Chill: GTA

Today we got on Zoom and played Chill, last time is here, here we go. 

We left our envoys on the side of the road. We pick up the next morning. Mohammed's body has been taken to the coroner, and Vicki's father is in the hospital. He's gotten a bunch of stitches and the doctors think they managed to save his fingers (there was some doubt). Vicki spent the night at the hospital. Dylan, too, has been admitted - he broke down after seeing Mohammed die, and he's under psych observation. 

The next morning, Manny gets up and drives around for a while before going to get coffee and visiting Vicki. Beth Anne likewise gets up and heads to the hospital, as does Jennifer. They meet up in the lobby and decide to take it easy this morning and meet up later in the day to continue their investigation. 

Beth Anne starts going through her journals - she kept these logs of her "adventures" from when she was young, when she hung out with her "imaginary friend" Jaworsky. Jennifer asks her about the black shape she saw enveloping Beth Anne last night, but Beth Anne isn't entirely forthcoming. She and Jennifer look through these records, and Jennifer notices a black shape drawn in the margins, kind of similar to what she saw law night. She also notices that some of these "adventures" read like someone starting to exhibit signs of schizophrenia, but then, some of them look like records of Unknown investigations. Beth Anne, meanwhile, notes that sometimes a detail will come up in one "adventure" and then become relevant in a later one. 

They're looking for details that can help with this case, but it's eluding them. And then Beth Anne hears a whisper - You've seen this before. Don't you remember, Bethy? Beth Anne answers, and proceeds to have a full-on conversation with this unseen voice while Jennifer watches, disconcerted. She finally asks Beth Anne what's going on and tries to get her to open up, and Beth Anne nearly does, but then stops herself. Jennifer uses Telepathic Empathy and realizes that Beth Anne is not afraid of the voice in her head, it's familiar to her. It's also not controlling her, but there is definitely an Unknown presence here. 

Meanwhile, Vicki and Manny are cruising around, and Manny winds up driving to the scene of the fight last night. Manny and Peedee get out and look around, and find that the dogs came from across the road (so heading from the park), but one dog ran into the road and then the others followed. It looks like one deliberately acted as a decoy to get the car to stop - these dogs are smarter than they thought. Manny and Vicki try tracking the paw prints back, but they lose them in a field before the Military Reserve park begins. They decide to call in the others. 

By this time, Jennifer and Beth Anne have left the hospital and are getting coffee. They walk over to the park and the envoys start looking around. Vicki gets out her GPS and notes where the attacks have taken place - it's actually a pretty small area around Military Reserve. They start heading across the field (most of which is mowed and maintained, but some is pretty wild and has patches of dandelions and other weeds). 

Vicki Senses the Unknown, and feels some residual presence around the field - but a much stronger presence around Beth Anne. She notes this and asks why it's happening, and uses Follow the Strings to confirm that Beth Anne isn't being mind-controlled or possessed (she's not). Beth Anne, however, panics and runs. The other envoys chase her, but don't manage to catch up, and Beth Anne runs toward the park and arrives at a place called Friendship Square, a house for rent for meetings and overnights and suchlike.

She sees some young girls, maybe 11 or 12, getting out of cars with sleeping bags. Looks like an overnight. Beth Anne, though, is still panicked. She runs over, jumps in a car, and drives off. The car's owner, of course, pulls out her phone and calls the police, and despite Manny's best efforts to keep things under control, things look bad for Beth Anne.

Beth Anne north into the Military Reserve, but ditches the car by the side of the road and runs off into the park. She ends up at a Military Cemetery and stops, trying to calm her brain. She gets a text message from Jennifer: "You're a monster. If we catch you, we'll have to kill you. Just keep running." The voice in her head speaks up again: I'm sorry. 

Beth Anne argues with Jaworsky, and he claims that when "something like me" is destroyed, it goes somewhere too horrible to contemplate. Beth Anne refuses to believe it, so Jaworsky shows her: A blasted hellscape where the air bores into one's skin. Beth Anne sees people (rather, creatures) that she recognizes: June Stevens, the poltergeist. Franklin Wray, the ravager. Casey Lynch, the draugr. They're all being tortured, forever, in horrible ways. As she sees all of this, Beth Anne repeatedly denies it. "This isn't real. If SAVE knew about this, they wouldn't do what they do."

The other envoys retrieve Manny's car and drive up the road Beth Anne took. They find the car, surrounded by cops, but no sign of Beth Anne. Vicki Senses the Unknown again, and follows the feeling to the cemetery, where they find Beth Anne wandering in a haze. Jennifer uses Telepathic Sending to contact her, and Beth Anne comes out of it. The envoys express their support, and Beth Anne asks about the angry text that Jennifer sent...but Jennifer shows her the text she actually sent: "hi Beth Anne, its Jennifer. Look, we're really worried about you. I know that you dont trust all of us, I really wish you would've at least let me in so that I can help you. Please, we dont want to lose another teammate. The police are after you, let us in. Please call me or message me so we can come find you."

The envoys head back down the road, intending to get some dinner and maybe talk this out, but they see a myriad of emergency lights at the Friendship Square. They pull in and see cop cars, ambulance, the works. They also see two stretchers with dead bodies being wheeled out - too tall to be children, fortunately. Manny spots the cop buddy he talked to yesterday, and asks him what happened. The cop is dazed and horrified. Apparently, the dogs attacked again, this time breaking down the door of this place and killing the two adults on the overnight. A dog also bit one of the girls, but she was the only one injured. Manny asks permission to talk to her while she's getting her arm seen to, and he and Jennifer go over and question her (gently).

The girl tells them that they heard dogs barking, and then the door broke in and dogs started biting Ms. Mary and Ms. Laurie. Ms. Laurie told them to go upstairs, and they did, but the girl crept back down the stairs to try and help and saw the dogs savaging the adults. Then one dog ran up and bit her, but immediately dropped her arm, sneezed, looked sick, and all the dogs ran off. Manny asks if the girl wears jewelry, but then notices a grass stain on her wrist. Jennifer asks, and the girl says that she was wearing a bracelet made of dandelions - one of the other girls in the troop made them. 

Beth Anne and Jennifer talk to Iris (said other girl), and Iris says she made dandelion bracelets for all the girls, but ran out before she could make them for the adults. Most of the girls took them off or lost them before getting back into the house, but Chrissy's (the girl who got bit) apparently stayed on. Jennifer asks Iris about the attack, and she starts crying, which prompts one of the cops to shoo Jennifer and Beth Anne away.

The envoys fall back to the car and talk about what's happening and whether they need to talk to Iris more, and Vicki hears Beth Anne mutter "leave her the fuck alone." She asks Beth Anne why so hostile - sure, they can leave Iris alone, but as Manny notes, that's a little out of character for Beth Anne. Beth Anne clarifies: she wasn't talking to them, she was talking to the voice in her head, which had expressed an interest in Iris. 

Tired and worried, the envoys decide to head to Vicki's place to crash. Tomorrow, they'll check the field again and see if they can figure out what's happening.