Dimension 20 (2018-…): Season 8, Episode 1 - The Fall of New York City - full transcript

(upbeat music)

- Hello, one and all, and
welcome to a brand new season

in a mighty familiar setting
that you know and love,

welcome to season two
of "The Unsleeping City"

(players cheering)

Remote-style!

I am your humble dungeon
master Brennan Lee Mulligan,

Along with me, as always
are our intrepid heroes,

say hi intrepid heroes.

- [players] Hi intrepid heroes.

- Going around the table with us today,



we have Zac Oyama.

- Hello.

- Emily Axford.

- Hello?

(Siobhan laughing)

- Lou Wilson.

- Hello?

- Siobhan Thompson.

- Hello?

- I didn't say it that weird.

- Brian Murphy.

- Hi, I messed up giving myself a haircut.

Please don't dunk on me on the internet.

Thank you so much.
- Wow, thank god.



Thank god for that.
(Siobhan laughing)

- Broke the form of your vanity.

I love my husband.

- And Ally Beardsley.

- Hello?

I too messed up on my hair.

- No, you did that on purpose.

You like that.

- Yeah, it's true.

It's absolutely on purpose.

I paid for it.

(players laughing)

- Well, as you see us here

floating over our beloved Unsleeping City,

you may wonder, "Hey, what
happened to the dimensional dome?

Where the heck are these fine people?"

Well, I'm glad you're asking that question

because it means that
the reality of COVID-19

has placed this far in the past,

and you're discovering this
piece of artifact media

from this time period.

It's not safe for us to
be close to each other.

But we weren't gonna let
that stop us from coming back

to this mystical, magical place.

A place of fantasy behind the
mundane, set in New York City.

But a New York City, perhaps
a little more magical

than could at first be expected.

Yes, indeed.

This is season two of Dimension 20's

urban fantasy adventure extravaganza.

And without further ado, we
are going to dive back into it.

We descend on a blazing hot summer's day,

over the New York City skyline.

The pavement so toasty,
you could fry an egg on it.

And right out of the gate,

I am going to throw a curve
ball at one of our PCs.

You know it, you love it

because check it out,
over the hot skyline,

we noticed that we don't...

There's a lot of things we
just do see and don't see.

The street are covered in the street signs

that were familiar,

but the style of fashion
is a little bit different.

We see someone walking down the street

with a huge boombox on their
shoulder playing music.

And indeed, picture if you will,

on the bottom of your screen
and your mental camera,

a little 1994 comes up.

(players laughs)

- And around 30 years old,

Kingston Brown is walking down the street.

(players laughing)

- Okay.

Yeah, yeah.

- Completely, Kingston Brown,

not concerned with being
the voice of New York,

not concerned with magic at all.

This is the Kingston Brown
who is around 30 years old

and is just trying to
get where he's going.

Lou, could you please
go ahead and describe

this version of your character for us?

- Okay, so 90s Kingston
for sure has a high top.

It's like a good...

But it's like one of those dope ones.

It's kind of like...

It's got like a weird, like
almost like a Lego shape

and it's like kind of
like angled and swooped.

- Amazing.

- Like a thin, gold
chain over a very loud,

kind of color blocked
red, yellow, green shirt.

And like a cool...

A pair of pastel shorts and
Jordan's with high socks.

- Incredible.

Kingston, you are hustling down the street

from a previous appointment.

You have, for probably
a handful of years now,

already been working as
a nurse at St. Owens.

You're hustling outside right
now to go hit up a payphone

because you're expecting a call.

And you see, as you approach...

Normally you have like
bad luck with payphones.

But as you get there,

you see this sort of like line of people

waiting for the payphone out in front.

And this is like an important
call coming through.

- Oh man, I'm on now.

This is why I gotta buy
one of those cell phones

that everyone's going on about.

(players laugh)

Ah, goddamn.

- You arrived in front of the payphone.

As you arrived there,

you see the person right in front of you,

sort of like suited businessman,

looks at his watch, he goes,

"I don't got time for this."

Splits, just as the woman in front of him

looks across the street and goes,

"Oh my God, Marcy, there you are.

I was about to..."

Runs off, and the person
in front of you goes,

"Oh, great, Gregory."

That's actually on the phone.

It goes, "Good, glad to hear it.

Awesome.

All right, I'll be
there as soon as I can."

Click.

And a line of three people
disappears right in front of you.

- Must be my lucky day, okay.

- The phone rings in front of you.

The call you were expecting comes through.

You pick up the phone

and you hear the voice
of your cousin Janice

on the line go...

Almost on the verge of
like joyful tears going,

"Kingston, I can't...

I just got off the phone.

I got the job at Cornell medical."

(Lou laughing)

- Yes, yes.

- "I can't believe it!

Kingston, they called me up,

they talked about the qualifications,

I had the phone interview.

I thought I was gonna have to
drive all the way to Ithaca

to try and get the interview in person.

They hired me over the phone!

Kingston, what did you do?"

- I didn't do anything, Janice.

I mean, it's all you, all right?

It was entirely you.

I mean, you had the qualifications,

you did the work, and
now you get the results.

I am so incredibly proud of you.

God, you are going to do
great things up there,

great things.

- You can hear her emotion.

You can hear her husband,

who she got married to
less than six months ago

in the background.

You know for a fact

that this job is gonna be
completely life-changing for her.

- Yeah.

- She says,

"Kingston, I don't know what
I'm ever gonna be able to do

to repay this because listen,

I know that this job didn't
get offered to me first."

And you just hear that
warm silence on the phone

of her knowing who they
offered this job to first.

- Well, you know,

had whoever maybe it
was supposed to go to,

life has other plans for them.

So, this is what you deserve,

and this is what you need to do.

So, you otter have a safe trip up there

and you call me when you
get up there, all right?

I'mma come visit or something.

I don't know what's in Ithaca,

but you know, it'd be nice to find out.

- She laughs and says,

"I'll believe Kingston
Brown leaves New York City

the day I see it.

- Well, I'm looking for a reason to go.

So why don't you come get me one?

- She laughs and says,

"All right, I'll let you
know as soon as we land in.

We have a couple of days
before the job starts.

We're gonna start getting packed

and start looking for places out there.

I love you so much."

- I love you too.

- The phone hangs up.

This was the call you were waiting for.

You gave as glowing a
recommendation as you could.

And obviously Cornell
had reached out to you

based on your record at St. Owens.

What's going through a young
mind after that phone call?

- I think whatever doubt

or questioning Kingston
might have of whether or not

he should have taken that opportunity,

I think he just keeps hearing
the joy in Janice's voice

and it's like this is
how it's supposed to be.

- Kingston, you way downtown
taking care of some cert stuff

based on the hospital,

there was a sort of a
course happening down here.

So, it's a long walk back to...

So, probably you're the closest place

cause you're near city hall actually.

Probably the best thing is the
405 headed back up to Harlem.

- Sounds about right.

- You're heading over to Brooklyn bridge,

and you start walking down,
a little bit distracted.

Go ahead and make a
perception check for me

with disadvantage.

- Am I using the stats...

Use my now stats?

- Oh, you don't have advantage
on perception checks yet.

- Oh, okay.

Oh, well, but do you
want me to add my bonuses

or no bonuses?

- Oh yes.

But Lou, you only have a
plus two proficiency bonus

right now.

- Great.

Then that is an eight.

- So you're a little bit distracted

thinking about some
stuff you got going on.

You've got another shift
coming up at the hospital.

I think life for this
Kingston Brown is busy

in a healthy and good way.

And the job that is now
going to be the foundation

of a solid family life for your cousin,

who's now moving to Ithaca,
that was a big opportunity.

And the fact that you are feeling

sort of exclusively joy for that,

I think there's a little bit
of daydreaminess in Kingston.

- Yeah.

- Which is what makes it
really weird when you look up

and realize that the lights aren't on

in the subway Station you are in.

- Are there other people
in the subway station?

- You look around, it
doesn't look like it.

I mean, the MTA has always
got problems though.

So, maybe the lights
are just messed up here.

- But you don't...

- (speaking faintly) God.

All right.

Okay.

There's nobody?

Like it's just dark and I can't...?

- You could go check out
an MTA booth maybe and see.

- Yeah.

I think like after a second or two

of like just standing
in darkness, I am like,

"Oh, all right, what's going on?

Excuse me?"

And I go walk toward
the nearest MTA booth.

- You are the MTA booth.

You look around and see you're
in a subway station that says

"City Hall station."

Beautiful tile work, arches everywhere,

very art deco or beautiful,

sort of civic structures in here.

The MTA booth is empty
when you get down here.

And as you approach to kind
of look in it and step away,

you hear a Kerplunk of
a token falling through,

and one of the turnstiles is accessible.

But you didn't put a token in it.

You just heard the kachunk.

Someone's must've been
like lodged in there.

But it's a free token into the subway.

- Oh yeah, yeah.

I'm gonna go ahead and take advantage

of this fortuitous luck, you know?

It's a good day.

- You moved through the turnstile,

and now it's like darker down here

Cause now, you're past the turnstile

into like the station proper in.

Everything's white tile
and white marble down here,

so you look around and it's...

It's illuminated,

even though there's no
light sources down here,

just because of all the
reflective, shiny tile

of kind of just the
bouncing sunlight coming in

from way far away.

You get down to the subway platform,

you don't see any lights down here,

there's no people down here left.

You see, across the rails,
across the tracks of the subway,

there's not another platform.

So this is one of those
old subway stations

that only has the platform on one side

and then sort of a wall.

- Yeah.

- But you look down, and cross the rails,

there is like an opening in the wall

that looks like burrow or something.

But you see that it's caked with stuff.

There's like a glittering childs' top.

And there's like a frame...

A gilded like portrait frame.

There's a model airplane,
and jams in another place.

There's like a puppet and
there's like a golden candelabra.

But the walls and ceiling
and floor of the tunnel

are so jammed with kind
of these beautiful objects

that you actually can't see dirt in them.

And the tunnels are like...

Honestly, like about six or
maybe six and a half feet tall.

It's like an enormous
opening across from you.

This is now gotten to the point where

it's left what you can explain now,

it's one of the weirdest
things you've seen.

- And there's still no one around?

I am alone in a dark...

I think, yeah, Kingston's
going to curiously try and see

as much as he can without
leaving the platform.

- You see light down in there,
and you hear a bit of...

You hear some like music
playing from in there,

and the light is flickering
from the end of the tunnel.

And you hear kind of (strange noises)

Like a jovial laugh from
off in the distance.

- Kingston is gonna kind
of slide off the platform.

"Hey, if y'all are doing work down here,

y'all should put a work order sign

cause it just seems like
the station is open.

But you don't want
people coming down here,

it's all darken and tripping.

Hello?"

- You see more light and
you could hear more noise.

For a moment, you hear some
music and some other voices.

And I think it occurs to Kingston

that there might be some younger
kids or some high schoolers

who are messing around down
here where it's not safe.

- What are y'all doing now in here?

Shouldn't y'all being
in school or something?

Hey, and I'm gonna...

I'll full walk in being like...

Because I'm already pretty tall,

like precarious of my high top.

I kind of had to decide to kinda walk in,

"Hey, I think there's some
kind of work being done here.

I don't think we should be down here."

- You walk in...

As you emerge through this tu...

You go though it for a while,

glittering objects,
scrolls, things like that.

You emerge into a chamber,
which is an enormous automat.

Like the kind of world
war II era wall of glass.

Automat is one of those
like automated diners.

So it's just rows on rows
of little slices of pie

and cakes and things like that

behind little glass doors
that have coin-operated slots.

Like back during the 40s,

you would just like walk
into this 24-hour place,

put a nickel into a thing

and open a glass door with
a slice of pie behind it

and like help yourself.

Huge automat.

There are rows of ruby

and golden-crusted
revolutionary war era cannons.

There is an enormous 14
foot long golden boom box

that is playing like old school...

Even at this point, old school,

like 70s into 80s, like
Grandmaster Flash, hip-hop,

and it's just booming out.

It's kind of fun, just like a fun trip,

but it's playing to nobody.

The floor is littered with subway tokens

that have kind of piled up in
the corners everywhere here.

- Yeah, I think Kingston is just

silently trying to make
sense of where he is

and what this place is.

Is their food in the automat?

- Yeah, totally.

It's enormous.

It's like rows, upon rows, upon rows,

tons and tons of stuff.

- Can I look at what's in the automat?

- You see that there is a small apple pie

that's like a hand turned pie

that is steaming in the automat,

like it's fresh baked.

And you look and see an old
glass bottle of milk next to it.

(players laughing)

- And oh yeah, the glass bottle is older,

the milk looks fresh.

And you look and see
that there is a metal...

There's like a door behind it

because people load the
automat from the back.

So you get a feeling that you
could look in the back there

and push and see the space
through the other side,

if you were to open your little
glass door and get this pie.

- I mean, this teens.

I mean, bringing milk
into subway stations now?

(players laughing)

Yeah, can I...

I'll push that thing.

- Do you put a coin into
the slot to operate the-?

- Yeah, I put a...

Let me see what these teens
are doing with this pie.

(players laughing)

I'm better go in there to
try and get this pie out.

- 30 year old Kingston is
like present day Steve.

(players laughing)

- Let's see here.

Hold on one second.

- We need to see?

Just give me a pie...

Just let me eat the pie.

(players laughing)

- You put it in.

- Don't eat strange pie.

- Don't eat pie that
you found in the subway.

- Hey, this is a good day.

And now there's just fresh pie

and a glass bottle of milk, you know?

- Sniff the milk first, please.

- You push it in, open the glass door.

You have fresh pie, and
the milk is like cold.

