23 - Anoint his forehead with rabbit's blood

## Events of Note

* Nicholas and Christine perform a purification ritual
* The ritual goes slightly awry when Chris accidentally drowns
* She recovers quickly but vomits out a lot of seawater and a dry cassette tape
* The tape contains a short message in Dan's voice: "Find Melody Pendras"
* Nicholas locates her and the three meet up via a ritual
* Melody explains some of the dangers they have found themselves in and advises them to seek a Payphone for more advice
* Nicholas speaks with The Payphone to acquire a protection ritual and leads on information for the ██████ ritual

## Summary

**SCENE 1**

One of Michael Waters' tapes, describing a ritual how to remain relatively healthy for the next five-years. It cuts off before we hear how to perform an immortality ritual. A burst of song, reminiscent of the season’s theme is played.

**SCENE 2**

Nicholas and Christine begin a ritual of purification. Nicholas runs through a checklist everything they have. He offhandedly says that he has never swum since he was a toddler. Chris asks if their father taught him and he replies with no. She puts her hand on his shoulder, reading a series of words as practised, before submerging his head into a bucket, for the duration of a short song, ethereal song. His splashes get increasingly bigger and louder the longer the song is played. After the song finishes, he comes up and coughs for air. After a while, Chris continues the previous conversation about who taught Nicholas to swim. It was his mother back when they lived in Houston. He explains that he didn't like the pool because the chlorine smelled strange. Chris' turn and Nicholas repeats the process on Chris, though she struggles more than him. After the song ends and he lifts her head up, she starts violently vomiting seawater, along with a dry cassette tape. She notes that her body feels like light.

They play the tape, which contains the words "Find. Melody. Pendras.", in Dan's voice, though neither Chris nor Nicholas recognises the name or the voice. Chris makes a comment on how she expected to receive cool magic powers and not a goddamn science project. It is hinted that the two have been doing a bigger, longer ritual, and that they need to record the significant moments as per the instructions. They both deem that googling Melody Pendras' name is not important and turn the recorder off. Offscreen, they email Melody Pendras and explain the tape.

**TAPE BREAK 1**

An Ethereal song plays

**SCENE 3**

Chris and Nicholas arrive in a warehouse and hear Melody's voice from what seems to be a radio but. Per Melody's instructions, they perform The Drone Box ritual which temporarily sends them elsewhere, though not comptetely physically. As a precaution they are blindfolded the entire time. Upon arriving, Melody performs a ritual as a precaution. Melody is quick, snappy, and wants to get to the point. She asks for the tape and tells both of them they are screwed. She writes something and makes them promise to give it to the person on the tape, and to not open it. Every time she asks if they're performing The ██████ ritual, the tape scratches and we do not hear its name. She explains to the amateurs that it is old and powerful and its name cannot be recorded as it can only be passed through oral tradition. She explains they messed up the ritual, opening a door between Earth and The City. Melody warns that because of this, their journey will be a lot more dangerous and that the cult, will be after them, likely sending the mercenary Aleister. She advises they seek the Payphone for more information on both protection, and the ██████ ritual. To access Payphone, they will need a blue public walk-in payphone in New York that no one has used in an hour, only one person enters the payphone, then press 8 exactly 11 times. Then, lick the phone. She tells them to bring some hand wipes, Lysol and Listerine for after licking it. There is a price to pay and is different for each person. Melody tells them to not contact her again and the dronebox sends them away. While in the transportation, Aleister is briefly heard saying, "Do you realize how close you are?" The two dismiss this and tape clicks off.

**SCENE 4**

Nicholas takes a 10 question quiz with Payphone. He is given a lead in completing the ██████ ritual, visiting their dad's old friend, Cindy Johanssen. The next, Payphone asks him to ask her to horrifically maim an academic from his college. Nicholas is uncomfortable with this, and the two compromise on a slightly less powerful protection ritual if Nick wishes for "A pretty awful thing" instead. He does so and is given instructions for the Protection Ritual.  End recording.

## Characters Featured

* Nicholas Waters
* Christine Anderson
* Michael Waters
* Daniel Powell
* Melody Pendras

## Trivia

* File data suggests a considered or possibly working title for this episode was "Playback, Purification", which is in line with how Season 2 episodes are named.
* The actual title for this episode is spoken by Michael Waters in one of his ritual tapes, the first such tape that we the audience (and assumedly also Dan) hear, and part of the opening segment of Season 3.