PALISADE 29: Honesty and Integrity Pt. 2
Transcriber: robotchangeling
Brnine Conversation [0:18:59] 10
Brnine Reads the Room [0:34:19] 21
Plan and Prepare [2:30:55] 144
Austin: PALISADE is a show about empire, revolution, settler colonialism, politics, religion, war, and the many consequences thereof. For a full list of content warnings, please check the episode description.
Austin (as Estano): We expect you to do what you're told, to answer our questions in good faith, and to remain in sight and in escort at all times.
[“Nothing is Stationary” by Jack de Quidt begins playing]
Austin: You don't know that that’s happening, right? Maybe someone somewhere is beginning to try to put the pieces together. Keith, is that true? Is someone somewhere trying to put the pieces together?
Keith: Someone somewhere is trying to put the pieces together.
Sylvia (as Cori): There’s, like, a connection that Divines are able to make that doesn't necessarily feel like things that we’re able to do.
Ali (as Brnine): I believe leadership is, um, cultivating a…cultivating relationships with yourself and those with you, where they feel they can be honest and that they’ll be inspired.
Keith (as Eclectic): We found letters, stacks of ‘em, talking about Motion, talking about these factories. We don't know what’s going on, but Leap sent me to check it out.
Dre (as Figure): That’s…great, but we do not have our captain.
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah, we gotta do something about that.
Austin (as Hunting): Maybe if you help us get our captain back, we can help you with the whole, um…you know, detective stuff.
Dre (as Figure): Who’s running the factory?
Austin: Gur is not the only ghost you see here on Palisade. Right now, they’re the only one that follows you like this, but when you move through these battlefields, there are other dead who linger.
[song plays out]
Austin: Brnine, do you remember the thing that Present can do, the Divine Present? One of the founding members of the Pact of Necessary Venture, you may recall.
Ali: Um, I do not recall.
Austin: It, besides transforming, it can transform between this kind of frigate form and then, like, other forms like a disc or like a big robot that fights. It can also easily teleport very far.
Ali: Mm.
Austin: Gallica is known to, you know, have breakfast in, you know, the heart of Kesh space and then—or was, at one point—and then, you know, teleport all the way to the furthest reaches of Orion space for lunch. Big deal, right? And I…you know, I mentioned that the window had been opened so that you could see out into the darkness of space, and I think she says:
(as Gallica): Present, take us home.
Austin: And there is a flash of bright light. All of the stars seemingly drawing lines outward, further away, and then retracting inward, and the stars are in a new place, and there are hundreds or thousands of new lights in front of you. They are the lights of ships in combat, here at the front, against the Branched. It is a roaring battlefield in the stars. Ships rotate in constant warfare, in and out of range. Explosions string on forever. Strange shapes and flashes of light echo in the distance. There are explosions on the worlds that you can see, magnified by this viewscreen. Death tolls rise.
And you see the flagship of the Pact of Free States, the PFS Ekpyrosis. The first thing you see of it is it firing its main cannon. This is because when you first see it, the ship itself is nearly invisible. It is the color of space with the requisite stars and nebulae and the colored lights of planets dotting it, and…when I say you see it firing its main cannon, you know, imagine you're looking down— the kind of front of this ship, imagine you’re looking down on an M, except the little, like, the dip in the M in the middle, it goes further. It goes deeper. It’s like a long canyon between two prongs that make up the front of the ship. And between them, there’s, like, electrical energy, red and blue and purple arcing between the two sides of this ship’s, you know, front. And then the energy coalesces into a small orb and then erupts into an energy blast that cuts through, again, dozens, hundreds? of ships in the distance, the far distance. And it hits a moon, and the moon gets sick. It tilts. It begins sinking towards the planet it orbits. And then, without rest, the gun charges and fires a second shot as if it were nothing, and it finishes the work. It cuts a hole clear through the moon this time, and the moon falls and begins to break into smaller pieces, and those smaller pieces fall down to the planet below, burning in the atmosphere, some of them, some of them not, and heading on collision courses to a world that may as well be destroyed.
And then, like nothing at all, this machine of war changes into a new wondrous thing. The missing section of the hull is sort of filled in from the body of the ship. It pushes forward, filling in the gap of the M. Golden sails unfurl above and below and to the sides, ancient sails, things from ancient pre-Principality Apostolosian ships, and the body itself is revealed to have been compressed in some way. As it unfolds, one deck after another, growing taller and taller, it becomes less like a ship and more like a tower, more like a garden, a hanging garden. Bright murals of green and red are painted on wide bricks. Hundreds of bas reliefs featuring the heroic eidolons of old. And walking through these gardens—which seem to be open aired; you can see into them; there are not walls on this ship anymore—there are thousands, tens of thousands of people, maybe more, in this floating city, people for whom the boundary between civilian and soldier has been utterly permanently destroyed. They live here at the front, in constant total war.
Present is led to a docking bay, guided in— and I call it a docking bay, but it’s a garden too. You get off the ship, and you can smell the sage and thyme and then something deep and almost leathery. Saffron, maybe. You're led through the ship, guards around you. [amused] You tell me if you want to make a break for it, but you're somewhere else now. And eventually, not far from here, you are led to a sort of open field. There are some low wildflowers, some ankle-high plants, and out in front of you, something begins to emerge from the soil. It is an inky, liquid metal blackness that bubbles up, and then it begins to firm up, one layer at a time, until it stands like a trapezoidal monument. This is the Divine Commitment, [Ali laughs quietly] one of the two Divines for which the Glorious Princept Dahlia is the Elect. And on its front, an open threshold appears and beckons you forward. It’s time to meet Dahlia. So, on the inside— you go inside this structure, presumably?
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: You don't, like, make a break for it? You're not like, “All right, peace, suckers!”
Ali: Not yet. [laughs]
Austin: Not yet. Okay. When you walk in, there is a sort of reclining black chair, not like a recliner, [laughs quietly] not like a comfy La-Z-Boy, but you know, a sort of throne, made from the same stuff the ground is and the walls are, this Divine material, the Divine Commitment. And on the sort of walls of this place, the kind of weird black marble where you can see the striations in it kind of moving and changing, as if it were almost like a liquid screen TV or something. Some of those striations take the form of images. You know, some of them take the form of data, except, again, it’s not really a screen. It’s like the other colors in a piece of marble. In this case, it’s kind of white, almost light emanations coming out of these marble striations, like starlight in the black, but they’re turned to, you know, outlines of figures across the galaxy; rapidly, you know, scrolling bits of data. And the person looking at them is Dahlia, someone we’ve never seen on camera, I think. As they stand to— or as they turn to face you, I think, you can see that they are wearing the same material that the walls are made of, that this entire structure, this kind of liquid that turned to stone, a kind of tight-fitting almost, like, very…almost like a stone, like…what are the suits called in Eva? What am I blanking on the suits?
Dre: Plug suits?
Austin: Almost like a plug suit. Like, that type of tight, you know, all-over flight suit, you know, completely crafted to their body. The facecast I have for them is the actor Jesse James Keitel and very specifically this particular paint—or not paint, geez—makeup that they[1] have on here, where it’s like their face could be metal, right? It’s almost a statue or bronze or something, these metallic undertones. I don't know if they’re undertones. I'm not a makeup person.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Maybe overtones? I don't know. But you get what I'm going for here. I have linked a news article from Digital Spy called “Big Sky’s Jesse James Keitel on Jerrie’s future and their new role in season 2.” And as they turn, you can also see they are connected to Commitment through the Divine Integrity, which as a reminder is this almost Cronenberg-esque metallic spine that’s connected to their back and which kind of lifts up from it, like there’s, like…it’s almost cartoonish how it’s like there are spines coming out of their back which have kind of plugged into this throne of Commitment, and as they turn and face you, the chair kind of moves and lifts so that they're looking down on you. It kind of hovers higher in the room, giving them an angle looking down on you. And I don't— you have a Divine, so the fact that this is a Divine or a pair of Divines facing you, that part I think you have gotten over, right?
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: But I don't…there is still something about these particular ones. All the way back in COUNTER/Weight, we talked about Grace being able to impose her will and her sense of presence, and I'm not going to make you roll for it, because I don't— Brnine no-selling this is fine to me [Ali laughs] or Brnine being overwhelmed by it is fine to me.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: But I am curious. They do emanate that sort of force. They do emanate that sort of presence, which is a big part of how they have managed to stay in control of half of the Divine Principality for all this time. How does Brnine react when faced with one of the two emperors of space?
Ali: [laughs] Sure. Of space, okay. Yeah.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: Uh…buh…this is a big deal? [Sylvia and Ali laugh]
Keith: That is in character?
Austin: Is that in character? Do you say “What’s the big deal?”
Keith: “Uh, buh, big deal?” [Ali laughs]
Janine: I can see the comic already. [Keith and Ali laugh]
Austin: Uh huh. Mm-hmm.
Ali: Okay. Do I have my Divine with me?
Austin: No? They didn't leave you with—
Ali: Okay. I'm in jail. Yeah, no, I'm in jail.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: They would take that away from me.
Austin: They would have taken that away from you.
Ali: I'm just asking. I'm just asking.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: I mean, it’s scary.
Austin: Unless you have something that’s like, “I have sneakily kept my Divine with me,” which I don't…
Ali: Right. Well, we’ll talk about that.
Janine: You smuggle a little Asepsis in under your tongue? [Ali laughs]
Austin: Oh my god. If you have a little Asepsis hairpin I'm gonna lose my mind. Brnine doesn't have a hairpin. What are we talking about?
Ali: [mock offended] Hey.
Austin: Maybe. [Ali laughs] Maybe.
Ali: No, I…this is real. This is real stuff.
Austin: Okay.
Ali: This is the real deal right here. It’s hard to say what it would be like, right? [laugh quietly]
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: But that’s the show, so I have to. [Austin laughs] No, but… [Ali and Keith laugh]
Austin: That is the show. That is the show, yeah. I describe a situation.
Keith: And consistently I find that it is hard to know what it would be like.
Ali: But I, like, is this a person who’s like…how often is Brnine seeing this person’s face?
Austin: Uh…enough in images, but never in— they’re not doing photoshoots, right?
Ali: Right. But is it like, are they on the $20 bill? Like, are we talking—
Austin: Yeah, they’re on money.
Ali: Okay, yeah, so. [laughs]
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: That’s fucking weird. That’s fucking…
Austin: Yes. Yes.
Ali: That’s intense, and it’s kind of a big deal.
Austin: And that’s probably the type of thing where, like, you know, this is the classic thing, right? Is that, like, “most people only ever see the emperor’s face on money” is like a fun historical fact about some eras of time.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: And I don't think that that’s exactly the case here. The Pact is the side of this war that feels like it wants to make a big propagandistic deal about their sick leader, you know? I mean, I guess both sides want that to some degree, right? But they definitely have made…you know, there are flags with the Glorious Princept’s face on them. There are videos of speeches that they’ve given, right? Dahlia is— and also Dahlia was kidnapped as a kid. Like, as a reminder, because it’s been a minute since we talked about this character, right? This is the kid that the Farmer, Sovereign Immunity, kidnapped when they were a child in order to try to do a revolution.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: That failed. Then, this character, Dahlia, was rescued by the then-Apokine, the leader of Stel Apostolos, and was raised as a hostage among the Apostolosians. Then, they were given the throne, effectively. They were marked. They were— because of their connection— they were next in line to become the Princept, right? And because of that and because of their connection to Apostolos, which they gained after years of living there, [laughs quietly] and the fondness that their family had there and that the people gained for them after their many smaller victories along their kind of— through their adolescence in competition and in war, they were marked to become the new Apokine.
They then decided to take that role and, on top of that, the one that they’d been prepped for or the one that they were marked for, which was to become the next Princept of the galaxy, but Kesh and Nideo did not like the idea that there would be— orspecifically in the first season, in PARTIZAN, Kesh was like, “No, the next Princept has to be Kesh and has to be living in Kesh and has to be—” all of the Princepts have been Kesh, at least since the very beginning basically, and so they went to— there was that initial civil war just between Kesh and Apostolos, which has since spread to what is now the Pact and the Bilats. That’s the short version.
And Dahlia runs— Dahlia is in charge of Apostolos and is, on paper, the head of the Pact, but as a reminder, the Pact was not something that Dahlia made. The Pact was something that made itself, that collection of Elects made that we learned about in PARTIZAN. But they are effectively Columnar and Apostolos, which has effectively made Dahlia their supported— they support Dahlia in the civil war.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: I say all that because, as we will learn momentarily, there may be some differences between what Dahlia believes and what the Pact believes. [Ali laughs]
Austin: So, I think they say:
(as Dahlia): Captain Kalvin Brnine. Welcome. Are they treating you well?
Ali (as Brnine): Uh, yeah. Yeah, I guess.
Austin (as Dahlia): I've reviewed your interview. It seems that you are not fond of Apostolos. It seems we've done you wrong. Would that be fair to say?
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah.
Austin (as Dahlia): As Apokine, I extend my apologies.
Ali (as Brnine): Oh.
Austin (as Dahlia): I have looked at your work, not just with Millennium Break. Before that, your time as a mercenary; your time as soldier, short though it was. Your work as a scientist, your work as an engineer. There are things you've done that we don't understand: projects you've lead, developments you've deployed. It’s all very impressive.
Ali (as Brnine): [clears throat] Not the kind of stuff I, uh, thought would gain the attention of the Princept, but, uh…
Austin (as Dahlia): It’s funny you say that, because I look at some of your work, I look at Kalmeria, and I wonder if anyone in this galaxy has ever understood what gets my attention more than you. What drives you to fight or to invent or to captain your vessel?
Ali (as Brnine): Uh—
Austin (as Dahlia): There are no cameras here. You're not being recorded. You don't need to speak for anyone else. It is you and me.
Ali (as Brnine): Wait. What drives me?
Austin (as Dahlia): There are many ways you could use your skills to safely live in some corner of Orion space and to do nothing worth note, to find a new color way for sneakers that is effective in the marketplace. [Ali laughs quietly] You could spend time finding dyes and flavors, and instead, you equip an army. You could spend time finding new efficiencies in the factory, something many would find appealing and useful. Instead, you revolutionize industry itself, [laughs quietly] and then hide from the name. What drives you?
Ali (as Brnine): I think, like anyone else, I was just trying to survive.
Austin (as Dahlia): Exactly. Do you think you would have thought up the things you thought up in safer times?
Ali (as Brnine): Uh…no, I…under Apostolos, there were very specific solutions.
Austin (as Dahlia): This war we’re fighting against the Branched. There are people who have advised me that we should recruit you, so that you can help us end it. Do you have feelings about that proposition?
Ali (as Brnine): I would never support your cause against the Branched.
Austin (as Dahlia): There’s a reason why I said there are people who would like you to do that. My goals are a little different. You've seen the people aboard: feathered wings and eyes of fire? Apostolos is changing. What do you think drives that change?
Ali (as Brnine): I hate to offend, but I really haven't been paying attention [Sylvia laughs quietly] to the trends.
Austin: A smirk on their face.
(as Dahlia): That’s fair. I'll be plain. In the last five years, conflict with the Branched, with the Bilateral Intercession, with you has done more for Apostolos, has done more for the galaxy than one millennia after another of supposed growth and conquest. It is only in the stalemate that change occurs. We have to fight the war against the Branched until we’re not human anymore.
Ali: That’s a fucked up thing to say. I'm sorry, I'm gonna— [Ali and Dre laugh]
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: I had to take a minute out of character to be like, [Austin: Mm-hmm.] “Okay, wait a minute. That’s a fucked up thing to say.” Yeah, I… [laughs] Because this isn't the, like, [goofy mock outrage] “What! How could you say that? That’s… I’m…”
Austin: Mm-hmm. [laughter]
Ali: “You're disgusting!” Like…
Keith: Let’s—
Dre: You're turning into a muppet while you say it? [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: New Brnine voice just dropped. Oh my god.
Keith: Yeah, this is— from now on, this is how Brnine talks. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Uh huh. What if, when you went through puberty, instead of your voice regular cracking, it went, like, muppet mode? [Ali and Keith laugh]
Sylvia: Is that what happened to Jordan Peterson?
Austin: [laughs] Uh huh, that is what happened, and it stuck like that.
Ali: Ohh.
Keith: It’s so embarrassing, that stage that everyone goes through where they wave like Kermit by flailing their arms.
Austin: [laughs] Uh huh. [Ali and Sylvia laugh]
Dre: [laughs] Christ.
Ali: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that it’s, like, so offended…
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: It’s not, like, attack offended. There’s like a…I don't know that this is, like, a battle with words moment.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: You know what I mean? But…
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, they won't shut up. They need—
Keith: Can you— sorry, it’s been a—
Austin: Yeah?
Keith: It’s been a second. What was the thing that they said about…? They’re basically saying the point is to keep fighting the war so that we can become less human, and that’s a good thing.
Austin: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: They would like us to not be human anymore.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: And, you know, point of…they illustrate this, right? Because maybe it is this moment when— there’s a very funny way to do this [Ali laughs quietly] that they don't know that they’re being funny. They don't know that they’re being kind of shitty, actually, is really what it is, which is that the room changes around you. The light becomes softer. It is a living room on a warm sunny day. This is a thing your old friend Phrygian could do, and it strikes you: they’re not in the room, they’re the room.
Ali: Ohh. Yeah, I hate that.
Austin: They were not born a Branched, and they don't come from the particular lineage of the Branched, but in joining Integrity and in that duo joining Commitment, they have become something else, something like the Branched, just as the Branched were once a rough combination of human and divine and synthetic.
Keith: Is there a reason that they believe that it’s by— that they have to fight a war to do this?
Austin: They said it already.
Keith: Oh, they did?
Austin: Which is that times of peace do not produce change.
Keith: Oh, okay, I got you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Yes.
Keith: Those are…
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: I didn't connect those two halves of the thing.
Austin: No, this is fucked up anime sicko shit, 100%.
Dre: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Ali: Uh huh. Yeah, uh huh.
Keith: Yeah.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: But they’re not, like…you know, they’re not like, “I need to be— I need to find a great fight for me!” They think it’s a societal thing, you know? They think—
Keith: Sure.
Austin: Which, you know, maybe they reiterate here.
(as Dahlia): The war against the Bilateral Intercession is a waste of our time. You know the old canard that two sides in a war over time come to resemble one another. We should be fighting those who would push us to find what’s next, and what’s next is not human or synthetic or Branched or divine. We don't know what it is. It’s something that will only come through antagonism, through synthesis. And how quickly that happens is [sighs] something we can affect. You could help us achieve it more quickly. You could come and work for me, not for the Pact who target your friends. You could be my researcher. You would live in comfort. You would have respect. People would know your name or not, as you desired. Again, we have not broadcast your interview, and it is small work to make it say what you wish it said and a small cost for us to let you say what you wish it said.
Ali (as Brnine): Have you lived your whole life expecting people like me to be the ones who care about what happens to other people?
Austin (as Dahlia): No, I mostly believe that people are selfish.
Ali (as Brnine): [dismissive] Uh huh.
Austin (as Dahlia): This is why the war is important, because it builds connections. In times of peace, we've seen the selfish impulse run free. They hid for years that Apostolos was coerced and tricked into joining the Divine Principality. The war that should have been, which would have changed both Apostolos and the Principality, was denied. One of many sins. Fine, you don't want to come work for me. I'll give you another option. Defeat the Bilateral Intercession on Palisade with my help.
Ali (as Brnine): The— [sighs] I— the things that I do are to end the war.
Austin: Squinting at you.
(as Dahlia): You know that won't happen in your lifetime.
Ali (as Brnine): Well—
Austin (as Dahlia): End the war? What does after this look like to you? Where does it end? In your periphery? Wasteful wars will roll on forever until we leave this form behind.
