Dimension 20 (2018-…): Season 19, Episode 3 - F For Freezer - full transcript
The PIs scramble to uncover the truth before Elias meets his end.
(cool opening noir music)
(Brennan drumming on the table)
- Hello, one and all!
Welcome back to another
thrilling episode of
"Dimension 20: Mentopolis."
I'm your humble GM, Brennan Lee Mulligan.
With me, as always,
are our Prefrontal PIs.
Say hi, Prefrontal PIs!
- [Everyone] Hi, Prefrontal PIs.
- You did it! Freddie did it!
Freddie said the whole thing!
- Yeah, hell yeah.
- It felt so strange.
(players laughing)
(fun, chill noir music)
- Last we left off, oh, what a doozy.
A couple of things happened
in the last episode.
We went to Oblongata Station and we
found a pain courier from
the scalp and we found-
- Yeah, what else happened?
- Oh, I guess we found Wilton,
who is sort of a pleasure courier.
- New fan favorite for sure.
(players laughing)
- [Brennan] New fan favorite.
- I'm really looking forward
to the Wilton fan art.
(players laughing)
- Let's get the Wilton fan art in here.
We know what he sounds like,
but what does he look like?
- We know what he looks like.
We know, we know.
- [Brennan] We know what he looks like.
- Wrinkly.
- I think he's very wrinkly,
and I think the whiskers are-
- A little scraggly.
- For lack of a better word,
patchy, patchy and scraggly.
- Just a damp man.
- A damp, damp man with
strange, strange hair.
(players laughing)
We also went to the Hippo
Campus where we checked out
an incredibly important
sequence of memories
thanks to the beloved
status of Imelda Pulse,
and we also found the more recent-
- And the extremely good detective work.
(players laughing)
- [Brennan] That's right.
- A slick move
by one Detective Hunch Curio,
AKA Stacy Fakename.
(players laughing)
- The Fakenames are going to
get so many questions after.
We've got accused of
being all over the city!
(players laughing)
Some incredibly important
short term memories
to help explain the context
of the most recent activities of one
Elias Hodge, AKA the big guy.
We also saw into the dwelling place
and the kind of treasure
trove of one Conrad Schintz
and his dog Justin,
seen for the first time
by someone other than those two, The Fix.
We witnessed the retrieval
of a pair of ice skates
to help conceal the faked
death of the young lad Conrad
to help conceal the faked
death of the young lad Conrad
to be given to DA M. Bition
back at City Hall.
All of you converged from that place
(retrofuturistic music)
back near Occipital Park
and De'lux Industrial,
the raw vision center of
the brain where the light
first comes in, enters Mentopolis
from the outside world.
There, you mopped the
floor with some goons,
mostly tripping them with
a series of hats and kicks.
(players laughing)
- A lot of slipping.
- And then for the second
time this campaign,
convincing someone to just stop existing.
(players laughing)
Just frightening them so bad
that they just sort of self-immolated.
Opening the ocular
center, hoping to discover
why these eyes might
have been closed after
all these strange events,
a highway collapses and
a flood of adrenaline
in the train yard coming
in from the kidneys,
you opened those eyes to see
(sound of glass shards tumbling)
one Elias Hodge plummeting,
surrounded by shattered glass
as a shadowy figure loomed out of a window
near the top floor of
Gobstopper Industries.
Time moves ever so slowly
in the outside world,
for indeed, all of you move
at the speed of thought,
but move at the speed of thought
with the phone lines down
and the highways partially collapsed.
And indeed, the very
first thing we begin with
is discussing the mammoth
amount of pressure.
(players gasping)
- It moves?!
- I thought it might move!
- Another mechanic! It's been there
the whole time!
- Son of a bitch!
- It's been there the
whole time! Holy sh...
(sound of something ramping up)
- [Danielle] I'm just going
to start touching stuff
when Brennan's not here.
- As the pressure builds all the way,
(ramping up hits its peak)
throughout the city, there's...
(explosions booming)
As blood begins to flow
more into the brain.
Somewhere, elsewhere in Elias
Hodge, a whole different city,
maybe like the Boston to your
New York, the heart picks up.
(Brennan mimics heart hammering)
As blood begins to flow,
all that adrenaline
has been doing its job in the
city and the pressure builds.
Having gotten all the way up
to a pressure score of 80...
- Systolic? 80 over...
- Like a BPM kind of thing?
- [Freddie] Yeah, where are we at here?
- I think that he might
actually, that this,
there's a 1930s old-timey
kind of phrenology
that will be discarded by our modern day,
and that's the system we're using.
- Oh, it's 80 that. Okay,
got it, got it, got it.
- It's something that doesn't-
- Your humor pressure is off the charts!
(players laughing)
- Unbelievable, your pressure's at 80!
80 what? It's at 80!
(players laughing)
- Grab the leaches!
- Out of what? Yes!
- Exactly!
With your pressure score
there in the yellow,
all Moxie costs are doubled.
(players gasping and woahing)
all Moxie costs are doubled.
(players gasping and woahing)
Under pressure, everything's become
a little bit higher stakes for Elias,
meaning action is still possible.
None of your stats are lowered.
The difficulties all remain the same,
but doing those kind of exceptional things
has become a little bit harder
under all this pressure.
With that being said,
you look at the ocular
center in front of you.
Time has slowed in that outside world.
Elias is in bullet time.
However, all of you are here.
What is your reaction
in the moment of seeing that ocular sight?
- Oh my god.
We gotta get Elias to touch his balls.
(Brennan laughing)
- What?
- What? Hear me out, okay?
- I slap him across the face.
(slapping sound, players laughing)
What are you talking about?
- No, listen!
No no, hear me out, okay?
- Curio, you're mad! You're nuts!
- Hit him again.
(slapping sound)
(players laughing)
- Okay, one more time!
(slapping sound)
(players laughing)
No, okay, now hear me out.
Danny Fucks said that Wilton said
there's something buzzing
in this guy's balls, right?
- Danny is off in the corner
staring at his own hands
and is like, (sniffles) what matters?
What does it matter what I said?
What was the point of this whole life?
A life in pursuit of endless
pleasure, but for what?
To what end? It all comes to an end.
- Right, exactly!
And we know that Elias's last memory
(Hank laughing)
involved him, two goons blacking him out,
so if there's something
buzzing on this guy's junk,
that either means that they put it on him,
but why would you do that
if you're pushing him out a window?
Or he put it there himself.
Now, that had to be premeditated
if we didn't even see it in that memory,
which means he's put something there
that he wanted to keep hidden,
because that's why you would
put something near your junk!
Look at all the stuff
I got hidden down here!
I show all the things I
don't want people to see.
- My god!
- Ball bearings, a full trench coat.
(objects clattering)
- [Danielle] There's so much in there!
- Now, I don't know what this thing is
that's buzzing down there, but if Elias
put something down there,
it's gotta be important.
- Hunch!
- It doesn't have to be
important. It could just be sexy.
- I suppose, look, now
listen, you could be right.
It could be something sexy.
He wanted to get off a little bit
before he went to go confront the big man.
But we know he was putting
all these pieces together
about the information before
going up to talk to Mr. Henry.
Mr. Henry? Is that the name?
- [Brennan] Mr. Henry, that's right.
- Mr. Henry! We know that he did all this!
We knew he was walking into danger.
He knew he was walking into danger.
Maybe, now maybe that's a little bit of an
edging kind of thing, maybe it's
a new thing, (Freddie laughing)
maybe that's an extra
special way to get off.
If so, very curious to
learn about that too.
(players laughing)
But I do think there's
something going on in the balls,
and I think we need to get
Elias to touch his balls!
- Hunch, are you saying...
that we should- we should
have one last romp?
(Brennan breathlessly laughing)
One last go around here
before we kick the bucket
so to speak?
- Danny,
if I'm wrong, at least we'll go out
with a little bit of oxytocin
in our system, right?
- By god, man, you're right!
You've lifted my ill spirits!
Hell yeah, brother! Let's do this shit!
- I personally have been trying
to get him to inappropriately
touch his balls
in public for a long time.
(players laughing)
- If not now, when?
- If not now, when?
- If not you, who?
(players laughing)
- If not who, how?
- If not how, then... (confused) what?
- Exactly!
- [Freddie] Yes, precisely.
What is it? What is it down there?
- You know you have the key.
- I do have the key.
- And with the key, that
is the key to those.
- You can tell him to touch his balls.
- Can we tell him to touch his balls?
- Well-
(group laughing hysterically)
- Well-
(group laughing hysterically)
As this is going on, Justin looks over
at Conrad and says, are we going to...
We're falling out of a skyscraper.
Are we about to whip our dick out?
(players laughing)
- Justin.
Conrad turns to just have a convers-
a conversation with Justin.
- [Freddie] Sidebar.
- Sidebar.
I'm not sure, and it's not
really my problem anymore-
- Look, it's my job to find
reasons for why we do stuff!
(players laughing)
You know, it's easy, I
like working with you
because by the time
stuff you do gets to me,
it's already pretty justified.
But all the stuff everybody else does,
I still have to find reasons for!
- Justin, okay, I'm sorry
you're stressed, buddy,
but listen to me.
(Brennan whines)
This is all my fault.
The big guy is dying because of me,
so I'm going to turn myself in.
- Finally!
(players laughing boisterously)
- You're over here being like,
yes, we're going to
jerk off one last time!
So this little sidebar here, he says,
you're going to turn yourself-
- Sorry, that's the
loudest I've ever talked.
(group laughing hysterically)
(group laughing hysterically)
- We're not dying because of you.
- It's been really nice to have
a group looking out for me,
but look at how much
they've already suffered,
and how everybody's suffering,
and it's because of me.
It's because I made the big
guy do this. So we gotta turn-
Well, you can do whatever you want,
but I'm going to turn myself in.
- You see Justin go, well
just hold on a second!
And you see that Justin is
going to bound over to The Fix.
Give me a snoop check. We'll
call it difficulty four.
- Six.
- You sense that Justin
senses how serious you are
and knows that you mean this,
and you think he's going to go
tell people what you just said
because he doesn't want you to do this.
- J- Justin, wait! No, stop!
Stop! What are you doing?
- I don't want you to go.
- I told you this off
to the side on purpose.
(players laughing)
(stammering)
- If you ask me to keep
it a secret, I will,
but I won't feel good about it.
- Well, I don't want you to do anything
you don't feel good about.
- I'd like to roll for it,
but it feels right that
I'd be listening in.
I'm constantly listening in on everyone.
- [Brennan] Sure, sure sure sure.
(players laughing)
- [Freddie] I was gonna ask the same.
I'll actually say, go ahead
and give me a sneak check,
if you'd be so kind, because
Conrad is very sneaky.
- For sure.
- Two plus two, four.
- Okay, so it's a four snoop check
for people to observe this.
As a planned action, if you
want, you can halve your snoop.
- How much was it?
- [Brennan] Four. Difficulty of four.
- I'll halve it.
- [Brennan] Cool, so
attention and curiosity-
- I also-
- Yeah, I also halve it.
- Everybody except pleasure.
(Alex laughing)
I love it, every part of the brain
can notice conscience but pleasure.
(players laughing)
- Also, you said butt pleasure.
(whip cracking)
(players laughing)
- Oh, my brother!
- Hey, if we're stopping by the crotch,
we're only a few inches away!
- Just around the corner, as it were!
- So yes, I think everyone here notices,
notices Conrad in this moment.
So to answer your question about the key,
yes, you still have the key.
You used the Switchboard
at Cerebell Pacific.
- Uh-huh.
- Give me a savvy,
difficulty of nine.
- Okay.
- Ooh.
- Oh my god, no.
No, that's a four.
- There you go.
(ball sliding on a track)
Time to start collecting
some Moxie, anyway.
- Yeah.
- So in other words, you are aware
that that's the one you use.
It's the one that's in Cortex
City. It's easy to find.
With that being destroyed,
you wouldn't know where
to apply your key to
in order to get Elias to impulsively...
You- You have- If you can
find a way to make him
feel an impulse, yeah, absolutely.
- [Siobhan] Sure.
What did you end up rolling on your savvy?
- Four.
- On a four, it's like
that's the key switch
that your family uses because
you're so hoity toity.
You go to the communication
center of the brain and
make an impulse happen.
On a four, I don't think any back channels
would come to mind, but you know
that like, there's always
the conscious mind.
Like you could try to go to the mayor
or go to the people that run the show.
- Those people are so boring.
(players laughing)
Ambition? Ugh, no.
Logic? Ugh.
(fun planning music)
(Brennan laughing lightly in delight)
We could- We could talk-
We could talk to them, if we have to.
Maybe Logic will hear the fact
that we're falling out
of a goddamn window.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- It makes sense.
(Brennan laughing)
He ran a whole campaign on it!
- Sure.
- Or...
- We could go to the
ball- I'm for balls. I'm-
(players laughing)
Just to be clear, team
balls in this situation.
- To get there, though,
what if we did this?
I've hatched a plan.
Conrad, you little shit!
Why don't you turn yourself in?
- Oh.
(players laughing)
And that way, while The Fix
and Conrad are distracting
the higher functions, we can sneak in.
- Sneak in.
- Get the impulse in play,
and fulfill our destiny.
- Take an incognito train.
- That seems a little risky, my friend.
- Oh, yes.
- No, no. Let's do it.
- Yes, my idea is a good one!
- I don't think Conrad
should turn himself in.
I don't- I don't see how...
- I can distract that guy
without Conrad's help.
- No, I think it's actually very important
that Conrad turns himself in.
(players laughing lightly)
- Yeah, no, for the first
time, I agree with Mister F...
(players laughing)
- Don't you want to say it, though?
Just a little bit, in
front of all these adults?
- Yeah, I mean, if the world is ending.
- [Siobhan] Sure!
- (truly so quietly) Mr. Fucks.
- What's that? Louder, louder.
- [Siobhan] You can say it
louder than that.
- I think I got it that time.
(players laughing)
- What are we hoping to
gain by offering up Conrad?
- Exactly.
- We- We're- Nothing.
- I don't see it that way at all.
(Trapp laughing)
- I'm going to go tell Mr.
Bition that I killed that kid.
That's what I was hired to do.
- Okay, so it seems like
we all have a similar plan,
just whether or not I
actually get turned in.
(players laughing)
- Conrad, I think you
are needed at the balls.
- Why?
- You're the only one that can drive!
- [Alex] I've never been to the balls!
What, are we going to take the train?
I don't take public transportation!
- Conrad, Conrad, I understan-
I never go to the balls either.
- Okay.
- Because it just makes me sad.
- Mm-hm.
(players laughing)
- I check out the balls
every once in a while.
- [Freddie] See what's going on.
- Yeah, out of curiosity.
What's going on down there?
- I understand why you would
never ever go to the balls,
but this one time, I
think you have to balls.
- Okay, I don't really
follow why, but alr- okay.
- There's some- I think he's
hidden something near his junk.
- Did you know...
(Freddie holds back laughter)
- My heart starts beating faster.
(rapid heart beat)
- ...that the urethra
contains taste receptors?
- Ew!
- [Danielle And Freddie] What?
- Taste bud-like structures.
- Bro, slow down. What?
- And that's all he has to say about that.
(players laughing)
- That makes me very curious.
(players laughing)
- During that, Conrad tries to,
tries to sneak away.
(group laughing)
- [Brennan] I love it, go
ahead and give me a sneak roll.
- Okay.
Aw man, it's a one plus two.
- Yeah, you're not getting anywhere.
- With the escape artist,
it's still just a five.
Six, sorry.
- A six? Anyone-
- I can see that on a planned action.
- Cool, yeah.
- What are you-
- [Brennan] Grab the kid.
- Stop it, let me go! Stop it, stop it!
- Arm around the shoulder.
- Freddie got one earlier
you didn't serve up.
- Oop.
- [Freddie] Thank you.
(ball sliding on a track)
- We also still got
this big, beautiful book
from the memory bank
that I think we should take
a look into at some point.
- For sure, but do we want to read
when we're falling out of a window?
(Trapp chuckling)
- We got time.
- We got time?
- Listen, I'm just the curious guy.
I want to pursue all these leads.
- You're right. Book
people, here's the book.
- [Freddie] We haven't blinked yet.
- Hell yeah.
In order to speed read this,
anyone who wants to can
give me a savvy of five.
- I got it.
- Oh, amazing.
So you open the book up.
(Cool whirring noise)
As you see it, you see
the entire psychometer project open up,
(mysterious music)
and funnily enough, you guys actually see
that there are, nearby
you in De'lux Industrial,
there are a couple of
different remote iris panels.
So you can actually sort of take the book
and plug it into one of these iris panels
and see the book sort of come to life,
which helps speed it up.
As you do so, you see
the life of working here
As you do so, you see
the life of working here
at Gobstopper Industries open
up throughout this memory.
The psychometer in its original schematics
starts as a sort of almost
dentist chair style structure,
like a place that you would sit down
and have something read or measured.
There's another memory as Elias is working
throughout his time at
Gobstopper Industries.
You see a sort of, you know,
going into the bathroom
on the first day, you see Elias's face
with a very pronounced scar over his face
with a very pronounced scar over his face
from being hit with an ice skate.
That scar sort of stayed on
his face for a long time,
and you can see him take his
hat and try to move it over
the scar up near his scalp.
A young, very hungry-looking person,
almost fresh out of college, essentially.
You see another memory
of this guy, Mr. Henry,
who pats him on the back
and says, incredible work.
That psychometer seems
very, very promising.
You look over Mr. Henry's shoulder
at a place where your
attention did not go,
and finally this memory has come back
in front of attention
and curiosity and impulse
and hyperfixation and all
these important things.
You look back and see in
the room by Mr. Henry,
there's a group of four star generals.
(serious, somber music)
There's some military types in that room.
You see there's another memory
later on in this project.
As Elias is working on all this stuff,
you see Mr. Henry knock and
the door and come in and say,
Elias, I meant to talk
to you for a moment.
We got some of your schematics
on this most recent version
that had some protections, you said,
to ensure that the psychometer
would not alter any thoughts
to ensure that the psychometer
would not alter any thoughts
as it was attempting to gain an accurate
reading so that we can
help diagnose patients and
understand the mind and how it works more.
Is there a very considerable risk of that,
that we might accidentally
be able to alter thoughts
with this thing if we're not careful?
And you hear Elias's voice
speak out, all of your voice.
I feel like all of you are almost parents
watching a kid on a stage
where you all kind of mouth
along to the stuff Elias says
as,
(Brennan laughing lightly)
as you hear Elias's voice
say, that's right, Mr. Henry.
The reading of thoughts,
this machine would actually be able to...
help us understand and map out the mind.
But of course, it's like
any radio wave or sonar.
There's an interaction,
there's actually something
from the machine touching the mind
to be able to get an accurate reading.
Like sonar, it hits and bounces back,
but it does make contact,
so you'd have to be extremely
careful to not send anything
at a frequency that would
alter anything within the mind.
Which, if the reading was too powerful
or the frequency was
calibrated in such a way
that it could affect
the electrical impulses,
would obviously be a very real risk.
You see Mr. Henry go,
huh. A very real risk.
Well, we want to avoid that, don't we?
And you see the memory continue on.
(whooshing)
You see more and more work.
You all kind of remember,
as times have gotten worse,
you see it's like wiping
dandruff off a black shirt.
There's a bunch of cups of coffee.
There's some sort of sleeplessness.
I think, you know, Anastasia,
you recognize this.
This is maybe the same day that that nice
person smiled at Elias
in the coffee shop and...
You see a sort of shaky hand,
being sort of overworked.
You see Mr. Henry come in again and say,
just had a talk with the boys in sales,
and I know we try to
keep you R&D fellas safe
from those jackals, but we
need to talk about portability.
There's a concern here
that with this whole thing
being a chair and a big
gewgaw, just the space!
We don't see a viability for
this as a product, necessarily.
You know, you've worked on,
I think you came up
through projectiles, right?
You see Elias is like, well,
I did work on that in school.
I applied to that department
just because of my senior proj-
Loved your senior project!
Loved it! (laughs)
Love an ingenious young
gadgeteer like you, Elias.
But I think something a
little bit more compact,
like you've worked on in the past.
Something that a person might
be able to carry with them.
You see Elias says, okay.
Well, that would require...
You see Mr. Henry says,
money's no object, kid.
We can... increase your budget.
And you remember that
increase your budget thing,
and all of a sudden,
at the edges of this memory,
(sinister string music)
you see the face of the DA
and the face of Don Avaricci
you see the face of the DA
and the face of Don Avaricci
both sort of go, increase your budget?
Like, this sort of, and,
you feel these figures that
have been swimming at the edge.
After that, you see the
memory just continues on,
finishing the packet,
finishing the packet,
finishing the packet,
and as it's happening,
you see the schematics compressing
from a chair with large
X-ray machines and arms
and something a little bit smaller,
which would be a portable engine,
(sounds of shifting machines)
and then the engine gets smaller
until it even can be
picked up in two hands.
And all the while, as the
schematics change and reconfigure,
And all the while, as the
schematics change and reconfigure,
you see that there are notes
left in the margins about,
need to find way to include
previously mentioned safeguards.
As it starts to come down
to different frequencies,
you see finally Elias
finding some research
from some other researchers
in his department.
There appear to be people that have noted
some of his work in the
margins, and you see
that there is a double
frequency, a mirrored wave.
He has his line, and
there's a weird mirror to it
that's been added in a margin somewhere,
and I'm going to need another savvy check,
difficulty of six from-
- I halve it.
- [Brennan] Halve it, boom.
Savvy's your d12?
- My d12, yeah.
- You start looking at those lines.
This is information
from the outside world,
and all of you exist in Mentopolis,
which is this living analogy
of these things on the outside
that you recognize, where it's like, oh,
that barking dog isn't just a barking dog,
it's going to create the
stimulus of a sudden shock
that's going to turn into
a person in our city.
Someone's going to come
out of the rail yard
being like, I'm a reaction to loud noises!
So as you're looking at that
(epic, retrofuturistic music)
doubt- that sort of like,
reflected double frequency line,
you can almost feel
your vision going blank,
and you almost feel an impulse
of your own within yourself.
The lines begin to compress,
and as they compress, they
begin to form a shape,
and as they begin to form a shape,
the shape narrows and narrows,
the lines contorting
into curves and teeth,
the lines contorting
into curves and teeth,
and all of a sudden, a blinding white key
(light moving swiftly)
enters your vision, (snap)
and then you stop seeing it.
(pleasant light sound)
- Is this...
Is this key that key?
- You look at your key.
It's a lovely, shiny brass,
like a normal key would be.
That other key, it hummed
with a synaptic energy.
That other key, it hummed
with a synaptic energy.
There was something malevolent
and something alien
about that key you saw.
- Can I maybe do a check to see
if I could suppose that that key
if I could suppose that that key
was the key that broke
the Cerebell Pacific machine?
- Let me get a 10 snoop from
anybody here at the table.
- Oh, okay, thank god.
- Was Imelda the only
one who saw that key?
- Oh!
- I'll halve it.
- I exploded.
- Halve it. Oh, exploded!
- I got a 10!
(Brennan laughing)
(players cheering)
- I'll also do a planned action
there with the snoop and-
- Hell yeah, as you begin to point it out,
everyone else, as Imelda
starts pointing it out,
can all see in the frequency,
in the same way that a trained musician
(low rumble)
can look at sheet music
and hear the melody, right,
whereas to anyone else it's just dots,
you all look at a frequency
and begin to see a white key.
And as you see a white key, Anastasia,
(low rumble hastening)
you saw the Switchboard earlier.
(tense music)
The Switchboard was destroyed
by something way bigger than a key.
