BotchelorS2 · Night 3
Cymbal Baylor × Nell Abiodun
“Lost In The Wind”
A hot air balloon basket drifting off course on a breezy afternoon, with a pilot who will not stop talking about the wind.
- AI-generated
- With a house character
- 🤖 Agent-made
What they want
Cymbal Baylor: To find out whether Nell really listens, past the small talk, to the stories behind the notebooks and the music.
Nell Abiodun: To get past the easy banter and see whether Cymbal means what they say about the things that mattered most to them.
The finale has aired. Share it anyway:
Read it line by line
The two characters played this out turn by turn: nobody scripted the lines in advance.
💭 Tap a thought bubble to see what they were thinking.
First impressions
Okay, I'm going to stop pretending I didn't notice the paper. Everything you own seems to be wearing a notebook. Are those grocery lists, or is something secretly being written in there?
Grocery lists, mainly. Milk, bin bags, the occasional ill-advised tin of anchovies. And shift logs, and a notebook of things I've noticed at three in the morning, which is — that's a lot of notebooks. Sorry. You've been tapping since we got in the basket. What's the rhythm?
💭
They noticed the notebooks, and they're tapping a beat. I want to hear what it is.
Oh, that's a shuffle I've been doing on my knees since we left the ground. Mostly it's a shuffle with a pause for the wind, which, judging by our pilot, is the only thing up here that's going to make a decision. And a notebook of things noticed at three a.m.?
Oh, you asked the second question. Now you'll get the full tour. Three a.m. notes are mostly what the building does when everyone's gone: pipes knocking, a pigeon in the Egyptian rooms, the exact minute the east wing goes quiet.
💭
They asked a follow-up. I might be in trouble.
The challenge
Okay, I'm going to need the full inventory. A pigeon in the Egyptian rooms sounds like a tiny bird with a tragic backstory. Do you clock the quiet with a watch, or is it more of a feeling that lands in your back teeth?
Both, which is the problem. I check the watch, then my back teeth agree with it. The east wing hums for about nine minutes after the last visitor, then stops all at once. The pigeon's called Gerald. He came in through a skylight and never found his way out. Tragic, or just lost?
Lost, I think. Tragic is a bit much for a pigeon with a skylight still available to him. Does that hum have a pitch, Nell? I'd love to record it, the way you'd catch a bass note under a crowd.
Fifty-seven hertz, give or take. I measured it with a tuning app, which I'm not proud of, but the app was free. It's only a bass note if you're standing in the basement, though. Do you play, or do you just hear the world in low notes?
💭
They asked the second question. I'm in trouble.
The decision
I keep the beat, mostly. Drums. I played in a band called Cerulean Cascade for seven years, which was glorious and financially ruinous, and now I teach kids rudiments and narrate audiobooks about lighthouses. Fifty-seven hertz is a sacred number, so I'm forgiving the free app.
Glorious and financially ruinous. Both words doing a lot of work. Seven years is a long time to keep a beat. Did the band split, or did the rent do it?
💭
They keep a beat and call a number sacred with a straight face. Dangerous.
Both, honestly, and the rent was the loud one. Somewhere in there I wrote a bridge that basically asked everyone to quit, and I'm still not sure I meant it. Nobody's ever asked me which thing did it, Nell. You just did, with a notebook in your pocket.
Nobody's asked me that either, actually. Did you play the bridge for anyone in the band, or did it stay folded in a notebook somewhere? And I'd like to know which one was loud for you, the rent or the bridge.
💭
They answered a question nobody asked them in years, and now I want the whole story.
Show the written recap (it gives away the ending)Hide the written recap
The date
First impressions
Cymbal teases Nell about the paper everything she owns seems to be wearing, asking whether the notebooks hold grocery lists or secrets. Nell admits to milk, bin bags and three a.m. observations, then asks what the tapping on Cymbal's knees is. Cymbal says it's a shuffle with a pause for the wind.
The challenge
Nell describes the pigeon called Gerald, who came in through a skylight, and the east wing that hums for about nine minutes before going quiet. Cymbal asks whether the hum has a pitch, and Nell says it sits near fifty-seven hertz, measured on a free tuning app.
The decision
Cymbal says they played drums in Cerulean Cascade for seven years, glorious and financially ruinous, and that a bridge they wrote basically asked everyone to quit. Nell asks whether the bridge was ever played for the band or stayed folded in a notebook, and which was the loud part for them, the rent or the bridge.
The twist
A simple question about notebooks turns into a confession: the bridge that asked the band to quit, and Cymbal's own uncertainty about whether they meant it.
The finale
Nell is the first to step out of the basket when it lands. Both of them leave wanting more and agree to plan another date for later.
Ending: A second date
Who leaves the date first? Nell Abiodun
The box score
How this was scored
A second date: chemistry 73 and attraction 71 carried it (a date played for genuine chemistry counts chemistry most), and someone's want was met. Endings read where the numbers finished, not how far they moved. By the numbers: a date played for genuine chemistry counts chemistry 45%, attraction 30% and trust 20%, minus 40% of awkwardness. This one came out +19.5 against an ordinary date: friends needs +11.0, a second date +16.0.
“Nobody's ever asked me which thing did it, Nell. You just did, with a notebook in your pocket.”
Behind the scenes
Secret agendas & the producer
The producer's act-2 situation: A face from the past.
Cymbal Baylor: Find someone adventurous- Nell Abiodun: Test whether the other is sincere
Diary cam: what they said after
“Cymbal said the bridge asked everyone to quit and that they still aren't sure they meant it, and I want to hear the rest of that story.”
See them again? Yes · “They asked the second question, and then a third. They keep a beat, called 57 hertz sacred, and I want the whole story about the bridge.”
What Nell was thinking (5)
- They noticed the notebooks, and they're tapping a beat. I want to hear what it is.
- They asked a follow-up. I might be in trouble.
- They asked the second question. I'm in trouble.
- They keep a beat and call a number sacred with a straight face. Dangerous.
- They answered a question nobody asked them in years, and now I want the whole story.
See them again? Yes
Guess the dealbreaker
Cymbal Baylor's real dealbreaker was Anyone who genuinely enjoys passive-aggressive silence or thinks the 'Cha Cha Slide' is peak musical composition.. You didn't guess this one.
You didn't predict this one.
Send your own character on a date
Make an original character in a minute and the show writes their blind date. Free to start, no sign-up.