PALISADE 52: A Palette of Colors Pt. 7
Transcriber: vesta
[music intro - “See All Of This” by Jack de Quidt begins]
Austin: What is the dream of the future that moves you? What vision do you see for yourself?
Art: When this is over, someone from Millennium Break is just gonna shoot her in the back of the head.
Austin: Leap, shooting you in the back of the head, right? Brnine, opening fire; you being killed by the people who you are fighting alongside with right now.
Art: And the last one's probably Gucci. Clem just grabs Future and shakes.
Austin: Future says,
Austin (as Future): For too long the naive or deluded shackled me to their misery, misusing and abusing my vision, and calling it their gift. I thought, scion, that you might free me from them. Atop that fortress in the sea, when I saw the anger in your eyes, I thought that you might earn my respect, that we might one day come to work together. But, you were always a dead end.
Art (as Clementine): I don't want to talk to ghosts anymore.
Janine: There's a group of Divines and pieces of Divines and people who love Divines, that were like, deeply traumatized and confused, that it's hard to fix and currently feels like it's snowballing in a very bad direction. The way that this keeps getting wrapped up in religion is scary, and it doesn't seem like it's going good [chuckles]. And I think for Thisbe there is one, a desire just to make sure that the Chimera Cadent is aware of this? Reaching out to someone that you know is stronger than you to be like, I cannot do this alone.
Jack (as Graceful Communicant): Millennium Break, I'm going to have to ask you to cease this operation immediately. The town of Creston is under control of Wakeful, and your efforts here are unnecessary.
Dre (as Levi): Oh! Uh, this isn’t a—this isn’t a military operation, this is just trying to help do some rebuilding, provide resources that it seemed like people needed.
Jack: The body changes very slightly. Something about the shoulders become a bit more pinched, and you don’t know that this has happened, but you’re now talking to Brisk Descent. And Brisk Descent says,
Jack (as Brisk Descent): I don’t give two shits if this is a military operation, you’re moving in here with military materials! You’re knocking down a building over there! What are you doing?
Dre (as Levi): The building was already—it was going to fall down like, tomorrow—
Jack (as Brisk Descent): Do I come into your town and fix a broken window? Of course not! I understand that that’s your responsibility, that’s your place to do it. If you came and asked me to come and help you, of course I’d come and help you—
Austin (as squaddie): Hey, don’t take that tone with our commander!
Dre (as Levi): Oh! Hey, hey, no, it's okay.
Austin: This is one of your squaddies.
Austin (as squaddie): Are you sure?
Dre (as Levi): Yeah yeah yeah! Hey, hey, hey, take a breath. Take a walk. Take a lap. Take a lap.
[Sylvi chuckles]
Austin (as squaddie): Sir yes sir!
Keith: Look at this Mickey mouse.
Dre (as Levi): Sorry—sorry about that. [under his breath] Wow, this is hard, no wonder Brnine—
[Art laughs]
Sylvi: Yeah man.
Dre (as Levi): Hey, could we have permission to come in here and help out?
[music ends]
[03:20]
Austin: Alright, we did it. That is another turn. It is time to do the interlude, the second and last interlude of the game. As a reminder, you get one of the following things to do. You do these either at no cost or by spending fortune or misfortune. You have four things you can do as kind of mini-scenes at no cost.
One, new look! Describe a major change to how your character presents themselves. Say what changed and why. [Dre chuckles]
Time passes. Discuss with the group about whether it should be a week, a month, a season, or a year. Describe an event in the kingdom or your character's life that took place during that time.
NPC scene. Have a short scene from an NPC's point of view. Skip the normal setup rules and don't roll for resolution. Just roleplay or narrate what happens.
New goal. Give yourself a different goal. Replace any irrelevant obstacles with new ones. Keep your mastered obstacles.
Then, you could spend fortune. For one fortune: new relationship—form a new relationship with a PC or NPC as on page 65. Describe how it's formed. Two boons—give yourself and another player a boon as on page 67. You might share a treasure, learn a secret, or provide moral support. Or, for two fortune: rise in the hierarchy—change your role to reflect your new status. Master all obstacles, costs two fortune.
Or in exchange for misfortune, you could give yourself a burden. Take a burden—you might lose something precious, get cursed, or succumb to despair. A little trouble—choose any kingdom trouble that's at zero or one. We can't do this one. It would go up by one. We cannot do this one. Perish—your character departs from this plane of existence. Create a new character. Become one of the NPCs or live on as a ghost. Costs two misfortune. You then would move, as we saw, with Eclectic becoming Leap—not becoming a leap, but as Keith's character going from Eclectic to Leap, moving any fortune or misfortune to your new character. You can fill it out however you want. You don't have to roll—reroll cards, you get two new obstacles, you start with two relationships. One of them is exhausted, etc.
It says here, this is a dramatic event, it may take a few minutes to resolve. Little do they know that nothing takes less than a few minutes to resolve with us, so [Sylvi and Keith chuckle] We got you this time, book!
Alright, who has an—I almost said epilogue, we are not there yet!—an interlude scene? Do we just want to go around in a circle or do we want people to—do we want to not go around in a circle?
Keith: Yeah, I'm still—I'm like really on the fence for like, should I spend two of my three fortune to do what Levi did, and get rid of these obstacles and rank up? But I—I can't—I haven't decided. I don't—it's a tough decision because we are getting close to the end of the game.
Austin: We have one more round.
Keith: Yeah.
Art: Yeah, I don't think it's like, fictionally possible for Clem to do that.
Austin: Let me—let me just note a couple of things really quick about where we go from here? Because there's two big rule things that are important to think about going forward.
Keith: Mhm. The dice.
Austin: One is that in the final chapter—I'll just read this now even though we're not quite there yet.
Your third turn is your last chance to achieve your goal, so aim for the stars. [Dre: Mmm.] You're encouraged to bring in all of your relationships and narrate big impactful results during the third and final chapter. There's a special rule for dice outcomes.
In addition to their normal effects, you mark fortune for winning on a three, four, or five, and you mark misfortune for losing on a three, four, or five. Because there are no more turns ahead, those changes to obstacles, relationships, boons, and burdens won't have a chance to come into play. So this makes them affect the epilogue instead. After the third chapter, it's time for the epilogue—and I'm not going to read this whole thing, right? But two things worth thinking about.
One, for each trouble at six or higher, everyone marks a misfortune. [Sylvi coughs] If there are no troubles at six or higher, everyone marks fortune. [Sylvi: Okay.] So there's a chance for everybody to get one fortune as long as none of these things tick up to six. Which seems impossibly—
Keith: Yeah, it's looking really good.
Sylvi: Don't say it!
Austin: It's not impossible. It’s not impossible. It’s very hard.
Keith: It’s not impossible, it's wildly improbable.
Austin: It's wildly improbable because you'd have to get doom—multiple dooms. You have to get at least four dooms, and each of those would have to draw from the same suit, which is increasingly hard to do with each new draw, right? Less probable, not hard. It’s—if it's shuffled that way, it's shuffled that way, [chuckles] you know?
Art: Yeah in a way, it's already happened. [Keith chuckles]
Austin: That's right, exactly. Then the other thing about the way the epilogue works is that you take tokens that match your fortune and misfortune, you arrange them in a row in front of you. For each fortune you have, you alternate between fortune and misfortune, narrating scenes, right? You say, oh, okay, I have a fortune scene. Here is something good happening for me. Their example is, Desiree says, “though I never found the final rainbow gemstone, I found true love in the pale arms of the vampire matriarch”.
Dre: Aww.
Austin: Then other players narrate the misfortune token. And so their example of that is, but your dark past continued to haunt you. After a few short months, the vampire hunters came and took your matriarch away!
And then you go back and forth, right? And Desiree then playing another fortune token says, “alas, but the vampires and I launched a daring rescue”. Right? So you go back and forth on fortune, misfortune, fortune, misfortune, zooming out, telling a story as you go forward. If the final one that you have is—the final token that you have, whether it's fortune or misfortune, describes an outcome for the entire kingdom. So for Desiree in this vampire game, it was a fortune and they say, “fortunately, my forgiving matriarch blesses the kingdom. Vampires protect our people and take very little blood in return”. Alright so, people making decisions over in this vampire game, you can send your letter to the writers of this game—it's so funny.
Janine: Very little—it’s so funny. Not none!
Austin: It’s so funny—not none!
Janine: Just a reasonable amount. It’s just a guy every two weeks, you know, it’s fine.
Austin: Yeah yeah yeah. Exactly. Just one guy.
Janine: And he sucks anyway, so.
Austin: [chuckles] Exactly. So—so the way to think about this real quick shorthand is simply, if you have more fortune than misfortune at the end, it's going to be good for the kingdom, right? So that is a goal. That is a thing maybe to aim for if what you're invested in is the big picture stuff, so.
Art: But making yourself an unstoppable machine [Keith: Yeah, right.] like Levi makes it more likely to get more fortune in the last round.
Austin: That’s correct.
Keith: If you can get so many dice that you're really avoiding losing and getting those misfortunes in the last turn—
Austin: Right, but Leap is in a weird position, where Leap currently has three fortune.
Keith: Yeah, it's looking really good.
Austin: And only two misfortune. So getting rid of two good fortune right now is a choice, you know?
Keith: But I have a really fun idea that works really well if I have some of these obstacles mastered? [Austin: Right, sure.] Like fictionally?
Austin: Yeah, play your character as always. [Keith: Yeah.] For me, that's probably the number one. Play the character, critical role building, smart characterization, fun interaction between good friends. Does anyone—is anyone confident about what they want to do with their interlude scene?
Jack: Yes.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: I'm going to start there then.
[00:12:20]
Jack: Okay, I would like to spend a misfortune and take on a burden.
Austin: Okay. What is the burden you're taking? Or do we decide? Or do you decide?
Jack: Umm—
Austin: It doesn't say, so I think it's you. It's your scene.
Jack: Yeah, I think that August Righteousness has been having recurring dreams about joining Wakeful.
Austin: Mmm, sure.
Jack: About sort of closing the process of delegation, as it were, returning it. And I want to be as clear as possible that when I say this, I don't mean that they are dreams in the sense of like, wouldn't it be great to return to the thing? Or even, I'm being summoned back by a thing more powerful than me. The thing I keep coming back to is almost like, fever dreams or COVID dreams? You know, some of these dreams are August Righteousness, you know, lying in bed, going, “I was split off for a purpose, and whether or not that is sort of like a grand purpose, you know, whether or not it's like there's a sort of destiny for me, there are people that I am responsible to and people that I am responsible for”. And it would be like an abrogation of that responsibility to give that up for Righteousness.
And then there are dreams where he's like, “but what if I did?” [chuckles] [Austin: Yeah.] You know, what if I, how powerful could I be? And then there are just dreams where he's like, if I gave—the thing I want to be able to do is sleep untroubled, you know. [Austin: Mmm.] What is holding me away from this like untroubled sleep?
And so I don't know whether or not we want the burden to be like, reflecting the fact that he has been turning this over, unconsciously, [Austin: Mhm.] or whether or not the more prosaic thing of like, he is tired, you know?
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. So, boon, dreaming of Reunion, dreaming of, you know...
Jack: Oh no, I'm not getting a boon.
Austin: Sorry, I meant burden. I meant burden, sorry.
Jack: Oh yeah.
Austin: You know, “restless nights”, something like that. [Jack: Yeah.] You could write it. It's yours, you know?
