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 E5: 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.
Anthony’s long-missing brother Joe suddenly returns, claiming he’s been jumping through time.
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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'll 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_04Hey everyone, it's episode five of our season two of Tales from the Loop. I am joined as ever by my faithful co-host. Faithful? Are you faithful? Sometimes. Always. What's up? Lots of stuff. Looking forward to having fun with this next episode. So hopefully everybody else will have fun. If not, they'll have to sack me and get another GM. We're also joined by Douglas.
SPEAKER_01Hello. Yes, I am also looking forward to the fun.
SPEAKER_04Woo! Fun. We love fun. Pete. Hi there, Tony. Hello. Also joining the fun. Yes. And of course, last but not least, Salt.
SPEAKER_08Sorry, wait, wait, this is happening again? Or is this yesterday? Or is this next week? I I don't know. I'm I'm I'm confused, Ed. Oh, what day are we on?
SPEAKER_04Today, surely today's Friday, or is it Thursday? I can't remember. Who knows? Wait, what? Who? Where? No, no, it it's still the same day that it wasn't the other day.
SPEAKER_02So it's you're good. Well played, Saul. Well played. So just just as an FYI to everyone involved, including our faithful listeners at home or on their commutes to work. If I suddenly disappear from the podcast, it's because my power has gone out. There you go.
SPEAKER_04I mean, don't sell yourself short, mate.
SPEAKER_02It's fine. Yeah, yeah. Asshole. What's the cause this time? Big storm volcano or no, that so the storm apparently we got so it's a long story, but our some of our wires are shortened out. No.
SPEAKER_04Today on season two, episode five, Marco's gonna tell us all about wiring in Sicily. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08We've changed the type of podcast, it's gonna be. You could always do interlude episodes, you know. Yeah, that's true.
SPEAKER_04So where we left off last time, you were watching that great interview for radio with the fisherman on the wharf who said he saw some weird stuff. The lady who was trying to interview him wanted him to say something far more juicy and far more sort of mysterious than what he actually came up with. Although what he came up with was still pretty mysterious, you know, considering. While you were while you were all kind of watching that, suddenly you felt a hand on your shoulder, and you turned around and it was Joe, your brother, who's been missing. And you were like massively taken aback, right? And just like puts his hand on your shoulder and he says, Ant, I need help. That's where we're gonna start off this this episode. How is he dressed, by the way? So he is wearing sort of like an oversized shirt. It looks like it it could be a a lady's blouse, and he's wearing sort of like some some trousers and sort of like these flip-flops. So very kind of mismatched.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think I immediately just go in for a hug.
SPEAKER_04He gives you a huge hug, and it's that kind of like vice-like kind of hug, and he's just kind of like holds onto your shoulders. And as he he does that, you can feel his chest suddenly deflate, and you can sort of feel the beginning of sort of like a sob start to happen, and then he kind of like sniffs, and then he holds you by your shoulders and pushes you back and says, It's so good to see you, it's so good to see you. We we we how are you here? What I don't understand. He basically puts his hand down your arm and grabs your wrist and says, We have to go. And he basically drags you away from everybody else out of the kind of like crowd towards the embankment, going up into sort of like the um the woods and and the houses that uh and I'm I'm shouting, but they're they're my friends, they can help us.
SPEAKER_02They're my friends, guys, guys, Susie.
SPEAKER_08Do we hear him?
SPEAKER_04Uh yeah, you look around and you can see this older boy basically dragging Ant away up into the sort of woods and stuff.
SPEAKER_07Anthony!
SPEAKER_08I I turn to the rest of them and go, someone's got Anthony!
SPEAKER_07Let's go!
SPEAKER_08Starts rushing on just butt into any anyone who's in the way.
SPEAKER_00Spen Spen gets in the in the front, you know, just trying to get to his friend, like all protective and such.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you kind of like chase the boy that's holding Ant up into the woods, and he kind of like pushes Ant behind him and then squares up towards you. He basically he has in his hand this knife. It looks like it's made of stone and wood, but like a handmade kind of knife, and he basically sort of takes defensive posture and he says, All of you, fuck off. You notice he's got an American accent with the same kind of twang as Anthony's, and uh, if you'd like to make a comprehend role, we'll tell you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he's in English, he's speaking in English with an American accent. I'm like, Joe, these are my friends. That's a failure, we're off to a good start. Woo!
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the NC the role.
SPEAKER_04Well, I'll tell you what, why don't we just take the second role? Yeah, they they they they share a similar face feature facial features, you know, they could be related. And as soon as as soon as Ant says, you know, Joe, don't know if I don't know if Ant has has Anthony told them about Joe and he went missing? Yeah, of course he did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So so you suddenly immediately go, oh, this is the missing brother that had been missing for a year or two. However, he went missing in Colorado. He did. He didn't go missing here.
SPEAKER_05Hey, you can't tell us to F off. That's our friend.
SPEAKER_04He looks at you and says, Are they all your friends? Obviously, no, seeing Sven, Anders, and Johannes were obviously the older, the older kids. Do you reckon he's kind of like he's probably older than all of you? And he says, Are they cool? Are they cool, Ann? They're cool, they're cool, man. Okay, okay. He kind of like.
SPEAKER_02Joe was sorry, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_04Joe was 14 when he went missing. Okay. Okay, so he's probably the same age as Fernandes and stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Well, how old are they?
SPEAKER_04Like 16. 15, 16. Casey's 15, remember? So yes, he kind of like holds his hand up and he kind of like pockets the knife and he says, we need to go somewhere private. Why? Let's go to the hideout.
SPEAKER_01Because people are after me. Let's go to the hideout, guys. No, no, no, no. VO ain't that. Let's go somewhere else. Especially if someone's after this guy. He says that where are we? It's the first thing he says.
SPEAKER_04We're in Sweden. Sweden? That's why I couldn't read anything. Alright, where can we go then? Where can we go that's private, that's out of the way?
