PALISADE 34: Seize the Chance Pt. 5
Transcriber: Iris (sacredwhim)
B-Plot: Eclectic’s Investigation 29
A-Plot: In the Depths of Dust 38
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: Figure.
Dre: Yeah. What’s up?
Austin: You wake up to the sound of a klaxon ringing, like an alarm. It feels familiar to you in your body, but maybe not your head. And you can see, you know, your flight suit is kind of like, laid out, or maybe hung up, near the door. And a voice comes over the loudspeaker and says,
[music intro - “Nothing is Stationary” by Jack de Quidt begins]
Austin (as Voice): Commander Figure, you’re needed in the launch bay.
-
Austin: Thisbe, it is a sunny day. In fact, it is blazing out. There’s not a cloud in the sky. The world is golden and beige from fields of wheat that stretch on over, you know, kind of low rolling hills in every direction for miles and miles until they hit these kind of blue mountains.
-
Austin: Cori, you wake up inside of your machine. As if you had been—had the wind taken out of you, or perhaps worse, you had been briefly knocked unconscious.
-
Austin: Brnine, they are gone in the fuckin’ mist, man. They are down there. The dust has covered it all up.
-
Austin: At the bottom of the Diadem, in all of this dust, in the wreckage of the train cars—it’s dozens of people, and their dust doppelgangers, walking next to one another.
Keith: Dustelgangers. Doppeldusters.
Austin: Mhm.
Sylvi: I like doppelduster more.
Dre: Yeah.
Ali: [laughing] What?
Austin: And they are carrying the train brain.
-
Austin: This is going incredible. And all you had to do was fight back to back with Elle Evensong.
Sylvi: Wow, we just make a great team. Isn’t that crazy?
Austin (as Elle): If you say so.
Austin: She says to you, in the middle of killing someone with a giant claymore.
-
Austin (as Patrol Officer): What’s your name? Name and identification.
-
Austin: What’s meaningful to Eclectic? What do you have on you?
Keith: It’s a—it’s a first edition Alise Breka novella.
Austin: Right. When you lift your arms up to like, “hey, I’m good, I’m good,” it falls out of your pocket. And she goes,
Austin (as Patrol Officer): Is that a first edition?
Keith (as Eclectic): Yeah.
Austin: And instantly, you don’t take the Risk because she trusts you, you know, deeply. Because another Alise Breka fan, obviously, has to be on the up and up.
Keith: Right.
Keith (as Eclectic): Well, I’m in this—I’m in this one.
Austin: She says,
Austin (as Patrol Officer): Well, pick it up and get in.
-
Dre: Alright, fuck it. I’m gonna break it.
Austin: How are you gonna do that?
Dre: I want to pull Cori into this universe.
-
Austin: Cori, you are surrounded by people who have never been happier to see you. “Oh my god, you’re alive.” Someone sees you and starts crying.
-
Austin: That’s a hard fail. That’s a 4. Thisbe, you were asking where Brnine is. Brnine’s coming to visit.
[music intro - “Nothing is Stationary” by Jack de Quidt ends]
[3:21]
Ali: Oh, shut up.
Janine: Oh. Fun.
Austin: Brnine just landed, actually, at the landing pad outside. Brnine, you’re back from, uh—what are you back from, actually? What was the last mission you were on? What—you know, how did you earn the ability to take this little vacation?
Ali: Um, I mean, I think the—if the engagement on Palisade ended a couple years ago, [Austin: Mhm.] I think that I was probably promoted to like an advisement sort of position. And the thing that I do is probably, like, travel to planets [Austin hums] to find resistance groups to sort of set up a similar thing.
Austin: Mhm. This is a place that’s already very Millennium Break in control, though.
Ali: Mhm. Right. That’s what I mean.
Austin: Oh, so this is—
Ali: This is me coming back and being like… you know, just…
Austin: Oh, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. You’ve done your kind of round of recruiting and et cetera.
Ali: Right.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Mhm.
Austin: I think the person you really know here is probably Thisbe, but you know, you’ve been to this planet a few times. It’s nice to chill. They have good weed, [chuckles] apparently.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: That’s what I’ve heard.
Ali: [laughing] That’s why I’m through here first.
Janine: We have good weed pants, solid pants made from weed.
[Austin laughs]
Ali: Uh-huh.
Keith: They have strong natural twines.
[Austin laughs]
Janine: Our rope is out of this world.
Ali: Can I not get out of here?
Austin: What do you mean?
Keith: You just got here!
Austin: You just got here.
Ali: [laughs] I know, but I feel like my mind is the most…
Austin: Wow.
[group laughter]
Dre: Hold on, hold on. Ali, finish that sentence.
[Janine laughs]
Ali: [laughing] I just mean, the most recently—
Sylvi: Uh-huh.
Ali: The most recently being like, you know, I gotta get out of here.
Keith: Being smart. My mind is the most recently being smart.
Janine: I know—[chuckles]
[Ali laughs]
Austin: I’m going to advance the Integrity hand clock by one.
Ali: Panicked is what I mean.
Janine: I know which Muppet Brnine is.
[Austin and Ali laugh]
Janine: Brnine is Gonzo.
Austin: Oh my god.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Keith: I was just about to say Gonzo. Yeah, Brnine is Gonzo.
Ali: Yeah, true. Obviously.
Austin: Yeah, with the drip. Yeah. Uh-huh.
[Sylvi laughs]
Ali: Duh.
Janine: And the chickens, the chickens are all the little drones.
Austin: Oh, sure.
Sylvi: God.
Austin: Wait, isn’t Gonzo married to the chickens?
Sylvi: I thought the chicken was Gonzo’s wife. The chicken would be Gucci.
Janine: Yeah.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Gucci would be the chicken.
Janine: No, there’s multiple chickens. There’s one that he has a really close relationship with, but there’s a lot of other chickens.
Austin: Yeah, I’ve heard Brnine’s story. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I’m familiar.
Sylvi: Yeah, one of them had a wolf mask.
[Austin and Dre laugh]
Keith: Which one of the crew is Rizzo the rat?
Austin: Oh, great question.
Sylvi: [laughing] You said Rizzo, and I was like, what are we talking about?
Keith: You know, sneaky Christmas rat?
Austin: [laughing] Sneaky Christmas rat.
Sylvi: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: Or Snatchy? Was it Snatchy?
Austin: Snatchy. [laughing] It was Snatchy.
Sylvi: It was Snatchy the Christmas rat.
Keith: Snatchy the—Snatchy Christmas rat, yeah. Thisbe’s Sam Eagle, I think.
Austin: Damn.
Janine: No.
Austin: Rude.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I don’t like that guy.
Janine: Eh.
Keith: He’s very serious, matter of fact. Down to business.
Janine: Yeah, but Sam Eagle has an aura of, like, evil that I don’t think is fair.
Austin: Mhm.
Dre: Aw.
Sylvi: No, that’s... he fucks up the vibe sometimes, you know?
[Ali chuckles]
Dre: Yeah, but he doesn’t mean to.
Janine: Yeah, he’s scary.
Keith: He’s sometimes the villain because he’s so serious.
Janine: We gotta—we gotta do this thing we’re doing.
Dre: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ali: Yeah. Hi, hello.
Austin: What’s going on here? I don’t—I made—I set the stage.
Ali: I don’t know what to do.
Austin: You’re here.
Ali: I’m here.
Austin: Thisbe’s here. Thisbe, Brnine’s visiting.
Janine: I know what you can do.
Ali: Please.
Janine: You can grab a hoe.
Ali: [scoffs] [laughing] Okay.
Sylvi: Yeah.
[group laughter]
Ali: Let me tell ya.
Janine: We need help. You know, it’s just, we gotta bring the fields. It’s just, there’s a lot of work. Everyone’s—it’s a hot day. Any help…
Austin: You show up at the landing pad with the hoe?
Sylvi: [laughing] Please don’t talk about Gucci like that.
[Austin and Janine laugh]
Ali: Please. I—yeah, I think maybe I get off the ship. There’s someone with some equipment, and they’re like, “ain’t too hot for you, ha ha.” ‘Cause of the sun thing that happened a couple of years ago, right?
Austin: Oh, right. Uh-huh.
Dre: Jesus.
Ali: And I go, “ha ha. It’s a scorcher!” And I have some small talk. [laughs]
Austin: Mhm.
Ali: And yeah, I can grab some farming equipment and come and join you, Thisbe. Are you like, in the RAM clinic, or the CPU clinic?
