Shadows in the Smoke S1E33 - "The Tale of the Little Mermaid"

Shadows in the Smoke S1E33 – “The Tale of the Little Mermaid”

Kim
Shadows in the Smoke is intended for mature audiences and may contain material that some people find disturbing. Please see the episode description for content warnings, and listen with care.

[Shadows in the Smoke theme]

[Tense ambient music]

Kim
Miss Thanero, Oliver lays dying on the floor, and Mrs. Theodora Brathwaite just regards you with interest, her hands clasped gently in front of her.

Cassandra
Ena thinks on this for a moment. At this point, it feels like an act of war. And so in looking at this boy, and if she wants to show her enemy her most private, sacred act that she commits, she begins thinking a bit strategically about what to do.

[Gentle, serene ambience]

Cassandra
But then upon seeing this boy, seeing the blood, hearing his wet, shallow gasps… She lets go of this strategy for a moment, kneels down beside him, and gently takes his head and places it on her lap, putting her hand over his to apply a bit more pressure to the gash in his throat. He looks up at her, he tries to speak, and she just very quietly whispers…

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Don’t speak. It’s already been said. You did well. That matters. Your family will be taken care of, I can promise you that.

Cassandra
He starts to cry and some tears run down his cheek, and she just gently – with that hand that she took the glove off in preparation to potentially fight Theodora – she takes that hand with Aegis on it and it starts to glow, but it’s much fainter this time. As she traces this tear that’s running down the side of his face, and as he takes his last breath, she whispers one more time…

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I will remember you.

Casandra
Oliver slowly slips away. She closes his eyes and sits there for a moment as that breeze starts to run through her hair, her eyes glowing a little more gold. She turns back to Theodora and looks up at her from her seat on the ground.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Was it everything you hoped it would be?

Theodora Brathwaite (Kim)
It was informative. Thank you, Miss Thanero.

Cassandra
Ena gently places Oliver’s head on the ground and stands. There’s obviously now a trail of blood running down the front of her outfit. She looks at her hand that’s still glowing and then looks back at Theodora.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Sometimes when we see what we think we want, we are robbed of everything that we can have. I would remind you to remember that. And to remember that crossing me is crossing more than just myself.

Cassandra
And she closes her hand, and the light goes out.

Theodora Brathwaite (Kim)
My dear, I did not wish to cross you. You looked tense. I thought you could use a release. Well, no matter. I enjoyed this, Miss Thanero. I look forward to next time. Now please see yourself out. I have other things to do.

Cassandra
Ena looks her up and down very slowly, and then proceeds to walk out of the room, goes out through the hall, leaves the townhouse, and stands for a moment, watching as the sun begins to set. And as she stands there, despite this feeling of fullness, she begins to tremble and feel the immense weight of guilt of a life taken that did not deserve to be.

[A rumbling woosh]

Kim
Welcome to the Dusk. We begin the Dusk as we always do, with a Quickening roll. Mr. Hutchinson, if you please.

Cassandra
Oh, God…

T.
1 and 4 is 5, +1 is 6.

Kim
Okay. T., what’s happening?

[Tense ambient tones]

T.
For decades, the man known as One-Shot John, Augustus Hutchinson, has been struggling to contain the ravenous creature, the monster lurking just beneath the surface. Tonight, not for the first time, but for the first time in this green and pleasant land, he loses control.

[Everyone screams excitedly]

Natalia
Yes!

T.
I am gonna take the fail, but I am not gonna take the Retire This Character fail.

Kim
Alright. So on a miss, reveal your curse to another hunter and ask for their help controlling you this night. If they agree, neither of you can take any action that would trigger a move during the upcoming Night Phase, but you should still narrate scenes showing how the cursed character is being controlled throughout the night. During the Dawn Phase, you each mark 1xp. Additionally, they get to define something interesting about your transformation. That information is a Clue that can be used on the Threat, The Cursed. This option can only be chosen once.

So I suppose, do some thinking as to who you might like to ask to watch you.

T.
I already know.

[Dreadful ambience]

T.
As Augustus’ teeth sharpen to a razor edge, and row after row sprouts in his mouth and phalanxes down his throat, his mandible dislocates, cracks, and elongates to accommodate the new teeth.