Ali (as Brnine): Again, not to be disrespectful, but I think everybody else isn't fighting… [to self] I— this is getting— [sighs] I'm not gonna help you, and you're not— you're not gonna listen to me.
Austin (as Dahlia): I can give you time to consider.
Ali: [laughs] This person sucks.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Um…okay.
Austin: I should be clear about what that second offer is so that you can consider it.
Ali: Right.
Austin: Before they send you away to a really fucked up prison.
Ali: Uh huh.
Austin: Where they will slowly work on your consideration abilities.
Ali: Sure.
Austin: I think that they say:
(as Dahlia): If what you want is to return to your friends and allies on Palisade, I will send you back with the agreement that you travel back with my sibling, Cas’alear, who your comrades already worked with on Palisade. Cas trained members of your, uh, Jade Kill, but when time for war came, they were asked to leave, because cas was not trusted. Return with cas as your liberator, along with the two agents you worked aside aboard the combustor and a retinue of additional forces. Integrate them with your units on Palisade, and end the distraction there so that I am allowed to continue my work.
Ali: I…okay. So, speaking to the table… [laughs quietly]
Dre: Hello.
Ali: Hi.
Keith: Hi.
Ali: Hi.
Sylvia: How about that?
Ali: Hey. So, the— okay. There’s…we’re at a crossroads here.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Ali: We have to figure out what the next sortie is.
Austin: We do.
Ali: Um…there is— okay. So, there’s a— [laughs] I went into this recording thinking there were two options: either I would hear something fucked up enough that Brnine would be like, “Oh, I have to kill this person.”
Austin: Mm, mm-hmm.
Ali: And I think “I fully believe that I have to continue the war to instill a new version of humanity…” [laughs]
Austin: Uh huh.
Dre: Uh huh.
Ali: Is close to that.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: It’s about as close to that as you could get, I think.
Austin: To be clear, it’s also a new version of the Branched. We don't know what yet.
Ali: Sure, yeah.
Austin: Which, by the way, we know this is happening, right? Because one of the things that we noted was that the Branched have started becoming aggressive in a way they hadn't been historically, right? They’re starting to—
Ali: Right, yeah.
Austin: So, for Dahlia, Dahlia’s like, “Yep, put one on the board. We lost another world. They’re getting more aggressive like we are. That’s good.”
Ali: Right, yeah.
Austin: Right?
Ali: Or just the, like, experimentation that we’ve spoken about.
Austin: Totally fucked up. Yep, mm-hmm.
Ali: But like, you know, I don't know that Brnine…I’ve been playing them as being in prison and hollow blooded and sick. [laughs]
Austin: Mm-hmm. Feverish, yeah.
Ali: I don't know that they’re in the place to be like, [voice] “Stop doing experiments, and, you know, just talk to the Branched. I loved Phrygian,” which is why I haven't been playing them that way either. But that’s, you know, that comes to the forefront of the mind. So I could either— I could do that and see if I kill this person. [laughs]
Austin: Okay. Like, you could—
Keith: Hell yeah. Do it.
Austin: You could try to Valence them. [Ali laughs]
Keith: I'm all for that. You should kill this person.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: Or—
Keith: You should assassinate the emperor.
Ali: Yeah. Or, okay. Okay, sure.
Austin: Easy for you to say. You already lost your last character, Keith! [Austin and Ali laugh]
Keith: Huh? What? [laughter]
Ali: Austin, on a scale of one to ten…
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: [laughs] How…how much would I be able to assassinate this person—? [laughter]
Keith: There’s some sick playbooks out there
Ali: And still be able to— [laughs]
Keith: You should take a look at some playbooks.
Ali: And still be able to break out?
Austin: What?! Break out of them? [Ali and Janine laugh]
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: You're in them right now.
Ali: Oh, yeah. That’s true.
Austin: Uh, it would be hard.
Ali: But, okay.
Austin: I don't know. You have to tell me. What do you have that you would even do that with?
Ali: Um…
Dre: Fist.
Austin: I don't think that’s gonna work.
Keith: Determination? [Ali laughs]
Janine: What if you win over another divine?
Austin: Right, that’s the question, is do you have Asepsis with you? Which, as we asked before…
Ali: Right.
Janine: No, no, no, no, no.
Austin: Oh.
Janine: No, what if you win over another divine?
Austin: Oh, another different divine.
Ali: Oh, sure. Sure, sure, sure.
Austin: You've brought over one of these other ones. Sure, uh huh.
Ali: Yeah. Well, you know, Integrity. I'm integral. I have integrity, these days.
Austin: Uh huh. [Ali laughs]
Janine: This is a demonstration of integrity.
Austin: Uh huh. Yeah.
Ali: [laughs] Yeah.
Janine: A situation where you have nothing. You have nothing to gain. Like, there is— it’s a situation that you're getting yourself into that, like, [Austin: Uh huh.] probably cannot— but you're entering into it knowing, like, “probably I can't get out of this,” but you still have to— you're standing by—
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Janine: You know, that’s integrity. That’s…
Ali: Yeah. You know?
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Um… [laughs] Can I do a Read the Room to see which of these divines is most into me?
Dre: Oh, okay.
Austin: Wow. [Ali laughs] Yeah, you know, I'll let you roll dice. [Ali laughs] Always.
Ali: Sure. Sure. Yeah, I mean, this would be a having my cake and eat it too, because I feel like assassination is a…we sort of know what step two is of that plan. [laughs] So it would either be not doing that and then trying to break out of prison and doing, like, a b-plot or something with that sortie?
Austin: Right, right, on the sortie version.
Ali: Uh huh.
Austin: Where, like, you're on this weird prison, which the prison will not be on Palisade. To be clear, they’re not sending you back to the part of space they don't own.
Ali: No. No. No, no, no.
Austin: I know about what— I don't know a lot about this prison. I know who the warden is.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Which is a weird thing to say, maybe.
Ali: Okay. I'm logging into Roll20 as we speak.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: I'm gonna do a Read the Room.
Austin: Okay. Roll plus Sense.
Ali: [laughs] I have a… [Dre laughs] How much do I have in Sense?
Austin: You have plus 1 in Sense.
Ali: I have plus 1 in Sense.
Dre: I do love this idea of, like, I'm not logging into Roll20 until I have to roll. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: It’s downtime, baby, you know?
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: It’s just, you know.
Sylvia: You know? I respect it, actually. [Ali laughs]
Dre: No, I'm saying. It’s fucking awesome. That’s a power play.
Ali: I forgot to is really what happened. [Ali and Dre laugh]
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: God bless.
Ali: 2d— 1d6.
Austin: Nope.
Keith: Nope.
Austin: 2d6 plus 1.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Feverish and Hollow Blooded, wow.
Ali: Okay.
Dre: Wow.
Austin: But for real life. Hey, that’s a 10.
Ali: That’s a 10.
Keith: Sick roll.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Ask me some questions. You get three questions from this list. And you have to tell me how you're learning some of these. Depending on the questions, I'm gonna ask you how did you…
Ali: Sure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh huh. Uh huh. What is being overlooked or obscured here?
Austin: Good question.
Keith: Great. Yeah, great one to start with. Love that. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Now, I mean—
Keith: What a good— I always love that one.
Austin: Yeah, it’s good. I don't know that you're…I don't know that there’s much that you're…there’s nothing being hidden from you.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: This is a pretty up-and-down situation.
Ali: Mm-hmm. Yep.
Austin: There’s not, like, secretly a fire escape or a— [Ali and Dre laugh] like, a fire escape or a fire alarm that you can pull. There’s not secretly a gun in the cabinet, you know?
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Keith: It’d be very funny if you could thwart the flagship of the Pact by pulling the fire alarm on their flagship. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yes. Uh huh.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, I don't know that there is anything. Uh, yeah, I don't— and to some degree, that’s the…that’s worth an advantage, in a sense, right? Because it’s like, the only way out is through. I'm not gonna find the little secret…
Ali: This is true. Yeah. Uh huh.
Austin: You know, thing.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: They don't have some sort of, like, tick, where it’s like, every seventh breath they have to, you know, blink both— you know? There’s no…
Ali: No, no, no. Yeah, yeah.
Austin: As far as you can see.
Ali: And the two divines are Integrity and Commitment?
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Could I ask: how does Integrity really feel?
Austin: How are you finding out? The answer is yes, but like, what’s it look like to learn that information?
Ali: Right. Yeah. Um, you said that I could see their, like, how they’re hooked up [Austin: Mm-hmm.] or whatever, right?
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: And is there— are we having any of the weird, like, “when you're in a divine place, your taste is weird”?
Austin: You are not.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: [laughs] Okay. Well, that’s— I mean—
Austin: That was specifically from…generally, that is specifically from the altars of…
Ali: Oh, sure, sure, sure. Okay.
Austin: Use the Kalmeria of the different approaches, right?
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: But you're not getting that here. This stuff hasn't been touched by this new— they've been like this for years, since before Kalmeria existed, since before the altar existed.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: They are not using any of this new magic shit.
Ali: Okay. Talking a big game about progress, though.
Austin: Yeah. Uh huh.
Ali: Notable. Let’s…
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: I'm noting it.
Austin: I mean, they’re launching altars out there, [Ali: Uh huh.] but they themselves are going down this other Branched path, you know?
Ali: Right. Okay, yeah.
Austin: In the same way that, to be clear, Phrygian didn't smell like elemental magic, [Ali: Right.] even though Phrygian used the elemental type.
Ali: Okay, yeah.
Austin: This is like that.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: I have an idea of who has the upper hand.
Austin: Oh, sorry, do you want another way of “How does X really feel?”? Do you want to interpret that as a way, or…?
Ali: Um, yeah.
Austin: Or do you want to ask another question instead, since you don't have, like, a clear…?
Ali: No, I was just looking at the list. But there’s no, like…Integrity isn't the one that has, like, telekinesis or…how have we seen Integrity before? Was that the shield one?
Austin: Integrity was in the COUNTER/Weight faction game, I want to say, originally. Not the faction game, the Kingdom game originally. Was Sokrates’s, which is all the more why this is a bit of a betrayal, right?
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: That, like, we— to the fan of Integrity. [Ali laughs] They are going right now, “But Integrity, that was the good one.” Sokrates would go on to— actually, they only got it after the Kingdom game, now that I'm thinking about it. They recovered it from one of the planets in the southwest of Counterweight, of the Golden Branch system. They, you know, produced, like, an armor around Sokrates, and they were like, they wielded it almost like a…I want to say maybe it was like a spear, or sorry, like a shield and a spear. It’s like an exoskeleton that they wore, basically, right?
Ali: Okay, yeah. Okay, I thought so. All right, good.
Austin: And then the thing that’s unique about right now is Commitment is a divine that Dre made up in one of the Road to PARTIZAN games that requires a Columnar Elect and an Orion Elect, historically, needs two Elects to be piloted at once, and it’s this kind of inky metal thing or this inky black thing. Dahlia claims publicly that having dual lineages gives them the ability to pilot it without a second pilot, and in fact, it is because they also have Integrity. Integrity is kind of copiloting Commitment.
Ali: Okay, sure, sure, sure. Okay.
Austin: So.
Ali: That’s interesting.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Yeah, then I wonder, if it’s still something that’s visible…
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Would it be, like, something that I'm reading from, like, a difference from how it’s displayed here versus how it’s been displayed, like, in media or whatever?
Austin: Yeah, sure, sure, sure. Or almost like reading, like, an animal’s mood.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Like, oh, is this cat mad at me? [Ali and Dre laugh]
Ali: Yes.
Austin: Is this weird spinal exoskeleton mad at me?
Ali: Uh huh.
Austin: Is it, like, crinkling around? Is it wagging its tail? Et cetera.
Ali: Yeah. A question Brnine has classically asked themselves over and over.
Dre: Sure.
Austin: Is someone mad at me? Yeah, uh huh.
Ali: [laughs] Uh huh, uh huh.
Austin: It seems— you know, you have not said anything to sway its—
Ali: Sure.
Austin: None of this is news to it. You know what I mean?
Ali: Uh huh. Yeah.
Austin: And it is not in a Gur Sevraq situation. It has not been, you know…if there was a point at which Integrity was not happy about this, that time has come and gone. Or maybe not happy, but if there was a time when Integrity was like, you know, “Finally, someone has come to help get me out of this situation.” That’s not what’s happening here.
Ali: Okay, yeah. Okay, sure.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Well, you know.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Still time to sway.
Keith: Yeah, 50,000 years does stuff to you. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Well, and again, we've talked about this before with divines, right? Like, the classic thing with Grace—I've said this fairly recently—is like, “Sometimes they get like this,” right? Which is to say: sometimes they change, for a long period of time, [Ali: Mm-hmm.] and their perspective on the world shifts. In some ways, this is, like, a way that this setting plays with the notion of immortality is like, you know, what you feel about the world can change— when you're this old and when you’re this long, can change in huge ways for long periods of time. This came up a lot in Twilight Mirage. This came up in COUNTER/Weight, again. And so, no divine is, like, immune to the idea of deciding one day that eternal war is actually sick.
Ali: Uh huh. [laughs quietly]
Austin: And do they color it with their version of it? Yes, which is why, you know, Dahlia talks— Dahlia is effectively a sort of historical accelerationist, right?
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Dahlia looks out and says, “We should all be better, and the best way to get there is through constant war.” They don't even need to win. Dahlia doesn't care about winning the war. Like, truly, really doesn't. Cares about it running for long enough that whatever’s left afterwards doesn't look like this and doesn't look like a continuation of any of this. It’ll be a new world, and we’ll be new types of people on the other side of this, and if it doesn't achieve that, then it hasn't gone on long enough.
Ali: Okay. Sure. And then short of, like, “where can I find a weapon?” doesn't seem so..
Austin: You would have to produce something— [Ali laughs quietly] you know, you could trick…you could trick Dahlia into turning into some sort of armory, you know?
Ali: Hmm.
Austin: You could trick— you could be like, “Dahlia, I would love to make this decision in, uh, a gun shop,” you know?
Ali: [laughs] Yeah, uh huh.
Austin: “I would love to make this decision with a sword in my hand.”
Ali: You know, let’s see how we work together.
Austin: Uh huh. Yeah, can you load up, um, like a cool holodeck where we’re doing… [Ali laughs] we’re in a gunfight together?
Ali: Yeah, uh huh.
Austin: Let’s go to the danger room.
Keith: By the way, what are you weak to? Random question.
Austin: Yeah. [Austin and Ali laugh] If you were a Pokémon, which type of Pokémon would you be?
Ali: Well, I mean, there’s another question here, which is “How is X at risk or in peril?”
Austin: Or in peril. Yeah, mm-hmm.
Ali: But like, this is the height of…
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Ali: The power of the Principality, right?
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Ali: There’s no vulnerability within this room.
Austin: You know, I would say— I would give— I would be happy to say that, yeah, they’re at risk by being, you know, self absorbed or something, you know?
Ali: Right. Okay, sure.
Austin: But that’s one risk. You need three to make them…to Strike Decisively, you know?
Ali: That’s true, yeah.
Austin: But.
Ali: Okay. [sighs] Um…
Austin: For the record, their approach is divine. It’s like, you know, it’s what it is.
Ali: Yeah. I figured as much.
Austin: Yeah. Oh, also, a thing that is overlooked or obscured here. This is actually really important. I'm glad I, you know. You're being— you and they are being overlooked and obscured by being inside of the Divine Commitment where they are assumed to be protected and safe and secure. So if you took action in here, no one would be able to get in instantly, necessarily. You know?
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: I mean, they could, if they were able to, open a door to call for help or whatever, but generally speaking, when someone speaks to— when someone walks into the Divine Commitment, on the flagship, it seems like you are truly not gonna get any outside— like, the door isn't gonna open and 10 guards aren't gonna rush in. You know what I mean?
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: And that is…that’s something. It’s not a risk, but it’s— that’s something that you could roll with advantage when you act on the answer of what you asked.
Ali: Okay, yeah.
Austin: You know? So.
Ali: Okay. So, another thing that’s happening here is that I have been sitting on two upgrades since the last arc.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: [mumbling] Technically it was the last downtime, but we’re not gonna worry about it.
Austin: What? What was that? [Ali laughs]
Keith: No, I got that.
Austin: Okay. They weren't things that could have helped anyway, presumably.
Ali: You know—
Austin: There’s no moves you could have used that would have been useful to have on the stellar combustor.
Ali: You know what?
Dre: Wow. Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow.
Ali: If you listened to that arc and you were like, “You know, there’s such a disadvantage. There’s no moves here.” Um, that was, you know, it was just the— you know, it was fine. Or if you were listening to it, and you were like, “Austin’s being really easy on them,” then there’s no reason, 'cause I should have had a move, and I didn't. Anyway. [laughs]
Keith: I did not feel like Austin was being easy on us, by the way.
Dre: No.
Ali: Anyway. So, there are…
Dre: Wouldn't even let you have the refrigerator. [Austin chuckles]
Ali: They’re relevant moves, one of which is Mobility: “When you're fighting somewhere with the room to be athletic and mobile, [Ali and Dre laugh] roll plus Defy.”
Austin: Excuse me?
Ali: On a 10 plus, you—
Keith: Okay. Now I'm seeing… [Ali laughs] Now I see it. Okay, now I see it.
Austin: Wait, what do you see now, Keith? What it’s like to be me?
Keith: Ali, you want to read the text of the move again?
Austin: Yeah. Uh huh. This is what it’s like to be me, Keith! [Ali laughs] All the time.
Keith: Wait! [laughs] Wait, why? Why, why?
Austin: What do you mean, “why”? [Dre and Ali laugh]
Keith: I'm good at taking moves. I don't know.
Austin: This motherf— ooh! [frustrated laugh] I'm just gonna take a sip.
Keith: Wait, what— hold on. Hold on. [laughter continues]
Sylvia: Shit.
Austin: Read the text!
Keith: Read the text, please.
Ali: “When you're fighting somewhere with the room to be acrobatic and mobile, roll plus Defy.”
Austin: [laughing] I don't think that this room is that.
Ali: Hey! You sure? Okay. Then, perhaps— [laughs]
Keith: Is this small? You didn't say it was small.
Austin: Yes!
Dre: Yeah, how big’s the room?
Austin: “How big’s the room?” [Ali laughs]
Keith: Inside a divine.
Dre: Yeah.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: It’s not… [mumbles]
Dre: Hey, Keith, how big were Phrygian’s rooms?
Austin: Don't. [Dre laughs quietly]
Keith: Uh…
Austin: Don't tag Keith in on this!
Sylvia: Hey, girl, how big are those rooms?
Ali: I mean, is it as big as, like, a wrestling ring?
Austin: No!
Ali: Or is this a closet? What are we talking about here? [laughs quietly]
Keith: Deck 7 was the whole deck of a ship, so huge.
Austin: Yeah, that’s not what this is.
Ali: Okay. Sure.
Austin: This is, like—
Ali: Okay, we’re moving on, then.
Austin: Yeah. [laughter]
Ali: “When you take random parts or objects and attempt to create something useful out of them…”
Austin: It could be bigger. It could be bigger! [laughter] I hadn't been imagining it as big! I'd been imagining it as, like, [Ali: Okay.] a small room, but it could be bigger.
Ali: This isn't, like, “I'm Emperor Palpatine. I'm taking you into my big fuckoff room, because I'm a big fuckoff emperor?”
Austin: No, because they could make the room as big or small as they want.
Ali: Sure. Right.
Austin: And right now, it’s just them. And you. They’re not— you know? You didn't walk—
Ali: Yeah, but you—
Austin: I didn't describe you walking down the long hallway to face them. I didn't—
Ali: I know, but it’s, you know, pomp and circumstance. That’s how it goes, right? [laughs]
Austin: That’s how it goes. I don't think that that’s the vibe that they bring to it.
Ali: You’ve done Rise of the Resistance now, so you know when you walk into that room and there’s all the—?
