant 27:31
Wonderful. You have flummoxed this man so much. (French mumbling) You can see shock sort of come over his features. The knife sort of swings down to his side as he's walked now into this utterly surreal tableau. [MUSIC: jaunty French strings]
Henri Roi (Scott) 27:48
I'm sorry, monsieur, are you disappointed? Am I? Am I not naked enough for you? I cannot get any more naked.
Wronged Husband (Ross) 28:00
I do not have time for your bizarre sophistry. My... My heart is broken. My wife, monsieur, she has been, she has been unfaithful to me with this blaggard!
Ross Bryant 28:12
He points down the alley, seeing Bill, sort of disappearing into the door.
Scott Dorward 28:17
I'll place an arm across his shoulder, or will try to reach up to place an arm across his shoulder and say,
Henri Roi (Scott) 28:22
Monsieur, that is terrible. Tell me all about it.
Scott Dorward 28:24
I'll say, and start steering him away from the Moulin Rouge.
cuppycup 28:28
Marcel's gonna walk with them like they're three fast friends.
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 28:33
Henri, actually, you could get more naked. He has a knife.
Henri Roi (Scott) 28:37
Do not give the man any ideas. Though I must admit, as a form of artistic expression, that could be interesting.
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 28:43
Yeah, just planting a seed.
Wronged Husband (Ross) 28:46
Yes, I suppose there is a level of nakedness beyond clothing. You could bare yourself even further.
Henri Roi (Scott) 28:55
Yes, we can. We can bare our souls. We can bare our imaginations to the world and take risks. We can bare everything together.
Ross Bryant 29:05
And I want to say that you have not so much Fast Talked, Intimidated or Persuaded, but sort of confused him to the point that you have diffused the situation. You're watching this man as he wanders off into the crowd, like the knife at his side.
Wronged Husband (Ross) 29:21
More naked. Perhaps I never showed an appropriate level of nakedness to her that she would seek vulnerability in the arms of another. I have much too much to consider.
Ross Bryant 29:33
As he wanders away having been struck by the bolt of bohemian artistry from Henri Roi. [MUSIC: French can-can] Let's put you all now back on the other side of that stage door, if Marcel and Henri, you have come back through the alley.
cuppycup 29:49
Oh yeah.
Ross Bryant 29:50
You are now hearing the strains of a band in the pit playing a can-can. There is a troupe of dancers going by in various states of undress. Pierrot and clown are sort of wandering through in all manner of grease paint. You can see flies and sandbags up above you, where it looks like a bunch of stage flats could be raised and lowered. And deeper into the Moulin Rouge, you can see that there are, there's like a warren of dressing rooms and little backstage zones where people can change and where people can do all manner of things.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 30:29
Yes, yes. Come, come right this way. Let's get you into something more fitting for the young man that you are.
Ross Bryant 30:37
Are you seeking to dress Bill up in some stage properties, Margot.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 30:42
Yes, yes. [laughter]
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 30:46
Hey, Margot, you know, again, I don't want anything too crazy.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 30:52
I know, I know you don't like it too crazy, but I tone it down. Don't worry.
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 31:02
Yeah, I'm worried. But okay, let's do it.
Abubakar Salim 31:05
I'm kind of handing the ripped paper clothes back to Henri. [laughter]
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 31:10
[SFX: paper rustling] Henri, man, I gotta thank you, but yeah. You... yeah. I really didn't need to wear... It's a bit wet, man. Why is it wet? You know what? It's okay. [laughter] You saved my life, man. So it's all good.
