Transcriber: Cole (MagiCole) 0~0:33:00, Bri (OldFashionedCyborg) 0:33:00~1:03:00 Sav @meandermadley/savmad#1738 1:03:00-1:06:00, thedreadbiter 1:06:00-end
Content Warnings for this Episode
Throughout: Violence During a Public Event
00:00 - 20:30: Disrespect of the Dead, Implied Disrespect of a Dead Body
1:41:00 - End: Death, Deliberation about Character Sacrifice, Suicide by Sacrifice, Immolation, Violence During a Public Event
Austin: Hey everyone. It is Austin here. Um, this has been a really heavy week. Wildfires have hit across the Western United States, and Hurricane Laura hit the Caribbean and then some of the Gulf States in the South, like Louisiana and Texas and others. And there was the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, and then the murder of two protesters— two Black Lives Matter protesters— by Kyle Rittenhouse. All during an ongoing pandemic. So given all that, up top today, I wanted to be very upfront about the content of this episode, give a warning for it.
Those warnings include throughout the whole episode, I would say violence during a public event, given the circumstances of the mission as it was set up in the last episode. At the first 15-20 minutes I would say disrespect of the dead and implied disrespect of the dead body. And then for the final 15-20 minutes, death, deliberation about character sacrifice, suicide by sacfrice, and immolation. It is a heavy episode. And I want to say that, um, there was a previous version of this mp3 that went up without as much clarity in terms of time and content, so apologies for that, in terms of content warnings. I wanted to make sure we added these in as people let us know that they wanted some additional content warnings. If anything like that happens again, please reach out to us, friendsatthetable@gmail.com if you’re ever like, “Hey, I know you were trying to do ‘xyz,’ but this thing, you know, was really difficult for me,” please just let us know. I have no problem going in and adding new content warnings. We do our best. And you know, the initial post did have content warnings, but didn’t have everything that it should have.
So, we’re happy to add those whenever— whenever we can be because we know that telling difficult and nuanced stories means, you know, uh, needing to fix them sometimes and improve on them. And we know that you just want those warnings in place for the best— for the best reasons, and we would rather just accommodate that and be open to hearing that every time. Rather than, you know, clinging to some idea that the story should live as is. Um… and also, to pivot a little bit to go back to the things that have been happening this week— and also I wanted to say that we stand in solidarity with those who are suffering right now— both under the weight of police brutality and police violence, also those suffering from natural disasters and living through natural disaster— and we know that even natural disasters often cut hardest against those in the margins. And so I hope that, if you’re listening, you’ll take this moment to consider helping those in need right now. In the description you’ll find a small collection of links to funds and other resources where you can figure out ways to support folks who have been impacted by the last week. We know this is an incomplete list, but we hope that it is at least a start.
I was supposed to do an intro about merch today; this does not necessarily feel like the place or time to do that, so there are no images in the description of that merch or anything like that. Um, I said that there would be last week, but there isn’t. If you are interested in that, you can go to our twitter feed, twitter.com/friends_table or to the Fangamer site and search for Friends at the Table there. You’ll find it. Uh, this is, like I said, a pretty heavy episode, but it is also— it is still an episode that we recorded months ago at this point, or a month and a half ago or something like that. Right after the Kingdom game, or soon after the Kingdom game. And so there is light-hearted stuff here. We do have a good time. This is not like a dour episode from front to back. And so while I would never want to be like the bread and circuses of Empire, I do hope that it provides some relief or focus... or respite in this week. But again, I did want to be upfront about the content warnings, which again, you can find in the description below. All right, I'm gonna get out of the way and then let the “last time on” play. All right. Peace.
Austin [cont.]: A message comes through from Kenzi to you, Valence. There is some sort of stealth transport of this Memoria, which are the eyes of the true divine, being transported to a place called Nooncrown, which is a cerem— is this kind of a ceremonial site, a kind of holy cemetery watched over by the dormant Divine Order.
[Jack de Quidt’s “TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.” begins playing]
This exchange will be happening under the cover and safety of a public event, and that event is the funeral of Clementine Kesh. Unfortunately, what Jesset tells you is
Austin [as Jesset]: Recovering the exemplar is simply not high priority for Millennium Break right now.
Dre [as Valence]: So basically we could go, but there won't be many resources allocated to us, or any resources allocated to us.
Austin [as Jesset]: There will be whatever you can bring to bear and whatever I can slide your way quietly.
Dre: I would definitely like to roll Farsight.
Austin: The walled-in cemetery, but then also places where the Knights of Order like live. I think at some point you actually see one of them speaking with Crysanth Kesh who is here.
Dre: What is the situation with, like, the walls that are up here? Does it look like there's any way to get around or through those walls?
Austin: You probably could do it with the right equipment.
Dre: I understand if this approach is a little too reckless.
Janine: I think drilling or climbing, either way is fine. Drilling is slower; climbing is faster.
Austin: This northeastern Troop unit is moving up towards you as y’all begin to scale this wall.
Janine: If you have a remote vehicle controll in your robot, you could distract the thing maybe?
Austin: As your mech starts making noise to the— to the north. You see the Troop unit turn from the wall and like, start to look that direction and begin to walk in that direction. But you manage to climb to the top and get a pretty good look of the place. There are hundreds of people, maybe thousands of people outside to this— to the south and in the east, listening and watching the ceremony on the kind of projected screen on Order’s chest. Crysanth Kesh finally gets up to speak.
Austin [as Crysanth]: Clementine was a noble and devout defender of Divinity. She not only revealed to us a gross conspiracy, but returned to our fold a voice of peace and power.
Austin: And then suddenly her face on the body of Order is replaced with a new one.
Austin [as Gur Sevraq]: Hello, my name is Gur Sevraq. You may not know it yet, but we are friends. And you must trust me. I am here today to tell you about the noble sacrifice of Clementine Kesh, who was my friend and who taught me a great deal.
[music ends]
Austin [as Gur Sevraq]: Today, we welcome Song and Elect and Citizen, and I suspect that many of you have the same question that I had the last time I saw Clementine Kesh. “What comes next?” These were the words I asked her as she freed me from the monsters of Millennium Break. And she gave me a simple answer, one that I should have seen coming, a single word, “progression.”
As you may know, 1000 years ago, the Prophet Logos Kantel came to this world, and they brought with them the power and message of Progressive Asterism. Though the church bears the name of this doctrine, for the centuries that followed its founding, scholars and priests debated what might be meant when Logos Kantel said “progression.” Such debate is well intentioned blunder at best and malicious deception otherwise. Because there can be no doubt as to the prophet’s meaning. 1000 years ago, before the Prophet arrived, this was a moon barren with vast craters where a sea now flows. Rivers of liquid fire where now cities rest. Absence broken only by those perils which need neither atmosphere nor sociality to live.
But the Principality is greater than any moon. We have mastered history, learned to draw its shapes in beautiful arcs of our own design, and so we overcame Partizan. And this, this is what Millennium Break hates about us: our music, our love, our faith, our very idea of self. We have spent eons changing our bodies, our minds, our culture. And this is why we will withstand this attack. The greatest weapon a tyrant has is their ability to wall in the imagination, to shackle the very idea of what is possible. Well, a siege has a way of breaking walls, of loosing shackles, and there is no key more universal than knowledge.
So let me tell you about Millennium Break. I have had firsthand experience with them. They are a group of people spread throughout the Principality who carry allegiance only to themselves and their hubris. They believe that with the recent war between the Princepts, it is time for someone else to take the reins. They believe that they are that someone else. They sent countless to die. How many more must they have in reserve, and how low must they think of the citizens of the principality that they dream of leading? There was a time once when the galaxy was joined in pure unity, and every day we work to return to that place. But Millennium Break would not see us go. Instead, they peddle separation under the guise of unity, conquest in the name of universal salvation.
If I seem short, it is only because I have dreamt for so long of sending this message. While in captivity for months, I desperately tried to get a message out. I had hoped to spur you on, to bring you towards action immediate. I fear you only lean towards what is necessary instead of running towards it. But in times like these, what is necessary demands swiftness. Which is why I call on you today in the name of Clementine Kesh, whatever our differences, we must crush Millennium Break. If we do not reroute history, then what comes next is disastrous to everyone here on Partizan and the many others throughout the Principality.
But it does not need to be that way. If we stand against them, if we take action now, then they will be no more than a decoration on the line of history. If we unite, then they cannot stop us any more than the moon of Partizan prevented the Principality from conquering it. Progression. I tell you here gathered today that this is still our divine doctrine. The message sent to Logos Kantel, I know it well. It is our duty to imagine and to pray for and build a world of order. Be well, my friends, and hold in your hearts the names of Logos Kantel and Clementine Kesh. Defenders of Divinity.
Austin: And the image fades and Thisbe, he is lying— Hm, is he lying? Huh. Is this a lie? It's a lie, but it's not... How does your lie detection work? Tell me how your lie detection works.
Janine: Um, I think... I think a thing that's more interesting to me, especially in terms of how Thisbe sees the world is... I think it makes more sense to me that rather than being able to tell specifically ‘that is a lie,’ I think it makes more sense for Thisbe to be able to tell ‘that is the truth.’
Austin: I see.
Janine: Because there's a difference there, right?
Austin: Right, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Janine: There's a difference between— and I think— I think that's kind of the thing you're struggling with here is like, there are— there are degrees to which an untruth can be an untruth and—
Austin: That's not what— There is something else I'm struggling with here, too, that you don't know yet. But I...but I do like what you're saying here about running it the other way, right? Which is that, for instance, in the... in the Crysanth eulogy, there were things that were true there about Clementine. Clementine was a key part of the assault on Icebreaker. Clementine was part of— did recover the body of the Divine Past and Cymbidium. Those things rang as true to you. The love that was supposedly being shown to her, less so, let's say.
Janine: Mhm.
Austin: With the Gur Sevraq stuff, I think the thing that runs as true to you is that, that's Gur Sevraq. When Gur Sevraq says, “My name is Gur Sevraq,” you believe him. You know firsthand that much of what the rest that was said was not true, and it does not ring true to you. And not just like the lies, but also like— There was stuff— I'll just give this to you. There’s stuff Gur Sevraq just said that Gur Sevraq has said before. That is true that it's Gur’s voice, but is he being puppeted? Are they being manipulated? Have they been reprogrammed? You don't know. And I think that... to some degree, it doesn't matter. I mean, it matters, but like, it's hard for you to deny that that’s Gur Sevraq. So. [pause] Valence, how are you doing?
Dre: Bad.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: I'm almost wondering if there is a way for Valence to try and… like figure out where this was taped?
Austin: Um… I think the— I think it's… I think it's a good downtime action, is what I would say.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: Let's say that you'll be able to get access to this— This is clearly a recording they want people to see. So you will have access to this recording in some form during downtime. Make a note of it, for sure.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: In fact, maybe you want to start a long term project.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Just like put it— put it down there so that we know to do it during the next downtime, you know?
Dre: Yeah. yeah.
Austin: At this point. OK. The... Actually, you know what? Valence specifically? [sighs] I don't do this very often, but I actually think you— you tell me; do you think this is worth making a resistance check against, or rather taking stress for? Like, do you want to mechanize, having seen this in some way?
Dre: Yea… hmmm.
Austin: I'm fine with no, but I'm also open to it being that important to you. Do you know what I mean?
Dre: Yeah, yeah. No, I think— I think it is—
Austin: [overlapping] Like, there's a bit of this that feels like a psychic attack. I mean, it's meant as a— it's meant as a sort of attack on Millennium Break more broadly, but also on Gur’s closest allies in a real way.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Part of what's being done here is a sort of psychological attack on those who would believe that Gur Sevraq would never even— would never break in this way. Right? Like, either this is just his body, and it's being puppeted, which is gruesome and terrible, or they've been convinced or put under duress until they agreed to say what Stel Nideo wanted them to say. And even that— even thinking, “OK, that's Gur Sevraq. Gur Sevraq is alive and is lying to save his life.” Even that is not good.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Like, even if he's lying, he would never— he would never sell his soul or decide that this is better than— than being harmed or whatever. He would never— he would never take the easy way out and agree to be a propagandist for the Principality.
Dre: Mhm.
Austin: So even if you believe that it's Gur Sevraq but Gur Sevraq is lying, it still hurts to know that he would lie, even under duress, right?
Dre: Yeah. Can I throw a fun monkey wrench in here?
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: Because I think this is a combination of Valence’s Haunted and Righteous.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: I think without even really thinking, this upsets Valence so much that they attempt to send like a— like to reconnect telepathically with Gur Sevraq.
