"The Broken Column"

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***"The Broken Column"*** is the nineteenth episode of KOllOK 1991.

## Synopsis

The group reunites, leading to several confrontations. Some answers are provided, which help them to start to understand their situation and they make a tentative plan of action. They soon learn that their safety is in jeopardy, no matter where they go.

## Plot

“Kollok, Washington. 1991. The heart of North America. The place where it all began. You may not know what “all” is but you know for certain this is where it comes from. Kollok is our family sedan. Our world’s best, despite being contained by national borders. Our backyard with an unused swing. It’s our collective American dream…”

Before the episode started, in her pre-show journal entry, Ai states that Sayaka was “stalking” Skye and Em Pegg during a period of time where Em Pegg was using her powers. Zac had her roll her brains with a difficulty of five, and she succeeded via a combination of her roll and her tokens. As a result of this, Sayaka became mentally immune to Em Pegg’s power, though her body was unable to move.

March 16. Or is it 19th? It depends on who you ask... Portland, Oregon. In a small office with floor to ceiling bookshelves, there is a large dark wooden desk overlooking the landscape of downtown. On this wooden desk sits a gold name plate that reads “Director Butterscotch.” Butterscotch stands next to a flickering TV set, which is now reporting the death of an FBI agent at a local hotel. He sadly muses over the death of Bucket. His mind moves to questioning the significance of 6:30pm on March 21st, a date and time that sticks out to him as he doesn’t believe there is going to be a 6:31 pm. He could not see past this point in the future, and in looking to the future, he doesn’t realize he is not living in the present. He is periodically distracted by his memories of Bucket, his grief, and his confusion over what happens next.

As he thinks of the time he spent with Bucket, he believes that Bucket is telling him to focus his mind. When he does, he is able to see past the order and into the chaos. He sees a scared girl and a scared boy, chased by an equally scared mob. Mike shields her from flying debris being thrown at them, but Lexi insists that she doesn’t need help. Butterscotch calls for his agents to evacuate the city, but it is too late. He is immediately killed in a large flash of light which overtakes the city below.

9:30pm. Greer farm. As they are waiting for Clarity to signal that she is safely with the Greers, Skye, Em Pegg, and Sayaka are approached by a man with an owl, who knocks on the driver’s side window. He is an older man wearing suspenders and a flannel shirt with rolled up sleeves. The owl climbs onto his shoulder.

He knows Skye by name, which shocks the group. He claims that the owl told him her name, as well as a lot of other things, including the fact that Skye is “running out of time.” When questioned, he states that he is clearly stating that Skye, and only Skye, is running out of time. Skye believes it is connected to the debt she already paid, but the man claims to know nothing of that. The group believes that the owl is the equivalent of the man’s imaginary friend, though the man claims that he is simply able to understand the owl. The man says that knew Skye was at the farm because “the farm told him” she would be there, which the group, again, refuses to believe.

When Skye questions what he means by “running out of time,” the man states that she is not supposed to be “now.” She is running out of time, not in the sense of an hourglass, but in a different time period. He tells the group that Sayaka and Em Pegg need to die in order for Skye to return to the correct time, which Sayaka quickly believes. The other two talk her out of this, though. However, the man offhandedly insists that the others will have to die, but he gives her no more information besides that.

Neither he nor “the farm” know where she is supposed to be, but he knows no more information than that, other than everyone is going to die except for Skye, who he is unsure about. He also claims that there is no way to stop it; everyone will die, not just Em Pegg and Sayaka. He insists that there is no way to change the situation because “he is talking to them.” He states that, since he is there talking to them, their deaths are essentially sealed. It is not a problem, it is just the way things are. His only purpose in making the trip was to tell them that they were going to die. After a roundabout conversation about his own history and his owl, he tells the three that he needs to leave before something bad happens.

This “something bad” is revealed to be the gunshot from inside the Greer farm. Skye, Em Pegg, and Sayaka “sneakily” hurry up to the front door. Sayaka draws the electricity from the house, causing a distraction and giving them an advantage in terms of a possible weapon that could be used. The three enter the farmhouse and come upon James Greer, who has realized what has happened and is wailing for Clarity. Skye is initially unsuccessful in finding a weapon to be used though, upon further inspection , is able to find a cane to use.

The three work their way down the hall of the house using electricity held by Sayaka as a light. They come upon the bathroom of the house, where they see a puddle of blood; this is where they discovered the body of the Clarity they brought with them. However, they do not see a potential shooter. Skye throws her shoe down the hallway to serve as a potential distraction, and it is quickly destroyed by a single shotgun shot.

