Spoilers ahead
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The Painter
Tobias:
"So we told you about the Mass Hallucination. Hundreds of people, 30 seconds of crazy, yadda yadda."
Tobias:
"But there was one instance where that event and the Remnants intersected. The story of Laura Cesari."
Tobias:
"Laura worked at ARDA as an executive secretary. She put in her hours, but she spent her evenings with her real passion: painting."
Tobias:
"When the hallucination event swept through, Laura was overtaken like everyone else. But for her, the Visions didn't stop. She tried painting them, but grew frustrated at her inability to recreate what she saw."
Tobias:
"Now at first, ARDA wrote her off as one of the many whose brains got scrambled by what they saw. Until Laura stumbled across a rusty can of paint in the woods."
Tobias:
"It was a Remnant."
Tobias:
"Once she started using this paint, the Visions in her paintings began to come true."
Tobias:
"She painted feverishly for over a year, chasing the Visions the entire time. Until the day the paint ran empty."
Francis:
"And then, she disappeared. Like all Remnant holders do."
Tobias:
"Now that we know the Remnants and the Mass Hallucination are related, maybe Laura's Visions can help us out."
A Hungry Sasquatch
Francis:
"Driver, if you come across a mushroom like the one in the mural, do not eat it. No matter how tasty it might look."
Tobias:
"He's speaking from personal experience. And let me tell you, it wasn't pretty."
Francis:
"Just thinking about it makes me want to puke all over again."
Francis:
"You've probably passed the biogenerators by now. They're our source of power in the Mid-Zone, and one of the best demonstrations of renewable LIM tech."
Francis:
"Yes, these Battery Farms keep our lights on, but more importantly, they're also the only place in the entire Zone where Anomalized Mushrooms grow."
Tobias:
"And guess who turned out to be the world's biggest fan of those mushrooms?"
Tobias:
"Bigfoot itself. And the Visions foretold its arrival in the Zone."
Francis:
"It started when those pods hanging from the Battery Farms were found chewed up."
Francis:
"At first, they blamed it on the local wildlife- this was back when we used to have some. Then the sightings of ten-foot-tall creatures started. That didn't attract much attention on their own."
Tobias:
"Not until the first footprints were found."
Tobias:
"The Olympic Peninsula has always had a collection of Bigfoot sightings. But they were rare until Bigfoot had its first taste of the Anomalized Mushrooms. Then it couldn't stay away."
Tobias:
"And that's when the Squatchers came knocking. They jumped the Wall, set up camp, and they got to investigating. Once they learned of the Sasquatch's appetite for these mushrooms, they cultivated entire farms of the stuff."
Francis:
"For months, they propagated mushrooms and set traps. And for months, evidence mounted that the Sasquatch was making its rounds and evading those traps."
Francis:
"Until, one night, the experts disappeared."
Tobias:
"Bigfoot got them, no question."
Francis:
"All eight at once? How is that possible?"
Tobias:
"Never get in the way of a hungry Sasquatch."
The Mysterious Helmsman
Francis:
"I'm telling you, the Helmsman never made it out of the Zone. He died here."
Tobias:
"Not this again, I still don't know why you're so convinced he existed in the first place."
Francis:
"Driver, back me up here. This is how the story goes."
Francis:
"It was the winter of '72. A ship set sail down the Columbia River 100 miles east of here. The Helmsman was overcome by bad weather, and while in a particularly foggy patch, the boat hit something, and the impact threw him from the deck."
Francis:
"When he woke up, he was on a boat on this very lake, smack in the middle of the Zone, with no idea how he got there."
Francis:
"He had with him a ridiculous amount of cash, and paid anyone and everyone to get him out of the Zone."
Francis:
"But no matter how he tried to leave- on foot, in a transport- he would always head into a fog and re-emerge on another boat."
Francis:
"At last count, the Great Pileup was 20 boats high and 30 boats wide."
Tobias:
"A LIM duplication glitch, nothing more."
Francis:
"You of all people, blaming LIM tech instead of a good old fashioned mystery?"
Tobias:
"It doesn't add up. ARDA's favorite pastime was carting people out of the Zone. How could someone actually fail to escape?"
Tobias:
"And a mysterious man with a backpack full of cash, in the one place he can't spend it? Seems awfully fishy to me."
Beware The Doorway
Tobias:
"I can't. I can't even look at it. Francis, you explain it."
Francis:
"Maybe you've already seen them, Driver?"
Francis:
"A freestanding, bright blue door in its frame, out in the wilderness, with nothing around it?"
Francis:
"If you do see one, don't get anywhere close to it."
Tobias:
"I don't want to talk about it!"
Francis:
"He was pretty close to a doorway when it opened."
Francis:
"It's called the Inverting Doorway. When the door is shut, it's safe. But once in a while, it opens, and everything near it is turned inside out."
Francis:
"Its victims are mostly bears, squirrels, and birds- they all go through hell. Meat and bones on the outside, fur and feathers on the inside. It's not fun to see."
Francis:
"Once, a group of hikers didn't heed the warning and-"
Tobias:
"No, no, no. We're done here. Driver, if you see one, you stay away from it. That's all you need to know. Let's go."