Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey Al
Speaker 1 00:00:01 Hey Barry,
Speaker 0 00:00:04 Why is it hard to explain a metaphor to a rogue?
Speaker 1 00:00:08 Why?
Speaker 0 00:00:10 Because they're always taking things literally it's time for Capell duel.
Speaker 0 00:00:29 Hello everybody. And welcome back to compelled duel. I'm Barry
Speaker 1 00:00:33 And I'm owl,
Speaker 0 00:00:35 And we are a single-player code, DMD D and D five E actual play podcast.
Speaker 1 00:00:41 Previously on compelled dual.
Speaker 0 00:00:48 I have been in your corner for your entire life for Rora, but now that support actually has some power behind it.
Speaker 1 00:00:56 This is what you being in my corner looks like I would rather stand alone.
Speaker 0 00:01:01 I came here with a peaceful solution fee. The path that I am offering is the one of mercy. Please think it over. Oh fuck. Things are bad. Aren't they? Well, they're
Speaker 1 00:01:16 Certainly not good
Speaker 0 00:01:19 Ferrara. Good morning. You've never met your uncle Berez.
Speaker 1 00:01:24 We just need a way to pressure my father's stop. All of this. This is going to lead to needless bloodshed. It already has
Speaker 0 00:01:34 Undercutting. The legitimacy of the war is something that could perhaps be done. We would just have to present the relevant evidence to the emperor vog folder.
Speaker 1 00:01:47 I don't see what other choice we have.
Speaker 0 00:01:49 We will pray to Kimra that you and your brothers political acumen is faster than Moreland's itchy, trigger, finger,
Speaker 1 00:01:58 Angry. I'm angry all the time,
Speaker 0 00:02:01 So am high. And when the time comes, I'm going to make that anger means something. But until then, I'm not going to Mr. Practice and I'm not going to let it make me worse. And neither should you
Speaker 1 00:02:14 Get out of my house more than
Speaker 0 00:02:17 I have a plan. And I don't have time to explain it. Give me her want, what the hell do you mean? You have a plan? Look me in the eyes and tell me that we are going to run from this. Give me your wand fee. This is our crisis deadline.
Speaker 1 00:02:33 Do what you have to do. And your father starts to smile. Hello children. You're late. Let's talk.
Speaker 1 00:03:01 So Leo standing in front of you in the doorway to your aunt, Nora sitting room is your father just behind him. Shadowing him is his wife, arch Duchess, a loss should the Caren and your aunt is further in the room behind you. Are your sister, your boyfriend, your sister's boyfriend and girlfriend, your dog, your twin cousins, Larkin, Adria, and your sister's friend. Arivale Anmar. As your father tells you that he wants to talk a lot. Looks past him, smiles very sharply and says, Ms. Mr. <inaudible>, a lot of people have been looking for the two of you. Arivale takes a step back, Sabine reaches out and just put the hand on her arm. Very comfortingly and says, well, how fortunate for you that you found us, then? Not that we are finding on making our presence a secret, given that we have both chosen to back layer Olin Ferrara and their efforts to stop this war Arivale looks sideways at her, her eyes huge behind her goggles. And then you watch her grit, her teeth. And she says, yes, we have I'm finished hiding.
Speaker 0 00:04:39 Leo turns around and looks back over at Zed. He doesn't have a spell casting, focus on him because his knife is zapped into the Bracer. What would I need to roll? To try to get a vague message across
Speaker 1 00:04:56 It would depend on what and how
Speaker 0 00:05:01 Just a sentiment of trust me. Don't stop me
Speaker 1 00:05:07 Real persuasion.
Speaker 0 00:05:10 Oh 10.
Speaker 1 00:05:13 You try to get this message across to Zed. He gives you kind of a weird look and then he's going to step forward. So he is very obviously backing you forgiving my lack of decorum, your majesty. I don't exactly give a shit. This isn't going to end well for you. Shut up said your father looks at Zed and then looks at you still smiling. So this silly little tantrum, the two of you were throwing is backed by and he starts ticking off on his fingers. The previously missing daughter of a pair of professors, the leader of a cheap dance troop, whoever this oaf is. And he looks at the captain and kind of tilts his head and goes, and this must be the pirate king of the Zephyr Isles. I expected you to cut a more and his lip curls again, intimidating figure, but no matter there's a gallows in wellness with your name on it. I'm sure we can arrange another stepstool from behind you. The captain very brightly says, I, you know, I enjoy it. When greedy tyrants of heritage me usually means they know what to do to greedy tyrants. And Zen says the best you could do was oaf. Really? I've been called worse by my grandmother.
Speaker 0 00:06:41 Everybody shut up. Leo is just standing there with his hand, white knuckled, around fees, wand, and the other one clenched at his side. He looks over at Sabine, remembering how she just made him that promise to stop fee and Zed from trying to keep him from doing what he's about to do.
Speaker 1 00:07:03 She did do that. What is he about to do
Speaker 0 00:07:07 Leo unclenching, his free hand at his side, and then slowly races both of his hands up over his head. It's over he's one. And then he's going to turn back to his father. You, when you let everybody else walk away from this, and I walk away with you, I turned myself in willingly
Speaker 1 00:07:39 Behind you fi says what you watched Zed start to move forward. And then you hear a jingle and a dimension door appears in front of him and he falls right through it. As he's trying to step forward in front of you,
Speaker 0 00:07:54 Leo is not moving. He is not looking at fee. He is still locking eyes with his father, both hands in the air. You need someone to blame all of this on Kimberly knows the lies. You have built this war on. Aren't going to hold up. Everybody else walks. I come back to Australia with you. I take the fall. It's not a bad deal, father
Speaker 1 00:08:24 Rolling that really quick,
Speaker 0 00:08:27 26,
Speaker 1 00:08:30 You have actually managed to surprise your father. He tilts his head a little bit raises eyebrows, and he says refreshing to see you thinking of others for a change. And then he nods it. The wand in your hand, put it down.
Speaker 0 00:08:49 Leo is going to put the wand down on the floor and kick it over to him,
Speaker 1 00:08:54 Pulls out her wand and trains it on you. As your father reaches down and picks up the one that you just kicked over to him, he nods, seeming satisfied and he says, all right, if everyone else here can be cooperative, then I think we have a deal. And he looks at everybody behind you. You start to hear clattering. As Zed runs from the backyard,
Speaker 0 00:09:21 Leo is going to attempt to give fi a very weighted look that says, trust me,
Speaker 1 00:09:28 Everyone else is physically holding feedback. She is like trying to lunge forward and get into the middle of this conversation. Sabean has like an arm brace across her chest. And the captain is standing between the two of you. She looks at you, wide-eyed desperate and says, don't do this.
Speaker 0 00:09:51 It was always going to end like this fee. Leo is going to slowly put his hands down and walk over to where more Lennon Alesha are standing. Everybody else here walks away.
Speaker 1 00:10:07 Your father looks at you and then looks past you at fee roll insight,
Speaker 0 00:10:16 17,
Speaker 1 00:10:18 That doesn't do it. He looks back at you and he smiles again. And he says, certainly darling, I applaud you are maneuver in this situation.