Skye immediately uses her power, which is the ability to shape-shift. She morphs into James Greer as a disguise, allowing her to confuse Brook, who is holding the shotgun. After getting Brook’s attention with moaning similar to James’, Skye calls for Sayaka to shoot the electricity off. However, Sayaka is unable to maintain the energy, and only a little flash of light shoots off, causing no damage. Brook believes Sayaka to be harming “Jim”/Skye, and demands that she step away from “him.”

Em Pegg emerges from hiding, asking why Brook shot Clarity. Brook’s son panics, babbling that they needed Clarity and that Brook should not have killed her since “they needed her” for the sake of the farm. He says that they could have just used “parts of her,” and that now that she was dead, once she was used up, they would not have anything left to help their crops.

Brook is interrupted by Em Pegg’s persuasive abilities. While she is lowering the gun, Skye (still resembling James Greer) leaps from her chair and attacks her. She is unsuccessful in this and Brook smashes the gun into her face with enough force to shatter her nose. This also breaks the illusion of Skye being James. After this, Brook’s teenage son wrenches the rifle from his mother’s hand.

Skye and Em Pegg explain why they came to the farm: to bring the Clarity clone to see James. Brook incoherently states that the farm is in trouble, their crops are dying, and the farm itself has gone significantly downhill since Clarity was taken away from them. Since Clarity was removed from their home, her returning to them makes them a target - Clarity was never meant to leave the tower. Brook’s son reveals that James was in love with Clarity and, once his mind was starting to go, Clarity was all he would talk about.

Brook decides that, since they brought Clarity to the farm, “it’s their problem now.” She then enters a closed room and, when she returns, she is holding a baby. She introduces him as A.J., and says that he has been an infant for approximately 20 years. She insists that the group take A.J. with them since she believes that Clarity Prime is on her way to the farm. If Clarity’s body and the baby (who Clarity Prime was unaware of) were not removed from the farm in time, Clarity Prime would order the farm to be burnt down.

Reluctantly, Em Pegg takes the baby in her one un-paralyzed arm, and her, Skye, and Sayaka get back into the van. While there, the three discuss their new baby and, upon Skye’s insistence, they decide to rename it. Sayaka believes that she, specifically, is tasked with giving him a new name . She selects J.A. as the new name because, while A.J. had a “bad past,” reversing his initials would reverse his fortune, allowing for him to have a good future. With the renaming completed, the three leave the farm for the FBI’s temporary headquarters.

On the helicopter, Billy, Tibby, and Mickey discuss their current situation. While on the helicopter, Billy uses his power to mask the gun that Mickey’s mom was holding in order to prevent her from being a suspect in Bucket’s murder. Mickey insists that the group go after Lexi since she is a dangerous liability. Tibby stammers that they should not since they all have powers and Lexi is just unable to control them. He says that Lexi has to live with what she did, to which Mickey replies that she does as well. Mickey berates Tibby for being unable to save her father, though Tibby says that there was nothing to use to restore him. Mickey questions him as to whether he would have revived her father if there was since he chose not to resurrect Bucket.

Mickey questions him as to whether he would have saved her, Billy, his parents, or anyone who was important to him. Tibby believes that he would not have brought any of them back since he always feels what he is doing to others - for instance, when he was saving Skye, it felt like he had his hand around her throat and was slowly killing her. Mickey insists that once he finds what he cares about the most, he will think differently. She states that when she decides to act, she will do it on her own. Tibby is shocked to believe that Mickey would kill Lexi and wonders whether she feels anything when she does this. She says that she does feel something when she kills someone, but losing her dad felt worse.

Tibby looks for help from Billy. Billy halfheartedly offers a defense, but he agrees with both Tibby and Mickey. Billy places the blame on Synchroneity and, if Mickey wants revenge, they need to get to the bottom of that problem. Mickey requests that Billy make her mother and sister forget that she ever existed in order to make their lives easier. She believes that they would be better off since Mickey’s mother had said that Mickey was “not her daughter; she was a freak.” Tibby’s insists that they not be able to use their powers in this way, as no one in the history of the world has had the ability to do this.

