PALISADE 38: Reach In / Reach Out Pt. 2
Transcriber: robotchangeling
Cori’s Scene Starts: Party [0:08:54] 10
Eclectic and Figure [0:41:28] 54
Brnine and Jesset [1:13:55] 86
Command Deck/Briefing Room [1:46:27] 121
Mission Discussion [1:54:47] 126
Briefing Continues [2:09:45] 140
Plan and Prepare [2:29:42] 163
Austin: PALISADE is a show about empire, revolution, settler colonialism, politics, religion, war, and the many consequences thereof. For a full list of content warnings, please check the episode description.
Ali (as Brnine): Do you know who that woman is?
Keith (as Eclectic): Uh, no. No, she helped me escape from, uh, [Sylvia gasps] one of those cities.
Ali (as Brnine): A— and you drove that car to my ship?
Keith (as Eclectic): [scoffingly] Uh, yeah, it was really far.
Ali (as Brnine): [laughs in disbelief] You don't think that they put GPSs in their cop cars?
Keith (as Eclectic): Of course they do.
[“Nothing is Stationary” by Jack de Quidt begins playing]
Ali (as Brnine): It’s not like I've had a conversation with a Divine, and I don't know how much Asepsis would gain from communication in that way. I wouldn't do it on my own and have this sort of volatile outcome without considering the rest of you, and that’s why we're here.
Keith (as Eclectic): I think it sounds evil. You should blow it up.
Sylvia (as Cori): What—
Janine (as Thisbe): Could I have it?
Sylvia (as Cori): [intrigued] Oh.
Keith (as Eclectic): Hmm.
Ali (as Brnine): You just want it?
Janine (as Thisbe): Yes.
Ali (as Brnine): I mean, I don't have any objection, but what would you do with it?
Janine (as Thisbe): I would like to have it.
[cut]
Sylvia (as Cori): Okay, so, this could have just been…I don't know, maybe it was like this because Figure just didn't like my dad, you know? That’s just how things could be, but in that world, he betrayed us all, and it, um…made a little too much sense? Does that…? Do you…?
Ali (as Brnine): Well, sure. Sure, but it— Cori, it wasn't real.
Sylvia (as Cori): But, like…
Ali (as Brnine): No, but it wasn't.
[cut]
Austin (as Partial): To my memory, Perennial was not the Adversary so much as the outsider, never part of the Fleet, always just flittering around. Uh, I don't think she was really even with the…you know, this is going back back, different era. You haven't tried talking to her?
Dre (as Figure): How do you go about doing that?
Austin (as Partial): Well, I have to admit I've never been on the other side of it. But…
Dre (as Figure): Is there, like, etiquette?
Austin (as Partial): There’s the etiquette you make with one another.
Austin: Again and again and again and again, she has used all of the power in the galaxy that she can muster to try to keep the Principality from doing the thing it does, from repeating the one shape we know. It’s maddening, and it’s tiring, and it costs.
[song ends]
Austin: Okay, so, it looks like, just to be sure: Brnine, you have a scene and a token. Cori, you have a scene and a token.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Eclectic, you have a token left?
Keith: One token, yeah.
Austin: Figure, you have nothing left.
Dre: I'm tapped out. I'm just here vibing.
Austin: You're tapped out. Thisbe—
Dre: Yeah, I'll play Fortnite. You guys let me know if you need anything.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: It’s party time.
Austin: We'll let you know. We'll let you know. Yeah, you're just at the party. Figure’s just partying. And Thisbe, you have a scene and a token is what it looks like to me. Is that right?
Janine: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Okay. Who’s up? What are we doing? And also, have folks been thinking about…not to, like, get ahead of ourselves here, but we are going to have to end this with a Plan and Prepare, so have people been thinking about missions and stuff also?
Keith: And Brnine has that move that, like, makes them better at Plan and Prepare?
Ali: Let me read it, yeah. “Born Leader: You lead a sortie with advantage and give the crew confidence when they plan and prepare.”
Sylvia: Would it be worth, like, very briefly talking about what we want our mission to be next or do we know what that is?
Keith: Um…
Sylvia: I know where, like, Plan and Prepare, like, structure of the thing.
Austin: That is what I was trying to get going, Sylvi. I'm with you.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: Okay.
Keith: Originally, we were gonna talk about it while— during the break, but then it just, you know, it just really came up on me, so I didn't think about it at all.
Sylvia: Fair enough. I was thinking about if we should try and slow down this Motion stuff if we know that it’s—
Keith: There—
Sylvia: Is that—?
Keith: There is the Motion thing.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: That sounds great, because I have— Austin has said several times that the reason that hasn't triggered is because he’s been…
Sylvia: That’s—
Dre: Nice.
Keith: Being nice.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: That’s why it came to mind as well. [Dre laughs]
Austin: Yeah, I could trigger it right now if you want. Is that what you guys want? You wanted to fight Motion?
Sylvia: Uh, hey.
Keith: No.
Austin: You want Motion to come back?
Ali: I think we're good.
Dre: You know, you gotta do what you gotta do, but.
Austin: I still have four tokens.
Ali: Uh huh.
Keith: And I've gotta admit, as much as I would love to do the fake Gur Sevraq thing, Motion is the one that has a big thing about to trigger and would be bad, so I think that that might just be it.
Austin: You're giving me ideas for new clocks to start. I really appreciate that. [Ali laughs]
Janine: Ice cream party.
Ali: Yeah.
Janine: Ice cream party clock.
Austin: Uh huh.
Dre: Yeah, because that’ll melt.
Austin: Oh, wow, yeah, you gotta hurry up before that clock fills and the ice cream’s all melted. [Dre laughs]
Keith: There it is. I just saw Austin highlight a blank space in these clocks.
Austin: Mm-hmm. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Mm! Yeah, ice cream party.
Austin: Yeah, what’s it next to?
Keith: Take Something That Isn't Theirs.
Austin: No, to the left of it.
Keith: Oh, um, Temple— oh! Temple of the Threshold, which is where fake Gur Sevraq lives.
Sylvia: Ah.
Ali: Yeah.
Dre: Oh.
Austin: Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll figure out what this is. [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: Oh no, not up to some shit!
Keith: It’s “Gur Sevraq (fake) Gets Up to Some Shit.”
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: Man…
Keith: Eight steps? Nope, that’s changing.
Austin: Eh, it’s probably a six step.
Keith: Six step.
Austin: It’s probably a six step.
Keith: Oh, that’s— pshh, that’s nothing.
Austin: Yeah, but I'm gonna tick it a bunch.
Ali: Austin.
Austin: What’s up?
Ali: Yeah, this is a masterclass in— we've planted a flag.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: And Austin said, “I'm not gonna let you motherfuckers forget about this.” [laughs]
Austin: Yeah. 100%.
Ali: Come look at this clock.
Austin: Come look at this clock. Exactly. Yeah. [Ali laughs quietly] Well, like, really what happened here is that you were like, “Well, the Gur Sevraq thing doesn't really matter, unlike Motion, which is happening tomorrow.”
Ali: Hey. It’s time sensitive.
Austin: Well, guess what? [Ali laughs]
Keith: Fine.
Austin: Spending a token.
Ali: Clocks count time.
Austin: That’s right!
Keith: Hey, I have that move. I can— don't worry about it.
Austin: Uh huh. And like—
Keith: I can remove three ticks from Authority clocks—
Austin: Clocks! Right?
Keith: Authority schemes I'm aware of.
Austin: Yeah, it’s true.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I mean, and this is pretty open. I want to say that there’s just, like, a messaging blitz from Gur Sevraq these days in, like, the post—
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: The post-stellar combustor, post- death of the Glorious Princept. I think maybe that’s exactly the thing, is that, like, with the death of the Glorious Princept, we have Gur Sevraq (fake) going on a sort of media blitz about how [Keith: Yeah.] this is— the war— basically being like, “The war is over, actually. It’s time to reunify [Keith: Yeah.] under the Bilateral Intercession.” Finally, it won't be the Bi-lateral Intercession anymore. You know, we can go back to just being the Divine Principality.
Ali: Oh, we could be a lateral session.
Austin: We could be a completely lateral intercession. We can be…
Dre: Mm.
Keith: Intra-cession. The lateral intra-cession.
Austin: Right, uh huh.
Dre: So beautiful.
Austin: Yeah. It’s really beautiful. [Ali laughs] But, like, that’s what this is, right? Is that, like, oh—
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: At least that’s what the— that's what tick one of six is. What’s that sixth one? Who could say?
Keith: And by the way, I'm gonna get up to some shit.
Austin: Yeah, mm-hmm. [Ali laughs]
Dre: P.P.S.
Keith: Give me five ticks.
Austin: That’s right. [Ali sighs]
Sylvia: I'm about to get silly.
Austin: They’re about to get silly. So, mission is Motion. Mission is try to disrupt the Motion stuff in some way, question mark?
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: I'm pro that.
Austin: Last time we talked about the idea of, like, if you hit the right amount of the Motion bases at once and you, like, disrupt their internal workings, you could…
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: You could basically slow the whole thing down seriously, but you haven't quite got that. You haven't— you know, you have to do that, and you don't know the exact number, so you could come up short or overcommit and spend a lot of resources trying to knock out a bunch of them and not need to.
Ali: Yeah, it seems like I might be picking up the Command Deck?
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: This go around.
Austin: Do you want to wait to do that until the end of it, so that if there is more stuff that comes out of conversations? Or do you want to do it now, so that we have it sorted?
Ali: Um, I guess I could do it as a capper.
Austin: So then, Thisbe or Cori, do you want to do the next scene?
Sylvia: So, I was thinking about the party that we talked about.
Austin: Yeah. Sure.
Dre: Hell yeah.
Sylvia: And would that work as, like, a Fade scene, do you think? Or…
Austin: Totally could work as a Fade scene.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Could totally work as a number of these. Up to you what you want to do.
Sylvia: Hmm. Fade was what immediately jumped to my mind, just because I was like, “Oh yeah, spotlight.”
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: That’s always useful to get.
Austin: Yeah, totally.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Absolutely.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: I'm good with it. “The leading player describes somewhere in the carrier or nearby that they pass the time, gaining a point of spotlight and advancing a gravity clock if they have one with someone that joins them. They frame a short scene around this, either alone or with invited characters.”
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: And you can spend tokens to do the same thing, if you're invited or if you want to join in.
Sylvia: Everybody’s invited.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: Yeah, I mean, absolutely.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: It’s the party for…
Austin: What is the party’s—
Keith: Uh— oh.
Austin: What’s up? How do y'all celebrate?
Sylvia: This is what I was gonna ask, because I joked about it being a barbecue, so that’s been my mental image, but we could do something else.
Dre: Oh, I love that. [Ali laughs quietly]
Austin: Yeah, absolutely.
Dre: Barbecues are great.
Keith: I love a barbecue.
Austin: Barbecue’s great. Bontive Valley barbecue? Phew.
Sylvia: Yeah, right? It seemed like a good place for it.
Keith: Wow.
Austin: Yeah, you ain't never had Bontive Valley barbecue.
Dre: Ah.
Janine: It needs to be, like, big hot coal pit style barbecue.
Dre: I was about to say, like.
Austin: Oh, yeah.
Dre: You bury it underground for two days kind of barbecue.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Ooh, yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah. Big bonfires and stuff going on too.
Austin: Absolutely. Truly, like, top down, music blaring out of cars driving by, different music than what’s playing from the mobile speaker.
Sylvia: Getting the Asepsis drones to be bluetooth speakers.
Austin: [whispering] Oh, the Asepsis— yes, 100%. [regular volume] Yes. And like, you know, this is an open space. I think there could be anyone from anywhere inside of the Cause here, you know what I mean?
Keith: Mm.
Austin: You want to talk to Jesset City? Jesset City can be here. You want to talk to Elle Evensong? Elle Evensong is here. You know?
Sylvia: Huh. [laughs]
Austin: Whatever you need. So.
Keith: Hmm.
Sylvia: What’s, like…
Keith: What is the— what is the deal at this point with Elle? Elle is still just, like, “Yeah, I'm really just part of Violet Cove.”
Austin: [feigning ignorance] Yeah, Elle is just part of Violet Cove. I don't know what the deal is. What’s up?
Keith: Yeah. Okay.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Ali: We saw her stab Cori.
Austin: No, you saw someone in a mech that looks like her mech stab Cori.
Sylvia: Yeah, she was, like—
Ali: Okay.
Austin: It was not the same colorway.
Sylvia: Remember, her mech got a paint job—
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sylvia: So it’s like in Saints Row when the cops can't find you. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah, it’s like that. Well, like, and her regular mech is here now with the regular paint job, so someone must have stolen…
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: Ohh.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: All right.
Keith: [sarcastic] Someone with resources like that couldn't possibly get a mech painted twice.
Austin: No, no, no, no, no. That’s—
Dre: Uh uh.
Austin: No, that would be a real waste of money, I think. Mm-hmm.
Dre: I guess, Cori, you know that Elle Evensong stabbed you though, right?
Sylvia: I mean, yeah, but like… [Ali laughs]
Dre: Okay. I'm just establishing that.
Ali: It’s complicated.
Sylvia: It’s complicated. [Ali laughs] Thank you, Ali. Thank you so much.
Dre: And that you also haven't told any of us that.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I don't think I've ever heard anything that sounds less complicated.
Sylvia: No, it’s fine.
Austin: It’s yuri. You just don't get it. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Yeah.
Sylvia: I was gonna ask, like, what everybody was getting up to at the barbecue, like, broadly.
Austin: Yeah. Please.
Sylvia: Before getting into, like, in-character interactions.
Austin: I would love a snapshot of everybody at the barbecue who wants to be there and what you're doing.
Dre: Can we be there even if we aren't spending tokens?
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: Okay.
Sylvia: Yeah, absolutely.
Austin: Everybody’s invited. Welcome to the cookout.
Keith: Yeah. I'm playing yard games. That’s what I'm doing. I got a plate of food.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: Playing bocce?
Keith: I'm playing…playing bocce. Playing croquet.
Austin: Croquet.
Keith: Playing [pronouncing deliberately] badminton.
Austin: Badminton, with the N.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You made sure the N was in there.
Keith: Yeah. Playing variations of bocce that we all know and love.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. [Dre laughs] Eclectic is the Larry Bird of bocce. [Keith laughs]
Dre: Oh.
Keith: Playing, uh…
Sylvia: So, talks a lot of shit?
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Keith: Playing horseshoes! The U-shaped bocce.
Austin: That’s not—
Janine: Uh. [Sylvia laughs quietly]
Dre: No, yeah, that’s how that works.
Keith: Very similar.
Austin: Very similar, I know. Yeah. I feel like horseshoes…I had way more horseshoes in my life than bocce, [Keith: Yeah.] as a youth.
Dre: Sure.
Keith: Yeah. Me too, actually.
Janine: It’s easy to stick a pole in the ground and then throw stuff at it.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, but it’s kind of hard to find a horseshoe.
Keith: I lived on a farm.
Austin: Oh, well, there you go.
Dre: Not like— it’s hard to find real horseshoes, but I feel like you can buy plastic horseshoes at Target or something.
Austin: Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you have to, like, go get them, you know?
Keith: Yeah. No, this is regulation. This is a sand— this is a sand pit, two sand pits.
Austin: Is Eclectic good at lawn games, or is this just a thing he likes to do?
Ali: Who regulated it? [laughs]
Austin: Great question.
Keith: The horseshoe association.
Austin: No, this actually makes— I have an answer for this, [Ali laughs] which is the Qui Err Coalition…
Ali: Okay, good.
Austin: Who we know from Twilight Mirage loves sports and lawn games and, like, daily Olympics. Do you know what I mean?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Like, they like—
Keith: And that’s— I did that!
Austin: You did that. [Ali laughs] That is a thing Keith assured in the Twilight Mirage finale. And so there are definitely regulatory— there’s a regulatory body, and they are here as part of the party. They set up a bunch of different lawn games. They have a referee.
Keith: They've got little measurements. They're going…
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Going around checking, making sure the—
Austin: Yeah. You can ask how much of a referee you want. Like, you can be like, do I want, [Keith: Right.] like, a referee who’s good?
Keith: Right.
Austin: Or do I want a referee who, like, eyeballs it? Or do I want no referee at all?
Keith: Right, yeah.
Austin: Because, like, they believe in the ambiguity. Like, you know.
Dre: Mm.
Austin: They understand that some sports are better without, like, video review, you know?
Keith: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: And so they don't want to, like, spoil the joy of the ambiguity, so.
Keith: Right, yeah. They're cool.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if you want down to the millimeter measurements, you can have it.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: And it’s like, you know, give me down down to the millimeter measurements at the beginning.
Austin: Right, sure.
Keith: And then, leave me alone.
Austin: And then leave me alone. Right. [Ali laughs]
Keith: Like, make sure that everything’s on the up and up at the beginning.
Austin: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: Right, yeah, there’s no ref…
Keith: We want the poles to be the same height. [Dre laughs] We want the boxes to be the same dimensions.
Austin: No one’s cheating. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. But then…
Keith: But then…
Austin: “That’s closer! What are you talking about?”
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, exactly.
Keith: I can— we can measure our horseshoe.
Austin: Uh huh. All right, that’s what Eclectic’s doing.
Keith: Yep. [Ali laughs] And I have a bowl of chili and a sloppy joe.
Dre: Ooh!
Ali: Wow.
Austin: Oh, I didn't know you ate food. I hadn't thought about this.
Ali: Wait.
Dre: Are you dipping the sloppy joe in the chili?
Keith: No, these are— well, I guess I could be. Yeah. Fuck it.
Ali: Is the sloppy joe a barbecue food? I'm sorry.
Austin: [sighs] Ooh, this is a good point.
Keith: I have sloppy joes and chili at my family Fourth of July party, which is what my activities are modeled after.
Sylvia: [displeased] Mm…mm…
Dre: Wait, quick. Point of order. [Ali laughs quietly]
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah…
Dre: Keith.
Keith: Yeah.
Dre: When you say the word barbecue, what does that mean to you? [Ali laughs quietly]
Keith: Um, okay, so, it’s—
Austin: Oh, this is about to get bad.
Sylvia: Oh, boy. [Ali laughs]
Dre: No, no! I'm not saying one use is better than the other. I'm making sure we're all on the same page.
Keith: Are you asking if I'm talking about— are we doing barbecued foods, or am I using the word barbecue to describe a cookout?
Dre: Yes.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Um, I'll say it’s a little bit of both. This is more of a cookout, but there’s barbecued foods there.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: So it’s— we also have—
Austin: Dre, do you want to explain for the people what the difference for some folks is? Maybe not for you. [Ali laughs quietly]
Dre: Um, it seems to be regional.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: But there are certain parts of the country where, when you say barbecue, you are referring specifically to a type of food that is made cooked low and slow with indirect heat for a long period of time.
Austin: Yep.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Dre: And other places, barbecue is just a pseudonym for…pseudonym? Synonym.
Austin: Synonym.
Dre: There we go.
Keith: Synonym, yeah.
Austin: Pseudonym is fun.
Dre: For, like, any sort of, like, outdoor grilling cooking party.
Austin: You're grilling, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And the difference between grilling and barbecuing I think is the real heart of it.
Ali: Mm.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: And I like to grill. You know.
Dre: Yeah, grilling is awesome.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: Both things are great.
Austin: I like all of this stuff. This stuff is all great.
Keith: Yeah, I think that if you're being strict, you'd call what I'm describing a cookout, but.
Austin: Right.
Keith: We have barbecued foods at my family’s thing.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: We have ribs and stuff.
Austin: Yeah. Damn, ribs. Y'all are having ribs?
Keith: Yeah, ribs. Ribs. We've got lobster steamers.
Dre: Ooh!
Austin: Let’s go.
Keith: Some of the best seafood in the world, right off the coast. [Sylvia laughs]
Ali: Are we doing— no, that’s a Christmas thing. I was gonna ask if we were doing Seven Fishes, which would be really funny, but. [laughs]
Austin: What?
Keith: We could have a number of something. Let’s get a—
Austin: Wait, I don't know what Seven Fishes is.
Keith: What do they have in—?
Ali: Oh, it’s like an Italian Christmas thing where you make the seven fishes.
Austin: Oh, I see it.
Dre: Oh.
Austin: My Italian family is not a fish Italian family.
Keith: Yeah, same with me. Ali explained what Seven Fishes was to me once, because I had no idea. I'd never heard it before. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Wow. You could do Seven Fishes.
Keith: My Italian family is, like, let me put sambuca in my coffee. [Ali laughs] That’s the—
Austin: Mm.
