321: Hide and Seek

## Summary

Rosco is perturbed when 4-year-old Mauve spookily tells him, *"They're coming,"* something she later denies and which her mother writes off as a game. While he looks anxiously out the window for anyone approaching in this wild weather, Mauve and her sister rope Raphina and Will into a game of hide-and-seek. Will is begrudgingly made seeker, and actually finds himself getting pretty invested in finding everyone, which he does eventually manage to do.

## Synopsis

The little girl runs back to her mother. Rosco seems very disconcerted. *"Disconcoited! I'm disconcoited!"* he groans. He calls over the proprietor, who's name is Ogga Hester and asks her about the little girl's comment. She's non-plussed, suggesting the girl was probably just playing a game of imagination. Raphina tries to comfort Rosco and he explains to everyone what happened, and how freaky it was. Will agrees with Ogga; it's clearly just kids playing around.

Batthwack wanders over to the door. Outside the winds have really picked up and the rain is coming down in sheets, it's impossible to see far. It's pretty dark with thick cloud cover overhead. He sits back down with Captain Clockface. Will wonders how long this ramshackle inn will hold out against the weather. Sin Chalmers tells them he's seen worse weather and that his horse will be fine; the stable seems pretty, well... stable.

Rosco takes the mother to one side and quizzes her about what her young daughter said, but his aggressive tone comes over pretty badly. She also writes the girl's comment off as probably part of game of some sort. While they talk, the eight-year-old girl, Cindy, comes over and asks Will (who gives his name as Fred) if he wants to play hide-and-seek with them. He's understandably coy, but Raphina immediately offers to join in and so now it seems there's no backing out. Will starts counting, with no intention of seeking anyone, and both girls (the four-year-old's name is Mauve) and Raphina run off to hide. The mother's very grateful to him for playing with them, so it seems he has to make at least some show of playing along. When he opens his eyes, he's surprised to find that everyone is actually very well hidden. As he begins to look around, he's starting to get quite invested in finding them, though he does his best to make it look like he doesn't care, of course.

Mo giggles at the sight of Will looking around, and hearing this, Will wheels around, a little too enthusiastically. It's now obvious just how much he really wants to find them. Rosco's preoccupied, anxiously staring out the window, but everyone else is watching and smiling as Will stalks about. Reading the room, Will determines that there's definitely something off with Mo, and thinks there may be a bulge under Rosco's owlbear pelt. Will's keen to find Raphina before the kids, so as to not disappoint them, but no-one will reveal if there's anyone under there, let alone who it is.

Will continues searching, peaking behind the counter and immediately spotting Cindy. She's disappointed to be found first, so Will takes a cloth napkin from a nearby table and says it's a new game to throw it at the next person they find. Will spots the owlbear pelt moving as someone underneath is breathing, but he's determined to find Raphina next so that one of the kids can win the game. He's still looking around when suddenly Raphina reveals where she's been hiding: right behind Will the whole time, following him around as he searched. Will exaggeratedly sneaks over to the owlbear pelt and whips it off revealing Mauve curled up underneath.

The girls excitedly ask if they can play again, but Rosco storms over angrily to Mauve. *"I've been looking out that window throughout this whole game of hide and seek. And I don't see anybody comin', little girl. Now you tell me, what did you mean by that?"* The little girl looks for reassurance from her mother, and nervously says she didn't say anything to Rosco. He's confused. *"If the little girl didn't say that to me, then who did?"* He keeps repeating this question as he drifts backwards, making his way up the stairs, owlbear pelt in tow, and into their room. Sin wonders what's happening to their dice game if Rosco's turning in. Will tries to bribe the girl into telling them what she said to Rosco, but she's absolutely adamant, explaining she only went up to his dog and looked up at him, then he burped and walked away.

## Quotes

* Will (trying to convince Cindy to take over from him in the hide-and-seek game): *"Have you ever played this game before?"* Cindy: *"You're the seeker! You're in charge remember?"* Will: *"You need to help me. I found you first, so now you get to be the seeker."* Cindy: *"No!"* Will: *"Haven't you played Tivoli style? THAT'S THE BEST WAY."*
* Raphina: *"Mr Sin Chalmers, have you ever seen something like this happen before?"* Sin: *"I've seen a lot of things in my day."* Raphina: *"Well, I figured and I'm only curious about one particular thing."*

## Trivia

* The episode title refers of course to the game that the two young girls played with Raphina and Will. It was Cindy who first suggested it, saying. *"Do you want to play hide and seek with me and my sister?"* Will/KT's response: *"Oh god. Oh boy."*
* *"You Lose! Good Day Sir!"* from *Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory*: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpK36FZmTFY
* Sheetz vs Wawa: https://www.sheetzvswawa.com/
* Mitch McConnell vs turtles: https://www.google.com/search?q=mitch+mcconnell+turtle&tbm=isch
* This week's episode description describes the Pork Fried Dice wiki as: trendy.

## Recap

This episode featured Abby doing a recap in the form of a highly controversial trivia quiz! Don't forget to say the letter *and* the full answer!

## Gallery

*Main article: The Art of Pork Fried Dice*

## References

1. ↑ See episode 320: Me Did Not Write That