Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Episode 2: The Fellowship of the Ward
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Episode 2: The Fellowship of the Ward
The cohort follow the lead Dr. Werner gave them and come face-to-face with something truly bizarre. Will they leave with more questions than answers?
--------
Episode Transcript:
Get your snack and beverage of choice ready. It’s time to “Gather ‘Round the Trashfires” for a tabletop roleplaying story! I’m your host, Bek Andrew Evans.
Tabletop characters make decisions ranging from questionable to horrific in pursuit of their goals especially when a table values going for the interesting route in roleplay. It becomes trashfires all the way down.
My current and main running story for this podcast is the misadventures of the cohort from the Deviant: the Renegades chronicle I’ve been playing in since early 2021. And I play Geri.
For those of you unfamiliar with Deviant, it’s a TTRPG about people who were formerly human but were irreparably changed in traumatic ways to the point their very Souls broke and they became something Other. They seek vengeance on those who made them, those who hunt them, those who seek to exploit them for what they are and will never leave them be.
As such, this podcast will feature heavy themes and content throughout. There’s an overall content warning for language, violence, criminality, homelessness, substance use, human experimentation, cults and religious extremism, mentioned torture, kidnapping, implied incest and incest-related comments, and abusive relationships. On episodes where there is a new content warning or a particularly notable instance of one of these, I’ll call it out.
I hope y’all enjoy hearing about my cohort’s antics and stumbling headfirst into the mysteries of the world as much as I have.
[Music Intro: "_violence" by Avantist]
Green Country Calcination Episode 2: The Fellowship of the Ward
The new cohort only had a week before Camille was going to come back to take them to the next stage of experiments and, if Patty was correct, no matter what happened to them there, they’d never be seen again.
During the past few days, they’d gotten to work on various forms of information-gathering to plan their escape. Madison took point on the plan to break into room 164 that Dr. Werner told them ‘totally definitely don’t break into WINK’. She’d observed it was, despite seeming to be some sort of supply closet, the most guarded spot in the ward. She’d managed to figure out when the hall the room’s on had barely any activity and gathered the nascent cohort for their mission.
Because they were on their last week on the ward, they were able to convince the staff to get them some special items. Madison got a pair of her ballet shoes sent to her from her friend and Geri got a deck of tarot cards and a book to interpret them. They finally let her have paper.
They meet at the couches in the common area to not draw suspicion. It’s just after dinner and the orderlies are busy packing up the cafeteria carts, too busy to be patrolling the hall with the strange supply closet.
Unlike Madison’s spying and playing around with security cameras with electrokinesis, Geri had decided to spend her time reading minds of staff picking up rumors. She also tried to read Patty’s mind, got driven off by the discomfort of feeling the influx of Patty’s enhanced senses and maaaaybe not quite all there thoughts, and decided she hated Patty for thwarting her telepathy. As one does.
AJ gets a little uncomfortable about the idea that not only can Geri read minds, but she's so casual about it, but calms down when she says she hasn’t read his mind because she doesn’t want to be subjected to more bad puns. Madi’s also distressed by the idea initially, but mostly by the idea that Geri may have accidentally seen disturbing things Madi couldn’t put up content warnings for (but Geri says she’s not read her mind, either).
Once that’s settled, AJ declares it’s ‘go time’ and the cohort head off to the location. Robert is supposed to be keeping watch the whole time (his player wasn’t available). AJ has his scrub shirt tucked into his pants and has something hidden under the back of his shirt, it’s discreetly lumpy when he moves and stretches.
The trio head off together, as if they’re headed to their rooms for some of the allowed private time before the next round of tests. They blend in rather well and turn a corner down a different, empty hall. They keep quiet and pretend they’re totally definitely supposed to be there.
Madison shocks the other two - though not literally this time – by using her electrokinesis to sap the power from the security cameras nearby. AJ is quite a bit more shocked than Geri and accidentally risks getting the group caught by yelping in surprise. Geri gives him a friendly-not-so-friendly weak punch to the shoulder and reminds him to shut the fuck up.
The yelp thankfully didn’t seem to draw attention, so the group keeps on sneaking toward the “supply room,” where they encounter a door with a manual lock and a keypad to the side.
AJ pulls out a couple paperclips he’d stored under his ballcap in his mop of curly hair and fashions them into makeshift lock picks. They work surprisingly well, as if they’d been a professional’s set and not garbage literally pulled from a hat.
At the same time, Madison uses more electrokinesis on the keypad, shutting off the door’s alarm just in time for AJ’s lock-picking success. Geri meanwhile notes that she’s noticed Patty chatting up Robert, who’s supposed to have been keeping watch.
The group step into Room 164 and it’s pitch black at first, but weirdly too big to be a normal supply closet. They all fit comfortably and there’s more room beyond them. As their eyes adjust, they notice little flickering lights all around them and machinery hums. It’s… some sort of a server room. There’s also a steel grate in the back.
They start to notice that the lights are flickering in a pattern. Like breathing, or a heartbeat even.
Geri senses something more about the room and investigates with Telepathy… and sure enough, there’s a mind to connect to. Whatever it is, it’s alive, it’s sentient. Its surface thoughts are in binary.
Geri doesn’t understand binary, so she asks if Madison does, explaining what she’s found. She doesn’t know if she can for sure, but she figures it’s worth a shot to try to bring Madison and AJ into the telepathic link.