Ross Bryant 31:27
Great. Yes, I want to say that you have all perhaps met. Maybe this isn't the first time that you've helped Bill out of a scrape like this and you have been backstage here before. The Moulin Rouge at this time, as the movie has taught us, is a place where people don't just go to watch dancing and have a fine evening of entertainment. But of course, the smarter set, the wealthier folks from the Faubourg Saint-Germain might come here to cast their eye upon a pretty dancer and then make her a kept woman, so to speak. So there are relationships of a transactional quality that are taking place here all the time, and, of course, all kinds of bohemian revels. A little man is walking towards you now. He's smoking a cigarette in a little ivory holder that's been carved to look like a little nymph, and he's got a suit on. It looks like he might be wearing makeup. [SFX: footsteps approach] His hair's swept back as he walks over to you. Looks up at you Bill, Henri, Marcel, nods at you, Margot. You know this to be Robert Saint-Germain.
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 32:38
Did you... Did you finish...
Ross Bryant 32:40
As you said, this is Baz Luhrmann, so all accents are on the table [laughter]
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 32:45
Did you finish touching up the front then, Madame Abadie?
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 32:50
Oh, yes, yes. Do not worry. I put the special paint on it. [laughter] My special mix only I know how to make, so you can never fire me.
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 33:06
Yes, yes, where would I be without my giantess? [laughter]
Ross Bryant 33:09
He looks you up and down. He glances over at you, Bill, is like,
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 33:15
This place would fall to ruin without Madame Abadie holding it up.
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 33:19
Absolutely. So what do we owe the pleasure to you, my dear friend?
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 33:25
Well, what do I owe the pleasure to you? It seems you've come backstage when, by rights, you should be out enjoying the evening's revels, but...
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 33:34
You know I like the back door sometimes. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 33:39
He takes a little perfumed handkerchief out of his out of his pocket, and is like daubing his cheeks. [laughter]
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 33:46
Charming, Mr. Buckaroo, charming. [laughter]
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 33:54
I need to get Mr. Buckaroo a little, a little outfit. You see, he's had... he's misplaced his clothing.
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 34:03
Yes, but you could perhaps get him one of the gendarme uniforms from the property trunk.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 34:11
Oh, oui, oui! Yes, I think so.
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 34:17
But more to the point, Madame Abadie, Cécile has not yet come out of her dressing room. I fear she's having one of her moods again.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 34:29
Okay, okay, okay, I understand. I will... we go see what we do to cheer up Cécile.
Ross Bryant 34:36
She's referring here to, and of course, you know this already, but maybe our audience learns it. [SFX: footsteps on stairs] As you walk up a staircase backstage, you're passing posters of a beautiful dancer. These are perhaps painted by Toulouse-Lautrec himself. This woman in just beautiful, contorted poses, seductively rendered on these posters. And you can see that there written is the name of the dancer in question, one of the premier dancers here at the Moulin Rouge, Cécile Swann, otherwise known as the cygne noir, The Black Swan. And she has a dark complexion and raven hair, and she is striking these beautiful poses. And it sounds like she's in one of her moods again. You walk up the stairs, Robert leads you down a dark hallway. Gas lights are hissing there in the hall, and you can see at the end of the hall there is a door and there's a young man slumped against it, sobbing.
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 35:42
He hasn't had any luck getting her out, but maybe you will. I know Madame Abadie, that you can be very persuasive and your friends as well, especially you, Mr. Buckaroo.
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 35:55
Look, we've had enough pianist problems today. [laughter]
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 35:59
Oh, one to you, my dear friend over there.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 36:04
Yes, yes, yes, now this is what we do. We need to, okay, first...
Josephine McAdam 36:09
I'm just going to, she just opens like whatever closest dressing room door is there, grabs whatever's on the hangers. [SFX: door opens and hangers move]
Ross Bryant 36:18
Three women inside go, "Eek!" as you open it up. [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 36:22
Yeah. Throws this, whatever costumes in the hand onto Bill, throws another one onto Henri. [SFX: clothes movement]
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 36:30
Put these on.
Abubakar Salim 36:31
Start putting it on.
Henri Roi (Scott) 36:33
But I have my own clothes. They're merely ripped. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 36:37
Yeah, no one back here is even batting an eye that you are naked, Henri. It's just another day here. In fact, like women in like almost total undress, are crossing and criss-crossing this hallway.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 36:49
Henri, it's just so you, so you dazzle.
