Dimension 20 (2018-…): Season 19, Episode 2 - The Scattered Mind - full transcript

In the wake of the freeway collapse, the PIs seek answers.

(cool opening noir music)

- Hello, one and all!

Welcome back to another thrilling episode

of "Dimension 20: Mentopolis."
(fun, jazzy music)

I am your humble GM, Brennan Lee Mulligan.

With me, as always,
are our Prefrontal PIs.

Say hi, Prefrontal PIs.
- [Everyone] Hi, Prefrontal PIs!

- I'm going to be able to
say it right eventually.

- Here are Unique New Yorkers.

(group laughing)

- But the cacophony, it rubs the edges



off of it all, so it all sounds-

- Especially the part where
Freddie doesn't even do it.

- Listen, I know that there's
a guy sitting over there.

He's trying to mix the audio.

I'm going to make his life

just a little easier.
- Wow, charitable.

You're a good person.

- There's a way we all
get through Auld Lang Syne

every New Year, it's
just by kind of mumbling.

(all beautifully mumbling their
way through Auld Land Syne)

(all beautifully mumbling their
way through Auld Land Syne)

[everyone] ♪ to mind ♪

- Speaking of mind, welcome
back to Mentopolis, folks.

Last we left off, our
wonderful investigators



had just watched a section
of a synaptic highway

crumble and fall, crushing
the car underneath

just in time to save the
life of Conrad Schintz,

our newsie at the center
of a lot of hubbub

in a busy and dangerous town.

That's right, folks,
we're back in Mentopolis,

the mind of the big guy, AKA
Elias Hodge, a junior scientist

who we have not met and
will probably never meet,

because we are him and he is us!

(Siobhan and Trapp making
sounds of mock horror)

In our inaugural episode last week,
(fun percussion music)

we met Conrad Schintz, the conscience.

We met Anastasia "A"
Tension, the attention.

We met Detective Hunch
Curio, AKA curiosity.

Imelda Pulse, or impulse.

Danny Fucks, the pleasure
center of the brain.

- [Danielle] It never gets old!
- Hits every time, baby.

- You did this.

(group laughing)

You did this.

And of course, The Fix, AKA hyperfixation.

All of these people came together

in the limbic system of the brain

down near the red light district

where they met up at Sugah's Speakeasy.

A bunch of events surrounded our arrival,

a murder of one Mr. Norrell Ojiccle

at the Cerebell Pacific
Telecommunications Company

and a shattered Synaptic Switchboard

that was found by A.
Tension working her beat.

We saw a hiring of one Detective
Hunch Curio by Imelda Pulse

We saw a hiring of one Detective
Hunch Curio by Imelda Pulse

to find the kid who had led her

to a sort of mild kleptomaniacal impulse

just to grab a packet of
papers, but one that seems

to have way more consequences
that anticipated,

all leading to the pleasure
center of the brain

as The Fix, a sort of muscle for hire

used by some of the
bigwigs here in Mentopolis,

to get rid of anything
distracting from the goal at hand.

Strange things are afoot in the city.

A murder, as well as a sudden
shattering of a highway.

The cords are down, and
some strange thing's afoot

with a packet stolen by a
sudden impulse and a key,

a key that can allow some heroes

here in Mentopolis to speak
directly to the big guy himself.

We come back now in this
moment of sudden chaos.

Conrad, you hit the
bricks, and as you do so,

what do any of you do in this moment

as you all sort of surged out
of the speakeasy together?

- I feel like Dan Fucks is
looking back at his club

and being like, is the roof-

I just got repairs!

I want to check the
integrity of my club, please.

- [Brennan] Give me a snoop check.

- [Freddie] Seven plus two, nine.
- You look around.

Most of the damage was
caused by the horde of cops

that came in here earlier
and stole all your shit,

but on a nine snoop,

looking at this very small,
kind of dingy building,

you look around and see

all these boarded up spaces around here.

You could have a marquee.

There's that old theater
that got boarded up.

So you're just sort of looking

at all the rain and water
damage from these places

that used to be full blown
pleasure centers in the brain

that are now all boarded up.

- This neighborhood sucks now!

(Brennan laughing)

- There is a smashed car
with Conrad in it, right?

I feel like Detective
Hunch rushes toward the car

and takes a look inside.
- [Brennan] Hell yeah.

Go ahead and give me a snap snoop check.

- A snap snoop?
- [Brennan] A snap snoop.

- Okay.

That is an eight plus one for nine.

- You recognize two of the
crushed goons within the car

as being enforcers of the Avaricci family.

- It's the Avaricci family.
- Oh god.

- Which has been sort of running-

- What was it about their taste?
(squelching noise)

- I'd know that taste anywhere.

That's Avaricci for sure,
(more squelching)

and it's fresh. - [Brennan]
All of you watch this detective

just drinking blood.

(players laughing)

- Yeah, for sure.

(players laughing)

- You want to have a little more?

- I just had be sure.
(even more squelching)

Yeah, that's Avaricci.
(players laughing)

- Conrad, someone just tried to kill you,

and I think that something's
not adding up here.

You are, to your estimation,
(typewriter clacking, stamp)

a street urchin vagabond newsie kid.

The idea that a group of adult gangsters

would've been looking to do
harm to you is not something

you experience normally,
very out of the ordinary.

- I don't usually ask for help, but...

Do any of you know what's happening?

- Can I... approach?

- [Brennan] Yeah, absolutely.

- Trying to be non-threatening,
which is difficult for me.

- Conrad (laughing) screams.

(group laughing)

- Probably the right call, honestly.

- Help, help!
- Conrad, get behind me!

(Brennan laughing)

- As he screams, I attempt
to steal the child.

- [Trapp] I pick up
the closest thing to me

and throw it at The Fix.

(players laughing)

- So I try and bat the thing away.
(tense battle music)

- [Brennan] Incredible, so
go ahead. You give me sharp.

- Okay.
- [Brennan] And you give me sturdy

as Hunch throws something at you.

- That is a six. But a not exploding six.

- That's eight.

- Okay, two coming your way.

(players laughing lightly)

- This guy is rich in failure.
- Cling cling.

- So you bat it out of the way.

Go ahead and give me a sharp
opposed by a sturdy here.

- Sturdy.

(tense music)

- Okay.
- Five.

- Eight.
- Can I give Moxie to Conrad?

- You can give Moxie to Conrad.
- I swear, I'm a good-

a good guy, probably.
- Can I dive in front of...

- Yeah, absolutely.
If you want to give three Moxie-

- I'm going to burn three Moxie to dive.

- Wait I want to give Moxie to...
(group laughing)

I can do this, right?
- Yeah, you can abs-

Arms race, full arms race.

- He has so many, don't.

- I can't go against that arsenal.

- After chucking, he bats it away,

and I dive in front of Conrad
and be like, leave him alone!

- So Fix, you go with
a hand towards Conrad,

and the detective jumps in your path,

and you are blocked for a
moment from accessing the child.

and you are blocked for a
moment from accessing the child.

In this moment, do you
continue to try to barrel past

or overpower the detective,
or is there a moment

where this sudden interference
changes your tactics?

- It changes my- Now I'm
interfacing with him.

And I'm like, sir, I'm
trying to help things here.

You do not know what's going on.

I need to protect this child.

- That's right, I don't
know what's going on,

and I want to know what's going on!

- Well, I'm not going to
tell you what's going on,

and you're not going to make me talk!

- Well, I'm fixing for you
to tell me what's going on.

(aggressively saying "Look
at you!" back and forth)

- I'm looking at you!
- You guy are best friends.

(players laughing)

- Meanwhile, A. Tension
is just taking notes.

Look at you, look at you.
No, look at you, look at you.

- C- Conrad tries to sneak away again.
- [Trapp] Goddammit!

- There's always so much banter.

(group laughing)

- That's great sneaking times.

- [Brennan] Incredible, go
ahead and give me a sneak roll.

- Every time I take my
eyes off this fucking kid.

- It's a two plus two, four.

Do I add the escape artist every time?

- Yeah, that can be a seven there.

So I think on a seven, you
don't manage to get away,

but you kind of duck out
in a shadow of the car

under the rubble for a second.

Justin the dog looks up
at you and just goes,

protect him from what?

- [Hank] You seem like a very smart dog.

(Brennan barks)

- But I haven't figured it out myself yet,

and I do not want to tell you.

- Oh, well, I'll do anything to stop you.

(players laughing)

- Yeah, this dog and I,
we're on the same page.

If you're not going to
give me information-

- Everybody here is on the same page,

you idiots!
- What? I don't think that's right!

- I'm actually one page ahead.

I've been taking notes while
everyone else has been talking.

- You see that Justin looks up and says,

if you don't have a reason
for stealing my friend,

wherever he is,

(players laughing lightly)

then I'll bite you over and over again

until either I'm dead or you're dead.

- The Fix raises his hand and
says, as far as I can tell,

dogs don't get hurt in this show.

(players laughing)

- You see Justin sort of (barks) laughs

and you see a little, has
his name on it, collar,

and you see the first name Justin

and the last name Fication.

So you see something about you saying

that you didn't have a reason
for doing what you were doing

has deeply angered
(players laughing)

this little rationalization hound

who just goes like,

well, all right, good.

And says, Conrad? You around here?

- Yeah, I'm right here.

Conrad steps out from a trash can

that's the exact same height as him.

(players laughing)

- Justin looks over and says, well,

me and Justin have been together

ever since he adopted me and took me in

outside of Madam Loathing's
Home for Wayward Interests.

- That's right, just
babies adopting babies.

(players laughing)

- You're best friend.
- You're my best friend!

(players laughing)

- It sounds sad when they say
it, even though it's so happy.

- You gotta say it like it's
the last thing you'll ever say.

- 'Cause it always could be.
- It could be!

(players laughing)

- Here's my thing, I kind of
just want a couple minutes

where no one's trying to beat
the shit or capture this kid,

because it seems like he's important.

- That's right, Conrad.
You have explaining to do.

- I'll tell you everything I
know, but it's not that much.

- Out with it, then!

- All right, well,

(dramatic piano music)

the big guy makes a lot of,

not so good decisions sometimes and...

I haven't spoken up in a long, long time,

and this is the first time
that anyone has done anything

about what I think about things,

and that was you telling
him to take that packet.

And now, is this all my fault?

Is all this happening because of me?

- Assuredly so!

- I'm pretty sure it's your fault.

- Oh no!

- Don't worry. Hey,
everyone (barking) back off!

(players laughing)

You see Justin sort of
steps out a little bit

and looks up at Conrad and says,

Madam Loathing thought Conrad
was just another interest,

but Conrad's a lot more than an interest.

Conrad's a...

Conrad's the big guy's
conscience, and by all rights,

Conrad should've grown up a long time ago,

should be up there in City
Hall, not hiding with me

in the rubble and the rain,
selling newspapers to get by.

- I don't mind it.

- Child conscience is underachiever.

- That's an extremely slanted way-

- This is what I'm talking about.

It's never the clear
story with Tension here.

- I was paying attention
while you were too busy

getting beat up and shot around.

- At least I was doing something.

- You're always doing something!

You have to stop doing things.

Local PI needs to stop doing things.
(writing sounds)

- That'll sell papers.

- She really does have
it out for you, huh?

- She does!
- [Siobhan] I didn't believe it, but-

- You see Justin looks over
at Conrad and just goes,

- You see Justin looks over
at Conrad and just goes,

look, Conrad's been wrapping newspapers

in the sort of buried
stories for a long time,

the stories that they don't like to run

or they don't think about running.

You're a reporter for that paper.

Don't you think it's funny how much they

run front page stories
about things that, you know,

maybe matter today or
something that, you know,

it's always something really urgent

and there's something that's
got to happen right now.

But big picture, it's like things

get swept under the
rug that really matter.

- I've written stories about snot removal.

I've written stories, beautiful stories,

about the ashiness of elbows,
and yet one of my best stories

and one of my favorite stories,

was a story that I once
wrote about a lovely woman

who worked at the coffee shop next door.

She smiled at us one day. It was nice.

And instead,

on the front page,

Dandruff!

- I think everyone here remembers,

I'm not sure how many people
here read the Daily Observer,

but I feel like Dan, you-

- Oh, yeah yeah yeah.

That was like the highlight of the year.

It was like, oh,

we're finally going to
get the oxytocin in here!

(Brennan laughing)

Just need one hug!

(Brennan laughing)

We'll be rich!

- We could've been flying high
on that hug for a generation.

- That hug would've
powered us for a lifetime!

(Freddie and Brennan laughing)

- So I think that listening to that,

the fact that Freddy
decided to go with dandruff,

you see even Justin goes
like, yeah, that dandruff

was the reason that the big
guy didn't say anything.

- And that's when we decided
to move to Head and Shoulders.

It was very important.

(players laughing)

And when he stopped wearing black shirts,

coincidentally enough.

(players laughing)

- Justin looks over at
you, Conrad, and says,

do you think we should
tell them why the...

What we think the problem
is with the big guy?

- It sounds like you want to, so.

- I don't want to do it if
you don't want to do it.

(players laughing)

I'll bite- I'll kill this guy.
- I have to know now, okay?

You tease it out like
that, I just have to know.

- I know I'm not supposed to
want you to kill everybody,

but part of me wants to know
what that would be like.