It looked like an explosion or buckshot
or something like that
hit the Switchboard,
but you see this
like humming piece of
energy that has almost...
like a...
light-based bleaching effect,
like there's something about it
that would suck the
specificity out of them,
and you suddenly remember
seeing some artifacts
that were on that police
cart that was moved away,
that were on that police
cart that was moved away,
and you remember all the way back
to the beginning of this mystery
where that cart got moved away,
and you remember a
couple of shards of glass
and some broken parts of the console,
and specifically you also remember
that one of the things they
took that had been taken off
was a pocket square that,
you were like, oh a white corner
that fades into a pattern?
And then you realize, no no no,
the pocket square was a full pattern,
and it had been robbed of color.
And you remember that that pocket square
was taken off the body of Norrell Ojiccle.
- Oh no. So we got
zapped by our own petard.
(players laughing)
- It does seem that way.
- Just let me talk this
through for a second
so I feel like I understand as a human.
Before we got pushed out of
a window, something happened,
and that something is
probably, we got psychometered.
- I think so.
- I think so.
- I think that key, that is
the physical manifestation
- I think that key, that is
the physical manifestation
of the effect of someone
being able to unlock something
within our mind,
an outside key unlocking our mind.
- Yeah, and also change it.
- [Trapp And Danielle] And change it.
- I didn't get the part
with the pocket square.
- So Norrell was close
by when this happened,
and the bleaching of the pocket square
is like a bleaching of memory.
- Oh, from the key.
- Seems like the key and Norrell Ojiccle
were probably in close proximity
at the time of the explosion.
- That's what killed him, somehow.
- And he didn't have it coming,
because he was just there.
- Yes.
- All right.
- So, the balls?
(group guffawing)
- You guys, you're falling to your death.
There's something at the balls.
- There's something in the evidence cart.
- But also, like you're saying,
there is something with this
memory of the psychometer,
and specifically of some of the things
at the edges of Elias's
consciousnesses or conscious mind
at the edges of Elias's
consciousnesses or conscious mind
surrounding the psychometer
and how the project changed
or what happened to it
that clearly tells some other story.
In other words, it's like
you begin to put together
that there is a layered
series of threats here,
multiple things happening all at once.
Oh yeah, Anastasia.
- Sorry, I'm having a thought.
That's my having a thought face.
- [Brennan] Love it.
- I apologize.
So, I believe it is possible
that not only did that key
happen to mess with
dear sweet Mr. Ojiccle,
I also believe that we can see that now,
powerful people who run this city
are trying to keep that
information from being out.
Is it possible that one of
the things that that key does,
is it possible that it
has affected the DA?
Is it possible that it
has affected Mayor Logic?
- Oh boy.
- Are all of these people now,
have they been changed by the psychometer,
and now they are actively
working against us
because all of the people at Gobstopper
are making them do so?
- Or were they the ones that
chose to use the psychometer?
- That's also a possibility.
- I know these men. They will
do anything for their power.
- Oh dear.
So, we, we kill them?
(players laughing)
- Whoa! That's a jump!
- First, the balls.
- First the balls, and then murder.
(Brennan laughing)
- So, having seen that
memory, you close the book.
You'll have to make some alteration to it
before you return it to-
- Add something fun.
- Sure, yes. I make the man
have a different colored hat.
His hat has a big feather
coming out of it now,
and I swear to god it's real.
(Brennan laughing)
- You change that.
You change a huge, important
part of the memory.
(Freddie and Brennan laughing)
Seal the book up.
You're still here in De'lux Industrial,
and you do actually have this
little kind of mini ocular
portable thing with you.
You have broken in here, but
you already beat the shit
out of a bunch of people and whatever,
so you do have a little
mini portable oculus
with you now that you can take.
- So we can see outside?
- Yes, in order words, it's a way for you
to keep tapped in
to what the eyes are seeing.
- What is going on outside, got it.
Great, great.
- Convenient.
- There you go.
What is it that you all do now?
- So the place where I would
usually use my key is broken,
and I don't know if there are
any other places we can use it
but maybe we can talk to the mayor.
- Can I roll for, I'm
guessing this would be,
would this be a snoop?
- This would actually be savvy,
because this is knowledge. Yeah.
- This would be savvy?
Yeah, can I roll for savvy and see
if I would know where
there are other keyholes?
- It's a difficulty nine,
but I'm actually going to
say for Anastasia's purposes,
and I don't want to tip my hand too much,
that for you, the
difficulty's actually seven.
- [Siobhan] (gasp).
- Mm.
- Okay.
(Alex laughs lightly)
Come on, baby.
'Splode, 'splode, 'splode,
'splode, 'splode, 'splode.
(sighs) Okay.
- What do add?
- How far away are you?
- [Danielle] That's a two.
- Oh fuck.
- Okay, we got some Moxie.
- Yeah, but Moxies are double now.
- Yeah, the costs are doubled.
- I'll use my four Moxie to give you two.
- Yeah, I'll give you
two also from my four.
- Okay, so that's-
- [Hank] What are we trying to get to?
- Two.
- Two.
- So that would be four,
five, six, and then-
- I can give you two.
- I've got one more, so we are set.
- Let me give you two, because I get-
- You get extra.
- Because this is extra.
- Oh, that's right. Okay,
great, I'll take it.
- So Moxie costs double.
You feel the pressure.
Mentopolis is flooded with excess power.
(electricity flowing)
It's almost like you can hear rumbling
from the power plants nearby.
As you begin to think of,
where did I see a key?
Where is a keyhole?
Imelda obviously uses the
one at the city center
at Cortex City, and suddenly you remember,
you've seen a keyhole earlier today
at the switchboard at Oblongata
Station, the reflexive one.
The reflexive switchboard,
in cases of emergency.
However, on that seven,
I will remind you that it
was not like the central one.
They got a big fancy one
up at Cerebell Pacific.
The one down there is extremely limited,
but you saw that it had
some safeguards around it
because it's just there in the
middle of the train station.
So there's a central keyhole there
that had four other
keyholes surrounding it,
and all you remember is
that the four keyholes
surrounding it seemed to be
almost like security measures.
surrounding it seemed to be
almost like security measures.
So if someone was going to do something,
there needs to be more than-
- A nuclear key. You
need simultaneous keys.
- We don't have to talk
to my parents, do we?
(players laughing)
- What you remember is that every one
of those four security keys
had an F next to it
with a period after.
And with that,
you believe that you do not need all four.
You just need one of
those other four keys.
- Oh, I know where we can get another key.
- Where?
- My freezer.
- F for freezer!
(players laughing lightly)
- (laughing) Nice.
(Brennan clapping)
- You're going to let me
come to your apartment?
- Absolutely not.
- Come on!
(players laughing)
- I want to see your apartment.
- [Alex] Does it need to be kept cold?
I want to see how you live.
- Out of curiosity,
what is Anastasia thinking
of in her freezer right now?
- So it's one of those gimmicky things.
They put things online
where they're like, hey,
if you have a problem with spending,
take your credit card and
put it in a block of ice
and then put the block
of ice in the freezer,
and then when you really
need it, you can just
defrost the block of ice.
- Sure.
- And so inside of Anastasia's freezer,
there's a key in a block
of ice which is surrounded
by some bottles of
vodka that are kept cold
and then just a lot of
ladies' meals for one.
So instead of Hungry-Man,
it's like Sad-Gal or something like that.
- [Brennan] Yes, yes yes yes.
- Famished Femme.
(players laughing)
- Incredible, so you have your key
from the Pulse family at the ready.
I just realized, Pulse and Tension
is a great name for a noir.
(players laughing)
- Pulse and Tension.
- Fan artists, get that poster going.
- Get that poster going.
So yes, you have your family key
back in a block of ice at your apartment.
With that, do you take off?
- Yes, but mostly because, oh god,
Anastasia feels as though
because she has not been
paying attention to the gonad region,
she feels as though she
has dropped the balls,
and so now it is her duty
(Siobhan laughing)
to go and see what is going
on there just in case.
Occasionally Hunch stumbles
into something correct,
and in this case, she doesn't
tell him that, (Hank laughing)
and in this case, it is possible that
(Siobhan laughing)
that is something that was said.
It is possible that we just
need any lead that we can.
It's possible, we do know
that we create gadgets and gadgetry,
so who knows what could be stuck up there?
Maybe it could be something
that could help you
if you've been
defenestrated, we don't know.
- We don't know.
So, the best path to the
balls is Oblongata Station,
which is where you saw that switchboard.
As high cognitive functions,
you probably can do all the interactions
with the body you need to
do from the station itself
rather than having to leave the mind.
So with that being said,
is everyone following
Anastasia and Imelda?
- I think we should
diversify our portfolio.
(players laughing)
I think,
I think we should try
to get this extra key
for a possible link to Oblongata Station,
and I think maybe The
Fix should see if we can
get- use his in at the DA
to see if we can somehow
access that other keyhole.
- Yeah, I need to talk to the DA anyway.
- [Brennan] Hell yeah.
- And hopefully see if
I can find out anything.
I don't know how.
- And I don't know where I want
to go. They both sound fun.
(players laughing)
- Can Conrad try to convince
The Fix to go along with him?
- Sure, yeah. What does
Conrad say to The Fix?
- Hey, Mr. The Fix?
I was going to just sneak along,
but I thought maybe that
would put your job in danger
if the DA found out you were lying,
so can I come with you
but in an honest way?
(players laughing)
- So- So I'm going to take you
to the man who told me to kill you?
- Yeah.
- [Hank] To, so that-
- Well, I guess don't
kill me in front of him,
but I just want to be turned in.
- So I'll take you there.
I'll be like, I got you this kid.
I decided not to kill him 'cause-
- Was it a take him
dead only kind of deal?
- That's usually how it works.
- Okay, okay.
- Kid, come with us.
- Wha-
Come on. (laughs)
Why you want to die? Why
do you want to die so bad?
- This is my fault!
- This is clearly Imelda's fault!
- It's my fault!
- Both of you are culpable.
- And I'm not turning myself in
under any circumstances, let me tell you.
- I think it's also Fucks'
fault, but I'm not sure why.
- No, no, no, no, no, no.
(Brennan laughing)
I choose not to see it that way.
(Hank laughing lightly)
- All right, well, I guess I tried.
- I think we keep Conrad as far
away from the DA as possible
and I think maybe The Fix needs-
- Why do you want to do that?
Is that just because you feel...
Do you want to help, or do
you want to just get murdered?
(players laughing)
- Because it's been at least two times now
you've tried to get murdered.
- I think it's different.
It's different than last time.
This time, I think it's
the right thing to do,
because it's been my fault, so
if we don't have me anymore,
maybe Elias will be safe.
- Yeah, I think you're wrong.
- Connie, my boy, I think
you're speaking sense
for the first time in your life.
- There we go, Mr.
(somewhat quietly) Fucks!
(players laughing)
I did it! I did it!
I did it!
- See? You're coming into your own.
Just in time, too, for you
will not long for this world.
- I think doing the right thing
is as much about doing
good actions in the future
as it is atoning for
bad actions in the past.
If you're just going to do one of those,
then you're only doing half the equation.
- I don't know what that means.
- It means that if you go now
and you get yourself murdered,
- It means that if you go now
and you get yourself murdered,
then that just means that
you haven't really atoned
for anything that you
believe you may have done,
because atonement is through actions,
and being murdered is kind of a reaction,
and so you need to be
able to pay it forward,
and you can wipe out your guilt
not by wiping yourself out,
but by doing more good in the future.
- Okay.
- [Brennan] You see Justin
looks over to you and says,
Conrad, there's more people
to turn yourself in to
than just the one guy we
know is trying to kill you.
- Whoa.
- [Brennan] You could turn
yourself in to Mayor Logic.
He's a reasonable guy.
- I don't like that idea.
- Okay, well...
(players laughing)
No, wait, I'll make it-
- Do you think that the
mayor and the DA talk?
- Oh, that's a great point.
(players laughing)
- You can turn yourself in to
me! I'm very authoritative.
- I think you turn
yourself in to Imelda here,
and I think that you
look at me in the eyes.
Now I'm going to tell you that eagles,
(players snickering)
(dramatic piano music)
when they grip onto somethin',
they actually have to
flex a muscle to un-grip.
So an eagle can hold
onto something so hard
that even after it dies, it never lets go.
But you are not an eagle.
You need to let go of whatever this is.
It is not about what happened
when you were 10 years old.
It is not about what happened
when you were 10 years old.
It's not about what happened
when you were 18 years old, 17.
All the other ages as
well, it's not about them.
It's about what happens
when you're the next age.
The next second, the next
minute, the next year.
Let go. Let go of those eagle talons.
- Conrad takes this in and
lets each of the other five
- Conrad takes this in and
lets each of the other five
un-claw one of the claws on his heart.
I don't...
(players laughing)
- I like the idea that
Conrad looked around,
and everyone's nodding,
and then you cut over to
Dan, he's like... (grumbling)
- I guess maybe there's four claws.
I don't know how many claws eagles have.
- I couldn't tell you either.
(Freddie and Hank laughing)
- Justin being one, also.
And says,
okay.
I'll- I'll do the balls thing.
(players wheezing and laughing)
(dramatic piano music stops)
- You want a cigarette, kid?
(players laughing boisterously)
- I really do, I really do! But no.
- Can I get a cigarette, too?
- Yeah.
(players laughing)
There's nothing in the rule
books to say dogs can't smoke.
- A dog smoking a
cigarette? This I gotta see!
(players laughing)
- Honestly, that sounds real cute.
(players laughing)
- Well, we are falling out of a window.
(group laughing)
- So you guys go ahead and take off.
I'm going to ask for one last...
savvy check here,
and I think this one is going
to be another difficulty...
and I think this one is going
to be another difficulty...
nine,
but it'll actually be
a five for Dan Fucks.
but it'll actually be
a five for Dan Fucks.
- That's going to be tough with my
d4.
- [Trapp] Is this just anyone
who wants to rolls?
- This is savvy?
- [Brennan] This is
savvy. Everyone can roll.
- Nope.
- I got four!
- [Brennan] You're exploding?
- I hit it!
I explode on my d4, the weakest of-
I got five on the dot!
- That's a five!
- [Brennan] Yeah, five on the dot, baby!
(players clapping and ohing)
- Hot hands, hot hands!
We're going to Vegas!
- [Brennan] Who here failed this roll?
- I got a seven.
- [Brennan] Seven, okay.
- Three.
- [Brennan] Gotcha.
- Five.
- [Siobhan] Three.
- Okay, so we're going to go boom, boom,
boom. More Moxie here.
(a ballad of balls on tracks)
So, The Fix gets this.
You get this as well.
- 10.
- 10. Dan.
You remember back to the same area.
(intriguing noir music)
As soo- As soon as Anastasia starts to
explain that key function
of those four Fs around that central lock,
you know that the central key
belongs to the station master, so Max.
You'll have to get past Max,
but Max is a friend of yours.
- Yeah, they're the homie.
- They're the homie, exactly.
You look at those other signals,
and you know that you
only need one of them
in order to do this, so
attention and impulse together
can make anything happen
at a switchboard that
they need to make happen.
But you do wonder why they would have
so many others in that case,
and because you're the only function here
that's sort of not from Cortex City,
you're kind of a more primal
function of the brain,
you have spent your whole,
you kind of grew up
near Oblongata Station.
You think that there's
a possibility that those
other keys
won't make the difference
between life and death,
necessarily, but might add more juice
if you could get them to whatever
action you end up taking.
- We want to get those balls hard.
- You want to get those balls hard.
(laughter, then a pause for
confusion, then more laughter)
- That's how it works.
- Check, check.
Check with your doctor.
- Now, when human balls get harder-
- And you begin to think
about those four...
- Keys. Other keys.
- Keys.
And all of them had the same initial,
and on that savvy, you begin to think of,
what authority figures could be called in?
It wouldn't make sense for them
to be higher cognitive
functions from Cortex City,
and I think on that five savvy...
Hank.
- No, I just feel like I
should know, and I don't.
- I have a-
- You have a what?
You have a what? You have a hunch?
- I have a hunch. Fight, flight, and fuck?
- What's that?
- Flight, fight, freeze.
- Oh, and fawn!
- Fawn, yes. That's right, fawn!
- Fawn!
- [Siobhan] Fawn, yeah.
(Alex laughing)
- So I think Dan, you realize
that there's a lot of
other urges down there,
and so there is a possibility to,
if you wanted to get other
keys from those other impulses,
you could color and advance
whatever the reaction was
once Imelda and Anastasia do their thing.
- I see, an influencing
sort of thing, yeah.
Ooh, hold on, I'm getting a
little bit of a brain wave here.
(players laughing)
The Fs, they could
stand for fight, flight,
and my good cousin Foot Stuff!
(everyone getting a kick
out of the foot fetish joke)
Nobody knows about him.
Nobody knows about him! Not yet, anyway.
- We all know about Foot Stuff.
(Freddie laughing)
(players laughing)
- The specter that hangs over this brain,
just like a dense fog.
- We just see a Godzilla figure moving,
the far horizon of Mentopolis.
(heavy, strong Godzilla foot steps)
- Maybe not Foot Stuff.
Not for this adventure.
- It's like Bigfoot. We've
heard legend of Foot Stuff!
(players laughing)
We glimpse him through the mist sometimes.
- I don't think it exists.
(players laughing)
- [Brennan] Incredible.
- I think I'll go with you,
because I'm not going to do
much good at the DA's office
if you're going there.
I'm not going to do much good
hanging around your apartment,
but I think I can hang out with the...
I'm good at snooping.
Snoop for some extra keys.
- [Brennan] Hell yeah,
so Imelda and Anastasia
are headed off to go grab the second key
to be able to unlock this switchboard,
Hunch and Dan are headed
off to go try to track down
some of these other
impulses, and then we have,
The Fix is headed off towards City Hall.
Conrad, Justin looks over at you, Conrad.
- They forgot me.
(players laughing)
- Oh no!
- I guess I'll just go turn myself in.
(players laughing)
- You see Justin looks
up, actually, at The Fix
before you're about to
head off and says, (barks)
well, should we try to
hide somewhere safe?
It seems like everybody's
trying to kill Conrad.
- Right, that's a good point.
- Well, I could help with the keys.
- That's true.
Yeah, we could go with Imelda
and Anastasia, that's true.
- Or with Hunch and Fucks!
- Or with Hunch and... Fucks.
(players laughing)
- Do we need two of the
big keys on this thing,
or can we just focus on
these little four Fs?
- It's completely up to you.
You don't need to get any of them
if you want to leave them all out of it
and just go do it
yourselves, but with two keys
from your family, any switchboard
in the city will work.
- Okay.
- That being said, if you want to-
- Could probably do a little better.
- So if you want to color the reaction
of whatever Elias is going to do,
which actually means that
if you got all four, great,
and then you'd be able to
move through those different reactions.
But you can also focus
on potentially the
reactions you want, right?
- Flight, when you're fallin'.
(players laughing and jokingly agreeing)
- Man, you're a genius!
I'm so glad I hired you!
(players laughing)
- Incredible, so yeah, if
you want to go track down
other keys, too, you absolutely could.
- Okay, yeah.
- You want to come with
Uncle Hunch and Uncle Fucks?
Or you want to go with these two?
- I'll go with Hunch and...
- God, Hunch and Fucks is a great last-
(players laughing)
- I was about to say, if you want to do
a spinoff detective show...
- It sounds like
- New, from Rizzoli and Isles!
(players laughing)
Ms. Tension and Ms. Pulse
might have some family stuff,
so I'll go with the boys.
- [Brennan] Hell yeah, cool.
- You can ride in the trunk!
- He's driving.
(players laughing)
- Dan and Hunch argue for a long time
about who's the one riding in the back.
(players laughing)
Shotgun, shotgun!
- You can have it. I wish
to be chauffeured around.
- Heading back to Cortex City,
(slick noir music)
Anastasia and Imelda head
back to Anastasia's apartment.
Anastasia and Imelda head
back to Anastasia's apartment.
What's the nature of the building
that Anastasia lives in,
going to your apartment?
- Anastasia lives in a boarding
house for lonely old women.
- Anastasia lives in a boarding
house for lonely old women.
(players laughing)
At the ripe old age of
24, one of those ones
where you have a curfew, so
she has to sneak back in.
No boys allowed. You can
only smoke on the balcony.
Everyone eats dinner together every night.
- Sign in all visitors!
- Exactly, exactly.
So that's kind of the area.
There's one bathroom per floor,
and then there's four of us
per floor, that kind of area.
So then I have my own room,
which does have a mini-fridge,
which is where my freezer
and my sad food is.
And so I believe that when
we open the door to my room,
And so I believe that when
we open the door to my room,
you see a bunch of clippings
from my articles that I've written
in like, you know like,
all put up all pretty
and framed really nicely,
and then just various different
newspapers stacked all over.
and then just various different
newspapers stacked all over.
My bed is not made. It has
clearly never been made.
(Siobhan laughs lightly)
I've got just hats of every kind and color
all over the floor, some with feathers.
I promise they're real.
Oh, and maybe some old dishes sometimes.
You know, like when you have cereal.
- [Siobhan] Sure.
- You leave the spoon on there,
and then the spoon gets
all crusty and gross.
- I'm just standing in this
room like this. It's nice!
(players laughing)
I really like what you've
done with the place.
- Oh, thank you, thank you.
If you'd like to, you can have this...
I walk over to the one chair,
which is missing a leg,
I walk over to the one chair,
which is missing a leg,
so I just take a bunch of newspaper
and shove it under so that it's even.
(newspaper crumpling)
Have this chair!
- Thank you so much. I
don't take the chair.
(players laughing lightly)
You know, you can always
come and stay with us.
Just because your mom
married a poor person
doesn't mean that you
have to live like this.
- I don't have to live like this.
I choose to live like this.
- Then I love it!
(players laughing)
- I'm free and independent,
I swear, I swear!
- What beautiful hats.
(Trapp laughing)
- Thank you!
I walk over to the mini-fridge,
kind of open it up.
I see the big block of ice.
(hum of an old refrigerator)
I put it on the table and
I just go, and now we wait.
(players laughing)
- Oh, come on. Don't you have
a way to cook it or something?
- I take out the bottle of
vodkas and a couple of glasses.
- [Siobhan] Great.
(door knocking)
- [Brennan] A knock at the door.
- Hello?
- [Brennan] Ms. Tension?
This is Chief of Police
Alexander Tightass.
- Oh, hello, Mr. Tightass.
I'm not really prepared to have visitors,
but if you would like to
come back at another time,
I would love to host you.
- [Brennan] We'd love, if we
could, to come in and talk now.
We have reason to believe
your cousin has gone missing,
and we are trying our best to locate her
for her extremely distressed
mother and father,
Mr. and Mrs. Pulse.
- I am looking around the
tiniest room I've ever seen
to find anywhere that
I could possibly hide.
- How do I hide without
touching any of this?
(players laughing)
- So I look around.
The only thing I can think of is,
I kind of grab her and I'm like, shh!
And kind of seat her
in the fetal position,
and then just start throwing
hats and newspapers on top of her.
- Oh, this is certainly a sneak.
(players laughing)
This is certainly a sneak,
and we're going to call
this a difficulty of...
eight.
- Oh god, for both of us?
- Well, I will actually say, yes.
I will say that you can both
give it an attempt, yes.
- [Trapp] How good is the disguise?
- I got an eight!
- Good for you.
- [Brennan] Unbelievable.
- I got a five.
- Okay.
- I'm just holding up the newspapers
as you throw them to me, unfolding.
- So (laughs) you just
throw hats and newspapers,
hats and newspapers.
- I'm so sorry! I'll be right there!
(newspaper crumpling)
I'm not quite d- decent!
(players laughing)
- [Brennan] All right, well,
as soon as you're decent,
open up and let us in, see?
- I absolutely will!
I just need to put on
something that ladies wear!
- [Brennan] I should hope so, Ms. Tension!
- Once I believe that I've got her co-
I cover her up, and then I take my hand,
because I've covered up her face,
I just make two small nose holes.
- Ah!
(players laughing)
- These nose holes here, and
I think honestly, Imelda,
you're just still obviously a person, but
as the door op-
- Every time I shift even a little bit,
the newspapers are so loud.