SPEAKER_01Well, we can just hide here in the forest. Is there anywhere we might know in this area? I'm trying to think of it. Okay, I've got the map of whatchamacallit.
SPEAKER_04You could, you know, quite easily make your way up to some woods and stuff nearby. You know, it's not like it's a difficult place or anything to go to. So there's loads of woodland, there's loads of sort of like, you know, pastures and stuff you can go to.
SPEAKER_01I'll s I'll say I know a place, and then just if he agrees to follow me, I'll just wander until I find something that looks like a landmark, and then be like, here we go. Okay. Into the woods. Okay.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you kind of like follow he follows you into the woods. But he's kind of like got his like arm around Ant in like a kind of I don't really want to let you go kind of way. And he's like, Oh man, it's so good to see you. It's so good to see you. What's been going on? Oh, all sorts of shit. All sorts of shit. I mean, fuck, he says, I don't know where to start. And he basically, he he kind of likes, let me think, let me think. And as he's thinking, girl, see, you're trudging into the woods, you kind of like go over sort of a a path, you go over a road, which then leads onto a path, which then leads to sort of like a like an like an old an old telephone exchange area, which is sort of like in the in the woods, so it's out of the way, and it's kind of like a this little kind of like structure. And as soon as you say something like, We're here, he says, but damn it. He kind of looks around, he looks up in the sky, he says, You'll never believe it. You're not gonna believe it. You just won't.
SPEAKER_02Well, like, you're not gonna believe what we went through just you know, six months ago. Four months ago, six months ago. Six months ago. We like stopped like like artificial intelligent toy robots from taking over the town. He looks at you like, what? Yeah. So whatever you gotta say is like can't be any crazier than that. I fell into the past.
SPEAKER_04Cool. Well, you think, right, if you're going sort of like somewhere cool, like I don't know, the wild west or something, but not when you go to a place where there are no other people or any other humans, and it's just I don't know, dinosaurs and and stuff like that. Well, whoa, whoa, did you say dinosaurs? Yeah, dinosaurs. Big things, they chase you, they eat you, you know.
SPEAKER_02Anders, Anders found a prehistoric bug.
SPEAKER_03I'll rummage through my stuff and pull out the bag and hold it up as if that's gonna help.
SPEAKER_04He goes, Yeah, that looks like bugs. I mean, if that's all that that we've got, that's good.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, I th just so does Johannes remember does Johannes remember the dinosaur he saw in the hideout?
SPEAKER_01He does. Because he managed to point out in a book.
SPEAKER_09Mm-hmm.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01But he's not saying anything at the moment at least.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01Because I know that we did a couple of loops of time, so I wasn't sure what it's it's it's that sort of blurry thing where it's he remembers there being a dinosaur wallet like and being seen. Okay.
SPEAKER_04So Joe says, as you know, you came came and found me like a couple of weeks ago. And you appeared like weeks ago to like speak to me. And then and then and then you went away again. He kind of looks at you and goes, or have you yet to do that?
SPEAKER_02I saw you like six months ago. After I went through that weird portal. You were in a lab. Yeah, yeah. I thought that was only a couple of weeks ago. And then you pushed me back out. You didn't use the device, have you? Not since that time, no. Oh goodness. I don't think so. We've been we've been like repeating this day or something. So maybe I did and I don't remember. I I I don't know.
SPEAKER_04I've done that a couple of times. And it's difficult to know if this is me now or the me that was or the me that will be. It's really confusing. We gotta get you to dad.
SPEAKER_02Well, dad's here, of course dad's here. I mean, you wouldn't be in Sweden on your own. They transferred him to the Swedish loop.
SPEAKER_04Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, so I'm I mean, I I've been I was taken however long ago that was. Taken by who? By some military guys out of uh out of where we were staying and from near uh Colorado Springs. And then I was like in a room, left in a room for ages. That's when they started kind of like getting me to sort of like go in the gate with the other kids. Other kids? Yeah, they had other they had other kids with them. There was Tony, there was Scott, and there was Ralph. All three of them were just and I for I forgot I forgot Sarah. All of them just they went they went through the gate and then didn't come back. I'm the only one that's come back and then gone again and come back. And then and then I fell. That's when I that's when I kind of like went into the past. And I was there for days. I think it was days, it could I I don't know. It's very time is very chang it's very strange for me. But I was there for a while, something was chasing me, something big, one of these dinosaurs, and then every now and then there's this crack of energy, and I find myself in somewhere else, and and and then it happens, and then I'm back there again. Well, how how can we help you? You said you needed help. I need to find someone. I need to find this person, and uh, he has in his hand a badge. Badge looks like this it is a Rix Energy badge of Dr. Karen Holt, a senior researcher with an employee number and sort of like a barcode. It's a picture of a sort of like woman, sort of in her sort of late 30s, early 40s, wearing a lab coat, brown hair, glasses, in one of those kind of like mug shots that you get for IDs. Who is this lady? Last time I came back to the the lab, something happened. When I fell, I grabbed her and I managed to grab her badge, which is like obviously it's not the military, so it's not it's not the US military that that that that that I was with. It was this this lady. If I could find her, I could find out what's happening, and maybe she can help me and change whatever happens. But I I keep jumping all over the place, or I keep falling. I I don't know, it feels weird. I just I need to I need to get it sorted. And then hopefully I can come back.
SPEAKER_02What do you mean? What do you mean hopefully you could come back? You're here, you're not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_04Well, I keep I keep disappearing from where I am and going somewhere else. But I I I happen to sort of like be yesterday I appeared on the beach, not far from here, and he basically points like you know where you were, and he says, and then I kind of like found some stuff and he obviously points at the clothes that he's wearing and and I kind of just wanted to see where I was, and then I just saw you in the crowd, and I thought, really? Is that you?
SPEAKER_02And it is. I don't know, guys. What do you what do you think we should do, guys? It's just all a bit strange. Yeah, and I'm not sure what we can do, really.