And yeah, you see that
there's a metal back

that you think you could
kind of like slide open.

- Yeah, I'll take the pie out

and then slide the slide the metal back.

- Looking through the metal,

you see a sunny field of grass.

- What?

- With a small homestead in it.

There is no city skyline,

but you do see like other
kind of stuff around.

Off in the distance, you
see some buildings closer.

This is not at the right
level, you're deep underground.

- Kingston is gonna like jam
as much of his head as he can

into the slot, just to make
sure that what he's seeing

is what he seeing.

- You jam your head trying
to see what you're seeing?

It's too small.

You can't get your...

Your head can get in, but your
shoulders can't get through.

So, you're looking out.

The Dutch woman is wearing...

There's like a young Dutch
milkmaid wearing a bonnet,

like a colonial era bonnet.

Comes out, she's hanging
laundry on a line,

there is a goat nearby.

She turns to look at you

and like clocks her head to the side.

- Hello?

- Hello.

And she speaks a string of
Dutch and waves over at you.

- I full like rip my head out
and slam the automat closed.

What else is going on in this room?

- There's a large door,

there's another one of
these treasure burrows

that leads out.

And you hear through that,
another booming laugh going,

(laughing hysterically)

You see a button presses
on the boom box behind you

with no one touching it.

And a new track, some
Grandmaster Flash comes on,

and you hear a voice booming
deeper through that chamber

singing along with the
music, it sounds like.

This booming voice going like,

(laughing hysterically)

Don't push me cause I'm close to the edge.

- Yeah, I think Kingston is
gingerly going to get closer

to the source of that sound.

- You move through the burrow on a
mountain of subway tokens,

in a huge dome with the
celestial heights and clouds

on the top of it, gilded
columns everywhere,

a just suspended subway
car is just resting on a...

The dome is large enough that
there is just a subway car

in here as like an object of
interest in this massive dome.

The subway car seems to
be studded with gems.

It has X as the letter on it,

which is not a New York City subway line.

A massive serpentine dragon,

pearl white scales mixed with
Azure blue and Emerald green,

long whiskers,

both a furry like beard and
sort of drooping mustache,

but then, also like long,
catfish style whiskers,

a set of like six horns
coming off of a head

that is at once draconian,
but also kind of canine,

but was almost like feline eyes,

multiple limbs, like about
eight different limbs.

His claws are massive.

But compared to the length of
this giant, serpentine body,

his limbs are kind of
scattered few and far between.

His head is the size of a taxi cab.

And he rears up, looks at
you as you come in and goes,

(laughing hysterical)

"Kingston Brown from Uptown."

- Yeah, that's that's me.

Are you the dragon from that movie?

- Huh?

- "The Never Ending Story"

(players laughing)

Are you the dragon from the never...

Is "The Never Ending Story" real?

What's happening right now?

Did you trap a Dutch woman down here?

What's going on?

- Did I trap a Dutch woman?

Who?

- There is a Dutch woman in a box.

- No, no, no, no.

Did you go for the Dutch apple pie?

- Yeah.

- No, she's fine.

She's in new Amsterdam.

You're completely fine.

She's not here.

She's not in this pla...

Well, she in this place,
but she's not in this time.

- What?

what is that...

Hey, don't eat me, please don't eat me.

What's happening?

- Ooh, sorry, let me explain.

The dragon greatly reduces his size

to the point now where he's
still very long and serpentine,

but now, his head and
sort of front quarters

are more the size of a tiger
or some kind of similar animal.

He goes,

"Kingston Brown, what an
honest pleasure to meet you.

An honor truly, I am the
dragon of Bleaker street.

And you, you have a very
special life ahead of you.

He reaches down and from the
massive pile of subway tokens,

pulls a single, gleaming subway token.

He grabs a piece of leather,

spins it through the hole in
the center of the subway token,

extends it to you and says,

"This is a gift from me to you."

And puts it over your head.

You begin to hear voices speaking to you,

voices of people far
overhead and all around.

It doesn't feel like
you're hearing things.

It feels like you are hearing things.

You're just now hearing
the voices of people

out in the city.

The Dragon's smiles at you and says,

"I am aware.

I'm sorry that I was sort
of having a good time.

I've been listening to
some of my favorite tracks

and have been enjoying some
of the automats fine foods,

and life is for the living, you know?

- Yeah.

And you got good taste of...

What is this?

And what am I...

What are these...

Who is this?

- Oh, Oh.

Let us have a walk through
up my chambers, you and I,

I have much to tell you.

And the dragon puts a reassuring
claw on your shoulder.

And it doesn't...

It feels cool and scaly, but reassuring.

There is something about the dragons claw

that doesn't alarm you
like it otherwise might.

And the absurdity of all this,

somehow the coin around your
neck anchors you in a way.

And the dragon goes,

"There was much to explain

and you have already paid for your pie.

Let us eat and I will talk to you

and tell you what it
is you are now seeing."

Over the course of the next hour or so,

Kingston walks and talks
with this ancient dragon

about the nature of the Unsleeping City.

And the fact that for many long years,

there has not been a Vox populi
within the Unsleeping City,

but there greatly needs to be.

As the conversation arrives at
sort of a natural conclusion,

Kingston's questions all get
either wholly or in most cases,

only partially answered.

The dragon has a massive
sort of silver cauldron

full of ice cream.

You're now back on the subway
platform outside the horde.

And he's sort of stretching
out his full form

on the subway platform.

What shape is Kingston in

after the dragon divulges
all of this information?

- I think very much overwhelmed,

but I think if this token
seems to be anchoring me,

I mean, I think that, for the most part,

a lot of what Kingston's hearing

is that there's the ability to do good,

and there's the opportunity to do good.

And as scary as that may be,

there's also something
exciting about that.

- The dragon looks up at you and smiles.

Go ahead and make a medicine check for me.

- Okay.

That's gonna be a 25.

- As Kingston is sort of
meditating on the lifesaver

to get out of the total
collapse of your mind

when faced with the fact

that everything you ever knew
about the nature of the world

is wrong.

That Kingston's lifesaver is,

"This is a way to help
people more than I can now."

The dragon smiles.

And you see much like a reptile,

some of his scales kind of molt off.

And you see the dragon takes
like a deep wheezy breath.

He goes,

(Breathing in heavily)

- You all right?

- Most.

- Well, can I push...

I don't know where this
Dragon's lungs are,

but can I push my ear
up against its chest?

- Yeah, you see, you go up.

You've tried to find
where it's lungs would be

in this long, long body.

And you put your ear
up against it, on a 25.

You hear a rasp from within
the Dragon's breathing,

and you also hear a heartbeat

that to you sounds, for
a creature of this size,

I mean, you're not a veterinarian,

but you're like that's
a pretty weak heart beat

and the blood pressure is pretty low.

- You don't seem to be doing so well.

- I mean, I don't know.

Maybe this is normal for you,
but it doesn't sound good.

- The dragon looks up and
smiles at you and says,

"I am doing very well, actually.

The past few days, have
been very, very rewarding

knowing that my time is coming,

means I have been able
to engage in my vices

more than normal, big bowls of ice cream,

trips to the automat,

filling my time with my favorite memories,

the best music, the best art,

the best books and plays and music and..."

And you see as the dragon says that,
his scales shimmer,

and you see like moats of light

and hear ragtime, and jazz, and hip hop,

and you see Vaudeville and Broadway shows.

You see like street art, spray paint,

but then turn of the century,

you see like ticker tape parades,

all these things throughout
the history of New York City.

And you see the dragon
looks up to you and says,

"My only fear was I
wouldn't make it long enough

to find the right one, the right one.

And you are the right one, Kingston.

Frightening times are coming.

There will be friends and allies

in the Unsleeping City for
you, and they need you.

That will be your journey,
I'm afraid Kingston.

There will always be those who need you.

And you will have to
decide how much of yourself

you can give

because it's always nice

to keep a little slice
of pie for yourself."

Eats little piece of pie.

- This is my city, this is my community.

And for everything that it's given me,

I'm ready to give it right back, I think.

I mean, I really don't understand.

So there's just...

There are goblins just out
there, just in New York City?

- Extremely.

- I know I've asked this before,

but just 100%

(speakers cross talking over each other)

And there's another police department?

Kingston, I'm so sorry.

But actually, I'm sorry.

Looks like your train might be...

The dragon vanishes as a train speeds by.

Kingston, you're standing on the platform

of the Brooklyn bridge 405 station.

And the four train pulls into the station.

And you watch scintillating
moats of dry shed scales

filled with memories fade off.

You've still got the
coin around your neck.

- I am not gonna get used to this.

I'm not going to get used to this at all.

- And you wake up three
years after the events

of the Unsleeping City season one,

in your apartment in Harlem, hell yes.

And we're gonna cut over
a roll little die here.

Okay.

It is the morning of October 30th,

three years after the
events of season one.

It's a beautiful fall in New York.

Oh, baby fall in New York is so wonderful.

The air is crisp-

- So, Halloween is tomorrow?

- Halloween is tomorrow.

The group chat thread of
the champions of New York

has pr...

Even those of you who have
retreated a little bit

from magical life, know
that Halloween is tomorrow

and Halloween is always a shit show,

and some magical business happens.

We descend on this crisp,
bright fall morning,

sun shining,

New Yorkers walking around in
light sweaters and jackets.

The perfect time to be in the city.

We move across the East river from Harlem,

all the way down to beautiful
brownstones and Ivy and trees

to the wonderful Clinton Hill
neighborhood of Brooklyn.

And we see out on the corner,

there is a tall building of apartments.

And on top of it, a miniature clock tower.

And we approached the glass
face of the clock tower,

which is frosted white glass.

So it's not completely transparent,
but light comes through.

And we move through that clock tower

to see a gorgeous apartment.

There are plants everywhere around,

away from the clock tower
face, behind the clock tower.

There are windows on the other side

with rows and rows of plants suspended.

And we see a massive kind of open,

complex, open plan apartment

with two figures lying
in a giant bed together.

One of whom should be
described by Mr. Zac Oyama.

Zac, can you describe your character?

- Yeah.

Hey, what's going on?

I'm Ricky, as you all know.

Ricky, just as strong as ever,

absolutely ripped still.

Fully asleep, has no...

Just the type of person
who just lays down in bed

and fully falls asleep

for maybe as long as he needs or longer.

No, nothing in his brain will
slow him down in that way.

Ricky is just fully passed out asleep,

maybe smiling in his asleep.

(players laughing)

- What does Ricky dream of?

(players laughing)

- His life is a dream,
what does he dream of?

- It's the exact same picture of...

- And by the way, I was actually mistaken.

There are two figures in the
bed, and a third on the bed

because Ox the Dalmatian is
curled up the foot of the bed.

Ricky, you're fast asleep.

Next to you sleeping,
oh, so peacefully as well

is the current head and Chairwoman

of the Gramercy occult
society, Esther Sinclair.

Esther is fully barnacled,

like fetal position
around you in her sleep.

You see her constant internal wizard work

has her brows...

She's almost always in
like rapid eye movement

as she sleeps, thinking or something.

But-

- Or whatever the opposite
of a furrowed brow is

is what Ricky has.

(players laughing)

- A loose brow, a sprawling brow.

- You see that Esther has
her hair wrapped in silk

with like star and moon, like
wizard patterns around it.

And was like sleeping next to
you, breathing very slowly,

but still working on
something in her mind.

And whatever it is, as you slowly wake up,

you see whatever she's working
on her mind, she solves it.

And her brow and unfurrows and she smiles,

and just softly snores a little bit.

Around you are like huge, beautiful,

deep, dark, reclaimed wood shelves

that kind of are structured
on like that very chic like

exposed pipe.

You know, it's that sort of like pipe,

and exposed wood, and exposed brick.

Huge collections of tomes are here.

Her personal arcane library
on her bedside table.

You see there's like glass
of water, humidifier,

glasses and contacts,
and a bunch of other...

And her silver baseball bat arcane focus,

leaning up against the bedside table.

And this place is like
plants, lovely furniture,

big old TV, magic books,

floating, hovering, arcane thing,

huge workout area over in a corner,

with a ton of weights everywhere.

And you wake up as Ox gets up first,

licks your face for
another beautiful morning.

- Yeah, Ricky's eyes
just immediately open.

He licks Ox back now.

(players laughing)

Pats Ox on the head.

And then it's like,

"All right, it's time to rise and grind."

Ricky goes...

He has this like morning routine

where he gets his coffee going.

And as soon as he starts the coffee timer,

he just goes and does
pull ups until it's done.

Then he just carries around his morning.

I think he probably gets
a shake going as well.

- Hell yeah.

The shake going is Esther's alarm.

She wakes up as the shake goes.

(yawning)

"Oh, wonderful, wonderful.

Another perfect day.

Good morning, sweetie?"

And she floats out of bed,
levitates over somewhere.

- Trying to hand her a
coffee like in the sky.

- Thank you, my darling.

Takes.

"Mm, perfect."

- Thank you.

- And scoots over to a very sunlit window,

surrounded by plants,
other things like that.

Your guys' morning routine
is very synchronized.

She comes over, alights on
a chair, a big armchair,

and takes a bunch of sort
of like arcane stuff,

puts it to the side,

takes coffee, takes a little snack

of some kind of like
cashews and Brazil nuts

just something to get her body started.

And it's like, "Okay."

- As she snacking, I start
trying to like sketch her

with charcoal and my big...

My new hobby is art, just the idea of art.

I'm just taking a stab at drawing,

concentrating really hard.

- Yeah, you see that Esther has...

Still has a little bit of that punk edge,

but also is now like cozy core punk,

like long, long cardigan
that she's wearing.

