Script: Kaz and Condas Avatar Basement

As Dusty the Janitor mops up the brown-stained tile of the CCC's Watering Hole (cafeteria), he looks up. Dark eyes linger on darker shadows. (can add more abt tension in his posture here). All is still. He blinks, shrugs, and goes back to mopping.

Our view descends, going through the tile until we arrive at a familiar basement, that ancient place smelling of worn leather binding forbidden knowledge. Great-grandfather Condas snores on his armchair, frailer and weaker than ever.

'''This is a script from a prewritten scene. There may be some inconsistencies with the podcast. Scripts are not consistently stylized, and are taken directly from our documents. Mileage may vary.'''

(Snore for a very long time)

(REN) A living shadow slips through the wall, stepping into the room behind him. It materializes into a familiar figure. Clad in deep black, they hold their head underneath their arm as casually as one would a helmet. Nothing covers their face but tissue and scars. Their steps are silent as they walk to stand in front of him.

(WEI) One of Condas' eyes cracks open, a thin line of fierce magenta piercing through the darkness. The eye burns every emotion at once: love and hatred, triumph and despair, ecstacy and anguish. It is raw and timeless and contradictory.

"Ah, yes. Is it finally time?"

(REN) "Time for what, old man?"

(WEI) As you fail to address him as "great-grandfather", he inhales, half-snore, half-earthquake. The ground rumbles. The magenta rips into the essence of your being, imparting the weight of millenia into your spirit. Take a tier-5 "disrespect" status. You can't face danger.

One myth trembles under the weight of something far, far, older. It is not a creature of subservience, but it knows when respect is due. It sits still, waiting for the great-grandfather to speak.

(WEI) "I've waited for the day my time would come. That day came and went. Then it came and went again. And again, and again, and again. They can't be rid of me. Every time I think my job is done, they come asking for more. From Alulim to Temujin, Cosimo to Greta, it's been the same... Will it be different this time?"

(REN) "I came to introduce myself, but I can't... grasp some things." The figure gently tosses their head into the air, and catches it as it falls. "For the first time, I know who I am. But not what. I know you know. I know that you're the same."

(WEI) "Ah, no different, then. No different at all." Disappointment sears through every syllable as his eye closes, plunging the room into darkness, leaving no more room for shadows.