Henri Roi (Scott) 36:53
All I require is a little paste.
Ross Bryant 36:56
Bill and Henri, can you give me Luck rolls and tell me... roll your luck and tell me what level of success you get. Failure, regular, extreme or hard.
Abubakar Salim 37:07
Here we go, baby, 36.
cuppycup 37:10
Oh, no! [laughter]
Ross Bryant 37:13
One above. Great. So that's a failure.
cuppycup 37:17
Oh, that's awful.
Scott Dorward 37:18
And just to match that, I rolled 51 over 50.
cuppycup 37:21
Oh, my God.
Ross Bryant 37:23
Amazing! Okay, you each failed by one. [laughter] So this is just to decide how flattering the costumes that you're about to get are. So why don't you tell me. There's probably a picture in your mind of how you'd like to be dressed right now, and this is just one step removed from that. [laughter] What sort of stage costume have you been given?
Abubakar Salim 37:44
I guess the idea was the hope that it would be like a lovely soldier or some form of, you know, gentleman, to a degree, some uniform, right? Here I am in what seems to be a tattered waistcoat with definitely some weird sort of fluid, dried, crusted fluid on it. [laughter] I'm definitely wearing something that I'm convincing myself is either from a murder victim or someone who's had a wild sex party with all sorts of junk on it. [laughter] I'm hoping when I put my leg through, what I believe are trousers, it's actually a really long skirt, because it's ripped right in the middle. But actually, even though it doesn't look flattering, I kind of like it.
Ross Bryant 38:33
Yeah.
Abubakar Salim 38:34
This is essentially my outfit. And I kind of look at the other stuff. I'm like, you know what I'll just do well with just a waistcoat and a skirt, guys, that's great.
Ross Bryant 38:42
Yes. So as Bill Buckaroo is making big strides in the frontiers of androgyny, [laughter] having raided this skirt from the laundry basket, what does Henri look like now?
Scott Dorward 38:54
Yeah, looking around for something that's going to fit his small frame, the only thing that anyone's managed to find is a costume for Cupid. So it's basically like a gilded nappy and a pair of wings and a quiver, and he's carrying around a matching bow, little garland of leaves on his head. [laughter]
cuppycup 39:15
What a group.
Abubakar Salim 39:17
Amazing.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 39:18
And you said you needed paste.
Josephine McAdam 39:21
Give him two little sparkling pasties. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 39:25
Great.
Scott Dorward 39:26
Well, it'd be rude not to wear them.
Ross Bryant 39:31
Robert Saint-Germain looks over at you, Marcel, and he removes a pocket watch from his waistcoat. [SFX: watch ticking]
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 39:36
This is your line, isn't it, Monsieur Dubois?
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 39:40
Yes, indeed it is? Is it broken?
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 39:43
No. On the contrary, it is most punctual. I believe you will note that the hour hand has nearly struck the hour of eight o'clock. This means that The Black Swan must take the stage. How strange that she has not come out of her dressing room. I speak to you in the language that you understand, the language of chronology, Mr. Dubois. Could you be so kind as to get your friends into action, sir? I hope that she can be removed in time to take the stage, or else I will be ruined. There are many men this evening who are paying a princely sum to have a private audience, and so I do not want to leave them disappointed, sir. If persuasion fails, then I hope your acumen with mechanics can at least remove the lock from the door.
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 40:29
Yes, but you're talking an awful lot, for someone who's in a hurry. [laughter] If we could just get into the room.
cuppycup 40:35
And he puts a costume back on the rack because he was so jealous of Bill and Henri.
