Gather 'Round the Trashfires

The cohort finally gets a chance to have a long conversation with their new friend (captive?) outside the Ward. They find he's knowledgeable and also that after however long living in the server, he's the living embodiment of the phrase "please touch grass."

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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.

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.

Additional content warnings this episode for binge-eating and cancer mention.

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 5: Meeting Zuse (Again)

Shortly after the cohort escaped, they found they'd made the news. All the local news outlets. The supposed St. Patrick's Day terrorist attack on the Hillcrest Hospital Psychiatric Observation Ward was on all the front pages. Thankfully, police hadn't released any suspect names or motives. There weren't any reported deaths, though two National Guardsmen were severely burned - the story claimed they'd been visiting relatives at the time. The ward was closed for repairs and all patients transferred to another location. One patient consented to interview, a Patricia Gold. She claimed it wasn't a terror attack at all, but a daring escape from, quote "some psycho patients." No patients were reported missing. Another video of the Ward evacuation goes viral with Patty singing a story-song about crazy terrorists who escaped the hold of god. She gets a ton of attention but no one seems to believe her since she also claimed she's 24.

Their first night outside the hospital, sleeping in their cabin beds in Madison's family's previously empty summer cabin, the whole cohort has the same bizarre dream. They all dream of storms. Terrible storms. They dream of lightning and crushing waves.... suffocating waves. There's darkness as they sink. They're gripped by an overwhelming dread, certain doom. In the dream, the world's deprived of color. There's mist, pale sunlight. They look in the water and see their reflection but with bright, green eyes. And then they wake up.

In the couple days since their escape, Geri's been settling into the new cabin but also investigating the Long Man Society from afar.

She uses telepathy and a bit of sheer audacity to connect to Beth from wherever it is they moved the ward to. She finds it difficult and draining at her current power level.

She catches flickers of surface thoughts about missing the sunlight and wondering where the doctor has been. She can tell wherever the new Ward is, it's underground. Beth doesn't seem to be a prisoner, at least from her surface thoughts.

Geri searches deeper. She looks for what Beth knows about the ward relocation, learning it's temporary while the Society decides whether to leave Gabriel in charge. The staff's also being housed there. She then searches for Beth's current greatest fear - it's that Gabriel will be removed and Camille will take over. Last, Geri looks for how the cohort's breakout was framed to the ward staff. Beth knows that the breakout is being framed as Gabriel's negligence since this is the second time his patients escaped. There's even rumors he helped them to keep his nephew away from Camille.

The next thing she did, was take some time to check in with the Church. Mundanely this time - she went to a little internet cafe in the park for campers with Madison's phone, and did her best to cover her digital tracks.

She finds on the church's public communications that things seem business as usual. They have a potluck coming up, but also — Geri's been put on the prayer list. The details given say she's been moved to a private mental health and faith rehabilitation center. They're asking for prayers and donations toward her recovery. Notably, it was posted after the breakout.

And then, there's a small afterthought of an article about the successful memorial for the storm victims from Cassica Hall, a part of the church's "inter-faith" project. 

Looking back further, there's a vague mention of an accident and "admission" that Geri was "troubled" and possibly suffered a mental breakdown after having "accidentally started a fire" that burned several members of the church's inner circle.

The last thing Geri did was have an astral travel dream to try to find Lucas. She'd had one previously, while they were still in the ward, about him that gave her a very similar dream to the one the whole cohort had — except in her version, she'd seen Madison kill those dozens of teenagers, and she was sure she felt the burning lungs of drowning - but she also saw he woke up, so she'd only mentioned Lucas was alive and nothing else she'd seen.

This new dream, she feels confusion, but closeness. She catches images of the lakeside that seem like they must be nearby but she doesn't know where they are herself.

Zuse had been unconscious for most of those two days but, a few hours ago, woke up with a splitting migraine and ravenous hunger. The cohort had cajoled him to put on at least some pajamas (and Aviators for the migraine) to go down to the camp convenience store to stock up on.... piles of microwave burritos and ice cream sandwiches. When not wearing aviators, his irises are a pixel-patterned silver.

Two days after the great escape, and the morning after Geri's most recent dream adventure, the Fellowship of the Ward begins to gather in the living room of the cabin. Zuse is curled up in a rubber blanket from the garage on a reclining chair. While he was unconscious after that initial power drain, touching him started to shock people. and he's been stuffing his face with microwave burritos and ice cream sandwiches, one in each hand, since returning from the store. It's been nonstop, frankly impressive amount of eating considering his size. He's only wearing red silk boxers and the aviators with the rubber blanket catching food drippings.

Madison's fixed herself some oatmeal and apple slices. She's wearing some of her own clothes she'd left at the cabin the last time her family was there, more than happy to not have to wear the poorly-fitting thrift-shop clothes. Though it's just a loose shirt, undershirt and jeans, they're designer brands. She's curled up on a sofa with a throw blanket and the stray black and white cat that snuck into the cabin while the family was away — she's named him Nacho.

Geri's sprawled out on that sofa, too, eating microwave burritos and gas station pastries, though nowhere near as ravenously as Zuse. She's wearing a simple tee shirt and jeans from the escape box. They're covered in singe marks.

AJ... hadn't changed in the couple of days since their escape. It's debatable whether he's showered. He's been entirely engrossed in collecting and disassembling junk. He currently has a half-rusted microwave he found around the lake campsite on a table in the open area by the others, under the light. He's taken off the keypad and door already, still fiddling intently with it. He's got a half-eaten (cold) burrito on the table beside him.

Robert's still dead asleep this mid-morning, avoiding the sun.

Madison says to Zuse, as he continues eating, that she's, like, very sure silk boxers are not only gross but also illegal in all 50 states. And she's not sure why her dad had them.

Zuse sounds weirdly chipper and insists they're comfortable... and if he has to have skin he HAS to wear comfortable clothes if he's to wear anything at all. Obviously. He also thanks Madison's father for keeping them around.

AJ doesn't look up from working but warns Zuse if he creeps Madi out, Geri'll hit him. Madi continues to be disgusted and frankly scandalized about the very idea of her father in silk boxers for a while, also at one point claiming she thinks chest hair is probably illegal, too, made so around the time vintage pornos stopped being made.

Geri and AJ try to get Madi to get over herself and knock it off. Zuse makes it worse, seemingly obliviously continuing the same line of conversation as Madi. He says he doesn't know why someone would keep bright silk boxers in a lake cabin except to film period piece pornographic material with one's friends.

The android-like Zuse doesn't seem to notice all the glares he gets in response.

The conversation (thankfully) shifts, though, when Zuse loses interest in the bickering and goes back to stuffing his face, noting that he didn't remember how good food tasted.

Madison and Geri suggest they could do s'mores later, and Zuse gets so excited he nearly knocks his sunglasses off from snapping his head up to look at them and cheer for the campfire snack - then promptly complain about the brightness again.

Zuse watches AJ tinker with the microwave as he speaks. He doesn't remember light sensitivity being in his file... He wonders if it's a new development. But he does say he thinks he's starting to get acclimated, slowly. He admits it's been a very long time since he wasn't merged with the server.

The others agree it might have something to do with the very dark room server-Zuse was kept in. Madison apologizes in case she maybe blinded him from her power use while trying to turn him off.

Zuse, instead of being upset, congratulates Madison on such a spectacular use of electrokinesis. He thinks she would have broken some record had anyone been able to properly measure.

Geri mentions how Madi blasted the door off its hinges, and that she's glad she was busy setting a grease fire at the time.

Zuse continues chattering on in his chipper, cheery tone, even as he goes back to stuffing his mouth with burritos mid-sentence. He calls her "Geraldine the Firecracker" and muses that a lot of people won their bets that day - Geri had been voted most intentionally destructive, and most likely to kill a staff member on purpose.

Madi had been voted most likely to kill staff by accident.

Geri lets Zuse know he can call her Geri, and he takes her words literally so it completely goes over his head that she meant she prefers to be called Geri, pissing her off and amusing Madi.

He awkwardly attempts some newer slang and Madi has to help him with his fluency. AJ pauses his work to watch and goads Zuse to try to snap.

Zuse admits to seeing a TikTok in the feed while monitoring Madison's social medias that had the perfect sassy snap for the occasion, so he replicates it, not as awkwardly.

Madison yells that she knew The Society was monitoring her!

AJ and Geri look at her like she has two heads for flipping out. To them, being monitored was the most obvious conclusion.

Madi has a sudden, terrible realization, and asks Zuse accusingly if he read her DMs. She more worked up and asks if he read her messages to Lucas.

Zuse doesn't say anything, he's too busy filling his face with yet more burritos. Maybe he winked? Hard to tell. Madison whines at Geri telling the other girl she needs to slap Zuse, those messages were private!

Geri gives Zuse a half-assed swat that's more of a hair ruffle to appease Madison. AJ comments The Society's up to some real weird shit - creating mutants, waterbarding patients, reading patients' sexts...

Zuse tries to smooth things over with Madison by saying it's not his fault that she opened them over the wifi, he was following the observation programming. To AJ... he says it wasn't waterboarding... per se.

Madison loudly disagrees. Zuse tries to say it doesn't count if it's to test immunities. The rest of the cohort shuts that down. Geri says it's still torture, which Zuse admits without hesitation.

