We Need to Talk About Pete (Ep. 7) | The Unsleeping City

- The Umbral Arcana is rent here. All of the tears in the Umbral Arcana here are connected to their puppet master, Pete. You feel the presence of insects, the buildings are covered in horrifying, gross webs. And you see a horrifying wasp centaur woman. The fist on your golden ring glows bright. Flames streak off of your fist, and you obliterate this bug lady's fucking head. (laughing) - [Man] Fuck yeah. - I'm looking through the hole and I'm just like, awesome. - La Gran Gata looks over, however, and says, (sniffs) "Something is missing from the shelves of the Bodega." - Oh no, did the cockroach take something? - You look up, and you guys see a shattered piece of glass on the back, and underneath it it says, written in gold, the key to the city. (gasping) (dramatic music) - Welcome one and all to another episode of "The Unsleeping City." We return to find our intrepid heroes, and say hi, intrepid heroes! - [Group] Hi, intrepid heroes! - I love it. Our intrepid heroes are in Astoria Queens, as the dreaming insect fold, these vermeans, from the realm of Nod are, (sucking) sucked back through the rent that is stitched together and sealed. The magic recedes from Pete. Those of you still in combat mode watch as the insects and bugsters all disappear. You arrive in the Irish pub down the block, still somewhat covered in webs, people sort of leave and walk away. Some of you look worse for wear than others. - Just had a fun night. (laughing) - I'm trying to get on your level. (laughing) - You guys all convene in this pub, you begin to hear the noise of people rushing away outside. The Umbral Arcana slowly starts to seep back in, you guys can feel, those of you who are familiar with it. But you see Sophia very injured, and Pete with this kind of wild dream magic receding from his eyes. What do you guys do as you hear the far away sound of distant sirens? - I think I need some calories in me, 'cause I'm a little drunk, so I'm gonna see if they have a Guinness. - I was just gonna say I'm getting a Guinness! You are kidding me. - It's 10:00 in the morning. - You're fucked up, you're fucked up. - We both start pouring Guinness for ourselves. - I'll take a Guinness, if you're gonna have a Guinness. - Alright, no! - Do you want one? - Stop! Nobody if we're gonna do, shut the fuck up, Pete! No, Pete, what the fuck is going on? - What was that? You caused the bugs? - I'd like to slap the Guinness out of Pete's hand. - No! (laughing) Pete, what the fuck was that? - Look, man, alright, I'll explain. - Smack. (glass breaking) - Okay, look, I don't know how I caused that, okay? Your guess is as good as mine. And, you know what? I just feel like a... - There's a tap there. (laughing) - All right, there are police coming, and now we're destroying property. - I lay on hands you for 15. - Oh, Mr. March, okay. - Are you okay? - Yeah. - Is anyone else hurt? - No, man. - I'm good. But if you wanna lay your hands on me. - Should we go to that Bodega? - Let's go back to the Bodega. - Absolutely, yeah, yeah. - You guys rush back to the Bodega. You see La Gran Gata on the counter perched. She looks over at you and goes, ahh my chosen, you have returned here to the Bodega. - What do you wish of me? Anything you wish. - She's so goddamn drunk. - This is why the Umbral Arcana is so important. - She bent the knee to a cat. - I'm your champion, what do you need? - I will come to you in my own time in a way you cannot expect. Walk the streets of this New York City. And I will come to you, when it is time for you to fight. - Okay, I'll be waiting, but not in an impatient desperate way. - You see the cat leaps up onto your shoulder and nuzzles your face. - We'll leave, you can have him. - What is happening? - You'll wait for the cat? - Kitty rubs, kitty rubs, kitty rubs. (purring) - Cat tail goes over back. Hi, it feels almost too good. (laughing) You see, she looks at you and says, "Here, know this you have a special role to play in the times to come. You are not the first woman to turn to a cat when her marriage has fallen apart." - Yes, I know. I'm very aware I'm treading in dangerous territory here. But you're gonna be my only cat, so- - And I will be your only cat, for you have sworn yourself to my service. (whooshing) The cat disappears. You guys see that your ring and your little compact seashell mirror gleam with light. - Cool, I offer you a cigarette. - Look at how many pages! - Any other cool stuff? (laughing) - You guys, the Bodega at the disappearance of La Gran Gata, has gone back to a more standard, the gold and ancient wonders have sort of disappeared. But you're welcome to search around if you wanna search around in the Bodega, you can make an investigation check. - [Man] I'll do it. - Sure. - 19. - If we're all doing it. - Oh, not 20! (cheering) I seek around a non magical Bodega. - Mine is 20 but not nat. - I also got a 19. - Hey! - Jesus Christ. - Do I get advantage on it now? - No, you do not get advantage on investigate. - What'd you get? - Five. - Aww! - Aww, Ricky Matsui! - Can I look for something for Ricky? - Yes, you can look for something. I'll say with that nat 20, too, you guys root around. - Yeah, I got a 15, I can see if I can find something for Mr. March over there. (laughing) Mr. March, Mr. March! - You guys find a couple of items here, they're not as gleaming and wondrous as they were when the spirit of the cat was present here in the Bodega. You find a couple different things. You find, Kugrash, you are scooting around. By the way, the Bodega owner is still here kind of looking at you guys, scooting around looking for stuff. You find an extremely fascinating looking bagel up in the bagel tray. It's an everything bagel. And as you look at the toppings of the everything bagel, it really seems like this bagel has everything that there ever- - My God. - Is it the bagel of infinite holding? (laughing) - You can have lox and lox and lox and it never doesn't fade out. - You can put whatever you want on it. - I don't think any of you guys have an identify spell, so some of these artifacts are gonna be a bit mysterious. But you find an incredibly potent magical bagel. - Well maybe, maybe I'm magical, maybe that's my magic, I put my hand on it to identify it. - Cool, you reach out, do you have access to the identify spell? You put your hand out, and it's a fine bagel. You know, it's not like H&H or anything, but... - I'd eat this one quick, 'cause it's good. - Don't eat it man, don't eat it. - Hey, gang wanted to give a huge shout out to this episode, Sponsor Reroll. Reroll is an app available on iOS, Android, and web browsers that lets you create and to customize your D and D characters in pixel art. They have a huge selection of options to create pretty much whatever you have in your mind's eye. And they're adding new armors, items and outfits all the time. We went ahead to see if we could recreate some D20 characters in Reroll and they turned out pretty nice. Don't take our word for it. Check it out for yourself by going to reroll.co and sign up for an account afterwards. And then now back to the show. - Ricky's having a hard time finding anything. You also find something up in the little thing of like, of 10 hour energies, you find something that is labeled 1000 hour energy. - I need that. (laughing) - It's called 1000 hour energy. - Ricky, you're the only one I trust not to abuse this. (laughing) - Let me just taste it man. - Get out of here. - Let me just taste it. - Put it in my like, little belt pocket. - Kingston, you find a bottle over by the laundry detergent, there's something called holy grail laundry detergent. - Great, can I take that over the counter and pay for it? - Sure, you see the Bodega owner, he goes, oh great, that'll be, this, 12.50. - Oh, that's a little expensive for detergent. I mean I'm gonna pay it, but I'm gonna say it. - It's a premium detergent! - Okay, it's premium detergent? - I got it. - I'm gonna pay for it, I mean, it's just, $12 for detergent's a lot, right? I can get tide for eight. - It's for 64 loads! - I didn't see that, I didn't see it was 64 loads. Is this HOV? - Hand you five dollars. - No, I don't need anybody's money, I can buy it. - I take it and walk out. - I hand you $5000 in a wad. - I slap the shit out of it. - And Pete, you actually find a little holdover from when it was a little bit more golden in here, underneath one of the shelves, you find a chunk of gold, and you think at first it's like a bracelet or something, but then you see it is actually a diamond flecked golden grill for your teeth. - No. - Image. - Oh god, I hate this. - I've been warned about pro appropriation before so I will not be wearing this. - Might wanna rinse that off before you put that in your mouth. - I don't know, it doesn't... - It's fine! - Why don't you turn it into a necklace? - I put it in my mouth. - You look so cool, oh my God, I don't know. - You pay for it. You guys suddenly hear, as the sirens approach closer, you hear (blowing), you see Alejandro, Esther, Anna, and Amelia all teleport right outside of the Bodega. Alejandro steps in. You see Esther walks out and begins doing something to affect the Umbral Arcana. Anna and Emilio rush over, preparing some kind of enchantment spell as the police close in. Alejandro walks in the Bodega, looking at all the carnage and destruction and goes, "what has happened here?" - Pete happened. - This motherfucker can't control his shit! - No, I was in a dream, and I let these like, bugsters into the real life, but it was a dream, I thought I could just do whatever. I didn't think that it would really happen in real life. - What part of your situation remains unclear to you? You are the voice of the dreaming realm. Since you have come here, in the past, it is Monday morning. Since Saturday, Santa Claus has been mugged. His sled broken. Did you just microdose right now? - No! - I'm gonna need you to make a constitution saving throw. - It was a regular dose. - 19. - You see that Alejandro raises up to try to lift you up off the ground with telekinesis. And instead, you (whooshes) anchor there and everything else in the Bodega starts floating around you. Alejandro looks totally surprised by this magical event occurring. Looks back at you. You hear voices in your head, start to go, he shouldn't get to, he shouldn't get to tell you what to do, he's just jealous of your power. Let him know what real power feels like. I'm gonna need a wild magic surge roll from you. - 14. - Cool. What does Pete do? - I really like Alejandro. I think I'm ignoring those voices a little bit. So, I say, sorry. I'm sorry man. How do I work on this? Also what does this grill do? - Where did you find that? - I found it on the ground underneath a shelf, I was flat on the ground in this Bodega. (laughs) - You are... - Special. Sorry, I'm so sorry. - You are a voice. - Brave, sorry. - He whips his cap off and says, "real people's lives are at stake!" - Okay, okay. You are a fool! You are a, why do you not seem to care about the real cost of what these actions are? These beings were released into the real world! People died! Pete hears the voices again say, you owe these people nothing. We can take you away from here. You don't have to be yelled at by these people. What do they know of your life, your pain, your struggle? There's nothing for you here. - I take more acid to quiet the voices. (laughing) - Go ahead and give me another wild magic roll. - Great. - 18. - Cool. You're keeping the magic down as much as you can. But you can tell that while you're being yelled at, this is stressing you out. - Yeah. - And you can feel, while you have control on it, that it's gonna keep being a fight while you're here getting yelled at. - Fuck. - Can we see kind of what's going on? - Anyone make an arcana check that wants to. - Yeah. - Okay. (dice rolling) - Six. - Six. - 12. - Oh look, a 12! (laughs) - You guys I don't think can fully see what's happening at this moment. - Oh, can I like, crack, pop open the door, and say like, I'm just gonna smoke, I'm still listening, Alejandro. - I wanna try to interrupt, and ask about... Just go up to Esther, and tell her that, someone took the key to the city. - She looks and goes, the key, one of the, Gran Gata's wonders? - Yeah, they're going across 59th Street bridge. - You see she says, okay, do either of you wanna follow them? Or see if you can track them down? - I'll go for it. - Yeah of course, yeah. - Awesome. You guys, were you guys just