Austin: [wearily] Yeah, I…all the stormtroopers. I told my parents about it three days ago. [Ali laughs] I said, “It’s cool. The doors open up. Wow, look, there’s all the stormtroopers.”
Ali: Yeah. Okay.
Austin: “It’s mostly statues, but a couple of them are animatronics, and you can—”
Ali: You know what, I could have this move and have, like, while I've been imprisoned so far, put something together.
Austin: Sorry, what’s this other move? This is an engineer move? What is this other— or Artificer move?
Ali: This is in Artificer, I believe?
Austin: Jury Rigger? Is it that one?
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, okay.
Ali: Jury Rigger or Arcane Generator are two that I think are…you know.
Austin: I don't think— I don't know that you've built a remarkable artifact, [Ali: No.] small enough to be worn on your back or at your hip, while in prison.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: I could imagine you've taken random parts or objects and attempt to create something useful out of them, but even that’s wild. [Ali laughs] I feel like we’d have to do a flashback.
Ali: Right.
Austin: I feel like we’d have to start playing Blades in the Dark. You have to take three stress [Ali laughs] so that we can do a flashback where you've been secretly stealing stuff from counters and, you know, stuff.
Ali: Sure, yeah.
Austin: But that’s kind of interesting. That’s not, you know. I can make you roll for it retroactively.
Ali: Well, that’s my avenue to a weapon. Arcane Generator is like, “Oh, I've had Asepsis this whole time, but this is the first time I'm using it in this way.”
Austin: [crosstalk] Ah, I see. Arcane Generator, can you read it?
Ali: Yeah. “You’ve built a remarkable artifact, small enough to be worn on your back or at your hip, that generates and sustains its own magical energy.” This is true. “You may power and control an astir,” which is not relevant.
Dre: Not yet.
Keith: Once again, my “Asepsis is a backpack” agenda being pushed. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Right, uh huh.
Keith: In the game.
Austin: FLUDD Asepsis.
Keith: Yeah, FLUDD Asepsis.
Ali: “When you tap into it to create something long-lasting, roll plus Know. On a 10 plus, you can create something as big as a tower or complex as a lock, but it may take a few minutes of work.”
Austin: Right.
Ali: That would also be like a “I was in prison, and I built myself a gun with Asepsis magic.” [laughs]
Austin: Yeah, uh huh. I don't think a— I think a gun is more complex than a lock. I don't think you can build a gun with this.
Ali: Can I just take Mobility and try to Jason Bourne this? If I get my neck snapped, that’s what happens, you know? [laughs quietly]
Austin: You're gonna Jason Bourne the emperor?
Keith: And roll with advantage to do it.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: And roll with advantage to do it. [Ali laughs] So, wait, Mobility says…let me reread Mobility. “When you're fighting somewhere with the room to be acrobatic and mobile…”
Sylvia: I'm glad Jason Bourne keeps coming up, because it makes me think that “Jason Bourne-ing” something is something Brnine actually says. [Ali laughs]
Austin: And also, it’s not something Brnine’s ever done. The only character—
Dre: That’s true.
Austin: Not the only character. Leap has Mobility. Thisbe doesn't literally—
Ali: Sure.
Austin: Neither of these characters literally have Mobility, but like, “While you're fighting somewhere with room to be acrobatic and mobile,” that’s the stuff that I've seen those characters do. [Ali laughs]
Keith: You're saying that Brnine has never described what they're doing in a way that suggests that they’re [Ali: Yeah.] extremely athletic.
Austin: No!
Dre: I don't— have we ever seen Brnine in hand-to-hand combat?
Austin: Maybe firing a pistol or something.
Janine: Okay, but, counterpoint.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Hollow blood, less weight. [Ali and Keith laugh]
Sylvia: There you go. Hollow blood, less weight.
Dre: Oh.
Austin: Hollow blood, less weight. [Ali laughs] Also, so, the things you would do here is you—
Janine: This is Goku took the training weights off.
Austin: Goku— right.
Ali: Also, Brnine is—
Janine: It’s blood. The training blood.
Sylvia: The training blood?
Dre: The training blood! [laughs]
Ali: Brnine is—
Keith: Yeah, the weights were platelets and white blood cells.
Austin: Mm, mm-hmm. [Janine laughs]
Ali: Sneaky, and therefore acrobatic. I'm just saying. You know.
Austin: You could do this, and then what do you do? “You could escape from something that binds, traps, or impedes you…”
Ali: Jumping over fences. Yeah.
Austin: “Acquire high ground or a defensible position, get somewhere or something before others can, avoid—” this is really defensive. I don't think this is gonna help you Jason Bourne anyone’s neck.
Ali: [laughs] Sure.
Austin: None of these are “snap a neck.”
Ali: [resigned] Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: I'm not mad at you. I'm not— you know.
Ali: Yeah. No, I know. [Dre laughs]
Keith: I am.
Ali: Oh, wow.
Austin: I'm looking for solutions. I'd love to see… [Ali laughs] I would truly love to see Dahlia show up and die. This would make my life. I would love it. [Ali laughs]
Keith: It’d be so funny. It’d be so funny.
Austin: And again, to be clear, the Pact doesn't believe what Dahlia believes. This would be the end of this threat, this particular weird [Ali: Right.] anime bullshit threat, because the Pact wants something else than this, right? The Pact wants everybody to be little countries, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: The Pact wants it to be, like, what if we were five countries? And then we all got to do states’ rights.
Keith: And they presumably want to win the war against the Branched.
Austin: Right, and then— and yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the Pact is probably like, “Why don't we just nuke ‘em?” you know? Which is like: come on, you are, and it’s not working. But like, they don't— they would love to end the— to win the war with the Branched, but like, what they really want first and foremost is “What if we just…what if Nideo was its totally own country and not part of any sort of Principality in that way?”
Ali: Right.
Austin: You know? Maybe there’s a cultural Principality, but not a…
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: And I feel like that’s part of the issue here is that, like, for Brnine, it’s, you know, leaders come and go, and on a long enough timeline, someone will be like, “Let’s not put our resources into this thing anymore.”
Austin: Right. Yeah, uh huh.
Ali: But this person has admitted, like, “Oh, I'm doing this for…”
Austin: Forever.
Ali: For sicko reasons and forever.
Austin: Right, and I might be about to become the emperor for your lifetime and the next lifetime.
Ali: Right.
Austin: Or something. You know? And also, to be clear, no one has thought— and this is the limit of Brnine’s imagination. Not imagination, but like, there’s no Princept who is going to say— there’s no Princept who gets assigned Princept through the current system that would say, “Let’s end the war with the Branched.” It’s become one of those things, you know? It’s been forever. It’s a forever war for real. I'm shocked you didn't suggest Sharper Knives: “You're trained in the arts of assassination and stealth.”
Ali: Oh, wait, where’s that?
Austin: That’s Diplomat.
Ali: Where’s Diplomat? Okay, wait.
Austin: Uh, but it doesn't actually help you. It helps you remain undetected or unseen, which doesn't really work.
Ali: Right, I'm very seen right now.
Austin: Though, being unaware of your presence could count as two risks, which is very fun.
Keith: You could take Guerilla and just try to get out of here on your own.
Ali: Right.
Austin: Right, I mean, yeah. Getting out is definitely— like, get out, steal a ship, plot a course home.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Though, god, that’s still…you know, it’s doable. It might take you a little while. [Ali laughs] And again—
Ali: Right.
Austin: I really truly don't have a horse in the race of, like, I don't know what the next sortie is yet, you know?
Ali: Right.
Austin: If Brnine goes to prison, is the b-plot going to help Brnine bust out of prison? Is the a-plot that? Is the a-plot going to try to capture one of the currently undefended pillars? Is it investigating the Motion stuff? Is it— I don't know. I do not know. [Ali laughs]
Keith: Okay, this would be a wild turn. You ready for this?
Austin: Always.
Ali: Please.
Keith: “You may spend three spotlight to quickly maneuver your crew or an ardent they are crewing to any location within sight, even if the path there would be dangerous or difficult.”
Austin: This is beyond the—
Keith: Strike team!
Austin: This is beyond dangerous or difficult, I think. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Hold on. Hold on. If we’re gonna just pull bullshit out, hold on. [sighs] There’s no way for me to get another spotlight to do this, but I do have a move called Abyssal Summons.
Ali: Whoa.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Dre: “When you weave magic, you are capable of disrupting that which anchors us in place and time [Austin: Yeah.] and can reach out to wrest a person free of their current location [Ali gasps] and conjure them to yours, regardless of distance.”
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: However…
Sylvia: What the fuck?
Keith: Dre, did you—
Dre: “To do so, you must either have a strong bond with them, i.e. a gravity clock, possession of something of deep personal importance to them, or for them to have a peril you have inflicted.”
Austin: Oh, you don't have— well, you do have possess— you didn't take over [Dre: Yeah.] the Blue Channel, right? [Ali laughs] But all their stuff is aboard, so.
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: You have a gravity clock with them. That was one of them, right?
Austin: You don't have a gravity clock.
Keith: Oh, no, you don't.
Ali: No.
Keith: Okay.
Dre: No, I don't.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Although, Blue Channel, that’s true.
Austin: And you don't have this new move. Right?
Dre: I don't have this move.
Keith: You don't have the move, but did you take your level that I got for you last session? Or last—
Dre: Yes. I did.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Okay.
Dre: And I guess [mumbles]
Austin: You would need one spotlight too. It’s so funny. [Ali laughs]
Dre: I haven't used this move yet, if we want to play real fast and loose.
Austin: Which move did you take?
Dre: Number of the Beast.
Austin: Number of the Beast.
Dre: Because it’s the funniest fucking move in the entire game. [Ali laughs]
Austin: It is. It is. It is the funniest move in the game, which we shouldn't say yet. We should wait until it comes up in play.
Dre: No, yeah, yeah, we’ll wait.
Keith: Oh, wow. That is good. [Dre laughs]
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: I'm worried about that move.
Sylvia: Good bit.
Keith: “Good” in quotes.
Sylvia: Not in quotes.
Austin: God. You could switch that— you haven't used that move. I'd let you switch from Number of the Beast to Abyssal Summons. You'd have to roll to do this, and it would be very funny for this to happen. [Ali laughs] This would be some real Perennial magic bullshit.
Ali: [laughs] Listen.
Austin: I'm not op—
Dre: Mm.
Ali: Do I not have OP points with Gur Sevraq, at this point? Like, come on.
Austin: I feel like—
Dre: Oh, here is fun. Here’s the other fun part, if we did this.
Austin: Yeah?
Dre: I have to make all rolls with disadvantage right now. [laughs]
Austin: Oh my god. You do, because of Gur. Uh huh.
Ali: Wow.
Keith: Until— sorry, until…?
Dre: Until I—
Austin: You succeed and get a full success.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: 10 plus.
Dre: Until I succeed with a 10 plus.
Keith: Okay.
Ali: Possession of something of deep personal importance to them. Hey, Figure, why are you looking at those tapes of Gur Sevraq that I have in our media room?
Austin: Oh, the ones that would—
Ali: You're trying to set up for movie night, ‘cause I'm not there, and you're like, [Sylvia laughs] “What is this handwritten cassette tape?”
Austin: Right, with Valence and Gur… [Ali laughs]
Dre: Do you have—
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: [increasingly pained] Aw. Aw! Aw!
Austin: Remember, Brnine has the Gur/Valence tapes.
Dre: Aw! Aw!
Austin: And you’re like, “Wait, Gur is the voice in my head,” and Gur is like, “Those are the tapes— [Dre groans] I recorded these with my good friend Valence who sacrificed themself.” [Ali laughs]
Dre: Now I'm tummyache coded.
Ali: I mean, if you want to magic me up…
Austin: Yeah?
Ali: Can I roll to— can I— [laughs]
Austin: Can you roll to help?
Dre: [laughing] Roll to assist?
Austin: No.
Ali: [laughing] Yeah, can I do the assassination, and then get slurped?
Austin: I mean, yeah, that would be the ideal. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: The true dream would be you kill Dahlia and then whoop!
Ali: Teleport. Yes. Can we try? Can we try?
Dre: Yeah, fuck it! [Ali laughs]
Keith: I do just want to— I do just want to remind us about the disadvantage.
Austin: Uh huh.
Dre: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Ali: Sure.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh. Yes.
Ali: Well.
Austin: 3d6, take lowest. [Ali laughs]
Keith: And also…
Ali: Plus 3.
Dre: Scared money don’t make money.
Keith: I just, again, reminding of the consequences to Weave Magic.
Austin: Mm, I know what it is!
Keith: “On a 7 to 9…”
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Keith: Not even on a failure.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: “On a 7 to 9, you succeed, but your invocation is twisted [Austin: Mm!] in an unexpected and dangerous way.”
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Mm!
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: That’s a success.
Sylvia: Oh.
Austin: Rubbing my hands together.
Dre: Yeah.
Sylvia: I hate that I can hear the hand rubbing. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Hey, let Austin break something.
Austin: Jumping up and down in my seat. That’s right!
Dre: Let Austin break something. [laughs]
Janine: Do y'all think that in the future people are gonna look back at the stellar combustor thing like people look back at leaded gasoline? [Ali and Keith laugh] They just broke for a bit. I don't know.
Austin: Broke for, I don't know, like 10 episodes?
Janine: Look at this graph. It lines up perfectly with when they lost their fucking whole shit.
Keith: They started doing all sorts of violent crime. [Ali and Janine laugh]
Austin: Oh my god. All right, let’s, uh…what does it— ooh. Let’s stay close to Brnine.
Ali: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Austin: Brnine, feverish, hollow blood.
Ali: Uh huh.
Keith: Clash 0. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Clash 0. You could also use these moves for— these levels to get a point of Clash, right? You can go up from 0 to plus 1. [laughs quietly]
Ali: Oh, sure.
Austin: Oh, it’s not as fun as a new move, obviously, but…also, you could…there is a one that is, like, truly the nightmare.
Ali: [laughs] Yeah.
Austin: And it’s actually called that. It’s Nightmare of Solomon.
Ali: Oh, but that’s a— I can't take a Soldier move, can I?
Austin: Oh, 'cause you haven't leveled up.
Keith: You can take a Soldier move.
Austin: Why wouldn't you be— well…
Ali: No, because I only have two upgrades.
Austin: How many levels have you taken? You've taken none?
Ali: This would be— this is one and two, yeah.
Austin: This is one and two?!
Keith: I know!
Ali: Yeah.
Dre: What?
Keith: This is what I've been saying!
Ali: No, no, I know.
Sylvia: Wow.
Ali: No, I know.
Austin: What?!
Ali: Because I haven't done anything. I went to a party. [Austin laughs] And then I had that one— [laughs]
Dre: You failed rolls at that party.
Ali: And then I had that one mission where I was doing cool, like, backup stuff, but like…
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Yeah, I have not been narratively, like, at risk.
Keith: You have forgotten to do things that would get you levels is really the…
Ali: I guess so.
Austin: But not two levels.
Janine: But this is, like—
Austin: Yeah. I see what you're saying.
Janine: I think I'm in the same boat. I think I've only leveled once.
Austin: Uh, Phrygian, you leveled up— er, Keith, you leveled Phrygian up a lot very quickly.
Keith: Yeah.
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: I did.
Ali: Right.
Austin: Because you were in fights where you're rolling a lot.
Ali: If I could call Thisbe, I could have a third level and take one of the Soldier moves, but I…
Keith: All right. I've got it. I've got it. [Janine laughs]
Ali: Please.
Dre: Sure.
Keith: Here we go. This is multi-stage. [Austin sighs]
Ali: Thank you, Keith.
Dre: Okay. All right, let’s go.
Keith: You take the jury-rigged move.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Okay.
Janine: Build a refrigerator. [Dre laughs]
Keith: Build, like, a radio or a phone with it.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Keith: You can use this to contact Thisbe, get your one point. Now you're back up to having two levels.
Ali: Yeah. [laughs quietly]
Keith: Take whatever you want for that second one, be it a point in Clash or a move from somewhere else, and then take Nightmare of Solomon and do the thing that tarnishes your reputation forever [Austin, Ali, and Janine laugh] in exchange for blowing up the flagship.
Janine: We’re stumbling into a world in which Brnine knows they have a point to justify—
Austin: Yes. Thank you, Janine. [Ali laughs] Yes. In this world, Brnine is like, “If I could only call Thisbe and feel a way, I unlock the ability to…”
Ali: Right.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Look. We are beyond— [Ali laughs] we have spent so long considering the minutiae of this.
Austin: Now, wait a second.
Keith: We are beyond that.
Austin: Now, wait a second. You could… [Ali gasps] The other place you could get— this is so fucked up.
Sylvia: Oh boy.
Austin: The other place—
Ali: I'm sorry, everyone. [laughs quietly]
Austin: This is really depressing.
Dre: [laughs] Now, this is real — this is real — what’re you talking about?
Austin: You could get one from a hook. Let me find the writeup of hooks, because that’s the other thing that could happen here. “When you take action that requires you to sacrifice, outgrow, or otherwise conclude one of your hooks, cross off the hook permanently. You may then immediately take an advancement and act with confidence if the hook was deep.” I think either one of these first two, you could conclude it. Again, either—
Ali: Okay. “The crew put their faith in me, so I must prioritize their safety.”
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: Oh.
Ali: Or “I will prove that Millennium Break can change lives.”
Austin: Right.
Keith: You're saying you did prove it. You conclude it.
Austin: You can conclude that. You proved that Millennium Break can change lives! [Ali laughs]
Dre: Yeah, that’s true.
Janine: That’s true, yeah.
Sylvia: And end ‘em too.
Ali: And then what does that get me?
Austin: A level.
Ali: A level?
Austin: Yes.
Ali: Okay.
Keith: One whole level.
Austin: A whole level.
Ali: Okay. Okay. Okay, wait. Give me a second. Okay. [laughs] And then, I have this other level—
Austin: This is a nightmare. [Ali laughs] Uh huh?
Keith: A Nightmare of Solomon.
Ali: I mean, that’s— yeah.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: Okay, but “you have acquired a weapon of horrific potential.”
Austin: Uh huh. [laughter]
Ali: “When you deploy it to destroy your enemy with overwhelming force, you succeed.”
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: “Resolve all your gravity clocks as if you had filled them.” Oh, okay.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: “Even the ones you had previously committed to end locked. You don't gain advances for clock resolves in this matter. In the future, no matter how noble your intents or the results, your actions will be used to justify further violence.”
Austin: Yeah, it’s bad. Don't— listen.
Sylvia: Whoa.
Austin: It’s bad. People will always be like, “Do you remember when Brnine did this?”
Keith: Hey, we’re already in that. Brnine specifically is already in that boat, [laughter] but we are well past that point.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: No, I think the difference is that, like, if this—
Keith: Even more so.
Dre: We would, right? Like, the crew would.
Austin: Maybe.
Dre: It’s not just like—
Keith: No!
Dre: Well—
Austin: I can't tell you what you would do.
Dre: Well, yeah, but…
Austin: You're right, Dre, but would Midnite look at this and go, “We’re already this deep in. Yeah, let’s— we should keep fighting,” you know?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Maybe. Like, to give it some teeth, right? And again, this is, in some ways…Dahlia would die with a smile on their face, right? [Ali laughs]
Dre: Mm.
Ali: Right, yeah.
Austin: “Your actions will be used to justify further violence.” Yes, rad, let’s keep fighting, right? But also, fuck Dahlia. I'd let you destroy the whole—
Keith: And, you know—
Austin: I mean, sorry, is the idea here that you would release Asepsis on this thing and Asepsis would…
Ali: I mean, I don't…
Janine: Also, I mean, listen, the Dahlia thing could turn out to be a Shinzo Abe situation. Maybe everything turns out great.
Austin: This is what I'm saying.
Ali: [laughs] Yeah, everyone’s like, “You know what?”
Sylvia: Gotta make a doohickey.