Anyway-
- You get it, kid.

- I'm the only part of this
guy that's not kind of human.

(players laughing)

- Okay, I'll tell 'em.

So our big guy, he works for
a pharmaceutical company.

We all know that, right?

They're working on some technology

that just, it shouldn't be worked on.

Something about mind reading.

- Oh no.

- You shouldn't be allowed to do that.

(tense, serious music)

- There's a lot of things
Conrad started to put together

from the newspapers.

Not any one story, mind
you, but Conrad sells them

all day, every day,
sees them all the time.

It's just, some of the things
that the big guy's bosses

out there, out in the real world,

some of the things they're
saying don't add up.

They're asking for bits of research

certain deadlines getting moved up,

things like that that just...

Elias Hodge is not getting the full story,

and that packet,

that's all of the things
we've been working on.

And once that goes, then it's
out of his hands forever.

Our hands forever.

Our paws forever. I'm a dog.

- Yeah, we know.
- Yeah.

Just reminding. I can talk,

and sometimes that scrambles people up.

- Sure, yeah.

- Man, so I should've not
had him just take the packet,

but maybe burn the packet and leave town

and change his name, and maybe get bangs.

(players laughing)

- You can do all that?

- Oh, all kinds of things.

- What'd you have him do with the packet?

- I just took it, put it in his bag,

left for the day.

- I'll say at this point that
you actually see some sirens

coming up way up above you
to that collapsed highway,

so the fuzz has already
gotten up to see the damage,

and you hear a bullhorn up there saying,

Mayor Logic has declared
a state of emergency!

State of emergency, as the
Synaptic Switchboard is down.

We are expecting repairs in short order.

Do not panic. All is well.

The eyes are closed.

No visual information needed
until repairs are completed.

No visual information needed
until repairs are completed.

- It's freezing and it's
dark and it's raining.

Let's go to a coffee shop or something?

This is awful out here.
I don't want to be here.

- You are out on the street,

and it's possible for the
fuzz to find you here.

- Yeah, I'm up with that.

Get a good cup of mud.

- [Brennan] Flickering-
- We have glossaries.

(players laughing)

- Thank you, Carlos, for the glossaries.

Flickering under the warm neon light,

(soft noir music)

you arrive at an old all-night diner.

You see a warm yet older-looking,

very serene soda jerk

behind the counter
filling coffee for people,

moving around, serving people.

You see a giant neon Nostalgia's
(neon flickering)

flickering as the name of the diner.

As you guys crowd into here

to get out of sight, out of the way-

- I notice that Anastasia is
maybe wanting to talk to me,

and I say, you know, I think
I need to powder my nose.

Anastasia?

- Yes, I will also go with
you to powder your nose.

(Brennan laughing)
(typewriter clacking)

- You both step into the
restroom of the diner

to powder your nose.

- What do you want from me, huh?

- I want to know, where
did you use that key?

- The same place we always
use the keys, Anastasia.

Have you forgotten so much?

- I do not use the keys anymore.

I do not think that it
is fair that we are able

to have so much power over the big guy.

- Oh sure,

oh sure.
- I have stopped using the keys,

but confidentiality,

I noticed at the site of the explosion

I noticed at the site of the explosion

that there was a huge, destroyed keyhole.

that there was a huge, destroyed keyhole.

- Well, that wasn't me. I
don't know what to tell you.

- Are you sure?

Because it definitely seems
like something you would do.

Which is put a key into a keyhole

and then watch it explode for fun.

- Yes, absolutely, that
does sound like me.

(players laughing)

I can't fault you on that. You're correct.

You paid attention to the way
that I behave, good for you.

(players snicker)

- I'm going to try to listen at the door.

I think the fact that Tension-
- [Hank] That's great.

- Tension and my client
have both left for a while.

It's like, this is too,

I gotta hear what's going on here.

- Give me a snoop check,

and I'll say each of you
can give me a sneak check,

but we'll take the lower of the two

because you're having
a heated conversation.

- Oh boy.
- [Danielle] Okay.

- [Hank] Disadvantage.
- Disadvantage. There you go.

- I got a five sneak?

(Trapp laughing)

- So I've got a nine plus
♪ two, ♪ so I've got 11.

- [Brennan] 11. So we got
a 5 sneak here, and what-

- Now, I rolled a one,

(players laughing)

and I'm going to burn
all four of my Moxie.

(players laughing)

- There it is.

So you hear this conversation

about an exploded keyhole.

- Sorry, hold on, that was plus one,

so I'll burn three of the Moxie.

- [Brennan] Gotcha, cool cool cool.

So you hear that entire discussion.

- Cool.
- Meanwhile, Dan Fucks, (laughing) Conrad,

Conrad Schintz, and The
Fix are just at the booth.

- Fix, what are you having?

- Can I get a chair? I
don't fit in the booth.

(players laughing)

- You see that the soda
jerk looks over and says,

hey there pal, you like
a chair to sit down in?

- Yeah.

- That's all right, mister.

We can get you a chair right now.

What was your favorite chair growing up?

(players laughing)

Your favorite chair?

- I think it was...

I've always been this size,
but I used to be younger,

but still this size, so my favorite chair

was the one chair that didn't break.

It was called...

Albert.

- Oh.
- I called it Albert.

- You called it Albert.

- Yeah, that's sort of the
noise it made when I sat on it.

Albert!

- This beautiful green
recliner BarcaLounger chair

thumps in front of you,
wooden clawfoot legs.

- Albert!

- You take a seat in it. (creaking
in the sound of "albert")

(players laughing)

As the gears kind of
swivel it in a little bit.

The guy says, holy shit,

it really says Albert when you sit in it.

I thought that was going to
be sort of a whimsical thing,

but it really sounds

much like a person saying Albert.
- Like a human voice.

- The Fix's eyes are a little bit misty.

- You see he pats you
and says, don't worry.

Here at Nostalgia's, it's
always just like it used to be,

and actually ever so slightly better.

- That's a good chair.

I'd like to apologize
for trying to steal you.

I do have some explaining
to do, but I'm going to

wait until those ladies
and that really creepy man

listening at the ladies'
room door get back.

(Brennan laughing)

- You see a regular of Daniel Fucks' club

comes up to the door and says,

we're doing some bathroom door listening!

- It's not like that, man.

- Oh, all right. What's
your name, pal? (spits)

- Don't touch me! Don't
fucking talk to me!

- Come on, take my hand!
- I've never done that before.

I take the spitty hand. It's
weird, I don't like that.

I don't think I'm going to do that again.

(players laughing)

- So the two of you continue

to have your conversation
in the powder room.

- I'm concerned that if
you did not use the key...

- Well, I used the key. I
just didn't break the keyhole.

- Well then, who has other keys?

- Well, I don't know, but if it's broken,

then maybe they didn't use a key.

Maybe they had to break it to use it.

Did you ever think of that?

That seems like a thing
that I would also do.

But again, I did not.
I used the proper key.

(curious twinkling music)

- I think here, you also remember

that evidence cart that went away.

There's beginning to
be a lot of loose ends,

both back at the crime
scene, that evidence cart,

and also the fact that
you know that other people

in the family had keys as well, right?
- Yeah.

- [Brennan] So.
- Do we have...

I don't, I don't think,
but do we have an idea

of the kinds of folks who would have keys,

or is it not a known thing.

- Immanuel and Imogen Pulse both,

which are Imelda's mother and father,

would likely both have keys.

But it's possible that there are others.

That's just, the Pulse
Family is incredibly

notable and wealthy, but
it's possible there's others.

But the main thing you would probably know

is that most of the
people who run the city

wouldn't need a key,

because the governmental
bodies they are in charge of

are what actually theoretically
makes all the decisions.

The keys are like a backdoor,
and probably, you would know,

can't be used to do big, complex things.

Imelda couldn't execute a 20 part plan

through impulse, right?

But it's like, I can get you
to do one quick thing, right?

So you would know all of that information.

- That was also not the only problem.

There was what appeared to be

many files and packages and things

that were suddenly whisked
away from the crime scene.

- Well, I don't know
anything about a crime scene,

and I don't know about anything

being whisked away from anywhere.

- You're telling me
you don't know anything

about something being whisked away?

- I'm not a whisker! I
don't whisk anything!

I've never whisked a thing in my life!

- You have been known to
whisk. I've seen you whisk.

- Oh fine, I'll whisk a
thing every now and again,

just for fun, but I've
never whisked evidence!

- (sigh) That is true, you
have never whisked evidence.

- And certainly not in
the last couple of days.

Maybe last week, a couple of months ago,

taking a piece of evidence here and there,

but not for any nefarious reasons!

Sometimes you just gotta take
a thing, you know what I mean?

I take one of the soaps
and put it in my pocket.

(group laughing)

- [Brennan] What's Hunch
doing outside the door?

- Hunch is going to
scurry back to the table

and take a close seat next to Conrad.

- Cool.

- Kind of lean over to
Conrad and sort of be like,

I don't know exactly what's going on yet.

- Why are you so close to me?

(players laughing)

- Because I think there's a lot of people

trying to kill you right now.

- Okay, and are you one of them?

- I am not one of them.

- Okay, well, that's what
the other people are saying.

- I can't argue with that logic.

That's pretty tight logic there.

But I will say, I did stop The Fix

from beating the crap out of you,

and I did stop Danny Fucks from
beating the crap out of you.

So if it's The Fix or the Fucks-

(players laughing)

- [Alex] All right, well.

- I don't know if that earns your trust,

but I just want to be
close to you right now

to make sure nothing else bad happens.

- I guess I appreciate it.

I mean, I'm at a table
with all three of you.

I'm just going to see how
it plays out, I guess.

- I think the two of you,
unless there's more to discuss,

emerge from the bathroom

and join your companions
at the table here.

- Im, I believe I heard sneaking.

We should go back to the table.

- I open,

the two of us are like-
- You just see a guy out there who says,

don't mind me, I'm just a pervert.

(group laughing)

- It's that guy with the spit on his hand!

(Brennan spitting)

- I'm the thought about just
this. Doing this all the time.

(laughing) And then runs off.

- What's his name?

- Some people are larger concepts,

and some of us are real specific!

(players laughing)

He runs away.

- (trailing off) You'll
never see me again!

(group laughing)

- That's what he yells
every time he flees.

(group laughing)

- I sort of, I kind of
like, just sort of like,

kind of put my hands down.

I go, okay. We got a lot
of things going on here.

The way I see it, someone,

I know from the taste of the blood,

the Avaricci, definitely
out to kill Conrad.

Conrad knows what's
going on with this file

that Imelda moved, so we have to assume

Avaricci did not want that file moved,

and that Conrad is going
to be helpful there.

We also have to assume that
these keys are important.

Now, either they were
trying to stop more people

from using the keys,

or they want to use the keys themselves.

In either case, I think
anyone who holds a key

is either at risk or is a threat,

and that sounds like something
I want to know more about.

- I think at this point, you also, Fix,

remember that when he starts talking

about a file and Conrad-
- Yeah.

- You remember, yeah, that
you have something similar.

- Now, I know a few of
you, and I won't say who.

- It's me. He knows me.

(Freddie laughing)

- I've done some work for some
of the people at this table,

and I like my work, and I don't
question my work, usually.

But I recently was given a reason to worry

for the first time in my career,

and I was just gonna do as I was told,

but something's not right here.

I know how to do my job,

but the district attorney, Mr. Bition,

he gave me a contract.
(tense string music)

Just something I do, I eliminate
distraction for this mind.

We could not function as a
society without that work.

So I'm proud of it, and I like it.

But he gave me a contract
for something to eliminate.

He pulls it out, he puts it on the table,

and it says Conrad... Schintz.

- About damn time!

- Oh no, help! Help!

(Alex screaming "help!"
repeatedly while Brennan barks)

(players laughing)

- I pick up the file and I
say, this says Conrad Schintz!

(players laughing)

- I do want you all to
know that if I wanted to,

I could kill any one of you quite quickly.

Now, all you at once would
be a little bit tricky,

but I probably could pull it off.

There is something too
weird going on here,

and it's not just that I
was told to kill a child,

which I have never been told to do before.

- Never?
- No, actually.

- I just wanted to-

- You know, I mostly
think y'all are quite fun.

Good folk, children.

- Children. Ah, the
innocent babes. Good folk.

- [Hank] Good folk!

- On behalf of children, thank you.

(players laughing)

- I appreciate your appreciation.

(Freddie laughing)

But I have to say, I
do not know what to do

when I'm not being told what to do,

so I'm maybe going to be looking
to y'all for some of that.

- Conrad, give me a snoop
check, difficulty of four.

- Three, but I'll burn a Moxie.

- Hell yeah.

You notice, as The Fix is speaking,

and I think you've probably heard,

you've never seen The Fix before,

but you've heard ghost
stories about this guy.

There's a lot of dangerous gangster types

who wander the mind,

and this dude's got arms down
to the middle of his shins

and is a hulking trapezoid gorilla

and is a hulking trapezoid gorilla

who just wanders around
the shadows of Mentopolis

murdering distractions.

But I think that on that snoop check,

you see him sort of stopped in his tracks.

He said, I changed my mind. I
thought something was weird.

and I think for the first
time in a long time,

as sad or depressed as Conrad often is,

that you recognize

that the thing that stopped

him has something to do with you.

