Transcript - Episode 10: What Makes That Windmill Bleed So? (Part 2)
Audio for What Makes That Windmill Bleed So? Part 2
What Makes That Windmill Bleed So? Part 2
Wed, Oct 15, 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.
Josephine McAdam 00:00
[MUSIC: discordant music box] Yeah, creepy fucking music box, let's go.
Ross Bryant 00:05
But the rest of you are kind of crowding around this resonant circle.
Abubakar Salim 00:22
The circle, yeah, thing.
Scott Dorward 00:23
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 00:24
Yeah. People can roll, I mean, Occult seems like the obvious thing. But if there's another way you'd like to approach the problem or this investigation, I should say, pitch it.
Josephine McAdam 00:36
Do you think Margot's in her bout until the end of, like, this scene? Or how do you how do you want to?
Ross Bryant 00:42
As long as you're exposed to this bloody room, this bloody chamber, you're in the throes of the bout.
Josephine McAdam 00:49
Okay, great.
Scott Dorward 00:51
Henri is a weirdo, but he knows nothing about the occult. He does, however, have 60% in Science: Pataphysics. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 00:59
Brilliant.
Partygoers (Ross) 00:59
So pataphysics was a science invented by Alfred Jarry. [laughter]
cuppycup 01:06
Wow.
Ross Bryant 01:06
But yes, roll Science: Pataphysics.
Scott Dorward 01:10
Yes, I got 41. That's a regular success, yes.
Ross Bryant 01:13
Okay, great. Now, pataphysics is, of course, described as the science of imaginary solutions.[laughter]
Abubakar Salim 01:22
Brilliant. This is fantastic.
Ross Bryant 01:26
So I'll let Henri tell me what the imaginary solution to this circle is.
Abubakar Salim 01:33
This is amazing.
Ross Bryant 01:34
What is the pataphysic explanation for this phenomena?
Henri Roi (Scott) 01:39
This circle represents, it represents the totality of creation. But also we can look at it as a doorway, as a portal. We can look at it as a way of seeing into other worlds. Maybe, maybe our dear friend Cécile is still there. Maybe what we are seeing here is just the markings of her passage to somewhere beyond.
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 02:05
Kind of look around the room. I'm like,
Abubakar Salim 02:06
Yeah, this looks like markings, man. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 02:14
Bill, did you want to roll Occult?
Abubakar Salim 02:17
Yeah, why not, you know? What have I got in Occult? I have a five, so let's roll. Sure. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 02:26
Okay, I'm not trying to push your hand, just like, if there's something else you want to...
Abubakar Salim 02:29
No, you know what, actually let me... Yeah, no, I am going to, I'm gonna roll Occult. I'm just gonna wing it. Let's try it. Come on, guys.
Josephine McAdam 02:37
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 02:38
It could happen.
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 02:40
No, 32. Nevermind, I fail miserably. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 02:45
All good. Yeah, and then that makes sense. This is an odd and totally cryptic and esoteric image. It's strange enough that it seems to glow with a light of its own. And the ramblings of Henri about it being a door or a passageway beyond which Cécile Swann may still be, is so much, the sort of like droll lunacy that you've come to expect from Henri Roi, which is all fun and games in the context of a dinner party, but perhaps tasteless in this environment.
Henri Roi (Scott) 03:20
No, no, she has merely found a way of escaping our mundane reality, of transcending it all.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 03:25
Yes!
Henri Roi (Scott) 03:25
That is the best any of us can ever hope for.
Ross Bryant 03:25
[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 04:21
[MUSIC: creepy music box] Marcel, you're listening to this music, not of a disc, but of the spheres, perhaps. And because you are hearing it so clearly, you're seeing the circle that Bill and Henri are poking around at is now a cone in space. It's not flat. It dips downward. It's something you could reach, nay fall into. [laughter]
cuppycup 04:55
I think he's probably feeling dizzy, and his fingertips are tingling, holding the music box, hearing this discordant sound, and he's gonna...
Ross Bryant 05:05
Yeah, why don't you roll Sanity too? [laughter]
cuppycup 05:07
Yeah. As he's rolling Sanity, he's just gonna look up and say,
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 05:10
Is it love?
Ross Bryant 05:13
Yeah.
cuppycup 05:16
Oh, and he passed his Sanity. He believes it's love.
Ross Bryant 05:19
Great. You lose two more points of Sanity.
cuppycup 05:23
Oh, great. But I do think he's still taken aback by this. He's gonna rush up to Henri and say, he's gonna shake him and say,
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 05:30
It's a door, it's a door! Go on Cupid, test the mechanism, and he's gonna give him a light shove.
Scott Dorward 05:40
Oh, I won't put up any resistance. If you're pushing me towards this portal, I will cheerfully jump in. After all, I'm dressed as Cupid. I have wings to break my fall.
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 05:50
It's love. [SFX: body clothing impact; laughter]
cuppycup 05:54
Marcel went to shove him and he missed, because Henri was diving in head first. [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 06:00
Margot's definitely just fallen down with Henri.
Ross Bryant 06:04
Wow. We're really just a little cascade of dominoes here. Okay.
cuppycup 06:07
It's almost like there are false teeth on the floor. We're just slipping and sliding into portals. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 06:12
Yeah, oh yeah. Totally, totally, yep, yep, yep.
Josephine McAdam 06:14
Just like that.
Ross Bryant 06:16
It sounds like we're all going in. Okay. [MUSIC: eerie drone] Marcel, you saw this thing sort of recede into the bloody floor, like what was once flat, now conical. And as Henri tumbles forward, letting himself nay leaping onto this circle on the floor, you see him. His already slight frame seems to shrink and diminish as he is consumed by this cone. And what looked like... this conical space seemed to be maybe only a foot deep, but as Henri shrinks as he descends, it looks about a mile deep as the perspective of it warps and changes. And you're just looking at a small, small man tumbling down an immense glowing black and red tunnel, fretted and filigreed with bloody geometry, and it sounds like the rest of you are now tumbling into it as well.
cuppycup 07:24
Well, wait a second. Wait a second. I think Marcel's gonna grab Bill's shoulder and say, Mr. Buckaroo, deploy the grappling hook. [laughter] If Hell's at the bottom, we'll haul ourselves back out.
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 07:40
You got it!
Abubakar Salim 07:41
And I kind of, like, turn and fire the hook. No, wait, not yet. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 07:46
Yeah, it's a Batman-style grappling hook gun.
Josephine McAdam 07:50
You're gonna grapple into the cone? Like, rappel down?
cuppycup 07:53
Yeah, rappel, exactly.
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 07:54
I think that's what I'm yeah, I'm gonna rappel, yeah, exactly. I'm gonna like, you know, swing it up, rig it around, and then, yeah, that's the plan.