She sort of smiles, looks
over to you and says,

"Should I hold a pose over here?

Is there some sort of way I should be?

Or am I free to...?

- Yeah.

You know, from what I understand,

it seems like people talk
about people staying still.

But if you feel like moving around,

maybe I'll just figure it out.

- Sounds-

- It could be cool if you're
moving around in the picture,

but I'm not sure how to do that yet.

- She says, "I'll try
to keep it still here."

Your guys' morning progresses.

Esther grabs some breakfast for herself,

dives into reviewing stuff.

A lot of her work these
days is not only arcane,

but like running the occult society.

You see a couple of minutes later,

she grabs her phone,
FaceTimes her mom real quick,

Gabriela Sinclair,

no longer one of the Furries
of Tompkins square park,

but rather the curse having
been broken by Kugrash.

Gabriela is now living
elsewhere in Brooklyn.

She see that, she goes like,

"Hey mom, thanks for jumping
on the call real quick.

I just wanted to go over
some of this stuff with you

because it's a little bit baffling to me,

but I wanted to check and
see if you would be familiar

with any of this stuff."

And is like screen sharing
with her mom from a laptop

some like arcane symbols and stuff.

Her mom, Gabriela, as the
phone is scribbled around,

looks over and goes,

"Is that Ricky I see in the background?

Good morning, Ricky?

- Hey, how's it going?

I'm just sketching...

I'm gonna incorporate you into the sketch.

- You see that Gabriela smiles and goes,

"Ah, Oh, that's so sweet Ricky.

Oh my goodness, you look amazing.

You look wonderful-

- I'm doing squats while I...

(players laughing)

- You see the get real looks
at Esther and goes like,

"Oh Ricky, I wanted to send you
something I was looking up."

And you see a text shows up on
your phone from Esther's mom.

She says,

"There was something very interesting

that's happened in our neighborhood.

A jewelry store opened up.

It's very interesting, there's
a whole new jewelry shop

around the corner from me that opened up.

And I was wondering,
you know, I need to go,

you understand that I was
cursed to be a sort of fury,

like this sort of sorceress
spirit of New York City

for a long time.

So I'm just trying to kind
of pick up the pieces,

start back up, get back
into the world of mortals

so to speak.

- Did I talk to you about jewelry?

- Well, no-

- Did we have a
conversation about jewelry?

- Well, no cause you were saying

you might want to lend a hand

and I have some jewelry
shopping that I wanna do,

and I was thinking that maybe you would.

- I'm not...

I mean, I'll go with you.

I don't know that I'm nuts...

- You see, Esther says,

"Oh, it's all that's all for now, mom.

Thank you."

Click.

And hits the button.

- I just forget, did we talk about...

- Esther looks and says,

"You didn't forget anything, sweetie.

You didn't forget it.

You didn't forget a single thing.

You forgot nothing.

My mom is being a pest

and you don't have to worry about her.

- What a weird conversation.

(players laughing)

- As you get ready to head
out to work for the day,

you see Esther looks over and says...

Looking over and it's just
sort of feeding herself...

She's kind of talks her
work out loud to you a lot,

and says, "It's just so cool

because like we have all these applicants.

And just Sofia has been working so hard,

and we've been able to
devote so much more time

to looking for applicants.

And there's so many cool people.

Like, look at this guy.

I think this guy we have
to induct into the society.

We're gonna have to figure
out some way to open up

a secret magic alley and
have him stumbled down it

and discover that magic is real."

This is the fun part of the job, 100%.

- It sounds really cool.

I can picture what you're talking about.

- Oh, it's great.

It's getting to show up and tell people,

"Magic is real, you might be a wizard."

Extremely, extremely fun.

Oh, look at this.

She says, "I think this guy's it for sure.

This is a guy who's working
at Columbia University on...

This physics work is phenomenal,
and that's the thing."

Then she starts sort of going
off about it and then says,

"Am I keeping you here?

You have to run off to work?

- Yeah, I probably should get going.

Do I know any of these
people, that she's looking at?

- You go ahead and look at it.

It seems like there's a couple
of different people here

that all...

Esther is kind of like branched out

and is looking for people
that are not just like people

who are interested in the occult,

but people that are
like in the humanities,

in STEM,

people that are doing
incredibly advanced mathematics

and physics and stuff.

She's like, "I don't know why it feels...

I just feel like there's a way
to involve more people here

in the order to get a
variety of perspectives.

I feel like a lot of times
the more fusty and old school

a person has their approach.

Like we're never gonna be as good

at the old hermetic magic
stuff as those old timers were.

But you can bring a fresh perspective

from another discipline
and really reorient

what we understand about the
umbral engine of the arcana...

Did you know, I just learned

after inheriting the headmaster stuff."

And you see a moment of
sadness pass over her face

any time she kind of talks
about inheriting the headmaster.

It's been three years
since Alejandro died,

but still, that was like her mentor.

She says, "Alejandro was so smart.

And there was so much stuff.

Like I didn't know, the umbral
Arcana is not a spell effect.

The umbral Arcana is a
naturally occurring substance.

And the unreal engine is
just like controlling it.

The magic is about harnessing a thing

that already exists naturally
in the sixth borough.

Like I didn't even know that

until I got access to this stuff.

There's so much exciting
work ahead of us."

- Wow.

Sounds like a dam.

- Kind of, yeah.

It kind of is like that.

Yeah, exactly.

It's-

- I read article about
a dam three weeks ago,

and it sounded similar to that.

- You see she gets up,

she sees you, comes out
of her hyper work state

and comes over and says,

"That's awesome.

It's exactly like a dam."

- Awesome.

It sounds like a really exciting work.

And yeah, what you're talking about,

it's always great to get
like a fresh perspective.

Like when I'm doing, I
don't know, CrossFit.

And then, when I'm going to mix it up,

and I do like a Dodge ball
league or something, that's fun.

And that's like I'm learning
a different way to exercise.

- That's exactly it, sweetie.

It's a different way to
exercise, that's exactly right.

She just smiles and wraps
her arms around you,

gives you a kiss and says,
"Have a great day at work.

I know you're gonna do amazing things.

You're...

Oh my goodness.

Mr. March.

- Oh, I mean, I don't know.

I feel like my days of being
on a calendar are long gone.

- You see that she waggles
her eyebrows at you and says,

"We can always do like
a private photo shoot.

Do just like Calendar, just
every month is March calendar

if you want.

- Every month is March?

(players laughing)

- All right, so you have a great day.

- I hand her my horrible
drawing and I get out.

- You head out to the street.

Ricky, you head off to the street.

You're walking Ox along.

You're headed to the place
where he's been working

for the past two and a half years or so,

the helping hands homeless
center and outreach program.

And you are walking through Clinton Hill.

How's Ricky feeling as he heads to work?

- I think Ricky's feeling good.

It's like a good morning.

He got up, had his routine.

Everything felt like a
normal, good day so far.

And I think he's just
ready to get after it.

- Hell yeah.

You run by...

Give me a perception check real quick.

- Do I still have advantage from-

- Yes you do.

- I rolled a 22.

- Hell yeah.

You're heading off to the
homeless outreach center

where you work.

And you see, off from the distance,

just sort of on sort of side streets,

sort of rolling around the corner.

You just look and see your
old company's fire truck

kind of round the corner
and head off down the street

for the moment.

- I mean, I should say Hey

and I sprint after it
as fast as as possible.

- Summoning that's superhuman speed,

you rip around the corner and go along.

And you see the three Johns

are in the back of the firetruck.

- John cubed.

- They turn around and they go, "Ricky!"

And all of them in their
full gear leap off the truck,

pick you up in a big hug.

And they're like, "Dude,
how is it going these days?

Man, look at you.

Dude, you look swole as hell.

Looks like you're taking care of yourself"

- I am taking care of myself

because that's how you
take care of others.

You take care of yourself first.

- You take care of yourself first.

You see all of them at the same time go,

"You put your own oxygen mask on

before you put it on the p-

- I mean, that's just being safe.

But yeah, I'm doing good.

Me and Esther moved in together.

- Nice.

- I'm working at the helping
hands homeless outreach place.

And yeah, shit's great.

- Dude, that is awesome, dude.

It's so great that you found
someone that takes care of you,

that you can take care
of, that kind of intimacy.

That's what life's all about, dude.

And the number one thing
you can do when you get

is you can give man, and
that's you too you, dude.

- Aww, that's huge John.

I pick him up.

- Yeah, getting picked up.

Each of you guys take
about a minute and a half

to each pickup each of other,

including the three guys
who are gonna go back

into the same fire truck together.

- So, what are you up to?

What are you guys up to you?

- Ah dude, there's a fire.

We gotta get going, man.

(players laughing)

- Yeah, sorry.

I put them back onto the firetruck.

- You lift them up one by one,

"Rock and roll dude.

Huge core strength man, way to go.

Take care of Rick."

And you see the truck takes off.

- I think a part of Ricky
misses it a little bit,

but also, he's happy
doing what he's doing.

- Yeah.

You get to helping hands.

You have a great day
working at the center.

There's like a food
drive going on right now.

You're helping unload boxes for that

and get things stored and separated.

And yeah, just that little wistful pang

of seeing the fire truck
drive off into the distance.

We whisk away from the
firehouse to our next character.

We are up in uncommon knowledge.

We actually dive all the
way up back to Harlem,

to a tiny little bookstore,

an awesome second-hand
bookstore, all used books,

a lot of old awesome things like that.

There's a small little wooden sign outside

that says uncommon knowledge

Sort of tucked off the corner,

a few blocks away from 125th street.

This beautiful, magical, rich
smelling of old dusty paper.

And even as old and crowded
as the bookstore is,

you see that there is
a little shelf outside

where people can just take books.

There's books that the store
has basically said like,

"Hey, just take one."

There's also a little wheelchair ramp

leading up into this sort of old building.

And we go inside to see
the man behind the register

at the front of the store.

Ally, could you please
describe your character for us?

- Yes.

Hello everyone.

Yeah, Pete is just at work.

He's been trying to
sit up straight lately.

He realized his posture
is kind of lacking,

and I think he's just kind
of really focusing on that,

kind of having like an anxious day.

Just kind of like clothes are
fitting weird and just like,

"You know, maybe it's a posture thing.

Yeah, all right."

So he's just kinda like
at the register, like.

(players laughing)

- Looking around, posture's kind of weird.

You see that your...

One of your coworkers
comes in to replace you.

You see, they come in...

Their name is Zee Silverman.

This is actually one of the
few close work buds you have.

You see, they come in,
they got big glasses,

kind of little flop of
like fluorescent orange,

pink and yellow hair.

They have their little pronoun pin

on the lapel of their jacket
saying they, them on it.

And you see that they are
also a wheelchair user.

So come in across the ramp,

give you a little peace sign and go,

"Hey Pete, how's the morning shift going?

- Hey Zee, it was great.

We actually had one of those school tours.

So, the place was full of kids

and I just kind of had to
clean up a bunch of juice.

(players laughing)

- Sorry, is there like...

Are there like juice stains around?

- No, I got most of them up.

But you know the place fills with kids.

It's like let's really inspire

a love of reading in these kids,

but they always spill
juice multiple places.

- Okay, I feel like that's actually...

Okay, that might be a bigger deal

if the books all have juice up.

How many kids had juice?

You said it was a high school group?

- No, no, no.

They were little kids,

it was like third grade or something.

They were probably like 30, 35 of them.

And I would say at least 15
of them had an open juice.

- Zee goes, "Okay, I'm
gonna run to the bathroom

and kind of just like
eat my lunch super quick,

and then I'll come tap you out.

- Yeah, no worries.

Yeah, yeah, no worries.

No rush.

I got all the juice up, I
dunno if I made that clear.

I'm not leaving you with a big mess.

- Gotcha, no worries.

That's totally, totally fine.

Cool, I'm gonna go scrap
my lunch down real quick.

I'm gonna run to the bathroom.

You see that they head back, they say,

"You need to be out of
here at like pretty sharp

cause you said you're looking
at an apartment later today,

is that right?

- Yeah. I am.

I would love to get to that on time.

It seems like when you show up late,

they're always like upset.

- No, it's like hell, finding
a place in the city for sure.

You see that they head
back to the bathroom

in the back of the store,

and you hear the door
kind of jingle again.

One of the school chaperones comes back in

with one of the young sort of like third

or fourth grade kids.

And they're the chaperone goes like,

"All right, sweetie.

Where do we think we lost it?

It's gotta be somewhere here, right?

We gotta find it so
that we can grab the..."

- Oh, what'd you guys leave?

I can help you find it.

- You see the kid looks up at you,

and they are looking at you
with like wide, wide eyes.

You see, they've got like
a little school uniform

with a skirt on, like beads in their hair.

And you see the kid looking up at you

in like wide-eyed amazement.

Go ahead and give me an
insight check with advantage.

- Ooh.

Oh yeah honey, that's an 18.

- Pete is looking down at this kid,

who very clearly is in like
a school uniform skirt,

like beads in their hair.

You're getting two different
vibes from this kid

at the same time.

You're getting number one,

kid looking at a queer adult

and with a look of like
recognition and wonderment.

And you're also getting
maybe something else

beyond that as well.

The kid looks around and is like,

"Yeah, I was looking around at
the different books and stuff

and found a bunch of...

So, it's like a little
Teddy bear backpack."

And you see that they
look up at you and say,

"It's a little brown Teddy bear,

but it's got backpack
straps built into it.

It's my little Teddy bear backpack."

- Oh, that's really cool.

I love stuff like that.

Okay, man.

Yeah, let's look around.

And I just kinda like help look around.

And then I say to the chaperone,

"Do you know where they left it?

