COUNTER/Weight 06: Here’s Your Bribe Tip
Transcriber: Taquelli
AUSTIN: Can everybody talk for me for a second?
(simultaneously)
ALI: Hello. Hi.
KEITH: Hi, what's going on?
JACK: Hey, it's good.
AUSTIN: Art, say some stuff.
ART: Hey, what's up?
AUSTIN: Okay good. I was just, I was like past a threshold, where everyone sounded, like, nice and crisp and loud, and Art, because everyone else was at nice and crisp and loud, sounded like a monster.
(simultaneously)
ART: (Makes a monster noise)
AUSTIN: The way a monster would.
JACK: You know, a Skype monster.
AUSTIN: Like a Skype monster, a good old-fashioned...
KEITH: Art's like a good monster, like Grover.
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: That's...yeah...
ART: I can't do that voice though, but this would be a great time to do my Grover impression.
AUSTIN: You can't do a Grover?
ART: He's basically just Yoda, right? Like...
KEITH: It's basically just Yoda.
AUSTIN: It's BASICALLY Yoda, you're not wrong.
ART (in Yoda voice): Um, Grover.
(Austin and Keith laugh)
AUSTIN: That's good!
KEITH: That's not bad.
AUSTIN: That's solid.
KEITH: Grover doesn't say his name very often, I don't think.
AUSTIN: Grover! Grover. He's definitely a Pokemon.
KEITH (in deep voice): Grover.
ART: He's doesn't usually refer to himself in the third person, I'm getting my Muppets fucked up.
[‘The Long Way Around’ Starts]
AUSTIN (as Narrator): The flash and fury of gunshots, leaving high-pitched, ringing noises, muting the rest of the world. We see the length of a Golden War-era revolver and the camera pivots to the side to reveal Orth Godlove, broad, dark-faced, gray stubble and even grayer suit, buttonless fit snugly around his old muscle. As he holds the weapon outwards, smoke drifting from the barrel, the world comes into focus around him. Lights blaring and digital bells and beeps ringing, electronic Keno machines begging absentee gamblers to come and try their chances, but where tourists might sit instead are crates, wooden and metal and plastine, and each of them marked clearly, “Emergency Food Supply.”
“Chime!” Orth yells into his comm unit, “Chime, come in!” But there is no signal. Outside, an engine roars.
[‘The Long Way Around’ Finishes]
AUSTIN: Welcome to Friends at the Table, an actual-play podcast focused on critical world building, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends. We are as always presented by streamfriends.tv and runbutton.net. I am Austin Walker, your GM, we’re continuing our game of MechNoir, a game by Jeremy Keller.
(a light breeze is heard)
AUSTIN: This is our first game after THE WIND IS BLOWING EVERYTHING ON MY DESK AROUND I’M SO SORRY. Okay.
KEITH: Your new apartment’s has wind in it?
AUSTIN: Yeah, I got, I got wind in my apartment. Uh…situated between...
KEITH: That’s...I mean, you see, New York is expensive, but it’s fancy.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I got, I got wind in places.
KEITH: Um hm.
AUSTIN: Uh, this is our first game since our, since the faction game, which we did with Sylvia and Andrew last week, and that’s went really well, and we’re going to see the first, like, ripples of that here today. Ripples that the players in this game don’t understand, necessarily.
ALI: Uh oh.
AUSTIN: Which is interesting, which is, that’s interesting.
JACK: We haven’t found this out yet.
AUSTIN: Hm...so…
KEITH: Yes, it was all part of my plan that I haven’t heard that episode yet.
(Ali laughs)
AUSTIN: Yes, joining us, joining us today, Keith.
KEITH: Yes hi. My name’s Keith, you can find the Let’s Plays that I do at youtube.com/runbutton, you can follow me on Twitter at keithjcarberry.
AUSTIN: Ali?
ALI: You can follow me on Twitter at ali_west.
AUSTIN: Jack?
JACK: You can follow me on Twitter at notquitereal.
AUSTIN: And Art.
ART: You can follow me on Twitter at atebbel, and just don’t click on any links to YouTube you see on that Twitter.
AUSTIN: Wha, is there bad stuff? What?
ART: Don’t worry about it, don’t worry, just don’t worry about it.
AUSTIN: I’m nervous.
KEITH: I’m nervous, do we, is our friend Art like a weirdo now?
AUSTIN: Yeah, did Art, should we go to his, did he? No one. Um. I’m Austin Walker, you can find me on austin_walker on Twitter and at giantbomb.com.
AUSTIN: So then when we last played, things were kind of left in a situation right?
ALI: (non-committal noises)
(simultaneously)
KEITH: I feel like...
ART: We’re starting a, we’re starting a company, right?
AUSTIN, ALI, and KEITH: Yeah.
JACK: It’s a different game now.
AUSTIN: Mako, Mako had….been in the hospital, and had signed his life away, to buy some robots.
KEITH: It wasn’t necessarily that I signed my life away, it’s that I...had a one bad roll...and that’s it.
AUSTIN: Okay
ALI: He made a good business investment.
AUSTIN: Ah, I see.
KEITH: That’s right, I have acumen. I don’t know if you’ve heard about it but I have acumen.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: That’s a sort of herb.
KEITH: Yeah, that, yeah, and I eat this herb, and it makes me good at business.
AUSTIN: So, I think we were, what else is happening? So, Cassander, you managed just barely to save the life of Cene Sixheart, who had been kidnapped by Snowtrak. Or, by the Weightless and given to Snowtrak. You’re not really sure what was that about, still, other than Cene Sixheart had seen some, seen some shit.
ART: (non-committal noises)
AUSTIN: Anything else big that we’re forgetting about here?
KEITH: Oh, I got the Ring of Saturn.
ALI: (affirmative noise)
AUSTIN: Right, you did get the Ring of Saturn, your tech deck.
KEITH: I got my tech deck.
JACK: Didn’t we hear a piece of information from somebody, I can’t remember who, about the reason that Snowtrak might have, uh, heavy inverted commas around this word, employed Cene.
AUSTIN: You knew they were digging something up in Ionias, that thing where they..
KEITH: Yeah, they found something, and they said, “We got to find a dude that knows what’s up with this.”
JACK: I recall that it was described as something alive, but alive in a different way?
ALI: In the ice, right?
AUSTIN: Yes, yes, and it was off on a different planet, you know.
JACK: Who did hear this from?
AUSTIN: I think from Cene, from Cene themselves, like, when Cene was vaguely conscious.
JACK: More conscious.
AUSTIN: Yeah, Cene was...
JACK: Because they were in bad shape.
AUSTIN: They were not in good shape, it was rough. So. At this point, I think it’s been, it’s probably been about a month, since that happened. There’s going to be a lot of time moving in this game, because of the way the faction game kind of functions, right, the faction game happens at a wider time scale than everything else, so all this other stuff has been happening behind the scenes. And, I think for y’all, it’s just kind of been, likes day in day out. Supplies are running, weird. I guess, Mako and Aria tell me about what you’re doing about those robots?
(Laughter)
KEITH: Um, we’re, Aria’s teaching them dances.
AUSTIN: This isn’t...Aria can tell me what she’s doing.
(Ali laughs)
KEITH: I told, I asked Aria if she could teach them dances so we could sell them back to Joypark World. Really good dances.
AUSTIN: That’s a good angle, but also…that’s um.
ALI: We should be selling them, right? Like that’s what we would say.
AUSTIN: That’s a plan...I mean.
KEITH: We can keep as many of them as we want to keep, but we don’t need to keep anywhere near all of them.
AUSTIN: We didn’t…
JACK: How many do you have?
KEITH: I listen...I listened back while I was editing it and I can’t remember what I wrote down.
(various laughter)
KEITH: I believe, it was not as many, it was not as many as we implied it was later on in the episode.
AUSTIN: It’s tot...
ALI: It’s like…
KEITH: The total was something like eight, or like twelve
ALI: Yeah
AUSTIN: Yeah, but some of them are, some of them are super expensive.
KEITH: Some of them were gigantic.
AUSTIN: Yeah so.
KEITH: Two of the gigantic ones.
AUSTIN: Two of the gigantic ones, a handful of the smaller ones, and then like the Ring of the Saturn, and I think a, a few other little drone-y type things. Which is still again like, remember how we kinda set up this world, that is still like a lot. You know, like?
KEITH: It’s a lot, no you’re right it’s a lot, but later on the episode we were saying like 30 mechs, and that was not...
AUSTIN: Yes, yes, that was for comedic effect.
KEITH: Yes
AUSTIN: Comedic, okay.
KEITH: Well it was for comedic effect but than I had just bought into it I guess. Well I guess we just bought 30 mechs.
(laughter)
AUSTIN: Let’s, let’s say it’s ten, for ease, let’s say it’s two of the big ones.
KEITH: Okay, two Saturns.
AUSTIN: Two, it’s two, is that what they are called, Saturns? I have the list somewhere.
KEITH: I believe, I believe because the Ring of Saturn is…
AUSTIN: No! Yeah, no, that’s not right though, actually, because the Ring of Saturn is just called that because I needed another planet name.
KEITH: Okay, I thought it was the Ring of Saturn because they fly around the Saturn.
AUSTIN: No, I think that thing is the…
KEITH: Jupiter, because that’s the big one.
AUSTIN: Oh yeah, you’re right, you’re right, You’re Right. I didn’t to do that thing. I didn’t mean to make it the Ring of Saturn because they fly around the Saturns.
KEITH: Oh you didn’t, because I thought you did that intentionally, because it was really cool.
AUSTIN: Nah, sometimes my mind just does things that are kinda cool but I don’t…
KEITH: Yeah! Yeah.
AUSTIN: So the Saturns are, the, two of the Saturns are these big quad leg like, almost like spider-like mechs, that are gigantic, that can house other small mechs on it.
KEITH: And they have dickheads just riding around them in circles.
AUSTIN: Yep, yep! Just complete jerks.
KEITH: (laughing) Which you described as a luxury item. Like they don’t do anything.
AUSTIN: Yo that’s right the managers flying them around. In fact, in fact, for people who listened last week, uh, I definitely imagine, uh, what were their names, one second. Why have I not written them down over on this page? Why haven’t I, okay. I definitely imagine Oran and Lena and Natalia all riding those things around on Ionias. That’s a shoutout to listeners, cause y’all haven’t heard the episode where those characters exist yet. Alright…
(simultaneously)
JACK: For once, the listeners have one up on us.
ART: Austin, can I make a request?
AUSTIN: Sure.
ART: In the future when you’re describing these mechs, can you only describe them in terms of Armored Core parts?
(Jack laughs)
AUSTIN: Uh, well, I told you like, I actually have that for at least, for at least some of the first group that you fought against. Like, I linked you to a picture from Armored Core, just to say, oh, when I described this character, this, like, mech’s head is like, I mean like, exactly this one. Also, I have my PS3 again, which means I can actually play Armored Core games again, which is very exciting.
JACK: Niceeee.
AUSTIN: Okay, it’s been fifteen minutes, we should, we should get into something.
KEITH: We’re into this, this is good.
AUSTIN: Yeah yeah yeah.
KEITH: This is quality.
AUSTIN: We have time constraints, so.
KEITH: We do.
AUSTIN: Uh. (pause) You receive, you’re all just on the Kingdom Come, funds are getting extra low, um, and, uh, AuDy, you receive a, a communication from, who else but, Orth Godlove.
JACK: Ooh, what does it say?
AUSTIN: It’s a call...
JACK (interrupting): Is it live?
AUSTIN: Well, it, it rings like a live call.