You look and realize that the
first thing that affected him

was your name and face on this portrait

and, you know, there's some power.

This guy wanders around the
brain killing distractions.

Imelda can actually speak
to the big guy upstairs,

and I think there's a moment
on that four snoop check

where you are aware that
you were able to interrupt

where you are aware that
you were able to interrupt

another cognitive function.

Something about you
specifically was able to make

some other thing, that normally
the grownups in Mentopolis

are just hustling and
bustling and never stoppable

and always just doing what
they were always going to do

mindlessly and with no
awareness about the consequences

of what they're doing,
but something about you

made one of these adult functions stop.

- Whoa.

You're not going to hurt me?

- You know, the tails on
a swallowtail butterfly

don't serve any aerodynamic purpose.

(Brennan laughing)

- I feel very threatened all of a sudden.

(players laughing)

- They're there because birds
need something to grab onto

when they're trying to kill a butterfly,

and they are designed to
capture the attention of a bird.

And that bird will grab onto that tail,

and it will break off.
(Brennan barks)

And the butterfly will be free.

That is how I imagine my work sometimes.

Some things have to go.

I do not think that you

are the tail of a swallowtail butterfly.

I think you might be the butterfly.

- I only,

I only caught half of that.

(players laughing)

- You see Justin looks and says,

I'll tell you anything you want to know.

(group laughing)

You see the soda jerk comes
back over and serves you guys

any drinks you've ordered
up 'til that point.

- It's just syrup. Just pancake syrup.
(players laughing)

- You just want a full
pint glass of grenadine?

- Yes. No, pancake syrup. No pancakes.

- I'll take a full glass of grenadine.

(Brennan laughing)

- I do love the syrup.

- He says, pancake syrup? So, maple.

You're saying pancake syrup.

Do you mean maple syrup, or do you mean-

- I am unaware of this distinction.

I just want the syrup.
The sweet stuff, baby.

Pour it down my threat.

- See, we only serve
things here at Nostalgia's

that you have a love of from a long-

Did you-

Is there a me-

You see, weirdly, a memory
comes up of Elias Hodge

hiding in a pantry, just
guzzling a full thing

of syrup.
- Just full on, yeah yeah yeah.

- And just burping and
screaming and crying (laughing).

- Cut to him outside
running as hard as he can

full sprint in a circle.

Ah, those were the days!

Carefree youth!

- All of you are these synaptic beings

that can kind of light
up rooms that you're in.

Dan just lights up, and
you see the first image

in the reflection of the diner window
(sound of light humming)

of a little kid's hand grabbing a stick,

and the whole diner lights up

with a feeling of, oh,
that's a good stick!

- That's a good stick!
- I found a good stick!

- Heavy, good weight to it.

(Brennan laughing)

- Deep, profound pleasure.
This fucking stick rules!

And (whoosh) the light
diminishes once again.

- What are you all having?

- I'll have a cup of coffee grounds.

(players laughing lightly)

- Justin goes, what?

(players laughing)

The soda jerk says, you don't want coffee?

You want the grounds?

- Yeah, just the grounds. Whatever's left.

- That's so thoughtful in a way

that I can't bear to think about.

(players laughing)

Okay, I'm going to go get you
real food. How's that sound?

You've inspired me to want to help you.

- Okay, well, I didn't ask
for that, but (laughing)

- No, but yeah, I don't want to offend yo-

(stammering)

He walks away, totally confu-
(players laughing)

(stammering and laughing)

Con Schintz has left this
guy in a state of panic

about what the right thing to do is.

Do I give the kid grounds?
And then walks away.

- Oh no, no one else got to order.

- Conrad, you fool!
(players laughing)

Look at what you've done!

You impudent child!

- All right, coffee grounds?

But I'll make something better than that.

- I will have a glass of
room temperature vodka.

(Alex laughing)

- Jesus Christ. Okay, yes, all right.

- Yeah, can I get the experience

of tasting a root beer
float for the first time?

- Ah. Points up at that exact
thing written big on the menu.

It's like the first thing.
- Yeah.

- Yeah. Yeah, we can do that.

That's exactly right.

- Don't you have anything new?

- (sighs) Look, Ms. Pulse,
(Hank laughing)

you come to Nostalgia's all the time!

We only serve things we already liked!

- Well, I don't know!

Maybe you'd be under new
management or something!

I'll have, what's the weirdest
thing I could mix together?

I'll, I'll get coffee and bacon,

and I'll mix them myself
if you don't want to.

- I'm not going to mix them.

What you do at the booth
is your own business,

and if you don't like
how we do things here,

may I recommend the place next door?

And you see there's a bizarre fusion place

called Novelty across the street.

- Oh, hell yeah!

- No, no! Nostalgia's better!

- But there's all kinds
of new stuff over there!

- Oh, to hell with all of you!

(group laughing)

And says, anything for you, sir?

- Just a calzone.

(Brennan and Alex laughing)

- Yeah, we got a calzone for
sure. We've had that before.

(players laughing)

It's going to be a little
bit of nicotine in there,

because it was that year
in college when, you know.

(players laughing)

So you guys all get served your food,

but Conrad is wanted by what we now know

to be the Avaricci
family, but also the DA.

So both ends of the
legal-criminal spectrum

So both ends of the
legal-criminal spectrum

are attempting to kill Conrad.

- Sure, and these are not people who

generally work together,
as far as we know.

- I also, it could be nothing,

just noticing that the
phone lines are down,

noticing that the eyes are closed.

Could be just, you know, a bad hangover.

Sometimes that happens,

to close down the phone lines.
- Sure.

- Could be, something's
pretty wrong with the big man.

I don't know how much time
we have to figure this out.

- So, I would like to use my
troublemaker stat, which is,

spend a Moxie to locate and
receive help within reason

and without making any stat
checks from a criminal network.

- Hell yeah.
- I want to get a sense of why did the,

what else is going on in the city?

What does the tendrils of
the criminal underworld

know is going on here?
- Hell yeah.

- Probably just by waving to someone.

The spit in the hand guy.
- The pervert.

(players laughing)

- So you see there's a guy
sitting on a fire hydrant.

He's taken his shoes off,

he's put his hat on the
ground in front of him,

and is just spitting into
his hand over and over again.

(spitting) Still good!

(group laughing)

He goes, oh shit! You'll
never see me again!

He looks out and says, oh hey there!

Danny Fucks, how's it going?
(smooth jazz music)

- Good, good. I wanted to
bend your ear a little bit.

- Well!

Don't threaten me with a good time.
- Do not touch-

- Yes, yes. Come a little bit
closer, whisper in there, yes.

- Ooh, do it (creepily laughing). Do it.

- The hell is going on
here? The freeway collapsed.

- Yeah, I saw that.

There's been a couple of
road closures around there.

I mean, I've been sort of
bebopping and skedaddling

all over this bitty burg here,

but I'll tell you one thing, buster.

These fuzz have been locking
down a bunch of the roadways,

the wires are down for a
while, and they closed the eyes

right after the road came down.

- Oh, so you're telling me that they,

that the orders came from
up top to close the eyes?

- Oh, Mayor Logic, that's for sure.
- Hm.

- But I'll tell you
something else sort of funny.

It all sort of st-

There was already some
trouble this morning.

You know, down at Oblongata Station?

- Yes.
- We had some trains come in

from the kidneys, of all
places, loaded top to bottom.

I'm not sure if you've seen,
a lot of the dopamine spots

around town are offering
specials on adrenaline shots.

City's absolutely flooded with it.

It's all I've been drinking all day.

- This explains a lot. Hm.

You all heard that.
You guys all hear that?

- Oh yeah, I listen
into every conversation.

- Me too.

- You hear that, Conrad, you little shit?

Look at all the shit storm you've caused!

- I don't know what that means!
(players laughing)

What are the messages from the kidneys?

- Sounds like maybe we
should go to the kidneys

and find out, straight to the source!

- I mean, it sounds to me like there was

a pretty severe fight or flight
response that was triggered.

Something, something spooked
the big guy pretty bad.

He's closing his eyes? He's
flooded with adrenaline?

The freeways are collapsing? This,

something bad has happened to the big guy.

- Out there?
- [Trapp] Out there.

- It's all my fault. I'm sorry, you guys.

- That's not going to be enough, Conrad!

- Okay, you're right.

- Back off, Fucks.

(players laughing)

- You like yelling at children
a little bit too much.

- I like yelling at this particular child

because he deserves it!

- You guys should know,
I kind of like it, too.

(group laughing)

- We have an adversarial relationship.

- Justin goes, that's
right. Conrad loves shame.

(players laughing)

- Yeah. (laughing)
- We know it-

You're my best friend.
- You're my best friend!

(players laughing)

- Now, the way I see it, this
is all tied to that file.

Seems like maybe we
make that file go away,

maybe a lot of these problems stop.

On the other hand, I'm a little
more interested in knowing

what's in the file and why all
these people are doing this,

so I don't know, we could
maybe, I don't know, Ms. Pulse?

Would you like to destroy the file?

- Well, I mean, if that's
what you think is right.

- Well, I mean, if that's
what you think is right.

But also, we could maybe...

get him to open it.

Sneak up to the eyes.
- Yes.

- See what's going on in there.

- Impulse has gotten us this far.

- That's pretty interesting.

Can I do a snoop check to see..

- You can do any snoop checks you want

to gain other information,

but I think also, Hunch, you're
feeling your nose twitching.

but I think also, Hunch, you're
feeling your nose twitching.

You're on the case again.

You can feel things
starting to come together.

The information that's coming around

is starting to really
have that feeling of, ooh,

this is not happenstance.

I'm onto something here.

So I'll also allow people, if
you want to make snoop checks

to get more information, that's great.

You can also make savvy checks
if you're interested in,

like you were talking about,
okay, can we go to the eyes?

Can we go to something else?

If you want to make a savvy check

to remember resources within Mentopolis

that you could avail yourself to,

that's also totally doable.

- Yeah I will definitely do that.

- I want to do a savvy
check to see if I could

convince the DA that I
have killed this child

without actually killing this child.

- Oh, okay, I'm going to call
that a DC eight savvy check.

- Okay.

Can I get my plus three,
because I'm defending a friend?

- (gasps) You have the

protector feature.
- [Alex and Danielle] Aww.

(group laughing)

- A gentle giant!
(players laughing)

- I love how scary we
designed your character to be,

and it so quickly, we're at
episode two, became the, aww!

(group laughing)

I swear to god, nothing
fans of actual play

love more than a murderer.

(group laughing)

It's like, he's a good murderer!

(group laughing)

- He's our giant killy wubby.
- [Brennan] Giant killy wubby!

Yes, you absolutely get the plus three.

- And you said it was eight?
- [Brennan] It was eight, yeah.

- Still not great. Ooh I did it!

Nine.

- Hell yes, so I think you
are aware that in the past,

because you can sometimes
just mist people,

occasionally you can bring trophies,

so you would need some kind of trophy

or something along those lines,

but if you can bring a
trophy that the DA would have

some reason to believe
genuinely was the kid's,

yeah, you could get away with it for sure.

- Can I ask you a question?
- (sad and scared) Okay.

(players laugh)

- Is there anything that
I could show someone

to make them think that I killed you?

- But you're not going
to actually kill me?

- No.

- Okay. Um...

I have this pair of ice skates.

- Where do you keep them?
- In my- In my house.

It's not really a house, but
it's where I live, by Sugah's.

It's not really a house, but
it's where I live, by Sugah's.

- Could I just bring
somebody there and say

this was your house, and
I swear I killed you?

- I guess so. You're not
going to kill me for real?

- I'm not going to kill you.

For real, I'm not going
to kill you. I'm a pretty

nice guy.
- I do a snoop check to see

if he's really not going to kill.

- You look at The Fix.

You get the sensation of,

The Fix seems to be the attitude of,

when I want to kill people,
it's something that happens.

- I think you'll know when
The Fix wants to kill you.

- Yeah, he called me a butterfly,

but I didn't pay attention
to the whole speech.

(players laughing lightly)

- So yeah, I think you are aware

that that would be proof
enough for most people.

- I also kind of want to see
what he thinks of that place.

- [Brennan] Yes.

- Maybe he would say something
that would be helpful.

- You're trying to bait the DA, Fix?

- I know him pretty well.

- In my experience, the DA is happy

to ignore things that
are inconvenient to him.

- That's kind of what I help with.

- There's a lot of other
stuff I keep there.

I kind of would like to be able

to still hang onto it, so can I...

I just want to tidy up the place first,

if you're going to go look at it.

(players laughing)

- Yeah, maybe we can go
check it out together.

- Okay.

- Detective Hunch is pretty curious

about what exactly is in
this file at this point.

(serious, curious music)

Are there memory banks I can access,

or any place where I
could get some more info

on what was actually in this file?

- Give me a savvy check.

We'll call it a difficulty
of four gives you basic,

and we'll say six gives you advanced.

- I got a seven on my savvy for that.

- Very cool. Okay, awesome.

So I think you would know, too.

There are a couple places of authority

that you would be able
to pretty easily access.

The main one is the official memory bank

that is located around Ammon's
Horn in the Hippo Campus.

That is the big university location,

and that is the home to

all of the big guy's
biographical memories.

All of the like,

this is where we keep the
story of this guy's life.

It's all right here.