AJ's finally gotten to what he wanted from that rusty microwave and pulls out, with some tweezers and tongs, a little black box with "Radioactive Hazard" stickers on it. Madi says if he gives them cancer, she'll kick his butt.

Geri points out that since the Long Man Society and the Church of Charismatic Virtues are after them, cancer is kinda a tomorrow problem.

AJ cheerily assures Madison the cohort will probably be gunned down long before cancer could set in. Since Camille gets to use fully-armed National Guard as bodyguards, apparently.

AJ has to explain to Madi you can't ventilate radiation danger away...

Zuse starts musing about how some scientists who study those like them think they already have a sort of cancer. A cancer of the soul. He's confused when he's met with stares instead of the cohort being relieved by the information.

After a moment, AJ and Madison continue to bicker to the side about where he's allowed to play with radioactive materials.

Geri asks Zuse to elaborate on the soul cancer. Zuse finally stands up, the rubber blanket flopping and pooling on the floor. He's so pale it's like he's never seen sun. He walks over barefoot to AJ as he speaks. He says more "religiously interested parties" believe Divergence releases a soul's true potential... with varied and not well-understood consequences.

Geri asks what the non-religious perspectives are.

Before Zuse answers, he holds out a hand to AJ and tells him he can keep the box safe for him, if he'd like. AJ instead starts cleaning up his work and muttering complaints about how the others have such dangerous powers and no one complains, but he's not even allowed a little 86 grade Z magnetron's beryllium Oxide, as a treat. The Injustice.

Zuse finally replies to Geri that there are countless theories - at least as many as there are scientists studying the phenomenon. It's hard to generalize since the causes and results are so diverse.

Madi's confused, and says she doesn't know why God would make her murder so many people, and if it was God, why couldn't she've gotten some message to talk her through it?

Zuse does his best to comfort her... By saying that's a natural reaction if she assigns a deity a human-like morality.

Geri presses for yet more information, looking for causes. Zuse catches on she's trying to know why the cohort Diverged, and explains that they're all the result of experimental science. He flops down dramatically back into his chair.

Geri asks what caused Zuse's divergence.

Just then, AJ returns from the garage, which he's claimed as his bedroom, having stored his latest project. He shows Madi his empty hands in a gesture of peace and Madi smiles back to him.

Zuse replies that he couldn't remember until he got out of the server, but his was similar to the cohort. It's the same sort of technology - but it's the portion that the Society used to reverse-engineer to make the other technology that created the cohort and all the others.

Both Geri and AJ speak over each other, bursting with questions - Geri asking if her father was involved, AJ asking about the tech and "the city". Then he pauses to tell Zuse to answer Geri's questions first.

And the answer's a simple "no" but he adds that he believes Geri's father had other plans for her. He calls the Church of Charismatic Virtues a "lesser" organization in the region. The two organizations' interests and actions collided by coincidence and Geri ended up the result.

 Zuse then turns to AJ, and to answer what they took from the city, he just says "Me." When they're all shocked, he explains further that the tech wasn't always part of him, but it became part of him while he was in Antarctica, and it still is.

Geri's most confused that the Society took him and did all that but Zuse was still siding with them. She asks if it was just the programming. Zuse guardedly responds that it's more complicated than that. But... he wants freedom, to never be programmed ever again.

AJ wants to know how to undo the Divergence.

Madi's flustered, explaining she thought Zuse always wanted to be merged and that she was convinced he'd be furious once he woke up from being ripped out of the server, but it was all just the programming making him think he wanted it?

Zuse clarifies that he loves merging... but he doesn't need that server, specifically. It had programming he didn't want.

He fetches yet another ice cream sandwich from the freezer and tells AJ you can't undo Divergence. He acts like that was a silly question.

The others try to confirm that they're stuck that way and while he does, he's far more emotionally engaged with the rapturous taste of ice cream sammich binge than the concerned questions the cohort have.

Zuse says the main problem with being merged is the lack of ice cream.

AJ starts getting very distressed and argues with Zuse, claiming Divergence being permanent doesn't make sense. If there's a procedure, there's gotta be a reverse procedure, right?

Geri and Zuse explain not everything can be undone. Paper can't be uncut, steel can't be unforged. AJ protests. Geri and AJ argue back and forth on that point for a while, before Geri finally says the original process was bad enough, if there is a reverse, it's probably way worse.

Madi says softly that she wants to be normal and to go home. But none of them can do that anymore.

Zuse wonders why "Baby Werner" would want to settle for a mundane life - go back to lead when he's now gold.

AJ snipes back at Geri that she doesn't know that this is as bad as it'll get, what if all the bad stuff gets worse? Geri says, staring him down, that she doesn't care. Now she has the power to give back the pain a lot of people deserve.

Zuse mentioned a term from real-life alchemy in his musings about being Remade, which Madison only knew from video games, so she asks if he played Skyrim. He says he would have loved to, but Dr. Werner prevented him from merging with a proper video game system... said it wasn't in the budget. Zuse is still rather upset about this.

AJ grumps about being destined to grow "brussel sprouts" on the back of his neck forever. Zuse attempts to show him the bright side by pointing out that the organism can't enter his body again and he's not heard of another being able to, so he's not going to have any further "brussel sprouting."

Madison asks what lifeform, and AJ explains that while the cohort got all sorts of cool powers, the parasite on the back of his neck got the abilities. And AJ got hydrophobia and agoraphobia. He says he usually blacks out whenever the parasite does its thing, like fling him away from the cohort.

The group try to cheer him up. Madi says he makes all those gadgets, and AJ says that's not a power - he's just an engineering major.

There's another tangent about AJ giving them cancer, soul cancer, and Madi exclaiming she doesn't have soul cancer because she goes to church!

And Zuse clarifying he didn't mean damnation.

That reminds Geri of something important. As AJ smiles to Madi and says he doesn't think she has soul cancer, Geri gets everybody to shut up for a moment to infodump about what she found. She tells them Charismatic Virtues knows the cohort escaped, she tells them about the prayer request post, the so-called 'private psych ward,' forming a coalition with Madi's school, despite being totally different sects.

Madison doesn't understand, and Geri has to explain the church reeeeally believes in the Divergence thing, in a cult way. Maybe they found out about Madi, or guessed well enough?

Madison's confused and distressed why the head Friar of the school, Father Philip, would join up with such a horrible organization for her friends' memorials. No one can offer her satisfying answers.

AJ asks what Geri wants to do about it, and Geri says her end goal is total destruction of the church - but Madison's friend might be stuck there.

AJ agrees to help find Madi's friend, and stop the church from hurting anyone else, but he has to consider with Geri's father, but figures he won't have to pull any triggers. He agrees to have Geri's back.

Zuse makes some pew pew noises and fakes shooting a machine gun. He claims to have been a real good shot way back.

Madi, naively asks what AJ meant about pulling triggers. AJ references the story of Oedipus, which goes FAR over Madi's head, and she gets grossed out mixing it up with Oedipal and Electra Complexes. AJ has to clarify the dad-killing part.

Zuse quietly says he thought she went to church.

Madison is somehow, even more scandalized about potential murder - she thought the plan was to get Geri's father arrested. AJ tries to calm her down, saying of course they'll aspire for the least violent outcome, sharing a look with Geri. A look to agree to zip it and let Madi stay in the dark.

Madi, bright-eyed and placated for now, says the cohort's not like their enemies. They're good. They shouldn't kill unless they don't have another choice. She's cuddling the now fussing cat like it's a lifeline.

AJ quickly agrees to Madi and gives Geri another look. Geri keeps with the program for the time being and weasel-words her way out of it, saying they're going to make sure the church won't hurt anyone else.

Before anyone can interrogate her commitment to no murder, Geri changes the subject and says she has information about AJ's uncle, which makes both AJ and Zuse perk up.

Geri explains the staff's been moved to live underground in the new ward, the breakout's been framed as Dr. Werner's fault, and he might get removed from his position, leaving Camille in charge.

AJ's very upset he thinks the cohort fucked up somehow to get his uncle in trouble. Geri tries to console him that the main reason he's suspected is AJ and Dr. Werner are related.

Zuse... makes an attempt at comforting. He claims it's impossible for Camille to kill Dr. Werner, so everybody gets what they want in the end - Dr. Werner frees his favorites, Zuse gets freedom, and Camille - the Zealot - gets the power she craves.

AJ presses Zuse for more information, asking if he knows for sure Camille can't hurt Dr. Werner.

Zuse announces joyfully that Gabriel Werner is immortal! And Camille totally would have killed him by now if she could, but she can't! And Gabriel still has friends in high places in The Long Man Society, anyway.

Geri suggests to AJ they could always get Camille arrested. AJ considers, and decides if anyone deserved to be arrested, it's Camille.

Madison wonders if Zuse means immortal like the vampires in movies, and Zuse tells the story of what supposedly happened to Gabe, according to his file. He was a soldier back east two centuries ago. He was given orders to remove Cherokee peoples from their homes, but refused the order. He was hung for it, but the story says the Cherokee Nation's sorrow brought him back. He walked with them on the Trail of Tears.