SPEAKER_04And what and what happened? How did you start jumping around? People in the research place I was staying were kind of getting us to go through this gate. This like I don't know, portal, this they called it the gate, but it's where I went. And and then when when that happened, this all this weird stuff started happening.
SPEAKER_00We also jump around, right? Yesterday was today. Or today was yesterday, I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Was it happening to you today?
SPEAKER_02Well, that seems weird. We keep like reliving the same day or or something.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that happened to me a couple of times, and then but then then it didn't. I I don't I can't explain it. I don't know. I just he got he kind of like puts his head in his hands. He says, I just want it all to stop so I can I just want to go home. And you can see there's like tears starting to wet up in his eyes. This is where you kind of look at him and you kind of like take a good hold look at him. You can see he's got scratches up on his arms, all his nails are sort of like got loads of dirt and sort of like undergrowth in them. You can see his feet where where he's wearing his flip-that the flip-flops, all his feet are kind of cut, all his toenails are like broken. And he just looks really rough. You know, he's dirty, he doesn't seem to have like washed for for days. So he's just sitting there, he's just now just kind of like his hand, his hand on his head, and he's just kind of slowly crying.
SPEAKER_02Well, should we go to the should we take him to the loop? I I don't know what to do, guys. What do we do?
SPEAKER_01From what I gathered, this this gate might be all the way back in Colorado. If that's where he got taken initially, and they were shoving them through that gate there, so I'm not sure we can do much in that. The badge definitely it's got Rick's energy on it, so that's I I assume that's a Swedish company, is the Rick's energy.
SPEAKER_04Yes, that's that's the one that owned the loop here. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But they're the original owners of the loop. Well, maybe we can find out if she lives in Stemhamra Stan Stenhamra.
SPEAKER_01Like, does your your dad works at the loop, wouldn't he? You know, if there was a researcher called Karen Alt? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02We could go to him if I don't know. Joe, do you think we could trust dad? Yeah, I'm sure we could trust dad. Do you trust dad? I don't know, he's been a little cagey about like trying to find you. What do you mean he doesn't want to find me? He was just dragging his feet and and and he was making excuses and saying we had to be careful and and these things take time and just it just sounded like a lot of bullshit to me. But if someone's after you, maybe maybe it wasn't bullshit. Maybe he's in maybe he's in trouble too. Well maybe you don't want to get dad into trouble then. Yeah, let's let's see see if we can find this lady on our own.
SPEAKER_03There's a phone box not far from here. We could uh see if it's still got the uh phone book in it.
SPEAKER_02That's a great idea.
SPEAKER_03Maybe we can have a look through, see if see if she's listed.
SPEAKER_04It's the only way I can like lay low because I can't be seen out. I need to like hide.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I say we let him lay low in the hideout. I don't know why you're against that, Johannes, but let's take a vote on it. I'd vote yes.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. I feel like we're hitting some big targets on ourselves, and there's no thing that'd be safe there either, because you know, the dinosaur turned up there recently, or will do. In fact, what what time is it now compared to like last time in the loop? Because I was there before the afternoon turned up and the dinosaur turned up.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's the afternoon. It's a roughly the same sort of time. Conveniently, it's the same sort of time.
SPEAKER_01Like, there literally could be a dinosaur there right now.
SPEAKER_02Okay, but at least the people who are after him won't find him if he stays hidden inside the hideout and doesn't leave. Well, I mean, it's your brother, right? So uh and what about your parents? We don't want them to also be in harm's way.
SPEAKER_01If someone's it's okay for us to be in harm's way. That's what you're doing if we're taking him to where our stuff is, you know? I'm happy enough to help, but you know, because there's lots of places around the area we can hide.
SPEAKER_00Wasn't your dad in in in Rick's energy? Yeah, he works he works for the loop, yeah. So we need to so we should talk with him, right? I mean I mean this he must know something. He said it was dangerous, so Yeah, but now seeing your brother, I mean first we probably feel relief and he may have an answer.
SPEAKER_01There is a lot of vans out and about today. And I don't think it's a quickness. We can get to exactly. We can get to the highest. Like the entirety of town. To town, and then across the entirety of town. Through the woods. We can do it through the woods. Then why do we just hide in the woods? Because it's fucking cold in the woods at night.
SPEAKER_04I mean if you can sleep. Yeah, I mean it is it is quite warm at the moment, so that potentially could be a thing. If you had like a sleeping bag or something or a tent or something like that, it would be fine.
SPEAKER_01Um, this would be fine to make a little wood shed or something like that.
SPEAKER_04While everyone's talking, is anyone just kind of like observing stuff around them?
SPEAKER_08Yeah, Susie is, because this all still seems weird and like play almost, but it she's not really understanding what the the bounds of this this game are. Is really confused, is obviously take slightly taken aback by Anthony, you know, saying this is Joe, the long lost from Colorado. It's basically trying to infer any any truth in this and and empathized role.
SPEAKER_02That's what you get from missing the LIRP meeting, Susie. Alright.
SPEAKER_08Miss Session one, have no idea what's happening. Uh that's two successes, Ed.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so you're kind of looking around, and all you've got is sort of like the the woods around you, this sort of like little little hut that you're kind of at, and you're kind of like focusing on looking around, and then you look down at Joe. You can see that Joe is basically he he's he he's clearly been through the ringer. All the stuff that he's doing is definitely genuine, and he appears to sort of like be absolutely just cutting his toes with the knife. He's just sort of like slicing it, it's sort of like his inner of his toe. Kind of just, you know, he he's clearly he's he's clearly not well. You also notice that he's also sort of like muttering. He's he's not not loud enough to be whispering, but he's saying something under his breath, and he's kind of he's got his head down and he's kind of like chatting to himself, but it looks like.
SPEAKER_08Okay, I think I think Susie's seen. That isn't is it gonna stand idly? She'll dash forward sort of towards him, sit down on whatever it's the log or whatever that he's he's down on and go, hey hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Let's not do that, and and basically try to take that knife off of him. Okay. Not not forcefully, but like, you know, guiding guiding the hand.