Austin: Yes.
Dre: Something they have just never thought to do since they watched him die. But they are so emotional and so, like, jarred by this—
Austin: [throughout] Uh-huh. Mhm
Dre: —it accidentally comes out in the kind of, with the Tesla move where I think a lot of people in the crowd hear a message of “Where are you?”
Austin: [breathes a laugh] I love it. I love a good stealth mission.
[Dre laughs]
Austin: So, yeah, there's—
Art: Well, no one knows where a mental communication— It’s not like it’s, you know, you heard it.
Austin: [overlapping] No, but it overrides— it comes through the like, speakers. There's like, the feedback sound. And it— it… um, you... There are a couple of things here. One is, you know, from this connection immediately, that Gur Sevraq— the Gur Sevraq in that video is not where he was a moment ago, or he wasn't in that message, right? That message was clearly prerecorded.
Dre: Mhm.
Austin: Because wherever he is, is dark and does not have a lot of room. There's a sense of confusion. But also a sense of absence. And there's no response. [pause] Um… actually, I think the response is,
Austin [as Gur Sevraq]: Hello. My name is Gur Sevraq. Hello. My name is Gur Sevraq.
Austin: Which is to say, I want to be clear, you connected to that consciousness. That's not... which complicates it in ways. You know, I think I just have to— [sighs] you know, Gur Sevraq that well. You've connected, you know, empathically before. This is a consciousness the way Mo has a consciousness Like maybe a few steps above Mo, but below Thisbe. This is— this is the shell of Gur Sevraq that's been filled with just enough stuff to be able to deliver a message like that. And some of it is old Gur Sevraq stuff, which is why it rings true to some degree. But it's also just stuff written whole cloth, programmed whole cloth. This is a machine. This is not your friend. There's also a vision that you get, for just the briefest moment, of.. like a castle. Like a... you can't tell the scale. It's very— it's like a weird perspective. It's looking straight up at a castle, and the castle is covered in Russian sage. And that's like a blip, and then it's gone. And you have no idea what that means. Sovereign Immunity, you can tell that this seems weird. [lightly laughs]
Art: [amused] Yeah, thanks. That’s uh—
Austin: That's all. [Dre laughs] That’s what you got. You don't have any lie powers or telepathy, but, “Huh, weird one.”
Art: Yeah, I still have uh... the gift of history—
Austin: [laughs] Yes.
Art: —and memory.
Austin: Yes. And you see, after this message is delivered and the festivities continue— I keep saying festivities, and it’s really rude of me. [Dre and Austin laugh] The event continues, but Crysanth quickly says some goodbyes and shakes hands and begins to be escorted by the— by Brother Cadmus, who is the preacher who gave the opening remarks, down this pathway up towards where you are all at now. Like, you know, kind of from here, up this way, walking past the Pinnacle, the mech with the big spear situation and coming to the rest besides Order. And I think she even reaches out with one hand and touches— touches Order very, very… um, cautiously isn't the right word, but with a degree of reference, you know? Um, reverence, not reference. [amused] She's not like, “Mm, what is this? Do I know this? Let me try to remember what this is.” Uh, reverence. You know, she's like, “Yeah, OK, that's Order.” And then she checks her watch and says something quietly to Brother Cadmus.
And Brother Cadmus goes over to the Pinnacle, and you see that the Pinnacle unit who's guarding the kind of gate into this area, kneels down and begins to let out its current pilot. And Brother Cadmus is going to get into it at this moment. It's like there's like a— your guess is that Crysanth said, “Hey, I'd rather you be on defense here than whoever this person is.” Uh, or “you be, you know, my guard during this.” And it's around that moment that you can hear… [tongue click] there's like a faint slice in the wind. Like a— like a— it actually just sounds like there is a sudden breeze, like a really loud but thin breeze. Do you know what I mean? Does that make any sense? And fluttering down from the clouds, or kind of gliding down from the clouds are one, this kind of big bulbous air transport unit and then kind of around it, these three smaller units that your, you know, targeting computers register as Zenith Project Filigrees. These are— these are special units that are— they have very thin glider-like wings that do kind of have a filigree— like metallic filigree design that are really— They're small, but they're really good at long range stealth escort missions because they don't have any sort of like big power pack that needs to stay recharged. They're able to glide long distances after an initial thrust, and they're very small and quiet. So it's those three plus a kind of ship that's coming to a rest, or that's going to come to a rest just below you here. However, the fact that they're passing over you means that they have a much better chance of seeing you than the troops that were looking up at you. What do you do in this moment before they are able to scan down at you?
Art: I need someone to have a better idea than jump.
Dre: Um, I guess is there any cover up here that we could get under?
Austin: The people, yes. The… Mow, no.
Dre: Mm, yeah. I guess, Austin, this is the time to have this talk about the “In the Machine” move.
Austin: Uh huh.
Dre: And how that works.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: I don't know if it would be possible for me to— So the In the Machine move says: “I may interface to possess a digital machine.”
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: And I, I don't know if I could do that to like, interface with the mech and like scramble their sensors or something?
Austin: So I think— so there's a couple of things happening here. So there's a move that you now have from Proxy called In the Machine—
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: —that says, “You may interface to possess a digital machine. When your control is challenged, you must interface again or leave the machine. Your control is challenged when digital force is used against you or the machine is damaged.” Now, we haven't used many moves like this, including anything from the Proxy playbook. The Proxy playbook is from The Growing Conflict, and the Proxy is literally a non-physical digital— it's a purely digital entity. It's someone who lives in the world of like, AR and the internet and, you know, the network and can jump naturally from different digital, or different physical objects. We were kind of adapting this move to represent Valence’s growing, you know, empathic and strange powers. And it's also something you’ve learned you can do, especially as... In the last few weeks, the Perennial Wave has been getting denser and denser, and when it's dense— and it's dense today— you can, you can reach out and touch machines, even ones that don't necessarily lend themselves to this as easily as they should.
Most digital machines in the past, what we would have meant by that would have been something that is a Divine, is a Hallow, something blessed by the Divine, something with clarified Memoria, something, you know, that has some sort of Perennial stuff going on in it. You know, space magic shit, right? But when the Perennial Wave is high, it's giving you almost a medium by which to convert digital control into analog control, into this kind of older... the older tech that's inside of these mechs and stuff. I think it's one of those things that, it's possible; it's difficult, especially at range. It's much easier when you can, like, be right up on it and gather the Wave around you and put the Wave into it.
Dre: Mhm.
Austin: It's— I'll let you roll it, but I think that this is a desperate action at range whereas it's only risky— or sorry, it's not a desperate action, it's a limited— it's a limited action at range, whereas it would be— it would be a standard action if you were closer to one of these mechs. You're talking with the gliding ones, right? The Filigrees?
Dre: Mhm. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, so I think it's— I think it's a risky limited versus it being a risky standard if you were able to touch it directly.
Dre: OK.
Austin: Also, I'm going to introduce a clock, and this is a six step clock. [Dre laughs] And this clock is going to be capturing the eyes. I love to make a thing that says “Capturing the eyes.”
Dre: Mhm.
Austin: And that will be here. Boom. [pause] So you gonna try it?
Dre: Yes, and I can... I can push myself to increase effect, right?
Austin: You totally can.
Dre: OK, then I will do that. That’s two—
Austin: So then risky standard— Yep.
Dre: Two stress?
Austin: Two stress. Do you think... let's see. I’m just double checking that there’s— if there's anything else that will affect you here. Um...
Dre: I don't know if, like, taking the long range transmitter item, if that would do anything to affect the potency of this?
Austin: To affect it? [sighs} Um, what's the— can you read me the description of that?
Dre: “A device that can send data over great distances.”
Austin: That wouldn't, but you know what would is— Oh, you're not in your mech, are you?
Dre: [negative] Un-uh.
Austin: That's a shame. I was looking at— oh, do you know what would— would be your prognostication tools that help you do better... like, you know, space magic shit, right?
Dre: Right. Yeah.
Austin: I would let that— I would let that be... If you declare those, I think that that would count.
Dre: OK.
Austin: Also, that means you get to look at your book while you do this, which is wild. [Dre laughs] If you were in your vehicle, the psionic amplifier would have worked for it.
Dre: Right.
Austin: But I don't think just a general comms thing would work for you here, you know?
Dre: No, I don't think so. That doesn't feel right.
Austin: No, agreed.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: All right. So that's what? 2d6? Or wait, what's your interface? Its interface so that's 2d6, you're pushing yourself for effect, so risky standard 2d6. Oh wait! You're pushing for effect and you have the tools, so actually, if you're pushing yourself for effact and you have the tools, I think that that makes it risky great.
Dre: OK.
Austin: So 2d6. Hey, that's a six! Look at you. So what's that look like? This is a new power for you. I want to know what it looks like—
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: —as you take control of one of these filigree units.
Dre: Yeah. Um, oh boy, I think what it looks like is that… as Valence is like holding the book in front of them, they're like holding it up in front of their face, and they're... the gaseous part of Valence that is much more exposed in this new body—
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: —starts to head out from her— from their fingertips, and actually starts highlighting and like oozing into words on the pages.
Austin: Oh damn.
Dre: And probably unbeknownst to the pilot of the glider, that same gas starts to kind of like, shimmer around the outside of... like their— their tools and their screens and all of like their heads up displays and stuff like that.
Austin: Mhm. What do you do with this control?
Dre: Um, yeah, I guess I rolled a six, I can do whatever I want. Um… [laughs]
Austin: You got a success.Yeah. That means you possessed a digital machine. Your control, it was challenged already, and you overcome it, right? So. So, but if digital force is used against you or the machine is damaged, that challenge will be controlled again, or will be contested again.
Dre: Right. I'll just set off like a— like a sensor alarm or proximity alarm for something... like the sensors pick up something that is like far to the east or something.
Austin: OK, so you're going to send—
Art: We’re east, do west. [Austin laughs]
Dre: OK, do west. Right, sure. Something to the west. Basically something that like, completely distracts the pilot and then is also like, “Hey, we gotta go check this out.”
Austin: And it's like an incoming, some sort of like, “Oh, we have an incoming force on our radar or whatever, basically.”
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. So I think— yeah, I think that happens. I think that you see them continue to break off. You get two of them breaking off to go check that out. And given the like, the risk, the third one and the ship quickly take ground because they don't want to be shot out of the— out of the sky basically. And distracted by looking at the radar screens, they don't see you, including Mow, which is a fucking miracle. But you got a six; I'm gonna give it to you.
[Dre laughs]
Austin: And so, yeah, they're below you at this point and come to a halt and rest at the feet of Order. Crysanth definitely scans the sky west and is clearly— Sovereign Immunity, you know Crysanth. She now knows something is happening, right? She doesn't believe the thing to the west, she is like, “OK, here we fucking go” and, but walks over and, you know, bows at whoever gets out of— you know, there's a couple of officers get out of— Columnar synthetic people who are in military garb— get out of the kind of space truck, the sort of hover transport vehicle and they, you know, greet each other. And then she checks her watch because she is still waiting on her side of the pickup to arrive.
What do you all do? This is— this is— here is a moment. You know? You only have the— you have one of these flying units that's taken to the ground already. You have the spear unit who is guarding the main entrance. But the— Crysanth’s pickup is not here yet, apparently.
Art: I wish we knew.
Austin: Uh, that sounds like you want to survey the situation, Art.
Art: Yeah, I do.
Austin: All right. What's that look like?
Art: Do I have that?
Austin: No, you have none in survey.
Art: Nope.
Austin: But you said you were doing it.
Art: Great. I mean... it's almost more fun to do something— to describe doing something you're bad in.
Austin: [amused] Uh huh.
Art: I’m just looking for the thing, right? I mean, what's come — like, it would have to be a big. A big thing is coming, right?
Austin: Uh-huh. This is a 2d6 take lowest. It's gather information. It's gather information. There's not a, there's not, you can definitely help if you want to, Thisbe.
Dre: Yeah. I was also going to offer to help.
Janine: I have two in survey and a move.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Dre: Yeah, me too. [laughs]
Austin: Then, Sovereign Immunity. Do you want to ask someone to do this instead of doing it yourself?
Art: Yeah. Uh huh.
Austin: What's that sound like?
Art [as SI]: Where's the, where are they coming from? How could you get —
Art: How do I cancel this damn roll?
Austin: Sovereign Immunity, ordering some sort of sandwich on a roll up on the roof.