gonna take off, or are you gonna let them know that you're going? - You guys wanna go chase this key? - Yeah, I mean... - Can we take your bus? - You can take my bus. - Cool. Now locate object has a range of 1000 feet. So I'm gonna actually need an investigate check from Ricky to see if you can keep up with this thing as it's going over the bridge. - Can I use find steed too, and just like, chase after it on my steed? - Right, you may absolutely cast, well first of all, give me the investigation check to see if you can even locate where this thing is. - Okay, I got an 18. - 18, yeah, you sense it heading over the bridge fast, but you're gonna have to hoof it. - What about pawing it? (laughs) - Cool. Ricky, you're gonna need help chasing this thing down. How does Ricky summon his steed? - Well I just had become a dog, right? And so I'm feeling this sort of canine energy in me. And I know I have to get over there and I just... So just calling out to the dogs of the world. (howls) (laughing) Ow. - You reach out and call to these dog spirits. You guys see a flash of morning light. The sun coming up, it is about 10:00 in the morning. And you see running around a corner, this beautiful like, red fire hydrant, golden light. Like time slows down. And the most beautiful dalmatian in the world starts running, (barks). Begins to rush towards Ricky, and leaps up into your arms. (slurping) - I lick it back. (laughing) (panting) - You're my best friend in the whole world. - You're my best friend. - Whoa, it can talk? - Oh, sorry. That's only Ricky hearing that. (laughing) - Can I hear it too? - You can hear it too. - Awesome. - You're my best friend. I need some help finding something right now. - Okay. - Big old key. - Big old key. - Can I get on your back, or can I just run with you? - As you run alongside your dalmatian, you find that your speed greatly increases as you enjoy running alongside your dog. - I'm just having an incredible time. - Incredible time. So Ricky sprints off. - I'd like to turn into a dog as well, just a real busted dalmatian though. - Cool. (laughing) - Just tongue permanently out- - Just like, fucked up from inbreeding. - just like, jaw broken. - You see that your dog looks over at Kugrash and goes, something's wrong with that dog. (laughing) - He's always got so much saliva. - This is fun guys. - Cool. You guys I think, even with the bus, are probably not gonna be hoofing it as fast as Ricky and his dog and Kugrash are. Does anyone else join, or is it Kugrash and Ricky peeling off to go chase them? - Can I talk to Alejandro? - Yeah, you see Anna and Emilio kind of handling the cops. Esther and Alejandro both look very kind of serious and downcast as you guys are in the Bodega. Also, by the way I will say, as you guys take off, it's 10:00 AM Monday morning. So like, Ricky, your like, shift starts in like, an hour and a half. And Kingston, you have like rehearsal and stuff coming up. - Yeah, I've got to get to work. - You got to get to work. - My schedule's open. - Yeah, Kugrash is always open. And yeah, and Pete, you, you step outside to smoke, so you're like out in front of the Bodega. So this is I think, Esther, Sophia, Kingston, and Misty, and Alejandro are all in the Bodega still. - Yeah, I think if they're safe, I'll just chill in the Bodega. - Cool, awesome. Alejandro looks over at you, Kingston. (sighs) This is very bad. - Tell me about it. - I am... Listen, Pete is a troubled young man. - Mm-hmm. - He's very very cool. - I like the kid a lot. (inhaling) - My man, you got to... What flavor? - Oh, this is, oh this is melon passion fruit guava. - Why'd I even ask? But you're right, I like the kid, but this is bad stuff. (sighs) - Perhaps we should, we have plenty of work here, trying to clean up this mess and restore the Umbral Arcana. Maybe it would do for us to meet later tonight. And have a discussion about what is to be done. - Got a bunch of leftover salad at my place. If you just wanna... - Did that keep? - I mean, it's salad. We can probably get, we can get a day out of salad. - Sorry to interject, I'm pretty sure I was still with the tupperware before we left. - Okay, great. - Sorry, I'm gone. - Okay, sure, we can come by and have some salad at your place. (laughs) - You know Alejandro, I think they've discontinued those fruit flavored Juul pods, so, maybe you should stock up on them before they disappear. - Okay nobody needs to be stocking up on this. - Yeah, kids were smoking them. They were all like, chocolate banana flavored. - There's a chocolate banana flavor? - Probably. - Oh, the rules or something. - I'm gonna show you pictures of popcorn lung when you come over to my place tonight. (laughing) I'm gonna show you pictures of popcorn lung and you're going to- - Kingston, I am 92 years old, a little popcorn lung is not a bad way for me to go out and this tastes so good. You can smoke it inside it's just vapor! - Okay, you cannot smoke it inside, laws are changing! (puffing) Okay, stop, stop. I look over at the owner. - A flock of smoke, of vapor pigeons flies out of his mouth. - Alright. - Wonderful. So, you guys, what's Pete doing outside as he's like, catching up with himself? - I think I'm just kind of like, pacing, and like, angry. - Yeah, your phone lights up with a little text from Priya. - Great. Cool, I read it. - It does not address any of the things in your wall of text to your ex. It says, what's your schedule like today, question mark. - Fuck you. (laughing) - I write back, I'm free before 5:00 PM. - A response back, splendid. Do you think we could grab a quick cup of coffee? Wanted to talk to you about us. - I leave it on read for a little while. (laughing) - Vicious. - Yeah, wonderful. You also have some like, messages from seven you also have like, been sleeping in Kingston's place. - Yeah, I really wanna check in with my like, criminal network, and see if anyone knows who Robert is. Or like, do some investigating instead of meeting up with him. - Awesome, do you wanna send those questions over electronic messaging, or do you wanna be like, hey, let's meet up and talk, and ask them in person? - I wanna make a couple stops and ask some people in person. - Cool, so I think Pete you just dip. - Okay. - Pete dips. - I only look in through the window and say bye to Kingston. - Nothing. (laughs) - Sophia sees this and is really hurt. - I feel bad, but I just didn't wanna talk to Alejandro again. - I look at the cigarette that you gave me and I'm like, I guess it meant nothing. - Do I have Sophia's number? - Yes, I think you have Sophia- - I text like, had to dip, bye Sophia! Okay, I instantly feel great. - Incredible. We'll cut over first. 18 is awesome. So Ricky, you are sprinting at the pace of a full running dog. - For the city! (laughing) - You just like, rip across the 59th Street bridge with the two dalmatians. You've got the gleaming ax in your hand. You rip across the bridge, 18. You manage to keep this. You're like, (sniffs) sniffing out this key yourself. You get a little message from Esther. It actually is like a magical message, not on your phone. She says, the key to the city is a very powerful magical artifact. Its signature should be easy to read. There are certain pockets in the city that are dead zones, where things are hard to divine or scry. Try to get it before you get to one of those dead zones. I'm gonna need, for these sort of like, running checks, I'm actually gonna need constitution checks from you, and your dog, to like, set the pace and keep up, and from Kugrash as well. - Are these like, saving throws or just straight up. - They're actually checks, nothing bad's happened to you. It's about you full speed running after a vehicle trying to catch up with it basically. - Cool. (dice rolling) - 11. - Natural three. - Okay, go ahead and give me a roll for your steed as well. - I don't know what I would add to that though. - By the way, what's the name of your wonderful sweet dog? - Oh, um... - You can take a moment to think about it if you want. - Yeah, I'll take a second. - Oh my god, I can't wait for you to debut it. - Can't wait for a debut. - And then for the mount, I rolled a 15. And do I add my constitution to that? - You would add, so just plus one. - Okay so 16 for that. - Cool. Your magical dog, magical dalmatian is keeping up. Kugrash, you have a hard time, your lungs. (breathes heavily) - Come on Kug! - Fucking so fast kid. Your stupid magic dog, goddammit. I hate my goddamn life. (laughing) Why'd I follow you? You're in such good shape, goddammit. - Looking great, it's awesome to exercise, man. - Fuck you! (laughing) (groans) - Kugrash, you're hurting. It's a hard time keeping up. Ricky, you could probably keep up with the car but you'd be leaving Kugrash behind. - It's fine, fuck me, go goddammit! You stupid kid, go! You goddamn beautiful boy, you fucker! You absolute asshole! - Are you okay? - Go fuck yourself, Ricky! - [Ricky] Awesome. - Ricky you are just sprinting, (whooshes) just like, the awnings of delis and storefronts and the little umbrellas and hot dog carts like, (whooshes) flutter in the wind as you (grunts) just sprint down the street. Your dog is like (barking) just like, running beside you. - Oh I've decided the dog's name is Ox. - Ox. - Yeah! - A-U-X? - Ricky this is the best time in the world! You're my best friend! - You're my best friend. - I love to help! - You're helping me a ton. - Aww. - Fuck you! - That's incredible. - Animal control has descended on you. (laughing) - Great. - Calling 9-1-1 about a strange dog, - I also need you to, weirdly, actually make a stealth check for me, as you catch up on the vehicle, to see if it doesn't spot you. - It was a car. - How could nobody spot this hot man and his beautiful dog? - I rolled a 12. - Okay, gonna need to roll back here. - People are already Instagramming him and he's famous, he's hashtag trending on Twitter. - You have disadvantage on stealth. - Okay, so. Shit, Okay, so 10. Oh wait no, seven, fuck. - Gotcha. - You have disadvantage on stealth, why? - 'Cause of plate, I guess? - Ricky has the effect of plate armor, which normally gives you disadvantage on stealth. But we're saying that Ricky's just, doesn't have plate, but has the armor class, and doesn't have the disadvantage, but is too hot. So, it's hard to be stealthy. - His like, muscles. He has so much bulk. - He's got them big thick pants too. - That is so funny. Yeah he's already fully trending on like, online. - Actually I'm gonna say a bunch people... - Have posted Insta, hot guy running! - Hot guy running with dog. - Hashtag beauty and the beast. (laughing) - Like Misty, you're like, on your way out of the Bodega and you look at your like, your social media, and there's like an incredible thing of like, ooh, March in December, what's this hashtag? Ooh, Mr. March just runs! (laughing) Yeah, a lot of incredible things. I'm also gonna make a little roll back here real quick. You see that as you're running, Ricky, while you're sprinting down the street, there are a lot of opportunities like, someone's like, baby stroller almost goes out into the street, and you like, (baby crying) push it back against them. Someone like, oh, I'm dropping all these pies! (laughing) - Wow, thanks Mr. March! - Smells great. (laughing) - Just another perfect day for the luckiest, hottest man in New York. (laughing) Cool. - Tom Cruise's characters are all based on him. Just following behind like, how can I do this? How can I make this my next role? - Incredible. - I barrel through all of these people 15 minutes later. (laughing) - And you ruin everything. You kick the baby, you crush the pies. - Jump over the baby. - Giant weight is pushing. - Ricky give me one last investigate check. - Okay, come on, ugh, fuck. What's my investigation? Okay, five. - Five, cool. You rolled a lot of really great rolls in a row. You sprint up down through Manhattan, you get up onto the FDR, going down the East River. Running in between cars. You get all the way down to the financial district. As you get there, your divine sense tingles a little bit. You're down on Wall Street, and, it is busy down here, but there is a faint aura of death around this place. Your locate object spell goes blank, and (whooshes) kind of disappears. And you see that Ox kind of, (whimpers) huddles up behind your legs, and crouches down. - Come here, come here, come here. (whimpering) - Big dog jumps up in your arms. - Just looking around holding my dalmatian. - Like a giant baby. - Everybody in the world has