Music. This world is very similar to
the one that you, my listener, know.
Think about the boarded up shock.
It's no longer boarded up. It is now a temple or a church,
a mosque, a meeting place of sorts for religion.
We know that the gods are everywhere, and I do say gods to
mean plural. There are many gods who have
their hands in the world. A God is created by questioning
anything that you might question.
There's a God that is created from the variety of questioning
that that comes up within humanity.
In fact, there is even a round earth God.
And so we focus. And as you're walking by and you
look in one of the alleyways, you see three people huddled
around a trash can fire and just looks like they're there for the
warmth. But if it was any of my demigods
that we're about to meet walking by, when they look, they see the
Witch's 3 brewing something interesting.
Thane, tell us what a day looks like.
Thane Fontaine lives a life that could be compared to a lot of
other regular mortals. Thane has done his best to fit
in and do the right thing at every possible crossroad he
faces. He wears dress slacks, black
suspenders, a white button up shirt that is unbuttoned just at
the top and carries around with him a large book that simply
says the rules. It is a thick tome, and when you
see Thane you would wonder why are his arms not bigger if he's
carrying this large book around everywhere.
Fame generally will wake up in the morning, give thanks to the
universe at large for another day.
Not entirely sure which of the many gods he's heard of or is
generally aware of is in charge of this whole thing, but
whichever one or ones it is, he is thankful.
He goes about his day. He studies up on the rules of
the world, researches what is considered good moral character
and begins his day by simply exiting his home because staying
home all day is not the right moral thing to do, and goes out
into the world looking for any opportunity to boost his own
good points. Thane, you pass by as you're
driving down the street, you see some people, they have signs and
they have signs that say that if you don't do what they say, you
are going to hell. Most people who pass by just see
these folks. Just just your normal looking
folks, except a little angrier, a little bit more judgy.
But you see behind them creatures of the night, as some
might call them, or creatures of the dark, or creatures of evil.
You see little supernatural demony looking things cackling,
whispering in their ears, telling them to go out and judge
and make people afraid that the end is nigh and they are
destined for hell. I'm very fascinated by these
people who seem to have a bizarre assurity of what happens
after death that are being advised by creatures I know to
be despicable little things Thing I would not call a brave
man. But he is a curious 1.
So he's likely coming up to one of these protesters holding his
large book and saying, excuse me, how can you be so sure?
How can I be sure of what? Well, your sign, Sir, says if
you do not abide by these principles you've listed, then
then then you go to hell. I'd like to avoid that reality.
So what makes you so sure of this fact?
The book, the book tells me and they shake.
A book that looks very familiar to you.
I am looking at this one and I go, that's fascinating because I
have a lot of that book written down in this one.
And I hold up like this like like like stone tablet sized
like like thick ass, like like like 10 lay misses book that I
that I have in my hands and I go, I'm very familiar with the
works of that. Can you just enlighten me on
some of the sections that you're alluding to?
This person takes you through the sins of things like loving
someone who shares your gender or or being someone other than
who they have decided God has prescribed that they should be.
Things like experiencing difficulties that that lead them
to self medicate in some way. These people have a lot of
different ways in which they judge people for living a life
that is not theirs. This is interesting.
I've heard this argument before, but it seems to contradict a lot
of the things that are in the book you're waving around and
and other books to. To be completely honest, I I
don't think you're following the rules right.
You said you're not a brave man, does it spoke you a little when
there's there's like some eye contact and you can see like the
the demons, they're snarling at you, these little flying impish
things. They're snarling at you.
You are interfering and they don't like it.
And the these little impish creatures are kind of whispering
in the ears of the other people standing there and they're
turning around and they are starting to to March on you to
try to intimidate you. What do you do?
As far as as I as I see it here, I have two options.
One would be channeling one of my gifts and the other would be
following the rules. And there's various forms of
theology, kind of like bouncing around and in Fain's mind,
things about pacifism, anti violence, not instigating, not
fraternizing with the enemy, all sorts of things.
And then you have those other verses from various gospels that
teach you to pick up the holy sword against evil, that tell
you that it is your moral responsibility to fight demons.
And these are the things conflating in his mind.
And whenever there is contradictory philosophy in
Fane's mind, he does the only thing that he knows of the
surety he should do, which is running very fast and very far
away. Fane, you are a person of gifts,
and you know that you are. But humans, you know, at the
same time are precious and fragile and and you don't want
to do anything to hurt another mortal, nor do you want to be
hurt because you don't know what might happen after that.
I've probably ducked and covered in a, in a place where I, I'm
imagining these folks for as as tough a game as they talk,
aren't probably the most equipped to actually chase
somebody. So I've probably ducked and
covered somewhere and like flipping through my book,
reading about things like forgiveness, repentance,
cowardice, all this stuff. And when I feel overwhelmed, I
do with any good person living in a democracy does.
And I pull out my phone and I go to my very specifically catered
social media feeds, which is nothing but uplifting quotes
from all sorts of different gospels, beautiful landscape
backgrounds, cursive fonts, occasionally a video with a nice
soothing voice reading them. And I'm just breathing through
my nose and out through my mouth and muttering to myself.