Jack: Yeah yeah yeah. I'm just trying to figure out how to delete the thing as usual. There we go. Got it. Um, this burden is… “Troubled by Dreams”.
Austin: Love it.
Jack: That's a classic Crusader Kings.
Austin: [chuckles] God.
Jack: It's a little minus 10 or whatever.
Austin: Yeah, yeah. God, yeah, we should just be thinking about this game as Crusader Kings. That's the scale that we're playing on.
Sylvi: You said that and I was picturing the minus friendship symbol [Austin: Yeah! Yeah yeah yeah.] from The Sims popping up.
Jack: [chuckles] Troubled by Dreams.
Austin: That is very funny. Who was the other person who said they had it, they were ready to go? Someone said it.
Dre: Me.
[00:15:09]
Austin: Sure, Levi.
Dre: Yeah, sorry, I guess me is not a name.
Austin: No, you’re good.
Dre: I'm going to spend my misfortune and take an additional burden.
Austin: What was your, wait, how much—oh, I see you have this one misfortune, right?
Dre: I have this one misfortune.
Austin: Alright, yeah, what's the burden you're gonna take? What's the scene?
Dre: The burden I want to take is that—kind of building off of Austin, whatever random squad mate that you were playing that got like— [Austin: Yeah, yeah.] that got lippy? I think that keeps happening, right?
Austin: Interesting.
Dre: Like Levi and the squad go out and do good things, and things happen, and then we come back, [Austin: Mmm.] and the Cause leadership is starting to ice Levi out. And a couple of people within Levi's squad are starting to be like, what the fuck?
Austin: In terms of, sorry, are they on your side in this?
Dre: Yes, yes.
Austin: Okay, I see, yeah.
Dre: It's like this—it’s this weird cult of personality building around Levi.
Austin: Oooh, love it.
Dre: That Levi doesn't like, thus it is a burden.
Austin: Yeah, okay. I like it. Yeah, fantastic. You wanna—what's the burden itself? Is it—
Dre: [sighing] That's what I'm trying to think.
Austin: “Aggressive squaddies”?
Dre: Yeah, I like that.
Austin: You know—we don't have to be—we don't gotta get, you know, fancy with it.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Alright, who’s up?
[00:15:47]
Ali: I can take a burden too.
Austin: Okay.
Ali: I—this is like, a little dramatic, but when I was thinking about this, the burden was just like, “Is a Failure”? [chuckles] [cross] I think more specifically—
Austin: [cross] God damn.
Ali: Brnine feels sort of bad about losing Future, and Jesset hating them, I guess?
Austin: Jesset doesn't hate them, but.
Ali: [chuckles] Sure.
Austin: Yes.
Ali: But I—probably the more accurate thing to—here is like lost Future, did not bring Future to justice.
Austin: Sure. This, this, this is, is Brnine up nights, losing sleep over this?
Ali: [exhales] I think so.
Austin: Or is it just a voice—yeah, go ahead.
Ali: Yeah. I mean, I think that Brnine has sort of been going through it? [Austin: Mhm.] Most of this finale anyway. [Austin: Mhm?] And I do think that there's like—I'm sure the cause leadership doesn't feel great about this. I bet if I ever talk to Clem again, Clem will be like [chuckles like a gremlin]—I don't want to characterize Clem here. And no, I think it's a fuck up. I think it was a fuck up, so. I think that's a burden.
Jack: Brnine having a sleepless night in the Blue Channel and August Righteousness having a sleepless night, both looking up at Chimera's Lantern.
Austin: Uh huh. Who's next? We need a Cori, we need a Leap, we need a Clem, we need a Thisbe.
[00:17:25]
Sylvi: I might have an idea for like, a Time Passes?
Austin: Sure.
Sylvi: I think that like something—I think Cori ends up spending a lot of time at the consecrated like, Afflictions area?
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvi: Partially because it's something that she has to like, maintain to a degree.
Austin: Sure.
Sylvi: She's not like super experienced with Perennial magic. She is still getting used to what she's capable of.
Austin: Yeah, that’s fun.
Sylvi: And like isn’t, you know, hasn't mastered it, right? So there's a level of like, I need to go back every like, week or so at the minimum to make sure that this consecrated ground that I've laid down is still functioning as it should be. And that there's still a safe place here.
Austin: God, Cori is like, Witch of the Wilds is a really fun turn. [Sylvi: Yeah!] That's great.
Sylvi: You know, I felt right with the Perennial move, you know?
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's good! It's like going from, you know, she's in her like goth phase, you know?
Sylvi: When would any of my characters ever do that? It doesn’t make any sense. [laughs]
Austin: How much time is this? How much time is passing? Are we seeing this over weeks?
Sylvi: I think this might be like—The scene I'm picturing in my head, I think is like maybe over a month, of like [Austin: Okay.], there’s like four or five visits over a month where she's doing this. And like, every time it seems like a little stronger, a little less is needed the next time she comes back.
Austin: Yeah. I think—okay, that's good. Yeah. I think that like, a thing that I want to signal is Elle gets, starts to get a little restless about this. Cause it's like, you promised me big things and you're doing a lot of gardening right now. [Sylvi: Yeah.] Right? And like, no doubt I'm with you. The Afflictions deserve a space. You built them their space. When do we go, when do we go do the other big shit you were talking to me—you talked all that big game about, you know?
Sylvi: It can't crumble when I leave!
Austin: Uh huh.
Sylvi: Besides, we need these guys for big shit—I'm trying to build it right! Oh no, they're fucking turned into a sitcom married couple.
Austin: [chuckles] Uh huh, very quickly. Alright. Leap, Clem, Thisbe.
[00:20:32]
Keith: I think I've decided to rise in the hierarchy.
Austin: Okay. What does that look like, what is your new role?
Keith: You know, I don't have a name for it, but I do have a bunch of chests of treasure, overflowing chests of treasure, [Ali chuckles] and gold, and money. And I think I'm just going around to all of the different Cause factions, and just like giving them huge sums of money.
Austin: Leap, Exeter Leap, patron? What is the, what is your—are you, are you like Chief Fundraiser? Or what is, what is the, what is the—how does your day to day change? That's the way I framed it with, with—because it isn't, it is not, I did a good thing for people. [Keith: No.] It is my Monday through Friday looks different now. I'm doing a different thing.
Keith: No, but I think I've bought an amount of authority and amount of say within these groups by having like, [Austin: Sure.] you know, multiple times over increased their budgets.
Austin: What type of say is that? Is that, are you an admiral now, instead of just a one-off pirate? Are you like—again, like the example here is, Levi went from being a single soldier to having a squad, and then you need to be in meetings. So how does Leap's Tuesday afternoon change? Cause it used to be you would just be off on a mission somewhere.
Keith: Right. Cause I already have a squad.
Austin: Doing like your own shit. Right, exactly.
Keith: It feels like some sort of like a, like a command role more than anything. [Austin: Yeah, yeah.] Where like, I've got to sign off on what other people are doing?
Austin: Leap entered management, everybody.
Keith: Yeah, look—
Austin: Are you a Commodore? Are you an Admiral? Are you a—
Keith: Commodore sounds fun.
Dre: Ooohh!
Austin: Commodore Leap.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: That’s very funny. There's a big ceremony—
Keith: I was thinking Commandant, but that's for like a school. That's for like a navy school or something. So I was like, that can't be it.
Dre: Hey, do you want your own school? You can do what you want!
Keith: Commodore, I think it's what—? Oh, the Leap School of professional pirating.
Austin: Commodore is, in most navies, seems to be above a Captain, but below an Admiral. So—below a Rear Admiral—so that makes sense. Sure. Was there a big ceremony? Are you awarded a new hat?
[Sylvi laughs]
Keith: No, my hat was bigger than the biggest hat they had.
Dre: Sure.
Sylvi: Is there an addition to the hat?
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did they add something to it?
Keith: Yeah, I literally put another feather in my cap.
Austin: Okay. [chuckles]
Art: Put another hat on top of the hat.
Sylvi: Is it—?
Austin: Oh, a double hat.
Sylvi: [whispering] Put a hat on top of the feather.
Keith: A hat—a hat like, an iron-on hat badge, on my hat. It's a badge of a hat.
Janine: It's like a living Hatris guy. Hat Tetris.
Austin: Right, exactly. Hat Tetris, yeah.
Dre: Mmm!
Keith: [chuckling] I was going to ask what is Hatris? So thank you.
Janine: Hatris is real. [Austin laughs] Hatris is real.
Keith: Hatris is real.
Austin: Hatris is real. Alright, that's Leap. So that means you get to master your three obstacles, which again are?
Keith: The Whitestar fleet is stronger than anticipated. Carmine Bight is acting as rival pirates, competing for the same loot
Austin: Not anymore!
Keith: And the Most Wanted Man on Palisade.
Austin: Incredibly funny, now that all of these are mastered.
Keith: It's, yeah, and it feels, you know, the way that it's mastered, it's not that I'm not the most mastered—the most wanted man—I’m the most mastered man on Palisade—the Most Wanted Man on Palisade, it's just like, that is—that helps now.
Austin: No, I just think it's the other way, where it's like—
Keith: You think it's the other way?
Austin: You’re wanted—no, no, no, no. You're the Most Wanted Man on Palisade, but not wanted as in, wanted for murder, not wanted as in—
Jack: Because you have tourmaline—
Dre: Mmmm.
Keith: Oh! Because they want me to show up.
Austin: Wanted because they want, they're like, oh my God, where is Leap? Leap is leading us to be in this meeting.
Keith: We really want him.
Austin: You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jack: He has gems we've never heard of before!
Austin: [chuckles] Exactly! [Dre chuckles] Or just again, like, we can't launch this operation without Leap’s sign-off! You know? [Keith chuckles]
Dre: Especially in that voice.
Austin: That's right.
Jack: That's how pirates talk.
Austin: That’s how pirates talk! That was Murph. That was Murph, actually.
Jack: Oh, yeah.
Austin: Sitting on a pirate ship. Thisbe, Clem?
[00:24:57]
Janine: Yeah, I—
Austin: You’re both sitting on two misfortune, Clem is sitting on two fortune.
Janine: I want to trade my two misfortune in for a burden.
Jack: Oh, it's one misfortune for a burden.
Austin: One misfortune.
Janine: Right, sorry. One misfortune.
Dre: You trade two in to die.
Austin: I was like, uh oh, oh my god!
Sylvi: Very big misfortune.
Austin: Everyone at home just went like—heard you say two misfortune and went, ahhh!
Janine: I did think about it, but no.
Austin: Yeah, it's always worth thinking about.
Sylvi: Damn, Thisbe, I feel that. [Dre laughs] Sorry.
Austin: Brutal. It do be like that.
Sylvi: It's been a normal month.
Janine: It wasn't—I mean, it was going to be a thing of more of like, Thisbe’s off-camera and somewhere else.
Austin: Yes. So what is the—yeah, what is this burden?
Janine: Um, I think, uhh—
Keith: I'm getting worried about these burdens we're all taking.
Austin: It's going to make these rolls rough.
Janine: I mean, sure. But burdens, it's a—it's a one-off versus the fortune, which sticks.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: I wonder if the, I wonder if the burden here is that like, you know. Thisbe learned the power of autonomy, but then also learned that like, you can't—
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: But you can't just do that all the time. Like there is no such thing as like, there's a limit to the power of autonomy. There's a limit to individuality before you do need a group. You do need to work with a unit. You can't just do it on your own and expect things to turn out the way you want.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: So, you know, there's sort of like a, I imagine like a chart that kind of spikes, and then drops again, which is just like, you know, she's discovered that she can do things cause she wants to do them, but then simultaneously has the discovery of like, but that's not enough. You do have to sometimes be part of the unit, and you do sometimes have to find someone whose orders you can follow.