Austin: That’s what I was gonna say! You need the doohickey!
Ali: Yeah. I do need a doohickey.
Keith: Yeah, we’re living in a world where you—
Austin: It’s pow, surprise!
Ali: Well, okay, but so, looking at other Soldier moves here, there is “You may put yourself in a peril to completely defend yourself from one source of incoming harm.”
Austin: True.
Ali: So, I could get out of a fight that way, or I could…I would have to get—
Austin: Looking at the second part of that, “You may put yourself in peril to attempt something uncanny, superhuman, or unbelievable.”
Ali: Right, yeah.
Austin: You know? That’s kind of useful.
Ali: Which is the attempt.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: And then there’s something— okay. Can I— okay. So, if I have three level ups, can I take Selfless, which is “You may put yourself in peril,” yada yada.
Austin: Mm-hmm. The answer to this is—
Ali: Jury Rigger, probably?
Austin: Uh huh. Uh huh.
Ali: When you take random parts or objects to create something useful out of them.
Austin: Sure.
Ali: And then the third one could be—
Austin: Which you could have taken before and been prepping. Sure.
Keith: Jury Rigger but R-I-G-O-U-R.
Ali: The third one would be, like, I hope I stay alive. Either Born Leader or Team Player.
Austin: Well, you'd have to take those first, but yes. Yes.
Ali: Right, okay. Yeah.
Austin: You have to take the ones to get you access to the Soldier move, right?
Ali: Oh, right, right. And that would have to be Born Leader, because that’s the only one that’s from my playbook.
Austin: Your playbook.
Ali: Yeah. Okay.
Austin: Which Born Leader does some cool shit, right? Not related here. That’s a lead the sortie situation.
Ali: Right, it would be for the next mission. It would be if I get slurped out.
Austin: Yeah. We are not saying that.
Ali: Which is another move— [laughs] I know. No, I'm sorry. If I get transported out of here very normally.
Austin: Yes.
Dre: Sure.
Ali: Using different words.
Austin: Mm-hmm. [Dre, Sylvia, and Ali laugh]
Keith: Can I be transported out of here very normally? [Keith and Ali laugh]
Dre: Can I call a Uber? [Ali laughs]
Keith: Do you guys have normal Uber here? [Austin laughs]
Sylvia: My mom’s gonna pick me up. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Drop a pin so I can tell my mom where to pick me up in the front.
Dre: Actually…yeah, I frew up, and my mom’s gonna come get me.
Austin: Aw. [laughs] I do just want to say: Nightmare of Solomon just gives it to you.
Ali: [conflicted] I know.
Austin: And it does pay off the Asepsis thing.
Ali: I know.
Keith: It does, yeah.
Austin: But it’s bad. Eh, but it’s good.
Ali: Right.
Austin: You know?
Ali: But, the—
Keith: I mean, okay.
Ali: The other thing is that if I had access to Asepsis, I would use the other Asepsis moves and not that. You know what I mean?
Austin: Which other Asepsis moves? Right. Right.
Ali: I would, like, I would use Arcane Generator or I would use, um…
Austin: Right, right.
Ali: I would make it take an Act with Confidence or something like that.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: That’s why I like Selfless for this.
Austin: Yeah. It is more what we’re talking about. It is wild to me that Brnine would have this in them, in this moment. Not the selflessness but the— it’s already—
Ali: Is it just an Exchange Blows?
Austin: I think it is an Exchange Blows, and you have—
Ali: Okay.
Austin: You have— so, a couple things. One, you'll have advantage, because you did the look around the room, Read the Room.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: And if you take— this is the thing, is if you use a move that you got from this advancement, then you would make that move with confidence, [Ali: Okay.] with the hook advancement, which is why it’d be cool if it was a move that had some sort of punch to it, but I don't know that we have one of those available for you.
Ali: Okay.
Keith: And that’s the, like, good thing about Nightmare of Solomon is that it’s…
Austin: Right, you just get it.
Keith: It’s nothing. You just— it just happens. [Ali laughs]
Austin: It just happens, yeah.
Ali: Okay, so, with all of those options, it is still probably take a point of Clash.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: Should I get a weapon from Jury Rigger, or does that not seem possible?
Austin: Eh, I think that seems possible. When you take random parts or objects and create something useful out of them, roll Know?
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Yeah, totally.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Yeah, 'cause this is…this is the doohickey move. This is…
Ali: Okay. [Ali and Sylvia laugh]
Austin: This is creating a shiv. This is creating a short—
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Like, this is a Macgyver move, right?
Ali: Okay.
Austin: And Macgyver could make whatever out of loose parts and objects, right?
Ali: Yeah. And this is 2d6 plus 1?
Austin: It’s 3d6, because you took this move with hook.
Ali: Oh, right. So I would have to take another thing in between the two of them [Austin: No.] and not take a Soldier move.
Austin: You don't have to spend the levels sequentially.
Ali: Oh, okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay, okay.
Austin: Right? You're just—
Ali: Oh, right, right, right. Okay, I know what you…
Austin: You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Yeah, you can—
Ali: So that’s—
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: That’s a 3d6 plus 1?
Austin: 3d6 plus— what’s your Know?
Ali: Uh, plus 1.
Austin: Then 3d6— this is your— what are you trying to build? And is this, like, are you building this behind your back? Did you do this on Present while being transported here? When did you do the jury-rigging?
Ali: Um, yeah, this would—
Austin: And what is it you're trying to build?
Ali: Like, a knife.
Austin: Like a knife. Yeah. That’s easy. I can imagine this.
Ali: Like a laser knife or something.
Austin: Oh, a laser knife. Okay, well, that’s an upgrade. [Ali laughs] All right.
Dre: Laser shank.
Austin: So then, yeah, on a 10 plus, choose three. On a 7 to 9, choose two.
Ali: Okay. And that’s a 10.
Austin: That’s a 10, so you get to choose three of the following four things.
Dre: Let’s fucking go.
Ali: It fits the purpose I have in mind. It can kill somebody. Great.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: [laughs] It doesn't— well, it doesn't explode when it stops working. Might as well.
Austin: May as well hold onto your little knife, your little laser knife.
Ali: And it stops working after hours, not minutes. I've had this for a little bit.
Austin: So, it doesn't look garbage stuck— it does look like garbage stuck together, then.
Ali: Who cares?
Austin: Love it. Great. [Keith and Ali laugh] Uh huh.
Keith: Hey, it just amplifies the doohickey.
Austin: Yeah, now it— [Austin and Ali laugh] It really, truly does.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: So, it’s—
Dre: Princept with the knife sticking out of them, “I don't know, this looks pretty wack.” [Austin and Keith laugh]
Austin: All right. This is hard.
Ali: Exchange Blows?
Austin: I mean, I guess it’s arcane, probably, right? Because arcane is the Kalmeria, like— I'm trying to help you here, truly.
Ali: Okay. [laughs]
Austin: But it is…there is a— you're trying to Exchange Blows, and you have to Exchange Blows to get at least two more risks or perils on them, right? I'm suggesting, and I think this is true. You said it was a laser knife, right?
Ali: Sure.
Austin: I think that that means it’s arcane in its approach, [Ali: Okay.] because that’s, like, what Columnar— that’s what, like, the Exanceaster March Syndicate stuff is, right? It’s, like, the…
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Yeah.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: The tech stuff we made arcane. That’s good against divine, so that means you will be doing this with confidence and with advantage.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: But you're gonna have to do it more than once, unless…
Ali: Okay.
Austin: We’ll see how the roll goes, I guess.
Ali: Okay. Yeah, I think—
Austin: But what’s this look like? What are you doing?
Ali: Okay. I think Brnine found, like— somebody left, like, one of those lighters behind. You know one of those lighters that, like, has the thing…
Keith: Like the zappy lighter?
Ali: Yeah, the zappy lighter.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: And then just, like, some spare metal and shit.
Austin: Yeah. Easy to imagine Gallica, the very fashionable elect of Present, having one of those in their, like, lounge bar on their Millennium Falcon ship, you know?
Ali: Uh huh.
Austin: On Present.
Keith: It’s the future. They got beam emitters all over the place.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: And then I think that I…this isn't like a words thing. I think that on the, like, the… [Ali and Keith laugh]
Dre: Mm-hmm. Sure.
Ali: Which we know.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: We’ve examined Brnine for a while. And I think on the, like, offer of like, “You don't want to join me, yada yada…”
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: I think that there’s, like…is there, like, an opening that Brnine could find if they’re, like, ushered out of the room? Or is there like a display or something in the room that Brnine could be like, you know, “Is that the map of the galaxy?” or whatever, like…
Austin: Yeah, sure. That’s fun.
Ali: Or like, yeah.
Austin: “Is that the map of the galaxy?” is a fun trick, right? And there is, right? Again, the kind of white in this marble starts to shape into— I guess, you know, one of the walls is still like that marble I was describing before, and it shows the galaxy, right? And, like, the striations in the marble come to look like the galactic arms, right? And it’s all carved up, right? With lines indicating— it’s like the one— it’s like the map, right? The original PARTIZAN map that shows all the different stels, and like, the color comes forward in the map, and they begin to gesture and say, like:
(as Dahlia): Yes, we’re here right now.
Austin: You know, and is about to start saying some other shit about, you know, war or whatever, [Ali laughs] when you do something, presumably.
Ali: Yeah, I think if there’s, like, an opportunity for Brnine to be, like, cool or slick here…
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: It’s like, “Can I see the— can you show me the front lines?”
Austin: Right, yeah.
Ali: Like, I want to see the war.
Austin: Mm.
Ali: This is a 3d6 again?
Austin: Yeah, this is—
Ali: This is a— no.
Austin: Yes, this is with advantage. You're using your previous Read the Room, and…
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Unless, is that only on the first one? Let me read what it says. All right. “Roll with advantage when you act on the answers to what you've asked.” I think—
Keith: Doesn't specify.
Austin: There’s three— you asked three questions, so I would say each time you act on one of those things, right?
Ali: Okay.
Austin: And those three things, again, were: you are being overlooked and obscured, which you've used to produce this knife safely.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: You know that— I think this is using “How is X at risk or in peril?” which is that they are whatever I said before. Egotistical, basically, right? Like, in their own head, like, whatever, right?
Ali: Right.
Austin: I forget what the third one was. Was the third one “How does X…”?
Ali: The third one was about Integrity, which I…
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah, Integrity is not looking to be rescued from…
Austin: Right. Correct.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Which, again, you could use that here too, right? Because it would mean, like, hey, I can pry this thing from their back, and it’s not, you know…I know I can't turn to it for help, right? I have to destroy it too or something, right?
Ali: Okay.
Austin: So, let me…
Ali: Okay, I'm gonna roll this, and then we’re gonna see. [laughs] That’s a—
Austin: You should have taken that move.
Dre: Let’s go. Let’s go.
Austin: You should have taken that other move. [Ali laughs]
Keith: Which other move?
Austin: No, it actually— I keep reading these rolls wrong. This is an 11, though. 6 plus 4 plus 1.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: The one I'm thinking of is there’s that Soldier move that’s like, when you roll a 12 or plus, you can clear a risk.
Keith: Oh, okay.
Austin: It’s really fun.
Ali: Oh.
Austin: But that’s not— again, this is only an 11. 6 plus 4 plus 1. What’s this look like? What do you do? Uh, I guess, actually, with a 10 plus, you can put them at risk, or put them in peril and you take a third risk.
Ali: Right. And then they have to get three risks?
Austin: They have to get three risks or perils, yeah, total. So you have them at two, at this point.
Ali: Okay, so probably a risk here is, like, Bleeding, [laughs] is probably what I want.
Austin: Sure. Bleeding, as you cut them, as you stab them from behind?
Ali: Uh huh.
Austin: Mm-hmm. You, uh, the thing doesn't explode, which is, I guess, good. [Ali laughs] But, you know, I think that they…they don't even lift out of the chair, right? They reform the chair around them so that they’re moved around the room to be facing you and then stand up and begin to walk towards you with a sort of terrible confidence as their hand takes this kind of inky black jet marble form in the shape of, like, a sharp spear. And they’re just gonna try to stab you. Like, they’ve, “Okay, fine. I'm gonna stab you.”
Ali: Right.
Austin: What do you do?
Ali: Yeah, this is now a knife fight.
Austin: It is now a knife fight.
Ali: [sighs] Um…okay.
Austin: And I think that you don't have advantage anymore, because you need that advantage to simply— they are a tier higher than you, at this point.
Ali: Yeah, fair.
Austin: Because of being a person who’s part divine [Ali: Uh huh.] and closing in on you. So, you still have— you don't have— yeah, you still have confidence, because you have the right type against them, so it’s 2d6.
Ali: Okay, sure.
Austin: Plus 1 from Clash. You're sure you don't want to boost that Clash again. That’s fine.
Keith: I have a quick question.
Austin: Uh huh?
Keith: When Brnine was taken off of the interview ship…
Austin: Yes.
Keith: When was it that they were going to give them their shot for the Feverish?
Austin: After coming back from this.
Keith: After coming back.
Austin: Yes.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Uh, Present has it. Gallica has that shot.
Keith: Okay.
Ali: Yeah, I offered mine to Routine, who should hopefully be…
Austin: Routine got that.
Keith: So that was one of the possibilities of getting out of here was going back onto the ship.
Austin: Yep.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Yeah, again, there’s a particular offer, which was: take Cas’alear back, add another squad to the Cause, but that squad might secretly be loyal to me.
Keith: Right.
Austin: Mm-hmm. Anyway, there’s a knife in— or, uh, the Glorious Princept is bleeding, everybody. [Ali laughs] In their throne room.
Ali: Can I take Selfless—put myself in peril to attempt something uncanny, superhuman, or unbelievable—use that advantage to try to separate them from Integrity?
Keith: Wouldn't you then be immediately Biting the Dust?
Austin: No, you'd be immediately defenseless. On a failure or mixed success, I could make them Bite the Dust.
Ali: Right.
Austin: Just getting the third defenseless— getting defenseless doesn't mean you Bite the Dust immediately. It means you could be forced to Bite the Dust.
Ali: I would have to— yeah, that would have to be another action out of that.
Austin: Yeah, exactly.
Keith: Oh, even with three perils?
Austin: I believe, unless there’s something I'm wrong about. [Ali laughs] I believe it makes you defenseless. Anytime you have three dangers, you're defenseless.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: But that doesn't mean you instantly Bite the Dust. It means that you then could be asked to Bite the Dust. Let me see. Uh, if you took a fourth one, that would be a problem, you know?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: But…
Ali: Right. Could I, like, rip it out of their back?
Austin: You could fucking try. [Ali laughs] Yeah, I guess that would— if you took Selfless to put yourself in peril to attempt something uncanny— this doesn't give you advantage on that, though. It just lets you do it, so.
Ali: Right. No, I was gonna take the advantage from the…
Austin: Oh, from the…yeah, sure.
Ali: Read the Room.
Dre: Mm.
Austin: Yeah, I'd let you do this, if you want. [Ali laughs] And what’s the peril?
Keith: Okay, gotcha, gotcha.
Austin: Yeah, sure. What’s the peril you'd be taking?
Ali: Ohhh…who could say? Who could say? Um, I don't know.
Austin: Uh…
Ali: Heretic?
Austin: Oh, that’s very funny.
Ali: [laughs] I would have had to— I would have always had the heretical peril, if that was one to have.
Austin: Yeah, were already heretical. Yeah, at this point. [Ali laughs] No, I think that it would be— this would have to actually— I bet this would physically hurt you in a real way.
Ali: I bet.
Austin: Or emotionally overwhelm you. You know what I mean? Like, deep— trying to separate someone from… [chuckles] I'm remembering something else about this, about Commitment, which is that traditionally, being inside of it— and again, thank you, Dre. The two pilots who pilot Commitment go through ego death when they pilot it together, which is like, they will have lost their self identity while they’re piloting it, basically, right? You know, this kind of, like, loss of the sense of self, sort of…depending on who you talk to regarding this, this can look like seeing yourself in the third person. This can look like going on a trip where you don't feel like you're inside your own body. I think ego death is what you would suffer, because the reason that no one inside of Commitment right now is feeling that is because Integrity is working as a sort of, like, medium translating being inside of Commitment.
Ali: Oh, sure, sure, sure. Okay.
Austin: So you would have this weird separation from yourself as you do this.
Ali: [laughs] Okay. And that would be—
Austin: Dre, have I misrepresented ego death here in any way? I don't know if you're— it was your thing with Commitment, so I want to make sure I have not misrepresented what you intended with it, four years ago or whatever.
Dre: Yeah… [Dre and Ali laugh] Sounds right!
Austin: Okay.
Ali: Uh huh.
Austin: Great.
Ali: And that would just put another— that would put a peril on them, and then—
Austin: You’d get a third— well, you'd have to succeed at the roll to put the peril on them, and then you'd have to Strike Decisively.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Okay.
Dre: Mm.
Ali: Would I be able to— but that would be…that would only be two?
Austin: This would be the third.
Ali: No, that would be our third.
Dre: Yeah, third one.
Austin: Because the first one is, ironically, that they’re being driven by their ego, right?
Ali: Okay. Or just—
Keith: More like the not-ok-hole. [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: Mm…
Austin: God.
Dre: [appreciatively] Okay. All right.
Keith: Right?
Austin: Yeah, I see.
Keith: That’s pretty good.
Dre: I got it.
Sylvia: Sure.
Austin: Sure.
Ali: [laughs] Okay.
Sylvia: Sure.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Or just roll another Strike Decisively on a 2d6 plus 1, right?
Austin: That’s what you would have to roll after succeeding at this.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: You have to succeed at Exchange Blows to get them to the third thing first.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Right?
Ali: Okay. Okay.
Keith: Damn, this is how fights go for everyone else?
Austin: Oh my god. [Ali laughs]
Keith: This sucks. [laughs]
Dre: Motherfucker.
Keith: It takes so long.
Ali: No, I'm just not a combat character who’s trying to murder somebody.
Austin: Yeah, with your hands.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: With a little laser knife. [Ali laughs]
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So, again, not 3d6 here, because the advantage is being countered by the tier difference.
Ali: So just—
Austin: 2d6.
Ali: Right.
Austin: But with confidence, so if you roll a 1, it’s a 6.
Ali: Okay. And that would be—
Austin: Plus 1.
Ali: This would just be another…
Austin: This is just Exchange Blows.
Ali: Okay. Okay. Let me do that, and then we’ll see…
Dre: [whispering] Oh, I’m so scared.
Ali: Wait, sorry, sorry. [laughs] That’s a 5.
Dre: Ugh!
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: Okay, my first…
Keith: That’s bad. That’s a bad.
Sylvia: Ooh.
Ali: My first failed roll of the night.
Dre: Hey, mark spotlight.
Austin: Mark spotlight.
Keith: Oh, is there—?
Austin: You got the worst roll you could've, too, with 2 plus 2, which sucks.
Keith: Yeah. Yeah. Fair. [Ali laughs]
Austin: If either of those was a 1, this was at least a partial success.
Ali: Sure.
Keith: I mean, how many dangers does Brnine have?
Austin: Three. Three.
Keith: Three?
Austin: Three, because this is the third one from—
Keith: Right. That’s the and.
Austin: I think you have to Bite the Dust, Brnine.
Ali: Yeah.
Sylvia: Oh boy.
Keith: How does this work, again?
Ali: Let’s read it.
Dre: Yeah, let’s all find out together.
Ali: “When you're caught defenseless or risk harm so severe you might bite the dust, roll plus Defy.” I'm great at Defy. “On a 10 plus, they miss, hesitate, or you're saved by sheer luck. You rally and clear a risk if you have one.”
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: [laughing] “On a 7 to 9, retreat from the sortie safely or be put in peril.”
Austin: Yeah, well.