JACK (as AuDy): Come in, Orth.
AUSTIN: Uh, Orth’s face appears, and it is, what time of day is it right now?
JACK: It’s like the mid-afternoon, maybe.
AUSTIN: Okay, mid-afternoon. It is night in this, in this message that you’re receiving. Uh, and it kicks off and there’s a sound of like, a tape recorder, like rewinding and like the click of play button hitting, and it says, um.
AUSTIN (as Orth): Hello AuDy. If you’re receiving this, it means that one of a number of protocols is activated.
JACK: Oh, can I just lean back and beckon everyone else into the cockpit?
AUSTIN: Sure. Wait, what’s this displayed on?
JACK: I think kind of like a, (heh), like you know that there are those like short-throw projector things that you can buy for like a million pounds?
AUSTIN: Yes.
JACK: I think we probably have like a really portable, kind crappy one of those.
AUSTIN: Sure
JACK: That is projecting onto a pulldown screen, that we can pull down.
AUSTIN: Yeah. I love it, that’s really good. Okay. Um, so, so doesn’t everyone come in?
ALI: Yeah.
KEITH: Yes. I was nodding. I forgot that that doesn’t work.
JACK: (laughs) It’s the best podcasting gesture.
AUSTIN: Yeah I’m looking at my Audacity file and instead of anything else, okay. Um...also, I’ve decided that Orth Godlove is played by, by Laurence Fishburne in Hannibal, as Jack, as Jack Crawford.
(various oohs and ahhs)
AUSTIN: That’s Orth Godlove, I’ve decided.
JACK: That’s really good.
KEITH: I don’t think I know who that is.
AUSTIN: Laurence Fishburne?
ART: You don’t know who Laurence Fishburne is?
KEITH: I know the name Laurence Fishburne, but I can’t put a…
ALI: (sighs)
JACK: He’s, um, he’s um, he’s um…
KEITH: Laurence Fishburne.
JACK: The guy from the Matrix.
AUSTIN: (unintelligible)
JACK: What is that character’s name?
AUSTIN: Morpheus.
KEITH: Oh yeah yeah yeah.
JACK: Morpheus.
KEITH: Yeah, I know Laurence Fishburne.
AUSTIN: Okay good, um.
KEITH: I couldn’t put a name to a face to the name.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: Who forgets the word “Fishburne?”
AUSTIN: Good question, good question.
JACK: (laughs)
AUSTIN: Uh, I’m going to link the image that I have...whatever, whatever, it’s Laurence Fishburne, specifically the way he looks in Hannibal. Cause he’s great. Uh, even though that season has been rough. (exasperated noise)
KEITH: (laughs)
AUSTIN: Orth says...it’s been a bad season. Uh…
AUSTIN (as Orth): AuDy, if you’re receiving this, it means, uh, one of a number of protocols has activated. And my biosignature has been, has been lost. It is not on the, not on the network, and this is initiating a contract which you can choose to accept, will pay out a total of 10 credits. (laughs slightly) I’d like you to find where I am. Is that too much to ask? (pause) I guess that’s about it. Do note, like I said, this is many protocols that I have set up. There will be others looking for me as well. Time is...a factor here, if you’d like to be paid. Good luck.
AUSTIN: And he like looks away and, the, the screen does that thing where it like, you know, like, in TV.
KEITH: Collapses in on itself?
AUSTIN: Yeah, it floats into itself there’s like a little BWOO, like a little star.
KEITH: I know exactly yeah, um hm.
JACK: (chuckles)
AUSTIN: Yeah, it does that.
KEITH: The way that Android phones did it for a while.
AUSTIN: Did they?
KEITH: They did, a couple, a few Android phones had that like, fake-o’d in.
AUSTIN: They should have told me that.
ART: Oh, that’s so weird.
JACK: That’s great.
AUSTIN: Huh.
JACK: I like that whole bunch.
KEITH: Yeah, it looked really great, now they just fade to black and it’s shitty.
JACK: Um, so are we going?
ART: Take that Android!
JACK: We’re taking this contract, right?
KEITH: I think we should take it, I think that he undervalues his life. Ten credits.
ALI: Yeah, ten credits is not…
AUSTIN: Right but listen he put out, oh oh, remember, ten credits is a lot.
ALI: Eeehhh.
KEITH: Yeah yeah I know, but still
AUSTIN: Remember like, a mech, you can get a mech for...
JACK (overlapping Austin): We are speaking to people who just bought 45 mechs.
(all laugh)
AUSTIN: Right.
ART: It’s not a lot of money to these mech moguls over here.
KEITH (overlapping Art): It’s an impulse buy!
KEITH: Listen, don’t try to come at me like I don’t already have buyer’s remorse.
ALI and JACK: (laughs)
AUSTIN: Ten credits is a substantial amount.
KEITH (overlapping Austin): At the time it seemed like a good idea, he was charming and he had the tech deck.
AUSTIN: And he’s offered this bounty so to speak on himself for, to like, a bunch of different people, so.
ART: Well he’s not going to pay more than one, right? I mean, that’s…
AUSTIN: No! Which is how he’s doing this, you know.
ART: So ten is his maximum expense.
AUSTIN: Yeah, exactly.
JACK: Do we recognize anything, uhhhh, where was this video being shot?
AUSTIN: This video was shot in his office, some time ago.
JACK: His office, okay, right. I mean, should we start at his office? I kinda feel if we’re looking for a lead, his office is probably our best starting point.
KEITH: Let’s go to his office and snoop around, that dude lied to us that one time, remember?
JACK: He did lie to us.
ALI: Ohhh.
JACK: But then we lied to him like five times.
KEITH: Well YOU lied to him five times.
JACK: Well, tsk, buyer’s remorse, buyer’s remorse.
KEITH and AUSTIN: (laughs)
JACK: So, uh, should we take the Kingdom Come over to his oh no we can’t, okay should we just take like a tube?
KEITH: We can’t we?
AUSTIN: Because…because…
JACK: Because it’s inside one of the, we’ve been over this every episode.
AUSTIN: Yes.
(simultaneously)
AUSTIN: The Kingdom Come doesn’t go into the bubbles.
ART: You don’t fly spaceships to houses.
JACK: It’s...it’s huge.
KEITH: Oh right right.
ALI: Right we’re already live in his neighborhood.
KEITH: Sorry, I thought you meant, let’s go drive to his bubble and then pop in.
AUSTIN: Yeah, well you can do that.
JACK: Alright, so let’s...
AUSTIN: By the time you get there, I still need to map out this planet and I haven’t had time to do that yet. Uh, maybe I’ll do that this weekend, that’ll be a fun time. Um...you’re, you know, you’re flying to the central, to the central, (pause) bubble, where he is, and when you arrive at the, at the dock at the spaceport there, as you’re like coming off and getting into the automated travel that goes through the city there kind of...I’m thinking of them as, um, sort of like Google Cars, but like buses, but not like big buses, like sorry, like Google Cars but like SUVs, basically. Like Google Cars meets Uber, basically. Meets like an Uber, like a extra-large Uber.
KEITH: Goober Cars?
AUSTIN: Right, Goober Cars, exactly. You’re passing through the streets and there are people with, with, that are protesting in the streets. They have, I don’t want to make this just holographic signs, that’s really cheesy. In fact, they don’t have holographic signs in this neighborhood. If this was a richer neighborhood they may have some sort of weird holographic signage. Here, they literally have just like, it is just Sharpie on placards, um, that says, like, you know, “We’ve suffered enough. We should eat.” “Where is the food?” You know, we, uh, “You can’t ration life.” Things like that.
ART: That’s a good one.
AUSTIN: People are, are very upset. (pause) As you travel the streets.
KEITH: This is not a protest that is usually hang out here?
AUSTIN: Nah, nah. Nah, this is new.
KEITH: Okay.
JACK: Why are they, are they just protesting in the street, or are they protesting in a specific place?
AUSTIN: They are protesting, eh, around around the the buildings. So so, in my mind, the Counterweight, the Consolidated Counterweight Technocracy Building is in a district that is kind of set up with a bunch of other governmental bureaucratic buildings, right? Like, there are are kind of the local governments and then also the Diaspora and Oricon have some like governmental or organizational administrative buildings.
JACK: Like embassies?
AUSTIN: It’s not emb...no no, it’s not like, it’s like the, it’s like the DMV. Do you know what I mean?
JACK: Ah okay right yeah.
AUSTIN: As so the in fact let’s say they are specifically protesting out front of um...uh...so for Oricon there is, we did kinda get into this a little bit but in my mind Oricon works a little bit like the way society in the SOMNE 451 chapters of Cloud Atlas work, where, it is, it is at once hyper capitalistic and also kind of like post-wage. Where, like, everyone has a job to do and there are ways of getting more money, but also, you are, in order to support the the corporations and make sure that people have money, because they don’t have jobs often, there is like a a like spender’s ration that you get every year, or every month rather. Like every pay period, where you would normally, where you would normally get paid, even if you haven’t been employed, you get a base level income so that you can like, go buy new jeans. Uh, and, and that means that like uh the food is often not very good or the, your basic needs aren’t met at like a high level, but so the thing that you spend that money on is like new toys. To support those big corporations. It’s kinda fucked. Uh...the Diaspora’s a little bit better. I have been picturing as like, (sigh), vaguely post-capitalistic, and like, and like vaguely socialist, but I haven’t worked out enough of those details, but similarly, for basic needs like food and shelter, the Diaspora’s organizational algorithms kinda like figure all that stuff out, for you, and ration it out, so that you can focus on like being a good citizen, and voting for what the...
JACK: VOTING!
AUSTIN: Name of the new planet is, and like, you know, consuming as much poll data as possible.
ART: Well the Divine of Bureaucracy handles all that stuff, right?
AUSTIN: Right, exactly.
KEITH and JACK: (laughs)
JACK: There’s a great Divine.
AUSTIN: Pretty good Divine. So, at all those places, you have people, you have people protesting, and there’s sort of an underlying thing here too which is like, most of the people protesting, the people protesting are this interesting mix of folks, because this isn’t like, only the people who used to live on Counterweight are protesting the new people. It’s also, it’s like a mix of old Apostalisian people, a mix of people from the Diaspora and Oricon. All here at once, raising a real stink. And that doesn’t happen very often. Like, most time people keep to their sides.
(pause. This is Mark 20:25)
AUSTIN: So you arrive at the Counter...no one’s doing anything here, I’m guessing.
KEITH: Should I-I think we should go to the building first.
ART: I’m trying to look inconspicuous, I don’t want to get recognized by...Apostalisian refugees.
KEITH, ALI, JACK (overlapping): (laughs)
ART: That’s probably not going to be a good day.
JACK: (overlapping Art): Oh that’s true.
AUSTIN: That’s a good point.
KEITH: You think you were that popular?
(simultaneously)
ART: I was going to be King, or Monarch.
AUSTIN: No, but you know, yeah.
(simultaneously)
JACK: He’s[1] an exiled Prince.
KEITH: Yeah, listen, there a lot of kings that I can’t recognize.
ALI: He was going to be The Prince, not just a prince.
ART: I was in propaganda films.
KEITH: Yeah, I don’t know, Jack, Jack would you recognize English princes, just hanging out?
JACK: Yeah, they’re the worst.
ART: (laughs) Do you say that because of how they are when they’re just hanging out?
JACK: (laughs) Yeah, pretty much. (unintelligible)
AUSTIN: That’s a good...what’s your um...what’s your Prowl? Cass?
ART: Um, good question, let me, give me a moment.