AJ has a different idea. If the thing’s sentient, if it thinks in binary – that’s computer for yes and no. It should be able to answer yes and no questions. Logic questions. So he asks it if it can hear him, and if it can, to flicker quickly twice and then a longer blink.
The server room responds as requested.
It’s unmistakably sentient, and listening to the cohort.
Geri delves deeper into the server’s mind, and catches a glimpse in the surface thoughts as the server room starts responding actively to the cohort in its room, that the human is waking up, and she also gleans the server’s secret that it’s not actually stuck, though she doesn’t understand what that means.
A disembodied voice begins speaking around them. It sounds like a young man, and mechanical, not unlike Siri or Alexa or a GPS voice. It names them all by their full names, though AJ and Geri notably don’t go by them regularly.
Geri reasons with the server and promises not to tell anyone else his secret if he doesn’t tell anyone that the cohort snuck in his room, and he agrees.
AJ asks if the server is somehow a prank played by Gabe, his uncle, to freak him out. The server replies that he’s not Gabe, and his name is Zuse.
Geri asks if it’s lonely being in the room by himself all the time, and Zuse explains that he’s not really alone, because he has the Machine, the Network, and the World Wide Web to keep him company and entertained.
AJ asks how old Zuse is, and the server explains that now, he’s ageless… just like Dr. Werner. When pressed, he doesn’t remember before, and it troubles him.
Madison shoots off a flurry of questions in a panic, about what Camille plans on doing to the group, what Gabe really is, what Zuse even means by “ageless”, and what happened to the cohort and why they’re like this now.
And then, she realizes something no one else in the cohort would. The server room’s using far more power than this hospital wing rightly should.
Zuse simply replies to her flurry of questions and realization that he’s the generator now…. And cryptically says that he is “the Long Man’s eyes.”
Geri’s able to glean from the telepathic link that Zuse is probably being honest but he’s troubled by not knowing his true age, and she lets the others know through the group telepathic link where Zuse can’t hear.
AJ pushes the issue about Zuse’s gaps of memory. How was it possible, after all, that a server, a sentient computer of some kind, could possibly have those kinds of gaps? Shouldn’t he have super bonus memory or something? How could he supposedly have access to all knowledge and yet forget things?
The questions unnerve the sentient server room and he goes quiet other than some fans and tiny beeps of normal function.
Madison and Geri agree they need to ask about Camille, so Madi asks what Camile’s planning and who she really is.
Zuse gladly answers those questions rather than continue being confronted with AJ’s. He explains Camille collects prime subjects affected by Project Triton.
When AJ keeps on his questions about Zuse’s memory anyway, Zuse snaps that it’s irrelevant.
The server even sounds a little annoyed, though it’s difficult to tell because his voice is so robotically chipper.
AJ asks more laser-focused questions, implying someone else may be defining what’s important for Zuse, that he may be as helpless to define priorities as he is to control his own memories.
This... doesn’t go over well with Zuse. He doesn’t quite snap angrily, but he does warn AJ to knock it off with wildly out-of-date slang. His wording is less precise and robotic, more colorful, and a mental whiplash-inducing slurry of mashed together decades of slang.
In the middle of the dressing down, Zuse indignantly asserts he’s a Valuable piece of the program.
Geri’s incredibly inexperienced with her telepathy – this is the first time she’s ever tried to link with more than one person at once, after all – and accidentally lets a chuckle at Zuse’s (well-deserved) reaction to AJ slip through to her link with Zuse. He make a note that the link’s there, but doesn’t make any move to force her out, or even seem at all bothered.
Madison asks what Project Triton is, and Zuse explains it’s a revitalization project on the Grand River Dam that’s meant to bring cleaner energy and water, and… transcending humanity.
While Zuse is answering, Madi sneaks over to the grate and starts undoing it to investigate inside.
AJ tries to buy time, asking Zuse to rerun the search and saying he thinks the data might have been corrupted.
Zuse explains that it’s not corrupted, he just can’t explain further because the project’s derived from several classified documents. So Geri and AJ just ask more questions to stall instead.
Geri asks Zuse to explain what he meant by transcending humanity and what Camille wants with the cohort in particular. AJ picks at yes Project Triton may be a Public Works project but does the ward look like public works to him? He asks for nitpicky details like time and date stamps on files… that remember, Zuse had just said moments ago much of that was classified.
Zuse keeps on chatting away, almost like he hasn’t had someone to talk to in forever. His speech is still peppered with anachronistic slang, like he missed his system updates for the last couple decades. He says that Project Triton is Public works, but certain aspects are classified… like the side effects. But the cohort are Prime Examples of the potential side effects, which is why Camille wants them – she believes they’re the next step in human transcendence. Like Zuse and Doctor Werner... and like herself.
AJ concedes the documents are classified but asks if Zuse can make a quick keyword search for him.
Geri asks if Zuse means like Spiritual Gifts, not really surprised by this revelation at all, and lists off several examples of categories from the Bible. Zuse says that’s a similar concept based on an Evangelical understanding of it… then he asks AJ, interest piqued, what the search is.
“Highjump” AJ says – and says Zuse should proooobably use incognito mode if he’s got one.
Zuse doesn’t respond at first, leaving the trio in silence again other than the quiet computer beeps and fans.