Keith: That is our— that is my family’s Italian tradition.
Austin: Right. Right, uh huh.
Janine: Is the Seven Fishes like a—
Austin: Mine is like a ziti family, but like…
Janine: Like a rôti sans pareil where it’s like a bird in— like a fish inside a fish inside a fish inside a fish inside a fish?
Ali: No, they’re on separate— no, it’s just a lot of food for…
Sylvia: It’s like…
Ali: No.
Austin: That’s like a turducken. You're talking about a turducken? [Dre laughs]
Janine: No, I'm talking about a rôti sans pareil, which is [Ali: Mm-hmm.] a, like, medieval…
Dre: Ooh.
Keith: It’s a French turducken from 500 years ago.
Austin: It’s a French turducken? Yeah, okay. Yeah, thank you, yeah. [Ali laughs]
Janine: It’s like if a turducken was, like, 12 birds instead of just three.
Keith: Right.
Janine: A turducken is pathetic compared to rôti sans pareil.
Keith: You get a quail, and then a pheasant, and then a chicken, and then a duck.
Janine: Yeah, yeah.
Keith: And then a goose, and then a turkey, [Janine: Mm-hmm.] and then an ostrich.
Janine: No, it ends at bustard. [Sylvia laughs]
Keith: Ends at bustard.
Austin: What’d you call me? [laughter]
Dre: Whoa!
Ali: Brnine is not used to being out in public.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Oh, but is going out?
Ali: Right. I think that they're…they’ve been sitting at a bonfire most of the night.
Austin: Mm.
Keith: Mm.
Ali: Just posted up.
Keith: How big? Dangerous or tame?
Ali: Oh. Uh, probably tame?
Keith: Okay.
[someone opens a canned drink]
Ali: We have some pirates in the— [laughs] there’s probably— it’s probably—
Keith: Okay, so maybe.
Austin: There are pirates.
Ali: It’s probably bordering on not being tame, but people are like, “Come on, come on. This is a barbecue.”
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: It’s, yeah, uh huh.
Keith: Right.
Ali: And after the sun sets, who knows? But now… [laughs quietly]
Austin: Are you— no disguise. Just out in the open. Just Brnine.
Ali: I'm just chilling, yeah.
Austin: No, you're getting bothered nonstop.
Ali: Yeah, okay, this was the other thought of the bonfire.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Which is like, that if I stay in a place for one time, and if it’s in, like, a semicircle/half circle around this thing, [Austin: Mm-hmm.] it, like, mediates the ability to crowd around someone?
Austin: Right, because people can't circle you in the half— the you've come out of a talk you've just given or a panel you were just on—
Ali: Right, yeah.
Austin: And now everyone surrounds you in a half circle to talk to you thing.
Ali: And they can't be in front of me, because there’s, like, a fire.
Austin: Because there’s the fire there.
Ali: So like, they can do the thing of, like…
Austin: They can be around you.
Ali: I've got a lot of people coming to sit next to me.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: And like, “Oh, hey, what’s up? Are you having a good time?”
Austin: Okay, but it could also be, like, one person at a time walking up to you in a line.
Ali: Uh huh. [laughs]
Dre: Oh.
Keith: Hmm.
Ali: Or just like people— you know how you hover around in, like, a food court sometimes to wait for, like, a table to open?
Austin: Yeah, I do. It’s a lot of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [Ali laughs]
Keith: Sure. Yeah.
Dre: Man.
Austin: And you get questions that are very direct about what happened, in a way that’s like, “Did you really— did you really kill them?”
Ali: [sighs, laughs awkwardly] Yeah.
Austin: You know? [Sylvia laughs] “What’d you use? Like, how’d you do it?” You know? [Dre laughs] Like, some of these people just detail-oriented. [Ali laughs] At least one person tells you that they don't believe it, like in a way that’s like, they think you're full of shit and are, like…you know what I mean?
Keith: That they’re still alive or that it wasn't Brnine?
Austin: Uh, both.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: You know. All types of people here in the Cause. Like, you know, the Cause is much more unified than it once was, but you know, these groups, you got a bunch of people who hate the Principality, but they're not necessary…
Keith: Right.
Austin: That’s a big group of people, you know?
Keith: It’s a lot of people.
Austin: It’s a lot of people.
Dre: Mm.
Keith: Any group has a lot of people in it.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Yeah, there’s people that Murch are like, “Oh, I was just at the…” [laughs]
Austin: Oh my god.
Ali: “I saw you at spin class last week.”
Austin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Ali: At our Baseline government spin class.
Austin: God.
Dre: Woof.
Austin: Nightmare. [Ali laughs] Cool, so you're being bothered by people. I do think Jesset City is here but doesn't approach you. Like, gives you the, like, we're at the—
Ali: [quietly] Jesset!
Austin: No, no, no, no, no, it’s the other way. It’s like, we're at the function, and you are being surrounded by people, and I am not gonna come surround you also, but I'm gonna give you a look that’s like, “Are you all right?” Do you know what I mean?
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Like, are you good? you know? [Ali laughs quietly] Like, do you need to get extracted?
Ali: Oh, sure.
Austin: Or are you good?
Ali: I could just text Jesset at some point [Austin: Okay.] and be like, “Yo.”
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: What’s up?
Austin: What’s good? [Sylvia laughs] Um, Thisbe? Are you at the party?
Janine: Yeah. Uh, just checking. We still don't know where whatshisface is, right? Who also went on that mission and then…?
Sylvia: Routine?
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Routine Rennari, not here. Last seen aboard the…
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: The ship, uh, the Apostolosian ship.
Janine: That’s what I thought. Okay.
Sylvia: That also could be a mission to do.
Austin: It could. Yeah, sure.
Ali: Mm.
Keith: It could also be a mission to do.
Dre: Hmm.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Janine: [laughing quietly] Feels a little weird to be partying while someone’s just— okay. It’s fine, though. It happens. It’s war.
Austin: Oh, I mean, people go missing constantly.
Janine: Yeah.
Ali: Yeah.
Janine: I know, I know. What I mean is that—
Austin: It’s shocking no one else has from your crew.
Janine: What I mean is that it’s weird, from a play perspective, to be partying when a named character goes missing.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: But like—
Austin: Y'all did a whole-ass mission.
Janine: To them, I'm sure this— yeah, I know, I know. I do know, it just—
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I just had a moment of like, oh, right, we— that’s unresolved. That’s still, like, just happening.
Austin: It is. That is still happening.
Janine: I think Thisbe’s turning a spit. Like, I think there’s, like, a really big spit.
Austin: Oh, sure.
Janine: I think it’s like a multi-spit.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Damn. Like a goat?
Janine: Like a Ron Popeil rotisserie, [Dre: Mm.] but like with little individual, like…you know, there’s a bunch of spokes—
Austin: So it has an interior oven.
Janine: —and the spokes turn on their own, but then it also turns as a whole unit?
Austin: Okay.
Janine: So it’s like if you put a bunch of rotisserie— if you made a rotisserie rotisserie.
Keith: So it’s like a gear.
Janine: Like a mega-rotisserie.
Austin: Right.
Janine: It’s like the shit they're using at Swiss Chalet.
Sylvia: Yeah, no.
Janine: To crank out all those chickens.
Sylvia: Uh huh.
Austin: Sure. Sure.
Keith: So many things that I'm only vaguely aware of from other times they've been brought up on Friends at the Table.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: Ron Popeil, Swiss Chalet.
Austin: Wait, you didn't grow up with Ron Popeil? Maybe this is just— maybe this is a different age thing.
Keith: Uh, we've gone over this. Yeah, I just never saw Ron Popeil.
Austin: Wild.
Janine: Yeah.
Sylvia: Okay, I got no…
Keith: I know the kind of guy, though, sort of.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Janine: So, Thisbe’s turning the spit thing. I think because it’s, like, heavy.
Austin: Yeah. The whole big thing.
Janine: I think it probably, like, has a thing at each end, because normally you would need two people to turn it or, like, an engine with a belt, and maybe the engine, like…
Dre: Mm.
Janine: It’s kinda— it’s fucked up right now. Like, maybe someone’s trying to fix the motor thing that turns it, [Keith laughs quietly] and everyone was like, “Oh my god, the meat— it’s gonna get all burned on side and it’ll be raw on the other side!” and Thisbe’s like, “Nah, I got this.” [Austin laughs quietly] So I picture her sort of turning it with, like, one of her feet, just to make sure it’s nice and even and steady, because it’s a little easier to do that. She’s got finer control on the legs.
Austin: Sure, yeah.
Dre: Sure.
Keith: I just linked this Ron Popeil image that’s so funny to me. [Ali laughs] Not 400, not 375, not 350, not 325, not 300!
Janine: Yeah, he did really used to do that.
Austin: He would go through all of those.
Janine: Yeah. [Keith laughs]
Austin: He really did. Yeah.
Janine: Because it’s like, “How much would YOU pay?”
Austin: Yeah, would you pay 250?
Janine: And then it’s like, “Well, I would pay up to 400.”
Austin: Yeah, uh huh. Exactly.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Would walk it down all the way to 170. I found a different image. I was trying to find the Swiss Chalet rotisserie, like what their rotisserie setup was.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: What I found while searching for that was this image from a Deviantart page. [Sylvia laughs]
Dre: Oh.
Austin: That’s someone’s Sonic OC?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: Yeah.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: With the Swiss Chalet—
Sylvia: “8 out of 10. This jingle’s pretty good.”
Austin: “8 out of 10. This jingle’s pretty good.” This is a series where they rate jingles from Canadian brands.
Dre: Okay.
Janine: Oh.
Sylvia: I love the internet sometimes.
Janine: Okay.
Keith: Oh, this OC is rating the jingles.
Austin: Well, I bet the user.
Keith: Right, well, but it’s not…
Dre: Why not both?
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah. Okay.
Austin: Could be both.
Keith: I see now.
Austin: I don't know the Swiss Chalet jingle or the redtag.ca jingle, but the Red Tag one has her height.
Janine: I also don't.
Keith: “This jingle will be forever stuck in my head,” eyes wide.
Austin: Eyes wide.
Keith: Crazy look.
Janine: I was trying to recall the Swiss Chalet jingle in my head, and I got the Zest Soap jingle, so I don't know.
Austin: Canada’s wild.
Keith: If you haven't heard—I'm sure this is on a Clapcast somewhere—us trying to figure out what the exact vibe of Swiss Chalet is [Ali laughs quietly] to an American who’s never heard of it, that’s a Clapcast. You can go listen to that.
Austin: You can.
Dre: Mm.
Keith: For a dollar on the Patreon. You should do that. That was fun, I remember.
Austin: I'd sell that for a dollar.
Janine: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Would you pay up to $10? [Austin laughs quietly] Not 9.
Janine: Not 8.
Keith: Not 8!
Janine: Not 7. [Keith laughs]
Austin: [laughs] Not 7. Not 6.50.
Janine: Not 6.
Keith: One dollar!
Austin: Figure, are you going to the party?
Dre: Yeah. I'm trying to figure out what I'd be doing. Um…Figure is…oh, Figure is playing some sort of sport with all the kids.
Austin: Mm.
Dre: My thing was I was gonna say football and Figure’s playing all-time quarterback.
Austin: Wait, what’s all-time quarterback? Like, you're…
Dre: You're quarterback for both sides.
Austin: For both sides, right? Yeah, okay, okay.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love this image. A lot of sports for Figure this week.
Keith: What, these kids don't want to play badminton?
Dre: No, we could play badminton.
Austin: No.
Dre: Maybe I went over there to try to get them to play badminton—
Keith: There’s enough kids.
Dre: And they were like, [high-pitched] “No, we don't want to play badminton!”
Austin: They don't want to play badminton. They want to play basketball. That’s what we know about Palisade. [laughs quietly]
Dre: Yeah, that’s true.
Janine: Can I tell you, when I was a kid, all I wanted to play was badminton.
Austin: Yeah, that’s actually true for me too.
Keith: Yeah, ‘cause it’s sick.
Dre: Badminton’s fun.
Keith: It’s one of the most fun sports.
Janine: It’s so fun.
Austin: It’s fun. Yeah, played it in [indistinct].
Janine: The shuttlecock hitting the racket, the springy feeling? It’s perfect. It’s so good.
Dre: It’s so satisfying.
Keith: It’s great. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, it’s fun. It’s good.
Janine: It’s the knob feel of sports.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: Hmm?
Austin: Hmm?
Dre: Hmm?
Keith: The acceleration coming off that racket of the shuttlecock is phenomenal.
Dre: Love the knob feel of a shuttlecock. There.
Austin: Wha—? [laughter] Uh huh.
Janine: I simply want to be a shuttlecock in play. [more laughter]
Ali: Can we—
Sylvia: All right!
Ali: [cross] Can we record a podcast, please?
Austin: [cross] That’s a Dan Ryckert. That’s a Dan Ryckert classic.
Sylvia: And I didn't say any of that! I feel great!
Dre: All right, this is how it goes now. [laughs]
Austin: To be clear. That’s stolen valor. Dan Ryckert wanted to be a handball in play, which I think is even hornier. [laughter]
Sylvia: Yeah, that’s super horny.
Janine: Not a handball, a racketball. A racketball in play.
Austin: A racketball.
Keith: Racketball in play.
Austin: Sorry, not a handball, a racketball.
Sylvia: Even…regardless.
Austin: Regardless.
Keith: Well, because that’s less horny than, I think, badminton is.
Austin: Than a handball. Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Eh…
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Uh, well, that brings us back around. [Janine laughs quietly]
Keith: Handball, badminton, racketball. In that order.
Austin: In that order.
Janine: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Austin: Cori, we're back around to you.
Sylvia: Yeah, I was— so—
Austin: Also, wait, of those people, who’s spending tokens?
Keith: Uh…well, so, we do have to make— we do have three— and maybe this is fine. We have three tapped factions still.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: And I think we should probably at least untap one of those. I would like to use my last token, though, on XP, so. [Austin scoffs]
Sylvia: Okay.
Keith: I'm just putting it out there.
Austin: Do as I say, not as I do.
Keith: If someone wants to be a hero.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I also want to spend a token here, to be honest, because I'm—
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Janine: I feel like I'm behind on advancements, and I kind of need some right now to explain some stuff that has happened.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. As a reminder, there’s other ways to level up that you're kind of close to, which maybe you'll get here. If you get that Twill clock up by one, for instance.
Janine: Yeah.
Dre: Mm.
Austin: That’ll give you an advancement, right? All right. So, spend those tokens, and then, Cori, I'd love to know more about what you're getting up to in this Fade.
Sylvia: So, I had— while we were figuring that out, I was trying to think of what Cori would be up to, and I think I got a good idea of her bringing, like, a grilled corn on a skewer?
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: You know, she’s got two of them, and she gives one to Elle and is like:
(as Cori): They gave me two. Don't get flattered.
She’s lying, but that’s fine.
Austin (as Elle): They must have wanted to make sure you grew up nice and strong.
Austin: And hands it back to you.
Dre: Mm…
Sylvia (as Cori): You're, like, two years older than me.
Austin (as Elle): Makes all the difference.
Sylvia (as Cori): [grumbles] [Ali laughs quietly]
Sylvia: She’s gonna give it to, like, a kid who’s passing by.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm.
(as Elle): [sighs] Good to see you made it out of that danky catacomb.
Sylvia (as Cori): Yeah, you're welcome for saving you. And everybody else there.
Austin (as Elle): It was impressive.
Austin: A little smile.
(as Elle): Wasn't how I expected things to go.
Sylvia (as Cori): Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you keep underestimating me.
Sylvia: She is also smiling now.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
(as Elle): Well, I mean, did you do that, or was that just Devotion?
Sylvia (as Cori): Oh, so, like, did you win those battles, or was it just the mech?
Austin (as Elle): That’s a different thing. A mech is a robot that I pilot. Devotion is a different person.
Sylvia (as Cori): Eh.
Sylvia: Like, genuinely just shrugs at that, at this point. [laughs quietly]
Austin: Mm-hmm.
(as Elle): [sighs] So, what’d you dream about?
Sylvia (as Cori): Oh, no, no, no. I was gonna ask you first.
Austin (as Elle): Uh, I have, uh, senior’s advantage. Those two years, I'm cashing ‘em in. What’d you dream about?
Sylvia (as Cori): You really gotta stop relying on that. Uh…you know. Uh, a lot of combat, a lot of winning the war is, uh, kind of what it felt like.
Sylvia: She is purposely not ment—
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: Slipping out of character. She is purposely not mentioning the fighting alongside her yet.
Austin: Right, right, right.
(as Elle): What was it like winning the war?
Sylvia (as Cori): It felt pretty good.
Austin (as Elle): What came after?
Sylvia (as Cori): I woke up too soon.
Austin (as Elle): Mm.
Sylvia (as Cori): Actually, I got a little two-for-one out there. Do you want to know the other dream? The other dream might interest you. It was one—
Austin (as Elle): How’d you get a second dream?
Sylvia (as Cori): Yeah, I killed you in it. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Let’s fucking go!
Sylvia: Takes a big bite out of her snack.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Her corn.
Sylvia: Her corn, yeah. Sorry. [Ali laughs]
Austin: That’s an important image.
Sylvia: I mean, you know. We’ll see how this goes.
Keith: Biiig crunch of corn. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Austin (as Elle): Ohh. That’s the nice thing about dreams. They can give us things that’ll never happen in real life.
Sylvia: The, like, little playful shit-eating grin she had kind of turns into a frown. [Ali laughs quietly]
(as Cori): [sighs, dispirited] Yeah. Okay, your turn. Come on. [Keith laughs]
Sylvia: Oh my god. Yeah, that is…
Austin: Oh no. Oh no.
Sylvia: Her trying to be cool and failing.
Austin: Oh, it is. 100%. [Keith and Ali laugh] Incredibly good.
Sylvia: [laughs] For everyone listening, it’s a GIF of a cat sort of struggling with some corn.
Austin: It’s extremely good.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: That’s Cori to me.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Ali: Check twitter.com/friends_table when this episode drops. [laughter]
Sylvia: Oh, wonderful.
Austin: Uh huh. Vaguetweeting.
Ali: Just ‘cause it’s important.
Austin: It is. It is. [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: Get some corn emojis in the comments, everybody. [Ali and Dre laugh] Critical support for Cori. For Corn-i.
Austin: Corny?
Ali: Mm…
Sylvia: No.
Austin: Mm.
Sylvia: Let’s move past that one. Cut that out, actually.
Austin: No, mm-mm.
Sylvia: Fuck.
Austin: Mm-mm. Well, I— hmm. I was thinking— I don't remember why now. While I was doing prep, I fully— I saw the word Cori and read it as corny but then thought about Cori learning about the band Korn for the first time? [Ali laughs]
Dre: Sure.
Sylvia: Oh my god!
Austin: Like, discovering them on YouTube, which is extremely funny to me.
Sylvia: Straight up, I think she’d love them.
Austin: Me too, 100%!
Ali: Yeah.
Sylvia: Like, 100%.
Janine: I can picture her, like…
Ali: Especially now.
Janine: I don't know if people were of a certain age when they saw the video for “Freak on a Leash”. [laughs quietly]
Dre: Oh, yeah!
Austin: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Ali: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Janine: But I can picture her, like, wide-eyed in front of the TV like, “Whoa! You can do this with a music video?”
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Dre: Uh huh.
Sylvia: This is allowed?
Austin: “This is allowed?” yeah. [laughs] Exactly.
Ali: This is an album that Cori has found in the media room.
Dre: Uh huh.
Sylvia: Yeah. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: I've posted the cover for Korn’s Follow the Leader.
Sylvia: [laughs quietly] Is it Brnine’s?
Ali: Yeah.
Sylvia: Oh, fuck yeah.
Ali: It might be Midnite’s, but.
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: It might be, yeah. [Ali laughs]
(as Elle): I dreamt…
And, like, kind of looks at you seriously.
(as Elle): I dreamt that I was who I used to be, and that it was all real, all of the Devotion stuff.
Sylvia (as Cori): Oh. Um…
Austin (as Elle): I see you have a new pair of black wings. You coming around to my side of things?
Sylvia (as Cori): Okay, hold on. That— let’s chill out with that talk.
Austin (as Elle): Oh.
Sylvia (as Cori): I'm not betraying anybody here, and by the way, haven't forgotten about the whole spy thing. I just don't really feel like ruining everybody’s fun today.
Austin (as Elle): No, it’s a party. That would be…yeah.
Sylvia: She’s gesturing with the corn on the, like, little skewer, by the way, while talking.