SPEAKER_04He lets you take the knife and he kind of looks at you with these eyes and he kind of smiles.
SPEAKER_08He typically looks away and just looks at the knife and carefully packs it away, almost like her parents taught her.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you look at the knife, it's it's a piece of flint and it's got some wood and leather bindings to sort of like make it a very rough knife.
SPEAKER_08She's like she just sort of, I don't know, puts it in a bag or whatever. In the bag and basically keeps that away.
SPEAKER_04He kind of he kind of says sure, yeah, and he kind of puts his arm around you and and he kind of just sort of he sort of leans his head on your shoulder and again he kind of like sinks into you in that kind of like Susie's looking a little uncomfortable, but not more more just surprised that that that you know it was it it came out a little bit uh hey yeah, it's okay, it's okay.
SPEAKER_08It could be a lot to uh see your brother after a long time and all the things.
SPEAKER_04I love my brother. I I love him he loves you too a lot. And he kind of he's looking up at Ant, and when he looks up at Ant, he's just sort of you can see there's this like distant gaze of like love and admiration, and then it changes from that to sort of anger and and frustration, and then back to that again. He looks down at his feet and he just kind of he kind of relaxes, but you can feel that even though he's relaxing his chest and his head, you can feel there's like a spring ready to coil and just be released at a moment's notice, which makes you a bit uneasy.
SPEAKER_08I think he's he's she says, I can see where Ant gets his adventurous nature from. I don't want Ant or anyone here to be to be hurt by by dangers unknown. What I want you to tell me is that this is true, the things you you say. It's true. I don't understand a lot of it. No. I don't think any of us really get what goes on here, but I guess if you think we're or Anthony or any of us are in danger, and that finding this woman is going to help us, then alright, okay.
SPEAKER_04He just looks like into the woods staring. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Johannes, I don't get a vote on whether this whether Joe gets to be taken back to the the hideout or not. But he needs a place to stay, and I think he should be there.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, you are you are technically correct. He did not sign the contract, so you don't have a vote in the thing. However, us four members all have equal 25% of the vote, and I am willing to go with whatever the partners decide. So let's take the vote.
SPEAKER_08I'm going to give the other two, so Anders and Sven, kind of the eyes of come on now, make the sensible decision.
SPEAKER_03Okay, we'll start heading our way back there. But if we think of an alternative on the way, we'll use somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00Well I'm fine staying in the hideout, but we should be speaking with the opponents.
SPEAKER_08You're right, but you know, there's a little bit of safety here that it it wouldn't be terrible for him to have a safe place to then meet on neutral ground in case there is any. Thank you, Susie. I'm going to take my tape player out, headphones out. I'm basically gonna just give it to Joe to distract him. Nice. Basically put put the mixtape over his over his ears and uh let him distract himself for a bit while we walk off.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. Well helps. I mean you kind of have to lead him a little bit. I mean he's just kind of like he can talk to you, he'll happily make some small talk, but if you kind of give him the headphones, he'll just listen to the music.
SPEAKER_02And I say, and I say to Joe, they're they're not as good as your mixtapes, but they're alright. Thanks, buddy.
SPEAKER_04He sort of like gives you a sort of like shoulder a sort of good old shake.
SPEAKER_08Susie smiles because it's Anthony, and then as soon as Anthony looks away, she uh she sort of closes in a little bit, jealous of that fact.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, okay. You kind of like start walking to the to the hideout, but I mean your bikes and stuff are currently on the beach.
SPEAKER_01It's gonna have to be the long way anyway.
SPEAKER_08Well well somehow. A couple of us could go and get the bikes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. Because that'll make it for a faster trip, and Joe can sit back on, you know, we can double up on one of the bikes.
SPEAKER_01Well, okay. Well, Anthony, are you okay leaving your brother with us? Because it might be worth you going to see your dad.
SPEAKER_02Everyone needs to stop harping about me needing to see my dad, and let's get this thing done first before we take that step.
SPEAKER_01No, you going to see your dad gets this done, not fapping around, Anthony.
SPEAKER_02No. Some of us are gonna stay here and the others are gonna get our bikes, and then we're gonna go to the hideout. And as Andrew said, if we find something better along the way, we'll use that. That's step number one, Johannes.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, we are in the middle of the woods, Johannes. You did take us somewhere, I don't know where we are, to be honest. This is like we're What is the time actually? Has anyone got a watch?
SPEAKER_04Does anybody have a watch? Yeah. Probably. You've all got your various sort of like I have a swatch. Casio slash swat a swatch, Cassios, and all that sort of like digital the the the ones with the sort of like little calculator on, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah, it's sort of like it's early afternoon. Okay. Well, we should hurry along. Yeah, so some of us will go grab the bikes. Yep. You'll kind of meet up, that's fine. And you're gonna make your way to the hideout. How uh so there's there's a bunch of ways to get there. Presumably you're gonna try and take the the least obvious route, staying away from from roads, that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01I am going to go get the bikes. Right. But I'm going to get up to other stuff on the way back. So well, you want to faff around and Johannes wants to get things sorted as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
SPEAKER_04Okay, so obviously you can only anyone else can come with me as well to help the bikes. Who else is going to go get the bikes? Because obviously there's bikes.
SPEAKER_01And then Ant is not faffing around. No, we're just you know, you're just going back to where the dinosaur is.
SPEAKER_04So Anders and Johannes are gonna go get the bikes, kind of like carry them and you know, do the kind of like walking two at a time and then trying to drag the third or whatever. Sven, you're gonna be with Ant and Susie?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I think so. Yeah, it goes on kind of the old days.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that makes sense. So you kind of like you start walking, you've kind of made an agreement to kind of meet up with the bikes, etc. Okay, well, Giannis.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What nonsense are you gonna get up to? Well, I'm probably going back first of all, I'm gonna have a chat with Anders and just be get gauge what his what he thinks about this whole situation. Because I did not get particularly great vibes off Joe. Mm-hmm. He seemed a bit wide-eyed. What do you think, Anders? A bit dangerous.