Zuse then explains that the story can't be verified, and that it's not even clear whether Gabriel himself understands or remembers what happened.

At some point during the storytelling, Zuse calls Dr. Werner his very best friend. AJ had been listening quietly up until that point, but latches on to that phrase. He asks if that's the same 'very best friend' who allowed Zuse to be brainwashed and programmed against his will. Geri adds the torture and potential blackmail of other people.

Zuse just laughs. Of course Gabriel doesn't know how to program.

The cohort try to talk through, step by step, with Zuse why Gabe might not be perfect and might in fact be a little... morally grey. And have done bad things to Zuse. Zuse roundly rejects most of the accusations and says Gabe wasn't even in charge of the Network, that was the Board. But Gabe did slip him information about the programming so he'd be able to make some decisions for himself, including wanting to be open and honest with patients, and being free from the programing.

Zuse realizes as he explains that perhaps Gabe's plans were far further into the future than he realized. He makes the cohort swear to not tell Gabe he was surprised (Gabe is so smug).

Madison asks about Zuse's other desires and reasons for wanting escape. He explains he doesn't want to be used to track down people who don't want to be at the ward anymore. He believes strongly that the next stages of growth - soul alchemy, calcination, transcendence - only happen when you desire it, and the only step that can be forced is the Divergence itself.

When the others ask for explanation, he continues that Calcination is the alchemical process of purifying what remains. The powers the cohort have are their souls' power. And Soul Alchemy... is a theoretical process of shedding all their flaws to reach their full potential.

Geri says her father's church believes in basically that.. for weirder, cultier reasons. AJ cynically says it's the Holy Grail the Society's searching for, to be a fairy tale ending for them and everyone they fucked up.

Zuse, by now, has gotten distracted by Nacho the cat and is feeding him a plateful of burrito scraps when he comes close.

AJ wants evidence of this soul alchemy, transcendence thing. Zuse says things can be true in science without having been discovered or measured yet. And that Gabriel is probably the closest the Society knows of.

AJ rejects that. He knows there's stuff wrong with Gabe. But Zuse said closest, not someone who's accomplished yet.

Madi wonders aloud if Gabe's mindfulness exercises help with mind-reading prevention. Geri complains again about The Society's special "nursery rhyme song." She explains further the song is a tune that sounds sort of like a river, and all the staff use it to try to stop telepathy, though she finds it more viscerally annoying than something that actually stops her. Madison identifies the tune as "The Long Man Song."

AJ says Gabriel probably isn't even a real therapist, and he speculates Gabe learned enough to fake it by watching videos on the internet.

Madi's extremely distressed by idea that the meditation and trauma talk-therapy was maybe incorrect or an act. AJ calls his 'uncle-grandpa' an olympic-level competitive bullshitter, at which point Zuse finally comes to Gabe's defense to clear up that he's a real "doctor therapist"... with no support beyond that impassioned statement.

The topic switches anyway to the Long Man Song and its use as an anti-mind-read tool. Madi suggests maybe the cohort should also practice the song as meditation so they too have some defense. Geri wants people to not project it in the network since she finds it so damn annoying.

Zuse, sensibly, suggests selecting a song that annoys Geri less. Madison, perhaps less sensibly, suggests Gregorian chants.

AJ starts listing out his goals - that the cohort's gonnna help Madi's friend and stop the church, take Camille out and help Gabe out of the mess he's now in... and after all that, AJ wants to somehow go to Antarctica.

Madison adds they need to check for signs of Lucas by the lakeside in the next day or two. The recent dreams make her think he's maybe alive, and nearby.... and that reminds Geri of something very important.

She's first surprised she's not the only one who got the green-eye dream. Geri confirms Lucas is alive and close, but she doesn't know the area well enough to make out the landmarks.

AJ and Madison get into a silly bicker-arguement for a bit over AJ calling Lucas's dream eyes "creepy," So Geri takes the moment to ask Zuse if there was anything interesting he remembers from their files.

According to Zuse, Madison was the most desirable, and everyone has their eyes on her. Geri's only less desirable to some because the entanglements with the church make her a little bit inconvenient.

Meanwhile, the very silly bickering breaks out into an even sillier light-hearted pillow fight with AJ and Madison dramatically throwing the couch cushions at each other and making declarations of war. All while continuing the discussion with Zuse. Now that they've started pay attention again.

Madi argues that she doesn't want to be wanted like that, and The Society must have death wishes if they want her around.

About then, AJ gets really into the fight to distract her for a bit. They're both incredibly over-dramatic, yelling things like 'you'll never take me alive', and 'your skull shall make a glorious cup.'

Zuse's reflexes are excellent, because he jumps straight up like a cat to avoid getting hit by a stray pillow and continues drinking the drink in his hand. While AJ and Madison are having their pillow fight, Zuse wanders over to a lamp and merges with it. Light comes from his nostrils, eyes, and mouth.

Geri's been watching the goings on awkwardly, not sure how or if to join in. She mutters about not being high enough for this. Madi, helpfully, shouts where her older brother's "secret" weed stash is. Geri wanders off to get it.

AJ stops the pillow fight and complain-whines to Geri that she wasn't supposed to let Zuse merge with anything. Geri sees no issue since... what's he gonna do with a lamp? She yells back as much from where she is. AJ bops him with a pillow after Zuse tells him to stop being a drag.

Madi touches his hand to see that it's very lamp-like. She asks if he's really glass since he feels like it, and he responds that Lamps aren't a very safe thing to be and promptly unmerges. Madi's amazed by how comfortably and naturally Zuse uses his powers, like an extension of himself.

Geri returns with a bong and some weed. Madison doesn't recognize the bong, but figures her brother must have gotten a new one.

Zuse asks AJ, since he's prone to "creepiness sensations," how he feels about Patricia. He says she once proved her hearing to a patient by telling him she could hear him jerking off at night. Zuse continues that she's not omniscient but her gift was deemed a cerebral sensory array and she's capable of sensing many things when she focuses.

The cohort's grossed out, AJ's additionally mortified, with layers of dawning horror. Geri gets curious. Too curious for her own good. She attempts telepathy on AJ but it goes... wrong. It doesn't work that time and his parasite senses the attempted intrusion.

Zuse continues on, oblivious to the others' reactions. He geeks out over her endless cycle of breakdown and rebrith and excitedly asks the group if they know she's only 24.

AJ first looks shocked at Geri, then betrayed, then deeply offended. He confronts her about trying to get in his head. She plays dumb. Then lies that she was actually tying to check on Robert and missed (oops).

Madison points out he's literally upstairs, she doesn't need to use telepathy anyway?

Zuse meanwhile muses that Robert's probably regretting volunteering for his job about now, and Geri tries very, very hard to change the subject by asking all surprised about Robert being a volunteer.

AJ doesn't buy Geri's excuse in the slightest and, mood entirely soured, wanders off to the garage.

Madison looks at Geri with big, guilt-inducing eyes saying she knows Geri wouldn't go into someone's mind without consent, RIGHT?

Geri assures her she's never used telepathy on her except what's needed to link up the mindcraft, and that placates her.

Zuse cackles and bolts from his chair and tells the girl to not let AJ know where he's hiding. He promptly merges completely with the fridge, the silk boxers left nearby in the process.

Geri suggest to Madi she'll talk to AJ when he's had some time to cool down. They start chatting in detail about Geri's dream, since Geri's unfamiliar with the area but Madi's been coming out there since she was a kid.

Geri describes specific features she saw, and Madison gets upset, She wants to know how Geri could have seen it - it was her and Cassidy's secret hideaway spots since they were kids. Geri explains about the dream power and asks if Madison ever told Lucas. She didn't.

Geri reveals Lucas didn't know who he was when Geri first checked on him in the Ward. She explains he was in the water when it happened but survived and either got swept away or wandered away from the rescue area by mistake, she thinks.

Madi starts to panic, gathering supplies haphazardly. She whispers prayers under her breath.

To be Continued.

[Music Outro: "Time Will Fail Us" by Troigo]

Thanks for listening, This has been Gather ‘Round The Trashfires with Bek Andrew Evans. 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." That's [spells username] on tumblr and bluesky, mainly.

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.

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.

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.

The cohort puts their plan into action and attempts their escape before Camille can take them somewhere never to be seen again.

Now including music and SFX from Ovani Sound.

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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.

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]

Episode 4: The Great Escape

It was lunchtime on Saint Patrick’s Day of 2021. The ward staff had decided to be festive for the patients by making some concerningly-green-dyed food - including green buns for hamburgers that they had to assure over and over again were not moldy and definitely not from whatever was growing on AJ’s neck. Despite the attempts at a little celebration, the staff’s tension was palpable. As soon as they cleared all the lunch things away and let the patients have their limited free time, the staff got to busying themselves in preparation for Ms. Mason’s impending arrival.

They all seemed terrified of her, afraid to even be seen if it was possible to avoid it.

Geri had linked the cohort in her telepathic network, that she nicknamed the “MINDcraft server,” the last the group was in range of each other for lunch. And then they separated to get into positions.

AJ and Robert use a side door to go down a corridor around the offices toward the main doors. AJ’s wearing his scrubs plus a purple baseball cap and a backpack. Robert’s got his scrubs and, as usual, is barefoot and has his huge blanket wrapped around him.