Art: Oh, the Kaiser rolls at this place are terrible! Sour dough!
[as SI]: Um, how are they getting all these things in here? It's a controlled space. Maybe someone should look for it.
[Dre laughs]
Austin: There we go, thank you. Thisbe, what are you doing?
Janine: Yeah. Um, I think Thisbe is, is maybe kind of doing the, doing her, like, sonar-y kind of, kind of, um, survey business.
Austin: Mmmhmm.
Janine: Um, I'm also gonna spend my spark because I have the ability —
Austin: Oh yeah.
Janine: Uh, connect the dots, from the proxy playbook. When you gather information, you can ask one extra question on a four plus or two extra questions on a six.
Austin: Damn good. All right, so that’s a 2d6.
Janine: It's maybe optimistic, but we'll see how it goes.
Austin: Yeah. Go for it. 2d6. That’s a five.
Janine: That’s a five.
Austin: Yeah. So you get to ask a couple of questions here. Um, the first I'm guessing is where is it coming from?
Janine: Yes.
Austin: Uh, the West it's coming from that big road to the West. And the thing — it's very funny that you say you're doing sonar because, um, I mean, it's good that you're saying that because — for two reasons, one is the jungle is so dense that even on the road, it's hard to see sometimes. Um, but you, in fact notice that there is sound coming from that direction. Uh, and there is, uh, there's an object being, you know, sonar pinging back at you. Your sonar pings are coming back. It's not pinging you, but you know what I'm saying, how sonar works, that you cannot see with your visual eyes, with your, with your visual scanners.
Um, there is a pretty long truck, it looks like, or first you think it's a convoy. Um, but then it comes to a slow halt as it comes towards the front of Nooncrown’s, uh, the Western gate, basically. Um, and you see that it's waiting to be kind of, um, scanned by the Pinnacle unit that's guarding that gate who begins to walk around what looks like nothing.
Um, this is a kind of cloaked, uh, triple trailer thing. Um, there are these, there are these trailers I just learned about, Janine and I watched, uh, Alex Navarro playing, um, uh, American truck simulator. And in Idaho, apparently it's legal to drive these things that are called LCVs, I want to say they are, which is long combination vehicles, which are basically three tractor trailers in a row. Which is scary to me, Austin.
Dre: Yeah.
Art: Um, so like, but only within Idaho, like when we get from the state border, they have to like --
Austin: Yeah, there's only a few places in America where they're allowed at all. They're also called road trains in Americ, in the US, they are a legal in -- Uh, let's see here, um, two, uh, sorry, turnpike doubles, which is two trailers, are New York three-way and mass turnpike. Florida's turnpike, Kansas turnpike. Um, and then in Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and the Ohio turnpike and the Indiana east-west toll road, you could have triples, triple trailers.
Art: Very few of these are neighboring states, though.
Austin: I know! It's weird!
Art: Which really limits the usefulness.
Austin: Uh-huh. Well, I guess my guess is, I don't know what my guess is. It sounds weird to me. It's scary to look at.
Janine: I mean, you get shit from Depot to Depot or whatever, like yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. They’re scary to look at, and this one is invisible. This one is three of those fucking things in a row and it's been cloaked. Um, and so you see this Pinnacle unit do this long walk around and then like, “Come on in,” and then this truck, which I will now show to you because Thisbe was able to mark it, basically, on everyone's maps. Um, uh, very quietly, as quietly as a giant cloaked truck can, slowly drives, invisible, past the funeral of Clementine Kesh.
Uh, wait, did I put it on the map? Why did I put it on the map? That's not where it should be. And it comes up. And again, it has now stopped in front of this next Pinnacle unit, as it waits to be kind of scanned and, and accepted into the inner kind of citadel of Order. Um, so that's where it is. If you want to slow me down and take action before it gets here, that's fine because you learned where it was when it was back here, basically.
Uh, so in fact, I'll put it back here just in case someone wants to take action there, but if you want to wait for it to show up, that's also fine.
Art: I'll tell you, as non-exciting as it would have been, I wish we'd have found out about this before.
Austin: Uh huh.
Art: Stealing this truck like 50 miles that way would have been the best way to do this plan.
Austin: Totally. How—
Art: It's a much more boring plan.
Austin: [laughs] Yes.
Janine: Also we wouldn't have known when to look.
Austin: And also where to look, because maybe it's going to take a different route out, you know?
Art: And it's cloaked.
Austin: And it's cloaked. Yeah. I should be clear if it remains cloaked, it's — knowing where it is still, it's still difficult to hit it or whatever, you know, uh, even if you know where it is, but can't see it. So. In any case, it's, it's on its way.
Art: But it can't be that agile, right?
Austin: It’s the future, you know. But probably not.
Art: What if, what if I just stood right here?
Austin: Right where? Okay. By yourself? [conceding] Eh. Sovereign Immunity.
Art: What, they're going to run me over with their invisible truck?
Austin: Yes!
Dre: [Laughter]
Austin: You're a criminal! You're a terrorist! Twice!
Janine: He's still getting used to that, clearly.
Art: Um, I wish I’d brought a giant jug of paint.
Austin: It’s Beam Saber. You can have done that.
Janine: You can also just say one of the things that your mech has is, like — a lot of these are very they're very --
Dre: Paintball gun [laugh].
Janine: I got to do a machine gun, but needles.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Janine: Like, you could just say you have a paint gun.
Art: Sure, but my — My mech is up here pretending to be a log.
Austin: [laughter] That is true.
Art: I don't think I can get like long distance paint mortars.
Austin: Well --
Janine: Longest — wait, what about -- what about placed paint explosives?
Austin: Placed paint explosives, acceptable. We could do a --
Janine: Shotgun full of paint.
Austin: We could do a flashback to get, what do you call it, acquire asset to get yourself a paint mortar.
Art: Well, then I wouldn't want it mounted on the mech, I would want it much closer.
Austin: Okay.
Art: Our paint mortar could be on the roof of this building.
Dre: I mean, you could, you could have a mortar slung across your back.
Art: Yeah. I can just be carrying the paint mortar.
Austin: Mmmhmm.
Dre: Mmmhmm.
Art: All right, let’s flashback a paint mortar [laughs].
Janine: What if -- what if it’s just Splatoon now. This is just Splatoon. With a truck.
Art: Okay. I have a giant roller. It's like the scythe, but it's a paint roller. I guess I'm like moving over to here?
Austin: Okay. You’ve moved on the map to a different wall.
Art: Well, one where I can hit it with my paint mortar. I need a paint mortar flashback.
Austin: Yeah, we can do the pain mortar flashback. Cause that's that, that is a pretty unique item, I would say, but it's something doable. Uh, when you acquire an asset and you get a bonuses on acquiring assets, because of one of your, your SBBR moves, right?
Pack Rats -- “your FOB is a jumble of requisitioned items. When you roll to acquire an asset take plus 1D” and also you have Scrapyard. No, Scrapyard is not that one. What was the, I thought you had another thing that did this, but maybe you didn't take it. Maybe that was just Pack Rats. Maybe I'm just, I’m confusing things.
Um, in any case, uh, you, you can get a plus one on this. So, um, I'm gonna say you, you get that for what your tier is, your, your tier is. Uh, actually, I think you can get it for tier one. I think a tier one paint mortar will do you fine for this purpose, probably. Uh, which means that I need you to roll --
Art: Well, it needs to be kind of quiet.
Austin: Oh, that's a tier two for sure. Uh, so spend -- spend, um, spend one stress to be able to do this acquire asset. This is, this seems like a special thing you would have come — mm. Why were you getting a paint mortar? What was the thing — Let's justify this. What did Sovereign Immunity say to himself that was like, “I bet we'll need a paint mortar on this mission.”?
Art: “You know who's going to use cloaking technology?”
Austin: Sure.
Art: “Is famed slippery motherfucker,”
Austin & Art [in unison]: “Crysanth Kesh.”
Austin: Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah, I think that's fair. Go ahead. And you can roll. Let's see. Ah, bah, bah bah bah. Oh, you're rolling the squad’s tier, which is two. 2D6. You can increase that by, by spending materiel to, uh, to raise the roll two points.
I think you can either spend it upfront, let's see, wait. Reacquire an asse, duh duh duh duh, uh, yes, you can spend one materiel for plus 1D to the roll or, um, spend two to increase the success by a level. Uh, you basically are looking here to get a four or five, is what you would need to get here. So give me --
Art: All right I'm rolling two plus Pack Rat?
Austin: Plus Pack Rat is three. So yeah, 3D6, cause y'all are tier two now, I should note. that’s another boost you got from —
Art: That sounds, that sounds pretty possible.
Austin: Yeah. Go for it.
Art: Oh my God!
Janine: Okay!
Austin: You got a tier one. So here's your options. You can either keep this tier one paint mortar, which is loud, because what you specifically said was you wanted it to be quiet, or you could spend two materiel, of which your, you have three total, um, uh, to upgrade it to a tier, to a tier two.
Art: I don't know. Maybe once we’ve fired the paint mortar, the stealth portion of the mission is over anyway. You know?
Austin: Uh-huh. I like it. I like loud paint mortar, add loud paint mortar to your gear.
[Dre laughs]
Art: Okay. How much load do you think a loud paint mortar is?
Austin: That’s a one. I’ll give it to you for a one.
Art: Alright.
Janine: What color is the paint?
Art: Um, you know, my, my first thought was white, because that is the color paint they use in the movie Invisible Man. But, um, it should be red, right? For Millennium Break?
Austin: Oh yeah, sure. There you go. Love it.
Art: Uh, what, what do you roll to shoot a paint mortar?
Austin: So you're doing that now. I just want to be a hundred percent clear. That's what's happening. Okay.
Art: yeah, I mean, if someone —
Janine: Where is the truck right now? At the gate?
Austin: Wherever you want it to be, wherever you need it to be at this moment.
Janine: Oh, I have an idea, actually.
Austin: Uh-huh?
Janine: Um, so what if you, what if you aim for the butt of the truck, right? The truck butt, trailer number three, let's say.
Austin: Ah, trailer number three.
Janine: Hit trailer number three. Um, so we can see where the truck is, but then when we're actually doing the thing, we decouple trailer three and I dump the contents of trailer three into Mow’s backpack, and we go in opposite directions.
Austin: Ooh.
Janine: So that way—
Janine: If we fuck up and can't get it all out, at least we can maybe get that goal of like, well, we've, we've limited how much they can get. And we've solved the issue of like, we get the paint, done, but then we, you can still go invisible with the truck. And… then… [amused] you run away.
Austin: You drive away.
Janine: In the jungle.
Dre: Can I interface with this truck?
Janine: Oh, I had extra questions, right?
Austin: You do have extra questions yes. From your scan, forever ago. Yeah.
Janine: I think I had like one extra question.
Austin: Yeah. You got a four — you got a five, right? So yes you get an extra question.
Janine: Yeah. Um, which should maybe, maybe that should be a question about like, you know, is the weakest part of the truck the driver? Or is it like a robot truck?
Austin: Uh, yeah, it's it's, this is a truck that gets driven more than — this does not have a lot of like super advanced, automated control schemes in it. Um, uh, so yes, it's the pilot, which is to say, Valence, no. Um, I think there's like a line, there's a line that we have to draw here between.
Dre: Sure.
Austin: Can you, could you put this thing on Titanfall, automated mode, right? A mech? Yes. They're they, they come with that prepared, right. Unless they've explicitly been made not to. Um, but, but yes. Whereas, uh, the, um — or at least they, they, they can have that done to them the way we saw with the Troop units at the first, in the first mission, where, where specifically where, um, Thisbe applied those things that made them get automated, they're able, that's able to be done to them. Here, I think especially, especially with, um, it being a Curtain thing. Uh, no, I think this is, this is hardened to that, but in the sense that it needs a driver who like. You know, goes through a certain process to turn it on and blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Balls in your courts. You have a six step capturing the eyes clock right now.
Janine: I mean, if we also do this outside, then we don't have to worry about Order.
Austin: This is true.
Janine: And we can get a little rough and tumble.
Austin: You can, and you'll need to, because look at how busy it is over there right now.
Janine: Yeah. But it's not going to get any less busy if we let the truck come in here and then have to get out of here and then also… yknow?
Austin: Pick your poison. Mmmhmm, ball’s in your court. Like I said.
Dre: I think this is, I mean, I can assist any roll here, but I think this is a roll for either you or --
Austin: Which -- what's the roll? What are you doing right now? Are you, are you, you're doing the attack it while it's out there roll? Your paint attack, your ambush?