SPEAKER_03Like I know he's Anthony's brother, but Yeah, I'm I'm a bit worried without the total history. This strange stuff that's happened to him. Don't necessarily trust him.
SPEAKER_01I don't think he means probably to like I don't think he's evil, but I think he's just a bit the word wild. Unpredictable, I would say. On the way back, I think there's a couple of people I could maybe ask some questions to you about this Caroline Hunt.
SPEAKER_04Obviously, you're gonna go pick up the bikes from the beach, and then you're presumably then gonna move the bikes to a preset location where the others are. So where in that sort of like situation, where do you want to go?
SPEAKER_01I mean when we get back to town, I might just like hook them up to the ice cream the ice cream place for a while and then go off my own bike and see if I can figure out wherever Anders, you can come with if you want, or you can go back to the hideout, or I'll bring my couple of bikes along when I'm done.
SPEAKER_04Okay, yeah, that's fine. While they kind of walk to the um the hideout, you basically make your way to town with Anders. So who is the plan who who do you want to speak to in town?
SPEAKER_01Well, who do I know anyone who is a Rick's energy person who would talk to me? Do you know anyone of Rick's Energy? Like, I know a lot of people.
SPEAKER_04You know a lot of people. I mean, you know a lot of kids who obviously don't work for Rick's Energy, but parents do. You personally don't know anyone that works with Rick's Energy. Apart from Anthony's dad, of course. Apart from Anthony's dad. You know that Sven's dad also works for for Rick's Energy. Pete uh sorry, Anthony's dad does not or I do know another person who works for Rick's energy. Yep.
SPEAKER_01The crazy lady who built the robots.
SPEAKER_04You do know her, yeah. Elena, I think her name was.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Did she have a partner that she was building the robots with? She did. But she wasn't involved with Rick. That person was involved. Oh, whether they involved in Rick's aren't. No, so they were they were the third party that wasn't involved in work. Indeed, correct.
SPEAKER_04I don't necessarily But I mean, you do know a couple of agents that that work potentially.
SPEAKER_01I do know Rick's energy, but they have not spoken to me, and I don't feel it's worth being that risk. I will ask around the kids at the moment. Sven's dad. Yes, Sven's Dan. He's near at Rick's energy, technically. He's a generator. He's a janitor. Yeah. He still works there.
SPEAKER_03In the meantime, I'll see if I can get hold of a local phone book and actually just scan through that looking up the name. Because it should stand out. I mean, yeah, you kind of look up the name and you find her in the phone book.
SPEAKER_04It doesn't take much. She doesn't live in Stenhamra. She actually lives, let me just take you to the Malaran Isles. So she lives just to the south of the island that you live in Stenhamra. So if you look at the map, you've got Stenhamra, which is sort of the south of the island. If you were to take one of the main lines all the way down to Troxhamna, and then past that, you kind of come to sort of like this area down the bottom right-hand corner of the map. She lives down there.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Do I know anyone who lives down there, kids-wise? I don't know, do you? I have I have contacts, so do you want me to like roll on that or? I'm sure. Or do you want me to just say I do?
SPEAKER_04I'm just asking. I'm saying if you want to say you do, then I'm more than happy for that to be a thing. But it's up to you to decide who that will be.
SPEAKER_01I was just wondering if you were going to allow me to just be like, yeah, I totally know someone. Of course I am. I mean, what kind of GM do you think I am, sir? Yeah. Careful. Yeah, to better look just like hello, the plots now, just like, yeah.
SPEAKER_04I see a lot of rocks that might fall. Yeah, that's what I would say. No, that's fine. It is the name of the place is called Ekero Centrum, I think it is. Yes. What is it? It's Ekero is where she lives. It's just on the outskirts of Stockholm.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Oh, that might be a bit farther. I mean, it's for for people I necessarily know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean it's probably what? About seven or eight kilometers from where you where you from Stenhamra?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Well they would probably, but the thing is, they would probably go to school in Stockholm.
SPEAKER_04Your sister also lives in the similar sort of area.
SPEAKER_01But no, but I'm saying they're close enough to Stockholm to not go to our high school our high school, probably.
SPEAKER_04No, no, they they go to yours. They can go to your high school. I mean you can go either way, right?
SPEAKER_01So fair enough. Yeah, let's say I know someone who's maybe relatively close by.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_01Okay. A name. Yeah, sure. Give us a name. Sweetest snowy name. Uh I can give you one if you wish. That'll go. No, I would love it. I would love a sweetest no one.
SPEAKER_04Let me uh let me help you out, sir.
SPEAKER_01Thank you all.
SPEAKER_04Let us go with let's go. Male or female? Female.
SPEAKER_01Let's go.
SPEAKER_04Female.
SPEAKER_01Interesting. Ulrika Edlund. Ulrika? That is a good one. How do you know Ulrika? Friend of a friend, I assume. What's a friend of a friend? Second. A second. My acquaintance, let's say I know someone who knows vaguely her. And how do you know that she works for RickSenergy? She does, or whatchamacallit?
SPEAKER_04Does she work for RickSenergy?
SPEAKER_01Or is she She just I s uh she's just a kid who lives in that area?
SPEAKER_04Okay, right.
SPEAKER_01Or maybe her parents do. I don't know enough. I know she's in that area.
SPEAKER_04Okay, right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and geographics.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, you could ask about her. Okay. That's fine.
SPEAKER_01So I will try and figure that out. That'll be me for a while.
SPEAKER_04Okay, cool. And so you just gonna be going along with uh Johannes or are you gonna split off and I've ripped the uh the page out of the phone book.
SPEAKER_03Okay, right. So I've got the address and I'm just gonna wander over to the bus stop and look at the uh timetables.