JACK: Oh no...Art, you opened yourself up to this one by saying (overlapping Austin) you’re trying to be inconspicuous.
AUSTIN (overlapping Jack): You did, but this is interesting. This is interesting.
ART: Two, I have a two Prowl.
AUSTIN: Okay. One sec, let me, back over to our dice thing here. All of our dice should be reset at this point, right? Um…
JACK: Oh yeah we have (unintelligible)
AUSTIN: I still have one, I still have one, okay oh yeah okay. I see where we’re at. Um, (pause), okay. I’m going to roll to give you a, um, a sticky adjective, or I’m going to roll to try to give you an adjective, uh and right now that adjective is ‘noticed.’ And that’s fleeting but, but, I might sticky it, we’ll see.
KEITH: Hold on, do we have an extra die on the board?
AUSTIN: This is just, we do from when, there are ways to, like, get extra dice, into the system here and there. Which I think is like, if you, if you get wounded or something? I think? (choo choo choo)
KEITH: Okay
AUSTIN: I’m trying to remember, because you’re right, we are up a die, right now.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: I’m trying to remember where that one came from, I may have just given one away for good roleplay or something like that. (pause) I’m not curious, I’m going, give me a second to actually check that. Cause that, that’s a big deal. Like, this isn’t just a…
KEITH: Yeah, I don’t remember (overlapping Jack) a new die being added.
JACK (overlapping Keith): I don’t recall a nice dice arriving, unless it was that bit at the end there where everyone was, like, dying.
AUSTIN: I mean that’s, that’s possible.
(Austin checks his notes)
AUSTIN: I reread like bits of the, of the book today and, I know I’m going to miss something that’s important. Here we are.
ART: (laughs)
AUSTIN: Uh…(choo choo choo), (pause) This is a long, this is a long book guys.
JACK: Have you got new glasses, Keith?
ART: No worries.
KEITH: Uh, this are, this are my first glasses.
JACK: First glasses ever?
KEITH: Yeah, I got these a few months ago.
ALI: Oh yeah those are the glasses…
JACK: They suit you.
ALI: They’re like, they’re not, glasses. They’re not like a prescription, I don’t believe that they are.
KEITH: They are prescription!
ALI: They’re just like weird HD glasses.
KEITH: They are. They’re not…
ALI: They don’t change your eyesight.
KEITH: Did you wear them?
ALI: Yeah!
KEITH: They...who was it that was.
ALI: They don’t change your vision at all. They just make things look crisp.
KEITH: No, I have a friend, no…
JACK: Isn’t that what glasses do?
ALI: No, but like…
KEITH: Here’s what happened. Ali put my glasses on, said, “I don’t need glasses”, put my glasses on and then shit looked better…
ALI, JACK: (laughs)
KEITH: And now she’s convinced that, she doesn’t have glasses, I just have fake glasses that make good eyes better.
ALI: (laughs): Because they don’t do anything.
KEITH: Get your eyes checked!
ALI: I was like looking at bricks and you see the brick and (overlapping Keith and Jack) you can see the brick fine.
(simultaneously)
KEITH: And you can see the brick better!
JACK: Oh the brick test.
ALI: But then I put the glasses on and I could see the brick more…(overlapping Keith) lines in the bricks
KEITH (overlapping Ali): YEAH BECAUSE YOU DON’T SEE GOOD ENOUGH.
ALI: Otherwise it was fine.
KEITH: NO! It was…
ART: No.
KEITH: It was fine, you know what, I lived twenty-three years thinking it was fine, you know what, it was a little bit less than fine.
AUSTIN: Huh.
KEITH: It was one step under fine.
ALI: No.
AUSTIN: Uh, alright, I’m just resetting you all to three. It’s been a month, let’s just say that that’s...where we’re at here.
JACK: Okay.
AUSTIN: Because I think that’s right.
JACK: We’re going to get to the end of the game and like one dice would have made all the difference.
AUSTIN: Yeah, of course, well, I took one from Ali, because Ali was up to four...and I got rid of one of mine and gave it to Jack. So so, it’s just, we’re all kind of evened out. Anyway, I’m going to try to give Art, eh, I’m going to try to give Cass ‘noticed’ from these.
(pause)
ALI: Oh, I need a Mass, we’ll talk about that later.
AUSTIN: Yeah, you do.
KEITH: Oh, another thing is we can talking about is, uh, can my…
AUSTIN: Nope! We’re good.
KEITH: Can my Ring of Sat...can my Ring of Saturn like, uh, fold up and be a backpack? Like collapse in and have straps.
AUSTIN: It’s definitely a collapsable thing, you just have it, I’m not, yes.
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: What did we decide, how many?
KEITH: I just want, I just want the…
AUSTIN: How many tags did it have?
KEITH: It had two tags.
AUSTIN: What’s the, do you remember what the...two tags are?
KEITH: Um...thrusters and armor.
AUSTIN: Throw a, throw a third tag on there, make it ‘collapsible.’
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: Because otherwise you can’t use it in interesting ways, do you know what I mean, like…
KEITH: Right yeah, I had assumed that it was portable.
AUSTIN: It is portable, it’s definitely portable by default.
KEITH: Yeah, I just want it to be, on my back, and then I whip it off my back and then I jump on it.
AUSTIN: You’re just that kid, you’re Kit, from, um, from TaleSpin.
KEITH: Listen I’m a lot of things. Someone said that I was Eddie Murphy from Beverly Hills Cop.
AUSTIN: That’s also true.
KEITH: That’s also true.
AUSTIN: That’s also true. Art, nothing, Cass, nothing happens to you.
ART: Great.
AUSTIN: No one notices you, so you sneak by.
KEITH: I’m gonna talk to these guys.
AUSTIN: There are, you, what?
(simultaneously)
ALI: Nooo, we’re going inside.
KEITH: Can we talk, I want to talk to them.
AUSTIN: No, you’re in a car. You’re in a car.
KEITH: We’re in a car? Okay.
ALI: We’re going inside.
(simultaneously)
KEITH: Well that’s okay then.
AUSTIN: We’ve been over this. You’re in a, you’re in a Goober.
KEITH: We’re in a Goober.
AUSTIN: You wind up at the, at the, the Consolidated Technocracy kind of HQ in the sector. And you go into Orth’s office. Have you been there often before? Who here has been in this office before?
JACK: I assume I have, when I was, uh, brokering for the ship.
AUSTIN: Um hm.
ALI: There’s at least been a few like stop-ins, right? I mean...
AUSTIN: Okay, I didn’t know how often you met in person.
(simultaneously)
KEITH: Um, do we?
JACK: I like, I like the image of us all clattering into this guy’s office, and like leaning against the desk.
KEITH: Do we have an order of like who met Orth first?
AUSTIN: AuDy is the main contact with Orth, for sure.
KEITH: Audy? Okay. Alright
AUSTIN: That’s the, just by like the way the, the relationship chart breaks down, that’s, that’s the kind of the thing there.
(simultaneously)
KEITH: Okay. I couldn’t remember how that worked.
ALI: Well, do we think?
AUSTIN: Oh wait, maybe I, maybe that’s not true. Oh yeah yeah yeah, it’s not the, it’s not the relationship map, it’s the, um, it’s the favors.
KEITH: Favors.
AUSTIN: AuDy took a favor from Orth, I don’t know, did anybody else do that?
ALI: No.
KEITH: I didn’t take a favor from Orth, no.
AUSTIN: Okay, so, I’m imagining this office as like uh...the Consolidated Technocracy of Counter/Weight definitely is like a combination the offices in Blade Runner and like the offices in Brazil. Like, it’s lots of grey and like sharp architecture outside, like lots of blocky, um, uh, modernism.
KEITH: You’re thinking of just the country Brazil.
JACK: No, he means the movie Brazil.
AUSTIN: The movie Brazil. Uh, but inside it’s just a mess of paperwork, and like physical stuff. Um, there’s cluttered desks everywhere, on the way in, and then Orth has like, an office in like some weird far corner on the third floor. Um, and it’s weird because you he’s actually like fairly, you know, he’s a mid-level bureaucrat, but he’s fairly important, but like, there’s nothing about his location or his office that suggests that. Uh, and so when you go to his office, um, the door is closed when you arrive. What do you do?
KEITH: I open it.
AUSTIN: Good job. Okay.
KEITH: Thank you.
AUSTIN: You go to push the door open and like, where the frosted glass is that says Orth Godlove, it’s like still locked and like it turns on and it’s a screen and it’s tied into that system that the, um, uh, the other, like the server stuff was, back in that gift shop you were in the first episode.
JACK: Oh cool. I like this thing.
AUSTIN: A woman with like, fairly broad shoulders and like, it’s a bright red blazer that’s like a deep V…
KEITH: Ah, Beth 2!
AUSTIN: Right, Beth 2 is there. Uh…(laughs). Who, Mako tried the door?
AUSTIN (as Beth 2): Mr. Trig, how are you doing today?
KEITH (as Mako): I’m good, can I come in?
AUSTIN (as Beth 2): Orth’s out of the office, sorry, I’m sorry. ORTH is out of the office right now, what, what can I do for you?
KEITH (as Mako): Uh, he called us in, he wanted us to figure out, you know, where he’s at. Uh…
AUSTIN (as Beth 2): I can set up a, a meeting with you with Orth’s co-worker.
JACK (as AuDy): Yes please.
KEITH (as Mako): Who’s Orth’s co-worker?
AUSTIN (as Beth 2): Give me a moment.
AUSTIN: And like, she’s dead-eye look forward.
ALL: (laughs)
AUSTIN (as Beth 2): Alright, she’ll see you now.
AUSTIN: And then a door behind you opens up.
KEITH: Okay.
JACK: This is some Stanley Parable shit.
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh, you turn around and walk in. It’s a, this is another fairly, like, cluttered office desk, or office area. Um, there are a couple of like old chairs that have never been sat in in the corners, like, like this is an office that has been set up to receive visitors but has never received visitors, ever.
JACK: Hm.
ALI: (sad sound)
AUSTIN: Um, the door says Maris Lynwood on it, and inside is, um, the woman you just saw on the screen.
JACK and KEITH: (laugh)
AUSTIN: That’s just her thing.
KEITH: Beth?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Listen, she uses, she uses multiple names.
ART: Sure. That’s what I want out of my government officials. Aliases.
AUSTIN: Aliases. Well listen, if she used her, her real name, and someone like, she became popular on the weird, you know, service database, that was be all sorts of trouble for the Technocracy.
ART: Sure.
JACK: So was this just a great coincidence.
AUSTIN: This was just a completely great coincidence, you know, (overlapping Jack) it’s bound to happen. She doesn’t know. She has no idea.
JACK: (overlapping Austin): She doesn't know.
KEITH: Even, ever greater coincidence is that Beth 2 is constantly serving me when I go to the local diner.
AUSTIN: One of your favorites.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN (as Maris): How’s it going, you’re the Chime, right?
KEITH (as Mako): Yeah.
ALI (as Aria): That’s us.
ART (as Cass): Yep.
AUSTIN (as Maris): Take a seat…
AUSTIN: She like, looks around for, for extra chairs, there aren’t any, there’s two chairs. They’re those kinda like…
KEITH: I’ll sit on the floor.
(pause)
AUSTIN: You’re an adult.
ART: (laughs)
KEITH: I’m a very goofy adult!
AUSTIN: Oh my god. They’re those plush that are like cloth and cushioning, but like they’re not actually that comfortable. They’re like, the arm rises are a little too high and round, you know I mean?
KEITH: Yeah, like someone would have in a foyer.
AUSTIN: Right, exactly.