Art: Yes…
Janine: I think we should keep Crysanth waiting.
Austin: Mm.
Art: And like the ideal spot to shoot it from is going to be like here. Right?
Austin: I think given how late it was that you saw that you found this, I think you'll — the furthest you can get is like the western wall of Nooncrown.
Art: And it's still here?
Austin: It's still, it's on its way in, I think it'd be like here.
Art: All right, I'll take that shot. I'll take it.
Austin: Okay.
Art: Did you say, did you say here, is this right?
Austin: Yeah. That, that wall, yeah, that wall. Uh, Thisbe and Valence, where are you? Go ahead and move yourselves as appropriate.
Dre: I kind of just, I guess I'm just with Sovereign Immunity here.
Austin: Okay.
Dre: That makes the most sense to me.
Janine: I think I want to like climb down to the jungle so I can get it from the side. Cause I have to get that rear trailer off.
Austin: Yeah. That works. Alright, Sovereign Immunity. This is, what are you, what are you rolling to do this?
Art: All right. I'll use hunt. Um, and I'll push myself.
Austin: Okay, so that’s, immediately, that's uh, up to one dice. This is risky standard. Um, uh, is anyone helping?
Dre: Uh, yes. I'm not quite sure how.
Art: Could you like make the cloaking, like flicker for a second?
Dre: That would be cool.
Austin: Sure.
Art: Like just feed it static or something. I don't know how,how Valence works.
Dre: We're kind of figuring out how Valence works now as we go. But yeah, I think --
Austin: Is that a thing you can do?
Dre: That sounds like a thing I could do.
Austin: That feels like Tesla to me, that feels like it's in that, in that space where you push yourself in addition to normal benefits, dah dah dah dah dah. So that would be interface cause that's you interfacing with the perennial wave to do wild shit. Um, uh, so, uh, but I would say, just take, take the, spend the stress to help Sovereign Immunity. So there'd only be one stress, not, you're not pushing yourself, you're just using that ability basically. Right.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: Um, so go ahead and, and yeah. So that's one extra, are you taking plus one die, are you taking plus one effect?
Art: I'll take a die.
Austin: So that means you are now at two, right? That's not bad. Uh, I think that that's probably, I will say that this is combat. So please know that if there is a, if there is a consequence that you want to resist, uh, you can, you can get a plus 1D to resist this, because you will be — will be able to use forged in the fire. Uh, so go ahead and give me a, a 2D6, it sounds like, risky standard.
Art: Hey, am I in the walls? Does Order see this?
[Dre laughs]
Austin: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. This is in the walls. Oh yeah.
Janine: This isn’t chaotic.
Art: But I'm shooting out.
Austin: It's pretty fucking chaotic. You're firing a paint mortar.
Art: A loud paint mortar.
Austin: It's not an explosive mortar, but it's a loud paint mortar —
Dre: It is a loud paint mortar.
Austin: During a funeral, during a funeral. Yes.
Dre: [Laughter]
Austin: Hey, that's a six, look at you! Hot shit. Um, alright, so, uh, I'm gonna — the paint slaps against the back of the, the convoy vehicle, the long combined vehicle, um, making it visible for everyone here. Um, and I, I think with a six, I mean, it's loud, right? But no one knows where you are yet. Um, Uh, I am, I am not going to, to tick waking Order.
Um, it's a loud noise, but it doesn't, it has not, it has not created chaos because you got a six. Um, so it is marked. Uh, I'm not going to advance the capturing the eyes thing here because that hasn't helped you capture the eyes, and in fact, it does not have the eyes in it yet, right, so, but it does have, uh, but I will say that it makes us this thing visible enough for y'all to just take actions against it, um, as is. Without it being impossible.
Art: Uh, all right. Let's, let's get to it. Let's, let's get down that wall and --
Austin: Well, Thisbe's already down there, so Thisbe, what do you do?
Art: Yeah.
Janine: Um, I keep — I don't know why I keep forgetting the truck doesn't have the eyes in it.
Austin: The truck doesn’t have the eyes in it.
Janine: I don't know why I keep forgetting that completely?
Austin: Uh-huh?
Janine: And utterly.
Austin: Uh-huh. But the plan now seems to be get the truck, then go pick up the eyes.
Janine: Yeah. How is that going to — yeah.
Austin: I don't know, but that was the plan y'all came up with.
Janine: [resigned] I know. I kept forgetting.
Art: We’re gonna steal the truck. We're gonna drive in. We're gonna get the eyes. We're gonna leave.
Austin: I'm leaving Mow up here because that's where Mow was last. But. You tell me if Mow needs to be somewhere else.
Janine: Crysanth knows you!
Austin: We'll see how it goes.
Art: Crysanth looks in the eyes of every truck driver?
Janine: That's a good point, actually.
Austin: The paint has been deployed, you know?
Janine: Yeah.
Art: Yeah. Wait till you see my next thing. It's a paint remover mortar. Very quiet.
Janine: Can I like help people down faster or something? Like I'm tall as fuck, right, doesn’t that seem like a—?
Austin: Yeah, but I think you can just do that. I'm not going to make you roll to help people down faster.
Janine: I'm just trying to think of a way to facilitate things without fucking the situation up prematurely.
Austin: Uh-huh. Um, I mean, as you're helping people down, the truck is gonna get a little bit closer, but you can totally do that. That's not — y'all can be where you need to be and you know, that's not --
Art: They're not stopping?
Austin: No, you did it successfully.
Janine: Do, do you want me to stop them? Do you want me to stop them while they're far out? I'll do it. Just tell me.
Art: I don't know. I don't know how we're going to get in there.
Janine: Take the guy out.
Art: All right, good. Go for it.
Dre: Mm-hm. Yeah.
Austin: Okay!
Janine: Okay. Do you want me to charge this truck and rip the guy out of it? Cuz I’ll —
Art: Yeah! That’d be great!
Janine: Alright, I'm going to do that then.
Austin: Thisbe just needs a little direction. Is what everyone’s learning.
Janine: Thisbe loves direction. Um, I'm going to push myself for this because I have Supercharged, which when I pushed myself, in addition to the normal benefits, I can also act with extreme strength, act with extreme speed. I would like to act with extreme speed. I want this person very confused.
Austin: Uh-huh. Totally. Um, are you, or what are you, is this a wreck? Is this a struggle?
Janine: Um, to be honest, I think if I was moving slower, it would be a struggle.
Austin: Okay. But with wreck. Okay.
Janine: I feel like, I feel like this is especially with the jung, with the jungle, like Thisbe is not stepping around trees, to a degree, there's a degree of just like —
Austin: Just bursting through.
Janine: We're going. We’re doing it.
Austin: The thing I wanna say is, here a bad roll here with wreck has a different consequence than a bad roll here with struggle. Because when you're moving at that speed and that strength, there is a chance that the truck gets damaged, not just the person.
Janine: That's true. That is true.
Austin: Being an advocate for the players here. I think it's dope, but also —
Dre: [laughs]
Janine: Yeah…
Austin: You got two, and you're pushing yourself so you can go up to three here. That's not bad. Um, but.
Janine: That might be worth the risk cause I’m…
Austin: Versus struggle where you only have a one right now, though, that would go up to a two because of the push. If you want to put the dice there.
Janine: Yeah. What's my effect going to be?
Austin: Standard. Uh, this is a single roll thing. Like there's no clock to advance here, but, but I think standard. Unless you push it to great, in which case, you know, I mean, we can talk about what that looks like. Um.
Janine: I mean, famous last words, but I feel like with three dice, my chances of doing poorly are lower than with two.
Austin: That's true — but that is true. Even if you do poorly, it's still true that they were, that your chances were less.
Janine: I'm going to do, I'm going to do 3 —
Austin: Gonna do 3d6. Okay.
Janine: Part of it, for me, is this is — because this is also a closing the distance thing.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Struggle just feels weird to me.
Austin: It does. You like run up there and then stop. It'd be like, “Hey, get out. I'm going to punch you. Open your door.” No. It feels like wreck, it does.
Janine: Mm-hm. There's also I, yeah, I don't. Yeah. That's, I'm good. I’ll roll the three.
Austin: Yeah. Ooo, that’s a critical success! Look at you!
Janine: I got two sixes! What’s up! This is the only time I've critted in this game so far, I think.
Art: You hit it so hard the paint comes off.
Austin: No, no, don't do -- uh, well?!
Janine: The opposite — no!
Austin: Depends on the —
Janine: Well, actually, right.
Austin: Uh-huh, yeah. So it's great effect. Um, and, and I mean, in my mind —
Janine: Do I also knock them out?
Austin: Yeah, well, I think you've knocked them, I think that you, I think that — in my mind, the thing that you're doing is bringing it to a halt with such force, but also with such delicacy that you don't damage the truck, but you do knock the dude out, right?
Janine: Sick.
Austin: Um, I think that just like, you know, he's just driving, [humming] “Hmm hmm” and then you grab the front of it and then like twist it as it's spinning. And it just like, it comes to a stop, the brakes, it slams on the brakes. It doesn't crash into anything. The guy just like, right into the airbag, knocked out, uh, really hard, really fast.
Um, it's like you've clotheslined this truck, you know? Um, and yeah, it comes to, it comes to a halt. Um, and, and that was with great effect because of the critical success. So nice work. Do you send a message back that you've gotten this? As a reminder, you have like secret comms now that you can all talk to each other at any distance or at a distance with anyone.
Janine: Yeah, it’s “Come get your fucking truck,” basically.
Austin: Damn. Thisbe curses now.
Dre: [laughs] Thisbe did a cuss.
Austin: Thisbe got rude. God.
Janine: Thisbe’s been hanging out with too many people.
Austin: Mm-hm.
Janine: She doesn’t say “fuckin” though. That’s not.
Austin: Okay. So do y'all go to the truck.
Art: Yep!
Austin: All right.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: What do you do with the body of the person?
Art: Let's put some, uh, well, we gotta, we have to take the uniform, right?
Austin: Sure.
Janine: Do you want me to just walk the, I kind of probably need to walk around to get Mow cause I'm very, I'm again, very obvious. Especially, did Thisbe compete in the Olympics?
Austin: I don't remember if Thisbe competed.
Dre: I also can’t remember.
Janine: I think Thisbe competed in the Olympics, cause it wasn't Gucci. Um.
Austin: Sure.
Janine: So.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I think Thisbe’s maybe too visible to just be like crouching in the back or something. Anyway, I think maybe the, the play here is that Thisbe like takes this person and then kind of creeps back around to try and get back to Mow and like dump them along the way.
Austin: All right. So uniform. You're on your way back to Mow. You've dumped this person somewhere, they will wake up safely. Wounded, but safely it's close enough to walk, to get help. In a, you know, in a little while. Um, uh, you go get into Mow, you head back towards Mow. Valence and Sovereign Immunity. Are you getting in this truck?
Art: Yeah.
Dre: Yeah.
Art: Yeah, is there like a sleeping compartment or something?
Austin: Sure. Yeah. There should be. That’s safe.
Art: I mean, which one of us looks more like the driver?
Dre: Probably you, I have a robot wolf face.
[Janine laughs]
Art: I'm just asking.
Dre: [laughs] Didn’t mean to be snarky, just saying.
Art: Maybe the driver was also a robot wolf!
Austin: Oh. Um, so you get in, Valence, you're hiding in the sleep compartment, and now you're beginning to drive up. Right? You get to the gate. And the, uh, the unit, the, uh, the giant Pinnacle unit, uh, not giant, you know, it's, it's bigger than your truck,
Janine: We’re gonna have to explain that paint, huh.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, walks up to the side and, uh, activates a short range, comm that comes through the, uh, the driver's side, like communication speaker. Um, and it says, uh, it says:
[as Pinnacle Unit]: [muffled] We've been, we we've been expecting you. Uh, give me your credentials.
Art: Uh, okay. Is there like a button?
Austin: Uh, yeah, there's a, I think there's probably like a transmit credentials button or transmit, um, you know, whatever button, um, uh, and then he says, uh, uh,
[as Pinnacle Unit]: And, uh, the code phrase?
Art: Um, I like, is it like written down on anything?
Austin: You can give me a, you give me a, you give me a luck roll.
[Dre laughs]
Austin: You can give me a fortune check here, buddy. You just roll me a die real quick.
Art: Sometimes people write that stuff down, you know?
Austin: That's a six.
Art: Ha!