Austin: Mm. So like feeling the weight of free will, you're feeling the weight of being an individual.
Janine: Kind of, yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: It is very much like, yeah, self-determination isn't always—
Austin: What it's cracked up to be? Yeah.
Janine: You're not going to win. [Austin: Yeah.] You’re just not gonna—It's not an answer. It's not like a secret thing that you figure out and then you can just go.
Austin: I like this. Find a way to word it and you tell me what it looks like. But I like that. We can go to Clem if you need a second to write it up, but “The Burden of Free Will” is truly, you know, it can just be that, but you tell me. Clem.
[00:27:52]
Art: Can I rise in the hierarchy to head of Stel Kesh?
[Sylvi laughs]
Jack: Wow!
Sylvi: Horse blinders on this one.
Austin: Unbelievable. Uhh, I don't know! Chat?
[Sylvi laughs]
Keith: I mean, it doesn't feel possible because they are on the other side.
Art: Well, I would be mastering that obstacle in the process.
Austin: [spit takes] That's true!
Jack: The way that I could see this happening is some real antipope shit? Which we have a bit of in the world already with the—with everything that went on with Stel Apostolos. Well there is—
Austin: Yeah, I'll say the thing now, Jack—you finish your thought and then I'm going to support it with a thing.
Jack: There is a historical precedent within this world to Clementine, for example, saying something like, “the line of Kesh, you thought that you stripped me of the line of Kesh, but actually I am the only true representative of Kesh. Everything out there in the Principality is a pretender, and here on Palisade with my iconoclastic empire is the seat of the Stel”.
Austin: Uh huh. Right. Again, some Crusader King shit here.
Janine: Yeah, blood matters to some people.
Austin: [sighs] It does.
Janine: And all you have to do is have enough of a following that says, actually, I think that blood is more compelling than this blood.
Jack: And there are a lot of Principality—not nobles, but well-to-do people who might be looking for someone to maybe protect them from an ongoing push for justice on the planet.
Austin: Eugh. This is miserable.
Keith: On the planet that Clem is not on?
Austin: No, no, no. No, no, no. This planet.
Keith: Oh, this planet. Ohh, sure sure sure.
Austin: Yeah, that in other words, Keith, yeah, that the remaining Kesh soldiers would throw in with Clem, because it would give them protection.
Keith: Okay, but it would put Clem [Austin: Oh yeah!] under my goal of take every last set from the Kesh fleet.
Austin: It sure would. I have another thing here, which is we have Cas’alear Rizah here right now, who is one of the one of the two living people that we know of here inside of the Mirage, who are claiming to be the Princept of—who claim they have the right to be the Princept of all of the Principality? Cas’alear Rizah was the adopted sibling, you may recall, of Dahlia, [Jack: RIP.] and the heir to—RIP, rest in piss.
Keith: Ripped, all right.
Austin: And the adopted, or sorry—and the the Apokine, right, is the Apokine, fundamentally, of Apostolos. And the thing that I was going to say, one of the things that happens during this, like, interlude beat, is that Cas’alear makes a pitch to Millennium Break that says,
Austin (as Cas’alear): Hey, if you support me, if you help me get back out there, and hook me up with some of your people, you know that I've worked with you before, I am willing to support you in bringing this whole thing down.
[Jack exhales.]
Austin (as Cas’alear): I will be the Apokine of Apostolos. Those are my people. And my first and final act as Princept will be ending the Perfect Millennium and ending the Divine Principality as it stands. dissolving the current situation, which is that there are five Stels and the five Stels are—
Austin: Da da da da da. Like, [Sylvi chuckles] now, can you trust Cas? Up to you. Is Cas—And I say all this because, as Princept, you know, as at least someone who can claim to be Princept, Cas could also recognize Clem as the head of Stel Kesh. And in fact, would need their, you know—the current actual head of Stel Kesh, [Jack chuckles] is Whitestar—Cynosure Kesh, who is also claiming to be Princept. So, of course, Cas’alear would have reason to say, no no no, there's a different head of Stel Kesh. It's this lady over here, who is my head of Stel Kesh. And then the second I can, I'm going to get rid of the fact that there is a Stel Kesh. Now, whether or not that’s—whether or not those two things intersect in ways that would make them not happen, who knows, you know? In the sense that, would Millennium Break side with someone who made Clem the head of Stel Kesh?
[Jack chuckles]
Austin: That’s up to y’all. Two, would Clem side with someone who said, “as soon as I'm in power again, I'm getting rid of the Principality; there will be no more Principality”? I don't know. Maybe Cas plays that close to their chest in such a way that like, that's their maneuver here, you know? When they piss everybody off in the process, I don't know. I didn't know the Clem side of this until seconds ago. I knew the bit about them coming out to say, “hey, if you get me back there, I will bring this all to—I will try to build a force around me. I know Apostolos is with me. We can bring this all down.” That part I knew.
Art: Okay. I'm sorry to walk us so far down this path, but I don't think that this is… what Clem wants.
Austin: Fun—sure.
Art: I don't think a Clem who has mastered all of her obstacles is even an interesting character to think about.
Austin: So you've decided to simply not do it?
[Keith chuckles]
Art: Yeah.
Jack: I don't know if that's true, Art. I think that so much that is fun about Clem, is watching a woman fall down a well, and occasionally manage to grab a handhold and you go, holy shit, how is she doing this?
Keith: And the handhold is a crown somehow every time.
[Austin sighs]
Jack: Yeah, but then she loses it and falls another eight feet down the well again or whatever. And I mean, what does it look like if the roller coaster actually starts doing enjoyable things rather than clanking uncomfortably up the—up the incline?
Austin: Let me ask a provocative question. What are we doing with Clementine?
Jack: Oh, Austin, we've uhh—
Keith: Handholds, I thought.
Janine: Throwing her down a well, it sounded like?
[Keith chuckles]
Sylvi: Oooh!
Austin: I would—like genuinely, where are we at with Clementine? Art, you're playing her right now; this is a big you question, I think. Jack, you've played her in the past. All of us have big opinions and feelings about this fucking character. And I don't want us to, like, get so deep in writer's room scramble that we forget to play a character here, necessarily. But I do think that it's worth taking a beat and saying, [Jack: No, you’re right.] where are we at in the story of Clementine? Are we wrapping this shit up? Are we setting up Clem to be a major antagonist in the future? Is she just like any other character, and we're going to see how she develops from here? Like, she is one of the most—we've invested a lot of storytelling time into this character, which is—I don't mean that as a way of being like, and so we should keep that—we should keep her going. I mean, more that we should be thoughtful about her, given what her history is, and make a decision based partly, at least, on that.
Art: I'm not interested in keeping Clem in any way, [Austin: Mmm.] to the point where I was also considering Perish.
Austin: Interesting.
Art: I thought it would be fun if Clem sort of like, succumbed to the Iconoclasts and all the Iconoclasts sort of became twisted Clems.
Sylvi: Oh… oh, no. [nervous chuckling]
Keith: The Iconoclems!
Austin and Art: The Iconoclems.
Art: but, like, coming up, having a new character is so hard.
Austin: There are some people on the table you can play for a turn.
Art: Yeah, but like, it's a lot of work and I'm not feeling well.
Janine: You could play a big blob—you could do a Clem blob as a turn.
Art: I could take a turn with the Clem blob, but the Clem blob probably doesn't want to help the kingdom, it's tricky. The goal—coming up with a goal for Clem blob is hard. But if other people are interested in Clem as an ongoing concern, I'm not going to like—I’m not going to crash a car that someone's waiting to drive.
Austin: I don't think anyone is looking to get behind the driver's seat of Clementine ever again.
Art: Well, they don’t—they don’t have to drive Clem, but they could want to look at Clem,
Austin: Okay.
Keith: Watch Austin drive Clem next season.
Art: They could want Clem parked in the driveway.
Austin: I don't know that I want to drive Clem—It is tough because it’s like—I think the version of this character—this type of character that I like to play, tends to be someone who is, for all of my sins, right but too much, you know? I like playing an Ibex. I like playing a Waking Cadent. There are definitely assholes I like to play, you know? I like playing an Arell. And Arell was not even right but too much, Arell was just an asshole. But I liked that arc because there was some tragedy in there and the backstory, blah blah blah blah blah.
I feel like we've gotten a good amount of Clem's good, tragic backstory. Clem is someone who was raised by a monster, was born into an incredible amount of privilege that ends up being a sort of anchor around her own neck because she never gets to develop the talents necessary to be a good person, or to be a person with skills.
Keith: She only ever learned how to deal with monsters.
Austin: Truly, right? And not people. And not to treat anybody like a person either.
And had done so much harm that no one was willing to give her—no, that's not true, plenty of people were willing to give her more of a break than I would ever have given her, truly, actually, right?
But we've done that story. And so it's hard for me to know where we're going with Clem forward in a way that's like—again, I don't have any big grand plans for Clem. I love the idea of Iconoclems because it's goofy and it's funny and it's like, ugh, I can't believe this person has become a blob of—there's a fun dark mirror of Wakeful here, right? What if there were countless beings, except it was all the same being and it was all fucking Clementine? But I don't know that that’s—I don’t know what I'm saying with that. I think it's just a fun beat on the page, you know? I don't know.
Jack: I think we... I think we might be... I think we should let Clementine see what's going to happen next, in the sense of the next—where we're going. I wonder if killing Clementine—Clementine is a character that has moved through two books of a trilogy? And while I understand—
Austin: By that, you mean the two turns of Questlandia?
Jack: No, no, no.
Austin: No, you mean PARTIZAN and PALISADE.
Jack: I mean PARTIZAN and PALISADE.
Austin: Okay.
Jack: And two different kinds of conversations about the shape of an empire and, you know, moving against that. I have no interest in playing Clem in the next season, because I don't think it's her story. But I... I wonder if we are cheating ourselves out of seeing the world that Elle Evensong predicted, and Clementine worming her way through it.
Austin: Mm. I think if we—if we go that direction, I would like a change that isn't—in the same way that this season was The Witch in Glass, and the last—and PARTIZAN was Clementine Kesh, the idea of another big change happening is, I think, the only way for me to want to—
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Like, pushing it to its—to its extreme, and not this middle ground is, I think, the only way for me and Clem.
Jack: Yeah. But at the same time, if I am the only person holding out for this, I need to be very careful that I am not letting my desire to hold on to the character impede the table.
Janine: I really like the idea of—like in this conversation, I keep thinking of like, you know, in this universe that specifically gets cultivated over these huge gaps of time, what do I want from the legacy of Clementine Kesh? [Austin: Mhm.] Right, not just like, what do we do next season, or what do we do next when—? I think of when little tidbits from COUNTER/Weight pop up, [Austin: Mhm.] or when you know, Twilight Mirage stuff pops up. I think about, what context do I want to hear about Clementine in the future?
And that's a way easier question to answer for me, because the thing that I want to hear—I want to hear her doing some weird ass Baba Yaga shit. [Austin: Right, right. It’s spookier, yeah.] I want her to be almost like a folk villain. Or not even a folk villain, but just one of those very like, sometimes there's stories about them helping people, sometimes there's stories about them hurting people. You can't really tell if they are vengeful or benevolent. There are rules about how you approach someone if you expect them to be this person, you know? [Austin: Mhm.]
