All language subtitles for Candela.Obscura.S03E01.1080p.BEAC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-FFG_track3_[und]

♪ (tense mysterious music) ♪

TALIESIN: What keeps
the children of Hale

safe from their curiosity?

Nursery rhymes serve
as cautionary tales

to explain Candela Obscura's
earliest adversaries.

So when a creature
of legend returns

to the hollowed labyrinth
of Grayslate,

a new and unusual circle of
investigators is formed,

tasked to face
an unholy corruption.

As the
unsuspecting Newfairens

bear witness to
this macabre phenomena,

each investigator
must steel their mind,

perhaps even from themselves.

The Circle of Tide and Bone.

Assignment #31-58:
The Antiquarian.

♪ (tense mysterious music) ♪

AABRIA: A thickly built
middle-aged man

with sun freckled skin
shuffles silently

through the moonlit corridors

of a facility built to
brutal scale and proportion.

He's a study of white in
pristine cotton pajamas

of a patient of the
Grayslate Sanatorium,

matching his prematurely
white hair.

Silva Sarkis, at one
time the pride of

the Office of
Unexplained Phenomena,

swallows his fear,

and remembers himself
and his training

through the haze of his mind
now that he's gone gray.

There's a mystery here

and he seems to be
the only one

out of the shambling masses,

out of the administrators
that turn a blind eye

up to the challenge
of solving it.

There's a sound as he moves.

Shuffling,
the shifting of fabric,

something rhythmic that
breaks through the silence

of this terrible place.

Following as fast
as he dares,

he reaches a dull gray
wooden door, slightly ajar.

Inside he sees a nun.

He knows her name
to be Sister Iovar

and she seems to be
slowly lowering herself

across the lap of
Director Greenvale.

Director Greenvale's
eyes are rolled back

in ecstasy and expectation.

Then this moment that blushes
this older man's cheeks

is snapped out of reverie as
a hand bashes into the window

and they both turn and look.

Silva, squinting, sees
in the moonlight

a face he recognizes.

Another patient that's dropped
off the face of the map.

Every time he inquired,
"Where did he go?

"No one gets
checked out here,"

he was met with a shrug or
a casual brushing aside.

But this man beats
on the window

with fingers worked down to
bloody shreds, caked in mud,

and turns and sprints across
the lawn to a clearing.

That startle is
just enough time

for Silva to get
out of the way.

He hides in an alcove

as both the nun and
the director get up

and run through the
corridors and outside.

Silva doesn't trust that
he can remain unseen.

He can't follow as fast.
There's nowhere to hide.

There's no escaping the
sanatorium, except--

He's torn.

He doesn't know
if he should go

and find and follow
and understand,

or if he should take
this chance and leave.

No one gets to
leave Grayslate.

He's been sent here,

like so many Periphery
officers before him

who have seen too much,
who have experienced too much.

Things that can't
put words to.

He's been locked away forever,
but this is his chance.

Maybe he can't
solve the mystery

of what took this patient
and several others away,

but there is
no other chance for him

to make his way to freedom.

So not knowing anything
but the hunch in his gut

fueled by the haze
and the bleed

and the stacked trauma of
all the things he's seen,

he turns and flees and
somehow he makes it out.

He makes his way
to the only people

that he could trust
with his information.

Not the Periphery,

not any of the administrators
of the Triumvirate.

He wanders the streets of the
Sidle until he finds someone

with a small diamond pin
from Candela Obscura

and hopes that he will
finally be believed.

(sighs) Welcome to Newfaire.

It's a mild day
in late spring,

though every year seems
to recover from the chill

of the previous winter with
less and less enthusiasm.

There's banners of
green and copper

decorating the finer
parts of the city

as it celebrates
the 15th anniversary

of the end of the
Last Great War.

The city is buzzy
and alive

as the electricity
flows through it,

as the energy of a world
moving back to life

flows through it.

Citizens appear in
generally good spirits,

if such a thing can be said

to be known through the
slightly dirty dingy window

of a quirky little
occult bookshop

tucked away in a quiet
street in the Sidle.

The westernmost district
in the city of Newfaire

sprawling out
towards Westwreck

as middle class comforts
drive growth.

With tome laden walls,

The Antiquarian, we find
Lightkeeper Nokari,

a tall dark-skinned person,
bald, clean shaven

with broad smooth features

perpetually dressed
in the same

shiny gray sharkskin material

cut into suits of
the style of the time.

Whispering fervently

in soft but tense conversation
with one Cosmo Grimm,

the owner of this place:

A chapter house of
Candela Obscura.

Liam, would you like to
introduce yourself, please?

LIAM: (elderly)
Yes, of course.

AABRIA: Tell us what
we're looking at.

LIAM: Well, welcome to
The Antiquarian,

my bookshop that houses
many fascinating tomes

on the history of the
region and occult subjects.

My name is Cosmo Grimm.

I'm 97 years old this year.

I'm a thin, wiry old gentleman
wearing a jacket of tweed

that is a little large for me

and bow tie that is
definitely too large.

I roll about the shop
in a brass wheelchair.

Spend any amount
of time with me

and you'll notice a
small electrical engine

attached to the back.

But for the most part, I
wheel myself about with ease.

This is my shop.

I have been a part
of Candela Obscura

for many, many decades.

I've passed on offers to
retire to Lightkeeper status.

I enjoy the field,
I enjoy the hunt,

I enjoy my own
personal studies,

and I enjoy my shop.

AABRIA: As your conversation
gets a little more pitched,

I don't think it's until
Nokari notices Eloise,

another retired
member of Candela,

who instead of becoming
a Lightkeeper

decided to have an easier
life tending your shop

and generally staying
out of your way.

She passes by a door
and they look over

and go, "Understood."

Nokari pulls up a chair

and takes a seat across
from you, still leaning in,

still as keyed up as
they they were before.

"Cosmo?"
LIAM: Yes?

AABRIA: "I-I've pushed
this off as long as I could,

"but this is it.

"This is your last chance.
You have to retire.

"You are a one-man repository
of so much information,

"so much research.

"You are wasted in
the field, and--"

He looks down at your
legs and your chair

and you can see him
trying to figure out

how best to broach the subject
of your decreased mobility.

LIAM: Nokari, Candela has
many capable Lightkeepers.

Surely you are staffed
to the gills.

AABRIA: "There is no one
here who has been around

"as long as you, and
I know you know that."

LIAM: Better served in
the field. I don't mind.

I'm spry. You know
that as well.

AABRIA: "Your ability
to have avoided harm

"for this many decades
notwithstanding,"

"you are too powerful
an asset to lose.

"I have pulled my last
string on your behalf.

"So, you gave me
some names weeks ago

"the last time we
had this fight.

"It seems as though

"a new circle must be
brought into being.

"I need you to understand.

"You've been searching
for something for so long

"and I don't presume
to know what it is,

"or I can't speak to how
council members speak of you

"behind closed doors.

"But this has to be it."

LIAM: Cosmo looks--

We're sitting in Cosmo's study
in the rear of the shop,

and Cosmo looks
over his shoulder.

There's a desk to
the rear of the room

and an oil painting on
the wall of a ship,

tossed at sea in a storm.

He gazes there a moment
before turning back.

Nokari, what exactly is it
you are charging me with here?

AABRIA: "One final circle.
You are in the field.

"They are your people.

"Take care of the assignment
as you always have,

"but once your circle breaks
in tremendous success

"or tragic circumstance,
you leave the field.

"Become a Lightkeeper,
continue your research, or--"

At that, they lean and
look in the direction

of where Eloise
has toddled off,

"Or live a quiet life.

"But this is it."

LIAM: I suppose we'll
jump off that bridge

when we come to it.

AABRIA: "For what it's worth,
I'm sorry I couldn't do more."

LIAM: It's all right.
I appreciate our years.

I appreciate you.

I know it's not entirely
in your hands, either.

AABRIA: "(sighs) I've
sent out the call.

"They should be
arriving shortly,

"the three you asked for,

"but one more with
a specific tie

"to whatever this
phenomenon is.

"I do believe you
know him, though.

"A Dr. Rajan Savarimuthu."

LIAM: Yes, I do.

AABRIA: "Good."

LIAM: He's a very
bright young man.

AABRIA: "Yeah."
LIAM: I'd be happy to have him

within our circle.

AABRIA: "Okay. As
do the others."

At this, they lean
in a little more

not because there's
a need to whisper,

but the way you have
spoken about your family,

the way you refer to them,

the gravity of it implies
a need for secrecy.

"He'll be a part of it.

"Of course, you've been
doing a great job

"of keeping an
eye out for him,

"but I don't need to tell
you that they are watching."

LIAM: Oh, yes.

I cannot say I haven't
had my suspicions.

AABRIA: "Yeah.

"I believe with
all of my being

"that the work we do is
good and just and necessary,

"but our methods are
not always kind."

LIAM: Well, we've always
done what was needed.

Not always comfortable,

but definitely necessity
dictated our ends.

AABRIA: "(sighs) I will
brief them on arrival."

As you see them
transitioning away

from this dark moment

and sitting back into
the plush chair

and reaching for a
long-cold cup of tea,

a little tinkle bell sounds

as Doctor, you make your
way into The Antiquarian.

Ashly, would you like to
describe what you look like?

ASHLY: Love to.

So Dr. Elsie Roberts
is my name.

I'm 33 years old.

And not-- Forgetting briefly

that the meeting was supposed
to be happening here,

I'm walking in a bit
disheveled and I see Nokari

and I start to surreptitiously
try to pin my hair up.

My clothing is in the style

of maybe two or
three seasons ago.

AABRIA: Mm.
ASHLY: It's a little worse

for the wear, but I've
made a very grand attempt

to keep up appearances.

So my hair, my makeup,
everything is in the style

of the upper class,
but it's obvious

that I'm not living
as well as they do.

So I'm a little off
kilter when I come in.

Lightkeeper Nokari.

AABRIA: "You're
looking well."

LIAM: Dr. Roberts, welcome.

ASHLY: I forgot we were doing
this today. Pardon me, ahem.

I notice as I'm fidgeting

that there's some blood
under my fingernails.

If you'll excuse me, I'm
going to freshen a little

before the others arrive.

I go into the back
and-- I go upstairs.

LIAM: Yes, join us downstairs
when you are ready.

AABRIA: As you scrub up,

even over the sound of
the water in the sink,

you can hear
a tinkle of a bell.

You remember now that you
were summoned to a meeting,

but the only information

was that your Lightkeeper,
Nokari, had a new assignment,

a new circle, and the only
person they mentioned

was your longtime
associate and roommate

here in the apartments of
The Antiquarian, Cosmo.

You hear a little tinkle
and inside steps,

unbeknownst to you, Oscar.

Would you like to
introduce yourself?

SAM: Sure. The name
is Oscar Grimm.

I'm a little shorter
than Sam Riegel is.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Who?

SAM: I'm five foot
six, but stout.

Broad chested, broad
shoulders, 200 pounds,

sandy blond hair,
well-groomed mustache.

If you saw him, you'd
notice that he's got scars.

Scars all over his
face, neck, ears.

ASHLY: Are they hot?

SAM: The one on his eye is.

ASHLY: (laughs)

SAM: His fingers look
like they've been broken

and healed incorrectly.

They're off at
the wrong angles.

But despite his physical wear
and tear, he dresses great.

He's got a sharp
three-piece suit,

a nice, thick gold chain
dangling out of his vest.

He's got
a long black overcoat.

When he walks,
it's with a limp

and a jingle with that chain.

When he pops his head in,
he also pops a hard candy.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Wild. Yes.

SAM: Always has one
in his mouth.

He pushes into the
door, looks around,

tries to instantly
survey the situation.

See if there's any other eyes,
any other bodies in the room.

He's a big guy and he
looks like he's looking

for any danger.

AABRIA: Yeah, you see that
without even looking up,

Eloise gives you a wave

while addressing the shelves

and peeking into that
back parlor room

where most of the business
of Candela takes place.

You observe Cosmo and
Lightkeeper Nokari

with a very distinct
tightening of their eyes

that I think they didn't hide
that well as you approach.

Would you like to make
the first roll of the game?

SAM: I would love to.

AABRIA: Go ahead and
give me a Read.

SAM: Okay.

I will roll two dice and
take the lower of the two.

AABRIA: Oh, great!
ASHLY: Oh no!

AABRIA: Starting off on
a strong foot. Chapter 3!

SAM: Six.
ASHLY: Oh!

SAM: And a three.
ASHLY: Oh.

(laughter)

AABRIA: It is very obvious,
you look for trouble

and you look for the signs
of brewing trouble on people

as things begin.

But there is something
in the lack of hostility

that accompanies
this coldness

that doesn't ping
enough in your mind

to worry too much about it.

They gesture into the room,

but very quickly attempt

to move back into
conversation with Cosmo.

LIAM: Don't just stand there
on the doorstep, Cary.

Come in, come in.

SAM: Oh, thank you,
Cosmo-- uh, Grandpa.

Hi. Who are you?

AABRIA: "My name is
Lightkeeper Nokari.

"I will be handling
your assignment

"and the creation
of your circle."

SAM: Lightkeeper?

What is that, like a general?

AABRIA: "It's a Lightkeeper."
SAM: Sergeant?

Oh, okay.
AABRIA: "It is what it is.

"I help you to shed light

"on the mysteries that you
uncover and deal with.

"Not everything is
a fight, Mr. Grimm."

SAM: Well, not at
first, it isn't.

(sighs) Sure.
ASHLY: Can I--

Oh I'm sorry. Can I hear this
conversation from where I am?

AABRIA: Absolutely.
ASHLY: I'm going to come out,

rinsing, have a
towel with my hands.

Oscar!

SAM: Oh, hey, Doc.
How you doing?

ASHLY: I'm fine. I didn't
expect to see you here.

SAM: I didn't expect
to come honestly,

but I was summoned, so.

ASHLY: Summoned?
SAM: I showed up.

AABRIA: "The formation
of our new circle."

ASHLY: Right. Yes, of course.

LIAM: Yes, Oscar is being
inducted into our ranks

for the first time.

ASHLY: Congratulations.

SAM: I guess thanks.

It's not really my choice,
but I'll take it.

AABRIA: "Your skills will be
put to good use, I'm sure."

SAM: As long as I make it
through this in one piece

and the old man, too,
I'll consider that a win.

LIAM: Oscar is good at
adapting. Always has been.

AABRIA: "Hm."

"Good. Nothing
then but to wait.

"And--"
ASHLY: To wait?

AABRIA: "For the rest
of your circle."

ASHLY: What do you mean?

AABRIA: You see
a look of surprise

and they reach into a pocket
in the front of their vest

and pull out an impossibly
small notebook and open it up.

I think just even
flitting through it,

you can't even see writing.

It just looks like a vague
black line across pages.

They focus.

"That's right,

"you're normally a part
of smaller circles, correct?

"Just the Grimms?"

ASHLY: As part of an
arrangement with the Candela.

I assumed that
you would remember.

AABRIA: "Huh."

"(clears throat)

"This circle was asked for

"very specifically by name.

"So if you want to take
up your grievances,

"I think you ought
to look to your left."

LIAM: Who's got their fingers
in this pie, Nokari?

AABRIA: "It's the people
you asked to work with.

"At some point,

"I thought I could give you
as many of them as possible.

"So you have Oscar--
Cary, what's your preference?"

SAM: I mean, my
friends call me Cary.

I just don't--
AABRIA: So, Oscar?

SAM: I don't have
a lot of friends.

ASHLY: No one calls
you Cary, Oscar.

SAM: Well, I was trying to--

It was a thing I was
hoping would catch on.

ASHLY: I see.

AABRIA: "Yourself,
a Madam Glask,

"and an individual
with a little more

"of a personal
connection to this

"that was not necessarily
on your list, but--"

Just at that time,

I think maybe we miss
the bell on this.

There's something about the
suaveness of you slipping in

as conversation and
pitched discussion happens

that allows you to
get through the door.

Would you like to
introduce yourself?

NOSHIR: My goodness.
No doorman here.

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: Damn.
What an entry phrase.

(laughter)

NOSHIR: Gramps, it's
very good to see you.

LIAM: Welcome.

ASHLY: Raj?
NOSHIR: It's been a long time since--

Elsie.

Fancy meeting you here.

ASHLY: What are
you doing here?

NOSHIR: Well, (chuckles)

I've actually been
asked to participate

in this little
game we're having.

You know me, I'm not
usually a team player,

but this was too
exciting to turn down.

LIAM: Hey, I think we're
all friendly here, Rajan.

NOSHIR: Oh, of course.
Of course.

AABRIA: Can I get a
physical description?

NOSHIR: Rajan is
almost 6'.

AABRIA: Ooh.

NOSHIR: Probably the
most glaring thing

when you take his visage in

is the scars running across
one side of his face.

The left side is covered in
what look like runic tattoos

and he's always head
to toe in finery.

He's well put together,

tends to wear
gloves when he can.

When he closes the door,

you'll notice that he holds
a handkerchief in his hand

and then promptly wipes it
off before he puts it away.

He is brash when at his best

and some would argue
perhaps obnoxious

at his worst.
ASHLY: (laughs)

NOSHIR: A professor
from the university.

My specialty is archeology.

I've been brought in

because perhaps I can bring
a little bit of perspective

to this latest trial.

AABRIA: "Dr. Savarimuthu,

"I believe, at some point
in the past had dealings

"with what we might
be dealing with here.

"My information is limited
because the eyewitness to this

"did not take that much in.

"But Silva is here

"and available for

"deeper discussions
once you all arrive."

LIAM: Understood.

ASHLY: May I--

My hands are gripping
around the handles

of your wheelchair.

Could we speak somewhere
else for moment, Cosmo?

LIAM: Yes, of course.
Excuse us one moment.

Why don't you wheel
me into my back room?

ASHLY: And I do.
AABRIA: Elsie,

as you wheel him,

and you can feel the leather
giving under the handles

as you push, please
take your first token.

LIAM: So we are
already in my study,

but there is a door
leading to my private home

and bed chambers,
the living room.

SAM: So as they leave,
I'm going to lean over.

So, this one's
the Lightkeeper.

I mean, what are you, like
something higher than that?

Something fancier?

I mean, are you some
sort of showman or what?

NOSHIR: Well, I guess you
could call me a consultant,

if that helps you.

SAM: It does not.
ASHLY: (laughs)

NOSHIR: And who,
pray tell, are you?

SAM: Oh, Oscar to you.

I'm Cosmo's grandkid.
ASHLY: (laughs)

SAM: I'm just
here to make sure

none of you all
kill yourselves.

NOSHIR: Oscar Grimm?

SAM: Oscar Grimm. That's me.

NOSHIR: Ah, fascinating.

In all my time
with the professor,

he never mentioned you.

It's a pleasure.

I'm curious to see how you
contribute to this crew.

SAM: Do you smile
all the time?

NOSHIR: What's not
to smile about?

SAM: We'll find out.

I'll go over in the corner

and pop another
candy in my mouth.

(laughter)

GINA: Just going
through those.

AABRIA: As you
head to the corner

and scope both
the scene within

and without through
the window,

we see a figure approach.

Last but not least,
Madam Glask.

As you finally spot the
name of the building

and make your way in,

will you please introduce
and describe yourself?

GINA: Sure.
I play Madam Glask,

owner of the
Glass Cat Casino.

She walks in,

the door almost opens without
her moving it at all.

There is a cloud of light smoke
from her rosy cigarettes.

She stands at 5'7",
adorned in jewels and fur.

She smells like the most
expensive fragrant oils

from across the seas.

She walks in, takes her
glasses off and says:

It's busiest day of the year.

It's the anniversary.
Happy anniversary.

Oh! Oscar!

SAM: Yeah, hi, Madam Glask.
GINA: Hi.

SAM: It's nice to see you.

GINA: I thought I told
you to wait at the door.

SAM: I was taking my
personal day today.

My grandpa called
me to do some work

and so I thought I'd
take the day off.

I hope that's all right.
I'm sorry.

GINA: Fine, but let
me know next time.

SAM: Yeah.

GINA: Speaking of,
where is Cosmo?

SAM: He's in the back with
Doc. With Doc Roberts.

GINA: Mm. Excellent, and--

SAM: Oh, don't even
with this guy.

ASHLY: (laughs)
SAM: I mean--

Yeah, it's--

NOSHIR: The legendary
Madam Glask.

SAM: Okay.
AABRIA: (laughs)

NOSHIR: It's such a
pleasure to meet you.

I've heard many great things.

GINA: You've heard of
me? How lovely.

She hands out her hand
to him. And you are?

NOSHIR: Professor
Rajan Savarimuthu.

GINA: Oh, professor.
How lovely.

SAM: Yeah.

GINA: She takes off her fur,
and when you look at her,

you first see such luxury

and all the finest things
that money can buy.

But you can also tell

it's a little bit of
overcompensation, too.

Not a single hair
out of place.

She tries very hard
to carry herself

like an upper class,
stands up very straight.

But if you look closely,

the threads come loose.

She walks in, says:

I don't know why Cosmo
would call me here

on such a busy day.

He knows this is when we
make the most money. (sighs)

AABRIA: "Apologies."

Nokari, who has been
sitting quietly

and appraising both
you upon your entry

and some of the interactions
here with a smirk.

They're not doing any--

They're not hiding it at all.

"Mr. Grimm was operating
on my orders.

"I will be your Lightkeeper

"and your circle,

"once a private conversation
is finished,

"will be brought to attention

"and I will get you
all up to date.

"Why don't we just have
a cup of tea. Eloise?"

They try to summon Eloise,
who walks in the door

and shakes her
head a little bit.