Austin: [laughs] Uh huh! Uh huh.
Sylvia (as Cori): I just— I don't know. Maybe, uh, I'm figuring out that you shouldn't be training teenagers to use giant weapons of war for most of their life, but it’s fine. I'm, like, here now, and it’s like, whatever. I'll deal with it. Have you ever heard of Korn, the band?
Austin: The band. [Austin and Sylvia laugh quietly]
(as Elle): I've not, no. I don't have a lot of time to listen to music.
Sylvia (as Cori): It’s, like, classical stuff. It’s pretty old.
Austin (as Elle): Okay. You should send me some. I'm serious. I thought I would kill you the last time that we saw each other, and, well, I didn't, and so, I'm gonna make the offer again. Come work with me.
Sylvia (as Cori): I—
Austin (as Elle): I was impressed.
Sylvia: Unable to keep from smiling when she hears that.
(as Cori): Listen, I don't even know who you're working for, which, as much as the, you know, fighting alongside is appealing, I don't— I don't want to make things worse here, and I don't know what you're trying to do, but it doesn't feel like it’s on, [Elle sighs] you know, our team.
Austin (as Elle): I'm working for the thing that’s coming next.
Sylvia (as Cori): [unimpressed] Oh, really.
Austin (as Elle): Mm-hmm. You think it’s— it’s not this. This is great, but it’s a galaxy. The galaxy doesn't get won by people who hold barbecues. Not that there won't be barbecues afterwards.
Sylvia (as Cori): Why do you alw— [frustrated sigh] You're always talking in, like, circles and riddles and just never get to the— what’s coming after, Elle? Who’s on the way?
Austin (as Elle): People. No more Stels. No more churches. People, connecting one on one, on their own terms. [slowly] An exchange of ideas and feelings and touches.
Sylvia: Okay— okay!
Austin: And she gently touches your arm and moves past you.
Sylvia: Drops her fucking corn. [laughs quietly]
Dre: Aw.
Ali: [laughs quietly] We've all been there.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: [laughs] Damn.
Keith: Never dropped corn.
Austin: That feeling when you drop your corn.
Sylvia: [singing] Never dropped corn, and I don't care. [Ali, Austin, Keith, and Sylvia laugh] Sorry.
Austin: And she does, like, a little spin back to you with a little, like, half nod, and says…
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin (as Elle): It’s up to you whether you want to come into the new world with me or just chase behind like normal.
Austin: I'm gonna spend my, uh, my rival token [Sylvia: Yeah.] to ask you a— this is me asking you a challenging question that must be answered, and it doesn't have to be answered in this moment necessarily, right?
Sylvia: Okay.
Austin: But I want it to, like, drill into Cori’s head a little bit, as I continue to try to, as Elle— Elle’s need is to ensure her true master wins out on Palisade, and her want is to shake Cori’s faith in Devotion. So, you can feel free to answer in this moment, but, you know.
Sylvia: The question specifically being…
Austin: Uh, are you—
Sylvia: Will she come fight with her, or…?
Austin: Yeah, I think that that’s the gist of it fundamentally, is: do you want to fight by my side for real? Because I can make that happen, basically.
Sylvia: Uh…
Austin: She doesn't know about your dream either, to be clear.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: But.
Sylvia: I think…
Austin: She knows about your lowercase-D dream.
Sylvia: Yeah. [laughs] I think, like, to answer— like, in character— like, out of character, [Austin: Mm-hmm.] I think her answer— like, Cori, yeah, does want that, but I think in character the way she expresses that is just, like:
(as Cori): I'm not gonna spend the rest of my life staring at your back.
Sylvia: And then storming off.
Austin: Mm-hmm. Ugh, poor Cori.
Sylvia: Oh, she’s great.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: What? This is perfect.
Austin: It’s good.
Sylvia: This is exactly what I wanted for her.
Austin: Yo, no, I get it.
Dre: Yeah, uh huh.
Austin: Yes, yeah. Flags recognized, trust.
Sylvia: Yeah. Yeah, Austin, thank you so much. [Ali laughs]
Dre: I mean, yeah, it’s poor Cori, happy Sylvi.
Sylvia: Yeah, exactly.
Austin: That’s right. Yes.
Sylvia: That’s just been this season. [Dre laughs]
Austin: That’s how it goes, 100%.
Ali: Yeah.
Sylvia: Like I said on that one Gathering Information, it’s a plush toy filled with milk that I slap against the wall. [laughter] That’s Cori.
Ali: [laughing] I guess.
Austin: Gathering Information, patreon.com or friendsatthetable.cash.
Janine: Why milk? What?
Sylvia: Oh, oh.
Ali: Yeah. [laughs]
Sylvia: It’s a— I'll link the post in here.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: [cross] Oh, yeah, you don't know this post?
Sylvia: [cross] But we have this discussion on the show.
Austin: We do not— we cannot have this discussion on the show.
Sylvia: No, I— yeah.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: So, okay, back to, like, mechanical stuff.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: Can I advance my gravity clock with—
Austin: I just did it. With Elle?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, I just, this second, was like, “Let me go ahead and just do that. That seems right to me.”
Sylvia: Okay, cool.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: So, wait, does that count as my effect for the scene then, or…?
Austin: No, your effect is still getting…
Sylvia: Oh, it’s gaining a spotlight and advancing. Nevermind.
Austin: It is, and advancing a gravity clock. Correct, yes.
Sylvia: Sick. Okay, so…
Austin: You also get that, yeah.
Sylvia: Oh…
Austin: And—
Sylvia: If I spend my token, I'm tapped out, but I…
Austin: Uh, one second, because I also think it goes up more because of discussing your faith with someone or learning something about how they personally relate to faith and spirituality.
Sylvia: Oh, level up, baby.
Austin: Which is continuing to see that Elle is absolutely a cynical nightmare person.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: So, there you go. And then, yeah, congrats on the—
Sylvia: Oh, that’s not a level up. That's for the gravity clock.
Austin: That’s for the gravity clock, not the spotlight.
Sylvia: Okay. Well, do I want to use my… [grumbles]
Austin: Where were you— wait, you came in with four or you came in with five?
Sylvia: I came in with four, and then I just got up to five.
Austin: Yeah, so it goes up to five. Yep, mm-hmm.
Sylvia: Yeah. And I'm just looking at our faction.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: I might decide to spend my token, if it turns out I want to be selfish here, but for now, let’s move on, and I'll use it to untap something. [Ali laughs quietly]
Austin: Anyone else spending a token during this scene? Thisbe, you were gonna, and Eclectic, you were gonna.
Janine: Mm-hmm, I was gonna.
Austin: Okay. Are y'all advancing…you want to do scenes with anybody to advance gravity also? Or do you just want to get the spotlight?
Janine: Do we get both or just one?
Austin: It is as above, as written, so you get both.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: The way— again, the way the move Fade is written is you…gaining a point of spotlight and advancing a gravity clock if you spend it with someone, you know, if someone joins you.
Keith: Nice.
Janine: I would like to do something with Cori, if that’s still possible.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Janine: But that might be advancing Cori clocks too much? I don't know if there’s a rule against that.
Austin: No, that’s fine.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: No rule against that.
Keith: And I only have one clock, so if Figure has some time, I would do a scene with Figure to get that clock up.
Austin: Yeah, that sounds good.
Dre: Sure.
Austin: Especially coming off of that previous scene, right? It would be kind of fun to get y'all on the same [Keith: Yeah.] page again, right? [Ali laughs quietly]
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So, since we just had a Cori scene, let’s do that one, and then we'll wrap back around to Thisbe-Cori. So, where do Figure and Eclectic chop it up?
Keith: Uh, well, we were both playing—
Austin: Sports, true.
Keith: Games, so we were probably in the same area.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: So, maybe we're going back, like, after games to hydrate. Do I hydrate? Do I eat?
Austin: I was asking this earlier.
Dre: Good question.
Sylvia: You said you were eating earlier.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: And now we need to address: do you?
Keith: Well, I've played a lot of characters that don't need to eat but do anyway. [laughs]
Austin: This is true.
Sylvia: This is just sort of a Keith thing now.
Dre: Sure.
Austin: This is kind of a Keith thing going all the way back to Fero, because Fero didn't need to eat, right?
Keith: To Fero, yes, yeah.
Austin: I don't think— I don't know that— Delegates are synthetic people. They're robots, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So, I don't know that they need to eat.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: They might— they do need to charge. They do need to…
Keith: Leap needed to eat. That was the thing about Leap.
Austin: Well, that’s because Leap explicitly was Equiaxed, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And so, I don't think—
Keith: Yeah, Leap was part of a prototype set of robots that had— that used [Austin: Right.] a digestive system to generate electricity.
Austin: Yeah, and had other, like, you know, humanoid organic components.
Keith: Right. Yeah.
Austin: The Delegates are not this, so I don't think you need this.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: You know?
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Whether or not [Keith: Awesome.] that is a thing that your particular Delegate does is up to you. I'm not gonna say you can't have that sloppy joe, but I don't think that, as a rule, Delegates need to, you know?
Keith: Okay. Okay.
Austin: But, yeah. You definitely— you might need to hydrate with something else, right? I talked about this before being like, the Bontive Valley is also where you might—
Keith: Drink some coolant.
Austin: Sure, there’s coolant. It might be where you produce some oil from vegetables of some sort, you know, or from grains of some sort to…
Keith: I produce the oil?
Austin: No, the Bontive Valley does.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: And so, like, even if you're a Delegate, you might need some of that, you know?
Keith: Sure. Yeah.
Austin: So.
Keith: Well, put some—
Sylvia: You vaping at the cookout?
Austin: Oh, great question.
Keith: Vaping?
Sylvia: Wasn't— didn't we talk about how Eclectic is a vaper?
Keith: Uh, no, no, no. I think that we landed on that Eclectic smokes actual cigarettes.
Sylvia: Okay.
Keith: Yeah. At least since becoming a detective. [laughs quietly]
Dre: Sure.
Austin: Mm.
Keith: As part of the detective costume.
Ali: Mm, mm-hmm.
Keith: So, I don't know. I was gonna say that we go— we're going back to, like, get something to drink from having been playing games, but if I don't specifically have to do that, then I guess it doesn't have to be that.
Austin: You can just be walking with Figure. Figure—
Keith: Just walking.
Austin: I mean, I don't—
Keith: Just walking back.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Figure, you eat food and drink drinks?
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: Oh, yeah.
Austin: Right? Okay.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: There’s a bunch of freaks on this spaceship. [Ali laughs quietly]
Dre: Wow.
Keith: Bunch of freaks.
Sylvia: Wow.
Austin: A bunch of…
Ali: Brnine’s just a guy!
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: I'm normal. No.
Dre: I'm trying to vibe over here. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Keith: Can anybody— raise your hand if you're normal.
Sylvia: My hands are at my side. [Ali, Austin, and Keith laugh]
Janine: I'm normal. I'm just the thing I am, you know?
Ali: Yeah, I'm just iridescent and a fish person—
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Ali: And, uh, I just killed the president. That’s completely normal.
Keith: Yeah.
Sylvia: That’s— yeah.
Austin: Thisbe’s horns, now the living embodiment of Integrity.
Janine: All right, I forgot about— okay. Well.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: Listen.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: Other than that.
Dre: Sounds normal to me. [“I don't know” sound]
Austin: You picked out, uh, an Elect name yet or anything, or you are just going by Thisbe? Still Thisbe? Okay.
Janine: Oh, what’s the naming structure for Elects? I hadn't even thought about that.
Austin: Oh, we can talk about that later. We don't—
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: I don't know that Thisbe is going to decide to use the Principality’s name— I do think that it would be interesting to think about for Thisbe, right? Is that, like…
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: In the past, Divines have used names differently. Divines have used— and their users have had different naming styles than the one that there is now, and so that could be an interesting thing, right? This feels like an off-mic—
Janine: I could call her Thesebe. These beings. [laughs]
Austin: What? Excuse me?
Janine: That was bad. Let’s not…
Keith: Thesebe?
Austin: Thesebe? [Janine laughs]
Keith: T-H-E-S-E? Ah, Eclectic might be the most normal person here. [someone laughs]
Sylvia: [disbelieving] Okay.
Ali: I am normal!
Sylvia: No.
Ali: I'm literally normal. [Janine laughs]
Keith: [disbelieving] Okay. [laughs]
Sylvia: I agree.
Dre: I agree, yeah.
Keith: I do think Brnine’s number two. [Ali laughs] Or, you know. I'll give it to you. You can be most normal if you want.
Sylvia: Wow.
Austin: Bunch of freaks.
Keith: Bunch of freaks.
Dre (as Figure): Commander, you're right. You're very normal. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Keith: Well, fine. Then I'm—
Ali: Is this your scene? Did you guys get to the bonfire and…?
Keith: Yeah.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Roasting Brnine? [Ali laughs]
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: That’s funny.
Keith (as Eclectic): Almost every other crew has at least one normal person.
Austin: Is that in character?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Okay.
Dre (as Figure): I…how many other crews have you been a part of?
Keith (as Eclectic): Well. Two, three. But you meet ‘em. We just met a bunch— I just met a bunch of crews today. You know, someone who’s, like, reserved and good with numbers and is like, “Oh, don't— we shouldn't do that. Be careful.”
Dre (as Figure): So, like, a math teacher?
Ali (as Brnine): I'm literally an engineer, and I tell people to be careful all the time. [Sylvia laughs]
Janine: That’s also just Thisbe stuff.
Keith (as Eclectic): But then Thisbe is—
Dre (as Figure): That probably is the answer. Thisbe is the most normal, actually.
Keith (as Eclectic): This is like, uh, horseshoe theory. You've gone— [Austin laughs] Thisbe goes so far that it wraps back around to being a weirdo.
Janine: Mm, mm-hmm. Hmm.
Dre (as Figure): Hmm. Yes, yes.
Keith (as Eclectic): I mean, in a lot of groups, Thisbe’d be the weirdest one, and Thisbe is not the weirdest one of you lot.
Sylvia: “You lot”?
Dre (as Figure): Wow.
Ali (as Brnine): I'm getting a beer.
Austin (as onlooker): Oh, do you need a beer?
Sylvia (as Cori): I'm getting a beer too, captain.
Austin (as onlooker): No, no, no. You sit, you sit, you sit. What type of beer do you want?
Austin: You've never met this person in your life. [Ali laughs quietly]
Dre (as Figure): [annoyed sigh]
Austin (as onlooker): Do you have, like, an IPA? What do you—? Like a lager? Do you want a cider?
Ali (as Brnine): Let’s me and you go see what sort of beers there are.
Ali: And I'm going to walk out of this scene now.
Austin: With this person? [laughter]
Ali: Yes.
Austin: Wow!
Dre: Wow.
Ali: You know.
Keith (as Eclectic): Wait, can you get me something?
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, what do you want?
Keith (as Eclectic): Do they have any Flanders Red Ale?
Dre (as Figure): That’s really specific.
Keith (as Eclectic): Sorry.
Ali (as Brnine): Flanders, yeah? I'll look out.
Keith (as Eclectic): Thank you.
Austin: Does Eclectic have a brand deal?
Keith: [laughs] It’s a place, not a brand! [Ali laughs]
Austin: Okay. Okay.
Dre: Oh, okay.
Keith (as Eclectic): Do you have any— do you have any— do they have any Duchesse de Bourgogne?
Dre: [laughs] What the fuck is happening?
Austin: I don't know. It’s not my scene. [Dre sighs] Don't look at me.
Keith: That’s a brand.
Austin: Mm.
Dre (as Figure): So, what’s up with your new friend?
Keith (as Eclectic): I don't know. I mean, uh, I was, like, seconds away from being caught at Baseline.
Keith: Baseline? Where was I?
Austin: Baseline-C.
Keith: Baseline-C.
Austin: Yeah, there’s Baselines A through Z, so.
Keith (as Eclectic): I got in fight on a rooftop. They were tracking me, and I had to get out of the city immediately. Opened up a car door, and I was like, “We gotta go,” and the badge that I had from my last job, before being on the ship—the pirate ship, not the spaceship—that was enough to keep me from getting shot, and then the, um…the Breka book was enough to get her to drive me to the ship, the spaceship.
Dre (as Figure): Hmm. [sighs] Is it— is she, like, safe? Are we good with—?
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah. I mean, she’s nobody. I mean, she’s nice, but she’s just like a— she’s just like— she’s just like anybody that lives in the city.
Dre (as Figure): You said something the other day that I wanted to bring up with you.
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah.
Dre (as Figure): [sighs] And I don't remember exactly what you said, but it was basically something that, like, you didn't really care, like, what happened to the Blue Channel.
Keith (as Eclectic): Well, yeah.
Dre (as Figure): I need you to understand that the Blue Channel is my home.
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah, I get it. I mean, everywhere is somebody’s home.
Dre (as Figure): Right. I need to know that you actually care about what happens to my home and the people that live in it.
Keith (as Eclectic): I care, but it’s…the whole reason for this is to make that true for this whole place, not just your ship. Your ship— I mean, it would be nice if everybody at this party was as, you know, was as willing to get their ship blown up if they needed to to win this thing, and lots of ships have been blown up, you know?
Dre (as Figure): Yeah. Listen, I'm not…there’s a difference between the Blue Channel being blown up in service of the Cause and the Blue Channel being blown up because somebody doesn't seem to care.
Keith (as Eclectic): Well, I got the briefcase.
Dre (as Figure): No, I—
Keith (as Eclectic): The whole reason that it was in— the whole reason for the issue was that I had gone out and done stuff to help.
Dre (as Figure): No, I get that.
Keith (as Eclectic): Okay.
Dre (as Figure): And I'm not saying that you don't care, but I'm saying that that is— that’s what I was worried about yesterday.
Dre: Or whenever that was.
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah. No, I care. I get it. I understand why people were…hey, the Blue Channel’s my number two of three rules.
Keith: I open up— I have a little— [Dre and Ali laugh] I have a notebook, and in the first page of the notebook is my hook, written down.
Keith (as Eclectic): Number one: trust myself. Number two: trust the Blue Channel crew. Number three: trust no one. It’s right there!
Ali: Does it say, “Leap says”? [Ali and Keith laugh]
Austin: Is there a little sketch of Leap?
Keith: It’s erased.
Austin: Oh. [loud laughter]
Keith: You can just barely see that it says something at the very beginning.
Austin: Ohh.
Janine: It’s a stick figure sketch of Leap and Eclectic holding hands.
Austin: Aw! [Keith laughs loudly]
Janine: And there’s, like, a child’s drawing of the sun overhead.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: It’s— the whole thing is in a speech bubble with a little drawing of Leap with his finger up. [quiet laughter]
Dre: Great. Incredible.
Austin: God.
Dre (as Figure): How did you get involved with all this, anyway?
Keith: Uh…do we have a canonical city that I'm from? Or…
Austin: You worked in City City for a little bit, but I don't—
Keith: Right.
Austin: I don't know. We did not decide—
Keith: But City City’s new, right? It’s like…
Austin: Well, yes. City City was only built a few years ago, so yeah, [Keith: Right.] you would be from one of these other places.
Keith: There was maybe people living in what it was first.
Austin: My guess is one of the…one of the Fabreal Duchy cities. Carleon-Upon-Wisk or Carmathen [Keith: Yeah.] or Eversin or Carhaix, one of the— or Creston. One of these western cities, probably.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Those tend to be the ones, so.
Keith (as Eclectic): Well, I lived in the west, and then I moved to City City when it opened, and I was there doing almost the exact same job that Murch was doing, and there was a big—
Keith: Murch, right? That’s her name?
Austin: Yeah, Murchy. Murch for short.
Keith: Murchy.
Austin: I know what you're thinking: that’s two nicknames. Okay. [Keith laughs]
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Austin: What about it?
Keith (as Eclectic): We…you know, a bunch of us got on a ship to Partizan, and at some point, you know, I met a couple people that went to be pirates, and I just was like, “I could do that.”
Dre (as Figure): What was it like being a pirate?
Keith (as Eclectic): Awesome. It was so cool.
Dre (as Figure): Is it…so is it like how it is in the books?
Keith (as Eclectic): It is exactly like how it is in the books. [Austin laughs] We were hoisting sails. We were swabbing decks. We were firing warning shots. Uh, we were shooting our— we made a bunch of man cannons, and we shot ourselves out of the cannons onto other people’s boats, and then we were like, “This is our boat,” and then it was our boat.