KEITH: They’re not for sitting, they’re for looking kinda cool.
AUSTIN (as Maris): So, who is the primary contact here? Is there, is there a Mr….uh, Aud, Ayden, Auddie, Audi...Mr. Audi.
JACK: (as AuDy): My name is Automated Dynamics.
AUSTIN: She, like, “Oh.”
KEITH (as Mako): The robot said it.
AUSTIN: (as Maris): Pleased to meet you.
AUSTIN: She offers you a hand.
JACK (as AuDy): Is this going to be a problem?
AUSTIN (as Maris): No, no. I have...I...No.
KEITH: Were you going to say she has robot friends?
JACK: (laughs)
ART: (laughs) Some of her best friends are robots. She couldn’t hate robots.
AUSTIN: She was going to say that, that is correct. Some of her best friends.
JACK (as AuDy): We’re looking for Orth.
AUSTIN (as Maris): Orth, uh...should be at Dome 7, currently. We sent him there to oversee just some, you know, some supply organization. It’s um, he’ll return shortly.
JACK (as AuDy): Have you received any communication from Orth recently?
AUSTIN (as Maris): No, we don’t talk too often, you know, uh, company picnic now and then, and uh, not, not, nothing, nothing. Is everything alright?
ALI (as Aria): Yeah.
ART: Oh, she’s lying.
ALI: No, we’re lying to her.
ART: I didn’t say that out loud.
(simultaneously)
AUSTIN: Who is lying?! Everyone is lying. She asked if everything was alright...
KEITH: We’re, we’re lying to each other.
ART: We’re all lying.
KEITH (as Mako): Listen, alright, listen, you’re lying to us, we’re lying to you. Let’s get down to brass tacks, where is he? (What did you do with him?)
ART: I don’t think she...
KEITH: Not that last bit. Not the last bit.
JACK (as Audy): Please ignore my friend. My colleague. Please ignore my colleague.
KEITH (as Mako): We’re pretty sure that Orth’s in trouble. Tell us, we gotta know everything you know about where he was.
AUSTIN: She told you.
AUSTIN (as Maris): I told you.
ART: Could she let us into his office?
KEITH: Well, she said, she seems like she was…
KEITH (as Mako): Maybe you just naturally sound like you’re fibbing.
AUSTIN (as Maris): I…
(simultaneously)
JACK (as AuDy): What was Orth tasked with at Dome 7?
ART (as Cass): Could you let us into his office?
AUSTIN: Oh my god, alright, let’s bring it back. Let’s bring, we can, we can do this. We can not talk...
AUSTIN (as Maris): I’ll answer both of those questions.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN (as Maris): Like I said. Orth was there reorganizing, or, organizing a supply drop, or a supply...distribution.
KEITH (as Mako): Which was it, a drop or a distribution?
AUSTIN: Great, turns to Cassander.
AUSTIN (as Maris): Uh...No. I can’t let you into his office, we have organizational, uh, protocols. You can’t just let someone into someone else’s office, that’s just not how it works. I apologize, but no.
ART (as Cass): (exaggerated eyeroll)
KEITH: How are the ducts in this building?
ART: It’s weird that you didn’t think of kicking in the door first.
AUSTIN: Smaller than people, because this isn’t Deus Ex.
KEITH and JACK: (laughs)
JACK: There’s probably like one building on the planet that has really fantastically-sized ducts.
AUSTIN: We’ll get there.
JACK: And it’s like a planet-sized planet.
AUSTIN: Right, we’ll get there, and it’ll be the time when you’re like, when it’s like, how are they going to get into this place?
KEITH: Sorry...did you describe something as a planet-sized planet?
(simultaneously)
AUSTIN: Oh, that’s a nice little...
JACK: It’s a No Man’s Sky thing.
(simultaneously)
KEITH: Oh, alright, k.
AUSTIN: And it’s a little No Man’s Sky joke, Sean Murray constantly refers to planets in the game as planets in the game as ‘planet-sized planets.’
KEITH: Oh yeah, I guess I’ve heard him say that, which is very funny.
AUSTIN: Okay. So.
JACK (as AuDy): Uh, is there anything that we could...do...that would grant us access to Orth’s office?
JACK: And I think there’s definitely a pause midway through that sentence while AuDy attempts to…
AUSTIN: Oh, is this a?
JACK: Try and get around bribery, I don’t know.
AUSTIN: Are you? Is that what you’re trying to do? Are you trying to make her interested in bribes?
JACK: Yeah, I think so.
AUSTIN: That’s a roll. I think you need to roll for that. To give her a...a thing.
JACK: Okay, alright, I’m gonna walk across the room to my computer. (laughs)
ART: I sorta was like…
AUSTIN: I’ll just roll for you, Jack.
JACK: Oh thanks.
AUSTIN: This is a Coax? What sort of?
JACK: Yeah, my, my Coax is…
AUSTIN: What adjective are you trying to give her?
JACK: ‘Compliant.’
AUSTIN: Uh, okay, ‘compliant’s good. What, um… you’re rolling Coax, and then, are you looking to use any push dice in this roll, and if so, what tags are you activating to do that?
JACK: Um, I don’t think so.
AUSTIN: Okay, so just your straight Coax which is 3. (pause) And her, I think Coax counters Coax. (pause) It’s going to be a tough roll.
JACK: Oh, should I, should I think about some push dice, probably?
AUSTIN: Yeah, I would, I would think about some.
JACK: Okay, let me see what tags I have.
AUSTIN: Also is anyone else helping? And if so, how?
(pause)
ART: Refresh me what helping...is?
AUSTIN: You can help by spending, by dis, by spending one of your, not spending, by discharging one of your push dice, also. But, you have to explain I think how one of your tags is working.
KEITH: I, I’m going to help, one of my tags is, uh, clever. I’m going to use that and just while they’re talking I’m going, I’m going like, get out my wallet and start just like, routing around for my money.
ALI: Oh boy.
ART: Oh boy.
(simultaneously)
JACK: I’m gonna apply….yeah his zero dollars.
KEITH: Just looking at it and counting it absent-mindedly. Listen, I have.
ALI: Your zero dollars because you’re in hundreds of dollars of debt.
KEITH: Listen, I have money, we just got, we just got a paycheck.
AUSTIN: No, what? Oh yeah, how much money do you have?
(simultaneously)
KEITH: Uh, what did we have, three credits from the last thing? Three? Then I’ve got three credits.
AUSTIN: We did pay you at the end, we did, I think it was three.
JACK: Oh did we, okay, let me add that to my thing.
JACK: I would like to discharge.
KEITH: And.
JACK: Oh, go on Keith.
KEITH: Oh sorry, I was going to say because a credit is so much money, I had it in my head that we just have small amounts of money that we just have.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: Like we’re not walking around broke, we just have not enough to be a credit.
AUSTIN: That’s exactly correct, yes.
KEITH: Right.
JACK: Okay right, I’m just gonna add three credits to this.
ALI: Um, I’m immediately spending a credit to get fake skin on my arm.
AUSTIN: Good call, well, that might take surgery too though.
ALI: Really?
AUSTIN: Yeah…
(simultaneously)
KEITH: Can we just have a doctor spray?
ALI: I couldn’t just upgrade it?
AUSTIN: Um.
JACK: No you just pick it up from a cosmetics shop or something.
ALI: Yeah, just like a latex glove.
ART: Could be like a spray skin?
AUSTIN: Yeah, okay, but that means it’s different than someone who goes, you know what I mean? Like yes, but then the person who does spend to go get this surgery looks even better than you.
ALI: (whispers) Fuck, I’ll save up for this.
AUSTIN: See what I mean? See what I mean? Like.
KEITH: Wait, you don’t want, you don’t want a metal hand?
ALI: No.
AUSTIN: Aww.
ALI: (laughs)
KEITH: Alright. You can high-five your fucking...robot, and you’ll be that much closer, it’ll be a fucking tight bond.
JACK: I’d like to spend a tag for ‘blunt.’ And I would like to express that...
AUSTIN: Um...so you are in fact not being, you’re in fact not being kind of circuitous about this at all.
JACK: Right, so I think what I’m saying is, we would like to get into Orth’s office, you can help us do that, we can help you help us do that.
AUSTIN: Yeah, you can definitely use, definitely use ‘blunt.’ So that’s one push die. I’m trying to find the helping thing here, and I can’t find it, and it’s…
KEITH: You definitely can because I read about it. I remember reading about it.
AUSTIN: I know that you can help by giving someone else a positive adjective and that might be only way you do it, you just spend a push die, discharge a push die to give a positive adj, um, a positive adjective.
KEITH: Oh okay, then I guess my, I guess my adjective I could give AuDy is ‘confidence.’
AUSTIN: By giving the money, or by…
KEITH: By like, no, not by giving the money, by like, maybe like a hand on the shoulder, like, “fucking yeah.”
AUSTIN: You push, a little push, like a...go for it?
KEITH: Do it, I push him. Um.
JACK: Audy does not react in any visible way.
ART: (laughs)
KEITH: Visible way.
AUSTIN: So, I’m gonna roll 4d6. You’re gonna need a bunch of hits here. (pause)
JACK: I wanna get in that office.
AUSTIN: You’re good!
JACK: Oh nice.
AUSTIN: Yeah, you got, you got enough stuff there, enough successes. Um...so you give her, what did you give her again, ‘compliant.’ She sighs and says like..
JACK: I don’t think we want to make that sticky I think we’re fine, for that.
AUSTIN: Okay, yeah yeah, definitely. She says, um…
AUSTIN (as Maris): Alright, there are a few things we need to get done around here and you know, our budget is not great.
AUSTIN: She sighs.
AUSTIN (as Maris): I’ve been working on this plan to, to improve the, the routing of the automated transport. And we have an outside program, we have a contractor.
AUSTIN: But she says that she needs you know, another six credits, to finish the programming.
AUSTIN (as Maris): If you can, if you can pay for that, then, yeah, I’ll let you into Orth’s office.
(pause)
ART: Six credits! That’s like half a mech.
ALI: (laughs)
AUSTIN: Yep.
ART: That’s insane.
KEITH: Well, Ali and I just went all-in last episode, so…
AUSTIN: Ha!
(simultaneously)
ALI: I’m saving up for expensive surgery, I can’t. I don’t have the dollars to give you.
JACK: Wait a second, wait a second, Keith, did you just put a hand on my shoulder in confidence, and then?
AUSTIN: (laughs)
KEITH: Yeah, I, so, I went in all-in last episode and I gave you the confidence this episode. You and Art got this.
ALI: Mako is absolutely the sort of guy who would be like “Yeah, buddy,” and then immediately remove his hand once money was mentioned.
KEITH: Christ…
(simultaneously)
JACK: Alright, I’m going to put in...
ART: You guys didn’t have to spend any of that money, Ali just had to not co-sign and you guys would be fine, she could have just been like, “I don’t want to co-sign for your (overlapping Ali) fictitious mining effort.
ALI: No, no, no, no.
KEITH: Right cause then, sorry, then the guys that were going to shoot Jack in the face would have just shot all of us.
(pause. This is Mark 40:03)
(simultaneously)
ART: You all got shot anyway! You both died!
JACK: I would have been fine.
AUSTIN and ALI: (laughs)
KEITH: Yeah, but we also saved you.
ART: I didn’t need saving!
KEITH: We’re the heroes!
ART: I had a giant robot.
KEITH: ALI AND I ARE THE HEROES!
AUSTIN: That’s not true, that’s not true.
(simultaneously)
JACK: Okay, I’m willing to spend three.
KEITH: It’s totally true. Heroes.