So that's a great place to go
to access memory, and again,

Mentopolis is a wild place,

because there are these locations

that are associated with this stuff,

but there's always a chance
for things to go missing.

Memories go missing.

A lot of the brain's
functions are very diffused.

But I think for that type of memory,

the Hippo Campus is a great place to go.

They're a university,

and then if you want to roll a savvy here-

- Oh yeah.
- [Brennan] Yeah.

- Let's see, that's a
five plus one, so a six.

- Six. That's the advanced
information, great.

I think you are enough of a gumshoe

that there's two places for you to go.

So there's the central sort
of visual processing centers

that are in the center of the brain

that you know are
actually run side by side

with imagination and visual processing,

where everything the big guy is seeing,

they sort of all put together.

That place tends to get really
tamped down by the bigwigs.

There's a huge governmental
presence there.

There's also a place
called De'lux Industrial,

and that is all the way
back in Occipital Park

at the back of the brain,
and De'lux Industrial

is essentially the first
plant where just raw light

is essentially the first
plant where just raw light

comes in from the eyes
and hits the brain first

before it goes and gets
filtered off and refined

into what's actually going to be in focus

or what I remembered stuff looking like

versus what it actually looked like.

- Whether or not the dress

is blue and black or white and gold.

- De'lux Industrial just
constantly has a dress

going from white and
gold to blue and black.

- That's the logo that
they have out front.

- Is there a place to check for other,

you know we mentioned that
we've been getting trains

coming in from the kidneys,

there's been the boost in
adrenaline and things like that.

Is there a way to be able
to get to the kidneys,

communicate with that, or
even stalk the train station

to see if there's any
stuff that's coming in

from the kidneys to kind of see if,

since he's kind of
doing his curiosity bit,

I wanted to go and check and
see if there are any clues

about what's happening physically

that might be able to help us,
or at least if nothing else,

we can maybe stop what
is clearly happening,

a breakdown in the body.

- Hell yes, that's all
at Oblongata Station.

You could head there right
away and get down there

and talk to, you know the
stationmaster down there.

You'd be able to talk.

Most of you have never left
Mentopolis, and honestly,

people from Mentopolis
kind of have an attitude

like they never want to leave Mentopolis.

You don't want to actually
go to the kidneys.

But there's people at Oblongata Station

that they go to the kidneys,
and you can talk to them.

So all of you here, a
couple different ideas

have cropped up here
in the diner together,

all of which seem
potentially quite promising.

How do you want to handle
this? What do you do?

This is fully, you know,
now it's up to you gumshoes.

- Why don't we all divide
and go our own separate ways,

(Trapp laughing)

and all of us come back
together at the end?

- Brennan just licked his lips.

Did you see that? Flop sweat.
- [Hank] There are six of us.

- Separate the party! Separate the party!

- Party wants to separate! All right!

(players laughing)

Justin looks and says,

I'll stick with Conrad no matter what.

- And I'll stick with you, Justin.

- Even if it's the last-
- Don't say it again!

Please don't say it again, it's too sad!

- Even if it's our last day.
- [Siobhan] Come on.

- [Brennan And Alex]
You're my best friend.

- [Trapp] Goddammit.
- [Hank] That's a lot, you guys.

- You see even the pervert
outside starts crying

and goes, and I'll never see them again.

(players laughing)

Yeah, how do you guys want to split up?

- It feels like Dan is
most concerned with...

physical survival, because without that,

then none of this stuff is
going to matter after that.

I think we should go to the
station and see what's going on,

get us out of this scrape
that we're clearly in.

- All right, let's go
to Oblongata Station.

We shall check out the kidneys.

- Hell yeah, you two take
off for Oblongata Station.

How about the rest of you?

- I'd like to go visit your home.

- All right.
- [Hank] See what you got there.

- Yeah, I'm looking forward
to getting to know you better.

- I am impressed by
your ability to trust me

(players laughing)

despite my femur-sized arm bones

and my previous attempts to kidnap you.

(players laughing)

- You are who you are,
and... let's get on our way.

(players laughing)

- Then you just eat some
coffee grounds out of your cup.

- I gotta get a few last bites in.

(players laughing)

- You see that the guy
comes over and says,

I can get you a muffin,
do you want a muffin?

- Yeah, to hold my coffee grounds?

- What, you want a bread
bowl made out of a muffin

to hold coffee grounds that you eat?

- Yes, like a to go cup.

(players laughing near-silently)

- You know that stuff stunts your growth.

(players laughing)

- There's got to be a section of the brain

that's just weird inventions.

Wait, this could work!
- A muffin?

- Not every one's a winner.

- Unbelievable.

Yeah, he says, here's
a muffin hollowed out.

You can have that. That's great.

- Thank you so much.
- You got it.

- Back to the old alma mater?

- Let's check it out. You're the client.

- Justin looks up and says,
well, with the phone lines down,

if we find anything out,
where should we meet back up?

- Oh.

- Listen, there's one place

whenever I don't know where
to go, and that's Sugah's.

(players laughing)

We know Dan controls the joint.

If there's prying eyes,
maybe it's a good place to go

where we have a little
more control of the place.

- Police aren't going to
go there twice in one day.

- That'd be crazy.
- That would be crazy.

- There is a fourth location
that you are aware of,

which is De'lux Industrial,
so you could all go

do a thing-
- Oh, I see.

- And then converge.

- [Siobhan] At De'lux Industrial.

- Yeah.
- [Hank] Great.

- Sounds classy.

- That's how I'd do it
if I was writing a story.

(players laughing)

- If I was writing a s...

Oh, shit!

(players laughing)

So with that, all of you take your leave,

venturing into the streets of Mentopolis.

We are going to move
from Nostalgia's Diner,

and I think the first group we'll follow

is Anastasia and Dan

headed down to Oblongata Station.
(ominous music)

This is way down by the brainstem,

and you can see huge arches

of a vast marble train
station, voice coming over.

Welcome to Oblongata
Station. Welcome, welcome.

And you see there's a bunch of nutrients

coming out of the train
that are kind of marching

into the brain on a work visa

who are coming in to help
out for the time being.

You see that the stationmaster's booth,

there's a sort of octagonal raised tower

that looks over these big
marble staircases that come up.

You see that there are a lot of crates

moving off these huge, big locomotives

that you can see says Kidney
Express on the side of it,

and big, big crates with that
stenotype font on the side

saying adrenaline are all
off on the side, and you see

porters moving them up
towards the industrial lift.

As you approach, what is it that you do?

- You know this place better than I do.

Who should we be talking to?

- Well, I happen to have an
in with the stationmaster.

- Oh, perfect.

- So I believe that we should
definitely go up there.

I would suggest maybe keep
some of your proclivities

I would suggest maybe keep
some of your proclivities

a little more private.

- How dare you? Very well.

(players laughing)

By default.
- Absolutely no. Okay.

- By default, anytime someone
says something about Dan,

his first response, like
a reflex, is how dare you?

Very well.

- So then we head over to the
stationmaster's tower office.

- So then we head over to the
stationmaster's tower office.

- As we walk up, I want
to do a quick check.

Any illicit pleasure
chemicals moving around here.

- Go ahead and give me,
I'll say, snoop four.

- Four on the dot.
- You look over.

I think on a four, you see an
old nervous system messenger.

I think on a four, you see an
old nervous system messenger.

You see he's got the postal outfit,

and it's got Nervous System on a big sash,

but he's a much older guy.

You rarely see him.

He normally reports to
you, because he comes from,

there's no polite way to say this,

he comes from the genitalia.

He comes from the junk. But
you see he's looking over.

This is Wilton.

So, you see Wilton looks over.

So, you see Wilton looks over.

- Was that written down?
- What's that?

- Was that written down, or did that just-

- That just came to me.
- Okay, great.

- You see he looks over and looks up

as you are looking away.

You head over.

Max Medulla, they are
the station manager here.

You've known Max for a long time.

They're a very officious type,

but they are always a little bit pompous.

They're happy to answer questions

for the paper most of the time.

You see that Wilton sort of looks down.

Also on a four, I think you
see that outside the station,

there are a couple of
paddy wagons from the cops,

and I think you look over and
are normally expecting to see,

you know, some uniformed
officers might have a nightstick.

You see big, padded
armor and visored helmets

You see big, padded
armor and visored helmets

and these long batons and
corrugated steel shields.

and these long batons and
corrugated steel shields.

You recognize these as shock
troopers, shock officers,

but as in psychological shock.
- Yeah, right.

- You see shock written in
big letters over their chests,

- You see shock written in
big letters over their chests,

that are standing around these
paddy wagons on the outside.

So you notice Wilton,

but Wilton doesn't appear
to be arrested or anything.

You see these sort of shock officers

outside of the train station.

Anastasia, you're walking over

to the station manager, right?

- Mm-hm.

- I think I'm going to
keep up with Anastasia.

- Cool, cool cool cool.

Max turns around to look at you.

They have their hair in a little bun

sort of tucked under their
cap, sort of officious look.

They have pristine white
gloves and a little whistle,

and you see behind them,
they have these huge switches

that they can pull in states of emergency

to trigger reflexes on the body.

You see there's a reflex
switch for one of the hands

and a reflex switch for something else,

absolute crisis stuff that
needs to go out into the body.

You see Max looks at
you and says, Anastasia!

Been long enough,
sweetheart. How's it going?

- Oh, Max, it's been fantastic to see you.

Thank you so much.

I'm so happy that I was able to come down.

I just wanted to give a little visit,

maybe get some of the inside scoop,

a little bit of the know.

I have brought with me my friend, Dan F...

- Dan Fucks! Pleased to meet you!

- Oh.

Dan Fucks.

Okay.

- Yes, I do! Ha ha!

- Hey, pleasure to meet you as well.

You see Max is sort of
an authority figure here,

but you're so deep near the brainstem

that people aren't too
hoity-toity around here anyway,

so you see that they look at
you and just go, all right.

Well, Danny, welcome down here.

Are you here to collect Wilton?
He's looking a little lost.

I think he's waiting for his
train back to the gonads.

(players laughing)

- We're here on far
more important matters.

There's all kinds of hubbub in the city.

Tell them all about it.

We're trying to figure
out what's going on.

- Yeah, so she turns
over to them and says,

Max, I am hearing some
things through the vine.

I'm hearing that you have been getting

a lot of deliveries
coming from the kidneys.

- Oh, I mean, nothing more
than normal, you know?

Go ahead and give me a snoop.
(Trapp laughing)

- Snoop, snoop, snoop!

- I'll roll to set the DC.

The DC here is going to be a five.

- Oh, then I'm halving it.

- A little bead of sweat

collects at the corner of Max's brow

as they attempt to sort of throw you.

Yeah, I mean, business as usual, you know?

(tense music)

Oblongata Station's
running like clockwork,

you know what I mean?

You know, we, you know, we
got a message from up top.

There's this road. You know
what you should be looking into?

These road collapses. What's
going on there, you know?

- That's definitely something
that I'm interested in.

Thank you so much for, you know,

leading me towards another great story.

I do see that there seems to be

a lot of increased police activity.

- Oh, well, yeah, and Mentopolis's finest,

you know, it's always
great because, you know,

a lot of things come in
from the nervous system

and, you know, we...

They're always here to
help us kind of sort out,

make sure everyone coming
in has their paperwork

cleared out-
- Max.

Max.

You're not going to do
this with me, are you?

- Go ahead and give me a slick check.

We'll call this a DC...

I'll call this a DC seven.

- I have to actually roll for this.

Okay. Come on, baby.

Yes, I rolled a six,

and then I've got a plus two,
so that gets me an eight.

- So you see Max looks at you
and they go, look, Anastasia.

You know, yeah, the cops are here,
(heartbeat pumping)

but, you know, sometimes we
need to know if the reason

the hairs are moving on the
arm is because it's windy,

or if there's a bug, you know?

So they gotta sort out
what from what and...

Look, there's a lot of...

Look, trains have been coming
in from the kidneys all day,

but that's not the main story here.

You know, we got crates and
crates of adrenaline coming in.

It's going all over the city.

It's replaced every other shipment

of anything else coming in, but...

Those shock troopers came in and uh...

There was a smaller passenger train.

They've taken it off the yard already.

They wouldn't let the doors
open until they were in place.

Those cops got on board,
and they just went to work,

started clubbing away inside that train.

I don't know who was in there,

but it came from not far away.

It wasn't a long distance locomotive.

Judging by the look of it, I'd
say it came from the scalp.

- The scalp?

- If I had to guess. I
mean, short distance.

- Max, are you keeping yourself safe?

- I try to keep my nose out
of other people's business.

This is all off the record, by the way.

- Max, have I ever?

- Occasionally, yeah, for sure.

- Actually yes, I remember reading,

actually, several articles.

- Have I ever, recently?

- Yeah, I guess not recently,
depending on your definition.

But yeah, look, just...

Look, yeah, I don't
know what those troopers

are doing waiting outside.

They dragged a bunch of people
off the train in handcuffs.

But if you want to take
a look at the train,

it got taken off the yard and
put into one of the hangars

out past platform nine.

- All right, so I go to shake their hand.

Thank you. Once again, thank you so much.

This has been such a pleasant visit.

It's always great when I get to see you.

Smiling extra big in case

any of the cops or shock
troopers see them talking.