Madison gets ready to activate her electrokinesis, but it fluctuates wildly on any given day. Today, it fluctuates so powerfully, it flickers all the power in the hospital off for a moment just from her attempt to wrangle it and makes the backup generators kick on. Sparks fly over her skin from where she’s hiding with Geri near the elevators.

AJ and Robert were good at sneaking, but the surprise from the sudden light flickering (even though this is a fairly common occurrence on this ward) distracts the guards just long enough to not see AJ and Robert right away. But the guards get on alert that something is afoot. Four guards in the common area glance to each other, two at the door stand straighter and one whispers over a radio.

Out of his backpack, AJ pulls the shittiest-looking, most McGuyvered RC car with clockwork for wheels to exist and sets it on its rickety path toward the main doors. He silently signals Robert to put his face mask on.

AJ whispers to Robert to keep the guards busy once the smoke starts until he gets the signal.

Meanwhile, the guards notice the approaching little RC contraption. When one goes to investigate it after calling in the disturbance over the radio, it starts sparking and spraying smoke everywhere. The guards yell to lock the ward down. Two of the common area guards head for the main door and the other two head back toward the fire exit.

Robert ambles through the smoke and pretends to be a bumbling, confused patient. He loudly asks the guards what’s going on, what’s happening to the electricity, why is there smoke?

Over the mindcraft, he gives Madi and Geri the green light to head to Zuse’s room.

Two guards pull tasers on Robert and tell him to return to his room. There’s a potential breach in security. As if on cue, a robotic voice begins announcing a similar command over the loudspeaker to the entire ward. Steel grates slam down to seal the wide, sunny windows and blanket the ward in darkness other than the eerie, flickering fluorescent lights.

AJ, in the chaos and smoke, sneaks over to a janitor’s cart in the common room. Robert continues to stall, raising his hands and innocently claiming the elevator was taken and he was looking for personnel to help him.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ward, Madison makes lightbulbs explode behind the guards near the back door for their own distraction and the two girls run as fast as they can to Zuse’s room. Geri readies her Lash in case, singeing bits of the walls and Madison’s clothes in the process as she passes by. Madison uses Electrokinesis on the door panel, sparks crackling from her fingertips.

The guards at the front ask Robert to come with them, tasers still drawn. AJ lets Robert know over the mindcraft link that the girls pushed the deadline up as he tosses another smoke bomb into the hall from where he came as a distraction. He pushes the mop bucket closer, carefully.

Madison ruses through the door and makes a bee-line for the grate, whispering frantic apologies to Zuse as she tugs and tears open the panel. She gets no answer this time, only silently blinking lights.

Geri stays watch, near the door. Over the link, she threatens to start a grease fire if the guards get any closer.

No one tells her no. No one responds to the comment at all.

Instead of going quietly with the guards, Robert throws open the blanket he was wrapped in. Under it this time, nothing but his birthday suit. Before the guards can react to the sudden nakedness, he starts transforming, growing to the size of a moose, taking on a sandstone-like form with leathery skin and bulging muscles.

AJ sets his plan into motion while all hell’s breaking loose around him. He puts the vacuum cleaner part device from his backpack onto the mop bucket. It has a lid and hose of a canister-style vacuum rigged together with duct tape and dubiously sealed wires. He sticks a small pack on the side of the bucket and the pipe end into the soapy water.

A guard near Robert begs for backup on his radio. The guards close around the sandstone creature, tasers drawn. The guards from the fire exit run down the hall to aid them. One of the closest soldiers opens fire but misses wildly in his panic.

Robert starts a monster brawl. 1 v lots. He tries to fling the one who shot at him into a wall.

Madison places her hands on the server beyond the grate and gasps, sucking in the electricity like air. Her veins bulge and crackle with electricity flowing throught them. Her pupils dilate into saucers. The air gets denser, becoming Ozone.

Geri moves away from the action and heads to the kitchen door nearby down the hall, looking for something appropriately ludicrously flammable.

The elevator’s now locked down. Everything’s locking down as the ward’s security’s going into full panic mode trying to stop Robert’s giant rampage. Plaster’s flying. Smoke’s still everywhere. Screams and shouts echo through the halls as they try to avoid the attack in the confusion and scramble to contain him. They aren’t used to having to deal with Remade on the ward who haven’t been taking the suppressant drugs. AJ calls for the others to hurry up over the link, he doesn’t think Robert can take them all for long.

Unbeknownst to security, the electricity in the server room is totally fucked. The lights are flickering and giant arcs surround Madison as she slurps up every last drop of the energy she can from the server, more than she ever has and can hardly comprehend. A huge arc blasts the door off its hinges and narrowly misses Geri. Lights all over the ward explode.

The loudspeaker makes one last desperate cry of “WARNING! SECURITY ALER-” Before it, too sputters out and dies.

It’s not over yet. The struggle’s still going on. There’s still more to drain, but the tide’s turned. It’s becoming clear the little cheerleader’s winning.

Geri catches her breath from nearly getting crushed and tells the others over the link it’s time to go. She ducks into the kitchen and makes a far more pressing problem than Robert for the ward to deal with – she uses her Lash to ignite the oil in the deep fryer. It flashes and quickly starts spreading.

AJ urges Robert to come with him to the back exit, still holding the cleaning cart device, unnoticed in the chaos and smoke.

Robert immediately stops his brawling and just starts shoving guards out of his way as he makes the path of least resistance to the exit. His huge, naked form shocks AJ, who pauses for just a moment to gawk before throwing the switch on his device.

It quickly starts making and spewing foam everywhere, bubbling over and making a slippery, obscuring, mess. Bubbles stack up to the ceiling and flow down the main hall.

By now, smoke alarms are going off not just in the ward but distantly in the main hospital as evacuation procedures commence. Thick, black smoke billows out of the kitchen and down all the halls. Geri coughs, heading for the fire exit as fast as she can but not exiting, yet.

Madison slurps down the very last of the energy from the server and as she does, the glass brain pushes out from the grate, protruding and transforming. It looks like mechanical gears in very dimly glowing glass. As it extrudes itself, it becomes a person, a slender young man who looks not that much older than herself. The glowing stops and his skin and hair reverts to a normal look once fully removed from the server.

He’s platinum blond with unkempt hair, very pale, and very naked.

And he’s not moving.

Madi worriedly, whispering a prayer, begging to not have killed again, leans down to check his pulse and breathing. To her relief, he’s just unconscious, as if in deep sleep. But then she notices the smoke.

She scoops up his limp body without another thought and hurries for the exit. She asks, as she runs, what they should do with him. Her voice is wild with all the energy, like she had five espressos.

Geri replies to just bring Zuse if Madi already has him. And that was that. 

AJ scrambles in front of his bubbly creation toward the exit with Robert close behind and then passing him. When Robert catches up, he takes over carrying the unconscious Zuse to let Madison hack the door panel code.

Because of course, even in a building fire, lockdown procedures had already been initiated. The fire exit was locked tight. The cohort chokes on smoke and there’s a zap of arced electricity before the door swings open. Smoke billows out and the cohort soon follows.

Robert collapses to his knees in searing pain when the unfiltered sunlight hits his leathery-stone skin.

The guards are still lost in the maze of the ward but gradually getting closer. Madison shouts down the hall for them to stay back and unleashes an electrical storm indoors, blocking the way between the guards and the cohort. They can’t approach that exit without getting fried.

Robert scrambles to his feet and forces himself to run anyway through the pain. AJ runs alongside Geri and exclaims he thought she was just joking about the greasefire! He also calls her Gerrbear, one of his many nicknames for her.

She responds that she doesn’t joke like that, confused that anyone thought she wasn’t entirely serious.

Madison catches up with the others after creating her mini storm. Already being an athlete helps, but running on all the stolen energy of Zuse and the server sure doesn’t hurt.

Sirens are in the distance. The ward, and the hospital at large, are in chaos.

Robert freezes in agony again. But this time, his body involuntarily transforms back to his normal self. He’s barely able to keep hold of Zuse.

Who should round the corner at that moment but Camille, with her armed backup. She has an arm outstretched toward Robert and looks the cohort over like they’re something good to eat.

She’s not upset at their attempted escape, oh no, she’s perversely delighted at the confirmation of how useful they’ll be. They’re beyond her expectations.

Geri doesn’t take her monologuing well and throws Lash at her. Which does… nothing but piss Camille off for Geri’s insolence.

Camille accuses Gabriel of helping the cohort, calling him a bleeding heart, before ordering the soldiers with her to take the cohort.

Alive, she specifies. At least the girls. She cares a bit less if they have to kill the guys. But it would still be a waste.

AJ gets indignantly offended, not that Camille’s just gave an order to get the cohort detained, and some of them possibly killed, but because Camille called Geri and Madi “Girls” instead of “Women.” He tries to monologue right back at her until Madison shouts at the cohort to RUN.

Geri, AJ, and Robert start booking it, with Geri throwing Lash behind her at the guards for good measure. She ignites one of them through their armor, severely burning him and putting the other soldier off balance from the confusion and near-miss.

Madison summons another storm above the guards, Camille, and herself. The storm’s massive and threatens to be violent as it begins. Camile’s eyes flash golden, trying to dispel it. She’s nearly struck by lightning but it vanishes the instant before it hits her.