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 40:40
Please, sir, your criticism wounds me. I am the most punctual person in all of Christendom. Brevity is the soul of wit, and brevity is, of course, the nature of my soul. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 40:54
I'm looking at the guy crying on the floor. I'm like,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 40:57
So had a tough day, huh? [laughter]
Ross Bryant 41:00
He's like, looks up at you, [MUSIC: somber French accordian]
Distraught Suitor (Ross) 41:03
(crying) Yes, monsieur, she will not even answer me. She has not answered my letters, even though I have debased myself to the level of a dog, sir. Monsieur, whatever am I to do?
Ross Bryant 41:19
And he bangs his head on the door. [SFX: bang on wood]
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 41:22
Oh, well, at least he's knocking for us, and there's no answer. So...
Abubakar Salim 41:26
I kind of look to Marcel, I'm like,
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 41:29
What is this, Bill?
cuppycup 41:30
He's gonna, like, chip off some of the crust from your suit, and is like,
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 41:33
What is this?
cuppycup 41:33
Smell it, puts it up to his nose. [laughter]
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 41:35
Oh, I don't, I wouldn't. Okay.
Ross Bryant 41:39
Robert Saint-Germain smacks your hand, is like,
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 41:41
Ah, ah, ah!
cuppycup 41:44
I will try to get the door open if it's locked. Can I use Mechanical Repair instead of Locksmith?
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 41:50
Whoa, whoa, whoa, you did not even... Wait! You cannot just bust into a woman's room.
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 41:55
Yes, yes. Naughty boy. Naughty boy.
Henri Roi (Scott) 42:00
Are we not being hasty here? Chronology is an absurd science. We are slaves to the clock. And the clock is our invention. We have created our own master here. It is absurd. Surely, surely the answer to this is for you to just fix the clock, change the time on it, and then we will be slaves to a different time. Change the mechanism so the clock runs backward, and we shall have all the time. We shall have all the time in the world. [laughter]
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 42:30
You know you... You had me for a second. Madame Margot, please tell me, enlighten me with something new of what to do right now, because...
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 42:41
Yes. Okay, okay. Attends! Attends! Attends! Attends! Attends.
Distraught Suitor (Ross) 42:46
It is fruitless. It is fruitless.
Ross Bryant 42:48
Says the young man on the floor.
Distraught Suitor (Ross) 42:50
It is fruitless, madame.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 42:52
No. You, you shut up. She is done with you. She said no. [laughter] No means no.
Ross Bryant 42:59
He cringes away from you.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 43:02
Hello, ma chère Cécile. [SFX: knocking] It's me, Madame Abadie. Look. I know we may have had one talk too many about how the entirety of reality around us is merely a figment of our imagination, and we do not know what is real or what is not anymore, one moment to the next. But in this moment, it has been made painfully clear that to some people, they are still operating on the tick tock of the clock. [laughter]
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 43:41
Are you all hiding absinthe from me? [laughter]
Ross Bryant 43:47
Yes, the smell of anise is thick in the air here.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 43:53
Ma chère, I hate to say it, but if you do not come out on time, I will have to come in there and show you what's what. And I know you don't want me to take out the tools from the basement, Cécile. [laughter] We do not want you to be flightless, my dear, Cécile.
Abubakar Salim 44:14
Oh, my lord.
Ross Bryant 44:17
Wow. Threatening Are you intending to Intimidate her to open the door?
Josephine McAdam 44:22
I'm trying to Persuade her. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 44:24
Yeah, great. Why don't you give me a Persuade roll?
cuppycup 44:26
She might want the basement tools.
Josephine McAdam 44:28
You know what, Luck is there to be spent, and Margot has a lot of Luck. I rolled real well, and so I'm gonna spend 20 Luck.
cuppycup 44:37
Wow.
Josephine McAdam 44:39
To make that a successful roll of 55.
Ross Bryant 44:44
You hear no response after you get done with your little speech.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 44:49
Ah, merde, she might be out.
Ross Bryant 44:52
You can hear from the floor the murmurings of our sad suitor down there like,
Distraught Suitor (Ross) 44:56
Fruitless, fruitless. Nothing. She will never speak to me again.