heard of you now. - Something's off here. - This beautiful man is holding a huge dog. - Ellen is on the phone being like, what are you up to this week? - We need him, we need him. - I take a selfie with the dog, and send it to Esther, like, made it to the financial district, something's off here. Smells like death. How are you? (laughing) - She responds, very busy at the moment. Thank you for the update. You, with that five, lose the car here. But, you do have a sense of the five or six block area where you kind of had line of sight, you're like, couldn't have gotten that far. Couldn't have gotten that far. So there's a couple blocks of buildings where you think it probably landed or could be in this area. And it's the center of like, Wall Street, like, from like, you know, Trinity Place and the church, down like, down Wall Street a couple blocks, down to like, Stone Street, maybe up to like, Gold Street on the other side. There's like this couple block radius. But, these are high rise buildings, and it is like a warren, like a hive here, of different places and buildings and companies and stuff like that. - Okay. - Did he ever see the van, or was he just following? - Never got close enough. I don't think any, none of your investigate checks beat a 20 I don't think. - I don't think so, no. - So you never actually got full line of sight to the vehicle, but, you've sensed it with your spell. - Okay. Well. (laughs) I guess I start a group text. I don't know if we have one going. - He's on an Android, so it's all green. (laughing) - I don't fuck with Apple, okay? All you sheeple. (laughing) - Made it to the financial district, I don't see it any more. There's something wrong here. - Wonderful. And then you get a text from the fire chief, Kevin, being like, hey, Rick, just making sure you're coming in today. - Oh shit. - I just text him back, on my way. And then, just, one last look, and then head out. (barks) you see Ox jumps down and starts walking along beside you. (panting) - Ox. You've been great, and I'll see you soon. You can go be light, I guess? - Okay, if you want me to be light, I can. Do you want me to go be light? - Yes. (panting) (screeching) Spans, and like diffuses into the light. - Aww. - I run to the fire station. - Cool, you go to the fire station. For those that are leaving the Bodega what are you guys off to go do? Obviously some of you have work. - I have to go to rehearsal, which I have not been to for... - Well everybody can get on the bus, and the bus can drop people off wherever they need to be. - [Brennan] Cool. - Oh, and by the way. Was talking to Willie last night. - Hmm. - He said the Lazarus we might be looking for might have something to do with the Statue of Liberty, or something like that. So. - Goddammit. I'm stupid! - What? - Emma Lazarus, it's not Lazarus from the bible, it's Emma Lazarus! - Who is that? - Emma Lazarus wrote the poem. - Which poem? - The, bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to break free. - Wow. - If I may interject. Have you guys maybe considered it's both? That maybe they're some kind of, like, I'm saying like, - Meta duality of Lazarus references? - I'm saying Lazarus arose from the dead. Emma Lazarus is all about immigration. What if they're using the thing to launder the souls to sort of give these souls a second chance in heaven? - I think it's possible. I'm really worried about anything that wants to break free. - Hmm, well. - I just wanted. - Emma Lazarus, though, fun. She was a fun lady. - Oh I believe it. - You know? She was fun. - Wonderful. You guys head off to your various places of employ. The only people that, so you guys all go to work. Misty, you arrive at rehearsal. You walk in, Perry looks up to you and goes, well! Miss Moore, hello! Excited for you to grace us with your presence. Shall we go ahead and get it started? - I'd love to get it started. I perfectly fucking word perfect, note perfect. (laughing) - Yeah, go ahead and give me a performance check. - I'll give you a performance check. - Please roll low, please roll low. - Oh my god, I want you to roll low too. I'm sorry. (dice rolling) (laughs) - Is this a dexterity performance? No, this is a regular performance check? - This is a regular performance. - I got a 13. - A 13! - She has a plus 10 in performance. - I have a plus 10 in performance, I did roll a three. - Wow, okay. - A plus 10. - So, you go through his rehearsal. There's all these people dressed in these like, crazy fairy get ups, it's like this like, high, schmaltzy, Midsummer Night's Dream. Perry goes like, alright, from the top people! You launch into the song, and, how do you navigate through a 13? 'Cause it is not gonna be word perfect. (show tune music) - I get through the first verse and a half, and then I just start yelling, line? (laughing) And then I'm like, the beat is off, there's something off with this. Is this a new pianist? I feel like the beat is off. This is what we're doing, a five, six, seven, eight! This is where we need to be. - You see your piano accompanyist, Benjamin, looks up at you and says, "I'm so sorry, the beat is off?" Someone help me figure this out. The drummer looks over and says, "yes, if the beat, if the beat was off, then, I'll do it differently for you Ms. Moore." - Pick it up, pick it up. - I will pick it up. - We're singing a very slow ballad. (laughing) - At the end of rehearsal, you see that Perry comes over you, and says, Misty. - Darling, sweetheart. Angel. - You are a vision. And I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to make sure that... - The show as a whole? I mean that is your job. - No, certainly! I guess what I'm asking is... - I just love your vision for this whole play. I just think you're doing a great job. - Thank you. - The flowers look wonderful. Bottom's head is so expressive. - You see that Alissa, your assistant, comes up, and goes, um, hi, Ms. Moore, sorry to bother you. I picked up these different leaves of holly, and a couple other things, you wanted some salt, and some other, it's a little silver. - Sure, sure, we don't need to do this now. - But you wanted me to sort of build some little things. - I'm having a conversation with my friend here. - I am so sorry. - Just bring them to my apartment, I'll with it then. - I am so sorry, I'm very so sorry. - Yeah, no, I know you're sorry. (laughs) - This is so painful. - This will never happen again. - No, it won't. (laughing) - She turns around, and just broken, like shambles off. Perry looks over to you and says, Misty, there is nothing more important to me than your health and wellbeing. So you let me know if you're not feeling up to it. - Darling, I've never felt healthier. I mean, look. 800 is the new 20, you know what I'm saying? I'm kidding, I'm not that old. - I know you're being cheeky. (laughing) What? (laughing) Ah, alright. Let's take it again. And you get back into rehearsal. And then Kugrash, what are you up to? (laughing) - I get to the financial district way way way after Ricky has left. And it's daytime, right? It's like, kind of early? - Yeah, it's a Monday morning. - I would like to, hopefully my son David is at work. I would like to swing by his house to see if I can't find something. - Wonderful, his house is, he lives way out in Forest Hills. So, you can probably, you scurry out there. You've got nothing else. - Take the ferry. - I'll take, yeah. - You scurry out, or take a ferry. - Take the ferry down to Red Hook? - Yeah, so you take the ferry to Red Hook, you get out there however you get there. Go ahead. When you get there, make a little stealth. - I would like do pass without trace on myself. - Awesome. (dice rolling) - Oh my god, 32. With pass without trace. - Yeah, I'm gonna say, also probably like, you shift into like an actual, like, rat. - Yeah, being myself again. - You, do you have, you know rats can fit through any opening their skull can fit through, 'cause they're cartilaginous. - Jesus I didn't know that. - You get in under like a door, like through like a rain gutter, like (slurping). And there's this lovely little house, this is Forest Hills, so these are like, one story houses out here. You're way out in Queens. This is like the kind of Peter Parker kind of neighborhood out here. - Looks like he's done well for himself stop sobbing. - You squish through. - A little rat crying. - You get in. You see your daughter in law is home right now, she's working out of her home office. And your grandchildren are not here, they're at school. But you see there, up above the little fireplace, there is a little soccer trophy. And you see there's like a little plaque or something, having to do with someone getting a first place in a science project. - So goddamn proud of this kid. (laughing) Wish I could talk to him. Then I would like to, I guess see if I can find David's office, see if I can find my old like, financial records, anything like that. Look for stuff about like, Robert, 'cause I'd worked with him before. - Yeah, absolutely. Go ahead and make an investigate check for me. - Oh god. (dice rolling) - Nat 20! (cheering) - Baby! - Oh that's a good nat 20. - So inspired by my grandchildren's first place, I need to be good at things now. - Incredible. You scoot around. Your son David is a lawyer, who works for financial watchdog groups to basically hunt down and prosecute white collar criminals. - Mm-hmm, yep, yep, this is good. This is good. (laughs) - You see that there are a number of files in his sort of home desk office area. And there's a closet with a bunch of those kind of legal files, you know. A lot of legal stuff is still done in paper, and there's a bunch of those cardboard, like legal file boxes, file folders and stuff like that. You see stuff in the back that's been taped up. And you see, it says on it, Bruce Kugrich on it. Which is your name, there's a lot of files on there. You open it up, start to go through your files and everything like that. And you see a lot of financial information here. You go back through a lot of deals. There's a bunch of stuff about your old hedge fund. A lot of stuff about the deals you made. There's some stuff there, you see signatures, like your signatures, you also see signatures from Gabriella Sinclair. As you go further and further through these files, you arrive at deals where you remember something being made with this group that had a long name in it. But, hold on one second. - Sure. (typing) - Sobbing the whole time. (laughing) - Just a little rat. - Yeah, tiny rat lifting up a file like this. - Stealing from my son. - I guess technically, this is mine, so it's not stealing, but it feels like stealing. - Eye boogers getting caught in your fur. - I need another perm. (laughs) - You find a file with financial information in it, from an old, old money group. The kind of, where, they didn't even like, take meetings, they like, called you, to come in and take meetings with them, right? Called O'Neil, Dwyer, Burns, and Moses. And as you say that, you suddenly remember being at a party back in the 80s, where you saw that guy Robert. And heard someone refer to him out of the corner of your ear as Mr. Moses. - Oh fuck me. - Go ahead and make a, with that nat 20, make a history check, with advantage. (dice rolling) (humming) - 14. - You suddenly think back. Robert Moses is a figure of New York history. And as you suddenly realize that you never got that guy's first name, and now you got it here from Pete, Robert Moses is a powerful historical figure, within the history of New York. With a 14, you remember that he was not only sort of a businessman, but also had a lot to do with like the civic life of New York. He was part of a lot of, never elected, but was part of a lot of government boards, had a lot to do with the building and infrastructure of New York, specifically, a lot with the building of roads and highways. - Hmm, causing interference in the magical world. Highway hex. - You also find in these boxes back here, on top of the last box in this closet, you see there is a little envelope that is closed, but not sealed. And it says, to dad, on it. (groans) I read it. Goddammit. - You open this letter up. And start to read it. (emotional music) "Dear Dad. I don't expect this letter will find you before my funeral. Which I would hope that you had the decency to come back to. I don't know where you are, or why you left. Having raised a family of my own, I can tell you that it takes a lot of bravery to steer kids right in this world. And so I'm not surprised that