Janine: I no longer believe Eclectic was actually working with Leap. [Ali and Sylvia laugh]
Sylvia: I believe it more. [Austin and Ali laugh] Leap seems like a man cannon guy is just what I'm saying.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Dre: Sure.
Austin: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Dre: Love the Master Chief.
(as Figure): What do— I mean, is that, like, the long term plan?
Keith (as Eclectic): To be a pirate?
Dre (as Figure): Yeah, like, when all this is over.
Keith (as Eclectic): I don't know. I mean, when all this is over, that’s— the pirate thing is done.
Dre (as Figure): Mm.
Keith (as Eclectic): Leap likes being a pirate, but it’s— this is like— he’s a pirate for this.
Dre (as Figure): Yeah.
Keith (as Eclectic): So.
Dre (as Figure): He’s a privateer.
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah, he’s a privateer. He gives a speech about that all the time.
Dre (as Figure): Oh, okay.
Keith (as Eclectic): But he still calls himself a pirate, also all the time.
Dre (as Figure): Sure, yeah. I mean, that’s— it rolls off the tongue better.
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah. I don't know. Sorry about saying that I wanted the ship to blow up or whatever I said. I don't think I said that, but it was like that.
Dre (as Figure): No, you didn't say that. But I appreciate it. I guess I…is Murchy here? I should apologize for almost stealing her car.
Keith: I think Murchy’s here.
Austin: Yeah, I think she’s here. I think she’s, like…she’s chatting with, uh…she’s chatting with somebody.
Keith: Got a big plate of shrimp. Tons of shrimps.
Austin: Shrimps!
Dre: Good for her.
Austin: Yeah, I think that that makes sense. I think that she’s on that shrimp train.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Yep.
Austin: Yeah. She’s just— she’s doing the thing that you do at a party where there’s, like, one appetizer or whatever that you're like, [Dre laughs] oh, that’s…that just might be my whole meal.
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Like, I might just need to hover around here.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Austin: So is just chatting with anyone who comes over for more shrimp. [laughs]
Keith: Yeah. “You tried the shrimp?”
Austin: Yeah, exactly.
Sylvia: “Pretty good shrimp, huh?”
Austin: No, no, no. No.
Keith: “Oh, I've tried the shrimp.”
Austin: No.
Keith: Oh, no?
Austin: Murchy is a little more clever than this. Murchy’s like, “Oh, have you tried the brie?” and like—
Keith: Yeah. [Ali laughs]
Austin: “Oh. Oh, you don't like cheese. Um, well, what you should try is…” you know, and stay away from the shrimp. Oh, the shrimp—
Keith: Plate full of shrimp shells. “Have you tried the cheese? Cheese is the only thing worth eating here.”
Austin: Exactly. “I would only touch the burrata here. I would not touch the shrimp. I don't trust them.”
Keith: Burrata looks good. Shoutouts to burrata.
Austin: Shoutouts to burrata.
Dre: It’s good.
Ali: So, Murchy’s joining Rose River is what I'm hearing?
Austin: Wow, you're trying to really pawn her off, huh?
Ali: [laughs] No.
Austin: There’s only a few days left on that badge that lets her stay on the ship, so. [Ali and Keith laugh] I think she’s gonna join Carmine Bight, the pirates.
Dre: Oh, hell yeah.
Keith: Sick.
Ali: Oh, god. Good for her.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: I think.
Austin: Mm-hmm!
Ali: Good luck with that immediate situationship. [Austin, Ali, and Dre laugh]
Austin: She’ll be in one by the end of the night.
Sylvia: God.
Austin: You know? [flirtily] “Oh, so you're a pirate? What’s that like?”
Dre: Mm.
Austin: It’s just all of the lines—
Dre: “Is it like in the books?” [Keith laughs]
Austin: [laughing] “Is it like in the books?” It’s everything that Figure just said, just with a little…you know, a little extra.
Sylvia: The intonation, yeah.
Dre: A little somethin’ somethin’. Yeah.
Austin: You know, put a little hot sauce on it. Put a little spin on that. [Ali and Dre laugh]
Keith: Leap’s ship is— that’s a special ship. Not everybody’s got— these are custom man cannons.
Austin: Right.
Dre: [flirtily] Mm, are you on the special ship?
Austin: Uh huh. [laughs]
Sylvia: [flirtily] So they fire you from cannons?
Austin: [laughs] That’s what I hear.
Keith: I hear they fire you from cannons onto enemy ships.
Sylvia: That sounds SO scary.
Dre: Mm.
Sylvia: You must be so brave.
Austin: “You must be SO brave,” [laughs] yes!
Dre: Are you strong? You look strong.
Keith: I'm a cop. I'm a total coward.
Austin: “You look strong! Can you make a muscle?” [Dre laughs] Uh, this sounds like a scene. That feels like a scene.
Keith: Yep. Uh, I also leveled up.
Dre: Can you show me your man cannon?
Austin: Oh.
Sylvia: Jesus.
Austin: You did level up. That’s good.
Keith: I leveled up from advancement, yep.
Austin: Good job. Congrats.
Ali: Ooh, already. My goodness.
Keith: Taking a move, I think.
Austin: That’s your spotlight? Yeah, you're gonna take a new—
Keith: That’s my spotlight, yeah.
Austin: You rolled a lot and you got a lot of failures is what happened.
Ali: Mm.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Right? Which is like, new character mid-season.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Classic thing that happens. Cool. Uh, figure out what your move is. Let me know.
Austin: All right. Thisbe. You wanted to wrap back around with Cori.
Janine: Yeah. What’s Cori been eating? Just corn? [Austin laughs]
Sylvia: No. I think she’s got, like, a burger now, at this point.
Dre: Is it made out of corn?
Sylvia: I think she got this after the…
Janine: Corn burger, uh huh.
Keith: Corn burger.
Sylvia: The Elle incident.
Austin: Mm. Yeah, sure was.
Sylvia: No. She’s not having a corn burger. [Janine laughs]
Austin: Sure was an L incident.
Sylvia: Yeah. It always is.
Ali: [laughs] Nice one.
Austin: Yep, mm-hmm.
Ali: Got ‘em.
Austin: Got ‘em. Got ‘eem. Yeah, burger.
Janine: My thought had been to have Thisbe come over with, like—
Sylvia: Oh, that’s cute.
Janine: Some kind of big meat thing. [Austin laughs]
Sylvia: Okay, then she doesn't have anything, and Thisbe can do that, because that’s really cute.
Austin: Like a big Flintstones rack o’ ribs? Like, it’s just a giant—
Dre: Yeah, and it’s just stuck on Thisbe’s horns, and you get to just pop a piece off whenever you're ready.
Janine: No!
Sylvia: The Anthony Bourdain Digimon tweet.
Austin: Oh, I—
Sylvia: Anybody know this one?
Dre: Excuse me? [laughs]
Janine: I don't know what that means. What the fuck does that mean?
Sylvia: Okay, hold on.
Ali: Oh, we have to all know this tweet.
Sylvia: I'll link it. It’s really good.
Austin: Oh, yeah. [Austin and Ali laugh] This is— yeah, this is good. Thank you.
Sylvia: “‘Wow, this meat is so tender and juicy. Falls right off the massive bone in the middle.’ Flamedramon: ‘This is what we Digimon eat every day.’ Bourdain: ‘God, you're so lucky.’” [Austin and Keith laugh]
Janine: Oh, I thought this was a tweet from Anthony Bourdain that was about Digimon.
Sylvia: No.
Austin: If only.
Janine: Okay. Okay.
Sylvia: It’s not like his My Little Pony tweets.
Janine: I see.
Austin: If only.
Janine: I think what Thisbe brings Cori— [laughs quietly] I don't know why I have this in my head, and I feel like someone else probably assembled these, like, [laughs] I want to say for the kids, but I think maybe there’s, like, a leftover one, and Thisbe was like, “Oh, Cori might like this.” I think it’s like a slow-roasted— like a slice of a slow-roasted glazed ham, but they've put like cat ears— like, little ham cat ears on it.
Sylvia: Oh, that’s so cute.
Janine: And there’s maybe, like, a side of vegetables or something on there.
Austin: This is cute. This is good.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Janine: And I think maybe…maybe this is a response to, like, Cori having dropped the corn a while ago, and that sort of is a thing that sticks in Thisbe’s head of like, oh, Cori was eating something but then was not able to finish eating the thing.
Austin: Mm.
Janine: So, look out for some food that Cori might like.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Janine: I think is the way that she would sort of come to that. So, she shows up with this platter of food and presents it to Cori and says:
(as Thisbe): They plated more than was necessary, and I thought you might want to eat it.
Sylvia (as Cori): Oh, um…
Sylvia: And she, like, sees that it’s got little cat ears. She’s like:
(as Cori): [brightens] Oh! This is so cute. Thank you, Thisbe.
Janine (as Thisbe): It is cute.
Sylvia (as Cori): Are you having a good time?
Janine (as Thisbe): I've been helping, uh…I’ve been helping, and I enjoy helping.
Sylvia (as Cori): Oh, good. Okay. That was gonna be my follow-up, was if you enjoyed that.
Janine (as Thisbe): Have you been enjoying the festivities?
Sylvia (as Cori): Uh…yeah, I think so. Uh, yes. Yeah— mm…yeah. I— yes. I think— yeah. I'm gonna go with yes on this one.
Janine (as Thisbe): I saw you and—
Janine: I'm having a moment of, like, would Thisbe say “Operant Evensong”? I don't think so.
Dre: No! She doesn't deserve that.
Austin: Mm.
Janine: No. She might say “you and your peer.” [laughs quietly]
Dre: Your little friend.
Austin: Mm. [Dre laughs]
Janine: Uh, because it wouldn't be “superior” nec— I don't think Thisbe would see her as Cori’s superior.
Sylvia: Thank you, Thisbe.
Janine (as Thisbe): I saw you and your peer talking, and the body language at a distance concerned me somewhat. I did, at one point, fear that Evensong might think to…stab you with a knife.
Sylvia: Whoa! [Keith laughs]
Janine (as Thisbe): When they were close, when they moved.
Janine: Wait, is— sorry, is Elle she or they?
Austin: She/they.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: Yep.
Janine (as Thisbe): When they moved close and touched your arm, I was concerned they might stab you, but they did not.
Sylvia (as Cori): [taken aback] G—
Janine (as Thisbe): Did they?
Sylvia: She’s, like, taking a second. [laughs quietly] Huh?
Janine (as Thisbe): Did they?
Sylvia (as Cori): No. No. No, no stabbing. Not…not like that, no. [awkwardly] You, uh…how much of that did you see? [Sylvia and Janine laugh]
Janine (as Thisbe): I have been looking around. There is not much to do when you're spinning the spit. [Dre laughs] I was looking around at many things.
Sylvia (as Cori): Yeah, okay.
Janine (as Thisbe): This is one of the things I looked at.
Sylvia (as Cori): Cool. Cool, cool, cool. So, it was probably— it wasn't like— it was probably just you who noticed that. Okay, yeah.
Sylvia: She’s very, like…you ever have someone point out that they noticed something about the way you're behaving, and then you're like, “Oh fuck, has everyone been looking at me [Austin: Mm-hmm.] while I've been here?” [Janine laughs]
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: Yeah.
(as Cori): No, we’re goo— we’re kind of better than we have been, honestly, so no stabbing. Um…she’s just kind of rude, but that’s her thing.
Janine (as Thisbe): But they are still a spy, yes?
Sylvia (as Cori): Uh, I mean, yeah. Yes. Probably.
Janine (as Thisbe): Hmm.
Sylvia (as Cori): Just keeping— you know, just keeping an eye on, uh, suspicious individuals, you know? That’s all I was— it’s not, like, bad that I was talking to a spy, right? [quiet laughter]
Janine (as Thisbe): An element of this confuses me.
Sylvia (as Cori): Yeah.
Janine (as Thisbe): Operant Sunset. I cannot tell if you believe Elle Evensong to be good or bad in—
Janine: Good or bad is not a good…mm…advantageous or, you know, something like risky?
Sylvia: Are those the words?
Janine: Something to the effect of— I can't think of a good use— a good alternative to risky. I don't think she’d say risky.
Austin: But that’s the emphasis, is it’s about…
Janine: Yeah.
Sylvia: Dangerous?
Austin: Yeah, dangerous might just be.
Janine: Maybe, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it’s not as cut and dry as being a spy or being, you know.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Janine: In Murch’s case, like, it’s not as cut and dry as, like, being a cop who’s here.
Sylvia: Yeah. Murch, notably, like, just showed up, hasn't really done anything to wrong us yet, Cori’s super suspicious.
Austin: Mm-hmm. [chuckles]
Sylvia: Elle, literally a spy, confirmed to be a spy.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: Stabbed you.
Sylvia: Uh, but hold on, there’s still good in her.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Dre: I can fix her.
Janine: I can fix her.
Sylvia: Yeah. Okay, so advantageous or dangerous were the…?
Janine: Yeah.
Sylvia: I just want to remember. Okay.
Janine: Thisbe’s saying, like, she can't tell what you think specifically.
Sylvia (as Cori): I mean, she’s…I mean, she’s definitely dangerous on some level, but it’s like, I don't know. You've…you’ve known, like, the captain and people for a long time, and so you know that, like, even when they change, you can still kind of see, like, the older version of them now and then in your head? I don't know. I kind of just…it’s hard for me to detach her, you know, weird attitude lately from when we were younger and she would, like, look out for me and stuff. So I guess my answer is [shakily] both? Both.
Keith: [imitating] Both. [Janine laughs]
Sylvia (as Cori): Yep. It’s both, ‘cause I'm unsure. Um…I don't know. It’d be…it’d be cool if she actually turned around and helped us, but I guess we can never really be sure about that now, huh? Wow, I wasn't expecting to think about this that much today.
Janine (as Thisbe): I'm not sure that it needs to be said, given the way you often operate when we are on a mission, but…I would say you should not let her be the one to kill you.
Dre: Mm.
Sylvia (as Cori): I—
Janine (as Thisbe): Kill her first.
Austin: Damn, Integrity working.
Janine (as Thisbe): If it comes to that.
Dre: Let’s fucking go, Thisbe. [Sylvia laughs quietly]
Austin: Let’s go.
Sylvia (as Cori): Damn, Thisbe. [Austin laughs quietly] Yeah, okay. Thanks for looking out for me.
Janine (as Thisbe): Enjoy your ham, Operant Sunset. [Dre and Sylvia laugh]
Sylvia (as Cori): Thanks! Let me know if you need, uh, if you want a break from turning the spit to do something else. I can help out. [Janine laughs quietly]
Austin: Go ahead and advance that clock that I believe is, uh, “Thisbe’s afraid to get their hands dirty,” as written.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: Let’s fucking go.
Sylvia: Listen, the more we advance it, the sooner I can change it! [Ali laughs]
Austin: This is true.
Janine: Mm-hmm.
Austin: This is true.
Sylvia: So that’s up to three now.
Austin: It should be up to— yeah. Is that right? Janine, did you just change yours to three?
Janine: I put mine— I just put mine up at three, yeah.
Austin: You just put yours to three. Okay.
Sylvia: Yeah, I just put mine up to three.
Austin: So yeah, three. Three is right. Cool. All right, those are our Fade scenes, which leaves us with, uh…and Cori, that was your scene, right?
Sylvia: That was my scene, yeah, so I'm gonna…
Austin: All right. That leaves us with a Thisbe scene and a Brnine scene, I believe.
Ali: Yeah.
Janine: Are we saving Brnine’s for the end because of Command Deck stuff?
Austin: I think we are.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: That’s what it seems like we're doing.
Ali: Yeah, I, um, just while we have a break, I was thinking of doing Command Deck with other Millennium Break people?
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: As, like, a have my cake and eat it too.
Austin: Sure. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Austin: So then, yeah, Thisbe is your scene gonna be at this party, or are we gonna call that thing to a close?
Janine: I think my thing is post party.
Austin: Post party. So, any other final party situations, now is the time.
Ali: Who— oh, everybody’s about to be no tokens.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Yeah, I think token remaining…let’s see. Dre, out of tokens. Keith, out of tokens.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Sylvi, out of tokens.
Sylvia: No, I have one.
Austin: Oh, you have one.
Sylvia: I’ve had a scene, so…
Austin: You have one.
Sylvia: I have one token.
Austin: You have one token. Yeah.
Keith: If we wanted to just, like, have moves here, do we need a token for that?
Austin: What do you mean?
Keith: Um, like if I had a new move that maybe I wanted to use to just, like, see what happens. I don't think I— I don't think I want to, but I just want to— I don't really remember the rules of, like, hey, we're at a public place. You're at a scene.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Can I start rolling Read the Room?
Austin: Yeah, totally.
Keith: Et cetera.
Austin: Downtime is…you know, downtime scenes and in general, you know, between missions, if there’s something you want to do that’s not a mission, we can do that.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: It means the clocks tick, right? It means the world continues.
Keith: Right. Yeah.
Austin: But like, there is— if what you want to go do is something that’s not covered in downtime scenes, that is totally a thing that is, you know, fine to do.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: What I want to make sure of is that it doesn't— that, like— I would always want to make sure that if people could, like, make sure they've cleared their Perils or if they're, like, gunning for a level up or something, that they get those done before suddenly we stumble into something that suddenly is a mission, you know what I mean? So.
Keith: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I was sort of thinking of this move Stir the Crowd.
Austin: Mm-hmm?
Keith: “You have connections involving law enforcement and policing. When you reach out to them, hoping to gain insight on the Authority’s activities, roll plus Talk. On a plus 10, they let slip something big. On a 7 to 9, it comes at a cost.” And then there’s some things there. Something that seemed like it might be useful for…
Austin: Oh, is that actually called that, or did I fuck up and leave a different thing named that? Is that actually called Stir the Crowd? I bet that that’s…
Keith: Uh, that’s just what it says here.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I bet that that’s—
Keith: It didn't seem to fit when I…
Austin: I bet that that’s from when I made— when I hacked together this playbook. [typing]
Ali: Mm.
Keith: Oh, sure.
Austin: On the Excel sheet. Let me find the actual thing, that way we say what it actually is. Which book was this in, again, Keith?
Keith: Let’s see if I have…I think that it’s from Final Mission. Investigator, yeah.
Austin: Yeah, I see it now.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: It’s actually called Generational Investigations, is what it’s actually called.
Keith: Oh, okay.
Austin: I will change it in the playbook.
Keith: Oh, yep, I see it there.
Austin: Because, like, Stir the Crowd feels like a different thing, and I think that that’s maybe a Diplomat thing or a…you know.
Keith: It does. Yeah, it does.
Austin: Yeah, it’s a Diplomat move. Yeah. Cool. So, yeah. I would say that that’s totally a thing that you could do during downtime. Like, absolutely.
Keith: Um, okay.
Austin: Would maybe not be a thing to do at the party, but like, after the party, before something— before Plan and Prepare.
Keith: Yeah, yeah. I wanted to just say it before we started doing Plan and Prepare.
Austin: Yep. Yeah, I gotcha.
Ali: I would like to text Jesset the face_with_spiral_eyes. [Keith chuckles] Face with spiral eyes.
Austin: Oh, damn. Right, the like, you're—
Keith: That’s actually the title of a Breka book. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah, yeah, that one. The one that you've now just posted. Yeah. Ooh, what’s the response here?
Keith: The Face With Spiral Eyes.
Austin: What’s the response? Uh, I'm looking at my emoji. I'm looking at my emoji. I should not just focus on these emoji. We can invent our own. We’re from the future.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: And maybe it’s just— it’s one of these, the face exhaling, you know?
Ali: [laughs] Yeah.
Austin: Like, phew.
Keith: Oh. I thought that was sad tired guy eating the rest of his cotton candy is what I thought that was.
Ali: No, you did not think that. Anyway.
Austin: You didn't think—
Sylvia: You didn't.
Austin: That’s a lie.
Sylvia: Come on. [Keith and Ali laugh]
Austin: That’s not true.
Ali: I think Brnine sees that and laughs and, like, [Austin: Mm-hmm.] looks up from their phone. [laughs]
Austin: Oh, right, because you're both at the party, right?
Keith: Yeah, like, looking around.
Ali: Just, like, to find Jesset.
Austin: Uh huh. Yeah. Are you still surrounded by people, or is that…like, what’s the…?
Ali: I mean, this is…this is…
Austin: Wind down.
Ali: This is hour four, hour five of the party.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: You know?
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think texts…I mean, are you still— you're not surrounded by people then, so yeah, I think maybe he just comes over then, finally, and just sits down and is like:
(as Jesset): Done holding court.
Ali (as Brnine): Yep.