Meanwhile, during the distracting chat, Madison’s opened the metal grate. Inside she finds what appears to be yet more hidden computer server, a huge, wall-sized one. There’s glass visible and blue light coming out of the secret room. But when Madison’s eyes adjust, she realizes that one of the glowing objects lodged into the server is what appears to be a human brain. She yelps in shock but covers her mouth to stifle it before it becomes a scream of terror.
Zuse says that Highjump references the top-secret US research project to Antarctica, and wants to know why AJ wants to know about it.
Through a series of pointed questions, AJ explains he wants to know more because he thinks the government is taking advantage of Zuse and isn’t treating him right.
Geri notices the new light and doesn’t manage to keep her cool. She’s ENTIRELY horrified by the thing that appears to be a glowing human brain lodged in the server wall and cannot for the life of her stay shut up to Zuse that she’s seen it. She assumes the hospital, the project has quite literally mutilated a person and inserted a brain into some unfeeling technology. She’s less horrified with what she’s seeing per se and more by the idea that this sort of thing could be done to someone, by the people they’re currently in the custody of.
Madi is not, however, able to contain her terror screams from the telepathic link as she continues panicking, so the shrill noise gets mainlined directly into Geri and AJ’s heads. Out loud she starts frantically begging to know what happened to someone named Cassidy, what they did to her.
Geri, in her own panic and through the pain caused by Madison’s psychic shrieking, has to shut down the group link, but keeps up the private link with Zuse, just in case. AJ gets startled from the scream and nearly drops his coffee everywhere.
Zuse doesn’t seem terribly bothered by the cohort’s freaking out, but tries to comfort them a little. He assures them he wanted this, that he needs to merge, that he just doesn’t want to be alone again and The Network ensures he’ll never be alone. He wants to be able to do his job, and be good at it
He can’t bear to fail… again.
Madison has not REMOTELY calmed down. She demands to know where Cassidy is. She’s still terrified, and it’s clear as day in her voice.
AJ asks Madison if she’s okay and who Cassidy is – but quickly realizes he’s not going to get anywhere with her, so turns to Zuse instead and appeals to his apparent humanity. He says that the cohort didn’t choose what happened to them, and don’t want whatever Camile has planned for them, even if that’s the choice Zuse made for himself. He asks Zuse if he’ll help them.
Zuse thinks for a moment, and then answers the two at once. He says he doesn’t recognize the name Cassidy, and that his agreement doesn’t include monitoring subjects that are authorized to be outside the facility… but also says that this ward is where the cohort is safe.
Geri points out the plan is to take the cohort away to somewhere bad, which Zuse counters it’s not bad, just different. And should be an honor to be chosen for Phase Two of the program.
Geri pulls a manipulative card and borderline-tearfully says she wants to be human again which is… less than accurate.
AJ takes a different approach and offers to help Zuse out, to help him get out too if he helps the group, and then make sure he’ll be able to connect to a network on the outside, one that’s not meddled with by Camille and the other people at the hospital, and doesn’t have the same limits on access to internet Zuse’s current network seems like it might have.
Zuse is… sorely tempted by the offer, and moved by Geri’s words, His lights flicker different colors as they speak and sway his opinion. In the end, he explains that the changes to the cohort are permanent, but at the ward they could learn how to cope and grow like he did. He says they’ll be safe at the ward, so long as they stay. And that he can see where Dr. Werner can’t.
The whole cohort is extremely crestfallen, but they’ve run out of time.
They’re at risk of getting caught. Geri reminds the others of the time and asks Zuse if she can connect to him again in the future, which he agrees.
As the group’s getting ready to leave, Zuse cryptically tells Geri to see the only way he can help them. Suddenly, her mind’s flooded with the patient file of Kai Nguyen, who escaped relatively recently. It includes a picture and the information LOCATION UNDETERMINED. He tells her over the link that Kai’s translocation ability allowed him to escape because it made a gap in Zuse’s sight Zuse couldn’t follow. He tells Geri that to escape, the cohort will have to disable the server room to thwart his ability to see their locations.
Meanwhile, AJ’s pulling the lumpy thing out of the back of his scrub shirt. It’s a little makeshift robot made out of junk, including the guts of a clock and shoelaces. He sets it off to do something in the hallway outside the server room and the group wait for Go Time.
Zuse takes the moment to explain one last thing – he gives them a bit more information about Project Highjump. He explains that it was a historical classified exploration mission of Antarctica and it’s generally viewed as a failure. However, there are discrepancies in the stories and records, and rumors that something was found. He says, with certainty, the people who believe that are right.
As Zuse finished explaining, AJ’s contraption goes off, providing ample distraction and a mess of some kind for the orderlies to deal with. The cohort thank Zuse and quickly sneaks out of the server room. They notice the cameras mysteriously seem to catch in places when they try to oscillate.
After that nearly earth-shattering conversation, the trio manage to make it back to the couches in the common area without a hitch.
Once it’s safe, and speaking quietly and slightly in code, Geri explains what Zuse showed her.
The other two wonder if it’s safe to shut Zuse down, if that would be killing him. AJ eventually comes to the conclusion that if Zuse is asking explicitly for them to do it, it’s either safe for them to do to him, or it will kill him, but that would be what he wants and no one at the ward would ever help with that. Either way, they should do it.