Ali: On a fail, that strike sure was decisive. Decide with your director the consequences of what has happened to you, what was damaged, what have you lost, who and what is affected by your defeat.”
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: “If you survived, you are changed by your defeat.” Yada yada yada yada yada.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: So this is just a roll plus Defy?
Austin: Plus Defy. Bite the Dust.
Ali: Just a straight…
Austin: You want a 10 plus here. What’s your Defy?
Ali: A plus 1.
Austin: Oh. I thought you said you were good at Defy. [Ali laughs]
Keith: Yeah, that’s…
Sylvia: Wow.
Keith: Brnine has a different level for that.
Dre: Sarcasm is fun.
Austin: I just think “good” is plus 2.
Ali: Okay, sure.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I'm worrying now.
Keith: For me, good is plus 3. [Ali laughs]
Austin: That’s great.
Dre: That’s great.
Austin: Because that’s the cap.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: All right, 2d6 plus— and this is not confidence. This is nothing. This is just 2d6 plus 1.
Ali: 2d6 plus 1, which is a 10.
Dre: Whoa!
Austin: You got the 10!
Ali: Okay.
Dre: Let’s go!
Austin: You got the 10. Keep gaming. [Ali laughs]
Keith: All right, clear that risk.
Austin: Keep gaming, bro.
Keith: Yeah. [Dre laughs]
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Clear Ego Death. [Dre laughs]
Ali: Okay.
Austin: You're still in it.
Keith: Yeah.
Ali: I'm still in it.
Keith: You get sucked back into behind your eyes.
Austin: Right. Yeah, totally, right? Like, I think that Dahlia, like:
(as Dahlia): [sighs] A disappointment.
Austin: And lifts their leg, and the same sort of spear point forms from their leg—you know, like a lance, imagine a lance point—and then begins to drive it down back into you, like to where you are, and then you snap back to yourself in this moment and are able to get out of the way. The fight continues.
Ali: Great. And is this another—
Austin: You're still Feverish, still Hollow Blooded.
Ali: Yeah. Roll 2d6 plus 1?
Austin: I guess so! [Ali laughs]
Keith: Yeah, go for the classic stab.
Ali: I'm going for…
Austin: You tell me. Describe the situation. Are you saying anything while you're doing this, or are you just mouth closed, grr? What are you…?
Ali: Mm…
Dre: No, Gur’s with me.
Keith: Aw, saying the name of their friend, yeah. [Keith and Ali laugh]
Austin: Yeah, Gur! Phrygian! Valence! All the people I've lost!
Dre: Aw.
Ali: I mean, this is obviously just, like, seeing red, like…
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: “I gotta get out of here,” right?
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: It’s funny, I think about the way that I play Brnine a lot as, like, somebody who’s waiting for consequences to hit them.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: You know, you just keep doing what you're doing until it affects enough things that you have to stop, and I don't know that they’ve…they’ve just found different avenues to be a risk-taking fuckup.
Austin: Right. [Ali laughs] Mm-hmm.
Ali: And they are either gonna die here or they are going to murder the president of the world.
Austin: Mm-hmm. [Sylvia laughs]
Ali: And that’s a 13.
Dre: Jesus!
Austin: Fucking 13.
Keith: Wow. [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: Let’s fucking go!
Austin: You should have taken that move! It wouldn't actually work here, because the only two things you have left are perils. What’s this look like?
Ali: Okay. I—
Austin: It’s just stabs. Just slashes. It’s just…you’re getting in. What is it?
Keith: Is it gross? It feels— it sounds gross.
Ali: Is it, like— wait, let me look at a screenshot of Char and Amuro fencing really quick.
Austin: Uh huh, yeah.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Austin: They don't have the mask on, so it can't do the cool thing where— I mean, I guess, right, you could hit the forehead, leave the scar.
Keith: Are they defenseless now?
Austin: They are defenseless now.
Keith: Wow.
Ali: I was doing a thing of, like— I was picturing a thing of, like, Brnine getting stabbed in the shoulder—
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Ali: And, like, leaning into it to extend their knife out.
Austin: Yeah. Except you didn't take a risk. You don't need to take the stab in the shoulder.
Ali: [laughs] Well, the last thing that was on camera was me getting stabbed, and…
Austin: That did happen, but then you dodged out the way from the final blow.
Ali: Right. Sure.
Keith: Their blood is so thin the lance goes right through it. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Yeah, sure.
Keith: Yeah, it doesn't even—
Dre: Extra clippy. [Keith laughs]
Austin: Oh my god. I mean, yeah, it could—
Ali: Wow.
Austin: You know, you get stabbed in the shoulder in such a way that it’s like, it’s not a risk. It’s bad. Like, it sucks that you got stabbed there, but like, I don't know, some shoulder meat. Not a big deal.
Keith: Yeah. Not a big deal.
Ali: Right. This is all adrenaline.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: This is…
Keith: Shoulder meat, non-dominant arm?
Austin: Non-dominant arm. Yeah.
Ali: Yeah. This is Brnine picking up the car.
Austin: And then— excuse me? What? Oh, picking up the car.
Ali: You know when— [laughs]
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I see.
Dre: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: You know, like moms do, yeah.
Austin: I thought you meant picking up, like, from the lot, like after you— [Ali and Keith laugh] you know what I mean? You sign the paperwork, I'll pick it up around the front?
Ali: Yeah. [laughs]
Keith: You can just borrow this car. [laughs]
Dre: You get stabbed.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Ali: You know…
Dre: [exaggerated] I mean, with these car prices these days, am I right!? [Ali laughs]
Austin: These days, it’s murder out here!
Keith: Getting stabbed in the shoulder out here.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Okay. Sure.
Austin: Yeah, so is it…you’ve now stabbed back, you've now made a cut in their forehead, you’ve…?
Ali: Yeah, I think I'm going— I have to go for the killshot here. I have to go for the chest, right? This is a 13.
Austin: I guess. So you're gonna aim for the— well, this isn't the killshot. The killshot’s next.
Ali: Okay, right.
Austin: You're setting up the killshot.
Ali: Okay. Okay. Then is it like a…oh, Brnine isn't Jason Bourne though. Is it like a…
Austin: But you're Selfless now.
Ali: [laughs] Right.
Dre: Just like Jason Bourne.
Austin: Mm.
Keith: I can't believe you're still in Mission: Impossible zone. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Never left it.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Brnine’s become MI6-pilled or whatever.
Ali: I put that Heems song on my Brnine playlist, [Austin: Wow.] so I listen to it a lot now.
Austin: Wow. [Ali laughs] The “Jason Bourne” one.
Ali: Yes.
Austin: Not “Computers”. Not…
Ali: No. Not “Computers”. [Dre laughs] “Computers” is by, um, somebody else.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Bobby Shmurda.
Austin: Oh, yeah, you're thinking— there’s two different— anyway. It’s fine.
Ali: Yes. Yes. [laughs] “They think that I’m Tom Cruise” is a different song, yeah.
Austin: “They think that I’m Tom Cruise” is a different song.
Ali: Okay. So, is there, like, a…I tried to go for Integrity and I fucked it up. Is there a, like, kick a piece of furniture at them or whatever, and then they stumble, and then I…?
Austin: And you get the— yeah, sure.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Uh huh. What’s the piece of furniture you're— is it like a…
Ali: [laughs quietly] Fucking…
Austin: The funny thing is, again, they've turned this into a room—
Ali: Oh, I know what it— well, we’re still standing by that map, right?
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Ali: Is it like a, like, duck under the thing that they tried to stab me with, and then like—
Austin: Oh, it goes into the map? It break—
Ali: Oh, there’s that. Oh, that works.
Austin: They get stuck.
Ali: I was thinking of like a hand on the back of the head and, like, bonk them against the map, which is… [laughs]
Austin: Oh, I mean, that too. That’s also good. But I really like the idea of them, like, stabbing at you, and you duck out the way, and it goes through the map of the Principality, [Ali: Uh huh.] and they get stuck in there for a second.
Ali: The display gets all fucked up.
Austin: It all gets all fucked up.
Ali: It gets all bleedy and staticky.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh, and then you come up and slice, and that’s the fight.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: You have to hit the roll. You have to hit the roll. We can't, like—
Ali: Okay. I have to roll one more time?
Austin: That’s what it looks like if you— yes, you have to roll.
Ali: [laughs quietly] No, I know. Okay.
Austin: You have to Strike Decisively.
Ali: This is a Strike Decisively. Okay.
Austin: This is the roll.
Ali: On a Clash.
Austin: This is with a Clash. I'll read the move, so we’re all on the same page. [Ali laughs] “When you strike decisively against someone who is defenseless,” blood coming down their face. The room is bleeding, because they’re the room. They can't quite give their humanity up. [Ali laughs quietly] If they were really a Branched, they could stop that from happening, you know? But they’re not comfortable [Ali: Right.] in this new body of theirs yet, so to speak. Not literally their— you know, they don't have the mastery over this new thing. They’re the first human from the Principality who has made this incredible transformation, you know, by going to war indefinitely, unlike the way the Branched did it. “On a 10 plus, you strike true. Director characters are killed, forced to retreat, or otherwise removed as a threat per the fiction.” I'm gonna say right now: killed. [Ali laughs] “Player characters should Bite the Dust. On a 7 to 9, you succeed as above, but choose one: you overreach or underestimate, take a risk; you waste ammo or words, losing use of a weapon until you can rearm or losing the weight of some bargaining chip or piece of leverage; or you strike carelessly, causing collateral damage beyond your expectations.”
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Give me a roll.
Ali: 2d6 plus 1, right?
Austin: Yeah. That is an 8.
Ali: That’s an 8.
Austin: You succeed as above, but choose one.
Ali: [laughs quietly] Um, okay.
Austin: It feels like two is the safe one here. You lose the weapon or something?
Ali: Right.
Austin: But like, is that interesting?
Ali: Right. I feel like it’s either the collateral damage one [Austin: Yeah.] or taking another risk.
Austin: Yeah. Do you make eye contact with them as you kill them? Do you say anything? The knife goes in.
[“Cut Their Heads Off” by Jack de Quidt begins playing]
Austin: They look— they [choked inhale] breathe in, and the room snaps back to being the cold black room that is Commitment. The lights begin to kind of flicker in here, the like starlight that is in this room begins to flicker, and you see their face in, like, almost like in strobelight. Do you say anything to them?
Ali: No. I think that it’s, like, important that this moment is, like, deeply uncool. [laughs quietly]
Austin: Yeah. Uh huh.
Ali: Like, I think it’s Brnine, like, stepping back in shock and, like, dropping the knife and looking down at this person that they've only known via statue.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: And, like, having their blood on their own hands and being like, “Whoa, okay.”
Keith: Yeah, bloody, almost dead, hollow blood, feverish.
Ali: [laughs] Like, what is going on here?
Austin: What are your— yeah, we get the— yeah, the deeply uncool thing. They look like they have something to say to you, but they don't get it out. They can't get it out. Integrity, you hear it begin to, like, unlatch itself from their back, almost like a symbiotic creature leaving a sick partner that they've been symbiotically connected to, and it’s like, you know, that good detach sound, almost like a pneumatic detachment sliding off of their back. Do you, like, bend down to pick up the knife and then also see now that, like, Integrity is detached?
Ali: I would love to grab both of them. Yeah, uh huh.
Austin: Great.
Ali: I think it’s like a gesture of, like, Brnine bending down and then being sort of eye level to this thing and then, like, [Austin: Uh huh.] reaching out to it the way you would, like, a snake? Like, is it withering?
Austin: It is exactly that. It’s not withering, but it is that sort of, like, [sighs] almost like a windup toy. Do you know what I mean? Kind of like back and forth and, like, it’s not— or like a turtle on its back. Do you know what I mean?
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Like, that style of trying to— it looks fucking helpless.
Ali: Aw.
Austin: Which is a weird thing to think about for a divine, but in this moment with the, like, everything that just happened.
Ali: Come on, little guy.
Austin: [laughs] Oh my god. You didn't get it before, but it did pop off. [Ali laughs] I mean, I don't know. You know? I guess we’ll see. Figure.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Austin: You're listening to these tapes of Gur and Valence. Gur is quietly sitting with you, barely restraining himself from saying— from commenting on the previous conversations that they had with Valence.
Dre: [laughs] The worst director’s commentary.
Austin: Right. But is actually kind of— like, this has made them quiet for a moment. Not so quiet that you're not gonna roll… [Ali laughs]
Dre: Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Desperation or whatever, disadvantage or whatever. But, like, taken by this. This is the first time that they’ve had a chance to, like, breathe and consider the last five years without being in the presence of Clementine Kesh, you know? Or Clementine. And I think definitely the first time since seeing the Blue Channel again and thinking about Valence. Are you, like— what compels you to try this? With like, Brnine’s been gone now for a little while. As of this point, at this point, that interview still hasn't run. No one knows where they are.
Dre: Mm.
Austin: The sun has been better for a little while, you know? But there’s a real, like, you know, the Cause just took some L’s again.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Austin: And you made this big…you did this big win that was really important, deeply truly important.
Dre: Oh!
Austin: Yeah, go ahead.
Dre: I know what it is.
Austin: Okay.
Dre: I really want Brnine— Figure is so desperate for Brnine to know that Millennium Break can change lives, [Austin: Mm.] because it changed theirs.
Austin: Mm-hmm. And it just kind of flows through you in that way. Like, the desire is the spell, in a sense.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Disadvantage means you're rolling 3d6.
Dre: Uh huh, and take lowest.
Austin: And taking the lowest. This is—
Dre: Oh, well, just roll all 5s.
Austin: You rolled—
Dre: Well, a 5, a 3, and a 3.
Austin: A 5, a 3, and a 3. Add it up.
Keith: So that’s 11.
Austin: That’s 11.
Dre: Beautiful.
Ali: Huh.
Austin: What’s this look like?
Ali: [laughs] Wow.
Austin: That plus 3 Channel is very good.
Keith: These are some wild rolls today. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Yeah!
Austin: I'm gonna start breathing in a second. What’s it look like, Dre? [Dre sighs] you've never done magic like this before, right?
Dre: No, no. It looks like Figure just crying, a thing they can do again now.
Austin: Oh.
Dre: Because there was a moment where [Austin: Yeah.] they had a scene with Thisbe and was like, “Oh, I can't physically cry.”
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: They can physically cry again now, and it’s the thing where they’re, like, they’re blinking back tears, and their vision is all blurry, and they think they see Brnine out of the corner of their eye, and they’re like, “That’s not right. I just am seeing things.”
Austin: Right. And Brnine, through the blood, you hear the voice of Valence and Gur, [Ali and Dre laugh, pained] and for a second, you think you see Gur, and then they vanish, because that’s how Cold Company works. You rolled— you got over a 10, Dre, so Gur disappears.
Dre: [quietly] Oh no. I fucked up. [Ali gasps, laughs] Now I get to roll with advantage forever.
Ali: Wow.
Austin: Mm-hmm. Until you fail again.
Ali: Gaming.
Austin: Gaming. As this is happening, can I actually just get an image of where everybody else is on the ship in this moment when Figure works this miracle?
[song ends]
Sylvia: I have an idea, if Keith is cool with it, where Cori is just, like, grilling Eclectic about details from the Alise Breka novel about Leap. Like:
(as Cori): Is this true? Is he really like this? Is this what happened?
Keith (as Eclectic): Uh, yeah, it’s actually toned down from the book.
Sylvia: She looks like she’s vibrating. She’s, like, losing her mind learning about this. [laughter]
Austin: Thisbe, what are you doing during this thing that’s about to happen?
Janine: I think Thisbe, in Brnine’s absence, like, mostly doesn't leave the command deck.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: Mm.
Janine: Again, like, doesn't see herself as in command but realizes, like, oh, we’re missing a really important resource, and I need to just be sure that I am there when people have questions or need some kind of direction, you know?
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: The plants are getting a little bit neglected.
Austin: Hmm.
Ali: Wow.
Austin: That’s so funny you say that, because I was gonna suggest that the thing Hunting is doing is, in Brnine and Routine’s absence, going into their rooms to, like, dust and water their plants.
Janine: Aw.
Austin: That’s not the same thing as your plants, obviously, but maybe they would—
Janine: Yeah, but still.
Austin: Maybe Hunting would notice that also and be like, “Oh, well, Thisbe’s really busy right now. I'll just— I can just do a little bit.” And Midnite is, like, running simulations. Midnite is, like, running combat simulations over and over and over again, as if that is gonna prepare her for whatever comes next. This is a moment where, you know, maybe Partial Palisade has come on board, is coming on board. I kind of have him in my head right now wearing, like, baggy jogging pants and, like, a beat up henley, you know? Like a duffle bag over his shoulder. He doesn't know that it’s an important moment, so. Welcome aboard, bud. Asepsis immediately throws on a red alert across the ship. [Ali laughs]
Keith: Oh, why?
Austin: Requests that Saffron run to the room that you're in, Figure. Because the— because Brnine just showed up, and Brnine is fucking dying.
Ali: Yeah. [Keith and Dre laugh] Brnine just got teleported to the media room in the Blue Channel.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: It’s time for movie night.
Ali: Brnine just passed out. Brnine thinks they died.
Keith: Never missed a movie night. Not starting now. [Austin, Ali, Dre, and Keith laugh]
Ali: Oh my god. [Dre sighs] Yeah, I don't—
Sylvia: We’re watching Zoolander this week. [Ali laughs] I mean…Brnine loves that one.
Keith: How fucking confused is Brnine?
Austin: I just want— yeah, great question. I just want to reread this move, just so, for people who maybe were tuned out earlier, how this fucking happened. It literally says, “When you weave magic, you are capable of disrupting that which anchors us in place and time and can reach out to wrest a person free of their current location and conjure them to yours, regardless of distance.” [Ali laughs] It doesn't say, “regardless of distance, except not as far as the center of the galaxy” or whatever. It says, “regardless of distance.”
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Ali: “To do so, you must either have a strong bond with them…”
Austin: Right.
Ali: Sort of. “Possession of something of deep personal importance to them…”
Austin: Yes.
Ali: Obviously. Or for them to have a peril that they inflicted.
Austin: That you inflicted on them, which is fun, which is very fun to think about.
Dre: Yeah.
Ali: I don't—
Austin: Yeah, answer Keith’s question. Sorry.
Ali: Right. I don't know how, like, the physical shock of this does not make somebody black out, especially when they’re already hollow blooded and feverish and…
Austin: Right. Well, and remember, you were supposed to take—
Janine: Do you believe the stuff that happened happened? [Ali laughs]
Austin: Great question. And remember—
Janine: Like, if I was in that situation, I don't think I would. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Right.
Dre: Mm.
Austin: And again: take a risk, you waste ammo or words, and you strike carelessly, causing collateral damage. We haven't gone through that bit yet. We still have to go through that bit.
Ali: Right.
Austin: What did you end up choosing for those?
Ali: Again, I… [laughs]
Austin: All three.
Ali: I know that I have to choose one, but I am Keith, and I took all of them. I think I at least took a risk, which is like Stunned or something, or like something that’s even more than stunned. I'm just writing down Stunned, 'cause it’s easy. Can I have Integrity? Or is that too much of a stretch to be like—
Austin: I think it’s there. If you show up carrying Integrity, I'm not gonna stop that.
Ali: [laughs] It would be funny to me.
Austin: It would be funny, and also, you have this other— the rest of the party started working on this “how do we communicate with divines?” stuff.
Ali: Okay. Yeah, I think Brnine was just sitting on the floor gripping this thing [Austin: Yeah.] and has now been teleported back to the Blue Channel.
Janine: Hey, guys, remember when Millennium Break saved the galaxy but then also ripped out the emperor’s spine?
Austin: Uh huh. [Keith laughs]
Janine: In the same, like, weekend?
Dre: Uh huh. [Ali laughs]
Keith: Hell of a downtime!
Dre: Uh huh.
