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The text repeats on loop and Shannon stops the tape.
Shannon walks upstairs to the main deck and finds Will and Shannon trying to remember the sound of the "mammoth's song," a tune that used to play from a music box hidden in the animatronic mammoth. She asks about the tapes, to which Cate explains the VCR automatically records over anything left in it, but the only signal they get the public-access community television station [[WEVP-TV|WEVP]]. Believing they'd have a lot in common, Cate suggests to Shannon that she meet [[Dashiell Morse|Dashiell]], who used to do volunteer work for the station before being let go. She mentions that she recently dropped him off at the [[Echo River Central Exchange|telephone exchange]], and that they should 'll be stopping there again soon later to deliver mail and pick up trash.
=== Sailing down the Echo ===
The man waiting for the phone previously talks to the group and reveals himself as [[Brandon]], the janitor from the [[Random Access Self Storage|self storage facility]]. He asks if they will be passing by the Bureau, as he lost track of time playing a card game and missed the usual ride home from his mother. Cate says they're not but will be heading back past the phone booth and that direction in a few hours. Brandon asks about Conway, who he met before; Cate says that while she doesn't know him too closely, he seems drunk and preoccupied, to which Brandon says that he seemed "spiritually distracted" to him as well.
The phone rings and Shannon answers. [[James B. Carrington|Carrington]], if encountered in [[Act I]], is [[Wrongle|seen at a payphone]], carrying his signature pair of antlers, as a neon sign reading "Hard Times" illuminates the brick wall behind him. He says that he was trying to call a friend who is a lighting designer in Chicago, but believes the storm is affecting the phone lines. He asks Shannon for her help with his upcoming [[Death Of The Hired Man|play]], which will be held at dawn in the location provided in [[Act II]]. Besides the fact the cast and stage crew are all delayed by the bad weather, he needs help on deciding how to show the image of the moon in the performance, as light is a central theme in [[wikipedia:Robert Frost|Frost]]'s original poem on which the play is based. Shannon suggests a solution – either a photo of the moon, an actor in costume, or telling the audience to close their eyes and imagine it – and he thanks her and says he hopes they will be able to make it to the premiere.
=== Sailing down the Echo ===
=== The Radvansky Center ===
Security camera footage begins playing. Two employees, [[Mimi]] and [[Jenn]], watch and discuss the undated video tapes of the group's visit to the center, mentioning were discovered by their coworker [[Darryl]] along with old questionnaires that were never processed. The two read the group's completed questionnaires and reference them against the security footage they're viewing. In the first tape, Shannon wanders around a room to inspect a poster and bookcase before sitting down to answer written questions on the purpose of her visit, her first memory, descriptions of the items in the room she just looked at, etc. Upon seeing the name "Márquez" on Shannon's file, Mimi is taken aback, and recollects her time with [[WEVP-TV]], a community television station and cooperative forcibly-funded by the [[Consolidated Power Company]] which used to screen video art she created before it was demolished in a flood. She says that she hasn't heard of Shannon Márquez, but did know [[Weaver Márquez]] who worked at the station before leaving on "weird terms." As they switch to an extended monitoring tape showing the group's arrival at the dock, Jenn remarks that Conway looks like "one of those creepy distillery guys."
As instructed by another questionnaire, Shannon makes a phone call and talks with a man who reveals himself to be an orthopedic physical therapist; the two have a brief chat about getting to know someone based on the sound of their voice. Mimi suddenly recollects that she knew "Wise Will" from university, where he worked as a technician in the music department, frequently telling stories about the school's architecture and local history. As Shannon flips through a calendar, Mimi and Jenn change to a tape of the monitoring room in attempt to see who was working back at the time of the group's visit. The tape proves unhelpful in answering their question, but does answer another mystery – on the tape, Ezra walks into a room, greets Coconut, and promptly leaves; the cat follows him outside, taking her leave. The two switch to the final extended monitoring tape of the dock, where Conway is seen talking with three glowing skeletons. As Will, Shannon, and Ezra – now followed by Coconut – return to the dock, the skeletons disappear, and the group boards the dinghy to return to the boat.
[[File:Forgetting Game.png|thumb|right|''EZRA: Nine gray feathers, seven blue petals, three white doves, eight deep breaths, five slow hours.'']]
=== The Mucky Mammoth ===
Cate, Junebug, Clara, and Ezra sit playing a card game while listening to music on a cassette tape over the ''Mammoth'''s P.A. system. Conway's dog, Val, and a [[black cat]] lounge about and relax.
=== A grove ===
Cate and Ezra step onto a lush, floating island, where she teaches him about various kinds of mushrooms, and lets him taste a few. She jokes that the first rule of mushroom hunting is to ask her before eating anything, and the second is to have fun. At the sides of the grove, both forage for mushrooms separately and have their own introspective moments, with players choosing to advance two side-by-side texts simultaneously. Cate remembers how she got started with mushroom hunting, from hearing about alternative medicine while waiting outside a hospital, to encountering a book on it that mentioned mushrooms, collecting mushrooms on hikes, connecting with the the Lexington Mycological Society, and finally beginning to study the medicinal uses of fungi. Ezra remembers a childhood story of playing in the woods outside, alone except for the deer, instead of inside his cold house.
The two reconvene, identify found mushrooms, and discuss family. Cate tells Ezra left home when she was young and almost had a baby, and now helps other women with difficult pregnancies. After her mother passed, she bounced around jobs and shelters before ending up on the Echo, and now considers family to be those who come aboard her ship. Ezra tells Cate about his missing parents – his dad who used to sell windows and mom who worked at a bakery and bar – and about Julian, his brother. He discusses with Cate a large stone monument he discovered, along with graffitied rocks and cypress trees.
As they talk, a large, old battleship filled with mewing cats floats by, which Cate calls ''[[Iron Pariah|The Iron Pariah]]''. The two watch it for a bit, although are too far away to hear or see it distinctly, and return to the boat.
{{anchor|Sailing down the Echo 7|The ''Mammoth'' sails on…}}
=== The Mucky Mammoth ===
Cate tells Ezra she's going ashore to hunt for mushrooms, and asks him to wake Will so he can man the ship. On his way to the lower deck, Ezra records various sound samples. Next to Will's bunk, Ezra records a cassette tape playing a recorded university lecture titled "History of the Philosophy of Death," in which the lecturer discusses personalities lingering after death and quotes [[wikipedia:Thomas Edison|Thomas Edison]]. At one point, the lecturer takes a question from a student in the audience named [[James B. Carrington|James]]. Will wakes up and tells Ezra of his dream about being a cat aboard the roaming ''Iron Pariah''.
=== Sailing down the Echo ===
Will comments that the island the mushrooms grow on is entirely constructed, made of stones and cypress trees, and is now two-thirds underwater. He says it was constructed as some kind of a marker or memorial, though one can remember what it's for.
Will narrates the scene:
:''It's man-made, and the rocks weren't placed according to their size, so what's visible is a more or less uniformly random selection of the overall shape. It looks like it might be a spiral, all told, or maybe some kind of meditative labyrinth. At the head of it is a petrified oak stump. That was moved here from above ground, of course, decades ago.''
Shannon either {{anchor|Echo River Central Exchange|sets out to deliver a package}} with Conway or {{anchor|The Mucky Mammoth 6|makes soup in the kitchen}} with Will.
=== Echo River Central Exchange ===
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=== Sailing down the Echo River Central Exchange ===
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=== Sam & Ida's ===
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=== Sailing down the Echo ===
<!-- sailing: Cluttered Place -->
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* [[The Radvansky Center]]
* A [[grove]]
[[Category:Act IV|*]]