Do you know which areas they were in?"

- The chaperone shrugs.

And you see the kid points over
at a stack of books and says

"Maybe it might've been behind there."

The chaperones start looking.

And the kid just turns to look up at you.

And they're again, like
about nine years old.

And you see that they just
sort of wave at you and go,

"Hi, what's your name?

- It's Pete.

Oh, that's so hard to do.

Sorry, it's Pete.

My real name is Pete.

I'll tell you my real name and it's Pete.

- The kids sort of nods
and looks up and says,

"Cool, cool."

- What's your name?

- The little kid says, "Amanda."

- Cool.

- Yeah.

And I think Pete on the 18 insight

can tell that this little nine year old

is having those early,
early feelings of like,

"Maybe I don't want this
to be my name forever."

- Cool, do you like that name?

Oh, cool.

Do you have any nicknames
that you go by or?

- Well, there's a lot of
other Amanda's in the school.

And my last name is Daniels.

And so sometimes, I get called Amanda D,

and sometimes I get called Dee for short,

and I kinda liked the nickname Dee.

- Yeah, that's a cool nickname.

We have someone who works
here, their name is Zee.

- You see that Amanda's eyes
light up as they look at you.

And they quickly look over your shoulder

as a little flicker of a green light

in the shape of a butterfly
just moves around.

And that one was not one
that you even made visible

to other people.

It just moves around for a second.

But you see that Amanda sees it.

- Huh?

You know, you can start
to make your own reality.

You know, you can tell people

how you'd like to be perceived.

And it's never too early to start that.

You should tell everyone
that your name is Dee.

- Dee looks up at you with
just tears like forming,

and just smiles.

The chaperone lifts teddy bear
up out of the thing and says,

"Is this it?

Okay, let's get out of here."

And Dee smiles at you.

And just again, is looking at you

with like that rapt
fascination of like,

"What a cool person!"

And like, "I'm nine, I don't get it."

Yeah, like.

- I think I have the butterfly fly around

and then I make a circle with my hands

and the butterfly flies through it.

And I'm like, "Bye Dee."

- Like vape tricks with it.

- Dee waves so excitedly,
goes, "Bye Pete."

And like blows kisses and waves and smiles

and walks off back into the street.

- Ah, best part of the job.

(players laughing)

- Yes.

The Vox Phantasma of New York City

bringing a little bit of the
dream world into the waking.

Zee comes out, replaces
you, cuts you loose.

You guys have an apartment
to go head out and see.

You check your phone for the info.

And as you're sort of
heading to the subway,

I think Pete recognizes

that you hadn't checked your phone

for a good like 40 minutes.

And there are no texts waiting
on it when you looked up.

And it's just a very different life.

- And I only have one phone now.

A total bore for me.

Hmm.

- You begin to head off towards the subway

looking at that phone.

Probably the most recent
texts are from Dr. Lou Gosh.

And actually, yeah.

The most recent text is
morning from Dr. Lou Gosh

checking in about coming
to tomorrow's meeting

and just making sure you're there.

- Oh, yeah.

I should've text back.

Oh, sorry, was at work.

Yeah, I'll definitely be there.

- Awesome, great.

You head off into the city.

- I think I'm eating just
like the worst food ever

before meeting someone good.

I have like a four-pack of
like white castle sliders.

(players laughing)

- You need them cold?

(speakers cross talking over each other)

- I got them on the way to work.

- So, they're defrosted?

- You just didn't have time, yeah.

- Incredible.

From there, we move and
zoom up away from Harlem

all the way back down,

moving, moving, moving, all
the way to Staten Island.

(players laughing)

All the way to Staten
Island, to a small...

I honestly think one
bedroom apartment shared-

- Oh, one bathroom.

We upgraded from studio.

(players laughing)

- Upgraded from studio.

A one bedroom above Spaghetti's Bakery.

- The smell of the cannolis
wafts in through the windows.

- Coming back from a morning shift

at first-class luxury, beauty hair salon,

Sofia Lee, you walk through
the door of your apartment

after you had about like three
back to back appointments

today.

- They all wanted the Rachel.

It's back, I guess.

- You walk in and see
that all the living spaces

are completely occupied
by yet another deep clean

of the entire apartment.

The curtains have been laundered.

There's piles of laundry
being folded everywhere.

Your mom walks in, who
you are now living with,

Marie Bicicleta walks in and goes,

"Okay, I couldn't tell cause
you're separating your whites

from the colors,

but you're also separating the delicates

from everything else.

So, I went through and
reseparated and rewashed.

If anything's not in the
right place, you let me know.

- Mom, I don't care.

Throw it all in one load.

It's clothes, who cares?

- I'm not gonna put your delicate

and I'm not gonna put lace
or anything like that.

First of all, this is-

- Mother, what need do I have
for delicates in my life?

Do you think anyone sees
my delicates besides you?

- Maybe you want to find someone

who wants to see your delicates.

- Maybe my delicates are just
private for a little while,

okay?

- Private doesn't mean
nobody's sweet heart.

- Let them get destroyed
by the dryer, I don't care.

No one's looking at my
delicates, end of sentence.

- You see, she looks out and says,

"I don't understand why you yell at me.

I'm trying to help you.

God forbid, your own mother.

I mean, you think I like to go through

and look at my daughter's lingerie?

You should be able to
do this for yourself.

But you got these...

Who has a hair appointment
at 1:30 in the morning?

Why do you have hair appointments

at such strange times of night?

- I told you I have some
very particular clients

and I'm on-call.

I'm an on-call hairdresser,
this is absolutely normal.

You didn't know that the
salon has a graveyard shift?

It does.

Okay?

Nothing to see.

I cut hair, that's all I do, mom.

That's all I do.

- But why are they making
you pull so many doubles?

You go work in the morning.

You work a graveyard shift at night.

Sweetheart, where is the time
in your life to meet a man?

There are no men at the
hair salon, sweetheart.

- Mom, I absolutely
appreciate what you're doing.

But you got to understand that right now

work keeps me out of the bottle.

And so, maybe it's not such a bad thing.

- Okay.

All right, forgive me.

She knows the card up the
sleeve to make mom agree.

So there you go, there you go.

Play the card that makes
mom have to shut up.

- Yeah.

And just so you know,

if you try to sign me up
for Tinder one more time.

I mean, you shouldn't do it,

because what did you do?

You uploaded my high school senior photo.

And then the bio was
a Bible quote, mother!

- You look beautiful, why shouldn't we-

- Nothing but predators, I'll be honest.

(players laughing)

It was just not a strategic...

It was not strategic.

- She holds up an iPhone
that she has had made

so that the font is like
enormously large on it.

- I can read one word on that.

- She says, "Yes, there
only needs to be one word,

which is match, and you've gotten 18.

I run your account better than you do.

Look at this conversation.

This guy is a sergeant
in the fire department.

And look at this.

He texted me saying, "Hey, what's up?

I love the corsage in your main photo."

And look what I said.

I said me, I said,

"Me (Sofia) I'm single and available."

- I take it back, you just
seem like you're cat fishing.

You just seem like you're cat fishing.

- What's cat fishing?

People keep saying I'm doing that.

Does that mean you're doing well?

- No, it means that people think

that you're pretending to be
one person and you're not.

And honestly, that is
what's happening here.

You're cat fishing for a good cause.

But nevertheless, the cat has been fished.

- She goes, "Okay, well,
I guess I can't win.

There's a lot of lovely men on here.

There are some that I find distasteful,

but you gotta throw a lot of lines

before you land a fish, sweetheart.

- Okay, mother, I'm just
gonna say one thing,

I'm not the only single woman

in this one bedroom apartment, so.

- First of all-

- Is it possible that
you are focusing on me

because you don't want to look
at what's going on with you?

- First of all, I am not single.

I am still married to
that scum of the year.

I don't even want to
say his name, all right?

- I don't want you to say his name.

- Women in my generation,
we don't get divorced, okay?

And if I ever see the
man I'm married to again,

whose name I won't say, I'll kill him.

And I want you to know
that, he's dead to me.

But I am not single, okay?

I have beautiful children,
my beautiful daughter.

And she comes over and grabs your face and

I love you, I love you, I love you.

I know I can be a nudge, I just
want you to be happy, okay?

- I know, mom, I know.

- All right, I'm gonna finish the laundry.

I'm gonna go get some
sandwiches downstairs,

and we'll get you something to eat

cause I know you gotta head
out again and not too long.

- Yeah, absolutely.

A lot of hair needs to
be cut in this city.

A lot of Rachael's.

I got to turn a lot of
zeros into Rachael's.

- Your mom heads out.

Also, introducing a new
little game system here

for those watching at home.

Yeah, so for everyone at home,

Dimension 20 for this
season, the Unsleeping City,

because Sofia and Pete are
both sober at the moment.

We actually consulted
with some awesome sobriety

and addiction consultants to
create kind of an extension

of the Adaine Abernant
panic attacks system

into a system to accurately
reflect our characters

as they work on their sobriety.

So both Ally and Emily have a list of

sort of sobriety triggers
for Sofia and Pete.

Fighting with your mom is one of Sofia's.

So you go ahead, you're at a D20 right now

because you've been doing meetings

and you are doing very well.

- I've been sober two years,
three months and 17 days.

Not three years because after Kug passed,

I went on a nine month bender.

(players laughing)

I, yeah.

Okay, I passed, I got a five.

- Hell yeah, great.

Awesome.

- It's okay.

Sofia's still your mind.

She wants the best for you.

You don't let the shame of
starting a fight with someone

who wants the best for
you just fall off of you

like water in the shower.

- You center yourself,
you're feeling good.

Sofia and Pete, you guys
feel free to make those rolls

even when I'm not
calling for them as well.

So, very cool.

Sofia, you look at your phone.

I think Sofia is probably
the most on the ball

in terms of tomorrow being Halloween.

- Oh, yeah.

I've got pumpkin earrings.

I'm wearing leopard print pants.

I know you're talking about magical,

but I am saying Sofia is
also decked out for Halloween,

pumpkin earrings, big pumpkin shirt,

a pumpkin full of Halloween candy

that she brings to every place she works.

- Incredible.

- And also she's aware

that magic will be at a
potent stage tomorrow.

- Hell yes.

So before you sort of have
your business tonight,

you see a little reminder
of an appointment

that you actually have in the
city on the upper west side.

You got a spot with your
psychic today as well.

- Ah, yes.

Okay.

Well, yeah, you know what?

This will be good because I
just had a fight with my mother.

I'm like feeling just
kind of icky from that.

So I will just...

I don't want to take
the Staten Island ferry.

So do I have a car at all?

- Go ahead and make a
flat wisdom check for me.

- Okay.

I got a 19 plus hold on.

19 plus three, 22.

This is probably just gonna
tell me I absolutely don't.

- You absolutely have access to a car.

Your brother, Mario, stole a car,

which you stole, so he can't report it.

- Okay.

Great, I get in the car.

I plug my iPhone in, I
start blasting music.

And I hop on the Verrazano bridge

to take a really indirect
route to the Upper West Side.

- Yeah, go on the Verrazano
of the BQE over the Triborough

down to the upper west side.

- I love traffic, it's something
to do when you're sober.

(players laughing)

- A while later, as you're driving,

you see that in the radio....

So, what kind of music do you have

playing on the radio right now?

- I think I just...

Whatever station was on.

- You see that the stations
are (imitating signal change)

and settles on a super
fun merengue station,

as you as starts playing.

And as it happens, appearing next to you

is your patron in the passenger
seat made of light, purring.

Yeah, you look beautiful today.

- Gracias.

- You see, La Gran Gata smiles at you,

the great bodega cat of New York and says,

Are we perhaps going
hunting later tonight,

or perhaps tomorrow?

I know there are many
that will steal the visage

of the sexy cat.

- I mean, we've gone
hunting every single night

since I've been sober.

So yeah, we'll be hunting, yeah.

What are you in the mood to hunt for?

- You see, La Gran Gata says,

"It is all good to me,
whatever, wrongdoers, wicked,

and like anxious orcs, wander the streets

threatening the innocent
people of this city.

If we could also find some mice or say...

I know that you don't ever want me to...

- No rats.

- No rats.

- We don't do rats.

- We don't do rats.

- We respect the rats.

- We respect the rats.

- Okay.

- But maybe a full pigeon
one time, you know?

- I'm kind of torn because I knew a pigeon

that once loved the rat.

But I'll let ya have the pigeons.

- Okay, good, good, good, good.

And La Gran Gata sort
of twinkles out in light.

And you arrive on West 72nd street.

Not like, around Columbus,

like not too far away from central park,

tucked away, not one of the main avenues.

But there's like a series
of like metal stairs

going down to a shopfront

that is like partially subterranean.

You see a neon sign flickering "Psychic"

And it's a weird neon sign
cause it's flickering.

But you can only see this storefront

if you look down the stairwell
outside of the building.

You see a kind of crystal
ball in the windows,

psychic, cards read.

You see the name on the
front that says just like...

That's like partially
in the Cyrillic letters,

sort of Russian font
that says Madam Anastasia

on the front of it.

- And I've been here before, right?

cause I'm kind of using...

I'm leaning on this psychic
instead of being an adult

and going to a therapist.

- Yes.

Also, you know this psychic

because this is a psychic
who got recommended to you

because you can actually talk

about your Unsleeping City stuff here.

This psychic is partially connected to

or inducted into the Unsleeping City.

And you are familiar...

In other words, you can
be your full self here.

- Okay.

I go in, "Madam Anastasia?

Madam Anastasia?"

- A woman emerges from the back.

Siobhan, could you please
describe your character for us?

- Yes, I am Anastasia, Madam Anastasia.