SPEAKER_04Okay, yep. Yeah, there's a there's a bus that'll that'll get you there by about four this afternoon. The buses aren't like they're they're they're fairly regular, they're whatever you sort of like 40 minutes or so. So yeah, you could you potentially get there. It would only take sort of like, you know, 15 minutes or so to get there. So yeah, you then it's a bit of a a little bit of a walk, you reckon. You don't quite know the area, so you'd have to like kind of find uh an atlas or something, or like uh ask around.
SPEAKER_01Or local knowledge. Or local knowledge. Someone who lives nearby, like I'll be there. That's fine.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there's a bus leaving in 15 minutes, Johannes.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Give me a minute to go make a quick call. You go to the phone box. Yeah, and I'm gonna phone the friend that I do know to say you know that favour you owe me. You hear like a sigh on the other end of the phone. Sure. I need to do something near where Alrique lives. And that sort of thing. Right. Could you give her a call and ask me to meet you at the bus stop? I need to find one of these adults, whoever, to speak to them. You know it is with business and that sort of thing. It's all very boring.
SPEAKER_04Sure, sure. Obviously, this kid has no idea what business it is.
SPEAKER_01If you could do that for me, we're square.
SPEAKER_04Square? Yeah. Alright, sure. I'll get in to meet you at the bus stop.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Sure, okay. Okay. Right. So while you're kind of you're both doing all that sort of thing, Sol, Sven, and Ant go back to the hideouts with Joe in tow. Is there a dinosaur there? You look around for a dinosaur, you cannot see a dinosaur.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think Johannes was getting into his product. I bet it is. It looked shady enough. Not we need to kick him out of the party.
SPEAKER_07Maybe just keep an eye on him instead. Why isn't he here? Where is he? Where is Anders? I don't know. Come on, Joe. This is it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you'll be safe here, Joe. Okay. It's well stocked with snacks. All my DD stuff is here.
SPEAKER_08I'll pop by later with probably some more snacks.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we'll we'll bring, like, you know, drinks and and some real food, extra junk food, you know. Just just don't leave and no one will know you're here, okay? And we'll I will stay here. I'll just keep quiet. And we're gonna try to find this employee, okay? Sure. Do you like carrots? Sure. I could really do with a cheeseburger.
SPEAKER_07What about a pizza? Yeah, pizza would be great. Yeah, yeah, we got a great pizza place here. I haven't had a pizza in so long, actually. Maybe we should go for a pizza. Yeah, let's let's bring a bunch of pizzas back. That actually sounds like a great idea.
SPEAKER_00Alright, let's go to the pizza place. We're going to pick up. Yeah, okay, I can I stay with him just in case. Sure, sure. Want a cigarette, Joe?
SPEAKER_04No, no, I'm I'm okay.
SPEAKER_00Okay, your loss.
SPEAKER_02And I take out a cigarette and I put the music on. Actually, Sven, it's gonna be your loss in like, I don't know, 20 years maybe?
SPEAKER_00Just like Europeans. Yeah, so we'll put some music, uh, tell him to sit down and put some rock. Yeah, he sits down.
SPEAKER_04You see, he kind of like faffs around with ant stuff. He's looking at ant's sort of like books and maps and journals and whatever stuff he's done for his DD stuff. And he you can see that he's he's genuinely sort of like remembering probably Ant a few years ago, trying to like get him to play this new game that he's got, and he's like, oh man, too cool for that sort of stuff.
SPEAKER_02The keep on the borderland, you know. In search of the unknown. Right, so that's our next AP.
SPEAKER_04Right. Um Okay, yeah, he he kind of you can see he's just stuck on, like he's he's quite he's quite down, but he's kind of you can see he smiles when he looks at Ant stuff and he's kind of remembering all the stuff that Ant would have done. But he doesn't really say, you know, he kind of is sure, yep. He doesn't really kind of engage too much. He seems to have been going into a bit of a slump.
SPEAKER_00Uh just let him be and you know smoke, but I will keep an eye on him just in case.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Cool. So when we go to get pizza, do we notice these do we still notice these vans out and about?
SPEAKER_04Well, you mentioned that, hang on.
SPEAKER_02They're just rolled privately for those at home.
SPEAKER_01I don't like to question Mark Dice, they're scary. They do, they are scary.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so you kind of make your way up to the to the pizza place, which handily might get there just in time for a bus to turn up. Who knows? Well all your bikes are there, so all your bikes are there, so you'd be fine. Alright, so you guys kind of like head off.
SPEAKER_08And uh are you gonna say anything on the way or are you just both walking into town to I mean I think there's probably general chit chat, but I'm not gonna say anything. Might check in with Anthony actually, like on on uh like Hey Ant, you doing okay? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. My brother's back. Well yeah, I d I just you know, it's been been a long while, right?
SPEAKER_07Like a little over a year, I think.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm cool. What pizza are you gonna have? Is he trying to keep him happy? Uh you know.
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, probably probably pepperoni. Mm-hmm. Is that what Joe will have too? What about you? Joe likes sausage.
SPEAKER_07Okay.
SPEAKER_08And how much on the size of yours? Uh you know, I've got dinner later.
SPEAKER_04As you kind of like make your way into town, you kind of look around for those vans, and you can see there are three vans, and all three vans are currently in the parking lot getting pizza. Yeah. It's it's like you've read my my plot line. Uh yeah, that there are three vans, and they are just pulling up to the pizzeria and ice cream shop, and six people are getting out.
SPEAKER_02They're all Susie, Susie, Susie, it's those vans. It's those vans. They're at the pizza place. What should we do? What should we do?
SPEAKER_08You can see Susie's going, what's on about this? Goes, okay, uh, basically buys into the the whole playfulness, hides, hides behind whatever with Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, they they walk towards your bikes, which are all kind of like, they're not even chained up, they're just kind of like, you know, leaned up against the various bike racks. And they kind of look at them in a vague disarray. And then they kind of look around and make their way into the pizzeria place. Anders and Johannes, you can see this from across the way, where the obviously unbeknownst to Soul, sorry, to Susie and Ant, you're looking at this from the bus stop, which is just opposite and down a bit from the pizzeria.