you couldn't hack it. Because I can't tell it to your face, I'll say it to you here, thank you. Thank you for showing me the type of person in this world that you need to devote your life to stopping. I've spent my life's work raising kids, being a good husband to my wife, and making sure that people like you who hurt people for profit face consequences for it. I think I've come to terms with what you did to me. I'm strong enough that this is something I won't let stand in the way of a happy and good life for myself. What you did to Wally, I can never forgive, because he needed you. Hope this letter finds you well, and in good health. For all you've done, I still wish you nothing but the best. And know that everybody has a chance to turn their life around. I don't think I'll ever live to see yours, but here's hoping, David." (sighs deeply) - I leave the letter, because I'll remember it. (laughing) - Jesus Christ. Brutal. - Fuck me. (laughing) - Was such a goddamn rat. (laughs) - You finish the letter, put it down, and there's a soft silence as this furry little rat stands in this little closet, full of these financial records and papers. And, you hear a car pulling up into the driveway outside. - I leave. - You sneak out the back, afraid to see who's probably coming in the front door. We'll go from Kugrash to... We'll head over now to Kingston. - Cool, what's going on with Kingston as he gets over to St. Owen's? - I guess I got to get through the day. So I don't know, I think like a, very like a head down kind of day, at work. - Hell yeah. You're getting through your day there at work. You see that Emiko is there, she smiles, she says, you seen this crazy shit on Instagram? - What, what is that? - March in December? - Shows you a bunch of stories of Ricky running and like waving at people and catching like falling... As he like, sprints through the city. - That boy is crazy. - Get that boy on The Bachelor. - I swear. - Like, accidentally flexing. - You see her, she looks and says, I don't get, it's just all these thirsty women online, and a lot of thirsty men as well. And I don't understand why he won't let me sign up with my fucking friends! I presumed he is dating thousands of people. - I don't think so. I also don't know when he would. He works out two hours a day, cardio and resistance. Gets nine hours of sleep, and works a full firefighter job. And then also has this weird hobby. He's part of like a Gramercy, there's something in Gramercy he does. - Oh, cool. Something, cool, and in Gramercy, that's a cool part of town, right, there must be interesting things going down. - I guess so. - He's not dating anybody. - No, not that I know. - Hey, I mean, people's people. - You're not wrong. You get a call on your phone while you're at work. (phone ringing) - Who is it? - An unknown number. - I pick up. - Is this Mr. Kingston Brown? - Yes, and who do I have the pleasure of speaking to? - This is officer Epona Cirillo. - Oh, what's up Epona? - How's it going, Kingston? - I'm good, how are you? - Listen, we're working with the DA's office down here. And we're looking to collected a testimony from you and we have no way of reaching Kugrash, and we don't have Misty Moore's number on file, but basically, anyone who was a witness to the events of Santa Claus's assault in the park. We'd love you to come down to city hall today if you can, we'd like to get a testimony from you. - You want me to bring everybody, or you want me to just come by myself? - We'll take whoever we can, if you have those other people that were with you, anyone that saw it, we'd love to try to track them down, but we can also collect that information from you down here at city hall. - Okay, great. - Cool. What does Kingston do? - Guess I'll head down to city hall real quick. - Great. You head down to city hall. As you head down there, you walk in, and you see that Epona greets you. City hall, massive building with the golden statue on top, huge stone steps everywhere. Epona leads you up these stone steps, meets you out front, ah, Kingston, thanks for coming down, I appreciate it. - Of course, Epona, I happen to do civic duty. - She clip clop, clip clop, clip clops, her centaur hooves up the stone steps. - Hey does that ever get annoying to you? - What? - The sound of your own feet? (laughing) Now listen, I don't know, I don't find it annoying personally, I'm just, like, it's an interesting thing. You know, 'cause when I put on nice shoes, and I hear like the tip tap, tip tap, I like that. But I don't wear nice shoes all the time, so it's like, for you, clip clopping all the time. Is it clip clopping, is that offensive? I'm just trying to be respectful. - Hey, you know what, I understand. - I'm just trying to understand you better, you know? - For sure. Kingston, I'm gonna be honest with you, first of all, I don't have feet I have hooves. - Okay my bad. - That's alright, I mean, that's okay. Second of all, I mean yes, yes, it's a little annoying. It's a little bit annoying. Because it's a reminder that you know, this, listen, this city is not built for me. - You want something for that? I can probably get a guy to make like a soft shoe, like a soft horseshoe. I'd probably find a guy for that. - Yeah, you know, I'm good Kingston, I appreciate that, I really do appreciate that. - You ever want a soft horseshoe, you let me know, okay? - Fucking Air Jordans for a centaur. - I don't know, you know, I don't know what kind of flubber horseshoes you're talking about here, but, these horseshoes are fine. - Okay. - You see that she leads you to city hall as you go in, there's a bunch of metal detectors there. You see that there is, they're gray and kind of those beigey metal detectors. And there's one metal detector at the far end that has a tiny little goblin in like a clerk's uniform that, it's like crazy sparkling lapis lazuli and amethyst, like (crackling). - Mm-hmm. - Hey, how's it going? So he goes, Epona, is this a guest of yours? - She says, yeah. We're going into the 17th circuit. He goes, oh, all right, right down here. Leads you through. Sir, are you carrying any firearms, weapons of any kind, flammable liquids, spectral entities, souls, memories, dreams? - None other than my own. (laughs) - Sometimes people you stepped on my joke. Sometimes people say, I don't have any, no souls, and I'll go, oh no! (laughing) This guy's, that's good. Great minds, huh? - Next time I'll let you have that one, alright? - There, yeah, don't step on it next time. - Yeah, I won't. (laughing) - You go through, beep beep. (beeping) And see that you walk through, Epona steps around. She leads you to a small room. And she actually looks at you and says, as Vox Populi, we don't have to actually swear you in 'cause everything you say is legally speaking, admissible testimony and evidence. However if you would like to be sworn in, we're happy to do that. Is there something you'd like to be sworn in on? - Can I take off my eternal coat and give it to her? - You see that she nods. She like, wraps your hand around it and says, Kingston Brown, offering testimony on behalf of the city of New York. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? To the best of your ability? - Of course. - Wonderful. We're done but here you go. She steps into one of those mirror rooms where you see a lineup. You see there is a lineup of a giant, massive, like tree, with a face. Up against the height thing. A weird, like, what looks like a mound of human excrement with eyes and a mouth. - Like an emoji? (laughing) - I was thinking the same thing. - Yeah, it looks a weird, horrifying poop emoji, but its eyes are all yellow and jaundiced and very bloodshot, like it just woke up. And you see there are two extremely tough, tattooed little pixies, and they have like, tattoos, like undershirts, like tanktops. And then saying, the fifth person in the lineup, is a human who just is looking around extremely confused. You see that Epona asks, Mr. Brown, did you witness any of these individuals within the vicinity of the sleigh when you were adjacent to it? - No I did not. - Okay. Can you point to any of these people that you recognize from personal affairs? - I mean, I text sometimes. So I do recognize the excrement with eyes as the poop emoji. At least that's what the kids call it. - You see she says, that's very funny, but, that's just a normal excrement. - A normal what? - Normal excrement elemental, from the sewers, so. - And that's Kugrash's, not mine. - If you can get Kugrash down here, this guy actually asked for a lawyer, and we offered a public defender, said he wanted Kugrash. (laughing) - Okay, I'll make sure he knows about that. - That would be great. - But I do, I was at the confetti wedding on Sunday. And Don had told me that those two boys, the tough looking pixies, that they were... - We should hold this testimony for the DA. If you wanna come with me that'd actually be great. - Oh, great. - You walk into a side room. You see that that big thing of shit goes, (garbling) (laughing) Whatever little device you have is like, blowing up. - Fucking leave me alone you piece of shit! (laughing) - I'm gonna cry just reading the note again. Shit, it's texting me! - Yeah, I don't know how you have the saved, this is Buddy, is what he asked to be called. But I don't know if you have him saved that way on your phone. Cool. - Feel like you have 18 different buddies in your phone. - Buddy. - Just call him Buddy man. - Different numbers of Ys. - Buddyyyyy. - You walk into a side room, you are seated at a comfortable wooden table, Epona goes, hey is there anything you want here? Eat, drink, coffee, you want something else? - I'll just take a glass of water. - Glass of water. She walks out to go get a glass of water for you. She walks back in with the glass of water, and right behind her is Liz. - [Lou] Oh, come on. - Liz Herrera walks in. She clearly knows who she's going in to talk to, so she has her game face on. She sits down, looks at you. Mr. Brown, thank you for coming in today, my name is Liz. - Don't call me Mr. Brown. Okay, okay. - Are we gonna do this? - No, I can do it. - Are we gonna do this? - No, Mr. Brown's ready to talk. - I'm at work. So the thing with me here, Kingston, is that I am at work right now. - Okay. - You see Epona puts the water down and says, I'm gonna fully go. (laughing) She steps out. You see that Liz turns a recorder on, and keeps her voice professional, but is just fucking staring daggers at you. So, Kingston. It's my understanding that you attended the wedding of Angela Confetti to, Ronald Pigeon. - Yes, I was on a date with Misty Moore to the Confetti wedding on Sunday. - Click, fuck you. - No, fuck you! - Fuck you! - Fuck you! - Go fuck yourself! - You know I don't wanna do this. - I always knew there was something weird with you and her. - It was nothing! - She's wanted to fuck you for years, I knew it. You're such a piece of shit. - I never fucked her. - You are such a fucking dog. - Don't even do this, you know. - You're telling me you were faithful, voice to the city. - I am faithful. I was faithful. I would've continued to be faithful. It wasn't a date. I just... I'm mad, okay? It was, we just... We were going there because there was some stuff going on with the whole Santa Claus thing and yeah, it was business. I don't know why I said it was a date. - Business. So what's, the mummy's back or something? - No, the mummy's not back. Something's going on with Nod. - Nod, refresh my memory, that is... - It's the sixth borough, it's the dream land. There's this new kid on the block named Pete, who I guess is the Vox Phantasma. He's me, but for them. Anyway. - She clicks the thing back on. (sighs) So, Mr. Brown. You were attending at the wedding. Did you hear anything amounting to criminal conspiracy, having to do with the assault on Santa Claus in Central Park? - According to Don Confetti, two pixies had gone downtown, and confessed to being the ones, who, you know, had hijacked, or, you know, vandalized the sled. - And the names of these individuals are? - Pixie and Trixie or something like that. I don't mean to be rude. - No, their names are stupid. (laughing) Twinkle and Pinkie. - There it is, Twinkle and Pinkie, that's what I heard. - Click, and because I have to fucking work in this department now. - Mm-hmm. - I have to prosecute Twinkle and Pinkie. - It's still law. These are still people. - It is of, I live in a fucking cartoon now! - You don't live, this not a... - Because of you I live in a fucking cartoon! - This is New York City, this is the real thing! - Oh, oh, oh! A horse woman just brought you a cup of water, and these two pixies I got to put away for attacking Santa Claus! - She's a goddamn centaur! - I go through I would say half a bottle of whiskey every night, just to get through the day. - That is so bad for you. You have to come see me. - Oh what so you can do your magic hands? - I don't wanna fight with you. - I was on track to be the district attorney. I was on track to be somebody. And now I'm here. I had to watch them fingerprint a pile of shit (laughing) today. Do you know how unpleasant that is to watch? - I can only imagine. Liz, what do you want me to say, alright? I'm sorry? I'm sorry I fell in love with you, I'm sorry you fell in love with me, I'm sorry we were married, I'm sorry it didn't work out, I'm sorry I brought you onto all of this? What do you want me to say? And please don't call me Mr. Brown. - Click. Mr. Brown, thank you very much for you time. - Ice cold. - Great, I'll see you later. Call me if you need anything, and tell that pile of shit I'll get Kugrash down here. (laughing) - Our lives suck so bad. (laughing) - [Emily] Oh my god. - You can't do a campaign about New York City and have people's lives not be truly fucking miserable. Incredible. - Greatest city in the world! (laughing) - Awesome. We're gonna cut over now to Sophia. What does Sophia get up to after the Bodega? - Okay, well. First off I'm starting to sober up. I think I go to a drug store. I'm trying on some sunglasses. Maybe I'm impulse shopping some Christmas stuff. 