Speaker 0 00:10:35 Leo has always had a very hard time looking his father in the eye, but he meets his gaze and does not waver in hope you were right. I didn't deserve the throne. I was self absorbed and childish and arrogant. And I didn't think of anybody other than myself,
Speaker 1 00:11:09 Your father stepping closer to you. Still holding fees. Wand says the self-awareness is very admirable. Do you like a trophy for it? Or can we get on with this?
Speaker 0 00:11:25 No, I think the self-awareness is enough of a reward in itself. I might be a selfish child with delusions of grand jury, but you are a crucible manipulative power, hungry, revenge, mad, desperate. And it has been nothing short of my privilege to do everything I can to spite you. At first, it was for my mother and then it was just for me. But this Leah reaches down slaps at the gym on his Bracer and SAPs Kimball's blade back into his hand. This is for soar and you son of a bitch, and I'm going to roll to hit him with a fifth level inflict wounds.
Speaker 1 00:12:24 As you watch realization Dawn on your father's face, and you hear the sounds of the Zed crashing back into the foyer after he dead sprinted the entire way back roll to hit
Speaker 0 00:12:42 18
Speaker 1 00:12:46 Moreland's AC is a 13. You absolutely stabbed him in the gut with cameras played. Also, I would say he counts the surprise. Go ahead and roll sneak attack as well.
Speaker 0 00:13:00 So I would like to use my Kim role's blade ability to roll max damage on one necromancy spell per day, a fifth level inflict wounds is 70 10. So that is 70 damage outright. I would also like to unload one of my uses of my channel divinity touch of death, which allows me to add an additional 23 necrotic damage to the attack. So that is 93 outright with sneak attack. That is plus two D six. And then since the spell is at such close range and I am stabbing him what? I also be able to add the knife damage and one of my sneak attack onto a spell slots from my camera's blade improvement.
Speaker 1 00:13:45 Absolutely. So you're going to do max inflict wounds damage. You're going to do your tenant of entity damage, and then you're going to roll five D six one from the knife two from your regular sneak attack and two from your spells Nick attack plus five.
Speaker 0 00:14:05 So my damage from the inflict wounds and channel divinity is 93. Plus the damage I did from everything else totals out to 111 damage.
Speaker 1 00:14:19 You stab your father in the gut with your holy symbol. You channel almost as much magical energy. As you can muster into this one stab, you watch that spectral copy of camera's blade that you saw back in Pearl, port spin, and then sink into his back. And you have in one hit taken your father from full health to 11 hip points.
Speaker 0 00:14:51 Leo twists the knife grins in such a way that he is mostly just baring his
Speaker 1 00:14:57 Teeth and goes nice party trick. Isn't it. Your father stumbles back off of your knife presses one hand to the hole that you have just stabbed in his gut. The other one drops your sister's wand and then makes a sharp gesture and points at you. There is no save against the spell on the first round. And even if there was, he uses three sorcery points to give you disadvantage on your first, save against it because you have less than a hundred hit points. Your father casts, power word pain on you, and it immediately takes effect.
Speaker 1 00:15:48 You are very suddenly racked with pain. Like you have never felt in your life. Your vision goes completely white. And then black as if from the other end of a long tunnel, you can hear people screaming after a moment. You realize that one of those people is your sister. And after another longer moment, you realize that another of those people is you. You feel like your skin is trying to turn itself inside out. Like your insides are boiling. Like there is steam rising from your internal organs and it is pushing at your muscles and your skin for an amount of time that you will never be able to quantify. It feels like, and it turns, it passes as this pain hits you and shows no signs of abating. And you just hear screaming. I am going to ask you to make a disadvantaged con save
Speaker 0 00:17:19 Five
Speaker 1 00:17:21 Dimly from far away. You feel yourself hit the floor. As this pain just keeps going. It is not getting worse, but that is almost worse that it is just not changing. That it has just settled into you. Romy another con safe
Speaker 0 00:17:46 16. You feel pressure against you that your rational brain as far away as it is right now knows is probably someone grabbing you. It feels like you are being crushed under the weight of it. It is finally a change in the feeling that you are feeling, but it is a negative one. And you hear some of the screaming stop Romania, other con safe, 19 exactly meets at beads.
Speaker 1 00:18:30 You finally mercifully pass out
Speaker 0 00:18:40 Fi the sequence of events that unfold in the seconds after you watch your brothers stab your father happen almost too quickly for you to process. For a moment, the room is dead silent, and all you can hear is the slow sang wine, drip of your father's blood hitting the floor. And then he grunts brings up a hand to point at Leo and Leo just lets out an almost inhuman sounding shriek of pain. And with that first scream, the entire foyer of your aunt, Nora's his house erupts into chaos. You hear your aunt start yelling. Elisha lets out a worried shout and starts moving towards your father as fast as she can. And he just has his eyes fixed on Leo who drops to the floor and continues screaming. You see your father bring a hand up to the bloody hole that Leo just stabbed into his stomach. And there's this weird grayish silvery glow that surrounds his hand. You see the wound close up, which is fucking weird because your father is not a healer and never has been. But as he maintains this concentration on the spell, you see that he looks still a little hurt, but definitely not like somebody that should be bleeding out on the floor right now, which he should be. And through all of this, your brother is still just arriving on the floor, sobbing and screaming in agony. What do you do?
Speaker 1 00:20:23 So the captain and Sabine are still holding me back. I'm going to try and like strength, check one of my arms free. And I'm going to cast the six level, which bolt on my dad.
Speaker 0 00:20:34 Okay. Sabine effectively has you in a grapple check right now? So you're going to roll athletics or acrobatics to break it. And your DC is an 18. So if you do break this grapple track, I will let you cast the spell, but you will roll with disadvantage per the rules of being grappled.
Speaker 1 00:20:54 Uh, uh, I'm going to use one of my roles even worse. Okay. I'll take the disadvantage.
Speaker 0 00:21:03 Okay. Roll to hit with disadvantage.
Speaker 1 00:21:09 I'm going to use another one of my roles because my dice fucking hate me today. Hello. There we go. Uh, that's exactly a 13 meets it, beats it.
Speaker 0 00:21:19 Okay, go ahead and roll damage.
Speaker 1 00:21:22 Okay. So at this level, that's six D 12 damage. I'm going to use empowered, smell to reroll, five of those 55 lightening damage.
Speaker 0 00:21:36 Okay, well your father had healed himself up miraculously, but all of that healing is pretty much gone. Now, as you reach out and lightening crackles out of your fingers and hits him directly in the chest, he staggers backward with a cry of pain. Leo is still on the floor screaming to the point that his voice is starting to crackle and break out of the corner of your eye. You see Zed skid down to his knees next to him. But what holds more of your attention is the look of pure shock and disbelief that you see on your father's face. As he looks at you, like he can't believe you would dare to do what you just did.
Speaker 1 00:22:24 Fi snarls at him. I would suggest father that you carefully consider your next move.
Speaker 0 00:22:35 Your father does not get to consider his next move. You see his lip curl and he opens his mouth to his something back at you. And at that exact moment, Elatia makes it over to him. From across the foyer gets one arm around him from behind and drops a teleport spell. They both disappear with a pop, but whatever spell he just cast on Leo is still in effect. Leo is still just shrieking. You see Zed, try to pick him up and get him off the floor. And then Leo lets out the most agonized pained noise you have ever heard a living creature, make his spine boughs upward at an almost impossible angle. And then the screaming stops and he goes limp INSEAD's arms. And once again, the room is silent
Speaker 1 00:23:39 Feeds going over there. Um, if the bean in the captain don't let her go, she's going to shock and grasp them.