I am one of the great
psychics of New York City.

All of those other psychics,
I've got to say are fraud.

But me, I am the real thing.

I read cards for my ladies,
the upper West side,

the upper East side, the lower West side,

the lower East side.

All kinds of people all over the city,

they're come to me from my readings

because they're so accurate and real.

I'm 45 years young,

I've got a beautiful curly hair

that I have wrapped in a scarf

because people have a certain expectation

of what their psychics are looking like.

And I do have a pair of Tivas on also

because you can really see the Tivas

underneath the beautiful tablecloth

that I have to do my readings on.

- Secret Tivas.

- Can I do a perception
to try to see the Tivas?

(players laughing)

- Go ahead and give me a perception check.

- Okay.

Shit, sorry.

- And Siobhan, give me a stealth check.

- Gotta hide those Tivas.

- I got a 10 stealth.

- Oh no.

- Oh no, there is a Tiva poking out.

- I click with bow-leg Tivas underneath.

- I make a note to get
her a nice pair of shoes.

- They've gotta be comfortable,

you kow it's important to be comfortable.

You got to walk around the city
a lot, you know what I mean?

- Madam Anastasia.

- Mm-mmh.

- I got into a big fight with my mother.

It's the same song and dance.

She wants me to start dating again.

I don't really know how to be someone

who is not living in the memory of Dale.

And I guess I thought

maybe we could just do some tarot cards.

- Yes, of course-

- Seems like that would
be the adult solution.

- What is your question
that you would like to ask

to the cards?

I want you to close your eyes concentrate

very hard on this question.

- Okay.

- I love this.

- My question will be is it
okay to fall in love again?

- Hm, a beautiful question, very good.

Okay.

- Thank you so much, your
support means everything.

- I'm going to cut the deck

when you tell me to cut the deck, okay?

- Okay, cut the deck.

Did I say that right to you?

- Okay.

- Okay.

- Let's us see what the cards

they have in store for you, Sofia.

- Okay.

- Hmm, you're past the ACE of ones,

one man, strong, veraile.

- Yes, he was strong, he was veraile.

He was, we had a really
quiet, beautiful relationship,

but also nasty sex life.

(players laughing)

So I think you're right, you're right.

That card is absolutely right.

- The present, what are we saying?

Oh, oh my goodness.

A card of ill omen, the tower.

I think, my dear, you're
not ready to date yet.

It's a card of change, of fall.

Your life is in a time of flux.

Okay...

Things are moving around.

You don't have time to date.

You're falling out of the tower.

- (speaking faintly) I'm
falling out of a tower?

- You're falling out of a tower,

but it's okay because we're
going to rebuild this tower

together.

- How do I stop falling?

What do I grab onto Anastasia?

What do I grab onto?

- No, you grab onto yourself

because you are the strong one, you see?

- Ah, there was a time in my life

when I was supposed to choose myself,

and it took me a long time.

- I understand you.

You know, when you're
a woman in this life,

sometimes it takes a long time to be like,

"Oh, I got to choose myself sometimes."

You know what I mean?

That's okay.

But you got to choose yourself.

- Okay.

- And let's see what is
this future holding for you.

Oh, well this is a very
handsome looking man.

We don't see his face yet.

We're not sure who he is.

The three of ones.

But it looks he's going on a journey.

- Three of ones.

Hey, maybe it is.

Maybe you've got three ones coming to you.

Maybe this is what's
happening in near future.

It's three men.

Do you think you can handle
three men at the time?

- I don't know, my palms are sweating.

I feel guilty about even handling one man.

Oh, Anastasia, you always give
me so much to think about.

- I think having things to think about

is very important for you.

I think it's okay for you to
not date for a little bit.

It's okay.

But also, we're looking
for these three men.

We're looking for these
dark, handsome three men

who are coming into your life.

Keep your mind open, keep your heart open.

- Okay, my heart is open.

- And keep other things open as well.

You need to keep them open.

- My heart is open to three men.

My heart is open to three men.

- When the bell of the door rings,

and a man walks into the psychic shop.

He is wearing a sort of blue windbreaker,

sweat pants, and socks, and sandals.

He's got a sort of gold chain,

chest hair poking out of the
sort of top of the windbreaker.

Chin strap beard.

You recognize this as Yagdash Scrovich.

- Yagdash.

- It's Yagdash.

It's Yagdash.

You see Yagdash comes in,

looks over at Madam Anastasia and goes,

"hello, Mrs. Lizskia, I have
bag of illegal drug money.

- I say in Polish, "Yagdash,
that what are you doing?

I'm clearly in a reading,
you're saying illegal money.

What are you doing?

- No, but you are cash business,

so we do the money laundering here.

- No, no Yagdash, you know
when the sign is popping,

you don't come hopping,
you know what I mean?

I'm doing a reading.

It's basic crime stuff here, Yagdash.

- Oh wait, you do the
card reading for real?

Because like we own the
pizza place, but it's not...

We don't really make-

- Yagdash, if I don't
do the reading for real,

the cops, they know that
it's a fake business.

- Oh, and the cops arrest you for crimes.

- No, they arrest you for crimes.

- What, you know this?

You read this in the cards?

- If you keep on...

Yes, I read it in the cards Yagdash,

if you don't (speakers cross
talking over each other)

- He pulls a gun out of his bag and money-

- No, if they can't say,
you've got to just be smarter.

- He runs into the
bathroom, locks the door.

And you hear him go, "Nobody
let the cops inside."

You hear bang, and then you hear - BLAM!

- Yeah, I did...

My roof...

This is a rented office space, Yagdash.

If I don't get my deposit
back, this is on you.

Why are you shooting guns inside?

- They are for the cops.

- I am so sorry, this...

- The bullets bounce out the
pipe and hits me in the ass.

- What this boy is doing.

- Is this a former lover of yours?

- I will do another card for you, Sofia.

- That was all Polish, I
don't know what you guys said.

Was that (speaking faintly)

- Let's do another card for you

just to see what about this
future lover, you know?

So let's close your eyes and concentrate,

maybe your ears as well.

Concentrate very hard.

- Okay, I put some airpods in.

- I open the door to the
bathroom and kicked Yagdash out.

- He limps out with just
an ass covered in blood.

And he goes, "Okay, I leave
the drug money still for you.

- Yes, leave the drug money,
go to the hospital you idiot.

What are you doing?

- That's where the cops will
be looking for me first thing.

- No, go to Dr Lou Gash,
what are you doing?

- I go to Dr. Lou Gash, you see.

- I've got to talk to your aunt.

- He takes a burner out
and calls it, he goes,

"Dr. Lou Gash, I did a
crime in the bathroom."

- Not in here, leave.

- Okay.

You see, he walks out
the door, Yagdash leaves.

So Sofia, you conclude your
reading there that afternoon

with Madam Anastasia.

And Madam Anastasia,

or as her real name is
actually Iga Lisowski.

Iga, you know that your
daughter's having a sleepover

with some school friends tonight?

- Mm-hmm.

- This was your last
appointment of the day.

But your daughter is like
hosting a big friends sleep over

for the first time.

It was like a big
middle-school deal tonight.

You see a text on your phone
asking if you can get snacks

from the store.

And then under that,

there's sort of an ellipses,
and then the ellipses again,

and the ellipses again,

like she's thinking of saying
something and not saying it.

- What are these dots?

What are these dots mean?

I text you back.

- She says, "They mean
I'm typing something, mom.

But can I ask you a favor about tonight?"

- Yes.

- She says,

"It would be great if we
could just get regular snacks

from the store, like Oreos
and chips and stuff like that,

and not make a bunch of
Polish snacks for my friends.

- Oh my God, so the Polish snacks are...

that are too good for Polish snacks now?

- Are you seeing-

- My little borscht bites,
you don't like them?

- She texts back and she says,

"I just want my friends
to have a normal time,

to have a norma-"

- Goat's cheese is a normal cheese.

Sheep's cheese is a normal cheese.

But just because your friends,

they only eat this American
cheese, which is bad.

- You see, she texts back and she says...

Just one-word texts in like a stack,

and just say, "Please
just be normal tonight."

- Okay, okay.

I'll get you the Oreos.

I'll get you the trash
food, the trash sugar foods.

- She texts back, "Thank you, mom."

And then there was another
ellipsis for a second.

And then she says,

"Also, can we have borscht bites tomorrow?

I love borscht bites."

- Yes, we can have borscht bites tomorrow.

- You head off to go back to Greenpoint.

We are going to cut now over
to Queens, New York baby.

Massive signs hang,
caution tape all around

the resplendent Queens Center Mall.

One of the only true malls in
New York, Manhattan of course

has so many shopping districts

that a real mall could never
really lived in Manhattan.

But out of here in Queens,

the space and the population
density were just perfect

for the mall to end all malls,

that has been shuttered
and slated for demolition.

All around, we see signs

as part of a huge public relations blitz

for the new largest in the world,

state of the art of Gladiator shipping

and fulfillment canvas.

Gladiator is one of the
largest internet companies

in the world.

It is streaming services.

It is shipment.

It's online shopping.

It is education.

It's all kinds of stuff.

It's an enormous company.

And there's all these signs

of like happy enterprising
professionals and smiling people

talking about the new Gladiator Campus

of shipping and fulfillment centers.

There will be Gladiator
dorms for people to like live

in the company structure, as
part of the structure here.

There's like a whole food
court for the employees

that are gonna be living here.

And there's even a sign
outside saying like,

"Get ready for your neighborhood

to have the brand new Gladiator

shipping and fulfillment center.

Say hi neighbor."

And there's someone holding
a little payment card

that's basically like a
credit card that you can get.

Like it's part of a rewards program

to have people that can
fully move off of cash

and just be using like Gladiator currency.

So you see all of this.

And then it's daytime,

there's construction workers all around.

This is like a long way
away from being built,

but the demolition is
getting set up actively.

Men with hard hats are walking around,

and construction workers
probably across the street

from this, hiding in
the shadow of the awning.

We see...

Murph, who do we see?

- We see Cody who is a...

He's a mall goth without a mall.

He has like Scrillex kind of hair cut

with like long, black
hair on the one side,

and then shaved on the other side.

And then he's got a blue streak

going through his black hair.

Very pales, got some like eye shadow on.

So much leather,

a duster, like a long black duster.

And then I think he hates Halloween

because people always
think he's dressed up

and compliment his costume.

And he has like he's a real sword guy.

He's got like a big replica Buster sword

from Final Fantasy 7 on his back,

and a bunch of other swords around him,

and like NY and things like that.

And ninja throwing stars.

And always has a cigarette in his mouth.

And is just a eternally pissed off.

And was pissed off before
the mall got closed down

and is even more now.

And he's just waiting

for the construction
workers to turn around

so that he can chuck a ninja star

at some of the Gladiator signs

because I fucking hate Gladiator.

- Oh my God.

(players laughing)

- He has the tiniest
cigarettes, it's like...smooshed

- He picks up butts off the
ground, then he relights them.

- Times are lean without the mall.

- You see a group of
the construction workers

kind of turn their back
to you for a moment,

and start moving away.

There's old foreman,

it's kind of like squat-Irish looking guy,

like white hair kind of
foreman, and got a clipboard.

He's going like, "Yeah,
someone take this down

because we got to get...

So, the landscapers are
going to come through here.

They're coming in from 68th down to 63rd.

So this is all going to be campus,

but we got to get that leveled out

cause they got the back hallway

and uproot this tree over here."

And they sort of move
a little way as a way,

giving you an opportunity
to huck a ninja star.

- I huck a ninja star, I try to hit...

You said there was
somebody with a happy face.

I tried to hit him like
right between the eyes.

- You mean a person or a poster?

- Oh, it was a poster.

Definitely not a...

I'm not committing murder.

(speakers cross talking over each other)

- Attacks all these innocent
construction workers.

- Cody's a real defacing property guy.

He's the guy who you'd sneak out at night

with in high school,

but just start like kicking a mail box.

You'd be like, "Dude, stop."

- Cody, you huck a ninja star

straight into the poster's face.

As you do so, you hear the funk.

And you see that the foreman
whips around and says,

"Hey, hey, it's that fucking kid.

Kid, you get the fuck out of here.

Get the fuck out of here buddy."

- I'm not going fucking anywhere, dude.

You get out of here.

- Oh, I get out of here?

Give me one good reason
I shouldn't walk across

this fucking street and kick your ass?

Where's your sword, bro?

- Where's my fucking...

I don't need a fucking sword.

- Where's your sword, I have 12.

- Yeah, I'mma rip that
sword out of your hands

and shove it up your ass

- Yeah, you can try, and I
pull out the Buster's sword.

- Immediately behind you
hear (imitating the siren)

and you see-

- Fuck.

Oh, I'm sorry, is it
illegal to fucking hit paper

with Ninja stars?

Is it fucking illegal?

- You see the cops come out and say,

"Hey man, we clocked that
Buster sword from a while away.

You can't pull it on people.

And you just see the foreman
and across the street goes,

"Yeah, that's the right kid.

You're a long way from
Transylvania, ass hole."

- Yeah, I'm not from fucking Transylvania.

I worked at the Hot Topic that
you're fucking destroying.

So actually, I belong here
and you belong on the internet

cause Gladiators from
the fucking internet.

Fuck you dude, where's the sword?

- Another construction worker goes,

"Hey, where's your...

He goes, "How come you're
out in the daylight, Dracula?

What the is going on, man?

- I'm actually like blade.

I'm a fucking day Walker dude.

Read a comic.

(players laughing)

You get hassled by the cops.

Do you think Cody has...

This is by the way,
Cody "Nightangel" Walsh.