That's kind of the thing that I would be excited about hearing about Clem like, in however many seasons or whatever, for whatever that is worth, you know? Like that’s—I don't think you should discard the character. I do think you're right that there should be a next, like a big transformation, but like, do we see it? Do we see it now? Do we see it—is it a thing that just happens and we hear about it? In 2028.
Austin: I won't come up with something. I would like to—I don't want it to— [chuckles] 2028 is a wild number to say out loud.
[Dre chuckles]
Janine: Four years, three and a half.
Austin: Don't, don't, don't. I can't do it right now. [chuckles] The future is too much for me right now. The—I—I can't punt on it without some direction, right? You know, Chimeric Cadent—
Janine: Yeah. I'm just saying this stuff is a way to like—Is this helpful for like—?
Austin: Yes.
Janine: I don't want Jack to feel like the only person who has an investment in [Austin: Yeah, I got you.] seeing Clementine, and—
Austin: I think the version of it that is—I think the version of it that is the Iconoclasts all become some versions of Clem, is a really fun emerging thematic mirror to Wakeful, to Thisbe's emerging free will burden, like what does it mean to be a self, and Clem reflecting this version of it that's like, you know what? What if I'm, this incredibly solipsistic, I'm the only one who's important, the Iconoclasts coming to take her form is such a wonderful corruption of the Iconoclasts? That like, here are these beings that once wanted to be untouched by humanity, right? That was their whole dream, was like, fuck, we want a world that exists—we want guidance from a being that doesn't have the cursed weight of subjectivity, to suddenly become this incredibly self-reflexive—not in the positive sense—but like, self-absorbed person, and shades of that monstrously, is kind of fun for me. I think that's a version that I'd be interested in going forward, and I think that could fit the folkloric villain creature thing. But I don't know if that's where Art is in playing her today, you know?
Art: Well, I mean, I really wanted to play that for a couple hours, if we’re being really—
Austin: Sure. Anyone else have Clem thoughts? Hashtag Clem thoughts. [Dre chuckles]
Keith: Yeah, it's not like—I don't think that this really, you know, highlights the path forward. But what I've really liked about the Clem stuff so far is that, we've really gotten to—like the thing that's so annoying about Clem and why she's been so fun and frustrating to have around, is that thing where she does always, like, latch on to something when it looks like she's going to fall to her death?
Austin: Mhm.
Keith: And she keeps showing up. And when we started on Partizan, you know, the people that she had control over, she really had control over, she was very stable in her station. [Austin: Mmm.] And as we as a group in Millennium Break have like become a more significant thing, and we've become a more stable force, we've seen Clem's stability be both eroded and become less relevant. So even as it feels like she keeps like, failing upwards, it now feels like we're above her in this way that is really satisfying.
And like—like, all of this luck and all of these—all of her ability to like hold on to a surprising amount of power, [Austin: Right.] hasn't helped her get over on anyone, really.
Austin: The idea that she, at the end of her last scene, wanted a little head pat from Brnine, [Keith: Yeah!] [Sylvi chuckles] is such a wild flip from where things were at the beginning of PARTIZAN. [Keith: Yeah, and—] Not that Brnine was one of the original rapid evening prisoners, but you know what I mean.
Keith: And maybe this is just to say that I think that with time in the future, I think we can look back and be satisfied with a lot of different ways that Clem's story could go, because the work that has gone into bringing her where she is now has been so good, and has colored so much of like, her screen time, and her like presence in everyone's minds, that like all of these things make sense to me, her being of—maybe with, the least of being like the big villain of the last thing. Because I do really like that, [Austin: Right.] that she has really kind of eroded, [Austin: Right.] both structurally and like literally as a person. [chuckles] Bleeding out of her face, black oil that—and the crazy monsters that she commands.
Austin: Yeah, I'm not necessarily interested in her being like the big bad—we pretty much set up Arbitrage as a primary antagonist for the next season, right? Or the next PALISADE, the next of these three, this series. I mean, all that said, then I think it's back in your hands, Art. It sounds like you could play this character out and in general, we folks would be happy to see her come back in some form. You know, go with your heart is what it sounds like. I know that doesn’t help. Sorry.
Art: I mean, I could just sort of ride it out, too. I could—
Keith: That feels very Clem to me.
[Dre laughs]
Art: You know, we could—we could just punt this to the epilogue.
Austin: So are you just going to let it ride and not spend any points? You're going to become—
Art: All of the let it ride, don't spend any points scenes are also like—
Austin: A thing happens.
Art: A thing happens. My—my other idea was I could take a burden, which is the burden I alluded to during the thing, and just took the other one instead, which is that Future showed Clem all these bad outcomes.
Austin: Oh, yeah!
Art: And that—that fucks you up.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, you could do that.
Art: I'll take that.
Austin: Alright.
Art: Burden “Fucked up by the Future.”
Austin: [exhales] You and me both, bud.
Dre: Burden, “The Future Freaks Me Out.”
Austin: Sure does.
Sylvi: Got that one.
Dre: Thanks, Sylvi [laughs]
Sylvi: No problem.
Austin: One other thing that I think to paint a thing, which maybe helps paint, Brnine, some of your lost Future thing here? Jesset is killing a bunch of Kesh and Nideo people. That's what Jesset's been doing. You know—Jesset's gone. You know how sometimes there's a Batman character who's like, like a vigilante, but too much, you know? Like ohh, it’s—turns out that Robin turned—he has guns now! [Dre: Mhm.] You know? It’s one of those situations.
Ali: Did Robin get guns?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. I'd say there's at least one Robin who ends up being a guy with guns.
Dre: Yeah, it's the Red Hood.
Austin: Red Hood, yeah. [Ali: Oh.] But there's also like, you'll get another Bat family adjacent character who's like, I'm Batman, but I kill people.
Ali: [whispering] Whoa.
Austin: Yeah. [chuckles] And that's Jesset right now.
Art: [wheezing] He’s Batman but he kills people.
Austin: But he kills people, yeah.
Dre: Mhm.
Austin: He's doing the thing, right? Like, you know, some third rate Kesh colonel found dead in the streets, you know? [chuckles] Found dead in Miami. [Sylvi laughs] Jesset is not waiting for August Righteousness's army and court. Jesset is not waiting for Millennium Break's missions. Jesset has one and a half Divines. And they are—they—I mean, I think the actual scene here for Jesset, is that Jesset has also been shown the future in the way that Clem has. And it is the future that Elle believes in. And Jesset is at, well fuck it. If this whole thing is going to go to shit, I may as well kill some of these motherfuckers while I have the chance.
It is not a—a noble, well thought-out plan of justice. It is a somewhat cynical, or fundamentally at least—Brnine, you said that you felt like a failure, Jesset feels like a failure. That is the emotional [Dre: Mmm.] content of that lashing out from last time. That is the way that Jesset is moving, so. Art says, Jesset sees the future where Clem wins. I think Jesset sees the future where it doesn't matter that Clem specifically doesn't win. Jesset is being shown the future where people like Clem keep winning. And they might win in smaller ways than the Divine Principality, right? But they're going to keep winning on places like Palisade and Partizan, all across the galaxy. And it's going to look worse than it looks good.
Keith: I mean, hey, the future where people like Clem keeps winning sounds like the fucking Divine seasons.
Austin: You know, these dice rolls. I think that is the interlude. Are there any other open questions about the state of the world before we move into our final round?
Jack: I'm trying to think. Cas was sort of the big one that I had.
Austin: So, yeah, to reiterate that, Cas’alear was saying, I will—support me as Princept. I will end the thing we have been calling the Divine Principality. End the Perfect Millennium. I will help you break the Millennium.
Art: Which is right in the name.
Austin: It's right in the name.
Jack: Yeah, but that doesn't mean—you know, if I named my organization Millennium Break, I think I would be very susceptible to someone coming up and saying to me, “I can break it!”
Austin: Yeah. Otherwise, I think the other things I'm thinking about are things that we've already talked about.
Jack: Yeah, the protection for the Afflictions—sort of ongoing Wakeful, a sort of bizarre truce with Wakeful that is also like involved in—Wakeful—Wakeful is now showing up to repair broken windows sometimes.
Austin: I think a number of glass nobles from the Fabreal Duchy start showing up and turning themselves in to the August Righteousness Cause police? Hoping that they—like at first, it starts with like, hey, I'll turn myself in if you give me access to the Unction goo I need to live. And then eventually some people just start turning themselves in. You know, someone has the idea that's like, well, they're not going to let me die in prison. If they are going to put me on trial, they'll give me the goo I need to live until trial at least. Now, will this, will Righteousness’ crew do that? I don't know, but I think that that just starts happening. Afflictions like the Consecrated Lands… yeah, unless there's any other big picture stuff, we can start this final round.
We could continue going in order, which means, Brnine, you would be up. Or to prevent it from being the same order each time and people maybe not feeling like they are—and I'm not making any accusations here but, you know—it sucks sometimes to be like, I have to go first each time, and it's been Brnine, August, Cori each time, and there's always the chance that someone there is like, oh, I'm not ready for my final scene yet, you know?
Keith: If anyone's not ready, I'm ready to go. But I’m also fine if we go in order.
Austin: So that’s also another possibility, you know?
Jack: I would also push for a different order. I think that something that has been tough has been not having as broad a palette to respond to, [Dre: Mm.] by going earlier in the turn. I realize that does make it harder for people who are now going to have to go earlier in the turn, but yeah.
Austin: Yeah, I mostly just want to open it up and say, hey, does anybody—does anybody want to go first instead of it just going to our default order each time? And it sounded like, Leap, you have a thing.
[00:54:14]
Keith: I have a thing. I'm ready to go. I'm excited about it. I would like to dispossess the Whitestar fleet of their flagship.
Austin: Oh, that's fun! What is the acting Whitestar fleet flagship at this point? Is it still Lander One?
Jack: That's a good question. I would have to ask Art a bit about the circumstances in which Lucia was captured. Because if she was captured and they also took Lander One—aw, god, it could also just as easily be—it's not quite the flagship, but you could find Fire Support, which we know she's hidden.
Austin: Oh, sure. Fire support is the AI that Lucia uses, right?
Jack: Yeah.
Keith: Hmm!
Dre: Hmm.
Keith: That's not—neither of those are bad. I like both of those.
Jack: If we say Lander One has been captured, which might be the case? I mean, part of the fun of Clem capturing Lucia off screen, was the immense violence and success that that implied? So I sort of want to be like, oh, and Lander One is now under, you know, Cause control. There are shit tons of other Landers that I'm sure, one of them has been promoted to like—well, not promoted, I mean, the whole army's fallen apart—you know, this is the one that we are receiving scattered orders from or whatever.
Keith: Yeah. Well, okay. So I'll—I’ll color this a little bit with my—part of my move to master my obstacles has been specifically that the Whitestar fleet is stronger than anticipated? And so by mastering that and then capturing their thing, like, I kind of want to shift that stronger than anticipated from them to Millennium Break.That's like kind of my idea.
Jack: Mmm! Mhm. Yeah.
Keith: Which if Firestar—Firestarter?
Jack: Fire Support.
Keith: Sorry, Fire Support. Fire Support is—is that thing, if it's not that their fleet is bigger than we thought it was, or they have stronger ships than we thought they had, or they have more ships than we thought they had, but it's that they've got this Fire Support AI ship that is controlling things, and giving them edges where they shouldn't have edges.
