Stories with Dice
Stories with Dice is an actual-play podcast where a fellowship of everyday gamers explores fantastical worlds, distant futures, and parallel realities through tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) from Free League Publishing, Chaosium, Modiphius Entertainment, and more.
Join us at our virtual table as we play Mysteries of the Loop, our Tales from the Loop series; explore the Arthurian mythos in The Sword Campaign, the first part of our Great Pendragon Campaign; chart the stars in Star Trek: Magellan, our Star Trek Adventures series; and sail the seas in Dark Blue Sea, our Mutant: Year Zero campaign. Stories from other worlds are coming soon, including The One Ring, The Electric State, Legend of the Five Rings, Twilight: 2000, and so much more.
We’re not voice actors, professional entertainers, or trained performers—just friends from around the globe sharing virtual dice, stories, and a laugh or two as the game unfolds.
Stories with Dice
The Time That Shouldn't Be S2 E2: A Tales from the Loop Actual Play
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The older kids indulge Anthony’s obsession with the Loop, scouting around the cooling towers and testing Riksenergi’s boundaries.
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This is the time that shouldn't be. A Tales from the Loop. Actual play. From Stories with Dice. If you're enjoying our actual plays, please subscribe to Stories with Dice so you never miss an episode. Don't forget to rate and review us. It really helps others discover the podcast. Follow us on social media to stay updated. You'll find the relevant links in the description of each episode.
SPEAKER_02Hi, episode two. How did we suddenly get here so quickly? I know, that's a secret. I am joined, as usual, by the usual group. Marco, Tony, Douglas, and Pete. Go listen to the first episode of season two. You'll know where we are in the second episode. Cool. You have both, well, you have all got in some uh canoes to kind of go across to Munzo because Anthony has got something in his brain that he needs to do and apparently about to get across to Munzo. Presumably to figure out what he can do to find his brother.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I should have realized and probably mentioned at the start of the last episode that when you asked us sort of where we were, that he'd probably has begun to start to act out a little bit.
SPEAKER_02I think we've seen that.
SPEAKER_06Yes, that was the Marco. That was the impulse of his impulsiveness.
SPEAKER_02Hmm. So after a bit of a battle, you've all kind of like got together, you've got in the canoes which you've rented from Jan Eric on the uh on the pier, and on this particularly nice sunny afternoon, you have trudged across now. So we'll kind of get back to where you left off. You've made the 45-minute canoe across the Lang Tarman Strait, and you've made landfall on Munso on the island where the cooling towers for the loop are situated. You are right on the edge of the loop's sort of outer edges? Right, well, what would you like to do? But you have a bunch of woods in front of you and a beach going to your left and right.
SPEAKER_06So, Anthony, why are we here? Well, I don't know why you're here. But I'm here to find my brother. Where? He's at the loop. You mean like at the facility? Yes. And what's your plan here? Just to walk up on the door and knock and ask to see him? I don't know. I'm I'm I'll I'll figure it out.
SPEAKER_01Still a long way from here. It'll be nightfall by the time you get there.
SPEAKER_06Great, then they won't see me when I sneak in. Like, am I the only one here, Sven Anderson Anders, who thinks this is like a terrible idea? It's a bad idea. Thank you, Sven. It is a bad idea. Well, do you have a better idea? When has that ever stopped you all before? Well, usually there was some sort of like actual incentive. If money is all you love, then money what's that? Star Wars line? That's all you'll guess. Anthony is he is flubbing the Princess Leia line from Star Wars.
SPEAKER_04But why don't Joazar's father? I mean, I don't understand. He knows. Why do why do you say that you're He can't speak openly about it?
SPEAKER_06Why do you think your brother is in the loop? I don't know. Father said he would look into it, and that's been six months ago. Does your brother work in the loop? No. He was taken. How do you know he was taken? Because you went missing? Okay. And you you saw him, right? He said. If you don't believe me, you can ask Susie. She was there. Oh, is Susie? She does her own thing. That's probably the best way to describe Susie. She does her own thing. She shows up when she wants to show up.
SPEAKER_04And then we have to be realistic here. We cannot just walk to the loop and get in. Plus, this place is p it's huge.
SPEAKER_06Where would we look? Let's not simply walk into the loop. That is the first time because you've seen Anthony crack a smile for many, many, many days.