Madison’s still sad because Zuse didn’t know anything about Cassidy, but Geri points out they already knew Zuse couldn’t possibly be Omnipresent or all-knowing. Madison is DEEPLY concerned The Society may have kidnapped Cassidy. She thinks the Society has taken over and is trying to trick her using Cassidy's social media accounts.
Geri takes a moment away from the serious conversation to complain about Patty and her eccentricities. They REALLY grate Geri. She can’t stand Patty’s petty smugness and daring to prevent Geri from tapping into the tangled mess of her mind.
Her ears must have been burning, because Patty appears with her squeaky walker right after Geri complains.
Geri tries once more to try to get some information from Patty as she approaches through Telepathy, since apparently Geri’s now in the toddler-like ‘indiscriminately stick everything in your mouth to explore the world’ stage of power use. She gets a creepy Dr. Who nursery rhyme “Tick tock goes the clock” as the surface thoughts, and when she digs deeper, she learns that Patty currently just wants to see how things play out, is hiding how much she really knows, and knows that Camille is a real monster.
Patty doesn’t finish approaching the group, instead she carries on her way after Geri disconnects the telepathic probe. Geri hisses and complains about how frustrating Patty is again for daring to making things unnecessarily difficult to find and making her brain hellish to be in.
Surprisingly, no one just takes her aside to be like ‘Geri, maybe don’t go snooping in people’s minds and they can’t piss you off like this.' But no, Patty becomes one of Geri’s Conviction Touchstones. Congratulations, Geri, no one has ever been pettier in their compulsive revenge than you.
What the cohort does do, is try to convince Geri that Patty could still be helpful to their escape if she’s able to sense so much. Geri’s kinda too busy seething over the Telepathy mild inconvenience to accept the logic.
Madison brings up that Dr. Werner is nice, even though he’s a part of the organization, and seems like he actually cares. He’s never directly a part of the worse torture-y stuff and comes by to comfort and talk.
They discuss that he clearly doesn’t like Camile, either. Does that mean he’s on their side? But he’s still a part of the torture, even if he’s not doing it himself. Madison wonders if he’s being forced to help. AJ doesn’t think he’s being forced, but also doesn’t think he’s fully bad, either. But… he also doesn’t know how much he can be trusted.
Notably, the first time Geri’s shown sympathy towards AJ, she tells him that he doesn’t have to be attached to him just because he’s related. They have an emotional back and forth where AJ insists that Dr. Werner couldn’t POSSIBLY be bad, and Geri tries to convince him there’s evidence that he’s not blameless and AJ doesn’t have to blindly stick up for him just because they’re family.
She confides in the two that when she tried leaving the church, she read about love-bombing, and implies it’s possible that sort of behavior might be what’s going on if Dr. Werner comforts after the torture tests but also doesn’t stop the torture itself.
AJ’s visibly very troubled by the thought, but instead of countering, shifts the subject to joking around about math and physics university classes being real torture. Along with the bad hospital food, which he says should be crimes against humanity, cruel and unusual punishment.
Madison accepts the change in subject, but Geri doesn’t budge. She criticizes him for trying to hide behind fake smiles and laughs.
Madi tries to deescalate and bring some hope back by talking about what she wants to do when she gets out, the plans she has to go to Belize on vacation with her BFF Cass, to get her brother in law school to help her and Geri get Geri’s church in trouble for what they did to her, for Madison to go to her ballet audition for Julliard.
AJ imagines suing various people for what they’ve seen and endured and being able to pay off his student loans, leaving Oklahoma, and living in New York. Then the cohort could get adjacent apartments or a roommate situation or something and reenact Friends.
Geri’s open to the idea of moving - she’s never been North. But she’s very clear she’s not going anywhere until after everything her father loves is destroyed. She gets quiet even as the other two happily fantasize about their wild plans.
AJ declares they should formally make an alliance of some kind, since they’re all working together toward a singular goal of making sure they can’t get hurt by these people again. He declares the cohort’s name “The Fellowship of the Ward”
And tacks on the quip ‘one mold to rule them all.'
Madi likes it. Geri is so very done with AJ enthusiasm and puns for the day.
But, like a fungus, it grows on them.
[Music Outro: "Time Will Fail Us" by Troigo]
Thanks for listening, This has been Gather ‘Round The Trashfires with Bek Andrew Evans.
AJ is played by Roen,
Geri is played by me,
Madison is played by Syn,
Robert is played by Pandito,
And our Storyteller is Casey Grant.
Please subscribe to this podcast for future updates and leave a review or comment, I’d love to hear what you think. You can follow me on a few different social platforms with the username "bekandrew." If you'd like to support me, subscribe to my Patreon at Patreon.com/BekAndrewTTRPG and purchase my art prints and tabletop products, including my Deviant: the Renegades community content novella related to this chronicle via my linktree in the description.
The intro theme is "_violence by Avantist" from the Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0.
The end theme is "Time Will Fail Us" by Troigo from the Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0.
If you like the songs, I encourage you to check out more of their work. I've linked their Bandcamps in the description.
Until next time.
Follow my Patreon at Patreon.com/BekAndrewTTRPG
Check out my other work at linktr.ee/bekandrew
Check out the Intro and Outro artists' Bandcamps!
https://theavantist.bandcamp.com/music
https://troigo.bandcamp.com/
Remember to subscribe and see y'all next week!