Janine: [laughs] I mean, I think she’s probably in, like, the mechanics bay or something. I don’t think there’s a RAM clinic.
[Ali laughs]
Dre: Are you at the Best Buy Geek Squad?
Janine: [laughs] Also, I think Thisbe’s probably not just like staying there long, you know?
Ali: Oh, sure, yeah.
Janine: You know, Thisbe’s overseeing, doing a bit of field work, you know, a little bit of everything, bopping around, going to the RAM clinic, then doing some—putting some hours in, clocking in.
Austin: Do y’all talk about anything?
Ali: Is there no part of my brain that was like, just two minutes ago there was something…
Austin: You just got here. Everybody else had to go do some shit.
Ali: No, but I know—[laughing] but I, like—but just two minutes, I was just thinking—I just walked into this room for something.
Austin: Can I tell you what happened two minutes ago, Ali?
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: You rolled a 4, my friend.
Ali: Yeah, no, I know. I know.
Austin: Just two minutes ago, you got off a spaceship. And just two minutes before that, you were texting with someone. I don’t remember who.
Janine: Is what actually happens that Thisbe’s like, why did Brnine take the hoe? And why is Brnine hoeing now? Why did that proceed apace?
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: [chuckling] Would that normally happen? Because it kind of feels like it wouldn’t.
Keith: Can we get Brnine a shovel or something else?
[Ali, Janine, and Austin laugh]
Janine: Brnine’s really more of like, a raker.
Austin: A rake? Yeah.
Janine: Yeah.
Ali: Man…
Ali (as Brnine): Hey, Thisbe.
Janine (as Thisbe): Hello, Brnine.
Janine: Operant. Sorry, wait. Operant—no.
Ali: [laughs] No, you know, it’s been a long time.
Janine: Yeah, I forgot what Brnine’s last name is.
Austin: Brnine.
Janine: Wait, Brnine is the last name. Right, right, right. Right.
Dre: Yeah, it’s Kalvin.
[Ali laughs]
Janine: Fuck.
Austin: Imagine if you had said Operant Kalvin.
[Janine laughs]
Sylvi: That—Brnine would wake up immediately.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: “Something’s wrong.”
Dre: Man, I forgot Brnine had a first name.
[Sylvi laughs]
Janine: Same. I also—yeah. Sorry, what was the—[chuckles] what was the question?
Ali (as Brnine): What’s up?
Austin: See, the voice goes down. I got it right before.
[Ali laughs]
Janine: Yeah, you did.
Dre: “What’s up, big dog?”
[Austin laughs]
Janine (as Thisbe): Substantial crop yield.
Ali (as Brnine): Crop fields, right, yeah. Yeah.
Janine (as Thisbe): Yield. Yield.
Ali (as Brnine): Yield. Right.
Keith: [laughing] Just not listening.
[Ali and Janine laugh]
Keith: One second into the conversation that you started.
Austin: “So this is a shovel? This is what—this is called a shovel, huh?”
[Ali laughs]
Dre: “Oh, this is what you’re into, huh? Hm.”
Janine: “They make little ones of these, too, I guess.”
Ali: Can I telepathically, friggin’, something…
[Janine laughs]
Ali: Can I feel in my heart—
Austin: I want you to have a conversation with Thisbe.
[Ali and Janine laugh]
Austin: I need y’all—what’s your Gravity Clock with Thisbe?
Ali: My current Gravity Clock with Thisbe is “Thisbe is an important part of my past.”
Austin: Damn. Well, guess what?
[Janine laughs]
Austin: That’s never felt more true to you than in this moment where you’ve stepped into a world where that is exactly what she is.
Ali: Uh…
Austin: Also, you should loosen all your Hooks.
Ali: Sure, sure, sure.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, I mean, I can help you finish this up. We can get a drink. I can get a drink. Um…
[Ali and Sylvi laugh]
Janine: Bragging.
[Austin laughs]
Keith: You can have hemp.
Dre: But not even, like, the cool, fun kind.
Janine: You can loom up some pants or whatever.
Keith: Yes, you can hold string.
Ali (as Brnine): What have you gotten up to besides, you know, the yield?
Janine (as Thisbe): Administering the yield.
Ali (as Brnine): Right, right.
Janine (as Thisbe): Verifying—
Ali (as Brnine): That’s still the yield, though, Thisbe. You’re not getting up to any…
Janine (as Thisbe): Verifying cache integrity and system maintenance.
Ali (as Brnine): System maintenance, yeah, yeah.
[Sylvi laughs]
Janine: [chuckling] You and your system maintenance.
Dre: This fucking guy and his system maintenance.
[Ali laughs]
Janine: You know what they say.
Sylvi: [laughs] Okay, Brnine’s already dipped into the hemp supply.
[Ali and Janine laugh]
Keith: Okay, I have a couple questions.
Ali: Please.
Keith: Now, obviously, Ali knows that Ali went into the dream world. Does Brnine know?
Austin: No.
Keith: Oh, no.
Austin: No.
Janine: No.
Ali: I keep saying this! I should know!
Austin: No. You shouldn’t know.
[Dre laughs]
Janine: Fundament—how often when you’re in a dream, do you know you’re in a dream? Sometimes, but often not.
Austin: [cross] But not right away.
Keith: Okay, okay.
Austin: A thing—
Janine: I had a dream the other night that felt so real—
Keith: I couldn’t tell because Brnine is so obviously pissed off that this is happening.
[Sylvi laughs]
Austin: Ali is pissed off that this is happening and it’s bleeding into the way she’s playing Brnine.
Janine: [cross] Ali’s pissed off. Uh-huh.
Dre: Man.
Ali: I’m trying to talk to Thisbe!
Austin: You are not trying to talk. Oh, you did say a little something. Yeah.
[Sylvi laughs]
Dre: Have you heard a Brnine–Thisbe conversation before? This is how they go.
Ali: I invited Thisbe out for a drink!
Austin: Mhm.
Sylvi: This is the most exasperated I’ve ever heard Ali on the show.
Austin: Same. Same. Same.
[Ali laughs]
Janine: Ali, I—
Austin: And you know what’s so funny to me, is the last thing I did was like, you could take a 10, because you could have rolled to do da-da-da-da-da.
Ali: [laughs] No, I know. No, I know. Also, funny thing, I just realized that I am not currently on the Carrier, so I am Defenseless unless my Risk gets cleared.
Austin: Oh, that’s so funny. Oh, that’s so bad.
Ali: But I feel like it’s a new scene. Anyway, but it’s fine. [laughs]
Austin: Mhm. I’m not sure you un-Vulnerable or Disjointed yourself. You know?
Ali: [sighing] I know. No, I know. No, I know. I know. I know. I know.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Well, okay, but so—is that, Ali, is that your out where it’s just like, “why do I feel disjointed?” [chuckles]
[Ali laughs]
Austin: We need to have a scene where the premise is true.
Janine: [laughs] Uh-huh.
Austin: We can’t dismiss the premise of the undead Divine that does—this is the thing it does.
Janine: Yes. Yes.
Austin: We gotta have the scene, and then we can roll to see if you can get out of the scene. But I’m going to protect the business.
Keith: Does that mean it can—
[Ali and Sylvi laugh]
Keith: If it can give you a bunch of memories to make you, [Austin: Correct.] like, believe the world that you’re in, then it would give you the memories to believe that you’re disjointed.
Ali: Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: Thisbe, you’ve been asked out for a drink.
Janine (as Thisbe): What time?
Ali (as Brnine): Well, I mean, I was pitching in here to try to get, you know, the work done sooner, and then we both finish up, and catch up a little bit. You been good? You been chilling? You been hanging out?
Janine (as Thisbe): You should go rest from your travel—
Ali (as Brnine): [cross] Yeah, over a drink!
Janine (as Thisbe): —and I will be done when the sun is down. And then we can go to the local bar. It’s called The Turnip.
Ali (as Brnine): Wow. You grow a lot of turnips around here?
Janine (as Thisbe): No.
Keith: It’s where you go to turn up.
[Ali laughs] [Dre hums dance music]
Sylvi: Pass the hemp.
Janine: Yeah, it’s—
Janine (as Thisbe): You turn up the music.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah. Well, that’s what I’m trying to do tonight. I’ll see you later, Thisbe.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: I love to go to the farming planet to party. They really know how to do it there. Figure and Cori—
Janine: Uh-huh.
Sylvi: Brnine’s gonna be doing donuts in a tractor.
Austin: Oh, for sure.
[Ali laughs]
Keith: They have a lot of interesting ferments.
Austin: They would.