SPEAKER_02As you're sort of like on this side of the uh of the phenomena onwards, uh you realise that there's obviously it's uh as I said, it's been quite warm, so there's a lot of like buzzing insects and sort of stuff like that, just kind of like kicking around where you've kind of like landed.
SPEAKER_01Sorry, Pete, you were saying I was just gonna suggest to Anthony that maybe this isn't the best time to do this. Maybe we should plan this properly. And come back another time once we've got it planned properly, we've got equipment with us, yeah, make it a proper full day's planned trip.
SPEAKER_06Tell you what, Anthony. Let's go have a look at this facility place. And then we'll do a what what they call it, a reconnaissance. And then as Anders says, we can come back, you know, when we have an actual plan. How does that sound?
SPEAKER_02Works for me. So you're gonna make your way up through the woods to the north part of Munza. It's probably a good four or five kilometres to sort of like the the facility. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Joanus is gonna grab like Anders and take him aside and just be like, we'll we'll go have a look, and then he will take one look at it's gonna be Luke impossible to get in, and that should dissuade Anthony from like going any further.
SPEAKER_05You'll see how like secure this place is, and then be we'll be able to like talk him down at that point. Sound good? Play along with it. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02Sure. Well, you kind of like moor up your uh canoes, you've kind of like made your way through and into the trees. Most of the side of the of Moodsum is is covered in trees, and sort of like there it's a little bit swampy, there's a couple of sort of there's a few dunes that you can kind of like walk through, but mostly it's quite sort of low-lying woods. But you do, you kind of like stomp through them and you kind of like come out the other end, you can see some more woods ahead of you, and what looks like large sort of like wasteland, which is sort of the the on the map you can see some like red, and it looks like it's some whatever's coming out of the of the loop is where they kind of like store their what's the word I'm looking for, runoff, that kind of thing. There's a whole bunch of sort of uh as you kind of like make your way north where there's sort of like little paths and stuff, you can see sort of little red squared placards that say danger keep out, caution gas, caution toxic environment, various things like that that kind of say. Have you been have you touched anything? This is the number to call for an emergency, that kind of like thing, and everything's kind of got the Rick's energy logo on, which is that sort of like crown and sort of like a circle. Yeah, there's there's there's a lot of that. As you get closer, you can see the the cooling towers looming ahead of you. There's this almost like a buzz in the air, which you kind of initially think is the kind of insects that are kind of like flying around, but you realize there's like a bit of a static in the air that comes from the cooling towers themselves. The lights are blinking on the top, even through sort of like the sun that's kind of showing here. They look like three large edifices which raise into the sky. There's a sort of almost mist haze that kind of like is around the top of it, but you've still got a way to go. You've got more trees to get through, and you can see there's probably like fields and stuff as well that you need to kind of like traips through.
SPEAKER_06Well, we should definitely move away from the signs that talk about toxicity, and so away from the coastline and more toward the center of the island. Johannes. Uh-uh.
SPEAKER_02Could you please roll me a comprehend roll?
SPEAKER_06Okay. So that is minor four, comprehend of one. So that's five dice. Let's see what happens.
SPEAKER_02That is a whole lot of nothing. That's great, thank you very much. Yeah, you sort of you kind of like as this makes sense. We just need to cut through these woods away from sort of like all the kind of like signs which you do. Again, more insects and stuff. You know, it's a warm by the time you find a trek through, it's kind of like warm day, you're all kind of sweating quite freely, and you kind of come out the other side of the woods to a very large set of open fields. There are multiple open fields which all kind of lead to the cooling towers off to your right. There's a large road, like a big road that kind of like leads from the southern part of the island all the way into where the cooling towers are. You can't quite yet see any kind of like fencing or anything, but you think you're sort of like within sort of a good kilometre or two away. You haven't seen anyone, no one's come to bother you. It's they kind of left you to it. And you continue to head towards the the cooling towers. As you're sort of like in your second hour of kind of like traipsing up into sort of like the um towards the cooling towers, you see a very large vehicle hovering through the air and coming towards the cooling towers. It is a graviton vehicle, and it's probably the same size as a large tug boat. It's got the graviton things on the side, so large satellite dishes as the whole thing sort of like trundles along, and and not long after that, you see three white vans, panel vans, drive down the road away from the away from the actual cooling towers, and they kind of come past you and drive south towards the bottom of the island. They drive since you're driving at speed, and you see them kind of drive off. Takes another half hour or so, and you come to a chain link fence. This chain link fence is in the middle of a field with the rest of the field on the other side, and way in the distance, you can make out a couple of buildings. The chain link fence has some razor wire on the top, and square in the middle of the chain link fence, there is a big sign that says electrified, and then keep out Rick's energy. Does the road go through this fence? Uh, the road it will do, but further to sort of like the west to where you are.