SPEAKER_02What should we do? Are these are these the bad guys? I think so. Why would they be interested in our bikes? They're looking for that that was a bit weird. Yeah. They're like, well, remember you were kidnapped by people last time. I got some old wounds, why don't you? Anthony's really good at pouring salt on wounds. Remember that fun time you were kidnapped by agents? Remember when they tied you up in a creepy hotel room?
SPEAKER_05And then maybe maybe we shouldn't be here. Suddenly I'm not feeling like pizza.
SPEAKER_02Just just it's okay, Susie. Just chill for a second. They're not gonna snatch us in broad daylight. Why don't we just go in and order pizza? Show them we're not afraid of them. You're right. Right? We can do this. That's what you do the bottom.
SPEAKER_05One pepperoni, one sausage.
SPEAKER_02Sausage with broccoli and extra cheese. What really? That's what Joe likes. Okay.
SPEAKER_04You trust you trust his brother, right? So Janice and Anders, while they're kind of like obviously trying to decide what they're doing, the bus. You can see it's kind of like turned the corner and making its way down towards you.
SPEAKER_03I'll kind of like uh shuffle to the end of the bus stop and kind of like make it so that nobody would notice us the Across from where the bikes are, and we'll just hope that the bus gets here in time that we can sneak onto it and get away. Bus stops in front of the bus stop and the door's open.
SPEAKER_09Okay.
SPEAKER_04Yes. Yep. No, no one gets out. Step on. The bus driver. It's kind of like sort of this this heavy set woman, and she sort of looks at you and she says, Well, yep. Two for where was it?
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, two for oh Ecaro. Ecaro Central. Thanks. Near the sports centre. Sure.
SPEAKER_04She takes your money and she waits for you to sit down and uh she drives off. As she drives off, Susie and Ant kind of like step forward towards the uh pizza shop. Yeah, we're going we're going into the pizza shop. Yeah, you kind of like make your way to the pizza shop. You can see obviously through the fronted glass, all sec all six of these guys from the white van are all sort of wearing sort of blue overalls, and no one seems to be wearing tool belts or anything like that. And they all sort of like piled around the end of the counter where the kind of cakes and various other things are, and they're waiting for coffee and stuff to be to be made for them. And you all like you guys step in. It's moderately busy, you know, it's a Friday sort of like afternoon. So there's some kids here and there, and there's like some adults, and you kind of like step towards I think his name was Fan behind the counter. And uh he goes, Hey Susie, hey Ann.
SPEAKER_08Hey one pepperoni, please, and one sausage with extra pickle.
SPEAKER_07Pickle? What are you talking about? No, broccoli and extra cheese. Sorry, broccoli, extra cheese, and extra pickle.
SPEAKER_05I mean not the pickle.
SPEAKER_04No pickle on the pizza. He kind of like is looking at you. All of the six guys are like looking at you. And it's like that kind of like that pressure of don't look, don't look, don't look, don't look. But they're looking at me. My god. And a couple of them say a few things just out of earshot. And yeah, you are he says, really? Broccoli?
SPEAKER_05I'm gonna I'm gonna turn over my uh like I almost hear the sniggering from the the the group of people like it's like hey, can teenagers not order pizza anymore?
SPEAKER_02One of them kind of like turns to you and he looks to you and says, Well, has no one put had has no one had broccoli as a topping on their pizza before? I mean, he says, I I I've never heard of that.
SPEAKER_05Really? Never well either you can do it or you can't. So make a decision.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if you don't if you don't have the broccoli, it's fine. Just sausage and extra cheese is this is efficient. Yeah, no pickle, pickle on the side.
SPEAKER_04One of the one of the guys that's like in the in the group. He's sort of he looks too, he looks like this. He's quite a big guy, but he's wearing the sort of like overalls and sort of like a shirt, and he's like, little lady, you can have whatever you want on one.
SPEAKER_02Who asked you? These are the guys, these are the guys from the van, right? Yeah. Do you make pizzas?
SPEAKER_04No, I think I'm just saying, I think that you should have whatever you want on a pizza. Well, I think that's what we were saying too.
SPEAKER_08And I think I can say that for myself.
SPEAKER_02Hey, sure. Nice overall loser. You look like a broccoli farmer.
SPEAKER_08Oh my god. Anthony, Anthony does the L on the forehead. Susie looks too absently for any sort of like uh like reassurement. Like, I'm trying to impress Anthony. That's it. Like, I'm trying to still get on Anthony's good side.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the guy steps forward around the counter towards you, and he's a big guy, right? He's probably in his like 50s, and he's quite like I said, he's quite a large guy. He's got some like stained overalls, the thick sort of like beard and sort of like bushy eyebrows. And he says, he basically goes up to Susie and grabs her by like the scruff of the collar.
SPEAKER_08Well, I'm gonna try and dodge that if possible. Absolutely. Why don't we don't wanna let that happen?
SPEAKER_04Okay, yeah, sure. Make a dodging kind of roll. So that's a move. That's a move roll.
SPEAKER_08Not very many, but we might be in luck. Gonna push that if I can. Sure. As I am essentially scared. Yeah, you do. So basically, he goes to grab grab the scruff of my neck. Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm scared of this. Like, what the hell is this old guy doing for a start? I wanna sort of duck out the way of his like grasp, and then essentially I'm gonna go, I'm just gonna go, this man's trying to grab me, and then I'm gonna like ear-piercing scream in the middle of this pizza joint.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, everyone turns and looks to see what's going on. He has that kind of like, he's kind of like stopped, like in that in a moment of time of going, My God, what have I just done? kind of thing. Everyone's looking. Sven behind the counter's like, what the hell are you doing? His colleagues are all sort of like grabbing their drinks and stuff and trying to usher him out. One of the a couple of the parents stand up, the mums are like, hey, what do you need to that girl? And he just is to sort of go, I'm not doing and then the his buddies basically bundle him out the front door as they go towards the um the vans. He kind of like looks behind you, but they all kind of like bundle in really quickly. I shout out, I shout after him, pervert! A couple of the parents come up to you, are you okay? Are you okay? Is everything alright? Did you want to call your mum?