Ross Bryant 08:01
Okay.
cuppycup 08:02
Now it feels safe, Ross.
Ross Bryant 08:05
Sure. So you're lodging the hook in this dressing room and then sort of rappelling into this aperture. Okay, yeah, sure.
Josephine McAdam 08:15
I would just like to flavor that as Margot is tumbling through this, she's like spinning and then doing these dance moves on the way down, like she's back in her prime, like doing all sorts of posing, flipping, tumbling. It's a sight to behold.
Ross Bryant 08:31
Yeah, wow, just... Yeah, see her suspended, tumbling through space, these strange sigilistic blood-red writings behind her as she tumbles down. Or is it up in this space where geometry seems to make no sense. Bill, I'd like to get a sense of how secure this grappling hook is. Why don't you give me a Throw roll?
Josephine McAdam 09:00
Oh, my God.
Abubakar Salim 09:01
Okay, Throw roll.
cuppycup 09:02
For a Dilettante.
Josephine McAdam 09:04
I know, a stat that's almost never filled.
Ross Bryant 09:07
Yeah, I know, but it's so perfect.
cuppycup 09:09
Yes.
Abubakar Salim 09:11
Here we go, baby, here we go. You ready?
Ross Bryant 09:14
I'm ready, baby.
Abubakar Salim 09:17
45, so that's a failure.
cuppycup 09:20
Ross, can I push his roll by... [laughter] when the grappling hook fails to latch on, can Marcel being the last one down, try to secure it to something?
Ross Bryant 09:32
Okay. So, just so we're clear, I don't... Is it rules as written that you can push someone else's roll? [laughter]
cuppycup 09:38
What do you think, Scott? Scott lets us do it sometimes.
Scott Dorward 09:40
Oh, yeah, I've let it happen before.
Ross Bryant 09:43
You can definitely push this roll. You make his Throw roll again, but this means that if you fail it something terrible happens, specifically to Marcel Dubois. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 09:52
Okay, great. This is gonna be great.
cuppycup 09:54
Yeah, yeah. I wasn't intending anything to happen to Bill, but is it possible I can push it with Mechanical Repair, trying to find something to secure it on in this room?
Ross Bryant 10:03
That's not how pushes work, Marcel. You got to roll the same thing again.
cuppycup 10:06
It depends on the Keeper. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 10:11
So do I roll it again? I roll 100 again?
cuppycup 10:14
I'm gonna roll it this time, and then I'm gonna die. Oh, for fuck sake, it didn't matter what I rolled. 87. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 10:23
Okay. I'm sorry I'm such a bad Keeper. I let you... [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 10:27
No! You're perfect.
Ross Bryant 10:31
Sorry I took your suggestion and wouldn't let you do exactly what you wanted. [laughter]
Scott Dorward 10:37
Sometimes you "yes and" and sometimes you "fuck no." [laughter]
Ross Bryant 10:41
Yeah. So here's how I'll rule that. You see Bill's grappling hook fly out [SFX: rope whoosh] as he sort of like tumbles backwards towards this hole in space. You realize it's gonna hit something that is not secure, and it's going to drag like a chest of drawers in on top of him. So you are kind of attempting to snatch it out of midair and get it to its destination. What this means, of course, is that the grappling hook sinks into your flesh and you are not so much leap as you are dragged bleeding. [SFX: dragging body on wood; laughter]
cuppycup 11:20
How am I doing as an anchor? [laughter] Oh, my God. How much damage am I taking?
Ross Bryant 11:28
What a great question. Let's see. Grappling hook damage.
cuppycup 11:35
I like to think it looked good for like two seconds to the sobbing guy, and then suddenly...
Ross Bryant 11:40
It looked so dope.
cuppycup 11:41
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 11:42
Yeah. And then, not so much. I want to say you get two points of damage from that.
cuppycup 11:47
Okay.
Ross Bryant 11:48
It didn't sink into something terribly vital.
cuppycup 11:50
Yeah, none of my music making parts.
Ross Bryant 11:55
Yeah. The little sobbing man who's, like, kind of in the fetal position, pressed against the wall, his hands on his ears, hearing the sound emanating from this box is staring at this hole in space as he is now alone in the room, and the rest of you falling, falling. Or is it flying through this space? Margot, you're no longer in your Bout of Madness. [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 12:25
Great.
Ross Bryant 12:26
That's the good news. The bad news is you probably have to roll Sanity again, because you come to your senses. You're dancing with a dancer's grace, and you stand up on a hard floor, [SFX: movement on wood] and you realize that you are in a dance studio? You are surrounded by mirrors. You can see yourself reflected and refracted on these panes of glass all around. The rest of you are there as well. How the hell are you here? [MUSIC: swirling and wobbling] Maybe the thing that's causing you to have your sense of sanity unloosed again is the little journey you've just made. But also because in this studio, along with you is a young girl. She's dressed in the outfit of a young ballerina. It's like you're staring into a Degas painting, and you're in there too. The room is very dark. The window is open, but somehow this ballet lesson is taking place at night.
Abubakar Salim 13:32
And there's a little... and there's a girl there, right?
Ross Bryant 13:34
There's a little girl there looking at herself in the mirror. Here's what's making your sanity unloosed, as probably the rest of you are as well. As you get up off this floor as well, you're all sort of clustered together having fallen out of the ceiling or come up through the floor. You can't quite remember. Is that the little girl, while the rest of you can see your faces reflected in the mirror, it's as though the little girl's reflection is still facing away from you. Her reflection, you're seeing the back of her head. So everyone roll Sanity again, please.
Scott Dorward 14:04
Okay.
Abubakar Salim 14:05
Oh my god.
Scott Dorward 14:08
No, I failed.
Josephine McAdam 14:10
I passed.
cuppycup 14:11
I passed as well.
Abubakar Salim 14:13
Yeah, I didn't.
Josephine McAdam 14:15
Yeah, Margot definitely accepts this at this point, because, like, this is way more normal than where we just were anyway, and...
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 14:24
It simply checks out. There is no reality.
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 14:30
Margot, we're inside a music box. The timbre is mine.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 14:34
Oh!
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 14:36
This, this is on me. I did this. Everyone, I did this!
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 14:41
Superbe!
Ross Bryant 14:45
Who failed?
Scott Dorward 14:46
I did.
Josephine McAdam 14:47
Those two bozos. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 14:48
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 14:52
Bill and Henri, I'm sorry to tell you that you're both taking six points of Sanity loss, right now. [laughter]
cuppycup 14:57
Oh, god!
Josephine McAdam 14:58
Oh, good.
cuppycup 14:58
I love that.
Ross Bryant 15:00
And I don't know that the scene on its face is that disturbing. It's more that you've made the journey and you're finding yourself in this strange space. This girl is unsettling. The reflections don't work quite right. So take away six points of Sanity off your Sanity score, and then let's have both of you make an Intelligence roll.