(loud crinkling)
(players laughing)
- I think you see, on that
incredible sneak check,
the door opens, and the chief of police
and four uniformed officers walk in,
and you see the chief of police walks in,
and walking into a lady's apartment,
he takes his hat off and
puts it on your hand.
(players laughing)
Now look here, Ms. Tension, I'm no fool.
(investigative music)
I have reason to beli-
All the cops just start
putting their coats on...
(players laughing)
(sound of coats ruffling)
We have reason to believe that your cousin
may be involved with some
ne'er-do-wells and ruffians
down from the temporal lobe.
- (insincerely) Oh no!
Which cousin would that happen to be?
Because, you know, there
are a lot of Pulses.
So, there are many Pulses.
There is Stacy Pulse,
you know, of also the Cortex Pulses.
There are many Pulses
that live all around...
this great city.
- Com- Com Pulse.
- Com Pulse?
- Re Pulse?
- Re-? Re Pulse, Com Pulse.
There is many, so I'll just need you
to tell me which one it is.
- Nobody wants to be anywhere
near Re Pulse, all right?
I'm here for Imelda Pulse.
- Imelda! Hm, which one is she again?
- Go ahead and give me a slick roll,
(players laughing)
difficulty of six.
- Why? Why did I do this to myself?
(Siobhan laughing)
- That's okay, I said I
was a student of the arts.
(players laughing)
- Seven!
- [Brennan] Seven! He goes-
- Plus two, so that is nine.
- [Brennan] Ooh!
- [Hank] Wow.
- So you see he says,
Imelda Pulse, your cousin.
She's an incredibly erudite socialite.
She's the talk of the town!
You see another cop goes,
everybody loves her.
(players laughing)
- I'm blushing underneath these hats.
(players laughing)
- Oh yeah, you think everyone loves her?
I don't keep up with my cousin.
I don't keep up with my family.
Me and my family are... estranged.
- You see one of the cops goes... (gasps)
He says, easy, Jones.
(players laughing)
Well, listen, I didn't come
here to get the funny papers
on your sad life here
with your miniature fridge
and your giant block of ice on the table.
(players laughing)
I came here to find this lady
before she gets mixed
up with the wrong sorts.
- Well, I hope very much
that doesn't happen,
but I haven't speaken to
or heard from Imelda Pulse in years.
- Well, I trust
if anything comes to your attention,
you'll be the first to let us know.
Here's my card.
He hands you a card that
says The Police on it.
(players laughing)
- Oh, Mr. Tightass, you know
how cooperative I've been.
I've worked with you
on many investigations.
Of course I would be sure
to come to you first,
if my cousin were to have gone missing.
(tense music)
I think, personally, she's
probably out partying.
- Yeah, well, that would be
like those hoity toity Pulse types.
You see the other guy goes,
their parties are the best!
Relax! And he turns to exit.
As he's turning to walk away,
he turns back to look around
(Hank laughing)
and takes his hat and says,
odd sculpture you got here,
but not as odd as that big block of ice
with a key in the middle.
(players laughing)
He turns around and walks
out of your apartment.
- And then all the other cops go with him?
- [Brennan] Yes.
- So, immediately mad dash to the door,
lock the door, put the thing on.
(door closes and locks)
Oh, I forgot to mention, of course,
I hastily threw a robe
over my trench coat,
(players laughing)
of course I did, so I take off the robe.
I just start removing-
- You have gotten so good
at lying. I am proud of you.
- Aw, thank you.
- You're welcome.
- [Danielle] I've been working on it.
- Good.
- In my career. As a newspaperwoman.
- Oh, well, now I like it less, I guess.
(players laughing)
- Incredible, with the cops buzzing
around this neighborhood, do
you wait for the key to thaw,
or is there anything else
that you do while you're here?
- Yeah, is there an icepick or something?
- Yeah, so again, I look.
Those glasses are still...
(blowing)
Set those down, start just
chipping away at the ice.
- Cool, just give me
a DC four sharp check.
- Come on baby, come
on baby, come on baby.
Oh, DC four sharp? I'll just halve it.
- Great, awesome, so
you take these things.
Chip chip chip chip chip, crack!
(sound of ice breaking in two)
And you grab your second key
(pleasant light sound)
and take off towards Oblongata Station.
- But first, I have a shot of vodka.
- I grab a bottle of vodka for the road.
(players laughing)
- All right.
- Sprinting down the
street chugging vodka.
- Our parties are legendary.
(players laughing)
- You see there's a big
bottle of vodka there
that just says Endorphins
across the top of it.
- [Siobhan, Danielle, and Brennan] Woo!
(players laughing)
- And off you go.
We move from Oblongata Station to our car
with Hunch, Fucks, and Schintz.
(fun, jazzy music)
(players laughing)
- I'm just digging through the glovebox.
Looking through the, poking at,
- [Freddie] Messing with the radio.
- Turning every knob, poking everything.
- What's on the radio? Turn it on.
(static)
(that familiar jazzy
tune from episode one!)
- It's the song!
(players laughing)
- Conrad is sitting on a crate
on top of the driver's seat
and still driving like this.
(players laughing)
- Hell yes, you're on your
box. Justin's in the back.
- [Freddie] What's our
seating arrangement?
- Dog hanging out the window.
- I think Justin's shotgun with his head
out the window and his big basset hound...
(dog skin folds flapping in the wind)
Then I think Hunch and
Fucks are in the backseat.
- I'm in the middle seat.
- Wait a minute!
So you're in a backside
seat, and you scooched
into the captain's seat?
- Dead middle of the back!
(players laughing)
- Danny, I've never seen this before.
That's exactly why I love it.
- Full spread.
The legs are fully into
the left and the right.
- I don't know that I've
ever heard of something that
should have happened before in my life
and is instead happening
now for the first time,
which is picturing that,
and I hate it so much.
- So disgusting.
- [Brennan] I hate it so much.
- [Trapp] It's the equivalent
of there being like-
- The grossest thing
that you've said so far.
- ...a row of 10 urinals open,
and someone picks the one next to you.
(players laughing and agreeing)
- What's up, man? Why did you come here?
- Quite comfortable! Spacious!
(players laughing)
I hear next year's model's is even better.
- So where is Conrad driving to?
Obviously there's a bunch of these pulses,
or im- you know.
If anyone wants to make a savvy check
to recall or remember anything
about some or the other
of these larger impulses,
you totally can.
- Dan, don't you have like a,
some kind of knowledge of
the underground ability?
- Yeah, it feels like, yeah, so I can...
I only have one, so maybe
someone can lend me a Moxie here.
- Oh yeah, I can lend you a Moxie.
- I have one also.
- Okay, yeah yeah yeah.
So I will spend a Moxie for troublemaker,
one of my perks here.
Spend a Moxie to locate and
receive help within reason
and without making any stat
checks from a criminal network,
so I think this'll be the way
to sort of get the lay of the land.
Where is everybody right now
at this moment? Spend my Moxie.
- Spend your Moxie, get
the criminal underworld.
So, spending a Moxie and just getting
that automatic success, you...
run back by Sugah's.
(smooth jazz music)
So you start sort of driving
back around that area,
back near the speakeasy, and
call up a couple of people.
It's hard, because the phone lines
are all down, so it's taking a while.
You can see that people are
getting a little bit antsy.
There's a lot of people on the street,
because a lot of the lights will flare up
and then some of the
streetlamps have broken,
so there's a little bit more darkness,
which is always a sort of scary thing.
Oh, there's no illumination
out on the street.
You have people basically telling you,
oh yeah, the four Fs, I remember that.
Boss, I think something
happened a long time ago, right?
All of them got fired by Mayor Logic.
There was that whole
campaign of, it makes sense
that we shouldn't be reliant
on sort of dumb impulse.
- Yes, scandalous! A
slanderous campaign, even!
- Well, you know, he said,
why do we need a reflex
to tell us to fight or
fly or fawn or freeze,
when instead we can just
do whatever makes sense?
So we haven't seen them in a long time,
but some of them, I think
Flight might've skipped town.
(players laughing)
- Seems right.
- That tracks, yeah.
- That feels right.
- Freeze is exactly where
he's been the whole time.
- But I think Freeze,
probably the least helpful
one of the bunch right now!
Flight's the one I really want to talk to.
- You know the prize fight
in the old warehouse down by the station?
- Yeah.
- I don't think that...
I don't think Fight would've left.
I mean, I think they
probably changed their name
but, you know,
Fight wouldn't have left Mentopolis.
Not without a fight.
(Freddie and Hank snicker)
- Sure, yeah. Again, it tracks.
It totally tracks. It makes sense, yeah.
- [Freddie] It tracks, it tracks.
- But there's something kind
of interesting here, boss,
which is that I remember talking to Fight,
that Freeze had sort of
vanished sometime before.
that Freeze had sort of
vanished sometime before.
Freeze was tired of working
with Fight and Flight
back in the day and something about,
I don't remember what it was.
Something about a pair of
ice skates or something.
I don't know.
- And also there's a fourth one.
Remind me again what that was real quick.
- Oh, Fawn. Fawn's great, I know Fawn.
- [Freddie] Oh, yes!
- Fawn is so nice.
(players laughing)
- [Freddie] Where is that rapscallion?
- Yeah, your contact
gives you the location of-
- Also, you called me boss. Who are you?
- Oh, sorry. Achoo!
(sounds of recognition)
It's me, Joey Sneezes!
- Didn't recognize you there
without the sneezing, constant allergies.
- Yeah, no, I think I'm
allergic to the club.
- Not my problem.
- I just want to be sure, you
don't know where Flight is?
- I don't know where Flight is right now,
but I do know, I could try
to start tracking him down.
The easiest ones to find
are going to be Fawn or Fight, probably.
- Are you saying fun?
- Fawn.
- [Hank] Fawn.
- Like to fawn over somebody.
- Okay.
I can't remember...
I can't remember if Conrad told us
about the ice skates or not.
I don't think so. Conrad's with
us, right, hearing all this?
- Conrad's just there, ashen-faced.
(players laughing)
- Don't mind the statue
over here on the side.
- Okay, so Fight's at the ring,
and Fawn, do we know where Fawn is?
- He says, once they all got laid off,
they stopped going by
their official titles.
But Fanny, that's Fanny Fawnsworth,
she's working for, I
believe, Don Avaricci.
(a quiet chorus of mms)
- He's been pretty intent
on killing us lately.
- Yeah, I don't know about
hanging out with this dude.
- I didn't see-
I didn't see Fight before they left.
I know that Fight and
Freeze got in a big to-do.
- Mm.
- And this was,
this was, again, way before
they all got laid off.
- Sounds like we should
go pay a visit to Fight.
- Let's find Fight.
- [Freddie] Yes.
- Find Fight.
- [Freddie] Your wheelhouse.
- Let's do it. And stop rubbing my leg.
(players laughing)
- I will rub as much as I-
- It was interesting at first,
and now it's just getting
a little annoying.
- You're saying I need
to change it up a little?
- Yes, please! Always, always.
Keeps it interesting.
- [Brennan] Incredible,
so you guys all head off.
- Just to add this in,
they get back in the car,
and Conrad is a terrifying driver.
(players laughing)
He's very good, but just swerving-
- Big, wide turns.
(tires drifting)
- Two wheels at the same time.
- Every turn's getting drifted.
- Every time you miss a turn,
it's an immediate U-turn.
- U-turn, sometimes just backing up.
(tires screeching)
(players laughing)
- I'm actually going to say as
you guys leave from Sugah's,
I am going to need
a 13 sneak.
- Uh-oh. All right.
- From all of us?
- [Brennan] From all of you.
- [Siobhan] Oh boy.
- Natural 20!
- [Brennan] Natural 20!
- Exploded! Exploded!
- [Trapp] So you roll again.
- [Brennan] It explodes,
so you roll it again.
- Three, and then plus my two, so 25.
- 25, and then you're also driving.
- Then we gotta make it 28.
(players laughing and cheering)
- Did anyone else-
- Seven.
- Seven, and?
- I got a five.
(ball sliding on a track x3)
- Gimme gimme gimme.
- So, I'll say on that
incredible success, Conrad,
as you're driving away
towards Cerebellum Boulevard,
you notice
a couple of cars pull out behind you
and start to tail you,
driving away from Sugah's.
What does Conrad do as he
sees in the rear view mirror-
- He adjusts the mirror
a bit. Not a problem!
Just starts going 30
miles faster than before.
- People are flung back
as this little tiny kid
(vroom)
(upbeat chase music)
hits a construction vehicle
that has some asphalt in it
and launches through the hole
in the broken highway onto the highway.
(players laughing)
- Hot jazz starts playing.
- It's like an old
Cadillac, so the bench seat,
so Fucks and I are just
sliding around, full Jello.
- Conrad starts monologuing.
You know, this is the only
time I ever truly feel calm.
(group laughing)
- Conscience behind
the wheel, you jump in.
I feel like as you guys are
flopping in the backseat,
however you land on each other,
Dan's fingers always end up in your mouth.
(players laughing)
- It tastes different every
time! It's so fucking weird!
(players laughing)
- But you see, as you
launch through the air
onto that section of highway
to head down to the cerebellum,
that people lean out of the car,
and you hear gunfire
from the cars behind you
(guns firing)
trying to wing the back of
the vehicle as you take off.
- Okay, slight complication,
but just hang tight, boys.
Here we go!
(players laughing)
- This is a brand new Conrad.
A completely,
(players laughing)
A completely different person
behind the wheel of a car.
- Should've had him driving earlier.
- Little driving goggles on Justin.
- Turns out Elias has killed five people,
but he just doesn't care
as long as he's in the car.
- Like Baby Driver with that
stupid na na na na song.
(players laughing)
- Hey, don't call me baby.
(players laughing)
- You take off, heading
to Cerebellum Boulevard.
All of you pull outside
of a nameless warehouse,
but all of you notice the
sort of couple of figures
slinking in through the
rain with their coats drawn,
walking back to a large figure
that slides one of those
industrial warehouse doors
open to let them slip in, and as they do,
you can see the steam heat of bodies
packed into this warehouse,
and you hear, ding ding ding!
Of a bell ringing from within
the larger space within.
Of a bell ringing from within
the larger space within.
What do you do as you
see this sort of space
you've approached, this
illicit boxing ring?
- [Trapp] Yeah
- Can I ask, do we have the
sense that it's like,
do we have the sense that
it's like, oh, you can,
is there a password that
they needed to say to get in?
Did it feel like they had to
go in a little surreptitiously?
- You see people saying
something to get in.
- Hunch's general MO is he
just starts walking into places
unless anyone stops him.
(players laughing)
I just start striding forward.
- He appears to have a plan.
Roll with the punches, as it were.
- So yeah, I just stride up.
I just try confidently walking through.
(Trapp laughing)
- I'm following close behind.
- So Hunch takes off. You walk up.
The guy says, name's Tiny.
Who sent youse?
- This is a prizefighter, my good man!
- You're a prizefighter?
- [Freddie] He's here to
challenge the champ, as it were.
- Yeah, that's right. Never
done that before, sounds fun.
- Yeah, and I spray water in his mouth.
(players laughing)
- Here's our cutman. Our cutman here.
- And the dog's our mascot.
(Brennan woofs)
- We have a whole branding package here
already preset, ready to go.
(players laughing)
- Go ahead and give me a slick
check. This is a difficulty-
- [Trapp] Do we all roll a slick check?
- I think, well, you've
all said the same lie,
so this is going to be a difficulty,
we're going to call this a
difficulty 10 slick check.
- [Trapp] Okay.
- That's my d4, so.
- Yeah, same here.
(players laughing)
- [Alex] Three.
- [Trapp] I also got-
- [Freddie] I could just halve it.
- [Brennan] This is a snap decision.
- Snap decision? All right, ah well.
(ball sliding on a track x3)
15.
- [Siobhan] Nice. Ooh.
- On that 15, the bouncer looks unconvin-
You're sort of trying to
sweet talk your way past him,
but it looks like he's not convinced.
There's something about him
that looks like he's unsure.
It looks like he doesn't
necessarily disbelieve,
but he's worried about what
the consequences might be
if he gets it wrong kind of thing.
- I think Dan's going to pull
him aside. Come here, sidebar.
- Yeah?
- [Freddie] How much are
they paying you here?
- How much are they
paying me? I don't know.
I get about four bucks a week.
- A man of your talent, of your caliber,
of your build, your stature?
Why that's highway robbery!
A man of your talents could
be used in other places.
I happen to be the owner of Sugah's.
You, I'm sure, have heard of it.
- Oh yeah, that's that place
you're not supposed to know about.
- Yes, and yet you do.
(Brennan chuckles)
What if I told you, what if I told you-
- I'm listening in even
though there's no...
That's just Hunch.
- What if I told you that
this fine prizefighter here
is trying to get a shot at the title?
And should anything go wrong here tonight
with your employment, I have
perhaps an offer for you
at my place that pays better.
Five dollars a week.
That's right, a 25% raise!
(Brennan laughs in disbelief)
- You make me feel really good.
(players laughing)
Okay. Can I give you a hug?
- Oh, yes. Come here.
- This big, big, meaty hug.
He says, all right. Get in there, boss.
- I'm massaging your shoulders.
- That feels great. Wow,
you got magic hands.
(players laughing)
As you enter, you see that
Tiny goes and points out
and says, the bookies
are over in that corner.
Concessions are in the
back. They got popcorn.
(Freddie laughing)
- Where's the locker room?
- The locker room?
Well, you should go talk to the promoters.
They're over there
signing in the fighters.
You still got time to sign
up if you jump in quick.
They'll look to me,
I'll give them the wink.
- Very good, my good
man. Thank you so much.
- Just a general reminder,
too, I am not The Fix.
I don't look like a big guy.
I look like a lanky, rubbery fucking dude.
- You got a heart of steel, is what it is!
- Just to paint the picture.
- I'm going to be a champion!
- [Freddie] Iron jaw!
- Got a chin like the Colossus of Rhodes.
- Face just beat all to meat.
Can I see if I recognize Fight here?
Because I know you said
Fight's going by perhaps
a different alias.
Do I spot him anywhere in here?
- I'm going to say give me,
just walking in and having
to survey the entire room,
we'll call that a 12 snoop.
- Okay, let's give it a go.
- I, too, will look for this.
- Can I roll, also?
- I don't think that's going to do it.
- [Freddie] Failure on my part.
- Nope, that's not going to do it.
- Wait, I think I exploded.
I got a 10 on my 10.
- Okay.
- 16.
- 16, okay.
- [Freddie] I'm like, ooh, they got malts!
(players laughing)
- Alex, you succeed,
so I'm going to say you all start snooping
and actually spread
out, keep your eyes up.
As you walk over, though,
you over there go see one of
the promoters get winked at.
You walk up towards the promoters
at the back near the
locker rooms and you see
there's an officious looking
guy with a clipboard,
has a very, you know,
looks sort of like Abbott
from Abbott and Costello.
He's got the thin little mustache.
He says, hello there, fellas.
Come here to sign up for a
fight? Slots are going fast.
- Yes.
- All right. What's your name, sailor?
- No, no, no, no. You don't understand.
I am the promoter,
the manager of this brick
shithouse to my right.
(players laughing)
- I flex, and it's not impressive at all.
- He goes, wait a minute.
You're Dan Fucks, ain't you?
- That's right, I'm getting into,
I'm getting into a little
bit of the fisticuffs game.
- You know those bulls
are going to come shut you down, right?
Places like this, we're
not supposed to be having
any sort of fun or pleasure in this brain.
Not 'til that packet goes
through with the bigwigs up top.
- Oh yes, but what's a little
secret between friends?
(Brennan laughing slyly)
- I like you. My balls are getting hard.
(players laughing)
He looks over and says-
- Granite in your pants, as it were, yes.
- Oh, I got two big balls of basalt!
(players laughing)
- Basalt?
- That's my go-to.
- Basalt, the octagonal-
(players laughing)
- That's right!
- That's why they call
it the Giant's Causeway.
(players laughing)
- This is so niche!
This is such a niche line of humor here.
- A deep geology, a deep geology.
- There's a geologist
watching D20 going, oh!
(players laughing)
- This last episode?
- [Freddie and Brennan] Mwah!
- Gneiss! But he spelled it with a G.
(players laughing)
- So he says, all right, Mr. Fucks.
And you're putting up...
- Listen, I know the name I want to say.
(group laughing)
S- Stacy.
(Freddie dying of laughter)
Fakename.
- [Brennan] Stacy Fakename.
(Freddie still cracking up)
You know, it's one of those
things where maybe Stacy
is a man's name during this
time period.
- Sure, yeah, like Leslie or Dana.
- Yeah, exactly. Stacy Fakename.
Great, there you go. All right, Stacy.
So we got two fights coming up.
He says, your choice of who
you want to go up against.
There's two names that you
can sign your name next to
to determine who you fight.
So the first one is just a
pair of initials that says SD,
and the other one is Dominick Nuntz.
- Dominance?
- What's the over under on
these? What's the spread?
- Give me a savvy check.
- Intelligence of betting on
the guy you're about to put in,
which is a natural one.
(players laughing)
- He would say, oh, well,
we obviously don't allow
anyone on the team of a-
(players laughing)
Clearly, clearly we can't allow that
for just such obvious reasons.
- (laughs) Oh, very well.
- So literally don't worry.
(players laughing)
- I glance to Conrad.
Conrad got a success, right?
I glance to Conrad to see-
- Conrad got a success, yes.
- SD. San Diego.
(players laughing)
- I glance to Conrad to see if he...
can gesture towards,
if he recognized Fight.
- I think Conrad has,
but I think that Conrad's
lost in the crowd right now for a second.
for a second.
- [Trapp] I see, got it.
- So you're going to
have to make a call here.
- I'm going to have to make a call here.
All right, Dominance or SD?
What could SD possibly stand for?
Let's fight Dom Nuntz.
- So you're going to fight
Dom Nuntz, hell yeah.
(players laughing)
- I don't know what SD is, but he-
- Yeah, he smiled too much.
- He's too happy about this!
- Too happy. That's fine.
- No, actually, this is my face-
- Oh, no actually?
That's what you're doing?
You're doing no, actually?
(Um, Actually music sting)
- Get in the comments!
(players laughing)
You walk into the locker room.
You see an enormous fucking boxer.
Wild, violent tattoos
(subtle, tense music)
of barbed wire, blood, bone.
Mean, a jaw like a
fucking brick shithouse.
- Yes.
- Leans out and says, hey there, fellas.
Youse palookas come in here
to throw some fists around?
- Yeah, that's right.
- What's your name, pipsqueak?
- (confidently) Stacy.
(group trying to hold back
laughter to keep it tense...)
(and failing)
- Stacy.
- [Trapp] Yeah. (laughs)
- Who are you coming in
to try to push around?
- Well, I'm signed up to fight Dom Nuntz.
I want to fight Fight.
- You want to fight a fight, huh?
- I want to fight a fight.
- 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!
(players laughing and giggling)
You see that-
(tense music stops abruptly)
- I'm sorry, it feels like I'm playing
pickup basketball with Kobe.
It's so intense to be me right now.
(players laughing)
Whoa! Wow, so crazy!
- What you see in this moment.
- Yeah.
- You see he looks in and says,
(music resumes)
Dom, this guy a friend of yours?
And you see a tiny, reedy
little bespectacled man
go, go, what?
Oh, yes. That's all right, hello.
I am Dominick. A pleasure.
- I just want to get a bit of a vibe.
I want to look for any clues as to...
Sherlock style, what's this guy wearing?
What's on his person?
Anything that can give
me a hint of like, what,
- Weaknesses.
- [Trapp] What his deal is. Weaknesses.
- Like in Punch-Out!!
when you get the little-
- Oh, of Dom, of your opponent?
Or of the big guy in the room?
- I mean, both of them, if I can.
I want to try to get a read on-
- [Brennan] Yeah, give me a snoop.