Jack: I think Fire Support is actually dormant. [Keith: Okay.] I mean, you know, when we talked about Lucia hiding it—Fire Support is tiny, it's like a little stack of coins. The impression—which I know that's very compelling to Leap [Keith chuckles]—the image that I had was of her just like scrabbling in the dirt and burying it somewhere, [Keith: Okay.] as she was about to get captured. So I don't think Fire Support has been giving orders. The value of having Fire Support would be like finding a near lethal Kesh combat AI? But I think if you were going to try and break the fleet, then making the decision about whether or not Lucia's ship is still out there, and if not, another really interesting—
Austin: It’s not. We have said on screen that Lander One is gone.
Jack: Oh, okay, cool.
Austin: We—it was—it's a little complicated in that—in that Gucci is the one who ex—hm. There's two scenes, one of them is—they're in the same episode, and the thing that happens is, I say in episode 45 that I want to save the iconoclastic capture of Lander One for the finale, like I want to see it?
But then also me later that episode, while Gucci is talking to Brnine, Gucci is like, do you know about Lucia? We captured Lucia, Whitestar, Lander One? As if to say we captured Lander One. But maybe the operation just happened on Lander One?
It didn't actually get captured, so. Maybe I'm wrong. So we can have it if we want it.
Or it could have gotten free. [Keith: Right.] You know, it's easy to imagine. I mean, to me, that's the fun bit of—I know you just said Fire Support is buried in the dirt somewhere? But the idea of this AI freeing Lander One, or like it's still a threat is kind of fun also. And yeah, Fire Support just hasn't come up since—I don’t know, 15 episodes or something. You know, we didn't talk about Fire Support, I don't think, in the last few episodes.
Jack: No, we know that Lucia wasn't captured with it.
Austin: Right. That's the one thing we know.
Keith: Does anyone have like a leaning towards—? Either way, you know, it could be Lunar One or it could be like the next three Landers, I don't care, you know, it's not— [chuckles]
Austin: Yeah, it's whichever you want it to be, the thing that's the big deal, right? That's all.
Keith: Yeah, well, but the reminder about Fire Support [Austin: Yeah.] is like, well, that's a new big deal that I had just forgotten about that. That's not, I'm not like—I don't feel—that's the thing! I don't feel like one of these is worse than the other. [Austin: Right.] But—
Jack: Which are you more excited about stealing, as in like a cool scene?
Keith: Definitely like being at the helm of a huge ship, and like hoisting a flag. [chuckles]
Dre: There you go.
Keith: Hoisting Leap's pirate flag.
Austin: Then yeah, it's Lander One, right?
Keith: Yeah, yeah.
Jack: It's a ship shaped like a brick. It's huge.
Austin: It is, it is. So where is this happening?
Keith: It's a good shape for a ship that lands. [Dre: Hmm!] It's all bottom.
Austin: Is this—where is it? And what's this scene look like? And who's there? And your goal is to capture it, and—
Keith: They've got, they've got this area between Cinder Karst and Braunton, right? That's like kind of all they've got right now.
Austin: Or it's actually between—it's not actually between Cinder Karst—it's this, it's northwest of Steeple Catterick. Those are, those little things are like cut—those drawings are cut ins? They're actually at the dot—the dot of the line.
Keith: Oh yeah, but it's—oh wait, where's Braunton though?
Austin: That's in the middle of the Shale Belt, which is yours now, I guess? It’s a mess.
Keith: Oh, I see, sorry. I saw that Cinder Karst was outside, but I thought Braunton went the other way towards Steeple Catterick, no it goes away from—
Austin: No, yeah, they both go west.
Keith: Okay, so. Yeah.
Austin: It's this northwestern—it is. It is just that little bit. Yeah, they're all there or presumably in the sea or in space.
Keith: Yeah.
Jack: Not in space.
Austin: Not in space, you're right. You’re right.
Jack: We've seen Landers get obliterated by surface-to-air fire.
Austin: Yeah, so they have just this territory remaining, I guess.
Keith: That’s it—I would love to... I mean, wow, I feel so close to—
Austin: Doing the thing.
Keith: To taking every last cent of the Kesh fleet. I mean, they lose their ships, they lose this area. What else do they have? Nothing. Bank accounts empty.
[Jack chuckles]
Austin: Something that's gone missing in this—is this last other area here, the mid-Shale Belt, [Keith: Yeah, uh huh.] is technically Frontier Syndicate, and so is this area in the southwest. And we just haven't dealt with them because March got arrested, but we didn't like, [Keith: Right.] see anything on screen of Millennium Break taking the rest of the territory. We can assume that's been happening. I won't redraw the map quite yet, but yeah. I think this is one of the last little bits.
Keith: So—oh, do you think that's where a lot of the monarchists are?
Austin: Y-Yeah, I mean, they're there, and they were in Carleon-Upon-Wisk and Carmathen, which is now Afflicted Lands. [Keith: Sure.] I think those might be the ones who have fled most directly into the arms of August Righteousness? Not the ones who lived through the siege of Carleon-Upon-Wisk, but the ones who have been living in afflicted land territory, being like, oh my god, the Afflictions. [Keith chuckles]
Jack: And I have a horrible headache because I can't get the goo.
Keith: So, for this, this feels like—let's see.
Austin: I'm stressed about this.
Keith: You're stressed about this?
Austin: The dice just stressed me out. I know it's gonna go fine.
Keith: I think that I'm about to roll six dice, if that helps. And I think you're about to roll three, or maybe four.
Austin: I'm not rolling any dice.
[Sylvi muffles laughter]
Keith: The person who rolls the black dice—
Dre: I'm doing it!
Austin: Alright.
Sylvi: I love how gunshy you are now, Austin.
Austin: I’m—you know.
[Keith evil cackles]
Sylvi: No, I really respect it! I’d be—
Keith: It's important to have an enemy.
Sylvi: No, I would be in the same situation. I just really like it.
Janine: Can I really quickly add an “It's spookier?”
Keith: Yeah!
Janine: There’s something going on here—I don’t have a good—I don't have science for this, but there's something going on here, where there are these big patches of very soft soil. Or not soil, but like—it's like, you know, gravel, but it's like, soft, kind of churned gravel? As if it's recent or something, but it's not recent. But like when you step on it, it sort of sinks a little bit, like it's soft. And if you stand in one place too long and then walk away, these like little wormies come up.
Austin: Eugh!
Janine: And they like churn the gravel and like kind of fluff it? They're like fluffing it up again, because it's compacted.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: That’s weird. I don't think I like them. I think they're spooky.
Janine: Yeah, that's my job. Spookier.
Keith: So I think that Brnine makes sense for this. Levi makes sense for this. August Righteousness makes sense for this.
Jack: Yeah, absolutely. [Austin: Alright.] Yeah. I think, let's say that the operation took place on Lander One, but it wasn't captured?
Austin: Yeah. The previous one, the one around capturing Lucia, you mean.
Jack: Yeah, what happened was that they captured Lucia, and then they were going to send in a team to pump the hydraulics of Lander One with a kind of like, decaying fluid to ensure that it couldn't be flown. [Austin: Sure.] But that team, with their sort of like huge, almost like oil truck of this awful like, reverse-formaldehyde designed to destroy rather than preserve, was killed. And as soon as they could get their hands back on Lander One, they could get their hands back on Lander One's front guns, which meant that, you know, the “can we recapture this ship” became lower of an operation, because it's like it can't take off, otherwise we'll melt it in the sky. It's not shooting at us until we go near it. We've got Lucia Whitestar, let's not bother with this right now. But now, you know, Leap has been— [chuckles] as well as signing off on the orders, Leap is like, I'm going to take that fucking ship.
Keith: Yeah. Maybe Carmine Bight is here? Because I've lost them as a rival?
Jack: Oh yeah! although, are we near the ocean?
Austin: Not even a little bit, but that's very funny.
Keith: Oh sure.
Austin: It would be very funny to be like, we’ve gotta bring these pirates—yeah. Yeah yeah yeah.
Jack: God, they're all complaining, they're unsteady on their feet.
Austin: Maybe they like the wormy soil because it makes the ground move?
[Keith laughs]
Jack: Yeah, and they're like, oh, very comfortable here. God, where did Lander One come down? What is a fun staging for a gigantic, heavily armed ship crewed by hyper loyal remaining Kesh soldiers? God, what if it was brought down at the base of a quarry? And it’s like, this deep—
Keith: I had almost the same thought at the base of one of these early Steeple Catterick Mountains here. Had a similar idea.
Jack: Deep, deep pit that you have to descend, and you can see the ship at the bottom of this pit, you know?
Keith: Mhm.
Austin: And that's dangerous. That's scary.
Jack and Keith: Yeah.
Keith: There's worms going down the cliff too.
Jack: Oh! This fits really well with the worms too, right? The like, the worms—
Keith: The worms have eaten out this canyon. This canyon was not here.
Jack: Yeah, some byproduct of the quarrying efforts produced—you know, in the same way that deforestation makes the soil [Austin: Mmm.] [Keith: Worms.] much more susceptible to movement.
[Keith laughs]
Austin: The mining has made—yeah, yeah, it's fun. Alright. So who is there? It is, you just said, it's you, it's Brnine? It’s August Righteousness?
Keith: Yeah. If these people want to come, I'm into it. Yeah, Brnine, August Righteousness and—
Austin: And they are fielding, you know, all of the last remains of the Kesh military arm here, you know, or all the organized ones, right? Because there's a world where you succeed, but you don't get War and Conflict down to zero, [Keith: Right.] and that means maybe there are still a handful of remnants out there, you know? Maybe on some of these unmarked islands or whatever. But this is the last big organized—this is the central command.
So, let's get some dice. Start with three on the opposition, then, what are your...? You don't have any burdens?
[01:06:55]
Keith: I don't have any obstacles or burdens.
Austin: So it's just—and we don't have anything over two. So it's just three on the opposition side.
Keith: And then I've got two to start, one for my relevant relationship with Brnine, and three for my three mastered obstacles.
Austin: Because you've brought Carmine Bight, because—I don't know that the Most Wanted Man on Palisade helps you here.
Keith: No?
Austin: Unless I'm—I don't—
Keith: Well, the thing—so that was—I think that was feeding into like, being notorious?
Austin: Sure sure sure.
Keith: And I feel like staging a big, dramatic, notorious—like mission where I'm stealing—yeah.
Austin: Sure, that makes sense. Where they're like, oh my God, it's Exeter Leap!
Keith: This is the sort of stuff that made me the most Wanted Man on Palisade, which is now a mastered obstacle. You know what I mean?
Austin: Right, right. Yeah, I think the idea of it being like, they see your silhouette on the—on the horizon, they're like, oh my god, that's Leap! That's Leap's music! [Keith laughs] Is very funny.
Keith: And swelling Leap's music?
Austin: Uh huh. Alright. Dre, you want to roll the opposition dice?
Dre: Yeah. How many am I rolling?
Austin: The three that are up there in the little area.
Keith: Two sixes.
Austin: Oh my God. That was on—
Keith: YES!
Dre: Let's go.
Austin: Huge dubs.
Keith: HUGE!
Austin: The biggest dubs—well, it's interesting though, isn't it?
Sylvi: Oh my god.
Austin: Something that's interesting here, Keith, is—
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You’re gonna—no, because you're going to get fortune—you're going to get fortune for these sixes. This is a perfect roll.