'Cause they have, like, you know, a nice display, and... When you are missing something in your life, you try to replace it with material items. Anyways, I text my brother, and I say, Mario, I'm heading back to Staten Island. I need to talk to you. - You see he gives a text back and says, missed you last night, sure, let's talk. - Okay, so I think that's my objective. I take my huge bag of Christmas stuff. And then while I'm on the ferry, I also wanna try to meditate for the first time. Actually, oh, you know what I also do at the drug store? Are there any self help books? - You start looking at these self help books. Make a perception check for me. - Okay. (dice rolling) (groans) - Okay, 11. (laughs) - You don't notice it. But you hear a voice behind you go, don't look at all that stuff, that's all fucking trash, you don't need that. - I turn around. Who's there? - You see a guy with a little shopping cart in his hand. He's like a five foot, four, extremely built older guy. You see he's, looks like he's probably in his late 50s, early 60s. Chinese American guy. He's got a Mets windbreaker on. And a little Mets hat. And you see that he has like, very comfy kind of athletic sandals and socks. You see he's got some stuff in there that looks like rash cream and ointment and stuff in his basket. - I never thought how intimate it is to run into someone at the drug store. (laughing) - But he sees you looking at it. - Honestly, I may look, on the outside, very put together, but, that's because I'm an aesthetician. Truthfully, I wanna make some changes, I don't know if that means I need to be like, journaling or like, you know, meditating or something like that, so, I just was interested in a book. It doesn't mean you're a bad person if you turn to self help books. - You see he shrugs and goes. I mean, listen. Meditation is, maybe the most important practice one can partake in. Center oneself, become aware. I get that 100%, it's just that, these books are commerce, they're not real wisdom, you know what I mean? - Then how am I supposed to learn how to meditate? A podcast or what? Get one of those little apps? That's commerce as well. - You see he looks and goes, (sighs) forget it, do what you're gonna do. Hey, it is what it is. And you see that he walks. - You sound real familiar. Someone recently told me it is what it is. - You see he turns around and looks back to you and says, "fuck you talk, fuck you, I didn't talk to you." You see that a whisper of sparkles appears around him, and over his shoulders that he can't see, La Gran Gata's eyes appear, and wink at you. And he goes, fuck you, what's your fucking problem? - I don't know, what's your fucking problem? Also what's your fucking name? - My name's fucking Jackson, what's your fucking name? - My fucking name's Sophia! Lee, I mean, Sophia, (clears throat) Bicicleta. - He says, "why'd you stutter, what'd you say before that?" - I said my, ugh, whatever the, I said my married name, I was married, I was Sophia Lee. I'm not any more. Now I'm the crazy old woman who's got a cat she loves, and is shopping for self help books in a drug store and I've got a pocket full of Santas that spit up colorful red and green M&Ms! - Jesus Christ. I didn't ask for your whole fucking life story. - You asked what's my fucking problem. - You see that he looks at you. He looks at you, and says, Sophia Lee. - Sophia Lee, I'm getting into the M&Ms. - You see that he looks at you and says, you're a fucking mess. The fuck you crying for? - I don't know. - [Brennan] You have, he says. - Honestly I didn't sleep well, I didn't sleep at all last night. - You see he looks at you, and puts down his basket, as you go to eat something else, he, lightning fast, you can't even see his hand move, snatches out from in front of your mouth. - Oh my god, I got the sharing size, you could've just asked for some. - He leans back, kicks your basket into the air, and all the candy scatters everywhere and goes, (whooshing) come on, toots. - Okay, I fight him. (laughing) Alright, I take my earrings out, I take my spades off, I shimmy out of my spades. (laughing) Let's do this. - You see that he says, you fucking get left by some guy, you fucking get a little bit sad, and all of a sudden you got to plow into some chocolate? Have some fucking self respect! Pow pow pow pow pow pow pow! And you see he just boxes your fucking ears. Go ahead and give me an attack, give me some attack rolls. - Oh my god, I wanna fucking do well so bad. (groans) 13? (dice rolling) 27? (dice rolling) Nat 20! (cheering) - So you see that you, he comes at you. He plows into your sternum, and you straight up lose two ki points. You just, (whooshing), he like... - I only had one left for today. - Oh he, (whooshes) robs you of your ki points. (whooshes) As you like, stumble back. See he goes like, I don't know who the fuck you are lady, but, let me tell your right now. You got to get your fucking, and you, (whooshing) spin, roundhouse kick him, right in the chin, and you see that he skids back about three feet. (cracking) Sets his jaw back in, and he goes, that's a nice hit, kid. - Thank you. And I just want you to know that I wasn't kicking to kill. - He says... - This was a friendly spar for me. - He looks at you and says, yeah, we'll work on that. - Okay. Guess we fucking will. - He looks at you and goes... And you see that La Gran Gata appears on your shoulder. And she goes. "Jackson Wei of the Order of the Concrete Fist. This is my chosen, Sophia Lee. Or Sophia Bicicleta." You see that he looks and goes, yeah. Sophia Lee, huh, alright. Listen, if you are chosen of the great cat, and you wish to study at the monastery of the midnight sun, learn the secrets of our art. I will accept you as a student, but, our monastery is extremely challenging to get to. It lies far away, in a remote place, where only the most dedicated can reach it. - Yeah, I know something about that, I'm from Staten Island. - Oh, we're in Staten Island. - Oh! - No, that's what I was referring to. - Oh my god! - The monastery's in Staten Island. - Oh my god, where? How close are you to Spaghetti's? (laughing) - We're literally across the street from Spaghetti's! - I'm there every other day. - Oh god, that's crazy. All right, yeah, that's where the monastery is, it's in Staten Island. - Oh, okay. - Honestly, people think, people usually guess wrong about where the center of kung fu is in... - Yeah. - No, it's Staten Island. - If you listen to Wu Tang, there is a commitment to Staten Island. - Can I show you something? You see he takes his wallet out, and goes through some pictures of his kids, and gets a picture of Method Man and him sparring in the monastery of the midnight sun. - Oh my god. - He was my best and greatest student. - Yeah, well I'm hoping to give him a run for his money. Honestly. - Oh, he says, we'll see. - Okay, yeah. - So you see that, so you take the ferry. You see that Jackson goes and gets a little cup of coffee and sits next to you, and goes, so, you know. Tell me a little bit about yourself. You have to know you have a gift. Your ki power is incredibly strong. - Thank you. Honestly until recently I did not really understand, I mean I always knew I was like a tough cookie, but I didn't know that maybe that toughness was coming from something magical. I didn't know about, I didn't see anything magical for a while, but recently I've been running with quite a magical crowd, and it's been really helpful for some soul searching. - He says, you know Kingston Brown? - Yeah. - Old friend of mine. - Honestly, this is gonna drive you crazy but I was just with him. - What? - Yeah! - Ah, that son of a bitch, tell him to come by and visit, no one ever visits Staten Island. - I can't get any of them. I have a huge house and no one will fucking come to it. - I have a three bedroom! My oldest went off to college. - Yeah! - And I'm over here with a spare bedroom. Do I put a gym in there or an office? I don't know. - You think if I have the guest rooms, they'll come stay. They don't. - You arrive in Staten Island, and walk with Jackson, who, you see immediately has like, taken a shine to you. And you keep seeing out of the corner of your eye, never fully manifesting, kind of like spectral or ghostly, La Gran Gata smiling and winking at you. - Jackson, can I tell you. So as you know I am the chosen of La Gran Gata. La Gran Gata loves you. - Oh. Well, you know, I'll explain a bit what we sort of do is, you guys walk up to the ferry and he says, so I'm part of the Order of the Concrete Fist. We are dedicated to the defense of New York City, against those things which break through from the other side. We have a number of spiritual practices, and there are spirits like La Gran Gata and others that are actually of the magic of the waking world, of the treasures and splendor and wonder of this place. So, it's very wonderful that the great cat has smiled on me in that way, as she's chosen to smile on you. - Yeah. - Make an insight check for me. (dice rolling) - Nine. - He gets like a little bit of a sad look in his eye when he looks at you. And you see he just goes, yeah. In any case. I don't think it's an accident that I found you in that drug store, and, I will be very happy to induct you into this monastery. And you see, as you get into this little place across from Spaghetti's, Jesus. - Spaghetti's Bakery, was it? - Spaghetti's Bakery. We bake the best spaghetti! You see the hat. - Staten Island's specialty baked spaghetti. - There's a little three story kind of apartment building across from Spaghetti's. You see that he, you get there and you see that there's like a little kind of, a little like, fire hydrant. And you see that there are two metal buckets next to it with one of those like, shoulder yokes. You see he says, alright kid, you ready for your first test? - I guess so. My only question would be maybe we start with meditation, 'cause I think I could give you, I'm running on empty right now, and I'm willing to continue to run on empty, but if you want I can... - Yeah, there'll be healing at the top. You see he points to a fire escape. And you see that the fire escape goes to the third floor, and then you see kind of, you can see that it keeps going up above the top of the building. And as you follow it, the Umbral Arcana fades away. And you see a, it's like a gray overcast day. The fire escape goes up into the sky. - Okay, you want me to climb that bitch? - I want you to fill these two buckets with water and bring it up to the top. - Okay, yeah, I can do that. - I'll see you up there. (whooshing) Jackson jumps straight into the sky. - Jesus Christ. - I think I'll be able to do that in like a day. (laughing) - So I guess I look for a hose. - Yeah, you fill up the two buckets next to this little fire, you can undo the fire hydrant. Fill up the buckets. - God, okay. - And you head off. Pete, we're gonna go over to you. - Alright. - Cool, what