Ep. 48: The Eleventh Hour - Chapter Eight

"Let me do some quick calculations. According to my math, there’s a zero percent chance the boys don’t wang this one up. It’s the Adventure Zone!"

Synopsis
Full transcript available here.

''Could you resist the power to go back and change your very worst mistake? What if it meant unraveling some of the non-mistakes you've made since? Also: Imagine, for the sake of this hypothetical, that you're a complete goober. Merle runs out for smokes. Taako takes the show on the road. Magnus goes home.''

The Tres Horny Boys have taken up the Temporal Chalice's offer to at least see what it has to offer them before taking it back to home base to be destroyed. Let's hope they don't fuck this one up.

Merle
Merle finds himself standing alone in a white space. Standing in front of him is a slightly less older June, who is holding the Temporal Chalice and who is deep in concentration as she scans through Merle's memories, which Merle can also see everywhere around him as if was being projected in front of him. While this happens, Clint expands a bit on Merle's backstory:

BEGIN EXPOSITION

Merle comes from a wooded enclave away from most of society. He was born into a Panite commune and comes from a religious family of beach dwarves. Merle's father, who was also a Panite, had forced him to many religious functions, every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, Summer Pan Camp etc. which Merle did not enjoy, but dealt with it so he wouldn't disappoint his father or get grounded. Because of this, his religion is something he's inherited and therefore has mixed feelings on Pan.

Later on in his life, Merle would end up in an arranged, loveless marriage with his now somewhat ex-wife, Hekuba Roughridge, in order to keep the dwarven bloodline pure. Hekuba had had a daughter named Mavis with another dwarf before marrying Merle. During their marriage, Merle and his wife would have a son named Mookie. After years of putting up with each other, Merle ended up abandoning his family, saying he was going to the Dwarf Store to get smokes and never looking back. Because they never properly divorced, Merle is still legally married to Hekuba and is now a "dwarf on the run".

END EXPOSITION

As Clint is relaying all this, "June" is rewinding through these specific points of Merle's life, eventually running into a long, unbroken period of static before managing to rewind past it. "June" eventually stops at a certain point in Merle's memories, and Merle finds himself back in Lucas's lab with his past self in front of him about to grab one of the pink crystals, a move that led to the loss of his arm.

Taako
WIP

Featured Music

 * The Chalice