Sylvia: That fucking rules! Are you kidding? [Ali laughs]
Keith: Super productive downtime.
Austin: Yeah, I…you know?
Ali: I rolled a 13, a 10, and then another 13, and then an 8. Right?
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Dre: The dice, baby. [Ali laughs]
Austin: That’s dice. The Ekpyrosis, in that big kind of open park— remember, as a reminder, this is a ship that can turn between a sort of, like, you know, a terrifying super-warship that can destroy moons without breaking a sweat, apparently; between that form and a form that is sort of like the hanging gardens but in space, and it’s in that hanging-gardens-but-in-space version where Commitment begins to spread and, like, melt all through this kind of middle part. It was kind of on that park, and I think that, like, the entire park turns black as Commitment begins to spread and search for its Elect and for its— for Integrity. It’s like, “They can't be gone. Where’d they go? They can't be gone. They can't be dead. They can't be gone and dead.”
Keith: [sarcastic] They can't be gone.
Austin: They can't be gone. [Ali laughs] Right? And then begins looking for other Elects, because it’s now had a solo elect for years, for more than five years, a decade, 15 years or whatever since Dahlia started being Commitment’s Elect, and so it’s like, “I need another Elect. I have had company. I've had, for the first time in my life, not two but one person who I felt very connected with, or a person and a divine. Is there another divine? Can you hook me up to another divine, please?” There’s a real lost dog quality, except what if the dog could grow until it’s the size of the ship.
Dre: Well, then he’d be the biggest goodest boy. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Uh huh. I guess, yeah, either the Branched are going to win some extra fights up there nearby or this ship is going to run fucking wild because of being taken over by Commitment.
Keith: Flip a coin. Flip another coin.
Austin: Uh, I think it’s probably both. I think it’s probably A and B, in this case.
Ali: [laughs] Uh huh.
Keith: That’s the Ali special.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Yep. Yeah, so going back to what Janine was asking you, do you think it’s even real?
Keith: Or which one do you think is not real? [Ali laughs] Is this the not real one or was it before that was not real?
Ali: I do think that I destroy the combustor. I…what happened to Routine?
Austin: Routine’s still being held.
Ali: [quietly] Oh, fuck.
Dre: Shit.
Austin: I don't know, man.
Sylvia: Oh, jesus.
Ali: Oh no!
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: I don't know that Routine’s gonna make it out of this.
Dre: All right, sortie to get Routine. There we go.
Ali: [laughs] Yeah, that’s my b-plot is to go rescue Routine. Go back to the ship that I [Austin: Yeah.] murdered the president on.
Austin: No, 'cause they’re not on that ship.
Ali: Oh. Oh! Oh.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: He’s on the ship that you were— that rescued STEREOMA.
Ali: Right.
Austin: And hung out in kind of dark space outside of the system.
Ali: Oh, yeah.
Austin: And then Present came and docked with that ship, and you got on board Present, and Present teleported you away.
Ali: Right. Okay, yeah. Okay, yeah. Okay.
Austin: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Ali: So he’s either dead or joined STEREOMA somehow offscreen.
Austin: Oh, that’s very funny, but yeah, uh huh.
Ali: [laughs] You know.
Keith: There’s something— I'm just totally spitballing here, but if I were anyone on that ship, I would not want the, um…shit, what’s the flagship called? The flagship whatever.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Keith: I would not want anyone on there remembering that I was the one that delivered the person that killed the emperor. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah, I don't even think that— I don't think that the news even…it’s like, none of that has hit yet.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Because it still takes forever for things to get communicated across the fucking galaxy.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: The news of the dead Princept might take a minute to get here.
Keith: And so…hey, this is like basically faster-than-light communication with this move. [laughs]
Austin: Y'all have that, is the thing, 'cause of the Strand stuff that Millennium Break has.
Keith: Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Which is actually—
Keith: Basically, I'm just saying, like, if I was holding on—
Austin: Yes.
Keith: If I was holding onto Routine, I would not want anyone connecting the dot between Routine, Brnine, [Ali laughs] and the flagship and the death of the emperor.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I would keep that person in a locked cage. No one is talking to them. We don't know what to do about this.
Janine: You're making a really strong case for Routine getting killed.
Austin: [crosstalk] You're making a great case for just kill them. Yeah, I would just kill them.
Janine: Yeah.
Ali: Uh huh.
Austin: I would just space them right then.
Janine: Yeah, unfortunately.
Ali: Right.
Austin: Erase all the paperwork. Who’s Routine? Yeah, shit has been routine around here, and I ain’t done shit.
Ali: [laughs] Okay. Routine— yeah.
Austin: I do want to— here’s a little worldbuilding thing that gets really interesting. If the news hits first via the Strand Network, right? That’s a real…everybody has to get on the Strand Network, because the news just broke that the Princept died. [Sylvia laughs quietly] And everyone’s like, “No, that’s fake. That’s bullshit. That’s propaganda,” and then—
Keith: And then.
Austin: And then, you know, a week passes, and the news hits, you know?
Sylvia: They got got with this? [Ali laughs]
Keith: Or: Weekend at Bernie’s.
Austin: I don't think— no, 'cause the whole ship is fucked, right? Because of the—
Keith: Oh, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Because of how Commitment is spreading through it.
Keith: Because of that, yeah.
Austin: It’s undeniable, at a certain point, you know?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I mean, the— I don't— yeah, I think that the bloody body is left in the field, you know? As Commitment melts around the body in the field of the hanging garden, you know, the cameras pick it up and begin transmitting, “Oh my god, the Princept has died,” to the other Apostolosian ships at the front, you know? But by the time that that— you know, they definitely try to— they definitely try to put a lid on it. They definitely try to keep it from getting out there, but again, I mean, I don't know. Brnine, you haven't even told anybody yet, so we can't get to that point. I don't know that…
Ali: Right, yeah.
Austin: Maybe you don't believe it happened.
Ali: I mean, I think Brnine would be like— well, 'cause Brnine comes back with blood on their hands, right?
Dre: Right.
Austin: They sure do!
Keith: And with the knife.
Austin: And with the knife.
Ali: And with the knife.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: A really cool knife.
Ali: So—
Keith: And with the divine. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Right, and with Integrity. Aah!
Keith: Right. There’s a lot of evidence that it happened.
Ali: Right.
Dre: Yeah, there’s a lot of dots to connect, yeah.
Ali: So you imagine Septet is like, “Hey, what happened?”
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: “Where were you, that you are bleeding?” and Brnine can very—
Austin: Do we think they put the light in your eyes to check to see if you have a concussion, you know?
Ali: [laughs] Right.
Austin: You do, probably. [laughs quietly]
Ali: And Brnine could be like— oh, a funny thing happening here that I'm currently on the carrier, so I'm not defenseless anymore, I have an extra risk.
Austin: That’s very funny.
Ali: That’s great for me. [laughs] But yeah. So I think— you know, is Brnine lying in bed being like, “I think I killed the president”? Yes. [quiet laughter]
Austin: You can't—
Ali: Does Septet— I know, I'm sorry.
Austin: This is just Hella calling it “the Dark and whatever” again. [Ali laughs]
Ali: The Princept, the, you know.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: Is Saffron immediately being like, “I gotta text somebody about this”? I guess so.
Austin: I mean, I think— if that news gets around this ship, everyone’s texting people, you know?
Dre: Yeah.
Ali: Right. [laughs]
Dre: Oh man.
Ali: Cori’s subtweeting Elle.
Austin: Ah.
Sylvia: Texting her directly. [Ali laughs]
Dre: Just calling Gucci and being like, “Hey, guess what your ex did [Ali: Yeah.] after you broke up with them.”
Austin: God.
Ali: Hey, when did we break up?
Dre: They saved the universe, and then—
Austin: [laughs] When—
Ali: When did we break up?
Sylvia: Cori’s Strand burner accounts are going crazy.
Ali: Excuse me?
Dre: You're right, you're right, you're right. My bad, my bad, my bad, my bad. [Ali laughs]
Austin: [quietly] Aaah.
Ali: Yeah. [Dre and Ali laugh]
Austin: Jesset in the all-over body cast giving the thumbs up when the news hits the TV.
Ali: [sadly] Jesset!
Austin: Yeah. Oh, y'all didn't— if y'all haven't listened to the other side of the game here, listening, like the people on the call with me right this second…
Ali: Uh huh?
Austin: Jesset almost died during downtime or during the conflict turn.
Sylvia: Oh.
Keith: Oh no.
Ali: Yeah.
Dre: Hate that.
Austin: It was a different coin flip.
Keith: Wow.
Ali: [sighs] Yeah.
Sylvia: Oh, I'm dying to know how the faction game’s gonna react to this session that we just had. [Ali laughs]
Janine: Yeah, I…I can't wait.
Dre: Yeah, what the fuck’s up now, guys?
Ali: So, we spent all of that time trying to—
Austin: I mean, did they just win? There’s only one Princept. [Ali laughs] You know, it’s not versus, but you know what I mean.
Ali: Sure. So, do we have a better feeling about what our next sortie is after all of that? Because I think that’s what that scene was for.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: So we could make that decision. [Dre laughs]
Austin: Yeah, it was. [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: Yeah.
Dre: No, that’s…what do we want to topple? I don't know.
Janine: Let’s just go for the other one. Let’s just go for the other pope. We can do it.
Dre: Yeah, fuck it.
Janine: I believe in us.
Keith: Look, I’m…I’m biased, but I gotta make sure that we got Motion factories on the board.
Austin: Motion factories are on the board.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Dre: Sure.
Austin: The Gravtrain and the Paint Shop are both at zero grip. You could take either one of them. Uh, those are the big ones.
Keith: Hey, one of those might even have some info on that.
Austin: Sure.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Mm-hmm. That’s true.
Dre: You know, people don't think of it this way, but really, ending a life is the same thing as changing it.
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah, changing it from on to off.
Dre: Mm-hmm. [Ali laughs]
Austin: God, I can't believe Dahlia’s dead. Fuck. [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: That fucking rules.
Keith: It took us 90 minutes to start making moves.
Austin: Uh huh. Yeah, uh huh.
Keith: But then, wow. [Keith and Ali laugh]
Sylvia: Listen.
Dre: Uh huh.
Keith: Remember when we didn't do plugs at the beginning because this would be the third episode?
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Dre: This is just— this is one of those videos of the, like, really complicated domino obstacle course things.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dre: And so the first 90 minutes was us setting it all up, and then…
Austin: Yep.
Keith: Clunk!
Dre: And then… [laughs]
Sylvia: And then when all the dominoes fall over, there’s an image of a bleeding Princept on them. [Austin and Ali laugh]
Keith: And you know what the first domino is labeled? Not going to City City, going to Violet Cove instead of City City.
Austin: Yeah, dude. [laughter]
Keith: It’s the first domino. [laughs]
Austin: How it goes sometimes.
Keith: And then the last—
Dre: Get fucked, Gucci.
Keith: Honestly, I don't even know which is the bigger domino, is killing the Princept and turning off 4100 stellar combustors.
Austin: Or the stellar combustor, right.
Keith: It’s one of the— it splits into two massive…you know.
Austin: It splits. There might be a third one. Who knows, at this point.
Keith: Who knows? Yeah.
Austin: Millennium Break will change lives.
Ali: Yeah. So, that happened. [laughs] Yeah.
Sylvia: You can't “so, that happened” this!
Austin: You can't “so, that happened” this. [laughter]
Sylvia: You can't— you can't—
Janine: Brnine—
Sylvia: Brnine can't show back up on the ship and be like, “So, I did a thing.”
Janine: “I did a thing.” I was gonna make the same joke! [laughter continues]
Sylvia: Like, come on! [Ali laughs, Austin groans] Changing their fucking Twitter bio to say “Princept killer.”
Austin: Uh huh. I guess we do assassinations now.
Ali: Ohh, Brnine’s private Twitter is crazy this week, I'm sorry to say.
Austin: Oh my god.
Sylvia: Damn, Brnine’s adulting like crazy right now. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Oh my god.
Ali: Yeah, okay. Well, we… [Sylvia laughs] I like the Gravtrain idea.
Janine: Should get some Brnine dinner. It’s just crackers and cheese and… [Ali laughs]
Keith: We haven't done shit with the Paint Shop, and they might have some Motion factory…
Austin: The thing that’s hard for me is, like, I don't even know how you'd know where the Paint Shop is at this point, but…
Ali: Right.
Dre: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Hey, there’s a lot of Cause factions.
Ali: Can we…
Austin: That’s true.
Ali: Is Marlon part of Millennium Break yet?
Austin: I don't know. Whatever happened to Marlon?
Ali: [laughs] What happened to Marlon?
Dre: Who’s Marlon?
Keith: Marlon’s the spy, the annoying spy.
Ali: Marlon Styx, the spy.
Dre: Oh.
Ali: From the party. [laughs]
Austin: Not Merlin, Marlon.
Dre: I said Marlon, not Merlin.
Austin: Oh, I thought Keith said Merlin.
Keith: No, no, no.
Ali: Oh. [laughs] Well, you know.
Austin: Changed his name.
Keith: Yeah. Fresh start.
Ali: The gravtrain is a fun idea, though.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: The idea of, like, taking over the trains and then having, like, the mobility to [Austin: Mm-hmm.] move on the Motion stuff.
Dre: Mm.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: You know what I mean?
Sylvia: Mm.
Keith: Mm, move, Motion.
Ali: Yeah.
Dre: Mm.
Ali: You see?
Sylvia: It’s all connected! [Ali laughs]
Keith: It’s all connected. Drawing a little line from Motion to the word “move”.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: You're pulling out more red yarn to wrap around things.
Austin: Yeah. I gotta get you a—
Keith: This means something.
Austin: A page that’s just a red string, you know, corkboard thing, just for you.
Keith: Yeah.
Ali: Oh, wow.
Keith: Yeah, I was— I have been really, um, not debating, brainstorming having either a physical or a digital little one that I was gonna start on my own, so if we can officialize that, it’d be great. I love that.
Austin: “Officialize that.” We can officialize that.
Keith: Okay. Cool.
Austin: I think we can officialize that for you. Before we wrap up, I just want to make sure that we’ve done all of our scenes. I mean, we kind of just did a Fade, actually. The thing that I just did where I was like, “Where is everybody in this moment?” is kind of a…
Keith: What is a— wait.
Austin: Let me reread it. Uh, downtime. “The leading player describes somewhere on the carrier nearby that they pass time, gaining a point of spotlight and advancing gravity clock if they have one with someone that joins them. They frame a short scene around this, either alone or with invited characters.”
Keith: Oh, yeah.
Austin: We did just do that, right? And like, your version of this was— I mean, did you already do your thing this…your scene this…?
Dre: Yeah, my scene was the, uh, fucking Command Deck.
Austin: The Command Deck, right.
Keith: Yeah, it was the scene where I showed up.
Austin: Right. And then, Keith, you did your scene. Sylvi, you did one of your—
Keith: No, I did not do my scene.
Austin: You did not do your scene.
Keith: I have one scene and one token left.
Austin: Okay. I'm gonna make it say that on the sheet. Thisbe, you did yours?
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: I looked at some stuff—
Austin: You looked at some stuff.
Janine: And figured out some ideas. Yeah. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Cori, did you do your scene? You did one of your scenes.
Sylvia: Yeah, I did, and I don't have something for the…
Austin: Okay. Right.
Sylvia: Paradigm specific one.
Austin: Right. Okay.
Keith: I'm willing to do the Fade, and Dre, you have a token to spend?
Dre: Yeah, I do.
Keith: And what is our situation with, uh…we have one— Violet Cove is tapped. Yeah, fuck it. Yeah, I'll do it. I'll spend my turn. I don't have, like, a ton of stuff to do. I just got here.
Austin: You just got here. Take that XP.
Keith: I just— you know, and what else do I have to do but sit in my, um…sit in my temporary lodgings with my, like, my conspiracy board of yarn and pictures— [Ali laughs]
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: And start to make work not on my advancement clock.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I'm gonna do my investigation clock is actually where I'm gonna put my one point.
Austin: Oh, can you do that? I guess it— does it say?
Keith: It says any gravity. It says a gravity clock, I'm pretty sure.
Austin: Yeah, I don't think an investigation clock is a gravity clock though, is it? Maybe it is.
Keith: No?
Austin: What’s it say? If it is, then yes. If it says “take a blank,” you know?
Keith: Okay, then I won't put it there, but I will— that is what I'm gonna be doing anyway.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Even if I can't put it there.
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Keith: I'll put it in spotlight, get myself a one level with a new character.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Can you guys create a gravity clock with each other?
Austin: You totally could.
Ali: Is that an opportunity to do that?
Keith: Ah, yeah, we totally could. Yeah.
Austin: Between who and who? Who are we looking for?
Keith: Between me and Figure.
Austin: Figure and…yeah.
Keith: Which is, I think, the plan, because I don't think anyone else right now has an empty spot.
Austin: I believe that that’s true.
Keith: Yeah, but I don't have one yet, because we got sidetracked.
Austin: Let’s— we’ll wrap back around to what that particular thing is later.
Dre: Yeah, sure.
Keith: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: Are there other responses to Brnine just suddenly being back? I'd love to actually get us back in character to talk about Brnine suddenly being back. Like, do people respond to this? What happens?
Keith: Eclectic’s been waiting for Brnine. I didn't expect it to happen this fast. [Ali laughs] I don't have to go first. I just got here. I'm new.
Austin: [laughs] You did just get here.
Keith: I'm just saying, this is what I've been waiting for.
Austin: Yeah, I getcha. I getcha. Yeah.
Janine: I think Thisbe definitely, like…I think there’s a moment where Thisbe, like, automatically starts to leave to go see where Brnine is and then, like, has to pause and be like, “Wait, is everything okay here? Like, everyone— can I— I'll go for like five minutes, and then…” and I think, like, really quick, just like goes to functionally make sure Brnine is still alive and maybe just, like, get a cursory scan of the situation to be like, “What happened? Okay, I don't know. [Ali laughs] Is it like weird energy or—?” And probably doesn't leave with any satisfying answers.
Sylvia: I bring— Brnine’s, like, on bedrest for a bit, right? After being…
Ali: Yeah, I imagine so.
Austin: I imagine so.
Sylvia: Cori’s showing up with a portable DVD player and a bunch of DVDs to be like: [Ali laughs]
(as Cori): This always helps me when I have to spend time in the hospital.
Janine: Some Bourne movies.
Sylvia: Yeah. And then also won't shut up long enough to let Brnine, like, put anything on, because she’s just like:
(as Cori): [excitedly] So you really killed the— tell me everything about the fight with the Princept. [Ali laughs] How’d you do it? What’d you do it with? How’d it go down? Where’s Routine?
Sylvia: Like, nonstop questions, just like— it’s like:
(as Cori): Did you have to fight a divine? Did you beat the divine too?
Sylvia: And then she does leave the DVD player there when she inevitably leaves, but Brnine does not— uh, Cori doesn't really keep quiet the entire time she’s there.
Ali: [laughs] Just like one of those DVD menu selection screens of, like, three scenes of Titanic playing over and over again for an hour and a half. [laughs]
Sylvia: For some reason, in my head, it was like the Entourage season one DVD.
Austin: Oh my god.
Ali: [laughs] “This reminds me of you, Brnine!”
Austin: Extremely funny.
Sylvia: “You've got real Johnny Drama vibes.” [Austin and Ali laugh]
Dre: [laughs] God.
Austin: Any other Brnine check-ins?
Keith: Is this leading to an Infirmary scene? [Sylvia laughs]
Austin: Great question. I would imagine.
Ali: I mean, I do— I technically have a downtime scene now.
Austin: Yeah, now that you're back.
Ali: Because I escaped prison.
Keith: Yeah.
Dre: True. Damn.
Ali: [laughs] So, I would love to clear a peril or swap a part as above.
Austin: Mm-hmm. I can move us to a new page.