I need to learn. I need to remember that there is
a larger purpose to all of this, and I need to remember that I
need to stop encountering these things.
It's not my responsibility. I'm not supposed to fix it.
I'm just supposed to know what I have to do.
OK, in the your feed as you Scroll down and you see phrase
after phrase of things that make you feel better, like you're
doing your best. The world is lucky to have a
soul like yours. Breathe in and breathe out and
know that you are one with the universe.
As you you scroll past these you see a post by Democratic Cassie.
It's a post that has no likes on it so far, no retweets know
anything so you're not sure how exactly it showed up in your
feed but it says help democracy is missing.
Help. That is concerning.
This is a person I've been following for a while who only
posts every couple of years or so.
So I make note of this and I'm thinking to myself, well, I, I
do need to know what that's about, I'm sure, because if it's
missing, that will change the rules.
So I I turn my phone off and close my book and I stand up and
I just start kind of in general heading towards where I know
Cassie tends to hang out. OK, so you do know Cassie?
I'm going to say I do know Cassie.
And then like a tangential kind of way, we may not have ever
met, but we have interacted online before and there's just
kind of a general understanding amongst the group of us that
when Cassie posts, it tends to be from similar locales.
Opportunity. What's going on with you?
I think opportunity is standing on a rooftop somewhere,
somewhere that's high enough to get a good vantage point, a good
view, but not so high as to not be able to distinguish details
and people watching. I'm bored.
There's not a lot to do, at least at this particular moment.
So you could say I'm looking for an opportunity.
And what does opportunity look like?
That's a great question because right now I think they're also
unsure. It's shifting at the moment in
the way that it idly does. When I'm not focused on what I'm
looking like at the moment, I think I'm taking pieces from the
people that I see down there. There are some young woman's
hair who's walking her dog in the park and the the guy who's
busking playing the guitar somewhere.
His hands look pretty good. It's just bits and pieces of
people. I haven't decided that I needed
to look like anything specific at the moment.
Where might you be headed to once you've decided your look?
The winds of fate will take me where they will.
Opportunity doesn't make plants. Opportunity goes where the wind
takes them, where the people take them.
Whatever seems most interesting at the moment.
I think what opportunity is doing right now is piercing the
veil. Trying to see trying, just
trying to get a gauge on what is the most interesting thing
happening. Roll me two D6 plus judgement.
Judgement, which is -1. You looked.
At 6 + 3 is a 9 -, 1 is an 8. An 8.
So you can ask 2 questions. You can ask what happened to
this person, place, or thing recently.
What is the greatest danger with this person, place, or thing?
When was this person, place, or thing made?
When did blank happen? Where did this person placer
thing come from? Who is responsible for this
person placer thing and how can I get this person placer thing
to blink? I'm going to ask for my first
question I think as my eyes fixate on this woman walking her
dog. I just wondered to myself, how
can I get her to give me her dog?
You wonder how you could get her to give you her dog.
And you see in your mind a website that you could create
that connects dog walkers to dog owners.
And those dog owners would pay those dog walkers to walk their
dogs for them because they are busy, busy people.
And as the owner of that website, you could take a little
fee out of what those dog owners pay those dog walkers.
And this seems like an opportunity.
Apps for dog walkers? Yeah.
Yeah, that's OK. Wait.
OK, let's have you done. And then the next question is
what happened to this person recently?
Well, this person, you can see that they are looking kind of
frantically at their phone. They're not actually doing a
good job of paying attention to what their dog needs.
And this is telling you that that this is a good market for
it because you can see through the veil.
This woman has recently gained A promotion at work and this
promotion is requiring a lot more time in the office and that
is losing time to walk ruffles. And this woman really wants the
best for Ruffles life and to really you can provide quality
dog walkers that will make sure that Ruffles gets to go to the
park, gets to sniff things, gets to poop in bougie places.
And you can provide this and she's got the money for it.
Amazing. OK, as I am like kind of sitting
up here watching all of this happening, formulating this idea
in my head, I begin to coalesce in form.
Darker skin, shaved hair, a neck tattoo around going just like
full spread that just says opportunity under it.
And like, just like a like a kind a kind of like ratty tank
top and like jeans that are farting baggy.
And I take a step off of the ledge back like down into the
onto the roof of this building. And I turn to start and I turn
to start walking back inside to head downstairs.
And as I'm going in and as I'm going, the door opens because
someone was coming out because they happened to be having an
anxiety attack and they really needed some air.
And so the door opens for me as they rush out and I and I just
happened to walk in and I pull out my phone and I'm going to
call my friend Jacy. She is an app developer and she
is the best at this kind of. Oh hey there OP, what's going
on? Yo JC, how fast do you think you
can give me an app for dog walkers who connect with people
who own dogs? Well, you know, I just have to
take, I already had an app that connected people with just who
watched cats. And if I take that and change
these couple different variables, yeah, I just do you
have like a color scheme in mind?
I turn to look down and I'm wearing like the white, the the
white tank top and like the ratty blue jeans and I go, I'm
thinking white, blue, black or white, blue, gold, whatever.