AUSTIN: Thank you AuDy, spending three.
( long pause)
ART: I’m willing to spend two. [overlapping All] One of you guys have to spend one or we’re not getting in this office.
(simultaneously)
ALI: (laughs)
AUSTIN: (laughs)
KEITH: Okay, I’ll spend one, I’ll spend one.
JACK: Thanks Art.
KEITH: I’ll put in the one, I said I’ll put in the one.
ALI: We could just hack into his off...eh.
KEITH: Listen, who’s doing the tip?
ALL: (laughs)
AUSTIN: Oh my god.
ALI: Here’s a little extra, ma’am. No.
ART: Here’s your bribe tip.
ALI: (laughs)
JACK: So what, so what happens is that (overlapping Keith) she asks us for the money.
KEITH (overlapping Jack): Twenty-five percent!
JACK: She asks us for the money, and all of us, all hell, quiet hell, immediately breaks loose.
KEITH: (laughs)
ART: We have a quiet fight.
JACK: In the waiting room, people shrugging and people like, turning out their pockets.
KEITH: Lots of really loud whispering. “Last time I did it, fucking YOU do it”
AUSTIN: Yep!
JACK: Until eventually I guess AuDy just sort of like turns around and like pours the money into this woman’s hand.
(simultaneously)
AUSTIN: Yeah, wait,, what, what do.
KEITH: Are credits pourable?
AUSTIN: Yeah, what, what do these credits look like?
JACK: They look like, oh, Austin, they look like something from, in Netrunner.
AUSTIN: Are they like little chits, like little…
(simultaneously)
JACK: Yeah I think so. They probably have like a little LED display on them.
ART: I don’t know how little they should be because if credits, like.
KEITH: In my, head, in my head..they looked like…
KEITH: They look like, um, sci-fi arcade tokens.
ART: But like a credit’s like, $50,000. Right, like.
JACK: Sure, I mean, like, you know.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: Currency, currency never looks, currency never looks like it should be worth what its worth.
ART: (laughs)
JACK: Unless it’s made of literal gold.
(simultaneously)
ART: No, fair, yeah, I, tearfully withdrawn.
AUSTIN: That’s yeah, yeah, okay.
AUSTIN: Okay, mark down that you’ve lost this money, please.
(simultaneously)
ART: Yeah, on it.
JACK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(simultaneously)
AUSTIN: Okay.
ALI: I didn’t mark nothing.
ART: I created a credits section on my character sheet and now it’s not as impressive as it was five minutes ago.
AUSTIN: (laughs)
JACK: (laughs) Me too.
AUSTIN: I thought you were a prince, okay, so she, she stands up and like shuffles out behind her desk, which has been placed such that like, it’s kind of a hassle for her to get behind there. It’s really depressing, if you give it any thought, because she set it up for like maximum impressiveness for when she’s seated back there and the sun is hitting here.
JACK: Oh god it’s like Saul Goodman.
AUSTIN: Right, but like no one comes in this office, she never meets people face-to-face here. Do you know what I mean? So it’s like, it’s...she goes through all of it maybe, maybe it’s about her own self-confidence, like, “I’m an adult. I can work here, everything is good. I am impressive and important.” And like now she’s shuffling out around the side of the desk and like, “one second, let me,” and she goes over and like, touches a few things on the key, the, the screen, the thing that looked like frosted glass, and Orth’s office opens up. She like looks back and forth down the hallway to make sure no one else is looking, and she waves you in really quick.
JACK (as AuDy): Thank you for your help. It will not go unforgotten. (overlapping Keith) Also, you have six of our money.
KEITH (overlapping Jack): Wait a minute, we already paid her.
AUSTIN: Yes.
JACK: You know, she works here, we’re going to be walking past her office lots of times.
ART: Yeah, there’s no reason to be rude just because…
AUSTIN (as Maris): Be quick.
AUSTIN: She says and like, sneaks back around to her, back to her office. And she keeps her, like, frosted glass display on like see-through mode, so she can see you from her desk, and like, is watching, is like looking in from her office into yours as you poke around. Orth’s room, Orth’s office is, like, way cleaner than you’ve ever seen it, AuDy. Everything is actually in its place, there isn’t like a mess of paperwork here, there are no…
KEITH: Is that suspicious in itself?
AUSTIN: Yes.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: What are you looking for? As a group, you can each tell me some stuff.
JACK: I’m looking for…(pause) it’s hard, right, like, I guess we’re detect...are we? We have a history of being detectives, right? Or are we?
AUSTIN: That’s a good way of saying it.
ALI: (laughs)
KEITH: We have a history of being detectives.
JACK: Could I be casting around for something that...uh...Orth had mentioned that his signal had stopped transmitting. Could I be casting around for something that might help try and pick that back up again? Using the radar equipment and stuff on the Kingdom Come. I don’t know what he’d have in his office for this but then again we’re in like cyberpunk land, so…
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah, um, what you can find, what I will give you is that if you look through his, uh, if you like, you can see that his, uh, okay. He has kinda like a ‘find my bio’ device thing, set up.
JACK: Oh that’s exactly what I was looking for.
AUSTIN: And between you and Mako, you’re able to, to like, hack into it.
JACK: Oh nice.
AUSTIN: I’m not going to roll because you don’t roll against objects in this game, um, actually I will make you roll, cause you will be rolling against Orth’s ability to hack, or like build his own security measures. So…one of you.
JACK: Alright
KEITH: I’ve got a 4 Hack.
AUSTIN: Then yeah, then Mako, hack into this for me.
JACK: I have a 1 Hack.
ALI: Oh…
AUSTIN: Right, like, you don’t even have the ab, actually yeah…
JACK: No.
AUSTIN: You don’t even have the ability to do that, to do the hacking here. Cause you don’t have the stuff for it.
KEITH: That’s not a very good roll.
AUSTIN: Let me take a minute, actually look up.
JACK: Fours are okay.
AUSTIN: Yeah yeah remember, so, so, remember the system works is you’re looking for a die that hits higher than his, than Orth’s own Hack skill here.
KEITH: Okay. I guess I was assuming that Orth had a pretty good Hack. But maybe it’s like three.
AUSTIN: Eh, if I recall it’s like “Eh.”
JACK: He is a very high bureaucrat.
AUSTIN: Yeah no, you’re fine. So, you’re able to crack it pretty easily. You can see that yeah, he went to Dome 7, which is, which is one of the cities that is like, it’s pretty centrally located, but it’s also like... so I’m imagining, I’m imagining this planet as having kind of a cluster of central domes and then a bunch way on the outskirts, like the Blue Sky Dome was kinda far off, towards one of the outskirts, that had a little like another collection of domes, and then it was like further away than that. This one is like, it’s just off to the side of this big center collection, um, and he was at Dome 7, which is a place where you like, uh, lots of shipments come in and out. And it’s kind of, it’s centrally located so that it can, it can, it has lots of different maglev trains running to it so it can be a distribution center for a lot of different things. And you see that, you kind of, you do that thing that Apple can do with all of our phones, where like, you can see, “Alright, well, he’s checked in here and here and here and here, and that happens a lot, so he must be,” and you kind of narrow it down, and you see that, yeah, he got on the Starlight Straight, which is kind of the maglev train system, going from Dome 7 out towards another district, further away. And at some point in between, his heartrate, his heart monitor thing just turns off. Or it loses connection to it. In a way, so the thing here to note, is that, it’s not like a GPS system. It’s not like a satellite is tracking where he is, it’s tracking him based on him being near an online network. It’s like, it’s like, it went offline because there’s no wifi nearby, or he’s dead. It’s one of the two. You know?
ART: Right, right.
JACK: Is there teleporting in this world?
KEITH: Or someone took it out of him.
AUSTIN: No. There’s no teleporting. Um, like, maybe a Divine can do that. You know what I mean?
JACK: Alright and probably in laboratories they’re teleporting cactuses or something.
KEITH: (laughs)
AUSTIN: Yes, exactly. Cene Godlove has there, Cene Sixheart has done some teleportation stuff, but it’s not...like…
JACK: It’s not like a thing.
AUSTIN: It’s not a thing, no.
KEITH: So there’s Goober the Uber analogue but there’s no Rift the Lyft analogue that teleports you?
AUSTIN: Um um.
JACK: (laughs)
KEITH: Okay.
ART: Um, so my, my plan which seems a little low-tech and useless now was I was going to see if has like a calendar or a planner?
JACK: No, Art, like, yeah.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: No, that’s totally a good low-tech thing. Again, no roll necessary for that. Yeah like he…
JACK: Cause that can give us people.
AUSTIN: His situation is that he had, he has, yeah, let me, like this is one of those things that I can, I can roll on to help figure out where we’re going.
ART: ‘Meet with Steve. Steve tried to kill me that once.’
AUSTIN and KEITH: (laughs)
(simultaneously)
KEITH: That’s a parenthetical.
AUSTIN: Ironically I rolled a…
(simultaneously)
KEITH: ‘Meet with Steve, the one who tried to kill’
JACK: Murderous Steve.
AUSTIN: Right.
ART: Steve the Murderer.
AUSTIN: (pause) Uh…
KEITH: Dinner date with violent man.
ART: (laughs)
AUSTIN: So, the, the calendar is, is really direct. I actually rolled the thing that is already kind of connected to, to Orth here, the thing that’s already, gripping this episode, which is that, you see that a lot of his notes are about this food crisis that are happening. That’s happening right now. Um…
ART: Hm, that’s good.
AUSTIN: You see, kind of, uh, not diary entries, I don’t want to do it that way. Here’s what you find, you find a number, you find some correspondence, you find notes about correspondence he needs to do. Like, back, a, three weeks ago, you’re going through his personal calendar stuff, and you see like, you know, a thing that says like, ‘shoot a message off to Leif, I need to, you know. Where are those supplies at?’ And then like a week later, it’s like, you know, ‘Dalton hasn’t gotten back to me yet. The people in the refugee sector are getting antsy. We’re running out of local, we’re running out of supplies locally.’ It’s clear that this is like heavily on his mind. On top of everything else he’s doing, right? And then, the last like set of things on his calendar, it’s like, ‘tickets booked, I’m headed to go pick up the off-planet supplies I ordered.’ (pause) And needs like ends like ‘I need to make sure this happens.’
KEITH: What was the thing that he had lied to us about?
AUSTIN: He lied to you about, I think, like knowing something about the Weightless.
KEITH: Okay
JACK: Yeah, or yeah it was…
KEITH: That’s what I thought it was.
JACK: Yeah. That was like a real moment of like, of like, deceit.
AUSTIN: Yeah, he was, he was hiding from you that he knew who the Weightless were. Which again were the people who flew with Jace Rethal and Oricon at the end of the last war, they were like, yeah.
KEITH: While we’re here, can I check his computer and maybe read some e-mails, can I Ctrl-F Weightless?
JACK: (laughs)
AUSTIN: Nothing comes up for Weightless.
KEITH: Okay.
ALI: Umm…
AUSTIN: But yeah you can totally search for other stuff. We can play Her Story, the game with Orth Godlove’s computer.
KEITH: Yeah, yeah let’s do that.
JACK: Oh, let’s, let’s…
ALI: Well, wait wait wait, what we should be looking for is like the last person that he spoke to and then also, maybe try to find out who else that message went to. Like the other bounties that are out.
AUSTIN: That’s a good question. That’s the one you should ask.
JACK: Oh yeah...okay.
AUSTIN: That was the one I was willing to give stuff to.
(simultaneously)
ALI: We should know who we’re competing with.