are you up to that day? - I think I'm fucking pissed. I think I wanna be as intimidating as possible as I just like, walk down the street, and I'm listening to like, fucking, The Prodigy, blasting out of my wireless headphones. (laughing) - Hell yeah. Go ahead and make a check for me, about looking over your criminal network, for any like, clues about this.... - Oh cool, like, insight? - Yeah actually. Just do, I think do a flat charisma check for me. - Ga ga ga ga ga ga ga. 18. - Cool, you begin to like, hustle your criminal contacts. Do you go to see Priya that day? - So I have a plan. I'm gonna get a tattoo, 'cause I need to calm down. And I've been wanting to find an eight letter word to go across my fists, and I'm gonna do fantasma, across. So that I'm like, freshly tattooed, and I'm just like, hey Priya, Oh, weird. - F-A-N-T-A-S-M-A? Fuck yeah, very cool. - It's not gonna look really cool, you're gonna have like, bandaged. - It's gonna look so red and cool, anyway, I'm definitely doing it. (laughing) So, I'm getting that tattoo, and then I text Priya back like, oh, I happen to be in the area of this coffee shop, can you meet up there, and it's like, the one that we had our first date at. (laughing) - She responds back, naturally. - Oh, god this girl's language is infuriating. - I hate that I love it. Okay cool, so I'm getting that tattoo and then I... I think I try to hit up my like, the dealers who work with like, Wall Street or like, business people. Like the ones who look very like, suit and tie and can talk to these people and sell them all like, drugs. - Okay, you're looking for like, so like the square, most like, suity people in your network. - Yeah, yeah, that might know of Robert or sold around him or something like that and I'm like, getting a fucking sick ass tattoo and bleeding. - You get a fucking dope ass tattoo. It's like that crazy playing card font. You know what I mean? - Yeah, exactly - Exactly, yeah. - I get you, I get you. - Fantasma. - [Brennan] Fantasma. - What does the word asma mean? Did you misspell the world asthma? - No, I don't have asthma, okay? I smoke all the fucking time. - What's a fant? (laughing) - What are the letters, precisely? - F-A-N-T... - Oh, okay, so it's with an F. - It's with an F instead of a P-H, that's for sure. You arrive at the coffee shop. You started to kind of put your feelers out. - Ow! (laughing) - And you see Priya is there. She looks gorgeous, she's in this enormous green army jacket. Her hair's kind of off to one side, beautiful nose piercing. She's got this like, weird little shredded undershirt that has a picture of like a weird cartoon mouse, saying kill me, and paint spattered skinny jeans. You can see she goes, (sighs). Peter, you have some new ink on your fingers. - Oh yeah, I've been getting some new tattoos. How are you? - You know that phantasma's spelled with a P-H, right? - Oh not this one, no. (laughing) - You see she nods and says, would you like some coffee? - Hmm? - Would you like some coffee? - Yeah, I'll probably get some coffee. How are you, how are you, you look great, how are you doing? - Well, I'm very sleepless at the moment, I have a big gallery showing on the 30th, and, I am just absolutely inundated, as usual, I've said yes to everything when I should have said no, and there's just too much going on. How about you darling? - Yeah, I'm good. Can I roll insight to see what's going on here? - Sure, go for it. - 11, with... (humming) 16. - She's a little bit inscrutable. You think that there's like stuff she's sort of not saying. See she goes, well listen. I heard through the grapevine that you were homeless at the moment, and I wanted to make sure that everything was alright, because I know that things didn't end well between us, but I still do care about your well being. I want you to be safe. - Oh, that's fucking really nice of you. Oh, thanks. I'm like, maybe gonna cry, and I'm like, I'm gonna go get the coffee really quick. - Please take your time, absolutely. - I get the coffee and I hold all the tears back. - You walk up, you go, there's the barista is this like, enormous jacked dude with a handlebar mustache and a neck tat. You see he goes, hey man. (dice rolling) You want a pour over? And we have a little booth around the corner, do you wanna go, do that real quick? I'll cover for you. - Wait, what the fuck? - Do you need to go cry? - There's a cry booth? - Yeah. We're all about it here. (laughing) - That's really nice, but I actually wasn't gonna fucking cry, so I'll just take that pour over. (laughing) - You see he goes like, hey. Dog, everyone's relationship to their masculinity is a journey, and I get that. But this right here, fucking kills. - What makes you think I'm gonna cry, dude? - Dude, my fucking dad died at fucking 67 because he never fucking let it out. And stress clogs your arteries dude, it's a fucking medical condition. - Where's the booth, man? (laughing) - He brings you around to a booth. - I just let go in the booth. I'm like heaving. - He comes over and hold you at a certain point and he starts crying. Fuck, dude. Shit's rough, man. - That's fucking insane. (laughing) Alright I get my pour over, I'm back to Priya, I look great. - She goes, everything's all right? - Huh? - Everything's alright? - Yeah, yeah, we, he mistimed the pour over. That's so nice of you. (laughing) So nice of you to offer. I do actually have a place to live, I have a really good new mentor and friend in my life. - That's wonderful. - Yeah. - I asked you to come here because I had a dream about you. (laughs) - Cool. - I had this insane dream where I was talking to a man on a giant clock who was like a broken glass man. And I saw you and you were there, and you started to run away, and he was dancing, and, I talked with my therapist about that, and she basically said to me, you are on a clock because the time is now for you to resettle what your relationship to Peter was, because even though it didn't work out, he still means something to you. And you see that she slides a hand onto your knee, and says, I think that there might be a role that we have yet to play in each other's lives, and I want to discover what that is, and I wanna discover it with you. - I am dating a lot of people. - She says no, I don't wanna get back together with you. - Oh, cool, 'cause again. All the people that I am dating. But yeah to just like, be more in each other's lives. Yeah I'm gonna need to think about that. - Can I ask something? It's just one favor that I wanna ask. - Yeah. - Think about it. And can you, I'm nervous about my opening. Would you come to my gallery opening on the 30th, and we can talk about it there? - Sure, yeah, I would love to. Do you have like a flyer or something, or is it like an event, story I can screenshot? - No what's happening is, we actually only have one invitation, and it's being forwarded from person to person. And each time they do, they're gonna take a Polaroid of the exchange of the invitation. - That's cool, that's really cool. Okay, cool. (laughing) The art world, it makes sense. (laughing) And it's very new, it's always new. Oh well that's so great Priya. Yeah, I'll definitely be at your show though. Like I wouldn't miss, ahh! It for the world. Wouldn't miss it for the world. - Wonderful, I'm gonna leave now Peter. - I was also gonna leave. - Alright. - Race you. (laughs) - I'll let you leave first. - Hmm? - You can go. - So you can watch me go. (laughs) I like, flex my back. (laughing) - And Pete walks out of the coffee shop. - We are all such rejects. (laughing) - Cool, couple real quick things. Kingston, as you are leaving city hall to go back to work, Epona comes up to you, and basically says, "hey, I wanted to talk to you real quick, Kingston, if I could." - Yeah. - Look, I was wondering if, there were some people with you that I didn't recognize before, there was the firefighter and that young woman. - Ricky. - And that young kid. - Uh huh? Pete. - Who are these guys? - They're new friends, they all are. Give me an insight check. - Great. (dice rolling) 19. - You just think there's just a weird thing where Epona's talking to you outside of city hall while this is happening. And not talking to you in any of the rooms that you were in where stuff was being like, officially recorded. Says like, yeah, so this kid, what you said, Ricky, and what was the other name you said? - Yeah, they're all new people. Would you prefer if we went inside and had a chat about this? It just feels informal, you know, to be talking out here. Seeing as you're an officer and I'm a citizen. - You see she says, no, man, I'm not trying to bust your balls or nothing, I just wanna know about the kid, just because, it seems like, you know, if we can collect statements from them, or anything like that. Or honestly if you even tell me where I can find this kid, I'll actually be able to go and just talk to him myself. - Why would you need to do that? I mean, why can't they just come downtown? It just feels like, what can I say, I'm one for, everyone needs to do their civic duty. And they should do it civically. So, you know, I'll just send them down to city hall. How about that? - She looks at you, nods, and says, that sounds alright. If you wanna give them my information, I'd appreciate that, Kingston. - Of course. - And Kingston walks away. We're gonna scoot over now to Ricky. You're over at the fire house. You're hanging out, having a ball. - [Zac] Having a great time. - [Brennan] Having a great time. - Literally playing with balls, you're a dog now. - You're like looking at your phone over like, texts from Esther. And you see, looking at her last messages were very curt. You see that there's three firefighters all named John. - The Johns. - The Johns, yeah. You see the Johns are all kind of like, lifting weights and one's making a protein smoothie, the other one's doing sit ups. And you see they all look over, and you see one of them goes, (sighs) hey Rick, what you looking at over there on your phone, man? - Oh I just... Just going and looking at my texts. - You see they all look at each other and go, texts from a girl? Ooh! Come on man! They're all so jacked. They come over and start shoving you, and they're like, come on. - Ah, come on, come on. - Come on, man. Dude! Come on, like, we were gonna go to AC last weekend, and you were like not about it, and like, what's going on, man? - You know, just... Texting with this girl. - All them pull up chairs and sit them backwards and go like, talk to me bro. What's she saying? - Well, I think we're just kind of different. And I'm just trying to, you know, find some middle ground, being on the same wavelength. - How so? Is she like a different sign than you, incompatible, or are you like, I mean talk to me, like talk to me man, like... - She's so smart. And I'm, you know. - They all look and nod at each other. - She's more of a learned person, and I'm trying to become a learned person. - Bro, I feel that. 'Cause here's the thing man. It's fucking hard in this world for any educated person, let alone, I mean is this, are you talking like she's like, smart, or you mean like, educated, like academic? - Academic, yeah. - You see that one of the Johns looks at you and goes, bro, I'm gonna tell you straight right now. That's a hard obstacle to overcome, because a women trying to make it in academia is overcoming so many hurdles and obstacles, and honestly, that is a fucking challenge, bro. - Yeah, I'm just doing a big fly. (laughing) - You see that one of them is doing one armed pull ups and is just like, so like, talk to me, like, are you getting a vibe from this chick, or is it like, do you think that she doesn't feel that way about you? - There are moments when I feel like there's some sort of vibe going on, but overall, she's pretty much about her business, which is something that I really respect. - Dude I respect that, I respect that, I respect that too, man, that's so respectable. - I'm not really worried about it right now. - You see they all nod and they go, honestly dude, that's awesome, because, here's the thing man, like, if you have feelings for somebody, and you feel that you are attracted to them, that attraction is a form of respect. There's something about them that you find beautiful. And if you respect somebody, fuck dude, you have to let them go. Right? You see the other one's like (grunts). You see that the fire chief walks in and goes like, who's by the alarm right now? You're all out here working out? Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! You guys sort of tumble out of there. You guys start to get little texts back and forth, from Alejandro and Esther being like, we wanna have that meeting tonight, as sort of tonight rolls around. - Salads at my place! - Cool, you guys arrive there. Is Sophia going, or did you wanna go talk to Mario? (whistles) I do wanna talk to Mario, but I mean, did I make it to the top of the ladder? - Yes, you did. - Yes! - At the top of the ladder, this enormous, awesome monastery in the clouds is there. You see it's all gray. The walls look like they're made of sidewalk material, those big sidewalk squares with like, gum on them. And you see that, you're like, oh, everything here is made of sidewalk or floor. And you see, because it all looks like that, the monks are able to walk on walls, because the walls are, everything here is floor. - I put my foot to a wall. Can I walk on it? - You can walk on it, gravity shifts. And you see there's tons of other monks here training who look and smile at you as you walk in. You see that there is this incredible yin and yang symbol up. The yin yang is made of, not black and white though. There is a golden half that is speckled with grime and soot. And there' an incredible like, purple pink blue half with like star energy in it. You see that Jackson looks over at you and goes, (sighs) yep, there it is. The dreaming and the waking world. - Ah. - Let's get your training started, kid. You heal, but, you are healed by your presence in the monastery, but then also just spend a whole day fucking training in all these awesome martial arts. - This is too cool, I text Mario and I'm like, rain check. (laughing) I'm like, it's super pressing that we talk, and it is really important, if you're in Manhattan, please let me know, but for now, rain check. - Cool, you get no response back. Jackson is awesome. The first thing he works with you on, is he gets all the other students to pile into this room, and they start walking like a crowd. He puts a bucket of water on your head, and says, alright. Crowd of people, Penn station, rush hour. What are you gonna do? - Oh, I can do this. (laughing) - And you just do these sprints through a crowd of people with a bucket of... - Can we say that part of the reason I do it well is 'cause I got really good hip movements? (laughing) - You see he goes, great hip movements out there! Your center of gravity's great. Watch your hands, you're sloppy with your hands! - Oh, oh, sorry, sorry, sorry! - He says, you're always talking with your hands, keep your hands to your side! - That's a good point, oh! (laughing) - And he starts to drill you in this awesome New York kung fu. - Yeah. - You train for the rest of that day. So, Alejandro I think probably calls up Ricky, Kingston, Misty, and Kugrash. But Sophia also heard about it. So if Sophia wants to go, she can go as well. - I'm gonna deferentially refer to Jackson and say, I have an invitation from Kingston to talk some shop. I'm cool to stay here and train. However if you'd prefer me lend my services there, I can also do that. - Hey says, kid, you put in a hard day's work, alright? Go for it. - Alright. - He says, remember. We'll start working on meditation tomorrow, alright? - I'm gonna start doing it on the ferry. I got these really big sunglasses so I can close my eyes and no one will know I'm meditating. - He nods. You head off. You guys get to the meeting place of Alejandro. You see that he looks around at you guys, Esther is there as well. Pete is not here. But he looks at the other five of you, and goes, friends of the Gramercy Occult Society, thank you for answering this message. Congratulations as well, to Sophia, for being our newest member of The Unsleeping City, and joining the Monastery of the Midnight Sun. - You been around with Jackson? - Yes, he speaks very highly of you. He was asking for you. - I'm telling you, that man did damage in the 90s. (laughing) Whew! - Alejandro looks around and says, the presence of the Vox Phantasma begs a question. There have in the past been Vox Phantasmi? Phantasmas, Phantasmus? - Phantasmasas. - I'm gonna say it's an English word and we're gonna say Phantasmus. - Thank you. - It's not a Latin... We're not speaking Latin here. - No, we are not. - Language is mutable, you know, it's a beautiful thing. - Misty, sit down, sit down, you don't need to stand up. - You see that Alejandro looks out and says, there is a version of the fight that happened in Astoria that goes a very different way. I want to offer forward the question of what should be done if young Peter loses control of his magic in a way that is even more dangerous than what we have already seen. (sighs) - I mean, I'm certainly worried about it. I'm wondering actually if your friend Jackson can help, he's such a centered man, focused on meditation. - Jackson was really cool, I'd love to spend more time with him, should I text him? This is a great first reason to text him, Jackson. - I mean, here's the truth, Alejandro. If things get out of hand, we put him down. - What? - Straight up. - I think... I have kids. I have kids. - What? - I fucked up. I fucked up raising, - You have rat kids? - No, you know I was a human, you know I was a human. - Oh you have human kids. - Yes I have human kids. And I've made this mistake before, of overlooking people. And making them angry and bitter, and we need, Pete should be part of this discussion. - You know what? Kug is right. Kug is right because if you mess up someone's hair, you don't just, like if you fry someone's hair dyeing it, you don't just shave their head. You do like a deep conditioning treatment. - Yes. - The problem is we are not talking about hair. We're not talking about your kids. We're talking about the entire population of New York City, now if you're asking me to choose between New York City or Pete? 10 out of 10 times I choose New York City. - Can I just say, maybe we should consider locking him in some kind of magical cave for eternity? We don't have to kill him. - That's the worst one so far. - I don't want... - Alejandro goes, Misty, you cannot keep suggesting to lock people in caves. - It's a useful tool! I'm just saying. - You were trying to get us to lock the mummy in a cave for a long time. - I saw one time when you were at the first Sephora that opened up in New York City, and the person wouldn't let you speak to a manager, and you demanded to lock them in a giant crystal cave. - Those stores are confusing and I don't know what's good. I need some help. And they don't clean their brushes properly. - Oh, they don't? That's why I was getting pink eye from it. I wanted to know. Just so I can better understand this situation, is there a reason that the inhabitants of the Vox Phantasma would wanna come here, instead? What's wrong with what they've got going on? - You see Alejandro, he says, when you continue your training you should ask Jackson about that. The Order of the Concrete Fist was created because of the danger represented by the realms of dreaming. It was the response of a waking world constantly besieged by the forces beyond. In dream, things are insubstantial, chimeric and ephemeral. Acts of sudden change and chaos in the realms of dream do not fundamentally alter the nature of that plane. But when raw, pure magic enters forth into the waking world, as often as it creates wonder, or joy, it creates destruction and chaos. It is not fair to the people who have come to this city or been born here and lived here their entire lives, that their well being, safety, and in fact, even their life or death should be thrown into chaos, because of what amounts to often a joke. The spirits of dreaming are frenzied and wild, and you can even see from Peter, the sense of weight or gravity of his actions escapes him. When a Vox Phantasma comes to New York, in the case of Josephina Gatsby, which you knew. - Oh, so fun. - She manifested dreaming through delight and wonder and whimsy. Peter actively courts the darkness more than the light. And the realm of dream has much in the way of destruction to offer. If Peter treads his path recklessly, he could become something far more dangerous than we have the capacity to handle. - Okay, so we just replace all his drugs with Tic Tacs. - I mean I think that's obvious. - We're giving Pete something to rebel against. - We're having to meet without him. - Well okay, but we need, okay. - Let's get Pete. - No, you need to, no, hold on. Y'all need to slow down, alright? Because I get it. I get that you feel that Pete is being left out and thus he thinks he needs to rebel. He is already rebelling without that. So we do need to have this meeting, we do need to have this space, because we need to decide how we are acting towards him. - Yeah I'm a big fan of mischief, obviously, personally myself, but there's a difference between mischief and danger. I do need this city to be stable enough for... - For your show to come out. - Honestly, for theater to happen, because otherwise I can't live. - 'Cause there's not a lot of art during uncertain times. - Truly. - I'm all for keeping New York safe. But that includes Pete in my mind. - Again, just a magical cave, we can make it a nice cave. - All right, you can see that Esther looks up, and looks at you Kingston and goes, I agree with Kingston. When Kingston speaks he speaks for the people of this city, and I think Pete is a swell guy. I've also seen him multiple times attempt to sell drugs to children. And, we would be really foolish not to acknowledge the danger. Why don't we let Alejandro hit the books? I will as well. And we can see if there, I'm not saying crystal cave. But I'm saying some magical remedies to our situation. Maybe something that can at least lessen Pete's level of power while he's learning about himself. - Can I just interject? Because I'm in a somewhat similar situation to Pete here, which is that this is all very new to me, and it's all very overwhelming. So magic feels really old hat and normal to you guys, but to him, he's barely just beginning to grasp it. So it's not the same as like, mishandling magic that he's known all his life, it's mishandling magic that he learned about a couple days ago. So I think that there's got to be more of a grace window, for someone. - Alejandro, make a persuasion check with advantage. - Okay. (dice rolling) - 18. - Alejandro takes the little jewel out of his jacket and looks at it and you see his eyes water up a little bit and he says, "Sophia I think you are absolutely right. There is research to be done. Pete has only known of his powers for a few days. I would ask that we keep these a secret from him for the time being. All of us are very busy. You have your training. You have your ward over the city. The rest of you of course have your own duties and responsibilities to attend to. We will be in touch in a few days time." - All I'm saying is Merlin, after a couple of hundred years, was happier. - I cannot hear about this crystal cave one more time! (laughing) You see that (laughs), you guys head off. A few days of downtime pass. You're training, all you guys were plenty busy before the weekend from hell. Pete, you in your searches a couple days after that. You get a call from one of your suit buddies, saying, I know where the guy's gonna be. - I'm talking to him, right? - Yeah, you're talking to him. He's like, hey man, if you're looking for Robert, if you even wanna get a beat on him, or you wanna talk to him, I know where he's gonna be. - I have a card with his address on it. Is this the same address? - The guys says yeah, you could probably also spot him there if you wanted to. - Okay, where's he gonna be? - He's like, a party up in Hell's Kitchen. - Cool. Nice. What's he like? Like what's his... - He says, a big finance guy. Old, old power behind the throne in Wall Street circles. But is he known for anything, is he like, brutal, does he have... - You see he says, he's like, no, he's not brutal, he's a smooth operator, and a pretty easy guy to talk to, actually. - Hmm, fucker, okay. (laughs) Thanks man. - So Pete has this info on this dude, what's Pete gonna do? - Can I try to talk to Alejandro's daughters? - Sure, you can text them. - Cool. I'm like, hey. Your dad, I hate it when men yell at me. Can I talk to you? - You see they both, they both text you back in this group chain, and one of them sends a gif of someone rolling over laughing. And another one sense something of a very old man falling over in a walker with