You think would look like white, blue, gold?
That is the one. All right.
I am. I'm on it.
I've already got some assets in place.
I just got to move some stuff around and type some numbers.
I will have it to you by the end of the day.
Thank you so much, Jacey. You're the best.
Bye. And I turn off as I'm closing my
phone an elevator door is opening as like 3 people get in
and I'm like walking in behind them.
And as I'm turning around, I'm now wearing like a polo uniform
in the blue white gold that has like a little puppy like icon on
it that says pooch Pacers. A little while later you get a
ping from Jaycee and she has got for you a basic layout of how
the website will look and you know there's some back end stuff
in there so that you can work on.
You can do some background checks just to make sure so that
your clients will know that they are getting premium dog walkers
that will protect their dogs with their lives.
She even has some suggestions for maybe training courses that
you can send your dog walkers to so that they can then make more
money by saying that I have been trained by XY and Z and how to
properly take care of dogs. All of this is going on and
after you know that you you're going to be making a little bit
of money, you've gotten some opportunity, what you do to
relax. Relax, it's just started.
We've just the business has just begun.
And so I think after I come down like the series, after I come
down the elevator and I'm getting all of these updates,
I'm like, OK, perfect. I'm going to go to the park.
And I think like the camera like follows me from like out.
Like as I'm walking out of the building and as I'm doing it,
I'm using my presto digitation to create like this like group
of dogs in front of me that I'm holding by the leash as we're
walking out of this building and towards the park.
And so I'm like actively trying to like, it's an like an absurd
amount of dogs. Like it's like 12 dogs, all of
whom are being very well behaved, but also like playful
in a way where people like kind of look and go, Oh, cute dog,
right? And so with my new pooch
pictures like thing on and like walking around.
I'm like my rest doesn't happen for me is my answer to this
because there's always something to do that is fun.
That's interesting, even if it's walking a bunch of fake dogs
around as I'm advertising my own business to all of these people.
And so I think like, I'm just going to go to the park with all
of these fake dots is what? I'm doing as you go to the park,
this park is beautiful. You see just pristine, like
there's tulips and pansies and all sorts of beautiful, vibrant
looking flowers and like not a one looks out of place And you
can see that all of the mortals walking by, they're just they
kind of see it in the background and have a sense of just
well-being. But you as you go, you see these
small creatures. They kind of look like potatoes,
but they also have are wearing a mane of petals and they are
walking around. They're all about a foot 2 foot
tall and they have watering cans and little sniffers and things
like that. And they're tending to the
garden, and none of these mortals seem to see it, but you
see the crew that keeps this park pristine.
Good work, gang. They respond and you know that
means good day to you opportunity.
And you as you are looking, you're, you're wondering maybe
if there was already people asking for dog walkers and as
you are checking on the lists of like Craigslist, maybe requests
for dog walkers and things like that.
And you're, you're going through and you see a post from chatty
Cassie and it says help democracy is missing help.
Now that sounds like an opportunity.
I immediately message her. I think I'm in the park.
I've got like the hand. I've got my, I've got like
these, the lectures of these 12 dogs and I like look down at my
phone as I'm scrolling through it and I see this and I go, oh,
and I let go of all of the dogs and just let them kind of run.
They all, they all, and even though you have prestidigitated
these dogs and they go and they they sit around there, some of
the little potato flower people come out and just start like
grooming your dogs. Beautiful.
And I, yeah, immediately I messaged chatty Cassie.
Yaro, how are things going today?
I mean, they're going OK, not like really my days aren't that
big. It's not like your home makes a
big impact. It's just another day of baking
and preparing and helping those clinic escorts.
I mean, I'm not the one putting my life on the line.
I mean, the least I could do is make a few muffins and breakfast
items, right? Right.
Absolutely. Who helps you make those
breakfast items? A very elderly raccoon.
I think we see Yarrow. She is at some dessert bannocks.
They are sprinkled with powdered sugar.
There are some Egg Mcmuffins, or in this case, her Mcfluffins
because they're off brand. I made these myself.
They're made with love and not evil, destructive capitalism.
And you just see this very elderly raccoon kneading dough
on the counter. Her mask has gone Gray.
She's so often like, yeah, she's sunny.
Did you have water with that? Did you put flour before you
done it? It's going to stick to the
counter. Oh, Yarrow, you know, I know
what I'm doing. This is this is child's play to
me. And flip it over.
Pat A. Little.
Butter. Add it up again, flip it over,
add a little butter. I got it going.
Yarrow's eyes widened. She's adding more and more
butter that is going to take forever to proof and bake, and
she is just silently and without further comment, putting on
additional flour onto the counter.
She really does. I have to order a whole new
sticks every day. She goes through them like,
well, like a Beaver with wood. But this time, it's a raccoon
with butter. Since Yarrow moved to a larger
city and out from her little house in Navajo Nation, it's
been difficult to find people to have make friends with baking.
Instagram is all about images and brand deals, and I can't
really take a picture of dough proofing without somebody giving
critique or just ignoring me at all.
So I've started going to this health clinic.