Speaker 0 00:23:44 Oh no, lets you go. As soon as your father and a Alicia disappear, you have
Speaker 1 00:23:48 A clear path over to your brother. Cool fee goes over there and like baseball slides onto the floor.
Speaker 0 00:23:57 As you get over there, you see Zed, hands shaking as he presses one up to the side of Leo's neck. And then he sighs in relief and kind of bows forward. All right, I got a pulse
Speaker 1 00:24:14 Feeder starts crying.
Speaker 0 00:24:17 You feel a hand on your shoulder as your aunt Nora comes over and kneels down next to you. She kind of rubs a couple little circles on your back and goes it's okay, he's alive. We've got him. She puts her other hand over Leo's chest. You see a ring that she's got on her finger, flash and glow with bright, silver, magical energy. And she casts a lesser restoration on him. Mechanically. It can't do much for him, but it seems to help with some pain relief. He's unconscious, but his face is still very pinched and drawn in pain. And you see his expression relax. As she does this, she looks up at Zed nod sharply and goes get him upstairs. He needs to rest. And then she whips around to look at the two of her children, Adrian. I want that security system on. And as deadly as you can make it Lark, you need to go upstairs, call your father and tell him he needs to come home from work. Now, LARC and Adrian are still just frozen. You see larks lower lip wobbling a little bit like they're about to burst into tears and Norris snaps. Now they both scatter to do what she told them to do.
Speaker 0 00:25:47 Air of a blinking slowly kind of backs out of the room into the dining room. You get the feeling sheet needs a second alone to decompress Said scoops Leo up, carries him out of the room and Nora follows them and you are left alone in the foyer with the captain and Sabine.
Speaker 1 00:26:12 He's gonna try to get the impending meltdown under control. It's still on the floor. She just says, And she's going to very carefully stand up, fresh off her skirt. And I think she just kind of wrapped her arms around herself for a second, takes a deep breath nods.
Speaker 0 00:26:44 The captain walks over skirting around the pool of your father's blood. That is still on the floor and reaches up to kind of tuck a strand of your hair back behind your ear. Deep breaths. Last it's going to be all right.
Speaker 1 00:26:58 Don't feed stops and just presses one hand to the base of her throat. Her other hand is shaking at her side. Don't talk to me right now. Don't either of you don't don't come near me. Hey, Hey, cannot believe the two of you tried to keep me out of that. I cannot believe you.
Speaker 0 00:27:30 The captain takes two big steps back. Sabine has not moved from where she's been standing kind of across the foyer from you, but she shifts a little uncomfortably and looks down at her feet Before everything happened. Leo messaged me. He said he had an idea that it was our best chance of ending this here. And he made me promise that I wasn't going to let you or sad. Stop him.
Speaker 1 00:27:58 That wasn't Leo's decision. And it wasn't yours either. I am not going to be held back on the sidelines like a child. This is my life. It's my family. And you had no rights.
Speaker 0 00:28:14 Sabine starts crying. She has not moved from where she's standing, but she presses a hand over her mouth and muffles a sob into it. The captain looks back and forth between the two of you realizes that you want the space and Sabine needs someone with her and walks over and just wraps an arm around her shoulders. You're right fee. It's your life. It's your family. Maybe we were mistaken in thinking that we were part of it. You saw what he did to Leo and we were supposed to watch let's you're running. Let the same thing happened to you. I saw all I needed to see here today to convince me that we're playing a game with someone who makes defiance look like a walk in the park. So back in your pardon for both of us wanted to keep you safe. What happened again?
Speaker 1 00:29:16 Begging your pardon captain for expecting either of you to trust me, to handle myself and fie spins on our heel and walks out Leah. The first thing that comes back to you is your sense of touch. You are lying on a pretty nice mattress, some pretty nice sheets. It is cool, but not cold wherever you are. And there is a blanket over you, you feel stiff all over and your muscles. Just the second thing that comes back is your hearing. You hear Eleanor his voice going, whoa, slow down what the fuck happened. And then you hear dad's voice. Yeah. Uh, you know how Leo told us his dad sucks and Eleanor says, I recall. Yeah. And Zed shoots back his that sucks. You hear him just make a frustrated noise. And you hear where boards creaking as if somebody is pacing over them sounding a little bit muffled. Like he's got his hand over his face that says, yeah, he's been out for awhile now. Ah, shit.
Speaker 1 00:31:05 I'm aware that the good boyfriend thing to do right now would be to go back in that room. But I fucking, I can't Eleanora. I can't Eleanor says, all right, calm down. We're going to hear, if anything happens, the is open. We can stay out here for a minute. And Zed kind of cuts her off and says, I need you to make sure I don't leave the house. There's a long pause. Then Eleanora says, oh, that's yeah, I can do that. Do you want me to tell anybody else that they should be watching the doors or, and that says, God, no, just please. Don't I more pacing sounds.
Speaker 0 00:32:01 Am I able to move or get up or anything?
Speaker 1 00:32:06 Are you going to try to
Speaker 0 00:32:08 Yeah. Upon hearing how upset set is. Absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:32:13 Go ahead. Actually enroll me at con check.
Speaker 0 00:32:17 How low DC is it? Cause that was a seven.
Speaker 1 00:32:21 You open your eyes, try to sit up and your muscles just lock up. It hurts like a son of a bitch. Leo.
Speaker 0 00:32:34 He freezes halfway to sitting up and just collapses back onto the bed and goes, ah, oh my God. Oh,
Speaker 1 00:32:42 Dead fucking silence from the hallway for a second. And then very suddenly Eleanora and Zed are both in the doorway. Zed makes eye contact with you for a second and just freezes. He has very obviously been if not actively crying, then trying really hard, not to Eleanora, however, stalks into the room and just kind of plops down on the bed next to you and reaches out to rub the heel of her hand up and down your arm. Alright. Valuable lesson learned about asking for help when we're injured, what do you need?
Speaker 0 00:33:25 Leo bats her off and tries to sit up again and goes, ah, and then falls back onto the mattress.
Speaker 1 00:33:34 Yeah, that was my mistake. Thinking that you learn a lesson after you do something stupid, but the first time she kind of waved the hand at you and goes, Hey, lights are on in there is anybody home fucking lay down
Speaker 0 00:33:50 Where where's fee his fee. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:33:53 Uh, as far as I could tell, when I got in, she's destroying your aunt's topiary.
Speaker 0 00:33:59 Great. That sounds constructive. What, what happened?
Speaker 1 00:34:07 Zed from the doorway clears his throat and reaches up to rub the back of his neck and says, well, uh, after you, uh, stabbed your old man, good job, he casts some kind of fucked up spell and um, he clears his throat again and nods to himself. A couple times you went down pretty hard. It was not great. Um, and you've been out since. So go ahead and roll me an insight check really quick.