SPEAKER_06So there must be like a gate down there that's manned. Sure. Okay. That's where I'm going.
SPEAKER_01Maybe this is the point we turn back and Yeah, it's getting late.
SPEAKER_06I need to go back. You know? We could see the thing here. You know, get a good look at it. Sven, you have all people. You of all people after what they did to your father. Should be on my side here. I don't feel like coming here now. Oh, you don't feel like coming here?
SPEAKER_04Oh. Is Sven ski od? I just ignore you. I just say little kid.
SPEAKER_01I'll hunt around for something I can maybe test the electric fence with. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Yep, there's rocks and grass and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_06So Ed, on this sorry, on this map here. Yeah. We're to the right of the road. Correct.
SPEAKER_02And uh is the fence between us and the road? No, no. So where you are, if you look where it says the cooling towers, if I just ping it, you're just about there. Just under the N of where it says Cooling Towers. The road is to the south. That's probably a good, you know, 500 meters, but it's kind of just out of view, so you'd have to like walk that direction. So the f the fence is this line here. Yeah, it it follows a similar kind of trajectory as as that line.
SPEAKER_06Understood. So if we if we wanted to go to the gate, we would have to walk all the way to the road and then how many how long would that take?
SPEAKER_02Probably no more than like ten minutes, if that if that five, ten minutes, it's not that much. And what time is it? It's sort of like middle of the afternoon. I mean, it it is sort of like late summer, so you probably have got another five or six hours left of of of sunlight. But by the time you leave here, it'll be towards late afternoon. Then you have to go across the thing. You'll probably get there before it's before it's dark, easily.
SPEAKER_06I just need to go to the I just need ten minutes, okay? Just ten minutes. Just give me ten minutes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Well. We said we wanted to go to the quarry, and then we me and Andrews go and meet Christoph late in the evening.
SPEAKER_07Uh yeah, you'll think I'm doing ten more minutes.
SPEAKER_06You'll get to your drug deal, okay, Johannes? Well, let's go have a look at this gate. Once again, Johannes just kind of thing. He thinks we'll look at the gate, there'll be a bunch of scary guards, and it'll be like, yeah, no.
SPEAKER_01Anders, how are you going to test the uh electricity on the skate? I'm gonna see if I can find a stick or something, put some grass on it, spit on it to make it wet, and then see how close I have to get for it to spark. Sure. I like this. This seems like it should be something fun to do.
SPEAKER_02That sounds like a trip to the hospital.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm I'm assuming it's more like a uh a sheep or cattle electric fence, so I'm I'm kind of like testing how much ampage is going through it.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_05One too, it has barbed wire at the top. I feel like if it had that, it's not just for cattle.
SPEAKER_02Sure, yeah, you kind of spit on it, you take the stick and you kind of like touch it to the fence, nothing happens.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, feeling brave now, because it didn't spark across, there's obviously not high enough voltage or whatever to do that. I'll uh actually go up and uh reach out finger. Oh.
SPEAKER_02Okay. The finger goes closer and closer and closer and closer to the fence. Does anybody want to do anything to stop Anders or are you happy to watch this unfold? Anthony's watching.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_06I'll be like, Anders, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_01I'm just seeing how strong it is. I mean, we're gonna have to bring some cut wire cutters when we come back. Do you want to make a heart roll for me, please?
SPEAKER_02You do that kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure it'll be fine, I'm sure it'll be fine, and you kind of like, yeah, maybe I won't touch the It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no, you don't touch it. But as you get closer, you know, you have to get really close because you will have put your finger on it so you don't have a stick. You can hear like a light buzzing noise going through like cables in the fence.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, it I definitely think it is electrified then. Let's go see this gate and then we'll get going on.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so the four of you trudge down through the uh through the long grass and because none of this is manicured and stuff, it's just left to kind of grow wild. You make your way, it doesn't take long, five minutes, and you can see on the the large road, there is indeed a large fence. And next the fence is a large fenced gate. Unlike your last place that you saw this fence gate, there does not appear to be a place for a guard to stand. There are no guards, it doesn't appear to be anyone here. It looks like it's an automated gate or it's a gate that you open and close. As you get closer, there is a keypad which links the gate to some kind of lock and mechanism. That's what you've got.