[Bones pop and tear throughout]

T.
And he tries to grit down and swallow through the pain as he usually does, but as lesions split his back on either side of his spine, and the pain wrenches his mouth open in a tormented howl…

[A low groan]

T.
He knows he can’t do this alone. Flesh begins to protrude from his shoulder and below his ribs, his facial bones shatter and change as his nose and lips pull forward into a long muzzle. His chest sprouts a field of thick white hair, each sharpened to a harpoon-like quill.

Another tear splits just below his navel and widens in a sickle-shaped rend, which boils and bubbles. He clutches his guts and realizes that this is going to happen, whether he wills it or no.

So he bursts into the hall, throwing open the bookshelf, looking desperately for her, grasping onto the last remaining bit of human in him. Calling out for her, knowing that she will hate to see him like this, but that he needs her.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
[Choked, monstrous] …Mmmmaesie!

[Gentle piano]

Kim
I’m required by law to ask Maesie, are you doing Moonlight Upon the Waves tonight?

T.
[Laughs]

Natalia
Let me think about it.

Cassandra
Man, I don’t know.

Natalia
If there was something more interesting, like maybe… I don’t know. No, absolutely not. Fuck that! Fuck that.

Kim
Alright. So that’s y’all’s Night Phase. I’m excited. Next, I would like to invite you all to answer a question, should you wish. We have two Threats that we are currently working on. The first is Figgs’ Piggs. We have three questions, each one a Complexity 2. We’ve amassed two Clues for Figgs’ Piggs. And then we have The Nutcracker. We have amassed nine Clues for The Nutcracker.

T.
Let’s take a stab at a Figg, just for the experience.

Kim
The two Clues we have gathered for Figgs’ Piggs are a collection of skeletal hands, each one smaller than the next, which Mr. Hutchinson pulled out of the mouth of Moc’h. And Mr. Lloyd, while dining on a nobleman’s dime, received a bit of amil for that individual, which told a story about a bunch of chickens that had been brutally slaughtered on this individual’s country estate. And what was notable about it was that there were human footprints leading to and from the scene of the slaughter.

You have three questions for Figgs Piggs: What kind of animal does Patrick Figg think he is, What type of victim does Obert Figg prefer, and what did La Hortensia Figg lose that she’s trying to recapture or remember. All of them are Complexity 2.

Cassandra
My vote would be to go for Patrick.

Robert
The second clue just lines up so neatly with Patrick.

Cassandra
Yeah, I agree.

Robert
We’ve joked about the hands being like a Russian nesting doll for a little bit now. What if, at the very center of it, it wasn’t human skeletal hands, but some sort of like animal’s paws?

T.
As like a calling card?

Natalia
Yeah. Especially with it being like chickens in a hen house. It could be something like a fox.

Cassandra
Yeah, I’m leaning on fox.

T.
Yeah. I’ve got nothing against a fox.

Kim
Alright. We believe Patrick Figg to be a fox. Someone make a flat roll, please.

Robert
T., since you and I are the two that came up with these Clues, I’ll take one you take one?

T.
Sounds good.

Cassandra
I don’t trust T’s dice right now.

T.
You shouldn’t. That’s a 1.

Robert
You also shouldn’t trust my dice. I got a 2.

Kim
Alright. So that answer is incorrect, unless you would like to spend a Mask at this juncture?

T.
Like, no?

Cassandra
Nah. We got time.

Robert
I dread whatever hard move Kim is going to take against us using the Figgs, but I think we have to pass on it for now.

T.
Oh, wait. Oh, yeah. Oh, no…

Natalia
Well the problem is we either waste the Mask of the Pig now, or we all spend an individual mask.

T.
Well, we’re not doing that.

Cassandra
Listen. We’ve taken a lot of stuff away from Kim with like good rolls over several of these Threats, so…

T.
You want to give her one?

Cassandra
Now that makes it sound like it’s pity, but like…

Kim
Y’all did a bad roll on the Lurker and I killed Jenny Johnston and turned her into a vampire.

Cassandra
I mean, that’s true. That’s true. I… I think it’s too early. Like we’ve done too little work on that, I think, to blow through the Threat mask. And I don’t wanna spend a Mask of the Past on a Complexity 2 question. So I think we just let Kim do the work she was destined to do.

Kim
I mean, Cass, they’re all Complexity 2 Questions.

Cassandra
I get that. I get that. I think we’ve learned that maybe we should go with like Robert’s suggestion of having more clues than the complexity merits, so that we have some wiggle room next time.

Robert
Now we know, decidedly, he is not a fox.

Cassandra
Doi we lose the clues?