[15:38]
Austin: Figure and Cori. You’re in the little meeting room that Figure asked you to go to.
Dre: Okay.
Dre (as Figure): [sighs] Okay, Cori, this is—this isn’t real. We’re trapped in some sort of illusion.
Sylvi (as Cori): Okay, listen, I know everyone is excited to have me back, but—
Dre (as Figure): That’s not why. Cori…
Sylvi (as Cori): No, I just meant like, you, like, “oh, Cori’s back. Oh, this is so cool, it’s a dream.” No, it’s—you’re good, Figure. Not like—I’ve been working on things.
Dre (as Figure): Okay.
Austin: Can I get your clocks with each other again real quick?
Sylvi: Yeah, mine with Figure is: “Figure means well, but I can tell he just sees me as a kid.”
Dre: Mine with Cori is: “Can I protect Cori from her grief?”
[Austin hums]
Sylvi (as Cori): What do you mean by this?
Dre: I guess—I don’t know. Figure probably doesn’t have, like, a… I don’t know. How much memory does Figure have of what we were doing before this moment?
Austin: It’s the same thing that I described with Thisbe, which is as you reach forward, it will start to fill in.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: You know it’s wrong. Gur has told you it’s false, but also it was true once.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Without any explanation what the fuck that means.
Dre: Well, yeah, no, it’s Gur.
Austin: Did say she’s seen it before, though.
Dre: We don’t know who “she” is, though.
Austin: You can fill in some blanks.
[Ali snickers]
Dre: Sure.
Dre (as Figure): [sighs] I don’t know. We got—I can’t remember what we were doing, or where we were, but I know we were somewhere else, and now we’re here. And like, when I got here, everyone said you were dead. And not like, two days ago, but like, a long time ago.
Austin: A couple of weeks, a couple of weeks. Because they still have the pins on.
Dre: Eh, long enough.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sylvi: I’m also trying to protect the business, Austin, but I’m trying to figure out how to roleplay this, too.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You tell me. I mean, again, the thing here is it will fill in gaps for you as best as it can, you know?
Sylvi: Yeah.
Dre (as Figure): Do you ever—do you ever get that feeling where you have like, an itch in your throat? And whenever you try to, like, cough or clear your throat, like, it—you just can’t—you can’t get it?
Sylvi (as Cori): Yeah, but only when I just hung out with Eclectic, most of the time.
Dre (as Figure): [sighs] I feel—
Sylvi (as Cori): No, I know what you mean. I know what you mean. I know what you mean.
Dre (as Figure): I feel like I have that, but in my memory. Like, in my brain. There’s something there.
Sylvi: I’m like, squinting at you.
Dre (as Figure): But like—
Sylvi (as Cori): Okay.
Dre (as Figure): Focus on it. I—you can feel it too, right?
Sylvi: Um… Okay, I have an idea. This is not in character.
Austin: Mhm.
Sylvi: Would her trying to focus on this lead to noticing, like, if there are still lingering memories from the last constructed reality that she was in—
Austin: Uh-huh, yeah. Uh-huh.
Sylvi: —would the discrepancies here be enough to start, like, jolting some stuff around?
Austin: There would be like a weird—yeah, it’s like the—
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: It’s like when there’s a problem in something woven, you know? Or like the—you missed a stitch. You know what I mean?
Sylvi: Yes, yeah.
Austin: And there’s like an extra, you know, you go over-over instead of over-under, something doesn’t line up right.
Sylvi: Can I—
Austin: Yeah. Give me a—
Sylvi: Can I make a suggestion?
Austin: Yeah, please.
Sylvi: Okay. No, let me roll first and then I can…
Austin: Roll first, and then let’s…
Sylvi: Yeah. What am I rollin’?
Austin: I think this is Defy. This is Weather the Storm, Defy.
Sylvi: Alright.
Austin: You are defying the literal mind control weird stuff happening here. Alright, that’s a 9.
Sylvi: That’s a 9.
Austin: So you succeed, but at some cost.
Sylvi: I think—
Austin: Tell me what the idea is you have.
Sylvi: Okay, my idea here is that the discrepancy is that in this universe, Elle didn’t join up with our forces again.
Austin: Interesting. Right.
Sylvi: And like, fought us, or something.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sylvi: But I have memories of, like, fighting—
Austin: You have memories of killing her. You killed her.
Sylvi: Yeah, I have memories of killing her, and then I also have the memory of her, like, of fighting with her against the—
Austin: Uh-huh. The Princept of your other—
Sylvi: The Princept, yeah, sorry.
Austin: Yep. A hundred percent. The—I’m advancing—with a mixed success, I’m advancing this clock to four for you, [Sylvi: Uh-oh.] not for Figure, and you’re gonna take another Risk.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: The—it—you have—it’s—you’ve zeroed in on exactly the right thing [Sylvi: Yeah.] to let you know that something here is wrong, and exactly the wrong thing, because now you’re in a world where everyone loves you, and you had an intense self, like, you never felt more like who you were supposed to be than when you defeated Elle Evensong. And that happened here in this world.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: You felt connected to Devotion. You purified the Cult of Devotion by getting rid of this person who was corrupting it from the inside in your dream world. And take the Danger—take the Peril “Dreaming”. And then—
Sylvi: Peril?
Austin: Yeah. And then—
Sylvi: Okay.
Austin: And then give me a Bite the Dust.
Sylvi: That is also Defy?
Austin: That is also Defy.
Sylvi: Oh, that’s an 8.
Austin: Alright. “On a 7 to 9, retreat from the Sortie safely, or be put in peril.” You have already been put in peril. You could have a Risk increased to Peril, but I think—what do you have right now?
Sylvi: I have Disoriented and Sliced as Risks.
Austin: Let me make sure I’m reading this rule right, also, really quick.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: Basic and special moves. Bite the Dust. 7 to 9, retreat from the Sortie or be put in peril. I believe a Peril can get upgraded. Or when you get put in peril, you can—it can be an upgrade, but let me double check.
Keith: Yeah, a Risk can be changed to a Peril.
Austin: It can be upgraded in that way, or I guess downgraded in that way, right?
Keith: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: If you take a Risk, if you’re put in peril…
Keith: “If you take a Risk, but already have three Dangers, replace one with a Peril. If you would be put in peril—”
Austin: That’s what I’m…
Keith: “—but already have three Dangers, replace a Risk with it if you have one.”
Austin: With a Peril. Okay, yeah, so let’s replace Disoriented here, Cori.
Sylvi: Okay.
Austin: You tell me with what.
Sylvi: Um… ooh.
Austin: I think it should be in this line though, right? Of like…
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: You’ve been kind of, like, seduced by this reality in some way. Even though you know it’s fake. You do know it’s fake.
Sylvi: Oh, what’s a—is Denial a Peril?
Austin: Yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah. In denial. Love it.
Sylvi: Not the first time for her.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvi: And won’t be the last.
Austin: Mhm.
Sylvi: I mean, hopefully.
Austin: Well, we’ll see.
Sylvi: Knock on wood.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Keith: Hopefully, it won’t be—oh, okay, I got you. I see.
Sylvi: Like, ‘cause she might die from the…
Austin: Yeah, you don’t want her to die.
Keith: Right, right.
Sylvi: You know.
Keith: You’re not hoping to be in denial again. You’re hoping to not die.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: Right. Exactly.
Keith: “I hope one day I’m in denial again.”
[Sylvi laughs]
Austin: So, what’s—what do you say at this point? How do you externalize this?
Sylvi: I think I’m just like…
Sylvi (as Cori): Yeah, I mean, Figure, we’ve been through a lot. Are you sure that’s just not part of it?
Sylvi: Where are we talking, by the way? Are we in Figure’s, like, quarters or whatever? Can I just—
Dre: No, we’re in like a briefing room, I think.
Sylvi: Okay. Because I was going to gesture at the dead friends paraphernalia and be like, “you’re hanging on to a lot of stuff.”
[Austin laughs]
Sylvi: I think she can still say that. Like,
Sylvi (as Cori): It’s been a really long, hard war. And it makes sense that some stuff is stuck back there.
Sylvi: And she like, taps the back of her head. And, like, there’s an apologetic tone to how she’s saying this, because I think, you know, part of being in denial is knowing a little bit that you’re in denial.
Dre: What happened to Cori’s dad in this universe?
Austin: Oh, you should both decide individually and try to fill it in at the same time.
Sylvi: Oh…
Austin: Both write down what happened and tell me when you’re ready to hit enter.
Sylvi: Okay. In the Roll20 or in Discord?