Scott Dorward 15:24
I got 91 on my Intelligence roll, so I'm not understanding a thing, or at least I'd rather think that I'm willfully misunderstanding it.
Ross Bryant 15:33
Yes, yes, you have a pataphysical explanation.
Abubakar Salim 15:36
I got 73 so I have no idea what's happening.
Ross Bryant 15:40
Great. You are mercifully ignorant to what is happening. This little girl is in this space. And maybe that's also when you notice that, like she is clearly a little girl, you can tell just the makeup of the body, the clothing, and you are you, but you're her size somehow. You're no longer the size of an adult.
Scott Dorward 16:06
I don't think I was.
Ross Bryant 16:09
She's a little girl, but if you're your size, then she's six feet tall, if you're Bill or 4'8" if you're Henri. [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 16:23
Our reflections are all of ourselves?
Ross Bryant 16:26
That's right.
Henri Roi (Scott) 16:28
Is this not the most perfect mirror ever? Look at this. It does not reflect her face. Imagine a world in which we are freed from the tyranny of our own reflection.
Abubakar Salim 16:39
I kind of look to the little girl, and I'm like,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 16:44
Hey. Cécile?
Ross Bryant 16:47
[MUSIC: haunting strings] You hear a small, childlike voice coming from this little girl. You still haven't seen her face, her reflection shows the back of her head, jet black hair.
Cécile Swann (Ross) 17:01
You should not have come here.
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 17:05
Well, no, no, we should not, but we're here. So how do we go back? You see, we were just looking for a dancer. She was, she's about..
Abubakar Salim 17:25
And I kind of look to Margot.
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 17:26
How she look like. She... she this tall? That, I don't... what?
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 17:31
She's the most beautiful woman you've ever laid eyes on.
Abubakar Salim 17:34
Kind of look to Marcel.
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 17:35
Whoa! [laughter]
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 17:37
Her beauty is indescribable.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 17:40
Marcel is correct. She is a sight to behold. She has a, you know, the tumbling, beautiful wavy red locks. She's stunning.
Henri Roi (Scott) 17:54
Yes, yes, that is all very good. But why would we ever want to leave this place? She has shown us the way, she has shown us how to transcend mundane reality. This is glorious. This is everything I have ever dreamed of.
Abubakar Salim 18:08
Kind of look to Henri and I'm like,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 18:11
You know, I still to this day, don't understand how you and I are together. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 18:18
How indeed. I wonder how you two met. I'm getting from Bill that he has, he's like, maybe American. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 18:28
Absolutely.
Ross Bryant 18:30
Yeah, maybe you're an expat. You've come to Paris for some reason.
Abubakar Salim 18:35
Some reason.
Ross Bryant 18:37
Maybe to get away from someone much like we saw earlier.
Abubakar Salim 18:41
Absolutely. From the beginning, yep.
cuppycup 18:43
Ross, did you say the little girl is dancing?
Ross Bryant 18:45
Yeah, she seems to be doing it very slowly.
cuppycup 18:49
Okay, could I just kind of grab the girl's shoulders to stop her from spinning? Kind of like grabbing a control mechanism on a motor?
Ross Bryant 18:58
Mm-hmm. [laughter]
cuppycup 19:01
Well, on second thought. [laughter]
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 19:10
If the dancer stops, the box stops.
Ross Bryant 19:14
Sure. Yeah, you grab her, yeah?
cuppycup 19:19
Mm-hmm.
Ross Bryant 19:20
Wonderful. Your hands touch her shoulders, and you have an instant feeling of, like, this is probably the way a dance instructor corrects a dancer's posture, putting them into their impossible shapes, the shapes that you remember from the posters backstage at the Moulin Rouge. And the intense physical rigor, the scrutiny that a dancer's body is always under, the absolutely sadomasochistic physical rigor that a ballet dancer must endure from a young age. All of that flashes through your mind when you attempt to restrain this figure, and again you hear her voice.
Cécile Swann (Ross) 20:11
You have no power here, Dubois. You still don't understand that where you come from isn't real. This is the real world, and you are never leaving.
cuppycup 20:35
"How was Margot right," is what he's thinking. [laughter]
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 20:38
It's like I said!
Henri Roi (Scott) 20:42
How is this not the best news ever?
Ross Bryant 20:46
Marcel, that's when you notice your reflection is detached from synchronicity with you.
cuppycup 20:51
Oh.
Ross Bryant 20:52
It's no longer doing what you're doing. It's just looking at you. In fact, all of your reflections are just looking at you standing there. Yeah, let's let's have you all roll Sanity as you notice that your reflections are now moving towards you out of the mirrors.
Abubakar Salim 21:09
Oh my God, I failed again.
cuppycup 21:11
Somehow, I rolled a two.
Josephine McAdam 21:13
I succeeded. I'm like,
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 21:15
Hello. How are you? Looking good!
Scott Dorward 21:20
Yes, I've succeeded too.
Abubakar Salim 21:23
Wow. Well, yeah, I definitely lost that then.
cuppycup 21:25
I think I'm so distracted by the fact that this girl knows me.
Ross Bryant 21:29
Yeah, it's interesting that she knows you, huh? I'm gonna say that if you lost that, you lose three points of Sanity. If you succeeded, you lose one.
Abubakar Salim 21:37
Great.
Ross Bryant 21:37
[MUSIC: eerie drone] Maybe it's fear sharpening your senses that makes that Sanity loss slightly less, because these doubles are coming out of the mirror, each of you peering, leering, I should say, with horrible mockery and judgment at you as they pass through the sort of meniscus of the mirror. It's as though it pushes their eyes back and their mouth open as their features distort, the way a mirror distorts when it sort of bulges. And their faces stay like that as they emerge from the mirror distorted. Their eyes large and misshapen, their chins bulbous and warped. These horrible simulacra of you as they move towards you threateningly.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 22:33
There can be only one.
Abubakar Salim 22:37
I'm going to essentially... I've got a music sheet, right? I'm going to hold up the music sheet.
Ross Bryant 22:46
Okay.
Abubakar Salim 22:47
Out of just sheer sense of like,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 22:51
Dance to this. Dance! [laughter]
Ross Bryant 22:54
This is hilarious. Yeah, sheet music has its own form of occult symbolism. Let's see, do you have Art/Craft: Music?
Abubakar Salim 23:05
Yeah, I do.
Josephine McAdam 23:06
What?
Ross Bryant 23:07
Do you? We've established that you are a musician who perhaps uses their musical skill to seduce the wives of Paris. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 23:17
Absolutely.
Ross Bryant 23:18
What is your score on that, if I may ask?
Abubakar Salim 23:21
It is 30 and then 15 and then six. Are you ready?
Ross Bryant 23:25
Yeah, I'm ready. If you get a success here.
cuppycup 23:29
Oh no! [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 23:31
Okay, I got a 73. Now listen...