Dre: Boom. [laughing quietly]
Janine: Now it needs to be long and specific. [laughs]
Austin: Uh, it's just these five random words that I've, that I've generated on random word generator: person, woman, man, camera, TV. [amused] No, it's: forest amuse convict surface agile.
Art [as SI]: Forest amuse convict service agile.
Austin [as Pinnacle Unit]: All right, let me just do a quick inspection. [very tersely] Hey, you got some, you got some paint back here. What happened?
Art [as SI]: Huh?
Austin [as Pinnacle Unit]: There's some pain on the rear of your vehicle. What happened here?
Art [as SI]: There's paint? Um, you know, we had some, there was some, some avian traffic back there.
Austin [as Pinnacle Unit]: Some avians, yeah, you got some avians, in the jungle?
Art [as SI]: Yeah. We had some jungle birds flowing over. Maybe they made a mess on it.
Austin [as Pinnacle Unit]: Okay. You got some jungle birds.
Austin: Give me a, give me a sway. That sounds like a sway to me. Unless you wanna try to get past this guy some other way.
Art: Um, well, I don't have any sway. Um, wait, uh, what if I try to. What, how about command?
Austin: What's that sound like? Give me what the command here is. You’ve just got to do it.
Art [as SI]: We, you know, we're we can't be behind schedule here. I, we really need to get to the, to the drop. I don't have time for this.
Austin: That’s a command. That’s, yeah, uh-huh, that's a 1D6.
Art: All right. Um.
Austin: You can push yourself again if you want.
Art: I sure am. I sure do want that.
Austin: Kay. So you have to go up to two.
Art: [to self] Well, I’m marking my…
Austin: [laughs] I just thought about the next step of this. It's very funny.
Art: I don't know why I do the risky. It doesn't --
Austin: Hey, it's a six!
[Dre laughs]
Austin [as Pinnacle Unit]: I gotta tell you, these birds, I'm sick of, I'm sick of these jungle birds.
Art [as SI]: I know, where'd they even come from, how do they, how are they here?
Austin [as Pinnacle Unit]: I think it was whatever the weird miracle thing was, you know.
Art [as SI]: They make birds too?
Austin [as Pinnacle Unit]: They make birds. They made trees, they made the whole swamp situation, there’s probably fish in there.
Art [as SI]: I wonder what it's like to be that bird.
Austin [as Pinnacle Unit]: Yeah, I think about that sometimes. What would it be like to be a bird?
Art [as SI]: No, like that bird. What did, did that bird exist a week ago?
Austin [as Pinnacle Unit]: Uhhhh. I’m not paid to think about that stuff. Just beyond the scope.
Art [as SI]: Well, I mean, just maybe, maybe later.
Austin [as Pinnacle Unit]: Yeah. Also, I forgot that this character is supposed to be kind of a devout religious believer in Order. So also, uh, have a blessed day, sir.
Art [as SI]: You too.
Austin: And you very slowly and very carefully drive past the funeral of Clementine Kesh. Hundreds sobbing alligator tears. The alligator of course was invented last week, as part of the miracle here on Partisan, but quickly people have learned how they cry.
Janine: Ironically, they cry paint.
Austin: [amused] They cry a terrible sort of neon paint.
Janine: A very red paint.
Austin: And I'm guessing you make your way up to the drop point.
Art: Yep.
Austin: Uh. Here, the, the, you're now at the second checkpoint here. Um, uh, but I'm gonna let your previous success ride, uh, as the, uh, Brother Cadmus just kind of looks down at you from this Pinnacle, um, scans, you know, does a scan of the thing. Um, uh, ooh, ooh. Does a scan of the thing and then sends a comm in to you and says,
[as Cadmus]: My scans are picking up a second heat source.
Art [as SI]: It’s probably the space heater in the sleeping compartment.
Austin [as Cadmus]: Why would your space heater be on, servant?
Art [as SI]: It’s cold.
Austin [as Cadmus]: It is certainly not cold out here.
Art [as SI]: It is at night.
Austin [as Cadmus]: It's very humid these days, servant.
Art [as SI]: Yeah, but if you, but it's — it becomes a damp cold at night. On the roads? And if you just turn the space heater on at night, it dries out your sinuses. You gotta turn it on. You got to keep it on all the time.
Austin: [amused] This is a big sway! There's no way this is not a sway.
Dre: Is there anything, I'm trying to think if there's anything I can do to like turn off my body.
Austin: Yeah, if you wanna spend a flashback, if you want to spend the stress to do a flashback where you like, anticipate this being a problem and figure out a way to cloud your body.
Dre: I didn't mean cloud, but can I just like turn it off?
Austin: I guess? It seems like that’s a thing you could do, right? It seems dangerous, or not dangerous, but it seems like it's, you know --
Dre: Yeah. Yes. It's probably going to take a while to turn it back on.
Austin: Yeah, so spend a stress on that and you can get past this no problem.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: All right. Um, so this isn't — to be clear, this is not, Cadmus says, “Oh, it's gone now. Don't worry about it.” Right, this is you being like, let's make sure that we don't get caught in like heat scans. So yeah, you get left through, uh, and you come to a stop next to the ship. Um, and Crysanth Kesh begins to approach the truck.
Art: Uh-huh!
Austin [Crysanth]: Where have you been?
Art: Oh! Oh my god, I gotta put on like a voice here. [stammering] Ah, y, th, that’s not— hold on—
Dre: [cartoon babble noise]
Austin: [echoing noise] Pretty lady!
[all laugh]
Art [as SI]: Um, the, the guy with the unit yesterday, he was late turning it in, the inspection process. Bureaucracy, you know? Oh, sorry about that.
Austin [as Crysanth]: Get out now and begin, begin to load the material.
Art [as SI]: You got it.
Art: Is she on the driver’s side?
Austin: Yes! This is going to be bad! You’re Sovereign Immunity!
Art: Well, I’m wearing the uniform!
Austin: But you’re Sovereign Immunity!
Art: I got sunglasses!
Austin: You worked with her for like a decade!
Art; But that was like two decades ago.
Austin: You were her prisoner months ago.
Art: I think your high school —
Austin: You were at a party with her this year. Twice! You roasted her life on stage!
Art: She wasn't there!
Austin: She was there!
Art: I thought she wasn’t.
Austin: No, she took it very, very, uh, very well.
Art: Um, hold on a second. Let me, uh, I don't have anything that fixes this in my gear list. I think it's just like turn up the collar on the shirt and —
Austin: [completely disbelieving] Oh my god.
Art: Kind of like put the head down and kinda — try to —
Austin: I think this is a — I'm gonna let you roll it. This is a desperate sway, for sure.
Art: Um, um, is there anyone else around?
Austin: Yeah, there's the, uh, the pilot and, and like guard, uh, of the ship that's landed, uh, there is Brother Cadmus, who is now like watching over all of this, and there is the pilot of the, um, the third unit, the, uh, the, the one, um, uh, Filigree unit that landed. The kind of flying glider unit that landed here. So lots of people around, and many of them are going to help you here, but.
Janine: I have a suggestion.
Art: Okay. It's gotta be better than my idea.
Janine: What's your idea?
Art: [laughs] I was going to try to pretend I know one of the other people—
[Janine laughs]
Art: And just immediately get into a really detailed conversation that she wouldn't care about.
Janine: Or would draw her attention further, depending how the roll goes.
Art: Hm, well, but I can try, I can try to make a case for consort there.
Janine: The thing I was going to suggest was what if you like used command again too, to be like, okay, you guys move the stuff to the back of the truck and then I'll move it further into the trailer and like Tetris it into the, into the trailers. Like, you know.
Austin I don't think if that gets past — mm, yeah. Yeah.
Janine: I mean like, you know, when you load up a truck, especially when you're loading up a large volume of stuff, you need a person who's at the truck, right?
Austin: I get that. It's just important for me not to make Crysanth Kesh look incompetent.
Janine: Like a fool. Yeah.
Austin: Yes. She is The Spymaster. Which is to say I'll let you roll dice here —
Art: Well, it wouldn’t have gone any better if Valence were driving.
Dre: That's true.
Art: Probably.
Austin: I think Valence would have been harder to get through those first two checkpoints. This is harder for you.
Art: Uh-huh. All right. I guess I'm rolling sway, which I have zero dice in.
Austin: Could push yourself.
Art: I sure will.
Austin: Where you at on stress these days?
Art: Uh, well, uh, it's two more than that. Hold on. Let me.
Dre: Uh, can I assist here?
Austin: Yeah. How are you doing it? Well, wait, no, you turned your body off. Remember? I guess you're, you're still a fog cloud, right?
Dre: Yeah. And I was going to say like, Valence is pretty good at sway, so maybe they're just like telepathically talking with SI and they'd be like, no, don't say that, say this.
Austin: Okay. Let’s do that scene. What do you, what do you tell —
Art: Is this about talking, or is this about like how to, how do you act like you're not the famous person she knows.
Austin: Who lived with her for years.
Art: Hold on. I'm going to go watch a few episodes of Punkt real quick and I'm going to come back and I'm going to know how to do this.
Janine: Talk about young people stuff.
Art: Mm. You know, we got to get back quickly, cause I got to watch the, the, the game.
Austin: [laughing] Young people stuff —
Janine: That’s not young people stuff, [starts laughing]
Dre: How much do you know about Beyblade?
Art: Nothing. I know nothing about Beyblade.
Austin: What about Bakugan?
Art: We’re oh for two.
Austin: Oh, no.
Janine: Isn't there a new Bakugan game coming out?
Austin: Yeah, there sure is.
Art: You know what I don't like about the new generation of Pokemon. Is, it’s —
Austin: You still sound like an old person! [laughs]
Janine: Yeah, this is…
Art: I still look like an old person. [slight laugh]
Austin: It's a desperate situation.
Art: Well, I've come up with some great reasons it could be other skills I don't have.
Austin: Mm!
Art: [laughs] Like this could be a good prowl. It's just like getting out of the thing and just like moving over there quick enough that’s —
Austin: Prowl definitely works. Yeah, uh-huh. If you're like, Oh, let me get out the other side. And then like snuck away really quick and started loading it up, like, yeah, that's a prowl.
Art: I don't know how I'm going to get help on a prowl.
Austin: That's up to your friends.
Dre: Mm.
Janine: Wait don't you also not have prowl?
Austin: Yeah. He also doesn't have prowl.
Art: Yeah.
Dre: Right. We just did this. We just went through this.
Janine: So how's that an advantage?
Art: I can't come up with like a sway at all.
Dre: Right.
Art: I don't know how to sway someone to — no, you don't know me. I guess it's a sway of like, no, I just got that kind of face. You just think you know me. It's an audacious lie, but that's what desperate looks like, right?
Austin: It is what desperate looks like.
Art: I've rolled too many sixes today.
Austin: You've rolled too many sixes today. Hey, desperate would give you a point in resolve. So that's something.
Dre: Mm-hm.
Art: Alright. I, so Valence is, is doing the telepathic helping.
Austin: Yep. So that brings you up to one die. Plus you're pushing yourself?
Art: Well, plus push. Yeah.
Austin: So you’re 2d6 desperate limited.
Art: Oh d— well, I didn't hit limited, but that doesn't matter.
Austin: That's fine.
Art: Oh my God. [loud noise of pain]
Janine: Mm.
Austin: Nope! That’s a two, or a two and a three. Uh, and…
Art: Well, I am ready to resist some consequences!
Austin: Sounds good. Uh, cause there's a, there's a, there's a bunch of them here, bud, from this. Um, what she says, as you — so you tell me what you do and I'll play off that.
Art: I think it's, it's like, it's not a prowl, but you have to start with that kind of energy. Right? Like it's not, it's it's get out and just go. Like, I'm not here to talk, I'm here to load some shit. So get out, don't look, don't make eye contact.
Austin [as Crysanth]: Hm. I think I recognize you. Where would I know you from?
Art [as SI]: I just got one of those faces, but I've been, I've been working here for a while.
Austin [as Crysanth]: How long?
Art [as SI]: Maybe I did some other trucking job.
Austin [as Crysanth]: Maybe! …How long have you been working with us?
Art [as SI]: Um, what's uh, what's um, um, little under two years?
Austin: Um, I think she… So this is a desperate consequence and desperate consequences are rough, uh, because there are, um. There's kind of like a, there's different ways that consequences work, in Forged in the Dark games, right? There's there's like, oh, I could give you a desperate level consequence or with a desperate consequence, you could get multiple other types of consequences, like one risky consequence and one controlled consequence.