- I'm trying to see who
of them I think is Fight,
is actually Fight.
- [Brennan] Gotcha.
- So if I can look for any
clues that might indicate
which one's using the alter ego here.
- Gotcha, go ahead and
give me a snoop check.
- I think I'm going to help
out or try this as well.
- Okay, difficulty of five.
- Okay.
That is a six.
- Six.
- Hell yeah, both succeed.
As you look at them, you don't think
that maybe either of them is Fight.
- Okay.
- But you see that Dom looks out and says,
well, I hope we have a
sporting match out there,
Marquess of Queensberry,
and if you want me to lose,
(gloomily) that's fine.
- Oh my god, you okay, man?
- What?
- [Trapp] Are you okay?
- No, wait, I'm the top dog.
(Hank laughing)
(Danielle laughing out of pity)
- Elias really needs to work on himself.
(players laughing)
- (weakly) I'm the big man.
- Okay, sure. Yeah, you're the big man.
- [Brennan] All right?
- Okay.
- I shan't be pushed around.
You see that the other guy
says, I fucking love this guy!
You see that the other guy
says, I fucking love this guy!
You see he walks off,
and you see Dom says,
I'll see you later, Self Doubt.
(group laughing hysterically)
(Freddie dying of laughter)
(Brennan laughing)
Hey, what do they call a guy
who eats as much spaghetti as me?
Im-pasta syndrome!
(players laughing)
- You really get a lot of
working out there, Self Doubt.
(players laughing)
- And you see Dom turns and says,
very well, I shall see
you out in the... (gags)
In the ring. I'm so scared.
(players laughing)
Walks off. We cut back out to the ring.
You see they're getting
ready for the fight
where it's going to be
Hunch versus Dom Nuntz,
and you see that in
Dom's corner is a cutman,
and you see that in
Dom's corner is a cutman,
that kind of figure,
but you see there's an old woman.
(tense, revelatory music)
She has a lot of wrinkles around her eyes.
She's got a wool beanie
and gray sweatpants,
gray sweatshirt, gray sweatpants.
She's sitting there, and you see her
just having this mean look in her eye,
and you catch her look at you,
and you know that she recognizes you
and knows truly who and what you are.
- Yeah, has it been...
I saw her on a very important day.
- You saw her on a very important day.
- I make the eye contact with her.
- She looks at you.
Shrugs.
- I go towards my team.
(players laughing)
- She says, you hear her
shout out, you chicken?
- What?
- You chicken? Walk away from me?
- Conrad holds eye- eye contact,
and then...
says to himself, (slightly
quietly) fuck it!
And then goes up to this old woman.
- You say, fuck it! And go up.
She looks down at you and says-
- What'd you call me?
- You looked to walk away,
so I think maybe you chicken.
- I just was busy.
(group laughing boisterously)
- Little boy, the boxing
ring here very dangerous.
Maybe not safe for you.
And after all, you like
things to be nice, right?
Not very nice place in here.
- Yeah, I know. You're
not very nice, either.
- I could be!
I tried to be!
(hits table)
- I know.
- You think I want to do wrong thing? No.
Where you been all this time?
- Been trying to survive.
- Yeah, we all try to survive.
Who makes sure the big guy survive, huh?
None of us around.
Who makes sure he all right?
Look, I angry.
- (scoffs) Yeah, you think?
(players laughing)
Sorry, sorry. Sorry,
sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!
- You only ever knew me
back when I was Fight.
- What do you call yourself now?
- Ivana.
Ivana Popov.
(Freddie and Hank laughing)
- Fucking hell.
- Fuck!
- [Hank] What the fuck?
- [Brennan] Come on, now.
- [Freddie] This is good shit!
This is good shit right here, baby!
This is premium (Italian
accent) internet content!
- You can't get this anywhere else!
- The finest puns and wordplay.
(players laughing)
- She says, what your name?
- Conrad.
- Conrad.
You know, my brother
and I get in huge fight
before he run away.
- What was it over?
- You.
He say, worst thing that ever happen
He say, worst thing that ever happen
is when big guy listened to you.
- Well, I'm starting to
think that's not true.
- She smiles.
Really?
- I don't know, you're very
scary! You're very scary!
- Stand up for yourself!
- (terrified) Okay!
Conrad reflexively punches the middle.
(players laughing)
- Are you going to punch her?
- It's a very weak punch.
- You see as you punch her,
you see she goes... (gasps)
You punch her and she coughs,
and a phlegmy key comes out of her mouth.
- Oh my god! (screams)
Conrad tries to pick it up.
- You pick it up, and she goes,
they took that away from me!
But they can't take it
away from me, can they?
And you hear, ding ding
ding! Ladies and gentlemen!
- I've been massaging his
shoulders the whole time.
- We're gonna get that
key, Dan! It's gonna be us!
We're going to kick Dom's ass
and we're going to get that key!
- We're gonna get this guy,
I know for a fact
that that is absolutely
Fight in disguise, 100%!
- [Trapp] Fuck yeah, let's do this!
- And, fight! Put up your fists!
In this corn-
You see he says, in
this corner, weighing in
at whatever a concept weighs,
we have Dominick Nuntz!
at whatever a concept weighs,
we have Dominick Nuntz!
The top dog! The dominator!
(crowd roars)
Thank you.
And in this corner, the illustrious,
from the Cortex Fakenames, Stacy Fakename!
(players laughing)
(mixed crowd of cheers and jeers)
- Real quick, I want to
get Justin's attention.
- [Brennan] Okay, yes.
- Justin, Justin, Justin!
(Brennan woofs)
I can't do this,
but you need to put some
money down on this fight.
Put it all, put my entire
life savings here on our man!
- You want me to bet everything on Hunch?
- Stacy Fakename!
- [Brennan] Not on Hunch Curio?
- No, Hunch Curio's not
here! It's Stacy Fakename!
- Stacy Fakename, okay!
- Put it all on it!
I've got a good feeling about this one!
- You stake your entire fortune.
Okay, so this is going to be
our first Box of Doom roll.
(players cheering and laughing)
Bring it out. We're bringing
out the Box of Doom.
- Oh my god.
- Box of Doom! Box of Doom!
- I'm going to once again remind everyone,
I am a get-hitter.
- Listen, you know how Ali
won the Rumble in the Jungle!
- You got a lot of Moxie right there.
- So we're going to roll sneak
to see who goes first.
- Sneak, okay.
- [Brennan] Actually, this
will not be Box of Doom yet.
Go ahead and roll sneak.
Dom rolls a seven.
- I also roll a seven.
- (gasps) You are going to
act at the exact same moment.
So, you roll sharp first.
- I roll sharp.
- [Brennan] And he'll roll sturdy.
- Okay.
- So,
first thing he's going
to roll is his sturdy.
He rolls a four.
- Okay.
- [Brennan] You need to beat a four.
- Okay.
- This is a snap
decision, and so go ahead.
You need to beat a four
in the Box of Doom.
- Okay.
Going to really reach here, sorry.
(tense Box of Doom music)
Oh no.
(nat one sound)
- That is a one.
- Okay, hold on.
The plus two, that's three,
and I'm going to burn two
Moxie to get up to four.
- Okay, so you match it.
So on a match,
your sharp versus his sturdy,
you sock him in the jaw,
and now we're going to roll
the opposite of that, his
sharp versus your sturdy.
- Simultaneous punches.
Come on, need that concrete chin.
- [Brennan] That's an 18.
(players ooh)
- Got it where it counts.
- Okay, now so here's
what we're going to do.
I'm going to give you your d20 back.
Wow, really can't throw stuff.
- We're not playing sports here.
- [Brennan] Do you add
anything to your sturdy?
- My sturdy is flat.
There's no modifiers on
that, it's just that.
- Now, you see that Dom,
his sharp...
is a d4.
- [Trapp] Okay.
- However, you see in his corner,
Ivana whip around and say,
- However, you see in his corner,
Ivana whip around and say,
you better knock that
Fakename's head right off!
(players laughing)
Which means that he's going to roll d4s,
but he explodes on 2s and 3s as well.
- Okay.
- Okay, so 2s, 3s, and 4s all explode?
- All explode for him.
- Okay.
- And he's got to get to?
- [Trapp] An 18.
- An 18.
- [Hank] Very dramatic.
- Roll a one, roll a one,
roll a one!
- That's why he's the best.
- All right.
- [Siobhan] Roll a one.
- [Brennan] Two.
- Okay, two. Plus?
- [Brennan] Two.
- That's four.
- [Brennan] Two.
- Six.
- [Brennan] Two!
- Eight.
- What the fuck?
- [Brennan] Two!
- No! Throw that die away!
- Different die?
10.
Four.
- 14.
(players giggling at the tension
and Brennan's lip-licking)
That's another four.
- Goddammit!
- [Brennan] 18, so he's matched.
- Okay.
- Oh shit.
- I'm assuming it's too late
for me to add any Moxie here?
- I'll allow you to add Moxie if you want.
It's an opposed roll, so
how much Moxie do you have?
- I have six Moxie,
so I can add up to
three more if I want to.
- I'm going to ask that you
add the number right now
and have to determine the number of
Moxie you want to add.
- How far I want to go, all right.
I am...
(tense music)
I'm good at taking hits.
I don't think I'm going to
take too much permanent damage
from this, but I do want to
win, so I'm going to just add...
I'm just going to add one more,
so I'm going to burn two
Moxie and just add...
I still gotta punch him, and
I'm not good at punching,
so if I survive this, I gotta
have some Moxie in my bank
to actually be able to hit him,
so it's not enough to just survive.
- So you add one more.
He's already reached 18,
which means that if he rolls
a one, he'll still meet-
- So mathematically, I
have to add at least two.
You know what? Fuck it, I'll burn it all.
Let's add three more.
- Going to add three more.
Your score is 21. His is 18.
- Yes.
- Do you want me to go
back to the first d4,
use this one, or pick a new one?
- You sly devil!
- [Trapp] Keep using that one.
- All right.
- We're at 18.
- [Brennan] We're at 18.
- Yeah.
- You're at a 21.
- [Trapp] That's true.
(nat one sound)
- That's a one!
Oh, baby!
(players cheering victoriously)
(intense pummeling sounds)
So, an outrageous sharp check
towards your outrageous sturdiness.
(bell rings)
Oh folks, it looks like dominance
is going after Stacy Fakename,
a concept you wouldn't think
would be this resilient!
(players laughing)
Bam, you take the hit.
That is going to go back to your,
go ahead and give me another sneak check
just to see who goes first.
- See who goes first, sure.
- [Brennan] Trying to beat a four.
- I only get a two.
- [Brennan] Okay, so-
- I'm going to get pummeled again.
- He's going to go again.
Go ahead, give me another sturdy.
- All right, I got no more Moxie left,
so this has just got to be me.
- You can just crit.
- That is a 19.
- Yes!
- Unbelievable rolling from
Hunch here. Here you go.
- I yell over to Dan Fucks,
it's all going to be worth
it when we get that key!
(group laughing)
- We are right on track! This
plan is working perfectly!
- Incredible, so he's
going to start rolling.
He's got to get to 19.
- All right.
- [Brennan] Four.
- Four.
- [Brennan] Two.
- Six.
- [Brennan] Three.
- Nine.
- Oops, that's gone.
And that's a one.
- Yes!
- 10.
- [Siobhan] Okay.
- Bam, you take another hit like a champ,
(pummeling sounds)
and then he's going to roll...
(Alex laughing)
- He's bending over backwards
as he gets punched, teeter-totter.
- [Trapp] Real cartoon boxing shit.
- For his sturdy check
on your counter-punch,
he only rolls a three.
- [Trapp] Okay.
- [Brennan] So it's your sharp
check, difficulty is three.
- Okay, I get a plus two
to whatever I roll here.
- [Hank] Okay.
- [Trapp] That's a four, so a six.
- Plus two, so that's six.
Hunch, describe it for me as
you lay out Dominick Nuntz.
- So I've been just getting pummeled,
(upbeat, exciting music)
and it's getting real cartoon style
where it's just sort of
bouncing back and forth,
and so with that,
do a big ol' cartoony
(sound of wind whipping from swinging)
spin, spin, spin, spin, spin,
turns into almost a fan,
and then a big ol' uppercut.
- Boom! His teeth go flying.
(triumphant boxing music)
You see Dom goes,
well, maybe the top dog should lie down.
(players laughing)
And whump.
(body falls, bell rings)
We have a winner!
(the crowd goes wild for Stacy Fakename)
And you see over in the corner,
you see Justin biting big
stacks of cash as bookies-
(players laughing)
- [Freddie] I won again!
Everyone's rushing in on the ring.
I want to run right up to
Dominick on the ground,
grab him, and start
shaking him and be like,
now listen here, you son of a bitch!
I know you're Fight!
Tell us where the key is!
Tell us where the key is!
- I'm not!
As the fight ends and
you've gotten all this cash-
- Do I get the wealthy attribute now, or?
(Siobhan laughing)
- Honestly, I'm kind of considering it.
I think if you want to add wealthy-
- He should get something.
- You bet your life savings.
- [Freddie] I'm adding wealthy.
- But I'm going to say that your wealthy
is a one time thing.
- [Freddie] Yes, that makes sense.
- That's the difference between
new money and old money.
- [Freddie] That's it right there!
- Wow, he's so generous, for a day.
(players laughing)
- Incredible, and I
will say also for that,
we'll go ahead and give the
Moxie reward for that pugilism.
(balls clanking x2)
Ivana looks down.
As you guys start
shaking Dom, Ivana looks,
sees the fight lost, grabs the key,
(pleasant light sound)
looks over at you, Conrad, and goes,
what am I doing, taking these...
(chill noir music)
people that don't even believe
in themselves, like Dom?
How did this come back?
We were all fired, let go.
There is something you
are doing in this city
that is changing things.
- You didn't just have
that inside you all along?
(players laughing)
- No, I literally handed this
to, like, the district attorney,
and was like, here, you have it.
- Okay, well, you know,
if we had more time,
I'd be like, let me punch
you again, see what happens.
- Maybe more keys come out.
- (laughing) Maybe more keys.
Should we try it?
- Sure.
- Okay, Conrad gently punches again.
(punch landing softly)
- She, bleh! And just vomits,
and just vomit comes out.
Stop punching me.
(Alex making a sound of disgust)
Okay.
(players laughing)
You see she looks at you and says,
my brother, before he left,
he blamed me
for listening to you,
say it ruined our life.
- Yeah, so did the big guy's sister, huh?
She was pretty mad, too.
- What happen that day, you know?
I remember bits and pieces, but...
- Yeah, it was just this big
kid on the ice skating rink
was picking on Elias's twin sister.
He tried to stick up for her,
and got slashed in the face.
It turns out... she liked
that guy. I don't know.
I don't really know.
So, everybody was mad at us.
Everybody was mad at me.
And I think you got into
a lot of trouble, huh?
- My brother blamed me
for listening to you.
But you know who had their
key in the Switchboard
when that ice skate went up in the air?
Wasn't me. It was him.
- I didn't know that.
- She looks at the key in
her hand. You guys come back.
Justin comes up with a huge thing of cash.
Comes over. She says-
- In little saddlebags.
(players laughing)
- She says, why are you
all the way down here?
People looking for you, aren't they?
- Yeah, well, we got
something bigger to do.
Big guy's in trouble.
- What you mean, big guy in trouble?
- Do we have that oculus,
the viewfinder thing with us?
- [Brennan] Yeah, you do.
- Can I show her?
- She looks at it and goes, ay yi yi!
(players laughing)
Okay, wait, fuck everything,
my sad little self story!
Big guy in trouble!
(players laughing)
- No, I'm glad you shared.
Thank you for sharing.
- Shit! What, what we do?
(tense, fast music)
- It was nice listening to you!
- What we do?!
- It was nice catching,
it was good- it's been so long!
- Listen up, motherfucker! Okay?
(players laughing)
It's fun when you punch me
like you learn a little lesson,
but I'll fucking kill you!
- Yeah, okay! Ooh,
that's nice. Okay, yeah!
Anyways, yeah thank you!
Can we have the key?
- I can come with you to use, if you want.
- Okay, yeah.
- I think we saunter back,
and I'm putting a hand around Hunch.
We're out of leads.
- Cold case, totally cold.
- Back to square one.
- You guys, no!
Congrats, but this is Ivana.
- Ivana Popov, nice to meet you.
- (in realization) Oh.
(players laughing)
- Ooh, I see.
- Your name Stacy Fakename?
You looking for coach, or?
- Honestly, this is kind
of a one time thing,
you know.
(players laughing)
- All right, we gotta go!
- Look what she has!
- Holds the key up. That's right.
Let's get to Oblongata Station.
And you all take off.
- Trail of teeth behind me.
(teeth clattering on the ground)
(players laughing)
- Loose cash flailing into the air.
From there, we return...
to the inner workings of City Hall.
- I'm playing.
(players laughing)
- We return to City Hall.
When The Fix is not looming around
the rainy streets of
Mentopolis, how does he move
when he's in the halls
of power, so to speak?
(tense, serious music)
- He likes to take the stairs.
Elevators seem like a lot to him,
and that way, he feels a
little bit more like...
He doesn't like people squeezing in
around him in a little box.
He doesn't like to freak people out.
So he tries to move
around, not be too obvious.
Also, people don't really like to see him.
People get a little freaked out.
So he tries to sort of use the back ways.
- Moving up through the back
staircases of City Hall,
you pass clerks and legal aides,
various people here that are involved in
making the different plans,
the executive functioning of the mind,
all of that abstract thought
going up here in City Hall,
and you walk towards a pair
of stately double doors
where you hear some voices
of different deputy
district attorneys inside.
And as the doors open,
you see the handsome face
of Mark Bition look up at you and say, ah!
Fix, pleasure.
Excuse me, my friends,
I'll need a moment with my associate here.
Please close the door on your way out.
- Mr. Bition, you're looking lovely today.
Did you know that most of the pyramids
on Earth are in Sudan?
(players snickering quietly)
You like my facts, right?
- You see he looks at you and says,
how does that help us, Fix?
- Anyway, I killed the kid.
(players laughing)
- He says, you did?
- Yeah, it was weird.
Sometimes when I kill people,
there's something left behind,
and sometimes they disappear.
I didn't even really have
to hit him or anything.
I just sort of told him
he wasn't needed anymore,
(tense music)
and he kind of turned
into mist and popped away.
I figured you needed something, though,
to show that I'd done the work,
so I found his little
hole he was living in.
I brought you these. He reaches out.
Cha-kunk. The little ice skates.
- You look at the little ice
skates in front of you here.
I'm also going to say,
after that boxing match,
that the pressure actually moves up.
- Great, because I have no Moxie.
- Moves up to 100.
- [Trapp] 100 pressure?
- [Brennan] 100 pressure.
- That's bad for your health.
- Eat more hamburgers. That's
what we're going to do.
- I know what'll solve this, red meat.
- You need to be smoking
a cool pack of Marlboros
once a day to help with that pressure.
(players laughing)
I'm going to need a
slick check from The Fix,
difficulty of four.
- Six.
- (gasps) You see Mark looks
down at the skates and says,
huh.
Picks them up.
I recognize these, certainly.
A long time ago, though.
I want you to destroy these.
(retrofuturistic music)
- All right.
If you don't mind me saying this,
pelicans-
(players laughing)
...have three stomachs.
And one of them's just for bones.
Do you know what's going
on in this city right now?
- Do you?
- I know something's
going on in this city.
- There's been some minor
infrastructural issues.
Look, Fix,
pelican bones and different facts
and pyramids and where they are,
does nothing for us.
You know why they call it a fun fact?
Because it doesn't fucking matter.
- He kinda...
kinda starts to look a little bit bigger.
You know, it's really
easy to detect an acid.
(players laughing quietly)
But it's not easy to detect
the presence of oxygen or carbon dioxide.
But when carbon dioxide meets water,
like it does in our blood,
it creates carbonic acid.
That means that our bodies
can detect the presence of carbon dioxide,
but not the presence or absence of oxygen.
So as we move through our lives,
if we are deprived of oxygen,
we have no idea that that is happening
as long as we are breathing
out carbon dioxide.
But if we are not breathing in oxygen,
we just go to sleep and we die.
But if we allow the CO2 to build up,
we panic.
We flail.
We break.
Until finally, we die.
I'd like you to tell me
what's going on in this town.
- I want you to give me
two different checks here.
The first I want you to give me is,
as you start to talk about breathing,
I actually want you to
just give me a sharp check.
- That's a 12.
- You're hyperfixated on breathing,
bringing that pressure down.
- You feel the energy shift in the room
as you just focus on breathing,
and something begins
to steady in the room.
And you notice that Mark notices it, too.
Now I'm going to give you,
he's going to make a sturdy
check to resist this kind of
intimidation, essentially.
The number that you're
going to have to beat here,
I'm going to roll on a...
Okay, he rolls a nine, which
is his sturdy to resist this.
This is going to be a snap decision,
so I'm going to ask for another
menacing check from you.
- Okay.
Fuck.
(players laughing)
(ball sliding on a track)
- What happened?
(players laughing)
- Mark looks at you and says,
you really want to know what's happening?
(tense, dramatic music)
I'll tell you.
We're close.
We're close to... making it.
We're close to achieving
what we have always dreamed of achieving,
and then all of a sudden,
I get a message from
Immanuel and Imogen Pulse
that their daughter is missing
and that she went to Cerebell Pacific
in the middle of the night
to grab a packet of papers
off a desk from the big guy's office.
The packet of papers that
would've flooded this place
with dopamine and serotonin,
endorphins, every good
thing under the sun!
You think your friend Dan Fucks
would want to see how
much that runaway heiress
destroyed any chance of
pleasure in this city?
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!
Now, I'm going to be very clear.
What's been the biggest impediment
to the big guy's achievement?
What's been the biggest impediment
to him getting done
what needs to get done?
It's him.
Elias Hodge is the big
guy's biggest problem.
So, we're going to do things
a little bit differently.
And you hear a door in the
side of the office open,
and a figure emerges that
you have never seen before.
(scary reverberating sound)
Hello, Fix.
(tense, haunting music)
Seems like you've been running around.
Might have lost your concentration.
Might have lost your concentration.
A white key emerges from shadow,
glowing, humming,
like a strange, alien presence.
This key is maybe the first
thing you've seen in a long time
This key is maybe the first
thing you've seen in a long time
made to fit the machinery of this mind,
but fundamentally alien,
a key made by a machine
in the outside world,
a key made by a machine
in the outside world,
a key dreamed up,
but only possible
with the research and hard
work of one Elias Hodge,
and it's this key, sharper
than any razor's edge,
and it's this key, sharper
than any razor's edge,
that comes streaking
for your throat.
(Siobhan gasps)
And that's all for this
episode of Dimension 20.
Tune in next week as we find
out the fate of The Fix.
Ta-ta!
- Goodbye!
- [Brennan] Goodbye!
- (over loudspeaker) This is
a message for Mayor Logic!
Mayor Logic, I need your attention!
(Brennan gasps)
- Would it be possible for me
to just take a look at your keys?
I just find them so fascinating.
- The keys to the vehicle?
- All of the keys that you have.
- You want my apartment keys?
- I'll take those as well.
- Okay.
- You frozen motherfucker.
- Don't do anything!
- I think it's time to take
you into the police station
and maybe process some of the
contraband on you for evidence
so we can go to the evidence locker.
- And I suppose it's normal for you
to have a dog and a very
large bodyguard with you.
- Listen, I'm curious!
- (gasps) Are you Imelda Pulse?
- That's right. I heard
you're looking for me.
- (into walkie-talkie) Boss,
you're not going to believe this.
(players laughing)
- There are some salamanders
that feed their babies their own skin.
(nervously) I gotta go!
- Oh, goodbye!
All of you turn at the same
time, and you hear klaxons,
alarm bells (trilling) going off all
over the station.
- Now we don't know what that means.
That could be good.
(players laughing)
- Why you make that strange-
- I never lied about who I am before!