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/gather-round-the-trashfires/donations
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/gather-round-the-trashfires/donations
View all episodes
By Bek Andrew EvansThe cohort follow the lead Dr. Werner gave them and come face-to-face with something truly bizarre. Will they leave with more questions than answers?
--------
Episode Transcript:
Get your snack and beverage of choice ready. It’s time to “Gather ‘Round the Trashfires” for a tabletop roleplaying story! I’m your host, Bek Andrew Evans.
Tabletop characters make decisions ranging from questionable to horrific in pursuit of their goals especially when a table values going for the interesting route in roleplay. It becomes trashfires all the way down.
My current and main running story for this podcast is the misadventures of the cohort from the Deviant: the Renegades chronicle I’ve been playing in since early 2021. And I play Geri.
For those of you unfamiliar with Deviant, it’s a TTRPG about people who were formerly human but were irreparably changed in traumatic ways to the point their very Souls broke and they became something Other. They seek vengeance on those who made them, those who hunt them, those who seek to exploit them for what they are and will never leave them be.
As such, this podcast will feature heavy themes and content throughout. There’s an overall content warning for language, violence, criminality, homelessness, substance use, human experimentation, cults and religious extremism, mentioned torture, kidnapping, implied incest and incest-related comments, and abusive relationships. On episodes where there is a new content warning or a particularly notable instance of one of these, I’ll call it out.
I hope y’all enjoy hearing about my cohort’s antics and stumbling headfirst into the mysteries of the world as much as I have.
[Music Intro: "_violence" by Avantist]
Green Country Calcination Episode 2: The Fellowship of the Ward
The new cohort only had a week before Camille was going to come back to take them to the next stage of experiments and, if Patty was correct, no matter what happened to them there, they’d never be seen again.
During the past few days, they’d gotten to work on various forms of information-gathering to plan their escape. Madison took point on the plan to break into room 164 that Dr. Werner told them ‘totally definitely don’t break into WINK’. She’d observed it was, despite seeming to be some sort of supply closet, the most guarded spot in the ward. She’d managed to figure out when the hall the room’s on had barely any activity and gathered the nascent cohort for their mission.
Because they were on their last week on the ward, they were able to convince the staff to get them some special items. Madison got a pair of her ballet shoes sent to her from her friend and Geri got a deck of tarot cards and a book to interpret them. They finally let her have paper.
They meet at the couches in the common area to not draw suspicion. It’s just after dinner and the orderlies are busy packing up the cafeteria carts, too busy to be patrolling the hall with the strange supply closet.
Unlike Madison’s spying and playing around with security cameras with electrokinesis, Geri had decided to spend her time reading minds of staff picking up rumors. She also tried to read Patty’s mind, got driven off by the discomfort of feeling the influx of Patty’s enhanced senses and maaaaybe not quite all there thoughts, and decided she hated Patty for thwarting her telepathy. As one does.
AJ gets a little uncomfortable about the idea that not only can Geri read minds, but she's so casual about it, but calms down when she says she hasn’t read his mind because she doesn’t want to be subjected to more bad puns. Madi’s also distressed by the idea initially, but mostly by the idea that Geri may have accidentally seen disturbing things Madi couldn’t put up content warnings for (but Geri says she’s not read her mind, either).
Once that’s settled, AJ declares it’s ‘go time’ and the cohort head off to the location. Robert is supposed to be keeping watch the whole time (his player wasn’t available). AJ has his scrub shirt tucked into his pants and has something hidden under the back of his shirt, it’s discreetly lumpy when he moves and stretches.
The trio head off together, as if they’re headed to their rooms for some of the allowed private time before the next round of tests. They blend in rather well and turn a corner down a different, empty hall. They keep quiet and pretend they’re totally definitely supposed to be there.
Madison shocks the other two - though not literally this time – by using her electrokinesis to sap the power from the security cameras nearby. AJ is quite a bit more shocked than Geri and accidentally risks getting the group caught by yelping in surprise. Geri gives him a friendly-not-so-friendly weak punch to the shoulder and reminds him to shut the fuck up.
The yelp thankfully didn’t seem to draw attention, so the group keeps on sneaking toward the “supply room,” where they encounter a door with a manual lock and a keypad to the side.
AJ pulls out a couple paperclips he’d stored under his ballcap in his mop of curly hair and fashions them into makeshift lock picks. They work surprisingly well, as if they’d been a professional’s set and not garbage literally pulled from a hat.
At the same time, Madison uses more electrokinesis on the keypad, shutting off the door’s alarm just in time for AJ’s lock-picking success. Geri meanwhile notes that she’s noticed Patty chatting up Robert, who’s supposed to have been keeping watch.
The group step into Room 164 and it’s pitch black at first, but weirdly too big to be a normal supply closet. They all fit comfortably and there’s more room beyond them. As their eyes adjust, they notice little flickering lights all around them and machinery hums. It’s… some sort of a server room. There’s also a steel grate in the back.
They start to notice that the lights are flickering in a pattern. Like breathing, or a heartbeat even.
Geri senses something more about the room and investigates with Telepathy… and sure enough, there’s a mind to connect to. Whatever it is, it’s alive, it’s sentient. Its surface thoughts are in binary.
Geri doesn’t understand binary, so she asks if Madison does, explaining what she’s found. She doesn’t know if she can for sure, but she figures it’s worth a shot to try to bring Madison and AJ into the telepathic link.