Speaker 0 00:34:52 19
Speaker 1 00:34:55 Zed is on a fucking Razor's edge psychologically. He's just standing there kind of fidgeting awkwardly. He won't quite look at you.
Speaker 0 00:35:09 So I didn't get him.
Speaker 1 00:35:11 I mean, you got him pretty good.
Speaker 0 00:35:14 Not good enough. Elanora can you go check on my sister? I need to know she's okay.
Speaker 1 00:35:22 Eleanora raises her eyebrows, rubs her hand down your arm. One more time. Looks from you to Zed and then back to you and then says, ah, yeah, I can do. And then she's going to reach forward, pat, your cheek, kiss you on the forehead and say stop moving. All right.
Speaker 0 00:35:46 Yeah. Can do Leo waits until she's out of the room and then turns back around to look over and said, look, I know it seems bad, but it's fine. It's it's how his magic works. He didn't actually to anything to me, I'm not hurt.
Speaker 1 00:36:07 Zed makes a noise. That's hard to interpret. It's somewhere between a laugh and a saw Breely uh, the, uh, where you're screaming down there says different boss. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 0 00:36:29 Welcome to dealing with my father. I'm used to it at this point, but I get how it can be jarring for someone who's not,
Speaker 1 00:36:38 Oh, you get how it can be jarring. I said just kind of stops and puts both hands over his face and just leans against the doorframe. He scared the shit out of me.
Speaker 0 00:36:53 I'm sorry. I thought I had a shot at stopping all of this here and now
Speaker 1 00:37:05 You and he kind of scrubs his hands down his face. You could've gotten yourself killed. Fuck. I thought you did. That's twice. Now I fuck. I can't keep doing this,
Speaker 0 00:37:29 Honey. I've got some bad news about you choosing to love someone. Who's trying to save the world. This shit could kill me. It's probably going to,
Speaker 1 00:37:42 Yeah, that's a risk on fucking park, Leo. You don't need to help it along. And you've been looking for an excuse since Raul or did you think I wasn't going to recognize that,
Speaker 0 00:37:58 Um, Leo pushes himself up enough to sit back against the headboard and looks at it in the eye and he fully bursts into tears. I'm so tired.
Speaker 1 00:38:17 Zed fast he's across the room in two seconds. He just sits on the bed. Next to you fully pulls you into his arms, up against his chest. Tucks your head under his chin and starts rocking.
Speaker 0 00:38:32 Leo is like ugly, crying, big, full body SOPs, just clinging to him.
Speaker 1 00:38:40 He like tilt his head to press his face into your hair. And he says, Hey, you gotta stop doing this shit.
Speaker 2 00:38:51 I
Speaker 1 00:38:51 Just, I want, Fuck. This is sappy. I want you to be okay. I want to be happy. I want, I want a lot of shit, but I want you to stop doing this. You asked me why it feels like I'm pushing you away. And I'm sitting here after one of the worst hours of my life. Wondering why you act like the fact that you need help is a reason for me to bolt. Want us to be happy, Leo. I really do. And I'm trying not to get spooked and run off. Like I fucking always do, but I need you to meet me. Halfway.
Speaker 0 00:39:45 Leo tries to sit up straighter and roll his shoulders back and be okay. And then realizes that he doesn't have to,
Speaker 2 00:39:56 Uh,
Speaker 0 00:40:02 I've been fucking holding it together and taking care of everybody for the last year. And I, I can't anymore. I need help meet you. Halfway
Speaker 1 00:40:19 Zed, squeezes you a little tighter and nods still with his face, buried in her hair. I got you. I'm going to help you. Okay. Let's lay down. You're fucking wiped out and I'm not having a great time either. Let's just lay down and sleep for a little bit. All right,
Speaker 0 00:40:49 Leo is going to kiss him.
Speaker 1 00:40:52 He's going to kiss you back. Very softly, very sweetly and completely without hesitation. And then he pulls back. He presses his forehead against yours and he smiles a little bit. Let's put a pen in that one, boss.
Speaker 2 00:41:13 Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:41:15 The story of our lives. Right? Putting a pin in it until we have the chance to be better.
Speaker 2 00:41:23 I'm
Speaker 0 00:41:24 Exhausted.
Speaker 1 00:41:26 Stay with me. Zed. Snarts tugged around. So you're both laying down and then says, boss, you'd have to beat me off with a stick. If you wanted me to leave at this point,
Speaker 0 00:41:43 I love you.
Speaker 1 00:41:46 He's still got one hand going up and down your back. And he reaches the other one around to kind of break through your hair. I love you too.
Speaker 0 00:42:05 Fi it has been a little while since you had that confrontation with the captain and Sabine and stormed out of the foyer. In that time, you have pretty much destroyed. One of your aunts. Very nice topiaries in the backyard. Eleanora has come back from the Australian embassy. You see her get caught up on the situation by your aunt in the front room and immediately sprint upstairs ravine and Verity come back from their sightseeing tour to a fully armed security system that Adrian has turned on. That does shoot bolts of white, hot magic at them. As they come toward the front door, they scream loudly and then also get caught up. Everybody in the aftermath of all this madness seems to kind of be retreating into themselves. You don't see a lot of people out moving around the house and you don't really see anybody talking to each other. You are walking back through the empty foyer. When you see Eleanora come jogging down the stairs, she stops at the bottom nods at you. All right. You're alive.
Speaker 1 00:43:08 Uh, sure. I am. Did you need something?
Speaker 0 00:43:13 Yeah. A million goal to stiff drink and a therapist, but that's not what we're here to discuss right now. Leo was asking about you. He sent me down to check on you.
Speaker 1 00:43:22 Oh shit. He's awake.
Speaker 0 00:43:24 Her eyes flicked back up the stairs. And she crosses her arms over her chest. I, yeah, pretty worse for wear, but he's resting sets with him. Her jaw sets very hard and her folded arms tighten just a bit. I should have been here. I shouldn't have been dicking around to the embassy. If I'd been here, I could've done something. I
Speaker 4 00:43:51 Fuck.
Speaker 1 00:43:54 No, you probably couldn't have, uh, Leo would have just gotten my girlfriend to send you away or hold you back. Not that I'm furious with him or anything. You know, that would be a bad look right now,
Speaker 0 00:44:09 Eleanora cringes and makes an uncomfortable noise. Like
Speaker 1 00:44:16 It's fine.
Speaker 0 00:44:20 Eleanora on crosses her arms and kind of puts both hands up. Hey, not my circus, not my monkeys. I just ask that you refrain from raining hell down on him for a little bit longer. He's had a pretty rough day. It looks like I had the displeasure of meeting your old man while I was at the embassy. By the way, he's a real Dick. And your stepmother seems like a piece of work to
Speaker 1 00:44:46 True on both counts. Uh, we're working on it. Speaking of my girlfriend, I have a couple of things to discuss with her. If you've seen her around
Speaker 0 00:44:58 Eleanora makes that cringing sound again. Uh, yeah, last I saw her. She and the captain and Arivale were hanging out in the dining room, I think.
Speaker 1 00:45:09 Great. Uh, if Leah's silhouette, when you go up there and tell him, I'll be up in a bit,
Speaker 0 00:45:16 All due respect for ARRA, I'm going to pass on that. I think subjecting him to gut wrenching fear right now is probably a bad idea.