Dre: Damn.
Austin (as Jesset): You got all that interview practice, and now you're using it on us.
Ali (as Brnine): [sighs] Ha ha ha ha. Yeah, what’s up?
Austin (as Jesset): How are you?
Ali (as Brnine): I'm chilling, man.
Austin (as Jesset): Bontive Valley.
Ali (as Brnine): Hear, hear, hear.
Austin (as Jesset): What’s next for Captain Brnine?
Ali (as Brnine): Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I gotta ask my crew, I guess. You good, man? I heard that you were, um… [Jesset sighs] I heard you kinda went through it while I was…
Austin (as Jesset): Yeah. Yeah. Uh, faced down Crusade a little early.
Ali (as Brnine): Oh, you softened them up for us.
Austin (as Jesset): [laughs softly] I'll take the W.
Ali (as Brnine): [laughs] Well, thank you.
Austin (as Jesset): Thank you for getting the, uh, that big Divine involved. I don't think we could have done it without them.
Ali (as Brnine): Oh, right, yeah, Fealty and them.
Austin (as Jesset): Yeah.
Ali (as Brnine): Gotta get some Ws.
Austin (as Jesset): Um, I did think I was going to die, though, and that made me think about some things.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah. Yeah. Same, bro. [Ali laughs quietly]
Austin (as Jesset): Yeah. Pshh, I try not to think about the ones that— you know, we've lost some people over the years.
Ali (as Brnine): Mm-hmm.
Austin (as Jesset): What do you think people would say about me— ah, don't worry about it. Uh…
Ali (as Brnine): Wait.
Austin (as Jesset): Don't worry about it.
Ali (as Brnine): Like, if you died, or like…?
Austin (as Jesset): Yeah, if I died.
Ali (as Brnine): You can't ask somebody that. [muffled laughter] Why are you— come on, man. Don't think like that. What are you doing?
Austin (as Jesset): Sorry, I've had too much to drink.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah.
Austin (as Jesset): I should just…
Ali (as Brnine): You’ve been doing this for a long time.
Austin (as Jesset): I might have been doing it for too long. I, uh…Partizan. Phew.
Ali (as Brnine): [laughs quietly] Yeah.
Austin (as Jesset): It seems so far away.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah. Yeah. I've been, uh…it’s funny. I've been thinking that as well.
Austin (as Jesset): Do you— [cuts himself off] Good luck on the next mission.
Ali (as Brnine): No, what were you gonna say?
Austin (as Jesset): It’s fine. I should talk to you when I'm not drunk. [Ali laughs]
Ali (as Brnine): Okay. I think they still got some, uh…
Ali: I can't think of a food. [laughs]
Austin: Churros. Uh…
Keith: Cotton candy.
Dre: Shrimp.
Austin: Cotton candy. Shrimp. Ugh. These are all bad drunk foods. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Well, popcorn shrimp? I don't know.
Austin: Popcorn shrimp.
Janine: Cotton candied shrimp.
Dre: Ugh.
Austin: Cotton candied shrimp. Blech!
Keith: Cotton candied shrimp.
Austin: [laughs] I don't know about that.
Ali: Ugghhh.
Dre: Hey, I hate it.
Janine: It’s, like, furry and sweet.
Austin: Right.
Dre: No. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Ali (as Brnine): Go get some bread.
Austin: Bread is the thing.
Ali (as Brnine): Go get your bread up.
Austin (as Jesset): Go get my bread up. [laughs] You know I keep my bread up.
Janine: [laughs] What the fuck?
Ali (as Brnine): I know you keep your bread up.
Austin (as Jesset): Keep my bread up every day. Every day!
Ali (as Brnine): That’s what they would say.
Austin (as Jesset): That is what they would say. [Sylvia laughs]
Janine: Uh…
Ali (as Brnine): Jesset always kept his bread up.
Austin (as Jesset): That’s what they would say. [laughs] I always kept my bread up. Ugh, rise and grind.
Keith: Like the dough.
Dre: Sure.
Keith: Like the dough of the bread.
Austin: Like the dough.
Keith: Rise and grind.
Dre: The Millennium Break mindset. Rise and grind, baby.
Austin: Yeah, that’s right. Ugh.
Austin (as Jesset): [sighs] There are people we lost, and no one even says their names anymore. That’s what’s on my mind. And when it’s done, I don't know if anyone will remember any of us, and it might be our fault because we don't do a good enough job of remembering the people who brought us here. That’s what’s on my mind.
Ali (as Brnine): Well, you're drunk.
Austin (as Jesset): Also some other stuff, but yeah.
Ali (as Brnine): Um, you're drunk, and this is a party, and when we die, people will remember the good things that we did.
Austin (as Jesset): Mm-hmm.
Keith: Eventually we'll have Phrygian’s funeral. [Ali laughs]
Austin (as Jesset): Ah, fuck. We have to have Phrygian’s funeral.
Dre: Oh, man!
Austin (as Jesset): Oh.
Ali (as Brnine): I thought that that happened already, but we should have that.
Austin (as Jesset): We should have that. Do you— oh. There hasn't really been time for funerals. I don't know that I've been to one since Partizan.
Ali (as Brnine): [laughs] Oh, right. Ugh, god. No, I— we just— I just did that— [laughs] You want to hear something funny? [Dre laughs]
Austin (as Jesset): Yeah.
Ali (as Brnine): Cori.
Austin (as Jesset): Cori.
Ali (as Brnine): You know Cori, little Sunset?
Austin (as Jesset): Uh, pink hair. [Sylvia laughs]
Ali (as Brnine): She threw a punch at her dad’s funeral.
Austin (as Jesset): She threw punch at her—? She threw a punch.
Ali (as Brnine): No, she punched somebody.
Austin (as Jesset): Who’d she punch?
Ali (as Brnine): I don't know.
Austin (as Jesset): Oh.
Ali (as Brnine): Some girl, I think.
Austin (as Jesset): Mm. [Sylvia laughs loudly]
Ali (as Brnine): You know, she might— [laughs] she might end up like me one day.
Austin (as Jesset): I could see it.
Ali (as Brnine): It’s a good start.
Austin (as Jesset): Her own ship?
Keith: Iridescent.
Austin (as Jesset): You don't need an engineer on board, do you?
Ali (as Brnine): Wait.
Austin (as Jesset): Ah…no, it’s…you know, I always told myself the Bontive Valley was the thing, and I guess we're gonna try for other stuff. Shale Belt, Carleon, Temple. I don't know what’s next, but it seems really far away, and I've been in the caves and the mountains for a few years now. You know, I should just stay. They probably need me, but…and you already have other things going on, but. [quiet conflicted laugh]
Ali (as Brnine): Um, you know, that’s a lot to consider.
Austin (as Jesset): It is.
Ali (as Brnine): Um…
Austin (as Jesset): I'm sorry. I'm gonna get bread.
Ali (as Brnine): No. Yeah, sure. I'll text you in the morning.
Austin (as Jesset): Yeah.
Ali (as Brnine): Okay.
Austin: Stands up, hands on knees. Hands on log. I've been picturing us sitting on a log around a bonfire. You know, like, you know, like a bonfire.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Push up. Little nod. Slow walk away. Later that night, texts you an emoji of bread.
Ali: [laughs] Cool.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: Oh how this relationship would be if they didn't talk to each other when they were drunk or sick all of the time.
Austin: Mm. Mm. Mm. Perfect. Love it. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Mm.
Sylvia: That’s what makes it the situationship.
Austin: Yep. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: Yeah. At least in my experience.
Ali: Hey, can I move in with you? Wait, nevermind. I gotta go.
Austin: Nevermind. I'm gonna go get some bread instead. [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: Oh my god.
Austin: It’s fine.
Dre: Man.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: We've all been there. [Austin laughs]
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: College, am I right? [laughter]
Austin: College, phew, yeah. [Dre laughs]
Keith: Jesset picks up some corn just to drop it.
Austin: Yeah, that’s how it feels sometimes. [Ali laughs] All right. Do you want to do this move, Eclectic?
Keith: Um…
Austin: Or do you want to wait until we’re closer to Plan and Prepare? Do we want Thisbe to do her scene?
Keith: Yeah, I could wait.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: I can wait on Thisbe’s scene.
Austin: Thisbe, what are you getting up to?
Janine: Yeah. I want to help the Twill, like, get settled in.
Austin: Oh, that’s fun.
Janine: It’s a post-party thing. You know, we had a nice time.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: But it’s like, I don't know what that looks like. I think, prototyping it in my head—
Austin: It’s probably a Fade.
Janine: Well, yeah, it’s a Fade, but like…
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Is it, like, helping them set up houses or, like, clear out existing houses—
Austin: Yeah, a thing that I was thinking—
Janine: Or find, like, other stuff?
Austin: Yeah. A thing that I was thinking about with them is there’s this area that’s been damaged from the fight, that if they set up near it, they could help try to, like…
Janine: Mm.
Austin: They would like to help, like, fix it. You know what I mean?
Janine: Mm-hmm.
Austin: This kind of, like, war torn battlefield area. It’s a thing that they’re good at. It’s a thing that they would feel like we're here helping and not just, like being gifted this space. You know what I mean?
Janine: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Especially since it’s not…again, this isn't where this particular group of Twill is from originally, right? And so it’s like, they don't want to, like, be told, “Okay, now move your whole life here,” but if what they’re doing is being here to work on this thing and getting housed while they do it, that feels different, I think, to the community in this different way.
Janine: Mm-hmm.
Austin: And also, like, there is the promise. The promise is we're going to get you this area—Greenfield—back, and like, that is where you're gonna go live, right? That is your— that is where you are from. You need to be able to return to that place if you want to. We gotta fucking kick Exanceaster March out of there first, but like, we're gonna do it, but for now, here’s a project and here’s a place to live, but yeah, they definitely need to establish, like, houses and…
Janine: Mm-hmm.
Austin: And basic farming equipment setup and all the other stuff that goes into all of that, you know? So. So, yeah. And is Thisbe just gonna help out with that? Is it gonna be kind of a quicker scene, like a high level one, or do you want to dig into some of the other stuff that’s going on with Thisbe? What do you want to do?
Janine: I don't know. I have this Twill clock, and so little happens with it [Austin: Yeah.] that on the one hand, I think it’s easy to just go big and keep it broad, but on the other, I feel like we should probably see a little bit of that.
Austin: We're really close to advancing it, right?
Janine: Yes. Yeah.
Austin: When it advances, you could abandon it, which sounds bad, but what—
Janine: But also, if we're setting them up here, then it is kind of like putting a bow on it.
Austin: You've put a bow on it, yeah, and could free it up for a clock with another player character or another [Janine: Yeah.] NPC that you care about or whatever, right? So yeah, I think that that makes sense. So yeah, I think that there is— if you think about that original group, there were the pair of Twill folks who originally— and maybe even, you know, Partial Palisade’s gonna help you with this. I feel like, you know, two of these Twill folks were who helped get Partial into this space, right?
Janine: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Was Kriminel Kollage and Kriminel’s, like, the other guy who was working with Kriminel, whose name I don't remember off the top of my head. I think Veston? Veston Vicinity. The two of them, you know, are probably the ones who you work with here, and I think Partial’s helping. I'm curious, for you, does this stuff feel different for Thisbe as you— this is the type of task you've done your whole life.
Janine: Yeah, I think most of my clock advancement with the Twill has been, like, moving stuff for them, and like… [laughs]
Austin: Yeah, but also just that’s what Thisbe is, has been, and I'm curious—
Janine: Yeah, that’s often the way that Thisbe is like, “This is the way I can help you,” is you have one truck and you need to move six heavy things, you know?
Austin: [laughs quietly] Yes. Right. You're like—
Janine: I'll be a truck for you.
Austin: Damn! That’s real. [Janine laughs] Thisbe, the best Death Stranding DLC ever. You just get a Thisbe. Thisbe can help you carry stuff. It’s great.
Janine: God, yeah.
Austin: I'm curious if doing this task post- being tied to Integrity feels different or if there are small differences you wouldn't have expected, that Thisbe wouldn't have expected.
Janine: I wonder if part of it is like— you know, Thisbe will usually or would usually be like, you know, “What do you need me to do here?”
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Janine: And that’s not because she doesn't look and identify what needs to be done, but it is—
Austin: Mm.
Janine: It’s habit, right? It’s habit of, like, “Well, I can see that this needs to be done, but [Austin: Mm-hmm.] I should still ask and be told what to do.”
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Janine: And I wonder if there is maybe…I don't— you know, I don't want it to be that Integrity, like, makes her…you know, it’s not a switch that’s flipping and making her be, like, autonomous and stuff like that. I think it is just there’s a recognition there of, like, “No, I know.”
Austin: I always knew to some degree.
Janine: And like, if I don't know, I will ask.
Austin: Mm, mm-hmm.
Janine: But in this case—and in most cases, often—I know. Like, I know, okay, they need me to pull this trailer, because the vehicle they have for moving the farm equipment or whatever, the torque on the engine isn't strong enough or something.
Austin: Right, right.
Janine: It’s slightly…it’s confidence, right?
Austin: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Janine: It’s confidence.
Austin: Yeah. And again, like, I think— you and I talked about this a little bit off-mic between recording sessions, and a thing you kind of identified was like, it’s helping Thisbe recognize that there were already priorities or knowledge or perspective…
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: That Thisbe already had a perspective on things, [Janine: Mm-hmm.] already had those things and just kind of was actually pushing that down, in some ways.
Janine: Yes. Yeah.
Austin: Or not pushing it down, but, you know.
Janine: Ignoring it or…
Austin: It’s almost just drawing something into relief. It’s not fixing something with Thisbe. It’s not changing how you see people. It’s not changing— you know what I mean? It’s none of that. That’s not…yeah.
Janine: It’s putting an underline under a thing that was already written.
Austin: Right. Right. Exactly. Now, my question ends up being, long term, who’s doing the underlining, right?
Janine: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: And we'll see, and when it’s helping someone, you know, set up housing, it’s working really well.
Janine: Mm-hmm.
Austin: And we'll figure out what is up with Integrity long term, you know? Again, big surprise for me. I don't have immediate Integrity plans, right?
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: But we'll see.
Janine: Neither do I. [laughs quietly]
Austin: Yeah, no. We'll get there. We'll figure it out. Actual play.
Janine: I've been doing the work to find the ways to play it that I think feel okay and true to what I've been trying to do with Thisbe’s character.
Austin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Janine: But in terms of long term stuff, I, uh… [Ali laughs quietly]
Austin: Yeah. We'll get there. No rush. Anyone spending tokens during this? You are, obviously, advancing a spotlight [Janine: Mm-hmm.] and your Twill clock which will go up to six and then will become free.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: And you'll get an advancement from that, so.
Janine: Hell yeah. And then I'll figure out a new clock. I think I should probably figure out a clock with Eclectic.
Austin: That makes sense to me, because Eclectic needs a clock.
Janine: Eclectic only having one is not good.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Janine: That bad.
Austin: That’s bad.
Keith: Phrygian also only had one.
Austin: Is that true?
Janine: Well, that wasn't good either.
Keith: Yeah.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Damn.
Janine: It’s a problem.
Austin: Well, you had My Own Self Be Clock, also, but yeah, that is a problem.
Keith: I also had My Own Self Be Clock, yeah. Phrygian did not have a problem leveling up.
Austin: No.
Keith: What they had a problem with was having scenes with other…
Austin: People.
Keith: People.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. Totally. So then, yeah, I think a Figure— sorry, a Thisbe-Eclectic clock. I can't believe I did a Figure. [laughs quietly]
Janine: I think, also, given the course that Thisbe…
Keith: Yeah. Every character I have, you're gonna call Figure.
Austin: Uh huh. Or Lem.
Janine: Given the course that Thisbe is on, it makes sense [Austin: Mm-hmm.] to have a bit of a…what’s the— there's a—
Keith: Pirate.
Janine: No. [Keith laughs quietly] What’s—
Keith: Leap.
Janine: There’s a word in French that maybe it’s just the same in English? [typing] Reproachment or rapprochement? It’s like, you get…but people are, like, get closer, but it’s like one nice tidy word for it.
Austin: Oh.
Keith: Mm.
Austin: It’s not reproachment in English.
Keith: No. That feels like the opposite.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: It’s when you tell someone off.
Janine: No, not reproach, rapproche.
Austin: Oh, rapproche.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: I see.
Dre: Oh.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, establish—
Keith: Like, rapport.
Austin: Rapport, yeah.
Janine: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
Janine: But it’s like a verb. It’s like a, you know.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Janine: Anyway, it feels like that would be a thing that makes sense to happen.
Austin: Sure. Yeah, I think so too. That makes sense, and we'll see that develop [Keith: Yeah.] maybe as we— in the future.
Janine: Yeah, I gotta think what that is, but…
Austin: I'd say leave it— yeah, yeah, leave it open for now, and then we'll figure it out between sessions and fill it in.
Keith: Mm-hmm. Okay.
Austin: All right. I think that’s gonna bring us to Command Deck/Briefing Room, Brnine.
Keith: Oh, I'm gonna use my move.
Austin: Oh, you're gonna use your move. You're right, yes.
Keith: Yes.
Austin: So is this just you're on the ship? You're hanging out in the world? You're looking through your— do you have a little black book?
Keith: I'm already on it. I’m—
Austin: Do you have a phone? What do you have?
Keith: Sorry, what— you said I have a phone or what?
Austin: I'm asking, like, where are your— so you have— it’s “You have connections involved in law enforcement and policing. When you reach out to them, [Keith: Yeah.] hoping to gain insight on the Authority’s activities, roll plus Talk.” I'm asking where you…I’m asking where you keep the contact info. Like, does Eclectic have, like, a little black book? Do you just have, like, a burner phone with all of your old contacts in it? Like, what do you— how do you keep these contacts organized?
Keith: Well, I've already shown my little notebook.
Austin: You do have a little notebook. That’s true.
Keith: I have a little— I have just sort of like a— it’s not an address book, but it’s just, like, names and numbers and…
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Keith: Like, other contact information, descriptions of people.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: This is for jotting.
Austin: Yeah. It’s your jot book.
Keith: Yeah. And I think that, like, what I—
Austin: Your daily jotter.
Keith: Yes. My daily jotter?
Austin: Yeah, mm-hmm.
Keith: Is that what you said? I think what I want to do is, like, now that I have this information, I kind of want to look at my little sort of, you know, these are like mini dossiers of people.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: And be like, “Who did I know that I think might know something?”
Austin: Who did you know that you think might know something?
Keith: Um, like, maybe the…like, maybe the captain of our, like…I guess I don't know if they'd even be called captains, since they weren't real cops, but like, that sort of role.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Keith: Like, someone that was in managerial, maybe someone that I met at a party, someone…these are, like, the sorts of people that I'm thinking of that might know something. Like, if I had, like, a buddy that did a lot of security details for important people.
Austin: That’s an interesting one. Let’s go with that. That’s fun to me.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: The thing of, like, someone who…like, let’s swing big. Maybe you know someone who, like, occasionally did bodyguard duty either for Exanceaster March or for someone like a VP at the [Keith: Yeah.] Frontier Institute, you know what I mean? Or, you know, the Frontier Syndicate, rather.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: That, to me, feels fun, you know? Because then they would have overheard stuff, you know?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So.
Keith: Just, like, the kind of person that people say stuff in front of without…
Austin: Exactly. Yeah, they just assume that everything is…
Keith: I don't know— [laughs quietly] nevermind, nevermind. It’s fine.
Austin: Okay.
Dre: Mm?
Keith: Let’s, uh…yeah, yeah, I like this idea.
Austin: Uh, this person’s name is, um…need a name for this person who’s, like, a bodyguard. Uh, B. It starts with a B. What’s the next letter? We all know the next letter, of course.
Janine: Bronco.
Austin: It’s Bronco. [laughs quietly]
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Bronco. There we go. Call up your buddy Bronco. Make a note about Bronco, please.
Keith: Okay. Note. Buddy Bronco.
Austin: Buddy Bronco.
Sylvia: Buddy Bronco?
Austin: Yeah, Buddy Bronco, that’s right. So, what’s this roll? Read me this move.
Keith: “You have connections involved in law enforcement and policing. When you reach out to them, hoping to gain insight on the Authority’s activities, roll plus Talk. On a 10 plus, they let slip something big. On a 7 to 9, it comes at a cost. Choose one of the following: you let something slip — take disadvantage on the next Lead a Sortie roll; they extract a promise of something in return from you; or the information comes slowly — you'll have to act fast to use it.”