fail under it. And you see one of them says, g-pa sucks, what up? - Yeah, okay cool, I try to meet up with them, because I have a bunch of questions. - Cool, you meet up with them. You meet up on a corner. You see, yeah, they arrive and meet you on a street corner. - Do you guys know anything about Vox Phantasma, or like, what's going on, or... - We can like, look stuff up if you want. - One of them looks over and says, yeah. Grandpa's super pissed. I would probably not hang out with him much in the future. - What do you mean? He doesn't calm down? It's been like a week. - You see they say, look, Pete. We think you're awesome. And just like, be careful, okay? - What? Why? - The Society has to come first. (whooshing) They vanish. Make a perception check for me. - Okay. (dice rolling) Nat 20. - Jesus. - There is a car idling, a black town car idling at the street corner. And you see that its doors unlock. (clicking) - I walk towards it. - Fuck. - A door, back door opens up. - I mean I don't get in. I like, kind of have my gun. - [Brennan] Cool. And I'm like, what's up? - You hear a voice from inside go, (sighs) friends let you down, huh, kid? - I say, who are you? - My name is Robert Moses. Do you wanna figure it out? Why don't you hop in? We'll take a ride. - I say fuck you! And I run. I'm sick of all these men in my life! (laughing) I don't have a home to go to. I think I go to an Equinox for a free trial. (laughing) - You start, as you start to run, you see that he gets out of the backseat of the car, and stands, and you see he says, I like to talk in a town car, but, you see he says, if that makes you uncomfortable, I'd be happy to talk somewhere else. You have been running me down through your criminal network, so I thought you'd like the opportunity to speak. - I know everything. Alright, you can come to this Equinox too. (laughing) - He starts walking with you down the street. - Get on the ellipticals! - Get a date and peanut butter smoothie. - He's just walking with you down the street. You see he starts walking and goes, while we're heading to Equinox. He says, you want a cubano my friend? - Yeah, I take it. Can I like, check it? - Yeah, go for it, yeah, check it. (dice rolling) - Eight. - Seems fine to you. - Alright. - You see that he says, here you go. And takes an old match case out and lights up a match (match igniting) and holds it to light the cigar. He walks along with you and goes, well... I wanna apologize, I think we got off on the wrong foot. - How did you know that thing about my dad? - I make it my business to know these things, and I don't know if this is gonna catch you off guard. But you're not the most subtle Vox Phantasma there's ever been. - Okay, I have a lot of questions. What happened with my dad? Did I cause that? - In a sense, yeah, you did. - Hmm. - You got fucked, kid, I'm sorry. - What do you mean? - Well, did you sign up for this Vox Phantasma job? Did you weigh the health benefits? Did you get a choice in the matter? - No. - No. - Does it suck to be the Vox Phantasma? - What do you think? You're homeless. You've got a bunch of problems. - That's just New York. - You see that he holds up a camera, and plays something on his phone and shows it to you. You see a security cam footage from the Gramercy Occult Society, and see Kingston talking about killing you. - Oh, fuck. - And you see Alejandro and Esther weighing that option. - [Lou] If things get out of hand, we put him down. We're talking about - That's not real. - [Lou] the entire population of New York City. - No, that's not real. - Your call, kid. - You're asking me to choose between New York City. - No. I text Kingston. Hey, what up? (laughing) - What's going on, Pete? - He walks with you a little while. You see that he goes, texting Kingston Brown, why? - How do you know everything, goddammit. All right, he's my friend, man. That must have been out of context or something like that. - You see that he turns around. You are suddenly standing sort of outside this like, very big looking sort of like nightclub place. You see that he goes, well, as another Vox, you should know, Kingston Brown's the biggest schmuck there ever was. - You're a Vox also? - No, hell no. I don't do a job unless I'm getting paid. - I'm not getting paid for this? - No, you're not. - Goddammit. - Look, kiddo, you're a businessman, I get you, you're an entrepreneur. - Yeah I am. - You see that he opens this door and walks into this nightclub, and you see it is filled with vampires. And there are a bunch of humans everywhere who are like, having their blood drunk around you. And you see that he looks and says, you get it, right? They think you're some kind of threat or something like that. Everybody here chose to be here. All these humans, you see people again, looking like haunted and empty. They all wanna be here. - What are you doing, what's happening with them? - Well, they need money. These vampires need blood. - So they're selling their blood to these vampires? - Look, you get it I didn't create the demand, people did. - Fuck, I'm so pissed. I text the group, the nightclub that we're at. - Cool. - [Ally] And the address. - You see as he walks through with you, he looks and says, "there's nothing wrong with you using these powers for yourself, you don't owe anything to anybody, alright? This city is the gateway to the American dream, kid. Rags to riches, making something of yourself, that's your story, that's my story too. It's that little gray kid. They put this curse on you. It's this little gray kid that made you this thing, against your will." - What, why me, and who's the baby? - Nod. - Yeah. - You see that he walks in a little bit further. And... He says, "So, here's what I'm thinking. You wanna make money. I wanna take care of my business and protect my interests. So, why don't both of us do each other a favor, and talk to this little gray kid and see what the story is?" - Is the gray kid here? - Could be, I can't get the gray kid to come here, but you're the Vox Phantasma. - Goddammit. I look at my phone to see if there are any texts from any of the crew. - I would like to text saying I'm on my way, yeah. - I don't have anything else going on, I was standing in front of the mailbox trying to open it. - Yeah, a lot of people have been hitting me back that they're interested, so I'm gonna be like, that sounds really interesting, I'm gonna think on it, and get a cocktail across the street at my favorite bar. - He nods. And as you turn around, you see that there's a large mirror in the nightclub. - Fuck. - You see in the mirror as you turn to look, you see that you have no reflection, and where your reflection should be, is Nod. Who looks around and goes (gasps). You see Robert raises his hand, a seam opens in his wrist, and a rope of blood shoots out of his arm around the child, and he rips the child out of the mirror as it skids onto the floor in front of you. - Okay, I point true strike at Robert, so hopefully that will activate next turn, and I like, lunge to grab the baby as like, my own. - What is the emotion you're feeling towards the baby? - Protection, full protection. - You grab it, roll for wild magic surge. - Two. - You go, hold on a second. - Wait, two? - I've already done so many. - Every time they roll. - You grab the child. You see that Nod immediately, its skin starts to like, crack, as it is pulled out of the dream world. (gasps) It starts to die, and you glow with every color that has ever been. You fill the nightclub, incinerate about 20 vampires around you, and Robert is flung backwards, fwoom! You see that Nod looks at you and goes, I knew I chose right. And kisses your cheek. And you teleport away. - What? - And you are standing in the Lorimer Street subway stop. - Fuck. - Far the fuck away from that bad place. Your wild magic surges, and Nod is dying in your arms. - Fuck! - But still alive. You have service here, if you need to text these guys. - Okay, I retext, now I'm at the Lorimer. Like this is an emergency. - We got to turn around! - So far away. I try to get the ferry driver to make a detour. - Ferry? - You guys all descend on the Lorimer stop, it's from all the corners of the city. You (panting) hoof it there as fast as you can. - Are we on the G stop or the L stop on the Lorimer? - You well, you are on the L. Oh, the L stop on the Lorimer! - Okay. - Yes. What does Misty say as, do any of you text each other after that to text being on that stop? - G stop or L stop? - G stop or L stop? Am I going left or right as I come down the stairs? - You get a text from Alejandro saying, L stop, L stop! Do you mention that you have Nod? - Brooklyn bound or Canarsie bound? - You remember, well Misty, you remember, the L train, Canarsie bound- - Goes to the... - Goes to dream. - Sleeping City. Goes to dreamland. - Goes to dreamland. So, probably Canarsie bound, or Nod bound. - Yeah, let's do it, let's go to Nod. - Alejandro also on his way. Does anybody, do you guys call anybody else or no? - I think I tell Jackson. - You tell Jackson, cool. - I probably text Esther about it. - Esther as well. - I tell Jackson I probably also like, in my heart I'm like, La Gran Gata, just 'cause I feel like you should know what's going on, but you don't have to come, I know you're busy, but, shit's going down. - You guys all arrive. You get to the L train, you see Pete standing there, holding this gray child that's like, skin is like starting to crack and wheezing with breath. You also see that, So yeah, you all arrive there on the train platform together. - Pete, what happened? - Okay. - Cure wounds on the baby. - Cool. You cast cure wounds on the baby. See some of the damage is starting to be healed. - Fuck! - Alejandro is there as well and he says, okay. Listen, it's a Friday night. So, it's hard to tell when the train. 'Cause that particular train to Nod is a little bit tricky, the MTA, the fucking MTA! - God, we've got to be in the front two carriages and then move to the back two carriages, after we get to Canarsie, but we've got to be the front two at the beginning. - Alejandro says, okay. I'm gonna summon all of my power, his eye goes gold. We must make the MTA run. Clocks appear all around him. On time for once! (whooshing) (laughing) You hear another voice. Hear a voice, clip clop clip clop clip clop clip clop clip clop clip clop. Epona shows up. She looks up and says, "oh my god, is everything alright?" - I say, I don't know what the fuck is going on. - No, not at all. - Can I do a perception check on Epona? - Yeah I would like to do that too. - Perception I can do twice? - Yeah, do twice. - I got a 17. - Oh god. - [Ally] 11. - Perception? - I got a 29. - You see that her police badge is replaced by a different badge than you've ever seen before. It is a shimmering onyx badge, and it is specifically crooked. Zigzags woven into the pattern of the badge. - Epona, what are you doing here? 'Cause clearly it's not police business. - This is bad, right? - This is very bad. - Epona, and I cast suggestion. Wouldn't it be great, I heard there's some shenanigans going on downtown. - You see that as you start to cast the spell, the spell is (whooshes) sucked into the badge and steam begins to coalesce and form out of the subway. - That's bad. - You see as she looks and says, "problem is Kingston, I am here on police business." - Oh, fuck. - I'm gonna need all of you to roll initiative. - Fuck, fuck, fuck. (dice rolling) - That's all for this episode of The Unsleeping City! Tune in next week, as we have a little rumble in the subway. Hope the trains run on time, see you then, bye! (cheering and clapping) We are here at the Lorimer L train stop. Alejandro is casting an incredibly powerful concentration spell to summon the train to Nod. - I'm gonna summon the power of the juicy cockroach and call upon my people, the rats! - Kugrash is in his element. - Doesn't have to go down like this, if you just give me the kid! The steam forms into shadowy spectral officers of the law. New York's bravest versus New York's finest. You think you got what it takes? - I know I do. - Come on, there are millions of people in this city that rely on public transportation to get where they need to go! - Growo! (dramatic music)

Channel: Dimension 20

Views: 371,855

Rating: 4.9648557 out of 5

Keywords: Unsleeping City, Dimension 20, Brennan Lee Mulligan, D&D, DnD, RPG, tabletop games, fantasy, NYC, magic

Id: 8n0PA87sugg

Length: 122min 21sec (7341 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 16 2020