KEITH: So if I can get in….
KEITH: If I can hack into the computer and get it, I bet AuDy can read it a lot faster than we can.
AUSTIN: Eh, maybe.
KEITH: Seems like a robot thing.
AUSTIN: Well he doesn’t have any of that stuff. Do you know what I mean?
KEITH: Oh right you don’t have any of that stuff.
(simultaneously)
AUSTIN: But I can just tell the stuff
KEITH: Alright nevermind, I can just read it.
JACK: But wait, I do have. Oh yeah that’s true.
AUSTIN: (inaudible) I can just tell you, like it isn’t, it’s not gonna…
KEITH: I just wanted the robot to be reading extra fast, cause he’s a robot.
AUSTIN: Well we should give this to, to, to Joie, Aria Joie, who actually is the one who said, “This is what we should look for.” Uh, so, what I actually think happens here is you all are able to access the files through your like shared, like, uh, Mako, you kind of link everyone in to Orth’s computer, and so you’re each able to like, go through different elements of the file and I kinda see this as like, over in one corner, uh, Cassander is flipping through calendar pages, and like reading notes, and Aria is the one who, who is looking through, through, a bunch of you are looking through e-mail chains, right? But Aria, you like, click on the message sent to you, and then just click on like, who he bcc’d.
ALI: (laughs)
AUSTIN: ...on this e-mail chain. Um, and it’s a couple people. One of them is Horizon Tactical Solutions, which is the group you ran into, excuse me, last week, actually no! You don’t find that message, you find another message to them that’s mostly the same text, it’s like, in the sent folder there’s the one to you all, and then there’s also one that has the same subject line, but unlike, unlike the rest they have a special note attached to it, which says, like, like, “Edit: You’re the reason we’re in this mess, but I’m still willing to give you another shot.”
ALI: Oh….
JACK: Who’s this to?
AUSTIN: Horizon Tactical Solutions.
JACK: Okay.
KEITH: Because they’re dangerous.
AUSTIN: You ran into them. They were protecting, they were the ones protecting Cene at the end of the last session for you.
JACK: Wait, he contacted…
(simultaneously)
ART: Remember they murdered two of us?
AUSTIN: They’re just a merc unit.
AUSTIN: Yeah, they’re a merc unit, they’re a private military corporation, you know. Um…
JACK: That doesn’t make it any better.
ALI: (laughs)
AUSTIN: Listen…
ALI: They gotta get paid the same way we do.
AUSTIN: The, yeah. The Technocracy has a contract with people, you know. They’re part of the, the accepted client list, you know. Accepted contactor list.
ART: Oh yeah, business is what makes it better. Thanks Austin.
AUSTIN: (laughs) Also on that list is, is, an alias, how smart do you think the Weightless are, for their alias. Do you think that they also continue using bad chess things?
ALI: I mean, Weightless is very on the nose.
AUSTIN: Weightless is on the nose and then they’re all just like, Queen’s Whatever, you know, Rook Blah, so yeah maybe it’s like, maybe it’s sent to, some, the name, the e-mail name is some famous like opening, opening move in chess. (while typing) Famous opening chess move. I bet there’s one that sounds real cool. Ten most powerful openings, chess.com. Thanks chess.com. Uh, yeah, the number ten is The Roy Lopez, so it’s sent to Roy Lopez at, at, you know, c-mail.com.
JACK: The fading Hollywood star from the Seventies.
KEITH: In the future, in the future chess is very popular as an Earth-period throwback game.
AUSTIN: Yeah!
KEITH: So we all know the Roy Lopez.
AUSTIN: Yes, exactly.
JACK: That’s the one where you just flip the table.
AUSTIN and KEITH: (laughs)
AUSTIN: Um, and it, um, it’s the same message for you. There’s another, there’s a couple of other, uh, there’s a group, uh, sent to, to, uh, a group, not a group, an e-mail that’s like “Jaq N Jyl” J-A-Q-N-J-Y-L. Um, who you’ve never heard of.
KEITH: They sound obnoxious.
AUSTIN: There is, there’s a couple of other ones that are just sent to, to military e-mails. Like, to basically outreach people at Oricon and at the Diaspora.
JACK: It’s going out to his Tinyletter subscriptions list.
AUSTIN: Yes, exactly. He tells little short stories in there sometimes, it’s nice.
JACK: Yeah, it’s cute.
KEITH: And asked for, asked to be saved.
AUSTIN: And then also, yeah, “Can you come rescue me from dying please?”
KEITH: People are like, “Wow, that was short but powerful.”
(pause)
JACK: Um, okay, is it, it’s not in our interest to like, try to scare these people off because there’s like six of us and we died twice in the last session, so..
AUSTIN: That’s a way to do things.
ALI: No.
AUSTIN: I’m not going to say that’s a, but, but, you know, that’s up to y’all.
KEITH: Listen, if we come across them, especially this Horizon military something something.
ALI: Yeah, I think (laughs)
JACK: Yeah, I do not like that. I do not like that gang.
ALI: Aria’s quietly like, “Yo, he sent it to the Weightless and also to the people who killed us.”
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: She’s being played by Aziz Ansari in the, uh… (laughs)
AUSTIN: (laughs)
JACK: Oh that’s great.
(simultaneously)
ALI: In the live action (inaudible).
AUSTIN: I can get with that.
AUSTIN: Um, Art, you noted in chat that I actually fucked up and that your, your, what’s it called?
ART: Prowl.
AUSTIN: Prowl is actually only a 2. And you should have gotten the ‘Noticed’ thing. Take it, take ‘Noticed.’
ART: I mean you can notice someone and not immediately act on it, right, like that’s not a…
AUSTIN: Exactly. That’s exactly it. Yes.
JACK: Maybe they’re mustering up the courage to…
AUSTIN: Now, if a day or two…
KEITH: Now how do we know which one of the three is the one that…
JACK: Hahaha we don’t.
AUSTIN: What?
JACK: Which dice, he means which dice was the one that triggered.
KEITH: How do you we know which dice is the one that was added that he shouldn’t have had? It could have been the one that...wasn’t high enough.
AUSTIN: No no, it’s not, it’s not an added thing, it’s, I rolled a 2 and a 3, and you take the high one when you’re rolling against someone. And so his Prowl is only a 2, um, so he was noticed, because I got a 3.
KEITH: Oh, I understand, okay, I thought we were talking about how many dice were rolled, too many dice.
AUSTIN: No, no, no. I just, I misread what his stat was, so, so yeah. So yeah, take ‘Noticed’ as a negative adjective, it doesn’t hurt you on any of the rolls you’ve made here so it doesn’t matter here, but over and over a period of time, that ‘Noticed’ will fleet, that ‘Noticed’ will disappear because it’s fleeting, but that’s not like immediate, like they’ve noticed you not in the sense of like “Oh yeah, you’re here in this crowd” but in the sense of like “Oh yeah, he’s around.” I think I saw him. If they don’t see you again in the next couple of days, then like sure it’ll, it’ll disappear, you know.
ART: It must have been someone else.
AUSTIN: Right, exactly. My eyes are playing tricks on me, couldn’t, couldn’t have been him.
ART: Didn’t he die?
AUSTIN: Exactly. So what do you do? Anyone else looking for stuff here in Orth’s place before we move on?
KEITH: Does he have any cool trinkets?
AUSTIN: Hmm... he has a little, he has a little model of the Rook he piloted.
(everyone is touched)
ALI: Ooh…
KEITH: Ah…
JACK: Ah…
AUSTIN: It’s been like carefully, it’s been like carefully detailed with like, his, like callsign and his like unit stuff.
ALI: I love him.
KEITH: That’s adorable.
JACK: Oh oh, listen.
ART: I fucking hate this guy.
AUSTIN: Uh huh. Jack? AuDy?
JACK: Actually I should probably ask Mako. (as AuDy) Mako? Is there anything you can do to the door on this side that will let us get back into this office, uh, at further notice, if we need to?
(simultaneously)
KEITH (as Mako): Guess we could use these books like a, like a door prop or something.
ART: That’s some sneaky shit.
JACK (as AuDy): No, I mean, I could do that.
KEITH: (laughs loudly) You can see like Austin’s head fall.
AUSTIN: Goddamnit.
KEITH (as Mako): Um, yeah yeah, I can do that.
JACK: Can he do that, Austin?
AUSTIN: Give me a roll, you have to, that’s a Hack against, against…
JACK: Door.
AUSTIN: That’s probably not against Orth, that’s probably against whoever set up the Technocracy’s like stuff. You’re giving that person ‘compromised.’
KEITH: Um, who do I have, I have…
(simultaneously)
ART: You’re trying to make it sticky, right?
KEITH: I’m going to, I’m gonna use.
(simultaneously)
KEITH: I’m gonna roll 6. I have my 4.
AUSTIN: Yeah, you would, this would have to be sticky.
KEITH: I have my 4 Hack, I’m gonna use 1 for ‘Clever’ and 1 for being a criminal.
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally. Um, no, no, you can’t use ‘Criminal’ as that. Criminal doesn’t.
KEITH: I can’t.
AUSTIN: No yeah, your background just kind of let us know what types of things you can do without rolling, so like…
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: So like, if you had said like, “I wanna like lockpick this door” then I’d be like “Sure, you’re a criminal, that’s fine.”
KEITH: Um, okay, well then I uh I can use my um (pause) brain magic. The thing that I have labeled as a headjack, that we still haven’t found yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally.
KEITH: We still haven’t found the right way to refer to that outside of…
AUSTIN: Also what were you called again? What was the thing you?
KEITH: I was a, um, I was a Stratus.
ART: They were a hashtag otaku.
AUSTIN: Stratus!
KEITH: Stratus.
AUSTIN: Yeah, hashtag otechku. A Stratus and the thing you do is called…
KEITH: I can fog the door. That’s what I can do.
AUSTIN: Fog.
KEITH: Yes.
AUSTIN: Yes, I’m gonna write that down on your thing so that, so that it says something there.
(pause)
(simultaneously)
JACK: Friends at the Table: An Extended Five Minute Sequence Where Keith Fights a Door.
KEITH: Cause what is it, I use my, and then I go, I don’t have a thing, I have a brain.
(pause)
KEITH: So rolling 6D, oh not 6D4, 6D…
AUSTIN: 6.
KEITH: 6 is what I meant to do.
AUSTIN: Uh, and you just need to beat a 4 here...and you do! Oh wait no, that was, that was, yeah, there you go.
KEITH: And I do, yeah. And I’m gonna make it sticky so I’m gonna, I’m gonna lose one of my…
AUSTIN: Ah, I got it.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay, uh, and the other one is still discharged. Okay. Uh, and let me write this down. This is the person who was in charge of...the...security for the Technocracy is named, uh, Teagan Cantos.
KEITH: That’s a good name.
AUSTIN: Pretty good name. I have a really good name generator. It’s, it’s, I’m pretty into it.
(pause)
JACK: Did you write it?
AUSTIN: No. It’s just like, the cyberpunk one on donjon.bin.sh. It’s actually a really good cyberpunk name generator, and I love it. (while typing) Orth’s co-worker, and then Teagan Cantos is Technocracy’s security. Okay. Uh, cyber security. Alright!
(pause)
AUSTIN: So yeah yeah, and you’ve given Teagan ‘compromised’ so that you actually just have access to, to all of her, you have a backend, or a back, is that not right? A backdoor.
KEITH: I have a backdoor.
AUSTIN: ...to her, to her stuff.
KEITH: To her doors.
AUSTIN: Right. ‘Compromised.’ (pause) Okay, so, so what else are you, is that it? You’re done with Orth’s office?