Josephine McAdam 23:32
But Abu, you should know, you can choose... You can say that you want to push a roll. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 23:39
Yes, that's what I was gonna ask, so what is pushing a roll then? Like, what is there something to do? What can I do?
Ross Bryant 23:48
We got a flavor of it earlier with the grappling hook mishap. And I must, of course, remark that the reflection of Marcel Dubois is removing the grappling hook that's in your arm, Marcel, and brandishing it rather threateningly. [laughter] But the way a push works is, you tell me how you're attempting to achieve your result, more so. So, for example, like I'm attempting to read this book. I fail. I push the roll. So I'm actually, I'm gonna spend like, an hour doing it.
Abubakar Salim 24:20
What I do then is as I hold this sheet up, and I'm like, trying to almost like, sway them with the power of notes. I see it's not working, and I turn it and I start humming the tune and singing the tune.
Ross Bryant 24:35
Love it. You sing the tune. Let's make that roll. Let's see if you get under 30. I love this. This is a last ditch, desperate effort. If you fail, a pushed roll, something bad happens.
Abubakar Salim 24:47
Great, okay, so is the threshold still 30?
Ross Bryant 24:50
That is correct.
Abubakar Salim 24:53
Oh my god, 30. Oh my god, 30. Oh my goodness.
Ross Bryant 24:57
Oh my god, you did it. [laughter]
cuppycup 24:58
Oh.
Josephine McAdam 24:58
Oh, my God.
Abubakar Salim 25:01
There's that roll luck again.
Ross Bryant 25:03
Yes, yes, he's back, baby.
cuppycup 25:05
Amazing.
Abubakar Salim 25:07
What I'm essentially trying to do is I'm trying to get everyone dancing. You know that even the reflections, the mirrors I'm playing to the rules of this universe, in some weird break, there is a moment of like, okay, well, there must be rules. There's always rules to a game. So this is what I'm doing. So I'm like singing this, like little shanty piano piece-y sort of thing, as I'm like doing it, and I'm looking at that my reflection that is coming at me, and all the other reflections, and tapping my feet, and, you know, singing this, (singsong) and it's like, kind of like getting into it as a whole.
Ross Bryant 25:43
Great.
Abubakar Salim 25:44
It's almost like that scene in "Sinners" where they're all dancing. I'm like, in there, I'm like, just going for it, because it's like, this is like... [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 25:54
Yes.
Ross Bryant 25:55
[MUSIC: high tempo rhythmic] Yes, all your counterfeits, your distorted counterfeits, begin to dance with manic energy to the tune sung by Bill Buckaroo. The little girl remains rather still. These simulacra spin and twirl. They're moving faster and faster and faster. And over the music you just subtly hear,
Cécile Swann (Ross) 26:19
Dance as you will, you will stay forever!
Ross Bryant 26:24
The glass in this room just [SFX: glass breaking] blows outward. Henri, you see the little version of yourself with its distorted face shatter into a million shivers. [MUSIC: dramatic orchestral] Everything just turns to a vapor of glass and suddenly thronging around you, pressing upon you on all sides are people. It's as though you're in a hallway. But if I can depict this correctly, you're in a hallway, but the hallway is people. There's almost a passage in the center of a crowd, and as you're all now moving through it in the strange rules and temporal lurches of this space that you have entered into, you're being sort of groped and pawed on all sides as you move through. And it's gentlemen in little pointy Van Dyke beards, men with white hair, a paunchy diplomat with a big medal from the order of state grabs you by the shoulder, and all of them are like leering at you, pawing at you and whispering in your ears. [SFX: whispers] (as leering men) Cécile, madame Swann. I must have one night with you, Cécile. You must be the most radiant, beautiful lady I've ever... Cécile, I will debase myself for you. I'll give you everything, Cécile. Won't you come to Capri with me, Cecile. (end whispers) As they're all... as you're moving through this space, as you are just moving through a space of pure, transactional, grotesque desire.
Abubakar Salim 27:51
Oh, my God.
Josephine McAdam 27:53
Oh yes.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 27:55
We should stop them. We should burn them, cut them down, give them a taste of their own medicine.
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 28:05
I kind of see where they're coming from. [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 28:10
I want Margot to have been dancing along to this tune that Bill was humming, and she's dancing alongside and getting into it and grabs that telescope that's been under his arm and just starts fucking swinging like crazy. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 28:28
Oh, wow.
Ross Bryant 28:30
Yeah, the telescope is like snapping necks, breaking noses. [SFX: hitting impact with object] This scrum, this pile-on of weighty and austere gentlemen who are all just crushing against you are being battered back by your telescope. Can you make me a Spot Hidden roll, Margot?
Josephine McAdam 28:54
Oh, a Spot Hidden, yes. Let's see, that's a 56 over 35.
Ross Bryant 29:03
That's okay. You're battering them away, and you're sort of being pushed.
Josephine McAdam 29:08
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 29:09
All of you are in this space. You're being pushed, pushed, pushed, and suddenly you're through. [SFX: magic portal burst] You can hear, once again, creak, creak. [SFX: windmill blades turn] You see off in the distance, from behind now, the blades of the Moulin Rouge. [MUSIC: romantic strings]
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 29:28
Oh, I see we have merely been backstage.
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 29:35
What?
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 29:37
What? [laughter]
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 29:40
We were behind the curtain, mes amis.
Henri Roi (Scott) 29:44
Of course.
Ross Bryant 29:48
You see off in the distance, there's a building in front of you. Looks like some garret apartments. There's a boulangerie on the ground floor, and then four flights up above it, and all of the windows are open to the point that you can see, almost like you're watching, like the panels of a comic book, the figure of Cécile Swann moving through them, going up, going upstairs, moving up. And if you stay to watch, you can see that she's having an assignation, moving into the space at the top floor with a young man. You're watching a tryst from the street.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 30:34
Well, the show must go on. We must find her, mes amis. We must catch her. We must convince her of her folly.
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 30:47
Yeah. Wow, she... Is that her?
Ross Bryant 30:53
And you can see her. You recognize her too, Bill. Her hair seems to fall in front of her face every now and then, but the grace of her body is unmistakable, and you can see her now waiting at the door as a young man is like putting papers away. He hears her knock. He's like, almost like readying himself and flinging the door open, and she falls into his arms. You're seeing all this from the street.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 31:21
Allons-y! [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 31:24
I'll smack everyone. [laughter]
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 31:26
Yeah.
Abubakar Salim 31:28
And I kind of just move I'm, like, moving on.
Ross Bryant 31:31
Great.
Abubakar Salim 31:31
I'm like, mesmerized. I'm kind of seeing what Marcel was seeing.
cuppycup 31:36
And Marcel thought that Bill was on to something. I think he's got the, like, the comb of a music box, and he's just plucking the teeth by hand to recreate the melody that Bill sang from the sheet.