Big deal. Protesters all the time and I
couldn't help but notice the people who are actually helping
people inside seemed to pee pretty grumpy.
I mean, if I was being yelled at all day by people with signs and
just trying to do my job, I'd pee pretty happy if someone
brought me food. So I just started bringing them
food one day. Cookies, desserts, breakfast,
start getting dietary restrictions, start knowing who
was behind the best, that kind of thing.
I don't really know their names and they don't really ask mine,
but it's the closest thing to community that Heroes had since
she's moved from home. And.
The amazing thing about this food, and I don't think that any
of them realize that it's necessarily the food, but they
feel warmer even when it's colder, they feel stronger even
when the wind blows, they feel more able to take the yelling
and the screaming and they feel calmer.
That is the biggest thing, that it is almost like you have oiled
these ducks so that the the spittle and the angry rain of
these protesters just washes off their backs and they go home
every day feeling more buoyed and less beaten down.
And yeah, it's because they're doing a good deed, but it's also
the power of your food. It's weird not being surrounded
by relatives faces that you grew up with.
Cousins of plenty. So in my little apartment
building, I first thing Euro did was reach out to neighbors.
Leave Little High. I just moved in.
Here's a basket of honey and a few other treats.
Go with it. It's the only way that Euro
really knows how to connect with people.
She's anxious to a fault. Maybe they didn't like it, maybe
they're allergic, but nobody's called the apartment manager on
me just yet. I think at some point after you
moved in, you did meet Lazarus and Lazarus is at a nearby park
and he, he is a beekeeper and you've been able to connect with
him, learn a little bit about beekeeping on maybe have you
taught him a little bit about beekeeping as well?
Truth be told, it it's all about love.
It's all about being a roast, genuine self.
I think when Lazarus and I first met, there was an incident of,
Oh well, the bees aren't doing well.
It's in an urban environment. I think the smog's affecting
them poorly near on my suggestible try planting some
native flowers around and the planters I I will bring you some
planters that I have from home. I live on the 2nd floor.
I don't even have an opportunity to use any of them.
Please take them. I insist.
And overall, maybe it's just her vibrant presence.
Maybe it's the fact that her mother is a goddess, however
minor of life, but they seem to swell to be happier when she's
around, and I sort of feel like I owe that to mortals around me.
The next harvest of the honey is the sweetest and most robust
that that Lazarus says he's ever tasted.
He's amazed. So you gather up these breakfast
sandwiches and head out to meet the clinic escorts.
You said that you don't usually ask their names, but there is
one person's name you know. What is their name?
Carol, she is this mid 60s white lady.
She's always been very nice. She's got that classic severe
fringy, kind of like a boy band cut Gray hair pair figure
There's just something so welcoming about her and she
wasn't scared to introduce herself.
Names are a bit dangerous with how people tend to look into you
and scold you and try to put their doctrine on you around
here, but she's never been scared of that.
Carol knows that she walks with a modicum of privilege in this
world, and she decides to use her comfort with her privilege
to make other people feel welcome and to allow other
people to have access to her in a way that protects the people
around her. And her smile, it lights up the
IT just like it is when she sees you.
It is like the whole street lights up with her smile.
Yaro. It is so.
And she she whispers the name so that you know that the name is
between the two of you. And then she says a little bit
louder. Thank you so much for bringing
us food. It's it really makes the day go
by so much better. Harold is waving at home.
Really. It's not like I'd be doing
anything else. I don't want to be cooped up
inside doing nothing. And please there should be
enough for leftover certain one to take home.
And Carol winks at you because she she knows that you know that
she's had the same thought that it's, it's not great to be
cooped up. It's great to use our voices and
our hands when they are available to do something for
others. And she is so thankful she
passes out the sandwiches to everyone and everyone gets a
second one to take home. And you realize at the bottom of
your bag you still have another loaf and you have a bunch of
grapes, and you realize that there's some place that you
could go with these. For the briefest moment, Yarrow
looks towards these protesters, spewing words of hate, calling
people seeking healthcare murderers.
Horrible, horrible names. If you don't need that, they can
eat at a table. But it's not going to be at
hers. So she waves Carol goodbye,
walks down the sidewalk as they continue to shout and spew, and
heads the local shelter. And you know that maybe one day
you'll be able to reach those people with your cooking too.
But there are people in more need, and you head over to
Sanctuary Hearts Shelter where you use your feast ability to
from this loaf of bread and this and this cluster of grapes and
your ability to make a feast that you can provide a glorious
lunch for the denizens who come here to seek shelter.
You've noticed that the number has gone up slightly in the past
year, partially because they've heard about your food, but
partially because there's more in need.
And as you settle back at home after a day of cooking and
giving and bringing warmth to the city, what Which particular
website might you be checking out?
Definitely not social media. Piero has learned that it's a
lot about vanity, which never is a bad thing to have pride in
yourself, but it's become so commodified you start to lose
passion for it. So simply, she types in the name
of a collection of food blogs. And do you have a food blog as
well? No, me, come on, who would want
to read what I put on the Internet?
I better actions and words, maybe someone will see it and
appreciate it and that's all I can hope for, right?