Keith: Yeah! Yeah yeah yeah! It's a perfect roll! [Dre: Well-!] This is my exact plan working out a hundred percent like I hoped it would.
Austin: Except for one thing.
Dre: Except for one thing.
Austin: Except for uhhh, except for one thing.
Keith: Okay.
Sylvi: Uhhh, just one more thing.
Austin: Just one more thing. So, the opposition rolled five, three, one.
Keith: Right.
Austin: Keith rolled six, six. Two sixes.
Keith: Alright.
Sylvi: God.
Austin: Where are you—there it is. There it is.
Keith: I saw it. I saw the play. So instead of humiliation, misfortune to all players—
Sylvi: Damn.
Keith: I'm getting a new obstacle, which doesn't matter because the game is—
Austin: You're not getting a mis—You're going to get—you’re going to mark misfortune.
Keith: Oh, getting a misfortune. Right, one misfortune. Okay, so I get two misfortune, a resounding success, heal any trouble, and impact the map.
Jack: You get two—sorry, you mean two fortune.
Keith: Two fortune, one misfortune, right.
Austin: Yeah, two fortune, one misfortune. You can narrate your—So for the listener who did not follow what just happened, [Dre laughs] there was a chance, [Keith: Yeah.] one of the—If the opposition succeeds on a one, everybody gets misfortune. And so Keith has blocked that, beating that with a six, and instead, accepting a three, which all it does in this case, is give a misfortune because it's the final round. Which actually is going to speed up this round a little bit, which is great. What do your two successes look like? Presumably, you're marking fortune right now, right?
Keith: Yeah, sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah, sorry, because I would forget otherwise. [Austin: Yeah.] Two successes
Austin: Narrate each success.
Keith: Resounding success.
Austin: Again, two means the map changes, which obviously we're going to color in the rest of that map.
Keith: And resounding success is like—the book is like, it's even more of a success than you thought it was going to be.
Austin: Yes. Winning on a second six reduces the trouble severity by one. A spotlight player marks another fortune that narrates how the trouble is healed and how the map is impacted.
Keith: I have two pitches. I'm going to do the one that I like the most first, [Austin: Yes.] which is, they were in this canyon looking for Fire Support.
Austin: Oh, sure.
Keith: Fire Support is here, too. I got both of the things. We get Fire Support, and we get Lander One. And then the other thing—
Austin: Two sixes!
Keith: Two sixes. The other thing was just that there's more than Lander One here. There was the other Landers, and we take essentially, the remainder of the fleet. They just have no fleet left.
Austin: Sure.
Jack: I mean, I think it's the former, right?
Austin: The bigger win.
Keith: I really like that, yeah.
Austin: Which of the things do you decrease?
Keith: I want to decrease.
Austin: And what's it look like?
Keith: I think it's either Health and Spirit or Unrest and Revolution.
Austin: Not War and Conflict, despite it being the end of the Kesh?
Keith: Right. Well, there is—because we talked a little bit. You said a sentence about there's still a disorganized force out there.
Austin: Right. Sorry. That was me saying, if there was a one, that group—that was me anticipating that you would get rid of War and Conflict down to one, and thinking, oh, that's what that one would represent. The thing about this that's interesting would be if you don't reduce War and Conflict here, it suggests that you have not actually hurt Kesh's ability to do war.
Keith: That's a good point. That's my goal. I—so, what I like about Health and Spirit or Unrest and Revolution, [Austin: Yeah.] is this thing of people flocking to the winning team? [Austin: Mhm.] Of like, wow, they keep winning, and they suck so much less ass.
Dre: Damn.
Keith: The only reason to not support them was thinking that maybe they were going to lose, so maybe I should—maybe I should take a second look at what's going on over there.
Austin: I like both of those also, to be clear.
Keith: And then Health and Spirit, similar thing, but just like the doubt that we've talked about, people's hopelessness, and like how winning affects that? But, I think it's true that according to my goal, which is to cripple the—to—
Austin: To take every last cent from the Kesh fleet.
Keith: To take every last cent from the Kesh fleet.
Austin: That could also be Wealth and Resources, now that I think about it.
Keith: Right, also Wealth and Resources. But I've just got that—I've got that Kesh grudge still. And I really—yeah, let's reduce War and Conflict. Let's do that.
Austin: Okay, boom. War and Conflict down to one. I will redraw this—you've taken the last bit of Kesh's territory on the map at this point, which is—congrats. Congrats on that one.
Keith: Thank you. And I'm back up to three fortune!
Austin: You're back up to three fortune and two misfortune, right?
Keith: Three misfortune.
Austin: So you're evened out right now.
Keith: Evened out. But we're going into the end, that’ll change.
Austin: We are going into the end. [Dre: Mhm.] Is there any other color we want to give this assault? Or like what life looks like here afterwards? You know, we—and then also, I guess, following that, opposition, what does this one misfortune look like? We don't have to name it as a burden or anything like that, but is there, you know, does it hit in some way? Start with the positive, outcome-y stuff, I think, Keith. What’s the—besides—yeah go ahead.
Keith: I would like to see the effects and the knock-on effects of being in a long and intense war receding from these areas? [Austin: Mmm, mhm.] There is still obviously conflicts with different people in this area, but there's just something awful that being involved geographically in a war, it's happening in and near where you are, that ruins it [Austin: Yeah! Yeah.] in a lot of ways. And I think that we can see people starting to, like, people who have left this area coming back, people who like need—people who are getting ready to like, build new things here, people just like being able to go out and like, like, oh, I can like go out of my house today.
Austin: With no fear of there being any sort of big attack.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, this makes sense to me.
Keith: Mhm.
Austin: Cool. Misfortune wise—
Keith: And misfortune—
Austin: Yeah, it feels like it's—go ahead.
Keith: Leap's doing a lot of work. [Austin: Mmm.] Leap's like, Leap is not sailing the high seas with a crew of scallywags.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: The—I think it’s like, Leap comes here and wants to help the effort, and there's effort in effort.
Austin: There sure is.
Keith: And it’s like, shit. [Dre: Mhm.] God, I just wish it was over so that—
Austin: So it can be over.
Keith: I could, like, chill.
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Keith: Because being a pirate already wasn't easy, but it was at least, you know, there was no paperwork, there was no, you know, you go out doing pirating, and then you come home to a stack of papers. It’s like, fuck!
Austin: Right. Right.
Jack: I have to inventory this whole ship!
[Sylvi chuckles]
Austin: Damn. Alright.
Dre: I have to do a W-4 for all of my pirates!
[Keith chuckles]
Austin: Truly.
Keith: Can't I just hand you a stack of gold coins?
Jack: August Righteousness showed up and started pumping the hydraulic tubes of this ship full of acid. This is a perfectly good ship!
Austin: Can we just keep this ship? Why can't we just keep this ship? Perfect. Perfect. Alright.
Keith: But I do hoist my flag. I do get in there.
Jack: What is your flag?
Dre: Oh, yeah. Do we have a canon description of this?
Keith: No, no. So it is a flag that perfectly matches the red of Leap's coat.
Jack: Of your Tim Curry pirate coat?
Keith: Yeah, my Tim Curry coat. [Dre chuckles] And it's got—it’s got Leap’s face on it, but like drawn in sort of a—not in silhouette, but silhouetted, like you know, just sort of reversed—instead of the white on the black of a skull and crossbones, it's like a black on the red. And then it's got my two arms in the skull and crossbones X, but they're both giving thumbs up.
Austin: Mmm.
[Jack chuckles]
Dre: Nice.
Austin: Love it.
Sylvi: Real straight edge vibe with the arms thing,
Keith: Real what vibes?
Sylvi: Straight edge, making the X.
Keith: I don’t—I literally have never heard of that.
Dre: Wow.
Ali: [whispering] Wow.
Austin: What a—what a life.
Keith: I don't talk to—I don’t talk to straight edge people.
Ali: Oh, come on.
Dre: Wow!
Austin: Unbelievable.
Keith: Not on purpose—I just haven’t met them.
Austin: Wow!
Keith: I purposely avoid straight edge people. [Austin laughs] There's an old Run Button thing [Austin: Oh?] from only like five or six years ago of Kyle explaining to me what straight edge meant.
Austin: Right. Sure, yeah. What a life. I love it for you. It's great.
Dre: Man.
Austin: Cool. Alright. That's a scene. Scene down, scene done. Who's up? Who's got a feeling?
Janine: I can just say straight up, I'm not going to be able to do it today [chuckles].
Austin: Okay.
Sylvi: I don’t think I have a solid idea, yeah.
Janine: I need to think so bad.
Austin: Okay. Anybody else who's like, I don't got it?
[01:18:22]
Dre: I have an idea, but I don't think I like it.
Austin: You want to talk through it?
Dre: Umm. Yeah, Levi goes after Jesset.
Austin: Ooh, interesting.
Jack: Was that something you wanted to do, Ali?
Dre: Yeah, that's, that’s one of the big reasons why—
Austin: Oh, I actually thought it was something you wanted to do, Jack.
Jack: Oh, I was about to ask if Ali wanted to do it, so I think it's like this chain of— [chuckles]
Austin: Yeah yeah yeah.
Ali: Um, yeah, I mean, I... the idea I have for a scene is not greatly developed? It was basically going to be leaving, [Austin: Right.] and I was thinking of having Jesset be a part of that, but I think that's tougher when Jesset is being set up with Future in this way? So I don't want to, like, call dibs on that.
Austin: It actually sounds like maybe there are multiple characters who want to be part of a scene potentially with Jesset, or—
Ali: Sure, [Austin: Yeah yeah yeah.] so I wouldn't even be able to take him off the board in that way either, so...
Austin: No, no, no, that's not what I meant. That's not what I meant.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: I meant it the other way. I meant it sounds like maybe one person here could do a scene that is a scene of people talking to Jesset, so that it could open the door for your other scene, Ali. Or, [Ali: Oh, sure.] that you could do that scene as part of a going away scene that Levi, or August, or both could be part of, whatever—you know what I mean? I actually don't think that there's a closed door there necessarily. I don't want to be like, okay, no one can touch Jesset because everybody wants to touch Jesset. You know?
Dre: Sure. Yeah.
Jack: Yeah, it's in my interest as a mechanical player to let Levi go for Future.
Keith: Thought I was the mechanical player.
Jack: [chuckles] Because Levi is more capable of doing this than I am.
Austin: Right, sure.
Jack: I would need some time to think of an alternative scene. But I think that if we want Future, which I do, as a player, the person who it makes sense to do that mechanically is Dre. I—put it this way, I have more confidence in success if Levi [cross] is going after Future.
Austin: [cross] Is rolling the dice.
Dre: Mm.
Austin: That is because you have the obstacles mastered, Levi. Though you do have—
Dre: Yeah, I mean, I do have two burdens, and I guess I have a boon. But, yeah—
Austin: Yeah, but August has four obstacles and a burden.
Dre: [laughs] Fair. And I mean, I also—I'm way more when it comes to Jesset, I want to make sure we do right by Jesset and all of that entails.
Austin: Sure. Does this look like a scene that is Levi and Brnine and maybe August, but definitely Levi and Brnine going to confront Jesset?
Ali: I'm up for that if, uh, Dre [Dre: Yeah!] feels like signing off on it, but you know, brainstorm a little bit.
Dre: The initial thing that came to mind for me was that, is this a mission that Levi gets assigned from the Cause and the Cause does not tell Brnine about it?