SPEAKER_06Is there a camera? Like a security camera?
SPEAKER_02There is indeed a camera, and the camera is looking down at the at the gate. I wave at it. Right, okay. Do you wave and give it the finger?
SPEAKER_06Right, okay, we've seen the gate. Let's get going. Before someone comes to check on this.
SPEAKER_02At this point, you're actually fairly close to the cooling towers. You can actually see them sort of quite high in in the sky. All three of them. There are some trees and stuff around the cooling towers and a couple of buildings that you can see. They're all quite low buildings, nothing sort of big or anything like that. They look like they might be sort of like that pre pre-fab kind of buildings that have been set up.
SPEAKER_06Punching numbers on the keypad randomly.
SPEAKER_02Okay. The rest of you are all sort of like just standing what on the road? Or are you?
SPEAKER_06I'll tell her Dan doesn't spend and just be like, guys, we've we've gotta go if he's like doing that sort of thing. Someone will come check.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. I think we just we need to go. If he can play a little bit, we've still got a 40-minute trek back to the boat.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_06And if they've got a long time.
SPEAKER_02Through the gates, you can see a car making its way towards you down the road. It's definitely time to go now. A sedan. Very brown, beige-looking sedan.
SPEAKER_06Stratus is already gone.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay. At which point you kind of go. I take it the rest of you are all gonna like skidaddle as well. Yeah, cool. Yeah, you all kind of like skidaddle. Are you going back the way you came, back to the back to the canoes? Yeah, I think so, right? No one no one seems to give chase. You know, they kind of see that you've all run away and they they stop at the gate, you can see them sort of at the gate. A person sort of like in sort of like a very drab grey and bro, and another person in a very drab brown sort of like suit with a couple of sort of like shirts, kind of come out, have a look. They kind of look around, get back in the car, and they drive back as you sort of like make your way back through the woods and back to the boats. By the time you get back to the boats, it's late afternoon, and then you have a little bit of a row back across the across the strait. Back to the Jan Eric, who is uh manning the um the jetty, who seems quite amused by the fact that you've all kind of like wandered off, had your little kind of like fight over the canoe, and you've kind of essentially come back anyway. He thanks you very much for renting the canoes and kind of like bids you a good afternoon and watches you as you kind of make your way back to whatever you're going to do. Back home. So the plan is Sven's going home. Anders and Johannes are gonna go and meet Christoph and do some kind of deal.
SPEAKER_06You want to go to the quarry first?
SPEAKER_01You're gonna go to the quarry first. Was that Anders?
SPEAKER_06Pete was that was what we were doing?
SPEAKER_01Okay. It was. I mean, if we've got time to go by there, but if not. Sure. I mean, do you all want to go to the quarry?
SPEAKER_04Sure, Anthony will go to the quarry. Left your guys alone, but yeah. Then we check this out and we go home. I had to prepare dinner from my dad.
SPEAKER_02Okay. You um so there's one main road that kind of like comes from the northern part of Stenhamra, which you kind of like join, and you kind of come through there and you kind of end up going, it's it's this sort of quite high-ridged quarry. There's multiple quarries with sort of like large bodies of dark water inside. There's it's it's you know, quite a quite a deep thing. Uh, there's trees all around, there's multiple roads in and out of the quarry, so it's sort of like one, two, three, four, maybe five quarries in one, and there's sort of like you have to kind of make your way around. So it's a bit like when I mean, in most sort of like really bad low-budget sci-fi films, there's those terrible quarries that you see that they always kind of film in because it's cheap. That's exactly what it looks like. The quarry hasn't been used for quite a while. There's loads of shale and stuff on the floor. It is quite dangerous, but kids still occasionally come here and jump in the water and cause all sorts of problems. But yeah, you kind of like make your way in. Um, there's only one real way in and out, and that's through this this this road. Which you do, you kind of go through the quarry on either side. There's a very large body of water to start with, and yeah, you you kind of like coming in. You're just gonna look for what? Just something that might have been dropped or anything that's been left behind. Okay. Well, why don't you all make an investigate role for me? It'll take you probably about, you know, maybe an hour or so to kind of like investigate the site properly and for each one of us. Anthony has one success. Ghana's two and one. So let's kind of go with Anthony. You got two suc No, Johannes got two. Anthony or one. Right. Okay, Johannes. You're sort of like digging around and you're sort of looking for sort of you know, some kind of cool stuff that's been there. What you do find is there's a bunch of leftover wrapping and sort of like coffee cups from whichever the company would have been used. You can see where some of the the trucks have pulled in. There's lots of like tire tracks and stuff, and you find sort of like the leftovers of what looks like maybe a tent of some kind, like a big parquet. There's a bit of rope. You also see, which is really cool, like a what looks like it was probably the imprint of some kind of creature. It's probably, I don't know, about three foot in length with these large three toes, and there's like a couple of those kind of like stamped around here. So whatever they were filming, there was obviously some kind of like creature that was kind of like wandering around.