Speaker 1 00:45:24 I'm not going to yell at him until he's upright.
Speaker 0 00:45:27 Uh, you got it. Eleanor gives you this snappy little, two finger salute and turns around trots back up the stairs. What are you doing?
Speaker 1 00:45:38 Uh, I'm going to go talk to Spain and Arivale since she's there. And she also needs to be in this conversation.
Speaker 0 00:45:48 You head back to the dining room where Eleanora indicated that they were hanging out the last she saw them. And within the past few hours, it appears to have been turned into a makeshift war room. You see Sabine and Arivale hunched over the dining room table, where there has been a big city map of Boulder rolled out across the surface, kind of moving what looked to be little pieces from board games that they have been able to scavenge around on it. Like tactical markers. They both have their heads together, conversing very hushed. And the captain is just sitting at the head of the table with a cup of tea that you see him suddenly reached down to his side and tip a flask into before taking a long sip. None of them see you come in. Sabine has her back to you. And she's just pushing around like the car piece from fantasy monopoly across a couple city blocks on this map.
Speaker 0 00:46:44 Okay? So I want us to have at least three exit routes out of the city in case shit breaks really bad. We've already got this route to the east, but if they shut down the bridges, we're going to have to reevaluate that whole thing. Arivale clicks in a couple of the zoom in lenses, on her goggles and frowns. Uh, we could perhaps consider a nautical route captain. Do you think you could get the banshee up here? The captain drains his cup of spiked tea and goes, uh, not without the world's biggest and longest lasting and invisibility spell ever last.
Speaker 1 00:47:20 Fee's going to go sit down at the table.
Speaker 0 00:47:22 So Beaton goes to put another board game piece down on this city map looks up, sees you and immediately goes to on her heel and leave
Speaker 1 00:47:31 Sabine, sit down
Speaker 0 00:47:34 Her shoulders, go rigid where she's been walking away from you. But then she slowly pivots and sinks to sit in a chair next to the captain,
Speaker 1 00:47:45 Right? Uh, don't stop on my account. But the three of us and feed gestures at city in and airway need to have a discussion captain. If you'd like to leave, you are more than welcome.
Speaker 0 00:48:01 The captain's eyebrows pinched together, and he frowns a little bit. I'd hate to leave an important conversation, especially if it has anything to do with the plans that we're making here. So Sabine brings one hand up to pinch at the bridge of her nose. She means get out sweetheart. The captain looks frantically back and forth between you and Sabine. And you can just kind of hear the cogs gnashing together in his head, as he tries to think his way through this and do the math. But finally he claps stands up and nods briskly at both of you, right then I'll just be a hit in the old dusty trail, the good afternoon tea glasses. And he hustles out really quick.
Speaker 1 00:48:47 Okay, feed's gonna wait for him to leave and then cross her arms on the table. So I have good reason to believe that a law HSA is calling most of the shots for one side of the beacon schism. And now that she knows that both of you are here and working with us, we should make sure that we're all up to speed during you think
Speaker 0 00:49:15 Sabina. And Arivale both look very confused. They look at each other across the table and frown Sabine goes like, she's going to say something and then clams back up and stares back down at the table. But Arivale pushes her goggles back up under her forehead and goes, nobody calls the shots in the beacon feed. That's not how it works.
Speaker 1 00:49:43 Alesha car and calls the shots wherever she is. If you don't think that's what she's doing, then it's working. She was giving orders to defiance. FICO cuts her eyes sideways. It's a bean from the beginning of the schism, as far as I was able to gather in our most recent conversation. And if that's the case, we have no idea who else is in her pocket. So we should probably try and figure that out before one of us get the knife in the back.
Speaker 0 00:50:14 Sabine's posture goes absolutely rigid. She's still looking down at this city map sprawled across the dining room table, but her hands where they are resting on top of the paper clench into, she was giving orders to defiance from the beginning of the no, no, because that would mean that she,
Speaker 1 00:50:38 I called her out on it. She admitted it right to my face.
Speaker 0 00:50:43 Sabine's mouth is just hanging open and disbelief. And then she closes her eyes, shakes her head, kind of Bruns her tongue along the point of the one gold canine that she has. And you see her fists go white knuckled very slowly. She stands up from her seat and leans down onto the table with her weight on her fists. Well, trusting a Lusha has always been a losing bet. I just didn't think that If you'll excuse me, she spins on her heel with a jingle and go stocking back into the kitchen
Speaker 1 00:51:29 Sabine we need to, right now, that's fair.
Speaker 0 00:51:37 There's a long moment of silence where you and Arivale are just staring at each other. And then from the kitchen, you hear the sound of some kind of glassware hitting a wall Arivale grimaces and reaches down to shuffle around a couple more of the board game pieces on the city map. Well, at least you don't have to worry about me destroying any heirloom dishware. I've been well aware that Alicia had a hand in both of my parents' deaths for quite some time. Now, however, the question of who she has in her pocket and the damage that they could potentially do is one that we need to address ever since the end of the war, Fogg folder has an Australian presence, which means it has a beacon presence. We'd be foolish to discount that.
Speaker 1 00:52:29 Yes we would, especially if we're trying to make political maneuvers, anything we want to keep secret, we have to make very sure that there's no way you can get back to my father, which means that we have to make doubly sure that there's no way it gets back to a Lasha.
Speaker 0 00:52:46 Well, in that case, the safest course of action sounds to me like we just don't trust anyone that could even potentially be in the beacon. I hate to cast dispersions or step on any toes, but it shouldn't go unnoticed that Calissa and fin Andrus rotate very closely to a Lasha. And I don't think it should go on noted that Eleanora disappeared to the embassy today without any input from the rest of us. I'm not saying that they're actively working against us. I'm saying that if they fuck up, it could be catastrophic
Speaker 1 00:53:26 Fee, put their head in her hands for a second and nods and says, yeah, I think as soon as Leo's up and about all of us need to be vetted under his zone of chip spell, we don't have room for nice sentiments about how much we trust and care about our friends. We have to be practical or we all risk getting killed. So no secrets, no lies.
Speaker 0 00:53:58 That's a good thought process. And it's one that I agree with, but in my own personal experience, I have learned that the best way to keep a secret is to make sure that it dies with you. I have learned the very, very hard way that putting stock in other people, even people you trust either means watching them die or watching them kill someone else that you love at the end of the day. That's why I was hiding in the woods. That's why my parents research dies with me. I don't know if you're soliciting my opinion here, but I'll give it to you anyway, whatever we do next, I think we should cut Calissa and Fenn out of it because if we don't, it will result in them getting hurt or them hurting us. She stands up, dust her hands off on the front of her pants and nods at you. We've all had a rough day Ferrara. I hope yours ends better than it started. And she walks out of the dining room in the opposite direction. That Sabine just left.
Speaker 1 00:55:13 Good talk. I guess Leo, you wake up from your second nap of the day. This one's significantly more restful than the first two, an absence in the bed next to you and a pair of ginormous magnified, dark eyes staring down at you.
Speaker 0 00:55:42 God, I know what this is. It's sleep. Paralysis, demons.