So. Here is your controlled consequence. In general, you're moving from a risky position, in terms of where everything is. This particular thing was desperate, but generally speaking, y’all were just risky. You're now desperate because Crysanth Kesh knows some shit is popping off at this point. So that's one.
And she immediately presses a button on her bracelet, um, uh, to signal that like everyone gets activated, like activates, you know, alert mode, a heist is on. Right? Um, she does it very quietly, very cleanly, you know, like boop, done.
Art: I don't think that's worth resisting.
Austin: Okay. So everyone’s just desperate now, as everyone knows that the heist is on. The risky consequence is that you take a level two harm, um, as she shoots you in the, in the stomach with a concealed pistol, um—
Art: I would like to resist that one.
Austin: — and then reaches up and takes your sunglasses off. Uh, sure. I think this is probably a prowess resist. So that's two dice plus one, because I think this is combat. So you get to use your forged in the fire. So roll 3d6, and you'll take six minus, uh, whatever your highest die is in stress. Uh, you're in a rough place by the way, bud.
Art: Um.
Austin: You might take a tr, a scar here.
Art: Yeah, well that seems to be what happens when —
Dre: Welcome to cool kids club.
Austin: You were at seven of nine right now. Uh, stress.
Art: Yeah.
Austin: I'm just double checking. You don't have anything else here that is…
Art: But I think it looks like, um, you ever seen like martial artists trying to like, not get shot?
Austin: Not in person, but sure.
Art: [stammers] The like, you move and you move the gun?
Austin: Yes, yes.
Art: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. It's one of those.
Art: It’s one of those.
Austin: Yeah. So give me your, your, so it's going to happen. You're able to resist this, no matter — the damage, no matter what. Uh, but, but we’ll see how much stress you take here. Uh you're going —
Art: Five. Three.
Austin: Yeah. Uh-huh. Which is going to knock you out of the scene. So. Uh, cause now you're, you're over your ten — your nine stress, you're at 10 stress. Um. Yeah, you will mark that you have a scar here. So what happens?
Art: Do I mark a 10th stress?
Austin: No, no. Cause it doesn't, it doesn't carry over, because you're going to, you're going to drop back down to zero stress after this. Um, so. And I'm just triple checking. There's nothing else you could have like extra resisted on here. I don't see anything. Um, there is a shot, uh, here. Um, and when that shot rings out, um, uh, God, you're lucky it doesn't hit anything else, it doesn't create any other chaos, Order does not move. Um, but the, the bullet does pass by the leg of Order and slams into a wall in the distance.
But everyone's attention, uh, everyone halts, you can hear the music at the, at the — everyone was singing before, some sort of song about great Kesh heroes. It comes to a halt. Um, as this one, this, this one shot rings through the air, the birds off all like leave the jungle nearby from the loud echoing noise.
Um, and, uh, what does Crysanth do to just break you here? Um, again, I do think she removes your glasses and I think she just says,
[as Crysanth]: Do you really think I wouldn't recognize you, Byron? On your knees.
Art: She wouldn't call him Byron.
Austin: Why, what else would she call you?
Art: I don't know, but that wasn't his name when he was with her.
Austin: What was it?
Art: I never came up with one.
Austin: Well, now is the time.
Art: It would be a more, it would be a Keshier name.
Austin: Um, Keshier then Byron??
Art: Yeah.
Austin: [sighs] That's a tough one to get to!
Art: Well then I guess we won't have one.
Austin: We need one here. We need something. What's the, what is the intimate name she would use for you?
Art: I mean, it's because Byron is a post revolt personal name.
Austin: Gotcha. Right.
Art: So it's the, it would be the pre revolt one.
Austin: Janine in the chat has suggested Montague and Thessalonias.
Art: Um, both great. Um.
[Dre laughs]
Art: Um, I'm gonna take Laurence.
Austin: Ooh, okay. I like Laurence. Um, so she says.
[as Crysanth]: Did you really think I wouldn't recognize you, Laurence? Get on your knees.
Art: Um, he does.
Austin: And she cocks the gun and puts it at your head.
Art: I found the move I should have used last move. [slight laugh]
Austin: Which was?
Art: I should have tried to do — I should have tried to Speak Softly my way out of this.
Austin: Mm. Yeah, you should have. Unfortunately.
Art: Yeah, here we are.
Austin: You're going to need to take a scar here. What is it that she does to get you out of this scene? I'm happy to have you suggest things here. Cause I don't want to, she's not killing you here. Obviously — I mean — she's in her right to, uh, or she has the ability to here, um, if that's where you want to go. If you want, if you want Crysanth Kesh to execute Sovereign Immunity, now is the time. Um, but if not, [slight laugh] uh, then I'm open for suggestions as to how she takes you out of the scene. Maybe she just hits you over the head with this guy with the barrel or the butt of the gun. Um, but I wouldn't mind there to be a little exchange here first.
Art: Um, hold on. I'm trying to work backwards.
Austin: Mm-hm. Do you want me to go back, do you want me to re-say the lines so you can directly respond? Okay.
Art: I'm just trying, I'm trying to come up with a thing she can do here that seems reasonable.
Austin: Yeah, me too. Um, like for me, it's like, oh, imprison you, right?
Art: Sure, but that's stupid. She should just —
Austin: Kill you. Yeah. I mean, the reason she wouldn't kill you because there's suddenly — someone else does something here, is this Mow breaks down the wall or Valence wakes up or there's some other distraction, you know what I mean?
Art: Sure, yeah.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: But we need to get to is what is the scar she gives you and how… Um, and how are you taken out of the scene regardless?
Art: Well, the, is it a, it's a literal scar and it's an emotional scar, or it’s a…
Austin: No, it's an emotional, it's an emotional scar. And it’s you're not allowed to continue in this scene.
Art: I mean, the scar I'm going to take is Obsessed: Killing Crysanth.
Austin: Oh, okay.
Art: This is it. She's got to go.
Austin: Uh-huh. Well then, well then what brings you to that?
Art: I mean, I just lost, I've never lost.
Austin: That's not true!
Art: Even when I lost, I didn't lose.
Austin: Um. Great. [laughs]
Art: Um.
Austin: Yeah, what's the thing that is so, um, I mean she could push you there with words, right? Which is like, I think her being like.
[as Crysanth]: Did you really think I wouldn't recognize you, Laurence? Get on your knees.
Art: Um, he does.
Austin: And she cocks the gun and puts it at your head,
[as Crysanth]: You've given me another mess to clean up, Laurence.
Art [as SI]: These, these are all your messes.
Austin [as Crysanth]: [scoffs] You spent the last year failing to make anything out of Clementine.
Art [as SI]: I made someone that Gur Sevraq would kill.
Austin [as Crysanth]: Gur Sevraq has killed people before. That's not an achievement.
Art [as SI]: Sure it is. She was beneath his notice before that.
Austin [as Crysanth]: So what you're saying is, your greatest achievement is you took a noble from Kesh with the greatest education money could afford, and you made a priest kill her.
Art [as SI]: Yeah!
Austin [as Crysanth]: You're past a failure. You're delusional. You never should have been a Sovereign Immunity to begin with.
Art [as SI]: It's not your call.
Austin [as Crysanth]: Yeah — it was this time. Your status has been revoked. You're immune from nothing now. Why shouldn't I put a bullet in your brain?
Art [as SI]: Because you're obsessed with your own hubris?
Austin: I'm having a hard time not having her pull the trigger. Someone has to do something to distract her in this moment.
Art: Yeah, I need, something needs— I’m not gonna… talk her out of it.
Janine: If we, if we want an interruption thing, like, Thisbe’s good to go.
Austin: Now is the fucking time.
Dre: Yeah. I also have something for Valence too.
Janine: Like this is the point where it's like, clearly this truck thing's not gonna work. So this is, I think, like plan B time, of like shovel as much as you can into Mow and then go, like, right. At this point, I don't think it's reasonable to say we're going to get right with all of it. So let's get away with a chunk of it.
Austin: Mm-hm. So what's that look like?
Janine: I think, unless we have any objections with this, I think it looks like Thisbe hopping the wall on one part of that corner, Mow hopping down on the other, and then rendezvousing at the, the, um,
Austin: Like the, the ship?
Janine: The thing.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: The thing.
Austin: The transport. Yeah.
Janine: And just like, again, it is just sort of a shock and awe type. Approach.
Austin: Mm-hm. And then, Valence, let's let's have all this happen at once. Valence, what are you doing?
Dre: Um, I think to the side of Crysanth, as she is like saying that to Sovereign Immunity, um, Valence says
[as Valence]: You traded an honorable oath for an avaricious pact,
Dre: And has their revolver drawn, and I think just fires.
Austin: All right. Give me a, um.
Janine: I'm glad someone, I, I also considered like, should I just have Thisbe pull out a gun and shoot Crysanth? I’m glad someone’s getting a shot in.
Austin: Yeah, totally. So to me, this seems like it's not about shooting so much as getting into position, right? Um.
Dre: Oh, I don't know.
Austin: Because it sounds to me like you're trying to surprise her, right?
Dre: I think Valence is very much actually trying to cause violence here.
Austin: Sorry. I know — when I say surprise her, I don't mean — I'm saying, I don't think you miss at that range. I'm saying the thing that would be difficult would be getting to that range where you could like ominously whisper to her before cinematically pulling the trigger, without her responding to that first.
Dre: Oh, okay, I see. Mm-hm.
Austin: Do you see what I'm saying? Uh, her attention is drawn. So I think this is, I mean, I guess no, everything's in a desperate position already. Um, you're trying to use struggle here, is what you're trying to do, right?
Dre: Yeah. So I'm fine with it having to be not as sneaky and dramatic.
Austin: Sure. If it's more like a gun— it’s more of like a, you come around the corner and are, like, putting all of that training to use, all of that, that like, uh, target practice to like draw down. Where we got like the wild west Valence gunslinger moment. Alright. Um, let's, that's a, that's a, a desperate standard struggle.
Dre: Sure.
Austin: Are you pushing yourself?
Dre: I’m gonna push myself to get an extra die. Um, and in addition to the normal benefits, uh, I'm gonna use my, I'm gonna use my Tesla. Um, and this fucking gun is now electrified.
Austin: All right.
Dre: I’m shooting a lightning gun.
Austin: I love that you're shooting a fucking Destiny gun here.
Dre: Uh-huh!
Austin: Um, let's roll that. And then also, Janine, it sounds like you're doing some sort of maneuver situation here to like jump down and go to town. Or maybe it's not even maneuver. Maybe that's, maybe that's destroy, you’re like wrecking that shit.
Janine: Yeah, I guess this is like a, this is like a weird one because Thisbe and Mow are doing stuff.
Austin: Yeah, I think they get the, let's do the Mow one because that's the one that I can imagine getting the most — I mean, you have a two in both wreck and destroy, as it is, so it’s rolling two anyway.
Janine: Yeah. And I would say it's destroy because the way we have this position, Mow is kind of on the wall, like above where this thing is. And it's so easy to just to imagine him like, again, cause he is a giant gorilla robot, just like jumping on the roof of it and just tearing in.
Austin: Tearing through it. So this all happens at those in the same blink of an eye. Let's do your destroy, which right now is 2d6, unless you push a quirk.
Janine: Um, I would like to push a quirk.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: Uh, I believe I would like to push
Austin: Or expend…
Janine: Um, you know, this seems like a scary weapon if I'm ripping the top open like a can.
Austin: Yeah, let's do it. [types] Uh, so then that'll be, are you pushing for effect, position or, um, or, uh, uh, dice? Same for you, Dre.
Janine: What’s the difference between pushing position and pushing effect?
Austin: Uh, position determines how bad the outcome can be, if you fail. Um, effect determines how many steps of the clock get ticked. Right now, there's zero, you need six, you know?
Janine: So where are we at now on both of those?
Austin: You’re at desperate standard for this.
Janine: Okay. Um.
Austin: And as Dre says, make sure if you do roll desperate, to Mark XP for the desperate rolls.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: And that XP goes into whatever that's, like, type of action was. So for Art, the fact that you did that desperate resolve that goes into resolve, your resolve track.
Janine: I'm going to take the extra dice.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: That's, I'm a coward. That's what I understand.
Austin: No, that's fine. So desperate, desperate standard. So Dre and Janine, get ready to make these rolls. Dre, what are you taking? With your push? Are you also taking…
Dre: Uh, extra die.
Austin: So you're, you're do it. You're doing 2d6 desperate, desperate, uh, standard. And Janine is doing 3d6, desperate standard. And the reason I'm doing this all at once is this is the way in which Sovereign Immunity doesn't just get shot in the head right now.