You check out this is Annabelle's bakery.
When you read her words, you always feel a little bit
inspired that maybe one day you too could put your words down.
You see in the comments there is comment by Chef Cassie and it
says democracy is missing and could really use the help of a
blueberry pie. That's eyebrow raising.
There's something when you are partially divine that you become
familiar with. And that has triggered her
Spidey senses. Just that quiver of oh, you're a
bit like me. And she'll type in response.
Let me know what diet alternatives you need.
I can come over and help even :).
Hello all you semi deities out there.
It is me, your producer Grant, and I'm here to tell you about
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And Web is a show like unbalanced encounters out there.
It's finally giving me the two things I've always wanted from
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Unbalanced Encounters are dear friends of ours and one of my
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They are not kidding. They will make you laugh until
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Go check them out. They're starting a brand new
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Sencha. And Speaking of things that are
starting right the hell now, if you've been enjoying The Voice
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want to check out the new season of Tales Yet Told.
Sanguis Populi, the blood of the people, the dark protectors of
the hidden city of Azeroth, deep within the illusory forest.
Familiar with death as they have eluded it, they are called upon
for a desperate task, slaying a creature from the great beyond.
Blithe. This might not be easy being
surrounded by death. I don't understand how they.
Can do it. Alvira.
Someone must watch the bodies, and none do so as diligently.
Swan. Into action so fast.
I love when we get to go out. It came from the sky, this great
pale. Monstrosity, you just had to
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I prefer the gratuity. Vampirism is not the mortality,
it only prolongs the inevitable. Is this the end for Sanguis
Populi? Blood in the snow, A tale yet
told. Halloween 2025.
Sorcerers lower the barrier for just a moment.
Sanguis Populi departs. Listen to Tale Is Yet Told
wherever you did your podcasts. Sounds fun to take a like a
laugh riot. That show Blood in the Snow is
the upcoming season from our friends over at Tales Yet Told.
Our dear friend Kendo is playing on this season and I got to tell
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This is using the hunt system, which I'm super excited to see
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The first episode should be ready for you, baby.
And now, without further ado, I bring you to the rest of part.
1. Of American demigods.
Lavie, how has your day been? Oh, Lavie's had such a long day
because it started two weeks ago.
So Lavie is this femme presenting figure that is a
combination of like the what the youths might call built, like
you're sturdy but also a brick shit house in Livie's shoulders
alone look like they carry the weight of anticipation.
The arms look like they are strong enough to push you up
above a crowds and throw you into the mosh pit to take that
risk. Their legs are quick enough to
keep up with you and that marathon dash to go across that
last like 100 meters of like that giant marathon you travel
halfway across the world to go to.
Their hair is intricately braided in, He's very tight but
still loose and curly boho braids that stop just above the
shoulder with little cutesy almost.
Like. Buns.
Space buns that give off this little, like, gentleness where
it's like they kind of look like a teddy bear if you're looking
at it from a distance because you're a little bit scared to go
into your first day of school. But then you look across the
playground and you think it's like, oh, but I really want to
try to like make the swing set go all the way over, like the
top of the railing. It's like, oh, but there's a
teddy bear over there. That teddy bear will help me
stay strong and be brave. And I'm going to do it.
And Levi is just kind of a person looks the same all the
time. Levy doesn't change their
appearance. It's just kind of in that moment
they need a little bit of hush. Something about them gives you
that. Like, I'll hold your hand while
you do this. Levy is busy.
They literally are just getting back to somebody's apartment who
they just met maybe two nights ago, who decided that they
wanted to try to get into Burgheim, a very exclusive club
in Berlin. And they didn't get in.
Like, Levi was going to be let in, but the person they were
with wasn't going to be let in. So they decided and said, well,
there's a techno show like maybe two blocks away, and they do
this really weird thing where you can jump off the rafters
into a bubble pit, but you know, you need somebody to hold your
hand while you do it. And Levi's all about jumping off
of things safely because you got to know when to tuck and go.
And then today they're on their way to a roller Derby
competition, like in a couple of hours where it's somebody's
first time citing to try to be the they're going to be the one
who does all the speed things that me does.
Extreme sports. Their entire presence is built
around doing safely, but they couldn't tell you the technical
terms behind anything. What they do, it's instinctual.
They they're so excited for this roller Derby show, but then they
get kind of this feeling of, oh, you're doing it on your own, OK,
you don't need me. And they have a moment where
it's like, oh, where? Where am I?
Because they don't have a recollection of what country
there. Boy, they were just in Berlin.
But they think they're back in North America again, and so they
just take a selfie and they send it to their parents because they
still have parents. They were mortal until recently,
maybe as recent as maybe like a year ago.
What is time anymore? Do you think about that year ago
or is that already a gone memory?
Oh. Lavie doesn't sleep.
Really, because some risks are made to be taken in the
moonlight. Some risks are made to be that
you want to go Cliff diving, but you have to go camp out
somewhere to get the perfect spot because you want to Cliff
dive in like the perfect sunrise.