Dre: I don't know if— I don't think we need to necessarily do a Figure scene. I think Figure is just, like, guarding the hospital room.
Austin: Aw.
Ali: [laughs quietly] Aw.
Austin: That’s very good.
Ali: I'm clearing Hollow Blood.
Austin: Uh, yeah, so you're taking that scene?
Dre: That’s a good one to clear.
Austin: That is a good one to clear.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Do you want to spend a token to do it again?
Dre: Oh, yeah.
Ali: I think so, yeah. Yeah, I have two tokens to spend.
Austin: I see.
Ali: And then I could probably use one of my tokens to also clear Feverish?
Austin: You could. I believe that that’s how that works.
Ali: And then just keep Stunned, probably?
Austin: Yeah, clear a peril or swap a part as above. Yeah. I mean, Stunned is just a risk. Risk will— that’ll clear.
Ali: Oh, okay. Well, then, I'm just…
Austin: Once you've, you know, rested a little bit.
Ali: I'm just gonna leave it on my sheet for a little bit, just to celebrate. [laughs] And I have one more token that I could use to advance my gravity clock with Thisbe, question mark?
Austin: Yeah, what’s that look like? That should be a scene. That should be a little conversation in the hospital room.
Janine: Yeah.
Ali: It should be a little scene. Um…
Austin: The infirmary room, rather.
Ali: It’s funny, the way that it’s phrased is “help someone you have a gravity with,” so the first thought that I had in my mind was like, Brnine being like, “Oh, I've heard that you've been, like, in the command deck. Do you have any questions?” when Thisbe comes in. [laughs]
Dre: God.
Austin: Mm.
Ali: Which is…
Janine: Ah.
Dre: Hey, I know I just killed the president [Ali laughs] and, like, saved the galaxy, but do you need any on-the-job training?
Ali: Yeah. Hey, Thisbe.
Janine: [laughs] I think Thisbe interprets this the other way, which is not—
Ali: Aw.
Janine: No, no, no, no. Not like the other other way. [Ali laughs] The other way of like, the thing that she has to do is be like, “No. Everything is fine. I've handled it well. There are no problems to concern you.” Like, instead of being like, “Oh, you want to help,” it’s more like, “You must rest.” You know? Like, you…
Austin: Mm. [Ali laughs]
Janine: I'm not going to give you anything to worry about. Everything is fine. I don't want to talk about it. [laughs quietly] like, that kind of…
Ali: Oh, okay. [laughs]
Janine: I think, in reality, it’s like a very stonewall, like:
(as Thisbe): No. I have performed the role.
Ali (as Brnine): [sighs] That’s a relief. I really appreciate, um, you being there, Thisbe.
Janine (as Thisbe): I don't know when you sleep.
Ali (as Brnine): [laughs awkwardly] I feel like that’s all I'm doing.
Janine (as Thisbe): I mean when you're in command.
Ali (as Brnine): [understanding gasp] Oh, right. [laughs awkwardly] Yeah, I got a lot on my plate, but uh, crew helps me out. They’re helping you out, right?
Janine (as Thisbe): Yes.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, you gotta get— [remembering sadly] oh. Nevermind. Um…how’s it been here since the whole…the whole stuff? Is everybody— everyone’s okay?
Janine (as Thisbe): Certain things appear to have changed in ways that are difficult to define.
Ali (as Brnine): Oh. But like, in a good way, right? Or like…
Janine (as Thisbe): It is unclear.
Ali (as Brnine): [sighs] Plants are better, right?
Janine (as Thisbe): Uh, I haven't checked on them in a little bit. The maintenance systems are still operational. I'm sure they’re… [Ali laughs quietly]
Ali (as Brnine): No, Thisbe, I mean, if you— I mean, if you were busy, you should go…you should go do that.
Janine: Aw.
Ali (as Brnine): I just meant with the sun.
Janine (as Thisbe): Oh.
Ali (as Brnine): They need the sun.
Janine (as Thisbe): Well, it didn't explode.
Ali (as Brnine): [chuckles] Right. Yeah, I'm sure that helps. [quiet laughter]
Janine (as Thisbe): It does nothing but help that the sun did not explode, Operant Brnine. [laughter]
Austin: Damn. True.
Janine (as Thisbe): I'm impressed. I did not think you would succeed.
Janine: I don't know that she says, “I'm impressed.” [Ali laughs] I think she might just say, “I did not think you would succeed,” and the—
Austin: Damn. [Ali and Janine laugh]
Janine: The being impressed part is, to her, implied, of like, I was wrong. You succeeded.
Austin: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Ali: Right. Right.
(as Brnine): Yeah, I, um…couldn’t have done it without Phrygian. But it’s a good thing. It’s a good thing that things are better.
Janine (as Thisbe): I will miss their cereals.
Ali (as Brnine): Oh, yeah. [taken aback] Thisbe, you eat cereal?
Janine (as Thisbe): No, the boxes. I liked to look at the boxes.
Ali (as Brnine): [quietly] Oh. Yeah. Yeah.
Janine (as Thisbe): I enjoy the mazes on the back.
Dre: Aw.
Janine (as Thisbe): Phrygian made the best cereal box mazes.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah.
Janine (as Thisbe): Would you like a plant in your room? In this room.
Ali (as Brnine): Oh. Oh, I mean, I still got the…um, I shouldn't be here too long. Not long enough for that, I guess. Not that I— that’s nice of you, but…maybe this room should just have one, so if somebody’s in here, it seems nice. Cool. Cool. [Ali laughs quietly]
Janine: I'm trying to think of, like, something— an interaction Thisbe could do with the DVD player.
Austin: Put something on and watch it, just sit quietly?
Janine: Oh, I know. Thisbe sees the DVD player, and maybe it’s just still looping a menu or something, because it’s kind of, like, forgotten about? Or I don't know. And I think she, like, reaches out and, like, interfaces like maybe with, like, a port or something on it. I just— I want her to just, like, download an educational film.
Dre: Oh, the grass movie that you wanted to watch!
Janine: No, not the grass— everyone’s seen the grass movie. It’s not the grass movie.
Ali: Wow.
Janine: I think it’s probably the equivalent of, like, there’s an old educational short about truck farming, [Ali snorts] which is—
Dre: Wait, what?
Janine: Which is about how farming can change once you can use trucks to move the produce around.
Ali: Mm, mm-hmm.
Janine: And you can get stuff out of season more.
Austin: Mm.
Janine: So I think it’s like an educational short about, like, shipping produce on interplanetary freight systems or something, and like, “Wow, what an exciting avenue this could open up!” or something like that, because to Thisbe, it’s like, well, you're watching the menu 'cause you're not interested in the thing, so here you go. I thought this was interesting.
Dre: When you said “truck farming,” I thought you meant, like, farms on a truck.
Ali: Oh, sure.
Austin: Oh.
Janine: No. That would be cool, though. Thisbe would be into that. I mean, it might also be that. You could have a spaceship farm, and then you just drop off the produce.
Ali: Yeah, I think Brnine just quietly watches it and falls asleep.
Janine: Oh, yeah, that’s kind of the… [Ali laughs] Yeah, no, that’s good, actually. I hadn't considered it would be useful like that, but yeah.
Ali: We both gain an advance.
Austin: Wow. Both of you hit the— yeah, nice.
Ali: I got my phone call with Thisbe.
Austin: Aw.
Keith: You leveled up four times.
Austin: Oh my god.
Ali: [laughs] Since last downtime, technically, but yeah.
Austin: You were just sitting on two of those levels. One was right there. One you got, you didn't realize you got with the hook.
Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: Right, yeah. One I had the whole time and didn't realize.
Keith: Two were from the downtime— or not the downtime, the combustor mission.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Right.
Ali: Yeah. Thisbe hopefully doesn't think I'm insignificant anymore, [laughs] and we’ll rewrite that at a better time.
Janine: I didn't think you were insignificant.
Ali: No, I know. No, I know. [laughs]
Janine: It’s different.
Austin: What did it say?
Keith: No, but Brnine thought that you thought that.
Janine: You're not super significant. It’s different.
Ali: Right. Yes.
Austin: Ohh, right. [Keith laughs]
Dre: Oh, yeah, okay.
Ali: Right, yes, yes. We’ve been over this.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I see. I see, I see, I see.
Ali: Uh huh.
Dre: I don't dislike you. I just don't care if you live or die. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Ali: Is that— is there anything else to do?
Austin: [exhales] We have to roll Plan and Prepare. We could save that. [Dre laughs]
Janine: Mm…
Austin: We could save that for the beginning of the thing, but I would love to know what we are doing. It sounds like you're doing the gravtrains.
Dre: Gravtrain I think, yeah.
Keith: Do we want to do the Eclectic and Brnine thing, or…?
Austin: I would love to have them—
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: Come on in. I'm watching farm trucking.
Keith (as Eclectic): [intrigued] Farm trucking. [Ali laughs] Glad to see you're not in the hoosegow.
Ali (as Brnine): Um, hey, man. Sorry I haven't had a chance to, uh, welcome you to the ship, but I've been, uh…
Ali: Pointing to the bed that they’re bedridden on.
Keith (as Eclectic): I heard you killed the Princept. That’s…
Ali (as Brnine): Uh huh.
Keith (as Eclectic): I don't even know what to say about that. That’s outrageous.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, I, um…I guess I did that. I'm sorry, you came here from Leap, right? Leap sent you?
Keith (as Eclectic): [sighs] Yeah. Leap sent me. There’s a problem with Motion. Factories popping up all over the place, suckin’ black air into the ground.
Ali (as Brnine): Wait, we destroyed Motion. We started Millennium Break when we destroyed…
Keith (as Eclectic): We found letters, evidence, clues. I got sent over here to investigate.
Keith: I show some of the pictures.
Ali: Do I, like…are they branded with March Institute shit?
Austin: Uh, yeah.
Ali: Would I know that?
Austin: Yeah, you know that these factories are— I mean, I'll tell you this real quick. I spent my— I had three more tokens to spend. I only spent— [Ali laughs] I spent two of them just now, so I have one left.
Ali: Oh.
Austin: I'll tell you what I spent them on.
Keith: The last thing that you did was you made a bunch of these pop up, like, overnight, right? Or a bunch of the little cities?
Austin: And I am, in fact, completing this. Settlers and Reinforcements for the Authority Arrive is now completed.
Ali: Oh.
Austin: Four out of four. We started this a while ago, and here’s a thing that happened. It doesn't happen in the middle of this scene, but it will happen before the next sortie kicks off. It turns out that with the Princept dead, a lot of things across Pact fronts shift, and it’s easier than ever to get people here for the Bilateral Intercession. Call it one more piece of collateral damage, [Ali laughs] that suddenly there's more breathing room for the Bilats to reinforce this place. And I've increased the new Take Something That Isn't Theirs clock from Nideo from one to two. I still have another token that I could spend here. I just don't think I'm gonna spend it, because I don't think anything else feels like it should advance. You know what, I'll put it in this “Alert, question mark, question mark, question mark,” raising it from five to six.
And I think that the thing I want to explicitly say, you know, we do get shots of Bilat leadership reacting to first the intelligence that there’s rumors that the Glorious Princept has died, then that there's been rumors that there’s an assassination. They spend a week being like, “Wait, who— which one of us did it? Who’s— was it you guys? [Ali and Keith laugh] It was you guys!” 'cause they can't conceive of the idea that it would be someone else like Millennium Break.
Keith: Are we gonna claim this?
Austin: Great question.
Keith: Are we gonna send a tape in?
Austin: Holding Integrity? Holding the spine? [Ali laughs] I don't know.
Keith: Showing the knife?
Austin: Showing the knife.
Ali: Yeah, you know, take the DNA off that knife.
Keith: This could be— see, 'cause this is the— if there was a stellar combustor, this is when they really would use it. [Ali laughs] Good thing there’s not, 'cause…and I'll just say, like, there’s no, uh, you know…there’s a line where I'm like, “Oh, it would be awesome to claim this. That’d be so cool.”
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Also, they could send a ship here and just blow the planet up.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Just one and done. Like, oh, the planet’s— this is a revenge planet now.
Austin: Yeah. They could still do that.
Keith: You know, we’re done with Palisade.
Austin: But it would be really hard to do that, because this is the thing. The Bilats want this planet, so they would defend this planet from an Apostolosian— from a Pact attack, because they want it.
Keith: Right. Right.
Ali: Oh, so I'm creating a stalemate between them.
Austin: Mm, who loved it when you create stalemates, again?
Ali: [laughs] Now, hang on a minute.
Austin: They did not like this war continuing, because it was a waste of their time. They want more of the war with the Branched, which they felt was a useful war. Anyway.
Ali: Right.
Austin: But still. Yeah, just really quick, like, I do think that there is, like, not minor chaos, but there’s like, oh my god, blood in the water. Lots of functionaries throughout the Bilats trying to figure out how to take advantage of the fact that over in the Pact, for the next, you know, month or whatever, longer, they're gonna have to figure out what the fuck to do.
Ali: Is there any…there’s not footage from the death of the Princept, right?
Austin: The stabbing isn't there, but again, Commitment melting away to reveal the dead Princept is there.
Ali: Okay, right, yeah.
Austin: Which, like, some people probably see that footage and go, “Did the divine kill—?” Though, also, there would be footage of you walking into Commitment, and then Commitment melting away, and you're not in there anymore.
Ali: Right.
Austin: Houdini shit.
Ali: Right, that’s the other thing. Like, who—
Janine: I mean, or did Commitment just kill…
Austin: Kill you also.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: And swallow you. Yeah.
Ali: Right.
Austin: But why is Brnine’s body not there but the Princept’s is? Who could say. Right.
Janine: Not an Elect.
Ali: Right.
Austin: Not an Elect. Not an Elect, yeah, not holy.
Janine: Or the other divine interfered, something something.
Austin: Right. Also—
Janine: Couldn't swallow it. Spat it out.
Austin: Integrity gone. Did something happen with Integrity? Theories. You thought JFK shit— [Austin, Ali, and Keith laugh] You thought there were lots of debates about that?
Ali: Well, that’s the thing, is like, when is the— if I'm doing the, like, they’re showing my interview. When am I hacking the fucking thing afterwards to be like, [laughs] “By the way…”
Keith: On whose orders were they holding that interview? The dead Princept.
Austin: They were holding that interview on the Princept’s orders, correct.
Keith: So are they still holding it?
Austin: Now, the Pact might just release that interview. 100% they could, and this is a debate now. You know, at this point, it’s the leadership of the Pact, which is a handful of Elects who have kind of self-elected themselves.
Keith: Right.
Austin: And, in a real way, this lets the Pact be the Pact they always wanted to be, which is without a Princept.
Ali: Right, but would the Cause be able to release a thing being like, “We have Integrity. That was us.”
Austin: I mean, you could do that.
Keith: There’s no line of succession?
Austin: There is on the other side. That’s the line Clem was in.
Keith: Right.
Austin: That’s the whole thing is that this broke that line of— there will be a line— [Ali laughs] you know, Cas’alear will probably become the new Apokine.
Ali: Right. Okay.
Austin: But that’s only for Apostolos. That’s not leading the whole Pact.
Keith: Right.
Austin: Like, and they have to decide: do we even elect a new Princept?
Keith: And, so, the reason that they were the, you know, official-slash-unofficial leader of the Pact was that they were both the Apokine and the Princept.
Austin: And one of the two Princepts, and they were the Princept on the side of Apostolos and Columnar, who are the Pact.
Keith: Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: Basically. I always say “basically,” because, you know, there’s always— like, March is Columnar but betrayed the Pact, right?
Keith: Right.
Austin: Anyway. Sorry, I'm getting in the middle of your scene to color spending tokens, but you know. [Ali laughs] That’s the stuff that’s happening in these spaces, right?
Keith: Right.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Over the next weeks.
Keith: Oh, yeah, this was me being like, “Are we gonna announce this?”
Austin: Right.
Keith: Are we gonna take credit?
Austin: Yeah, and I want give some clarity for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, good question. Are we, Brnine?
Ali: Um…
Keith: I would love to. I think it’s so funny. [Ali laughs] And good, I mean. Sometimes I say “funny,” I mean “good.”
Austin: Mm.
Ali: Thanks for being upfront about that.
Janine: Is this a conversation that Brnine would have with Gucci, perhaps?
Austin: Probably.
Ali: Probably.
Keith: Oh my god. Please call Gucci and tell her that you killed the… [Ali, Janine, and Keith laugh]
Austin: I mean…
Janine: Bingo, Keith! Bingo.
Austin: Yeah. That’s what— how does Gucci—
Janine: Sometimes you ask a pointed question, hoping for a certain answer.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: How does Gucci find out about this? Because if people start— if the rest of the crew spreads this at all, Gucci will get it. So before that happens, do you try to tell Gucci yourself? From the infirmary bed, or are you just like, “I’ma rest. I need some time.”
Ali: No, I would get into— well, 'cause, like, I assume Septet would get in touch with Gucci to be like, “Hey, Brnine teleported here.”
Austin: [laughs quietly] Yes.
Ali: [laughs] And they’re in a fucking hospital bed.
Austin: I guess. No, they would ask you, “Should I tell Gucci about this?”
Ali: Well, yeah, and I—
Austin: And you say yes.
Ali: The answer to that would be yes, yeah.
Keith: If I know Brnine, Brnine is up there stabbing the…
Austin: The Princept.
Keith: The emperor [Austin: Uh huh.] and being like, “I gotta fucking call Gucci. [Ali laughs] I haven't called Gucci in a while. Is she mad at me?”
Ali: Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh.
Sylvia: Do you think she’ll like this? [Keith laughs]
Ali: Yeah, so Gucci does know that this happened.
Austin: Then you just get a text that is, “Where are you? [Ali and Sylvia laugh] Where is the ship?”
Keith: Hospital bed selfie.
Ali: [laughs] Yes.
Austin: And then the response to that is, “Where is the ship?”
Ali: Um, shouldn't you know that? lol. No, sorry.
Dre: No, send it! Send it! Send it!
Ali: [laughs] Pin drop. No, it’s three texts. It’s, “shouldn't you know that?” question mark. “lol sorry,” and then the pin drop.
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: I can send three texts.
Austin: “BRT.” Does Brnine— good question, Sylvi. Does Brnine get to see the new Figure? Because Figure’s completely different from the last time you saw them.
Ali: Yeah, Figure, are you coming through the hospital room too?
Dre: Yeah, of course.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Ali (as Brnine): Hi. What’s popping? You doing all right? Everybody okay?
Dre (as Figure): Uh, yes. Better than all right. I'm…“fixed” isn't the right word, but it’s the word that comes to mind.
Ali (as Brnine): Cool.
Dre (as Figure): I'm free.
Ali (as Brnine): [nonchalant] Oh, cool. Cool cool cool.
Keith: [laughs] Whoa.
Dre (as Figure): It is cool.
Sylvia: Oh, hell yeah, man. Cool.
Austin: Sick. [Ali laughs]
Dre (as Figure): How are you?
Ali (as Brnine): Um…I’m okay. I'm, um…I’m here, you know?
Dre (as Figure): You are.
Ali (as Brnine): I don't know how…
Dre (as Figure): Um, I'm also not entirely sure how?
Ali (as Brnine): You were there, right? When I…
Dre (as Figure): [sighs] I think I did it.
Ali (as Brnine): Wait. Wait, what? I beg your pardon? [Ali laughs quietly]
Dre (as Figure): I think I…I think I brought you back.
Ali (as Brnine): Cool. Nice. [Dre laughs] I appreciate that.
Dre (as Figure): It feels weird to say “you’re welcome” for something that I did unknowingly, but you're welcome.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, I feel like…I feel like I had a dream where I killed the Princept, and then I woke up here.
Dre (as Figure): How did you do that?
Ali (as Brnine): Um, I had a knife.
Dre (as Figure): Oh.