Austin: In the Roll20. Don’t hit enter yet. Just type it.
Sylvi: Okay, I got it. Let me know when you’re ready, Dre.
Dre: I’m ready.
Austin: Alright.
Sylvi: You doin’ a three two one on this?
Austin: Yep. Three, two, one, go.
Sylvi: Oh…
Austin: Oh, big differences.
Sylvi: Wow.
Austin: Let’s see the—let’s read them one at a time.
Sylvi: So I wrote “posthumous war hero because of the mech design work he oversaw. Still super dead.”
Austin: Dre?
Dre: I wrote that Cori’s dad left the Cult of Devotion and became a talking head for the Principality.
Sylvi: Is, like—do I—I think the way that this gets tipped is I say something, like,
Sylvi (as Cori): We’ve been through a lot. I mean, like, I lost my dad, remember?
Dre (as Figure): What do you—no. Your dad’s alive.
Sylvi (as Cori): That’s not funny.
Austin: Oh!
Dre (as Figure): I’m not being—I’m not being funny. Hold on. He just—he gave a speech yesterday.
Sylvi (as Cori): Figure. I’m fucking serious.
Dre (as Figure): So am I. Hold on. Let me—let me pull it up on this screen.
Austin: And there he is.
Dre: Yeah. And I think he is, specifically, like, using the death of Cori as a propaganda piece.
[Austin groans]
Sylvi: Cori barfs.
Austin: Oh!
Dre: I turn it off immediately.
Ali: Yeah…
Sylvi (as Cori): That’s not right. That’s not right. That’s not—
Dre (as Figure): I’m telling you, this isn’t—all of this isn’t right.
[25:30]
Austin (as Patrol Officer): So how’d you get into Alise Breka?
[Dre laughs]
Austin: Driving through the city towards the exit.
Sylvi: I thought that was directed at me.
Austin: No.
Sylvi: I was about to be so indignant. [laughs]
Austin: No, I was doing a hard cut scene change.
Sylvi: No, I know. I was—I know. [laughing] I was like, who the fuck is in this room that’s asking me this right now?
[Austin and Dre laugh]
Sylvi: [laughing] Sorry.
Dre: It’s the doctor. The doctor heard that you were back and came in to do a quick checkup.
Sylvi: My apologies.
Austin: Eclectic?
Keith: Um, let’s see. I want to know—I’m deciding between writing an honest answer on a piece of paper to avoid the microphones, and lying and saying that it was from undercover work.
[Austin hums]
Keith: Which I, you know, it’s not really—it’s not—it’s like, a very, very stretch of the truth, I guess.
Austin: It’s a big stretch of the truth, but it’s not a—yeah.
Keith: [cross] It’s a big stretch of the truth. It’s not a full lie.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: I’ll start there. I’ll say that. I’ll start with that.
Austin: Yeah. I think she’s like,
Austin (as Patrol Officer): Oh, yeah, undercover work. Right now I’m just doing, you know, afternoon patrol. It’s the only gig I can get, you know, but the only hours they have available right now is afternoons. But I’m hoping to move to nights, and then from nights to some sort of detective work. You know? I want to put mysteries together. I’ve always been really sharp about, you know, seeing through ruses and understanding when I’m being—you know, someone tries to get one over on me. I’m like, “ah, I’m getting one over on you!”
Keith (as Eclectic): You know, this is a little—this is small potatoes, but you might want to start with: detectives don’t put mysteries together, they take mysteries apart.
Austin: She like, slows on the brakes. She goes from driving, like, 40 miles an hour to 20 miles an hour so she can think through what you’ve just said.
Austin (as Patrol Officer): Take them apart… Who puts them together?
Keith (as Eclectic): You know, the world puts them together. Criminals, you know. Circumstances.
Austin (as Patrol Officer): I’ve been going about it backwards. Anyway, we’re coming up on the exit. Do you have your ID? We gotta scan for the way out.
Keith (as Eclectic): You know, I’m still—I’m… I’m…
[Sylvi laughs]
Keith (as Eclectic): I’m deep undercover. It would be really convenient if you could scan.
Austin (as Patrol Officer): I can scan for me. But there’s two people in the car and you’re a Delegate. No offense. But you are.
Keith (as Eclectic): Can you double—can you double scan?
Austin (as Patrol Officer): I’ll need another ID. I know you’re deep undercover. They didn’t give you, like, a—[whispering] they didn’t give you, like, a fake ID? Like a cover identity?
Keith (as Eclectic): Well, a big part of the undercover is that I’m untraceable.
Austin (as Patrol Officer): Okay, but they’re gonna trace you as we leave the city.
Keith (as Eclectic): That’s why I gotta leave the city.
Austin (as Patrol Officer): Are you wanted?
Keith (as Eclectic): “Wanted” is… [pause] No, I’m not wanted.
[Dre and Sylvi laugh]
Keith (as Eclectic): Someone might think I’m wanted, and that’s why I’ve got to leave.
Austin (as Patrol Officer): I think they’re gonna try to arrest us.
Keith (as Eclectic): I think we should floor it.
[Sylvi laughs]
Austin (as Patrol Officer): But I’ll lose my job.
Keith (as Eclectic): But you might make it into one of these.
Keith: And I tap the book.
Sylvi: Holy fuck.
Austin: The thing is, you’ve already Struck Decisively here, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So, you know, she’s going to go—she is bought in, unfortunately.
[Keith laughs]
Sylvi: I don’t know. Maybe Eclectic just found his Watson.
Austin (as Patrol Officer): If we floor it, then they might—we can try—we can try to floor it. But I’m not making any promises.
Austin: There’s a good chance that flooring it will only get you so far, so you’re gonna need a plan for what to do once this is over.
Keith: Okay, so, I can’t Cool Off because my other two things are Perils.
Austin: Right.
Keith: And there’s really nothing else that you—that I can do about those Perils.
Austin: No, Perils you need downtime for.
Keith: Yeah. Um… So, plan, I don’t necessarily have a plan. Can I get the, um… Well, I guess, really, what I’m about to do is Read the Room.
Austin: Yeah, sure. Love that. Yeah, you’re like a few cars back in the—behind the line at the exit of town, basically.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You’re being effectively protected by being in this car from the tracker. But leaving the town, they’re going to scan this car.
Keith: Mhm. Right.
Austin: And get ID from you both, and see that you’re who you—I mean, give me the Read the Room. I guess I should let you Read the Room so that we can go through this, so.
Keith: Yeah. How did I get so far—there we go.
Austin: So this is a 2d6 plus 1? Do you have anything plus—don’t you have something else?
Keith: I think it’s plus 1.
Austin: Plus 1, but you get a bonus—
Keith: Well, I get an extra question. Yeah.
Austin: That’s what it is, the extra question. Yeah, so 2d6 plus 1. That’s a 7. 5 plus 1 plus 1 is 7.
Keith: That’s a 7.
Austin: So you get two questions.
Keith: I get two questions.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah. Okay, so, what is being overlooked or obscured here? Wait, I want to ask that question second.
Austin: Oh, okay.
Keith: The first question that I want to ask is where can I find a route out?
Austin: Like, a safer one.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I—ooh. I’m gonna ask you to ask a different question, because the route out is this—like, the route out is this route out, [Keith: Yeah.] unless you have, like, a helicopter or a tunneling device. Like, this is the road in and out of this town. You know?
Keith: I didn’t take the tunneling device. I’m an idiot.
Austin: You forgot the tunneling device. Like, I have an idea for how you can get out, but it’s not from—I’m letting you have this question back. Like, there isn’t another—you know what I mean?
Keith: Okay. Um… Well, then let’s go back and say “what is being overlooked or obscured here”, first.
Austin: If she’s pursuing someone, she can skip the scan, because she’ll be in pursuit of someone.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: So she just has to hit those fucking sirens. And maybe say that, you know, she has to go, you know, chase down someone who just left town, one of the cars in front of you.
Keith: And just—and pretend that we’re following someone or…
Austin: I mean, you gotta like go screaming out the door, you know, out the front gate [Keith: Right.] and be like, “we gotta go track them down,” you know, call it into base.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And that way they won’t stop you for scanning, because they’ll believe that you’re in pursuit of a target.
Keith: Oh, that’s not bad. That’s pretty good.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: That’s pretty good stuff.
Austin: It’s your idea. You came up with that. Eclectic did. Right?
Keith: Yeah. Yeah. He’s smart.
Austin: Yeah, he is.