AJ has a different idea. If the thing’s sentient, if it thinks in binary – that’s computer for yes and no. It should be able to answer yes and no questions. Logic questions. So he asks it if it can hear him, and if it can, to flicker quickly twice and then a longer blink.
The server room responds as requested.
It’s unmistakably sentient, and listening to the cohort.
Geri delves deeper into the server’s mind, and catches a glimpse in the surface thoughts as the server room starts responding actively to the cohort in its room, that the human is waking up, and she also gleans the server’s secret that it’s not actually stuck, though she doesn’t understand what that means.
A disembodied voice begins speaking around them. It sounds like a young man, and mechanical, not unlike Siri or Alexa or a GPS voice. It names them all by their full names, though AJ and Geri notably don’t go by them regularly.
Geri reasons with the server and promises not to tell anyone else his secret if he doesn’t tell anyone that the cohort snuck in his room, and he agrees.
AJ asks if the server is somehow a prank played by Gabe, his uncle, to freak him out. The server replies that he’s not Gabe, and his name is Zuse.
Geri asks if it’s lonely being in the room by himself all the time, and Zuse explains that he’s not really alone, because he has the Machine, the Network, and the World Wide Web to keep him company and entertained.
AJ asks how old Zuse is, and the server explains that now, he’s ageless… just like Dr. Werner. When pressed, he doesn’t remember before, and it troubles him.
Madison shoots off a flurry of questions in a panic, about what Camille plans on doing to the group, what Gabe really is, what Zuse even means by “ageless”, and what happened to the cohort and why they’re like this now.
And then, she realizes something no one else in the cohort would. The server room’s using far more power than this hospital wing rightly should.
Zuse simply replies to her flurry of questions and realization that he’s the generator now…. And cryptically says that he is “the Long Man’s eyes.”
Geri’s able to glean from the telepathic link that Zuse is probably being honest but he’s troubled by not knowing his true age, and she lets the others know through the group telepathic link where Zuse can’t hear.
AJ pushes the issue about Zuse’s gaps of memory. How was it possible, after all, that a server, a sentient computer of some kind, could possibly have those kinds of gaps? Shouldn’t he have super bonus memory or something? How could he supposedly have access to all knowledge and yet forget things?
The questions unnerve the sentient server room and he goes quiet other than some fans and tiny beeps of normal function.
Madison and Geri agree they need to ask about Camille, so Madi asks what Camile’s planning and who she really is.
Zuse gladly answers those questions rather than continue being confronted with AJ’s. He explains Camille collects prime subjects affected by Project Triton.
When AJ keeps on his questions about Zuse’s memory anyway, Zuse snaps that it’s irrelevant.
The server even sounds a little annoyed, though it’s difficult to tell because his voice is so robotically chipper.
AJ asks more laser-focused questions, implying someone else may be defining what’s important for Zuse, that he may be as helpless to define priorities as he is to control his own memories.
This... doesn’t go over well with Zuse. He doesn’t quite snap angrily, but he does warn AJ to knock it off with wildly out-of-date slang. His wording is less precise and robotic, more colorful, and a mental whiplash-inducing slurry of mashed together decades of slang.
In the middle of the dressing down, Zuse indignantly asserts he’s a Valuable piece of the program.
Geri’s incredibly inexperienced with her telepathy – this is the first time she’s ever tried to link with more than one person at once, after all – and accidentally lets a chuckle at Zuse’s (well-deserved) reaction to AJ slip through to her link with Zuse. He make a note that the link’s there, but doesn’t make any move to force her out, or even seem at all bothered.
Madison asks what Project Triton is, and Zuse explains it’s a revitalization project on the Grand River Dam that’s meant to bring cleaner energy and water, and… transcending humanity.
While Zuse is answering, Madi sneaks over to the grate and starts undoing it to investigate inside.
AJ tries to buy time, asking Zuse to rerun the search and saying he thinks the data might have been corrupted.
Zuse explains that it’s not corrupted, he just can’t explain further because the project’s derived from several classified documents. So Geri and AJ just ask more questions to stall instead.
Geri asks Zuse to explain what he meant by transcending humanity and what Camille wants with the cohort in particular. AJ picks at yes Project Triton may be a Public Works project but does the ward look like public works to him? He asks for nitpicky details like time and date stamps on files… that remember, Zuse had just said moments ago much of that was classified.
Zuse keeps on chatting away, almost like he hasn’t had someone to talk to in forever. His speech is still peppered with anachronistic slang, like he missed his system updates for the last couple decades. He says that Project Triton is Public works, but certain aspects are classified… like the side effects. But the cohort are Prime Examples of the potential side effects, which is why Camille wants them – she believes they’re the next step in human transcendence. Like Zuse and Doctor Werner... and like herself.
AJ concedes the documents are classified but asks if Zuse can make a quick keyword search for him.
Geri asks if Zuse means like Spiritual Gifts, not really surprised by this revelation at all, and lists off several examples of categories from the Bible. Zuse says that’s a similar concept based on an Evangelical understanding of it… then he asks AJ, interest piqued, what the search is.
“Highjump” AJ says – and says Zuse should proooobably use incognito mode if he’s got one.
Zuse doesn’t respond at first, leaving the trio in silence again other than the quiet computer beeps and fans.