So you have to do the risky hike all the way up the waterfall to
then be able to jump off of it. Because you don't do that at
night, because you can't see the rocks and Levy spends so much
time at night or it's like taking it's like going to the
bodega by yourself can be risky. Levy spends so much time not
alone at night, but on the few times they do, they do think
about a year ago, it was the time where they were just they
were just Celeste Levy Joby. They were just this person who I
would go do an extreme sport with you and tell you the best
places to find your your safety equipment.
They would find the best harnesses.
They would find the the safest helmets, the best knee pads.
Like if you need any kind of aid in keeping yourself safe to do
this really risky but fun thing. Levine no knew where to find it.
That's their entire social media baseline, or at least it was.
And then. But a year ago, there was a
bridal party, or maybe it was the groom's party, or maybe it
was just a birthday party, or maybe it was just a group of
strangers. We doesn't remember.
Because after something like that, you're all kind of bonded
together in a way. At least those people are
Levy's, Not because they had something immediately after you
take care of, but they wanted to go spelunking.
They wanted to do an amateur spelunking cave diving trip into
this region with a a slightly underground passage that was
slightly underwater where if you went at a certain time of year,
crystals would light up and refract rainbows.
And it was somebody's dream to go there and they, if you can't
remember if they were taking somebody in mortal form or if
they were taking the memory of somebody with them, but someone
wanted to go. And everything was perhaps
everyone was safely secured into their harnesses.
Everyone had taken the lessons of going to their local gym and
doing everything they needed to do for endurance training and
strength training to be able to make the climb down in the climb
back up, or to be able to help like basically lift someone back
up if someone couldn't climb to support that way, to support
each other, but also to talk about why they were going.
And Levine was invited to be the one guiding it.
And so everything was going perfectly.
Everyone was doing great. the V was yelling encouragement,
keeping an eye on everybody, making sure to mark all the
places where it's like, put your foot here, put your hand here,
beware this rocket sharp. Make sure your gloves are
strapped in and secure. We're going to pause here for a
moment. Everyone breathe.
Feel your heartbeat, inhale. Hold.
Exhale. And then someone got a little
too anxious or excited and they didn't pay attention to where
something was marked of. This is where you put your foot
because Levi's also accounting for these sharp rocks coming and
interacting with the strapping of the harness that you're
hooked into. And then somebody thinking that
they know what they're doing rubbed a bit too much against
the strap of their harness, keeping them secure.
And they came close enough to Levy for Levy to notice it.
And so Levy decided I would rather take the risk than have
you take that risk. I want you to take a different
risk later on in life and have that chance to feel that high
moment again of accomplishment. So it's fine if this is my last
time, I'm happy. At least it's fun and I got to
help. And so Levi managed to swap out
harnesses with the person under the guise of this is a landing.
We'll stop here. Everybody make sure to check
your gear. Oh, your gear is a little bit
loose. I think I gave you mine instead
of giving you yours. Here, let me switch with you.
Got further and further down and we're maybe not even 10 feet
away from the ground and the sound of threads breaking
underweight shoulders not make quite get made to carry a burden
of others snap and then falling and then slight sharp pain and
then nothingness and then something again.
Because the nothingness wasn't just nothingness, it was
something. And the levy just kind of moved
quickly past that because they had somewhere to be the next
day. So in the quiet that you are
right now, you, you have found a moment of quiet, because even
the most active person needs to sleep.
And in that moment you hear the same voice that you when you
recall this moment. You don't always recall, but
it's the same voice that you heard then.
It's a soft voice, but strong, ever present, thrumming.
I've got you the you've done so well.
Take a moment to rest, though. We all need rest to survive.
I'll be. It is the same voice that that
night cradled you and said, Levi, I have watched you protect
others and I have watched you reach so many edges.
Levi, will you take me on as your patron?
And you see the God of survival instinct, She's raw.
He's powerful. You can feel the infiniteness
with which they lay under every soul, propping them up, saying
live a little bit longer and she's offering you her hand.
And that day, what did Lavie say?
I think the first thing Lavie said was ow so worth it though
Lavie didn't know the weight of what survival instinct was
asking them because Levi acted on impulse and saw a friendly
face offering a hand and thought what's the worst that could
happen? And then grab that hand fully
and embraced in a hug. The same way you would at any
kind of like, family function where you have an uncle or an
auntie you haven't seen in a while but they're telling you
how big you look now and how they remember when you were just
a little chubby cheeked baby. And you might not recognize
them, but you know they know you, and eventually you'll get
to recognize them and you'll understand what they're talking
about. He laughs.
It's this deep, resounding
chuckle, because he knows why you reached out to them in that
moment, and it's exactly why they picked you for that
survival instinct. But she reaches down and she
dubs you the demigod of adrenaline rush as you return to
consciousness. Now this night, on the other
hand, they whisper to you that you've got to get a little sleep
so that you can reach tomorrow. It's part of the survival
instinct is a little sleep every once in a while, but when you
wake up, you remember that you've had this whole journey.
You go to make a post about what this journey has entailed, what
you've learned, that you've upload some pictures, and you
already have a first comment. It's from chaotic Cassie.