Ross Bryant 45:02
But you're right there, close to the door, yeah?
Josephine McAdam 45:05
Yeah. I'm right up against it, face is against it. I'm caressing. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 45:10
Yes, there caressing the door, see you almost in a split screen with one half dark, your face pressed against the door. [MUSIC: haunting French strings] So you feel from this vantage point, it sort of vibrate. [SFX: vibrating wood]
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 45:28
No, no, no, no.
Ross Bryant 45:30
And then comes to a pause. But you spent all that Luck. Suddenly, the door... You hear like the vibration again, and you hear the bolt sliding [SFX: metal vibrating and unlocks]
Josephine McAdam 45:51
Ah, voilà, you see. You just had to ask it nicely. I will open the door.
Abubakar Salim 45:58
I lean to Henri, and I'm like,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 45:59
Just notice how she said "it." It nicely. [laughter]
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 46:08
It is wonderful to see that your powers of persuasion are still so acute. Madame Abadie, have her ready for the stage.
Ross Bryant 46:15
He raises his watch.
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 46:17
At 8 o'clock.
Ross Bryant 46:19
He turns on his heel and begins to walk into one of the other dressing rooms,
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 46:22
Ladies!
Ross Bryant 46:23
[SFX: fast clapping] He's clapping like,
Robert Saint-Germain (Ross) 46:25
Up, up, up, up. Where is your rouge? Clementine? Clementine, oh, what have you... Are you hung over again?
Ross Bryant 46:31
As he's shutting the door. [SFX: door closes] The door swings open, [SFX: door creaks] and you are looking into total darkness. Just the gas lamps behind you in the hall create just this beam of light into this dark room.
Josephine McAdam 46:46
I'll pick up a candle nearby and just light it and hold it kind of between us all to just light our faces as we move through this space.
Ross Bryant 46:57
You enter the space all of you. Your face is illuminated by Margot's candle. Can I get a Spot Hidden from everyone? Padding behind you like a dog is this unnamed man.
cuppycup 47:14
Oh, my God, we're just crushing this roll.
Scott Dorward 47:15
Yeah.
Josephine McAdam 47:17
Wow. It's the candlelight and us grouped together.
Abubakar Salim 47:21
Nice. I got a 26, so I survived. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 47:23
Yes.
cuppycup 47:24
Do we all have extremes?
Scott Dorward 47:26
No, I just got a hard because I've got the base. But...
cuppycup 47:29
Oh, I have two under 50.
Josephine McAdam 47:31
Yeah, mine's a six under 35.
cuppycup 47:35
I think I'm paying extra close attention, because I feel like Margot just somehow opened the door with mysticism. So I'm paying very close attention.
Ross Bryant 47:43
Yeah, Margot, it eerily felt that way, I should say. [MUSIC: eerie strings] That you have a sense of the unreality of things, or perhaps that what we see and what we perceive is a thin veil that covers a truth that the conventional world does not dare to look into. And as that door opened and the vibrations of the wood against your hand and cheek were occurring, you had the sense of that veil sort of billowing slightly. It did not feel as though a hand was turning the bolt. And since all of you got a success. Henri, you got a hard success?
Scott Dorward 48:30
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 48:31
Well, you, like everyone else, noticed that as you step in, the floor is somewhat adhesive, as your shoe kind of comes up off it. It like there's a (makes tearing sound) sound as it pulls away from the floor. And you wonder what that could be. But of course, you know, because of the glow of the candle. The sort of crimson hue of this room is not due just to the deep scarlet brocade curtains that surround everything. It is because every surface in this room is absolutely covered, as though by Margot Abadie's paint pot. Absolutely drenched in blood.
Abubakar Salim 49:22
Oh, my God.