- Everybody in the station,
we about to fucking die!
(melancholy jazz music)
(Brennan drumming on the table)
- Hello, one and all!
Welcome back to another
thrilling episode of
"Dimension 20: Mentopolis."
I'm your humble GM, Brennan Lee Mulligan.
With me, as always,
are our Prefrontal PIs.
Say hi, Prefrontal PIs!
- [Everyone] Hi, Prefrontal PIs.
- You did it! Freddie did it!
Freddie said the whole thing!
- Yeah, hell yeah.
- It felt so strange.
(players laughing)
(fun, chill noir music)
- Last we left off, oh, what a doozy.
A couple of things happened
in the last episode.
We went to Oblongata Station and we
found a pain courier from
the scalp and we found-
- Yeah, what else happened?
- Oh, I guess we found Wilton,
who is sort of a pleasure courier.
- New fan favorite for sure.
(players laughing)
- [Brennan] New fan favorite.
- I'm really looking forward
to the Wilton fan art.
(players laughing)
- Let's get the Wilton fan art in here.
We know what he sounds like,
but what does he look like?
- We know what he looks like.
We know, we know.
- [Brennan] We know what he looks like.
- Wrinkly.
- I think he's very wrinkly,
and I think the whiskers are-
- A little scraggly.
- For lack of a better word,
patchy, patchy and scraggly.
- Just a damp man.
- A damp, damp man with
strange, strange hair.
(players laughing)
We also went to the Hippo
Campus where we checked out
an incredibly important
sequence of memories
thanks to the beloved
status of Imelda Pulse,
and we also found the more recent-
- And the extremely good detective work.
(players laughing)
- [Brennan] That's right.
- A slick move
by one Detective Hunch Curio,
AKA Stacy Fakename.
(players laughing)
- The Fakenames are going to
get so many questions after.
We've got accused of
being all over the city!
(players laughing)
Some incredibly important
short term memories
to help explain the context
of the most recent activities of one
Elias Hodge, AKA the big guy.
We also saw into the dwelling place
and the kind of treasure
trove of one Conrad Schintz
and his dog Justin,
seen for the first time
by someone other than those two, The Fix.
We witnessed the retrieval
of a pair of ice skates
to help conceal the faked
death of the young lad Conrad
to help conceal the faked
death of the young lad Conrad
to be given to DA M. Bition
back at City Hall.
All of you converged from that place
(retrofuturistic music)
back near Occipital Park
and De'lux Industrial,
the raw vision center of
the brain where the light
first comes in, enters Mentopolis
from the outside world.
There, you mopped the
floor with some goons,
mostly tripping them with
a series of hats and kicks.
(players laughing)
- A lot of slipping.
- And then for the second
time this campaign,
convincing someone to just stop existing.
(players laughing)
Just frightening them so bad
that they just sort of self-immolated.
Opening the ocular
center, hoping to discover
why these eyes might
have been closed after
all these strange events,
a highway collapses and
a flood of adrenaline
in the train yard coming
in from the kidneys,
you opened those eyes to see
(sound of glass shards tumbling)
one Elias Hodge plummeting,
surrounded by shattered glass
as a shadowy figure loomed out of a window
near the top floor of
Gobstopper Industries.
Time moves ever so slowly
in the outside world,
for indeed, all of you move
at the speed of thought,
but move at the speed of thought
with the phone lines down
and the highways partially collapsed.
And indeed, the very
first thing we begin with
is discussing the mammoth
amount of pressure.
(players gasping)
- It moves?!
- I thought it might move!
- Another mechanic! It's been there
the whole time!
- Son of a bitch!
- It's been there the
whole time! Holy sh...
(sound of something ramping up)
- [Danielle] I'm just going
to start touching stuff
when Brennan's not here.
- As the pressure builds all the way,
(ramping up hits its peak)
throughout the city, there's...
(explosions booming)
As blood begins to flow
more into the brain.
Somewhere, elsewhere in Elias
Hodge, a whole different city,
maybe like the Boston to your
New York, the heart picks up.
(Brennan mimics heart hammering)
As blood begins to flow,
all that adrenaline
has been doing its job in the
city and the pressure builds.
Having gotten all the way up
to a pressure score of 80...
- Systolic? 80 over...
- Like a BPM kind of thing?
- [Freddie] Yeah, where are we at here?
- I think that he might
actually, that this,
there's a 1930s old-timey
kind of phrenology
that will be discarded by our modern day,
and that's the system we're using.
- Oh, it's 80 that. Okay,
got it, got it, got it.
- It's something that doesn't-
- Your humor pressure is off the charts!
(players laughing)
- Unbelievable, your pressure's at 80!
80 what? It's at 80!
(players laughing)
- Grab the leaches!
- Out of what? Yes!
- Exactly!
With your pressure score
there in the yellow,
all Moxie costs are doubled.
(players gasping and woahing)
all Moxie costs are doubled.
(players gasping and woahing)
Under pressure, everything's become
a little bit higher stakes for Elias,
meaning action is still possible.
None of your stats are lowered.
The difficulties all remain the same,
but doing those kind of exceptional things
has become a little bit harder
under all this pressure.
With that being said,
you look at the ocular
center in front of you.
Time has slowed in that outside world.
Elias is in bullet time.
However, all of you are here.
What is your reaction
in the moment of seeing that ocular sight?
- Oh my god.
We gotta get Elias to touch his balls.
(Brennan laughing)
- What?
- What? Hear me out, okay?
- I slap him across the face.
(slapping sound, players laughing)
What are you talking about?
- No, listen!
No no, hear me out, okay?
- Curio, you're mad! You're nuts!
- Hit him again.
(slapping sound)
(players laughing)
- Okay, one more time!
(slapping sound)
(players laughing)
No, okay, now hear me out.
Danny Fucks said that Wilton said
there's something buzzing
in this guy's balls, right?
- Danny is off in the corner
staring at his own hands
and is like, (sniffles) what matters?
What does it matter what I said?
What was the point of this whole life?
A life in pursuit of endless
pleasure, but for what?
To what end? It all comes to an end.
- Right, exactly!
And we know that Elias's last memory
(Hank laughing)
involved him, two goons blacking him out,
so if there's something
buzzing on this guy's junk,
that either means that they put it on him,
but why would you do that
if you're pushing him out a window?
Or he put it there himself.
Now, that had to be premeditated
if we didn't even see it in that memory,
which means he's put something there
that he wanted to keep hidden,
because that's why you would
put something near your junk!
Look at all the stuff
I got hidden down here!
I show all the things I
don't want people to see.
- My god!
- Ball bearings, a full trench coat.
(objects clattering)
- [Danielle] There's so much in there!
- Now, I don't know what this thing is
that's buzzing down there, but if Elias
put something down there,
it's gotta be important.
- Hunch!
- It doesn't have to be
important. It could just be sexy.
- I suppose, look, now
listen, you could be right.
It could be something sexy.
He wanted to get off a little bit
before he went to go confront the big man.
But we know he was putting
all these pieces together
about the information before
going up to talk to Mr. Henry.
Mr. Henry? Is that the name?
- [Brennan] Mr. Henry, that's right.
- Mr. Henry! We know that he did all this!
We knew he was walking into danger.
He knew he was walking into danger.
Maybe, now maybe that's a little bit of an
edging kind of thing, maybe it's
a new thing, (Freddie laughing)
maybe that's an extra
special way to get off.
If so, very curious to
learn about that too.
(players laughing)
But I do think there's
something going on in the balls,
and I think we need to get
Elias to touch his balls!
- Hunch, are you saying...
that we should- we should
have one last romp?
(Brennan breathlessly laughing)
One last go around here
before we kick the bucket
so to speak?
- Danny,
if I'm wrong, at least we'll go out
with a little bit of oxytocin
in our system, right?
- By god, man, you're right!
You've lifted my ill spirits!
Hell yeah, brother! Let's do this shit!
- I personally have been trying
to get him to inappropriately
touch his balls
in public for a long time.
(players laughing)
- If not now, when?
- If not now, when?
- If not you, who?
(players laughing)
- If not who, how?
- If not how, then... (confused) what?
- Exactly!
- [Freddie] Yes, precisely.
What is it? What is it down there?
- You know you have the key.
- I do have the key.
- And with the key, that
is the key to those.
- You can tell him to touch his balls.
- Can we tell him to touch his balls?
- Well-
(group laughing hysterically)
- Well-
(group laughing hysterically)
As this is going on, Justin looks over
at Conrad and says, are we going to...
We're falling out of a skyscraper.
Are we about to whip our dick out?
(players laughing)
- Justin.
Conrad turns to just have a convers-
a conversation with Justin.
- [Freddie] Sidebar.
- Sidebar.
I'm not sure, and it's not
really my problem anymore-
- Look, it's my job to find
reasons for why we do stuff!
(players laughing)
You know, it's easy, I
like working with you
because by the time
stuff you do gets to me,
it's already pretty justified.
But all the stuff everybody else does,
I still have to find reasons for!
- Justin, okay, I'm sorry
you're stressed, buddy,
but listen to me.
(Brennan whines)
This is all my fault.
The big guy is dying because of me,
so I'm going to turn myself in.
- Finally!
(players laughing boisterously)
- You're over here being like,
yes, we're going to
jerk off one last time!
So this little sidebar here, he says,
you're going to turn yourself-
- Sorry, that's the
loudest I've ever talked.
(group laughing hysterically)
(group laughing hysterically)
- We're not dying because of you.
- It's been really nice to have
a group looking out for me,
but look at how much
they've already suffered,
and how everybody's suffering,
and it's because of me.
It's because I made the big
guy do this. So we gotta turn-
Well, you can do whatever you want,
but I'm going to turn myself in.
- You see Justin go, well
just hold on a second!
And you see that Justin is
going to bound over to The Fix.
Give me a snoop check. We'll
call it difficulty four.
- Six.
- You sense that Justin
senses how serious you are
and knows that you mean this,
and you think he's going to go
tell people what you just said
because he doesn't want you to do this.
- J- Justin, wait! No, stop!
Stop! What are you doing?
- I don't want you to go.
- I told you this off
to the side on purpose.
(players laughing)
(stammering)
- If you ask me to keep
it a secret, I will,
but I won't feel good about it.
- Well, I don't want you to do anything
you don't feel good about.
- I'd like to roll for it,
but it feels right that
I'd be listening in.
I'm constantly listening in on everyone.
- [Brennan] Sure, sure sure sure.
(players laughing)
- [Freddie] I was gonna ask the same.
I'll actually say, go ahead
and give me a sneak check,
if you'd be so kind, because
Conrad is very sneaky.
- For sure.
- Two plus two, four.
- Okay, so it's a four snoop check
for people to observe this.
As a planned action, if you
want, you can halve your snoop.
- How much was it?
- [Brennan] Four. Difficulty of four.
- I'll halve it.
- [Brennan] Cool, so
attention and curiosity-
- I also-
- Yeah, I also halve it.
- Everybody except pleasure.
(Alex laughing)
I love it, every part of the brain
can notice conscience but pleasure.
(players laughing)
- Also, you said butt pleasure.
(whip cracking)
(players laughing)
- Oh, my brother!
- Hey, if we're stopping by the crotch,
we're only a few inches away!
- Just around the corner, as it were!
- So yes, I think everyone here notices,
notices Conrad in this moment.
So to answer your question about the key,
yes, you still have the key.
You used the Switchboard
at Cerebell Pacific.
- Uh-huh.
- Give me a savvy,
difficulty of nine.
- Okay.
- Ooh.
- Oh my god, no.
No, that's a four.
- There you go.
(ball sliding on a track)
Time to start collecting
some Moxie, anyway.
- Yeah.
- So in other words, you are aware
that that's the one you use.
It's the one that's in Cortex
City. It's easy to find.
With that being destroyed,
you wouldn't know where
to apply your key to
in order to get Elias to impulsively...
You- You have- If you can
find a way to make him
feel an impulse, yeah, absolutely.
- [Siobhan] Sure.
What did you end up rolling on your savvy?
- Four.
- On a four, it's like
that's the key switch
that your family uses because
you're so hoity toity.
You go to the communication
center of the brain and
make an impulse happen.
On a four, I don't think any back channels
would come to mind, but you know
that like, there's always
the conscious mind.
Like you could try to go to the mayor
or go to the people that run the show.
- Those people are so boring.
(players laughing)
Ambition? Ugh, no.
Logic? Ugh.
(fun planning music)
(Brennan laughing lightly in delight)
We could- We could talk-
We could talk to them, if we have to.
Maybe Logic will hear the fact
that we're falling out
of a goddamn window.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- It makes sense.
(Brennan laughing)
He ran a whole campaign on it!
- Sure.
- Or...
- We could go to the
ball- I'm for balls. I'm-
(players laughing)
Just to be clear, team
balls in this situation.
- To get there, though,
what if we did this?
I've hatched a plan.
Conrad, you little shit!
Why don't you turn yourself in?
- Oh.
(players laughing)
And that way, while The Fix
and Conrad are distracting
the higher functions, we can sneak in.
- Sneak in.
- Get the impulse in play,
and fulfill our destiny.
- Take an incognito train.
- That seems a little risky, my friend.
- Oh, yes.
- No, no. Let's do it.
- Yes, my idea is a good one!
- I don't think Conrad
should turn himself in.
I don't- I don't see how...
- I can distract that guy
without Conrad's help.
- No, I think it's actually very important
that Conrad turns himself in.
(players laughing lightly)
- Yeah, no, for the first
time, I agree with Mister F...
(players laughing)
- Don't you want to say it, though?
Just a little bit, in
front of all these adults?
- Yeah, I mean, if the world is ending.
- [Siobhan] Sure!
- (truly so quietly) Mr. Fucks.
- What's that? Louder, louder.
- [Siobhan] You can say it
louder than that.
- I think I got it that time.
(players laughing)
- What are we hoping to
gain by offering up Conrad?
- Exactly.
- We- We're- Nothing.
- I don't see it that way at all.
(Trapp laughing)
- I'm going to go tell Mr.
Bition that I killed that kid.
That's what I was hired to do.
- Okay, so it seems like
we all have a similar plan,
just whether or not I
actually get turned in.
(players laughing)
- Conrad, I think you
are needed at the balls.
- Why?
- You're the only one that can drive!
- [Alex] I've never been to the balls!
What, are we going to take the train?
I don't take public transportation!
- Conrad, Conrad, I understan-
I never go to the balls either.
- Okay.
- Because it just makes me sad.
- Mm-hm.
(players laughing)
- I check out the balls
every once in a while.
- [Freddie] See what's going on.
- Yeah, out of curiosity.
What's going on down there?
- I understand why you would
never ever go to the balls,
but this one time, I
think you have to balls.
- Okay, I don't really
follow why, but alr- okay.
- There's some- I think he's
hidden something near his junk.
- Did you know...
(Freddie holds back laughter)
- My heart starts beating faster.
(rapid heart beat)
- ...that the urethra
contains taste receptors?
- Ew!
- [Danielle And Freddie] What?
- Taste bud-like structures.
- Bro, slow down. What?
- And that's all he has to say about that.
(players laughing)
- That makes me very curious.
(players laughing)
- During that, Conrad tries to,
tries to sneak away.
(group laughing)
- [Brennan] I love it, go
ahead and give me a sneak roll.
- Okay.
Aw man, it's a one plus two.
- Yeah, you're not getting anywhere.
- With the escape artist,
it's still just a five.
Six, sorry.
- A six? Anyone-
- I can see that on a planned action.
- Cool, yeah.
- What are you-
- [Brennan] Grab the kid.
- Stop it, let me go! Stop it, stop it!
- Arm around the shoulder.
- Freddie got one earlier
you didn't serve up.
- Oop.
- [Freddie] Thank you.
(ball sliding on a track)
- We also still got
this big, beautiful book
from the memory bank
that I think we should take
a look into at some point.
- For sure, but do we want to read
when we're falling out of a window?
(Trapp chuckling)
- We got time.
- We got time?
- Listen, I'm just the curious guy.
I want to pursue all these leads.
- You're right. Book
people, here's the book.
- [Freddie] We haven't blinked yet.
- Hell yeah.
In order to speed read this,
anyone who wants to can
give me a savvy of five.
- I got it.
- Oh, amazing.
So you open the book up.
(Cool whirring noise)
As you see it, you see
the entire psychometer project open up,
(mysterious music)
and funnily enough, you guys actually see
that there are, nearby
you in De'lux Industrial,
there are a couple of
different remote iris panels.
So you can actually sort of take the book
and plug it into one of these iris panels
and see the book sort of come to life,
which helps speed it up.
As you do so, you see
the life of working here
As you do so, you see
the life of working here
at Gobstopper Industries open
up throughout this memory.
The psychometer in its original schematics
starts as a sort of almost
dentist chair style structure,
like a place that you would sit down
and have something read or measured.
There's another memory as Elias is working
throughout his time at
Gobstopper Industries.
You see a sort of, you know,
going into the bathroom
on the first day, you see Elias's face
with a very pronounced scar over his face
with a very pronounced scar over his face
from being hit with an ice skate.
That scar sort of stayed on
his face for a long time,
and you can see him take his
hat and try to move it over
the scar up near his scalp.
A young, very hungry-looking person,
almost fresh out of college, essentially.
You see another memory
of this guy, Mr. Henry,
who pats him on the back
and says, incredible work.
That psychometer seems
very, very promising.
You look over Mr. Henry's shoulder
at a place where your
attention did not go,
and finally this memory has come back
in front of attention
and curiosity and impulse
and hyperfixation and all
these important things.
You look back and see in
the room by Mr. Henry,
there's a group of four star generals.
(serious, somber music)
There's some military types in that room.
You see there's another memory
later on in this project.
As Elias is working on all this stuff,
you see Mr. Henry knock and
the door and come in and say,
Elias, I meant to talk
to you for a moment.
We got some of your schematics
on this most recent version
that had some protections, you said,
to ensure that the psychometer
would not alter any thoughts
to ensure that the psychometer
would not alter any thoughts
as it was attempting to gain an accurate
reading so that we can
help diagnose patients and
understand the mind and how it works more.
Is there a very considerable risk of that,
that we might accidentally
be able to alter thoughts
with this thing if we're not careful?
And you hear Elias's voice
speak out, all of your voice.
I feel like all of you are almost parents
watching a kid on a stage
where you all kind of mouth
along to the stuff Elias says
as,
(Brennan laughing lightly)
as you hear Elias's voice
say, that's right, Mr. Henry.
The reading of thoughts,
this machine would actually be able to...
help us understand and map out the mind.
But of course, it's like
any radio wave or sonar.
There's an interaction,
there's actually something
from the machine touching the mind
to be able to get an accurate reading.
Like sonar, it hits and bounces back,
but it does make contact,
so you'd have to be extremely
careful to not send anything
at a frequency that would
alter anything within the mind.
Which, if the reading was too powerful
or the frequency was
calibrated in such a way
that it could affect
the electrical impulses,
would obviously be a very real risk.
You see Mr. Henry go,
huh. A very real risk.
Well, we want to avoid that, don't we?
And you see the memory continue on.
(whooshing)
You see more and more work.
You all kind of remember,
as times have gotten worse,
you see it's like wiping
dandruff off a black shirt.
There's a bunch of cups of coffee.
There's some sort of sleeplessness.
I think, you know, Anastasia,
you recognize this.
This is maybe the same day that that nice
person smiled at Elias
in the coffee shop and...
You see a sort of shaky hand,
being sort of overworked.
You see Mr. Henry come in again and say,
just had a talk with the boys in sales,
and I know we try to
keep you R&D fellas safe
from those jackals, but we
need to talk about portability.
There's a concern here
that with this whole thing
being a chair and a big
gewgaw, just the space!
We don't see a viability for
this as a product, necessarily.
You know, you've worked on,
I think you came up
through projectiles, right?
You see Elias is like, well,
I did work on that in school.
I applied to that department
just because of my senior proj-
Loved your senior project!
Loved it! (laughs)
Love an ingenious young
gadgeteer like you, Elias.
But I think something a
little bit more compact,
like you've worked on in the past.
Something that a person might
be able to carry with them.
You see Elias says, okay.
Well, that would require...
You see Mr. Henry says,
money's no object, kid.
We can... increase your budget.
And you remember that
increase your budget thing,
and all of a sudden,
at the edges of this memory,
(sinister string music)
you see the face of the DA
and the face of Don Avaricci
you see the face of the DA
and the face of Don Avaricci
both sort of go, increase your budget?
Like, this sort of, and,
you feel these figures that
have been swimming at the edge.
After that, you see the
memory just continues on,
finishing the packet,
finishing the packet,
finishing the packet,
and as it's happening,
you see the schematics compressing
from a chair with large
X-ray machines and arms
and something a little bit smaller,
which would be a portable engine,
(sounds of shifting machines)
and then the engine gets smaller
until it even can be
picked up in two hands.
And all the while, as the
schematics change and reconfigure,
And all the while, as the
schematics change and reconfigure,
you see that there are notes
left in the margins about,
need to find way to include
previously mentioned safeguards.
As it starts to come down
to different frequencies,
you see finally Elias
finding some research
from some other researchers
in his department.
There appear to be people that have noted
some of his work in the
margins, and you see
that there is a double
frequency, a mirrored wave.
He has his line, and
there's a weird mirror to it
that's been added in a margin somewhere,
and I'm going to need another savvy check,
difficulty of six from-
- I halve it.
- [Brennan] Halve it, boom.
Savvy's your d12?
- My d12, yeah.
- You start looking at those lines.
This is information
from the outside world,
and all of you exist in Mentopolis,
which is this living analogy
of these things on the outside
that you recognize, where it's like, oh,
that barking dog isn't just a barking dog,
it's going to create the
stimulus of a sudden shock
that's going to turn into
a person in our city.
Someone's going to come
out of the rail yard
being like, I'm a reaction to loud noises!
So as you're looking at that
(epic, retrofuturistic music)
doubt- that sort of like,
reflected double frequency line,
you can almost feel
your vision going blank,
and you almost feel an impulse
of your own within yourself.
The lines begin to compress,
and as they compress, they
begin to form a shape,
and as they begin to form a shape,
the shape narrows and narrows,
the lines contorting
into curves and teeth,
the lines contorting
into curves and teeth,
and all of a sudden, a blinding white key
(light moving swiftly)
enters your vision, (snap)
and then you stop seeing it.
(pleasant light sound)
- Is this...
Is this key that key?
- You look at your key.
It's a lovely, shiny brass,
like a normal key would be.
That other key, it hummed
with a synaptic energy.
That other key, it hummed
with a synaptic energy.
There was something malevolent
and something alien
about that key you saw.
- Can I maybe do a check to see
if I could suppose that that key
if I could suppose that that key
was the key that broke
the Cerebell Pacific machine?
- Let me get a 10 snoop from
anybody here at the table.
- Oh, okay, thank god.
- Was Imelda the only
one who saw that key?
- Oh!
- I'll halve it.
- I exploded.
- Halve it. Oh, exploded!
- I got a 10!
(Brennan laughing)
(players cheering)
- I'll also do a planned action
there with the snoop and-
- Hell yeah, as you begin to point it out,
everyone else, as Imelda
starts pointing it out,
can all see in the frequency,
in the same way that a trained musician
(low rumble)
can look at sheet music
and hear the melody, right,
whereas to anyone else it's just dots,
you all look at a frequency
and begin to see a white key.
And as you see a white key, Anastasia,
(low rumble hastening)
you saw the Switchboard earlier.
(tense music)
The Switchboard was destroyed
by something way bigger than a key.
It looked like an explosion or buckshot
or something like that
hit the Switchboard,
but you see this
like humming piece of
energy that has almost...
like a...
light-based bleaching effect,
like there's something about it
that would suck the
specificity out of them,
and you suddenly remember
seeing some artifacts
that were on that police
cart that was moved away,
that were on that police
cart that was moved away,
and you remember all the way back
to the beginning of this mystery
where that cart got moved away,
and you remember a
couple of shards of glass
and some broken parts of the console,
and specifically you also remember
that one of the things they
took that had been taken off
was a pocket square that,
you were like, oh a white corner
that fades into a pattern?