- You see Max looks around and says,

yeah, always happy to talk

about the station...

janitorial initiative!

- (enthusiastically) I love toilets!

- (enthusiastically) Me too! Gotta shit!

(players laughing)

- All right, come on, Mr. F.

- Sounds like we need to
sneak into this rail yard,

- That's what it sounds like.
- And get a look at this train.

I'll cause a distraction!

- Hell yeah, if you want
to cause a distraction,

that will absolutely way lower

the difficulty of your sneak roll.

- So I'm going to go straight up to Wilton

and just backhand slap him.
(slapping sound)

What are you doing here?

How dare you show your face around here

in the brain, Wilton!

- Mister-

- How long have you been waiting here?

- Mr. Fucks, hello!

I came in from the nut sack!

(players laughing)

- I can see that. You're worse for wear.

- I got a package they gave me to deliver

to bring right to you in
case we're being fondled!

But maybe, you know, we're at work,

but maybe someone's
become very inappropriate!

Maybe we're about to
get laid in the office!

It's hard to say!

- I'll take that from
you and reprimand you

greatly and loudly, so
that everyone looks at us!

(players laughing)

- While this is happening,
I start doing that thing

that they do in movies
where you press yourself-

- Oh yeah.

- Press yourself up against
brick, slowly look around.

I've got my hat down.
I'm hiding in the shadows

and just kind of moving side to side,

I guess like the aliens in Alien Invaders

where you can only move side to side.

So I'm doing a little bit of that

and then a little bit of up
and then a little bit back

until I'm kind of close enough

so that I can get to
the train, in which case

I just start crouching
down and staying down low.

- Go ahead, give me a slick check

as you attempt to get
everyone's attention away.

- [Trapp] No problem.
- That is an eight.

Sorry, yes, that was a nine,

and I'm going to spend
two to put it up to an 11.

- Ooh, hell yeah!

So that's going to bring
the DC of your sneak check

all the way down to a
three, but I will say

it's a snap decision, so I'm
going to ask that you roll.

- Okay, except that I
have nerves of steel,

so I'm going to spend one Moxie

to treat a snap decision
as a planned action.

- Ooh! Nerves of steel,

our fearless reporter Anastasia Tension!
(players ooh and wow)

(Danielle laughing)

Hell yeah, so having that
gets you to the three?

- That gets me there.
- Hell yes.

Anastasia, a shadow to the
wall, the attention of this mind

moves throughout Oblongata Station,

and you sneak across the rail yard.
(sneaky stealthy music)

Long shadows. Tropes, tropes, tropes.

(all whispering "tropes")

Steam rising from the locomotives.
(steam hissing)

It's steamy down here at the brainstem.

- You walk through the steam! Ooh.

(Danielle makes a hissing noise)

- Come out, your wonderful
trilby jaunty on your head

as you, lady reporter finds out.

You see the wide open doors
of the train car here.

Are you approaching with speed in mind

or with stealth in mind?

- I'm approaching with stealth in mind.

- Okay, go ahead, DC four sneak roll.

- Is this planned or is this-

- [Brennan] I'll say because
you have that distraction,

this is planned.

- Okay, then I'm going to halve it.

- Cool, halve it, stay to the shadows.

You manage to sneak past,

and you see the train pulled away,

and you go and look at the
serial number on the outside.

Go ahead and give me a savvy check.

We'll call it a DC three savvy.

- I'm gonna halve it.
- Hell yeah, great.

This is exactly what you're meant to do.

You are a reporter,

all of this is stuff that
is right in your wheelhouse.

You look at the numbers

up on the side of the train coming in.

You do recognize this. This
is a nervous system local.

This comes in from the scalp.

These used to come in all the time

when you covered the dandruff story.

(players laughing)

When you were doing feedback
on the dandruff story,

you would get quotes from people

coming off this train all the time.

You're like, that's
from the fucking scalp!

You go around. Give me a snoop check.

You can halve it, but I'll say that

we'll put two different tiers here.

So there's a difficulty eight,

and there's also a difficulty 12.

The eight is basic, and the
12 is advanced information.

- So the eight I will go ahead and halve.

- [Brennan] Okay, great.
- I've got that.

The 12, I do have to roll for.

- Cool, go for it.
- Come on, baby!

That is a four.

- No worries.

- Oh, you shouldn't have smiled that big.

Why would you smile that big?

- [Freddie] So happy.
- All's well, all's well.

So on that eight, you go see
the open doors of the train.

As you look down on
that eight snoop check,

you see blood dripping on
the stairs of the train.

As you walk in, you see the
commotion of incredible violence

from these shock officers that
boarded the train, clearly.

As you walk into the back, you hear...
(tense, sorrowful music)

(breathing raggedly)

Looking between the seats,

somewhere that must have been missed,

you see, wearing the
postal service uniform,

the same one that Wilton is
wearing out by the platform,

you see there is a young nervous
system messenger, courier,

you see there is a young nervous
system messenger, courier,

who looks up at you and goes,

(gasping for breath)

H- Help.

Help me.

And you see that the messenger's
face is taut and angular.

And you see that the messenger's
face is taut and angular.

There's a serrated surface to their nose.

Their hands are made of broken glass,

and you see this is a pain responder

who just looks up and says, who are you?

- How are you? My name is Stacy Fakename.

(players laughing)

- Hi, Ms. Fakename. I gotta get...

I gotta get...

I gotta get this to the Daily Observer.

I gotta...

I gotta get this... to... the editor.

They need to know.

- Okay, okay, I have an
in at the Daily Observer.

I'll take that.

(Freddie and Hank laughing)

- The form in front of you begins to mist,

and as it does, you hold this,

and this dying messenger looks up at you,

having done the one thing
they were supposed to do.

You open the message to look at it.

We're in pain.

The back of our head. We're bleeding.

And you feel in your body,
as a being made of attention,

suddenly, some part of Elias Hodge's brain

knows he's just sustained a head injury,

and all of a sudden,
the collapsed highways.

You immediately know,

it's, it's blunt trauma to the head,

and you can feel from this
message, you have a sense that

this is going to start bleeding profusely.

You have a sense of, all this
bad stuff is about to happen.

But all that you have right
now is this initial report

just from this one thing on the scalp.

Because it's the nervous system,

there's no visual information,

there's no other sensory
information attached to it,

but you know that all those shock officers

came in and tried to clear out,

and there must have been a
ton of these pain couriers

in here that have just been arrested.

- (sighs) Okay, I look
down at the courier.

Hey, are you still with us?

(whoosh, pop)

(Danielle sighs)

- Looking at the message in
your hand, is there anything

that you would want to try
to investigate from there?

- If we've got a brain
injury, and that's doing

the pain receptors and
everything like that,

I think I'm going to go
back over to Mr. Fucks.

- Yeah, you begin to head
back over to Mr. Fucks.

Give me one last savvy
check. Call it a DC five.

- One.
- Oop!

(ball sliding on a track)

- [Danielle] Hi, buddy.

(ball clanks)

- I think you have a hard
time looking at this.

Again, you're attention.
You're about finding stuff out.

Looking at this and trying to analyze it,

I think you have a sense
of nervousness and dread

because you can't tell
how bad this injury is.

Head wounds bleed a lot. It
bleeding doesn't tell you much.

It could just be something
totally survivable

and superficial, or this could be

like you are in the last
moments of Mentopolis,

if this is a huge club

coming over the back
of Elias Hodge's head.

As you head back to the platform,
you're talking to Wilton.

- Yeah, should we finish
up here with Wilton?

- [Brennan] Yeah.

(players laughing)

- I'm still in distraction mode,

so it's like, Wilton, you old, so you've-

This is far less than we
agreed upon! You're a con man!

- I'm not a con man.

There's something nuzzling
the base of the shaft.

- I look like I go to
strike, but I pull Wilton

into a tight embrace and I
start whispering in his ear.

How's the family? How's the kids?

- Oh, they're good. They're all fine.

It's sweaty down there, but it's-

- Spermatozoa production going all right?

- Oh, there's so much sperm down there.

There's actually kind
of too much. We need to-

We probably should do something.

- Listen, listen, listen, listen.

Just keep it up. It'll happen.

It'll happen one day,
you and I both know it.

I love you, brother!

- I love you so much.

Listen, there's something that
is digging a little bit in.

It's really heavy, and
it's kind of buzzing.

(players laughing)

- This is not what I
expected to hear, brother.

- You're my brother.
- That's right.

- Can we talk to someone
at City Hall and see

if maybe we could make a friend
that'll touch the privates?

(players laughing)

- I know the people upstairs
are working on that.

It's the thing that was foremost
on the mind, I assure you.

- I hear bad news all the
time, like we're working!

- Listen, we just have to get
through this scrape first.

One day, though, one day it'll happen.

- I think we should quit our job

and just concentrate on fucking.

(players laughing)

- Listen, me too, my friend.
Listen, me too, my friend.

But you know how it is up here

in the big city, my hands are tied.

- All those Cortex City hobnobs don't know

what real working folk
deal with every day!

- They're out of touch with the
common people! You're right!

- We're drowning in cum down there!

(players laughing)

- They're out of touch!

One day, you and I will stage a revolution

the likes of which these
people have never seen before!

- The people will rise, and
there will be orgasms for all!

- We'll finally achieve
eternal happiness!-

Ooh, ooh ooh. My-

- Yeah, you come up.
- [Freddie] Hello, hello!

You heard nothing! You heard nothing!

- Sorry, this man's not my
brother. He's mean as hell.

- I don't know this person at all.

- Can I please speak with
my friend Mr. Fucks here?

- Get out of here, stranger!

- I'm getting back on
the train to the balls.

(players laughing)

- What a weirdo.
♪ He's leaving ♪

♪ He's leaving ♪
(To the tune of Midnight Train to Georgia)

♪ Midnight train to the balls ♪

♪ Getting on the midnight train ♪

- [Brennan] Incredible, so Wilton leaves,

and you two are left alone.

- What do you have to say to me?

- Dan, this is possibly
worse than we feared.

It sounds as though, according-

I went into the train. Huge mess.

Blood over blood over blood.
I wish I had my camera.

- [Freddie] Good lord!
- No, I don't. Blood's bad.

There was blood everywhere.
- What's happened?

- It appears to be that
all of the shock troopers

took over a train that
was coming from the scalp

that was all pain receptors.

- What are you saying?

- I'm saying that we are in great pain.

- From what?

- It sounds like blunt
force trauma to the head.

- The head? Wilton, get back here!

- What's that?

- There's been some sort
of injury down there!

You need to get back down to
the balls as fast as you can!

- Wait, someone's hurting the balls?

- No, the head!

- Oh!

Wilton, never mind, get out of here.
- Do you mean the head of the pehnis?

- I rarely do.

- Wilton, I believe I'm mistaken.

- Oh, all right.

- I apologize for getting your hopes up.

- If it's not about cock and
balls, I don't want to know.

(Freddie hums a jaunty tune)

Wilton heads off.

- Sorry, I misinterpreted what you said.

- It appears that we are suffering through

blunt force trauma, which
is why there have been

so many glitches, so many
highways, all of the collapses.

I spoke with one of the pain receptors,

and they gave me information
to give to the newspaper.

Now, here's what we have to figure out,

is how much time we have-
- Yes,

are we still conscious?
- Before everything begins shutting down.

We don't know what the extent of this is.

It could be fine, it could be bad.

I have a question for you.

- Yes.

- With your ability to be able to

take in the gratification of others

and use things that people might like.

- Yes.

- I don't have as much of a direct line

into the pain centers to be able to tell

exactly how bad this is and
what might be happening.

Aren't there some people who enjoy pain?

Wouldn't you maybe be able
to talk to one of them,

who might be able to give
us some more information

about what is happening in the head?

- What kind of person are
we talking about here?

- Hey, you're all Elias, you know?

(players laughing)

Up to you. I think actually, though, yo-

pain and pleasure,

there's a lot of correlation there.

- You're asking me to speak
to my long-lost sister?

(Brennan laughing)

- Yes, now that I know
that there is a Ms. Fucks,

I would like to speak with her.

- I think we can do this. I
think we can do this, yes.

- She's Fucks, expletive.

It's the fuck you say
when you stub your toe.

(players laughing)

- [Freddie] Exactly,
exactly, that's what it is.

- Fuck!
- The versatility of the word.

- [Brennan] Incredible.

- I will note, though,
Wilton gave me a little tip.

Sounds strange, doesn't it?

- Absolutely not, nope.

(players laughing)

- There was something going
on downstairs, as well.

In addition to blunt
force trauma to the head,

there may be all kinds
of other stuff going on.

We may be suffering bodily
in numerous different places.

We should take a survey of
our entire extremities and see

to what extent we are in pain.

- Absolutely. - [Freddie] Or
pleasure, as the case may be.

- As the case may be.

And that is something that we will

hopefully be able to
discuss with your sister.

When it comes to the
head and when it comes

to the other head, you can
discuss that with her alone.

- Are you off, then?

- No, no, I just don't want-

- Where are you in this
equation? I'm confused.

- I will be with you.

I like to pay attention,

but I tend to leave that
area of the body alone.

There's not enough going on there

for me to really be concerned about it.

- How dare you?

(players laughing)

- This is literally every
complaint you have with the city.

Yeah, if we paid more attention

to what's going on down there!

- Just got back in touch!