Kim
The Clues go back into your list, to either be used in a different way to answer for Patrick, or to apply to another Figg. Your choice.

Cassandra
Okay. I can live with it.

Natalia
I can also live with it.

Kim
Alright. So we will see how the Figgs will retaliate.

Now, a question. Hutchinson and Miss Douglas are going to be doing their own little Night Phase, so I suppose the question is for Mr. Lloyd and Miss Thanero. Are you interested in doing a London Night Phase or a Hargrave House Night Phase? Technically, the scene for the American and the Quickening can happen in either permutation of the Night Phase.

Robert
Well, it’s been a while since we’ve done a Hargrave House Night Phase. And I don’t have any plans for tonight.

Cassandra
I also agree with Robert. We haven’t done a Hargrave House Night Phase in a while, and I also did not have any plans this evening, given what I experienced today.

Kim
[Laughs]

Cassandra
So I’m probably staying in as well.

Kim
Miss Thanero needs a self-care day. And what better self-care day than to explore one of your spooky rooms in your house?

Cassandra
Hey, that sounds like a vibe. As long as I don’t have to go outside and see people I don’t like or know, I’m fine.

Kim
Above the table, I had told everyone that I anticipated that the next Hargrave House Night Phase, whenever they may choose to pull the trigger, is probably the last one that will happen in this season of Shadows in the Smoke. Just because, you know, things are gonna start getting a little hairy. You’re probably not going to have a lot of opportunities to just hang out at home anymore. All this said, I didn’t select rooms for you all this go-around. Instead, I turned it to you all to posit some rooms that you have read about or heard about that you might be interested in exploring, considering this might be the last one that we do this season.

So who has a room that they would like to experience? T and Nat, you are more than welcome to posit rooms. I might still give you some, like Paint the Scenes and stuff like that to be doing during it. Just, your character will not be physically present.

Natalia
I feel like we’ve been talking about the Conservator every time.

T.
The only other one I would pitch is Bell Tower and Parapets, so that we have an upstairs-downstairs.

Robert
Yeah. That one’s come up a fair few times, too.

Cassandra
I really like the Conservatory, but I could go either way.

T.
Can we get a quick door read between these two? And then I will not decide, because the worst thing you can do to a Libra is give me a choice between two things.

Kim
And I have two Libras at the table…

[Tense, melancholy ambience]

Kim
The Bell Tower and Parapets read as follows: A slender door hides a narrow spiral staircase leading to the rooftop of Hargrave House. The mewling of cats can be heard above.

And then, The Conservatory: A beautiful room of green and glass is visible through the large window on this door. The sun-dappled charm of the Conservatory is only marred by its association with one of Hargrave House’s most infamous residents.

[Gentle piano]

T.
I feel like there has been bread-crumbing for The Conservatory throughout this campaign, like even unintentionally on our parts.

Natalia
Mmhm.

T.
And I hate cats. So…

Natalia
[Snorts]

T.
Not me. Hutchinson. Hutchinson hates cats.

Kim
[Laughs]

T.
I think we should do the Conservatory. As much as I like a pan down to switch locations, I think the Conservatory is going to bear more fruit.

Kim
Alright. Is everyone in agreement?

Cassandra
I am in agreement.

Natalia
Yes.

Robert
Sounds good to me.

[An ominous, rumbling woosh]

Kim
Miss Douglas, you just heard a most unusual call from down the hall.

[A low roar]

Natalia
Maesie is sitting in bed, not really wanting to go to sleep. And so hearing someone call for her gives her an excuse to not go to sleep right now. So she pokes her head out the door.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Hello? Was that Rabbit? Hello?

T.
You’re looking down the hallway, and like around the corner from deeper in the house, you see – starting to crawl now on the ground – this still mostly Hutchinson-shaped amalgam of flesh and split bone and hair, with a truly malformed mouth, who looks at you. And even from that far away, you can see the fear in his eyes.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
[Pained, muffled] R-room… My room…

Natalia
Maesie just kind of stands there in shock. And is like, that kind of looks like…

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Mr. Hutchinson?

T.
I try and bring myself to standing. And as I do these like twin fleshy limbs erupt from beneath my ribcage and find purchase on the floor…

[Bones split and flesh tears]

T.
And I fall onto all fours and start coughing up blood.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Oh god, what has happened to you?

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Help… Me…

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Okay. Uh, uh… Uh, room. You said room. Can you climb stairs?