Ali (as Brnine): And it was either them or me, I guess.
Dre (as Figure): Well, I'm glad it was them.
Ali (as Brnine): [sighs] Yeah, they wanted to just keep fighting, and…
Dre (as Figure): Wait, why? They didn't want to win?
Ali (as Brnine): No, like, forever. Like, that’s what they would have made people do.
Dre (as Figure): The fuck is wrong with these people?
Ali (as Brnine): I don't know. But yeah, thanks. That was cool. That was— you can do that? You can…?
Dre (as Figure): Yeah. I guess I need to… [sighs] Boy, a lot has changed. I haven't— you knew Gur, right?
Sylvia: Heh.
Ali (as Brnine): Uh, right. Yes, yeah, uh huh. I'm a big fan of Invader Zim.
Sylvia: Yeah! [Ali laughs] I was trying so hard not to make that joke!
Dre: Ah.
Austin: Unbelievable.
Dre: Yeah, Brnine’s gonna play the Doom song now. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Unbelievable.
Ali: Definitely in the stack of Blu-rays from Cori. Let’s not kid ourselves. [Dre laughs]
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Sylvia: Captain, they’re just like us! [Ali laughs]
Ali (as Brnine): Gur, yeah. Um, how do you know…?
Dre (as Figure): Okay. Do you want the long version or the short version?
Ali (as Brnine): Oh boy. Um, I'm really tired?
Dre (as Figure): We’ll do the short version. You're tired.
Ali (as Brnine): Oh. Yeah. [Ali and Sylvia laugh quietly]
Dre (as Figure): To break free of Clem, I forged a pact with Perennial, and I met Gur Sevraq’s ghost.
Ali (as Brnine): That’s what I was telling you, you just gotta get the…gotta get the juice from somewhere else.
Dre: [laughs] And Figure laughing in character too. [Ali laughs]
(as Figure): I really missed you, Captain.
Austin: Aw. [laughs]
Ali (as Brnine): Wait, Gur’s talking to you?
Dre (as Figure): He was. Since you've come back, he’s been silent.
Keith: Whoa.
Ali (as Brnine): Fuck. [Ali laughs]
Dre (as Figure): I don't think it’s, like…I don't think it’s anything against you. [Ali laughs quietly]
Ali (as Brnine): Sure. Yeah. Uh huh. No, I mean, they were…they were a part of Millennium Break, I guess, and, um…I guess I have some tapes I could show you later.
Dre (as Figure): [awkwardly] Um, I watched some of them already.
Ali (as Brnine): [gasps] …Cool.
Dre (as Figure): That's what I was doing when…the magic? It feels weird to say the magic happened. Yeah, that’s what I was doing when I summoned you. Gur told me about them.
Ali (as Brnine): About…the magic?
Dre (as Figure): No, about the tapes.
Ali (as Brnine): [gasps] Oh. Yeah. Okay, right. Glad they could help! Um, yeah, borrow them whenever you want. I don't know. I don't know how much I believe that stuff, I guess, but important lessons. So, yeah. Yeah.
Dre (as Figure): Mm.
Ali (as Brnine): I'm glad you're good. I'm glad you're good.
Dre (as Figure): I am also glad that you're good. You get some rest, and we’ll talk about next steps when you feel up to it.
Ali (as Brnine): Right. Yeah. Okay, cool. Thank you, Figure. Or— right. Figure?
Dre (as Figure): Yes.
Ali (as Brnine): Cool.
Keith: [laughs] Oh my god.
Ali (as Brnine): No, not like I forgot. Not like I forgot. I just wasn't sure. [Keith laughs]
Dre (as Figure): No, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, a lot of things changed.
Ali (as Brnine): Right.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh. [Ali laughs] You're not Phrygian, right? Different person?
Ali: [laughs] Aw.
Dre: Aw.
Ali: Are we now doing Brnine/Gucci, or is this— are we done for today? [laughs]
Austin: I think we can…we can leave it a question. Or we can have Gucci show up and not do it until next time. We should just do it now.
Ali: Sure, okay. Sorry to everybody.
Austin: No. [Ali laughs] I think as Gucci comes aboard— where are you? Where in the world are you? What’s it like outside? What’s the view from the infirmary window? Is it even a window? Is it, like, one of the walls is a screen and it’s showing the outside, you know?
Ali: I feel like it makes sense if we’re back on Palisade, or would we still have been, like, at a…?
Austin: No, I think that back on Palisade makes sense, but I'm just curious, like, are you near a beach? Are you in the forest? Are you in the air?
Ali: Oh, I mean…like, “Oh, maybe you're at a beach,” and I keep being like, “I think they’re at an abandoned warehouse.”
Austin: That’s fine too. [Ali laughs] Yeah, you're hiding in, like, an abandoned hangar with the ship.
Ali: Uh huh.
Austin: Yeah, that’s good.
Ali: There’s a bunch of other old mechanical shit here, [Austin: Yeah.] so if somebody does a scan, then…
Austin: Yeah. And I think as Gucci comes aboard, you get a text from Jesset that is…it’s the salute emoji, but it’s, like, the bandaged smiley face doing the salute emoji, [Ali laughs] and it says, “I always believed in you.” [Ali sighs] I want there to be an emoji that’s, like, between a heart and a sparkle. Do you know what I mean?
Ali: Mm.
Austin: Like, where you really can't quite…but imagine that at the end.
Ali: [laughs quietly] It’s not the two hearts?
Austin: Maybe it’s the two hearts. [amused] The two hearts is ambiguous. [Ali laughs] ‘No, they just care about me.’ You know.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: And then there’s a knock at the door before you can respond, and it’s Gucci, who has finally come to visit the ship. We've never seen Gucci aboard the ship yet, I think, this season.
(as Gucci): [sighs] You're back. You're okay.
Ali (as Brnine): Hey.
Austin (as Gucci): I'm speechless. I'm speechless. I want to tell you you're a stupid piece of shit, but you did it, so I mean…
Ali (as Brnine): Two things can be true.
Austin (as Gucci): [sighs] If they weren't gunning for us before, I mean…this is…
Ali (as Brnine): I mean… [sighs]
Austin: Hand on head, you know. [Ali laughs] Not sure what to say.
Ali (as Brnine): We had to do something.
Austin (as Gucci): [pained] I was sure you died on the combustor. I was sure. What do we do next? Sorry, I thought about what I wanted to say the whole way over here, and… [sighs] I don't know what to do with the way I feel about you, and so instead, I'm gonna ask you: what should we do next?
Austin: Nods over at Integrity, which is…must be in some sort of containment unit, at this point?
Ali: Sure.
Austin: Right?
Ali: Right. Yeah.
Austin: You already have— you know how to build those for divines. [Ali laughs quietly] You have one for Asepsis.
Ali: Uh huh.
Austin (as Gucci): Do we tell them about that? I'm not even sure all the other unit leaders know yet.
Ali (as Brnine): We have to…we have to let them know that we’re the ones who bloodied their noses.
Austin (as Gucci): Twice.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah.
Austin (as Gucci): Bloodied their noses? You cut off their heads. You did it. I— ah. I want to say we did it, but we didn't, did we?
Ali (as Brnine): No. We— no, I mean, like, we did do it together. I mean, with the— the maps helped, and we couldn't have gotten off of the planet otherwise, and now maybe the Cause will be more proactive.
Austin (as Gucci): I mean, I gotta tell you…the combustor alone had these folks—Reunion, you know, Jade Kill and then the concrete folks and Dim Liturgy—all of them saying, “You know what? Why don't we call ourselves Millennium Break.” Ready to sign on.
Ali (as Brnine): Oh.
Austin (as Gucci): So, now I have to imagine, I mean…yeah, I think it might spark something. I believe in change, and I have my whole life, but I didn't believe in it like this. I believed in it like little…we could save this planet. We could push them off. We could help the people on Partizan. We could surprise people with enough food to make it for another year, thanks to Leap doing some raids or because the farm that we set up offworld had a good harvest. I thought we could run weapons to radicals deep in Orion space or that we could stop some people here or there from joining the New Asterism by convincing them that the prophet’s a fraud. I thought we could move a few hearts. I thought we could change a couple minds. [small sigh] I thought we could spill some blood. I knew we could spill some blood. I thought we could get a few more years. Really, I thought we had a few more years and we’d pull them towards something else. Concessions. I thought elections somewhere. [Ali laughs quietly] I thought better bodies for poor Columnar. I thought the elite institutions of Kesh, doors wide open. I thought Apostolos, few more dollars away from war. I didn't know we could cut their heads off. [chuckles] And now I don't know what tomorrow looks like. I'm a little afraid, Brnine.
Ali (as Brnine): [sighs] Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. I'm in this until it’s finished.
Austin (as Gucci): Until it’s finished? [exhales]
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah.
Austin (as Gucci): Me too.
Austin: Sitting down on the bed now.
Ali: [laughs] Cool!
Austin: Me too. Yeah.
Ali: [laughs] I think that can be a scene.
Austin: I think that’s a scene.
Ali: We can fade to black there.
Sylvia: Ooh.
Austin: I think that’s an episode.
Ali: Perhaps, yeah.
Keith: Uh, do we have to do Plan and Prepare?
Austin: Fuck, we have to do Plan and Prepare. [Ali laughs]
Keith: I have an allocated token.
Austin: Mm-hmm.
Keith: I meant to use it…
Austin: During Command Deck?
Keith: During…well, so, I…sort of, yeah. I just sort of lost track of it and ended up not using it.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: I sort of thought my last chance to use it was going to be during Infirmary, but we kind of moved through Infirmary really quickly.
Austin: I mean, we’re still in that Infirmary, sort of. [Ali laughs]
Keith: So, I could…what is the sort of stuff…?
Austin: That’s a place where you could advance a long term project, Keith.
Keith: Advance a long term project or start one?
Austin: Start or advance a long term project.
Keith: Does that include investigation?
Austin: Yes.
Keith: All right.
Austin: Investigation is a long term project. We should have noticed that at the time. We only saw the gravity clock one, but…
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Yeah. That is. So if you want to advance your—
Ali: Right.
Austin: If you want that to be you're staring at the corkboard.
Ali: It can also be, like, we didn't roleplay that whole scene out, but I think, like, Brnine’s, like, listening to…
Austin: Yes. Totally.
Ali: Electic. Eclectic?
Austin: Eclectic.
Ali: Eclectict?
Austin: Eclectic, yeah.
Ali: Electic would be really funny, but no. [laughs] Eclectic, like, go through all of this, like, just sort of this stunned silence or whatever might be beneficial.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Janine: I also had a token that I didn't get to…
Austin: Feel free.
Janine: I was actually wondering, even though I already started and advanced a project in this downtime— I think that happened, right? That was in this?
Austin: You started one, and then Cori helped you advance it.
Janine: Cori helped, yeah.
Austin: Yes. You can totally do it again.
Janine: Can I put the token into that?
Austin: Absolutely. Tell me what it— is this—?
Janine: It just seems like a really good time to be like, oh.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: Communication in a weird way?
Austin: Uh huh. [Ali laughs]
Janine: Oh, we have an extra divine, and also Figure did some weird shit?
Austin: Uh huh, yeah. All sorts of divine stuff being learned.
Janine: I wonder if this is just, like, poring over data from when…like, sensor data from when Brnine returned?
Austin: Got teleported, yeah.
Janine: And just being like: what was all of that?
Austin: Yeah. [Ali laughs]
Janine: What does that look like, in terms of math?
Austin: Right. If Perennial can—
Janine: Also, I want to know, like, what the, like, buzz was from…yeah, Perennial, but also, like, did anything change when Integrity appeared?
Austin: Right. Sure, sure, sure.
Janine: And is there anything about, like, proximity between—
Austin: Multiple divines.
Janine: Integrity and that sort of part of Perennial and also Asepsis and like…
Austin: Right. Yeah.
Janine: Just, I want numbers.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I want to eat ‘em.
Austin: Well, and specifically the idea that, like, if Perennial can teleport things across the galaxy…
Janine: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Communication is things.
Janine: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: You know, ones and zeroes. It’s, you know?
Janine: Communication is things.
Austin: Yeah, mm-hmm.
Janine: I'm always saying this.
Austin: Totally. So, yeah.
Keith: Corn’s grass. [Dre chuckles]
Austin: To advance it.
Ali: I have one advance, because I have the gravity clock with Thisbe, and I was thinking of taking Born Leader: “You lead a sortie with advantage and give the crew confidence when they plan and prepare.”
Austin: Take confidence on Plan and Prepare.
Ali: Cool.
Austin: Brnine back in the driver’s seat to prepare an attack on—
Ali: The rest of that is “Figures within the Cause lean on you for strategic advice. To some degree, their successes and failures [Austin: Mm-hmm.] during the conflict turn can be attributed to your guidance.”
Austin: Yeah. And I mean, I think that this is— half of what— you know, the next day or whatever, whenever things settle down again and it’s time to figure out this mission, what you're told is that there was a team that was sent in to the— to Carmathen, which is this Kesh city that is where the Diadem Gravtrains are, and they attempted to recover— to take over the gravtrains, and while they were there, they encountered one of the Afflictions and went missing. And can you go and try to find them, rescue them from the Affliction, figure out what’s going on there, and most importantly, take control of the control center in Carmathen? That is the Diadem Gravtrain.
Keith: Is this dice added thing accurate, or is this from last time?
Austin: We added two last time.
Keith: Okay, yeah.
Austin: We added two. I believe we added two last time, which brings this up to four.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: We’re rolling with…advantage?
Keith: One was mine. Whose was the others?
Austin: I don't know what that means. I think you're adding one— you're already taking highest, right?
Ali: I lead a sortie with advantage, and then I give the group confidence when they Plan and Prepare.
Austin: Oh, confidence. Okay, so 1s equal 6s. Yeah.
Ali: Yeah. Okay.
Austin: Keith, what was the other question you just had? Sorry.
Keith: Oh, one of those added dice was mine. I was just curious whose the other one was.
Austin: I don't remember.
Keith: Okay. That’s fine.
Austin: I truly— you're right. There’s someone else. [Ali laughs quietly] Maybe it’s only one? Maybe I'm— but I don't know.
Ali: Maybe, um…yeah, we’ll see. So, this is 4d6 plus 3, because I'm having the—?
Austin: Not plus anything.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Just 4d6. 1s count as 6s.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Okay. Roll 4…
Austin: It’s 2d6 plus 2 from adding dice from the Command Deck from before.
Ali: Okay, yeah.
Austin: That’s what it was.
Ali: The crew thing was like, “Oh, I can have the crew roll…” That’s an 8.
Austin: No, it’s not.
Ali: No?
Austin: You take— remember, you take highest, and 1s count as 6s, so that means…
Ali: Okay, so… [laughs]
Keith: That’s a 12.
Austin: That is a 12.
Ali: Perfect.
Austin: Oh, no, I'm wrong. Sorry. This is why this doesn't make sense to me. Oh, I guess it does. 1s count as 6s, and the way that this roll works is that you compare the result to the strength of the division that you're targeting, which is Kesh.
Ali: Oh.
Austin: Which right now is 0. They’ll become 3.
Keith: So everything is higher. [Keith and Ali laugh]
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Because it doesn't get replaced until next one!
Austin: Until the next thing. Yeah.
Keith: Oh.
Ali: Oh, that’s so funny.
Austin: Oh, that’s not true. That’s not true.
Janine: Does Kesh just explode?
Austin: Oh, yeah, Kesh…
Janine: I know they don't, but like… [Ali laughs]
Austin: Sorry, this is actually not true. Nideo inherits those pillars, and Nideo became a major one during that conflict turn.
Ali: Oh, so it has to beat a 5?
Austin: It has to beat a 5, which means you get two successes here, because the 1s count as 6s.
Ali: Okay, cool.
Austin: Which is exactly how that’s supposed to work, but yeah, I'll double check it really quick. Yeah, Janine, the thing that happened is they got enough dishonor or whatever it’s called. Dis— is it called dishonor?
Keith: Dissatisfaction?
Austin: Disfavor, disfavor.
Keith: Oh, disfavor.
Austin: That they either were going to get— either become a wayward faction or be absorbed and replaced, basically, absorbed by the other two factions or divisions of the Cause— fuck, of the Cause. Of the Authority, and— boy, we’ve gotta start doing these on the weekends again when I have any sleep.
Ali: Uh huh. [laughs]
Janine: [sympathetically] Mm.
Austin: Yes, they get absorbed. Da-da-da-da-da. They got dissolved. They got dissolved and absorbed messily back into the rest of the Authority. A replacement division of a different type moves in at the start of the next conflict turn, and until then, any pillars the old one controlled are temporarily considered to have zero grip meaning they can be felled.
Keith: Okay, so you were right at first. That’s four.
Austin: That’s zero— no, that’s zero grip.
Keith: Oh.
Austin: But when they get absorbed, the old pillars get controlled— I guess— hmm.
Keith: Yeah, didn't you just say at the start of the next conflict turn?
Austin: Yeah, but that’s—
Keith: So that means that it hasn't officially happened yet.
Austin: Again, but that’s about pillar strength, not about who is currently on the pillars. The thing— it’s the thing on the previous page that says if it was a previous— if the division that was destroyed was previously a major division, it becomes a minor one. One of the other ones is promoted to major instead. And it says the new division— yeah, the new division inherits any pillars the old one controlled. So yeah. You know what? Yeah. I think so. Let’s call these all successes, because they’re not—
Keith: Hey, loving that risky opportunity to secure an outcome for a faction and the untapped Jade Kill.
Austin: Would love it. Yep.
Keith: Let’s finally get Jade Kill a win.
Austin: A W. Yeah. [Ali and Janine laugh]
Ali: Oh, okay, sure, and then the other one would be: during a sortie, you have a risky opportunity to fell a pillar with—
Austin: You get four of these.
Keith: Yeah, we’re picking which one we don't want right now.
Ali: Oh.
Keith: Because we got all four of these.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Well, I can already lead a sortie with advantage, so we should take everything except for that.
Austin: Damn.
Keith: Great.
Janine: Mm. Yeah.
Austin: Boom.
Keith: Beautiful. [Ali laughs quietly]
Austin: So let’s go over those. “During the sortie, you'll have an opportunity to untap a faction of your choice,” which there’s only one, right?
Keith: Violet Cove.
Ali: Mm-hmm.
Austin: Violet Cove, sure. “During the sortie, you'll have a risky opportunity to fell a pillar with zero grip.” That’s the whole thing, you know?
Keith: Right.
Ali: Right.
Austin: But also, that could be— I guess that could be a different one, right?
Ali: Could we— wait. Yeah, so we’re going against the gravtrain. Could we find an opportunity to fell the Paint Shop?
Austin: To fell the Paint Shop. You could, yeah.
Ali: Okay.
Keith: So, what happens if we fell the— okay, so, then what would Jade Kill do if we secure the faction outcome?
Austin: You would pick a different faction outcome, right?
Keith: Oh, right, right.
Austin: You would pick…
Keith: Of course, yeah, right.
Austin: And you know what? Maybe you would pick one of the Five Afflictions outcomes. Maybe you would pick— you know what I mean? Like, there’s other…
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: We’ll play to find out what happens is what we would do, you know?
Ali: And then all players hold one. You may send your hold— we’ve had actual holds before.
Austin: You've done this before. You know how this goes. All right.
Ali: Okay. That’s everything.
Austin: That’s everything. [Ali laughs] The mission is prepared. We’ll figure it out next time. I have to prep this mission still, but.
Ali: Oh my god. I can't believe I didn't fucking die.
Austin: I was certain you were gonna die. [Ali groans]
Sylvia: You nailed it. [Janine laughs]
Dre: I always believed in you.
Keith: Yeah, I was pretty sure you were gonna die. [Ali laughs]
[“Nothing is Stationary” by Jack de Quidt plays]
[1] Keitel now uses only she/her pronouns; article referenced is outdated.