Nokari, for all of their
suaveness and composure

immediately gets up.

"I'm going to make tea.

"I'll do it because I like
making tea in a kitchen

"that I know where that is."

Eloise gives him another
dirty look as she goes by.

He sweeps out of the room

to go find a way to provide
refreshments for you.

We'll move slowly into
the back chambers.

LIAM: Elsie, dear, I
can feel your discomfort

wafting off of you from
across the room.

What is the matter, child?

ASHLY: I didn't think that I
would need to remind you,

Cosmo, of my condition.

There's a reason the
circles have been small.

You know that.

LIAM: I was not prepared
for this meeting.

I had no forewarning.
Elsie. I apologize.

But everyone here I have
worked with personally.

I can vouch for
their expertise

and their professionalism.

I trust them. All
of them I trust.

ASHLY: Do you trust what they
would do if they saw me?

I can't do this. (shudders)

AABRIA: Please take
your other token.

ASHLY: You need to talk
to the Lightkeeper.

Take me off this assignment.
LIAM: Dear--

ASHLY: You can do
it without me.

LIAM: Dear,
I have a confession.

Before you arrived,
I was just informed

this may be my last circle.

I don't really have any say

in the matter, I think.

It's been coming a long time.

I've seen it coming down
the road a long while now.

I hear you,

but I also have
faith in you, dear.

If this is to be
my last go of it,

I could really use
you here, child.

You've always, for
all your challenges,

been a steadying
presence to me.

ASHLY: Okay.

Okay.

Just

please

try to

help keep me calm.

Especially around Raj.

LIAM: I have always
sensed a little bit

of something in the
air between you two,

but I never wanted to pry.

ASHLY: We have history.

LIAM: Well, I've worked
with the young man

a number of times
myself and he's always

been buttoned up
and on point.

I don't know, you,

the both of you,
each in your own way are

like children to me.

He's a good boy.

You are a fine doctor
and I have no doubt

that we will pull together

as circles do,
as circles must.

ASHLY: I trust you.

LIAM: You warm
a very old heart.

ASHLY: I put my hands around
the handles of the wheelchair

and they are less tense now.

(deep breath)

I'm going to start
wheeling him back out

and say,

as we go:

Speaking of being
a fine doctor,

you've been avoiding
your physical.

Then take him into the main room.
SAM: (laughs)

AABRIA: (laughs)

As you are wheeled back
into the main room,

this is a very nice wheelchair,
but it makes noise

across floorboards

in this very cozy abode

and store, and you see

Nokari immediately pop
their head back in

and they rejoin you,

hands empty.

"I didn't find anything, but

"perhaps it's just
better to begin."

LIAM: Oh!

Godot, come here, boy.

Lad, come here.

There is a little black and
tan colored long haired

dachshund, a wiener dog who
lives here in the shop with me.

He's--

ASHLY: I'll get him.
I'll get him.

It's all right.
LIAM: Yes.

ASHLY: I cross over, being
very, very deliberately

not looking at
Raj and pick up

the dog and bring him to you.

LIAM: No, no, you hold him.

Give her--

She needs a friend.

AABRIA: Oh, he's already
all over your face

and aiming for your
mouth. (laughs)

ASHLY: Nope, no. Just--
LIAM: Good boy, Godot.

AABRIA: (laughs)
ASHLY: Thank you.

GINA: I go over to Cosmo.
Cosmo, my dear.

It's been weeks
since you've been by.

LIAM: Madam Glask, I
am used to visiting you

at your establishment.

You grace us with your
presence here at mine.

GINA: The pleasure's
all mine.

I take both of his hands
and I kneel down to him

and I kiss him
on both cheeks.

LIAM: It's good to
see you, dear.

GINA: You look
amazing, as usual.

The girls miss you.

LIAM: (laughs)

Well, they can

beat me at cards again
next week, perhaps.

GINA: Quite a crew you've
assembled, Nokari.

Perhaps we should
get to the point.

SAM: Yeah, like you said
we're becoming a circle.

What is this?

You're going to pass out
bowls of goat blood

to drink or something?

LIAM: Oscar, just look and listen.
NOSHIR: (laughs)

LIAM: Boy, look and listen.

AABRIA: "A circle
is an important

"and sacred thing.

"You will be the
Circle of Tide & Bone

"and in this moment,
you are bound together

"to solve this assignment,
to help each other

"Until such a time as
your circle dissolves

"under good or
bad circumstances.

"I will admit,
loathe though I may be,

"that I must apologize.

"This assignment is not like

"the ones I am normally
entrusted to assign."

Nokari moves
through the story

of an officer,

an investigator, and a hunch,

and just a gut feeling
that something is wrong

without proof.

In that, I think there's
a little apologetic look

in your direction

to communicate that this

was the flimsiest
of circumstances

that they could provide
in order to get

the people you need together

in order for you to do
whatever you need to do

to put your research and
your life's work at rest.

It's the best an old
friend could offer.

They look a little
uncomfortable with it

as they finish.

"Normally,

"the inciting circumstances
are a little more grave,

"a little more clear.

"But Silva Sarkis,

"this officer, is here

"and under Candela Obscura's
care and protection

"until such time
as we can determine

"the validity of
his concerns.

"So, he is hidden
until you report back

"as to the nature of whatever
might be happening

"at the sanatorium,
and is available to you.

"Though, I'm not sure

"how much information
you'll get."

They gesture back,
and back past--

You have your back rooms,
and then off to the side,

because this is a bookstore

and a little bit
of an apartment,

very multi-use building
in the center

of a part of town
that sprawls out

and becomes a little more
singular in building type,

there is a little garden.

You see sitting amongst
some slightly wilted ivy,

a little solid cast
iron picnic table,

a little, solid, cast
iron picnic table,

garden table, sits
a very nervous man

in white pajamas,
rocking back and forth,

looking around.

"Well, if you have
any other questions

"about the nature
of your circle

"or your work with Candela,

"I will remit you to the
care of your grandfather."

SAM: I think I get it.

We go out there,

beat this guy up,
see what he knows--

GINA: Oh my.
SAM:-- shake him down,

and follow his leads,
I guess?

LIAM: We normally start
with conversation, Oscar.

SAM: Okay.
LIAM: Normally.

SAM: (sighs) Sure,
that'll work too.

AABRIA: "I leave it to you.

"I wish you all
the best of luck."

With that, Nokari

stands and dusts
off their suit

and puts on their jacket

and sweeps out the front door

and to parts
unknown to handle

other assignments,
other phenomena.

You are left to the
quiet of your room

and your interviewee outside.

LIAM: Cosmo goes 1,000-yard
stare for a moment

and just looks back at

seven or eight decades
of work in Candela.

The things I've seen
and the places I've been.

I stick for a moment on how

simple and perfunctory

the end appears to be.

Well.

Well.

Shall we pick apart this knot

and see what we're
dealing with?

GINA: Oh, we shouldn't
pick him apart.

He's been through hell.

How about I try to
calm him down first?

LIAM: That is one of
your specialties. Yes.

GINA: Madam Glask walks
towards the garden outside

and sits next to him

and gently puts a
hand on his shoulder.

Oh.

You look

troubled.

AABRIA: As you approach,

his eyes immediately
lock on you

and though there's
no move to move away,

he's not frightened,
but he's skittish.

The moment you
reach out a hand,

you get that very
subtle withdrawal.

You can put your hand
on his shoulder,

but it's very

clear that he is still
in a place of agitation

where guarding his space
feels important to him.

GINA: Madam Glask
pulls her hands back.

She's very familiar
with how to

deal with people
and their troubles.

She says:

Oh, of course,

and sits next to him.

I understand that
you need our help.

AABRIA: "You're with them?"

GINA: As of today,
I suppose so, yes.

But I wanted to--
AABRIA: "You're new."

GINA: I'm sorry?
AABRIA: "You're new.

"You're not a normal--

"You're not a--

"You're new to Candela.
You don't do this.

"They don't believe me."
GINA: No, no. Oh, no, no.

No, I--
AABRIA: "You're wearing

"a ball gown."
SAM: (laughs)

AABRIA: "It's the morning."

ASHLY: (laughs)
SAM: (laughs)

AABRIA: "Oh god."

GINA: I don't own--
AABRIA: "They're going to

"send me back."
GINA:-- many daytime clothing.

AABRIA: "Daytime--"

You see, he looks down
at his wrinkly pajamas.

GINA: (laughs)

LIAM: I'll wheel myself out.
I assure you, Mr. Sarcas,

members of Candela come
in all shapes and sizes

and just because you're
not familiar with Ms. Glask,

does not mean she hasn't

been a part of our
explorations for some time.

GINA: I assure you,

I am a very good old
friend of Cosmo and

you can put your trust in me.

ASHLY: Can I see this happening
even if I'm not there?

AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: Okay.

I'd like to just watch him
as they're talking to him

and see if I can pick up

if there's anything
psychological or arcane

going on with
him as he speaks.

AABRIA: Yeah.

Let's get a roll about it.

If you are looking
for the nature,

the very mundane
nature of his distress,

give me, let's call it Focus.

A Focus roll, but if
you're trying to see

if there is something very
specifically magickally

wrong with him or
interacting with him,

give me a Sense roll.

ASHLY: I'll try a Sense.

AABRIA: Yeah!

ASHLY: I don't know, let's go.
SAM: Come on, let's go.

AABRIA: It's going
to be so good.

ASHLY: I failed.

(laughter)

ASHLY: He's a guy.

AABRIA: He's a guy.
ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: You lean in

and you begin to focus

on scanning him with
doctor's eyes that even

with your time with the occult,
with your time with Candela,

it still all begins
with that scan,

looking for the
first thing wrong,

so you can build a pattern,
so you can make a diagnosis.

The more you lean in,
the more you search him,

you don't really notice it

but there's something
about him,

something that he's seen.

I need you to take
a bleed token.

ASHLY: Oh, shit.
GINA: Oh.

AABRIA: As something you
can't quite clock--

ASHLY: Okay.
AABRIA:-- is awry with him.

ASHLY: Oh, dear.

Baby's first bleed.

AABRIA: Baby's first
bleed! Welcome!

ASHLY: It hurts!

LIAM: Mr. Sarcas,
our party is gathered.

I suggest we call them
all out into the garden

so you don't have
to repeat yourself.

AABRIA: "Yes.

"Yes, I will--

"(shaky exhale) Yes."
LIAM: Oscar!

AABRIA: "Ah!"
LIAM: Boy!

Bring the--

SAM: Yeah, yeah, okay.
LIAM: Bring your new friend

into the garden.

SAM: Yeah. You want to come?
NOSHIR: Oh, that must be me.

SAM: Yeah, here.
I'll get the door for you.

I'm sure you're not
accustomed to door handles.

ASHLY: I'm going to stick--
NOSHIR: Fast learner.

ASHLY:-- close to
Oscar as we go out.

SAM: I will--
ASHLY: Probably markedly close.

SAM:-- puff my chest up and
just make sure that there's

no sudden moves.

AABRIA: Oscar and Elsie
move out into this,

now getting very
cramped little garden.

Raj, you're the
last one through.

As you see him, as you
move into this space

and you begin to
share the air of him,

you feel it hit you
like a freight train.

So my question to you
is, what is it--

What does it feel
like when you

enter into the presence of
a tremendous amount of bleed?

ASHLY: Ooh.

Shit.

NOSHIR: Like being in
the middle of a gale,

or the beat of
a thousand wings.

It

pierces through thought

and almost bypasses fear,

going straight to
something much more

primitive, so to speak.

It takes a lot of
willpower for me to not

physically step back
in the moment.

AABRIA: You feel like you
are suddenly overwhelmed,

overrun, overcome.

You know before
whatever happens next,

the longer you stay
here, the more you risk

taking damage from proximity

to a feeling

so specific.

You've consulted
with Candela before.

You've been in proximity to

items and monsters

and things of bleed and
thinnings and Flare.

But this has all of the scent

and understanding of a long,

nearly forgotten fear.

This is the bleed,
the flavor,

the scent of the Maw,

and everything you experienced
in your childhood.

You're right back
there again.

Staring her down,

looking at your sister.

And you, if you stay
here, will be lost to it.

What do you do?

NOSHIR: We need answers
and we need them quickly.

LIAM: Dr. Savarimuthu, you
are looking a little peaked.

NOSHIR: I'm fine.

ASHLY: Can I tell that
he's not fine?

AABRIA: That's not a
roll. He's not fine.

(laughs)

ASHLY: Rajan, do you
need to step inside?

NOSHIR: I leave this
to you, Professor.

LIAM: Yes. Yeah.

Mr. Sarcas, perhaps you should
cut to the quick of it.

Explain to us what
you are in need of.

AABRIA: "Yeah, yeah,
yeah, last night

"there's been people
disappearing from Grayslate.

"We always knew that
when you go gray,

"when it's too much, when you
break, they put you away

"like a fucking child's toy
that you're outgrown.

"They ship you into that building
and you never come back.

"But even when you're in
it, people go missing.

"They just go away.

"It might be a jail,

"but even jails have ledgers

"and paperwork, and they
just don't seem to care.

"Maybe I don't get to
be what I was before,

"I don't feel like I did before,
but someone should care.

"It feels like it all started
when that nun showed up."

ASHLY: At that word I
think I'm going to take,

if Rajan hasn't
gone inside,

I might lock eyes with him
and go, let's go inside.

NOSHIR: I think not, Elsie.

I think this might be a
little more important.

Please continue, good sir.

AABRIA: There's something
in that look,

the struggle for your composure
that settles Silva, weirdly.

"I wasn't able to
find anything,

"but everywhere she goes,

"whoever she turns her
attention on, they disappear.

"Every time I ask a director

"or any of the orderlies
there, I'm brushed off,

"treated like I'm making a
big deal out of nothing.

"I, it's, I, if I'm--

"(shouts) If I'm crazy,
then just--

"I'm not crazy, I'm not..."

LIAM: Perhaps you could
help us with specifics.

Who is the clergy woman
you are referring to?

AABRIA: "She introduced
herself as Sister Iovar.

"She's beautiful."

NOSHIR: The most beautiful
woman you've ever seen.

AABRIA: "It's, it's
eerie, it pulls you in."

NOSHIR: You hunger for her.

You're not crazy.

AABRIA: "I'm not crazy.

"You've seen her, too?"

NOSHIR: Yes, we've
crossed paths before.

AABRIA: "I'm not crazy. There's
just something wrong with it.

"Wherever she goes, they
disappear and no one cares.

"Then I saw them that night,

"her on the director,

"and I'm a married man,

"so it's not easy for me
to admit what I thought,

"things that I thought
about when I first saw it.

"But even through the lust,

"the wrongness of it,

"you can't put that away.

"You feel it in you even
as all the other emotions,

"all the other urges hit.

"Then a patient, Johnny, I
don't even know his last name,

"he was banging
on the window.

"His hands were ripped up.

"He led them away.

"Maybe it was
the wrong thing,

"maybe I should've
tried to follow

"but I didn't think
I could safely,

"and I just, I thought
if I could get here,

"if I could find any of you,
you could do something.

"You could find something.

"You would just,
you would hear me

"and believe me, there's
something happening.

"I was good at my job.

"I was good at my job
and then, then they--

"I'm still good at my job.

"Something's wrong."

GINA: How did you escape?

Perhaps there's a way

for us to get in through
where you left.

AABRIA: "Scaled the wall.

"Normally, you have to pass
the director's office

"and she doesn't
seem to sleep.

"So for whatever reason,
the security, the orderlies,

"So for whatever reason, the
security, the orderlies,

"there was no one around.

"I saw a chance
and I took it.

"I was good at my job."

LIAM: You fled
the sanatorium,

and she, what, resides
there on a permanent basis?

AABRIA: "I've never... if
she's not walking around,

"if she's not in a meeting,
or viewing the grounds,

"or she's in her
office, always, always."

ASHLY: Do they know
you're gone?

Will they be looking for you?

AABRIA: "They have to know.

"They have to know."
NOSHIR: Don't have much time.

Where did your friend,
Johnny, take them?

AABRIA: "There's a
walking grounds.

"It's a large lawn,

"but there's little copse
of trees and shrubbery.

"He was running
in a dead sprint

"towards some shrubbery
in the back."

NOSHIR: What makes
him so important?

AABRIA: "He was bleeding
and he didn't even notice.

"He was hurt
and didn't care."

NOSHIR: Is Johnny a
patient there?

AABRIA: "Yeah, yeah,

"one of the ones that
disappeared without concern."

LIAM: And showed up
inexplicably that night

and you fled, and
you've no idea

where they ended up
that night.

AABRIA: "I had a choice,
understand or report,

"and I'm an officer,

"I understand authority
and structures.

"I knew if I could just
make someone understand,

"you could go, I...

"If I go back,
I'll never leave."

LIAM: After listening to this
gentleman for several minutes,

I'm wondering, does he
seem to me confused

or like he is omitting
anything in his story?

AABRIA: Are you using
mundane or magical means?

LIAM: Mundane, I'm using
my bullshit detector.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Go ahead and
give me a Read roll.

LIAM: Yeah, I will
burn a drive.

AABRIA: Ooh!

LIAM: This is gilded,
here we go.

Not on the gilded, but
that is a six, a success.

AABRIA: With a six.

You see that the problem with
him isn't anything to do

with omission, it's
just the thinness.

He came to you with an
instinct, a gut feeling

that nothing was wrong
and that this is a person,

you don't really have
a sense of how long

he's been locked away
in the sanatorium,

but this is a person
that's been convinced

steadily over time that
his instincts are wrong.

This is a person that
lived by his instincts.

Hunches solve cases.

The OUP is a lot
like Candela.

They're the part of
The Periphery here

in the city that engages
with magical phenomena,

much in the same way that
you are about finding,

cataloging, suppressing
and moving forward.

This is the part
of The Periphery,

the police state here, that
will do whatever it takes

to protect the populace
from magical problems.

The relationship between
Candela and them

is occasionally amicable,

but mostly they try to
beat you to the punch

so they can take credit
for all these goings on.

Candela will take control
of something and hide it

and not necessarily share
information with the public.

But anything that gets through
this office to The Periphery

gets to the Triumvirate and
becomes more information for

the government to understand,
to control, to weaponize.

LIAM: Understood, and this
gentleman, while a bit

in a spin does not seem
muddled in his story--

AABRIA: Not at all.

LIAM:-- and has absolute
conviction in it.

AABRIA: 100%.
LIAM: Yes?

AABRIA: He seems bolstered by
the strong reaction with Rajan.

Someone understands,
even that little bit

of confirmation is enough.

You see him returning to
himself in real time.

ASHLY: A question.
AABRIA: Yeah?

ASHLY: I'm a blood
and guts doctor,

but is there anything
that I've done

since I've been with Candela
that might help someone,

like can I feel that I took
a point of bleed basically,

that this guy might
need some help?

Do I have anything that helps

with that or am I just
your standard issue GP?

AABRIA: I think what you
are getting off of him,

that mixture of like,

there's nothing physically
wrong with him.

The closest you can get
is that understanding

of taking bleed, being in
proximity to something

that is throwing off a lot
of that negative energy

has affected him.

From your time,
and your studies,

and your existence as
a doctor in this city,

you know that the sanatorium

is where they put
Periphery officers

that have been too close to
very bad things for too long

and get burnt
out of efficacy,

in the same way that
a Candela Lightkeeper

is someone that has been
in the field for so long

that they've aggregated too
much scarring on their body,

or their mind, or that thing
within them that engages

with and understands the
magical truth of the world.

ASHLY: So there's nothing
I could do to help him

with the feelings
that he's having?

AABRIA: Talking,
believing him,

like there's
nothing physically--

ASHLY: Okay.
AABRIA:-- that you could do.

GINA: Madam Glask leans over
to him in a very reassuring voice

and says: You are indeed
very good at your job.

AABRIA: "Thank you."

GINA: Is there anything
else that you could tell us

that may help us with
this Sister Iovar?

AABRIA: "Yeah, yeah,

"we keep tabs on
a lot of things,

"and in our line of work,"
and now you see that he's

a little more bought in on
the 'we are the same.'

He's no longer treating you

as this neophyte that
was thrown in his way

as another act of dismissal.

"Religion is a vector

"through which a lot of
misdeeds get into the world,

"so we keep tabs
on The Ascendancy.

"There aren't many
clergymen in the city.

"I've never heard of
an Iovar before.

"I don't know, I don't
know what she is,

"and I think that's the
thing that bothers me.

"She doesn't feel real in the
way that you and I are real.

"I wish I had more.

"Everything was taken when
they sent me here."

GINA: I understand, that's more
than enough, thank you.

LIAM: I would open it up to
the circle then to brainstorm.

NOSHIR: Brainstorm?
LIAM: My instinct is to start

with the outside and
work our way in,

unless anyone has
a better idea.

Perhaps we wait
until nightfall?

NOSHIR: Why are we waiting?

Professor,
with all due respect,

we know that Grayslate is
where this is happening.

We know that Sister Iovar
was last seen there.

Why are we, why
are we waiting?

LIAM: Hopefully to get
in and out unscathed.

SAM: Can't we just make an
appointment or something?

I mean they're open
for business, right?

You guys are
prominent citizens.

LIAM: I'm just curious to see
if there is anything left

on the premises from
your associate

who fled before charging
into the maw of the beast.

ASHLY: The stories about
the sanatorium

is that they don't
let people out.

NOSHIR: No.

SAM: They can let people
in, right, to visit?

ASHLY: There's something
really wrong going on there.

We don't want to
just rush in.

LIAM: What do you think,
Rajan? Should we be charging

up to the door and making an
appointment with this sister?

AABRIA: Rajan.
LIAM: Seems like that might

be a bad idea.