And then you realize, no no no,
the pocket square was a full pattern,
and it had been robbed of color.
And you remember that that pocket square
was taken off the body of Norrell Ojiccle.
- Oh no. So we got
zapped by our own petard.
(players laughing)
- It does seem that way.
- Just let me talk this
through for a second
so I feel like I understand as a human.
Before we got pushed out of
a window, something happened,
and that something is
probably, we got psychometered.
- I think so.
- I think so.
- I think that key, that is
the physical manifestation
- I think that key, that is
the physical manifestation
of the effect of someone
being able to unlock something
within our mind,
an outside key unlocking our mind.
- Yeah, and also change it.
- [Trapp And Danielle] And change it.
- I didn't get the part
with the pocket square.
- So Norrell was close
by when this happened,
and the bleaching of the pocket square
is like a bleaching of memory.
- Oh, from the key.
- Seems like the key and Norrell Ojiccle
were probably in close proximity
at the time of the explosion.
- That's what killed him, somehow.
- And he didn't have it coming,
because he was just there.
- Yes.
- All right.
- So, the balls?
(group guffawing)
- You guys, you're falling to your death.
There's something at the balls.
- There's something in the evidence cart.
- But also, like you're saying,
there is something with this
memory of the psychometer,
and specifically of some of the things
at the edges of Elias's
consciousnesses or conscious mind
at the edges of Elias's
consciousnesses or conscious mind
surrounding the psychometer
and how the project changed
or what happened to it
that clearly tells some other story.
In other words, it's like
you begin to put together
that there is a layered
series of threats here,
multiple things happening all at once.
Oh yeah, Anastasia.
- Sorry, I'm having a thought.
That's my having a thought face.
- [Brennan] Love it.
- I apologize.
So, I believe it is possible
that not only did that key
happen to mess with
dear sweet Mr. Ojiccle,
I also believe that we can see that now,
powerful people who run this city
are trying to keep that
information from being out.
Is it possible that one of
the things that that key does,
is it possible that it
has affected the DA?
Is it possible that it
has affected Mayor Logic?
- Oh boy.
- Are all of these people now,
have they been changed by the psychometer,
and now they are actively
working against us
because all of the people at Gobstopper
are making them do so?
- Or were they the ones that
chose to use the psychometer?
- That's also a possibility.
- I know these men. They will
do anything for their power.
- Oh dear.
So, we, we kill them?
(players laughing)
- Whoa! That's a jump!
- First, the balls.
- First the balls, and then murder.
(Brennan laughing)
- So, having seen that
memory, you close the book.
You'll have to make some alteration to it
before you return it to-
- Add something fun.
- Sure, yes. I make the man
have a different colored hat.
His hat has a big feather
coming out of it now,
and I swear to god it's real.
(Brennan laughing)
- You change that.
You change a huge, important
part of the memory.
(Freddie and Brennan laughing)
Seal the book up.
You're still here in De'lux Industrial,
and you do actually have this
little kind of mini ocular
portable thing with you.
You have broken in here, but
you already beat the shit
out of a bunch of people and whatever,
so you do have a little
mini portable oculus
with you now that you can take.
- So we can see outside?
- Yes, in order words, it's a way for you
to keep tapped in
to what the eyes are seeing.
- What is going on outside, got it.
Great, great.
- Convenient.
- There you go.
What is it that you all do now?
- So the place where I would
usually use my key is broken,
and I don't know if there are
any other places we can use it
but maybe we can talk to the mayor.
- Can I roll for, I'm
guessing this would be,
would this be a snoop?
- This would actually be savvy,
because this is knowledge. Yeah.
- This would be savvy?
Yeah, can I roll for savvy and see
if I would know where
there are other keyholes?
- It's a difficulty nine,
but I'm actually going to
say for Anastasia's purposes,
and I don't want to tip my hand too much,
that for you, the
difficulty's actually seven.
- [Siobhan] (gasp).
- Mm.
- Okay.
(Alex laughs lightly)
Come on, baby.
'Splode, 'splode, 'splode,
'splode, 'splode, 'splode.
(sighs) Okay.
- What do add?
- How far away are you?
- [Danielle] That's a two.
- Oh fuck.
- Okay, we got some Moxie.
- Yeah, but Moxies are double now.
- Yeah, the costs are doubled.
- I'll use my four Moxie to give you two.
- Yeah, I'll give you
two also from my four.
- Okay, so that's-
- [Hank] What are we trying to get to?
- Two.
- Two.
- So that would be four,
five, six, and then-
- I can give you two.
- I've got one more, so we are set.
- Let me give you two, because I get-
- You get extra.
- Because this is extra.
- Oh, that's right. Okay,
great, I'll take it.
- So Moxie costs double.
You feel the pressure.
Mentopolis is flooded with excess power.
(electricity flowing)
It's almost like you can hear rumbling
from the power plants nearby.
As you begin to think of,
where did I see a key?
Where is a keyhole?
Imelda obviously uses the
one at the city center
at Cortex City, and suddenly you remember,
you've seen a keyhole earlier today
at the switchboard at Oblongata
Station, the reflexive one.
The reflexive switchboard,
in cases of emergency.
However, on that seven,
I will remind you that it
was not like the central one.
They got a big fancy one
up at Cerebell Pacific.
The one down there is extremely limited,
but you saw that it had
some safeguards around it
because it's just there in the
middle of the train station.
So there's a central keyhole there
that had four other
keyholes surrounding it,
and all you remember is
that the four keyholes
surrounding it seemed to be
almost like security measures.
surrounding it seemed to be
almost like security measures.
So if someone was going to do something,
there needs to be more than-
- A nuclear key. You
need simultaneous keys.
- We don't have to talk
to my parents, do we?
(players laughing)
- What you remember is that every one
of those four security keys
had an F next to it
with a period after.
And with that,
you believe that you do not need all four.
You just need one of
those other four keys.
- Oh, I know where we can get another key.
- Where?
- My freezer.
- F for freezer!
(players laughing lightly)
- (laughing) Nice.
(Brennan clapping)
- You're going to let me
come to your apartment?
- Absolutely not.
- Come on!
(players laughing)
- I want to see your apartment.
- [Alex] Does it need to be kept cold?
I want to see how you live.
- Out of curiosity,
what is Anastasia thinking
of in her freezer right now?
- So it's one of those gimmicky things.
They put things online
where they're like, hey,
if you have a problem with spending,
take your credit card and
put it in a block of ice
and then put the block
of ice in the freezer,
and then when you really
need it, you can just
defrost the block of ice.
- Sure.
- And so inside of Anastasia's freezer,
there's a key in a block
of ice which is surrounded
by some bottles of
vodka that are kept cold
and then just a lot of
ladies' meals for one.
So instead of Hungry-Man,
it's like Sad-Gal or something like that.
- [Brennan] Yes, yes yes yes.
- Famished Femme.
(players laughing)
- Incredible, so you have your key
from the Pulse family at the ready.
I just realized, Pulse and Tension
is a great name for a noir.
(players laughing)
- Pulse and Tension.
- Fan artists, get that poster going.
- Get that poster going.
So yes, you have your family key
back in a block of ice at your apartment.
With that, do you take off?
- Yes, but mostly because, oh god,
Anastasia feels as though
because she has not been
paying attention to the gonad region,
she feels as though she
has dropped the balls,
and so now it is her duty
(Siobhan laughing)
to go and see what is going
on there just in case.
Occasionally Hunch stumbles
into something correct,
and in this case, she doesn't
tell him that, (Hank laughing)
and in this case, it is possible that
(Siobhan laughing)
that is something that was said.
It is possible that we just
need any lead that we can.
It's possible, we do know
that we create gadgets and gadgetry,
so who knows what could be stuck up there?
Maybe it could be something
that could help you
if you've been
defenestrated, we don't know.
- We don't know.
So, the best path to the
balls is Oblongata Station,
which is where you saw that switchboard.
As high cognitive functions,
you probably can do all the interactions
with the body you need to
do from the station itself
rather than having to leave the mind.
So with that being said,
is everyone following
Anastasia and Imelda?
- I think we should
diversify our portfolio.
(players laughing)
I think,
I think we should try
to get this extra key
for a possible link to Oblongata Station,
and I think maybe The
Fix should see if we can
get- use his in at the DA
to see if we can somehow
access that other keyhole.
- Yeah, I need to talk to the DA anyway.
- [Brennan] Hell yeah.
- And hopefully see if
I can find out anything.
I don't know how.
- And I don't know where I want
to go. They both sound fun.
(players laughing)
- Can Conrad try to convince
The Fix to go along with him?
- Sure, yeah. What does
Conrad say to The Fix?
- Hey, Mr. The Fix?
I was going to just sneak along,
but I thought maybe that
would put your job in danger
if the DA found out you were lying,
so can I come with you
but in an honest way?
(players laughing)
- So- So I'm going to take you
to the man who told me to kill you?
- Yeah.
- [Hank] To, so that-
- Well, I guess don't
kill me in front of him,
but I just want to be turned in.
- So I'll take you there.
I'll be like, I got you this kid.
I decided not to kill him 'cause-
- Was it a take him
dead only kind of deal?
- That's usually how it works.
- Okay, okay.
- Kid, come with us.
- Wha-
Come on. (laughs)
Why you want to die? Why
do you want to die so bad?
- This is my fault!
- This is clearly Imelda's fault!
- It's my fault!
- Both of you are culpable.
- And I'm not turning myself in
under any circumstances, let me tell you.
- I think it's also Fucks'
fault, but I'm not sure why.
- No, no, no, no, no, no.
(Brennan laughing)
I choose not to see it that way.
(Hank laughing lightly)
- All right, well, I guess I tried.
- I think we keep Conrad as far
away from the DA as possible
and I think maybe The Fix needs-
- Why do you want to do that?
Is that just because you feel...
Do you want to help, or do
you want to just get murdered?
(players laughing)
- Because it's been at least two times now
you've tried to get murdered.
- I think it's different.
It's different than last time.
This time, I think it's
the right thing to do,
because it's been my fault, so
if we don't have me anymore,
maybe Elias will be safe.
- Yeah, I think you're wrong.
- Connie, my boy, I think
you're speaking sense
for the first time in your life.
- There we go, Mr.
(somewhat quietly) Fucks!
(players laughing)
I did it! I did it!
I did it!
- See? You're coming into your own.
Just in time, too, for you
will not long for this world.
- I think doing the right thing
is as much about doing
good actions in the future
as it is atoning for
bad actions in the past.
If you're just going to do one of those,
then you're only doing half the equation.
- I don't know what that means.
- It means that if you go now
and you get yourself murdered,
- It means that if you go now
and you get yourself murdered,
then that just means that
you haven't really atoned
for anything that you
believe you may have done,
because atonement is through actions,
and being murdered is kind of a reaction,
and so you need to be
able to pay it forward,
and you can wipe out your guilt
not by wiping yourself out,
but by doing more good in the future.
- Okay.
- [Brennan] You see Justin
looks over to you and says,
Conrad, there's more people
to turn yourself in to
than just the one guy we
know is trying to kill you.
- Whoa.
- [Brennan] You could turn
yourself in to Mayor Logic.
He's a reasonable guy.
- I don't like that idea.
- Okay, well...
(players laughing)
No, wait, I'll make it-
- Do you think that the
mayor and the DA talk?
- Oh, that's a great point.
(players laughing)
- You can turn yourself in to
me! I'm very authoritative.
- I think you turn
yourself in to Imelda here,
and I think that you
look at me in the eyes.
Now I'm going to tell you that eagles,
(players snickering)
(dramatic piano music)
when they grip onto somethin',
they actually have to
flex a muscle to un-grip.
So an eagle can hold
onto something so hard
that even after it dies, it never lets go.
But you are not an eagle.
You need to let go of whatever this is.
It is not about what happened
when you were 10 years old.
It is not about what happened
when you were 10 years old.
It's not about what happened
when you were 18 years old, 17.
All the other ages as
well, it's not about them.
It's about what happens
when you're the next age.
The next second, the next
minute, the next year.
Let go. Let go of those eagle talons.
- Conrad takes this in and
lets each of the other five
- Conrad takes this in and
lets each of the other five
un-claw one of the claws on his heart.
I don't...
(players laughing)
- I like the idea that
Conrad looked around,
and everyone's nodding,
and then you cut over to
Dan, he's like... (grumbling)
- I guess maybe there's four claws.
I don't know how many claws eagles have.
- I couldn't tell you either.
(Freddie and Hank laughing)
- Justin being one, also.
And says,
okay.
I'll- I'll do the balls thing.
(players wheezing and laughing)
(dramatic piano music stops)
- You want a cigarette, kid?
(players laughing boisterously)
- I really do, I really do! But no.
- Can I get a cigarette, too?
- Yeah.
(players laughing)
There's nothing in the rule
books to say dogs can't smoke.
- A dog smoking a
cigarette? This I gotta see!
(players laughing)
- Honestly, that sounds real cute.
(players laughing)
- Well, we are falling out of a window.
(group laughing)
- So you guys go ahead and take off.
I'm going to ask for one last...
savvy check here,
and I think this one is going
to be another difficulty...
and I think this one is going
to be another difficulty...
nine,
but it'll actually be
a five for Dan Fucks.
but it'll actually be
a five for Dan Fucks.
- That's going to be tough with my
d4.
- [Trapp] Is this just anyone
who wants to rolls?
- This is savvy?
- [Brennan] This is
savvy. Everyone can roll.
- Nope.
- I got four!
- [Brennan] You're exploding?
- I hit it!
I explode on my d4, the weakest of-
I got five on the dot!
- That's a five!
- [Brennan] Yeah, five on the dot, baby!
(players clapping and ohing)
- Hot hands, hot hands!
We're going to Vegas!
- [Brennan] Who here failed this roll?
- I got a seven.
- [Brennan] Seven, okay.
- Three.
- [Brennan] Gotcha.
- Five.
- [Siobhan] Three.
- Okay, so we're going to go boom, boom,
boom. More Moxie here.
(a ballad of balls on tracks)
So, The Fix gets this.
You get this as well.
- 10.
- 10. Dan.
You remember back to the same area.
(intriguing noir music)
As soo- As soon as Anastasia starts to
explain that key function
of those four Fs around that central lock,
you know that the central key
belongs to the station master, so Max.
You'll have to get past Max,
but Max is a friend of yours.
- Yeah, they're the homie.
- They're the homie, exactly.
You look at those other signals,
and you know that you
only need one of them
in order to do this, so
attention and impulse together
can make anything happen
at a switchboard that
they need to make happen.
But you do wonder why they would have
so many others in that case,
and because you're the only function here
that's sort of not from Cortex City,
you're kind of a more primal
function of the brain,
you have spent your whole,
you kind of grew up
near Oblongata Station.
You think that there's
a possibility that those
other keys
won't make the difference
between life and death,
necessarily, but might add more juice
if you could get them to whatever
action you end up taking.
- We want to get those balls hard.
- You want to get those balls hard.
(laughter, then a pause for
confusion, then more laughter)
- That's how it works.
- Check, check.
Check with your doctor.
- Now, when human balls get harder-
- And you begin to think
about those four...
- Keys. Other keys.
- Keys.
And all of them had the same initial,
and on that savvy, you begin to think of,
what authority figures could be called in?
It wouldn't make sense for them
to be higher cognitive
functions from Cortex City,
and I think on that five savvy...
Hank.
- No, I just feel like I
should know, and I don't.
- I have a-
- You have a what?
You have a what? You have a hunch?
- I have a hunch. Fight, flight, and fuck?
- What's that?
- Flight, fight, freeze.
- Oh, and fawn!
- Fawn, yes. That's right, fawn!
- Fawn!
- [Siobhan] Fawn, yeah.
(Alex laughing)
- So I think Dan, you realize
that there's a lot of
other urges down there,
and so there is a possibility to,
if you wanted to get other
keys from those other impulses,
you could color and advance
whatever the reaction was
once Imelda and Anastasia do their thing.
- I see, an influencing
sort of thing, yeah.
Ooh, hold on, I'm getting a
little bit of a brain wave here.
(players laughing)
The Fs, they could
stand for fight, flight,
and my good cousin Foot Stuff!
(everyone getting a kick
out of the foot fetish joke)
Nobody knows about him.
Nobody knows about him! Not yet, anyway.
- We all know about Foot Stuff.
(Freddie laughing)
(players laughing)
- The specter that hangs over this brain,
just like a dense fog.
- We just see a Godzilla figure moving,
the far horizon of Mentopolis.
(heavy, strong Godzilla foot steps)
- Maybe not Foot Stuff.
Not for this adventure.
- It's like Bigfoot. We've
heard legend of Foot Stuff!
(players laughing)
We glimpse him through the mist sometimes.
- I don't think it exists.
(players laughing)
- [Brennan] Incredible.
- I think I'll go with you,
because I'm not going to do
much good at the DA's office
if you're going there.
I'm not going to do much good
hanging around your apartment,
but I think I can hang out with the...
I'm good at snooping.
Snoop for some extra keys.
- [Brennan] Hell yeah,
so Imelda and Anastasia
are headed off to go grab the second key
to be able to unlock this switchboard,
Hunch and Dan are headed
off to go try to track down
some of these other
impulses, and then we have,
The Fix is headed off towards City Hall.
Conrad, Justin looks over at you, Conrad.
- They forgot me.
(players laughing)
- Oh no!
- I guess I'll just go turn myself in.
(players laughing)
- You see Justin looks
up, actually, at The Fix
before you're about to
head off and says, (barks)
well, should we try to
hide somewhere safe?
It seems like everybody's
trying to kill Conrad.
- Right, that's a good point.
- Well, I could help with the keys.
- That's true.
Yeah, we could go with Imelda
and Anastasia, that's true.
- Or with Hunch and Fucks!
- Or with Hunch and... Fucks.
(players laughing)
- Do we need two of the
big keys on this thing,
or can we just focus on
these little four Fs?
- It's completely up to you.
You don't need to get any of them
if you want to leave them all out of it
and just go do it
yourselves, but with two keys
from your family, any switchboard
in the city will work.
- Okay.
- That being said, if you want to-
- Could probably do a little better.
- So if you want to color the reaction
of whatever Elias is going to do,
which actually means that
if you got all four, great,
and then you'd be able to
move through those different reactions.
But you can also focus
on potentially the
reactions you want, right?
- Flight, when you're fallin'.
(players laughing and jokingly agreeing)
- Man, you're a genius!
I'm so glad I hired you!
(players laughing)
- Incredible, so yeah, if
you want to go track down
other keys, too, you absolutely could.
- Okay, yeah.
- You want to come with
Uncle Hunch and Uncle Fucks?
Or you want to go with these two?
- I'll go with Hunch and...
- God, Hunch and Fucks is a great last-
(players laughing)
- I was about to say, if you want to do
a spinoff detective show...
- It sounds like
- New, from Rizzoli and Isles!
(players laughing)
Ms. Tension and Ms. Pulse
might have some family stuff,
so I'll go with the boys.
- [Brennan] Hell yeah, cool.
- You can ride in the trunk!
- He's driving.
(players laughing)
- Dan and Hunch argue for a long time
about who's the one riding in the back.
(players laughing)
Shotgun, shotgun!
- You can have it. I wish
to be chauffeured around.
- Heading back to Cortex City,
(slick noir music)
Anastasia and Imelda head
back to Anastasia's apartment.
Anastasia and Imelda head
back to Anastasia's apartment.
What's the nature of the building
that Anastasia lives in,
going to your apartment?
- Anastasia lives in a boarding
house for lonely old women.
- Anastasia lives in a boarding
house for lonely old women.
(players laughing)
At the ripe old age of
24, one of those ones
where you have a curfew, so
she has to sneak back in.
No boys allowed. You can
only smoke on the balcony.
Everyone eats dinner together every night.
- Sign in all visitors!
- Exactly, exactly.
So that's kind of the area.
There's one bathroom per floor,
and then there's four of us
per floor, that kind of area.
So then I have my own room,
which does have a mini-fridge,
which is where my freezer
and my sad food is.
And so I believe that when
we open the door to my room,
And so I believe that when
we open the door to my room,
you see a bunch of clippings
from my articles that I've written
in like, you know like,
all put up all pretty
and framed really nicely,
and then just various different
newspapers stacked all over.
and then just various different
newspapers stacked all over.
My bed is not made. It has
clearly never been made.
(Siobhan laughs lightly)
I've got just hats of every kind and color
all over the floor, some with feathers.
I promise they're real.
Oh, and maybe some old dishes sometimes.
You know, like when you have cereal.
- [Siobhan] Sure.
- You leave the spoon on there,
and then the spoon gets
all crusty and gross.
- I'm just standing in this
room like this. It's nice!
(players laughing)
I really like what you've
done with the place.
- Oh, thank you, thank you.
If you'd like to, you can have this...
I walk over to the one chair,
which is missing a leg,
I walk over to the one chair,
which is missing a leg,
so I just take a bunch of newspaper
and shove it under so that it's even.
(newspaper crumpling)
Have this chair!
- Thank you so much. I
don't take the chair.
(players laughing lightly)
You know, you can always
come and stay with us.
Just because your mom
married a poor person
doesn't mean that you
have to live like this.
- I don't have to live like this.
I choose to live like this.
- Then I love it!
(players laughing)
- I'm free and independent,
I swear, I swear!
- What beautiful hats.
(Trapp laughing)
- Thank you!
I walk over to the mini-fridge,
kind of open it up.
I see the big block of ice.
(hum of an old refrigerator)
I put it on the table and
I just go, and now we wait.
(players laughing)
- Oh, come on. Don't you have
a way to cook it or something?
- I take out the bottle of
vodkas and a couple of glasses.
- [Siobhan] Great.
(door knocking)
- [Brennan] A knock at the door.
- Hello?
- [Brennan] Ms. Tension?
This is Chief of Police
Alexander Tightass.
- Oh, hello, Mr. Tightass.
I'm not really prepared to have visitors,
but if you would like to
come back at another time,
I would love to host you.
- [Brennan] We'd love, if we
could, to come in and talk now.
We have reason to believe
your cousin has gone missing,
and we are trying our best to locate her
for her extremely distressed
mother and father,
Mr. and Mrs. Pulse.
- I am looking around the
tiniest room I've ever seen
to find anywhere that
I could possibly hide.
- How do I hide without
touching any of this?
(players laughing)
- So I look around.
The only thing I can think of is,
I kind of grab her and I'm like, shh!
And kind of seat her
in the fetal position,
and then just start throwing
hats and newspapers on top of her.
- Oh, this is certainly a sneak.
(players laughing)
This is certainly a sneak,
and we're going to call
this a difficulty of...
eight.
- Oh god, for both of us?
- Well, I will actually say, yes.
I will say that you can both
give it an attempt, yes.
- [Trapp] How good is the disguise?
- I got an eight!
- Good for you.
- [Brennan] Unbelievable.
- I got a five.
- Okay.
- I'm just holding up the newspapers
as you throw them to me, unfolding.
- So (laughs) you just
throw hats and newspapers,
hats and newspapers.
- I'm so sorry! I'll be right there!
(newspaper crumpling)
I'm not quite d- decent!
(players laughing)
- [Brennan] All right, well,
as soon as you're decent,
open up and let us in, see?
- I absolutely will!
I just need to put on
something that ladies wear!
- [Brennan] I should hope so, Ms. Tension!
- Once I believe that I've got her co-
I cover her up, and then I take my hand,
because I've covered up her face,
I just make two small nose holes.
- Ah!
(players laughing)
- These nose holes here, and
I think honestly, Imelda,
you're just still obviously a person, but
as the door op-
- Every time I shift even a little bit,
the newspapers are so loud.