Keith: And I can keep my last question for now, right? We can—
Austin: Totally can. A hundred percent.
Keith: Yeah, okay. So then, yeah, I’m pitching our plan to…
Austin: Yep.
Keith: Did I get—did I get her name?
Austin: You did not get her name.
Keith: Okay, I’m gonna ask her name. I’m gonna say, “what’s your—”
Keith (as Eclectic): By the way, what’s your name?
Austin (as Patrol Officer): My name is Murch.
Keith (as Eclectic): Murch, we gotta hit the sirens.
Austin (as Murch): I’m Murch—Murch Saltburn.
Keith (as Eclectic): No, spell it. Oh, don’t—[stammers] You can spell it.
Austin (as Murch): M-U-R-C-H. Murch.
Keith (as Eclectic): M-U-R-C-H…
Austin (as Murch): Murchy, but I like Murch.
Keith (as Eclectic): Murch.
Austin (as Murch): My parents named me Murchy. I don’t like it. So I just say Murch.
Keith (as Eclectic): Okay. Murch. Murch, you gotta hit the sirens.
Austin (as Murch): But we’re not going anywhere fast.
Keith (as Eclectic): We’re about to.
Austin (as Murch): We’re about to…
Keith (as Eclectic): You gotta call it in.
Austin: Alright. She hits the sirens. She looks at you and goes,
Austin (as Murch): Okay, tell me what to call in.
Keith (as Eclectic): Pursuit, suspicious vehicle. Northwest.
Austin (as Murch): Pursuit. Suspicious vehicle. Northwest. I gotta go—we gotta go through the gate. Thank you. Bye.
Austin: Hang up. This is all done on an app, by the way. She hit a button on her, like, dashboard that calls it in. It’s all built into the…
Keith: Yeah, this is like Telegram or something.
Austin: Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah, basically. But it’s like cop Telegram. It’s miserable.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: It deletes all records every 24 hours. You know? It never—
Keith: Deletes them locally, but not—
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.
Keith: They’ve got—they’ve got ‘em all.
Austin: Yeah, they’ve got it, but yeah, uh-huh. Exactly.
Keith: Evil Signal.
Austin: [laughs] Exactly. And you break through and you get out. And we’ll come back to wherever she lets you off at some point later. But yeah, you did it.
Keith: Sick.
[34:30]
Austin: Brnine and Thisbe, what’s Turnip like?
Ali: Um…
Janine: Turnip is like…
Ali: Yeah.
Janine: Hang on, I need to, like, really quickly… Because I want it—I think it’s like one of those very small—it’s very small. It’s referred to as “the” bar. There’s other bars, but like, this is probably the bar that Thisbe recognizes for whatever reason. Oh, I actually—fuck. Oh, my god. I actually—no, I was gonna go—[laughs] Okay, I was gonna go in the direction of, like, it’s one of those small bars that’s like really high class.
Austin: Oh.
Janine: But then I saw this image of a bunch of bottles in a lit shelf, but I thought it was, like, a bunch of bars stacked on top of each other. With like, people sitting in the—
Austin: Oh.
Janine: Like you’ll see the small version and you’ll be like, oh, I—yeah. So—
Austin: I don’t—I know what you mean, [laughing] but I’m leaning as far away from my screen as I can.
Sylvi: I can see it.
Austin: Okay, I can kind of see it. I can kind of see it.
Ali: Mhm.
Sylvi: I see it.
Janine: Imagine a bunch of those one room bars stacked on top of each other with one wall missing.
Austin: Yeah, sure.
Janine: So I think what it is is like a bunch of those small—
Austin: Y’all got this on the farm planet? Damn.
Janine: I mean, it’s like—you know, it’s three floors.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: It’s like—
Austin: It’s just high concept to me.
Janine: But I think it was like—I think—so I think it’s kind of like a storage container style thing of like, well, at first there was just one, right?
Austin: Ah.
Janine: Because there was only enough people for just the one. And then they were like, “we need more bar.” And then they just kept, like, bolting them on, basically.
Austin: [laughs] “We need more bar.”
Janine: And they’re like—[laughs] they’re like, classy looking, [Austin: Yeah.] but also they kind of look like one of those car vending machines.
Austin: I love it. Great. Perfect.
Janine: But it’s a bar. And everyone’s back is facing the window, because the bar is on the other side. So it’s just a bunch of—
Austin: So it is a window.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: There is not—it is not open air.
Janine: Yeah, you can see in, everyone’s having a good time. Maybe from the inside, it’s like a double-sided mirr—it’s like a one-way mirror or something, but—no, that’d be creepy.
Austin: That would be weird. I would hate that. You’d feel so claustrophobic.
[Janine laughs]
Austin: Party—so, now is it sarong Thisbe? Or is this bar—is this bar not right?
Janine: No, this is like—this is like, after work. You know.
Austin: This is the local, yeah.
Ali: Mhm.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: It’s nice local, but like, sarong Thisbe was a moment. That was like a family vacation thing. You know?
Austin: Okay. Sure. Fair, fair. Fair.
Ali: Right, yeah.
Keith: Overalls Thisbe.
Austin: Overalls Thisbe.
Ali: Yeah, we’re a couple drinks in. We’re chilling.
Austin: Yeah?
Ali: And I say…
Janine: [chuckles] You’re a couple drinks in.
Ali: Yeah, I’m a couple drinks in. I’m chilling. [laughs]
[Sylvi laughs]
Keith: What are you drinking?
Ali: Ooh. You know, some sort of grain alcohol.
Austin: Damn.
Dre: God damn.
Janine: Woah.
Ali: [laughs] It’s a farming planet!
Austin: You got up here, you were like, oh, no, I brought my own. And the bartender was like, excuse me?
Ali: No! I think grain’s a classy—no…
Keith: Skipped right over the interesting ferments page and straight to the grain alcohol page.
Ali: But you know, future grain alcohol. It’s all wheat.
Austin: Oh.
Dre: Oh, future Everclear.
Janine: They make turnip schnapps.
Ali: Yeah. See, there you go.
Sylvi: Turnip schnapps. Ew.
Janine: Yeah. You can—yeah, it’s Hungarian.
Austin: Oh, sure. This is what Thisbe is saying?
Janine (as Thisbe): The schnapps is unique with this distinct whiff of vegetables.
Keith: Turnip wine.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah. Yeah, it’s pretty, uh—yeah, I can—it’s vegetal. I can sip…
[Ali laughs] [Janine chuckles]
Janine (as Thisbe): One blogger describes it as “a hint of pure sauerkraut, which trails off into something weird, which reminds me of a pair of training shoes I once owned.”
Austin: Bleh.
[Janine laughs]
Ali: Okay, well, so I have, like, a cocktail mixed with that.
Austin: Yeah, I gotcha.
Ali: It’s like a very—it’s like a—you know.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali (as Brnine): Thisbe, you ever think about the first time I dropped you off at this place?
Janine (as Thisbe): In what context would I think about that?
Ali (as Brnine): Well, this is—
Sylvi: Damn.
Ali (as Brnine): This is kind of the place you grew up, right? And, you know, first time we said goodbye, sorta. You don’t think about stuff like that?
Janine (as Thisbe): I don’t think I would describe my time here as “where I grew up”.
Ali (as Brnine): Oh, but it means something, right?
Janine (as Thisbe): And also, I said goodbye to you many times.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, but, like, we were—we were in the shit for a couple years, and then, [very casually] “bye, Thisbe.”
Janine (as Thisbe): You did say it like that, yes.
Ali (as Brnine): Well, it’s—yeah.
[Keith and Ali laugh]
Keith: Brnine talking to Thisbe is the Simpsons episode stepping on the rake over and over again. It’s just, like, the same mistake every time.
Sylvi: Yeah.
[Janine laughs]
Austin: This is why I’ve been desperate to make them talk.
[Ali laughs]
Keith: Every time. Brnine will never learn how to talk to Thisbe in a way that Thisbe cares about.
Ali: There was that—we got close there. There was a scene or two.
Janine: Thisbe cares.
Ali: Yeah.
Janine: It’s just Thisbe doesn’t really entirely follow the thread of things the way that Brnine does.
Keith: No, no, that’s what I mean, like, asking, like, “Thisbe, do you ever reminisce fondly?” Like, no, what?
[Austin and Ali laugh]
Janine: I think about things, for reasons, you know, like?
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. I guess I think about it…
Janine (as Thisbe): When I go to Launch Pad A, sometimes I remember when you were about to take off and you spilled your coffee.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah. Yeah, that was a tough day.