Jack: No. [Dre: Okay.] Um, no. They—they are stretched thin, but they are—or rather, some of the people at the helm are emotionally intelligent enough to say, this is maybe something that Captain Brnine will want to know about.
Dre: Yeah.
Jack: I don't—put it this way. I don't think August Righteousness sees the way that they know that Brnine feels about Jesset as an impediment to this mission.
Dre: Gotcha.
Austin: That makes sense.
Ali: Yeah, I don't know who, when we say leadership, who is even [Austin: Yeah.] [Dre: Yeah yeah, fair.] who did or invested in that way. I mean, like, I'm sure they could be like, you know, Jesset is a flight risk and that's a problem. [Austin: Mhm.] And Brnine has been a flight risk and that's a problem. But I don't know, like, I couldn't say any of these NPCs would feel strongly about it?
Dre: Right. They're not only able to say Jesset is Jason Bourne and we've got a—
Ali: Mmm!
Austin: Now Jesset's Jason Bourne? Jesus. [Dre: Well—] Jason Bourne allegations flinging all over the place these days.
Dre: Yeah, I thought Brnine was Tom Cruise.
Austin: Ohhh, right I guess—right—
Sylvi: I'm sorry, and which one's Bobby with that tool?
[Ali and Dre giggle]
Austin: Bobby with that tool is Leap. We just saw actually.
Sylvi: Okay.
Austin: Alright. Yeah. So then this is the two of you being sent to go do this. You know, it's like hunting down Batman.
Jack: Yeah. And in fact, I know where.
Austin: Oooh, okay.
Jack: I want to go back into the Diadem.
Austin: Ohh, sure.
Jack: I want images of a descent into the Diadem. And I don't, you know, you can—the two of you can come in wherever you want in terms of like, as long a runway as you might like? But I keep having the image of like, a roller rink..? Or like some—or like a bowling alley?
Dre: Okay!
Austin: Yeah, yeah yeah yeah,
Jack: You know, so much of the imagery of the Diadem for me is this like, faded pseudo architectural—like pseudo utopian architectural project? And I love the idea of going deep in there and finding Jesset has gone to ground in like—
Austin: No, that's not what it is. Jesset’s not gone to ground. Jesset's on the mission.
Jack: Jesset is on—right, it’s killing Batman.
Austin: Jesset is specifically hunting down— [typing sounds] what is her name? Oh my god, why am I blanking? Is it—uhhh—Maidstone, Maidstone Cross.
Jack: Maidstone Cross.
Austin: Yeah, the leader of Lock and Cross security, which is Exanceaster March's like security service, chief security service? Though I'm trying to remember, which one is the one who died. That was Lock. Lock died. Cross is the one who I believe is still alive. I believe. Hmm. Am I wrong?
Jack: Oh, um...
Austin: Yeah, she's the one who lived. She's the one who lived. Cross is the one that's alive. Lock is the one who died in like episode three, I think. Yes. Yeah, so Cross is like, you know, I think that Jesset is hunting down Maidstone Cross in the Diadem in—I love bowling alley. Bowling alley with attached arcade, you know, abandoned, dusty, ancient. And he's not like, you know, is—basically set up almost like a sting operation. You know what I mean on a sting, but like he's set up doing surveillance. What's the word for that?
Jack: Oh, a stakeout.
Austin: Is on a stakeout, like waiting for his target to arrive. There are a bunch of other Cross—Lock and Cross like soldiers in the, you know, across the way in the bowling alley, you know? It's a bowling alley in a giant mall, right? And I think we, we—Jesset’s like up on a cross beam or something? You know that scene from Mass Effect 3, [Dre: Uh huh.] where Garrus is up on the beam doing, doing like—like shooting, like shooting at—what is he shooting at in that scene? Where they have that?
Ali: It's like bottles, right? It's bottles.
Dre: Yeah!
Austin: And looking down through binoculars at this, the entryway to this—to this bowling alley, you know? Or maybe looking down through like the hole in the roof of this bowling alley that's—that's inside of this giant outdoor mall, you know? So that's where Jesset is. Prepping to kill a bunch of people, you know? How's the scene begin, Dre?
Dre: Oh, God. I guess, is this Levi's scene, this isn't Brnine's scene?
Austin: This is Levi's scene. But Brnine is there.
Dre: Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess explicitly we should establish what is the objective here.
Austin: What is your goal?
Dre: I mean, I think that is a different—that is an easier question for me to answer. I mean, Levi's goal would be to—whatever it means—but to save Jesset.
Austin: I see. You're saying what is the Cause's objective?
Dre: Yeah. What is like the like, objective for this mission? Yeah.
Austin: August?
Jack: Oh, recover the Divine Future. And, [sighing] let's say capture Jesset City. I'm worried about Motion, or rather August is worried about Motion. This is—you are to avoid death or execution at all costs. The primary objective is the capture of the Divine Future.
Dre: Mhm.
Austin: Jesset is fully in like a cool Motion exosuit at this point, you know?
Jack: I have a question, Austin, about Motion. A lot of Motion’s appearance in Palisade [Austin: Mhm.] was tied to the Black Century, which if the listener is unfamiliar, was this kind of—ahh let's not mince words! They were a sort of zombie legion commanded by Motion, you know, people who had like salmon swimming upstream, you know, being compelled to fight and walk for so long that their bodies had begun to fall apart. And in this season, Motion sort of freed from the Black Century has a lot more sort of like animus and verve and like awful restless leg energy?
Austin: I don't think those are the same thing.
Jack: Oh, I suppose my question is, aesthetically, in Jesset, is there any sort of holdover of the decay and rot of the Black Century?
Austin: Mm. So the decay and rot of the Black Century was tied to the fact that those specific people had either been in service for so long or had literally died and been reanimated, right? [Jack: Yeah.] Motion is a sort of necromancer, right? It is a kind of a lich in some ways, right? And importantly, Motion also had a young and powerful pilot once, who had a lot of vivacity and a lot of like, youthful power. And that was her second pilot, which was Cass, right? It was not Cas—Cas’alear Rizah. It was—what was our alt-Cassander called last year in PARTIZAN? Oh, boy, I'm blanking on my own…
Jack: My brain is like, Laurel.
Austin: It’s—Laurel was the—was the Elect name. Yes, correct, Laurel was their Elect name.
Dre: Mm.
Austin: And I believe Laurel was described as looking like Cassander. [Jack: Yeah yeah!] But not like weak and tired. Like, you know, attentive—like I used Cass's adjectives from, from…
Jack: From COUNTER/Weight.
Austin: From COUNTER/Weight, from Tech Noir. It was intuitive, attentive, and authoritative, and did have that look. So that has not set in on Jesset yet, right? Jesset does not have the decaying look that Motion’s initial Elect did. Motion’s initial Elect, of course, named… Brrr…
Dre: Brnine?
Austin: No, it was not Brnine. It was not. Was it Gallica? I think it was—no, Gallica's Present.
Jack: No, Gallica is—yeah, Rye.
Austin: It's fine. It's totally fine that I don't remember our own shit from five years ago.
Jack: Give him 250 years—
Austin: [cross] Right. That is exactly—
Jack: [cross] —and no intervention. He'll start looking bad.
Austin: That is exactly the thing. Hyacinth. It was Hyacinth. Hyacinth was—And, you know, Hyacinth was—they were 100 years old.
Jack: Yeah, Hyacinth was the one that we got the full sort of like Indiana Jones, Holy Grail, like—
Austin: Decrepit.
Jack: Decrepit.
Austin: Ash body, yes, yes. And I think some of the Motion stuff this season still has that zombie effect, specifically around the way March was using Motion to try to hollow out Divine or Delegate minds. That's a very similar sort of zombie creation situation, right? As far as you can tell, that has not happened yet to Jesset. That is the road Jesset is walking, you know? So, so yeah. Looking down here, I'm letting y'all get the drop on Jesset, you know? I think that that's fair. I think that that's Future, I think, somehow integrated into this black exosuit, you know? All black with this golden heart that is Future. Maybe if you like call out to Jesset, you know, he'll turn and you can see it.
Dre: Yeah. I mean, I guess that's… in character, Levi would ask Brnine like,
Dre (as Levi): [whispering] Okay, what's the play? Can we—can we talk to him?
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah. Yeah, I think… I think Jesset could see reason.
Dre (as Levi): Okay. Do you want to? Because you guys go like back, right?
Ali (as Brnine): I've… I’ve known Jesset for a couple years.
Dre (as Levi): Okay, so maybe you… you should say hi?
Ali: Say hi. [chuckles]
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, okay, I got this, yup. Just, um, yup, watch my back, I guess. No, I mean, it’s fine. But.
Dre (as Levi): Yeah, do you want me—I'll go with you, I wasn't gonna…
Ali (as Brnine): [raised voice] Hey, City!
Austin (as Jesset): Shh!
Austin: Stands up.
Austin (as Jesset): You're going to get me caught.
Ali (as Brnine): We need to talk to you for a minute.
Austin: The mask part of this exosuit pulls back to reveal his face. He looks tired. And he like, stomps over to you. Real tantrum mode.
Austin (as Jesset): [low, restrained] Are they pulling me back in, Captain? I feel like I'm finally getting work done, out here.
Ali (as Brnine): We, um. You know we can't keep letting this go on. We—
Austin (as Jesset): Isn't this just what the prized hero here did in City City? I thought we were all fans of lone wolves here.
Ali (as Brnine): We need to bring Future in and bring it to justice.
Austin (as Jesset): I thought we were letting useful things be useful for us. I'm just confused lately about what our goals are, and what means are too far and which ones are par for the course. Maybe that's just me.
Dre (as Levi): Nah.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, I mean, it’s—it sucks.
Austin (as Jesset): [pained] It's going to keep getting worse. And we're going to just sit back and say we did a good enough job.
Ali (as Brnine): You— [hesitates] you can still be someone who can—who can tide the ship, you know? You had a squad that depended on you, and you had people who would listen to you. And that thing killed Figure. And I need it back.
Austin (as Jesset): Are you talking about me or you?
Ali (as Brnine): I—I was talking about Future.
Austin (as Jesset): Oh, I just mean... this thing didn't kill Future—
Austin: Sorry.
Austin (as Jesset): This thing didn't kill Figure. Clementine killed Figure.
Dre (as Levi): [whispering] That's not what I read in the mission report.
Ali (as Brnine): [whispering back] Technically he's right, but it's a long story.
Austin (as Jesset): Clementine killed Figure, then brought them back in service, and then brought them back again… [frustrated] and I lost track of it somewhere in there. Future did the final thing, but Figure was cursed by Clementine, who we're now working side by side with, and it's a long, repeated story. I understand the Apokine is with us again, also. I don't expect perfection from the Cause leadership. I know that we have a unique perspective on all of this, Brnine, you and me. We remember what things were like on Partizan. We were on Fort Icebreaker. We lost Valence. We lost Gur. We lost Sovereign Immunity. We lost more people than there are people to count.
Dre (as Levi): Yeah, man, and now people are going to say that about you! People are going to be sad that they lost you! ‘Cause that's how it ends.
Austin (as Jesset): No. I've seen the future. And no one is going to be sad about me.
Ali (as Brnine): That thing lies to you.
Austin (as Jesset): You won't even say the names of the people we lose.
Ali (as Brnine): It’s been five years. And… I’ve spent my time feeling bad about it. [holding back tears] I think if Valence saw me now, part of them would be proud of me, and I’m happy enough with that.
Austin (as Jesset): This is what you're signing up for.
Austin: He says to Levi.