SPEAKER_08I guess it's it's fine, it's just weird guys about, am I right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, there's some really weird people around at the minute. Really, really strange characters is one of them.
SPEAKER_08Okay. I will also say I I think I just want want my pizza and I wanna go.
SPEAKER_04Well, you kind of you kind of go you have to wait for your pizza, so you go to the end of the counter waiting for the pizza. You can see there's a file that says Rick's energy on. It looks like in the haste of basically embarrassing him, they've left one of their files behind. Hey Anthony, look at the table.
SPEAKER_07There's a file on it.
SPEAKER_04I grab it. Yep, you pick it up. It's uh it's just a manila file. It looks like it's got two or three pieces of paper in. It looks like it's a map of some sort in there as well. I mean, you've probably got fifteen minutes or so for the pizzas to get ready and stuff. Do you want to just wait and then go somewhere else?
SPEAKER_08Or do you want to kind of like grab a table and I mean looking around, I like have the have the guys left essentially for.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the guys in the vans of kind of I've got in the vans.
SPEAKER_08There's no one else. We'll I think we'll sort of make ourselves comfortable in one of like the booths that are there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sort of like a corner booth in the back, sort of out of the way.
SPEAKER_08Wait, waiting for the pizzas. I I I it's it's like out not necessarily fully out of the way, sort of still in view of the the parents who were here before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, you know, sort of darting them uh across my my eyes.
SPEAKER_02Closer to the sort of closer to that side door or that back entrance, if I remember correctly, that you said there's like a yeah.
SPEAKER_08I'm also imagining we both got milkshakes.
SPEAKER_04Yes. Okay Yes, we did. So there is a um the first page says Rick's energy temporal research division field log anomaly cluster seven B Operation Yalson six hundred twelve phase drift spike detected beneath Lake Malaran six hundred seventeen Visual Conformation of large avian silhouette near quarry not a bird six hundred forty Livestock carcass recovered lacerations inconsistent with local known fauna O seven hundred five Subject fourteen missing from containment possible breach during surge event O seven hundred twenty two temporal residue detected along shoreline path towards Stenhamra O seven thirty recommend immediate lockdown of gate chamber until stabilization is achieved. Notes juvenile specimen increasingly aggressive Do not engage without tranquilizer support if subject fourteen is encountered, maintain distance, temporal contamination likely. Then there is another document inside. That document says Facility Alert, Temporal Breach Protocol. All staff, a phase three temporal breach has been detected in the lower service tunnels until further notice. Avoid all unshielded corridors, report visual distortions immediately, do not engage with fauna emerging from breach zones. Maintain distance from subject 14 if encountered. Gate chamber access restricted to level 4 personnel only. If you experience any of the following symptoms, report to the medical bay. Time loss, echoed speech, memory overlap, or seeing shadows that do not match your movement. This is not a drill. And then there is a map. The map has is a map of the Mellaran Islands, and there are a number of circles being highlighted on the map. There is sort of a they've all got sort of like a reference number to them, but you don't have a corresponding page or anything to understand what the reference numbers mean or anything like that. That's what you've got.
SPEAKER_06So Susie, why are they why are they talking about tempura? Temporal means time. Temp Tempura, like Anthony, your your time theory. I think it's right.
SPEAKER_00What?
SPEAKER_04So let me just jump across to Sven. Sven! Sven, what's your plan?
SPEAKER_00Not much, just checking how is this guy doing. If I see that he's relaxing, I might try talking to him, asking him questions about what has he experienced, but you know, you know, but perhaps not too much, not too uh to avoid that he relieves the the pain or whatever, but kind of uh more interested in what happened in the loop or whatever, because that's where they think he's coming from.
SPEAKER_04Yes, you kind of like you kind of like go over to sort of speak to him, and he kind of looks up at you, and then you feel sort of like the hairs on your neck start to sort of like prickle up when all the hairs on your arm start to do the same, and anything that is not locked down in the actual in the hideout starts to sort of like levitate upwards, and he kind of looks at you and goes, Oh no, no, it's happening again. And he turns around, he drops the books that he was reading, ants like DD books or whatever, and he runs to the to the door to go down the stairs to the ground floor. Can I move? Yeah, yeah, you can move. What do you want to do?
SPEAKER_00I was told him.
SPEAKER_04No, I'm just following him. Yeah, you follow him, okay. Um so he basically slap flows open the door and he runs down the stairs and he runs down into the garage section.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Keep on going, where are you going? He goes, I need to get away, I need to get away. And he starts to run towards the opening of the of the half garage to kind of duck underneath there and run out of the hideout. I keep on following him. You keep on following him. How close do you want to be to him? Like, are you staying at a r a distance to watch him, or you want to like kind of like get really close to him and go, what the hell are you doing? Or grab him?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but I want to grab him, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Yeah, make a make a move roll for me, please. Oh success. Okay. Yeah, I mean, he basically ducts under the um the garage shutter, you duck right underneath him, and you sort of like grab him. As you grab him, he goes, No, no, what the fuck are you doing? And all of a sudden there's this bright light. Bam! And you get shoved by great force away from him. Um and you land on the floor, and you kind of like and you kind of sit up. As you sit up, you can see that the hideout is not there anymore. There's like long grass and ferns and various other bits of jungle around you, and this large insect, about thumb size, lands on your knee, and in the distance you hear the sound of breaking branches and this kind of like deep growl rumble as something approaches large through the trees and the ferns behind you.