Ross Bryant 31:49
Is this a composition of your own, Bill, that you sang to them?
Abubakar Salim 31:52
Yes.
Ross Bryant 31:53
Yes, you're maybe a composer of sorts. And Marcel as you move through the space into the back room of the boulangerie, up the very tight staircase, passing by those same windows that you saw from the street, you can see people outside, and they are moving staccato to the pluckings of your teeth. [MUSIC: discordant music box] It is though everyone in here is an automaton.
cuppycup 32:15
Oh, he's experimenting when he sees that.
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 32:19
Tempo governs the tableau! Watch.
Ross Bryant 32:23
You're now at the very top floor, the low ceiling at a severe angle above you. And the little door, you know that just behind it, Cécile is in the arms of her young lover.
Henri Roi (Scott) 32:34
Before we go any further, Madame Abadie, what is it you mean to do here? Cécile seems to have found a new existence for herself, free from the mundane world that we mistakenly call reality, and what you are looking to drag her back to the hell in which we all live? This is cruelty.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 33:00
This is the world that we were born in. We are fated to be controlled by unseen, sadistic forces that control us all. I am here to help manipulate this. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 33:16
You're on the side of the sadistic forces. [laughter]
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 33:21
I think we were sent here to kill Cécile's lover. Nobody else picked up on that?
Henri Roi (Scott) 33:26
No! [laughter]
Ross Bryant 33:30
There's someone behind you on the staircase. You hear the thump, thump. [SFX: footsteps]
cuppycup 33:34
Turn around.
Josephine McAdam 33:36
Yeah, who's there?
Ross Bryant 33:37
[MUSIC: romantic French] There's a tall man in a black suit with a bald pate, a thin mustache and a thin little goatee. His left eye is obscured by a big monocle. He has a top hat in his hand. He doesn't even notice you. He's moving directly towards you.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 34:00
Hey, Monsieur. Monsieur, Monsieur! Hey, well can we help you? Hello?
Ross Bryant 34:07
He looks down at you with just the most imperious gaze, just taking the measure of you with his eyes. And you can tell just by his look that you aren't the sort of person that he's used to paying attention to. Ever.
Le Comte (Ross) 34:25
Do you have something to say to me, Madame?
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 34:28
Where are you headed, Monsieur? This is not the floor for you.
Le Comte (Ross) 34:36
You are quite right, madame, but I hardly think that that is any business of yours.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 34:43
What lies behind that door is of our business. It is the business. So you must tell us why you are here if you wish to proceed in business.
Le Comte (Ross) 34:59
Ah, extortion is it? Blackmail is it? Yes, I thought your sort trafficked in that sort of thing.
Abubakar Salim 35:10
I kind of move forward, I'm like
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 35:11
Hey now. Don't need to talk like that.
Le Comte (Ross) 35:15
Come, come, sir. We're both men of the world. Monsieur, how many francs will it take to keep you all quiet? I was never here. Let that be our arrangement. You have never seen my face, and you will ask no further questions as to what I am to do here.
Ross Bryant 35:30
He reaches into his pocket, and you can see that he has a pistol at his breast as he reaches into his billfold.
Josephine McAdam 35:37
Question, if Margot looks to her left, or wherever we are, because we're now up at the top, you know, at the landing here. Can she perceive those comic book panels that we once viewed this all in? And is there an open ledge here?
Ross Bryant 35:56
It's weird but you're sort of like looking out from one now, as it were. Yes, there's a window next to you. You can see the blades of the windmill beneath you. And yeah, there's a ledge. If you stepped out of the window, you would be on that ledge, if that is what you're asking.
Josephine McAdam 36:16
Well, I was asking more if I could push this man out of this panel. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 36:21
Okay, yeah, you could sure try.
Josephine McAdam 36:25
But I'll wait to see what my compatriots do first. But then, you know, should he take another step forward towards the door, I will push him off of this panel.
Abubakar Salim 36:33
As I see the pistol, I'm like,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 36:34
Well, hold on now, no one needs to fire anything.
Le Comte (Ross) 36:40
Well, I can see that you are a reasonable man. You can see there's a little badge on his inner waistcoat, like a medal. You could roll, actually, for me right now. Why don't you give me an Education roll.
Abubakar Salim 36:57
11, so like major success. Below 13.
Ross Bryant 37:02
Amazing. So you probably, I wonder how you know something like this, but maybe you truly are a man of the world, and maybe you have moved in all kinds of circles. They don't make 'em like this in America. This is an aristocrat. You think you're looking at someone who is a diplomat. This badge is a sign that they are in particular orders of the state. You have the feeling that you're probably here dealing with a duke or a count.
Abubakar Salim 37:29
So I'm like,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 37:30
Now you strike me as a man who is very good at leadership, as a man who is good with a crowd. And so look, you know, we're just gonna pretend we didn't see you. So, you know, you just go on your business. We'll go on ours. And, you know, just let bygones be bygones
Le Comte (Ross) 37:57
There. This is one of the first reasonable things I have heard in your company.
Scott Dorward 38:03
And just to stop things being too reasonable, in the midst of this conversation, Henri, still dressed as Cupid, brings up his bow and just twangs one of his little toy arrows at him and say, [SFX: bow string]
Henri Roi (Scott) 38:15
Go forth in pursuit of love with Cupid's blessing. [laughter]
Le Comte (Ross) 38:21
I shall.
Ross Bryant 38:22
He moves through you, kicks the door down and draws his pistol. [SFX: footsteps]
Josephine McAdam 38:28
Can I push him on the way past?
Ross Bryant 38:31
Yeah, go for it.
Josephine McAdam 38:32
I would love, if possible, the attempt is to kick him off of this panel, right?
Ross Bryant 38:38
Alright, so this is, I guess this would be a maneuver. You're trying to push him out a window. Great, he's going to fight back.
Josephine McAdam 38:46
This is a Fighting/Brawl?
Ross Bryant 38:47
Mm-hmm.
Abubakar Salim 38:49
And also, just so, you know, like, the intention was to essentially get behind him, right? So, like, as he walked past,
Josephine McAdam 38:57
Yeah.
Abubakar Salim 38:58
The idea was to kind of be like,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 39:02
Ha-da-da!
Ross Bryant 39:02
Ah.
Scott Dorward 39:03
And also, just in case it helps, I did genuinely shoot a little toy arrow at him, which might be a distraction, at least for the others, which was kind of my intention.
Abubakar Salim 39:14
Which is great.
Ross Bryant 39:15
Wow, little look at all this bargaining. [laughter]
cuppycup 39:20
And I think Marcel's using all these distractions to try to actually enter the room.