Do we think Cody has a permit

for this replica Buster sword?

- No, absolutely not.

- The cops fully jack this sword.

You said I couldn't have
the fucking blade sword.

This one's different.

- They see, they go, "Look
man, it's really simple.

If you're gonna have a replica weapon,

you either can't have it filed
down to an edge like this,

or it needs to be double-bladed.

Single-bladed weapon in state of New York

is an illegal weapon.

Unless you are transporting it, right?

- Yeah, I'm transporting it
to that Dude's fucking head.

- Okay, so that's...

(speaking faintly)

- So that absolutely is assault.

That's verbal assault.

- This is real assault.

They're taking cars and shit,

and driving it like...

Construction vehicles
and driving it around

my fucking job, man.

I'm just trying to do my job.

- Okay.

Sir, I don't need to
know a thing about you-

- Someone had nunchucks,
is what you're saying.

- Again, if you are transporting them

to a martial arts studio

where you are licensed and
have the insurance for that,

yes, absolutely.

- So, if I signed up for
a fucking TaeKwonDo class,

I can just freak out with these weapons?

Is that what you're telling?

- You can never freak
out with these weapons?

- Not that I would freak out,
I'm fucking very controlled.

- You see that the guy leans in and says,

"Look man, I'm gonna let
you off with a warning

because frankly, I don't
find you threatening.

- So fucking weird.

Dude, I find the devil threatening.

(speaking faintly)

- But they say, "You've
got to get out of here."

And so they send you off packing.

Go ahead and give me either investigation

or give me perception.

- Ooh, baby.

That is a 19.

- 19, hell yes.

You know that there's a way
to get into the hot topic,

just not with this many people around.

There's so much good shit left in there

that didn't get moved back out.

And you know that they're just gonna

raise this place to the ground
and junk all of that shit.

- If anyone touches those
Jack Skellington hoodies,

I'm gonna fucking freak out.

And I just like kick a Halloween
decoration on the side.

- You just kick a full
pumpkin that a coffee shop

had carved for their store.

And you head home.

As Cody marches back,

knowing that you'll be
able to return tonight

to get those things, you know the way in.

We zoom back over to the
third story apartment

of a beautiful family-owned
building in Harlem, New York.

As Kingston Brown awakes
from his beautiful dream

of himself as a younger man,

because guess what baby, Kingston Brown,

for about a year or more now...

Actually, yeah, almost three years

has been having lovely dreams at night,

and remembering them on
waking in the morning.

Kingston, you awake to see

the most beautiful woman in
the world sitting on the bed

with a giant mug of
coffee placed next to you

on the bedside table.

She leans down and gives you a kiss.

Liz is in her apartment uniform,

which is Liz wears very
professional clothes to work.

She's a lawyer.

She works in city buildings
and works with the city.

So the moment she comes
in the door at night,

it is one of your oldest, softest,

most threadbare T-shirts,

and one of your oldest,
most comfortable boxers.

And that is what Liz
wears in the apartment.

That is the apartment uniform.

It is a steady war of attrition
as your old T-shirts move

from your dresser to hers
over the course of weeks.

- That's one of my favorite
T-shirts, all right?

That was the time...

You know, my uncle got that for me

from the Playboy jazz festival.

You just can't wear...

- This was at the bottom
of your shirt drawer.

Tell me, do you actually wear this?

Do you actually wear this shirt?

- Maybe.

No, I don't wear it.

But, you know.

- You see, she leans down,

gives you a kiss on the cheek and says,

"It's comfy, it's nice."

- Okay.

Well, you look good in it.

- You see, she winks at you and says,

"I know I look good in it."

And she walks out.

You wake up, beautiful morning,

that you're off in your living room.

This is a classic old railroad apartment.

You got like old vinyl
playing in the morning.

Liz came back with some of her furniture.

You have a little like

one of those small,
marble top cafe tables,

of the kind that you'd find in Paris.

There's like a little Parisian thing

over by the window near the sunlight.

Liz is sitting there having
her coffee, old school,

like reading a paper, newspaper.

And lying down on the couch, next to you,

is the most stately, comfy,
sleepy, bulldog in the world,

Bruce, who's right there next to you.

- I go give Bruce a good old belly rub.

- There he is.

There he is.

And then like toss a toy across the room

for him to go chase.

- Bruce loves to play fetch,

and he plays it at a glacial speed.

The toy goes, he likes
swivels his head, looks,

gets up, shakes himself a little bit,

moseys on down the couch
to make it to the Ottoman.

From the Ottoman,

to a little sort of like
a nice, folded blanket.

Rolls off the blanket.

Wattles his way over to
the toy, grabs the toy.

Kind of forgets where he came from.

Remembers, goes back up
with the toy to the couch,

and plops it on the arm of
the sofa in front of you.

- You're perfect, you know that?

You're perfect.

And I go join Liz over
in our Parisian table.

- Those beautiful little...

You can tell it was like
one of those like stone

and metal tables that was
made for like an outdoor

Alfresco kind of dining.

But you guys have it
here, beautiful seats.

For like 40 minutes of your morning,

there's an old vinyl of
just some of the best jazz

in the world playing.

You guys drink these huge pots of coffee

that are like this old
reliable coffee maker.

Liz usually puts one...

She like mixes it up a
little bit this morning.

There's like a little
dash of cinnamon in there.

You see, "Life couldn't
be more beautiful."

- It's great.

- Liz looks up at you and goes,

"All right, I better start
thinking about getting the work.

You know, I'm working on this case,

and you know who's
actually helping me out,

who would pull us in evidence from is...

Well, it's your friend, Kugrash's
son, David is actually..."

- Oh yeah,

- He's doing a lot of help.

But looking after this thing,

it's a whole Rico case right now.

After Don Confetti and the whole thing,

like finally, it's been years,

but we have the case
ready to kind of dismantle

that whole pixie organization.

- I feel the whole situation, yeah.

That's good, you know.

I'm sure Kugrash is out there
somewhere watching it all,

and very proud.

- See that she puts her hand
over her heart and says,

"Thank you Kugrash for
watching out from us."

She looks at you and says...

Murph doing hairy baby.

- I feel like I, as a player,
have to roll one of my...

- You see, she looks up at you.

You gotta relax morning ahead of you.

You're not working until later today.

She looks up and says,

"All right, I'mma get ready
to head to work, hun."

She looks and says, "Oh, by the way,

because we're kind of gearing up,

I actually have some
depositions this Friday.

So I'm gonna have to pass
on that Islanders game

I know that you got tickets for.

- Oh, come on.

I mean, it's okay.

It's completely okay.

I was looking forward to it, that's all.

- I know.

We'll go, I promise.

I have to miss the Islanders game

so that we can go walking
by the river on Sunday.

That's sacrosanct,
nothing's gonna touch that.

- Okay, that's what's important.

- She gives you a kiss goodbye.

Kingston's got a spare
Islanders ticket for Friday

that he's got to figure
out what to do with.

- You know, I'm hitting the phone.

Let me text Pete real quick.

Just what's going down Friday?

If you got the time,

I got a spare ticket to go
see New York's best team.

- I write back.

"Oh, the Yankees?"

Cause I'm fucking with you.

- Okay, good.

Kingston gets truly viscerally upset.

- And then I write
laughing a laughing emoji.

- I text back
H-A-H-A-H-A-H-A-H-A-H-A-H-A, send.

Cool, so you're down?

- Yeah, I'm super down.

- Very cool.

Let me know if you want to grab dinner

or something beforehand.

Liz's working long shifts this week.

Will be great to see you.

- I say, "That sounds great.

Let's go to that Pupusa spot."

- Oh, I text back. "I love pupusas.

Cannot wait for pupusas
and the Islanders."

- Yeah, I'll say.

Pete, you're actually...

You're near Kingston right now.

It's like near lunchtime.

If you wanted to grab pupusas now,

if you have a moment before you head out.

- Dare I say? We go grab some right now.

What are you up to now?

- Hungry for pupusas.

(players laughing)

- We get there, we get there.

- Headed downstairs, meet you outside...

Meet you at cosmos.

And I immediately toss on my coat

over my comfortable sweater,

and bound down the stairs
excited for pupusas.

- I quickly finish my
sliders and bound away....

- You bound down the stairs.

You've also probably got...

You gotta take Bruce for a walk

before you had to work yourself.

Kingston, you hit the street.

The music of the city comes to life,

You walk in a synchronized
heartbeat with those around you,

your friends in the neighborhood all say

hello to you as you pass by.

The dogs of the neighborhood
all nod to Bruce

as Bruce passes by.

You get to Cosmos, Cosmos goes,
"Ay, Kingston Brown, man."

- What's up Cosmo?

Can I get a tall black one
just to kick the day off?

- I like it my man, here you go.

Your coffee lands in front
of you on the city's tab.

Cosmo says, "Ay man, I got to say,

thank you again for that
and help with my lease man.

Those renters, they were trying
to rake me over the coals,

I appreciate it."

- Happy to do it.

You know, hey, they gotta make money,

it doesn't need to be at
our suffering, all right?

We can talk this out.

There's always a conversation
to be had, you know?

Don't hesitate.

Do not hesitate to ever
call on me if you need me.

- Absolutely.

Yeah, you got it Kingston, you got it.

You see that Pete joins you here as well.

Pete, you show up,

and there were probably
some mixed emotions here

because it's awesome
to see Kingston again,

but probably you haven't
seen Kingston in a minute.

Kingston has been kind of like with Liz

and like living his own life for himself

for the first time in literally forever.

- I gave him a really big hug
that lasts like pretty long.

- And it's like right in front
of the counter at Cosmo's,

it's like a good hug
that kind of takes over

the entire entryway of the store.

There's just a lot of like quiet,

"How you've been man?

It's good to see, good to see man.

- It's really good to see.

- It's so good to see you, man.

It's been too...

I'm sorry we haven't gotten
this together sooner, all right?

That's on me, all right?

That's on me.

- Nah, don't worry about it.

Really, don't worry about it.

I've been busy, so yeah.

- Yeah, yeah.

Everything's good over at the bookshop?

- Yeah, it's been great.

Yeah, things are...

Honestly, can I be honest with you?

Things are a little slow and
I'm still getting used to that.

It's like I can just go to
bed at like 10:30 at night,

and get a full night's sleep.

And that's not boring, that's normal.

- Yeah.

I mean, you're making a big shift,

big shift from what your life used to be

to what your life is now, all right?

And that takes some adjustment,
that takes some growth.

And growth is always
gonna be uncomfortable

because it's different.

- Yeah, yeah, it's true.

It's so true.

- Anyway, let's talk about
it more over pupusas.

- Let's do it.

- You too have a beautiful
lunch of pupusas.

Each of you guys give me an insight check.

- Ooh.

- 20, but not nat.

- Cool, 25.

- 25.

I think both of you can
kind of see each other here.

Like I think Pete is seeing...

Like Pete ended up moving
out of Kingston's place

because Kingston was...

His life was healing.

He was going to get
back together with Liz.

And I think you see how
truly well Kingston is doing.

I think Kingston,

you clocked a little 60
days sobership on Pete.

And again, Ally, What do
you think Kingston's seeing

on P with a 25 insight check?

- You've probably seeing

that I'm really still
trying to figure it out.

I haven't quite gotten there,

but I'm sure you're getting
that vibe of like...

When people put on their most put together

front for like their parents or something.

So, you're really getting
like the report card

Like school's good, yeah.

Like a version of me.

- Got it.

I don't want to get too personal,

but do you, do you, and
Rowan, like, you know, like

you know, do do it.

I don't want to ask.

I'm not trying to get all up
in your business, you know?

- No, I...

Yeah, you know...

Oh, God, it was so stupid.

I was just having like a pretty hard time.

And I'm just so used to meeting
up with people not sober,

you know?

I pre-gamed it a little
bit too hard and yeah,

I think I just really
like embarrassed myself

in front of her.

Pretty much, I got there.

I met some of her really
cool theater friends.

And then I barfed in what I
thought was a potted plant,

but was her lap.

And then I started crying and she kinda...

I don't really know what
happened after that,

but I woke up at her house
and she didn't talk to me,

and I just kinda like left.

- Cool, yeah.

That sounds really bad, just like rough.

- Yeah.

I had like a little thin
blanket put over me,

so that was really nice of
her to like maybe tuck me in.

But yeah...

- But you always know,

if somebody's putting a
thin blanket over you,

it's because you did a bad thing.

- It's a sign, yeah.

There were thicker blankets
that she could have used.

- Exactly.

She could've given you a thicker blanket

if it was in a positive light,

but she wanted you to feel a
little bit of that coldness.

I hear that, that's rough.

I'm - ey, I've gotten a thin
blanket before, all right?

It happens to the best of us.

- Yeah.

I mean, I get it.

It was just a lot.

And that's part of the journey

is realizing when you're a lot.

And not everybody wants
to take care of you,

especially if you just met,

even if they are like really hot.

She was so hot.

- Well, hey man, you know, I'm sorry.

I've been busy,

got the Liz and Bruce
and just moving in and-

- That sounds so great, man.

How's it been?

Has it been like?

- Incredible.

I don't know, man.

It's been weird, I'm having
my own confusing feelings

about not being in the
streets with you guys anymore

and not being out all hours of the night.

But things are good.

We like watch shows on Gladiator prime

and just kind of hang out,

- Cool.

- Like I was just sitting
at this little table we got,

and the light was shining in,
and she just looked perfect.

It was just like this moment
where I was looking at her

and I was just like,

"I don't want anything else.

I want not right now."

And I don't know, that's
new, it's different.

- You deserve it, man.

You really do.

- Yeah, well, and you're
gonna get it, all right?