SPEAKER_07Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_02What else? Anthony, you kind of like come across and find bits and pieces of sort of cloth and what looks like maybe a hospital gown, or the parts of a hospital gown. And then who else we got? So you failed, anders. Wasn't Anthony's brother wearing a hospital gown? Uh he was. And it looks similar. I mean, it's one of those kind of like very generic looking sort of things. And Sven, you find sort of like a half half a bottle of liquor that's kind of like been discarded off to the side, you know, maybe sort of like a a brandy or something, or a schnaps, or something that's kind of like just been left by a crew member or something like that, maybe. That's what you find. There's other bits, you know, like bits of like silvered fabric, which you've seen in a couple of like shows, might reflect light, that kind of thing. It's just what you'd expect from a not so Clean a field crew as they've left a bunch of things.
SPEAKER_06Keeping the hospital gown.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_06Keeping the fragment, the fragments.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's probably about, you know, foot or so of hospital gown. But yeah, you kind of like take it to sort of like as the sun is setting, go about your business. That is the the rest of your day. So when you go home, Hannes and Anders go off to go and sell drugs. Sell drugs. And Anthony is gonna go home. Correct. In that case, I have a little something to read. So you see, as you all kind of go off to your evening thing. The sun is dipping below the uh horizon. You can hear this as sort of like faint buzzing sound, like like insects. It's Lake Melarin, it's at dusk. The water glows amber in the fading light, which which ripples gently beneath the sky streaked with orange and violet. Dragonflies and other insects skim across the surface of the uh of the lake. Chicadas buzz in the trees, the air is warm, heavy, and still. Then there is a shimmer. A pulse of distortion ripples across the lake, bending the light like a mirage. The water stills, the insects fall silent. There is a fisherman sitting on a jetty, and he lowers his rod. He squints at the shimmer, shielding his eyes, a little scrappy dog at his side whines beside him. The shimmer intensifies, and there is a sharp crack that splits the air, like glass breaking underwater. From the center of the distortion, a figure emerges. The figure stumbles and falls upon the beach, his hands grasping at the sand. He gets up, dies panicking, and runs off into the woods. The distortion pulses again. Again, there is a large crack that splits the air, and a deep guttural roar echoes from the tree line. Distant, but not far enough. And everything goes dark. And you finish the things that you do today? And head to bed. Or whatever it is that your kids are going to do.
SPEAKER_06Were we witness to that, or is that a little bit of a little bit of a little bit Nope.
SPEAKER_02out of view.
SPEAKER_06If this were like a show or something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. If this was, in fact, we can say, Cut to Black, A Beat of Silence, if this was a film, in stark white letters it says Tales from the Loop. Season 2. The Time That Shouldn't Be. And uh Yeah. Very nice. So that leaves you in the morning, having done whatever it is that you've done. What is the plan for today? Today is arbitrarily today is Friday. What is What's Sven's plan for the day? Is it school or not yet? Nope, school is not for another week and a half.
SPEAKER_04So today I will do the same thing, which is take care of my thing at the house. And then after having had lunch, I will go to the music store. Yes. To see Jacob and see if anything new has come. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Yes, of course. I forgot about Jacob and your bootleg cassettes. Okay, that's your plan for the day.
SPEAKER_01What is Anders plan? Well, according to what went on at the meeting last night, there might be something to do with that, but I'll be up and out of the house first thing, heading off to our hideaway and just tinkering about with bits and pieces there. Ma maybe actually uh making some uh cables to short out the electric fence. Johannes?
SPEAKER_06He you know, he'll probably just be hanging out in the hideout. He had a busy day yesterday and he's got nothing particularly busy to do today. So he'll just be like chilling.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And what's Anthony gonna do?