Ross Bryant 49:24
This room is saturated in it. Those of you who got extreme successes notice that the glow of the candle has a sympathetic glow in the room. It's coming from the mirror, of course, but it's also coming below the mirror. There is a circle on the floor, three feet across, that seems to sympathetically glow with the light of your candle. Although your candle, of course, gives off this sort of orangish flame illuminating the sickly crimson sheen of the blood on every surface of this space. There is a fiery red glow, sort of resonating with the glow of the candle coming from that circle on the floor. Can everybody roll Sanity for me?
cuppycup 50:19
This is what Ross does when we get too goofy.
Josephine McAdam 50:22
And the other thing Abu is that, like sometimes you want to fail Spot Hidden in Cthulhu. Usually seeing the things are bad.
Abubakar Salim 50:31
Right. [laughter] Oh, that's good to know.
cuppycup 50:36
A lesson hard learned.
Abubakar Salim 50:38
Oh, yeah. Wait, if you roll under you succeed, right?
cuppycup 50:42
Yeah, you did.
Josephine McAdam 50:43
Oh, that's very good, yeah.
cuppycup 50:44
I failed severely, but I didn't fumble.
Ross Bryant 50:47
Okay.
Josephine McAdam 50:48
I failed.
Scott Dorward 50:49
I've succeeded.
Ross Bryant 50:51
Okay, great. I like that.
cuppycup 50:53
Wait, which part do you like? You like the two passes or the two fails?
Ross Bryant 50:59
I'm sorry, I like it when people fail Sanity rolls, that's pleasant for me. That, uh, that gets me on. [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 51:06
Yeah, yeah.
Ross Bryant 51:08
Yeah. So let's see how much Sanity you lose right now. Okay, not too bad. It's not too bad. So, who are my failures?
cuppycup 51:17
Margot and Marcel.
Ross Bryant 51:19
Margot and Marcel, great. So Bill and Henri, you succeeded. You lose two points of Sanity.
cuppycup 51:26
Ooh.
Ross Bryant 51:27
Marcel, I'm afraid you lose four points of Sanity.
cuppycup 51:31
Okay, could be worse.
Ross Bryant 51:33
Margot Abadie, you maybe more than anyone else here, worked closest with Cécile Swann, and I think that's why you're losing six points of Sanity right now.
Josephine McAdam 51:44
Oh, my God. What? Okay. Okay.
Ross Bryant 51:51
And you also, I believe, noticed this uncanny thing on the floor. You're also the one who felt that tremor in the door, and you have now realized that there's no one in here. How did that door open to your summons? Please roll Intelligence.
cuppycup 52:10
Oh, wow. [laughter]
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 52:13
But it's everything I always thought. I knew it was this way. I've been telling everyone there's something in the building. We are not alone.
Josephine McAdam 52:22
I succeeded.
Ross Bryant 52:24
That's great.
Josephine McAdam 52:25
So well. Like an extreme Intelligence success.
Ross Bryant 52:29
Wonderful. I think your flavoring on that Margot is exactly correct. You have had occult experiences before. So yeah, this isn't insanity. This is clarity. You are seeing further confirmation of what you have always, perhaps suspected, that just outside of your peripheral senses, other forces move in legion. And something has crossed the veil here, something answered you. You don't know exactly what, but something opened the door. Something showed this room to you, the scene of this blasphemous crime, where it looks as though someone has just been, for lack of a better word, exploded. You can feel it now, like raining down on your shoulders and on the top of your head, [SFX: liquid dripping] because the ceiling is covered in this bloody ichor as well.
Josephine McAdam 53:28
Oh, my God.
Ross Bryant 53:29
But perhaps you are most transfixed by that circle that sympathetically glows with your candle. Yeah. How would you like to flavor this Bout of Madness that you are in?
Josephine McAdam 53:40
Oh, man, yeah. I guess that perhaps she's, yeah, I think that she can't hear what anyone is saying to her for a while. It's like this has muffled them, because all she's taking in is everything that is around her, and what she's seeing. She's suddenly seeing the truth in her own eyes. So I feel like for however many rounds you want to say, I will just be like deaf to them, right? I'll just be following this, unraveling it.