T.
I barely manage to nod.

Natalia
Maesie tries to put arms around you in any way possible, and just starts heaving you up the stairs.

Kim
Elsewhere in Hargrave House, Mr. Lloyd and Miss Thanero, where do we find you?

Robert
Well, I think the reason Rabbit can’t hear any of this is because he’s already in the Conservatory. You know, it is effectively a greenhouse attached to the house, so it’s probably relatively sound dampened from there. And he has been feeling a bit stretched, a bit scattered recently. And so he is doing what he does best: going to a green space and sort of calming himself down.

Cassandra
Ena, having had her moment with Theodora, is both full and empty at the same time – which is a rather rare feeling for her. Her eyes still have a hint of that glowing gold. Her hair is still moving slightly with that unseen breeze. But she looks exhausted, despite having filled herself, from the murder of the servant. So she’s been wandering around the house kind of aimlessly. And I think she stumbles into the Conservatory, not expecting to see Rabbit in there.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Hello.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
[A small gasp] Oh, you startled me.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Sorry. Not my intention. Lovely night, isn’t it? Despite all the horrors, all the worst things we see in this job, sometimes you still have to just look up at the stars and say, “Well, they’re still burning. I can go on.”

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Today I feel as if I’ve been burned from the inside out. Being in nature has always been a bit of a balm for me on days like this, but it’s a bit too chilly to be out in London tonight. So the Conservatory seemed the next best place.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
My thoughts exactly.

Cassandra
Ena walks over and sits on a park bench that is settled in the middle of the conservatory. It kind of wraps around a large tree that’s in the middle of it.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
There was a time, not too long ago, where in a similar setting we had a conversation about dreams. I think we might need to revisit that soon.

Cassandra
Ena looks Rabbit up and down a little bit at this, and cocks her head.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
Why would we need to bring that back up?

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
I told you I that I don’t dream. And I can’t quite explain it at this moment, but for reasons similar to that, my time in Hargrave House might not last much longer. There’s an old story about a man who awakes from a dream of being a butterfly. And in that moment, he is unsure whether he was a butterfly dreaming of a man, or a man dreaming of being a butterfly. And frankly, recently I think I’m turning more into the butterfly dreaming of a man.

Miss Thanero (Cassandra)
I can see how that would pull you from this reality and into another.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
I wish it were as simple as that. But long story short, I’ve had this conversation with Miss Douglas, but there are some things I think we should do so that when it happens, my absence is not quite as strongly missed.

Miss Thanero (Casandra)
I think, regardless of any plans laid, we would all miss you here.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
That means a lot to me.

Kim
Let’s describe the Conservatory itself. We see tall bay windows looking out into the garden, rattan and wrought iron furniture. All around, there are potted plants and trees. This is a very serene space. Paint the Scene: a former hunter in residence turned out to be the legendary killer, Roger the Reaver. This was his favorite room in Hargrave House. Looking around, how do you know this?

T.
In addition to the wrought iron furniture here, there’s one comfortable leather armchair, a stack of books, and even the facsimile of a fireplace that is filled with red poppies and bright orange flowers.

Natalia
Next to this comfortable chair, there is also a very beautifully carved wooden cabinet with glass doors that contains a collection of many different liquors, as well as oil of sweet vitriol – or what we know as ether.

Cassandra
Among the beautiful plants housed in this conservatory, one might note that there are venus fly traps, pitcher plants, sundews, bloodroot… all different plants that consume nutrients from blood. It might be animals, it might be insects, but it is blood nonetheless.

Robert
And over by the stack of books, there is one particularly well-worn one, its pages thumbed and dog-eared. It is titled “The Myths and Traditions of the Nordic People.”

Kim
Let’s return upstairs to Miss Douglas and the transforming Mr. Hutchinson.

[Groans, bones breaking, tense ambient tones]

T.
As Maesie ushers Hutchinson back into his room and into his cage, he tries to fasten the manacle around his neck himself, but his fingers are melding together and stitching into a fingerless appendage. And he looks at you with desperation and terror in his eyes.

Natalia
Maesie knows exactly what that feels like. And she knows that fear. And she immediately takes the manacle out of your hands and starts clamping it around your neck.

T.
The moment it latches, Hutchinson pushes you way from him. Not trying to hurt you, but in order to protect you. Like a parent, wrenching their child out of traffic.

Natalia
She falls back a couple feet, but doesn’t leave.