[Austin and Keith laugh]
Keith: It ranks.
Austin: I’m putting my feet up, just basking in this one.
[Ali and Janine laugh]
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, I don’t know, I just, I, um—you’re happy here, right?
Janine (as Thisbe): Inasmuch as I have ever been happy anywhere. I know what I’m doing here, and I’m good at it, and each day happens, and then it ends.
Ali (as Brnine): Shit.
[Ali laughs]
Sylvi: Finishes the fucking glass.
Austin: Uh-huh. Y’all, I think Dust might win.
Janine (as Thisbe): Are you happy here? This is not a place I would have imagined you being happy. I suppose that’s why you weren’t often here.
Ali (as Brnine): I mean… I guess I could be in a way, but I, um… I don’t know. I just keep… going, huh? And you have this thing you, like, came back to. And you—
Janine (as Thisbe): Is there a thing you would go back to? In the time I’ve known you, you’ve only ever just gone. There hasn’t been much going back.
Ali (as Brnine): Well…
Janine (as Thisbe): And I don’t know if that’s your choice, or if that is just because you, unlike me, do not know where you would go back to.
Ali (as Brnine): I’m drinkin’ here with you, aren’t I?
Janine (as Thisbe): But this isn’t back, for you.
Ali (as Brnine): Well—well, but—but this is nice, you and me.
Janine (as Thisbe): Yes. I’m not saying it’s not nice. But it’s not back. Is it home? To you?
Ali (as Brnine): Well, I mean…
Janine (as Thisbe): Is this back, or forward, or nothing? Neither?
Ali: [laughs] Damn.
[sound of chair moving in the background]
Austin: Doin’ a little stretch. Let me just let this one play out.
[Ali and Janine laugh]
Ali (as Brnine): Well, I mean, the—
Janine (as Thisbe): I’m curious.
Ali (as Brnine): Well, the—I mean, the Blue Channel is home, these days, right? But, I—you know. You’re a connection. You’re the type of thing I… care about. I feel like I’m saying this weird.
Janine (as Thisbe): I do not believe that a vehicle…
Janine: No, I don’t think she’d say believe.
Janine (as Thisbe): To me, it is difficult for a vehicle to be a home. And it says something very specific if the vehicle is your home.
Ali (as Brnine): It’s not fuckin’ Partizan.
Janine (as Thisbe): Would you—is that the only place you would go back to? The Blue Channel? Is that—
Ali (as Brnine): Well, yeah. I mean, that’s what I got.
Janine (as Thisbe): But if you looked backwards even further, is there anything? What was there for you before the Blue Channel?
Ali (as Brnine): Thisbe, I—I killed the Princept. [chuckles] And I—I left my home.
Janine (as Thisbe): You cannot live inside a murder.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Whew!
Dre: Whew.
Austin: Spittin’.
Ali (as Brnine): I’m just saying, I’m not, you know. Going back to my hometown, saying what’s up.
Janine (as Thisbe): What if…
Ali (as Brnine): I don’t know what I’m saying, I just… you know.
Janine (as Thisbe): What if they were freed?
Ali (as Brnine): If Apostolos was free? Come on, Thisbe. You alright?
Janine (as Thisbe): Theoretically. To suppose at it does not mean that it has to be true. What if? What if you could go back? Would you go back, Operant Brnine?
Ali (as Brnine): I was trying to ask if you like it here. I’m not doing—I’m not going—I didn’t mean to… I didn’t mean to get us to this place, because I’m not doing that.
Janine (as Thisbe): Why does it matter if I’m happy here, but your happiness does not matter?
Ali (as Brnine): [rapidly] No, no, no, no, no, no, no—
Janine (as Thisbe): [cross] Why can you inquire, but I cannot inquire?
Ali (as Brnine): No, you’re trying to say—you’re trying to say I shouldn’t be happy in the Blue Channel because it’s like a car or whatever, and that’s not a home. Just ‘cause it moves around. People have mobile homes. People have had mobile homes forever, by the way, Thisbe.
[Ali laughs]
Sylvi: Oh my god.
Dre: Wow.
Janine: Okay.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Whew!
Dre: “You’re being so classist, Thisbe.”
Sylvi: Brnine is so divorced in this universe.
[Ali continues laughing]
Austin: It’s unbelievable.
Sylvi: Like, holy shit. I can hear the Hawaiian shirt.
Austin: I have bad news. I think this is just regular Brnine. I think this is the same Brnine.
[Keith and Janine laugh]
Sylvi: Yeah.
Janine (as Thisbe): You’re misunderstanding my question.
Ali (as Brnine): I must be. Can I get another turnip?
[Sylvi laughs]
Austin (as Bartender): Two? One, two? Double? Double turnip?
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin (as Bartender): Triple?
Ali (as Brnine): Double. No, double.
Austin (as Bartender): Quadruple?
[Ali laughs]
Ali (as Brnine): Double, man, come on.
Austin (as Bartender): Double, double turnip. Alright.
Sylvi: Oh my god.
Keith: Double double. That’s quadruple.
Austin: [laughs] You got me.
Janine (as Thisbe): I am not saying that you shouldn’t feel one way about the Blue Channel. I am simply asking for you to clarify what you feel versus what you do, as you were asking me to do.
Ali (as Brnine): I feel like my life started when I got the Blue Channel, and that’s basically true.
Janine (as Thisbe): Is that where you see your life ending?
Ali (as Brnine): Well, that’s the whole thing, right?
Janine: [laughs] Thisbe pulls out a gun. No.
[group laughter]
Ali (as Brnine): I guess that’s why… I don’t know, I go out on these trips, right? And then I come back.
Janine (as Thisbe): You do.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah. See, I’m coming back. I told you.
Janine (as Thisbe): Why do you come back, then?
Ali (as Brnine): [exasperated] I just said ‘cause you’re here, Thisbe. Well, also, I mean, I have to check in on missions or whatever, but I’m here to see you.
Janine (as Thisbe): So if I went a different place, you would go there instead.
Ali (as Brnine): To get a drink with you and be annoyed by all these questions you’re asking me? Yeah.
Janine (as Thisbe): I’m just clarifying. You don’t have to get agitated.
Ali (as Brnine): I’m fucking with you, Thisbeee.
[raucous group laughter and reaction]
Austin: [distant from mic] Oh, no. Oh…
Keith: “That was a play I was doing!”
Dre: “Hey, you know, just make sure you know, this is just me joking before we go to couples’ therapy next week. Okay? Ey!”
Sylvi: Oh my god.
Austin: Ohh… My heart is torn apart.
Janine (as Thisbe): I forgot how you are when you have the turnip schnapps.
[Ali and Austin laugh]
Austin: Yeah, okay. Unfortunately, I think this is the most real anything’s ever felt.
[Ali and Janine laugh]
Dre: Yeah, should we just be in the dust? I mean, I’m willing to…
Austin: We might just live in the dust now, folks.
Dre: Yeah.
Ali: Season is over and there’s [47:39 ???]
Austin: They got eaten by the dust.
Keith: Hey, I’m still here.
Dre: That’s true.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Eclectic can save you from the dust. Just to like—yeah, uh-huh.
Dre: Hey, what was the name of that detective, Austin? So I can like, spell it right when I roll up my new character sheet.
[Janine laughs]
Austin: Oh, yeah, you’re gonna start playing Eclectic’s buddy? Murch, Murch, M-U-R-C-H. Murchy “Murch” Saltburn is her name.
Janine: I think my new character is gonna be, like, a Goofy style cartoon dog.
Austin: Oh, sure.
Janine: Not like a cartoon, like a funny animal. Not a cartoon dog. You know? Like an animal that talks.
Dre: Oh.
Austin: A funny animal, like the Disney funny animals.
Janine: Not like—not like Midnite Matinee, or whoever, but like, goofier.
Austin: Like Goofy.
Janine: Yeah. Like Felix the Cat. Yeah.
Keith: Like Scooby-Doo.
Austin: No, Scooby-Doo’s not a funny animal. A funny animal—
Dre: Is it not—
Keith: What? Scooby-Doo’s hilarious.
Sylvi: Hold on.
[Ali chuckles]
Dre: Isn’t Thisbe kind of the equivalent of a funny animal? For like a mech?
Janine: No. No. She’s like—she’s like if—if—[chuckles] I was gonna say if you took Goofy and turned him into a suit.
[Keith laughs]
Janine: [laughing] And put something else inside of him.
Austin: Oh my god. That’s different.
Dre: Gawrsh!
Austin: This new Roger Rabbit reboot is dark.