SPEAKER_06So in the morning, he's having breakfast and his father's probably, you know, drinking a cup of coffee, getting ready to go to work, and he just looks at him, you know, and he says, How much longer do we have to wait, Dad?
SPEAKER_02He looks at your mum, who's kind of busying in the kitchen, sort of maybe starting to wash up or something. And he kind of leans in close to you and says, It takes time, Aunt. You have to wait.
SPEAKER_06It's been six months. How much time do you think Joe has? He said he needed help.
SPEAKER_02Do you even care about him? Dear, I've got to go. And he gets up, he folds his paper up under his arm. We'll talk about this on the weekend. No, we'll I won't talk about it now. No. And he kind of does that kind of like almost he raises his voice, your mum looks round, he says, No, I've got to go to work. And uh I follow him outside to the car. Okay, you follow him outside the car. He gets to the car. And isn't it like take your kid to work day, Pop? No. You have to just you have to wait to be patient. Did you find him?
SPEAKER_06You have to be patient. He's gonna be dead by the time you get around to doing anything.
SPEAKER_02He kind of like takes a step forward. I storm away. You can see as as you storm away, he's like holding a fist down below him. And he kind of like gets in the car, there's that horrible like slam of Mel Hing Mel, and yeah, he kind of like drives off as uh you go into sort of like the house. Yeah, I go back into the house. Yeah, and you kind of go back into sort of like a normal routine with your mum and stuff. Johannes, the phone rings at home. Oh before you go out. And are you gonna pick it up or you let one of your parents pick it up? I'll just pick it up because I'm close to it. I'm just being like saying. It's your m it's your mum? It's your sister, sorry. Hey Johannes.
SPEAKER_06What are you what are you calling about? You know you you know usually don't call the house unless it's an emergency.
SPEAKER_02I'm really sorry to have to do this. I I I don't suppose you were I I I'm in a little bit of trouble. I wondered whether or not you and you you I could I could speak to you. Okay, sure. She sounds quite upset.
SPEAKER_06Okay. Let's meet uh the ice cream place. What's up?
SPEAKER_02Ice cream pizzeria. I think it's called something pizzeria. I'll have to remind myself. The pizzeria, we'll call it that. Okay, that that would be great. Maybe a little bit this afternoon?
SPEAKER_06Yeah, sure. You just tell me what time. Just now.
SPEAKER_02I'll I'll I'll meet you there at one. Yeah. That works. Okay. One o'clock. Okay. I'll see you then. Thank you so much, Johanna. Sorry about this. No problem. And she hands up the phone.
SPEAKER_06Okay. Once again, look around to make sure that no one has seen me answering the phone.
SPEAKER_02There's like someone says, Who was on the phone, dear? Oh, just a salesperson. Okay. They kind of just leave you to it. Yeah. And does. You hear a plate shatter and crash, and your dad storms out of the house as your mum is crying in the uh in the lounge.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm just gonna sneak down to the kitchen, grab some food, grab me jacket, and sneak out the house myself.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you do that. There's a kind of like almost a sort of you didn't really see your mum, you didn't really kind of talk to your dad. You kind of just wanted to be kind of, I suppose. Do you want to get involved in it? So there's this awkwardness that you feel in the house as you sort of like get your stuff and you get on your bike and you go to the um to the hideout. Okay? You kind of like as you ride off to that hideout, can you please make a comprehend rule? In fact, make an investigation roll. I think it's the same number of dice for you, but yeah. If you could do that, be great. That's all we need. Okay. Yeah, so as you're sort of like getting on your uh bike, you've got your um gear. Do you have like a rucksack and stuff that you carry with you? Wherever you go, kind of thing? Are you that kind of Yeah?
SPEAKER_01I'll probably have a backpack because I've stuck some sandwiches or something in it. Sure. I probably don't have it everywhere I go, but when I head off from home to the hideout, I'll probably always take it then.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you kind of so as you're sort of like getting out the house, you kind of like make sure that you've checked in your bag that you've got all your stuff. You can see that there is like an old plastic bag that would have had your like sandwiches or something in. You can see that there is a bug trapped in the plastic, and it's kind of like making sort of like the plastic sort of rattle a little bit, and you kind of like pick it up, you can see there's like looks like maybe a mosquito, but the mosquito is probably the same size as your finger and thumb combined, and it almost feels like the plastic bag.
SPEAKER_01You're like, it's not normal. Yeah, I'll make sure the bag is secure. Zip so it's not getting out. I'll stick it back in the bag and head off to the hideout to investigate it further. Cool.