T.
As you watch, the part of the creature that was One-Shot John, that was Augustus Hutchinson shifts and disappears, replaced by a creature. This is what it looks like.

The first thing you notice is that the creature has the legs of a horse. However, it has eight of them. As it tips over and falls forward onto them, you see the fur on its back as slick and black as oil, and twin appendages that resemble nothing so much as bat wings erupt from its back. The whole thing terminates in a long crocodilian-like tail. Its head is that of a big black wolf’s, with a long muzzle and pointed ears, but its mouth is filled with row after row after row of shark-like teeth going down its throat. Its ventral side is bristling with long white barbed hairs, sharp as porcupine quills. And a second head emerges from the creature’s loins, just below its belly, which is of a goat, whose eyes are unfortunately still human. And as you stare at those last remains of Hutchinson, the iris turns gold, the pupil seems to elongate through a vertical slit. And just as quickly, you realize its actually flesh sprouting from the lens, and covering them up and sealing them away. For this is a creature that none should look upon, not even itself.

Kim
…What is this?

T.
So anybody else looking at it might describe it as a giant wolf, or a horse, or perhaps a dragon. But Maesie would recognize that the quills are not so much like a porcupine’s as they are a sea urchin’s. And, well yes, spiders have eight legs – so do crabs. And the wings aren’t wings at all, they’re enormous fins. This is a sea monster. I call it the Chimerican.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Ah, okay. Right. Um… Do you speak?

T.
The goat mouth opens, and from it shoots out a long prehensile tongue, more akin to a tentacle than it is a lingual muscle, which wraps around the bars of the cage and tries to wrench them apart.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I’m gonna take that as a no.

Natalia
Maesie just, like, sits on the ground and just stares at this thing and just starts taking stock of what it is.

Kim
What’s going through your mind?

Natalia
Honestly, not surprise in the sense of, like, what this is. Maesie’s aware that there are things beyond comprehension, and this is not her first time seeing weird things with too many legs. She lives in the ocean. We don’t know what’s down there. It’s more just the fact that Mr. Hutchinson was this all along, and she’d never even thought that this could possibly be something that he was hiding. It’s a weird balance of sadness at the betrayal of not being trusted, but also awe at the ability to keep this secret.

Kim
Let’s go back to the Conservatory. I suppose first, a question. We’re about to enter, similarly to the Ballroom, a flashback to a series of events that took place here several days ago. How is it that we’re viewing this? Is this yet another dream that Rabbit is bringing to life?

Robert
If it is, I don’t think it’s intentionally. I think this is maybe some dark magic, because of the blood spilled in this place, that’s sort of using Rabbit to tell its story.

Kim
I like it. Alright. Cass.

[Tense ambience]

Kim
The year is 1845, and Roger has just brought his next victim to Hargrave House. Describe their entrance into the Conservatory. How do we know they’ve just returned from a party, ebullient?

Cassandra
They slip into the conservatory, arm in arm, both flushed with laughter, and the thrill of escaping the crowded ballroom. Lantern light scatters across the glass ceiling, catching on the greenery and turning their entrance into something almost theatrical. The young girl twirls through the ferns, her skirt swirling, breathless with delight. He follows with a smooth, effortless charm, softly closing the door and locking it without the young girl’s notice. The air is thick with jasmine.

Roger moves to a well-used gramophone on a table near a warm leather chair.

[Distant music]

Cassandra
After a moment, music begins to play, bouncing softly off the glass bay windows. He extends a hand – alight, steady, practiced – and she takes it without hesitation, glowing and breathless. Together, they drift around the room, their buoyant energy trailing behind them like ribbons as the Conservatory and the plants within swallow their laughter.

Kim
Back to the rooms of Mr. Hutchinson.

T.
The creature is, with every possible moment and different angle, never testing the same part of the cage twice, trying to break free and kill you.

Natalia
Considering that Mr. Hutchinson has kept this secret the entire time Maesie’s been here, I think she just assumes that this cage is sturdy, that this has definitely happened before and this is safe. This is a safe place to be right now, outside of this cage.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Well, considering that you don’t talk for once, which is nice, maybe you can just sit and listen – which you’re also not very good at doing. But maybe this version of you can.

I don’t know if Rabbit’s talked to you yet, but he’s saying that he might leave Hargrave at some point. And I don’t really know how to feel about it because he’s… I feel like he hasn’t been here that long, but I guess he has been here longer than I have, but I feel like he hasn’t been here that long since I’ve been here, and I just… I don’t know. Did you know?