Speaker 1 00:55:46 Nope, worse. It's Laura <inaudible>. She is standing next to your bed, staring down at you eyes. Huge. There is a long moment where she does not say anything. And then she says I was waiting for Zed to leave.
Speaker 0 00:56:05 Yeah, said's gone. That's a whole thing, Laura. Like you shouldn't be here.
Speaker 1 00:56:13 Well, I heard, um, all of the screaming earlier and I didn't want you to think that I didn't want to check on you, but I also didn't want to talk to Zed. So I waited for him to go down and get dinner.
Speaker 0 00:56:34 Leo pushes himself up to sit back against the headboard and wins is really hard. I'm I'm okay. You don't need to worry about me. I know that that was probably really scary.
Speaker 1 00:56:50 Lorelei takes a step back and wraps both arms around herself. I wasn't scared. I was just concerned because I didn't know what was going on again. And I'm telling her, told me to hide somewhere safe and I didn't know where it was safe. Cause I heard your dad downstairs. She unwraps her arms and just like puts her hands down at her side and just kinda clenches a non-conscious or fists and says, and I really wanted to go down and hurt him. I wanted to really bad.
Speaker 0 00:57:33 He ha I did too. And it didn't work out so good for me. I cut Laura like come here. And Leo scooch is over on the bed and just kind of pulls his arms open.
Speaker 1 00:57:49 Lorelei hopped up on the bed with you and just hugs you really hard. Earl perception really quick. It's low DC,
Speaker 0 00:57:58 Matt, 20, 28.
Speaker 1 00:58:01 I'm so sorry you use that on a DC 10 roll buddy where Laura lies face is pressed against your chest. In this hug, there is a suspiciously wet patch growing in your shirt. As you have your arms wrapped around her, she is just kind of trembling. Just a little bit.
Speaker 0 00:58:22 Leo is not capable of a lot of movement right now, but whatever he is capable of, he uses to just yank her in a little tighter and kind of pet her hair down. I'm glad you didn't make it out there. It was bad.
Speaker 1 00:58:40 Lorelei face still bury in your shirt says I'm really tired of him hurting people. I love when I can't do anything but hide Leo.
Speaker 0 00:58:51 I'm really tired of letting him hurt people. He love when I can't do anything but hurt myself to try to stop it. You, uh, you want to help me up? I think I'm ready to stand.
Speaker 1 00:59:05 Oh, okay. Um, Lorelei pulls back. You can see for the second before she brushes them away, she has just ridiculous tear tracks going down her face, brushed them off nods to herself and readjust her glasses. As she stands up in a gesture that is very reminiscent of Soren. She stands up and holds hand out to you.
Speaker 0 00:59:32 Leo takes her hand and uses that point of contact to help keep him upright as he stands up and then wraps his free arm around Lorelei shoulders. So he can keep her up to
Speaker 1 00:59:46 You and Lorelei arms around each other, walk out into the hallway and with spectacular timing, fi gets up the stairs and rounds the corner she stops. Laura lie also stops, which means that you stop and then fie nods. And she says, well, you shouldn't be out of bed, but you're upright. Which means I can yell at you.
Speaker 0 01:00:14 Oh, Lorelei. Suddenly I feel faint. I think I should go lay back down. Let's go back in the bedroom.
Speaker 1 01:00:21 I'm going to roll to see if Laura light picks up on the fact that you are just saying that to get away from fi yeah. Um, with an eight Laura lies like genuinely concerned. She goes, oh crap. I'm sorry. I'm here. Let's and then she starts to tell you back into the room and fi from down the hall says, you know what? Laura Lee I've got him. Have you had dinner yet? You should go downstairs and get some dinner. Laura lie. I think that would be a really good idea. And fee cuts her eyes sideways at you.
Speaker 0 01:00:55 Leo cringes, super hard and kind of turtles down into his shirt. Oh yeah. Yeah. You should go do that, Laura. Like, I'll be, I'll be fine.
Speaker 1 01:01:06 Laurel. I looks at you and looks at fi and then says, oh, Kayden. And she waits for fee to come over and get you by the shoulders. She squeezes your one shoulder just a little bit too tight. And then Lorelai heads off feed tows you back into your room and unceremoniously lets you just drop onto the bed and then starts pacing the length of the room for a second.
Speaker 0 01:01:35 Leo scrunches up with his back against the headboard and wraps his hands around his knees. Okay. So just to save us some time here, I've already been yelled at, by a lot of people today I can do kind of a bullet pointed list point a I'm stupid point B. I shouldn't have done that point. See, I could have gotten myself killed
Speaker 1 01:01:57 Fi still pacing says I would say point D is the fact that Sabina and I are fighting over you now. But uh, I'm trying to arrange my thoughts and I'm debating whether I should go alphabetical order or start with the thing that makes me the most mad. And just go from there.
Speaker 0 01:02:15 You should probably just vent in order of urgency. I couldn't take it. I got most of the crying out when Zedd yelled at me.
Speaker 1 01:02:25 No, no I vented earlier. I'm going to be systematic about this. Now if he keeps pacing a couple more lengths of the room, speaking of dead, he appears in the doorway after fee has paced a few more times and stops and looks between the two of you and says, uh, am I interrupt in something? Or, and without looking at him, he says, yes, you are
Speaker 0 01:02:53 Over fee's shoulder. Leo makes eye contact with Zed and silently mouths help
Speaker 1 01:03:00 Zed looks at you and grimaces and says, all right, how about we all just take a second, try and simmer down. And fi says, get out Zed Zed looks at her and then looks back at you, Leo and mouths, sorry. And then two feet. He says, yep, you got it. And he gives her a two finger salute and he pulls the door closed behind him
Speaker 0 01:03:32 As his footsteps, fade down the hallway behind the clothes to door Leo yells trader
Speaker 1 01:03:41 After one more round of the room fee finally stops and comes and sits on the bed next to you and says, you know, actually I'll let you pick where we start. Uh, should we go with you going behind my back to asks the bean to help you out with your stupid plan? Should we start with your continued self-destructive streak? Or should we start with how utterly infantilizing and demoralizing it is to know that you do not trust me enough to let me in on your plans. At this point, after everything we've been through the last year,
Speaker 0 01:04:16 Leo's eyes narrow at her and he adopts a very defensive posture for a second, but then realizes what he's doing relaxes and leans back against the headboard. I do trust you. I trust you with my life. I trust you to save my ass when I do stupid impulsive shit. And that's why I couldn't tell you. Yeah, in retrospect, it was an incredibly risky call that I made. And that's why I told Sabine because she out of all of us has the most experience doing survival math and could get on my level of thinking that I could have stopped it, all of it here and now I could have stopped it. And you got to give me a little credit. I almost did,
Speaker 1 01:05:10 Except for the fact that he apparently has self-healing abilities that neither of us knew about now and fixed himself up right after he took you down.
Speaker 0 01:05:23 Leo frowns self-healing ability. That's not possible fi father's a sourcer or not a cleric. And his particular skillset has never been built towards healing. Anything.
Speaker 1 01:05:40 All right, then let's find an alternate explanation for how I fired off the strongest, which bowl I could muster at him. And that still didn't take him down. What's your explanation there? Did you miss or was it perhaps the fact that I was deeply terrified because my brother had just collapsed to the ground screaming, like he was being skinned alive. That may be messed with my aim, perhaps it was my mistake, Leo, and then she just kind of puts her hands up and says, Nope, too upset with you to sit. And then she stands up and starts pacing again.