(loud crinkling)
(players laughing)
- I think you see, on that
incredible sneak check,
the door opens, and the chief of police
and four uniformed officers walk in,
and you see the chief of police walks in,
and walking into a lady's apartment,
he takes his hat off and
puts it on your hand.
(players laughing)
Now look here, Ms. Tension, I'm no fool.
(investigative music)
I have reason to beli-
All the cops just start
putting their coats on...
(players laughing)
(sound of coats ruffling)
We have reason to believe that your cousin
may be involved with some
ne'er-do-wells and ruffians
down from the temporal lobe.
- (insincerely) Oh no!
Which cousin would that happen to be?
Because, you know, there
are a lot of Pulses.
So, there are many Pulses.
There is Stacy Pulse,
you know, of also the Cortex Pulses.
There are many Pulses
that live all around...
this great city.
- Com- Com Pulse.
- Com Pulse?
- Re Pulse?
- Re-? Re Pulse, Com Pulse.
There is many, so I'll just need you
to tell me which one it is.
- Nobody wants to be anywhere
near Re Pulse, all right?
I'm here for Imelda Pulse.
- Imelda! Hm, which one is she again?
- Go ahead and give me a slick roll,
(players laughing)
difficulty of six.
- Why? Why did I do this to myself?
(Siobhan laughing)
- That's okay, I said I
was a student of the arts.
(players laughing)
- Seven!
- [Brennan] Seven! He goes-
- Plus two, so that is nine.
- [Brennan] Ooh!
- [Hank] Wow.
- So you see he says,
Imelda Pulse, your cousin.
She's an incredibly erudite socialite.
She's the talk of the town!
You see another cop goes,
everybody loves her.
(players laughing)
- I'm blushing underneath these hats.
(players laughing)
- Oh yeah, you think everyone loves her?
I don't keep up with my cousin.
I don't keep up with my family.
Me and my family are... estranged.
- You see one of the cops goes... (gasps)
He says, easy, Jones.
(players laughing)
Well, listen, I didn't come
here to get the funny papers
on your sad life here
with your miniature fridge
and your giant block of ice on the table.
(players laughing)
I came here to find this lady
before she gets mixed
up with the wrong sorts.
- Well, I hope very much
that doesn't happen,
but I haven't speaken to
or heard from Imelda Pulse in years.
- Well, I trust
if anything comes to your attention,
you'll be the first to let us know.
Here's my card.
He hands you a card that
says The Police on it.
(players laughing)
- Oh, Mr. Tightass, you know
how cooperative I've been.
I've worked with you
on many investigations.
Of course I would be sure
to come to you first,
if my cousin were to have gone missing.
(tense music)
I think, personally, she's
probably out partying.
- Yeah, well, that would be
like those hoity toity Pulse types.
You see the other guy goes,
their parties are the best!
Relax! And he turns to exit.
As he's turning to walk away,
he turns back to look around
(Hank laughing)
and takes his hat and says,
odd sculpture you got here,
but not as odd as that big block of ice
with a key in the middle.
(players laughing)
He turns around and walks
out of your apartment.
- And then all the other cops go with him?
- [Brennan] Yes.
- So, immediately mad dash to the door,
lock the door, put the thing on.
(door closes and locks)
Oh, I forgot to mention, of course,
I hastily threw a robe
over my trench coat,
(players laughing)
of course I did, so I take off the robe.
I just start removing-
- You have gotten so good
at lying. I am proud of you.
- Aw, thank you.
- You're welcome.
- [Danielle] I've been working on it.
- Good.
- In my career. As a newspaperwoman.
- Oh, well, now I like it less, I guess.
(players laughing)
- Incredible, with the cops buzzing
around this neighborhood, do
you wait for the key to thaw,
or is there anything else
that you do while you're here?
- Yeah, is there an icepick or something?
- Yeah, so again, I look.
Those glasses are still...
(blowing)
Set those down, start just
chipping away at the ice.
- Cool, just give me
a DC four sharp check.
- Come on baby, come
on baby, come on baby.
Oh, DC four sharp? I'll just halve it.
- Great, awesome, so
you take these things.
Chip chip chip chip chip, crack!
(sound of ice breaking in two)
And you grab your second key
(pleasant light sound)
and take off towards Oblongata Station.
- But first, I have a shot of vodka.
- I grab a bottle of vodka for the road.
(players laughing)
- All right.
- Sprinting down the
street chugging vodka.
- Our parties are legendary.
(players laughing)
- You see there's a big
bottle of vodka there
that just says Endorphins
across the top of it.
- [Siobhan, Danielle, and Brennan] Woo!
(players laughing)
- And off you go.
We move from Oblongata Station to our car
with Hunch, Fucks, and Schintz.
(fun, jazzy music)
(players laughing)
- I'm just digging through the glovebox.
Looking through the, poking at,
- [Freddie] Messing with the radio.
- Turning every knob, poking everything.
- What's on the radio? Turn it on.
(static)
(that familiar jazzy
tune from episode one!)
- It's the song!
(players laughing)
- Conrad is sitting on a crate
on top of the driver's seat
and still driving like this.
(players laughing)
- Hell yes, you're on your
box. Justin's in the back.
- [Freddie] What's our
seating arrangement?
- Dog hanging out the window.
- I think Justin's shotgun with his head
out the window and his big basset hound...
(dog skin folds flapping in the wind)
Then I think Hunch and
Fucks are in the backseat.
- I'm in the middle seat.
- Wait a minute!
So you're in a backside
seat, and you scooched
into the captain's seat?
- Dead middle of the back!
(players laughing)
- Danny, I've never seen this before.
That's exactly why I love it.
- Full spread.
The legs are fully into
the left and the right.
- I don't know that I've
ever heard of something that
should have happened before in my life
and is instead happening
now for the first time,
which is picturing that,
and I hate it so much.
- So disgusting.
- [Brennan] I hate it so much.
- [Trapp] It's the equivalent
of there being like-
- The grossest thing
that you've said so far.
- ...a row of 10 urinals open,
and someone picks the one next to you.
(players laughing and agreeing)
- What's up, man? Why did you come here?
- Quite comfortable! Spacious!
(players laughing)
I hear next year's model's is even better.
- So where is Conrad driving to?
Obviously there's a bunch of these pulses,
or im- you know.
If anyone wants to make a savvy check
to recall or remember anything
about some or the other
of these larger impulses,
you totally can.
- Dan, don't you have like a,
some kind of knowledge of
the underground ability?
- Yeah, it feels like, yeah, so I can...
I only have one, so maybe
someone can lend me a Moxie here.
- Oh yeah, I can lend you a Moxie.
- I have one also.
- Okay, yeah yeah yeah.
So I will spend a Moxie for troublemaker,
one of my perks here.
Spend a Moxie to locate and
receive help within reason
and without making any stat
checks from a criminal network,
so I think this'll be the way
to sort of get the lay of the land.
Where is everybody right now
at this moment? Spend my Moxie.
- Spend your Moxie, get
the criminal underworld.
So, spending a Moxie and just getting
that automatic success, you...
run back by Sugah's.
(smooth jazz music)
So you start sort of driving
back around that area,
back near the speakeasy, and
call up a couple of people.
It's hard, because the phone lines
are all down, so it's taking a while.
You can see that people are
getting a little bit antsy.
There's a lot of people on the street,
because a lot of the lights will flare up
and then some of the
streetlamps have broken,
so there's a little bit more darkness,
which is always a sort of scary thing.
Oh, there's no illumination
out on the street.
You have people basically telling you,
oh yeah, the four Fs, I remember that.
Boss, I think something
happened a long time ago, right?
All of them got fired by Mayor Logic.
There was that whole
campaign of, it makes sense
that we shouldn't be reliant
on sort of dumb impulse.
- Yes, scandalous! A
slanderous campaign, even!
- Well, you know, he said,
why do we need a reflex
to tell us to fight or
fly or fawn or freeze,
when instead we can just
do whatever makes sense?
So we haven't seen them in a long time,
but some of them, I think
Flight might've skipped town.
(players laughing)
- Seems right.
- That tracks, yeah.
- That feels right.
- Freeze is exactly where
he's been the whole time.
- But I think Freeze,
probably the least helpful
one of the bunch right now!
Flight's the one I really want to talk to.
- You know the prize fight
in the old warehouse down by the station?
- Yeah.
- I don't think that...
I don't think Fight would've left.
I mean, I think they
probably changed their name
but, you know,
Fight wouldn't have left Mentopolis.
Not without a fight.
(Freddie and Hank snicker)
- Sure, yeah. Again, it tracks.
It totally tracks. It makes sense, yeah.
- [Freddie] It tracks, it tracks.
- But there's something kind
of interesting here, boss,
which is that I remember talking to Fight,
that Freeze had sort of
vanished sometime before.
that Freeze had sort of
vanished sometime before.
Freeze was tired of working
with Fight and Flight
back in the day and something about,
I don't remember what it was.
Something about a pair of
ice skates or something.
I don't know.
- And also there's a fourth one.
Remind me again what that was real quick.
- Oh, Fawn. Fawn's great, I know Fawn.
- [Freddie] Oh, yes!
- Fawn is so nice.
(players laughing)
- [Freddie] Where is that rapscallion?
- Yeah, your contact
gives you the location of-
- Also, you called me boss. Who are you?
- Oh, sorry. Achoo!
(sounds of recognition)
It's me, Joey Sneezes!
- Didn't recognize you there
without the sneezing, constant allergies.
- Yeah, no, I think I'm
allergic to the club.
- Not my problem.
- I just want to be sure, you
don't know where Flight is?
- I don't know where Flight is right now,
but I do know, I could try
to start tracking him down.
The easiest ones to find
are going to be Fawn or Fight, probably.
- Are you saying fun?
- Fawn.
- [Hank] Fawn.
- Like to fawn over somebody.
- Okay.
I can't remember...
I can't remember if Conrad told us
about the ice skates or not.
I don't think so. Conrad's with
us, right, hearing all this?
- Conrad's just there, ashen-faced.
(players laughing)
- Don't mind the statue
over here on the side.
- Okay, so Fight's at the ring,
and Fawn, do we know where Fawn is?
- He says, once they all got laid off,
they stopped going by
their official titles.
But Fanny, that's Fanny Fawnsworth,
she's working for, I
believe, Don Avaricci.
(a quiet chorus of mms)
- He's been pretty intent
on killing us lately.
- Yeah, I don't know about
hanging out with this dude.
- I didn't see-
I didn't see Fight before they left.
I know that Fight and
Freeze got in a big to-do.
- Mm.
- And this was,
this was, again, way before
they all got laid off.
- Sounds like we should
go pay a visit to Fight.
- Let's find Fight.
- [Freddie] Yes.
- Find Fight.
- [Freddie] Your wheelhouse.
- Let's do it. And stop rubbing my leg.
(players laughing)
- I will rub as much as I-
- It was interesting at first,
and now it's just getting
a little annoying.
- You're saying I need
to change it up a little?
- Yes, please! Always, always.
Keeps it interesting.
- [Brennan] Incredible,
so you guys all head off.
- Just to add this in,
they get back in the car,
and Conrad is a terrifying driver.
(players laughing)
He's very good, but just swerving-
- Big, wide turns.
(tires drifting)
- Two wheels at the same time.
- Every turn's getting drifted.
- Every time you miss a turn,
it's an immediate U-turn.
- U-turn, sometimes just backing up.
(tires screeching)
(players laughing)
- I'm actually going to say as
you guys leave from Sugah's,
I am going to need
a 13 sneak.
- Uh-oh. All right.
- From all of us?
- [Brennan] From all of you.
- [Siobhan] Oh boy.
- Natural 20!
- [Brennan] Natural 20!
- Exploded! Exploded!
- [Trapp] So you roll again.
- [Brennan] It explodes,
so you roll it again.
- Three, and then plus my two, so 25.
- 25, and then you're also driving.
- Then we gotta make it 28.
(players laughing and cheering)
- Did anyone else-
- Seven.
- Seven, and?
- I got a five.
(ball sliding on a track x3)
- Gimme gimme gimme.
- So, I'll say on that
incredible success, Conrad,
as you're driving away
towards Cerebellum Boulevard,
you notice
a couple of cars pull out behind you
and start to tail you,
driving away from Sugah's.
What does Conrad do as he
sees in the rear view mirror-
- He adjusts the mirror
a bit. Not a problem!
Just starts going 30
miles faster than before.
- People are flung back
as this little tiny kid
(vroom)
(upbeat chase music)
hits a construction vehicle
that has some asphalt in it
and launches through the hole
in the broken highway onto the highway.
(players laughing)
- Hot jazz starts playing.
- It's like an old
Cadillac, so the bench seat,
so Fucks and I are just
sliding around, full Jello.
- Conrad starts monologuing.
You know, this is the only
time I ever truly feel calm.
(group laughing)
- Conscience behind
the wheel, you jump in.
I feel like as you guys are
flopping in the backseat,
however you land on each other,
Dan's fingers always end up in your mouth.
(players laughing)
- It tastes different every
time! It's so fucking weird!
(players laughing)
- But you see, as you
launch through the air
onto that section of highway
to head down to the cerebellum,
that people lean out of the car,
and you hear gunfire
from the cars behind you
(guns firing)
trying to wing the back of
the vehicle as you take off.
- Okay, slight complication,
but just hang tight, boys.
Here we go!
(players laughing)
- This is a brand new Conrad.
A completely,
(players laughing)
A completely different person
behind the wheel of a car.
- Should've had him driving earlier.
- Little driving goggles on Justin.
- Turns out Elias has killed five people,
but he just doesn't care
as long as he's in the car.
- Like Baby Driver with that
stupid na na na na song.
(players laughing)
- Hey, don't call me baby.
(players laughing)
- You take off, heading
to Cerebellum Boulevard.
All of you pull outside
of a nameless warehouse,
but all of you notice the
sort of couple of figures
slinking in through the
rain with their coats drawn,
walking back to a large figure
that slides one of those
industrial warehouse doors
open to let them slip in, and as they do,
you can see the steam heat of bodies
packed into this warehouse,
and you hear, ding ding ding!
Of a bell ringing from within
the larger space within.
Of a bell ringing from within
the larger space within.
What do you do as you
see this sort of space
you've approached, this
illicit boxing ring?
- [Trapp] Yeah
- Can I ask, do we have the
sense that it's like,
do we have the sense that
it's like, oh, you can,
is there a password that
they needed to say to get in?
Did it feel like they had to
go in a little surreptitiously?
- You see people saying
something to get in.
- Hunch's general MO is he
just starts walking into places
unless anyone stops him.
(players laughing)
I just start striding forward.
- He appears to have a plan.
Roll with the punches, as it were.
- So yeah, I just stride up.
I just try confidently walking through.
(Trapp laughing)
- I'm following close behind.
- So Hunch takes off. You walk up.
The guy says, name's Tiny.
Who sent youse?
- This is a prizefighter, my good man!
- You're a prizefighter?
- [Freddie] He's here to
challenge the champ, as it were.
- Yeah, that's right. Never
done that before, sounds fun.
- Yeah, and I spray water in his mouth.
(players laughing)
- Here's our cutman. Our cutman here.
- And the dog's our mascot.
(Brennan woofs)
- We have a whole branding package here
already preset, ready to go.
(players laughing)
- Go ahead and give me a slick
check. This is a difficulty-
- [Trapp] Do we all roll a slick check?
- I think, well, you've
all said the same lie,
so this is going to be a difficulty,
we're going to call this a
difficulty 10 slick check.
- [Trapp] Okay.
- That's my d4, so.
- Yeah, same here.
(players laughing)
- [Alex] Three.
- [Trapp] I also got-
- [Freddie] I could just halve it.
- [Brennan] This is a snap decision.
- Snap decision? All right, ah well.
(ball sliding on a track x3)
15.
- [Siobhan] Nice. Ooh.
- On that 15, the bouncer looks unconvin-
You're sort of trying to
sweet talk your way past him,
but it looks like he's not convinced.
There's something about him
that looks like he's unsure.
It looks like he doesn't
necessarily disbelieve,
but he's worried about what
the consequences might be
if he gets it wrong kind of thing.
- I think Dan's going to pull
him aside. Come here, sidebar.
- Yeah?
- [Freddie] How much are
they paying you here?
- How much are they
paying me? I don't know.
I get about four bucks a week.
- A man of your talent, of your caliber,
of your build, your stature?
Why that's highway robbery!
A man of your talents could
be used in other places.
I happen to be the owner of Sugah's.
You, I'm sure, have heard of it.
- Oh yeah, that's that place
you're not supposed to know about.
- Yes, and yet you do.
(Brennan chuckles)
What if I told you, what if I told you-
- I'm listening in even
though there's no...
That's just Hunch.
- What if I told you that
this fine prizefighter here
is trying to get a shot at the title?
And should anything go wrong here tonight
with your employment, I have
perhaps an offer for you
at my place that pays better.
Five dollars a week.
That's right, a 25% raise!
(Brennan laughs in disbelief)
- You make me feel really good.
(players laughing)
Okay. Can I give you a hug?
- Oh, yes. Come here.
- This big, big, meaty hug.
He says, all right. Get in there, boss.
- I'm massaging your shoulders.
- That feels great. Wow,
you got magic hands.
(players laughing)
As you enter, you see that
Tiny goes and points out
and says, the bookies
are over in that corner.
Concessions are in the
back. They got popcorn.
(Freddie laughing)
- Where's the locker room?
- The locker room?
Well, you should go talk to the promoters.
They're over there
signing in the fighters.
You still got time to sign
up if you jump in quick.
They'll look to me,
I'll give them the wink.
- Very good, my good
man. Thank you so much.
- Just a general reminder,
too, I am not The Fix.
I don't look like a big guy.
I look like a lanky, rubbery fucking dude.
- You got a heart of steel, is what it is!
- Just to paint the picture.
- I'm going to be a champion!
- [Freddie] Iron jaw!
- Got a chin like the Colossus of Rhodes.
- Face just beat all to meat.
Can I see if I recognize Fight here?
Because I know you said
Fight's going by perhaps
a different alias.
Do I spot him anywhere in here?
- I'm going to say give me,
just walking in and having
to survey the entire room,
we'll call that a 12 snoop.
- Okay, let's give it a go.
- I, too, will look for this.
- Can I roll, also?
- I don't think that's going to do it.
- [Freddie] Failure on my part.
- Nope, that's not going to do it.
- Wait, I think I exploded.
I got a 10 on my 10.
- Okay.
- 16.
- 16, okay.
- [Freddie] I'm like, ooh, they got malts!
(players laughing)
- Alex, you succeed,
so I'm going to say you all start snooping
and actually spread
out, keep your eyes up.
As you walk over, though,
you over there go see one of
the promoters get winked at.
You walk up towards the promoters
at the back near the
locker rooms and you see
there's an officious looking
guy with a clipboard,
has a very, you know,
looks sort of like Abbott
from Abbott and Costello.
He's got the thin little mustache.
He says, hello there, fellas.
Come here to sign up for a
fight? Slots are going fast.
- Yes.
- All right. What's your name, sailor?
- No, no, no, no. You don't understand.
I am the promoter,
the manager of this brick
shithouse to my right.
(players laughing)
- I flex, and it's not impressive at all.
- He goes, wait a minute.
You're Dan Fucks, ain't you?
- That's right, I'm getting into,
I'm getting into a little
bit of the fisticuffs game.
- You know those bulls
are going to come shut you down, right?
Places like this, we're
not supposed to be having
any sort of fun or pleasure in this brain.
Not 'til that packet goes
through with the bigwigs up top.
- Oh yes, but what's a little
secret between friends?
(Brennan laughing slyly)
- I like you. My balls are getting hard.
(players laughing)
He looks over and says-
- Granite in your pants, as it were, yes.
- Oh, I got two big balls of basalt!
(players laughing)
- Basalt?
- That's my go-to.
- Basalt, the octagonal-
(players laughing)
- That's right!
- That's why they call
it the Giant's Causeway.
(players laughing)
- This is so niche!
This is such a niche line of humor here.
- A deep geology, a deep geology.
- There's a geologist
watching D20 going, oh!
(players laughing)
- This last episode?
- [Freddie and Brennan] Mwah!
- Gneiss! But he spelled it with a G.
(players laughing)
- So he says, all right, Mr. Fucks.
And you're putting up...
- Listen, I know the name I want to say.
(group laughing)
S- Stacy.
(Freddie dying of laughter)
Fakename.
- [Brennan] Stacy Fakename.
(Freddie still cracking up)
You know, it's one of those
things where maybe Stacy
is a man's name during this
time period.
- Sure, yeah, like Leslie or Dana.
- Yeah, exactly. Stacy Fakename.
Great, there you go. All right, Stacy.
So we got two fights coming up.
He says, your choice of who
you want to go up against.
There's two names that you
can sign your name next to
to determine who you fight.
So the first one is just a
pair of initials that says SD,
and the other one is Dominick Nuntz.
- Dominance?
- What's the over under on
these? What's the spread?
- Give me a savvy check.
- Intelligence of betting on
the guy you're about to put in,
which is a natural one.
(players laughing)
- He would say, oh, well,
we obviously don't allow
anyone on the team of a-
(players laughing)
Clearly, clearly we can't allow that
for just such obvious reasons.
- (laughs) Oh, very well.
- So literally don't worry.
(players laughing)
- I glance to Conrad.
Conrad got a success, right?
I glance to Conrad to see-
- Conrad got a success, yes.
- SD. San Diego.
(players laughing)
- I glance to Conrad to see if he...
can gesture towards,
if he recognized Fight.
- I think Conrad has,
but I think that Conrad's
lost in the crowd right now for a second.
for a second.
- [Trapp] I see, got it.
- So you're going to
have to make a call here.
- I'm going to have to make a call here.
All right, Dominance or SD?
What could SD possibly stand for?
Let's fight Dom Nuntz.
- So you're going to fight
Dom Nuntz, hell yeah.
(players laughing)
- I don't know what SD is, but he-
- Yeah, he smiled too much.
- He's too happy about this!
- Too happy. That's fine.
- No, actually, this is my face-
- Oh, no actually?
That's what you're doing?
You're doing no, actually?
(Um, Actually music sting)
- Get in the comments!
(players laughing)
You walk into the locker room.
You see an enormous fucking boxer.
Wild, violent tattoos
(subtle, tense music)
of barbed wire, blood, bone.
Mean, a jaw like a
fucking brick shithouse.
- Yes.
- Leans out and says, hey there, fellas.
Youse palookas come in here
to throw some fists around?
- Yeah, that's right.
- What's your name, pipsqueak?
- (confidently) Stacy.
(group trying to hold back
laughter to keep it tense...)
(and failing)
- Stacy.
- [Trapp] Yeah. (laughs)
- Who are you coming in
to try to push around?
- Well, I'm signed up to fight Dom Nuntz.
I want to fight Fight.
- You want to fight a fight, huh?
- I want to fight a fight.
- 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!
(players laughing and giggling)
You see that-
(tense music stops abruptly)
- I'm sorry, it feels like I'm playing
pickup basketball with Kobe.
It's so intense to be me right now.
(players laughing)
Whoa! Wow, so crazy!
- What you see in this moment.
- Yeah.
- You see he looks in and says,
(music resumes)
Dom, this guy a friend of yours?
And you see a tiny, reedy
little bespectacled man
go, go, what?
Oh, yes. That's all right, hello.
I am Dominick. A pleasure.
- I just want to get a bit of a vibe.
I want to look for any clues as to...
Sherlock style, what's this guy wearing?
What's on his person?
Anything that can give
me a hint of like, what,
- Weaknesses.
- [Trapp] What his deal is. Weaknesses.
- Like in Punch-Out!!
when you get the little-
- Oh, of Dom, of your opponent?
Or of the big guy in the room?
- I mean, both of them, if I can.
I want to try to get a read on-
- [Brennan] Yeah, give me a snoop.
- I'm trying to see who
of them I think is Fight,
is actually Fight.
- [Brennan] Gotcha.