Ross Bryant 54:08
So to everyone else, you can hear dimly back down the passageway, (sings can-can tune). [SFX: can-can music that fades in screech] But we hear that fade out in the perception of Margot Abadie.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 54:21
Free will is a lie. I knew it. None of us are in control. I am not in control. I move. I move, but it's not me moving. Something is moving me. Something moves the windmills of the moulin and I move forward and I...
Josephine McAdam 54:36
And she's on her hands and knees now, moving towards the circle on the ground.
Ross Bryant 54:41
She was probably already smudged with red from her paint job, but now even more so. The man who was crawling behind you is kind of in the fetal position by the door, looking at his hands and muttering to himself. He looks as though he's cracking as well. But the rest of you are holding on. What would you like to do, Marcel, Henri, and Bill?
Abubakar Salim 55:00
I'm going to try and, like, snap Margot out of it. I'm gonna slap Margot around the face.
Ross Bryant 55:09
Okay, you could try to do a Psychology, or rather, a Psychoanalysis roll, and we can interpret this slap as a... [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 55:16
Yeah.
cuppycup 55:16
With the 1%.
Ross Bryant 55:18
As an act of Psychoanalysis, yeah.
Abubakar Salim 55:20
Yeah. I mean, I don't have any points in my Psychoanalysis, so...
Ross Bryant 55:25
Yeah, it's hard to get Sanity back in this game, I'm afraid. It's, it's...
Josephine McAdam 55:29
And it won't last forever, but, but you should, yeah, go for it.
Ross Bryant 55:32
See if you get a one.
Abubakar Salim 55:34
I got a 30.
Ross Bryant 55:36
So you slap Margot. [laughter; SFX: slap]
cuppycup 55:41
Did she hear that?
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 55:45
Hey, Margo, are you? Are you okay? You're sounding a bit like Henri over here.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 55:50
I felt that movement. Something stirs in here. Something is stirring. Do you feel it? Feel it.
Josephine McAdam 55:59
And she'll slap you back. [laughter; SFX: slap]
Ross Bryant 56:03
Great. Yes, your skirt jostles from the impact.
Abubakar Salim 56:09
Where's the candle?
Ross Bryant 56:10
The candle, I believe, is still in Margot's hand.
Josephine McAdam 56:13
Yeah, the other hand, yeah.
Abubakar Salim 56:14
So I think I'm gonna try and grab the candle and put it towards the circle.
Josephine McAdam 56:22
Yes, yes.
Ross Bryant 56:24
As you bring the fire towards the circle, as I said you there seemed to be a sympathetic resonance between the fire and the circle, and the closer the candle gets to it, the more pronounced the scarlet glow coming from the circle is. And as you draw it closer, you can see that it's not just a circle, that there are elaborate geometric diagrams inscribed on the rim and crisscrossing through it.
Abubakar Salim 56:51
I look to the only person who would probably understand this, Henri. [laughter] I'm like,
Abubakar Salim 56:59
Hey, man, can you come look at this? I have no idea what this is. What's going on here.
Scott Dorward 57:06
Henri is looking around the room in almost childlike wonder and just muttering to himself.
Henri Roi (Scott) 57:12
Ah, there truly is another degree of nakedness one can achieve. And... [laughter]
Ross Bryant 57:17
yes, she's been turned into a mist, the most profound form of nudity.
Scott Dorward 57:25
But yes, I'll follow Bill's guidance and walk over towards the circle.
Josephine McAdam 57:30
And Margot is like, crouched next to and she's just like slowly tracing over each symbol as you're looking, like around in the circle, over and over.
cuppycup 57:41
Marcel's confused.
Ross Bryant 57:43
Oh, okay.
Josephine McAdam 57:44
Oh!
cuppycup 57:45
He did lose four Sanity. So I think what he's gonna do is, he's gonna walk after Henri, and he's just got one of his hands up, like ready to slap someone at any moment, because he sees what's going on here. And he also, he has a lot of experience in the occult as well, so I think if he gets close enough to see the symbols, he's going to take a look as well with Henri.