Jump off that ledge and help me find democracy, please, I think.
The first thing that Levy does when seeing that message from
Cassie, because I think Cassie is one of those ever present
names, but no matter where the V ends up, Cassie's kind of there
in a way. Even if it's like an older form
of Cassie or if it's a younger form of Cassie, there's still a
Cassie somewhere. So Cassie feels like an old high
school reunion friend that you just haven't checked in on.
But you, you see like that they like have something going on
that they kind of invite you to, but you never have time for it
because you just are two ships passing in extracurricular
activities. But I think this time Livy's
like hell. Apparently Cousin Sleep decided
I needed to ET. Or was it Auntie Survival
instinct? I don't know, Uncle Survival's
weird like that sometimes. But Cassie, I've got I'm and
Lavie will send just an e-mail that is a new e-mail.
Who dis Sup Cassie miss me yet? Ruhan, I've asked everybody else
what they were doing. But I I know what you're doing.
You're looking at Oh, Dad. But tell me, tell me who it is
that is peering at his phone. It's kind of hard because the
closer you look the more details seem to just shift and waver to
be kind of what you expect whoever you are listening or see
with the basics. He's got brown skin, broaden the
shoulders with a bit thin. Overall.
He's wearing a rather strange combination of tweed vest and
long sleeve tee with the like a symbol of some kind on it.
Maybe it's an honk and his hair is a sort of weird curly mullet.
The skin gives the impression of a tint.
Just a tint. A slight tint of green.
Not makeup green, something else green.
The strangest bit is the person looking down at this phone
hasn't thought about taking a breath because right now they've
got nothing to say. Oh, death IA you, you open your
app of who death and you have a new request and it is a man
weirdly named Sam Adams. It's a Usually you think that
that's a that's a beer of some sort, but it looks like Sam Adam
has need of your help of. Course, of course, scrolling
through, is there any basic details?
Actually, you know, here's a question.
Because when it comes to the people who do what I do, if you
can call us people, sometimes we are, sometimes we're not.
They're not really picky about who they take their jobs from.
You know, it's, it's kind of like one big happy gig economy
family. Is there a God listed as a
signing this contract or is it left unaffiliated?
It says who he would like to be affiliated by, but that's not
who claims him. Oh, that's that's difficult.
Who would you like to be affiliated with?
It is one of the major gods, not so much a God of death or a God
of commerce or a God of science, but but one of those other gods
who still stick around from the time when humans made-up
religions rather than making religions based on on thought
and what is actually there. One of those I see and who
actually claims poor Sam Adams. It's an empty place that they
go, The people who think that they can determine who other
people should be. You don't quite know what
happens after that. You have heard that there are
ways out of this particular realm, but you're not sure what
they are. But anyone who bludgeons a
little too hard. Rohan swipes right.
You swipe right and you get instructions to a nursing home.
I think I flagged down a vehicle of some kind.
It shouldn't take too long. I take a look at the CN Tower,
and then I take a look at the Skydome right next door.
Poor Sam. Poor, poor Sam.
And I'm just going to open up the extra informations tab again
because who Death acts like a book of death.
And it's a way it's it's also a giant database, you know, about
information of anyone who's ever passed.
And he's very close to passing. So slowly updating.
And I'm just trying to figure out a bit more about Sam how to
best break the news to. Him.
It looks like Sam really did what he thought was right of
childhood indoctrination, told him what he should believe is
right, and he didn't have the strength to update that
information. So maybe letting him know that
he did his best but his best wasn't good enough.
That he should have cared a little bit more about each
individual rather than what any book would tell him to listen
to. I walk into this nursing home.
I know where it is, just a bit farther on the outskirts,
outside of the downtown core. I don't look at whoever's taking
reception, because to them I almost belong here, and I walk
straight to Sam's room. But I somehow know the location
of from the back of my head. Sam is wrinkly.
He's got piercing green eyes that have dulled.
You know his ears still work well, up until half an hour ago,
they still worked incredibly well.
His nose is proud, His lips are fragile, and he is still.
I described how Ruhan looks to the average person.
What does Ruhan look to him? What does he want to see right
now? He sees a tall, picturesque man.
You look to him almost like a marble statue with a thick hair,
kind of like with an upswoop. A kind of mix to our listeners
of Superman and Saint Peter. His hair is now tapered on the
sides and he straightens out. His crew cut a little bit and
before I even talk to him I want to know what has been.
So I'm going to roll 2D6 to determine someone's guilt on a
specific matter or their deepest regret, make my accusation, and
weigh their soul. Sam has hurt people before,
many, many people, both by his actions and his thoughts, the
words he said and the things he's done.
So this is my accusation. I think deep down, Sam knows
that he's done something wrong, and deep down he doesn't
believe. Now I got to roll 2D6 and my
judgement's a + 2. So that's that's an 8.
I get a sense of their guilt but nothing specific on A7 to 90.
But I will also, because I'm gifted, have a clear idea of the
best way to help this person clear their conscience.
Sam has let someone down very, very close to him, Someone who
he was supposed to nurture and guide and shape and protect, and
he has let them down. Maybe the best way to help him
clear his conscience is to let him know that they are OK
without him and that the world is going to be OK without him
and the the hate that he's brought.