SPEAKER_02Sven, your dad is actually not not home when you wake up in the morning.
SPEAKER_00Okay, that's odd. It is odd because he's been sort of like gently home one time. So nothing to clean up, so we'll just have breakfast alone.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, you kind of like He left you.
SPEAKER_04So nice of you. So yes, I will just have breakfast and then I will go to the store. Wait until they open and perhaps I will go to the store earlier.
SPEAKER_02Yep, you get to the store. Jacob is there already, kind of like doing that kind of pre-sort of like half hour or so before the store opens. He sees you and lets you in anyway.
SPEAKER_03I will just go in and hey, anything new? Not really. Well, actually. I mean music. What do you have? New music.
SPEAKER_02He basically he has oh, I've got these, and he's got like some vinyl and stuff, which he's kind of like got a box of vinyl, but he's also got a random sort of like cardboard box of cassette tapes that people kind of like come and swap, and so there's a whole load to sort of like rummage around. It's kind of a thing that you know they're happy to do, you know, people kind of come and leave stuff in, and some of the stuff is old that your grandparents, your parents will be listening to, rubbish. But there's some newer stuff in there as well. So it's kind of like it says, Well, look, as soon as you're here, you get first dips, help yourself.
SPEAKER_04I'm guessing they have like a like a displayer or a cassette player with headphones, like this, these old ones with like tiny with the orange, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's the one.
SPEAKER_04And I will just probably just be listening to music and checking the tapes and the vinyls and see what they take.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_04Also the cassettes, because the vinyls I need to pay, but the cassettes perhaps I just can just grab them. So I'm just gonna be checking what they grab today.
SPEAKER_02Okay, fair enough. Yeah, that's not a problem. Yeah, you could kind of like arrange sort of like a I don't know, would you arrange to sort of like have a cheaper version or are you gonna like do a part exchange or you're just gonna like buy some stuff with whatever money you happen to have? Or are you just gonna like pocket some?
SPEAKER_04No, I will not distill from Jacob. I will just listen and I mean if I have I don't know if I have a lot of cash to be honest. If not, I can probably tell if if I like something I cannot pay, probably say, uh Do you have a job, Sven? I don't think so.
SPEAKER_02I mean do you think your dad might give you a a stipend to kind of like buy stuff?
SPEAKER_04So most likely I will take the money from his wallet.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_04I I'm I'm guessing I'm paying myself a stipend based behind whatever I need to clean and prepare food for him. We'll probably just grab something. He probably just gives me money to buy food, because I probably I don't see him buying anything. So my guess is that I'm cashing whatever extra I get after buying groceries and and using that to buy cassettes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Jacob um Jacob uh says, Yeah, yeah, yeah, didn't you help yourself kind of thing? And the money that you've got from your dad, uh which you've kind of like scrolled away, which he's kind of oh, here's like 40 crona, go and get some milk and cheese and whatever else.
SPEAKER_04And a six bag.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, you you've kind of done that. So yeah, that that's how you're sort of like spending your morning. You talk, you talk music, Marco and I will always mock each other. My music is knowledge is is low to non-existent. So yeah, you have a conversation around the various types of music, and you make your way, I guess, off to the hideout, which is where you're gonna meet again. Anthony, are you gonna go to the hideout again today, or are you got any plans to do anything else?
SPEAKER_06No, he's gonna go to the hideout, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well, at some point you will kind of get to hideout, sort of early morning-ish, you know, mid-morning. You will kind of meet up at the hideout to discuss plans to apparently break into Rick's energies, the loop facility.
SPEAKER_06Janice is just gonna be there reading like magazines. Just like not really. Just sort of like away in his own world at the moment, thinking about this afternoon. Anthony will put the the cloth, the ripped cloth of the hospital gun that he found at the quarry down on the table, and he'll be like, my brother was wearing something just like this. There must be more people imprisoned at the loop. Why do you say this? Why was this in the quarry? Somebody's obviously hurt or escaped. Or both. Why the quarry?
SPEAKER_04I don't know. What's the connection? I mean, I think you're trying to you're far-fetching here. Okay, you tell me why a torn hospital gown is in the quarry, genius boy. I don't know. Perhaps somebody came by the road and tossed it and you know, got there. Okay. Or maybe someone who's being held against their will at the loop escaped.
SPEAKER_06And went for a bath in the quarry, right. No, maybe they were running for their life and passed by the quarry. Why do you gotta be such a dix, then?