And you let me know if there
is anything I could do to help.

I don't know many...

I don't know if I can wing man you,

I don't know if that's my vibe, but I try.

I mean, I don't know if
you want a 58 year old man,

hitting the clubs with you,

but you know, we can figure something out.

- Hey, I'm gonna hold you to that.

I'm gonna bring you into a club.

(players laughing)

- I mean, hey, you all ready
made me get this tattoo.

So, you know.

- Why don't we show off our tattoos?

- Yeah, I full on like take
my shirt up in the back.

This thing hurt like a mother, all right?

You know, didn't tell me that.

You didn't tell me how
much it was gonna hurt.

I'm still mad about that.

I'm creased

- Hey, I'm sorry.

- Kingston and Pete have
finished your wonderful pupusas.

Kingston, you're gonna head
back to drop Bruce off at home

and get ready for an evening of work.

Pete, you begin to head off,

excited to see Kingston for
the first time in a long time.

As you head out on the subway...

No, sorry, not even the subway.

You grabbed the bus
going down 125th street

across the Triborough, that'll
take your right to Astoria.

You're like looking around at your phone.

The last text you got from Rowan

was like a long, long time ago.

She has kind of checked
out of the Unsleeping City.

She's mostly in Fairy now.

Like she is a very different incarnation

of the same being that Misty was,

and has been like,

"You haven't left the fairy
court that she created

in a long, long time."

And the fairy court is kind of thriving.

It seems like she's thriving.

And let me ask you a question here.

Would Pete still follow Priya
on any social media channels?

(players gasping in shock)

- Yeah, definitely.

The saddest nod.

- You've been doing really well

about not visiting her pages.

So the algorithm has died down

and has not shown you any
of her stuff in a while.

Her hand, super imposed over
a beautiful white sand beach.

A diamond ring around her finger,

and an enormous, muscular
hand warmly grasping hers

lights at the top of your Instagram feed.

- I immediately see if
anything's tagged or who-

- The giant fucking hand is tagged.

- Is this a joke?

Was she on Game Changer?

- Game Changer, only on Dropout?

- No, no.

I go to the profile of
most muscular hand person.

- The dude waiting for you
on the other end of that link

is a guy who is a Woodland
survival influencer.

So he's got like an Instagram around

living off of the land sustainably,

but seems to be at a lot of like openings

and premiers for stuff.

It's like a lot of brands
associated with it.

He is this huge, like a little...

Like as broad shouldered and muscular

as like superhero actors,
but still being very lean.

All of his flannel shirts are fitted.

He's got this like cow catcher chin

with like a perfectly manicured stubble.

He seems to make his living
off of like wilderness brands

on his social media.

He's got a tremendous amount
of followers, verified.

- Can I do some sort of roll

to look through old tagged photos

and see if he is cis?

- Give me an investigation check.

- Yeah, that's huge.

23.

- 23, you look through and see

one of the rare moments
in his early Instagram

where he went off brand,

there is a childhood photo of him,

which is the best you're gonna get.

But it appears that at
an early birthday party,

like missing teeth, little kid photo,

that you see happy birthday, Calvin,

which is the name he's
still going by today,

up on a banner behind him.

- I throw my phone on the bus.

(players laughing)

Interesting, sorry.

My hands are so sweaty.

I'm so sorry, that slipped.

- To continue these rolls.

And again, you're over Priya.

But there's just...

This is some kind of some kind of-

- Fucking course, yeah.

huh?

- You see that his most recent posts,

other than a reshare
of the post being like,

"Priya Danger is the most beautiful woman

I've ever seen in my life."

The post right before that is him...

It's like a branded thing
where he's out on a felled log

holding this drink called Cipher,

which is Gladiator's branded,
flavorless nutrition beverage.

And him being like all
the nutrients you need

with none of the hassle, you know?

- Oh my God.

I think they deserve each other.

I think I'm trying my best to think like,

"Good luck, you two."

But there is a part of
me that's hurt by this.

- If you have not already,
this is one of Pete's triggers.

Go ahead and roll that D4.

And again for everyone at home.

Two, okay, great.

Good, good, good.

For everyone at home,

we'll put up the sobriety rule somewhere.

That really dangerous roll
is to roll a one on a D4

in terms of your sobriety

because there are no
other dice to go down to

to maintain your sobriety.

- Yeah, and this is just...

I'm able to work and bump myself up dice

and invest in that, yeah.

- But Pete's not in a
great place right now.

- No, he's not.

No, he's not Brennan.

- Kingston, as you walk away
from this meeting by the way,

you're heading back to go to
your spot, everything's good.

And you're stopped short for a moment.

There was a huge electronics
spot on 125th street.

And a buddy of yours
ran his electric shop.

It's a fucking ghost town, it's empty.

It's boarded up.

You look at it, this dude, Reggie,

you you've known for
like 30 some odd years,

like a long...

Like before you were in Vox
populi, you knew this dude.

Plaster, spackle, painter's
tape up and it's just empty.

It's just an empty store.

It doesn't even have
a for sale sign on it,

it's just empty.

- Is it open, or is there like the ability

to like see inside?

- You can see inside,

it looks like they've
had painters in here,

But you like go to open the
door and the door can't open.

I mean, it's locked.

It's not that unusual that
there'd be a locked door.

But it seemed like it
happened fucking overnight,

this place is good.

- I text Reggie and just,

"Hey, walked past the shop,
seems like rough business.

Please let me know if there's
anything I can do to help."

- You get a text back
from Reggie that says...

You get a text back from
him real quick that says,

"What if anything stays?"

- Just that?

- Just that.

you were mistaken.

you saw something that, for a moment,

There's an ellipsis, he says,
"Hey man," he goes,

"All's well, got a huge offer
to buy me out of the building.

A lot of money.

They're going to put a new...

Some phone company, some
kind of front up there.

Not sure exactly what.

but he says, "Sorry for the
neighborhood shop to go.

probably up in Westchester somewhere.

Sorry to not say goodbye
before I headed out from the

neighborhood.

- Sorry to see you go.

Don't spend it all in one
place, laugh out loud.

- Written out fully capital
L, capital O, capital L

- Yeah, and Kingston walks back

to drop Bruce back off at the apartment.

Pete arrives in Astoria.

at the spot You're looking at.

The spot you found here is a
very small room in a house,

in a story.

You'd actually be staying
in a house out here.

It's an upstairs room, it's like an attic.

You found it for a $750 a month.

- Wow, amazing.

- So, you arrive at the
house to take a look at it.

House opens up.

This young, skinny looking dude,
Arab-American guy, glasses,

kind of a little poof of hair on top.

Wearing pastel blue T-shirt, goes up.

He goes, "Hey, how's it going, Pete right?

- Yeah, hey, what's up?

- Hey Nasir, nice to meet you, man.

Come on in and take a look at the spot.

I'm going to give you...

Not every roommate is home right now

but I can show you your spot
and kind of where we're at.

Thanks for coming out, man.

Were you would complete the puzzle here.

- Hey yeah, good to hear.

I'm really looking for a spot.

This place is really nice, a house.

- It's not bad.

I mean, yeah.

I mean, when it like when it snows,

it's like more than a 20
minute walk to the subway

or the nearest bus.

But, hey, you know walking's
good for your legs.

So check it out.

he introduces you to a
couple other roommates.

You got a sense that Nassir
is like the guy on the lease.

He says, this is my work station
out here, which is sort of,

but it's just because
that's where it it's helpful

for internet speed.

And also, just like my
room is kind of small.

I pay...

- What do you do?

- I'm a web designer,

so I work from home.

Here, I'm like working here
in the living room a lot,

but I do pay more.

- Okay, cool.

- Check it out, we got
a couple other people.

You see in the living room,
there's just like a curtain.

This young dude, Josh Mendoza walks out.

He looks over at you and
goes like, "Oh, hey man?

Are you coming and looking
out for the attic room?

- Yeah.

- Hell yeah.

I'm Josh, nice to meet you, man.

- Good to meet you too.

- He looks over and says,

"Have you introduced him?"

Nassir goes, "So there's
a couple that lives here

in one of the other rooms.

They do again, pay more than
just their room would be.

Their names are Laurs and Britah.

They have have a lot of guests over.

- Like they're just really like,
they have a lot of friends?

- They don't really have parties.

They sort of bring a lot of
guests back to their room.

So that's kind of something
that's going on here.

- Ooh, oh, yeah.

- Hell yeah.

There's one other-

Yeah, for sure.

- Like sex, right?

- See, they look at each other.

And Josh looks at you and is like,

"Yeah, it's sex."

They do have a lot of sex in there.

- I'm working on being
straight forward in my life.

So yeah, cool.

- Yassid Nassir looks at you and says,

"Yeah, but they're chill.

There's one other dude that lives here

that actually lives in sort of
the cutoff part with Josh..."

And Josh goes, "He's super
rad and super friendly.

He's like my best friend."

The door opens, Murph
your character walks in.

- Fuck.

And punched a wall.

They took my Buster sword.

- I'm sorry man, who's they?

- The cops, freaking
Gladiators taken over the mall.

You heard the mall closed down, right?

- No, there was a mall?

- I'm going to my room.

Just take off that way.

- Wait, sorry.

No, I just don't do a lot of shopping!

I do a lot of used.

I like to hunt the bins.

- I think you see that
Josh leans over and says,

"Yeah, the mall got shut
down, and that - that's Cody.

I worked at the PacSun

and Cody worked over at the Hot Topic,

and we both kind of landed up here.

So we kind of split...

We're actually planning on
getting some plywood in here

and kind of actually partitioning

this chunk of the living room off.

- And we're going to hang like...

We've got like a Soul Edge.

Have you ever played
the game Soul Calibur?

- Yeah, yeah, actually.

- Yeah.

So we're just going to put that
like right front and center.

- Just like a poster or?

No, like a sword dude.

- Oh, for sure, yeah.

You're big sword guy.

- Are you interviewing, are
you like here for the room or?

- Yeah, I'm Pete, what's up?

- What's up?

Night Angel.

Listen, how do you feel about...

Because this is a point of contention

and I could use somebody on my side.

How do you feel about mounted
size in shared living spaces?

- You see Nassir actually says,

"Actually, we don't need
to ask Pete about that

because that actually, it has
already been a house vote."

- But there would be a
new one if Pete moved in,

would there not be?

- Right.

- Cause Josh is on my side.

- Okay, yes.

I know that Josh...

You see Josh goes, "Always
dude, mall for life."

You see that, Nassir goes cool.

So we're not gonna do that pretty much.

- This is what it's like to live here.

- Honestly, I welcome the energy.

This is fun.

- Hey man, Pete, actually,

I'm gonna head out with you in one sec.

Seen us here gets really
close to you, Cody.

It's like, "For real dude,
I'm just gonna say it again,

you cannot smoke in here.

If you want to go into your room

where you pay rent and you
want to smoke in there...

And I still actually sort of demand

because I am on the lease, so
you need to open the window

to be able to do that."

- Cool, we're gonna have a house phone

cause there's actually no working out

in the shared living spaces either.

So you can go in your room

if you want to like do
your job or whatever

cause I'm just trying to do it.

- Listen, I pay more for
the shared workspace.

So, Pete, you see this kind of unfold.

- I'm trying really hard to not laugh

and just be like really invested like,

"Whoa, this is yeah, important convo."

(players laughing)

- So Pete, but yeah, you do see the spot.

The attic room's not bad.

It'll be hot, it would be hot
as hell during the summer.

But it's October right now,

and it's kind of not a bad place

to crash for a little while.

And it's a sublet, so it's
totally month to month.

Like it's an illegal sublet.

So you're-

- Speaking my language.

- Cool.

You and to see you and Nassir
work that stuff back out.

Cody, you head off to the mall that night.

And go ahead and give me a stealth check,

if you'd be so kind.

- Cody's not that stealthy, let's see

- You brought an even bigger sword?

- Yeah...

- Oh actually my stealth is okay.

Uh, 23.

- Wow.

- The real running, jumping
between each building.

- Parkour, parkour, parkour.

- You fucking night angel
your way into the empty mall.

You are back.

The tiles were once taco bell was consumed

and happy, happy shoppers moved to and fro

all of their favorite stores

brought into one central location.

You see the Hot Topic before you.

- I take my sword from
my back, I put it down

and I take a knee.

I put it back on and I enter
the Hot Topic.

- You still have your manager
key from your many years

of managing this Hot Topic.

You open the gate, push
it up, move through,

there still so many treasures
in here worth saving.

Hopefully tonight, you can
get like a couple loads done.

But what do you go to grab first?

- You gotta go breaking
Benjamin, pod posters,

all the pro wrestling T-shirts,

adventure time sort of hats and whatnot.

Studded belts.

- Under the studded belts,
and some of the wrestling Ts.

(players laughing)

- This is from a very...

Cody is from a very particular time.

I don't think Hot Topic
has most of these things

that he wants.

- The Adventure time hats sold me.

- You are scrounging around underneath

some of the wrestling tees.

You grab something, it
looks like a giant knob.

One of your giant like novelty, wallets.

It's like this crazy infernal
kind of devil looking book.

Do you guys sell some of these

that like have secret compartments

where you're hold a whiskey
flask or something like that?

As you flip through this,
it's just a straight up book.

It also doesn't smell rad.

It doesn't smell like Axe,

or some of these would be like,

kind of like cologne or whatever.

It smells like nasty, rotten, old meat.

It is a bad smelling book.

But the production quality
of it is incredible.

It's like some of the pages
are stitched into the binding

with leather cords and shit.

There's like nasty ass
old runes and stuff.

- I think Cody is just
looking for rad stuff.