Speaker 0 01:06:18 Leo raises both eyebrows at her and sits up a little straighter where he's been leaning against the headboard. Well, I know I didn't miss I'm fairly certain. I felt myself get him right in the spleen immediately before as you so illustratively said, I went down screaming like I was being skinned alive. That's not what it felt like by the way it was worse. Pardon me for needing some clarification on what happened next? So the old man can heal himself. That's fun, new information that we have now. It's not information that I had when I had five seconds to make a decision to maybe stop all of us from dying. We had seconds. It wasn't like we had time to sit down for a war counsel. It was a hard call to make. And I made it because somebody had to, I don't know if you've noticed fee, but I don't enjoy being the one that makes all the hard calls. And I enjoy it a hell of a lot less. When everyone around me acts like I have some sort of secret agenda against them. When I don't make one perfectly,
Speaker 1 01:07:30 He kind of stops pacing as you're going off facing away from you. There is a long moment of silence. After you stop talking, you hear her take a deep breath and then
Speaker 0 01:07:54 Leo cringes again, and then flops back against the headboard and kind of scoots over in the bed. Well, now I feel like an asshole. Come here.
Speaker 1 01:08:09 She turns around. She is just ugly, crying. She reaches up presses the heels of her hands just into her eyes for a second and goes,
Speaker 5 01:08:19 You are in as whole.
Speaker 1 01:08:23 And then she walks over and just sits on the bed next to you.
Speaker 0 01:08:27 Hesitantly Leah reaches out and just starts rubbing little circles into her back.
Speaker 1 01:08:33 He is very, obviously trying really hard to keep herself under control, but it is not working.
Speaker 5 01:08:46 I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead for a good second there. I don't know what any of us would've done. Cause none of us has a fucking plan for this. And father would have still been here and you would have just pissed him off and just release scared.
Speaker 0 01:09:11 I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I scared you, but it wasn't, it wasn't you. It was me and I was the one that was wrong. So yeah, you're mad at me. You should be, but fi please just be mad at me and my bad decisions and my bullshit. Don't be mad at this idea. You've got in your head that I don't trust you or I don't love you because that's not true. You can keep yelling at me later, but right now I just want to go check in on everybody else. So can you just help me get to wherever they all are right now?
Speaker 5 01:10:08 Yeah. Um, can I, can I just have a minute first?
Speaker 0 01:10:14 Yeah, Kimra knows you earned it. He's going to lean back up against the headboard of one arm kind of propped up. Like it would wrap around her if she wants that.
Speaker 1 01:10:25 Yeah. If he's going to lean in and hug you super hard. I think he to just stay like that for a minute. And then she helps you get downstairs.
Speaker 0 01:10:40 Fi you help your brother down the stairs into the sitting room where your party plus your aunt, uncle and cousins are all sort of sitting around on various pieces of furniture. Lark is metaphorically and the kind of physically butting heads with Nora in front of this weird artifice looking device in one corner of the room, it's this big wooden casing with big open spaces in the middle that have fabric across them. And in the top of it, there is this gleaming crystal that is pulsing slowly. LARC is trying to fiddle with a round metal dial underneath this crystal. And you see Nora smack their hand away. They pout and go, mom, come on. My stories are coming on in like four minutes. I need to keep up. What if I get behind Nora glares at them and go, I'm listening to the news. LARC, sit down. LARC, folds themselves, meekly on to a sofa next to Verity and starts chatting with her as your aunt. Nora is staring intently at this device and it makes a weird crackling noise. You hear this tinny distorted music coming out of it, followed by an unfamiliar voice.
Speaker 0 01:12:17 Hello and welcome to the evening news hosted by the VOC Volta broadcasting network. Our top story tonight security has dramatically increased around the Australian embassy in Volta, proper leaving folks wondering what's about to happen. Given the most recent military tensions, the emperor shares the populous. That all is well. And that there's nothing to worry about in other news, much coveted invites to the annual gala at the Voltaren museum of art. Not a fishing have started to roll out more on that at 11 you've been Leo make your way into the sitting room. And several heads turned back towards you. Eleanora has been sitting at a small side table with your uncle, Erin pouring excitedly over a blueprint and chatting with him about it. She whips her head to the side as you to walk in and her eyes get very big, oh God, what are you doing out of bed?
Speaker 0 01:13:21 You need to sit down ravine who has up until this point. Been very causally cuddled on a love seat with Verity stands up, walks over, grabs Leo by his shoulder and shakes him a little bit. Okay. You're alive. Good to see that you should not be up. Right right now, Leo still leaning against you for support shifts, a little uncomfortably and goes I'm okay. I'm fine. I just wanted to come check in on whole of you Zed up until this point has been sitting pretty silently on a large sofa in front of a big fireplace in the sitting room and kind just reaches down next to him and lifts up the edge of a big cozy looking knitted blanket. It's all good boss. Everybody's home. Adrian got the security system up. We're all caught up on what's going on. LARCs. Been trying to catch us up on this audio drama that they're listening to, where somebody's Siebel twin just came back from the dead. You can take a load off feet. You were close enough to this couch, that Leo is able to brace his hand against the back of it. Sit down and take the blanket that said is offering and wrap it around. The two of them. He immediately relaxes.
Speaker 1 01:14:54 As soon as he pulled away, he kind of wraps her arms around herself and leans back away from everybody. Our Sabina and the captain there.
Speaker 0 01:15:03 Sabine is pouring over the various bookshelves in the sitting room. Occasionally leaning down over the side of a sofa to whisper a question to ATRA and then standing back up, going back through them, multiple volumes on the shelves. You have no idea where the captain is.
Speaker 1 01:15:25 She's going to clear her throat still kind of leaning away from everybody. Given how upsetting today has been. Has anybody seen my boyfriend
Speaker 0 01:15:37 Sabine freezes halfway through pulling a volume off of this bookshelf and does not make eye contact with you? Well, shortly after our conversation in the dining room, he mentioned that he needed to get some air. I would check the front yard or the backyard when things get this rough, he likes to have the sky over him.
Speaker 1 01:16:02 Right? I'll do that. Feed is not look at her. She's just going to head outside and try to find the captain.
Speaker 0 01:16:16 The captain is in the backyard, just laying flat on his back in the grass with a long stemmed pipe in his hand that he has repeatedly lighting and taking deep drags off of you come out the back door and see that he is staring up at a very thin sliver of visible night's sky up over your heads, kind of half shadowed by the caldera of this big volcano that Boulder is built inside of. And he just kind of shrugs laughs and goes good to see you loss. Beautiful night, we got far ahead. Look at all those stars.
Speaker 1 01:17:06 He's going to sit down next to him and she's to say, I can't be in this house any longer. And I just thought of a really, really stupid idea and I need backup.
Speaker 0 01:17:21 He leans forward enough to perch himself on his elbows and looks over a year. That's stupid idea. You said,
Speaker 1 01:17:30 Well not to flatter myself over much, but if it works, it'll be pretty smart.
Speaker 0 01:17:45 It strikes me. I have some things to apologize for last.