- Okay, so you have that information.

So your sister, Donna Fucks,

(players laughing)

she kind of honestly works
a little bit more than you,

but she's also similarly
around the corner from you

on the other side of the Hippo Campus.

- It's just literally if you just walked

around the building-
- It's the other side.

- Yeah yeah yeah.

- You could go talk to
her if you wanted to.

She would maybe be able to decipher this,

- Club Spice.
- A little bit more.

But you also do have your plan

to meet up with the rest of the gang.

- [Freddie] That's right.
- [Danielle] Yes.

- So what would you guys like to do?

- I think we should go back to the others

with this information, see
what they have discovered.

- Yes, and then we can
bring your sister in.

- Yes.
- Cool, you two head off.

We are going to go ahead and
join our friends Fix and Conrad

We are going to go ahead and
join our friends Fix and Conrad

as you head off through the
rainy streets of Mentopolis.

as you head off through the
rainy streets of Mentopolis.

As the two of you round the corner,

you arrive at a brick wall
with a sort of cave-in

you arrive at a brick wall
with a sort of cave-in

in the side, loose rubble opening up

into a drafty, industrial space,

exposed I-beams and sort
of a nest of rubble.

exposed I-beams and sort
of a nest of rubble.

Justin sort of paws along at your side.

Conrad, go ahead and tell us,

what does your sort of
dwelling place look like

inside of this abandoned brick building?

- Yeah, so it's this big, cavernous room,

but I've filled it with just
newspaper clippings everywhere,

but I've filled it with just
newspaper clippings everywhere,

little trinkets, and it's all
kind of haphazardly stored

in makeshift filing systems
made out of cardboard boxes

or big planks of wood that I've found.

(slow, sad music)

- You enter into this place.

Fix, go ahead and give me,
we'll call it a difficulty...

seven savvy check here as
you start looking around

at all of the papers that have been filed.

- I'll take a seven.

- (gasps) Hell yeah, just
halve it and take it.

You begin to look around
at all of the things

that Conrad has gathered here,

and they are all united

in how small and imperceptible

in how small and imperceptible

each bit of information
in the saved articles is.

The first impulse that
crosses you as you start

to look at them is probably,
in all honesty, a negative one,

because as you start to look
at them, they are distractions.

They are fundamentally distractions.

An overheard conversation

of some coworkers at
Gobstopper Industries,

a request to redesign a schematic

on something that was
being worked on by Elias

for a purpose that Elias couldn't
figure out the meaning of,

and you look at "couldn't
figure out the meaning of,"

and you remember that you
went and killed a distraction

on the day that article was published.

Who's to say what could
have been figured out

if that distraction had maybe been heeded?

As you look at all of
this, I think there's a way

in which all of this is very distracting,

and like a lot of material
associated with conscience,

it doesn't make you feel good.

The things that crop up that alert you

that maybe something wrong is happening

are, by their very
definition, challenging.

They are challenging you,

and there's a negativity
that comes with that.

But I think on the other hand, though,

you look at all of this very careful work,

and it's sort of not
unlike a hyperfixation.

There's this part of the brain

that's been working very hard
to save a group of things.

What's going through The Fix's mind?

- I think that The Fix doesn't

think that the job of the
mind is to control itself.

(Brennan sighing and
making an explosion sound)

(players laughing)

(Brennan makes that
"hlblbblblhblhb" sound)

- This season's good
for me in a lot of ways.

You know what I'm saying?

This is actually, I'm realizing now-

- Some deep knowledge here
that's being imparted.

(Brennan laughing)

- He's never thought of it like that.

You know, and maybe just
doesn't even believe

that it's possible, that ultimately,

he's maybe more aware
of the lack of free will

than most people are, than
most people in the brain are,

and so he's looking at this and thinking,

why are you trying to change
the way that the mind operates?

That's not our job. Our job
is to do what our job is.

I think that he's very uncomfortable,

and I think that he, even this act,

which was sort of his idea,
he feels very weird about.

- Yeah, it's a deviation from someone

who prizes persistence and reliability,

and I think that fear,

as you come into this
place and look around.

You look, and Conrad,
Justin sort of wanders over

to the little doggie bed of
newspaper, where he lies down,

and you see a pair of ice skates there.
(serious piano music)

Like a lot of treasures in this room,

you suddenly sort of realize

these treasures here are very significant.

All of these are memories,
and the pair of ice skates,

very old, deep brown leather
with rough leather cords,

very old, deep brown leather
with rough leather cords,

these sort of scuffed up
metal blades on the bottom

that look a little uncomfortable,
but they're tied up,

and you can see that
they're kids' ice skates.

I think you sense that...

the things that Conrad has here,

by virtue of being not at,
for example, the Hippo Campus,

by virtue of being not at,
for example, the Hippo Campus,

are not elsewhere stored away

in the memory bank or wherever,

that these are repressed, deep down.

There's something about these memories

that's like, they can't
just be obliterated,

but that Conrad's been holding onto them.

- So The Fix goes up to those ice skates,

and he sort of runs his
thumb across the leather,

and he says quietly, maybe not loud enough

and he says quietly, maybe not loud enough

for Conrad to hear, he says, Ichabod.

He's thinking about a little
kid in the Hall of Interests

who... isn't there anymore.

- Conrad has entered a kind of zen mode,

and was just making small talk.

So, how long you been fixing?

(raucous group laughter)

(raucous group laughter)

- Justin goes, I think The Fix is really

deep in something right now, really.

- I'm not great at reading a situation.

(players laughing)

But I'd watch your fingers,
also, if I were you.

(Hank laughing)

- Good call. What have
you been doing here?

This is, this is a lot of stuff.

It doesn't feel like you've
just been collecting,

it feels like you've been trying
to find something out here.

- Well, I just make sure that
the stuff doesn't disappear

'cause, you know, we might need

to feel guilty or shame about it later,

so I just want to make sure it's here.

You'll see this clipping says,

didn't hold a door for an old lady.

This one says, cheated
on a test in 8th grade.

Yeah, just all kinds of stuff that,

big guy doesn't think about,

but I think about all the time.

(players laughing)

- Justin looks up and
says, someone's gotta.

- Someone's gotta.

But yeah, so how long you been fixing for?

(players laughing)

- I guess the whole time.

(players laughing)

- Yeah, nice.

(players laughing)

- So let me pitch you this idea.

If I needed to kill you,

- (resigned) Okay.

(players laughing)

- Now that we're alone.

- Just try to sandpaper
the edge off, you know?

Just a little bit of, just
something that eases in.

- All right, all right.
So, eyes can't be itchy.

The membranes around the eyes

are innervated with itch
receptors and pain neurons,

whereas the eyes themselves

only have pain neurons because, of course,

evolution is strongly
incentivized to prevent you

from scratching your cornea
with your fingernail.

So your eyes are never actually itchy.

People say, my eyes are
itchy! But they're not.

- Huh.
- They're not actually itchy.

It's just the membranes around your eyes.

Did that make you feel better?

- Y- Yeah!
- That's really all I know how to do.

That, and punching.

(players laughing)

- It's kind of like, you
know, when you feel upset,

and they tell you to
look at what's around you

or drink a glass of water,

and you focus on something
else for a second.

- 'Cause I can do that all day.

- Okay!

- Here's what I'm thinking.
- Uh-huh.

- So, sometimes when
I kill people, they're

still- Sorry.
- Yeah.

They're still there, and
there's something I can show,

and sometimes they just disappear.

I don't know why.

Different people, different
folks, different strokes.

Some people disappear when they die,

and some people, I get a
little something I can show.

So in those those situations,

when they're just not there anymore,

I gotta prove that I did my work.

I like to do my best.

Now, this would be a good thing to show

to say I did my work.

I found you, I found where
you lived, and you were gone.

You're not here anymore.

Would it be okay for me
to bring the DA by here?

Anything you want to take out
of here for him not to see?

- Well, I guess kind of everything, but-

(players laughing)

So- So you'd rather he come here

than, like, you just take
those skates or something?

- You know, I could do that.

I want to see what he thinks of this.

I want to see how scared he is
of what you have built here.

- Okay, and there's no
chance that he'll go,

well, surely Conrad's still alive,

and now that I've seen
this, I gotta kill him.

(players laughing)

- I think that if there
was an amount of dead

he didn't want you, he
wouldn't have called me.

- Whoa, you're good at your job, huh?

- (quietly) I like to think so.
- [Brennan] Congratulations.

- Hey, you know, that feels nice.

- Oh, good.

Yeah, you know, it's not all
sad and dreary down here.

Yeah, you know, it's not all
sad and dreary down here.

There's a theoretical world
where we could make someone

theoretically feel good about themselves.

- Yeah.

- Like, what would we do to make someone,

like, if that lady, he had held
the door open for her, then,

like, if that lady, he had held
the door open for her, then,

- We'd keep that clipping, too!

- Then we'd keep that clipping, too.

- Would you?

Because sometimes I feel
like that's not how it works.

That's just me talking.
- I don't know.

It's been a while since we've
had something like that.

- Yeah, imagine a W that big.

(players laughing)

Holding the door open for somebody.

Golly, that'd be a banner day! (barks)

- Woof is right.

(players laughing)

- You two are best friends.

- I like that you talk to Justin, too.

- Yeah, you're a good dog.

(Brennan howls)
(players aww)

- The plan to bring the
DA down here, I mean,

there is a lot of stuff down
here that, like you're saying,

that's a very polished guy,
and the idea of bringing him

down to a place this
intense, you haven't really

found a spot in Mentopolis
like this before.

I think that strikes you
as a very worthwhile,

for lack of a better word, ambition.

Justin looks over at you
and says, well, Conrad,

we can get one of the
blankets and tie it around me

like a little sled and fill
it up with all of our stuff

if we want to try to find another spot.

I don't know where we'd go.

- Sure, but we've had that feeling before,

and we found somewhere to go,
so we'll find somewhere else.

- Yeah, we'll find somewhere else.

- I probably know of a couple of spots.

- Yeah, go ahead, let's
call it a DC four savvy.

- Yeah, go ahead, let's
call it a DC four savvy.

- Four. Five.

- There are some, you
know, motels, flophouses,

places for people that are
just coming into the mind

for a very short period of
time, and then there's your...

I'm trying to think of where
The Fix actually lives.

- (laughing) I hadn't thought about it.

- I'm trying to think
of The Fix's apartment.

- I don't know that I sleep.

- He just wanders the streets.

- Muttering to himself about animal facts.

- A completely unadorned
single room apartment

with just a closet that you
walk into and stand in the dark.

(players laughing)

- It's got a bar, and
I just hang off of it.

- Yeah, just hang off of the bar.

- White noise coming out of the walls.

We don't know where it's coming from.

(players laughing)

- You walk into a fucking
noise canceling headphone.

(group laughing)

But yeah, you know a couple places

that Conrad can stay, for sure.

What do you think you would do?

Do you think you would send Conrad

on his way here and go
get the DA right now?

Or do you think that you
would, having come here

and gotten the skates or
seeing it for yourself,

knowing where it is, do
you think you would try

to both rejoin up with your other allies?

- I don't...

- All good, there's no-

- Conrad's also debating
whether or not to tell The Fix

the story behind the skates.

- You have the ability

to turn these memories on, if you want to.

You can bring them to life, kind of.

You can share the story of them yourself.

- Okay.

- You can turn the memories on, but truly,

whatever you want to do, whatever
you think Conrad would do.

- Hey, Fix. Sorry, The Fix.
(serious music)

(Freddie and Hank snicker)

- Either's fine.

- Really? Or, surely
you have a preference.

- I like The Fix.

- Okay. The Fix, sorry.

Do you know why we keep those skates?

- No.
- [Alex] Do you want to know?

- Yeah.

- Those are kind of...

Those skates really hurt the big guy

the last time he ever listened to me, so.

I guess that's kind of vague, um...

(players laughing)

Just, when the big guy was a kid,

he stood up for his little sister,

and then this big bully...
cut him up real bad

with those skates, and that's
why they live here with me.

And he doesn't really
remember that, but I do.

So that's why I don't
deserve to be listened to,

and I just kind of try to
make my way in the city.

- I think it's time to
unlearn that lesson.

- (thoroughly impacted) Okay.

(players laughing)

- We've talked about balls
so much in this season,

and I almost... wept.

I almost just started fully crying
(players laughing)

when you said it's time
to unlearn that lesson.

That's right! Okay, we cut
back to Wilton in the balls!

(group laughing)

- Keep those coming!

(group laughing)

- Incredible. You have these here.

Conrad has shared that,

story of the origin of the ice skates.

They're not doing anything right now.

They're not glowing,
they're not doing anything,

but you just know that
those things are powerful.

It's a powerful memory hanging

in this little abandoned place.

You guys take off and head out of here,

and even as Conrad shares that memory,

you know, memories are things

that sort of belong to the
entire city, in a weird way.

But this is one so deep
down that it's like,

you know,

how much of the rest of the
brain has this been hidden from

and how much has just
Conrad been carrying this?

And you take off and head
towards Occipital Park

at the back of the brain.

We cut to the Hippo Campus,
(big, upbeat brass horn music)

right at the edge

of the red light district,
big college town energy.

You see that a lot of old
marquees and flophouses

and little shops and
restaurants and suddenly, boom!