Just as soon as he sees the...

He skips over all of the words.

When he sees the ruins, he's like,

"Fucking hell yeah, dude."

And just like looks for the weirdest,

most occult stuff in it.

- You think it's evil dead merch?

- Yeah.

- You find some occult stuff.

Also give me a perception
check with disadvantage.

- I have a minus one
wisdom (speaking faintly)

That is a nat one.

- It comes to zero.

- I'm gonna tell you all the things

that Cody doesn't notice.

Cody doesn't notice the moats of red light

that bubble up from the ground
where this book was laying,

nor does he notice the strange pentagram

that kind of unseals,
almost as if an orifice

of some other hidden world,

had just finished belching this book

out into the bottom of this Hot Topic.

Cody doesn't notice any of this.

You just notice the page

that finally has like
high Gothic script Latin

that you actually think
you'd be able to read.

- Hell yeah, I read it.

- As you read it out loud
to sound out the Latin,

the book erupts in flame,

as a pentagram surrounds you.

The books slams to the
ground and a column of fire

belches out from it.

As it does, you see
the fire is flickering.

And you see momentary beads
of neon light cutting into it

and see movements of light
coming alone these pathways,

almost like cars traveling on highways.

And the motors are like fucking
with the infernal flame.

It's almost like these
like highways made of light

constrict and bind.

And you see something crawling
up out of the flame going,

(growling)

Who dares summon me?

Give me a fucking hand.

Give me a hand.

- I think Cody is like
looking like just...

Cause they have a lot of rad shit.

So he just assumes this
is some kind of crazy

smoke machine thing.

So he's just like looking
at how the book works.

He's like, "This fucking
rules, what the fuck?

My name is Night Angel.

- You grab a hand.

You rip this
being out of the flame

and those highways of light,
sort of runic highways vanish.

The fire disapates,

and a four and a half foot
tall devil appears before you

standing on the book,

I will try to describe this as best I can.

Four and a half feet tall is a horned...

The head of a Marmot.

So a like Marmot headed hamster
or Guinea piggy kind of face

with curling Ram's horns,
about the size of a human head

on an extremely weak,
humanoid, hairless torso

with long clawed hands.

But then at the waist of the torso,

it is a full four legged capybara
body with a long rat tail.

So it's kind of like a centaur
rat tail with Marmet head.

And then a pair of vestigial
wings on its torso's back.

And you see that this devil goes,

"Ah, holy fucking shit
dude, what the fuck?

- Dude, what the fuck?

- What the fuck?

Where am I?

- Are you - you're in...

You're home.

It's where darkness is
boring, this is Hot Topic.

Are you Lucifer?

Cause I've been fucking
waiting for you my whole life.

You see, this devil looks at you and says,

(players laughing)

(speaking faintly)

- I am Lucifer because
I've been waiting for you.

(players laughing)

- You see that the devil goes,

"Ah, okay, yeah.

I'm Lucifer, I'm the real devil.

- I mean, yeah.

- Okay, so this is the real world.

You're a human mortal, I'm the devil.

I'm not asking you these
questions, I'm saying this.

This is all true.

Okay, holy shit! .

Ah, the mortal world.

Okay, what...?

Oh, mortal, answer this
riddle, what city are we in?

- City of sin.

- Las Vegas?

- No, the other city of sin.

It's fucked up here.

- Oh, we're new please.

- Let me work for you, please.

- You wanna work for me?

- Please, let me work for you.

Lucifer, please.

We need to kill Gladiator
and save them all,

and I will sell my soul just in a second.

- Holy shit.

You just broached that topic.

I didn't have to like set anything up.

- Do I need to give blood or?

- Yeah, blood's great.

Yeah, shit.

Okay, hold on.

Do you know something we can-

- I just like Andrew W. K.
it, and I just start like

grab a brick or something.

Fuck.

Fuck.

- No dude, no.

Shut up, stop.

No, listen.

Do you have something to write on,

something blank that we can write on?

- Yeah, I found this weird fucking book

that you came out of that I can-

- Not that, not the book.

How about this?

You see, he goes and grabs
a WWE poster and unfurls it

- Whoa!

Oh wait, okay.

It's Roman Reigns, it's fine.

(players laughing)

- Just on the back of a
Roman Reigns poster, he goes,

"Okay, in exchange for working...

For the privilege of working for me,

you will sell me your soul, full deal."

- Well, you need to give me
like powers and shit, man.

Like you have to like fucking kill...

We have to get rid of...
- Yes, powers, powers, powers.

- We have to get them all back.

- I will give you powers,
great, great, great.

You see, he says, "Hold out your hand."

- Okay, I have to be able to
like freak out and be strong.

- You got it, pinprick of blood.

You're good.

I just give my hand.

- You see, pricks your finger and says,

"All right, now put it
on the dotted line."

It's just like some Sharpie dots

that he just put on
the back of his poster.

He keep using his hooves
to keep it from rolling up.

- All right Lucifer,
I sell my soul to you.

Right, at first, I write Night Angel.

And then I realized that
it might be binding,

and then I didn't get the Cody.

- You do it.

You see, he goes, "Great.

I'm gonna sign my name as Bazathrax.

Don't worry about that."

And then you see, signs
Bazathrax on the line.

He goes BLAH!, turns into fire.

He goes, "Holy shit, I can feel it.

The infernal realms can't reach here.

There's some kind of hex
preventing them from...

Cody, sorry, Night Angel,

we could do a lot of good work here, man.

It's wide open field, baby.

There's no one else doing what we're doing

in town right now.

- Let's bring the flames
of hell to raise Gladiator,

and from the ashes, the mall will grow.

- Hell yes.

Great, good job.

I'll always know where you are.

Just say my name.

- So Lucifer are we...

So now that we're working together,

are we just gonna get like a
bunch of your fallen angels

and we're just gonna go like kick

those construction guys asses or what?

- Cool.

So, what I'm gonna do to them,

I'm gonna run a little bit of recon,

and I'm gonna get back to you
about all these plans, okay?

Well, you should do right now-

- You are Lucifer, right?

- 100% dude, 100%

Would never lie to you about that.

I am the person you mentioned.

Like you know how you go
by Night Angel, right?

- Yeah.

- So, that's like a code name, right?

So Lucifer is a very powerful name.

And so, we're gonna go by my code name,

which is Bazathrax, okay?

It's a secret name only
you and me know about.

- Bazathrax, I got it.

- Okay, great.

You go home.

I'm gonna do I'm assume snooping,

but when you got all kinds of powers now,

don't even worry about it, okay?

- All right, Bazathrax.

- You feel filled with infernal mite.

And Pete, you signed on that apartment.

You're free to move in whenever you want.

You can-

- I Venmo move immediately.

- Cool, you Venmo immediately.

You roll in with like an
air mattress that night.

And you see Cody come home,

and your Vox Phantasma shit goes wild.

That guy wasn't part of the
Unsleeping City when he left,

and has come back part of it now.

- Can I summon my lime green butterfly?

- Yes.

Butterfly appears.

- Hey, what's up man?

- Oh, Hey, what's up?

So you moved in?

- Yeah.

- Do you work...

Cody looks in both directions.

Do you work for Lucifer too?

- Do you work for Lucifer?

- You're doing cool shit.

Do you work for hell?

- So can I do some sort of check

to see what the the fuck is going on?

- Give me an insight check.

- All right, 19.

- This dude has sold his
soul in the last 45 minutes.

(players laughing)

- Hey man, what just happened to you?

Are you okay?

- I'm better than I've ever been.

Listen, we should go up to the attic

because technically I wasn't
supposed to ever say Lucifer

to anybody, and I said it
to the first person I saw.

(players laughing)

And the walls are thin here,

and (speakers cross
talking over each other)

- Yeah, come on up, come on up, we go up.

- You guys had upstairs.

Iga, what's Iga doing at home
as your daughter Jessica?

You see that your husband
Oskar comes in and goes,

"Okay, the girls, they're downstairs,

and Dina, they are watching
a movie, having a good time.

- Okay, you don't think
I should go down there?

- It's just, you can if you want.

Actually, I might to go see about...

See why the pizzas are not here yet.

They asked for some blankets
and stuff like that maybe.

Do we have some up in the upstairs, maybe?

- Yeah, no.

Yeah, absolutely, we got blankets.

They didn't bring their
own blankets though?

What's their parents doing?

Isn't that what you do when
you go to the sleep over,

you go to somebody else's
house, you bring your blankets?

I'll get them blankets.

- Sarah only brought the
sleeping bag, is not as fun.

She cannot make a tent.

- Okay, okay, they're making tents.

- You head upstairs to your bedroom.

What does Iga's and Oskar's
apartment look like?

- There's a lot of wood.

It looked like it was decorated
really nice in like 1979.

So there's like a lot
of like floral carpets,

and like everything is
really well kept, but old.

A lot of mismatched prints.

The bed has like handmade quilts on it.

Like it's a lot of sturdy
furniture that's built to last.

- Hell yes.

You go up, grab some blankets.

You pick them up off of
a very old wooden chest

in the corner of your room.

As you pick them up,

you see the chest almost has like lichen

or moss growing on it,
ancient rusted metal.

The chest is carved with thick trees,

and a heavy latch on the front.

So it sits in the corner of your bedroom.

You bring the blankets
and stuff downstairs.

You see, Sarah says,
"Thanks Mrs. Lisowski."

You hear Dana, another
friend of one of the girls

over in the corner whisper over and go.

"Let me ask, yes, Mrs. Lisowski,
what is a borscht bite?"

And you see Jessica looks over and goes,

"Guys, no."

- A borscht bites, it's delicious.

You take a little round of sheep's cheese,

and then the pickled beets,
you chop them very, very small.

And then you roll the sheep's cheese

in the pickle beets...

- You see another girl
goes "Sheep's cheese?"

- It's delicious.

It's very good.

It's the traditional.

- You see, Jessica says, "Thanks, mom.

Thank you."

- Enjoy your high sugar treats.

I'm not interrupting.

I'm not interrupting.

- You get back upstairs.

The chest is askew.

- Spirits, what are you doing?

Are you messing around my bedroom?

- So unfazed.

- You see the wooden trees
carved into the chest

sway in the wind.

- Oh boy.

Oh boy, okay.

Misiek.

- Crawling out from behind the bed

is what to the the world
looks like a Chihuahua,

but is actually an
incredibly tiny, very old,

Oh, so sick little dragon.

Misiek flies up onto your shoulder.

- How are you doing my little Misiek?

Ah, so good.

I give him like a tiny little...

I have like a little strip
of jerky that I give him.

Misiek, what is with this box?

You've seen this box
before doing this thing?

- You see that Misiek
looks down, the trees sway.

Misiek raises his back up into
an arch and leap to the bed

and starts whining at you.

- Oh, I pick up Misiek.

- But he scrambles away
and goes under your pillow,

and is whining for you
to like come to him.

- Okay, I do that.

- As you approach,

you see that the chest
collapses and shrinks in size

with a violent jerk and re-expands.

You see that it warps,

and you are seeing the space
of the room warp around you.

Distances between the walls

and the corners of the room are shifting.

- Hello?

- The trees begin to fade,

almost like something is trying
to make the chest smooth.

And you see the box snaps
back out and roots and leaves

slam out from the chest,
into your walls and floor.

And the chest starts thudding
violently into the floor

and ceiling.

Light starts to emit, thick
green light emitting out

from the seam of the chest.

- Okay, can I try and like settle it down?

- You can leap on it and
try to rodeo this bad guy.

- Yeah, I'll try and do that.

- You leap on it.

You hear from downstairs like,

"Mom, we're trying to watch a movie."

- It's okay, don't worry about it.

It's the neighbors.

- You hear it from next door,

"Liar, it is not the neighbors.

You are the one doing it.

- It is you, you are running
with shoes inside again.

We talked about this.

- You hear something from
inside the chest going

(Brennan makes horrifying noises)

Looks like something's trying
to wrench the chest open.

The light turns to dark green,
purple, gold, Indigo, violet,

spill out from the chest.

Momentarily, the light becomes gray.

As it flickers, you hear the buzzing

and zapping of fluorescent lights

The chest slams down.

You hear cracking coming
from inside the chest,

and you see the magic
of the chest flickering.

A chest that has belonged to your family

for more generations than you can count.

- Okay, well, this is new.

This is a new thing.

It's a new thing.

What do we do?

Can I do like an arcana check?

- Give me an arcana check.

- Ooh, a nat 20.

- Holy shit.

There ya go.

- Iga, you are a resilient woman.

You are tied to the earth.

You, like someone wrestling
a rodeo steer to the ground,

wrestle this chest to the ground,

and to grow some roots of your own

as you slam it down.

You slam it shut, close it.

The light seals.

You can feel that whatever
was trying to break inside,

hasn't broken.

Something was coming for it,

but it didn't get to it.

As you step away from the chest

that has been covered
in trees for centuries,

you look and see, at corners,
at the edge of the forest

are ancient Polish
woodcarvings of skyscrapers

set into the wood of the chest.

- Now what are these buildings doing here?

No, okay.

See, I don't like it when they look new,

but they look like they've been
there for hundreds of years.

This is not a good sign for me, okay.

Blah.

Misiek.

What is it?

- Misiek flies over,
looks at the buildings.

And you see on top of
one of the buildings,

is a woman very familiar to you,

and another man that
you maybe have not seen.

You do not recognize Ricky
Matsui on top of that skyscraper,

but you do recognize Sofia Lee.

And that's all for this episode.

- What?

- We're not even gonna
get to the battle gang.

We'll pick that up next time.

That is where we are going to leave off

for this first episode of "The
Unsleeping City" season two.

Hell yeah.