AABRIA: Rajan,
you feel the eyes

of this circle turn to you,

but in this moment, you
didn't hear any word

after "maw."

You fall into yourself.

You're going to take a bleed

for remaining here,

as a poor reward
for your bravery.

You think back.
You were so young.

No one would blame you for
the things that happened.

Your sister, after
your mother went,

after something
inside of her broke,

Atheka, she was lost to you,
she was lost to your family.

And how could you blame her?

You were grieving.

So then when a beautiful nun,

Rahema, appeared

offered you solace,
offered you hope,

you and your father
and the broken family

that you were left with

took it as a
blessing, as a boon.

Over time, she flourished,

and you thought it
was going so well.

You feel yourself
jumping through time,

feeling that hope

that maybe you could
get back to a place

where your family could feel
okay, could feel good again.

Then you get to that
night and you followed

across the city,

to the dingiest,
darkest part of town,

and you saw her there
on her hands and knees,

feverishly digging down

deep into the ground.

She looked up at you,

and for a while you
didn't see your sister.

You saw something
ravenous and in rapture.

You saw Rahema,

and everything
that came after

she turned into
something monstrous,

something fierce.

She attacked you.

She hurt you.

In a moment,
you did your best

to save yourself.

A poem, a nursery rhyme,

drilled into you
by your mother

whose shape, the lack of
her, shattered your family.

You thought, "I have the words
to drive back this monster,"

like they do in a fairytale.

And a slip of the word,

and you saved only yourself.

Your sister was lost to a
thing that you understand,

even as it hit and cleaved

deeply between
muscle and bone

til you could feel it
scratch lung, heart,

the very core of you.

The Maw, a monster

hiding behind
a beautiful face.

She's taken your sister

and left you like
whatever you are now.

But she's back,

which means hope is back.

So you accept
the bleed greedily,

because if you are built
for anything, it's this.

You come back to yourself

and see that your circle,

that this officer
is staring you down,

expecting some
sort of response.

LIAM: Rajan?

NOSHIR: (sighs)

(clears throat
contemplatively)

I think perhaps there's
an easier strategy here.

Madam Glask, do you
perhaps have any sway

over these security personnel
at this sanatorium?

GINA: I suppose I may have
heard a few clients talk

about guarding the place.

I believe I remember
what their names were.

I may know them.

If they happen to
be there tonight,

I suppose I can pull
a few strings to get us in.

Discreetly, though.

NOSHIR: If not, greed is
always a powerful motivator.

Either way,
I think we have our in.

LIAM: Right.

What will you do
with yourself?

AABRIA: "If I show my
face, they'll find me.

AABRIA: "If I show my
face, they'll find me,

"the Periphery.

"I was put away, so."

ASHLY: Glask, you're
known for your secrecy.

Maybe we should take
this gentleman there.

NOSHIR: I think perhaps

Nokari might be a
good resource here.

The collateral damage if they
come after Sarkis is high.

AABRIA: "I have
other information

"about what my office has
been working on, I think.

"I think I can make a deal.

"Barter for safe passage
out of the city or--"

LIAM: I think that wise.
No offense,

but I think your presence
has an ill effect.

Otherwise, I would
offer a room here

or suggest Madam Glask's
establishment.

I don't think that
that's a good idea.

AABRIA: "I understand.
It's not personal."

LIAM: No.
AABRIA: "New start.

"I have a lot
of memories here,

"family I can't go home to."

NOSHIR: Perhaps I might
be able to help.

I have property
on Briar Green.

It's unoccupied.

Perhaps you could lay
low there for a while.

SAM: You have an extra house?

GINA: (laughs)

AABRIA: "Look at his jacket."
NOSHIR: You don't?

GINA: (laughs)

GINA: I do apologize,
it is a place of business

and I normally would,
especially if Cosmo asks,

but I can't risk it.

AABRIA: "Oh, yeah.
No, I understand.

"You're all being
very, very kind.

"I appreciate that you
believe me at all.

"I hope you find something.

"I hope you help them

"figure out
whatever's going on.

"But you believed me

"and that feels really good.

"So."

NOSHIR: Rajan takes a hand out
of his jacket pocket, gloved,

and gently takes
Mr. Sarkis' hand

and rubs with his thumb very
soothingly across the top.

You'll be well taken care of.

I promise you that.

AABRIA: You feel,
even in that,

and it's very apparent
to everyone here,

that even in that act of
tenderness and gentleness

there is a sting that
you would recognize

as someone else resonating
at that frequency of proximity

to the Maw and the
collateral damage

from when you get too close.

But you shrug through it.

NOSHIR: I'm waiting to see
if the scarlet I've smeared

across the back of his
hand has taken effect.

AABRIA: Oh. Oh!

Hmm. Why don't you give
me a Hide roll to see--

Let's just see how
effective you are.

LIAM: You're a slick
son of a bitch.

AABRIA: Yeah.
(laughter)

GINA: That's really good.

NOSHIR: I'm going
to add two drive.

AABRIA: Okay.
SAM: Two drive.

Ooh.

AABRIA: I will say, the stakes
aren't necessarily high here,

but this will be less about
hiding this from Sarkis,

who's leaned in
and locked in,

and more about
the people here.

NOSHIR: Mm.

(sighs)

Critical success on gilded.

SAM: Ooh!

(impressed exhales)

AABRIA: What an
act of tenderness.

You see Sarkis
begin to relax.

He doesn't even know that
it has anything to do

with a chemical agent.

He thinks that maybe just
being believed and understood

and perhaps being
touch starved

from months and months
of isolation,

that that was all he
ever really needed.

You see him surge up,

both relaxed, but that
renewed confidence of someone

who believes that there's
hope, a way through.

who believes that there's
hope, a way through,

that maybe he's not grayed
out, maybe he's not useless.

I think you have a little
bit of an understanding.

I would never presume to tell
you how your character feels,

but you know intimately well

the trajectory and duration

of that false hope,

of that elation that
comes from scarlet.

NOSHIR: Rest untroubled, friend.

You've done your duty.

AABRIA: "(sighs)

"Thanks. Yeah.

"Thank you. I will speak
more with the Lightkeeper

"and we'll figure
something out.

"Be careful, if you're
going at night.

"Just be careful.

"It's a hospital,

"but whatever rot
got inside it,

"it's not a good place.

"Not just because of
the nun or the director.

"I think it's been wrong
and rotten for far longer."

LIAM: I pull a pencil
and paper from a pouch

that hangs in inside my
wheelchair and hand to him.

Why don't you do me a favor,
son, and draw me a basic map

to the director and
the sister's quarters.

AABRIA: "Yes."

Given a task and something
that he is very good at,

it takes maybe a minute.

He's not an artist,
but it's very clear.

You have a top down layout
of as much of the interior

of the sanatorium as a patient
will be granted access to.

So there's large
blocks and swaths

and floors that he has
no information on.

LIAM: Yes.
AABRIA: But that bottom floor,

mapped perfectly down
to windows and the grounds.

Three distinct
sections of trees,

and a little fountain,

and the shrubbery that
abuts the far wall

that makes it that much
harder to clear and escape.

LIAM: Why don't you add an X

to where your fellow
patient ran to?

AABRIA: Because he does not
know where they stopped,

he'll give you a
dotted straight line--

LIAM: Trajectory.
AABRIA:-- of the straight trajectory.

LIAM: Yes.

AABRIA: It's very clear
that whatever that run was,

there was no sense of
follow the garden path.

It's a straight shot
towards--

There's a central little tree
lined area with some benches

and then the far corner where
there's some tree line, too.

So you have two
potential places.

LIAM: Hopefully this
will make our work

ever so slightly easier.

AABRIA: "I'm happy
to have helped."

LIAM: Remind me, GM,

did the Lightkeeper
leave premises?

AABRIA: Yes, they did.
LIAM: Yes. All right.

So you are going to
check in with Nokari?

AABRIA: "Mm-hmm."

LIAM: All right.

AABRIA: "The way
I understand it,

"this is not their
chapter house."

LIAM: No.

AABRIA: "It's daytime.

"I might lie low
for a little longer,

"but I can make my way over.

"The Steel is easy
to navigate

"when it was your
beat. (laughs)

"I'll be okay."

NOSHIR: Is Eloise still here?

AABRIA: You--

Above game, I don't think you
have any reason to believe

that she would have departed.

But if Rajan asked out loud,

you just get a blank
stare back from Silva.

He goes like, "Who?"

SAM: She should
still be, yeah.

LIAM: Eloise?

NOSHIR: Yes, Professor.
LIAM: She minds the shop.

NOSHIR: Sarkis cannot
be left alone here.

If the Ascendancy
were to find him,

what do you think
will happen?

We will never see him again.

More importantly, you
know he must be observed.

LIAM: I might agree
with that, doctor,

but he seems to be having
a serious effect on you.

I hate to see you stretched.

SAM: Also, not to be rude,
but what do we care?

We've got a mission,
we've got a place,

we've got a time,
we've got a person.

I might have misjudged
this whole Candela thing.

I mean, going after a sex-crazed
nun kind of sounds fun now.

What do we need this
guy anymore for?

He gave us his info.

AABRIA: "Well."

NOSHIR: A sex-crazed nun.

Maybe you're right, Oscar.

Maybe it's not such
a big deal after all.

ASHLY: Can I see--

I don't want to know.

I know that I
wouldn't have noticed

what he smeared on Silva.

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

ASHLY: But I want to see if I
can notice traces of scarlet use

on Rajan as he's speaking.

AABRIA: Oh.
Give me a Read roll.

ASHLY: Can it be a Focus?
SAM: (laughs)

AABRIA: Yeah. You know what?

Go ahead and make it
a Focus roll. Love that.

(laughter)
AABRIA: Love that.

ASHLY: I'm going to spend a
drive because I'll use a gilded.

I have a gilded baby in here.

Mm, that is a mixed success.

AABRIA: Uh-huh.

There is something to his
pallor and presentation,

exacerbated by whatever
you saw him fall into

as he's been out here in
proximity with this man.

Scarlet could explain it,

but there's a lot of reasons

that someone could look
this way, look this drawn.

You feel it inside of
you too, that wrongness,

something scratching into you

because of your proximity
to this person.

SAM: Scarlet is a drug?

AABRIA: Scarlet is the
predominant drug here.

SAM: Okay.
AABRIA: And has lots

of different ways it pops up.

It's often mixed into alcohol
and used for social things.

SAM: Okay.
AABRIA: But yeah,

across the board.
LIAM: I'll tell you, Rajan,

I was primarily concerned
for you, son.

But I want the machine that is
this circle to be well-oiled.

If you would feel
more comfortable

with him taking one
of the rooms upstairs

until Eloise can
get word to Nokari,

I can abide by that.

Would that ease your mind?

NOSHIR: Yes, Professor,
thank you.

It's much appreciated.

LIAM: We are all friends
here, son. We are friends.

AABRIA: With that,
with a sort of understanding

of the when and
the how of it,

plans to sneak out tonight
to broach the grounds,

to find for yourself,

we're going to cut as
you wait out the day.

You are able to make plans
with Eloise who is,

though she is
drawn and skittish

and very averse to picking
up even bits and hints

of your work with Candela now
that she's out, she is capable

and babysitting one man
is an easy enough task

to set her to,
though she asks

for as few details
as possible.

LIAM: She was one of the
sharpest agents in the field

when she was still
in the game.

I have no doubt in her.

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: Before we
fast forward too much,

could I have
a scene with Raj?

AABRIA: Love it. Go ahead
and paint me a picture.

LIAM: I'll follow up
afterward.

(laughter)

ASHLY: So I think at this
point that Silva has been--

escorted upstairs.
AABRIA: Yeah, off and away.

Yeah.

ASHLY: I'm going to find a
moment when Raj is alone

and approach him.

AABRIA: Yeah, you have
hours until night falls.

ASHLY: Mm-hmm.

Raj?

NOSHIR: Elsie.

ASHLY: (sighs)

NOSHIR: Oh, I know that
look. Ever the good doctor.

ASHLY: You seem a bit
worse for the wear.

I wondered if I might

(breathes shakily) do
a brief examination

to make sure
everything's okay.

NOSHIR: What? Are you
worried about me, Elsie?

ASHLY: I'm a doctor,
it's my job.

NOSHIR: Yes.

I think I'm doing quite
fine on my own,

but I promise I will
be a very good patient.

If I need you,
I'll come running.

ASHLY: Doing fine on your own,
and yet you joined this group.

How long have you
been tracking this?

What are you going to do
if you don't find her?

NOSHIR: Ever full
of doubts, Elsie.

ASHLY: I was given reason--
NOSHIR: Let's not worry

about a problem that
hasn't arised yet, yes?

I don't need you looking
after me right now.

ASHLY: Did you know I
was going to be here?

NOSHIR: Complete surprise.

ASHLY: Hmm.

NOSHIR: I must say, though,
it is very good to see you.

ASHLY: I wish I
could say the same.

NOSHIR: (laughs)

ASHLY: I'm going
to turn to leave

unless he wants to
stop me for a second.

AABRIA: He lets you leave,

and something in that,
the confrontation of it,

the coldness of it.

Take another token.

SAM: Oh boy.

ASHLY: ♪ Oh, we're
halfway there ♪

NOSHIR: On second
thought-- No.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Hug her and tell her
whatever's happening is fine.

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: Is there anything
else you want to do

before we get to
the sanatorium?

SAM: I'll walk over--
AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM:-- to wherever he is.

LIAM: In my study.

Close the door.

SAM: Oh, I had to--
Okay, sure.

LIAM: You find me with my back
to you and Godot in my lap,

staring at the painting
on the wall behind my desk.

Piles of books and
charts everywhere,

sketches of strange
Oldfairen architecture,

symbols you can't read.

You look well, boy.

Like you always do,
you look well.

SAM: I feel fine, yeah.
How about you?

I mean, you know, you don't
have to do this anymore.

I'm sure you've
been told enough, but--

LIAM: Don't I--

Your time inside wasn't
too harsh, I hope.

SAM: I mean, prison's
a lot like every day.

Same routine,
just smaller walls,

fewer windows.

I would've been fine.

You didn't have to pull
strings and bust me out.

I would've been fine.

LIAM: Well, old habits
and all that.

SAM: Yeah, you're always
taking care of me.

(sighs) I appreciate it.

I just, I think it should
be the other way around.

LIAM: Listen to me.

Believe it or not, I am
glad to have you close.

I am trepidatious.

I don't know what to
make of Dr. Savarimuthu

and this man's
coincidental overlap.

I don't know what
that means, but

I do know that there
will be eyes on us, Oscar.

He hasn't looked at you
once this whole time

and finally turns.

There will be eyes on you.

SAM: I can take it.

I'll just be as
subtle as I can be.

Look, if we get in a scrape,

just stay behind me, okay?

You don't need to be doing
anything brave or bold.

You've done plenty, all right?
Just take it easy.

We'll help these people out,

help the prince out,
or whatever his name is,

go home, rest,
and be done with it.

I know you want
this to be more

than just one of
your regular missions,

but I've stopped trying.

LIAM: Time is a funny thing.

Always wanting more,
never enough.

Or is it too much?

Is it too much time?

Try not to rock the
boat with the circle.

That young man is a
good boy at his core.

SAM: Yeah, he
seemed like he cared.

That's a good thing, I guess.

Still, I mean,
come on, look at him.

AABRIA: (laughs quietly)

SAM: (sighs) I'll do my best,
all right, Cosmo?

LIAM: Not all of us have played
baseball down by the docks.

SAM: Yeah.
LIAM: We all walk

different walks in this life.

SAM: Well, I hope
it's a grand bam.

(laughter)

LIAM: That's an inside
joke just for us.

(laughter)

LIAM: Listen--
SAM: Listen. I got to go.

I got to go, I got to go,

my boss is out there.
GINA: Oscar.

SAM: I got to go. I got to go.
LIAM: Yes, you beat me to it.

Madam Glask does not
suffer fools. Go, go, go, go.

SAM: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
GINA: Time is of the essence.

SAM: Eat something before
we go tonight, all right?

LIAM: I hold up
my wiener dog.

Oh, you have been eating fish.
SAM: No, no. Food.

ASHLY: (laughs)
SAM: Get Eloise

to get you some--
All right, I'm out of here.

Is there anything
else you want to cover

before you head out?

SAM: I want to break
into a sanatorium.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Beautiful.
LIAM: It's minor,

but once Oscar departs,

Cosmo spends the hours of the
day poring through any books

in his collection that
discuss the history

of the Ascendancy,
dating all the way back

to the War of Embers
and looking for anything

that sounds like
this woman Iovar,

and finds nothing.

AABRIA: She is a tidy blank
in your copious research.

LIAM: I had to try.

AABRIA: As you focus
and fixate,

doing what you do best
in the field,

which is know and understand
and catalog and process,

the hours slip away, and
the sun moves across the sky,

and at some point,
you look up

and night has settled over
the Sidle and over Newfaire

and it's time to go.
LIAM: The witching hour.

AABRIA: And we'll get to
that after our break.

SAM: Ooh.
NOSHIR: (laughs)

GINA: Woo!
AABRIA: Woo! (laughs)

We'll see you in a bit!

AABRIA: And after a day
of preparation

and thought,
and conversations,

you find yourselves
standing in the street,

looking up at the imposing
dark gray structure

that is the
Grayslate Sanatorium.

It's been around
for a couple centuries

and any historical
understanding of it

as a place of genuine
convalescence and healing

has given way to
the understanding

that it's where
the rich hide away

the family members
that embarrass them,

and largely,
the Periphery uses it

as a convenient
dumping ground

for their soldiers who have
seen a little too much

and are holding
a little too much,

and are no longer of use.

I think there's something in
the brutal structure of it.

There's nothing calm or kind

or sympathetic to
a person at their lowest,

most vulnerable,
that you see,

that yeah, this reads more
like a fortress

to keep things in than
a place to heal and help.

As you look, you see maybe

every two to three minutes,

a guard in
a dark gray jumpsuit

that blends in with the wall
if they ever go still

to observe or listen in to
the other side of the walls,

makes their pathway around.

You're all hidden
out of sight, it's night.

How do you make your way in?
What's the plan?

SAM: With all due respect
to all you guys:

Your Highness,

Madam, Doc, Cosmo.

This is sort of my bag,
so if you wouldn't mind,

maybe I can go out there
and sneak around

and see if I can get eyes
on that guard that you know.

GINA: Sure, about 6'4",
a dark mustache,

a scar over his right eye.

SAM: That's me,
you're talking about me.

(laughter)

GINA: 6'4?

SAM: Well, I mean, okay.

I think I've
seen him, though, at--

He's a customer, right?

I think I've seen him around.

GINA: Yes, if you can
get eyes on him,

I can possibly ask him
to let us in.

SAM: All right.

LIAM: So we're staying away
from the front gates.

The entrance we're
coming in on the side?

SAM: Maybe I should
scurry up over.

Are these solid stone walls
or cast iron?

AABRIA: So you're looking
at a poured concrete

and brick construction,

but there's just enough of
crenulation and decoration

that there are footholds
at least from the outside.

SAM: All right, I don't think
I need a boost or anything,

but I think I can make it up
and peer over the top.

ASHLY: Be careful.

SAM: Thanks, Doc. If I fall,

I know who's going to
patch me up, right?

(laughter)
SAM: Let's go.

AABRIA: Okay, you time it so
the passing of the guard

gives you your
biggest clearance.

You have maybe a minute

before someone will
turn around a corner

and if you're
not high enough,

you'll be spotted.

So give me, let's call
it a Move roll,

unless you want to make
a case for something else.

SAM: No, Move sounds good.

Is it to get to
the top of the--?

AABRIA: Yep, cleanly,
quickly and quietly.

SAM: I will use a drive.

AABRIA: Yeah, I will say the
stakes on this are high

not for harm, but for
getting there unperceived,

either visually or
auditorily.

ASHLY: I was going to say:

Could I potentially
be sort of--

SAM: Boosty?
ASHLY: Not boosty,

but if you were
to drop something

that might make a sound
or something,

I want to be at the ready
to maybe catch.

AABRIA: Yeah,
you're all very aware that--

you've gotten a
sense of the timing,

so you can get in there,

help as much as you can, and
then get out of Dodge before--

ASHLY: Does that mean
I add a drive to his?

AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: Okay.

SAM: Oh, so I get
another dice, amazing.

AABRIA: Do you want
to jump in on this?

NOSHIR: I'm wondering if
perhaps it's worth it

for Madam Glask and I to

create a little
commotion somewhere

to draw a little bit
of attention.

SAM: Oh boy. We're trying
to do this sneaky.

You sure about that?
NOSHIR: Oh, I mean away from you.

SAM: Sure, sure.

NOSHIR: No, I'll let the
professional handle this.

(laughter)

GINA: Oh, I was hoping
we could have some fun.

SAM: We'll find out.
AABRIA: All right.

SAM: Four,
that's a mixed success.

AABRIA: Okay.

How important is it to you--

ASHLY: Uh-oh.

AABRIA:-- to get up
undetected?

If you have to choose
between success

or harm to yourself,

what do you choose?
SAM: Oh, success.

AABRIA: You scurry up,

moving quickly and
impressively quietly,

and you have a spotter.

The Doc is under you ready
to catch anything,

to make sure you're soundless
and you can feel it

as you are picking all of your
handholds and your footholds,

there's something so hostile
about the architecture

that you feel your hand
grabbing onto not smooth stone

worn down by time,
but it's almost as if

it's been sanded or polished,
so it hurts to hold.

You feel your hands
ripping as you go,

and it takes everything
in you to wipe your shirt

or your coat over the spot

so you're not leaving
bloody hand prints.

