S1E37 - Into the Woods

Art by anony-mouse

Listen on the Official Site

—Official Summary

## Synopsis

### Return to Nowhere

Kirin awakens in a booth in the café after the mother’s day adventure. She notices Copernicus is taking pictures of her, as she is not wearing a mask, and also, dressed as a nun somehow. Kirin demands a mask and also « need copernicus to erase these pics ».

The others arrive in the café and Issac asks what happened in this last adventure. Copernicus explains they did not went where they were supposed to, as their original destination collapsed and disapeared. Apparently while they were gone, Rex still hasn’t gone out of his room.

Copernicus takes Issac asides and asks him if he would like to learn to use the Infinity Thrigger. Issac accepts to become his apprentice.

Meanwhile, Hondo goes for a horse ride, and comes back to get breakfast. Thayne joins him, asks Angie for an espresso and then suggest they try to get a shoot at that coffee machine (again). Hondo misses, although it cracked the bulletpoof glass. Angie comes back and blames Thayne, saying he can’t order an espresso when Hondo’s in the room. She threaten to call Kirin if they continue their behaviour. They both seem not very enthousiast at the idea of Angie telling Kirin.

Kirin comes in, as is Issac after an all-nighter of study with Copernicus. Thayne & Hondo bully Issac into ordering three coffees, which angers Angie who turn to Kirin for her order. When she orders an espresso, Angie storms off.

Kirin shares Hondo’s breakfast, although Bubda stole the bacon, but then got lectured by Kirin (« Never the bacon »).

 Kirin asks Issac how he is dealing with the big reveal. Issac seemed to be confused about all that has happened, although he agrees that their work with Copernicus is more important. He suggests they could all go home if they wished (he also realises he’s more similar to Copernicus than he thought, and thinks it’s weird). He confesses wanting to stay in Nowhere due to his heritage, but thinks the other Infiniteers should decide what they want to do for themselves.

Hondo thinks they should stay as the Universe will probably make them fix their world and lead them back home. He also doesn’t want to leave for his selfish reasons, if that means multiple universes would die. Thayne seems a bit discouraged by how quick trees can disappear, but Hondo doesn’t want to take the risks of making people die because he doesn’t want to do his job.

They all agree to do one more world together and decide afterwards if they want to continue or not.

After this rather heavy discussion, Hondo goes to Copernicus. He asks him if Jessica is alive. Copernicus empathises completely with his request, and says he wants to insure their happiness (and also throw them a parade in Nowhere once it is al over). Copernicus agrees to check on his sister.

They stay in Nowhere for two weeks, during which they visist the cemetary, Hondo reads with Henry, and Kirin goes on her own to learn to ride horses. She eventually starts getting good at it, and goes very far into the white. After a while, the others notice she’s gone and start to worry a bit. Eventually she returns.

They get to dinner with Copernicus, Henry and Rex, who finally decided to leave his room («  after a while things just get boring »). Issac and Rex starts a small argument, Hondo talked back to them with wit, making Henry very proud.

They pick food from the menu. Kirin picks the *Pixie Dust*, Hondo the *I can be your angel devil fruitcake*, Thayne the *Foreign twenty black bird pie* & Issac the *Immemoryrum*.

Copernicus asked for this get together, as the infiniteers are to leave in the morning. Issac asks what Rex was going to do here, he says he’ll try to learn things on this world, and also wonders how he can be useful as Kirin did say he was a super hero. (In the following convesation Kirin confesses working with Batman « he sucks ».) Hondo suggests he should take lessons from Henry as he is the Arkham badass. Kirin highlights Henry did save the world a number of time, and that if Rex does what Henry says, she’ll give him a hero lesson. Kirin says she’ll also expect manners, and also he should start think up a hero name.

### Welcome to Tales from the Loop !

In the morning, they are ready to leave. Copernicus says they might not be able to get their weapons in this world, as it might not be appropriate. They start thriggering, apparently to a wood.

They arrive to a dirt parking lot, with smell of pines, sunshine, and noise of birds. They see the words « Camp Cankywampus » with a banner « Welcome back campers, season of 1986 ». Also, they are all children !

They are not very pleased with being kids. Hondo is not happy because his hat changed significantly. Kirin sees she has a toy sword and is very not happy with it. Hondo throws his hat on the ground. Issac sees his gun is now a toy gun. Hondo throws his hat on the sign. Although Issac warns them it’s still their stuff, they shouldn’t leave it there.

Their false memories kick in, as they remember coming in before. They see a man wearing something close to a military outfit (camouflage, ranger hat) come in, they remember him as William McCarthy aka the Sergent, the owner and director of the camp. They remember liking this man a lot. He seems military like (he likes order and things like that), but he really wants the kids to have fun.