T.
When you say Rabbit, you notice the creature’s wolf ears perk up, and it stops actively gnashing and chomping and biting and instead, does quiet and tilt its ears toward you. And looking around the room, you can see… I know you’ve been in here before. Hutchinson doesn’t, but I know you’ve been in here before. But of all of the things One-Shot could have chosen to soundproof his room with, he chose books. He chose stories.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
You know, someone gave me a book once when I first moved in here. And you seem to like books. So I’ll be… I’ll be right back.

Natalia
And Maesie runs to her room and brings back the copy of fairy tales that she got way way back.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
So there was one page marked which is… it felt kind of pointed. Like, “you’re a sea creature, you’ll like a sea story.” So maybe I’ll read you this one, because you’re also kind of a sea creature, right? You’ve got like a weird tail and some fins. I don’t really know what you are. You’re a lot.

T.
As you are returning, you see the creature kind of settle down almost into a pounce, like a lion coming down to rest. And you can see, between the knobs of the fins, there are slits resembling gills.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
So this is The Tale of the Little Mermaid. I’ve already read it. It’s really sad, but it feels kind of appropriate. You know… Oh my god, you know when I went to the ballet? It was kind of like that.

Natalia
And she just starts reading The Little Mermaid to him.

Kim
Let’s go back to the Conservatory. Nat, you’re on double duty tonight.

[Tense ambience, distant music]

Kim
Continue the scene, showing Roger and his soon-to-be victim enjoying each other’s company – laughing, celebrating, and generally having a good time. What red flags does Roger’s companion fail to notice throughout the night?

Natalia
Roger continues to twirl his young partner across the tiled floor of the conservatory. As she spins around the room, she fails to notice the hints of dried blood that just haven’t been fully gotten out from between them. Eventually, once they’ve had their fill, both panting for breath, Roger offers her a seat in the very comfortable chair that he has here, choosing to stand himself. And they partake in some liquor from his cabinet. They’re already drunk by this point, having just come from a party, and it’s easy for Roger to substitute stronger substances for what she thinks might be alcohol. She drunkenly stands and stumbles around, looking at the different flowers, completely missing the row of gardening tools: a machete, a pair of shears, a saw – that are all much too clean to be used on plants.

Kim
We return back upstairs.

T.
As you read the story, the creature folds its legs underneath itself, and actually begins to relax. The breathing steadies. And you see it develops something resembling tranquility. It’s not asleep, but it’s focused. It’s not berserk.

Natalia
As that change in its demeanor starts to take place, Maesie starts scooting her way across the floor, originally leaning against one of the bookshelves lining the wall, until she is instead sitting as close to face to face with this creature, the book still in between them. And as she finishes the story of the young girl turning into sea form, she closes the book slightly and just says…

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Do you have, um… Do you have like a favorite story?

Natalia
She holds up the table of contents.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Could you possibly try and… I mean, I know you understand things. Do you want to pick the next one?

T.
As you hold the book up and with the pages toward it, you feel it, first in your bones before you hear it, but a primeval growl begins.

[A low roar]

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
If you have another book that you like, I can go get that one.

T.
Jaws snap against the bars of the cage.

Natalia
Maesie jumps back from that.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Okay. That’s alright.

Natalia
She backs up into a corner.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Look, I know maybe you don’t… I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to tell. I’m not going to leave. I’m not going to leave. So you’re just going to have to deal with that.

T.
As you sit there and watch, the tranquility that the storytelling had brought over this creature fades away, and it begins to thrash and batter itself against the bars of its cage, pulling taut on the manacle, going and raging against the other. Tossing its head, that snake-like tongue again lashing at the bars, trying to break them open. But you do see the cage is strong. Whoever made it, made it for something large, and made it to withstand a lot of force.

Natalia
Maesie sees a glass of water, just sitting on a nightstand in the room. And just sorts of lifts the water out of the glass and starts dancing it in little bubbles of water, little pearls of water, just like around the cage, the moonlight sort of refracting through them.

T.
And the beauty is lost on this creature, who cannot see.

Kim
Let’s make our final trip to the Conservatory.

[Tense ambience]

Kim
Robert. Narrate Roger killing his prey. The scene should be extremely violent and bloody. What about the killing makes it seem ritualistic, even religious?