Please take a body.

SAM: Oh, okay.
ASHLY: Shit.

SAM: Ah, that hurt,
but I'm here.

ASHLY: Are you okay?

SAM: Yeah, yeah, yeah,
nothing you can't fix, maybe.

You brought bandages, right?

ASHLY: Yes, I brought
bandages, Oscar.

SAM: I'll peer over
and see what I can see.

AABRIA: What you see is all of
the decoration from the outside

absolutely stops when
you get on the inside.

You're about
16 feet in the air,

and the sloped architecture

that gives very gothic vibes
falls away

into a dead drop of

intensely slick,
polished stone

that would provide no purchase
on the other side

for you to jump
and come back.

SAM: Oh boy.
AABRIA: But what you see--

Sorry, mic.

What you see is this flat,
wide area of grass,

maybe a hundred yards
in every direction.

A big square with a couple
little pockets of trees.

To call them copses or little
natural spots of shrubbery

is a gross exaggeration and I
think you have a strong sense

of what becomes normal
after a while,

given how stark
everything is in here.

You can count the number of
trees on your fingers and toes

and yeah, you've got
eyes on the two areas

highlighted by
the map provided.

There's nothing visually
that you can clock,

but that central copse
50 yards to get there

and then the tree edge,

that would've been the
other side of that diagonal

that Johnny ran, would be
probably skirting the outside.

It would take you
maybe 120 yards

to walk the edges
and get over there.

SAM: Can I ID any of
the guards walking around

or see anyone coming?

AABRIA: I think we can
walk that back

and say that if you
were trying to get

the timing of the guards,

you would have seen
your mark, Cronin,

making the rounds.

It takes him probably
20 minutes to do the full lap.

So the fact that
you were seeing someone

every couple of minutes means

that there's
five or six guards on duty.

SAM: Oh, okay.

I will whisper all that
back down to the Doc.

What do we do?

LIAM: What's it like
at the front gate

because I'm not
going over the wall?

AABRIA: You have seconds to
have this conversation

before another
one comes around.

ASHLY: I'm going to say: Just
get down, get down for now.

SAM: I could
throw a rock or--

ASHLY: Oscar, get down.
SAM: All right,

all right, I'll get down.

It's just, they're so
punchable, all right.

ASHLY: As soon
as you get down,

I'm going to take your hands
and look at them.

SAM: It's fine, It's just
a cut, it's fine.

ASHLY: I thought you
were tougher than this.

SAM: I am.

ASHLY: Apparently not.

Then when I have
a few moments of calm,

I can make a Focus roll to
heal one body mark on an ally.

AABRIA: Amazing.
SAM: Oh wow.

AABRIA: Let's go.

SAM: Don't waste that on me.

NOSHIR: I agree.

(laughter)

NOSHIR: Kidding, kidding.

ASHLY: Who are you?

SAM: All right,
so we know where--

Oh, do you have to
roll for it?

AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: I do.

AABRIA: What'd you get?

ASHLY: On a four or a five,
spend two intuition

to accomplish this.

So one of them
was a gilded die,

so I'll get rid of one drive,

and you get your body healed.

AABRIA: Did you take the result
from your gilded die?

ASHLY: Yes.
AABRIA: Okay, cool, cool, sweet.

ASHLY: Better?

SAM: Yeah, thank you.

ASHLY: Sure.

SAM: You doing okay?

ASHLY: (exhales) I'm, uh--

NOSHIR: Time is of
the essence, people.

SAM: Sorry, sorry, yeah.

Okay, I saw the trees
where we're going.

It's in there to the left,

but there's lots of guards.

I think we're going to need

some sort of distraction
to get there.

GINA: I know one.

So you did see Cronin?

SAM: He's making the rounds,

but so are
a half dozen others.

GINA: Five others.

ASHLY: Well.

LIAM: What about
the front entrance?

SAM: What did I see
in the front entrance?

AABRIA: You looked--
So you popped up

to look into
the back and the lawn.

So I think your best eyes
were on the back entrance

to the main building.

What you see is,
even though this place

is very dark and very cold and
very stark and not well lit,

there's still
movement inside.

It's early evening,
so it's not like this place

is settled down
for the night.

But it does feel
a little busy

and without having to roll,

you're street smart,
you've got it.

If an inmate escaped,
they've heightened patrols,

they're on alert because
the impossible has happened.

ASHLY: Cosmo and I could
probably get in,

but that's
just the two of us.

GINA: I can distract them.

They're already on high alert

because they've lost
an inmate already.

What if we pretend that I just
saw another inmate run out.

I'm sure that will--

SAM: Get everyone to run to
the front gate at least, yeah.

We could do that and slip in
while they run out.

NOSHIR: But if we put
security at the front gate,

there's no way the professor's
getting over the wall.

GINA: To the back, since we're
on the side of the back, right?

I'll make a commotion
on that side,

they'll surely have to.

Is there a back gate thing?
Oh, it's only the front.

SAM: Some of us
could climb over

while the two of them
go in the front door.

I would have brought
some rope with us

knowing that we are breaking
into a place,

I would assume.
AABRIA: Yeah.

You can have
your fucking rope.

SAM: Okay.
(laughter)

SAM: So some of us
can go over the wall

while these two
go in the front.

GINA: I can escort you
to the front

or I can go with
you to the front.

ASHLY: They might need you for--
NOSHIR: Oh good.

AABRIA: (laughs)

SAM: Are you okay
at climbing, or--?

GINA: Because how am I
going to climb that?

NOSHIR: I think I'll manage.

SAM: Will the slippers slip?

AABRIA: Oh!

NOSHIR: I think I'll be okay.

After all, I'm with
a professional.

ASHLY: Are you two going
to be okay on your own?

NOSHIR: Oh, absolutely.
SAM: Absolutely.

AABRIA: You got to
take a token;

that stressed me out.

(laughter)

ASHLY: Convincing.

Well, Cosmo?

LIAM: Well, what's
our story going in?

ASHLY: Well, we talked
about this a little bit,

I forgot, off-camera--

(laughter)

ASHLY:-- for the viewers.

I've dressed as if
I'm working at the sanatorium,

and you are prepared
to act uncouth?

LIAM: That's easy,
I'm just wondering

about the first moments in the
gate if there's anyone there.

Are we returning me
from treatment?

GINA: My father has
been so sick lately

and now he's acting
out of control

and I don't know what to do!

Please help him.

SAM: Like you're committing him.
ASHLY: She's pretty good.

LIAM: Yes, grandfather,
though, probably.

GINA: Oh, grandfather.
LIAM: Yes.

AABRIA: Hey, you could
have-- Hmm.

GINA: 49.
AABRIA: Yeah!

LIAM: What happens
when we get inside?

ASHLY: We might just
have to make a beeline

for the director's office.

I don't know if we're going to
be able to get these two in.

SAM: We'll check out
the outside,

the copse of trees
or whatever

and depending on
what we find,

we can try to
find you afterwards.

Rendezvous either inside
at the office if it's easy

or back outside the gate.

LIAM: You're just going
to make a run for it?

What about this man?

SAM: Man?
GINA: Is there any way I can,

once we're inside,
I can break away from you two

and cause a commotion
to distract the guards

for them to climb over?

SAM: We'll be okay.

GINA: Yeah?
SAM: Yeah.

ASHLY: You sure?
SAM: Yeah.

NOSHIR: Nothing ventured.

ASHLY: Fine, we'll go
through the front.

LIAM: So we're just going
to make a cold call

to the director's office?

ASHLY: I don't know
about cold.

Where on the map is
the director's office?

AABRIA: 20 feet
from the front.

There's a little intake,
reception desk

and then, yeah, 20 feet back,
massive office on the left.

ASHLY: If you two

keep moving deeper
into the sanatorium,

and make a commotion
like you said,

I can try to slip into
the director's office

and see what I can find.

LIAM: Yes, and I will

demand the director
vociferously

in the halls,
and then you'll slip in.

ASHLY: Okay.

LIAM: Yes, I'll make a stink.

ASHLY: If I call for you,

it's happening.

So just get them out.

NOSHIR: No one's leaving you
alone in there, Elsie.

ASHLY: I'll be fine.

Let's go.

SAM: Okay.

AABRIA: All right.

We move from there to
all the pieces in place.

You two at the back,
still with that perfect timing

of the guard's rotation.
It seems uninterrupted.

Now that you've had
a couple more minutes

while you're waiting for
the rest of your circle

to get in place,
you see that even the pauses

to knock some
dirt off of a shoe

or to scratch a back,
they're all timed perfectly.

This is a feigned casualness,

but they're staying in
perfect sync with one another.

All of this is to
affect a lack of concern,

though you are
absolutely certain

that they are on
high alert right now.

So you wait for your moment,

and slip up and in
and we'll cut to that.

The three of you walk
through the front door,

rolling, raving.
What does it look like?

LIAM: I don't know
what you put in me.

GINA: No!
LIAM: What did you put in me?

GINA: Careful!

I just don't know how--
ASHLY: Both of you--

GINA:-- to handle him anymore.
ASHLY: I'm sorry.

LIAM: I want to speak--
GINA: Please, help us.

LIAM:-- to who's in charge!

ASHLY: It was a mild sedative.
LIAM: It's not you!

ASHLY: I don't know
why it's not taking.

I don't know why it's not taking.
GINA: Ever since his

wife left him, he hasn't been the same.
LIAM: You're a bitch!

What did you put in me?
GINA: No!

You can't say that.
LIAM: What?

ASHLY: You need to keep
your voice

down, sir.
GINA: Oh my goodness

gracious.
LIAM: I don't trust it.

I don't trust you!
GINA: (hysterical moans)

ASHLY: Can you control
your grandfather, please?

GINA: Grandfather, please--

LIAM: I want to speak to
the man or woman in charge!

GINA: Who's in charge?
AABRIA: (laughs)

You move into this
lobby, mid spin-up,

and you see a receptionist

that almost seemed
to be dozing

with a paperback book
over their chest,

snaps to attention.

A couple of orderlies,
just normal people,

they don't look particularly
burly or intimidating,

filter in from the sides,
running up the halls

to meet you with your energy.

You see this woman
leans forward.

"I'm-- Oh. Oh,
I'm so sorry. Sir?"

LIAM: You're not real.

AABRIA: "Sir."
LIAM: You're not real.

GINA: I don't know what to do anymore.
LIAM: You're not a real person.

AABRIA: "Sir!"
GINA: It's just so (hysterical speech)

ASHLY: Her grandfather
needs to be admitted.

I've given him a sedative,

it is not taking effect.
LIAM: She put something in me!

AABRIA: "Okay."

ASHLY: He's demanding to speak--
GINA: (sobs)

LIAM: (sharp groan)
ASHLY:-- to a director.

LIAM: I want to speak
to who's in charge!

ASHLY: It might help calm him--
LIAM: Someone real!

ASHLY:-- if you could get

your director, please.
GINA: Grandfather, please!

AABRIA: "Sir."
LIAM: I want to speak

to someone real.
AABRIA: "I'm in charge.

"My name is Kathleen,
and I'm here to help."

SAM: (laughs)
LIAM: I want someone real!

Get me someone real!
ASHLY: Kathleen, look at me,

this has been happening
for 45 minutes.

I need you to get your
director here now.

LIAM: You put some
sort of drug in me!

GINA: It was nothing, Grandfather!
LIAM: I don't trust it.

ASHLY: Kathleen.
GINA: I just need you to go to sleep.

AABRIA: "Yeah."
ASHLY: He will become

violent soon.

Now, your director, please.
LIAM: It burns. It burns!

GINA: So violent!

AABRIA: Give me a Sway.
LIAM: Give me

someone real!
GINA: Ever so violent!

SAM: Come on!
ASHLY: Shit, I don't have any Sway.

AABRIA: Give me a Sway roll.

But I will say that
the stakes of this,

of being able to call
down the manager

is much simpler now
because of the cacophony,

and the way you've presented
yourself and that calm command

of, hey you,
you specifically,

you can do this. Yeah.

LIAM: I'm burning
a drive in Cunning

to help sway by screaming

like a lunatic!
(laughter)

AABRIA: (screams) Yeah.
ASHLY: Does that mean--

I have no Sway,

so does that mean two?
AABRIA: So you're at one now.

ASHLY: I'm at one now.
SAM: Oh my god.

LIAM: Oh, I burn two.
GINA: I want to give her another one.

ASHLY: Oh, you're going to give me more?
GINA: I'll give her one.

ASHLY: Okay.
AABRIA: Okay, one and one

LIAM: No, two from me.
AABRIA: Okay, okay, okay.

ASHLY: Okay, so three?
AABRIA: You're at three.

SAM: Add one from Gina.

ASHLY: So three?

AABRIA: Three total.
ASHLY: Okay.

Oh, I got two sixes.
LIAM: Critical! Critical!

AABRIA: Yeah!
(laughter)

NOSHIR: Holy shit!

SAM: Wait, because
they helped--

Oh wait, they don't
get their drive back.

AABRIA: They don't
get their drive back.

ASHLY: Oh shit!
(laughter)

AABRIA: You have
to be bad at things,

and this was the
opposite of that.

Now, I think there's a
moment where you realize

this plan is psychotic

and if there's
any hole in it,

you know everyone's on alert,

you know that this could fall
apart if it's not bought in.

But your comrades are
good at what they do.

You see on your
right, Madam Glask

has dissolved
into sobbing tears

and is feigning that level
of like I might faint.

The orderlies are like,
we are in place to catch her,

what's happening?

Cosmo, losing his mind.
GINA and ASHLY: (laugh)

AABRIA: You are
the point of order,

and you words shoot
through all of the noise

and hit Kathleen perfectly.

It's a problem she can fix.

All she has to do is
go get the director.

She says,

"Yes, doctor,
I'll be right back."

ASHLY: Quickly, please!

AABRIA: "Going."
GINA: Please, quickly.

AABRIA: She pushes away from
the desk and runs down the hall

and you see her I
immediately bank left

to where you know the
director's office is,

and she knocks on the
door banging on it.

Then you see her correct
herself, now like: Okay,

I don't have to have
the energy you have

and it switches to a knock,

opens the door, and you
can't hear what she's saying,

but you know she's having
a hushed conversation

with someone on
the other side.

LIAM: This is a bloody
mummers' show!

ASHLY and AABRIA: (laugh)

AABRIA: While this
is happening,

is there anything
you're trying to scope

now that you're inside
with a clear view

and the heat's
kind of off you?

ASHLY: My hope is that
we would successfully

get the director out.

They would keep
the ruckus up,

and then I would
(schloop)

AABRIA: Yeah. Sweet.
ASHLY: That's me sneaking.

That's what that was.
AABRIA: I was just seeing

if you're going to
scan anything

while you're waiting to
see the resolution on this.

ASHLY: If I was trying
to see anything--

AABRIA: Yeah, trying to--
You have a moment

to scan things
without looking,

without being noticed
for casing a joint.

ASHLY: I suppose I should,
since you're asking.

That would be a
Survey, I'm guessing?

AABRIA: Just give me an idea

of what you're looking for.

And that's for
all three of you.

ASHLY: I want to make sure--
AABRIA: You have a moment.

ASHLY:-- that my
path is clear

to sneak into the
director's office

and not raise any suspicion.

I mean they're successfully
distracting everyone,

but I want to make
sure I'm not going to

turn a corner and a guard's
going to come by

and be like,
what are you doing?

AABRIA: Yeah, from
what you can see,

all of that busyness
and the commotion

is way down the corridors and
way down the hall towards,

you can see pouring
in of moonlight,

that doors that would lead out
into that back area would be.

So it seems like
they're back there

and then farther again away

where the patients are
probably being held.

So your way is clear.

Anyone else trying to
look for something specific?

LIAM: Yeah, I know
it's total chaos,

but I would like to know

if all the people who
are rushing around us,

they see stuff like
this all the time.

AABRIA: Yeah.
LIAM: So,

do they look really perturbed

or upset or is it
just business as usual?

AABRIA: The three
people you've seen,

Kathleen, the receptionist,

and the two orderlies
that have poured out,

Kathleen seems by far
the most startled.

She's not really actually--
ASHLY: Is she new here?

(laughs)
AABRIA: She doesn't look

like she's been
around for a while,

like oh, it
popped off in a way

and I don't really
know the protocol,

which is why she was
so eager to align

to a point of authority.

The orderlies on
the other hand,

seasoned professionals, and
they're moving closer to you,

and waiting,
without grabbing you,

you're not being manhandled,

but you can see that
they're on deck

if you begin to pop off

in the way that the
doc warned them.

LIAM: I am starting to wheel
away from the direction

of where Elsie wants to go,

trying to draw attention away from--
SAM: Oh, smart.

AABRIA: Yeah.
GINA: I chase after him.

Grandfather, no no, come back!
LIAM: None of you are real.

GINA: No, you can't--

But I'm barely running.
AABRIA: Yeah.

LIAM: You're not real!
AABRIA: You're doing the,

I don't know how to run in heels.
LIAM: You're not real!

AABRIA: Yeah.
GINA: Yeah.

AABRIA: They're trying
to figure out,

how the fuck do you get in the
way of someone with wheels.

Oh, he's so side to
side, curvy agile.

I'm used to a juke.

This is new.
LIAM: Bob and weave, serpentine,

serpentine!
AABRIA: Yeah!

(laughter)

AABRIA: So as they're trying
to figure out the best way

to have coverage on you,
you draw them back

towards the front door,
and now you have space.

You can see Kathleen
speaking into the office.

She stands back in a
way that would suggest

that she's waiting for
the director to come out.

So if it is your intention
to go in that way,

you can head off.

You know that you've
got a couple seconds

before she emerges.
ASHLY: Yeah.

AABRIA: So what do
you want to do?

ASHLY: Ideally, I would be
part of the fracas still

until the director
is pulled past me,

and then when his
attention is distracted

I would slip in behind them.

AABRIA: Okay. Yeah,
you wait a couple seconds

and you see her emerge.

Director Greenvale
is shorter woman,

very thin in that
way of runners.

There's not a lot
of extra flesh to her.

Appears to be in
her early 40s,

short severe blonde bob,

and eyes that you can't
really get a read on

behind some fairly
thick half frames.

She's dressed pristinely.

It's the early evening, but
she looks like she's wearing

freshly pressed clothes
at the top of her day.

She comes out, nods something

in confirmation to Kathleen,

and then gives her
the go ahead.

Kathleen takes off
farther down the hall

in the other direction
and she turns

and casually walks
your direction.

(Director) "Seems-- (clears
throat authoritatively)

"Seems like we have a little
bit of a problem here."

LIAM: I'm still waiting!
GINA: Oh! We just need help!

ASHLY: Please, please, if you
could go speak to him please.

LIAM: Who are you?
Are you real?

GINA: We're all real
grandfather, please.

AABRIA: "Remains to be
seen, sir. One second."

You see she slides
off of you in a way

that someone who works
with rowdy patients

and people in crisis,

none of it is hitting her
in any emotional way.

She re-locks in on you.

"Are you the one that's going
to be committing him, ma'am?"

ASHLY: Yes, and
transparently, this is--

I'm new to this
sort of assignment,

so I'm a little frazzled

and I was hoping that
maybe you could calm him

because nothing I'm doing
seems to be helping.

LIAM: I wheel up. I want--

You're the one, aren't you?

I want my room prepared!

AABRIA: You get--
LIAM: I want a free room!

(laughter)
LIAM: I want a free room!

GINA: I grab him. "Grandfather--"
LIAM: And I want it to be real!

GINA: "It's not a hotel.
It's not a hotel!

AABRIA: How close do you
get to the director?

LIAM: I get right up and I
actually tug on her sleeve.

AABRIA: The moment you
get within melee range,

her foot comes
up in her skirt

and she stops you
with the heel,

in between your
knees on your chair.

She goes, "Sir."

LIAM: Yes? Yes.
AABRIA: "I'm going to need you

"to wait a moment.
I'm speaking."

LIAM: I want to be in a room.

I want to be in a room away
from this one and her tricks!

GINA: Oh, how could you?
How could you?!

He doesn't mean that.
LIAM: I want to be put in a room!

GINA: I'm his
granddaughter, please.

LIAM: Right now!
ASHLY: I'm so, so sorry.

GINA: (hysterical mumbling)
LIAM: I don't want to speak

to any underlings,
or flunkies, or phonies,

I want someone real.
AABRIA: "Eyes on me."

LIAM: (angrily) Ah!

AABRIA: "I need
you to calm down.

"My name is
Director Greenvale

"and I will take care of you.

"But nothing good will happen
if you continue this way.

"Do you understand?"
LIAM: My own room?

AABRIA: "Yes, your own room."

You see her scanning you.

You're nicely dressed and
it seems like only after

she appraised you
did she agree.

"Yes, now can you give
us a minute, Mr.--?"

LIAM: Ogilvy.
AABRIA: "Ogilvy.

"Is that of the

"Ogilvys in Silverslip?"

LIAM: No, I'm from the Sidle.

AABRIA: "Hmm. Okay,
we'll take care of you."

LIAM: You are a liar.

AABRIA: She's going to
try to refocus on you.

So what do you want to do to
try to break away from this?

ASHLY: I'm going to
say: I'm so sorry.

I would love to speak
to you about everything

that's happened thus far,
but I really would like

a moment to compose
myself if I could.

So if you wouldn't
mind please taking him

to his room and I
will meet you there.

AABRIA: "Understood.

"I have to-- Okay, I
just sent Kathleen off.

"That's fine.

"I will draw up
some intake paperwork.

"If you can just
hold on here.

"Are you the executor

"of his estate?