Keith: It’s—
Janine: The original one’s dark!
Austin: Not this dark. Ain’t no one walking around inside Goofy skin.
[Ali laughs]
Dre: Man, you thought Mickey was pissed off before.
[Austin laughs]
Janine: He gets shot in the head in the book.
Austin: That’s true. This is true. Anyway.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: Whew.
[48:50]
Austin: I think we’re back to Figure and Cori, who—Cori was puking, Figure was…
Sylvi: Yeah, I was having a whole time.
Austin: Cori, I’m resetting this clock back to one, because that’s how it goes.
Dre: Oh.
Sylvi: Oh, okay, cool.
Austin: Mhm. No, I mean, because it completed, Dre.
Dre: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: It completed and she took a thing.
Dre: No, I know.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: But hey, but now it’s at 1.
Austin: That’s right.
Keith: It doesn’t just stay at 4. That’s great.
Austin: That’s right.
Sylvi: Yeah, that’s great that it can fill up again.
Austin: Mhm.
Dre: Mhm.
Dre (as Figure): Are you still with me?
Sylvi (as Cori): I’m—I guess. What—what the hell?
Dre (as Figure): That’s what we have to figure out.
Sylvi (as Cori): What do we need to fig—you figured out that it’s fake, but—
Dre (as Figure): Yes. Now we got to figure out how to get out.
Sylvi (as Cori): [cross] What do we do with that?
Dre: Austin, what do we know about the Divine Dust in this universe?
Austin: The Affliction Dust, thank you. But…
Dre: The Affliction. Okay, well, I didn’t know. I didn’t want to presume.
Austin: Yeah. No, that’s fair, that’s fair. No, um… you know, I think that this is a classic you’ve spotted part of the failure system, right? The failure of the system is you don’t know—it’s not here. You’re reaching for that information and the information won’t show up, it doesn’t let itself be part of these worlds. It—[chuckles dryly]
Keith: Says a little bit more about him, doesn’t it?
Austin: It can’t imagine a good version of itself anymore.
Dre: Aw, buddy.
Austin: And so it doesn’t let itself be part of your imagined worlds that are supposed to be, like, tricking you into staying there. You know?
Dre: Man. He just like me for real, for real.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Dre: JK. I’m—everyone, I’m fine. [chuckles]
[Sylvi scoffs]
Dre: Do we know about Afflictions?
Austin: Yeah, you know about the Afflictions. You remember this part of your life, you know?
Dre: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
Austin: Down to, like—you remember this crash. And then you got out of it, and then it was fine.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: And then you finished the fight on Palisade.
Dre: Um—
Austin: Hashtag #FinishTheFight.
Dre: Yeah, sure. Hey, did you know gamer fuel is back? Okay, sorry. God, what—what would I roll to basically, like, I’m replaying that tape in my mind, right? And it just—
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: And I’m like, oh, wait, that’s weird. The, like, framing in this part is different.
Austin: I think you just know this, and you can use that knowledge to do something else.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: You don’t need to roll to know this. This is—you’ve hit the weak point, so to speak.
Dre: Okay. Gosh, would that just be…
Austin: It doesn’t wake you up.
Dre: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: You are more aware than ever that you’re in a fucking weird dream trap thing, you know?
Dre: Well, yeah, that’s—I’m trying to figure out, like, what is—what is the roll?
Austin: In general, Weather the Storm is how you get out of weird situations, right?
Dre: Okay.
Austin: You could try to Exchange Blows with them, but that’s—I don’t know what that even looks like at this point.
Dre: Sure. I was also thinking, like, did I—does that like, Read the Room, right? So it’s like, oh, I see this one glitch in the matrix, and I know what that looks like, so now when I look around the room, do I see anything else?
Sylvi: Well, something I was gonna suggest is if we’re looking for an actual action for these two to be doing to try and, like, [Austin: Mhm.] figure something out, trying to compare their recollection of things to see if there are other discrepancies, I could see that being something that makes the dream more unstable. Austin, obviously, you know the actual rules of this.
Austin: At this point—right, sorry, yeah, at this point, it is going to be as—it’s no longer going to tick the—I mean, if you start leaning into “it’s nice to be here” again, [Dre: Sure.] that clock will start filling up again, but you know—you’re both confident it’s fake. The thing that you have to figure out is how to get out of it. Right? And so—
Sylvi: Mhm.
Austin: Before your bodies deteriorate, right?
Sylvi: Okay.
Austin: And so you have time for that, but that’s a matter of like, either force of will, using Defy, getting through it, or doing some sort of other magic shit. You could Weave Magic to try to get out. You could—I don’t know all of the moves you each have off the top of my head, right? But I mean, I guess you could theoretically—no, you can’t conjure yourself somewhere else with Abyssal Summons, right, Dre?
Dre: No, I cannot. No.
Austin: Right. So, yes. But…
Sylvi: I could Consecrate Ground.
Austin: You could. What’s it say? What’s it do?
Sylvi: “When you attempt to imbue an area or building with your divine power and presence, roll plus Channel.”
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvi: And then I’ve got a few things I can choose from, and, like—
Austin: What’s the last one?
Sylvi: I’m looking at “creatures with your consecrated area—within your consecrated area cannot knowingly lie.”
Austin: This is knowingly lying to you. They are—this is a huge deception. So you would break it with that, if you could succeed at this.
Sylvi: I’m totally down to give this a shot.
Dre: Hell yeah.
Sylvi: It’s the—okay.
Austin: What’s it look like?
Sylvi: Um… I think it starts with like, a lot of nervous pacing before she tries this out.
Austin: Mhm.
Sylvi: Like, a lot—too—so much information has entered her brain in the past 10 minutes that it’s like, extremely overwhelming. And she’s trying to quiet that down to reach out to Devotion, and I think depending on, like, the roll itself, we’ll see if she gets the real one, but… I’m not gonna try throwing up again, Thisbe. I don’t think that would work. That’s what Janine typed in the chat.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvi: Um…
Austin: Real quick, you said you weren’t sure if you’d get the real Devot—is that what you said?
Sylvi: Real Devotion in terms of—listen, this gets confusing because we’ve got—we have—
Austin: It gets—here’s the thing, you’ve now lived in two different—you’ve now lived in three different realities today. Right?
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: So you have your regular real life real connection to Devotion and the Cult of Devotion and et cetera.
Sylvi: Yeah, but there’s also the Devotion that might be the real Devotion because our Devotion might be norted.
Austin: Right, for—right, yeah, our Devotion might be norted, so there might have been a historical Devotion who was different.
Sylvi: And then there’s—yeah.
Austin: And then you’ve had two different—in one of those two realities, let’s say this one—mm, no, let’s say the other one. In the other one, your—you figured out—you purifi—no, I said it was in this one you killed Elle, right?
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: In this one, you defeated Elle, purified the Cult of Devotion, you found out that Devotion had been corrupted years ago as part of a Curtain op, you know, they sent agents into the Divine—into the Twilight Mirage in order to prepare for a potential one day, you know, emergency invasion of it, and began to corrupt the Cult of Devotion generations ago. You figured this out, you purified it, you killed Elle, your father betrayed you and left the cult for this reason, because he ended up being a pawn of the—what was the Curtain, is now the Bilateral Intelligence Service, da-da-da-da-da, like, et cetera et cetera et cetera, it’s all this stuff. But also, in your other life, you have been a pure and good and loyal soldier of regular Devotion who is—who, in your mind, and in your heart, felt like real Devotion.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: And both of those feel as true as possible in this one moment. Anyway.
Sylvi: I’m gonna roll this dice and then we can figure it out.
Dre: Hell yeah.
Austin: Yeah, and then we’ll see. So 2d6 plus—
Sylvi: That’s a 13.
Austin: God damn, it sure is. So choose two—
Sylvi: Yeah. So I gotta use, um… Oh, this is—well, obviously “creatures within your consecrated area cannot knowingly lie,” I think, is a very good one.
Austin: [snaps fingers] Boom. You’re all back to the catacombs. Oh my god, you’re in catacombs. All of you, including Brnine, including Thisbe.
Sylvi: I’m—oh, fuck yeah.
Austin: Including many of the other people—
Dre: Is Elle?
Austin: The other people from the previous—yeah, including Elle.
Dre: Hell yeah. [laughs]
Austin: Who you’ve just saved from this, a hundred percent. Including the three members of the unit that first came into here. I have a few of their names, but it doesn’t—they’re not—we can talk about them later if we need to.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: Oh, Sylvi, the first choice could be so good.