Big, ivy-covered walls
and a bunch of students

that all have these sort of,
again, art deco, varsity,

their letter jackets
and sort of pomaded hair

and everything like that,
are sort of running around.

Go Hippos! And they start running.

You see big hippo mascots
on a bunch of pennants.

I'll see you at the big
game later, won't I, Tony?

You sure will! We love the brain!

They head off.

As you both enter this area, you do notice

that there are some students wandering

up in some of the upper
hallways through the windows,

playing football inside of one
of the university hallways,

and I think as you walk
in, you would just notice

that you don't see any faculty around.

- Can I see if it looks
like anyone's tailing us?

- Go ahead and give me a snoop
check, call that an eight.

- Eight, okay.

No, I don't do it. That is a five.

(ball sliding on a track x2)

But I'll take that Moxie!

(ball clanking x2)

- You look around.

You don't observe anyone tailing you.

- Who knows if I saw them?

- Who knows if you saw them or not?

But you walk into the campus.

You see that a couple students run around.

There's some heading to the big game.

You see a few cheerleaders run by,

and one of them turns around,
and you see that she says,

(gasps) oh my goodness,
are you Imelda Pulse?

- No.
- Oh, wrong. Okay.

She runs off. Heads off.
(players laughing)

- Nice.

- You guys head into the Hippo Campus.

Are you heading to any
place in particular?

You can head straight to
the memory bank if you want,

but it's totally up to you.

- I feel like I want to know more about...

- Sure, the memory seems
as good as anything to me.

- Now, this is going to
take some pretty slick work,

so I think I know-
- Let me talk.

- You should be doing

the talking here.
- Yes, I think maybe you

shouldn't be talking.
- I think so.

And I start striding forward.

(players laughing)

- [Brennan] Incredible.
- Just blow the doors open.

(Siobhan laughing)

- Boom, you walk into the memory bank,
(retro-futuristic music)

this beautiful, decorated,

there's tall, rolling ladders, huge steps.

You see all this information
everywhere, and you see

there's only two librarians
working in here right now.

You see there is a very
officious and happy, helpful,

You see there is a very
officious and happy, helpful,

prim woman, pencil skirt,
little white collar,

and this absolutely enormous guy

who's sort of got a little
bit bald and comb-over,

but just big, musclebound guy

who's putting big stacks
of books up on the shelves.

The young woman looks at you and says,

hello and welcome to the Ammon's
Horn Memorial Memory Bank.

I'm so delighted to have you
come in. Are you students?

- (confidently) Yeah.

(players laughing)
- Give me a slick check.

DC eight.

(Trapp giggling gleefully to himself)

- All right!
- Got to explode twice.

(Siobhan laughing)

(Siobhan laughing even harder)

What'd you get, Trapp?
- That's a one.

- [Hank] It's going to
be hard to get there.

- You see the big guy
turns around and goes,

what'd you say?

- I throw my hood back and I say,

aren't we all students of something?

- Yeah!

- You see that Millie goes, huh!

I guess in an incredibly broad sense, yes!

(Freddie laughing)

Ollie, the big guy, Ollie,
turns to look at you and goes...

- Sorry, do I get any Moxie

for massively failing that roll?

- Oh, for sure. Thank
you for reminding me.

Let's get the man his Moxie.
(ball sliding on a track x2)

- I gotta succeed later.

- You see the guy looks at you and says,

you said you're a student.

What's your class schedule?

(curious noir music)

- My class schedule?

Well, you know, every morning,

I attend Basic Neurological Functions,

and then after that, it's Reflexes 101.

And then, you know, I'm
dabbling in the arts.

- Go ahead and give me
a DC 20 slick check.

(players laughing)

You only have to explode
five times in a row.

- Hey, we're going to do it.

Explode!
- [Brennan] Okay, one. Four more to go.

- Okay, okay!
- [Freddie] Come on!

- [Siobhan] Come on, you can do it.

- That's a one. So that's five.

- You only need to spend 15 Moxie.

(players laughing)

- [Hank] It's good, though.
Just keep lying to people.

(players laughing)

- Ollie goes,

are you out of your mind?

We defunded the arts years ago!

(group laughing)

- This is a science mind.

- You see Millie says, I am so
sorry, sir. We're STEM only.

And Ollie cocks a fist back

and is going to attempt to
punch you out of the library.

(players laughing)

- Okay, everybody calm down.

(Alex laughing)

Can I do some kind of slick check to,

- Give me a slick check.
- [Siobhan] Calm everybody the fuck down?

- It will be a DC 13 slick check.

- Great, so would you say that
under these circumstances,

that these are either authority figures

or view me as an authority figure?

- I will say that under the circumstances,

you can view these as authority figures,

but I will say this is a snap decision.

- Okay.
- So you get the plus three,

but you do have to roll.
- Great.

So that's a 13 plus 5, so it's an 18.

- You see Ollie, fist goes
back and stops and says,

excuse me, what'd you say your name was?

- (trembling) Stacy.

(players laughing)

Fakename.

(players laughing)

- Stacy, how could I forget?
Such a beautiful young woman.

Why don't you come right
with me, Ms. Fakename?

You see that he says,

we have so many wonderful
art books to show you!

Millie looks and says, all right, Ollie.

And looks over and says, hello, ma'am.

How can I help you?

You're a student here at the Hippo Campus?

- I'm not a student, but I'm
hoping that you can help me.

I'm just a poor lady in distress.

I was wondering if you
could perhaps point me

in the way of some information

that I'm looking for in the memory banks.

I don't really know how to use them.

I'm just a silly little girl.

- That's wildly self-depricating.

- Oh, well, I mean, I'm
a silly little woman.

(players laughing)

- A notch up! Okay, yes, of course!

You see she says, well, I'd be
more than happy to help you.

What sort of memories are you looking for?

Is there anything that I can try to find?

- Oh, anything that you have

on files and what might be inside them.

- Files and what might be inside them.

I'll do the very best I can.

I'll try to find a
memory related to files.

Go ahead, I'm actually
going to ask you here

for a slick check,

and we'll just say five, 10, 15, 20

as our ascending order

of how good the memory is that you find.

- Okay, great.

That is a 21.

- Oh my god.
(players ooh)

You see she goes back, and coming down

with this enormous tome
that you see has an emblem

with this enormous tome
that you see has an emblem

of the packet itself,
and you see the big title

that says, Gobstopper Psychometer Project.

And underneath, it says,

like all the memories
in here, by Elias Hodge.

You see that Millie
walks up to you and says,

now this is one of our most pristine,

first edition memories,
which is so, so exciting.

It's relatively new.

Please be extraordinarily careful with it.

Try to guard it with your
life as well as you can.

We will expect it back by Wednesday,

and when you return it, add something fun.

(players laughing)

- Okay.
- That's so good.

- I love adding fun things.

- Of course, we demand that
every memory that come back

just have something cute
and fun kind of added.

- Maybe I'll change a couple
of colors. How about that?

- That would be great!
- Great!

- Of course, any colors.

You know, I think
there's something in here

about the packet being
a sort of deeper manila.

Maybe we sort of go, it was beige!

- It was beige!
- [Brennan] It was a light beige.

- I absolutely swear to god, it was beige.

- I swear to god!

We try to have fun here at
the memory bank, we really do.

(players laughing)

- So good. Mwah.

- She hands this enormous,
deeply important memory

over to you, and you see,
because it is brand new,

you look at some of the
other older memory books

and they are dog-eared, bitten to hell,

tons of drawings and shit
in the margins of them.

So you have this really
important memory in front of you.

Off in the corner, you see
as soon as they get around,

Ollie leans over and goes,
look here, Wisenheimer.

I'm about to butter your necktie
unless you start talking.

Are you a student here or ain'tcha?

- I. Am. A student!

(players laughing)

- Stacy!
- [Hank] Just playing for Moxie.

- He pounds you with a 14 sharp check.

Go ahead and give me sturdy.

- Sure.

(players laughing)

Let's see. That's, uh...

seven. You said 14?
- [Brennan] 14.

- Hold on, how much Moxie do I have?
(players laughing)

- [Siobhan] Spend all of your Moxie

on not getting knocked out.

- Eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

(players laughing)

- So this guy fucking clobbers you

and fully spins your head
around, Daffy Duck style.

Woo!

What the hell?

- Yeah, it's one of the things
I've been studying here.

- How are you not dead?
- What?

- I punched your head all the
way around your shoulders.

- Yeah, I've just been
studying up on, you know,

resilience in times of trouble.

It's a new major that they got here.

You know, how to really stand up

when things get tough out there.

(sounds of confused terror)

- I don't want nothing to do with you.

You're haunted. You're frickin' haunted!

I hate this! I hate this!

Turns around and just flees the scene.

You find yourself-
(Trapp mimics neck cracking)

Sort of realign your
head on your shoulders.

As Ollie flees, is there anything

that you are investigating
or looking for in the library

now that you're kind of
in the stacks, unoccupied?

- Can I look for, I guess, new arrivals?

I'm interested in what
the latest memories were.

- Go ahead and give me a snoop check.

We'll call it a difficulty of six.

- Cool, I got no more Moxie. (laughing)

(Trapp makes a sound of disappointment)
- Can I give him a couple Moxie on that?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Plus one, so that's a five.
So I just need one more.

- Okay, great, so I'll give you one Moxie.

- Okay, so you grab the Moxie there.

You start looking at new arrivals,

and you see one of the
newest memories to come in

that you can kind of flip
through in your head,

you see that the narrative sort of starts,

I walked boldly into Mr. Henry's office

knowing that this was
finally my opportunity

to demand some answers
and voice the concerns

that I had long been
having, and in this moment,

I turned around as I was joined

by two of my compatriots at the company.

And that's the memory.
- It goes black after that!

(players laughing)

What could this mean? That's weird.

- That's the freshest memory
of the docket that you find.

- Okay, cool, I'm curious of the moment

that Imelda says she influenced
him, when he moved the file.

- In the memory, if you go
to one a little bit earlier,

you can see he ducked into a side room,

an unoccupied office.

It looks like, in other words,
you're beginning to find

things of Elias being a little
sneaky, doing some stuff.

This impulse to grab this
thing kind of committed him

to a path that he was
not ready to travel down,

and there is an office
about 12 floors down

from Mr. Henry's office
that he took his packet open

of all his research and
spread it out to review it.

And you see in his memory,

finding exactly what I had suspected,

I turned around to head to
Mr. Henry's office posthaste.

So you find that,

and you have this massive
book with you as well.

- I go back towards Imelda.
Pretty good detective work!

Pretty slick on my part,
if I do say so myself.

- This book is big.

(players laughing)

Do we want to read it here?
Do we want to take it with us?

I don't know if I want
to read all of this.

- Can I just look around again

to see if there are any other
prying eyes around here?

- [Brennan] Give me one last snoop check.

Call it a difficulty of six.

- That is a one,

but I will take two Moxie,
thank you very much.

(ball sliding on a track and clanking x2)

Thank you.

- So, you have the book with you here.

It could take a long time
to read it, so it's possible

that maybe this is something
that you could get into later.

- Sure, yeah. Well, we
have it 'til Wednesday.

And Wednesday is forever
away, as far as I'm concerned.

Let's just steal it!

(players laughing)

- Yeah, all right.

I mean, I'm really curious
about what's in this thing, so.

- Great, let's get out of here

and go to the De'lux Industrial
place in Occipital Park.

- You all head off to Occipital Park.

Occipital Park, all the way
in the back of the brain.

This is an industrial neighborhood,
(techy music)

lots of warehouses and factories
and working class places.

A lot of people commute in here.

It's a very industrial place,

and as it's getting
later and later at night,

it's almost a little bit of
a ghost town around here.

You see a few folks, machinists,

coming out of a motor control area.

You see a bunch of
people that are just here

to coordinate balance
and kinesthetic sense

walking out like, (sighs)
long day of keeping

whoever this motherfucker
is from falling down.

And then heading off to
public transportation.

As you head towards the
area of Occipital Park,

which is a bunch of visual areas,

you see the big lights
of De'lux Industrial.

You can see it's De'lux,
D-E apostrophe L-U-X.

You can see it's De'lux,
D-E apostrophe L-U-X.

- Oh god, all right. Okay.

(Brennan makes a sound of
satisfaction with his punnery)

- As you all sort of
convene and look here,

the place is closed.

Obviously the eyes are closed,

so you know that's not
too unusual, but normally,

there are some people around
that can reopen the eyes.

There's machinery in here.

Looks very quiet, very dark in there.

What would you all like to do?

You see these other figures
coming out of the mist

and joining back together
here in this place.

- Just before we do anything,

I do a real quick catch-up on everyone.

- [Hank] Share all the information.
- Download, download.

- [Trapp] Download, download, download.

- I don't know if we
share the ice skate story.

That seems a little heavy.
Not necessary at the moment.

- Yeah, the ice skates-
- That was just for The Fix.

- Those are cool ice skates.
You going skating later?

- We saw some skates.

(players laughing)

- I think this calls for some
pretty slick detective work,

so I think we all know who's
the man for the job here.

- Me!

(Brennan laughing)

- How do you want to approach

the closed industrial space of De'lux?

- I start walking towards it.

(tense action music)

I go over to, I assume,
just a regular lock.

- [Brennan] Mm-hm.

A regular lock situation.