"Can you sign that paperwork
or would that be--"

ASHLY: That would be her.
GINA: That would be me.

AABRIA: "Okay."
GINA: I'm his granddaughter.

AABRIA: "I'll be back
with paperwork for you.

"Take all the time you need.

"There's a powder room down
the hall on the right."

ASHLY: Thank you very much.

AABRIA: She truly just,
foot comes down

she pushes past you.

There's just a
coldness to her

as she goes back
into her office.

ASHLY: Oh, she goes
back into the office?

AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: Fuck!

GINA: Oh, I know. Okay.

ASHLY: Okay.
AABRIA: I will say,

20 yards away, you
see her moving back

in that direction to
go grab something.

ASHLY: I'm just
going to be gone--

AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY:-- as if I'm
in the powder room.

AABRIA: Sweet.
ASHLY: I'm going to try

to wait to have them all go--

AABRIA: Perfect.
ASHLY: Yeah.

GINA: Before she makes
it about 20 yards away--

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.

GINA: (whisper-mumbling
character sheet info) Okay.

Madam Glask, as loud
as she possibly can, just--

SAM: Oh boy.
GINA: (wailing) Oh!

I can't take this anymore!

And faints, just dramatically
faints on the ground,

furs all over the ground,
rings flying out.

AABRIA: You land
on the ground--

Do you commit to--

GINA: Yeah, oh baby
yeah, absolutely.

AABRIA: Okay.

As you hit, you see
the orderlies have moved

off of Cosmo and
are looking at you,

and it's at that moment
that you see the swing

of the bob as the
director peeks back out.

"What now? Fuck!"

She comes back out

and moves in your direction.
SAM: Awesome.

GINA: Yes.
ASHLY: Are they far enough away

that it would be safe
for me to go in there?

AABRIA: It looks like now

everyone's grouped
up around these two.

ASHLY: Okay.
AABRIA: So they're not even

looking back in
your direction.

ASHLY: Okay, I'm going to--
AABRIA: The way is clear.

ASHLY: I'm going to get
in there then, I guess.

AABRIA: So you're diving
into the office?

ASHLY: Yep, yep, yep.

AABRIA: Perfect.
ASHLY: That's what I'm doing.

AABRIA: Okay. You slip in.
Do you leave the door ajar?

Do you close it?
Do you lock it?

How committed are you
to giving yourself time?

ASHLY: Fuck. I think I
need to keep it open

so that I can hopefully move
out quickly if I need to.

AABRIA: Fine. Okay.

Then we'll cut to
that in a second.

Let's go see what's happening
in the back of house.

Gentlemen, what's your plan?

SAM: If he can hack it,
we'll scale the wall.

Wait 'til there's
a break in the guards

and dash over
into the darkness.

NOSHIR: Lead the way.

AABRIA: I love
all of this energy.

Okay. Your timing
is locked in.

I need both of you to
make Move rolls to go up.

I will say a slight
difference in stakes

between the two of you.

A regular roll,
regular stakes,

because you've seen
it done before.

You have a sense of
how to get up there,

though you may not
have a perfect sense

of how physically
precarious it is to go up.

But because your
hands are bandaged,

this is going to be
a little harder for you.

It will require
a full success--

SAM: Uh!
AABRIA:-- for you to get up in time.

SAM: Like a six?

AABRIA: Yes.
SAM: Oh my god!

ASHLY: Even though
I healed him?

NOSHIR: This is on a--
AABRIA: I mean you,

did you use magick
to heal him

or did you patch him up?
ASHLY: I took his body away,

his body mark.

AABRIA: Right, I think that
handles the-- he's no longer

dealing with the
deleterious effects of harm.

ASHLY: Okay.
AABRIA: But unless--

How badly do you want
it to be gone?

How important is it to you

that he is unimpeded
and unbandaged.

ASHLY: I think it would be
important to her, yeah.

AABRIA: So maybe there's
something in

the way you bandaged it,

and the way you've
cleaned these wounds that

almost feels like

they sealed up again.

That's how precise you were.

Even though this was
very ragged, ripped damage,

everything just
settles in a way,

like it was more of a surgical
cut than a series of scrapes.

You are not worried
about why it worked,

simply that it did.

Take a bleed.
ASHLY: (sharp inhale)

Baby's got one more bleed
in the pocket.

(laughter)

NOSHIR: God dang.
ASHLY: I don't know what the fuck's--

(laughter)

AABRIA: Your roll is normal.
SAM: Okay.

AABRIA: Good luck! (laughs)
ASHLY: (laughs)

NOSHIR: So if this is a rope,
is this a Move or a finesse?

SAM: I probably have to go
up there with the rope first

and drop it down to you,
I would assume,

unless you're
going to let us--

AABRIA: I mean, I'm happy to
let you have a grappling hook.

ASHLY: (laughs)
GINA: (laughs)

AABRIA: If you want
a grappling hook.

SAM: Sure, I mean,

we knew we were going to go
break into a place, right?

AABRIA: Yeah. Yes. Then yes,

it can be an interaction

that would be
Move or Control.

I'll let you decide
what you use.

SAM: Doesn't matter to me,

so I'll burn a drive
and start climbing up.

Okay, six.

(laughter)

ASHLY: Would've been fine!

AABRIA: You actually see,
he makes it look easy.

That first initial
scrabble belies

how effective

and really graceful he is.

He's lithe. He slips up.

It barely makes a sound as it
catches at the top of the wall

and he's making a little
too much eye contact with you

as he begins to climb.
(laughter)

AABRIA: You actually
see that Oscar--

You understand that
there's a muscle memory

to certain behaviors, because
you actually see as he climbs,

he's tucking the rope
under him at first

to cover his tracks,
and then he remembers

that it's for you, too, and
he releases it behind him.

SAM: Before I release
it, I'll be like:

Hey.

Do you want to take off that
jacket before you come up here?

(laughter)

NOSHIR: Not really, no.
SAM: All right, fine.

Just don't sparkle us so
much that you get us caught.

(laughter)

NOSHIR: I'm going
to add a drive,

because the fuck I'm
getting shown up by this--

(laughter)

AABRIA: I love this energy.

SAM: I'll also
give him a drive.

GINA: Oh!
SAM: Because I'll pull.

AABRIA: Ooh!
GINA: Okay.

NOSHIR: Oh, good.
AABRIA: That's so good.

NOSHIR: Charity.
SAM: With one arm.

ASHLY: I think you guys might
have the sexual tension.

AABRIA: One arm,
and in that way

that he's not hiding
that he's doing it.

GINA: Why don't we
explore this more?

NOSHIR: Oh man. Wow, okay.

I barely make it with a four.

AABRIA: Ooh!
ASHLY: Okay.

AABRIA: Mixed success.

You make your way up, and you
can feel him assisting you.

You can feel
the ways in which

you are confined
by your outfit,

though your pride won't
let you back down.

I'm going to say,

I'm going to make
you take a brain mark

as your pride
has been checked

in a really foundational
way for you.

SAM: I got you. Don't worry.
(laughter)

AABRIA: Take a scar.

GINA: Oh my god!
(laughter)

NOSHIR: Thank you, Oscar.

What would I do without you?

SAM: We'll find
out soon enough.

Let's look out
for the guards.

You look right,
I'll look left.

AABRIA: You look out and
over, and looking in,

you see that the guards
are guarding the perimeter.

I think you can
have that moment

of being significantly
more impressed

with Silva's ability to
escape, because again,

it's that polished
stone sheer face

that he was able to
work something out

with a little bit of
the trees against the wall,

even though they're
not touching,

and a little bit of the ivy.

Whatever he did was unreal
to get up and out.

But there's no one
patrolling the inside.

SAM: Okay.

AABRIA: So you can drop down,

it's just a bit of a drop.
SAM: The coast is clear.

Let's go.

NOSHIR: Sarkis made
this climb unaided.

SAM: Yeah, he must be some
sort of acrobat or something.

NOSHIR: Or he was let out.

SAM: Hmm.

Well, we'll figure that
out later, I guess.

Come on, we've got to go.

NOSHIR: All right,
I'm right behind you.

SAM: All right, I take off.

AABRIA: You use the
rope and drop down?

SAM: Yes, please.
AABRIA: Okay.

No roll required.

You drop into the back and
you have a clear view

of the two areas of intrigue.

You know that you've got
a football field's length

to the door where people
are moving around inside.

But the moon is out,

but there's a little
bit of cloud cover.

It's not so well lit
that you would stick out

like a sore thumb,
and most importantly,

you're not wearing the
stark white clothing

that would give you away
in uninterrupted expanse.

As long as nothing disastrous
happens, you can make your way

to either one of
those points unimpeded.

SAM: Go to the closer
one first, I guess.

NOSHIR: I'd like to
use Focus to analyze

what might be the most
strategic place to go.

Closest isn't
necessarily the best.

SAM: (sneers)

(grumbles mockingly)
ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: Go ahead and
give me that roll.

NOSHIR: (laughs)
ASHLY and GINA: (laugh)

NOSHIR: Why can't
we just be friends?

AABRIA: (laughs)

NOSHIR: Oh right,
because I don't like you.

AABRIA: (gasps)
ASHLY and GINA: (laugh)

AABRIA: I'm sorry!

NOSHIR: Double fives on
my gilded, so a success.

SAM: Nice.
AABRIA: Yep.

NOSHIR: I would hope.
AABRIA: Mixed success,

and you get a drive
back if you spent it.

You look.
You have a little time.

You can breathe.
You can think.

You could split up, but
splitting up is dangerous.

There's just enough distance
that if something goes awry,

you're not able
to work together

and these walls are strange.

Just as a note, do you leave
the rope hanging down,

or do you take it
down with you?

SAM: If we want
to get out fast,

I would have left it hanging.

NOSHIR: The only thing
I would consider is,

there is no way your father
is getting out with that rope

unless we carry
him ourselves.

SAM: Cosmo is
going to be fine.

He's got the doc with him.
He's got the Madam with him.

(sighs)

NOSHIR: So we take the rope,

and your father
fends for himself.

SAM: We still need
to get out, don't we?

NOSHIR: I suppose we do.

Lead on, Captain.

SAM: All right.
AABRIA: Closest one first.

You make your way across
the grassy expanse

to three stunted oaks

and some low-lying shrubbery.

You don't have to get all
the way to the brush line

to see the ways in which
that low-lying plant life

has been recently dug up
and ripped out.

You realize quite quickly,

even through the shadows

and the not nearly
enough moonlight

that you are looking towards
something that is hiding

the depth of it from you
as you approach a hole.

SAM: A hole?

Okay, how big? How deep?

AABRIA: You get
right in there.

Five feet across,
and you look down.

Without any external
light source,

you don't have
a strong sense,

but it is just
dark brown dirt

that leads endlessly down.

You don't know
how deep it goes.

SAM: Didn't happen to bring a
flashlight with you, did you?

NOSHIR: A what?

I have a candle.

ASHLY: (laughs)

LIAM: Oh my god.

AABRIA: What in the what?

SAM: Wow, even your
gear's assholes.

(laughter)

SAM: Great, light
the candle, then.

NOSHIR: What is fla-- Is that
a prison move or something?

ASHLY: (laughs)

NOSHIR: I don't understand.

Okay.
SAM: Yeah!

ASHLY: (laughs)

NOSHIR: Under the
level of the hole,

so that the light
hopefully stays shielded

from our insistent patrols,
I'll light the candle.

AABRIA: You light the
candle using the trees,

make sure that in as much
as you can block yourself

from vision at the back
of the actual building.

You tilt the candle down,

and once you get a
little light in there,

you have a sense of depth.

This goes down about 15 feet

and terminates

at this slate gray shale rock

that seems to have
crumbled inward.

SAM: We've got to go down.

NOSHIR: We don't even know if
this leads into the sanatorium.

SAM: Wherever it leads,
it's weird, right?

Candela's all about
finding weird shit.

GINA: (laughs)

NOSHIR: Oh god.

SAM: That guy was scared, the
Johnny guy, the patient guy.

He ran this way,
maybe it was to get away

to a secret spot he knew.

NOSHIR: This is the
place on the map

that's marked with the X?

This is where
Johnny disappeared?

AABRIA: This is the--
SAM: Direction that he ran.

AABRIA: Yeah, this
is the trajectory.

With your memory
of bloody hands

and being coated
in dirt? Yeah.

SAM: Why?

What do you know about them?

I saw your face when you
were talking to that guy.

You went all blank.

What do you know that
you're not telling us?

NOSHIR: Not enough, apparently.

Prepare yourself.

SAM: For what?

NOSHIR: Horrors.

After you.

SAM: (heavy exhale)

All right, let's go.
AABRIA: In that moment,

as you steel yourself
to go below,

we'll cut back to the office.

You find yourself
in a massive office.

It stretches out.

There's just not enough
furniture for this place.

You see what is too much
of a big mahogany desk,

probably eight feet long,
beautifully carved,

covered with all
of the tchotchkes

and little decanters
and pen holders,

and it still feels small

and a little simple to you.

You grew up in finery

and you understand

how all of that
should look and feel,

what rooms that exude
grandeur should evoke.

This feels,

to you, a sort
of bad attempt,

a mockery of opulence.
ASHLY: Mm.

AABRIA: You're standing
on a nice rug,

but again, too small
for this room.

The back wall is a
bank of glass windows

looking out onto
the premises,

the lawns,

and you have an unimpeded view
as the curtains are open.

There's a little
bit of moonlight.

You see to the left, all the
way flush against the wall,

again, a too small set
of cabinets and files.

On the far right wall,
a little washbasin,

but no other
sitting arrangement.

Just her desk,
her chair, her rug,

and the tools
of her business.

What do you look for?

ASHLY: I'd like to look for--

I think it would
be potentially

personal correspondence,

because the nun

I don't think is necessarily
directly involved

with the sanatorium.

AABRIA: Definitely not.

ASHLY: So there
must be something.

It wouldn't be in medical
files or anything,

any information
we're looking for,

so I'm guessing I
would go to the desk

and try to see if
there's anything

that looks like it
doesn't belong there,

like it isn't
about the business

that she would be conducting.

AABRIA: Yeah.
Give me a Survey roll.

ASHLY: Okay.

Do I want to use drive?
AABRIA: (laughs)

ASHLY: Yeah.
SAM: (laughs)

GINA and ASHLY: (laugh)

AABRIA: That was adorable.

ASHLY and AABRIA: (laugh)

ASHLY: I got a mixed success.
AABRIA: Okay.

You begin searching
frantically,

and you have that sense of,
I don't know how long I have,

but I have to find it.

They figured out a way to
make it, but I'm on my own,

and if I squander this
opportunity, it's wasted,

and who knows what
will happen to them?

You don't know how
they're doing.

Yeah.

(sighs)

ASHLY: Do I do this?

AABRIA: The question is,
how stressed out is Elsie

in this moment
as she searches?

You will, at the end
of whatever this is,

find the information
you're looking for,

but how calm and
how confident are you

as you search through,

and it takes just
a little bit too long?

You're opening more drawers

than you thought
you would have to.

ASHLY: Not calm.
I think this is not--

Most of the assignments that
she's been on with Cosmo

have probably been
less intense than this.

AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: She's already had to

lie and act in front
of a bunch of people.

That's not something she does.
AABRIA: Yeah.

ASHLY: She knows that
time is of the essence.

AABRIA: Yep.

ASHLY: In general, the day
has been kind of a bear,

so I think she is
not composed at all.

AABRIA: Okay. Token.
How many are you at?

ASHLY: Five.
AABRIA: Good to know.

ASHLY: I have one left.
AABRIA: One left.

SAM: Oh boy.
AABRIA: (sighs)

You eventually find it.

You see it there.

Letters, correspondence,
folded in a way

that official business
simply isn't

on heavier letter stock that
isn't used in the day to day

where you would spend
time and money and care

in woven paper and nice ink

and maybe even
a light smell to it.

I will say, your mixed success
was not the panic.

That was coming
no matter what.

The mixed success is that
you notice, as you're moving,

as you're searching
around the desk

looking for
a hidden compartment,

because you're not
getting what you want,

you see a little
flicker of light

off in the distance
in the backyard,

and your eye
flicks up to that

central little area of trees.

You're not sure
what's happening,

but you do see
movement there,

and the very specific
yellow glow

of a small bit of
fire light or a candle.

ASHLY: Do I know--

Am I geographically
savvy enough

to know that that's where
they would be headed?

AABRIA: You have that sense
of, oh, this opens out

onto the back area, and looking
at the map, you're like,

great, I knew that there
was a thing in the middle,

one off on a side,
and then the back wall.

So yeah, you can put
two and two together

and say that that's
either them

or something different
and worse is happening.

ASHLY: Okay, I'm
going to, if I can,

because there's
a window, right?

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.
ASHLY: I'm going to glance

and see, have
guards noticed this?

Is this something--

Am I the only one seeing
this or has there been--

AABRIA: There's no one
else out in that lawn.

ASHLY: Okay.

(laughs) I know Raj
keeps candles on him.

(laughs)
AABRIA: (laughs) Yeah.

Yeah, okay.

That's so quirky,
it's got to be true.

ASHLY: Uh-huh.

AABRIA: I accept it, yeah.

ASHLY: Okay, well, if there aren't--
AABRIA: Little candle man.

NOSHIR: We were
experimenting,

what was I supposed to do?
ASHLY: (laughs)

LIAM: Candle wax.
AABRIA: Yeah.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Temperature play.

ASHLY: So if I don't see any
guards that could notice them,

I don't necessarily think
that I would panic about that.

AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: I would clock that--

AABRIA: Yep.
ASHLY:-- they've maybe found something.

AABRIA: Clocked, and it's
just enough of a distraction

that your mind moves to them

and, oh, how are they doing?

ASHLY: Yeah.
AABRIA: How am I doing?

We're all doing our
jobs right now

and we're under the clock.
ASHLY: Uh-huh. Okay.

AABRIA: Then you find
the correspondence.

You open it up and see it,

and you don't
recognize the words.

It's not the alphabet

that you've ever
interacted with.

It's just strange symbols
patterned with breaks

and all of the spacing of
a letter written in Fairen,

and yet, even in
your time in Candela,

I don't know if you've
come across ancient Fairen,

but you know
you're not looking

at your language.

ASHLY: Okay.
AABRIA: Something's different.

ASHLY: I'm going to pocket it

and then try to
put things back--

AABRIA: Yep.

ASHLY:-- where they were
and then (clicks tongue)

skedaddle.
AABRIA: You restore order

and slip out, hoping that you
didn't waste too much time.

To my friends in the front,
the fainter and the freak out,

how are you doing?

You have two
orderlies around you,

one's holding you heroically,

and the other's just
slapping your face.

ASHLY: (laughs)
AABRIA: Like, "Come on.

"Up, up, up."

GINA: Get your filthy
hands off of me.

(scoffs) I'm up.
AABRIA: "It's not filthy.

"I have to be clean.
I work in a hospital."

GINA and ASHLY: (laugh)

GINA: I peek over at Cosmo
to see how he's doing.

LIAM: Cosmo, at a lower level,
is still babbling,

but at a lower frequency.

I don't know,
none of you are real.

This isn't real. Who are--

But I've got one eye
creeping up to the hallway

waiting for Elsie to appear.

AABRIA: Yeah.

LIAM: (babbling
incoherently) But I want--

Yeah, she's lying to me,
they're lying to me.

AABRIA: (laughs)
LIAM: I'm old. Eyes!

AABRIA: I'm not even
going to make you roll

because you've so
fully committed

to I'm a distraction and
I will spin up and down

and in sync with that
and the moment you see

just that little bit
of extra moonlight,

before you see her,

before you see her
shadow on the ground,

you see the change
in light there.

Yep.

LIAM: Where am I?

AABRIA: Spin up again.

LIAM: Where an I?
GINA: I keep an eye on him

and I mirror him.

The more he freaks
out, the more--

LIAM: What is this place?

Where am I?
GINA: Oh! I don't feel that good!

AABRIA: "What's happening?"
GINA: Oh, it's so warm in here!

ASHLY: I'm going to come back out and--
AABRIA: "Where did the doctor go?"

ASHLY: I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry.
AABRIA: "Did you pull it together?"

LIAM: I don't want this,
I want my room.

I want my room!
AABRIA: "Sure, sure."

LIAM: I don't want this,
I want my room!

AABRIA: "You know what?"
GINA: I'm missing eyebrows.

AABRIA: "We can have them committed--"
LIAM: Take me home to my room!

AABRIA: "-- now and have you pull--"
ASHLY: Look, I'm so sorry, I--

LIAM: I want my room!

ASHLY: I understand.

This is very
unprofessional of me.

AABRIA: "Deeply. What's your name again?"
ASHLY: I'm so sorry.

AABRIA: "Do you have a license?"
ASHLY: Yes.

AABRIA: "Prove to me,

"just give me some
kind of documentation."

LIAM: Take me home, I want my room.
AABRIA: "Because you're not

"giving me a lot
of confidence

"in your medical abilities."
LIAM: I want my room.

ASHLY: I mean, I would have.

GINA: We will
have a room soon.

ASHLY: Yeah, you're reading
perfectly as a doctor.

She's just unloading on you.

ASHLY: Look, I'm so sorry.

I will take him back to
his-- I can handle this.

LIAM: No!
ASHLY: I'll take him home.

LIAM: My room!
ASHLY: I know,

I will take you home.
LIAM: My room!

ASHLY: I will take you home.

AABRIA: "You have 30 seconds
to leave my facility--"

ASHLY: Yes, ma'am.
AABRIA: "-- or all of you

"will be put
under evaluation."

ASHLY: Okay, yes, ma'am,
we are leaving.