Meanwhile, during the distracting chat, Madison’s opened the metal grate. Inside she finds what appears to be yet more hidden computer server, a huge, wall-sized one. There’s glass visible and blue light coming out of the secret room. But when Madison’s eyes adjust, she realizes that one of the glowing objects lodged into the server is what appears to be a human brain. She yelps in shock but covers her mouth to stifle it before it becomes a scream of terror.
Zuse says that Highjump references the top-secret US research project to Antarctica, and wants to know why AJ wants to know about it.
Through a series of pointed questions, AJ explains he wants to know more because he thinks the government is taking advantage of Zuse and isn’t treating him right.
Geri notices the new light and doesn’t manage to keep her cool. She’s ENTIRELY horrified by the thing that appears to be a glowing human brain lodged in the server wall and cannot for the life of her stay shut up to Zuse that she’s seen it. She assumes the hospital, the project has quite literally mutilated a person and inserted a brain into some unfeeling technology. She’s less horrified with what she’s seeing per se and more by the idea that this sort of thing could be done to someone, by the people they’re currently in the custody of.
Madi is not, however, able to contain her terror screams from the telepathic link as she continues panicking, so the shrill noise gets mainlined directly into Geri and AJ’s heads. Out loud she starts frantically begging to know what happened to someone named Cassidy, what they did to her.
Geri, in her own panic and through the pain caused by Madison’s psychic shrieking, has to shut down the group link, but keeps up the private link with Zuse, just in case. AJ gets startled from the scream and nearly drops his coffee everywhere.
Zuse doesn’t seem terribly bothered by the cohort’s freaking out, but tries to comfort them a little. He assures them he wanted this, that he needs to merge, that he just doesn’t want to be alone again and The Network ensures he’ll never be alone. He wants to be able to do his job, and be good at it
He can’t bear to fail… again.
Madison has not REMOTELY calmed down. She demands to know where Cassidy is. She’s still terrified, and it’s clear as day in her voice.
AJ asks Madison if she’s okay and who Cassidy is – but quickly realizes he’s not going to get anywhere with her, so turns to Zuse instead and appeals to his apparent humanity. He says that the cohort didn’t choose what happened to them, and don’t want whatever Camile has planned for them, even if that’s the choice Zuse made for himself. He asks Zuse if he’ll help them.
Zuse thinks for a moment, and then answers the two at once. He says he doesn’t recognize the name Cassidy, and that his agreement doesn’t include monitoring subjects that are authorized to be outside the facility… but also says that this ward is where the cohort is safe.
Geri points out the plan is to take the cohort away to somewhere bad, which Zuse counters it’s not bad, just different. And should be an honor to be chosen for Phase Two of the program.
Geri pulls a manipulative card and borderline-tearfully says she wants to be human again which is… less than accurate.
AJ takes a different approach and offers to help Zuse out, to help him get out too if he helps the group, and then make sure he’ll be able to connect to a network on the outside, one that’s not meddled with by Camille and the other people at the hospital, and doesn’t have the same limits on access to internet Zuse’s current network seems like it might have.
Zuse is… sorely tempted by the offer, and moved by Geri’s words, His lights flicker different colors as they speak and sway his opinion. In the end, he explains that the changes to the cohort are permanent, but at the ward they could learn how to cope and grow like he did. He says they’ll be safe at the ward, so long as they stay. And that he can see where Dr. Werner can’t.
The whole cohort is extremely crestfallen, but they’ve run out of time.
They’re at risk of getting caught. Geri reminds the others of the time and asks Zuse if she can connect to him again in the future, which he agrees.
As the group’s getting ready to leave, Zuse cryptically tells Geri to see the only way he can help them. Suddenly, her mind’s flooded with the patient file of Kai Nguyen, who escaped relatively recently. It includes a picture and the information LOCATION UNDETERMINED. He tells her over the link that Kai’s translocation ability allowed him to escape because it made a gap in Zuse’s sight Zuse couldn’t follow. He tells Geri that to escape, the cohort will have to disable the server room to thwart his ability to see their locations.
Meanwhile, AJ’s pulling the lumpy thing out of the back of his scrub shirt. It’s a little makeshift robot made out of junk, including the guts of a clock and shoelaces. He sets it off to do something in the hallway outside the server room and the group wait for Go Time.
Zuse takes the moment to explain one last thing – he gives them a bit more information about Project Highjump. He explains that it was a historical classified exploration mission of Antarctica and it’s generally viewed as a failure. However, there are discrepancies in the stories and records, and rumors that something was found. He says, with certainty, the people who believe that are right.
As Zuse finished explaining, AJ’s contraption goes off, providing ample distraction and a mess of some kind for the orderlies to deal with. The cohort thank Zuse and quickly sneaks out of the server room. They notice the cameras mysteriously seem to catch in places when they try to oscillate.
After that nearly earth-shattering conversation, the trio manage to make it back to the couches in the common area without a hitch.
Once it’s safe, and speaking quietly and slightly in code, Geri explains what Zuse showed her.
The other two wonder if it’s safe to shut Zuse down, if that would be killing him. AJ eventually comes to the conclusion that if Zuse is asking explicitly for them to do it, it’s either safe for them to do to him, or it will kill him, but that would be what he wants and no one at the ward would ever help with that. Either way, they should do it.