I pull out a hairpin,
kind of snap it in half,

and start using it as a lock pick.

- This is going to be a
difficulty eight sneak.

- That's five, and then six, seven,

and I'm going to use a Moxie.

(sound of lock clicking)

- The lock opens up. The door swings wide.

All of you enter De'lux Industrial.

Moving through the space, I'm
going to ask everyone here

for a snoop, difficulty of 12.

- Go ahead and-
- One plus two, three.

- Three as well.

- I got, oh, I exploded.
- I also exploded.

- Yes!
- [Hank] We have some exploding.

- Should I roll it again?

- [Brennan] Mm-hm, roll
it again and add it.

- [Danielle] Nice.
- That is a 22.

(players ooh)

- Oh my god.
- [Alex] That's a 15.

- What's that?
- 15.

- Nice. I got a 19.
- [Brennan] 19, okay, so-

- That side of the table,
- That side of the table did really well.

We don't need to know how we did.

- So, walking into this
space, as all of you enter-

- I'm sorry, not that
it really matters, 23.

- Incredible, incredible.
You exploded, right?

- I exploded. I rolled a 12 and a 10.

I forgot I had the plus one.
- Gotcha, cool cool cool.

So, figures move from the shadows quickly.

Anastasia and Hunch, you are first to act,

and you have only this
split second to react

as figures descend on your group

as you have walked out
into a wider chamber

that has this massive metal iris,

literally that oculus
style big collapsing iris

where you open the eyes up.

- I try to trip one of them, at least.

- Okay, go ahead and give me sharp.

It's snap decision. Difficulty
is going to be five.

- That is a three, and I'll
use two Moxie for five.

- Hell yeah, so all of you
watch Hunch leap into action

and just kick the legs out
from under one of these goons.

- Sorry, I keep forgetting my pluses.

That was three, I already
have a plus two on my sharp,

so that's five naturally.

I don't even have to use the Moxie.

- Oh, amazing, so you
just succeed. Hell yeah.

Hunch, hey, listen,
you're a big chunk of meat

who mostly just gets his ass kicked,

but you've been at it enough to know

that you can kick the legs out
from someone jumping at you.

Bam, one of the goons
hits the floor. Anastasia.

- So Anastasia, I am going
to take off my trilby

- So Anastasia, I am going
to take off my trilby

and I'm going to throw it on the ground,

almost like the banana peel in Mario Kart.

- [Freddie] Oh, yes!

- So that hopefully one
of them slips and falls.

- Incredible, go ahead
and give me a sneak roll

and we'll call that a difficulty of six.

- [Danielle] Sneak?
- Snap decision.

- I'm going to go ahead
and use my nerves of steel,

spend one Moxie to treat a snap decision

as a planned action and halve it.

- Oh, baby!

So, completely unfazed
by the sudden danger,

you throw your trilby.

You see another goon
slips and goes, ugh! Wool!

So naturally oily and slippery!

(players laughing)

Two goons hit the deck.

The other two are going to get to act

before everybody else goes,

and they are going to come for Conrad.

- Oh boy.
(action music)

- Conrad, I am going to need
a sturdy, difficulty of five,

- Conrad, I am going to need
a sturdy, difficulty of five,

and I will need a sneak,
difficulty of eight.

- Okay. Sturdy, three,
but I'll use two Moxie.

- I can use one for two. I have loyalty.

- Oh, thank you.
(players aww)

- Incredible.

Okay, so one of them,

you just burn one, and
that counts for two.

- Oh wow, that's so nice.
- So you get a plus two.

(group laughing)

You see The Fix actually,
you are going to dodge,

and this guy's going to grab
you and bowl you to the ground,

and you see The Fix,
with this wild wingspan,

just clock the guy's arm out
of the air and swat him away.

I'm going to need that sneak
check, difficulty of eight.

- 14 plus two, 16.

- By the time that second arm comes,

after The Fix knocks the first guy out,

the second guy jumps for
you, and you just flatten

as fast and quick as possible, just down.

Justin goes... (barking furiously)

Now the rest of you can go.

We'll go in order of highest sneak,

so I think Conrad, you're
going to be first to act.

- Okay, I rush to go to Justin.

I don't know what else
to do in this situation.

- Yeah, for sure.

Do you want to hide behind
Justin, or do you want-

- No, I hug him.

(players laughing)
- Aww.

- [Brennan] Oh, you go to protect Justin!

- I just hug him.

- Okay, you go and just hug Justin.

Just take a Moxie. That's very sweet.

That's just a very incredibly
sweet thing. Incredible.

Over at this side of the table,

who's got the higher sneak here?

- I have d12 on a sneak.

- I have a 10.
- Four.

- [Brennan] Okay, so Dan Fucks, you're up.

- I think Dan is going
to see stuff going on.

He's going to clock that
they're going for Conrad,

and then is going to say,

that little shit ran out over that way!

(Brennan and Alex laughing)

- Okay, this is going to be,
I'm going to say, slick 15.

- Slick 15.

- Don't you have a hiding thing, too?

- I do.
- 18.

- [Brennan] 18!
- [Danielle] 18! Let's go!

- [Brennan] One of these goons-

- Senses my animosity, the truth within-

- The truth that you hate.

- All good acting comes
from a place of truth.

- He says, he called him a little shit!

(players laughing)

You see he goes,

(western action music)

I'll remember that you did a
favor for ol' Johnny Gullible.

(group laughing)

He fucking tears out of
here. (speeding sound)

Imelda.

- There's three of them left?
- Three of them left.

Two of them are on the ground,

but one of them is still going for Conrad.

- Hm, I'm going to go to one
of the ones on the ground

and say, let me help you up,

and I just palm them some money.

(players laughing)

- If you just want to-

- I'm going to use one of my Moxies

to buy to ease a bad situation with cash.

- Uh-huh, hell yeah.

You use a Moxie. You hand it.

The guy on the floor looks up,

takes the money, and goes, hey.

I only do this bullshit for
money, so problem solved.

Gets up and just slowly walks
out on his way. New life!

(group laughing)

Incredible. Fix, that's going to be you.

There's one guy still
up going after Conrad

and another guy on the ground.

- There's a guy still up? That's too bad.

(players laughing)

Is the guy going for Conrad

within reach of my very long arms?

- About half this enormous room

is within reach of your
very long arms, absolutely.

- Can I try to grab him?

- Yes, you absolutely can.
- Okay.

- He's going to roll
sturdy. He rolls a four.

You're going to roll sharp against this.

- It is going to be a 12.

- [Brennan] A 12. You
beat it by more than 5.

- 15, maybe.

- 15.
- Yeah.

- Oh yeah, protector.
This is absolutely a 15.

You grab this dude, no contest. Boom.

What do you do with him once you grab him?

- In his ear, I say,

I don't know if we've met
before, but I'm The Fix.

Did you know that more than
half the bones in your body

are in your hands and feet?
- [Siobhan] Oh no!

- [Freddie] The most threatening
thing I've ever heard.

- Legitimately, your fun
facts are fucking nightmarish.

(group laughing)

- Imagine if someone said that to you.

- As he's holding you.
- In a fight!

- You see the guy just
goes, fucking kill me, man.

Just kill me, man. Fucking kill me, dude.

- Why are you trying to hurt us?

- I suck, man. Kill me.

Kill me, dude. I'm bad. I'm a bad-
(players laughing)

- I need you to answer the question.

- I don't know, dude!

- Remind him of the fact again.

(players laughing)

- Whenever somebody says,

I'm going to break
every bone in your body,

I think, that's ridiculous.

It'd be way too much work.

But I could break half
the bones in your body.

- [Freddie] For not a lot of work.
- No, no, man! No way!

He starts snapping his own fingers
(bone snapping sounds)

(players laughing)

and passes out into unconsciousness,

which is the second person

The Fix has absolutely defeated in combat

through just talking to them.
(players laughing)

Fuck this, dude! Fuck this!

(players laughing)

And you are left, and we go back

to Hunch and Anastasia, who acted first.

There's just one guy left on the ground.

- I grab him by the collar
and say, who sent you here?

- Go ahead and give me a slick check.

- I say, if it helps, half
the bones in your body

are in your hands and feet!

(players laughing)

- Give me a slick check. We'll
call it difficulty of six.

- Okay!

Here's a go!

(players laughing)

Three. Nope, unless anyone
can give me a Moxie.

- I can give you two.
- I'll give you a Moxie.

- I can give you one,
which is sage motivator.

You can spend a Moxie to help a friend,

even if I'm not present,
but you need to remember

a pep talk that I gave
you for that plus one.

- I only need one.

I can burn two to get to
five, so I just need one more.

- I'll burn my one there for the pep talk.

Harp, flashback.
(harp flashback sound)

- [Brennan] Flashback
to a time that Dan Fucks

talked to Hunch and said something

about intimidating people.

- Yeah, let's see it.
- [Trapp] I like how my memory-

- It's all you. No, it's all you.

- I remember you said, when
you're intimidating someone,

the most important thing

is to touch down to their very soul,

the thing that they fear the most,

because that's the thing
that will make a man crumble,

the thing that they think
no one else can see.

Try to find that before
you find anything else.

(Brennan makes harp
flashback mouth sounds)

- The guy looks at you and he says, what?

Half your what is what?

- It was a thing I heard, but...
(players laughing)

I try to look at him and I try
to see if I can get a vibe,

I try to look at him and I try
to see if I can get a vibe,

if he's a memory, or what he is,

and see if I can try to get a sense of him

and use his identity
against him, basically.

- Looking into his eyes,
you recognize this guy.

You saw him in a mugshot one time.

You know his name is Simon Praise.

- I grab him by collar. Listen.

Nobody loves you. Nobody
has ever loved you.

Everything you've ever
heard has been shallow talk.

- No, no, no!

You're watching Hunch talk to this guy,

and he is withering and emaciating.

No, I'm a good, special
boy! I'm good at science!

- No, no one has ever been sincere

about any kind thing
they ever said to you.

(slurping withering sound)
Tell us who sent you here!

- Who else?

Don Avaricci.

(starts dying)

- I wipe a finger on his face
and go, yeah, that checks out.

- Freak! You freaky freak, ew!

And dies.

(players laughing)

- Damn, Hunch, you're hardcore!

(players laughing)

That's why you're my
favorite customer, my man.

- Thanks, man. That praise
really makes me feel good.

(group laughing)

- Out from the door, you hear
Johnny Gullible go, ha ha ha!

I'm not finding him!

(group laughing)

The goons defeated, all of you look up

at the giant metal oculus in front of you

and see a massive lever to the side,

a reflexive way to
bypass the conscious mind

a reflexive way to
bypass the conscious mind

and reflexively open the eyes

and at least restore
raw vision to Mentopolis

of the world of the big guy, Elias Hodge.

- I think our work here is done.

(players laughing)

- I want to see! I want
to see what's going on!

- I go and throw the switch.

- Of course, curiosity.

- Just jumping in. Let's fucking see!
- [Brennan] Reflexively.

Let's fucking see, and again,
you've been running around

dealing with memories
and neurotransmitters,

receptors and sensory stuff.

This is going to be raw feed.
(building string music)

This is before it even gets to
the visual processing center.

You're going to get the raw
feed of exactly what's happening

in the outside world, which
is sort of interesting,

of course, because the
outside world, you know,

you all move at the speed of
thought, so the outside world

is like, ooh, what are
we going to be seeing?

Hopefully we're not just
walking in a hallway

or something like that.

Then we'll have to wait forever
to get to where we're going.

You throw the switch,
and light fills the room,

and you behold what the big guy beholds.

(glass shattering)

(all screaming and being shocked)

- Oh no!
- [Siobhan] It's so bad!

- [Danielle] We've been defenestrated!

- Oh, dear Dr. Hodge
has been defenestrated!

And that's all for this episode
of "Dimension 20: Mentopolis!"

And that's all for this episode
of "Dimension 20: Mentopolis!"

Tune in next week as we take a
little tumble out the window.

See you then.

I angry.

- Yeah, you think?

(players laughing)

Sorry, sorry. Sorry,
sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!

- Stand up for yourself!
- (terrified) Okay!

- Oh my god.

We gotta get Elias to touch his balls.

(players laughing)

- What?
- Hear me out, okay?

- I slap (slap) him across the face.

Curio, you're mad! You're nuts!

- Hit him again.

(players laughing)
(slapping sound)

- Hey there, fellas.

Youse palookas come in here
to throw some fists around?

- Yeah, that's right.

- I don't think you can take a real fight.

- I think I can steal a fight.

I think I can take all the fights.

I could take the fights
and put them in a bank

and get interest on the fights

so I develop more fights over time.

- Compounding interest even, yes.

- The only thing that's gonna
get com-pounded is your skull!

We have reason to believe that your cousin

may be involved with some
ne'er-do-wells and ruffians

down from the temporal lobe.

- I haven't speaken to or heard
from Imelda Pulse in years.

Me and my family are... estranged.

(Brennan gasps)

- You know what's going
on in this city right now?

- Do you?

- I know something's
going on in this city.

- You really want to
know what's happening?

I'll tell you.

We get to feel good when
I say we get to feel good!

And we don't get to feel good

unless we do what we
said we're going to do!

That's how it works!

So, we're going to do things
a little bit differently.

(scary reverberating sound)

Hello, Fix.

(cheerful jazz music)