- So if I can look for any
clues that might indicate
which one's using the alter ego here.
- Gotcha, go ahead and
give me a snoop check.
- I think I'm going to help
out or try this as well.
- Okay, difficulty of five.
- Okay.
That is a six.
- Six.
- Hell yeah, both succeed.
As you look at them, you don't think
that maybe either of them is Fight.
- Okay.
- But you see that Dom looks out and says,
well, I hope we have a
sporting match out there,
Marquess of Queensberry,
and if you want me to lose,
(gloomily) that's fine.
- Oh my god, you okay, man?
- What?
- [Trapp] Are you okay?
- No, wait, I'm the top dog.
(Hank laughing)
(Danielle laughing out of pity)
- Elias really needs to work on himself.
(players laughing)
- (weakly) I'm the big man.
- Okay, sure. Yeah, you're the big man.
- [Brennan] All right?
- Okay.
- I shan't be pushed around.
You see that the other guy
says, I fucking love this guy!
You see that the other guy
says, I fucking love this guy!
You see he walks off,
and you see Dom says,
I'll see you later, Self Doubt.
(group laughing hysterically)
(Freddie dying of laughter)
(Brennan laughing)
Hey, what do they call a guy
who eats as much spaghetti as me?
Im-pasta syndrome!
(players laughing)
- You really get a lot of
working out there, Self Doubt.
(players laughing)
- And you see Dom turns and says,
very well, I shall see
you out in the... (gags)
In the ring. I'm so scared.
(players laughing)
Walks off. We cut back out to the ring.
You see they're getting
ready for the fight
where it's going to be
Hunch versus Dom Nuntz,
and you see that in
Dom's corner is a cutman,
and you see that in
Dom's corner is a cutman,
that kind of figure,
but you see there's an old woman.
(tense, revelatory music)
She has a lot of wrinkles around her eyes.
She's got a wool beanie
and gray sweatpants,
gray sweatshirt, gray sweatpants.
She's sitting there, and you see her
just having this mean look in her eye,
and you catch her look at you,
and you know that she recognizes you
and knows truly who and what you are.
- Yeah, has it been...
I saw her on a very important day.
- You saw her on a very important day.
- I make the eye contact with her.
- She looks at you.
Shrugs.
- I go towards my team.
(players laughing)
- She says, you hear her
shout out, you chicken?
- What?
- You chicken? Walk away from me?
- Conrad holds eye- eye contact,
and then...
says to himself, (slightly
quietly) fuck it!
And then goes up to this old woman.
- You say, fuck it! And go up.
She looks down at you and says-
- What'd you call me?
- You looked to walk away,
so I think maybe you chicken.
- I just was busy.
(group laughing boisterously)
- Little boy, the boxing
ring here very dangerous.
Maybe not safe for you.
And after all, you like
things to be nice, right?
Not very nice place in here.
- Yeah, I know. You're
not very nice, either.
- I could be!
I tried to be!
(hits table)
- I know.
- You think I want to do wrong thing? No.
Where you been all this time?
- Been trying to survive.
- Yeah, we all try to survive.
Who makes sure the big guy survive, huh?
None of us around.
Who makes sure he all right?
Look, I angry.
- (scoffs) Yeah, you think?
(players laughing)
Sorry, sorry. Sorry,
sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!
- You only ever knew me
back when I was Fight.
- What do you call yourself now?
- Ivana.
Ivana Popov.
(Freddie and Hank laughing)
- Fucking hell.
- Fuck!
- [Hank] What the fuck?
- [Brennan] Come on, now.
- [Freddie] This is good shit!
This is good shit right here, baby!
This is premium (Italian
accent) internet content!
- You can't get this anywhere else!
- The finest puns and wordplay.
(players laughing)
- She says, what your name?
- Conrad.
- Conrad.
You know, my brother
and I get in huge fight
before he run away.
- What was it over?
- You.
He say, worst thing that ever happen
He say, worst thing that ever happen
is when big guy listened to you.
- Well, I'm starting to
think that's not true.
- She smiles.
Really?
- I don't know, you're very
scary! You're very scary!
- Stand up for yourself!
- (terrified) Okay!
Conrad reflexively punches the middle.
(players laughing)
- Are you going to punch her?
- It's a very weak punch.
- You see as you punch her,
you see she goes... (gasps)
You punch her and she coughs,
and a phlegmy key comes out of her mouth.
- Oh my god! (screams)
Conrad tries to pick it up.
- You pick it up, and she goes,
they took that away from me!
But they can't take it
away from me, can they?
And you hear, ding ding
ding! Ladies and gentlemen!
- I've been massaging his
shoulders the whole time.
- We're gonna get that
key, Dan! It's gonna be us!
We're going to kick Dom's ass
and we're going to get that key!
- We're gonna get this guy,
I know for a fact
that that is absolutely
Fight in disguise, 100%!
- [Trapp] Fuck yeah, let's do this!
- And, fight! Put up your fists!
In this corn-
You see he says, in
this corner, weighing in
at whatever a concept weighs,
we have Dominick Nuntz!
at whatever a concept weighs,
we have Dominick Nuntz!
The top dog! The dominator!
(crowd roars)
Thank you.
And in this corner, the illustrious,
from the Cortex Fakenames, Stacy Fakename!
(players laughing)
(mixed crowd of cheers and jeers)
- Real quick, I want to
get Justin's attention.
- [Brennan] Okay, yes.
- Justin, Justin, Justin!
(Brennan woofs)
I can't do this,
but you need to put some
money down on this fight.
Put it all, put my entire
life savings here on our man!
- You want me to bet everything on Hunch?
- Stacy Fakename!
- [Brennan] Not on Hunch Curio?
- No, Hunch Curio's not
here! It's Stacy Fakename!
- Stacy Fakename, okay!
- Put it all on it!
I've got a good feeling about this one!
- You stake your entire fortune.
Okay, so this is going to be
our first Box of Doom roll.
(players cheering and laughing)
Bring it out. We're bringing
out the Box of Doom.
- Oh my god.
- Box of Doom! Box of Doom!
- I'm going to once again remind everyone,
I am a get-hitter.
- Listen, you know how Ali
won the Rumble in the Jungle!
- You got a lot of Moxie right there.
- So we're going to roll sneak
to see who goes first.
- Sneak, okay.
- [Brennan] Actually, this
will not be Box of Doom yet.
Go ahead and roll sneak.
Dom rolls a seven.
- I also roll a seven.
- (gasps) You are going to
act at the exact same moment.
So, you roll sharp first.
- I roll sharp.
- [Brennan] And he'll roll sturdy.
- Okay.
- So,
first thing he's going
to roll is his sturdy.
He rolls a four.
- Okay.
- [Brennan] You need to beat a four.
- Okay.
- This is a snap
decision, and so go ahead.
You need to beat a four
in the Box of Doom.
- Okay.
Going to really reach here, sorry.
(tense Box of Doom music)
Oh no.
(nat one sound)
- That is a one.
- Okay, hold on.
The plus two, that's three,
and I'm going to burn two
Moxie to get up to four.
- Okay, so you match it.
So on a match,
your sharp versus his sturdy,
you sock him in the jaw,
and now we're going to roll
the opposite of that, his
sharp versus your sturdy.
- Simultaneous punches.
Come on, need that concrete chin.
- [Brennan] That's an 18.
(players ooh)
- Got it where it counts.
- Okay, now so here's
what we're going to do.
I'm going to give you your d20 back.
Wow, really can't throw stuff.
- We're not playing sports here.
- [Brennan] Do you add
anything to your sturdy?
- My sturdy is flat.
There's no modifiers on
that, it's just that.
- Now, you see that Dom,
his sharp...
is a d4.
- [Trapp] Okay.
- However, you see in his corner,
Ivana whip around and say,
- However, you see in his corner,
Ivana whip around and say,
you better knock that
Fakename's head right off!
(players laughing)
Which means that he's going to roll d4s,
but he explodes on 2s and 3s as well.
- Okay.
- Okay, so 2s, 3s, and 4s all explode?
- All explode for him.
- Okay.
- And he's got to get to?
- [Trapp] An 18.
- An 18.
- [Hank] Very dramatic.
- Roll a one, roll a one,
roll a one!
- That's why he's the best.
- All right.
- [Siobhan] Roll a one.
- [Brennan] Two.
- Okay, two. Plus?
- [Brennan] Two.
- That's four.
- [Brennan] Two.
- Six.
- [Brennan] Two!
- Eight.
- What the fuck?
- [Brennan] Two!
- No! Throw that die away!
- Different die?
10.
Four.
- 14.
(players giggling at the tension
and Brennan's lip-licking)
That's another four.
- Goddammit!
- [Brennan] 18, so he's matched.
- Okay.
- Oh shit.
- I'm assuming it's too late
for me to add any Moxie here?
- I'll allow you to add Moxie if you want.
It's an opposed roll, so
how much Moxie do you have?
- I have six Moxie,
so I can add up to
three more if I want to.
- I'm going to ask that you
add the number right now
and have to determine the number of
Moxie you want to add.
- How far I want to go, all right.
I am...
(tense music)
I'm good at taking hits.
I don't think I'm going to
take too much permanent damage
from this, but I do want to
win, so I'm going to just add...
I'm just going to add one more,
so I'm going to burn two
Moxie and just add...
I still gotta punch him, and
I'm not good at punching,
so if I survive this, I gotta
have some Moxie in my bank
to actually be able to hit him,
so it's not enough to just survive.
- So you add one more.
He's already reached 18,
which means that if he rolls
a one, he'll still meet-
- So mathematically, I
have to add at least two.
You know what? Fuck it, I'll burn it all.
Let's add three more.
- Going to add three more.
Your score is 21. His is 18.
- Yes.
- Do you want me to go
back to the first d4,
use this one, or pick a new one?
- You sly devil!
- [Trapp] Keep using that one.
- All right.
- We're at 18.
- [Brennan] We're at 18.
- Yeah.
- You're at a 21.
- [Trapp] That's true.
(nat one sound)
- That's a one!
Oh, baby!
(players cheering victoriously)
(intense pummeling sounds)
So, an outrageous sharp check
towards your outrageous sturdiness.
(bell rings)
Oh folks, it looks like dominance
is going after Stacy Fakename,
a concept you wouldn't think
would be this resilient!
(players laughing)
Bam, you take the hit.
That is going to go back to your,
go ahead and give me another sneak check
just to see who goes first.
- See who goes first, sure.
- [Brennan] Trying to beat a four.
- I only get a two.
- [Brennan] Okay, so-
- I'm going to get pummeled again.
- He's going to go again.
Go ahead, give me another sturdy.
- All right, I got no more Moxie left,
so this has just got to be me.
- You can just crit.
- That is a 19.
- Yes!
- Unbelievable rolling from
Hunch here. Here you go.
- I yell over to Dan Fucks,
it's all going to be worth
it when we get that key!
(group laughing)
- We are right on track! This
plan is working perfectly!
- Incredible, so he's
going to start rolling.
He's got to get to 19.
- All right.
- [Brennan] Four.
- Four.
- [Brennan] Two.
- Six.
- [Brennan] Three.
- Nine.
- Oops, that's gone.
And that's a one.
- Yes!
- 10.
- [Siobhan] Okay.
- Bam, you take another hit like a champ,
(pummeling sounds)
and then he's going to roll...
(Alex laughing)
- He's bending over backwards
as he gets punched, teeter-totter.
- [Trapp] Real cartoon boxing shit.
- For his sturdy check
on your counter-punch,
he only rolls a three.
- [Trapp] Okay.
- [Brennan] So it's your sharp
check, difficulty is three.
- Okay, I get a plus two
to whatever I roll here.
- [Hank] Okay.
- [Trapp] That's a four, so a six.
- Plus two, so that's six.
Hunch, describe it for me as
you lay out Dominick Nuntz.
- So I've been just getting pummeled,
(upbeat, exciting music)
and it's getting real cartoon style
where it's just sort of
bouncing back and forth,
and so with that,
do a big ol' cartoony
(sound of wind whipping from swinging)
spin, spin, spin, spin, spin,
turns into almost a fan,
and then a big ol' uppercut.
- Boom! His teeth go flying.
(triumphant boxing music)
You see Dom goes,
well, maybe the top dog should lie down.
(players laughing)
And whump.
(body falls, bell rings)
We have a winner!
(the crowd goes wild for Stacy Fakename)
And you see over in the corner,
you see Justin biting big
stacks of cash as bookies-
(players laughing)
- [Freddie] I won again!
Everyone's rushing in on the ring.
I want to run right up to
Dominick on the ground,
grab him, and start
shaking him and be like,
now listen here, you son of a bitch!
I know you're Fight!
Tell us where the key is!
Tell us where the key is!
- I'm not!
As the fight ends and
you've gotten all this cash-
- Do I get the wealthy attribute now, or?
(Siobhan laughing)
- Honestly, I'm kind of considering it.
I think if you want to add wealthy-
- He should get something.
- You bet your life savings.
- [Freddie] I'm adding wealthy.
- But I'm going to say that your wealthy
is a one time thing.
- [Freddie] Yes, that makes sense.
- That's the difference between
new money and old money.
- [Freddie] That's it right there!
- Wow, he's so generous, for a day.
(players laughing)
- Incredible, and I
will say also for that,
we'll go ahead and give the
Moxie reward for that pugilism.
(balls clanking x2)
Ivana looks down.
As you guys start
shaking Dom, Ivana looks,
sees the fight lost, grabs the key,
(pleasant light sound)
looks over at you, Conrad, and goes,
what am I doing, taking these...
(chill noir music)
people that don't even believe
in themselves, like Dom?
How did this come back?
We were all fired, let go.
There is something you
are doing in this city
that is changing things.
- You didn't just have
that inside you all along?
(players laughing)
- No, I literally handed this
to, like, the district attorney,
and was like, here, you have it.
- Okay, well, you know,
if we had more time,
I'd be like, let me punch
you again, see what happens.
- Maybe more keys come out.
- (laughing) Maybe more keys.
Should we try it?
- Sure.
- Okay, Conrad gently punches again.
(punch landing softly)
- She, bleh! And just vomits,
and just vomit comes out.
Stop punching me.
(Alex making a sound of disgust)
Okay.
(players laughing)
You see she looks at you and says,
my brother, before he left,
he blamed me
for listening to you,
say it ruined our life.
- Yeah, so did the big guy's sister, huh?
She was pretty mad, too.
- What happen that day, you know?
I remember bits and pieces, but...
- Yeah, it was just this big
kid on the ice skating rink
was picking on Elias's twin sister.
He tried to stick up for her,
and got slashed in the face.
It turns out... she liked
that guy. I don't know.
I don't really know.
So, everybody was mad at us.
Everybody was mad at me.
And I think you got into
a lot of trouble, huh?
- My brother blamed me
for listening to you.
But you know who had their
key in the Switchboard
when that ice skate went up in the air?
Wasn't me. It was him.
- I didn't know that.
- She looks at the key in
her hand. You guys come back.
Justin comes up with a huge thing of cash.
Comes over. She says-
- In little saddlebags.
(players laughing)
- She says, why are you
all the way down here?
People looking for you, aren't they?
- Yeah, well, we got
something bigger to do.
Big guy's in trouble.
- What you mean, big guy in trouble?
- Do we have that oculus,
the viewfinder thing with us?
- [Brennan] Yeah, you do.
- Can I show her?
- She looks at it and goes, ay yi yi!
(players laughing)
Okay, wait, fuck everything,
my sad little self story!
Big guy in trouble!
(players laughing)
- No, I'm glad you shared.
Thank you for sharing.
- Shit! What, what we do?
(tense, fast music)
- It was nice listening to you!
- What we do?!
- It was nice catching,
it was good- it's been so long!
- Listen up, motherfucker! Okay?
(players laughing)
It's fun when you punch me
like you learn a little lesson,
but I'll fucking kill you!
- Yeah, okay! Ooh,
that's nice. Okay, yeah!
Anyways, yeah thank you!
Can we have the key?
- I can come with you to use, if you want.
- Okay, yeah.
- I think we saunter back,
and I'm putting a hand around Hunch.
We're out of leads.
- Cold case, totally cold.
- Back to square one.
- You guys, no!
Congrats, but this is Ivana.
- Ivana Popov, nice to meet you.
- (in realization) Oh.
(players laughing)
- Ooh, I see.
- Your name Stacy Fakename?
You looking for coach, or?
- Honestly, this is kind
of a one time thing,
you know.
(players laughing)
- All right, we gotta go!
- Look what she has!
- Holds the key up. That's right.
Let's get to Oblongata Station.
And you all take off.
- Trail of teeth behind me.
(teeth clattering on the ground)
(players laughing)
- Loose cash flailing into the air.
From there, we return...
to the inner workings of City Hall.
- I'm playing.
(players laughing)
- We return to City Hall.
When The Fix is not looming around
the rainy streets of
Mentopolis, how does he move
when he's in the halls
of power, so to speak?
(tense, serious music)
- He likes to take the stairs.
Elevators seem like a lot to him,
and that way, he feels a
little bit more like...
He doesn't like people squeezing in
around him in a little box.
He doesn't like to freak people out.
So he tries to move
around, not be too obvious.
Also, people don't really like to see him.
People get a little freaked out.
So he tries to sort of use the back ways.
- Moving up through the back
staircases of City Hall,
you pass clerks and legal aides,
various people here that are involved in
making the different plans,
the executive functioning of the mind,
all of that abstract thought
going up here in City Hall,
and you walk towards a pair
of stately double doors
where you hear some voices
of different deputy
district attorneys inside.
And as the doors open,
you see the handsome face
of Mark Bition look up at you and say, ah!
Fix, pleasure.
Excuse me, my friends,
I'll need a moment with my associate here.
Please close the door on your way out.
- Mr. Bition, you're looking lovely today.
Did you know that most of the pyramids
on Earth are in Sudan?
(players snickering quietly)
You like my facts, right?
- You see he looks at you and says,
how does that help us, Fix?
- Anyway, I killed the kid.
(players laughing)
- He says, you did?
- Yeah, it was weird.
Sometimes when I kill people,
there's something left behind,
and sometimes they disappear.
I didn't even really have
to hit him or anything.
I just sort of told him
he wasn't needed anymore,
(tense music)
and he kind of turned
into mist and popped away.
I figured you needed something, though,
to show that I'd done the work,
so I found his little
hole he was living in.
I brought you these. He reaches out.
Cha-kunk. The little ice skates.
- You look at the little ice
skates in front of you here.
I'm also going to say,
after that boxing match,
that the pressure actually moves up.
- Great, because I have no Moxie.
- Moves up to 100.
- [Trapp] 100 pressure?
- [Brennan] 100 pressure.
- That's bad for your health.
- Eat more hamburgers. That's
what we're going to do.
- I know what'll solve this, red meat.
- You need to be smoking
a cool pack of Marlboros
once a day to help with that pressure.
(players laughing)
I'm going to need a
slick check from The Fix,
difficulty of four.
- Six.
- (gasps) You see Mark looks
down at the skates and says,
huh.
Picks them up.
I recognize these, certainly.
A long time ago, though.
I want you to destroy these.
(retrofuturistic music)
- All right.
If you don't mind me saying this,
pelicans-
(players laughing)
...have three stomachs.
And one of them's just for bones.
Do you know what's going
on in this city right now?
- Do you?
- I know something's
going on in this city.
- There's been some minor
infrastructural issues.
Look, Fix,
pelican bones and different facts
and pyramids and where they are,
does nothing for us.
You know why they call it a fun fact?
Because it doesn't fucking matter.
- He kinda...
kinda starts to look a little bit bigger.
You know, it's really
easy to detect an acid.
(players laughing quietly)
But it's not easy to detect
the presence of oxygen or carbon dioxide.
But when carbon dioxide meets water,
like it does in our blood,
it creates carbonic acid.
That means that our bodies
can detect the presence of carbon dioxide,
but not the presence or absence of oxygen.
So as we move through our lives,
if we are deprived of oxygen,
we have no idea that that is happening
as long as we are breathing
out carbon dioxide.
But if we are not breathing in oxygen,
we just go to sleep and we die.
But if we allow the CO2 to build up,
we panic.
We flail.
We break.
Until finally, we die.
I'd like you to tell me
what's going on in this town.
- I want you to give me
two different checks here.
The first I want you to give me is,
as you start to talk about breathing,
I actually want you to
just give me a sharp check.
- That's a 12.
- You're hyperfixated on breathing,
bringing that pressure down.
- You feel the energy shift in the room
as you just focus on breathing,
and something begins
to steady in the room.
And you notice that Mark notices it, too.
Now I'm going to give you,
he's going to make a sturdy
check to resist this kind of
intimidation, essentially.
The number that you're
going to have to beat here,
I'm going to roll on a...
Okay, he rolls a nine, which
is his sturdy to resist this.
This is going to be a snap decision,
so I'm going to ask for another
menacing check from you.
- Okay.
Fuck.
(players laughing)
(ball sliding on a track)
- What happened?
(players laughing)
- Mark looks at you and says,
you really want to know what's happening?
(tense, dramatic music)
I'll tell you.
We're close.
We're close to... making it.
We're close to achieving
what we have always dreamed of achieving,
and then all of a sudden,
I get a message from
Immanuel and Imogen Pulse
that their daughter is missing
and that she went to Cerebell Pacific
in the middle of the night
to grab a packet of papers
off a desk from the big guy's office.
The packet of papers that
would've flooded this place
with dopamine and serotonin,
endorphins, every good
thing under the sun!
You think your friend Dan Fucks
would want to see how
much that runaway heiress
destroyed any chance of
pleasure in this city?
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!
Now, I'm going to be very clear.
What's been the biggest impediment
to the big guy's achievement?
What's been the biggest impediment
to him getting done
what needs to get done?
It's him.
Elias Hodge is the big
guy's biggest problem.
So, we're going to do things
a little bit differently.
And you hear a door in the
side of the office open,
and a figure emerges that
you have never seen before.
(scary reverberating sound)
Hello, Fix.
(tense, haunting music)
Seems like you've been running around.
Might have lost your concentration.
Might have lost your concentration.
A white key emerges from shadow,
glowing, humming,
like a strange, alien presence.
This key is maybe the first
thing you've seen in a long time
This key is maybe the first
thing you've seen in a long time
made to fit the machinery of this mind,
but fundamentally alien,
a key made by a machine
in the outside world,
a key made by a machine
in the outside world,
a key dreamed up,
but only possible
with the research and hard
work of one Elias Hodge,
and it's this key, sharper
than any razor's edge,
and it's this key, sharper
than any razor's edge,
that comes streaking
for your throat.
(Siobhan gasps)
And that's all for this
episode of Dimension 20.
Tune in next week as we find
out the fate of The Fix.
Ta-ta!
- Goodbye!
- [Brennan] Goodbye!
- (over loudspeaker) This is
a message for Mayor Logic!
Mayor Logic, I need your attention!
(Brennan gasps)
- Would it be possible for me
to just take a look at your keys?
I just find them so fascinating.
- The keys to the vehicle?
- All of the keys that you have.
- You want my apartment keys?
- I'll take those as well.
- Okay.
- You frozen motherfucker.
- Don't do anything!
- I think it's time to take
you into the police station
and maybe process some of the
contraband on you for evidence
so we can go to the evidence locker.
- And I suppose it's normal for you
to have a dog and a very
large bodyguard with you.
- Listen, I'm curious!
- (gasps) Are you Imelda Pulse?
- That's right. I heard
you're looking for me.
- (into walkie-talkie) Boss,
you're not going to believe this.
(players laughing)
- There are some salamanders
that feed their babies their own skin.
(nervously) I gotta go!
- Oh, goodbye!
All of you turn at the same
time, and you hear klaxons,
alarm bells (trilling) going off all
over the station.
- Now we don't know what that means.
That could be good.
(players laughing)
- Why you make that strange-
- I never lied about who I am before!
- Everybody in the station,
we about to fucking die!
(melancholy jazz music)