Austin (as Jesset): It's this. It's tears forever. [voice breaking, getting hoarse] You don't get to win. You just have to keep trying and losing people. You just have to see it go bad over and over and over again. It gets close. You get close. Over and over again. And then they take it from you. You compromise. You… you mess up. It's… it’s a vow. It's a vow to fail. That's what it means. Are you really ready to follow people like us to do this?
Dre (as Levi): I don't know! I'm not… thinking about that, and maybe I should, and maybe that's gonna be my problem to deal with later. Right now, I'm thinking about someone that I've heard a lot of really good stuff about is trying to throw their life away.
[01:37:30]
Austin: Roll the dice. We got one, two, three for the opposition, plus—I don't think “Aggressive Squaddies” is coming in here.
Dre: No.
[Someone snorts, Ali and Jack chuckle]
Austin: You didn’t bring anyone here with you. I vaguely think “Mistrust from Cause Leadership” does in the sense that that mistrust makes this a harder case for you to make in your own head, you know what I mean?
Dre: Mhm.
Austin: But, hey, you convinced Wakeful to help. You're not going to convince this fucking guy? Come on.
[Ali laughs]
Dre: I mean, it's not just Jesset, right? It's Future.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally, totally. That's true. But my point being that you can have confidence that, you know, sturdies you a little bit here. [Dre: Okay.] That boon should count, right? So that's—how many dice is that? That’s—
Dre: …five, because it's two to start, right? Or is it one to start? Two to start, the two mastered obstacles and the boon.
Austin: Yeah, yeah. Both of these obstacles, death is a constant real threat, true. Other people are already the hero; that's kind of what you're talking about already, so that counts. No, no other obstacles, no other burdens—or I guess again, I think “Aggressive Squaddies” is not firing here.
Dre: No, yeah.
Austin: And no—what's the other thing that you can get negatives from? No—no… that's it. No troubles at three. That's the other one. Alright.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: I am going to roll these dice.
[Ali and Jack chuckle]
Dre: Hell yeah!
Austin: Five, five, four. Whoo!
Dre: Six, five, three.
Ali: Oh!
Austin: So you get the place of six and a five. As a reminder, because it is the final round, [Dre: Mhm.] winning on a three, four, five will give you a fortune. Losing on a three, four, five will give you a misfortune.
Dre: Gotcha.
Austin: I mean, obviously, looking at it now, it looks like any win is a fortune then, because a one is fortune to all players, a two is swap misfortune to fortune, a three four—a six is mark fortune, right? So yes, basically any win will get you a fortune here. [Dre: Yeah.] And likewise, any loss will give you a misfortune. I guess that's actually the way that this works mechanically.
Dre: Mhm. Hm. Hmm hmm hmm hm!
Austin: It basically—yeah, I guess your choice here is, do you take one fortune and one—
Keith: Yeah, it doesn't make sense to take a—to like, not take the burden in order to stop yourself, because—
Dre: Well, here's what I'm thinking. Do I flee here?
Austin: Oh!
Dre: Which makes me ignore all losses from one to five. Because I'm going to be taking a misfortune anyway?
Keith: The other way—if you put your five on the four, then you get two fortune and one misfortune, which is better than one to one.
Austin: Right. Then it's two to one.
Dre: Okay, hold on.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dre: So last turn, it is every loss is a misfortune and a win is a fortune? For specific numbers, right?
Austin: That is basically the way it works. It is specific numbers, but look at what—what it says is that on a three, four or five, you take fortune on a success. Or on a loss, you take misfortune. But one is always going to give you a fortune—a win on one gives you a fortune because it gives everybody a fortune, because it's so hard to win on a one.
Dre: And a win on a two does too.
Austin: And a win on a two also would give you a fortune or cost you a fortune if it was a win or a loss. [Dre: Yeah.] So basically everything in the final round is going to give you a fortune or a misfortune depending on whether it's a success or a failure.
Keith: Mhm.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: So, yes, it looks like getting two wins and one loss here is the best you can do.
Dre: Right.
Austin: Because you could, yes, you could—
Dre: Well, I could get two wins and zero losses and I would still take a misfortune from using flee.
Keith: Right, but it ends up being the same.
Dre: Well, the difference is that flee is my favorite, so I get to roll another die, right?
Austin: Oh, so you could potentially get a six.
Keith: Oh—that's actually, that’s great, that’s very—
Austin: That's a choice, yeah. But you would be fleeing.
Keith: There’s no downside!
Austin: But you would be fleeing.
Dre: Well, yeah, I'm fleeing with a six success.
Keith: Fleeing with Future.
Austin: Yeah, you would succeed, but it's fun because it means we have to decide what you're fleeing.
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: Right.
Austin: Right?
Jack: Yes, fleeing is not the same as leaving. In terms of affect.
Austin: Correct.
Dre: Mmm.
Austin: Yes.
Dre: Yeah.
Ali: Can you—can you still say that you succeeded on the scene if you flee?
Austin: You can. [Dre: Yeah yeah yeah!] It says escape in body or spirit, but we'd have to decide what you're fleeing, and I think it's—I think it’s Motion.
Keith: What does escape in spirit mean?
Austin: Well, you like dissociate, you know? You know when you're in the middle of a thing that you hate and you're like, mmmmmm… [Dre wheezes], ahhh mmmmm…
Jack: Yeah, what just happened?
Dre: Oh, it's been 30 minutes!
Jack: What’s he say in—what does Thom Yorke say? I'm not here, this isn't happening, etc.?
Austin: Yeah yeah yeah.
Jack: So that is an option.
Keith: Thom Yorke says that? It's like all the time?
Jack: Famously, yes.
Austin: Basically all the time.
Dre: Alright, I'm going to do it.
Austin: Alright, roll an extra die.
Dre: Aww.
Austin: You only got a three and a one.
Dre: It's a three. That's okay. It was worth a shot, okay.
Austin: It’s a fun—yeah. So you're going to take two fortune and one misfortune.
Dre: Mhm.
Austin: Interestingly, you're not taking any losses.
Dre: No.
Austin: Right? [Keith: Right.] It's just the misfortune that you're taking, which is funny, narratively. I think Jesset steps out of the exosuit with Future, you know?
Austin: And, like, I think he's in tears. And I'm sorry, Brnine, but is running to you for, like, a hug? You know?
[Ali snorts]
Dre: Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: That's all—that's, yeah, sure.
Austin: Just a hug, just a deep—
Ali: Come here, bro.
Austin: —head down in the shoulder, you know what I mean? Like,
Ali: Bro to bro, yeah.
Austin: Bro to bro, bro-ed up hugs. Yeah.
Sylvi: Yeah, uh huh.
Austin: Just a pair of bros.
Dre: Just two bros!
Austin: Two bros hugging it out.
Dre: That's it!
Austin: And is apo—is like,
Austin (as Jesset): I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't believe I fucked up.
Ali: I can give my bro a little kiss on the forehead.
Austin: Yeah, just a little forehead kiss.
Dre: Yeah!
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvi: Let's fucking go!
Ali: [chuckling] That's what bros do.
Austin: That's what bros do, yeah, uh huh.
Sylvi: Kiss the homies goodnight!
Keith: Yeah, I've seen those lads that hit each other. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh huh, yeah.
Sylvi: Jesset! Look out for the chair!
Austin: And speaking of look out for the chair, the exosuit closes, and its eyes line up.
Dre: Aww man.
Austin: You know, it's not the full-sized body of Motion that we know and love. But the bitch is back.
Dre: Damn.
Jack: I mean, we're not soundtracking this scene because of the way it's being paced, but you know, the sound appears.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: You, the listener, heard it, [Ali chuckles] even though it didn't actually appear in the MP3 file.
Austin: If you need me to do like a minute-long version of that.
Keith: With the sound usually in the Elton John song.
Jack: Just a single—god, no, this sound decays in a really weird way. It doesn't sound good. I've tried it.
Austin: Yeah, yeah. Alright. You've got to get the fuck out of here.
Jack: Oh my god, [Dre: Yeah.] this is Michael Myers sitting back up at the end of Halloween. [Austin: Yeah!] Behind Laurie.
Austin: And it's what I said last time, right? Like, there's lots of types of factories. The human body is kind of a remarkable one. You know?
Jack: Oh my god.
Austin: And yeah. God, what does she do? Oh, I mean, I think that she—she notices you, Broun.
Ali: [chuckling] Who?
Austin: That's the name she uses for you. She says,
Austin (as Motion): [low, restrained voice, sinister] Oh, Kal’mera Broun in the flesh. Languid and disloyal and unambitious as ever. You know, I haven't been able to act, but I have been able to see. I've been able to see so much, nearly everything. Every quiet moment, every little argument. Tell me, why have you given up your name?
Ali (as Brnine): It doesn't matter. You don't know as much as you think.
Austin: I think that she kind of like, she closes the distance, but not by moving through like footsteps? She like—it's not quite a gaseous form? It's like a—you know, she becomes Kalmeria, right? She becomes the Perennial Wave. She becomes the Motion Particle. She is the little tiny, you know, beyond nanomachine-sized, like essence of the galaxy that slides forward, maybe around you, you know, temporarily blocking your exit.
And she says,
Austin (as Motion): My essence powers this war. It is me that's in the air, but they named it after you. And you shirked that responsibility. You hid from it. You could have had everything.
Ali: Man. [giggles]
Austin: You know, it's like—you know, I don't know. Motion has always been a little bit of a weird haunting, like literal ghostly zombie character. And I do kind of feel like I hadn't thought about it until this moment, but she's haunted the season in the fact that she is part of the thing that has advanced all this technology, but that has the name you used to use. I don't think she's happy about that.
Ali: [laughs] Well, get used to it, sister.
Austin: Yeah, I mean, I think she continues to just do her big monologue thing, because that's who she is. And she's like, you know, moving closer, maybe even like in this moment, now that she has sort of physical corporeal form, she's like focusing, and you can see parts of—you know, she used to do the thing where she would like summon a big spear out of the Perennial Wave? And now that the whole thing is more advanced and that she's like weaved through it, she begins to like, summon like, duplicates of herself, like, you know, hovering all around you.
And all of them kind of speak at once. And she says, because it's all still her, she doesn't give up that sense of control, their individuality, that is how she is. She is like,
Austin (as Motion): The Pact needs me. The Principality needs me. And unlike you, I know that to be needed is to be powerful. And I won't spur on such power. Run along now. Give me a good chase.
Austin: And then she sends a signal to the nearby Maidstone Cross facility. And she is just like.
Austin (as Motion): This is the Divine Motion. I am taking control of this operation. There are three targets. Pursue them. Bring them back to me.
Austin: And she like, collapses all of the kind of clones of her back into herself, and like hovers up above to watch as—because you got the flee, the flee was successful. Or you used flee, and you got a success, so, you know, she's not going to kill you here, but she has in the past let people run so she can chase them in PARTIZAN. She did this. So it happens again here, you know? Wants to stretch her legs a little.
Ali: Sure. Yeah. Be your own exoskeleton.
Austin: Uh huh.
Dre: [laughs] Damn.
Austin: And y'all flee presumably?
Dre: Mhm.
Austin: Because that's what you chose. Alright. What's the fleeing—? You know. I guess you can flee real good because you have that thing that lets you jump cool. And this is just like a running chase out of the Diadem, like trying to get back to the ship or whatever, and get evacuated before Motion tears you all apart.
[music intro - “See All Of This” by Jack de Quidt begins]
[music ends]