Dre: Right.
Austin: And I want that chaos. Well. Speaking of chaos.
Janine: Mm-hm. Well…
Dre; Mm-hm!
Austin: Yeah, go for it.
Janine: I got a five.
Austin: [pained noise]
Dre: Oof!
Janine: Ooooh, okay.
Dre: Snake eyes, baby! [laughs]
Austin: I can't believe half of SABR’s going to get shot in the head. Um, Jesus Christ! Well!
Art: She can’t shoot us all at once.
Austin: [laughs] She's not even the big problem in some ways. Um, let's, okay. Mow big. Mow big, Mow r — Mow rolled a five, Janine rolled a five for Mow and Thisbe, which means that with standard effect that capturing, uh, the, the, uh, eyes clock does advance by two, which, that's good. Right? Um, uh, you start to like pile in those gems, but before you know it, with, with the desperate action, um, what I think happens here, and I'm going to roll some of these together a little bit. Um. This unit, the, uh, the, what was I calling it? A Pinnacle unit, a piloted by Brother Cadmus, um, literally stomps over, uh, I think literally kicks Sovereign Immunity out the way, um, uh, which is what knocks him out. Um, and, and then launches the spear across from like — this is all very crowded, but, you know, uh, launches the spear harpoon at Mow's leg. Um, and so Mow is going to take the damage impaled. Uh, that's going to be a, uh, level two harm.
Janine: Mow has two Armour, how does that affect that?
Austin: You can, you can lower that armor, you can spend those, those armors to reduce that down to nothing. Armor is a thing that you expend, basically, here.
Janine: Right. I’ll do that then.
Austin: Um, so yeah, that totally works. Yeah. Oh wait. Sorry. Does Mow have two armor or does Mow have armor which takes up two slots.
Janine: Oh. He has armor, which takes up two slots.
Austin: Okay. So then lower that down from a level two damage to a level, one damage. You can also resist this with quirks, if you want to.
Janine: Uh.
Austin: Which you're also better at because you have this new move, Forged in the Fire, for, for y'all, where it costs of one fewer quirk.
Janine: Yeah. I think I'll resist it with intimidating bulk then?
Austin: Yeah. That makes sense. Cool. So then the, the spear kind of just like, um, uh, bounces off of Mow's armor, uh, which is great — for — there's additionally, a fictional positioning thing here too, which is like now Mow isn't harpooned. Right?
Janine: Yeah, exactly. That is a hundred percent why I —
Janine: — wanted nothing to do with that.
Austin: Totally. Um, that's part of why I love Forged in the Dark games is because just like, the fact that the harpoon would be there, even if it hadn't done a lot of damage, would be almost worth as much as the damage itself, which is interesting. Anyway, so it goes clanking away. Um, uh, and at the same time as this mech is making all of this noise, um. Valence, do you wanna tell me, why do you lose this gunfight? Why does, why does Crysanth draw on you faster than you draw on her? Is she just better? Is this a…
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Okay.
Dre: Yeah, I'm not good with a gun. [laughs] And I think like Valence is still very much clouded by emotion.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: They're very angry. Um, this is vengeful, which is not a thing that Valence is used to feeling.
Austin: Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, totally. Um, you're going to take the level three harm. Because this is a desperate consequence. Um, what's more than punctured?
Dre: I feel like once per season we ask this question.
Austin: I know. Perf, this is how we get to perforated. This is how we get to riddled.
Art: Yeah, we get to perforated a lot. Uh, punctured, perforated…
Austin: Ruptured. How about ruptured, have we done ruptured yet this year?
Dre: Ruptured also is good because of like Valence’ gas body.
Austin: That's what I was trying to get to, yeah. So ruptured, as.There's some sort of, is there some sort of main gas line between your body or throughout your robot body?
Dre: Um, I don't think so, but I think it's… I mean, if we want to do it this way, maybe Crysanth just gets to shoot me like six times before I can even shoot once, that’s how. [slight laugh]
Austin: Jesus Christ. Yeah. Empties the clip in you? Empties the clip in you. Puts the gun down at, at Sovereign — oh, Sovereign Immunity gets kicked away. So no, that does not happen, but actually, maybe it does. Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. Turns to Sovereign Immunity, click. Sovereign Immunity’s body gets kicked away by, by the giant robot. Is knocked out. Um, do you want to resist this, Valence?
Dre: Yeah, probably.
Austin: Uh huh. You're also in a rough place with stress, bud.
Dre: Yeah, listen. Okay. So if I mark armor, that would take it from a three to a two?
Austin: That's correct. It would take it down to a, to a level two harm. So let's say that would go from ruptured down to, that would go down to punctured.
Dre: And then…
Austin: But if you resisted.
Dre: Oh, I could not take heavy armor because I've already had to mark a pistol, for having a pistol.
Austin: A pistol. You did. You did.
[Dre laughs]
Austin: And you already have prognostication tools — oh, those are tools. Those don't count. Oh, yes they do cause you have climbing gear. That takes up two of those slots already. So right now.
Dre: Well, I guess we never use the climbing gear, though.
Austin: Yeah you — y'all were up on the wall.
Dre: Oh, that's true. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Sorry.
Dre: No, you're right. Yeah yeah yeah.
Austin: You had to be up on the wall in order to see the stuff anyway, like it came into handy, did come in handy. So that's taken. The tools are one, pistol is two, armour is three, four. So you have one slot left. That's not enough for a second armor, unfortunately.
Dre: [negative] Uh-uh, no way.
Austin: Um, if you wanted a personal emblem or… subterfuge supplies, a symbol of hope.
Dre: [laughs] My symbol of hope gets, it it takes the bullet for me. [laughs]
Austin: If you’d established a symbol of hope at the top of the season and like had been using it.
Dre: Yeah, no.
Austin: I'd let it slide. But, but no, I think right now you're at punctured. Um, and then you could resist that down further to a level one.
Dre: Hmm. Right. Cause I can't take it from a two to nothing. It's just a two down to a level one.
Austin: Yeah. Um, I could, if you wanted to resist again, you could, but boy, that would, you would, you would, you would get a scar. Because you're going to probably take level one stress — uh, I guess if you, if you get sixes, we'll never know.
Dre: Yeah. I'll take the level two harm.
Austin: Okay. And not resist, and not resist this. Okay. So then take the level two harm punctured, which gives you minus one die on everything that you do that involves your body, at this point. Um, as you begin to leak a little bit here. Um, Thisbe and Mow, what what's up?
Janine: Um, I've been thinking about how to divide, because I have, because Mow is doing stuff, but I hadn't done the thing with Thisbe. I'm trying to like, figure out how to, how to — like an attempt was made to stop Mow that did not work. So Mow is going to continue doing Mow stuff, but I need to rationalize that in terms of what's actually happening and what I'm rolling.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah. I think Mow is going to continue doing this and at this point, what Thisbe can do is enable Mow to continue loading stuff up. Do you know what I mean?
Janine: Yeah. So I had a, I had a thought about the harpoon that got thrown.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah!
Janine: Um, I want to have an anime moment?
Austin: Always, please.
Janine: Um, where I kind of imagine that maybe the harpoon like glanced off of Mow's leg and like hit the wall or something.
Austin: Mm-hm.
Janine: Um, because. And see, now I have a choice about, about what I want to do. Um, I want Thisbe like running along the wall and then jumping down. And I can't decide if she should, if she should like Naruto run up the rope and, and do that kind of thing. Or if she should pick up the harpoon and throw it at Crysanth Kesh.
Austin: Ooh. God!
Janine: Everyone got to shoot their shot. Right?
Austin: Everyone's gotta shoot their shot.
Janine: And that's a hell of a distract, it's this is not doing a lot in terms of Order.
Austin: No.
Janine: Um, but I have a big harpoon here and it would be really cool if that worked.
Austin: You know, I'm not going to stop you. I think that's the cooler thing, visually, to kick flip a harpoon into your hand and then throw it.
Janine: Yes. It rules, right?
Also, a mech sized harpoon. Yeah. Uh-huh.
Art: Mm-hm.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Janine: Also, it’s you know, I don't remember. I don't remember if we said this on mic or on camera, but like a big thing for me, determining why Thisbe is still here at all and is still engaged with this stuff at all? Is that she is deeply against the systems that created her, or this, the kinds of systems that could create things like her. Um. So while I don't think she has, I don't think she has any like loyalty to Clem or, or any even real like concept of why Crysanth Kesh is so, so heinous in the way that, that, that Sovereign Immunity might, for example> um, I think to her there, it is still an opportunity, it is just like a sort of different kind of opportunity.
Austin: Mm-hm. Yeah, I like it.
Janine: I would pitch this as struggle.
Austin: Yeah, that's struggle. This is struggle. It's close enough range. This is not tracking over, tracking and attacking over great distances.
Janine: And I would like to push myself.
Austin: Sure. Which also lets you be super strong.
Janine: Here's, this is a real, this is a real tough call between extreme strength or extreme speed.
Austin: I think it has to be extreme strength to lift this thing. That's a mech scale weapon.
Janine: That's true. I’ll accept that.
Austin: You know? Like you’re big, but, but I think that that's yeah. That's what lets you do it to begin with, you know?
Janine: Mm-hm.
Austin: Um, so that, and you're also taking the plus one die or are you taking…
Janine: I want to take plus one, cause I don't want to just roll the one die.
Austin: Yeah. Fair. So it's 2d6. Is anyone helping?
Janine: You could distract Crysanth. If she can't, if she's not looking at me, I'm like behind her, right?
Austin: Oh unfortunately, unfortunately. Unfortunately, Valence cannot do that without taking a scar because they have three, uh, beliefs with you.
Janine: Right.
Austin: Yeah. Rough one.
Janine: I don't love that system.
Austin: But I want to be clear also, that help would be phenomenal because you would get all those bonuses at once.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: So.
Dre: Wait, if it's three beliefs, does it cost more?
Austin: It costs more and the benefit, correct. Yeah. Yeah. Which I don't think you've helped each other this session yet. You helped Sovereign Immunity, which only, you only have one as.
Janine: Yeah. Sovereign Immunity.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Okay. Everyone blow on my dice for luck.
Austin: Yep. [blows out] All right. That's that's a mixed success.
Janine: A four.
Austin: A four, four and a four. That’s, okay. Um, so what's this, what's this look like? What are you, what do you succeed at here? I think one is I'm going to advance capturing the, the, uh, the gems, the eyes as this, this continues to provide cover for Mow. But tell me about the throw.
Janine: So I think this is, like, you know, like I said, Thisbe’s running along the wall and then she, you know, hops down. Grabs the harpoon.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Maybe she, I imagine she's probably like kind of obscured by Mow considering that it like glanced off of him. Um, so it's a thing of like, Mow is bigger than her. She can kind of, it is a, it is a Thisbe emerging from Mow’s shadow around this, you know, ship where he's shoveling this stuff in. Um, and I think it is just, uh. What was the…? I'm truly trying to remember what the thing that we had Thisbe compete in was.
Austin: I don't remember.
Janine: Cause I feel like it was javelin thrower or something. I don't know why I think that.
Austin: I have a list. We have a list and I, I can just check it. Uh, but I don't, I don't remember. Oh, it was mech sumo, is what it was.
Janine: Oh, right, okay, it was not javelin throwing at all.
Austin: No, it was not javelin throwing.
Janine: Okay. Fair enough. Um, yeah, so I think this is, this is emerging from Mow’s shadow and just like. Lining up that shot and probably having to throw it, like two handed over her head in a very awkward way that like, if she was human wouldn't work because your arms can't, there's not enough. You don't have enough, you know, reach with your arms, but she's not human. So there's probably a degree of like, it looks weird.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Like joints are stretching and dislocating in a way that's like, strange?
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Um, because she needs that, that like heft to do it.
Austin: Yeah. So I think you catch her, um, I think you catch her bad in the side. Um, and here's the option I'm giving the group of you is: you can stay here right now and kill Crysanth Kesh, or you can get away as her people attend to her. You get away with half of the eyes. You've literally gotten the capture the eyes thing to three, three out of six. You can scoop up Valence and a knocked out Sovereign Immunity and go into escape plan alpha or whatever, whatever your escape thing was. Um, or you can stay engaged and get the kill as she's she's wounded, bleeding out. You did not get her through the chest with this giant spear. Right? You caught her, but you caught her on the side in such a way that she will die if she's not attended to quickly. Um, um, but you know, this is a place where there's a whole order of knights here. They will have the facilities to attend to her. Um, I'll also say I'm advancing waking Order. Uh, by, by two here. Um, and that is like the direct consequence of this, uh, is advancing — you know, the giant stone Knight next to you, begins to rumble.