Mickey believes that Tibby is taking the moral high ground, unlike the others, and Billy seriously tells Tibby to stay “the way he is.” Billy says that he will then take a break from using his power unless it is direly needed. Part of Mickey’s request is that her mother and sister believe that Michael Jones got divorced, went to Kollok, and died there. Billy finds a Michael Jones in another universe where Mickey never existed, though he was not dead. He must inadvertently kill this Michael Jones in order to comply with Mickey’s request. However, Billy does not feel anything, emotionally or physically, when he does this. Billy then tells Tibby that he does not need to use his power if he does not want to, which Tibby takes to heart.

Mickey, Billy, and Tibby arrive at the FBI headquarters and, shortly after, Sayaka, Skye, Em Pegg, and J.A. arrive in the truck. They see Marcus standing outside, blankly staring off into the distance, suffering under the weight of losing Bucket and the mental connection they shared. The group share their recent experiences and, upon learning of Bucket’s death, Em Pegg is in denial and disbelief. Skye immediately blames Tibby for his lack of action. She berates Tibby until Tibby leaves the group and enters the headquarters. Shortly after, Marcus’ mom emerges from the headquarters and asks if Marcus had seen his father and sister. The group is surprised to see her talking openly about Marcus’ sister.

Marcus assures his mother that his father and Laura will return and his mother, fearing for her safety, decides to stay at the headquarters for protection along with most of the citizens of Kollok. As she turns to walk back inside, Em Pegg calls out for her to potentially have her take care of J.A. Skye, who had been openly hostile to Mrs. Bennett, immediately shoots this idea down, saying that because Marcus’ mom is “bad,” they would not give J.A. over to her, nor would they allow Sayaka to go with her alone in order to find diapers. Marcus’ mom goes back into the facility alone while the group stays together outside.

Marcus then reveals how his sister was able to return - she was cloned using his DNA. He tells them about how he erased their memories about what had happened with his sister’s cloning and how Laura was upset about this, so she fled. Skye angrily tells Marcus that, with her memories erased, the blame of what they had done may fall solely on Skye’s mother. Mickey questions Marcus as to what he had learned from taking Mrs. Bennett’s memories, though she only knew specific information about the cloning, not anything about the hit that was placed on Michael Jones.

The group’s discussion is interrupted by Larson, who had been listening to the whole conversation while casually eating potato chips. Larson takes the group (minus Tibby and Billy) to Agent Bilfroy.

Outside the FBI facility, Mr. Bennett wades through the woods in an effort to find Laura. He believed he needed to follow her to check on her and bring her back. Suddenly, he hears something in the woods; every step he took, there was a sound of a footstep behind him. When he stopped, it stopped. He searched for a rock to defend himself with, but it did not matter. The thing could smell Marcus on him and knew his prey was close. It did not matter to this thing that Mr. Bennett was not Marcus - the monster attacked and killed him.

The group meets Agent Bilfroy, who already knows that Bucket was dead. They present J.A. to her and give a brief description of what happened (James and Clarity having a baby, J.A.’s age, etc.). Agent Bilfroy is largely disinterested, and confers “ownership” of J.A. to Sayaka. Skye describes her encounter with the man with the owl, and Bilfroy is surprised to hear of this. She knows of this man and claims that he is Death. She tells the group that Death once visited her, telling her that “they would never speak again,” resulting in her advanced age.

Bilfroy is unable to explain why Death visited Skye. Em Pegg reminds the group that Death told them that everyone would die because Skye is “almost out of time.” Skye and Mickey describe the events surrounding her previous death and return, stating that she was in The Grotto in the meantime, and describing how she paid her debt. Skye remembers that she entered The Grotto on March 15th, and she believes the current day to be March 16th.

However, the actual day of this encounter is March 19th. Thus, she is “out of time;” she is still on March 16th while time has passed for the others. For the others, she returned on March 18th; for her, she returned March 16th. When time eventually catches up with her, something will happen. Agent Bilfroy is unable to explain what will happen when this happens. Skye worriedly asks if there is a way that she can reverse this future or save them all from dying. Bilfroy reiterates that, when the two days that Skye has lost catch up with her, something would happen to the world. She tells the group that “a man revealed himself to the world today,” saying that the world would be held accountable for their crimes. This answer for the crimes of man may in fact be the painful event that Skye’s catchup with time would encounter.

Bilfroy describes the mirror that the Stone Masons built and how it can show the “crimes” of the Prime universe against other universes that exist. She believes that this is how Bunny is able to claim that retaliation is coming. Bilfroy bemoans the fact that they did not stop Synchroneity sooner, as this lack of action had put the entire universe at risk. Bilfroy claims that the government plans to destroy the mirror, and she is no longer in control of Department C. Thus, the group is no longer safe. However, Bilfroy encourages them to rest since there is nothing that can be done at present. Bilfroy is unable to answer what will happen if the government fails or if Skye catches up with the present time, though she will inform the group if she hears anything about the matter.