The kids line up at the Sergent’s call. They do the call from the camp « Campus campus wahoo ». The sergeant greets them back to the camp. All the Infiniteers except Kirin go to the Woodchucks. Kirin goes to the Sego lilies.

Kirin gets called by her true name, she asks the Sergeant to not reveal her secret idendity. Thayne asks immediately « what’s wrong with your face » as he is now apparently clearly a kid. The councilor of the Sego Lillies is camed Molly Gibson. She looks early 20, attractive. She is smoking and does not look happy about her being here. In her cabin along with Kirin is Tiffany Stacy Bonnet, Betty & Ashley.

They notice the other kids, notably Ingrid Blomsten (the Mountain), and the kids from the Red Squirrel cabin (Mitch Wolf & his wolf pack) who win the cabin countdown every year. Tiffany seems to really want to win this.

The woodchucks cabin is called, with JB Heimfield as the councilor(he seems to be Jo Bob from Issac’s homeworld). Issac, Hondo & Thayne are in, with another kid named Skip. They start talking with JB, who seems a bit unsettled that the kids know his full name when it’s only his first year here. However he brushes it off quickly, as he expresses wanting to win the cabin countdown. Kirin asks the Sergeant if she could be in the woodchucks cabin (expressing gender is a social construct), but it doesn’t work. The boys starts introducing themselves to Skip (who is a small young blonde kid). Issac and Hondo are very welcoming. Thayne is in a corner yelling « Woodchucks » then start hacky sacking with the others, Skip doesn’t seem to be very gifted in physical activities.

JB offers to show them the cabin, but Issac states THEY should give HIM a tour, as they have come here multiple times already.

Kirin talks with Molly, the latter seems very not enthousiast. As Tiffany is putting things into her drawers, Kirin notices she has comics of the « Magical Menagerie Girls » with Ara Angelica on the cover. She goes straight to her and asks her where she got them, and if she likes them. Tiffany seems to be a fan, Kirin says she is too. Tiffany challenges her to name all the magical girl, which is easy for Kirin for obvious reasons. Tiffany asks which one she is, Kirin indicates she relates with Ara Angelica a lot more (for some reason). Tiffany says she likes Gal Glimmer the best as she is badass.

JB talks with the woodchucks kids. Thayne asks questions about woodchucks, JB give answers although it doesn’t seem accurate. They then talk about how Molly doesn’t seem to care about anything.

Kirin is at the mess hall. She eats sloppy joe, also apparently Edhart (from D&D) is the cook. Kirin tries to inspire him into baking deserts. Tiffany tries to make Kirin stop talking to adults, Kirin ignores it but win her over by calling her « Glimmer ».

The woodchucks kids notice there are a LOT of birds following birds. « You are not sure how or why, but there’s birds. » Thayne throw rocks at them, they scatter a bit but always come back.

Issac talks with Edhart and reminds him if he wants some extra ingredients, Issac can get them for him. He also notices Officer Ralph is staring at him. He has experience with the Woodchucks cabin, especially with Issac, as a result he keeps a very vigilant eye on them.

Issac trips because of the Wolf Pack, Thayne laughs, and Hondo tries to pretend to trip just so he can pour his food on the Wolf Pack’s heads. Issac starts a food fight and Hondo smash his food in some Wolf pack’s kid’s face. Kirin and Tiffany get hit with food. Kirin doesn’t care and keeps eating, Tiffany is very displeased. The fight stops as the Sergeant intervenes and makes them clean up.

The kids are getting curious about the birds, Thayne realises they are actually following him. It is that time at camp when the Sergent tells spooky story.

He tells that the land used to belong to his family, and it used to be a mental institution. His great grandad used to make good money keeping people judged too violent or too unfit for society. It was a way for family members to get rid of undesirable members, or too dangerous criminal. The staff itself was very violent. One day one man was admitted, very pale, and very skinny. He was a cannibal who had eaten his wife. The man was bitten by a wendigo, turning him into a cannibal, also growing bigger teeth, handlers, sometimes a tail. Inside the institution, it went a bit crazy. He bit one patient, who bit others. Within one week, it was a mess. Some people were eaten to death, so they went on lockdown. The Sergeant points out he hopes all the wendigos killed each other, because otherwise a flesh eating monster could be out there. At that time, a horrifying scream is heard. The Sergeant himself looks scared. He asks which councilor made that sound, but apparently none did it. He then sends everyone to their cabin.

The kids are a bit scared, especially Kirin, who is unconfortable at the idea of being separated with the others. Issac tries to confort Skip. (Kirin is jealous « Come on Skip, or should I say new Kirin ! »)