We are leaving.
LIAM: All of you can go to hell!

ASHLY: We're leaving and I take
him and I start wheel him out.

GINA: We'll help him get home.
AABRIA: Yeah.

You feel as you
are moving around

to go grab the handles
of his wheelchair,

you see she puts
a gentle hand.

It doesn't look flexed
or hard on your shoulder,

and with one violent jerk,
actually scoots your chair

so you are pointed
out the door

in a show of incredible
strength with no effort.

LIAM: Take it, take it away.

AABRIA: "Have a good night."
LIAM: Take it away.

ASHLY: I'm so sorry.
AABRIA: "Make better choices."

ASHLY: I'm very sorry,
I'm very sorry.

And then I keep going out.
LIAM: I'm surrounded by a

circus of lies.

AABRIA: (laughs)

ASHLY: As as we're
leaving, he's, yeah.

AABRIA: Yeah.
ASHLY: That's what we're doing.

LIAM: As we're
leaving the door,

because I don't want
this just to shut off:

What are you giving me?

I don't want that.

I don't want that!

Ow, ah! No!

Ow, ow.

Oh.

Oh.

Into a faux
medicated taper off.

(laughter)

AABRIA: Okay.

LIAM: (weak groan)

AABRIA: Do you pause?

Yeah.
ASHLY: We're going.

We're moseying
back to where--

LIAM: Towards the exit.

I want to be quiet by
the time we get there.

AABRIA: Perfect, yep.

You see the orderlies
flanked by the director

and now some of the guards
that were farther down

in the hall, and even
maybe a patient or two,

peeking through
the glass doors

at the far end
of the hallway.

Everyone's just
watching the commotion.

So, on top of all of that,
you have pulled any focus

the guards inside the building
might have had on the back.

ASHLY: Sweet.

LIAM: I am now
just limp body.

LIAM: (groans)
AABRIA: Beautiful.

(laughs)

You make your way out
back to the quiet evening.

Do you go down
my little hole?

SAM: Of course.

(laughter)

SAM: Do you?

NOSHIR: Well, I want to ask.
AABRIA: Yeah?

NOSHIR: How does
bleed detection work?

Like what can be told
from detecting bleed?

AABRIA: So the idea of this
would be if you're trying

to pick up a trail or
detect bleed in thresholds

or amounts that you
wouldn't notice right away

because anyone in proximity
to incredible amounts of bleed

is going to feel it
regardless,

but this allows you a
little more sense of focus,

directionality, intensity,

and the ability to hone in.

NOSHIR: Does it give any
indication of say recency?

AABRIA: Recency?
NOSHIR: Like if

a bleed taint has been
in the area recently,

would that be something
that you could tell

with a bleed detector or not?

AABRIA: So the fun thing about
this is you get to tell me

what your bleed detector is
like and what it's capable of,

and if it was important to
you to have that information,

like the fact that your mind
went to that might indicate

that it would be
something that you would,

like a functionality

you would want to
have on you, so, yes.

NOSHIR: You don't
have to like me,

but do you trust me
in this moment?

SAM: No.

ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: Saw that coming.

NOSHIR: Do you
trust Elsie, then?

SAM: Of course.

NOSHIR: Then for her sake,
you keep a lookout.

I'm going to see
if I can tell--

SAM: Me keep a lookout?
NOSHIR:-- if this creature's

been down there, yes.

SAM: You're going to scurry down?
NOSHIR: I'm not going down there.

I just need to check
on bleed real quick.

Can you do that for me?

My attention will
be focused here.

SAM: I can do that for her.

NOSHIR: On that,
we can agree.

Thank you.

I pull a monocle out
of my jacket pocket.

AABRIA: Oh!

NOSHIR: And peer down
into the space.

While I do that,
my other hand,

de-gloved, goes to my jacket

and clutches a claw.

As I watch in the space,

centipedes and maggots

and small insects start
to come out of the soil

and I'm watching to see the
direction that they travel

and how dense they arrive.

If it's scant, there won't
be a lot of response,

but if it's a high presence
or recent activity,

I'll see it in how
agitated they are.

AABRIA: You watch this
strange set of circumstances.

I think in your little bit
of interaction with Candela,

all of this is very
technical and very clinical,

stupid little gadgets made
of brass that spin and squeal.

This feels close to the thing

that you're looking for.

Monocle up,
his hand in his pocket,

and then as if a
fresh rain has sent

all of the bugs in this
freshly turned earth upward,

you see earthworms

and centipedes rising up,
writhing,

wriggling, and then flinging
themselves into the hole.

You can feel it.

She's there.

So close.

Your chest--
NOSHIR: We have to wait.

SAM: Wait?

Wait for what?

NOSHIR: We have to wait
for the others.

SAM: I don't even know
if they're coming here.

NOSHIR: The two of us alone
can't handle whatever she is

and she is down there.

SAM: I'll wait if you tell
me what she did to you.

NOSHIR: We don't
have time for this.

SAM: We do if we wait.

What did she do to you?

NOSHIR: What she did to me
is of no consequence.

SAM: Then I'm going down.

NOSHIR: She
destroyed my sister.

Broke her into something

I couldn't recognize.

Shattered her mind
and broke her will,

and then tore her into a
thousand pieces in front of me.

Is that enough for you?

What more details
do you need?

SAM: How old were you?

NOSHIR: Not old enough.

SAM: I'm sorry.

NOSHIR: It was
a long time ago.

SAM: (sighs)

AABRIA: Oscar,

what are you going to do?

SAM: I scan around to see
if any guards are afoot,

anyone picking up our--

AABRIA: You see the guards
that you saw milling about

have now backed away
and are gone.

SAM: That's weird.

(sighs)

If I look towards
the front door,

do I see any of our people?

ASHLY: We would've presumably
made some sort of plan

about meeting up
again or something.

SAM: Oh, you would think.
ASHLY: You would think.

AABRIA: That's really fun.
I didn't hear it.

ASHLY: Yeah, fair enough.
SAM: I didn't either.

ASHLY: Fair enough.

SAM: Fine, I'll go get them.

Wait here. I'll go get
them. I'll be right back.

NOSHIR: You would--?

Fine.

SAM: Okay.

AABRIA: What do you do?

SAM: I'll close up my coat

and scurry across around
the back towards the front,

see if I can
find our friends.

AABRIA: You get back
up and over the wall.

SAM: Over the wall?

We're inside the wall, right?

AABRIA: Yeah, you're
inside the wall.

Where are you headed?

SAM: I'm going to the,
I assume there's a--

AABRIA: This is
basically a backyard

with a single door that
leads into the building.

SAM: Oh, it's not
an open thing.

AABRIA: No, it doesn't go
all the way around.

SAM: Oh, I--
AABRIA: You are stuck

in the backyard of this place.
LIAM: I did not understand that.

ASHLY: I didn't either.
SAM: I didn't understand that either.

AABRIA: I didn't explain it
well and that's on me.

SAM: It's not like a campus that
we're inside the walls of now.

AABRIA: No.
LIAM: How the hell

am I going to get there?

SAM: How are they
going to get here?

Well, if they're going to go--
if I knew that, then I would,

I'll go around, up the wall
all the way around the front

to fetch them, I guess.

AABRIA: You know what? No.

I'll walk it back, it's okay.

You have a backyard.

You see that
the main building

is such that that's the
one door you can go to.

There is that little bit of
an edge between the main wall

that's maybe a person's length
and a little overgrown,

that it would funnel you
towards that set of doors,

but the wall and the building
are not flush together

on the side, there's
a little bit of clearance.

SAM: There's a dog run?

AABRIA: There's a dog--
(laughs)

Yes.

There's a little dog run
on the side

that could get you
to the front.

SAM: Okay, I'll peer down
the little side run

and if it's clear,
I will shimmy through.

AABRIA: Yeah, you're able
to make your way

and pick your way through,
and you can hear them

before you can see them because
there's still a little bit

of getting around a corner
and potentially interacting

with any of the guard
cycles and rotations,

but you can hear distinct
set of footsteps,

boots, heels, wheels.

SAM: I can hear them.
AABRIA: Yeah, you hear them

coming out the front
of the building.

SAM: Once they're clear,
I will give a,

if I see them,
I'll give a: Psst, psst.

ASHLY: Oh, so we hear that?
AABRIA: Yep.

GINA: We hear that?
AABRIA: Yep.

SAM: Hey, over here.

LIAM: (weak groan)

SAM: Oh god,
what did you do to him?

ASHLY: He's fine. He's acting.

He's being
a little bit too method.

GINA: I think
we're clear now.

LIAM: How'd you know my father
was in the circus?

GINA: (laughs)

ASHLY: All right, so we're
going to wheel him over.

AABRIA: So yeah, you have
that sense of like, oh, okay.

Not seeing it from the front.

We'll give it up to
a trick of the light

and the imposing architecture

that there is that
little bit of gap there

that is a little overgrown
because it's not well-manicured,

but there is clearance
to get to the side

and then the dog run
and then back to the yard.

SAM: Is there clearance
for a wheelchair

or do we have to pick him up?

AABRIA: No, we can get
a wheelchair back there.

SAM: Okay.
LIAM: I could Yoda it

if I need to?

(laughter)

SAM: You mean do flips
and lightsabers?

AABRIA: Yeah.

(laughter)

GINA: Oscar, where's Rajan?

SAM: Oh yeah, he's in a dark,
scary hole that's full of--

GINA: What? Ooh!
ASHLY: What do you mean

a dark scary hole?
GINA: You left him there?

SAM: I don't know, there was
all sorts of worms and bugs

and stuff and--
AABRIA: Take it.

Token.
ASHLY: Fuck!

Because I would know,
wouldn't I?

AABRIA: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
ASHLY: Fuck.

ASHLY: So I roll six dice?

AABRIA: So let's talk about
what's going to happen now

as you explain

and you watch as the good
doctor begins to spin up.

It's quietly at first but
you are aware of her breath,

feeling it before
you hear it.

She's not panting,

but it's steady
and it's loud.

You are going to roll 6d6

and I need you to tell me how
many ones you get, if any.

GINA: Ooh, Elsie.
LIAM: Elsie, dear.

SAM: Doc?
GINA: You don't look too well.

ASHLY: What did
he say about it?

SAM: He just said that there
was lots. I'm sure it's fine.

Calm down.

ASHLY: He wouldn't have
stayed there if it wasn't--

I got one.

AABRIA: One one?
LIAM: One one.

AABRIA: That's all
it takes. Elsie.

You are asking, you
are trying to make sense.

Maybe if you
know a little more,

if you know what was said,
if you know what you saw,

you could figure it out and
you could spin yourself down.

Then you feel it,
almost like a pulse.

Almost like a release that
begins not in your heart

but your lungs as
your breath takes over

and you are lost to it
and you begin to transform.

ASHLY: Can I croak out a "Run!"
before I start to transform?

AABRIA: Yes.
ASHLY: Okay.

Y'all know what that means.

SAM: I do.

AABRIA: I don't know. Cosmo.
ASHLY: Oscar.

AABRIA: Has Cosmo
ever seen it?

LIAM: No.

ASHLY: Just Oscar.
SAM: I know.

AABRIA: Then what's about to
happen will be quite a shock.

SAM: Run.

AABRIA: Would you like to
describe what happens

as Dr. Elsie Roberts loses
herself to her beast?

ASHLY: I would love to.
AABRIA: Yeah?

ASHLY: So I scream "run"

and then I manage maybe
to croak out a "Raj, run!"

as the veins
in my neck pop out

and the clothing on
my body begins to shred

as muscles that don't belong
to a human start to gorge out

of every part of my body.

My face, the skin
on my face tears

and in its place becomes
a bastardized version

of an orca and a mantis.

As the muscles protrude
with sickening crunches

as my bones elongate in
ways they're not supposed to,

I get onto all fours.

I become impossibly large,

so large that I'm
towering over them,

and there's no vestige of
who I was in my eyes anymore.

I am a creature and
I am gasping for air.

As I gasp for air,

a fog flood
begins rolling over

the surrounding grounds.

It's covering everything.

You can't see an inch
in front of your face.

As I pant and wheeze
and pant and wheeze

and then scream

and rush into the sanatorium.

SAM: Into?
GINA: Into?!

Oh, we're just going in.
AABRIA: Oh!

LIAM: Oh, Elsie,
I'm so sorry, child.

(wheelchair bumping)
(laughter)

SAM: As that's happening,

I instinctually put my body

between hers and Cosmo's.

Before she runs off,

since I know this
is happening--

AABRIA: Mm-hmm.
SAM:-- I'm going to

try to prevent her
from doing that,

if that's all right.
AABRIA: Ooh.

I would love it.
ASHLY: Yeah.

AABRIA: There's a
moment we can have here

if we all agree at the table.

You have one "one" that
you need to resolve.

ASHLY: Uh-huh.
AABRIA: Your beast

must destroy something

in order to resolve itself,
in order to move through it.

There is something
offering itself to you.

It would be so easy.

He's right there
in front of you.

ASHLY: No.
AABRIA: Defenseless.

Do you think your beast would
turn away such easy meat?

ASHLY: Could I make a roll

to see if there's
any Elsie in there

that knows who's
in front of her?

AABRIA: I love dice games
and I love story.

ASHLY: You want me to
just choose? (laughs)

AABRIA: But this is not
a roll of the dice.

Your beast is not reasoned
with and Elsie is not home.

Whatever you choose, we will
respect and honor as a table.

I simply ask that you choose,

and know that we all know
what kind of story this is.

ASHLY: Okay. Okay.
AABRIA: No wrong choices.

What does the beast do?

ASHLY: (sighs)

The beast would take Oscar

by the neck--

SAM: Bring it.

ASHLY:-- and slam him
against the nearest wall

and start choking,

but with the force of
a gorilla, basically.

AABRIA: Yeah.

You do the thing

that you always hoped to do,

which was protect.

You agreed to be here

in order to look out
for the old man.

There is a perverse
satisfaction

to getting your wish.

There's no fighting it.
She's too strong.

You knew what was coming.
You knew what would happen.

So I guess there's
not a lot of fear

or noise or fight

as you feel the tender flesh

of your neck give way.

First your larynx, then
the bone, and the nothing.

SAM: As my throat is crushed,

I will try to eke
out a very calm:

It's okay, it's okay,
I'll be fine.

AABRIA: And then he's dead.
[heavy breathing]

AABRIA: You feel
yourself sated.

You return to the surface

and maybe the fastest
it's ever happened.

You come back,

but we're not worried
about Elsie right now.

Oscar, we're here again.

It's just you and
me in the dark.

ASHLY: What?

AABRIA: How many times
has this happened to you?

[heavy breathing]

SAM: This'll be seven.

GINA: What the fuck?

AABRIA: Again and
again and again.

Maybe this time you hope
it would be different,

but it feels just
like every other time.

Oblivion and weightlessness.

But you're still there.

There's nowhere for
you to go but back.

I'm going to ask you,
you can feel it in this space.

I think some part
of you knows

that you won't keep
the understanding

of this back there.

But you have to pay
a price every time.

You don't get to choose it.

You will return again.

You can't stay down.

What do you give
to whatever this is

that pulls you back?

What do you lose forever?

SAM: (exhales sharply)

[heavy breathing]

SAM: A memory, a skill,

a friend,

an image.

I've lost them all
every time I'm killed.

AABRIA: Every time.

SAM: I don't remember

my other kid.

I've forgotten
most of my wife.

[heavy breathing]

SAM: I lost

some of my charisma,
my performance ability.

I don't really have
anything else to lose.

AABRIA: That's not true.

SAM: I have only Cosmo.

ASHLY: (gasps)

SAM: I only have my son.

And so if I take a breath in,

I know it will cleanse my
mind of our days together.

[heavy breathing]

AABRIA: You feel something
in that space.

There's always a pushback.

There's always something that
you're fighting against,

even at the edge of the void.

There's someone with you,

something with you.

It doesn't stay your hand or
claim all of your breath,

but just a little gasp
of surprise or panic.

Just some, not all.

He's everything.

Even that cost is too dear.

So a portion.

What do you lose of him?

SAM: I guess I'll lose
everything from before.

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: From when he
was just a kid.

AABRIA: Yeah. That's enough.

Part of you.

Loving and doting
and precious

because every moment
means so much

because he'll grow up
and someday you'll be gone.

All you can do is hope

that your time together

will allow him the strength

and the wisdom and the grace

to move through
the world well.

A worthy cost.

And you have no other
choice. It's gone.

You feel something
important leave you.

It's not a voice, but
you know there's a voice

as something pours
itself into the gap

that your young son
has left in you,

and it tastes like old
magick and melted gold.

"You're so close.

"Any more, and I don't know
if you'll be there, too,

"but I need you
to come to me."

SAM: Who's saying that?

AABRIA: You have no idea.

The more you
pour your thought

and energy into what this
is and where you are,

you are rocketed
back to the world,

to life.

You will never remember
the conversation,

the seventh conversation that
you've had here in the dark.

You all are standing

over the corpse
of Oscar Grimm.

What do you do?

GINA: I am holding onto him.

Oscar? Oscar, please no!

I look over at Elsie.
What in the hells was that?!

LIAM: Elsie, dear?

GINA: Oscar?

LIAM: Elsie, it's all right.
ASHLY: Cosmo?

LIAM: It will be all right.

I'm so sorry, child.

ASHLY: I'm so sorry, Cosmo.
(breaths shakily)

LIAM: No, no.

No, no.
GINA: Oscar, wake up. Oscar?

LIAM: I brought you here.

I practically begged you.

It's all right, child.

It's all right.
It's all right.

AABRIA: Go ahead and
take two brain for me

of the trauma of killing one
of your closest relationships.

Now I will say, Raj,
you heard the scream.

You see strange fog from
that side in the corner.

Do you wait? Do you move?
NOSHIR: No.

AABRIA: What do you do?
NOSHIR: I heard Elsie cry.

AABRIA: You did.

NOSHIR: I go there
as fast as I can.

AABRIA: So you have
definitely rejoined them

as the fog begins
to dissipate.

No sign of the beast
she became.

Just the person
you once loved

shaking and sobbing and
standing over a corpse.

GINA: She killed him!
Whatever she was.

NOSHIR: What?

GINA: She's this beast!
She's not human!

She killed Oscar.
Look at him.

NOSHIR: What are you
talking about?

GINA: His throat's been
ripped out because of her!

Whatever the hell that was!

LIAM: Everybody just
take a breath.

Take a breath.

Elsie is like
a daughter to me.

GINA: What?

LIAM: It's going to be
all right.

We have to keep our heads
in this moment.

ASHLY: I'm going to take
one of Oscar's hands

and gently turn it to
where I had bandaged it.

AABRIA: You just
hold and weep.

Try to pull
yourself together.

Keep it quiet.

You are still hidden.

You are still a
part of a mission.

(thuds)

(thuds)

LIAM: I take
Glask by the hand.

AABRIA: (thuds)
GINA: Cosmo,

what are you doing?

What if she hurts us?
AABRIA: (loud thud)

ASHLY: I can't be here.
GINA: Cosmo.

LIAM: She's not going to.
AABRIA: (loud thud)

GINA: Look what she did!
ASHLY: I can't be here.

GINA: Cosmo, how
can you trust her?

LIAM: As long as you've known
me, you have to trust me.

ASHLY: Cosmo, I can't be here.
AABRIA: (loud thud)

NOSHIR: I'm going
to hold her.

AABRIA: You feel it
before you see it.

The shift in the corpse

as broken vertebrae
snap into place.

The distorted
figure of his neck

coming back into alignment.

GINA: Oscar?

AABRIA: The rush of blood

that brings color
back to his cheeks

and then gently, peacefully,

Oscar Grimm opens his eyes.

GINA: What?

ASHLY: Oscar?
GINA: What?

Impossible.

SAM: I mean, most
people call me Cary.

ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: I hate him so much.
LIAM: I want--

Like sometimes you just--

LIAM:-- everyone
to keep their heads.

ASHLY: I killed you myself.
I killed you.

I snapped your neck, I felt
your neck snap, how are you--

LIAM: Elsie, Elsie, Elsie.
ASHLY: How are you alive?

SAM: I don't know,

but that was loud
and we have to move.

LIAM: Are you all right?

Look at me.
Are you all right?

SAM: I go over to Cosmo and I

wrap my arms around him and
I give him a giant hug

and just say:

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

LIAM: For what?
SAM: I'm a burden on you.

LIAM: What, boy?

SAM: I'm a burden on you.

LIAM: No.

No.

This wasn't your choice, boy.

It wasn't your choice.

SAM: I should be
taking care of you,

not the other way around.

LIAM: We don't choose

what our family is.

SAM: (heavy sigh)

LIAM: It simply is.

SAM: I'm sorry, Doc.
I'm sorry.

I'm sorry to all of you,
but we can't stay here.

There's guards, there's--

We have to move.

We have to finish.

We have to get out of here.

GINA: Surely, we can't
take her with us!

Look what she just did.

SAM: She's one of us.
AABRIA: You know now--

I'm just going to
jump in, Glask.

You know that with
your raised tone,

you can hear your
voice carry.

It wraps through that
little dog run area.

You can feel it echoing.

ASHLY: She's right, Cosmo.
AABRIA: You see

the low-lying fog
on the ground.

LIAM: We will have to
continue this somewhere else,

not on these grounds.
ASHLY: She's right, I'm not safe.

SAM: You're fine.

You're one of us.

ASHLY: I killed you.

SAM: Nobody's perfect.

We just got to
look out for you

like you look after me.

Like I look after him
and he looks after me.

LIAM: So where do we go?

AABRIA: You have two options.

You know that the
hole is important,

but is that the priority?