Ross Bryant 58:05
I'll also just remark that there is a music box in here. Maybe it's one you made.
cuppycup 58:10
Oh, did I miss that?
Ross Bryant 58:12
I never said it. I never said it. I mean, I think the glow of that candle didn't illuminate much in this room, but if you're kind of exploring it now.
cuppycup 58:19
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 58:19
Other things maybe arrested your attention more than that.
Scott Dorward 58:23
Just a bit.
cuppycup 58:24
His hand doesn't like go back down. It just kind of rotates toward the music box, and he's gonna walk toward that, almost like he's transfixed by it.
Ross Bryant 58:32
Wonderful. Yeah, do that.
cuppycup 58:35
Is there a key or a crank inside this music box?
Ross Bryant 58:38
It looks as though you could just open the lid. It is very broad. It's almost like a foot wide with a large, kind of art nouveau lid that it looks like you could raise up.
cuppycup 58:52
Okay, I think he lifts the lid like a priest with a reliquary. [SFX: wooden lid opens]
Ross Bryant 58:59
Great. You see, you made this Marcel. You gave this to her. You, like many, were an admirer of Cécile Swann. Her grace, her charm. When she favored you with her attention, it felt like the rays of the sun were falling upon you and a gentle spring breeze wafting across a crystal lake. And there she is, the little porcelain counterfeit of her in the center of this music box. And beneath it is a wide metal disc about the size of a circular saw blade. And it looks rather like a circular saw a blade. It even has teeth on it. You realize that you did not make that.
cuppycup 59:45
Oh.
Ross Bryant 59:46
This is a type of music box that is rather, you know, common for people in the ages before recorded music, where you could buy these metal discs and put them into a music box. The teeth would pluck the resonating bars on the music box, and it would produce different songs. So you could almost collect a set of different songs that a music box would play. And you, of course, gave her some songs, but this disc is not one of your fabrications.
cuppycup 1:00:15
Will it play if I crank the music box?
Ross Bryant 1:00:20
Looks that way.
cuppycup 1:00:21
So I'd like to listen to the music to see why my music wasn't good enough. (laughing) As she's mist all across the room, I'm bitter. Marcel kind of turns back toward the group with a rictus grin and starts to play the music box. [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 1:00:37
Ah yes, the closest you will ever get to Cécile's box. [laughter]
Scott Dorward 1:00:47
Oh!
cuppycup 1:00:47
And now he falls to his knees. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 1:00:51
You were gonna make a Listen roll, right?
cuppycup 1:00:54
Yes, I rolled a 32 but I'd like to spend 12 points of Luck to succeed.
Ross Bryant 1:00:58
Great.
cuppycup 1:01:00
Not a great listener for a music box maker. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 1:01:06
(makes mechanical noises) Perhaps the little teeth of the music box are literally teeth as they strike and pluck the little nodes on the disc.
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 1:01:19
My finest creation.
Ross Bryant 1:01:20
A... I won't call it a melody, comes out of the disc. [MUSIC: eerie music with music box and bass drops] It is a disharmony, and the way that this metallic sound resonates fills all of your ears, except Margot, of course, who is whose ears are now deaf to all sounds in this space. And you, Marcel, who made this successful Listening roll, understand that your craftsmanship has contributed to these strange combinations of notes that seem to resonate on frequencies that you have never really experienced before. There are just certain frequencies that seem to make your vision wobble, to make your chest feel heavy or light. And as it plays, it's spiraling off, spiral, spiraling, turning rather like the blades of a windmill, as turning by another natural force, the mechanistic force. Much like the wind, all forces, perhaps have their force at the same moment, the same moment of creation. It sends all forces out into the universe. All things are participating in the same force. [MUSIC continues out of tune]
Josephine McAdam 1:02:38
Yeah, creepy fucking music box. Let's go.