Madison puts more into the storm, beefing it up. Putting her blood, sweat, and electric tears into it. The young cheerleader stands unmoved.

Camille strains to dispel the strengthened storm. The effort’s visible on her face with bulging veins and glowing, burning eyes like small suns. She screams and the light reaches a crescendo; a flash. The burst of a miniature supernova.

When the light fades, so has the storm.

Madison is still screaming in frustration and rage at Camille and God himself for forsaking her. But then, before Camille or the still upright soldier can compose themselves, Madi’s running for her life into the woods behind the hospital.

When AJ hears Madi scream, he looks back in a panic and takes water out of his backpack. He splashes it on his face begging something to-

There’s a strange, inhuman screech in the mindcraft and then he’s flung as if by an invisible hand further away from Madison and deeper into the forest. AJ screams in confused terror.

Camille turns her attention to Geri, the next threat. Who is still eager and willing to throw wisps-of-spontaneous-combustion-energy at Camile and the guards.

Madison still has tricks up her sleeve as she escapes. Electricity arcs around her hand into a ball and she throws it directly at Camille.

Camille redirects the strike into the side of the hospital wall, sending brick shrapnel flying. But finally, reinforcements are arriving.

None of the cohort stop to fight any of the new soldiers or Camile, they just keep running. The soldiers are quickly too busy aiding their severely burnt and still burning comrade and Camille, who issues an order to bring her Gabriel.

The cohort make it deep into the woods. AJ is able to lead them to the cache of secret items that was left for them. It’s a box with a note scribbled on it - ‘Doc said you needed this.’ The box contains assorted discount store and second-hand clothes. The cohort gets to work getting changed and working together to put unconscious Zuse in some clothes.

There’s also a set of keys. Car keys, to be exact. And another note attached from Gabe telling AJ it was going to be a birthday present and to stay safe and hidden, and don’t let him find them either. On the back is directions to the car, a maroon 2015 Toyota Camry.

The cohort pile in with Geri and Madison finally powering down fully, and Madison gives AJ directions to a spot at the State Park near Lake Hudson.

Geri adds Zuse to the mindcraft to keep tabs on him, and try to make sure he’s alright. He’s faint in the mindcraft from the deep sleep, and any thoughts are in binary anyway.

They stop at a convenience store for some cheap food and essentials – Gabe had left some cash in the glove box.

After their long day, they drive up to the biggest, fanciest, “little old Summer lake cabin” most of the cohort had ever seen. They’d momentarily forgotten how wealthy Madison’s family is.

[Music Outro: "Time Will Fail Us" by Troigo]

Thanks for listening, This has been Gather ‘Round The Trashfires with Bek Andrew Evans. 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." That's [spells username] on tumblr and bluesky, mainly.

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.

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.

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.

Between meetings, Geri's had some time to investigate with telepathy. Then, the nascent cohort catches Robert up on what they've learned and plans their daring escape.

---------

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 3: Interlude: Escape Planning

Between the last meeting and next, the group decides they need to work on getting more information and supplies to make their escape possible. Geri gleans a rumor from an orderly’s mind that the Church of Charismatic Virtues – the church she grew up in, has been calling, but the orderly doesn’t know much. She decides to dig deeper, mostly for personal gossip in case she needs blackmail material.

She’s able to rip from him that his name’s Caleb, the call came directly to the ward, which is odd. Gabe took the call himself after the caller identified themselves but a nurse named Beth initially answered. Caleb’s hiding that he’s got a crush on Beth but doesn’t want to make her uncomfortable by telling her since they work together. She also finds out that Caleb has a suspended license from a second DUI and carpools to work with Dr. Werner.

Geri later goes to Beth for more info. Beth tries to comfort her, but as Geri’s connected to her mind, she can sense that Beth is somehow attuned to Geri’s emotions on a deeper level than normal empathy, which skeeves Geri out and makes her suspicious as hell. Mind you, as she’s actively trying to read Beth’s mind.

Geri is, however, able to tell after her initial suspicion from her culty upbringing of having to be able to (mundanely) be clued in to people’s emotions and motives that Beth’s actually pretty genuine, and even a bit guilty about the suffering the patients are going through. But she cares, in any case.

She still works at the ward, though, so there’s that.

Geri decides to dig deeper with telepathy. She wants to know what Beth knows about the call to the ward, what she’s hiding, and what Beth fears most. Because Geri has incredibly normal, perfectly hinged motives that may involve “winning” social interactions.

All Beth knows about the call beyond what Caleb knows is that Dr. Werner sounded Unhappy-T-M. She also knows that it was a follow-up call. She’s hiding that she has an emotional and aura-sensing power that (previously) only Dr. Werner knew about... until Geri started peeking in. She’s most afraid that Camille will learn about her power and take her away like the cohort, and the others.

Geri finds the information about Beth troubling and opts not to cause problems for her or push further.

She connects to Zuse next from the safety of her room. His surface thoughts are scrolls of binary like before, but Geri’s put a little effort in to link to him again and be able to have a conversation. He tells her he’s been amusing himself watching the staff be increasingly paranoid because of the prank AJ pulled to aid the cohort’s getaway from the room the other day.

Geri tells him that the Church of Charismatic Virtues called AGAIN, and Zuse explains that Geri’s father and his associates have been persistent in trying to “reclaim ownership of their work.” He also says that Dr. Werner has no intention of giving in to them, greatly frustrating Geri’s father.

Geri, begrudgingly admits that maybe Dr. Werner is kind of alright if he’s keeping her father from getting her, and asks if that’s the reason she can’t file a police report like she’s been pestering staff about. Zuse confirms that Dr. Werner’s been holding off on that because it would draw unwanted attention and would get dismissed anyway. Then Zuse asks why she doesn’t seem to trust the doctor.

Geri can’t reconcile that Gabe’s been part of torturing Madison, who she still considers to be basically a child even though she’s barely legally an adult. Zuse explains that he’s known Dr. Werner for about 75 years, and he’s always known him to be honorable and trying to reduce harm and pain where he can. It’s just that the process of growth itself can be painful.

Geri’s conflicted, but agrees to give Dr. Werner more of a chance.

Zuse goes on to explain that Gabe’s the last remaining original member of the Long Man Society. He’s been trying to keep the Society true to its original purpose… but his efforts have proved somewhat futile. He’s basically taken on time itself as an opponent and forgotten he’s the only ageless one in that struggle.

Zuse further explains that the Long Man Society is based on a Cherokee – one of the native peoples of the region – legend, of rivers. The Society dates back to the Dust Bowl and was meant to protect life in the area by protecting the rivers, especially the Grand River – important for surviving the 1930’s droughts.

The Green Country, where the chronicle is set, is full of lakes and rivers.

The Long Man Society wasn’t originally focused on creating Deviants, according to Zuse, it was all about the ecology. They got wrapped up in the Project Triton stuff because of the similar goals of protecting life through water… but now Dr. Werner fears Camille is far too focused on the “side effects” the technology is causing.

When Zuse brings up Camille, Geri already goes on a bit of a rant of how much she doesn’t like the woman, and especially how well she’s able to keep Geri from telepathically snooping, and how annoying she finds the lullaby-like song in Camille’s head when she tries anyway. She also offhandedly mentions that while she can’t get fully into Camille’s mind, she’s not like Dr. Werner, who feels dead when she tries to connect.

For someone who doesn’t trust much of anyone, she already has a tendency to give a lot of very personal details to Zuse, who the cohort aren’t sure whether they can trust entirely.

Zuse helpfully and cheerfully explains that Dr. Werner’s brain activity can’t be measured or studied beyond to confirm that he’s alive, and he muses that’s probably why he’s in the position he’s in. He also mentions that Dr. Werner’s nearly impossible to kill.

Zuse also explains that the three superpowered individuals with access to oversee all areas of Project Triton are Dr. Werner, Camille, and himself. Geri wonders if it has to do with Triton’s mythical namesake, and Zuse thinks it’s a coincidence, though still abnormal to have so many superpowered assets in one division. He further explains that Camille has a lot of influence with the Board and her interest lies in researching the results of the project's side effects… but she’s highly unethical.

Zuse was simply put in his job, for practical purposes rather than sucking up to anyone or any particular aspirations on his part. He’s the only asset who could do his job.

Geri thanks Zuse for sharing, though she has to go for testing soon. She says it’s a shame he wasn’t selected for his friendliness and shares the information she’d gleaned earlier about the orderly Caleb having a crush on Nurse Bethany. Zuse is delighted to have new gossip he couldn’t see himself and chatters on about how Caleb should just get up the courage to talk to Bethany.

When Geri says her goodbyes and is about to disconnect, Zuse says he’s very glad Dr. Werner agreed to let them meet.

As a last request for a soon-to-be-transferred patient, Geri asks the staff for a deck of tarot cards and an interpretation book.

To her surprise, they actually get her them. They’re super okay with getting her them, in fact, despite the previous ban on her keeping paper products.

Within the next couple days, The whole group meets up again in the common area, with AJ showing up last, a few minutes late. He leads the rest of the cohort back to his bedroom. The ward staff is tense in preparation for Camille’s arrival in a few short days, so they don’t bother the cohort when they quietly pass.