Austin: Uh, let’s have this call before we do the roll. I want to— I need to hear Eclectic calling [Keith: Yeah.] and working a lead.
Keith: Yeah, that sounds— and this is an advancement, a spotlight advancement, so I do get…
Austin: Oh, you just took it. Oh, that’s fun.
Keith: I just took this move, so I do get confidence on this move.
Austin: That’s great. Love that.
Keith: Yeah. And that’s 1s become 6s?
Austin: Spotlight is 1s become 6s, correct.
Keith: Right. I always— I never remember advantage versus confidence.
Austin: So, 2d6 plus 1, 1s become 6s.
Keith: All right, and you wanted the call before the rolls.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s do the call first.
Keith: Okay. Got it.
Austin: And then we'll hit a point where it’s clear you're doing the thing.
Keith: [clears throat] Brrring brrring.
Dre: Any sound.
Keith: [voice breaking] Brrring brrring. [quiet laughter]
Ali: I don't know about this sound.
Austin (as Bronco): Bronco Security Services.
Dre: It’s a chicken phone.
Janine: It’s a telephone cat.
Austin (as Bronco): A subsidiary of Lock and Cross Security Services. Buddy Bronco at your service.
Keith (as Eclectic): [with very deep voice modulator] Ah, B. It’s me.
Dre: What the fuck?
Austin (as Bronco): Uh, you'll have to be a little more specific.
Keith (as Eclectic): It’s, uh… [Dre laughs] It’s E.
Austin (as Bronco): [cautiously] E to you too. Um, how can I help you, E?
Keith (as Eclectic): Do you read me? It’s E.
Austin (as Bronco): I don't read you. I'm on the phone. [Dre laughs] But if you'd like to send—
Keith (as Eclectic): [cross] Do you hear?
Austin (as Bronco): [cross] —a message in text, I can let you know our mailing address.
Keith (as Eclectic): [unmodulated] It’s E! It’s E!
Austin (as Bronco): Oh, Eclectic. [Sylvia laughs]
Keith (as Eclectic): Gahh!
Austin (as Bronco): How’ve you been?
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah. [pause, laughter] I'm good.
Austin (as Bronco): You still, um…I guess you're here. This is a regular phone— there’s no delay on the call, so I guess you're here.
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah, I'm here. You know where I was.
Austin (as Bronco): No.
Keith (as Eclectic): No? Okay.
Austin (as Bronco): Should I know where you were?
Keith (as Eclectic): No. I thought maybe it got around, but it’s fine.
Dre: Hmm.
Austin (as Bronco): You thought it got around? [Ali laughs quietly]
Keith (as Eclectic): I just need a little—
Austin (as Bronco): Like a disease.
Keith (as Eclectic): I just need some information. No, like— no! Like information gets around.
Austin (as Bronco): Only if you're not careful with it.
Keith (as Eclectic): I mean, I guess that’s true for both.
Austin (as Bronco): No.
Keith (as Eclectic): If you're not careful with a disease, it still gets around?
Austin (as Bronco): Certain diseases.
Keith (as Eclectic): Bronco, shut the fuck up. [Austin and Sylvia laugh]
Dre: Wow!
Austin (as Bronco): Oh, I'm just busting your balls, Eclectic.
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah. Okay.
Austin (as Bronco): What do you need from me? What do you— you need some bodyguard services? You hit the big time?
Keith (as Eclectic): No, I need information. I'm still…I guess I'm still small time.
Austin (as Bronco): Oh, small time Eclectic.
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah.
Dre: You hate to see it.
Austin (as Bronco): Small time Opposition. [sighs] Little small time Eclectic Opposition.
Keith (as Eclectic): Little, tiny little baby Opposition.
Austin (as Bronco): Tiny little baby.
Keith (as Eclectic): Tiny, little, one inch tall…
Austin (as Bronco): Small Time, I'm just busting your fucking chops.
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah.
Austin (as Bronco): What’s, uh, what do you need information on? [Dre laughs]
Keith (as Eclectic): [sighs] Uh, Baseline. The Baselines.
Austin (as Bronco): What about ‘em? You know I don't— you know I'm a City City boy.
Keith (as Eclectic): I know you're a City City boy. You seen the towers? You seen the smokestacks?
Austin (as Bronco): Ah, the Motion thing.
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah, the Motion thing. Great. Okay, so you know something.
Austin (as Bronco): Eh.
Austin: Roll your—
Keith (as Eclectic): Can I—
Austin: Yeah, keep talking.
Keith (as Eclectic): Can I please know it also?
Austin (as Bronco): What do you not know? You're big time Eclectic, going to the—
Keith (as Eclectic): [cross] I'm big time.
Austin (as Bronco): [cross] Leaving City City— leaving City City behind.
Keith (as Eclectic): Sure, big time Eclectic needs some big time information. I'm 20 feet tall.
Austin (as Bronco): You're 20 feet tall. You already know everything. That’s why you left us!
Dre: Wow.
Austin (as Bronco): Already knows all about the world. Doesn't need to stay in City City, the future city. You don't want to stay in City City?
Keith (as Eclectic): Are you in City City still?
Austin (as Bronco): Yeah, I'm in City City still.
Keith (as Eclectic): And you opened your own thing?
Austin (as Bronco): Yeah, I got my own little thing on Wednesdays.
Keith (as Eclectic): On Wednesdays?
Austin (as Bronco): Yeah. I'm—
Keith (as Eclectic): So you're doing— you got your old thing, and then on Wednesdays, you have your own thing.
Austin (as Bronco): Yeah, on Wednesdays, I got my own thing. Doing a little time share, aren't I?
Keith (as Eclectic): Okay. Okay.
Austin (as Bronco): A little office space time share, splitting it up.
Keith (as Eclectic): Time share.
Austin (as Bronco): Wednesdays, that’s time for my share.
Keith (as Eclectic): Okay.
Dre: Mm.
Keith (as Eclectic): Do you get to keep your stuff there, or gotta clean it out?
Austin (as Bronco): Yeah, you gotta get a little, uh, rotate, a little rotate closet.
Keith (as Eclectic): Okay. Well—
Austin (as Bronco): You hit the button, it rotates, you get your stuff, you lay it out.
Keith (as Eclectic): No. Okay. Long story short, I don't know shit about these factories.
Austin (as Bronco): [condescending laugh]
Keith (as Eclectic): And I would like to know everything about them.
Austin (as Bronco): Little baby boy Eclectic needs his information bottle, huh? [Sylvia and Dre laugh]
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah. I'm thirsty!
Austin (as Bronco): Thirsty for information. [Sylvia laughs] Classic Clectie.
Dre: No. No!
Ali: Oh, yes. [Keith laughs]
Austin (as Bronco): Now, what are we talking about? You looking, uh, you looking to buy? You looking to trade? You looking to steal? [Sylvia laughs]
Keith (as Eclectic): Define steal. Like, from you?
Austin (as Bronco): Well, that’d be an insulting thing to do, wouldn't it?
Keith (as Eclectic): [laughs] It would be. I'm surprised you offered.
Austin (as Bronco): I wasn't offering. I was trying to find out what you're looking to do.
Keith (as Eclectic): No, I'm not trying to steal. I'm trying to just have, if I could.
Austin (as Bronco): Oh. He’s trying to have.
Dre: Mm.
Austin: Give me a roll.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: So, 2d6 plus 1. 1s are 6s.
Keith: 10!
Austin: That is a 10. 5 plus 4 plus 1 is a 10. On a 10 plus, [Keith: Oof.] they let slip something big.
(as Bronco): You know what, I don't think I'm gonna tell you shit. Big boy Eclectic leaves the city behind. [Keith laughs quietly] He goes, “Oh, I'm such a big boy. I can go wherever I want to go. I don't need to check in at work. I can no-call no-show and leave my partner up to his shins in shit!”
Keith (as Eclectic): Look, City City’s not a place for a guy who can rapidly change from big to small over and over and over again for a whole fucking conversation.
Austin (as Bronco): Yeah, well, some of us have to live our lives the same size day in day out and make the best of what we got.
Keith (as Eclectic): You could have come! Anybody could have come!
Austin (as Bronco): I bet you don't know shit about these factories. [Sylvia laughs] You come to me. You don't know the first thing. You don't know there’s 20 of them. You don't know that if 5 of them get knocked off inside of one hour that the whole thing goes down. You don't know that they're trying to build a bunch of different little Motions running around, biting people’s kneecaps and whatnot. You don't know the first thing about what’s going on on Palisade, do you, buddy?
Keith (as Eclectic): Nope.
Austin (as Bronco): Mid-size Eclectic.
Dre: Damn. Get bodie.
Austin (as Bronco): I'm just a middle of the road regular guy. I'm just a regular guy!
Keith (as Eclectic): You're just a regular guy.
Austin (as Bronco): I'm just a regular guy. I'm Eclectic.
Keith (as Eclectic): Oh, I'm just a regular— yeah, I'm just a regular guy.
Austin (as Bronco): Fuck you.
Keith (as Eclectic): Fuck you!
Austin (as Bronco): Fuck you! How about this? How about fuck you, buddy?
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah, how about go fuck yourself.
Austin (as Bronco): How about fuck you.
Keith (as Eclectic): You're Buddy! You're literally Buddy!
Austin (as Bronco): You're buddy! I'm Buddy Bronco!
Keith (as Eclectic): You're Buddy.
Austin (as Bronco): I'm Buddy Bronco? I'm BB? You're buddy.
Keith (as Eclectic): You're baby?
Austin (as Bronco): You're baby buddy. [Sylvia laughs]
Keith (as Eclectic): YOU’RE baby, Buddy. Being a baby.
Austin (as Bronco): Also, you owe me a bowling match, don't you, you piece of shit? [Sylvia laughs]
Keith (as Eclectic): I won that match.
Austin (as Bronco): No, it got called off in the final frame. We don't know what was gonna happen.
Keith (as Eclectic): [shouting] I was up by 180!
Austin (as Bronco): Didn't finish the game. That’s an incomplete. [Sylvia and Ali laugh]
Keith (as Eclectic): It was mathematically impossible for you to win five frames in!
Austin (as Bronco): No such thing as impossible, only improbable.
Keith (as Eclectic): Fine.
Austin (as Bronco): I want the rematch.
Keith (as Eclectic): Fine.
Austin (as Bronco): Next time you're in City City, it’s me and you, buddy.
Keith (as Eclectic): Double or nothing.
Austin (as Bronco): Quadruple. You're gonna need it, those big pockets.
Keith (as Eclectic): I'm the nothing. You're the quadruple.
Austin (as Bronco): You're the quintuple.
Keith (as Eclectic): You're the octuple.
Austin (as Bronco): You're twice the size of me but half the man.
Keith (as Eclectic): You're… [struggling]
Austin (as Bronco): Yeah, uh huh.
Keith (as Eclectic): A fucking shit. You're a big human shit. [Sylvia laughs]
Austin (as Bronco): That’s right, I'm a human shit, and I'm proud of it. Now get the fuck off my line. I got work to do.
Sylvia: [quietly] Oh my fucking god.
Keith: Click.
Austin: Clonk. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Oh, clonked you.
Ali: Damn, he clonked you. [Austin laughs]
Keith: Clonked me. Fuck!
Sylvia: Oh, word?
Ali: You just got clonked. [laughter]
Sylvia: Damn, Eclectic, you okay? You look like someone just clonked you. [Austin laughs]
Dre: I don't want to talk about it.
Keith: I got clonked! Uh, so, I got one big thing.
Austin: [laughing] I don't know, you got a— you got a bunch of big things.
Keith: Oh, and I got one little thing, and I got one mid-size thing.
Austin: Uh huh. Yeah.
Keith: Well, what I had before was weird factories are sucking in smoke in order to revive Motion.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Why do they do this? There are 20 of them. There are also prototype underpowered Motion bots hanging around Baseline cities.
Austin: You got all that, yeah. That was all old. Now you know—
Keith: That was all old. Now I know that we need—
Austin: Knock out five of them within the window of one hour, and the whole thing comes…
Keith: [typing] Knock out five in one hour.
Austin: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Ali: Like a hard reset.
Keith: Do you think that this, uh, fills a clock?
Austin: I think this fills a clock, right?
Keith: This has gotta fill a clock.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: And is that a level?
Austin: No.
Keith: That’s not a—
Austin: Look on the left. It does this thing.
Keith: This is the kind of clock that doesn't give you a level.
Austin: This removes three ticks from Authority schemes you're aware of. You may start then a new investigation clock or redefine your current one as you dig in deeper. So, this reduces the thing, because you're able to give this information to everybody, right?
Keith: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Austin: And so what I think is actually happening here is, like, this is why I can't just hit the button, right? Is this Motion clock goes back down to zero. What’s that look like? You've got this information. Given the tension, the recent situation with Murch, I would love to see you convince Brnine to get this— or to convince the Millennium Break leadership or the Cause leadership to take action on this thing, right? Because, like, you got the six clock. I'm gonna give you the lower thing. But what’s it look like when you say we have to hit five of these things super quick to turn down the— to make it not complete tonight, basically, right?
Keith: Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: Do we—
Austin: And open the window for a real— for actually stopping it. Because the clock doesn't get erased, right?
Keith: Right, it just gets reversed.
Austin: In fact, I am now going to advance it again, right? After whatever happens next.
Keith: Sure. [Ali laughs]
Austin: But go ahead. What were you gonna say, Ali? Do we—?
Ali: That sounds like a good Plan and Prepare.
Austin: It does.
Ali: If it looks like me and Eclectic talking to…
Austin: Presenting information. Yeah.
Ali: Yeah. Or Command Deck/Briefing Room.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So yeah, let’s do that. Let’s do the Command Deck/Briefing Room. You said you wanted to have other Cause people there, other Millennium Break people.
Ali: Yeah, just because I would have done that with my scene, so.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense. Who is there? Are you there? Are you at the leadership place? Are you doing— like, is the leader of each of these other factions there?
Ali: Um, at least a couple of them, right?
Austin: Uh huh. Maybe some of them are calling in.
Ali: Right, yeah. But this is me and Eclectic driving down to wherever it’s taking place this week. Obviously it’s not the same place every week.
Austin: No, it’s probably—
Ali: In my little Amuro car to…
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Ali: [laughs] To talk it out.
Austin: All right. I think half of the commanders are here of each of the Cause divisions, or factions, rather. [typing] Let me make sure I have everyone’s names right, really quick. I have to pull up the last time I wrote them all down, which of course was the note from when I figured out who voted to send you into harm’s way [laughs quietly] without— and who didn't, and who decided not to do that. Let’s see here. Here we go. All right. So, at this meeting, either in person or on some sort of, you know, call, is August Righteousness, the Excerpt ⸢Wine⸣ representing Grey Pond.
Ali: Mm.
Austin: Not Jesset City.
Ali: Mm.
Austin: Gucci, except you're here, so is Gucci— does Gucci meet you at the door? [Ali laughs quietly]
(as Gucci): Hurry up. We're running late.
You know? Saint Decario Dicario. I don't—
Keith: Already with Gucci. Back from the last scene with Gucci, we're already back to Gucci.
Ali: Gucci’s Gucci.
Austin: Gucci’s Gucci.
Dre: Gucci gonna Gucci.
Austin: Gucci’s Gucci, yeah. Gucci hasn't— there’s nothing new about Gucci, is there? [Ali laughs]
Dre: Never is.
Austin: Skelton Knaggs from Carmine Bight, though actually I think Jack told me that there’s a different pirate that actually shows up for Carmine Bight at these meetings. Veronique from Rose River. And of course, General Secretary Mustard Red is here today.
Dre: Of course.
Sylvia: God.
Keith: Oh no.
Ali: Oh boy.
(as Brnine): Eclectic, you're ready to…to say your part on this?
Keith (as Eclectic): I'm ready.
Austin (as Gucci): They’re all prepped. I told them that you'd have some sort of important information. I'm Gucci Garantine, by the way. Pleasure to meet you. I knew Leap. Pshh, really talented.
Keith (as Eclectic): Mm, very talented.
Austin (as Gucci): Let’s go in.
Austin: And everyone’s already either here or, again, there’s like a broadcasting array set up so that they can watch.
(as Gucci): I'm just gonna let our agent, um, Mr. Eclectic deliver the information. The floor is yours.
Keith (as Eclectic): I hope, by now, everybody’s noticed the factories popping up in the Baseline cities, 20 of them. What some of you may not know is that these are part of an Authority plot to revive Motion. I have intel that if we can knock out five of these towers within one hour, the whole thing collapses.
Austin (as commander): Collapses permanently or collapses…we get a little reprieve?
Austin: Asks August Righteousness.
Keith (as Eclectic): Nothing’s permanent.
Austin (as August): Hmm.
Keith (as Eclectic): But they would have to rebuild. This isn't…isn’t a reboot. It’s done.
Austin: This is not true. This is not what I said.
Keith: Oh. Well, then, the reverse of that.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh. Again, the thing that will happen is this will make the whole thing stretch out longer, but it will not stop it, because they still have the other 15. It’s just that it will put a meaningful slow on the process of the resurrection, basically.
Keith: Gotcha.
Austin (as August): Still valuable.
Austin: Says Righteousness.
Ali (as Brnine): Motion, as some of you may not be aware, was…
Ali: Who was Motion with?
Austin: Uh, at the time was with the Pact of Necessary Venture and Apostolos, back in PARTIZAN.
Ali: Right, okay.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali (as Brnine): Was an enemy used by Stel Apostolos, was a major tension point with our engagement on Partizan, and is a big deal.
Keith (as Eclectic): Big deal. Big, big deal.
Austin: I think, looking at this list, Veronique says:
(as Veronique): Captain Brnine, you just had us extend ourselves into the Bontive Valley. We took losses. Our people are still licking their wounds. You want us to do five incursions into these cities, these cities that we know are at least partially defended by the Divine Resonance? This is…it’s a big ask, isn't it?
Ali (as Brnine): I think the people of Palisade would ask it if they knew what was coming for them.
Keith (as Eclectic): It’ll be a bigger deal to ask you to take out Motion.
Austin (as Veronique): Fair enough.
Ali (as Brnine): The Blue Channel, of course, is prepared to do the majority of the legwork here. I have already began the process of preparing my team for the sortie. My crew is, um…
Keith: Full of freaks. [Ali laughs]
Dre: That’s true.
Ali (as Brnine): My crew is resupplying the ship as we speak.
Austin: Mustard Red leans forward and says:
(as Mustard): Um, hi. My name’s Mustard. I'm the General Secretary. I don't run one of the factions, but I— and I have the, um, secretary’s pejorative, which means I can ask a question.
Ali (as Brnine): Mm-hmm.
Austin (as Mustard): How’d you come about this information?
Keith (as Eclectic): As is…as is customary, I do not reveal my sources. Thank you.
Austin (as Mustard): Well, not your sources, but like, you know, did you talk to people? Did you, like, steal it from an enemy base?
Keith (as Eclectic): Uh, a combination of tactics.
Austin (as Mustard): Combination?
Ali (as Brnine): Eclectic was sent here from a—sent to Palisade, I mean—from a satellite Millennium Break crew.
Keith (as Eclectic): You might know the name Exeter Leap. [Sylvia laughs]
Ali: [laughing] The fucking name drop. [Keith laughs]
Sylvia: Maybe you've heard of him.
Ali: I can't believe this. I can't believe you.
Keith: Hold for applause.
Austin: Ugh.
Ali (as Brnine): And this information has been their priority while on Palisade, so. Varied sources.
Austin: [coughs] That cough in the background was canon. That’s important. That’s definitely happening. [Ali and Keith laugh]
Ali: Yeah, that was an in-character response.
Austin: Yeah. The Excerpt ⸢Wine⸣, formerly the Excerpt of Bounty, says:
(as ⸢Wine⸣): This seems important. What do you need from us? We can discuss tactics, obviously, but if you're prepared to move your own unit, do you need us to handle four of the remaining factories? Three?
Ali: That’s a great question, because I, out of character, don't know how we’re gonna structure this next mission.
Austin: Yeah, me either.
Keith: Well, we have us for a b-plot. If we think that we can do two, then we think that we can do two.
Ali: Maybe that’s the play.
Dre: Like, one for the b-plot and then one for us?
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Drop them mechs off and see what’s up, yeah.
Ali: [quietly] That’s not a b-plot. [laughs]
Austin: It’s not really a b-plot.
Ali: Of course that’s splitting the party.
Austin: That’s kind of just— that’s kind of splitting the party for an a-plot is what that is, yeah. [Ali laughs] Sorry that you just gave yourself extra homework here a little bit, but that is not a different fundamental thing, right?