Do you prioritize
the mission,

or taking your
shattered, broken circle

to safety and
cutting your losses?

SAM: That's not my choice.

It's the guy who lost
his sister's choice.

NOSHIR: Lost my sister?

You just lost yourself.

LIAM: Come. I'm moving--
NOSHIR: I don't understand.

LIAM:-- out onto the grounds
away from this location.

Come.

SAM: Follow him.

NOSHIR: Elsie, he's fine.

I don't know what transpired
here, but he's okay.

ASHLY: You don't know.

You don't know.

NOSHIR: I don't know,

and I'm not going
to pretend that I do,

but Oscar is okay.

We're going to be okay.

ASHLY: I wish that
were true, Raj.

ASHLY: I'm going to--

I think I'm going
to start booking it

in another direction.

AABRIA: You're in the center
of this little catch,

so you really only
have two directions.

You're caught in
that little nook

where either you come
back from whence you came

and exit the
grounds and leave

and go somewhere
else in the city,

or you go back
in the direction

that Raj and Oscar came from
to the back towards the hole.

LIAM: The doctor is
a phenomenon, yes?

AABRIA: Yes.
LIAM: Yes.

As she begins to leave,
I'm going to use

my occultist ability,
Speak Their Language,

and I start to
speak simple words

in Oldfairen

that reverberate in a barely
noticeable, unnatural way.

In the base of your skull,

you understand me to
be saying: Come back.

You are not alone.

Come.

ASHLY: Slowly, I'm going to,
very much against my will,

turn back around
and look at Cosmo.

Then let's go now.

NOSHIR: We have to leave.

SAM: I'm going to the hole.

NOSHIR: No.
SAM: We're going to the hole.

NOSHIR: No.
SAM: We didn't come

all this way,

I didn't die for nothing.

NOSHIR: I'm not losing
more people I love

because we're not ready.

Do you understand?

We're not even close
to full strength.

As it is, there's no chance.

SAM: What are
you talking about?

We're fine.

NOSHIR: We're fine?

She's broken in spirit.

I don't even know
what's happened to you.

LIAM: Doctor, I think Elsie's
strength speaks for itself.

ASHLY: Let's finish
what we started.

AABRIA: In this moment, what
is Madam Glask thinking?

GINA: She does not
trust Elsie at all.

She's torn between
what she just saw

and one of her
oldest friends, Cosmo,

reassuring her that
everything is fine

and she wants to
believe him so bad.

He's never led her astray.

AABRIA: I need you
to take a brain.

GINA: Mm.

AABRIA: This is
beyond the pale.

GINA: This is inhuman,
it's not real.

AABRIA: You didn't
sign up for this.

You thought the monsters

would be the
things you fought,

not the things you
fought alongside.

GINA: You have been in
my home with my girls

and you didn't say anything!

Cosmo, and you
knew about this!

ASHLY: I'm sorry.

GINA: Sorry?

How do I know you're not
going to do this again?

NOSHIR: Cordelia, it is not the time.
GINA: How do I know if I'm safe?

SAM: Keep your voices down.

GINA: How do I
know if I'm safe?

ASHLY: You're not.

NOSHIR: None of us are safe.

LIAM: I will take
responsibility for this.

GINA: Cosmo.

LIAM: Dr. Roberts is not
a danger in the city

from day to day with
your girls or with you.

I take it on myself.

I dragged her here.
GINA: Cosmo,

if anything happened
to you, Cosmo.

LIAM: I have lived enough
for three lifetimes.

I'm not worried about me.

AABRIA: In this moment,

I think as the pivot
point, the lack of trust,

the lack of commitment to the
cause, commitment to this,

you don't have skin in this
game the way the others seem to.

I want you to make the choice.

Which way do you walk?

Back into the grounds towards
the hole, or do you leave?

GINA: I walk back in,
I trust--

Cosmo, you've--

You're the longest
friend I've had.

If anything, I will be there

to make sure you're safe.

LIAM: Dear, I--

I don't want you
to do anything

you don't have a stomach for,

but this is why Candela
shines in the dark

for so many centuries.

If not for us, what will
keep the dark at bay?

Yes, we had to dabble
in it ourselves

to understand and cope.

GINA: Madam Glask takes
a last look at Elsie.

So we finish what
we've started, then.

SAM: Lead on by the
light of the candle.

ASHLY: It's what you came here for, Raj.

NOSHIR: Is it?

All right, professor.

Let's see it done.

AABRIA: So you are resolved to
finish what you began,

to see this
assignment through,

to climb down a hole that goes
down to Mother knows where,

and you time your passage
across that lawn

to the settling of the
interior of the sanitorium.

You make quick work using
some clever use of rope.

Everyone makes it down,
yourself included,

past the dirt,
down the slope,

past that broken-in
stone that you realize

is the collapsed ceiling
of some unadorned,

unimportant hallway in
an Oldfairen building.

Now, in a city like this

that's so obviously
and celebrated

for being built on top of the
ruins of what came before,

this would be unremarkable,

but hmm, I need Cosmo.

LIAM: Yes?
AABRIA: Can you make

a Focus roll for me?

LIAM: Of course, hmm.

So that's one of mine, yes.

I will go just a straight
roll as it is.

NOSHIR: With my
archeological experience,

is this something
that I can

support?
AABRIA: Absolutely.

NOSHIR: I'll give
you a Drive.

LIAM: Oh.

NOSHIR: Oh, you've already rolled.
LIAM: Save that shit!

(laughter)
NOSHIR: Never mind.

LIAM: Because I got a
six on the gilded.

AABRIA: Beautiful!
ASHLY: Ooh.

AABRIA: A full success.

As your circle deals
with how to lower you

and your chair down,

you begin to think, you
spread out where you are

and the mental map that you
have of Oldfaire beneath.

Though there are places
due east of here

between the Sidle and
the Stentorian River,

so many sites in Oldfaire
sit underneath Groundswell

and Hallowharbor and the
Eaves and South Soffit.

But to your recollection,
you do not know

of any Oldfairen sites that
sit underneath the Sidle,

and yet--
[astrolabe scraping]

AABRIA: You are
all down there.

You hear it, you see it.

You are in
an unadorned tunnel,

some attic caved in, in
a bureaucratic building,

hallways extending
in every direction.

And down littered
by your feet,

along with 2,000 years of
uninterrupted dust and detritus,

you see the corpses of
five other patients,

their hands destroyed, broken
down to nubs, missing fingers

beaten away as they spent their
lives clawing, excavating,

getting down, following
orders from the nun, the Maw.

They lie here, spent
and forgotten.

You all see
a mess of footprints

headed off to the left
down a series of dark halls.

You make your way carefully,
as quietly as you can,

until you hear it
a little clearer,

thumping, scratching,

knocking, the sounds of further
excavation down and away,

and low voices.

You make your way,

and then you feel it,
you know it.

You are just around the
corner from whatever this is,

whoever's down here,
whatever's going on.

It's so loud.

The beating, the scratching,
the clawing, not with tools,

but again that wet flesh being
flung against stone and wood

and ancient history.

They don't hear you.

They didn't hear you coming.

So you have a moment now

before whatever happens
happens.

What do you want to do?

ASHLY: Raj?

NOSHIR: This circle
is not broken,

but it is
most certainly bent.

My sister, Aadtika, suffered
a fate very similar

to these chained servitors,

and I need you to know the
little bit that I found.

Oldfaire specialized
in ferocious weaponry.

LIAM: Yes.

NOSHIR: One of their weapons

that they found a way
to control was famine.

Using dark forces,

they turned locusts
into flesh-eating,

venomous spirits en mass.

In the other lands, the
remains of those barren fields

were walked by children

whose parents had
been annihilated.

The Great Maw comes from the
despair of starving children.

To that end, if we go
in there with doubt,

or the crumbling of hope,
we will never succeed.

I don't have to like
you to trust you.

I promise you here and now,

I will give my everything
to keep you safe.

LIAM: It is not an easy
burden that Candela bears.

We've carried it for
centuries and more.

I wouldn't have begrudged
any of you for leaving,

but I am grateful
to have you here.

If things go south, Rajan,

all of you, it will
be harder for me

to go up than it
was to go down.

Don't let that trouble
you, do your duty.

SAM: It's not going
to come to that.

We're not going
to leave you.

NOSHIR: I agree.

ASHLY: Raj.

What's on the
other side of that door?

NOSHIR: If she is here,

I don't know the form
she takes today.

She was beautiful

and then she was
toothed horror,

like nothing I've ever seen,

more insect than person.

She will try to lever
your greatest fears

and your deepest mistrusts.

LIAM: I reach into the satchel
I always have at my side

and pull out a jawbone.

This jawbone detects bleed.

I found it 30 years ago or
more on a long dead fellow

in another part of Oldfaire.

It has served me many a time.

As we move forward,

I intend to use it to gauge
how close we are to trouble.

AABRIA: What does it
normally feel like

when you detect bleed
through that bone?

LIAM: It starts to bite
like cold in my hand,

the barest sensation
of electricity to it,

similar but different.

It normally leaves
a bit of a welt,

but it's worth the pain.

AABRIA: The moment you
wrap your hands around it

even through your leather
gloves, you feel it.

That stinging sticking cold.

But what's more,

your index finger
wrapped around

the back of the bone, you
feel a little pinprick

as a tooth in the
back grows longer

pressing through the leather
piercing into your finger.

There is no need
to detect bleed,

you are in proximity
to it, you're here.

LIAM: We are in the
frying pan, children.

Watch your step.

SAM: We're in a hallway,
just a standard hallway,

there's not offshoots or
anything like that?

AABRIA: You see that there
are other little areas.

As you were walking down, it
probably took five minutes

for you to get over here,
walking pretty slowly

and trying to muffle
your steps in the dust.

Lots of offshoots,

several collapsed in,
no light anywhere else.

The only sound you were
hearing was this thud

and talking that you've
followed to a blind corner

that you're about to cross.

GINA: Madam Glask has been
keeping a close eye on Elsie.

AABRIA: What are you
looking for?

GINA: She still
doesn't trust Elsie

and is still very scared
of what may happen.

Elsie, whatever is
behind that door,

will you be able
to control yourself?

ASHLY: You say this thing
feeds on mistrust,

then I owe you
an explanation.

GINA: Yes.

ASHLY: I'm dying.

I have cullet.

You've probably seen
it at The Glass Cat.

AABRIA: I'll jump in.

All of you know of cullet.

There's a technical term that
no one can bother to remember,

but especially lately, in
the last six or seven years,

following the war,

the poorer populations, and
neighborhoods, and districts

of Newfaire have
been falling ill

with a degenerative
lung disease

that as the patient,
as the victim coughs,

they have a sensation like
broken glass inside their lungs,

ripping it up,
hence the name.

ASHLY: I was researching it to
help cure some of my clients

in the Eaves that didn't
want to be associated with

what they saw as a
degenerate's disease.

And in the course
of my research,

I became ill myself.

And so I started
experimenting.

I tried to find ways to keep

the pain at bay

but the worse it got,
the more desperate I got.

And I started

meddling with things
that I...

I didn't know about before

I met you, Raj.

And I became something

unrecognizable.

GINA: That beast out there?

ASHLY: Yeah.

AABRIA: Need you
to take a brain--

SAM: Ooh.

AABRIA:-- at hearing this.

Having said that,

empty your beast pool
as it resets.

SAM: Beast pool?
AABRIA: Mm-hmm!

SAM: Ooh.

ASHLY: You don't have
a beast pool?

SAM: I mean, it's more
of a kiddie pool.

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: And now that you
are returned back to life,

if you have any body
marks, remove them.

SAM: I do not, since the good
doctor already healed me.

ASHLY: I have spent
my time in Candela

only around Cosmo and Oscar

because I know
I'm a liability,

I know I'm dangerous,

and I've been able
to control it

until you came back.

The one benefit is

if I can't control
myself in there

I'd make
a very good distraction

and I would encourage you

to take the opportunity
and run.

GINA: That's if
you don't attack us

Whatever it is that you have

going between you two
right now, make it clear.

I don't want to risk
any more casualties.

We're lucky Oscar's
still even here.

SAM: Yeah, I mean,
I'm not going to lie,

that was pretty scary.

ASHLY: I'm sorry.

SAM: No, it's...

ASHLY: I never...

SAM: It's something that
I knew that you could do,

but I--

It hurt just the same.

GINA: You were tasked to
protect me and the girls.

SAM: And I will. And I do.

ASHLY: It hasn't--
I thought that I--

I thought I had more control.

SAM: Madam Glask, I mean,
with all due respect,

I know that this is
super scary

and we got to keep moving,

but I've known Doc
for a while

and you've known her, too,

and she's not a threat,
she's a victim.

ASHLY: I am a threat.

SAM: Or maybe she's both.

AABRIA: You hear suddenly
the speech stop,

and shortly thereafter
that rhythmic thud

and just a (sniffing)

quietly from
around the corner.

GINA: We have no
choice. Figure it out.

ASHLY: Get behind me.

SAM: Should we

hide, split up?

I'm sorry, I'm honestly,

I'm having trouble thinking
too clearly right now.

Someone just tell me
what to do.

ASHLY: Can I-- Ooh, I
shouldn't do that, never mind.

AABRIA: Hmm?
ASHLY: I'll take a brain mark

if I do that.

You feel like you're
ready to do something.

LIAM: I'm going to wheel
on an angle slowly

while they're
having their debate

and try to look
around the corner.

AABRIA: Yeah.

Go ahead and give me
a Survey roll.

LIAM: Oh,
I'm not good at that.

But I'll burn a drive

and adjust my weight.

AABRIA: (snorting cough)

GINA: (laughs) Yes!

LIAM: Put on my
action glasses here.

ASHLY: Sport mode.
GINA: (laughs)

LIAM: Yes.

GINA: Oh, I love them!

AABRIA: Gets into sport mode.
GINA: So cute.

LIAM: Okay.
NOSHIR: Means business.

AABRIA: Incredible, this was
going to be a high stakes

roll anyhow.
LIAM: So this is Survey.

AABRIA: Yeah.
LIAM: With a drive,

it's just a straight roll.

AABRIA: Yes.

LIAM: Here we go.
AABRIA: I will let you know

the expectation setting
here is on a miss

you will be spotted.
LIAM: Yes.

AABRIA: So think, as you
approach that corner,

you see that there isn't the
beginning of hinges for a door.

LIAM: Well, maybe we'll
burn two drives, then.

AABRIA: (laughs)

NOSHIR: Can I give
him an assist?

I'll be at
the back of the chair

and help ease him out,

so that if he tells me to,
I can pull him back in cover.

AABRIA: Yeah.
LIAM: Is that a third?

AABRIA: Yes.
LIAM: Yes.

All right, I adjust my glasses
and lean forward in my chair

and try to be quiet
as a 97-year-old mouse.

That's a six.

SAM: Yes.
AABRIA: Beautiful.

You wheel around, get
that perfect little view.

Now that you know that
someone's controlling the wheels

of your chair, you can
lean a little more

without worrying about
squeaking or making a sound.

You see the edge
of this cohort.

You see a man, a woman,

and a wretched thrall
throwing themselves

against a massive stone wall

trying to find purchase
to break through.

It seems like
a strange dead end,

but the room is
probably 40 feet

by 30 feet and the
ceiling opens up.

You go from this low hallway

that couldn't be more
than seven or eight feet tall

to something that expands up

and domes at about,

by your guess, maybe
15 feet of height?

LIAM: You said a man
and a woman and a thrall?

AABRIA: Yes, another
one of those patients

that is bloodying
themselves against the wall

under orders that
they can't help but obey

even at the loss of
their own physicality.

LIAM: And the man and woman are
standing back and allowing this.

Is that what I'm seeing?
AABRIA: Yes.

The woman is dressed
like a nun.

She is beautiful.

Even in that slim profile.

The man has
a look on his face,

so taut and tight

his features smooth over

a out-of-fashion,
thin mustache,

with jet black hair
slicked back.

But all the countenance
of someone who looks like

he couldn't smile
or shout if he tried.

A very Serious Man
that you recognize

from decades ago.

LIAM: Somewhere
around 90 years?

AABRIA: Yes.

It is only because
of your full success,

and your wisdom, and how
often you have seen things

that defy imagination
and expectation

that you are able
to face this

without taking
any kind of mark.

LIAM: I quickly shoot
a look back to Oscar,

and then up to you, Rajan.

NOSHIR: I ease him back.

LIAM: They were like
50ish feet away?

AABRIA: Yeah, they're on
the far side of the room,

so you've got 50 feet.

But you do also see that

while they're
facing each other

they're not speaking.
They're paused,

and the nun was sniffing
the air delicately.

You can see the body posture

as you're being wheeled back,

slowly turning
in your direction.

SAM: What does that mean?

Okay.

LIAM: And Oscar?
SAM: What?

LIAM: It's another.
SAM: Oh, two people? Okay.

Three people?

ASHLY: Rajan.

GINA: Rajan.
LIAM: Boy.

ASHLY: Do I understand
what he just did?

AABRIA: You absolutely do.

ASHLY: Raj, look at me.

NOSHIR: I'm so sorry,
little bird,

that you had to keep
this secret on your own,

that I didn't make
you feel safe enough

to share it with me.

But I will not leave you.

ASHLY: We can't handle
this if you are on that.

AABRIA: "You might
as well come in.

"I know you're there.

"You reek of my
favorite flavors.

"(unsettling laughter)"
ASHLY: Rajan, we can still leave.

NOSHIR: No, my darling,
we can't.

I am going to ready
my Core Sampler

and the acid vial that
I prepared to open up a lock.

AABRIA: I need you
to make a Sense roll

because you feel
it deep inside you,

like a buzzing,

as whatever is
deep within you,

the rot that
she placed roils.

Though after long years
you have believed

that you are the master
of your monstrosity,

they know their mother
and they're so close.

NOSHIR: I'm going
to add two drive.

Oh, can I do that if I
have nothing in Sense?

AABRIA: Yeah, you can.
Burn the Sense now.

NOSHIR: A one

and a six.

(relieved groans)

GINA: He's so good.
ASHLY: He's now how to do drama,

this guy.
AABRIA: That was delightful.

The question is which
one are you going to take,

the gilded result
or the other?

NOSHIR: (laughs)

I don't think I have much
choice in this matter.

I have to take the six.

AABRIA: Okay.

You feel it and you
feel the beginnings

of something crawling up

the neck of your
fine cut shirt,

but it stops, it yields.

You hear her
on the other side

of this blind corner
beginning to growl.

"Don't make me wait,"

and footsteps begin
to move across the room.

SAM: What's the play, Raj?

NOSHIR: There is
no play, Oscar.

We fight for survival.

LIAM: Cosmo rolls
out into the opening.

SAM: Oh!

GINA: Cosmo, no.

AABRIA: What you see in
front of The Serious Man

who has hung behind
and just watches serenely.

The woman that walked
forward that was a nun,

too beautiful,
proportions picked

along lines that feel more
mathematical than possible,

and yet she was real
and in front of you

and inspiring feelings that
maybe you have not considered

in a very long time.

That falls away.

She releases herself,
releases form and continuity

and she becomes this thing
shifting algorithmically,

fractally across line,
and form, and sinew.

Her limbs lengthen.

You see musculature roping

under her skin and
the monstrosity of her.

Everywhere you look, wherever
your eyes linger, Cosmo,

you see a mouth begin to form

in the line and shadow
of her shoulder and neck,

across the fingers
that now stretch outward

that terminate in
too long of claws.

The form of her when she was
a nun and human was beautiful.

But the point of her is a Maw

and she's moving towards you,

smiling with too many
mouths and too many teeth.

LIAM: I manage to tear my
gaze from her for a moment

to look at the man
in the distance

as she closes the distance
and say: Hello again.

I grab the brass knob on
the end of my wheelchair

and pull out an
ancient brass dagger

couched inside to meet
this woman as she attacks.

The blade cuts
through my own hand

and glows pale
blue at her approach.

SAM: Oh shit.

AABRIA: Amazing.

She sees it.
She smells blood.

You've made it easier.

You've opened yourself to her

and she loves when
you open yourself to her.

She's going to pounce at you.

I need you to try
to roll to resist this

as a monster flings themselves
in your direction gleefully.

LIAM: I don't.
SAM: Oh!

LIAM: I sink the blade
using my Ghostblade ability.

AABRIA: You take a body mark
for using your Ghostblade.

LIAM: Yes, you attune
a ritual knife to yourself

if you coat it in
your own blood.

It is particularly effective
against magickal beings.

And I stab knowing
that she will

reciprocate and then some.

AABRIA: She falls onto
you and folds around you,

and you feel the bites
of a hundred mouths

shifting again, and
again, and again.

Then one of
the mouths screams

as you plunge the
ghostblade into it

and beyond expectation,
she rears back,

blood pouring from a set
of gapped, jagged teeth

emerging from
her left breast.

You're going to
take two body marks.

LIAM: I loll terribly
in my chair--

AABRIA: "What?"
LIAM:-- holding an Ancient

Fairen blade of crude blonde.

AABRIA: "(screams)"

ASHLY: If I may?
AABRIA: Yes, please.

ASHLY: Well, I actually
have a question.

AABRIA: Sure!

ASHLY: At this point, does
Elsie have the capability

to bring out the
beast on command?

AABRIA: Oh,

what a fun question.

It's so early in your story,

and mechanically, we
have a set of triggers

that this is the onset;

anxiety and panic stack,

breath caught,
pushes you to a brink.

But I don't know if you've
ever chosen it before.

ASHLY: I don't know
if I have, either.

I'm wondering if I could try--
AABRIA: So what if we roll?

Yeah.
ASHLY:-- to choose now.