Larson takes the group to a mostly-empty room specifically for the group. They are intended to be a secret from the rest of the citizens seeking refuge. The only other person in the room that Larson leads them to is Nick, who is wrapped in “special bandages” that are actually toilet paper, which Larson put on him after treating his injuries. Larson offers his condolences for the group’s situation.

The group enter the room and despite the group advising Sayaka to let Nick sleep, she calls out to him and wakes him up. Nick, hearing her voice, jolts awake, believing he is dying. Nick is pleased to see the group is still alive, and he reiterates that he is not a ghost and cannot fly; he is just invisible. The group allows Nick to return to sleep, though Nick frequently looks over his shoulder to make sure Sayaka is maintaining a good amount of distance.

Billy and Tibby have a heart to heart conversation about matters such as the afterlife, their parents, and their future. Billy tells Tibby that, if there was a god, that he would tell Tibby that he is doing the right thing. Tibby assures Billy that it is okay that Skye and the group are mad at him. Billy offers Tibby an agreement; once they are seniors and everyone else is graduated, Billy will use his powers to make everyone forget that Billy and Tibby have their powers. Billy believes that, in the future, they may ask Tibby to heal their sick loved ones, regardless of what their ailment is. Tibby questions whether they would even make it to graduation, but Billy assures them that they will. Billy makes a plan for them to go to the same college; while Tibby gets better grades that Billy does, Billy may use his powers to get in. Billy jokes about getting together with Tibby’s mom, which catches Tibby off-guard and makes him laugh.

Marcus, unbeknownst to Tibby and Billy, has heard their entire conversation. He interrupts the conversation, calling Tibby over to him. Marcus asks Tibby how he feels about using his powers in their situation, particularly in the upcoming potential struggles where he will need to act quickly. Tibby tells him that he does not want to use them for major healing. Tibby worries that the backlash from using his power may be increasing, since he felt particularly uneasy when he “healed” Marcus’ mother. Tibby tells Marcus that he is fine healing minor injuries, however. Marcus cuts his finger with a glass bottle in order to test Tibby’s willingness to use his power, though this is just a ploy to grab Tibby’s hand.

Marcus intends to take the memory of the moment Tibby realized he had his power. He is potentially able to try and, while he has an inkling that he may be able to do it, he is unable to do this at the time. Tibby heals Marcus’ minor injury and jerks his hand away. Marcus subtly claims that he wants to “make Tibby feel better” (via taking his power) and that he intends to “help Billy as well” (by potentially taking Billy’s power as well).

Tibby leaves Marcus in order to heal the others. He is able to heal Em Pegg’s paralyzed arm and Skye’s broken nose. He is particularly happy with healing Skye’s nose, as it meant she was able to break another Skye’s nose. The group, exhausted, then lays down to rest.

Billy reaches out to the voice inside himself. He is able to contact it and he sees a man that he does not recognize, though a part of him seems to. This man, Bert, describes the events of their previous lives (in the previous series “The Kids on Bikes Playtest”). They have a brief conversation, where Bert warns Billy that he is running out of time and something is not right. He believes that, while Billy is able to change the perception of reality, he is also able to see through reality when others have changed it. Bert encourages him to use this ability in the future. Bert warns Billy that “it is going to get worse before it gets better.” Bert bemoans the fact that Billy does not remember their previous adventures, though Billy claims that is not sure that he did not want to leave Bert’s universe. Bert then tells Billy that he needs to wake up since there is a gun pointed at him.

Billy wakes up to find a red dot pointed at his forehead. The group is surrounded by a group wearing all black. The team moves into where the group is sleeping. Only Billy and Em Pegg are aware of their arrival; Em Pegg had awoken by hearing the group’s footsteps. Before Billy can use his power , he is hit by a dart and sedated. Em Pegg, seeing this, uses her power to freeze time. She explores the facility, seeing many of the people there already captured and tied up. She sees a frozen television broadcast describing the destruction of Portland. She then sees Agent Bilfroy, who is bound with a bag over her head, being taken from her darkened room. It appears that, after the explosion in Portland, Department C was shut down and deemed a threat.