Robert
As the stronger stuff that Roger slipped his dancing partner begins to take hold, she slumps to the ground. He takes her and carefully puts her in a prostrate position, her legs on the ground, her face resting upon her knees. He unbuttons the buttons of her dress, slowly, one by one, exposing her back but not fully removing the dress.

Over by his piles of books, he grabs a small scalpel, makes an incision along her spine. Peeling the skin back, and revealing her ribcage. He takes the gardening shears off of the rack and, one by one, snaps each of her ribs, separating them from the spine.

Very carefully, for she is still alive as he is doing all of this, he reaches into the cavity and pulls out her lungs, placing them upon the spread ribs as through they were a pair of angel’s wings.

And as she breathes her last, those lungs quivery as she gasps for air, he simply mutters to himself, “How the little piggies will grunt when they hear how the old boar suffer.”

Kim
Mr. Lloyd and Miss Thanero, as this particularly bloody vision fades, how do we find you?

Robert
Rabbit is shaken by this. He did not call upon this vision. This was some dark, ancient blood magic working its way through him. He came here to try and find himself, try and pull himself back together, and is instead feeling even more pulled apart as these nightmarish visions meld with the ones earlier he had seen at the ballet, and the countless nightmares that flow to the surface of his mind that he had experienced while serving the Queen of the Unseelie court.

Mr. Lloyd (Robert)
Sorry. That wasn’t me. It’s a nice reminder, though. Even the most beautiful parts of this world have their darkness.

Cassandra
Ena is just staring straight forward, still seated on this bench. She has seen the vision, and it has not moved her. For over her many, many years of life, she has seen violence in every incarnation imaginable. And so it doesn’t phase her. It certainly doesn’t comfort her. But it leaves her with this feeling of unending emptiness. And she looks over to rabbit, sees him shaking, and doesn’t have the will to try to comfort him or explain it. She just sits there. The gold in her eyes has gone out. The breeze in her hair is gone. For once, she looks ancient. And she just stares at Rabbit quietly, and then goes back to staring off at something we can’t see.

T.
As the dark before the dawn deepens to its nadir, the bones and the extra appendages dissolve, and the flesh sinks back into Hutchinson. Maesie sees the man that she knew, a steel manacle wrapped around his neck, the chain tied to the floor, covered in sweat. Breathing heavy as his mandible retracts, connects back into his TMJ, and the teeth return to human.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Did I hurt you?

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Well you’re not wearing any clothes, so it’s kind of weird to see you like this.

T.
He laughs.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
[Chuckles, coughs]

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Uh, but no. Other than that, it was… it was fine.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Thank you for tending to me.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
That’s what friends do.

T.
He begins to silently weep.

Natalia
Maesie does too. She’s a sympathetic crier.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
You’re right about me, you know. I am a coward. I’ve been keeping this from you all, doing my best to bed it down, but it’s going to get the best of me, no matter what side of the ocean I’m on.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Is there anything we can do?

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
I don’t know. But if I lose control again, if we can’ t keep me caged, I hope you do what needs to be done.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
No.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Maesie.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
No. I cannot keep losing people again.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Sometimes you don’t have a say in the matter, girl.

[A beat]

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
I have a daughter. Would be about your age. I ain’t seen her since the day I left her on my parents’ doorstep. But sometimes, in order to protect the people dearest to you, you have to leave them behind.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
You can ask many things of me, but I will not do this. I won’t.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
She will.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Then ask her.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Like I said, you’re right about me. Please don’t tell her. I know I need to, but I don’t know how. But it should come from me.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
I know. This is not mine to tell.

T.
He nods, and bows his head in gratitude.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Are you alright now?

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
I’m tired, and I’m hungry. But I’m no more danger to you than I usually am.

Miss Douglas (Natalia)
Grand.

Natalia
She walks out of the room.

Mr. Hutchinson (T.)
Natural talent as a storyteller, that one.

T.
And she unfastens the manacle, and just sits in the cage for a while.

[An ominous, rumbling woosh]

Kim
Welcome to the dawn.

[Gentle piano]

T.
Great to be here.

Kim
We made it.

T.
I’ve aged 10 years this night.

Kim
First order of business, T. and Natalia, go ahead and mark one point of experience.

T.
Ooh!

Natalia
Yay. For friendship!

Kim
Yep. For the power of friendship.