Keith: Sure. Well, it would be— you know, it wouldn't be the same tactic.
Austin: No, but it’s the same outcome that you're chasing, right?
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You would need both of you to succeed to get what you're looking for. Though, also, there’s something kind of…
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: There’s something kind of…like, there’s something kind of weird about the way the mechanic is working here, right? Which is that Keith, you getting the clue immediately resets the clock, right? Or subtracts three from the clock. It doesn't reset the clock, right?
Keith: Right.
Austin: But it doesn't…that doesn't actually do the thing that you need to do with the information. You know what I mean? Like, there’s a world [Keith: Right.] where you could imagine, like, in a different game, what you did at this point was, like, publish this information online, and now they have to scramble to fix it, and that’s just not the world we're in necessarily, you know?
Keith: Mm, mm-hmm.
Austin: And so we're in a weird place of, like, I'm not giving you the move, in a weird way, right? It should just do it. It should just— and maybe that’s what we need to think about is that, like, removing the three ticks opens up a possibility to then get in there and get the win for real, right? To stop it from happening for real if you can XYZ. Like, maybe they are gonna take out the five bases, letting you go after some sort of core base, you know? Maybe that’s a better version of a mission?
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Keith: That sort of makes sense.
Austin: I'm just re-looking here at, like, “When your investigation clock completes, you may remove three ticks from among any Authority schemes you're aware of.” I'm gonna actually read [Keith: Yeah.] the whole thing out loud. “Vigilant and weary, you have a knack for uncovering shady backroom deals and stately conspiracy. You have a six segment investigation clock. At character creation, write a mystery about Authority activities you're investigating. When you Read the Room or Dispel Uncertainties, you may lower the result.” da da da da da. That doesn't— that’s separate from— I guess it’s actually not. I guess it’s actually not. Maybe this is the thing. “When you Read the Room or Dispel Uncertainties, you may lower the result of the roll from—” no, I think that that clock advances no matter what. That clock advances when you get a tick on the clock. Like, when you get clues, it should advance. It shouldn't only be when you [Keith: Right.] Read the Room or Dispel Uncertainties and do this specific thing, right?
Keith: Yeah, that is just a way to do it.
Austin: Yeah, I think to follow the fiction rule on this is anytime you'd be getting clues about the conspiracy it would be advancing, and then when it completes, you remove the three ticks.
Keith: Right. It’s just that I have a few obvious mechanical ways of doing that.
Austin: Exactly, which is Reading the Room and Dispelling Uncertainties and doing this kind of tradeoff that the move lets you. The move lets you reduce your success level by one to get a detail about your investigation, basically.
Keith: Mm.
Austin: But what’s missing for me is the, like, what is the mechanism by which having that information just instantly reduces the clock, so to speak, you know?
Keith: Right.
Austin: I'm also looking at something else really quick. One second. Now, here we go. Now here we go. This is a classic I should have checked something earlier. There is a rewrite of this move that Yuri Rennel sent me, which—
Keith: Oh, great, of Investigator.
Austin: Of not just Investigator but of—
Keith: Of the whole playbook?
Austin: Of a bunch of these playbooks, yeah, which we have not—
Keith: I mean the— sorry, the whole, uh, Final Mission?
Austin: Which I have not forwarded until this literal second—
Keith: Okay, I will…
Austin: Because I was like, “Let’s just finish out this downtime. Da da da da da.” [Ali laughs quietly] And then— or actually, I think I said, “Let me just finish out this mission,” and then I forgot about it. Vigilant and weary, da da da da da da da. Same classic thing up top. Then, “When your investigation clock completes, present your findings to the Cause, choosing one of the following as their response: the Cause strikes swiftly — remove three ticks from among Authority schemes you're aware of.” So they'll just do it.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: “The Cause disrupts elements of a division’s internal structure, permanently lowering its strength by one. You can do this once per division.” That’s fucking wild.
Ali: Wow.
Keith: That’s wild.
Dre: Wow.
Austin: “The Cause covertly blackmails or smears key members of the division, increasing their disfavor by three. Afterwards, start a new investigation or redefine your current one as you dig deeper.”
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Pretty good!
Keith: Pretty good.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Okay, so, let me just— so, the Cause stwikes— the Cause stwikes swiftly. [Dre, Austin, and Keith laugh]
Dre: The Cwause. The Cwuase is here.
Austin: Yeah. So, I think the thing you could take here is remove three ticks to give you more breathing room to do a real go after the central—
Keith: Okay. So, the idea is that this here, what we're doing now…
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: This meeting is what removes the ticks, [Austin: Correct.] because they’re saying—
Austin: They’re gonna launch these attacks. Yeah.
Keith: And then that would give us room to do this mission [Austin: Right.] without the three tick clock hanging over our heads.
Austin: Right. I would start ticking it up again as a threat, like, during that mission, as like a fun thing, right?
Keith: Right. Yeah.
Austin: But like…
Keith: Because it’s not a big clock. It’s four steps.
Austin: It’s a small clock, exactly.
Keith: You could do that in one downtime if you wanted, right?
Austin: Exactly, 100% could do it in one downtime and have not done it in one downtime because I'm managing the kind of like— there’s other stuff I've been ticking.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And I've been managing the— you know, I've been waiting to let’s do a mission around it, you know? It has never felt like you were not working towards slowing it down, you know?
Keith: Right. And then, so…
Austin: Also, to be clear, it’s a 10 step clock, it’s just that it started with a six step clock that I finished, right? And then revealed the second four step clock part of it.
Keith: Could you just, real quick, tell me the rules of disfavor again?
Austin: Yeah, if a faction hits 10— sorry, if a division hits 10 disfavor, they get— sorry, if they hit 9, they get ousted and either destroyed or turned into a wayward faction.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: This is what happened with the Bilateral Intelligence Service, with Kesh’s first faction.
Keith: This is brutal, because each of the Divine Crusade and the March Institute are one shy [Austin: Yep.] of three disfavor pushing them to the top, which would mean that basically we could— if that were true, we could trade reviving Motion— taking care of the revive Motion thing in order to take out another faction. Which is wild.
Austin: Yeah, but the faction would get replaced the next downtime, right? Not this downtime but the one after.
Keith: Right, sure.
Austin: So it’s like, it would get disfavor and it would disappear, but it would not be— it’s not like you're taking a pillar where it can't come back, importantly.
Keith: Right, but like, if the faction that was reviving March was the one that was destroyed.
Austin: Right, that clock would get—
Keith: Sorry, that was reviving Motion.
Austin: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: Sorry, not March.
Austin: 100%. Yep. But we're one off. That’s just not gonna happen here.
Keith: We're one off. Yeah, it is just a fun what-if.
Ali: Right. But, like, with this Motion thing, we've been attacking the clock, but is there a way to turn getting the clock down into attacking one of the pillars, question mark?
Austin: No.
Ali: No. Okay.
Austin: Uh, you could instead attack one of the pillars, right?
Ali: Okay. Okay.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: But this is not a— no. The answer— and again, so, that’s the thing, right? Is like, you could say, like, “Hey, that’s enough breathing room. We've earned enough breathing room to go hit a pillar instead.” I guess I would say the one that you would want to hit is the Lone Marble Group, right? They are the ones who are in charge of the revive Motion stuff, right?
Ali: Mm.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: That is the core R&D.
Keith: But they're at zero grip.
Austin: Zero grip.
Keith: Or full grip. Yeah.
Austin: They're at zero grip, but we're in a different world now, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You can get the Rose River outcome that is remove 1d3 grip from a faction or pillar. Y'all could try to get a faction and you could try to get grip on it yourself, and then you could try to swing at it during conflict turn, right?
Keith: And just so that I know all of this stuff for the future, what does reducing a strength do?
Austin: It changes what you need to roll during a downtime— or a conflict scene to win.
Keith: Right. Gotcha.
Austin: So, for instance, Stel Nideo is able— if you're going up against Stel Nideo right now in a conflict turn, Stel Nideo [Keith: Uh huh.] wins on 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You roll 1d6, right, each time. You need to get a 5 or a 6 to beat them, whereas Whitestar— Kesh and the Frontier Syndicate, you win on 3, 4, 5, or 6.
Keith: 3, 4, 5, 6.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, so, I think that we should just go with what we had [Austin: Yep.] and remove those three ticks and set us up for that mission, and then I will heavily consider taking advantage of the other pieces of that move.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: For the next time I fill a clock. [laughs quietly]
Austin: Sure.
Ali: What is the mission if Millennium Break is already attacking these five?
Austin: Great question. Like I said, it might be going after Lone Marble. It might be trying to— you know, again, we don't have— the way this thing works is there is not a— it isn't the first plant is the good one, you know what I mean, and you have to go destroy the first power plant and then they're all dead, right? Like, maybe it’s infiltrating City City and trying to cut the head off the snake? I don't know. I don't have a mission for you, you know? Part of your little promotion, Brnine, is a little more autonomy, right? Figure out some way of doing a Motion, an anti-Motion mission.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: But the way this move works fundamentally is just it decreases the clock. It doesn't stop the thing, right?
Keith: Right.
Austin: And destroying the five things— the thing that we had before also wasn't going to [Ali: Mm-hmm.] stop Motion from being around forever, right?
Keith: Right. So, now, the destroying the five things is what removes the ticks.
Austin: Right, which is why it’s down to zero for…
Keith: And now our job is to make that more permanent.
Austin: Somehow.
Keith: Somehow. Which sounds like the Lone Marble Group.
Austin: It does, which has a little bit of overlap, because that’s also in Greenfield, the place we were just talking about with the Twill. The Twill are also from Greenfield. Or going after some sort of other Frontier Syndicate leadership in City City, right? Assassinating Exanceaster March or kidnapping Exanceaster March or getting into some sort of central City City computer that can, you know, deactivate the Motion factories from afar or something else.
Janine: Virus.
Austin: And you know, I just want to say, like, the thing that happened here that’s tough is that, like, the Eclectic move is about removing ticks from a clock, not about stopping a clock, right? And so, that’s what it—
Keith: Right.
Austin: What I can give you is that. It wasn't gonna ever end with, as I understand the move, “and here’s how you stop this thing permanently,” right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So, unfortunately, you don't have the detail on how to stop it permanently, outside of destroying more of them, presumably, right?
Keith: I like the— I mean, I don't mind the Lone Marble. If they're gonna go and do this without us, if they're like, “Yeah, we'll take your info, [Austin: Yep.] and we'll go blow up these five things.”
Austin: Yep. That’s what the move says. The move says they're gonna do it. Let’s do it.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: I'm not gonna make you go do a mission for a thing your move says that they just do, you know?
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Keith: [defiantly] Does Mustard Red have any other questions? [Ali laughs]
Austin: Um, depends on what the mission ends up being, you know?
(as Mustard): If you need any support, you let me know.
Keith: Does anyone have any other things, besides maybe doing the Lone Marble Group mission, that would further de-Motion Motion?
Sylvia: I'm good with a Motion demotion. [Austin takes amused breath]
Ali: Right, yeah, there’s just, like, a mechanical…
Austin: Yeah. There’s like a weird gap, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I mean, the thing that you're earning, in a sense, is the ability to go do anything else and not worry about Motion showing up in the middle of it, right?
Keith: Right.
Austin: That’s what you've earned with this move.
Ali: Do we want to pivot to the Gur thing, then? Because we misunderstood how involved we would have to be in the second part of it? [Austin laughs briefly]
Keith: Um, well, but the problem with the Motion clock is that it’s so small [Ali: Right.] that it could just get revived next downtime completely.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Right, unless— I guess there’s the Lone Marble— yeah, I could do this…
Austin: Is this the A/B plot split that we're talking about though, actually?
Janine: I was just thinking that.
Keith: Oh.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Yeah. Also, what if the A/B plots are each separate assassinations? [laughs quietly] I don't know, just a thought. [Keith laughs]
Austin: Wow. Integrity really working overtime! [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: Hell yeah. [Dre chuckles]
Keith: Thisbe’s just like, “Why don't we just assassinate two people?” [Janine laughs]
Austin: It’s just two guys.
Sylvia: Now you're thinking my way, Thisbe!
Dre: Yeah!
Austin: Uh huh. Uh huh. Which would be Exanceaster March and Gur Sevraq (fake).
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: I guess. [laughs quietly]
Keith: I'll say, this is a, like, personal concern more than a game concern.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I would like to get up to some Gur Sevraq stuff as Keith, but I also assume other players including Dre who’s got Gur Sevraq, [Austin: Yeah.] real Gur Sevraq in their head, also wants to do that.
Dre: Sure.
Keith: And that would be tough to do if I was on b-plot to get—
Austin: No, because Dre could be on b-plot with you, right? You don't have to be a support— they don't have the b-plot move. They can't use that cool ability, right? But you just have to not be in the sortie, you know?
Keith: Now, that was a massive oversight on my part. I didn't know that at all.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: There’s a sortie, right? And you can be part of the sortie, or you don't have to be part of the sortie. What’s important is that, [Keith: Right.] like, if you're not part of the sortie, if you're a b-plot character, you can't get back to it until you've spent all your b-plot, right?
Keith: Right.
Austin: And I would probably just extend that similarly, right, to the other party, which is like, let’s wait until you wrap up [Keith: Right.] your b-plot points between the two of you, right? But yeah.
Keith: So then it would be…
Austin: There’s nothing stopping us from…yeah.
Keith: It would be Sylvi and Janine solo sortie. Duo sortie, sorry. Duo sortie.
Austin: Or Sylvi, Janine, and—
Ali: Yeah, I'm very hesitant to be b-plot again, because all of my moves are crew stuff.
Austin: Yeah. Big spaceship shit.
Keith: Oh, okay, okay.
Ali: Which is, like, makes— like, all of my moves are about helping other people.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Okay.
Ali: So it…
Keith: Dre, you want to do a b-plot with me?
Dre: Yeah, sure.
Keith: Does anybody have any qualms with this? This is weird.
Sylvia: No, it sounds fun, honestly.
Dre: “This is weird.” [Ali laughs]
Janine: Why is it weird? It’s fine.
Keith: It’s weird!
Ali: You're all so weird.
Keith: This is a freaky mission for a bunch of freaks!
Austin: Yeah, yeah. [laughter]
Austin: Right, so then, what this ends up looking like is the Cause leadership— and I think that this is actually kind of funny, right? That like, you both came into the room. We all came into the room thinking, “All right, so what’s the fucking Blue Channel have to do now to actually push the [Keith: Yeah.] ball across the finish line,” you know what I mean? Or across the end zone line. No, don't worry about it. You gave us the intel.
Keith: Just like, “Nah, we got it.”
Austin: We're gonna take care of it. We're gonna move our units. We're gonna [Keith: Nice.] knock out the five things. While we do that…you know, you're of your own recognizance to do whatever you want, obviously, but here are two things we would love to get more intel. You know, I think maybe outright.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: God, who would be the person who asks you about this? I kind of think it’s funny if it’s Saint Decario Dicario, which is kind of like game recognize game, terrible religious people. Is like:
(as Decario): You know, if you're so good at finding out information, what if you dug up a little intel on Gur Sevraq?
Austin: You know? And kind of puts you—
Ali (as Brnine): I beg your pardon?
Austin: Hmm?
(as Decario): On Gur Sevraq, the so-called, um…
Ali (as Brnine): Right. Right.
Austin (as Decario): The leader of the New Asterism Temple of the Threshold, on TV all the time?
Ali (as Brnine): The preacher, right. Yeah.
Austin (as Decario): The preacher.
Keith: Remind me what we know— do we all get that this— we all get that this is a fake Gur Sevraq. Everyone here gets it?
Austin: I don't know, because like, you know, half these people have never fucking heard of Gur Sevraq before.
Keith: Oh.
Austin: Right?
Keith: Okay. Oh, right, because that was on a whole other planet.
Austin: That was a whole other planet, and some of them aren't even— some of them are from the fucking Twilight Mirage. Saint Decario Dicario is from the Twilight Mirage.
Keith: And we’re Millennium Break. They’re not all—
Ali: Well, yeah.
Keith: Well, some of them are Millennium Break.
Ali: I think that’s the tough thing with Millennium Break, though, because Gur Sevraq [Austin: Yeah.] was so involved with the…
Austin: Well, this Gur Sevraq doesn't pretend that that didn't happen, right?
Ali: Right, no, that’s the thing, and Millennium Break has to.
Austin: Yes.
Keith: Yeah.
Ali: So, like…
Austin: [chuckles] Right.
Ali: That we…
Austin: Has to pretend— has to do what?
Ali: No, has to be like, “We don't fuck with that guy.”
Austin: Right. Right, right, right.
Ali: “No, he wasn't with us. That’s an imposter.” And then it’s like, Millennium Break thinks [Keith: Yeah.] he’s a fucking imposter? What are they talking about?
Austin: Right. Right, exactly. This is exactly the dilemma, right?
Ali: Right. This is the… this is part of this on both sides.
Austin: Gucci believes that this is a— right, that is exactly it. And it’s like, we just don't talk about it. You know what I mean?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: We just don't talk about it. And so maybe, to some degree, this is part of a classic Saint Decario Dicario thinking that he’s, like, twisting a knife on you a little bit, right? Being like, “Oh, I'm gonna put the Millennium Break people on Gur Sevraq,” you know? Like, I'm gonna make them go after their own guy who I believe they were always with and who I think that they just fucked up, you know? They basically, like, lost a chess piece here, you know, or they had the wool pulled over their eyes by Gur Sevraq. And so, yeah, I think requests that you investigate that, and I think August Righteousness is like:
(as August): Yeah, or you could go help us knock out Motion forever. They've gotta have a way of doing it in Lone Marble Group headquarters. No one has ever built a bomb that they couldn't disarm themselves. Eh, not no one, but it’s, uh, not the sort of thing March would do.
Ali: Knowing look to Eclectic.
Keith (as Eclectic): [loud whisper] I think we could do both.
Ali (as Brnine): [hushed] Of course we can do both.
Austin (as Gucci): [to the room] I think we could do both.
Austin: Says Gucci.
Keith: Fuck! Sorry, that’s out of character. Eclectic doesn't know Gucci. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Dre: I really thought you were gonna say Eclectic doesn't know the word fuck. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Austin: Um, yeah.
Keith: Let me tell you: Eclectic does not know the definition of the word fuck. [Sylvia laughs]
Dre: Oh.
Ali: Ooh.
Dre: Okay.
Sylvia: Leap never taught him that. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Janine: Uh huh.
Austin: So, yeah.
Ali (as Brnine): We can definitely do both.
Austin (as August): Let’s do both.
Austin: Says Righteousness.
(as Mustard): Let’s do both!
Says Mustard Red. [laughs quietly] I'm eager to see how this develops.
Keith: I do have— real quick. Ali, you know something about Mustard Red.
Ali: Me?
Austin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Keith: Yeah. We got a phone call, you and I. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: You make it sound like—
Keith: Does that come up at all?
Austin: That has come up at all. No one has mentioned the fact that Mustard Red offered you some sort of [laughs quietly] magical contract.
Ali: Oh my god, that’s right.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Yeah.
Dre: Oh, yeah.
Austin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Ali: Oh, I was…I was very hot when that conversation happened. [laughs]
Austin: That’s true.
Ali: I was worried about a TV screen.
Austin: For the people who have not listened to the faction game, in the previous— the faction turn, the conflict turn, one Riah Connadine was offered one of those contracts also.
Ali: Ooh.
Keith: What was the contract?
Austin: It was to come help Arbitrage build the future, and Connadine said no to the contract.
Keith: Okay.
Dre: Oh. Good for Connadine.
Austin: Is gonna help Arbitrage build the future but no to the contract.
Keith: Oh. No to the contract.
Ali: Ooh, that's okay.
Austin: Yes, yes.
Keith: Oh, so not good for Connadine.
Austin: No, Connadine’s a nightmare.
Keith: Right. Well, a broken clock’s right twice a day.
Austin: That’s how it goes.
Keith: And not— and this is not one of those two times, because…
Austin: No, no, no. But yeah, yeah, that was a little background into why Connadine helped you to begin with, [Keith: Mm.] is the cost of this was burning the Paint Shop.
Ali: What happens if Brnine gives Mustard sort of a menacing squint?
Austin: I think a big smile, right?
Ali: [quietly] Yeah. [laughs]
Austin: Right? I think that’s what Mustard…
Ali: And then what happens if Brnine continues that menacing squint and then sort of, like, elbows Gucci in sort of a “that’s the one that I was talking about” gesture?