Ross Bryant 39:25
Okay, great. Margot, you can roll your Fighting/Brawl with advantage. So roll two 10s dice and take the better result. That's the result of all of your assistance from your friends who have set up this action with so many distractions. I will roll as well and see what level of success I get for the Count. He rolled a natural 100.
cuppycup 39:51
Wow, amazing.
Josephine McAdam 39:52
Well, I succeeded because,
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 39:54
Margot is very tough. [laughter]
cuppycup 40:00
And Ross, just to annoy you. Do you want to do a push the roll title to color the ending?
Ross Bryant 40:06
Yeah, sweet. Why don't you give me that second title? Why not? What could go wrong? [laughter] Maybe this will color just something as we drive towards our conclusion here. 17.
cuppycup 40:18
Oh, interesting. Maybe. [laughter] This is from Merrick, and the title is "When Trumpets Bloom."
Ross Bryant 40:26
When Trumpets Bloom?
cuppycup 40:28
Yes.
Ross Bryant 40:30
Alright, cool.
Abubakar Salim 40:31
Well, this is gonna be interesting. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 40:33
[MUSIC: ominous orchestra] You succeed Margot, he absolutely fumbled. The Count, that's all you know him as, bursts through the glass of this window, [SFX: glass breaks] tumbles stories down and is just in a bloody ruin. A sickening crack [SFX: body impact] as his head breaks on the stone pavement beneath.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 41:01
Counts, peasants, bohemians, they all die the same. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 41:10
Margot, death incarnate, a human weapon. Marcel, you said you were opening the door.
cuppycup 41:16
Yes.
Ross Bryant 41:18
You can maybe even hear past the sounds of this scuffle, past the sound of the little toy arrow clattering to the stairs beneath, past the sickening crunch of bone on flagstone beneath. Beneath all that, the sounds of breathless lovemaking from behind this door. You push it open. [SFX: door opens]
cuppycup 41:41
He enters the room, already playing Cécile's stolen tune from the dressing room. He's plucking it on the comb. It almost feels like a confession or something. [MUSIC: music box with ominous drone]
Ross Bryant 41:52
You do so, and the sound of it resonates not in a tiny garret apartment with a low ceiling and a desk scattered with poetry and a creaky bed upon which two lovers have a secret assignation, but it rather echoes in a space of enormous size. You step through a door into a room that is much bigger on the inside than it should be, and it is a cavernous, dark space lit by countless red glowing candles that seem to dangle from hundreds of chandeliers overhead that burn in a thousand sconces all around and on pillars set everywhere. It is as though you have walked into a fairy palace in crimson.
cuppycup 42:46
As he realizes he's walking into this cavern, he starts to say,
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 42:50
I love you. I learned your song.
cuppycup 42:51
But then he feels like a mouse in this space.
Ross Bryant 42:55
Yes, indeed.
cuppycup 42:57
So probably we'll roll Sanity, I think.
Scott Dorward 43:00
Sounds like it.
Ross Bryant 43:01
I think you will.
cuppycup 43:05
I've just been passing these. Yeah, I passed yet again.
Josephine McAdam 43:10
Crazy.
cuppycup 43:11
25 under 40-something.
Josephine McAdam 43:14
Wow.
cuppycup 43:16
Or under 53.
Abubakar Salim 43:17
Are we all rolling?
Ross Bryant 43:19
Assuming you're entering the space here.
Josephine McAdam 43:21
Sure, sure. Yeah.
Abubakar Salim 43:23
Absolutely. So I failed, great.
Josephine McAdam 43:25
I also failed.
Ross Bryant 43:27
Those who failed two points of Sanity, those who succeed one point of Sanity.
cuppycup 43:32
Abu, you must be close to a fifth. How much Sanity have you lost? Because I think you started with a lower number.
Abubakar Salim 43:38
Oh, well, I... Yeah, no, so I started with 50 Sanity, I've lost 2, 6, 3.
Josephine McAdam 43:44
Oh!
Abubakar Salim 43:44
Was I supposed to note...
cuppycup 43:46
If you lose 10.
Josephine McAdam 43:47
Just when you hit the 10 total.
Ross Bryant 43:51
So you've lost 2, 6, 3?
Josephine McAdam 43:52
Did that just happen or?
Abubakar Salim 43:54
I think it has. I think it has.
cuppycup 43:56
Sorry, teacher's pet over here.
Ross Bryant 43:59
Yeah, thanks. Thanks for reminding me of homework, Cup. That means that you're Indefinitely Insane, Bill Buckaroo.
Abubakar Salim 44:08
Oh, what?
Josephine McAdam 44:10
It's so fun.
Ross Bryant 44:13
This exposure to this violence for one, but more so all of these phenomena that seem to bend and break the fabric of reality itself has finally broken the strings on your mind. The music box is not the only detuned instrument we have. Your mind is now discordant and entering this space does it in.
Abubakar Salim 44:40
Right.
Ross Bryant 44:41
I'd like to know, like, where's Bill Buckaroo from? Really?
Abubakar Salim 44:46
[MUSIC: dramatic piano] So what happens is, as I kind of crack, you suddenly see, it's almost like, you know, in "Severance" where the face, sort of because of the shift. It kind of like as, yeah, as I walk into the space, it shifts, and all you hear is, uh...
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 45:03
(in alluring British accent) Well, isn't this quite revealing? [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 45:12
And I kind of look to myself, I'm like,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 45:16
(continuing accent) Lord, how did I get here? [laughter] This is rather, rather weird.
Abubakar Salim 45:25
And I look to you, Margot, I'm like,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 45:27
(continuing accent) Aren't you the most stunning, delicate woman I have ever seen in my life. You are immaculate, a beauty to behold.
Abubakar Salim 45:41
And then you just see me sort of just look to the side and move and go,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 45:46
(stuttering in Western accent) Well, ain't that a f-f-funny job to play. [MUSIC: saloon piano] (stuttering) We'll, see, see you next... next time on Bill Buckaroo's Rootin' Rodeo. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 46:05
And basically I am a soldier, an ex-soldier. The war has done something to me, and I was bed-bound for God knows how long watching Bill Buckaroo and his adventures across the Old West.
Josephine McAdam 46:27
Oh, my God.
Abubakar Salim 46:29
That has essentially seeded itself into my identity, and when I found that I could have a new life here, wherever we are, it was just a moment of where I began believing my own lie. And then now we're starting to see that the reality isn't real. I am now just coming to who I am, which is essentially David Donk.
Ross Bryant 46:57
David Donk, yeah. [laughter] Let me just, oh my god. So, so quickly, David Donk, they're like
Commander (Ross) 47:07
Lieutenant Donk, entertainment for the squad today.
Ross Bryant 47:10
[MUSIC: triumphant Old West] As convalescing soldiers are led out to see Bill Buckaroo's Wild West Show. And a...
Abubakar Salim 47:17
Literally.