Janine: Unless someone directly contradicts Thisbe, she will try to extract at this point. Because this is, I think, in her mind, this is very much a like triaged situation of like, we have, we have so far succeeded at like most of what we need to do, but also there has been a cost for sure.
Austin: Oh yeah.
Janine: If we have an opportunity to leave, we should take it, and killing one person is maybe not worth sacrificing that opportunity.
Austin: Hell of a person.
Janine: Yeah. But killing Crysanth doesn't fix everything that's happening.
Austin: I'm — listen. You and me, we're on the same side here. Uh, Valence, who is haunted and righteous. Are you ready to let go?
Janine: This is Thisbe having the impartiality of like Crysanth is representative of something, but is not the thing.
Austin: Right, right. Valence. I wanna be clear, if you tell me she's dead, she's dead. I don't mean you can stay and engage and roll a die to kill her. I'm saying Valence, you could end this, right, and you could end Crysanth right now. And then you wouldn't have this moment of opportunity. They would then turn on you and you’d have to fight your way out or whatever, but I'm putting it on the table.
Dre: I think if Thisbe like wants to go, I think that that newest belief that Thisbe’s loyalty is deeper than mere programming, like that, that strikes Valence. And so, even though, like you said, for Thisbe it is like very much like a numbers game, and this is just like the thing to do?
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: Um, I think Valence would listen to Thisbe.
Janine: I think the other thing here is also, if Valence said Thisbe, you go. Thisbe would go. Like, if Valence said, Thisbe, take Sovereign Immunity and go: done. That's done.
Austin: Right. If Valence was like —
Janine: If you can find a way out yourself, if you want to —
Austin: If Valence wants to trade their life for Crysanth’s. [deep laugh]
Dre: [deep in thought] Oh man.
Austin: It's all on the table.
Dre: Yeah, I…! Oh, man.
Austin: And we don't have to make this decision right now. We can take a break. We can stop right here. I think this is like the end of the, I do think this is the end of the episode, right? Like, I don't think that we'd — unless we decided to have a bigger fight, you know what I mean? But, but I think that's less interesting than making a trade or deciding to disengage altogether or whatever. But I'm also happy to sleep on it.
Dre: No, I think… Like, they’re, I am 60, 40 leaning towards that I would, I think Valence would trade themselves out to take out Crysanth, but I want, I would want to sleep on making that call.
Austin: Let’s sleep on it. Yeah. Let's sleep on it. I think it's a great —
Janine: What a — this is a hell of a season.
Austin: Hell of a season! Hell of a season! Whew. Let's sleep on it.
Art: Wait, but do you want to record one of them?
[Austin and Janine laugh]
Art: Do you wanna like, I mean —
Austin: Do you wanna like ride the wave?
Art: That's what made the decision for me was like, I recorded it and then couldn't live with it.
Austin: Right.
Art: And that's like a way to know what you, and you could say, I don't need that, I'm better at hypotheticals than you are.
[Austin laughs]
Art: But like.
Dre: I wouldn't say that, Art.
Art: But just like.
Austin: comma, but.
Dre: [laughs then sighs]
Austin: I think — yeah, go ahead.
Dre: I was going to say, let's, let's play it as Valence tells Thisbe to leave.
Austin: What's that sound like?
Dre: I'm assuming this probably comes after Thisbe makes, makes her case to like, we should leave. We should get out of here.
Austin: Yeah, Thisbe, Is that just a thing that you're doing or is that something you vocalize?
Janine: Um, I think once — I think, mm. Yeah, I think it's probably a thing of like, like she, she takes her shot. She realizes like Mow has, has half of the eyes, like this is, this is… It's a, it's a recognition of like, this is the moment where we are as close to the fire as we can get without being burned any — well, we've been burned.
Austin: Yeah. [laughs]
Janine: But. You know. [laughs]
Dre: [tired] Yeah.
Janine: This is, you know, this could be the edge and this, and you know, it's, it's a thing of like, I think at that point, she, she transmits like
[as Thisbe]: Suggested extraction.
Austin: Valence?
[music begins: DOWNRIVER. HARROW. GABARDINE. by Jack de Quidt]
Dre [as Valence]: Thisbe, this is a direct order from operant Valence. You are to take your cargo and return to base.
Janine: Are you going to throw something about Sovereign Immunity in there? [amused] Or no.
Dre: No, but I am going to throw in:
[as Valence]: And tell Broun I'm sorry.
Janine [as Thisbe]: Confirmed.
Janine: I think Thisbe does that. Gets on Mow, like, Mow over wall. I’ll go.
Austin: Yeah. Oh, and gets Sovereign Immunity, picks up Sovereign Immunity?
Janine: [amused] Sure. I mean, it didn't come up, but.
Austin: Oh my fucking God, please, just.
[Art laughs]
Janine: Yes. Yes, I think. Yes, okay. So the, the, the, the shot then after the harpoon thing, right, is like, Crysanth Kesh is harpooned in the side. Thisbe just walks up, collects Sovereign Immunity and then goes to Mow. Tucks, tucks Sovereign Immunity in that, in that passenger compartment.
Austin: Sovereign Immunity, as you're like barely conscious, I think your eyes meet Crysanth’s as she's like barely holding on to consciousness, bleeding, both of you bleeding from your wounds. I don't think you have enough to say anything here, but there's eye contact.
Art: What about like, just like a smile?
Austin: Yeah.
Art: Do you think I have enough strength to smile?
Austin: [sighs] You tell me. …Yeah. And I think she smiles back. Valence. How do you want to frame this? Is this that shot, and then Valence comes into frame, and like blocks her vision.
Dre: Like steps between her…
Austin: Yeah. And Sovereign Immunity, that's literally what you're doing in a way, right? And I think she looks up to you, Valence and you know, she's bleeding from the attack from Thisbe and is kind of pinned to the ground and knows that things— I don't know. Maybe she doesn't know that things are about to go as bad as they are. Um, but I think through a bloody mouth, she looks up to you and says like,
[as Crysanth]: You don't even understand the God you worship, alien.
Dre [as Valence]: Everything you view is through a fogged mirror, tainted by your disgusting reflection. I see clear.
Austin [as Crysanth]: You don't see anything. I know more about your God and its terrible relationship with Perennial, and with… I have seen things from a perspective you could only dream of. The truth would terrify you, Wolf. Now run along with your friends and savor what little life you have left.
Dre [as Valence]: I can't savor this moment.
Austin: And is that it? Is that the moment?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: What's it look like?
Dre: Oh man. How dark and gruesome can we get here?
Austin: We can get, we should, we should. There's a point at which we should pull the veil. Um, I don't want to luxuriate in harm done even to terrible people.
Dre: No. Me neither.
Austin: But I, I, if you have something, we should go down the road. And as far as, you know, as comfortable as we are going down it, and then we can pull that out if that's not what we want, you know?
Dre: I mean, I don't think it is a close up shot, but I think it is just like, maybe as Mow is climbing away… I think it starts to look like, um, oh, what was the name of the town where we went in with Oxblood?
Austin: Orzen.
Dre: Orzen, where just a bunch of, oh, the giant projector for the funeral sparks back into life. And it's just —
Austin: Oh shit.
Dre: That like running text, like all blurring together: You traded an honorable oath for an avaricious pact. And then that's just spreading throughout the whole city. And then I think there is a huge column of sparking lightning.
Austin: As you're doing this, do you reach out to Broun at all?
Dre: I don't think they can.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: I think they lost control pretty quickly in this process. …Have you ever been walking down like a dark hallway and you open the door into a room where like all the lights are on?
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: And light just like floods out of every crack of the door as you open it? I think that is what Valence looks like with the light just getting brighter and brighter through all the kind of cracks and openings.
Austin: Right. Because they have that new frame that, the new, the second frame, that Broun built, right?
Dre: I think at some point, like, lightning starts arcing off of them and it catches what's left of the, uh, the eyes of the true divine.
Austin: Of the true divine, yeah. Okay. Yeah. And those like, those like complete the circuit, almost.
Dre: Yeah. And I think it's so overpowering that like Valence's body starts to just melt.
Austin: I don’t think it's — like, I imagine it being even bigger than that, like it's just. A column of light drops from the middle of the, you know, Order’s Rest. And it's like, it’s like something out of Evangelion, right, just like this huge beam of light up into the sky, breaking the clouds open. And next to Order, right. And Order shakes. I think this probably counts as chaos, but we'll come back to that at some point later.
[Dre laughs]
Austin: Um, and everything, everything is just gone. You're gone. You're dead. You know? None of this, like none of this Gur Sevraq, you know, weirdness stuff.
Dre: No Ghost in the Shell.
Austin: No Ghost in the Shell, no ‘are you being puppeted’, no: done. Crysanth: done. Gone. Evaporated.
[music ends]
Austin: It was a cemetery for heroes.
Mow and Sovereign Immunity and Thisbe get away. You go to your extraction point. A boat is waiting for you. You come to. Thisbe is here. Mow is here. Your mech is here. Valence isn't here. And we can figure out your scar later, but for now I want to know what it's like as you come to and see Thisbe and don't see Valence.
Art: I mean, it's, it's one of those things, right? You wouldn't immediately assume that, right? Like, oh, Valence is, got a different, you know, Valence look a different way out. Valence is passed out on the other side of the gorilla full of eyes. You know, it's, it's, it takes a minute. It's like looking around. And then like standing up and like shaking the unconscious out of your head and then like, starting to like walk around. And then I think it's just like locking eyes with, with, with Thisbe like, I don't know what Thisbe's nonverbal cues are like.
Janine: Largely nonexistent.
Art: Well, then I guess you're just going to have to tell me.
Janine: Um, I wonder if she even would say anything, unless, unless, unless you like actually asked, like, I.
Art: All right. I mean, we haven't spent a lot of time together. This awkwardness is probably real.
Janine: Yeah, that's the thing is, Thisbe doesn't tend to like volunteer details of stuff out of nowhere.
Art: Um, but I guess then after this, like pregnant pause, it's just like,
[as SI]: Where's Valence?
Janine [as Thisbe]: I'm supposed to tell operant Broun that they are sorry.
Art: And I think like it sort of just like knock — it doesn't, knock him off his feet is too strong, but like, he sits down like right where he is, and just sort of like holds his hand, his head in his hands, not his hand in his head, that doesn't make any sense. Holds his hand is — what the fuck!
Austin: [laughing] No, this is right. IMO. Can you —
Art: [very precisely] Holds his head in his hands. And just sorta like takes a moment.
Austin: Sovereign Immunity. Can you read me your belief about Valence?
Art: Well, it seems kind of cruel right now.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Art: Valence has a good heart. I hope they aren't wasting their time here.
Austin: Thisbe, can you read me yours?
Janine: Operant Valence seeks my obsolescence. Operant Valence’s priorities are beyond my understanding. Operant Valence is not forceful enough to lead.
Austin: Would you like to test any of those to see if they were true?
Janine: I mean, I feel like some of these are easy to answer now.
Austin: Yeah, well.
Janine: Um, that's my question about testing. Does it make sense to test the thing that is unclear or.
Austin: Yeah. And I think what it is, is, I mean, what I would love is just a moment of deep reflection from Thisbe, where she comes to an answer, I think, maybe, about one of them. And you don't need to write a new one, um, necessarily, but if there's one here that you —
Janine: I think in —
Austin: Go ahead.
Janine: I was just gonna say, I think in that case, the, the most interesting one is the first one. Like the one that we've lived with the longest, that we've heard over and over again, um. I think that's more interesting than, than Thisbe deciding that Valence is forceful enough to lead or whatever, or, or seeing their priorities or whatever. Um, so I think the thing to test is operant Valence seeks my obsolescence, cause that's obviously not true.
Austin: It's not true. And I think you are left reflecting on that as the boat moves away. I see this as just a sick yellow sky. And the boat is, despite having Mow on it, despite having, you know, Old Glory on it, is small in comparison…
[Music begins: TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER. by Jack de Quidt.]
Austin: …to Order in the back, and the clouds, swirling like a whirlpool in the sky, pulling away the light from the cemetery below. And I think the last thing the camera sees is a shadow, huge, huge, like a mansion, or an island, or a city breaching the clouds.
[music plays out]