AJ, too, has all his furniture bolted to the floor, but unlike Geri’s, it’s the normal hospital ward furniture and not the all-metal furnishing like Geri has. He also has an empty bookcase, but has an mp3 player. The other strange addition is the large bathtub in the corner with all the tubes and gauges connected to it – and a cover with a head-hole and vacuum seals.

The cohort decides that first, they need to update Robert on what they found. When Madison brings up the human-sentient-computer-brain thing they found, AJ hushes them and asks them to get the light and blinds. He adjusts some buttons and knobs on his bed in a strange sequence, and then the monitor lights all turn off.

Geri turns the lights back on and they resume their conversation, with AJ explaining that the exception to having to turn Zuse’s room entirely off is that each of the bedrooms have special codes that can turn their monitoring equipment off and his Uncle Gabe told him the code to his room.

Madison also points out that Zuse can sense through not just cameras, but anything electronic and linked to the ward’s network, since she communicated with him through an electronic lock.

Geri mentions that Zuse has known Gabe for about 75 years. Madison and AJ already know, though Madison is still mindbown. Robert is just deeply confused.

AJ starts to explain about a secret governement mission to Antarctica 75 years ago. He says they found something, a mechanized city, strangely advanced tech at the time, and something happened, because they never sent another mission there. But people were affected, and there was a soldier who renamed himself Zuse after the mission among them. Because of the transformation, he also lost his memory. AJ explains that his form changes when he merges with technology, so when he disconnects, he’ll be a “real boy.” He just sort of, wants to look like a brain while he’s attached right now.

AJ also explains that Zuse isn’t on a closed network like he’d originally guessed – he has access to the internet just as easily as the internal network and security systems.

Madison wonders how they’re gonna escape if Zuse can see everywhere. And she worries that he’s lying to the group since he only talks like he knows things inside the ward. Geri corrects her that he can’t “see” outside the Ward, and he can’t see everything, period, even within the Ward.

Geri also mentions that the meeting was something Zuse wanted, since Gabe “approved” it.

Robert tries to process the information on Zuse’s powers and wonders if there’s more powered people they don’t know about – and the cohort assures him that there are indeed more powered people. Which frustrates Robert immensely. He’s pissed they’re not unique like he thought, and will probably get slapped down by the more experienced powered people for stepping out of line.

AJ continues explaining that the Highjump exploration got something else besides Zuse and other transformed soldiers -they brought back some device or material, something they thought could revolutionize the world, make humanity healthier and evolve. They used the water reservoirs, through the Grand River Dam Authority – but a group hidden within it, The Society. Gabe, Camile, Zuse, and others.

Madi’s devastated. She trusted them and they did this to the cohort. Robert’s furious.

Geri tries to comfort Madi, explaining it wasn’t intentional. Not all of them. AJ explains with more words in a similar vein, that the Society’s like kids playing with toys they don’t understand, and that they didn’t mean to hurt people, and they’re trying to help the people who got changed learn to deal with their problems.

Madi cries. Her friends are dead and she killed them. The Society made her a murderer. Because they wanted to play God. Electricity sparks and discharges off her skin.

Even Robert tries to comfort, a little, by saying he’s not gonna excuse them and their behavior. For throwing people away. He asks if the cohort knows what happened to the Asian guy who’d voiced complaints and then disappeared.

Madi says he escaped, it’s the only words she gets out through her tears.

AJ and Geri go back into comfort mode, though Geri’s more awkward about it than AJ.

Madi says she found out the Society’s testing them because they want the cohort to be weapons. That Zuse was trying to convince her to be an “asset”, too, that she’d be able to hurt and even kill for “good” if she joined. She’s horrified by the offer. She doesn’t want to ever kill again, certainly not on purpose.

AJ explains the weapon “assets” are more Camille’s shtick. That she want to be able to brainwash soldiers for the Society, but doesn’t get her way fully, yet. But Gabe wants them to escape, because he can’t stop her this time.

Madi rebuts that it was Zuse who offered her, to give her the resources to stop the church, if she’d become an asset for the Long Man Society. AJ’s unconcerned, because Zuse is apparently ambivalent and thinks if he’s just open as possible, the cohort will make the decision he wants, but still believes in the original mission of the Society, though he doesn’t trust Camille. And because he doesn’t trust Camille and her methods, he’s willing to help the cohort escape.

Robert warns the group to stop believing people that are probably manipulating them, but the cohort largely ignores him.

Geri reports that she learned Zuse is delighted by petty gossip – something a computer shouldn’t be interested in. She thinks he seems comfortable in his spot where he’s able to watch over things for now.

Madi wants to talk to Geri about the Church, and mentions she knows they’re trying to get Geri back. Geri’s anger flares even as she explains she already knew, and bits of scarlet red wisps of her Lash spills out uncontrolled, singeing things around her.

Madi continues, in a disturbed sort of daze and not seeming to notice what’s going on with Geri, that the church did a memorial for all her dead friends, despite her friends being catholic and not anything near the denomination of Charismatic Virtues, despite them all going to Cassica Hall. I was most of Cassica Hall's cheerleading and football team.

AJ muses that Zuse is torn between the programming of the servers and his own feelings, and says Gabe told him that he thinks that if the cohort can shut the server off somehow, Zuse might be ejected to be able to join the cohort.

Robert has a moment of disbelief, questioning if they can really trust Gabe’s advice, since he’s one of the ones who made the cohort like this. Hell, Geri has weird magic stuff around her now! He asks the group what they’ll even do when they get out, since they can’t exactly just go into society like they are. The mixed confusion and anger is clear in his face and body language.

Geri turns to Madi and the others and explains that her old church… isn’t a normal church. It believes in Spiritual Gifts, but even more literal than the Bible, because her father was a Real faith healer pastor – it was Tradition for the pastors and Elders to have real Spiritual Gifts, and her father had wanted her to become a pastor. But she’d come to think maybe it was fake after all until she could read minds. She also confirms that the church doesn’t agree with Catholics. Or other faiths.

AJ thinks for a moment about Robert’s question and answers sincerely. He wants to explore Antarctica and find the “mechanized city” he’d heard about.

Madi says she thinks the church has Cassidy hostage since she disappeared right after the memorial.

Geri uncomfortably explains that the church is after the Gifted, and might settle for converts if they can’t get her back. Clearly, according to Geri, the church needs to be razed.

Robert says he’ll help with whatever, he doesn’t have much to go back to. He just hopes his cat is okay.

Madison says obviously her priority is rescuing Cassidy.

Geri offers to help them with their objectives, the rescue and AJ’s quest, but she wants to destroy everything, absolutely Every. Little. Thing. Her father loves – though she’s not gonna force any of the others to help her with that part. She’s not like her family, or the Long Man Society. She just wants them to not get in her way. She also expresses interest in knowing more about what they are and why they are the way they are.

AJ agrees to help but says he’s not gonna hurt anyone. He doesn’t want to become a weapon. Geri asks him what his powers even are (besides nepotism), and he claims he doesn’t have any, but that he can help with distractions and little last-minute gadgets.

When asked, Madi’s unsure whether Cassidy is like the cohort – she was helping Madi from outside the ward with exposing Geri’s church, before she went dark. She also says she’ll do whatever she has to do to rescue Cassidy, even though she doesn’t want to hurt anyone ever again.

Robert has no qualms about hurting anyone. In fact, he’s pretty pissed with a lot of people now that he’s learned what’s actually going on. He offers to do the “dirty work” for any of the cohort who are squeamish.

Geri says she’s not squeamish, which Robert is grateful for. He says the wisps look useful. Geri doesn’t know how to control them yet, or if she’ll be able to… but it’s why her clothes and much of the ward staff’s clothes who deal with her end up singed, and she ends up stuck wearing scrubs she hates.

Madison, ashamed, says her biggest problem is going to be not hurting people.

AJ chimes in that he can make action playlists to get everyone in the mood, which Geri counters that AJ can at least be distracting.

They continue sharing what they know of their new powers. Geri says if she tries hard she can make a private mental groupchat if she tries really hard. And she can burn stuff but doesn’t know how to control that well yet.

Madison isn’t really sure what she can do – mostly that it involves electricity, and lightning. She can make electronics do what she wants, and had at least some control over storms…. The once. Her body makes electricity she can discharge outward, too. And the ward keeps trying to figure out what can and can’t hurt her. Electricity, fire, and cold don’t. She can still drown. She’s not immune to drugs, and acid still hurts. She gets awkward and picks at her scrubs as she lists off her immunities.

Everyone goes very quiet in horror and anger listening to what happened, and what was implied to have happened to her. Geri very nearly hits something and her Lash threatens to Become A Potential Problem, yet again, singeing bits of clothing. AJ quietly apologizes to Madi. Geri, by way of comforting, promises that the ones who hurt Madi will pay.

Robert explains that sunlight and running water hurt him now, and he sees ‘fucked up things with auras’ he doesn’t understand. He can get bigger, about as big as a moose, he thinks, and his skin gets tougher, though he’s only done that once and it was in an office full of people. He’s determined to be the group’s protector.