SPEAKER_01Just I think you're just dreaming up things. Interrupt their discussion by uh putting down the plastic bag in front of them and going, Look at this! There is a massive insect in this bag. What what is it? Oh no. I just found it in my bag. It looks like a mosquito.
SPEAKER_06But is it like a robot mosquito?
SPEAKER_01I didn't think of that, and I just suddenly look blank faced at Anthony. Hell, where's and I go looking for some kind of magnifying thing so we can look at it closer. See if we can find anything. Yeah, it's it's big.
SPEAKER_02It's really large, it's really chunky. It's probably you reckon that the insect wings were probably about eleven centimeters, so there's a wingspan from one cent to the other.
SPEAKER_06A mutated insect. Can I use like investigate or comprehend to like try to figure out if this thing is mechanical or like biomechanical or something?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, you can make a comprehender up. It's not biomechanical, it's definitely an actual large insect.
SPEAKER_06Anders, Anders, it's not e it's not a machine. It's a real insect.
SPEAKER_01Well What kind is it? It's like a mosquito, but I wouldn't want that feeding off of me. Hell no. Yeah, Johannes?
SPEAKER_06Where did you find it?
SPEAKER_01Anybody we could sell it to?
SPEAKER_06Well well, sorry. What's going on? Join the party, Johannes. He just he puts down his magazine and like walks over to see you and we're like, oh, it's an insect. Yeah, it's like an insect the size of your fist. Don't really know anyone who would want a large insect. Maybe you could sell it to like a museum or like some sort of collector of insects or whatever. There's people who like pin butterflies to things. I've seen those in like Maybe those scientists at the loop made it. Maybe they mutated it. Maybe that's why they're experimenting on my brother and anyone else they have down there. Where did you get it, Banders?
SPEAKER_01I just found it in my backpack when I left this morning.
SPEAKER_06In your backpack?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_06How did it how did it get in there?
SPEAKER_01I don't know. It was just buzzing away and in the plastic bag in in the bottom there. At your house? Yeah.
SPEAKER_06What was in the bag what was in the backpack the day before?
SPEAKER_01Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I think. You went all American in honor of Anthony.
SPEAKER_06But uh nah, I don't know anyone who'd want to buy a big insect.
SPEAKER_01Maybe we could sell it to someone as an exotic pet. I mean i i it appears to be dead right now.
SPEAKER_06I guess that peanut butter and jelly sandwich didn't sit well with it, huh?
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Like maybe maybe the look the local newspaper might be interested in a story about like a big bug or something like that. You might be able to get a couple of quids a couple of cruner selling it to them. What if we try to sell it to the scientists? If they recognize it, we'll see it on their faces. Then we'll know. Do you know any scientists, Anthony? My dad's one. Well, I suppose you'd ask him tonight if he wants to do knows anyone want to buy a big bug.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you kind of look at all these you're look you're looking at the the insect. It's clearly dead, it's obviously suffocated or whatever it has done. And it just looks like it's been smushed around a little bit in the in the bag. Yeah, you kind of presumably you leave the bag shut. You're not opening the bag, you're just leaving it all in there. Yeah. How's it gonna how's it gonna breathe? It appears to be sleeping, Anthony.
SPEAKER_06Put a little couple of holes. Oh, is it it? It had it has it gone to a farm upstate? I I think so, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um Yeah, so there's uh yeah. You kind of look at it, and as you're sort of like looking at it, the c what are you listening to that's currently being playing in the sort of in the hideout? The clash. When when a tape kind of like starts to go a bit funky, that kind of like it starts to stretch the tape and it makes this horrible noise. That's what happens to your tape. Um it makes this horrible noise and it sort of like elongates the noises, and as it sort of does that warble and sort of like crackles, all the electricity goes off that's that you've managed to sort of like get to this place. It snaps. The state you think the tape snaps, it goes very silent all of a sudden. You sort of like feel this sort of something gets really hot and very humid where you are. It suddenly raises the temperature maybe 15 degrees, and the humidity hits at like 102 degrees, you know, percent. It's like suddenly just gets really hot, really sticky, really humid. And you hear sort of this crashing noise downstairs, and you you hear your tools and stuff that you have there, and it's get flung off the table, and it kind of like rattles around on the floor. If you've got any like nails and stuff in glass jars, that kind of like it smashes on the floor as well. Clearly, there is someone downstairs in your hideout.