AABRIA: I'm going
to let you tell me

what you're going to roll

to see if you can
summon this yourself.

ASHLY: I want to try Focus,

because I want to try

to see if I can pinpoint and
almost try to commune with it,

and say that: You're
going to come out

but you're going to come out

and I'm going to
be there with you.

AABRIA: A concession.

ASHLY: Mm-hmm.

AABRIA: Communication,
this feels good.

I think Cosmo's
speaking to you

in that strange ancient tongue
has alighted onto the idea

that it can be communicated
with and treated with.

Go ahead and make
your Focus roll,

no one can assist you.
ASHLY: That's fine.

AABRIA: The stakes are thus:

A full success or a miss

will allow you to transform,

but only one of them will
allow you to control it.

SAM: Shoot.

ASHLY: Okay, this
seems like a good chance

to use a couple of drives.

AABRIA: Burn them now.

Where else would
they come in?

ASHLY: So I can roll--

Should I just use
all my drives?

Fuck it.
LIAM: Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

ASHLY: I'm going to
smoke 'em if I got 'em.

AABRIA: (laughs)

Oh my god.

ASHLY: I got a success.

SAM: Ooh.
ASHLY: A six.

AABRIA: Amazing.

ASHLY: I'm going to
ignore this gilded die,

which was a one.
(laughter)

AABRIA: I like that you
have put it away.

ASHLY: I don't want to
even look at it or touch it.

AABRIA: Yeah.
LIAM: Go in the corner.

AABRIA: What does
it feel like

as you begin to spin yourself

up into this of your own
volition for the first time?

ASHLY: So I think
the intensity

of telling Raj,

of seeing him take scarlet,

of all the implications
that that is,

of having killed
one of my only friends,

and now seeing one of
my only other friends

being one-on-one with
this horrible beast,

I think the panic
is starting to come.

But it just happened,

so there is this
sense of: Not again,

you don't get to do
this to me again,

not without me
being here, too.

So you can come out, but
you're going to play nice.

And I let the transformation
begin to happen,

but this time,
it isn't as intense.

There's almost
a calmness to it.

As my arm extends--
[bestial growling]

ASHLY:-- my legs extend,

and as I start to transform

I say in a voice that is
part beast, but part Elsie:

Get behind me.

[bestial growling]

ASHLY: As I transform, I'm
going to lope into the room

and put myself between
Cosmo and the Maw.

NOSHIR: Beautiful.

AABRIA: I will add to that.

You speak, "Get behind me,"
you think it.

But the beast, this
thing that you are,

is a thing of stories and
tales told to children

in the Fairelands
for centuries,

millennia.

It is not of the
language that you use.

So when you speak,

only those that speak
Ancient Fairen understand you.

The rest hear growls,

words, syllables,

hard and sharp,

filled with great power
as the beast within you

is pleased at a target.

You see the Maw,
this terrible creature,

bleeding, confused by
her moment of triumph,

takes a step back,

confused, concerned

for the first time
in a very long life.

Before I have
your beast attack,

is there anything anyone else
wants to do or put into play?

GINA: Yes, in the panic
of seeing the beast again

I rush over to Cosmo
and grab his chair

and as fast as I can,
run behind Elsie

and back to where we came
from to get him to safety.

LIAM: Thank you, dear.
GINA: Yes, Cosmo.

LIAM: Thank you.

GINA: Are you all right?

LIAM: I have seen
a few better days.

GINA: I take off my shawl

and I start
compressing his wound.

Stay still.

LIAM: It's crimson
in seconds.

[bestial growling]

AABRIA: Anything
from over here?

SAM: I am,
seeing Cosmo attacked

and seeing Elsie change,

my instinct is to react,

to pounce, to fight back.

But weirdly, I just
don't know what to do.

I reach for something at my
hip and there's nothing there.

I'm just a little confused.

It's like I've forgotten
how this all works.

AABRIA: Yeah.

SAM: So for a moment,
I'm just looking around,

dumbfounded at
what's going on.

AABRIA: I will say in that
moment, as you search

and look and assess your
group and assess the room,

you make eye contact
with The Serious Man,

and he narrows his eyes,

and recognizes you.

SAM: Do I
recognize him anymore?

AABRIA: Oh.

I think there's
a lot of things

that you, in that space,
have agreed to trade away,

but I don't think
there's any world

in which, even if you
thought in that moment

it was important
to forget and move on,

whatever was in
there with you

knows that it's too
important to forget.

You could forget the
name of the ship,

anyone else in that crew, the
people that you traveled with,

and worked with,
and performed with.

You could forget every other
member of your family,

and maybe there are
some there that you have,

but you are not allowed
to forget this man,

because he is why
you're like this.

SAM: Seeing his face
and his stupid mustache

that looks just
like mine right now--

ASHLY: (laughs)
AABRIA: No, it's very thin.

Yours is like,
it's fashionable.

You're giving "Peaky
Blinders." It's good.

SAM: I'm just overcome
with shock and rage.

I guess I'll step forward

and I will focus myself,

and I will take
a ready stance

in case he comes closer.

But my eyes are
locked on him now,

not on the crazy mouth woman.

AABRIA: Yeah.
(laughter)

AABRIA: Good.

Rajan, I need you
to take a bleed.

You are next to her.

It's undeniable.

All of the old history
comes crashing back

in you and through you,

not as trauma remembered,

but trauma lived
in this moment.

What do you want to do
as your friend Elsie,

or whatever she is
now, truly is now,

begins to attack?

NOSHIR: I've never seen
anything so beautiful.

ASHLY: (laughs quietly)
SAM: What?

NOSHIR: I certainly
won't leave her alone.

I have never seen Maw

looking like she
was on the back foot.

I hear a voice in my head,

"Mother Mercy
ensconced in white--"

I recognize my mother.

"-- tends the hungry
day and night."

I hear my sister, Aadtika,

and I continue
the nursery rhyme,

which I now know to
be a chant of binding,

"loving mother to the poor,"

and I start to
loosen my cravat.

"Dare not enter
through her door."

AABRIA: "No."

NOSHIR: "Mind this verse--
AABRIA: "Stop."

NOSHIR: "-- lest you
should meet."

AABRIA: "Stop!"
NOSHIR: "Please mind her smile--"

AABRIA: "Shut up!

NOSHIR: "-- and mind her teeth!"
AABRIA: (furious) "No!"

NOSHIR: "Your name is known
to me, Great Maw!

"Now unbind us from
tooth and claw!"

AABRIA: Mouths across
her body snap shut.

You see this shifting thing

begin to freeze and panic.

So the normal way we agreed
on resolving your beast

was never about a roll,
it was never about mechanics,

it was about destruction.

One for the one success.

You need to do one
great and terrible act

to sate the beast
and return to yourself.

No roll required.

What do you do?

ASHLY: I would like

to plunge my claw

into the Maw's chest,

and if I can find something
approximating lungs,

crush them.

AABRIA: Yeah.

You plunge in with an arm,

like the knuckles
of a gorilla,

like the claw of a badger,

like the sharp
spike of a mantis,

and a mouth slowly beginning

to freeze itself shut

opens enough to
scream in defiance

and you plunge in past it.

You touch something soft.

There's nothing soft
about her like this.

You grab, and you pull,

and you crush,
and you feel it.

What breath is,
what it means.

It is not just air.
It is a soul.

So much of Oldfairen
death culture

is around breath.

Protect the breath,
keep the soul in the body

so that it doesn't
wander this world.

But you feel it now
because you are like it,

magickal and wrong.

You crush it.

I want to ask you,

you feel the soul beginning to
move through your fingertips.

Do you let it go,

or do you take that, too?

How much of a monster are
you right now, Dr. Roberts?

ASHLY: I don't think the
beast would discriminate.

So if it's possible

to crush a soul,

my grip tightens.

AABRIA: You crush the lungs,

you crush the body,
you end the life

and you feel yourself
in tune with the beast.

But this it knows as
a predator, lashes out,

snaps at the air over
the Maw's crumping form,

bites the soul,

dispels it, destroys it,

takes it into itself.

Your beast is a little
worse now for it.

The line of the mouth
gets a little longer,

new rows of teeth,

an impressive addition
to a terrible creature.

That's it. A terrible act.

If you want to try to hold on

and continue a rampage,

I'll have you roll again.

But you do feel yourself
beginning to calm down

and move back to yourself,

as The Serious Man
in the back,

seeing what has been done,
is about to bolt

past you towards
the only exit.

This thrall,
even with the thing

that compelled it

to throw itself away

for a cause, for a goal.

There's no tether,
there's no magick to break.

This is simply its truth,
his truth,

and he will continue to
bludgeon himself to death

against the wall.

ASHLY: I'm going to let
myself return to Elsie

with the understanding
that whatever I just did,

I think I've made the beast

even harder to
control, not easier.

AABRIA: Yeah, I think
that makes sense.

You see The Serious Man
begin to sprint

past the returning
form of Elsie,

and he's going to try to push
past you to get out the door.

SAM: I think I will
just buckle down,

lower my shoulders,

and try to run up and
tackle him as he goes.

AABRIA: Yeah, give
me a Strike roll.

SAM: Strike? Okay.

AABRIA: Knock down is
one of the three listed.

SAM: Yeah, I will
use a drive. Why not?

AABRIA: I will say
in this moment,

you are tending wounds.

If there's any way
anyone else wants to assist

in this moment, you can.

NOSHIR: I'm going
after The Serious Man.

AABRIA: Okay.

SAM: I rolled a three
on the gilded.

AABRIA: Okay, you get

your drive back.
(laughter)

GINA: It's something.

AABRIA: You lower
your shoulder

and this man, who's maybe
only an inch or two

taller than you,
barrels through you

with a strength
you didn't expect.

You wheel and turn,
please take a body.

SAM: Sure.

AABRIA: You stand as
the last line of defense

as Madam Glask and Cosmo
are off to the side,

tending wounds.

Last chance. He'll get
away. What do you do?

You know him, too.

How many walks did you go on

spotting him and your mother
in quiet conversation?

Your past really is coming
to haunt you tonight

and it's getting away.

NOSHIR: No. No, he's not.

I take my pointed ring

and gouge from
shoulder to navel.

SAM: Oh my god,
everybody's fucked up.

(laughter)

NOSHIR: And tear the remnants
of my jacket and shirt,

revealing

paper and hexagonal cells,

a hive built into my body.

ASHLY: (gasps)
GINA: What the fuck?

ASHLY: (laughs)

NOSHIR: I reach
for The Serious Man,

specifically his legs.

And I tell
my children to feed.

ASHLY: (gasps)
SAM: Children?

SAM and GINA: What the fuck?

AABRIA: These locusts,
this sign of pestilence

that was inflicted
on you by the creature

once known as the Great Maw.

So long you thought
it was a plague, a curse,

a punishment for being
too young or naive,

not strong enough to
stand up against her.

But over time,

an affliction can
become a part of you.

They are yours.

And for the cost
of two bleed,

they will follow your
directions perfectly.

Where often they only
follow your energy

and swarm, and bite,
and sting as they would do.

Do you accept this cost?

NOSHIR: As I direct my host,

parts of the hive crumble

and two runes on my tattoos

burn into scars.

My claw marks start to
travel across my face,

entering the eye where
something other moves,

and I collapse, knowing
that I've done all I can.

AABRIA: And it
will be enough.

From his legs, you all
watch the direction

in which he reaches
and points.

The little bit of light
given by the hand torch

that he was holding and
directing the work with,

casting shadows across the
room, but never on himself.

They swarm at the
ankles and move upward

ripping away clothing, fine,

but maybe a little
strangely out of date.

They leave welts,
and scabs, and scars

as they go moving up,
feasting, eating,

building on themselves, impossibly.

A hive becomes a swarm,
becomes a pestilence,

becomes a plague, and this
Serious Man is lost within it.

SAM: Does it look like
he's going to die?

AABRIA: Yes.
LIAM: Oh.

SAM: I'm going to call out:

Stop, stop, please,
you can't do this,

you can't let him die, stop!

AABRIA: He falls to
the ground unconscious.

GINA: Who is he to you?

ASHLY: Can I, whoo, I have--
AABRIA: What do you want to do

to try to stop this?

ASHLY: Well, I went
back to being normal.

SAM: Okay. Okay.

ASHLY: I have Resuscitate--

Well, did you take
a scar just now?

NOSHIR: I took, yes.

ASHLY: So Resuscitation, when
a nearby ally takes a scar,

you can make a Focus roll

in an attempt to
immediately revive them.

AABRIA: Oh.

NOSHIR: Damn.

ASHLY: On a six, it works.
SAM: Oh boy.

ASHLY: Though they still
receive the scar,

they're back on their feet.

On a four to five,

it'll cost three drive
points of your choosing.

GINA: Oof.

ASHLY: I'm going to do it.
AABRIA: Okay.

ASHLY: I used all my
drive on the last one,

so she's going to be...

SAM: Is there a way
I can assist?

LIAM: Ooh!
SAM: Oh, well.

Maybe I don't have to.

(laughter)

ASHLY: Should I take, I'm
going to take the mixed success

so I can get a drive
back, but it was a five.

AABRIA: Okay.
ASHLY: If that matters.

AABRIA: Okay.

ASHLY: So I'm going to, seeing
what these guys are saying

and with what little
strength I have left,

I'm going to--
AABRIA: You still have to

spend two other--

You still have to
spend three drives

on a mixed success.
ASHLY: Oh!

Then I should
just take the six.

AABRIA: You should just take the six.
ASHLY: I'll take the six.

AABRIA: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

ASHLY: So I'm extremely
fatigued at this point.

But hearing them shout,
I'm going to drag myself over

to Raj and flip him over

and start whatever doing
whatever resuscitation means.

(laughs) Whatever
that looks like.

AABRIA: I think you
are looking at a man

whose face has split open.
SAM: Oh jesus.

AABRIA: The hive in his
upper torso has collapsed.

So we can say that this
is less of a medical event

and more of--
ASHLY: Emotional.

AABRIA: Yeah. It's an
emotional connection.

It's a reaching
with the thing

beyond what you know
exists in this world.

To do so,
you will take a brain.

Mostly because this
is a stressful situation

and you are pushing yourself.

ASHLY: Raj, get up.

SAM: Call them off, damn it.

ASHLY: Raj, wake up!

NOSHIR: My right eye opens,

and in a kaleidoscopic
effect, I can see Elsie

in a fractal of nine,

and The Serious Man
in the background.

I only have the strength
to whisper to my children:

Death is too easy for him.

You let him live, but barely.

AABRIA: Suddenly
they all stop,

the swarm doubled,
tripled, tenfold,

all drop to the ground dead.

Your hive will be back.

They always come back.

NOSHIR: I know.

AABRIA: But The Serious Man
is alive,

but in shock on the ground

LIAM: What shape
is his flesh in?

AABRIA: He's
looking pretty bad.

Just ripped up by bugs.

And like all of-- It's
like he was attacked

by swarms and swarms
of different things.

Biting things and
stinging things together.

So there are welts of stings

and welts of
allergic reactions

and bites,
and chews, and blood.

He's alive and shaking.

GINA: As I'm aiding
Cosmo, I ask him:

Cosmo, who is this man?

Why did we let him live?

LIAM: It's
a full circle today

for my father and I.

GINA: Your father?

LIAM: Oh yes.

SAM: I'll go over and examine
the body while he's talking.

GINA: Is that your
father on the floor?

LIAM: No.

That one is.

SAM: I'll pick up the
man and turn him over

and see if it's the
same face I remember,

if it's him, if he's
there, if he's alive.

AABRIA: Yes.

He is hyperventilating.

He's very shallow
breathing and ragged,

but he is alive, just barely.

You recognize him
from the day you became

whatever this is,

a ritual gone wrong

or right at his hands.

Then in a moment of conflux,

as your ship broke,

he left, abandoning his work

and whatever great magick
he called into the world

foisted on you.

He loses consciousness,
but he's alive in your hands.

LIAM: I can scarcely
believe it.

SAM: Yeah.

Can you-- Doc, are you okay?

Can you stabilize him?

We need him alive.

He has answers that I need.

NOSHIR: The elder Grimm.

ASHLY: I'm going
to look at Raj,

take his face in my
hands and check him

and then gently
put his head down

and then walk over
to this man,

and I suppose I will
try to tend to him.

AABRIA: There's a lot
happening right now.

Just to interject,
he is stabilized,

but bleeding out
in his chair.

SAM: Oh, Cosmo is?
AABRIA: Yeah

ASHLY: Let's do
that first, then.

(laughter)

AABRIA: You have
The Serious Man,

unconscious and
in various states.

He's been brought back, but
has taken and is showing signs

of damage that stagger
the imagination.

I would recommend that you

take the spoils
of victory here and now

and recover in
safety somewhere else.

ASHLY: That sounds
like a good idea.

LIAM: I just barely
managed to lift this

thousands of years old dagger
and slot it into my chair.

You hear old metal scrape
as it slides back in.

ASHLY: Cosmo, Cosmo.

GINA: I call Elsie over.
I scream: Elsie, please!

I put more pressure
on the wound.

SAM: I lift up the man,
seeing Cosmo hurt,

I'll try to shoulder
him and carry him out.

We got to go,
we got to save him.

We got to go now.

AABRIA: It will take effort.

But outside of the danger
of The Serious Man

and the Great Maw,
you have time.

You can make your way back

make your way up the gentle
slope of dirt and debris

that you came down into this
random tunnel in Oldfaire,

a dead end,
but no, not really.

Time it, sneak, hide,

make your way back.

Get back to the safe house,

the chapter house,
The Antiquarian,

and recover and figure out

just exactly
what happened here

after you rest.

NOSHIR: Can I ask
one question?

Am I able to get out
on my own feet?

AABRIA: You are, but barely.

NOSHIR: I can't leave a
thrall of Maw alone down here

to waste away.

AABRIA: Yeah.

NOSHIR: So I gently
place my hand

upon his chest.

I take the Core Sampler
and I ram it home

and the blade from the tube
runs through his front

and spikes him to
the wall in the back,

and I wish him an easy
and quiet rest.

AABRIA: I think that's
a good place to end

because only you,

with all of your knowledge

of what your sister
went through,

what the Maw is capable of,

and maybe the little bit
inside of him

that remembers himself
and what he used to be

and can watch himself
reduced to whatever this is,

will know what great mercy
you showed here tonight.

And with that, we will
end the first episode.

ASHLY: That was
just one episode.

SAM: That felt like 20.

GINA: Oh my gosh.
AABRIA: (laughs)

GINA: Oh my gosh.
SAM: It's a season.

ASHLY: (laughs)

GINA: We got orcas,
and mantises, and bees?

AABRIA: Yeah!
ASHLY: Oh my!

GINA: We're going to
a petting zoo, oh my!

AABRIA: Oh my!
GINA: Jeez.

LIAM: Yes.

AABRIA: Okay, before we go

as we're transitioning
out of heavy shit,

let's do the thing we didn't
really get a chance to do

at the top and
introduce yourselves--

ASHLY: Oh yeah.

AABRIA:-- and a little
bit about your character

to the audience before we go.

We got to get a little
aftercare in here.

It is heavy in the club.

ASHLY: (laughs)

AABRIA: Let's
change the music.

Do we have some Cardi B?

No, it's not on
my stream deck? Wild.

Let's start with you.

NOSHIR: Is this actually
happening at the end?

AABRIA: Hmm?

NOSHIR: Like, we can talk
about what has just

transpired, or--?

AABRIA: Well, this is just

a little quick introduction--
GINA: On the ride home.

AABRIA:-- because no one
knows who any of you are.

And then we'll get into
all of the fallout

from that next time.
ASHLY: Great.

NOSHIR: I am Noshir Dalal,

playing Professor
Rajan Savarimuthu,

scholar/professor.

ASHLY: Slash bee man.
SAM: Slash dick.

(laughter)

NOSHIR: Slash--
NOSHIR and GINA:-- beekeeper.

(laughter)

AABRIA: He's of
beekeeping age.

(laughter)

LIAM: It's that old
Eddie Izzard bit:

Do you-- Do you know that
you're covered in bees?

(laughter)

SAM: I am Sam Riegel, I'm
playing Oscar "Cary" Grimm.

(laughter)

ASHLY: Still trying.

SAM: That's it,
that's who I am.

And I'm very surprised

at everyone's
very intense backstory.

(laughter)

NOSHIR: Because yours
is super chill.

AABRIA: Super chill!
(laughter)

SAM: I think everyone
at this table's like,

"I've got something good."

(laughter)

SAM: But nope, it's not as
good as the next person.

GINA: I am Gina Darling,
and I play Madam Glask,

owner of the Glass Cat Casino
and discrete brothel.

Am I the only
normal one here?

Who knows?

We'll find out.
NOSHIR: No such thing,

no such thing.

ASHLY: Hi, I'm Ashly Burch,
I play Dr. Elsie Roberts,

and I am
half woman, half beast.

SAM: In real life.

(laughter)
ASHLY: In real life.

LIAM: (as Cosmo)
I am Liam O'Brien.

I'm playing Cosmo Grimm.

I've been in Candela Obscura
for many, many decades,

and I work sometimes
with my father.

ASHLY: (gasps)

SAM: Hi.

(laughter)

GINA: What is
the skincare routine?

Amazing.
AABRIA: Yeah.

NOSHIR: Long story,
long story.

AABRIA: Drop the products.
LIAM: Very long story.

AABRIA: And I have been
Aabria Iyengar,

your overjoyed
storyteller here

for the Circle of
Tide & Bone.

And we'll see you next time.

Until then,
take a deep breath

in, out.

ALL: (breathe in and out)

AABRIA: Is it Thursday yet?