ALI: Uh, well there was that one other question that I had was like who did he contact before his thing went off.
AUSTIN: Uh, let’s say it’s Teagan, and he, and he, asked her to make sure that his…
KEITH: My doors are locked and no one goes in?
AUSTIN: Right, please don’t let anyone in my...no, he says like, “I have a protocol set up, can you just make sure that if I’m, that if it, make sure that it sends, if I, if you haven’t heard from me in the next, in the next like five days. But like, it has not been five days since he sent that message.
ALI: Okay, but there’s no, like, “Hey, I’m on my way.”
AUSTIN: No.
ALI: to like a guy, in a?
(simultaneously)
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah, sure, there....
JACK: Oh other than the message that he’s like, “I need to go pick up the thing on the calendar.”
ALI: Like people he was talking to on, like where he is right now, who would know.
AUSTIN: The people that he would have talked to…
ALI: That would have seen him last, essentially.
AUSTIN: The people he would have talked to were like, no, I think all that stuff’s automated. Like, it’s like, he ordered a supply of things, it’s basically ordered something from Space Amazon, and like, is going to oversee its delivery, you know, um. And the thing that he ordered was food, which was like lots and lots of food.
(pause)
ALI: Okay, can we get a tracking number on that food, do we know if it ever arrived?
AUSTIN: Yes, it arrived. It arrived to the port.
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN: And then, and then he took control, then he took hold of it, basically.
ALI: Okay.
(pause)
JACK: So we know he must have got it? If he disappeared prior to arriving at the port, and (unintelligible)
AUSTIN: No, he didn’t just disappear, he disappeared on the way back from the port.
JACK: On the way back? Ah, okay.
AUSTIN: Yes. he got there, and was on his way back and halfway through he disappeared.
JACK: Okay, we ready to go?
AUSTIN: OR sorry it wasn’t actually halfway back, it was half to a different place. He wasn’t coming back here, he was going somewhere else with the delivery.
JACK: Was he taking all the stuff with him? Is he essentially acting as the delivery driver here?
AUSTIN: It’s not clear if he had that stuff with him from this stuff. Do you know what I mean? Like it doesn’t say, it shows where he embarked, you know, on the, on the Starlight Straight, but it doesn’t say, “Oh and he had a ton of stuff with him” or something like that, right? You know.
(simultaneously)
JACK: Has a carriage full of.
AUSTIN: All that stuff just wouldn’t be in his system, it would be in someone else’s system. It would be in the Starlight Straight’s system, but not here.
ALI: Right, okay.
AUSTIN: Alright, so.
JACK: Do we want to, to, do we want to make as our first port of call, the location of the, of the humanitarian aid, or the point of disappearance?
ALI: Um, I feel like we could go to the point of disappearance and like, check security footage, maybe?
JACK: Oh, that might be a good idea, yeah.
KEITH: So what was the first place?
JACK: Uh, the place where all the aid arrived.
ART: I mean, I’m interested in checking that out cause, cause knowing if it was delivered would give us a big piece of information, like, if this was just like a weird ambush from someone pretending to be Space Amazon, it gives us something different than like that, but yeah.
(simultaneously)
KEITH: I think I’m with Art.
ART: They’re both, they’re both good answers.
ALI: Oh, so we’re checking to see if like, he got the food, did he, did it get to where, what well, we know it didn’t because there’s still protesters, I don’t know.
JACK: Yeah that’s true.
AUSTIN: Well remember he wasn’t coming back here.
ALI: Oh, okay.
ART: That probably takes a little bit, right? Even if you’re like, it’s not like that food company would have like stood outside the office throwing it out, like…
ALI: (laughs) Just throw it off of the roof.
JACK: We could split the party, but we split the party for the last two episodes, um.
ALI: Splitting the party works.
JACK: Yeah, it does work, uh, also it’s…
AUSTIN: Remember you also have all of your own contacts to go to, remember? Just so you, you keep that in mind.
(simultaneously)
JACK: Oh yeah, actually, let me…
AUSTIN: That’s where you’re going to get stuff, from contacts that you know.
JACK: Let me just look at my list of contacts. Oh, okay, two of my contacts are Cene and Orth.
(small harrumphs)
JACK: Oh, uh, oh no, J-m works at a different port, right?
ART: But that might just be the general…
KEITH: Ali, we can go to Paisley.
ALI: We can go to Paisley or we can go to Jamil. She’s a journalist so she might know.
JACK: Oh she might have some information about the protest and the crisis that might be useful.
ALI: Yeah.
ART: Oh yeah, Jamil’s probably the answer here.
ALI: Just the general sitch.
AUSTIN: So do you want to do a split, a split party sitch, or do you want to do a…
ART: We can just do one or the other, just go to one of them and then the other, right? Like.
AUSTIN: You totally could. Yep.
KEITH: Let’s do that, let’s do then, then the other.
ART: We can decide we all like each other.
AUSTIN: (laughs) Uh, so where are you meeting Jamil at?
ALI: Um, I think I, like, send her a space text that says…
AUSTIN: Uh huh?
KEITH: (laughs)
ALI: (can’t help but join in)
JACK: Like a string of emojis.
ALI: That’s like, “Hey, what neighborhood are you in? I want to ask you some stuff.”
ART: Also we’re in space.
ALI: I’ll meet you. (laughs)
AUSTIN: She’s covering the protests, she’s like, you probably passed her, on the way back.
ALI: Oh, okay. So I know that she’s close.
ART: Fucking rude.
KEITH: (very quietly) Yes.
ALI: Um, then I send her a different text message that’s like, “Hey, I’m sorry we’re not...”
AUSTIN: No no, I’m sorry, that’s what she tells you, she tells you, she’s like, “Oh, I’m in, I’m in, uh, Center Dome, and, and I’m in Centralia,” which is that place that’s on fire all the time, Pennsylvania, and also now it’s the name of this dome. Uh…
JACK: (laughs) I’m sa (abruptly cuts offs)
AUSTIN: “I’m in Centralia, I’m covering these food protests. What’s up with you, girl?”
ALI: (laughs) “Can you meet me down the block at…” I’m trying to think of a cool name for a coffee place.
KEITH: Space Coffee?
ALI: Space Coffee.
AUSTIN: No, we’re not calling it Space Coffee, we’re better than this. We’re better than this.
ALI: Space Brew.
(simultaneously)
KEITH: Day Boo.
AUSTIN: The Witch’s Brew, obviously.
ALI: (laughs) I just want to ask.
AUSTIN: Okay.
ART: Constellation Coffee?
AUSTIN: Constellation’s pretty good. I kinda like Constellation.
ALI: Constellation is good.
JACK: Yeah, because it’s like a big chain as well, right?
AUSTIN: Yeah, that’s exactly it.
JACK: Except instead of the Starbucks logo with a siren, it’s just a circle just full of stars.
KEITH: No, but here’s the problem with that, is that, it’s not the best coffee and so everybody calls it Consolation Coffee.
AUSTIN: (dejected laugh)
ALI: That’s so good.
AUSTIN: Okay, so you go down to Constellation. You all go together, you just head out there, it’s walkable, let’s say it’s walkable, it’s kind of a, I feel like inside these domes it’s always a little too humid, but like, you’re just used to it at this point.
KEITH: Um hm. “Yo, you want to get something at Connies?” “No, it’s too humid for coffee, still.”
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah, “Even iced coffee?” “Even iced coffee.”
KEITH: Even iced coffee.
AUSTIN: Which is still a thing.
KEITH: Too much condensation at Constellation.
AUSTIN: Ug, so, you head out there, um, what’s it like inside that place. I think it’s probably alright, you know what in, in my mind, it’s a bit like Cafe Bene, which is a chain that’s kinda blowing up in New York right now? Do you guys have those out there in L.A., Art?
KEITH: No.
ART: Yerp.
AUSTIN: Or up in Boston, Keith?
ART: Maybe, I don’t know.
KEITH: Nope. Yeah, well, maybe, but I haven’t seen it.
AUSTIN: It’s a, it’s a South Korean chain that’s, that’s taking over New York by storm. It’s like, haa, it’s, it’s, there’s lot of like, wood, it’s a little cozier than like a Starbucks, it’s not as…
ALI: Yeah, lots of dark woods.
AUSTIN: But it’s, but it’s also kind of like it doesn’t feel professional? Sort of, it does feel like a little too, it’s like right in-between local place and Starbucks, um, and because of that it doesn’t feel like, whenever someone takes my order there I always want to ask if like their dad is around.
KEITH and ALI: (laugh)
AUSTIN: Is your mom here? Like are you allowed, are you allowed to working the register, is that, is this, is everything okay? It’s nice, I like…
ART: We have a different South Korean coffee chain in L.A., I don’t know if you remember we drove by, they had that political billboard.
AUSTIN: OH right. I do remember that. Right, we found that, there was a political billboard about like, “No, Korea owns this island.” And like, the company that put that there was like a coffee chain.
ART: It was Tom-Tom’s coffee, the L.A. South Korean coffee restaurant.
AUSTIN: Right, that hates the fact that Japan, like legally owns some tiny island with no one living on it. It’s very strange, local politics, local politics. Uh, so, yeah, you go to Constellation and Jamil is there, she’s in like her work clothes, which is great, because she has like glowy hair, but then also just like, a fucking sharp ass suit. Um…
AUSTIN (as Jamil): How you guys doing? Take a seat. I already ordered, I already ordered some, some mochas for us.
ALI (as Aria): Oh thank you. Um, so what’s, you were working on the protest, what’s going on with that?
AUSTIN: What’s your, what’s, who has adjectives with her, mischief(?) adjectives with Jamil?
KEITH: I think just Ali.
ALI: I have “trust” with her.
AUSTIN: Okay, that’s good. Her eyes like keep lingering on your arm. Um, your new robot arm. She’s, she’s a little like, “huh.”
AUSTIN (as Jamil): Uh, you know, there’s just, it’s one of those things you know, the shipment is late this month and it was late last month too, so, people just aren’t, arent’ patient.
KEITH (as Mako): For food?
AUSTIN (as Jamil): For food.
KEITH (as Mako): Right. I mean, that’s understandable.
AUSTIN (as Jamil): You know, I just feel like, uh, it’s one of those things, it’s been a bad year, I think. The ten year is coming up so a lots of old wounds. You know it feels like?
AUSTIN: She, she looks around a little bit.
AUSTIN (as Jamil): Something about this just doesn’t sit right with me.
JACK (as AuDy): The protests?
AUSTIN (as Jamil): Yeah. It all feels too... (pause) it feels a little too orchestrated. It’s all feels a little too on the nose. You know? We’re a couple months out now from, from the ten year anniversary of the War ending and (sighs)
KEITH (as Mako): This is one of the more cliche protests?
AUSTIN (as Jamil): And this is one of the more cliche protests. You know, get people riled up. Remind them of, of, the hard times. Make them forget all the progress we’ve made and...I don’t know.
KEITH (as Mako): Who’s organizing the protests?
AUSTIN (as Jamil): It’s a group of people, they all seem legit.
(pause)
JACK (as AuDy): As in, real?
AUSTIN (as Jamil): Yeah, as in.
JACK (as AuDy): Protesting people?
AUSTIN (as Jamil): As in, these are groups that have been around for, for a minute, you know. These are people who, some of them, some of them were protesting the war back when that was happening.
KEITH (as Mako): What kind of minute, we talking hot minute?
AUSTIN (as Jamil): A hot minute. Yeah.
KEITH (as Mako): Yeah.