Austin: Um…
Keith: You know— no.
Austin: Oh, what?
Keith: This is my thought. This is my thought that I had.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Is that Austin is more evil than Ali. [Ali laughs]
Austin: [innocently] Me?
Dre: Sure.
Ali: That’s true.
Keith: But Austin is just as evil as Ali thinks that she is.
Ali: Wow! What?
Austin: Wow!
Ali: Wait, what? [Keith and Ali laugh]
Sylvia: Damn, okay.
Austin: All right, wait a second. Let him cook.
Dre: I can see it. [Keith continues laughing]
Ali: That wasn't even relevant, and I just got read like that. [laughs]
Austin: I don't know. [laughs]
Sylvia: Damn. Brutal.
Keith: Sorry.
Austin: “Fuck 50.” “What the fuck did I do?” [Keith and Ali laugh]
Ali: Just handing out reads! [laughter continues] Okay. All right. If you say so.
Austin: “What are you saying fuck me for?” [Ali, Sylvia, Keith, and Austin laugh] Uh, what’s she do? She…uh, sorry, was Mustard Red she/they? Or she/her, or was she she/they? Was she they/them?
Ali: She/her. She/her.
Austin: She/her. Okay. Um, yeah, I think she says:
(as Mustard): Unless there’s anything else, I call this session complete! But if there is something else, you know how to reach me, and if you need any support…
Hands crossed; hands in a little, you know, hands together.
(as Mustard): Please reach out. We have all sorts of options available for supporting you on your mission, and I just want to say…I know that for a little while there the Blue Channel wasn't getting the support it needed, and I don't think that that was right, and I think that’s gonna change. I think that we've all— is that right, everybody? We all kind of have seen what the Blue Channel can do, and, um, you know, we really want to have your back out there.
Keith: Can I roll something?
Austin: Sure. What do you want to roll? What do you want to do?
Keith: Um…
Austin: Let’s not talk about rolling. Let’s talk about doing.
Keith: I want to look around— I want to see how people are reacting to this little speech.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Seeing who’s, like, paying attention to Mustard Red, see who’s—
Austin: Yeah, go ahead and Read the Room.
Keith: Who’s ignoring, stuff like that.
Austin: This is a classic Read the Room.
Keith: And this is, uh, what is this? Sense, you think?
Austin: This is a Sense. Yeah, Read the Room takes Sense.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Which is, what, your plus 1?
Keith: Plus 1, yeah.
Austin: 2d6 plus 1.
Keith: I need to redo my macros for…
Austin: Yeah. That is a 9.
Keith: That’s a 9.
Austin: Yeah, I don't think this is…
Keith: Is it possible maybe I could get a little bit of help from Brnine on this?
Ali: I would love to assist you on this. Yeah, sure.
Austin: How are you helping?
Keith: Before—
Austin: What’s this look like?
Keith: Can I offer something?
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: I would love to just, like, kind of, sort of, while I'm doing this, sort of lean over and be like:
(as Eclectic): [whispering] What’s the deal with Mustard Red?
Ali (as Brnine): [whispering] I don't trust her.
Keith (as Eclectic): [whispering] That’s what I thought.
Austin: All right, let’s roll to help. Y'all don't have a gravity clock, right?
Keith: No.
Austin: When you roll to help or hinder, plus 1 if you've spent meaningful time together before this sortie.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: I don't think that’s true.
Keith: No? We went to a party together. We had that whole—
Austin: You didn't spend time together, though. That’s not meaningful time.
Keith: We had that whole deal on the deck of the—
Austin: You had a little fight? You had a little argument? [Ali laughs quietly] I don't think that’s spending meaningful time together. You have not helped or hindered previously. They are not part of one of your h— or, Brnine, do you have— Brnine is the one rolling. Brnine, you still have some sort of crew hook?
Ali: Uh, yeah, “The crew put their faith in me, so I must prioritize their safety.”
Austin: Prioritize their safety, sure, so take plus 1. 2d6 plus 1, Brnine.
Ali: Okay. 2d6.
Austin: Unless you have another thing that gives you a bonus here, but I don't think there is.
Keith: We had the car ride over here. That’s some time. [Ali laughs]
Austin: That’s not meaningful time. That’s a 6.
Ali: That is a 6.
Austin: So. That’s a— that, in fact, is a failure.
Ali: Is that a spotlight?
Austin: That is a spotlight. That’s 100%. That means I get to make a move, [Ali laughs quietly] but let’s figure out this 9 first.
Keith: Great.
Austin: Go ahead.
Keith: I love that. Okay, so I get two questions.
Austin: You get two questions.
Keith: Yeah. Um, I'm gonna ask: how does Mustard Red really feel?
Austin: Good.
Keith: Good? Just good?
Austin: Helping the world, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Can't believe— every day is kind of like a little miracle. Like, you wake up, and you get to do this?
Dre: That’s beautiful.
Austin: Thank you.
Keith: That’s beautiful.
Austin: Genuine.
Keith: What is being overlooked or obscured here?
Austin: Um…let me go back to your original question, which was like, “what do other people think about Mustard Red?” right?
Keith: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: You know, it’s a little— no one here thinks much of Mustard Red.
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: There’s a real packing your book bag before the bell rings happening here.
Keith: Right.
Austin: Which is to say everyone is overlooking Mustard Red.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: They're dismissing Mustard Red.
Keith: And this was not always the case.
Austin: But they’re— well, it’s— the time that it’s time for her to do something is when there’s a tie vote, and otherwise, she is a functionary, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: But she’s able to have the tie vote, and the thing that is like— the thing that is true is she has figured out things. She’s not lying when she says, “if you need help, let me know,” right?
Keith: Mm-hmm.
Austin: She has come through with extra missiles or medical care or transportation that you need for a mission, and she’s done that for each of these people, but like, this mission is…yeah?
Ali: Sorry. Has anybody seen, uh, The Bear? Is that what that’s called? The show?
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Sylvia: Yeah. No, that’s what I was thinking of that entire fucking Eclectic phone call. [Ali laughs]
Keith: No, I haven't seen that.
Ali: So, in season two—
Keith: Is The Bear good?
Ali: I love it.
Keith: Okay.
Sylvia: It’s great.
Ali: Season two of The Bear, there's this whole sort of mini arc where there’s this, like, five star restaurant where they go to, and a thing that the staff does there will, like, look at all of the names of the people who have reservations there and are like, “I overheard somebody say that they were in Chicago, and they said they really regretted that they didn't have any pizza, so we brought some real Chicago pizza at the end of their meal to their table, and they were, like, blown away.”
Austin: Yes. Yes.
Ali: Or like, oh, we know that these people are here for their anniversary. We know that they’re low income.
Austin: Yep.
Ali: We know that they came out here. And she, like, does shit like that for people all of the time.
Austin: Right, and mostly she doesn't ask you to sign a weird psychic contract. [Ali laughs] The only time she did it with y'all on the way to the stellar combustor is because it was the stellar combustor, right?
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: Right.
Austin: And Arbitrage was overplaying its hands.
Keith: And that’s a big deal.
Ali: Right.
Austin: Right, its hand.
Ali: There's, like—
Keith: Hard to think of a bigger deal.
Austin: Right.
Ali: She’s, like, sent Veronique, like, the cake that she likes the very most after a bad mission, and Veronique was like…
Austin: The cake that isn't on this planet.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Right, the cake from when she was, like, a spoiled rich Kesh brat, you know?
Keith: Uh, you've reminded me of the Tom Cruise cake.
Dre: Uh huh?
Austin: I'm sorry?
Keith: Does everyone know the Tom Cruise cake?
Ali: Mm-mm.
Sylvia: No.
Keith: It’s just a— it is, like, a list that Tom Cruise has of this cake that he really likes.
Austin: Oh my god. I see it.
Keith: That he sends to a bunch of famous people. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Chocolate coconut bundt cake from Doan’s Bakery in California.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: And it’s just, like, one of those things that you go, if you're famous enough to be on Tom Cruise’s cake list or whatever.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Keith: However you get on there, you can—
Ali: Right, but it—
Austin: Tom Hanks says, “This cake is so great you can only have it once a year. It’s just off the scale fantastic.”
Keith: It is classic, like, vapid interview question thing, where like, everyone is—
Austin: “Have you had the Tom Cruise cake?”
Keith: If you're known to be on the cake, [Ali: Right.] everyone asks you if you've had the Tom Cruise cake.
Austin: Right. I think it’s more specific than that, though, right?
Ali: Right, this is the complete opposite thing, because it’s not like, “here’s a cake that I really like,” it’s the cake you really like that nobody else knows about.
Keith: Sure.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: It’s like the— who was that interview guy who was scaring people?
Austin: Nardwaur.
Ali: Nardwaur. [laughs]
Austin: Yeah, it’s Nardwaur.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Keith: He was scaring people?
Sylvia: He does…
Austin: Uh, Ice Spice just met Nardwaur—
Keith: [cross] Oh, because he’s being very intense? Is that right?
Austin: —and did not know his deal, and it came— it was really rough.
Keith: Who was it that didn't—?
Austin: Ice Spice?
Keith: Oh, okay.
Janine: Yeah, I don't blame her for that one.
Austin: No, me either.
Keith: Sure.
Austin: But he’s great. I love Nardwaur, and it’s Nardwaur showing up with, like, [voice “You used to get coffee at the donut shop when you used to do beats on the table, and your first beat went doo doo doot doo!” and then they’re just like, “How the fuck did you know my first beat went doo doo doot doo?!”
Sylvia: My first beat was “Megalovania” from Undertale!
Austin: [laughs] Exactly. Shoutouts to Nardwaur, the Human Serviette. [Ali and Keith laugh]
Keith: I also learned about Nardwaur here.
Austin: Wait, really? You're not a Nardwaur person?
Keith: It was a few— yeah, it was like three or four years ago on Friends at the Table.
Austin: Oh, not here today this second. Okay.
Keith: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It was, like, three or four years ago.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: On some recording. I was like, “Who the fuck— what the fuck is the Human Serviette?” [Austin, Ali, and Keith laugh]
Austin: It’s Nardwaur.
Ali: Anyway.
Austin: It’s that though, yeah, 100%. Presenting you with the vinyl of the first funk song you ever heard, yeah. Perfect. Except it’s missiles.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Except it’s—
Keith: Your favorite missiles.
Austin: Your favorite missiles. It’s the exact, you know, it’s the exact piece of gear you need. It’s Cassander, “I love it when a plan comes together” but from the outside, right?
Keith: Sure.
Austin: I mean, actually, it is, Brnine, your move Tactical Genius that gives, you know, have an ally appear where they’re needed. Remove one Risk from an ally. It’s that but at the strategic instead of the tactical scale, right?
Ali: Uh huh. And evil.
Austin: Eh. So, yeah.
Ali: [laughs quietly] I guess not according to Keith. I'm sorry.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: Well, she’s your NPC now, so who knows.
Austin: Yeah. [laughs quietly]
Ali: Anyway.
Keith: She was evil. No, she was evil before.
Ali: [laughs] Anyway. Um, is that the…
Austin: Time to do this roll?
Ali: Is that a— well, I want to spend my token to uncap the Blue Channel.
Austin: Sure. Wait, to un…yeah, yeah, yeah, to untap it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: Untap the Blue Channel.
Austin: Gotcha. Yep. Boop, done.
Ali: We said that was tapping…
Austin: Well, I mean, that’s…you know, you just did that, because when you get back to the Blue Channel, gift wrapped, are a bunch of, you know, fresh rations. You know, there's a gift basket with cookies. What’s your favorite cookie? There’s some deep dish steak there, which you haven't had in a long time.
Ali: [quietly] God.
Keith: Ooh.
Austin: Uh huh. Does she know all of the detail of that? I don't think so. That might be a message from Arbitrage.
Dre: Mm.
Austin: Who could say, right? But all that stuff.
Keith: Check these stacks for bugs.
Austin: Yeah, Hunting is like, um…Hunting is like:
(as Hunting): Captain! I'm so glad you got us all new, you know, cannon oil. We've needed to re-oil these cannons for months now.
Ali (as Brnine): Cool.
Janine: I feel like we should have prioritized something like cannon oil, but okay. [laughs quietly]
Austin: Eh, they can run a little dry. But they can't run very dry.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah. Yeah, that’s— I put it in the— great. Do you want some steak?
Austin (as Hunting): No, I don't really…eeh, yuck.
Dre: Whoa.
Ali (as Brnine): Huh.
Keith (as Eclectic): Yuck?
Austin (as Hunting): Eh.
Keith (as Eclectic): That’s fine.
Ali (as Brnine): Anyone want some steak?
Austin (as Midnite): Hell yeah, CO.
Austin: Midnite jumps off some stairs to rush to the steak. [Ali laughs quietly]
Keith: I'm metal detecting the steaks before people eat it.
Austin: It’s all fine. It’s all good.
Keith (as Eclectic): Okay, it’s all fine.
Austin: It’s all the best.
Keith (as Eclectic): All right, it’s all fine.
Austin: Unless you didn't want the best, and then it’s, like, a little less than the best. You know, it’s a little greasier. It’s a little whatever.
Keith: Mm.
Dre: Mm.
Keith: Eclectic wanted the best.
Austin: All right, roll this thing, right? Because we actually have to…
Ali: Is there any interest in any more untaps? Any more…
Austin: Great question. Great question.
Keith: Any more contributes to Plan and Prepare, maybe?
Austin: Yeah, which did you— what did you— you untapped is what you did.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Okay. Well, Sylvi, you still have a token. Do you want to use that for…?
Sylvia: Oh. Yeah.
Ali: Thingy for yourself or…?
Austin: Yeah, were you gonna go back and spotlight yourself up? Or are you gonna untap?
Sylvia: I think I might spotlight myself up here.
Austin: It’s a level, you know?
Sylvia: It’s a whole level.
Austin: It’s a whole level.
Dre: It’s a whole-ass level, huh?
Keith: It’s a whole level.
Ali: You keep that for yourself, Cori. [Austin laughs quietly]
Sylvia: Okay.
Dre: You deserve it.
Austin: Get yourself something nice. [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: Thank you. Thank you, captain. Big salute.
Ali (as Brnine): You want some of the steak? It might help with the, uh…iron, right? Iron is what makes you, um, weak a lot? Steak’s full of it.
Sylvia (as Cori): [hesitant] Yeah, I'll try some.
Sylvia: Tries some. Like, cuts off a piece.
Dre: Hey, has your mech sucked too much of your blood recently? [Ali laughs] Do you want some— do you want a hamburger?
Keith (as Eclectic): You— I didn't know that she has low iron.
Sylvia: She does not like it when she tries this, by the way. [Austin laughs quietly]
Ali (as Brnine): Cori, want to know something funny?
Sylvia (as Cori): Yeah, what’s up?
Ali (as Brnine): The time I punched somebody at a funeral? It was at the steak store.
Keith (as Eclectic): The steak shore. [Ali laughs]
Sylvia (as Cori): Oh my god!
Dre (as Figure): Yeah.
Keith: Steak shores of Partizan.
Austin: Steak store? The steak shop? The…the steak shore.
Ali: Steak place is probably what I should say. [laughs]
Austin: The steak place. Yeah, the steak place. Yeah, it’s true.
Sylvia (as Cori): I didn't realize they had funerals at steak stores. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Ali (as Brnine): Depends on the funeral.
Keith (as Eclectic): Depends how much you like steak, yeah.
Austin: Wait.
Sylvia (as Cori): Well, I'm sure you threw a mean right hook, captain.
Ali (as Brnine): [quietly] Yeah. [Austin sighs]
Sylvia: [laughs] She’s really happy about the “hey, we both did this stupid thing.” [Ali laughs quietly]
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvia: Like, bonding that Brnine is going for.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: This, like, made her day.
Austin: God, I wonder whose—
Sylvia: Genuinely.
Austin: I wonder whose funeral it was? Who could say?
Dre: Who could say?
Austin: All right.
Dre: I wouldn't worry about it.
Austin: Yeah, it’s probably not a big deal. Uh, Plan and Prepare.
Ali: Plan and Prepare. Are we doing—
Austin: “When you review orders for the next Sortie—” Yep?
Ali: Are we doing it during the downtime instead of the next session for the first time? [laughs quietly]
Austin: No, we've done this at least once before. [Ali laughs quietly]
Keith: Yeah, we've done it once or twice, yeah.
Austin: 3d6 is where we're at.
Keith: But it’s been a while.
Austin: 2d6 plus the one you just added from Command Deck/Briefing Room.
Keith: And then what’s up with your move? You get— what do you get?
Ali: Um, I— that’s a great question.
Austin: It’s confidence, I think. Yes, confidence during Plan and Prepare.
Ali: Give the group confidence.
Austin: So, 3d6. 1s are 6s.
Ali: 1s are 6s. Roll 3d6. That’s a 14. 5, 5, 4.
Keith: Ooh.
Austin: Well, for every result that’s above the division’s strength.
Ali: Oh, okay.
Austin: So this is going after the Frontier Syndicate, right? Because that’s—
Keith: Yes.
Austin: Oh, it’s actually going after the— which is the sortie? The sortie is the Frontier Syndicate.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Keith: The sortie is the Front— yeah.
Austin: So that’s everything over a 3, which is all three of those.
Ali: [imitates air horn]
Austin: So what are you picking here?
Ali: We probably want, um, risky opportunity to secure an outcome.
Austin: Always love it. [typing] Oops, didn't mean to do that.
Ali: Um…we love a hold one.
Austin: We love a hold one. All players hold one.
Ali: I'm open to give…
Austin: It’s a banger maneuver. This might be the best move— the best thing. [Ali laughs quietly] Like, I think this game’s great, but I think the thing of, like, “Oh, we're about to do a mission. Everybody just gets one more hold on any of their cool moves that they want” is one of the [Keith: Mm-hmm.] coolest things you can, like, get in this game.
Ali: And then I don't know that— we're not gonna have a pillar with zero grip anytime soon, at least not in this next coming thing, right?
Keith: No.
Austin: Right.
Ali: So I guess we maybe want to be able to untap somebody?
Austin: Sure. I'll do that.
Keith: Yeah, we've still got two tapped.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Violet Cove has been tapped for months.
Ali: [laughs] Oh, what if we brought them back in? Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, sure.
Ali: We just dismantled this cult. Time for a new one.
Austin: Sure. Yeah, maybe there’s a new one.
Keith: Yeah. Time…
Austin: You take the church.
Keith: [laughs quietly] Yeah.
Austin: I just want to say something out loud, which is I did not forget that, Ali, you failed that roll before.
Ali: Oh, I thought the steak was a sinister roll-failing steak that was gonna come back to me. [Sylvia and Ali laugh]
Austin: No, but I will say that, like, this is the sort of— I do think that what you've done is gotten Arbitrage’s attention in that exact way, and so I am going to add a clock. It’s another four step clock.
Sylvia: Oh, brother.
Austin: Uh huh. [typing] And it says Arbitrage Makes Its Move.
Keith: And this is the second Arbitrage clock, right?
Austin: No.
Keith: Oh.
Austin: No.
Keith: Oh, I'm thinking of, uh…
Austin: You're thinking ALERT, which is seven out of eight.
Ali: Oh, that’s funny.
Austin: Which is not an Arbitrage clock. [Dre sighs] Yeah.
Keith: Who’s the other…who’s the other one?
Austin: Motion?
Keith: Is there another…?
Austin: Crusade.
Keith: No.
Austin: Resonance. No.
Keith: Hmm, no. I could have sworn there was an Arbitrage clock. I could be just…
Austin: I think you might just be off. That’s all right.
Keith: Losing my mind. Oh, I'm thinking of the Authority, uh, it says— oh yeah, the Divine Arbitrage. It’s just a…it’s just a pillar.
Austin: It’s just a pillar here. Yeah, mm-hmm.
Keith: Yeah. So that’s why I'm used to seeing the word Arbitrage on the page.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s correct.
Keith: The amoral machine turned de facto treasurer.
Austin: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Keith: Of just the Cause, right?
Austin: No, of Palisade. Everybody on Palisade spends glint, Arbitrage’s money. All that shit with you, like, needing to rent a bathroom pass? That’s Arbitrage.
Keith: Mm.
Austin: Because, it turns out, Arbitrage has a vision. That vision is not as simple as the March Institute, is not as simple as the Bilateral institution, or the Bilateral Intercession.
Keith: One of our most evil villains.
Austin: I'm so excited about the fact that Arbitrage Makes Its Move is a clock and is making some maneuvers.
[“Nothing is Stationary” by Jack de Quidt plays]