Madi suggests, while Geri continues to comfort her, that maybe AJ doesn’t know what his powers are because it’s something really subtle, like being ageless like his uncle Gabe. Robert and Geri think that’s a reasonable enough explanation. AJ good-naturedly plays it off.

Madi wonders if Gabe is AJ’s blood uncle, and if so, how old even are AJ’s parents?

AJ gets visibly uncomfortable as he admits that Gabe confessed that he’s actually AJ’s great-great (many greats, he’s not quite sure how many) grandfather, and he’s been sticking around ‘guiding the bloodline.’ And also that Gabe’s not sure what happened to make him like he is, or maybe he just doesn’t want to tell AJ.

Madi asks Geri if she could figure out more about Gabe without being caught, and AJ puts a stop to that right away, telling the girls that Gabe also has basically a black hole for a brain and can’t be mind-read, which Geri confirms, because of course she’s already tried. She says she thinks his brain works on a different wavelength than she can hear, like a radio.

Madi asks if they mean like ‘that old vampire movie’ and the others all take psychic damage from Twilight being referred to as “old.”

Geri says they need to gather intel on the guard rounds and to shut off Zuse’s room when it’s time, and also lets them know that from her observations the staff has been taught to be resistant to mind-reading attempts. Not immune, but they can make it annoying.

They start to get anxious about the time, that they might get caught soon.

Madi says she’ll try to turn off Zuse, but doesn’t know if she can.

AJ has plans for a distraction, but needs some spare parts from household items he needs to get Gabe into sneak for him – an old microwave and a vacuum cleaner. He already got Gabe to agree to try to get the group things they need for their plan if they come up with a list – no assurance that it will be successful but at least an attempt will be made.

Robert’s plan is very simple - punch stuff that needs punching.

Madison says they’ll need clothes because one time her friend broke out of troubled teen camp and they caught her because she was still wearing the camp’s jumper and sent her back so she doesn’t want the cohort sent back for getting caught wearing scrubs.

Robert suggests they could steal clothes from a nearby store when they break out, but the cohort reminds him that they’ve been given an offer for plan items so they may as well not make things harder on themselves (and get the cops on them sooner than necessary).

Madison mentions having a trust fund for money when she balks extra hard at theft, but Robert points out how exactly does she plan to access it? She drops that for the moment and mentions that her parents own a lakehouse that should be empty this time of year they can hide out in.

AJ says they need to work on getting the layout of the ward for their escape, and suggests working with Patty. Madi and Geri both reject that idea hard. Madi because she thinks (mostly from Geri dislike her) that Patty is a sociopath and Geri because she’s still salty about Patty daring to make telepathy inconvenient. She says she’ll try to pull the information they need from her instead. Geri also says Zuse likely knows all about break and lunch times for the staff and would be more pleasant to work with, and the cohort can just trade some gossip with him for the information if he wants anything for it.

The guys wonder if the cohort can even trust Zuse, though AJ thinks he’d be a valuable addition to the cohort if he is trustworthy. Robert’s notably more skeptical. The cohort discusses back and forth about his probable motives, about what he might want, about how much of his intentions might just be the programming, and how different he might be once outside the server.

AJ says that Zuse believes in protecting humanity, and says if they try to show that’s what the cohort stands for with their actions, he might try to come with them willingly.

In the end, the cohort are too conflicted with what to do with him. The programming makes him too much of a wild card, though they do like him a lot and want to take him with them. They decide to table whether or not to bring him until they see what he’s really like outside the server. All except Robert are uncomfortable with the idea that they may end up having to leave Zuse behind.

AJ asks the cohort if they have any last requests or ideas before they split up.

Geri mentions at least some of the clothes need to be cotton, so they don’t melt when she accidentally singes them. She also says that the fact Zuse is so interested in petty gossip seems like a good sign - computers shouldn’t be interested in that. She thinks it’s a sign the human part of him is waking up more the more he gossips, and a key to get closer to him.

AJ and Madi are hopeful with that sentiment, and the cohort leave to continue refining and setting their escape plan in motion.

[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.

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?

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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.

Four young adult strangers are stuck in a closed "observation ward" after they all had bizarre incidents. A mysterious visitor is coming to make an assessment for unclear purposes. What happens if you become too interesting? And why does the staff make them take so many pills?

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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]

Episode 1: Green Country Calcination

The story starts on the first Wednesday in March, 2021. In this chronicle, the pandemic never happened – it was our escape from it, after all.

The chronicle started in the new observation ward of Hillcrest Hospital in Pryor, Oklahoma. It’s in what’s called the “Green Country” of Oklahoma, and about an hour away from Tulsa.

None of the cohort, or what would become the cohort anyway, have been in the observation ward for more than a few short weeks at this point. They’re among the newer arrivals. Some of the patients who’ve been around longer, though, they’ve been spreading rumors that today’s a special day, because a special Visitor would stop by.

The Visitor? A mysterious woman named Camille Mason, supposedly an “insurance agent," who’s been making even more frequent visits since a patient might have escaped. Maybe. That’s what the rumors guess, anyway, though they have no idea how.

The observation ward was much like a psych ward at first glance. It had a common area the patients could gather for meals and some vaguely supervised free-time. All of the patients were on some kind of pills, and all wore scrubs provided by the ward. There were therapy times with a psychiatrist.

Unlike a normal psych ward, it suffered frequent bizarre blackouts. And then there were the patients themselves…

Alexander Joseph “AJ” Werner-Holt – A talkative, friendly, even class-clown type in his early 20s. AJ seems to be able to make friends with just about everyone, from patients to ward staff. He has a large bandage over part of the back of his neck covering what’s apparently an unseemly infection of some kind. He’s got a mop of curly, honeyed-brown hair and a short goatee. He’s lightly tanned, like he’s seen sun sometimes.

Geraldine Wayfield – or Geri as she prefers, is almost sickly pale, 5-foot-nothing, slender, with an unnaturally bright red dyed curly mane of hair, strawberry blonde roots starting to show, and has an unsettlingly intense stare. She’s also in her early 20s. She’s the kind of person who would challenge God to a fight in a Waffle House parking lot. She can’t throw a punch but that wouldn’t stop her from trying anyway. Her scrubs are often mysteriously singed.

Robert Johnson – Robert is a reasonably attractive businessman type: tall, toned, strong jaw, and dark hair that’s nearly black. He was a manager onsite the HR department for a company in the Industrial Park before his accident. Otherwise he’s… weirdly average in a lot of ways. He’s a little above average in attractiveness, but he could be replaced physically by a cookie-cutter corpo type and hardly anyone would notice on first glance. His less-than-average traits and quirks take longer to pick up on. He seems probably older than Geri and AJ.

Madison McKenzie – A tall and slender athletic girl at 5’10, she’s just barely turned 18. She’s a senior in high school and was meant to graduate in a couple months. She has a cheerleader and ballerina’s physique, because she is one – good enough to have interviews lined up at Jacquard for college. She’s from a wealthy family and painfully naive, but very sweet… and haunted by what happened.

On this very day we start the story, it’s midday, sunny and warm after a cold snap. No one’s too concerned about the lights being out on the ward (again) because it’s sunny enough through the windows while the patients are about to have lunch together, anyway.

Geri arrives at the common area in pink scrubs with small singe marks and sits at the couches instead of the lunch table area, presumably to be difficult.

Robert’s wearing a large blanket wrapped around him over his scrubs and is barefoot, unlike everyone else. He’s playing chess with an older gentleman patient.

AJ, meanwhile, is shuffling cards trying to get someone to play a game with him and loudly cracking jokes about the bad hospital food.

Madison’s the last to arrive, straight out of one of the exam rooms and quickly joins Geri to let her know the little ragtag group needs to talk at lunch. AJ spends his time teasing Geri for being broody and trying to goad her into interacting more.

The orderlies roll out the lunch carts and the patients line up for lunch. All the patients also get “vitamins” with lunch. The orderlies also eat the (bland but healthy) food with the patients, but don’t take the vitamins themselves.

One of the things Madison misses the most about being outside the ward is the fact that the coffee inside is distinctly awful and usually decaf.

Robert has a preference for drinking warm water with meals.

After getting exactly no one agreeing to play a game with him and chatting up the orderlies and nurses a while, AJ sits down right next to Geri, who is less than pleased with this arrangement, and tries to strike up friendly conversation by bribing her with a jello cup, pestering and coming on a little strong but friendly. Geri responds by asking if he’s capable of shutting up or if talking fills the void of parental love. As one does.

AJ is like a social duck, the insult just seems to roll off his back like water. He jokes some more about Geri always being like that and rates the insult 8/10.

AJ pretty much immediately decides that he’s going to be the plucky protagonist of a horse girl movie, befriending the wild stallion that bites and kicks everyone else. He’s this chronicle’s horse girl.  

Madison is eager and kind of impatient to get the group to knock it off and get together to chat.

Once they gather, she tells them quietly that she earned cell phone privileges and contacted Cass, her best friend since childhood. But Cass said she’s not able to visit, and thinks something’s up, “seriously sus.” And Madison also says her parents aren’t returning her calls, or acting right around Cass. All the posts she and Cass have been making about Geri’s father and church – he’s the pastor of a local megachurch who’s abusive and tried to drown her, leading to her ending up in the hospital, this very ward – all the posts have been mass-reported, flagged and taken down almost as quick as the girl can put them up. Something about “violating community standards” and spreading conspiracies. Madi adds that Cass thinks Madi’s calls and posts are being watched.

