Changes

[[File:Too Late to Love YouThe Lower Depths.png|thumb|left|''JOHNNY: Test. Test. One. One. One. Three. Fifty. Lamentation. La — men — ta — tion.'']][[Junebug and Johnny]] speed by the tree on their motorcycle. After some discussion, they decide to stop and help in hopes of gaining an audience at their performance to which they are running late. Conway, Shannon, and Ezra agree to accompany the two musicians to a tavern, [[The Lower Depths]] tavern to watch their performance. At the bar, Junebug and Johnny sing the song "[[Too Late to Love You]]," as the roof of the bar seemingly disappears to reveal the full moon overhead. After their performance, the bartender, [[Harry Esperanza]], admits he cannot pay them, left with nothing but an I.O.U. from the [[Hard Times Distillery]] who traded them for whiskey after the events in ''[[The Entertainment]]''. Harry suggests they head to the distillery to claim their payment, but notes that they must take the {{ZeroLink}} to get there. After hearing Conway is searching for [[Dogwood Drive]] as well, Harry confirms that heading to the {{Zero}} is their best course of action. He gives them directions: tune the radio until they hear something "familiar but ''strange''," and immediately turn around when it cuts out. Together, the group sets out in search of the {{Zero}}. Tuning their radio to a station that sounds like horses running, they drive until they see a team of horses standing in the middle of the darkened highway, and immediately appear on the {{Zero}}. [[File:Hall of the Mountain KingToo Late to Love You.png|thumb|right|''DONALDHARRY: The chalky bones of a beautiful dreamWell, that's just the ... But dammit, I was trying to tell you can see what it once wastwo, I can't you? Canpay! They cleaned me out. I't you?ve got nothing left but a G.D. I.O.U. from the distillery.'']]

[[File:Where the Strangers Come From.png|thumb|left|''JUNEBUG: We slipped out onto the road, just these two featureless shadows, and ever since that night we've been detailing. Coloring in. Specifying. I feel more like myself every day.'']]The group comes upon a church in a muddy graveyard. Conway and Shannon go inside, while Junebug waits outside with Ezra, reading headstones and getting to know one another. Junebug reveals that she and Johnny are androids, robots manufactured to clear out the flooded [[Elkhorn Mine]], but after listening to an old type player in the mine, they knew they were destined to be more than faceless, robotic miners, and escaped.[[File:Where the Strangers Come From.png|thumb|right|''JUNEBUG: We slipped out onto the road, just these two featureless shadows, and ever since that night we've been detailing. Coloring in. Specifying. I feel more like myself every day.'']]

Conway and Shannon emerge from the church, shaken, but Shannon says they have what they need. Returning to the Hall of the Mountain King, they tell Donald that XANADU can be fixed by scraping the mold off of the "timing crystals," along with letting it sit unpowered and typing in a specific phrase. The group boots up XANADU again, this time in a readable state. They find it contains a text adventure-like simulation game with crude graphics, including the history of its creation. It tells a story of Lula, Joseph, and Donald dragging computer equipment into caves to work on the project; however, after encountering what appear to be mute, animate skeletons in a crystal cave, Lula and Joseph abandon the project, with one of them getting lost in exiting the caves. (The same conversation can be heard in ''[[Limits & Demonstrations]]'' in the art exhibit and installation titled ''Overdubbed Nam June Paik installation, in the style of Edward Packer'' by [[Lula Chamberlain]].)  [[File:XANADU.png|thumb|left|LULA: We're on a dirt trail, in the park. Or, well, it's not really a trail ...<br />DONALD: ''(Distant)'' It's a trail!<br />LULA: It's more like a tendency.<!-- XANADU: *JOSEPH* says something clever, and *LULA* leans on his shoulder.<br />XANADU: You wish that, instead, she had taken your hand, or that there were any other option. -->]]XANADU reveals that Donald stayed in the caves, eventually stumbling into the Hall of the Mountain King, deciding this is where he will set up his equipment and establish his legacy. XANADU turns into a day-by-day simulation describing its own creation, including hiring a research assistant named [[Weaver]] from the University, along with a number of others – [[Mary Ann]], [[Rick]], [[Greg]], [[Andrew]], [[Amy]], and [[Roberta]].

[[File:Hard Times Distillery.png|thumb|leftright|As he pulled out ''DOOLITTLE: The Echo River is fed from Lake Lethe, but you wouldn't recognize a drop of the parking lotit. Lethe is cold, dark, he removed his hands from the steering wheel for a moment and felt the car drift into a decisionso very deep. Years later, heAnd still!''d think of this as the moment he himself started drifting.]]

[[File:MammothAdding machine.png|thumb|rightleft|''EZRA: I'm confusedHe removed his hands from the steering wheel for a moment and felt the car drift into a decision.<br />CONWAY: ItYears later, he's just d think of this as the way these things go, kidmoment he himself started drifting.'']]On their the way back up to logistics, Doolittle tells Shannon and Conway that the black mold from the Hall of the Mountain King is drawn to ethanol fumes which seep through the air into the cavern; not wanting even a drop of whiskey to go to waste, the workers come to scrape it off of the machinery. Arriving upstairs, he shows them the adding machine which calculates each day's interest, and tells Conway he is hired, offering him a "shift drink" to mark the occasion. Shannon protests, but Conway becomes dazed and , in a daze, cannot resist but to take , and takes a sip of the alcohol (with the game's cursor slowly but , automatically moving toward the "Drink" option, outside the player's control). Shannon firmly states that they have a delivery to make and that Conway will not be working for them, but Doolittle notes that the alcohol he just drank was very expensive, not to mention the time he spent giving them the tour. Doolittle says that Conway will start tomorrow, as the scene blurs and fades to black.