This time, as a result of using her power, Em Pegg is in the void for a total of 16 months. She first uses this time to remove the military unit, placing them into vans which she drives off a pier, leaving them frozen just above the water so that, when time unfroze, they would fall in and likely drown. She then returns to the towers at Synchroneity, thinking there may be another Clarity there. However, even though only a few hours had passed since their last visit, it appears that the entire floor of the tower has changed - the doors that once led to rooms now led nowhere.

Em Pegg returns to the FBI facility. In the first 6 months of her time there, she spends time with Skye, dressing her up, periodically moving her, and talking with her. During this time, she realizes that Sayaka seems to be listening to her. She turns Sayaka to face a darkened corner for the remaining 12 months in order to have privacy, which takes a heavy toll on her sanity.

Before time unfreezes, Em Pegg cooks breakfast for the group, locks the doors to the facility, and brings Bilfroy into their room. Bilfroy gasps, which awakens the rest of the group, who is unaware of time’s passing. Em Pegg tells the group of the team that came to capture them, as well as the fact that Portland was destroyed. Bilfroy tells the group that it was Lexi who destroyed Portland unintentionally.

Bilfroy claims that they only have about two or three minutes before the team sent to capture them does not answer, which will make more soldiers come for them. Mickey uses her power to track Lexi, finding her to be unconscious on a helicopter. Bilfroy again tells the group that more soldiers are coming, and that she knows of no safe place that they can go. They decide to go to the towers in order to see what event will happen there that Bunny described.

Bilfroy tells them that, on the way out, they should pick up the man at the front of the facility who is there, as this man claims that he can help the group. Marcus asks whether the civilians at the facility will be safe, and Bilfroy is fairly certain that they will be left alone.

The group passes by the holding cell, which appears to be made of solid glass. They see the man in black: Clarence Anah. Clarence insists that he be let out, and Marcus vouches for him, even though he killed Sammy. Marcus and Sayaka break the glass door open and, in the process, Marcus unintentionally touches Sayaka’s hand. He takes Sayaka’s memories of being trapped in her mind for sixteen months, including the first four months of Sayaka’s time watching Em Pegg and Skye. He also gets a few superficial memories of Sayaka’s childhood. As soon as he takes these memories, he immediately questions Em Pegg regarding her actions when time was stopped.

Clarence tells the group that he heard explosions outside and that they need to leave. Marcus finds keys to a van outside and the group of Skye, Billy, Mickey, Tibby, Marcus, Sayaka, Em Pegg, Clarence, and Nick flee the facility, heading towards Kollok and the towers.

## Cast

### Main Cast

* Andre Meadows as Marcus Bennett
* Lucas Eubank as Billy Baker
* Meghan "Strawburry17" Camarena as Skye Hawkins
* Shelby "Shubble" Grace as Mickey Jones
* Zac Lim Eubank as The Driver

### Guests

* Ai Yoshihara as Sayaka Omari
* Mika Midgett as Embeth "Em" Pegg

## Rumors

1. Clarity Prime answers to no one, she is responsible for all this.
2. Clarity Prime is the only one who can save us from the others.
3. Clarity Prime will do what's right, sacrifice herself.
4. Clarity Prime knows where Rachel is. (winner)

## Notes

Some interesting things about this episode, or the making of this episode...

## Footnotes

1. ↑ Meghan initially failed her dice roll to find a weapon. However, upon a second try she was able to roll an 18 against the required difficulty of 13, thanks to her Charm Die, a D10, exploding, enabling her to find a cane.
2. ↑ Mika used three tokens to use Em Pegg’s Rebellious skill (allowing her to persuade adults) in order to have Em Pegg get Brook to lower her rifle.
3. ↑  Meghan interrupted GM Zac as he was describing how an NPC was taking the rifle from Brook. As a result, he made her roll for Skye’s safety, which she critically failed. As a result, Skye’s interruption caused her to suffer a broken nose.
4. ↑ Ai failed a brains roll, which led her to believe J.A. was talking to her and specifically requesting a new name
5. ↑ Andre succeeded a brains roll, rolling a 6 against a required difficulty of 6
6. ↑ Every player apart from Em Pegg failed their brains rolls to wake up
7. ↑ Because he had no tokens, Lucas rolled two D4 dice with a required difficulty of 6. He failed this roll, only rolling a 4
8. ↑ Mika rolled two D4 dice with a required difficulty of 6. She succeeded in this roll, rolling a total of 7 (via an exploding dice).
9. ↑ Andre rolled two D4 dice with a required difficulty of 6, rolling a total of 15. He succeeded this roll via three separate exploding dice