Natalia
[Laughs]

Kim
And Natalia, please define something interesting about Mr. Hutchinson’s transformation. This will be a Clue that will be used whenever we unlock the Threat, The Cursed.

Natalia
In Mr. Hutchinson’s human form, he is covered in these scars that disappear when he turns into his cursed form. But instead what he has in his cursed form that he doesn’t have in his human form is a brand of a sun, in the middle of his spine between his wings.

Kim
Alright everyone, add that to your notes for whenever the Cursed is unveiled.

Next order or business, we did a room in Hargrave House, so you get things! You all may claim an item mentioned or implied during these prompt narrations, and add it to your personal quarters.

T.
I’ll take the gramophone.

Cassandra
I am going to take the Venus fly trap.

Kim
Should we call it the Aphrodite fly trap, or are we…?

Cassandra
Hell yes, we should. That’s actually – that’s what I’m gonna put it into my Personal Quarters items as.

Robert
I’ll take Roger’s scalpel.

Natalia
I think I’m going to take one of the broken ribs.

Kim
And now the Conservatory is unlocked.

Cassandra
Yay!

T.
Hooray!

Natalia
New room!

Kim
The move you have unlocked is as follows: the first time you murder a Side Character in the Conservatory in the manner of Roger the Reaver, clear all of your Conditions, including conditions that cannot be cleared in the normal way…

T.
What?!

Kim
And then mark the first box below. Hereafter, whenever you murder someone in cold blood, mark the next box. This move is available to all hunters until one hunter uses it, at which point only that hunter can use the move. The first box: Increase your Sensitivity by 2, max of +3, as your mind opens up to the infinite possibilities of the universe, then take the Condition: I am. This Condition can never be cleared.

The second box: increase your Reason by 2, max of 3, as your mind becomes a perfect grid for organizing and tracking your prey, then take the Condition: Roger. This Condition can never be cleared.

And the final box: increase your Vitality by 2, max of +3, as the power of the Reaver courses through you. Describe how your body outwardly manifests this change, then take the Condition:  The Reaver. This Condition can never be cleared.

Natalia
And then you just become Roger the Reaver?

Kim
Yeah.

Natalia
Nice.

Robert
I mean, you get to keep playing. You just can’t take any Conditions.

Natalia
That’s pretty sick. Just saying, as someone who consistently has Conditions…

Kim
Let’s go to Dawn questions. Did we answer a question?

[A chorus of No’s]

Kim
Did you resolve a Threat?

[A chorus of No’s]

Kim
Did you get an Echo in the Night?

[A chorus of “We can’t.”]

Kim
Miss Thanero, did you appear in London society wearing risque or avant-garde fashion?

Cassandra
My forever “yes.”

Kim
Did you let someone touch you and then make them pay the price for doing so?

Cassandra
Yes, at the cobbler.

Kim
Miss Douglas, did you assert your independence or stand up for yourself?

Natalia
I would say yes, during my discussion with Augustus.

Kim
And did you mourn being unable to return home?

Natalia
Yes. I did that earlier, with Greco.

Kim
Mr. Lloyd, did you have a face-to-face encounter with a Dark Entity?

Robert
I don’t think so.

Kim
Did you counsel someone using your supernatural affinities as the basis for that advice?

Robert
That one I did do, with Maesie in the morning.

Kim
And Mr. Hutchinson, did you use violence to solve a problem?

T.
Yeah, I killed a vampire.

Kim
[Laughs] That was a big problem that you solved. And did you share a treasured memory from the States during an intimate moment with another character?

T.
I told James Whistler about a goat biting me on the butt with Davy Crockett.

Kim
And then we sure saw what happened to that goat… Does anybody level up?

T.
I do.

Kim
Mr. Hutchinson, you may choose an advancement.

T.
I am going to write a Custom Move.

Kim
Alright. We will hear what that is, perhaps in the Day Phase. I’m excited.

Well done, hunters. What an interesting, exciting night. More threats await us in the morning. Sleep well.

[Shadows in the Smoke theme]

Kim
Shadows in the Smoke is a Kitten Marlowe production. This episode was edited and produced by Kim Dalton, and featured a theme song by Jake Pierle. You can find out more about us by visiting KittenMarlowe.com, signing up for our newsletter, or following us on socials. For Discord access, an exclusive behind-the-scenes show, and more, visit Patreon.com/Kittenmarlowe and join Shawk and all of our incredible Kitten Marlowe patrons in supporting artist-driven storytelling. Thanks for listening.