Ross Bryant 47:18
Wild West Show is performed for you and just see him there, like on a morphine drip, with the poster of a smiling cowboy at the foot of his bed, just peering into it.
Abubakar Salim 47:27
Just literally into my soul. And I'm like,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 47:31
I am Bill Buckaroo. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 47:35
And it's like this transformation.
Scott Dorward 47:38
Oh, fantastic.
Abubakar Salim 47:39
Which is kind of why I think, like me and Henri kind of get on because I like, I think that's why is because there is a sense of, like, seeing through the truth. I'm like,
Bill Buckaroo (Abu) 47:46
Yeah, you see it, don't you? And he's kind of like...
Commander (Ross) 47:51
Imaginary solutions. Imaginary solutions are as true as rational ones.
Scott Dorward 47:57
More true, more true. [laughter]
Commander (Ross) 48:00
More true.
Ross Bryant 48:01
And they are even more true here. The rest of you see Bill become Bill in truth. And yes, the imaginary solution has become more than real. I think that you are now perhaps like just an entertainment over there on the side, you're riding a mechanical horse, a mechanical buffalo capers nearby.
Abubakar Salim 48:23
Oh yeah, I'm in my own world. I think I'm just like, lost in this space and like, done. I think I'm like, this is where I needed to be. This is my journey.
Ross Bryant 48:33
[MUSIC: ethereal romance] Marcel, you have the sense of moving into this space and seeing that you are somehow in a music box. At the far, far end of this space, you can see there in an imperious gown with a diadem like an ancient queen, Cécile Swann, and little tableaux are playing like automata from your music boxes all throughout this space, moving with jerky movements like the kind that you build into your mechanisms. You can see a scene of her with her lover. You see the Count lowering the pistol to her lover's head. You can see her, an automaton of her, weeping. You can see on the other end, an automaton of her consulting with an old woman looking into a book in a candle lit room. The candles, of course, are just little bits of paper blowing with an updraft as the automaton shows her a book with a symbol that you have seen before inscribed on a floor. And you see a little music box automaton of the Count in her dressing room; her intoning something over that circle. And you see the Count break into a thousand pieces as his blood coats every surface of the room, and his blood is the key that unlocks the door to this space that you are standing in. As she stands up out of her throne and absolutely septuples in size.
Cécile Swann (Ross) 50:16
You do not belong here, I said. This is the real world, and it is mine. I am Empress here. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 50:34
And she is just looming into this space. She's like a hundred feet high, moving towards you like the giantess, the Empress that she is here in this domain of her own. She has opened the pataphysical door and created, as it were, an imaginary solution. [MUSIC: changes to epic staccato orchestra] You can hear the music of the music box, not the metallic pings of the strokes of the comb, but there's an entire clockwork orchestra blowing. Yes, they seem to rise up organically from the floor, the sawing of violins, the blasting of discordant flutes, the blooming of trumpets. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 51:28
Well done.
cuppycup 51:30
Can we say, as the trumpets kick in that Marcel reaches down and picks up the sheet music that Bill had.
Ross Bryant 51:37
Yes.
cuppycup 51:37
And takes a closer look at it, and it says, Bill Buckaroo theme. Trumpets, bombastic. [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 51:46
Trumpets, bombastic.
Ross Bryant 51:49
Great. Well, first off, you all saw this. You saw the revelation of Cécile Swann, the Empress. Everyone roll Sanity, please.
Scott Dorward 51:57
That seems reasonable.
Josephine McAdam 51:58
Fair enough.
cuppycup 52:00
86. So I failed my San check.
Abubakar Salim 52:05
What do I roll if I'm like, Indefinitely Insane.
cuppycup 52:09
You don't need to. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 52:10
You don't need to. You're still quite mad.
Abubakar Salim 52:12
Great, brilliant.
Josephine McAdam 52:14
I just fumbled it.
Scott Dorward 52:16
Ooh.
cuppycup 52:17
Wow.
Abubakar Salim 52:18
Wow!
Ross Bryant 52:19
You lose six points of Sanity.
Josephine McAdam 52:21
Yeah, I'm gone.
cuppycup 52:22
I've hit my threshold as well.
Scott Dorward 52:25
I passed, upsettingly.
cuppycup 52:29
That fits though. You like it here.
Scott Dorward 52:32
So Henri is the only sane one amongst us. [laughter]
cuppycup 52:36
Yes.
Ross Bryant 52:37
Amazing.
Abubakar Salim 52:38
This makes so much sense.
Ross Bryant 52:41
I think I will rule this where, like Bill, you were dressed in a waistcoat and a skirt. Ridiculous. But now you are dressed in chaps and a fine denim shirt. There's a beautiful embroidered handkerchief knotted around your neck and a broad ten-gallon hat on your head.
Abubakar Salim 53:03
Brilliant.
Ross Bryant 53:03
But your joints are, God, they're held together with pins. Your fingers are wire. In fact, the only thing that seems to be real about you is your teeth. [laughter] You are Bill Buckaroo, and you belong to this space now.
Abubakar Salim 53:29
Oh my gosh.
Ross Bryant 53:29
How do you think this affects Margot Abadie?
Josephine McAdam 53:34
This is hard to say, because she already was like an agent of sadistic forces already. So when one cracks at that point.
Ross Bryant 53:43
Maybe the way I'd phrase this is, do you submit to the will of the Empress, or are you opposing it?
Josephine McAdam 53:50
Oh, hmm, perhaps not opposing, but I think she's still going to try to do her job.
Ross Bryant 53:56
Great. Go for it. What is your job as you see it in this sense?
Josephine McAdam 54:01
Who knows what her job is?
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 54:04
[MUSIC: eerie drone] I understand this is reality. You are correct. Cécile, I see it. I see it. I've seen it with you, and now you and me, we see it together. You've brought us into the real world.
Cécile Swann (Ross) 54:22
I reached out to you, Abadie, I opened the door for you.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 54:29
And I am here. But is it not the fantasy you love to give? You go out, you paint this fake world for them all. You paint the fake world, you put them into this reality, and then you bring them all back with you here to the real world. Is this not the way?
Ross Bryant 54:59
She leans down. Her face is the size of a three-story building, as she looks down at you.
Cécile Swann (Ross) 55:08
I said you did not belong here, but you wish to serve me. You wish my empire to grow?
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 55:19
Bien sûr.
Ross Bryant 55:22
She touches you, and you are no longer dressed as a washerwoman, as a faded dancer. You are in impossibly regal and imperial attire. A badge, not unlike the badge of the Count is now on your bosom.
Josephine McAdam 55:37
Incredible.
Ross Bryant 55:40
And she's like, almost like with a finger, planting it on each of your shoulders, like...
Cécile Swann (Ross) 55:47
I elevate you, a chevalier of my realm. Bring me vassals to fill my world.