Madison’s still sad because Zuse didn’t know anything about Cassidy, but Geri points out they already knew Zuse couldn’t possibly be Omnipresent or all-knowing. Madison is DEEPLY concerned The Society may have kidnapped Cassidy. She thinks the Society has taken over and is trying to trick her using Cassidy's social media accounts.
Geri takes a moment away from the serious conversation to complain about Patty and her eccentricities. They REALLY grate Geri. She can’t stand Patty’s petty smugness and daring to prevent Geri from tapping into the tangled mess of her mind.
Her ears must have been burning, because Patty appears with her squeaky walker right after Geri complains.
Geri tries once more to try to get some information from Patty as she approaches through Telepathy, since apparently Geri’s now in the toddler-like ‘indiscriminately stick everything in your mouth to explore the world’ stage of power use. She gets a creepy Dr. Who nursery rhyme “Tick tock goes the clock” as the surface thoughts, and when she digs deeper, she learns that Patty currently just wants to see how things play out, is hiding how much she really knows, and knows that Camille is a real monster.
Patty doesn’t finish approaching the group, instead she carries on her way after Geri disconnects the telepathic probe. Geri hisses and complains about how frustrating Patty is again for daring to making things unnecessarily difficult to find and making her brain hellish to be in.
Surprisingly, no one just takes her aside to be like ‘Geri, maybe don’t go snooping in people’s minds and they can’t piss you off like this.' But no, Patty becomes one of Geri’s Conviction Touchstones. Congratulations, Geri, no one has ever been pettier in their compulsive revenge than you.
What the cohort does do, is try to convince Geri that Patty could still be helpful to their escape if she’s able to sense so much. Geri’s kinda too busy seething over the Telepathy mild inconvenience to accept the logic.
Madison brings up that Dr. Werner is nice, even though he’s a part of the organization, and seems like he actually cares. He’s never directly a part of the worse torture-y stuff and comes by to comfort and talk.
They discuss that he clearly doesn’t like Camile, either. Does that mean he’s on their side? But he’s still a part of the torture, even if he’s not doing it himself. Madison wonders if he’s being forced to help. AJ doesn’t think he’s being forced, but also doesn’t think he’s fully bad, either. But… he also doesn’t know how much he can be trusted.
Notably, the first time Geri’s shown sympathy towards AJ, she tells him that he doesn’t have to be attached to him just because he’s related. They have an emotional back and forth where AJ insists that Dr. Werner couldn’t POSSIBLY be bad, and Geri tries to convince him there’s evidence that he’s not blameless and AJ doesn’t have to blindly stick up for him just because they’re family.
She confides in the two that when she tried leaving the church, she read about love-bombing, and implies it’s possible that sort of behavior might be what’s going on if Dr. Werner comforts after the torture tests but also doesn’t stop the torture itself.
AJ’s visibly very troubled by the thought, but instead of countering, shifts the subject to joking around about math and physics university classes being real torture. Along with the bad hospital food, which he says should be crimes against humanity, cruel and unusual punishment.
Madison accepts the change in subject, but Geri doesn’t budge. She criticizes him for trying to hide behind fake smiles and laughs.
Madi tries to deescalate and bring some hope back by talking about what she wants to do when she gets out, the plans she has to go to Belize on vacation with her BFF Cass, to get her brother in law school to help her and Geri get Geri’s church in trouble for what they did to her, for Madison to go to her ballet audition for Julliard.
AJ imagines suing various people for what they’ve seen and endured and being able to pay off his student loans, leaving Oklahoma, and living in New York. Then the cohort could get adjacent apartments or a roommate situation or something and reenact Friends.
Geri’s open to the idea of moving - she’s never been North. But she’s very clear she’s not going anywhere until after everything her father loves is destroyed. She gets quiet even as the other two happily fantasize about their wild plans.
AJ declares they should formally make an alliance of some kind, since they’re all working together toward a singular goal of making sure they can’t get hurt by these people again. He declares the cohort’s name “The Fellowship of the Ward”
And tacks on the quip ‘one mold to rule them all.'
Madi likes it. Geri is so very done with AJ enthusiasm and puns for the day.
But, like a fungus, it grows on them.
[Music Outro: "Time Will Fail Us" by Troigo]
Thanks for listening, This has been Gather ‘Round The Trashfires with Bek Andrew Evans.
AJ is played by Roen,
Geri is played by me,
Madison is played by Syn,
Robert is played by Pandito,
And our Storyteller is Casey Grant.
Please subscribe to this podcast for future updates and leave a review or comment, I’d love to hear what you think. You can follow me on a few different social platforms with the username "bekandrew." If you'd like to support me, subscribe to my Patreon at Patreon.com/BekAndrewTTRPG and purchase my art prints and tabletop products, including my Deviant: the Renegades community content novella related to this chronicle via my linktree in the description.
The intro theme is "_violence by Avantist" from the Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0.
The end theme is "Time Will Fail Us" by Troigo from the Free Music Archive, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0.
If you like the songs, I encourage you to check out more of their work. I've linked their Bandcamps in the description.
Until next time.
Follow my Patreon at Patreon.com/BekAndrewTTRPG
Check out my other work at linktr.ee/bekandrew
Check out the Intro and Outro artists' Bandcamps!
https://theavantist.bandcamp.com/music
https://troigo.bandcamp.com/
Remember to subscribe and see y'all next week!
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/gather-round-the-trashfires/donations
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/gather-round-the-trashfires/donations