(pause)
AUSTIN: Uh, she does (pause) besides lingering on, on Aria’s robot arm, her eyes also betray her a little bit, because she also keeps stealing glances at Cassander.
(pause)
AUSTIN (as Jamil): What about you, do you know anything about what’s happening?
AUSTIN: She asks Cassander.
ART (as Cass): No, I just (inaudible) with the...
AUSTIN: And I think she’s trying to intimidate you a little. No, not intimidate, she’s trying to give the adjective (sigh) um, hm (pause) ‘pressured,’ I think.
ART: Okay.
(simultaneously)
AUSTIN: What uh, what is your coax? That’s coax.
ART: What stat do you want?
ART: Two. Do I just have two in everything, what happened here? Oh okay that’ll do it.
AUSTIN: Yeah, um, you’re spread pretty thin, like, you have Operate and Treat, you know, you were a doctor and a robot pilot, so…
ART: Sure.
AUSTIN: But that’s, that’s, (mumbling to himself) uh, what is her, hers is pretty good, if I called, do, de, do do do. (out loud) She is a journalist.
(pause)
ART: Yeah that’s sounds legit.
AUSTIN: Um okay. (fiddling with keyboard) Uh okay, and she’s going to give you ‘pressured,’ which is fleeting.
AUSTIN (as Jamil): So do you know anything?
ART: Alright. So should I take this as like a, as I… (pause) as an impetus to be more honest than I would normally be?
AUSTIN: It’s up to you, you should play that you, that you’re pressured, yes.
(pause)
ART (as Cass): Um, I mean if you’re asking if I know if this is an Apostolosian plot to undermine the, the government here, I don’t. I haven’t, I haven’t talked to…I haven’t talked to anyone back home in a long time.
ALI (as Aria): Cass is good, don’t worry.
AUSTIN (as Jamil): Alright.
ART (as Cass): But it, but it certainly crossed my mind, right? That would make sense.
AUSTIN (as Jamil): Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m thinking. It’s…(pause) don’t take this the wrong way. But, uh, your people, the ones who are still here. They especially don’t mix well with us. (pause) And it’s not, it’s not a judgement thing, it’s, I get it, they used to live here, we killed a bunch of them, we moved in. We’re trying to run a life here now and normally they keep to your own. And now, they’re not. They’re at these protests and it’s, you know, my editor has some ideas about what’s happening here and I, it’s hard to tell him he’s wrong, because, uh, it’s definitely in the air.
(pause)
ART (as Cass): I mean I don’t even know who would be doing, like I don’t even know who, who runs that shit anymore. Been gone a long time.
AUSTIN (as Jamil): Alright, if you find...if you hear anything you let me know, because uh, if you don’t, it looks really bad for you.
(pause)
ART: I thought we were getting along just fine, then she started threatening me.
AUSTIN: Um.
KEITH: It’s hard to be a disgraced prince.
AUSTIN: It’s definitely the case I think, especially Aria, that like, for her to be on the, on the aggressive like this, maybe means that she knows something that she isn’t letting on.
ALI: Oh okay.
(pause)
AUSTIN: Which means that if you push her a little bit she might give you something.
ALI: Hmm…
KEITH: We have the same Coax, right?
ALI: Me and you?
KEITH: At one?
ALI: Yes. Um…yeah I’m wondering, uh, yeah I don’t know, I feel like I’m going to defend Cass, actually? And be like, uh…
AUSTIN: That’s fair.
ALI (as Aria): Yeah, I mean if anyone, if anyone knew anything, it wouldn’t be him, but we could. If you think they have something to do with this, we could look into it. Uh, do you have any leads?
(pause)
AUSTIN: Are you trying to put an adjective on her here?
ALI: Um, I don’t know. I don’t think so.
ART: Shamed. ‘Shamed’ is the adjective you are going for. She can be ashamed of the way she was treating me, what are you even talking about?
ALI: No, I, I guess, if the adjective would be anything it would be…
AUSTIN: I think you need to, for her to give you anything here.
ALI: Right. I think that.
AUSTIN: If you trust her, it’s not the, that’s not the inverse for sure, you know?
ALI: Um, cause what I think that I’m trying to say is that we would work together, so I guess the adjective would be like, ‘cooperative,’ or…
(simultaneously)
AUSTIN: Sure, I like ‘cooperative.’
ALI: I would be giving her a fleeting ‘trusting?’
AUSTIN: Sure, that’s fair. The difficulty here is three.
ALI: Okay, and I’m rolling on my Coax.
AUSTIN: Yep, which is four.
ALI: Do I get an extra for...my…
AUSTIN: You can discharge a push die to roll more.
ALI: No, that’s fine, I can probably just do four. Uh…
AUSTIN: Yeah, you got it.
ALI: I got a bunch of threes.
AUSTIN: Yeah, three’s fine.
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN: Um, so you.
KEITH: Does it work the same way as the six, like does having multiple threes make it a 3.1?
AUSTIN: Yes, totally. Yes. It’s just um…
KEITH: It beats ties?
AUSTIN: As long as you, as long as you, yeah, it beats ties, exactly. So uh, she says…
AUSTIN (as Jamil): Listen, I...there’s this group. They’re called the Netted Wave. (pause) They’re a bunch of, uh…
KEITH: Sounds like a haircut.
AUSTIN (as Jamil): They’re a bunch of Apostolosians who stuck around and have been digging around and, you know, they’re vets, and there was the disarmament, obviously. But the paperwork doesn’t add up, I think that they still have some of their gear. I can’t prove anything, but, they’re here, and they’re equipped. If someone wanted to start some shit, it would be them. They run out of Dome 7, and...I don’t know. I’ve seen a couple of them around here, and it makes me raise my eyebrows.
JACK: We’re assuming that she doesn’t know that Art has like a gigantic battlemech, right?
AUSTIN: No, she knows that but like, you’re one of the good ones.
JACK: Okay.
ART: I should probably reconsider wearing this crown everywhere I go though.
AUSTIN: Yeah, you shouldn’t, you probably shouldn’t.
ART: But it does all my stuff.
(pause)
AUSTIN: But that’s cool because if you don’t wear it, that means you get that great scene of you putting it on so you can control your mech.
JACK: Oh yeah.
ART: Sure, but then I need to establish that I have a crown-sized pocket in my jacket.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: It’s collapsible.
ALI: I think it’s yeah.
KEITH: It’s collapsible.
ALI: It’s like headphones.
AUSTIN: Yes.
KEITH: It, it also turns into a backpack.
ART: Crowns by Dre.
AUSTIN: No, it’s eh, yes. Ha ha ha.
KEITH: (laughs)
AUSTIN: Yes, absolutely.
(pause)
AUSTIN: Now we know the emperor’s name, the emperor of Apostolos is just Dre, it’s good. It’s also just Dr. Dre, that’s who it is, so...okay. Uh, anything else here?
ALI: So, they operate out of Dome...7?
AUSTIN: Seven. Yes.
JACK: Oh. Do they have any identifying marks that we could particularly look for? I mean as an organization.
AUSTIN: She sends over, she like looks down at her wrist and presses a few buttons on her, uh, watch, she says…
AUSTIN (as Jamil): I’ll send, I’ll send over what I got.
JACK (as AuDy): Thank you.
AUSTIN: And you get like a dossier on, on couple of them.
JACK: Oh nice.
AUSTIN: You see that there is, one of them is named Alecto, and, and he [sic] is, um, a slight man, kind of a very weak chin, but, but…
JACK: With that name, he sounds like he’s come over from the, um, Empire of Pulse.
AUSTIN: (laughs) Yeah, yeah, um, listen I have lots of ideas about the, about the way Apostolos looks. Uh, uh, and then the other one you get is Tisiphone, who is a, she [sic] just have, the thing that is the most striking about her is that, is that she has like, really voluminous brown hair, um, and like deep brown eyes, and she looks just mean. Like, it’s like this combination of, of like, she’s very well put together, she looks very beautiful, but also, like, this shot of her is like, it’s like a shot of her in the crowd, that Jamil took. It’s just like looking out into the waves of people who are protesting and she just looks cruel, like she looks like she thinks she’s above all of these people.
JACK: And what’s her name again?
AUSTIN: Tisiphone. T-I-S-I-P-H-O-N-E.
(pause)
JACK: So are we done here, do you think?
(pause)
ALI: Um, yeah, I guess I, I tell Jamil like,
ALI (as Aria): Yeah, we’re on a job, but um, if these people are involved with what we’re looking into then I’ll let you know.
AUSTIN (as Jamil): Thanks Aria, I appreciate it. I gotta get back to work, it’s been, it’s been a long day, it’s going to be a longer one still so.
ALI (as Aria): I feel ya.
AUSTIN (as Jamil): Good luck out there.
AUSTIN: And she reaches to hug you, and gives you a one-armed hug and she doesn’t touch your robotic arm.
ALI: (exacerbated laugh)
JACK: You should have got that fake, you should have got that cheapo skin.
ALI: I have the money for it. I have the money for a surgery, probably
JACK: Space Walgreens.
ALI: I’m going to do a concert and then not eat for a week.
AUSTIN: (laughs)
JACK: Okay, alright.
KEITH: (laughs)
ALI: That’s not a joke, that’s actually going to happen, she would do that.
AUSTIN: Uh huh, okay, now where?
ART: I guess we’re going to Dome 7.
JACK: Yeah, like Dome 7 seems like a good place to go.
ART: I mean, there’s another idea I have which is we can go back to Koda, but we kinda like just pushed them, and I don’t know if going back like, “Hey, are you involved with this, like, fringe reactionary, revolutionary group, former commanding officer? Who just, who just saved, saved our asses?”
KEITH: We could go to, we could go to Paisley. Paisley’s the other person I think would know a thing about a thing.
AUSTIN: That’s likely true.
ALI: Yeah, I want to get Paisley, like on screen but I don’t know how he would be involved.
AUSTIN: Um…
ALI: Except that he has his hands in a lot of stuff.
KEITH: His whole, I think Paisley’s whole thing is like, knowing names that he shouldn’t know.
ALI: Well he’s a fixer.
AUSTIN: Yeah, one thing I will say is, as always, time is running, so keep that in mind.
ART: Yeah, maybe we should get on the ground.
KEITH: Strong.
ART: We can like call Paisley when we’re on the, on the, in our Goober.
KEITH: Yeah, yeah let’s call a Goober we’ll Skype…
AUSTIN: Alright, so…
JACK: Oh wait, no oh oh.
KEITH: Skype with Paisley, Skype with two S’s, because it’s Space Skype.
JACK: If we’re going to travel there, why don’t we just take the, Starlight Express, or whatever..
AUSTIN: Starlight Straight, yeah. But, uh, because, one reason is you won’t have your stuff.
JACK: Oh, okay, right.
(simultaneously)
AUSTIN: So, you might want to be taking the Kingdom Come here.
JACK: We’re traveling light.
JACK: Yeah, I don’t, I don’t see why not.
ART: Yeah, I have a really bad idea, we’re gonna need the Kingdom Come if we’re going to do it.
JACK: Oh, great, let’s go.
AUSTIN: (laughs) Oh, that’s a good sign. That’s a good sign. That’s a good.
ART: You know what I bet draws out your Apostolosian rebels?
[‘The Long Way Around’ starts]
ART: The sight of an Apostolosian mech wrecking some shit.
JACK: (laughs)
AUSTIN: Good, great.
JACK: Alright, so I guess we all hop in the Kingdom Come?
[‘The Long Way Around’ finishes]
END
[1] Apostolos’ non-binary gender system would be later elaborated in play.