Ross Bryant 55:58
And the rest of you see Margot Abadie disappear. [laughter] What are you doing, Henri Roi?
Scott Dorward 56:10
Henri is watching all of this with some degree of amusement. He steps forward after this and says,
Henri Roi (Scott) 56:18
Ma chérie, you have created a wonderful world for yourself here. It is beautiful, but it is not reality, and that is not a problem. None of us are real here. I myself am just a creation I call Henri Roi. Alright, it was created by Henri Roi, but we all create ourselves, don't we? And you, you have created yourself here, you have created this reality. It is all very beautiful. But what you're doing here, it's aggrandizement, it's self-satisfaction. It's very bourgeois, isn't it? You could do so much better. [laughter]
Abubakar Salim 57:01
Wow.
Ross Bryant 57:01
Really making a plea for bohemian freedom? Wow. Okay, this sounds like you're trying to Persuade.
Scott Dorward 57:08
Ah, yeah let's say persuade. I'm shit at that, but that shouldn't stop me.
Ross Bryant 57:13
Yeah.
Scott Dorward 57:13
That is a 60. You know, I'm going to spend, I don't have much Luck, but I'm going to spend 35 points of it in making that a success.
Ross Bryant 57:23
Okay, great. The head of this enormous woman, her sable hair falling like a cataract off of her enormous head, looks at you.
Cécile Swann (Ross) 57:36
How would you remake my empire then?
Scott Dorward 57:43
Well, for a start, this version of yourself you've created is wonderful. It's wonderful, but show me who you've always really wanted to be. Really, if you're honest with yourself.
Ross Bryant 58:01
And for a moment, this enormous, grandiose, this bourgeois fantasy, as you have described, it [laughter] becomes more rather rustic and mundane perhaps. [MUSIC: French romance] You're just on a mountaintop, and you're standing with her there. She's normal-sized. She is her size as you knew her in life. The young man from the garret is standing next to her. You just have a sense of this kind of like, this sense of freedom, curiosity and possibility. It's less the imperial pomp and more like freedom.
Henri Roi (Scott) 58:49
Do you not see that by bringing together this great fantasy you had before of ruling the world and your true self here that you have brought them together to create something new, something beautiful that is truly you? You have found what it is that makes you you.
Ross Bryant 59:09
She kind of leans towards you.
Cécile Swann (Ross) 59:11
They beat my craft into me so painfully that they almost made me hate it. But there is no greater expression of joy, Monsieur Roi, than dance.
Ross Bryant 59:26
And she reaches out to you.
Scott Dorward 59:29
And I take a hand. I'm not being stopped by the fact that I know absolutely nothing about dancing.
Ross Bryant 59:36
And she steps out with you, and you are suddenly dancing. It is not like ballet. It is not like the can-can. It is just pure movement. And perhaps you don't even notice that you are no longer dancing on a mountaintop. You are dancing literally on air.
Scott Dorward 59:51
Marvelous.
Ross Bryant 59:53
Marcel Dubois, what are you up to?
cuppycup 59:57
Just a point of clarification. I do have the grappling hook that I pulled out of my leg, right? [laughter]
Ross Bryant 1:00:03
You've got it still, yeah.
cuppycup 1:00:03
I think he's gonna start stepping toward the Empress, saying,
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 1:00:07
[MUSIC: eerie drone] My work was too small. I see that now. It was parlor trickery. Let me offer something worthy, please. I will be your instrument, Empress. Please, let me offer something worthy for once. Bone.
cuppycup 1:00:27
And he's gonna take the grappling hook, and he's gonna start plucking his teeth out one by one with the...
Ross Bryant 1:00:33
Cool.
cuppycup 1:00:33
[SFX: wet gore] With the sharp end and he's kind of like saying less intelligibly as he goes.
Marcel Dubois (cuppycup) 1:00:39
I will make you a music box with power, with sacrifice and penance. [laughter]
Scott Dorward 1:00:47
Brilliant.
Ross Bryant 1:00:47
Yes, lovely. And as Marcel becomes his final masterpiece, and perhaps we see some time later. Time, what meaning does it have here, like Marcel music box sized, all of his flesh molded and shaped in such a way that it is the resonating chamber for sweet music. He is dead, but still somehow conscious in this space. And of course, Henri Roi is dancing with her freely elsewhere in this plane of existence where Cécile Swann can be the Empress and the dancer and anything she wishes, because she is the goddess of this world. But of course, she will not be alone here long. Who are you going to recruit, Margot Abadie. Who is your the first person that you're bringing here? [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 1:01:39
She has so many fans. Cécile has so many fans, so many. Oh, but the one waiting, there's one in the room already. He's broken.
Ross Bryant 1:01:48
Yeah, there's the young man, perhaps just at his home later, he's just like on a chaise longue, worn out from crying and just shaking like a glass of green absinthe in his hand. He's like,
Distraught Suitor (Ross) 1:02:04
I couldn't have seen it. I couldn't have seen what I saw. I must be going mad. No, no, I just, I've just undergone a terrible shock. That's all, a terrible shock.
Ross Bryant 1:02:15
As he's like, sipping his absinthe, and suddenly he feels another presence in the room.
Margot Abadie (Josephine) 1:02:20
So you wish to serve Cécile. [laughter]
Ross Bryant 1:02:23
[MUSIC: triumphant military song] He turns towards you, and the last thing he hears is the sound of trumpets blaring the martial band, the band of victory, of her banner raised triumphant as she lives the imperial fantasy and the fantasy of freedom and countless other fantasies. She need not limit herself to one reality when she can have all within the plane of existence that she has pataphysically created, where she can sit on her throne, entertained by Marcel Dubois's body now a music box by the capering of Bill Buckaroo on his mechanical horse, dancing forever through magic and illogical realms with Henri Roi and more and more disappearances occur in the city of Paris.
Josephine McAdam 1:03:16
Yeah.
Ross Bryant 1:03:16
More and more people seem to go missing. Aesthetes, décadents, lovers of dance and music are found absent from their rooms. Bloody chambers are discovered in garret apartments and in fine, regal houses, and as people pass the Moulin Rouge, sometimes a strange fluid seems to leak out from behind certain doors, surely just the paint. What was the name of the old woman who used to work there? Abadie, was it? She herself disappeared some time ago. And what is that strange sheen on the windmill that gives the Moulin Rouge its name? What Makes That Windmill Bleed So? [laughter]
Josephine McAdam 1:04:03
Yeah! (clapping)
Scott Dorward 1:04:07
Ooh.
cuppycup 1:04:07
Amazing.
Scott Dorward 1:04:08
Very nice.
Abubakar Salim 1:04:08
This is amazing.
Scott Dorward 1:04:09
Very nice.
Abubakar Salim 1:04:10
Thanks guys. This is incredible.