Ron pushes back his shoulders a little bit, and he straightens
out the the service dress uniform that he's currently
wearing, and he sits opposite Sam.
Whether there was a chair there or not, it doesn't really matter
anymore because we're no longer in the real world.
We're in that split second of memory, of that moment where you
look out in the window and you no longer recognize the sky.
But until then, until you're ready to walk outside the door,
everything here stays exactly the way it is.
Hi, Sam. You've come must must mean I'm
past. You're taking it easier than
most already. It's been a long life, but I
think I fought it well. Sam, there's only one rule I
have. We don't lie in this room.
We can stay here as long as you'd like.
I'm not going to push you at the door, not yet.
But until you're ready to be honest about what you've done
but who you are, I'm not going to talk to you.
So, Sam, Mr. Adams, it's been a long life.
Tell me about it. He looks like he struggles for a
minute and then he looks at you and he says Peter never came to
say goodbye and this is odd to you because there is no Peter in
his file. There is a Vivian though.
Again, you need to be honest. Do you know why your kids not
coming? Even now.
Even now that I'm dead. We don't choose when we die, and
we don't choose who's there in that moment.
You hurt your kid. Don't they call it a dead name
because I can use it now that I'm dead?
No, no, it's because it's dead to them, and there is no one who
can drag back the dead into the land of the living except for
people like me, and I wouldn't do it.
So you're saying I've made a mistake?
No, Sam, I'm saying you made a choice.
Mistakes are what kids make. Choices are what adults make.
You made a choice. The choice had effects.
I've made the choice that I thought was right.
No, you made the choice that made you feel right.
There's a difference. This conversation to our
listeners has lasted a couple minutes.
This conversation, as Sam experienced it, has lasted
hours. But at the end of it, Sam is
going to look at you. Can I go back?
No. I can't go back and apologize,
you said. You can pull me from the land of
the dead. No, but she's going to be OK,
and one day when it's her time, I'll make sure that someone like
me tells her what you told me now.
I tell you that I've made a choice that was not the right
choice and you hear a Ding from Udet and you look into it and
the claiming is different. He's not going to the empty
place. He's instead been offered a spot
and a purgatory of sorts. A different kind of purgatory.
Not the quiet type of purgatory, but the kind of purgatory where
maybe, maybe there's a chance for something more.
So Sam, that's a great step. It's a good step, and I'm not
going to lie to you. I've seen the worst of what
humanity has to offer, and I've seen the best.
They all end up exactly where you are, and I ask them the same
question. Knowing what you now know, where
do you think you belong? I can send you somewhere where
you can punish yourself for what you've done until you feel like
you've done enough to deserve it.
I can send you to somewhere to think, to be calm, to
contemplate, or I can send you to somewhere and there's a
hesitation somewhere clean. Nothing lasts forever.
Don't worry about that right now.
Worry about where you're going next.
You know, not everyone thinks that death and the next thing
are back-to-back. A lot of people just call it
walking on. So that's what you're going to
do, Sam. You're going to walk on until
you're really ready. But no matter which place I take
you to, you're not going to be able to hurt people.
You're not going to be able to force them into decisions
because you feel a certain way. Maybe I can walk a little.
OK, doors over there, it won't hurt.
And this man gets up from bed, his almost this light linen type
of bed sheets, they kind of phase off of him and he stands
there, a glowing soul and walks towards the door and opens it.
Wait, I said. I've met a lot of men like you,
a lot of men who've hurt people, and I know I'm going to meet
more. So if you find a way to stop
people from ever doing what you're doing, if you find a way
to talk sense into them, just make sure some of us figure out
how. And this is the moment where
Rouhan genuinely stops being a demigod and starts being a
person. The image foisted upon him has
fitted away like dust in the wind heaps back to the
appearance that we had initially just.
I don't want people to make the same choices you made, that's
all. There is a voice that answers
that's different from this man who keeps on walking because you
weren't truly talking to him and he's wandered onwards, but you
were talking to something greater than him.
And this voice comes in a kind of comforting wave, and it tells
you you're going to do your part to make that happen.
And you are suddenly back home and you're on your phone.
And oh, death has a little message feature.
Deathless Cassie messages you and says democracy is not dead
yet, but without your help, they might as well be.
A long press is the message and then Ron goes to the drop down
and picks the thumbs up. Somewhere else, miles away from
any of these in DC, Cassie closes down her computer.
She has sent so many messages out to so many attempting to
reach any demigod she can, and now she's waiting to see who's
going to heed her call. Who wants?
To go next. You're the GM, Zoop.
Oh God. Oh God.
OK, you're the teacher. You pick.
Oh. No, Pick the.
Other 3? Come on.
Let me see which one I pick up, OK?
Flip a coin. Do you do you want to end with
death? Since everything ends with
death. That's what I was thinking was
going to happen. Started and ended with.
Death. Oh my God, not the death.
Damn. We started with death, we're
ending with death. That's great.
Good for us. Begin with the fear, end with
the certainty.