Speaker 1 01:17:51 He pulls her needs very close to her chest and distracts her arm around them.
Speaker 2 01:17:57 Oh,
Speaker 0 01:18:00 Sabina and I were wrong and to count, apologize for her, but I shouldn't have tried to hold you back, especially not when I know that at the end of the day, nothing and no one can.
Speaker 2 01:18:16 It's
Speaker 0 01:18:17 Like trying to hold back a star. And it's what made me fall in love with you in the first place. I had a moment to cowardice. I should have been by your side instead of trying to keep you by mine. And it won't happen again. All I ask is that if you're thinking of doing something stupid and dangerous, take me with you
Speaker 1 01:18:46 By all means captain. And he's gonna get to her feet, brush grass off of her skirt and hold a hand out, Joe.
Speaker 0 01:18:56 He takes her hand without hesitation. There's a good loss. Let's go caused some problems.
Speaker 1 01:19:09 So Leo, you are back in the fitting room, all those quiet for a while, you are comfortable enough to almost start drifting back into your trans, just cuddle up against that side. He's rubbing your back with one hand and holding onto one of yours with the other. Your aunt Nora is listening to the news. She's got her finger steepled in front of her mouth and her elbows propped up on her knees Eleanora, and your uncle are still pouring over various plans for buildings that he's worked on. Eleanor is having the time of her fucking life. LARC being board offers to dive verities hair after a minute and Verity having very little impulse control says yes, and the two of them retreat to the back of the sitting room. You can smell the hair dye. It's gross. Verity, I think pipes up. Why does this smell weird? Lark busily painting her hair. Bubblegum pink says nobody really knows, but it's all part of the process. And Verde just goes, okay. I guess ravine, who has been abandoned on the love seat by his girlfriend walks over to a chess table. That's pushed up under the window and he, and Aira they start going out a game, very spiritedly Lorelei wonders. And after a minute, and just kind of sits on an armchair by herself.
Speaker 0 01:20:44 Leo is going to curl his legs up and pat at the end of the sofa, looking at Lorelei
Speaker 1 01:20:52 Roll persuasion with advantage
Speaker 0 01:20:57 Dirty 20
Speaker 1 01:21:00 Lorelei hesitates shoots a kind of perturbed look at Zed who is just ignoring her. And then she hops up from her armchair, crosses the room and settles down at the end of the sofa next to you.
Speaker 0 01:21:18 Leo wraps one arm around her shoulders and then leans back into said's chest.
Speaker 1 01:21:26 You're all shelling out there for a while. Silica is talking to ATRA about some thing that she has artifacts into her chair. You're not really sure what's going on there. You get the impression that Adrian has tricked out her chair quite a bit. And silica is mind boggled by some of the additions and would like to know more Sabine is kind of still standing by your uncle's bookshelves. She looks awkward and out of place and a little bit upset. You're relaxing. They're almost long enough to fall back into your trance and then Sabine kind of pipes up. Should someone go check on fi and the captain? I don't think. And then she kind of sucks her teeth and grimaces. I don't think either of them would particularly like it. If I did that right now,
Speaker 0 01:22:24 I mean, I could, um, yeah said you want to help me get out there
Speaker 1 01:22:33 Zed from where you're leaning against his chest says, uh, how about no, I'll handle it. You stay laying down. And then he kind of ever so gently extricate himself out from under you and just lays you down on the couch. And he's starting to head out of the sitting room when from the radio that your aunt Nora is listening to, you hear a clatter and a smashing sound and the sound of the newscaster yelling. What the hell do you think you're doing? And then you hear a very familiar voice say, all right, gentlemen, stand up against the wall. No one has to get hired
Speaker 0 01:23:22 From the couch. Leo looks very pointedly over at Sabine.
Speaker 1 01:23:28 Sabine has whipped around to stare at where this noise is coming from in a horror.
Speaker 0 01:23:36 I said, I'm going to recommend you get over here and hold me because if you don't, I'm going to go absolutely off the shits.
Speaker 1 01:23:47 Barack has gone completely still in favor of staring at where the sound is coming from with their mouth agape, but Verity pipes up from where she's getting her hair dyed. Wait, why is the captain on the news? Did I miss something? And from this artificer contraption, you hear your sister's voice. Say, sorry, everyone, this won't take long. I just have a few things to say,
Speaker 0 01:24:18 Leo reaches down and grips at zits forearms so hard that his fingernails might actually draw blood. He's very sorry about this
Speaker 1 01:24:29 Zed Wentz's but he has come over to hold you. And he is just also staring from behind you. Subi under starts monitoring son of a bitch, son of a bitch, son of bitch, YouTube. And from this contraption, your sister audibly leans closer to wherever her voice is being transmitted from and says a quick message to the residents of Boulder and especially to any Assurion immigrants affected by the outrageous embargoes and downright actions, war that have been committed by the Assurion crown in the past year. I am grand Duchess Ferrara, Val sine I and my brother, Larry are both alive and well. And I will not sit idly by, as my name is turned into a war cry. And if he's listening, I have a message for my father on behalf of both of your children, your move,
Speaker 0 01:25:46 Leo reaches down and cribs super hard at says hand,
Speaker 1 01:25:52 God
Speaker 0 01:25:53 Fucking dammit, fate. And that's where we're going to wrap this week. Welcome to season three, everybody.
Speaker 5 01:26:14 Aren't you tired of being
Speaker 6 01:26:15 Nice. Don't you just want to go ape shit.
Speaker 0 01:26:19 Yeah. That's the working title for the season. We'll see more of it next time
Speaker 6 01:26:24 On compelled dual
Speaker 0 01:26:39 Hey everybody Barry here, but the postscript just clearing up a couple of housekeeping things here at the end of the episode. Welcome to the third and final season of our first campaign. Everybody as always, I'm going to go ahead and plug our social medias. You can find us on Twitter, Tumblr and Tik TOK at compelled duel. We also have lots of other cool stuff going on and official Spotify profile and official website. You can find all of those things linked on our various social media profiles. If you're interested in supporting the podcast, we ask that you head on over to patrion.com/capell dual and take a look at some of our patron rewards. These include things like early access to episodes, access to bonus content, access to exclusive Playlist's on the Spotify account and even handwritten wax sealed letters from your favorite character every month. A special thank you to our newest patron. Hannah Jones. Thank you so much for your support.
Speaker 0 01:27:34 And if you are interested in supporting the podcast in ways, other than pledging to our Patrion, we ask that you consider leaving us a rating and a review. If you're listening to us on apple podcasts, since that helps get the show promoted to a wider audience, we do host a weekly Q and a show on our YouTube channel, where we talk about the latest episode and answer your questions. So we would love to see you hanging out for that. Just go subscribe to us on YouTube. If you search compelled dual, we should be the first one that pops up. And as always, if you're liking what you're hearing on the podcast we ask that you just tell a couple of friends about it. Word of mouth advertising is so, so, so important to us, and it's the best thing we've got going for us. So if you like it, tell a friend if they like it, ask them to tell a friend as well. Our next episode is going to be going live on Friday, December 24th, 2021. Or if you are a member of our Patrion, you'll be getting your early access on Thursday, December 23rd. Happy holidays, everybody. And we will see you next.