Robert, meanwhile, sits there drinking plain hot water and makes an odd comment about being given his vitamins by twelve orderlies and sometimes not given clothes.

Madison asks if Robert’s dozen orderlies are for when he gets shocked or during ‘the water stuff’, later clarified to be forced underwater breathholding tests. The whole table gets very quiet for a moment because no one else got that exact “treatment” and is rightly horrified at the teenager offhandedly mentioning it. And also that they burn her, but it’s totally fine, she’s fine, because it doesn’t hurt. Really. She promises.

Robert mentions being hurt by the sun more than usual and that when water’s poured on him, it makes him want to die.

While they’re sympathetic to the terrifying things the others are sharing, neither AJ nor Geri offer up any similar stories, and it’s not immediately clear whether they’ve not experienced that sort of treatment in the ward, or just aren’t willing to talk about their own experiences.

While the horrific sharing is going on, Geri notices Dr. Gabriel Werner with his watch that never tells the correct time in the background grabbing coffee. She picks at her food and uses pieces of the bland taco contents to spell out ‘police report when?’ She’d been pestering staff this whole time she’d been there to be able to do something to make her father finally have to answer for his crimes, now that she actually had documented proof in her medical record, but hadn’t yet been allowed to make a formal report or talk to anyone outside the ward.

The conversation shifts back to Madison and Cassidy’ attempts to expose Geri’s father’s crimes.

When asked how she even got her cell phone back – no one else had more than maybe heavily supervised calls with a hospital phone, if that – Madison says that Dr. Werner gave her phone privileges for being so good at the tests.

AJ eventually claims that the only thing the ward staff makes him do is make him take very cold baths (in a speedo) while observed by several staff. He also claims the cold water makes him fall asleep sometimes, so the ward lets him keep extra blankets in his room. And that the thing on his neck might be an infection risk. Maybe.

Geri still doesn’t mention anything that’s actually been done to her, or tested about her, but says that she’s not allowed to keep anything flammable, including books or papers, besides the scrubs, and all the furniture in her room is metal and bolted down.

The nascent cohort’s sharing session is interrupted by overhearing a nurse worriedly mention that ‘she’s here early.’ The whole ward starts to get tense in preparation for this mystery person’s arrival, but they don’t change the schedule for any of the patients, so the cohort is still on their lunch free time observing the quick cleanup and internally-panicking staff.

Robert gets concerned that the staff are afraid because he notes that they’re usually pretty calm even when they’re performing tests on the patients, but when the others mention who’s supposed to be visiting, he shares that she used to visit where he worked a lot.

They discuss that the woman, Camille Mason, is supposed to be from insurance and get on the topic of paying for their stay in the ward. Robert wants to make sure that he’s not overcharged since he didn’t want to come in the first place. Madison isn’t that worried because her family’s wealthy anyway. AJ’s somewhat concerned about the cost, even though a relative works on the ward. Geri tells them to tie the ward up in the bureaucracy of demanding a thoroughly itemized bill and contesting every possibly sketchy charge once they get out. Madi’s amazed by this sage wisdom.

An older woman patient who uses a walker named Patty shows up to lunch very late, after things had already been cleaned up. Despite her apparent age, she stands out in a crowd – she wears bedazzled sunglasses (indoors, even), fake pearls, and bunny slippers. The oddest thing about her is that the whole cohort knows she claims that she’s only 24, about the same age as Geri and AJ at that point, which is just laughable with how impossible it is… right? 

Patty talks with the others about the visitor, how it’s a very bad thing to be too noticed by her, because those patients disappear and are never seen again – and not in the ‘they get discharged home’ way. The girls start to get really worried since Camille will have access to their files. The guys seem way less concerned about that part and the group starts to question the pills they’re all given, since they’re all fed a healthy (though bland) diet and shouldn’t need extra vitamins, especially not three times a day. Patty calls them “Depressants” and implies they’re to keep patients there longer to study. The group doesn’t quite get what that means, Madi even thinks it means depression (the mental health condition) but they start plotting how to secretly stop taking them.

Robert starts the discussion in the most suave and diplomatic way possible – asking Madison for advice on making oneself puke by implying she must have experience with that sort of thing. This is a key character trait for Robert that’s going to keep cropping up. As is Geri’s knee-jerk response of smacking Robert in the back of the head for the comment.

They don’t get very far in plotting, in fact, they’re still bickering with Robert over his comment when an alarm goes off. Patty tells the group that The Visitor’s here.

Shortly after, the thick security door to the rest of the hospital opens and in steps Dr. Werner carrying a crate of file folders and looking like he’s trying desperately hard to maintain his cool but ultimately might explode on someone, quite possibly the woman who comes with him – a statuesque black woman with a shaved head, high heels, smart pantsuit, and silver jelwery draped on her. She moves with confidence, dangerously calm composure – and a couple of armed guards, likely National Guard based on the uniforms.

When the quartet step out of earshot into one of the offices, the group plus Patty go back to talking. AJ is worried about Dr. Werner, and Geri notes that he’s not just upset, but nervous.

Robert declares he’s the one Camille must be most interested in, since he destroyed his office before he came to the ward.

The group starts agreeing to only pretend to take the pills from then on, and Patty encourages them, saying it’s how she senses everything again. Everyone agrees to the plan… except for AJ.

He’s reluctant to stop taking them and says that the pills are probably meds they actually need.

Geri notes, quietly, after watching Dr. Werner and Camille from a distance that he ‘doesn’t seem alive,’ though no one questions that.

After Madison thinks about it some more, she gets fearful of skipping a dose, that she’ll accidentally hurt people. Again. And AJ’s excuse is he doesn’t want to die (from his “neck infection”). Geri tells him that he won’t die missing one dose, but AJ doesn’t believe her because why would she know for sure. She has no right to be speaking with that level of confidence.

While the group bickers (yet again), Patty’s eyes go cloudy white and she relays to the group that Camille is happy, very happy and Dr. Werner is mad but he knows he can’t stop her.

Madison and Geri both admit that even with the pills, strange things happen around them they can’t explain, and Madison is worried about being interesting because she gets extra visits from Dr. Werner for trauma therapy, in addition to the tests, but it’s more visits than the others seem to be getting.

Patty tries to explain (in her own, cryptic way) a bit more about what she knows about what the group’s become, but gets cut off before saying much of value by Camille (and Camille’s body guards) returning from the office. Camille has an armful of patient files.

AJ pretty instantly hates and distrusts Camille, glaring at her when she walks past without Dr. Werner. Though he was most reluctant to stop taking the pills, he asks to see Madison’s. He dumps out both their little cups in front of him on the table and he’s very troubled – despite having very different reasons for coming to the hospital, the two’s pills are the same.

Madison and Robert notice AJ’s troubled expression but he plays it off with a joke about the food served at lunch.

While that conversation’s going on, Geri has a moment of exploring the world through extremely ill-advised Variation usage. Despite having been on the ward’s drugs otherwise, she hasn’t taken her lunchtime dose yet, and has a notably strong Will. She decides to snoop in Camille’s brain for information on which files she nabbed, and more information on Camille herself.

Camille actually lets the audacious young Cephalist have the first bit of information, but blocks the rest of her attempt. She instead lets Geri know ‘I knew one of you could do that.’ Camille stops in her walk to the exit to give a sly smile to the group, the kind of smile that lets a certain cephalist know she fucked up real good this time.

When Camille leaves, Geri panics and explains the situation and that she maybe, kind of, SORT OF – you know, tried to read Camille’s mind. As one does.

The others are shocked by this revelation that their new acquaintance can apparently do things out of a comic book… but they mostly believe, even if the situation starts to freak them (mostly AJ) out more.

Madison says again that the pills don’t neutralize everything, and Robert says that they keep him from being able to get bigger... And not in the sex way. AJ claims it’s all crazy talk and everyone else is just letting the place get to them, because he definitely doesn’t have any superpowers.

As the group is still reeling some from the sharing bits and pieces about each others’ powers for the first time, Dr. Werner shows up again. Something is deeply wrong. He’s very pale and forces a smile for the group.

Dr. Werner offers only a small bit of greeting before formally informing the group that the four have been selected by Camille, a representative of the Long Man Society, to move to a “better-equipped” location. When several of the cohort express not wanting to go somewhere else, Dr. Werner makes it clear it wasn’t up to him and he’d rather they stayed. AJ is in shock.

The cohort plead with him to not let them leave, Madison even starts nearly tearing up about how he’d promised her that they were safe under his care.

Dr. Werner explains that they’re still safe under his care for the next seven days before they’re picked up… which means they will most definitely have to stay out of Room 164 under all circumstances, as usual, because Ms. Mason would very much hate to find out they’d been there before she arrived to pick them up.

He really laid it on thick, the reverse psychology and metaphorical wink was not subtle.

The cohort, well, three of them anyway, tell Dr. Werner that they definitely, pinky-swear, wouldn’t go into that room. Wink.

AJ, on the other hand, slammed his lunch tray and stormed off.

[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.