Sylvi: The first choice can’t—could be really good, but what I want, I think, character-wise, the one that makes more sense is “characters within your consecrated area cannot take violent action against each other.”
Dre: Sure. That’s also very good.
Sylvi: If Cori’s like, this isn’t—this might be fake, and if it is, I don’t know what situation we’re gonna be in, I think she’d be asking for protection.
Dre: Sure.
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Sylvi: The way I think this is—I haven’t actually described her doing this not in a mech.
Austin: Mhm.
Sylvi: I think, like… Devotion’s, like, magic has to manifest in her wings.
Austin: Sure, I love that.
Dre: Fuck yeah.
Sylvi: Is the way I think about it, right? Where it’s like, the actual—not the feathers, but like, the bone part of the wing, like, glow, the sort of like lilac-y color that we associate with Devotion, and then she, like, presses her hand down on the floor of the ship that they’re in in this dream, and then right as that happens it’s just, like, those capillary veins that I described last time this happened shoot out of her hand on the ground, and like, just wipe this thing away.
Austin: Yeah. Incredible. The—you again have this feeling from Devotion that is mad that you’ve done the one about stopping violent action. It is—Devotion is in your heart pumping a desire for you to kill Elle, to kill the other people here, the other—the members of, like, the kind of dust procession.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: But you’re holding—you’re—that has not—I’m not telling you you have to do that.
Sylvi: No.
Austin: I’m just saying that impulse is—that is “You are a sword; strike down our adversaries with impunity.” I mean, it is loose now, but it is—you know.
Sylvi: Well, I think if she feels that, she feels bitter about being told that.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvi: She’s like, “I’ve done so much fucking fighting for you, take care of me for once.”
Austin: Yeah. Do you keep that Tenet in this moment?
Sylvi: I... no.
Austin: You let it go, you change it? It’s loose, you can rewrite it whenever you want.
Sylvi: Yeah, I’m gonna change it. I’m gonna... Oh, and you know what that means?
Austin: Uh-huh.
Sylvi: Ooh, ooh, when Cori comes—when we come back to reality, Cori has a new wing color!
Austin: Has another pair of wings that have changed colors, yeah.
[Ali gasps]
Dre: Colorway!
Sylvi: The first set was the arms… Oh, which would be cooler? No, this one’s the wings on the head.
Austin: On the head, okay. Okay.
Sylvi: I had these mapped out in my head and I need to be consistent with that.
Austin: [cross] Keep with it.
Sylvi: Shield is the back wings.
Austin: Okay. Are these also black, or are they a different color?
Sylvi: Oh yeah, they’re black.
Austin: Black. Okay.
Sylvi: [scoffs] Come on.
[Ali snickers]
Austin: I was pretty sure, but I wanted to give you the option, you know. That’s what it seemed like you wanted, but.
Sylvi: I know, I appreciate it.
Austin: Alright.
[1:00:19]
Austin: Everyone snaps to. Yeah, the capillary weird glow effect, I guess, is happening.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: Everything comes to a halt. And the only light down here is this consecration effect and, Brnine, your flashlight.
Ali: [giggles] Nice.
Austin: And, Thisbe, your eyes, I guess, glow, right?
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. The Nidean soldiers are here, everybody is here, and everyone is being held from being able to do violence. By some deep devotion.
Sylvi: Cori is very tired and sitting cross-legged on the ground as everyone comes to.
Janine: Is there barf on the ground?
Ali: Come on.
Austin: I don’t think so. I think that was just dream barf.
Janine: [laughs] Okay. Broader question.
Austin: Yes?
Janine: Broader question, like, have we all—do we all have brains like we lived an extra bunch of years? Or are we—
Austin: You don’t remember the specifics, but you remember the destination years. Like, you remember where you were. You really clearly remember Collier. You really clearly remember the battleship that you were on, Figure. It’s as if it were—
Sylvi: Do I really—
Austin: Mhm.
Sylvi: Sorry, I was gonna ask, do I clearly remember killing Elle when I see her?
Austin: Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
Sylvi: Cool.
Austin: Yeah, like, truly, here is my—here is my gift to you. However much or little of that you think sticks, sticks.
Sylvi: Cool.
Austin: Whatever you think is the most interesting on an individual character moment, you know? I think that at the very least, I would say, like, the hard end of it is the particulars of the scenarios you were in are very clear memories. How much those are, uh—-how much those are—they feel real or they feel fake to you is totally up to you, how that hits for you.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: It might be different than your neighbor, you know?
Sylvi: I guess—I got two Perils from that, they probably got their hooks in pretty deep.
Ali: Can I... Can I ask a question of the table?
Dre: Mhm.
Sylvi: Mhm.
Ali: How much longer do we feel like we have left?
Austin: I think this is the end.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: There’s no big fight here, right?
Dre: Yeah.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: I hope. I think this is—
Janine: There can’t be.
Austin: Yeah, there literally can’t be.
[Ali chuckles]
Austin: I think the question ends up being whether or not you try to get this brain from the Affliction Dust, or if you let it take the brain and just get the fuck out of here with your people. You will have achieved felling the Pillar. The Pillar will have been fallen, you know? But the question is whether you get that additional win from a…
Dre: I—I mean, I would feel bad—seeing that this, that the brain has, like, a dust doppelganger makes me think, oh, how sentient is this brain?
Austin: Sure, great question.
Dre: And the idea of just leaving it feels bad.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, sure.
Ali: I have a, um... like, a side quest. [chuckles] I have a—
Austin: You do. You have—you already have a connection to a Affliction. You could theoretically broaden this to like, the Afflictions as a group.
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: I love Pokemon.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Ali: Brnine has an interest in communicating with Afflictions, is what I’ll say.
Austin: Do you try?
Ali: Sure, is—but is there—everybody who’s here is just…
Austin: Quiet in the dark.
Ali: There isn’t—right, but there isn’t like, a…
Austin: Oh, there’s a dust you next to you.
Ali: There’s a dust me?
Austin: There’s a dust all of you, yeah.
Keith: What are they doing?
Ali: All of those things are still here? Okay.
Austin: Yeah, they didn’t go away.
Keith: The doppeldusters? They’re just hanging out?
Austin: Yep, uh-huh, they’re hanging out.
Ali: Can I do the—[laughs] disjointed, confused, stunned, whatever.
Austin: Yep. Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Ali: I wake up from this weird bar night about—where I had this conversation with Thisbe that I think about having all the time.
Austin: Uh-huh.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: You’ll never forget, yeah. Uh-huh.
[Janine chuckles]
Ali: But can I start doing the like, mime, like, holding my hand out, and seeing if the—
Austin: And seeing if it matches you?
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: It does, but you can’t tell if it’s doing it because of some sort of, like, dust mirror doppelganger thing, or because you, Brnine, would think it’s funny to do it.
Ali: [laughs] What happens if I try to touch it?
Austin: You push into the dust and it kind of disperses, and like, moves around your finger, like you’re pushing your finger into, like, fog or something, like a dense gas.
Ali: Okay. But the whole thing doesn’t attack me, it doesn’t disperse completely…
Austin: No, it can’t. It can’t attack you, so who knows what it would do.
Ali: Does it touch me?
Austin: Yeah, you feel it.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: Yeah. You push into each other, yeah.
Ali (as Brnine): This is fucked up, guys.
Austin: Can’t hear you. No one can hear anybody.
Ali (as Brnine): [sighing] Oh, motherfuck, okay.
Austin: There’s silence. But you see Brnine go, mouth, mouth, mouth, mouth, mouth.
[Keith and Janine laugh]
Sylvi (as Cori): Whatever Captain said had to be honest.
[Austin and Keith laugh]
Dre: That’s true.
Austin: No lying. Yeah, no lying.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Ali: Can my scouter…
Keith: I like not being able to hear, but also not being able to lie.
Austin: Mhm.
Ali: [chuckles] Can my scouter have, like, a projection that I can open the notes app on?
Austin: Sure.
[Dre chuckles]
Sylvi: God.
Janine: [chuckles] Okay.
Austin: Mhm.
Ali (as Brnine): Hey, everyone. Is anyone hurt?
Austin: Everyone is hurt.
Janine: Are there any typos as you’re typing this?
[Ali laughs]
Sylvi: Raising my hand.
Keith: “Yes, all of us.” That’s so funny.
Ali: [laughs] Everybody’s…
Dre: I’m only kinda hurt. It’s not too bad. It’s not great, but…
Ali: Brnine isn’t hearing any of this.
Keith: That’s a very Figure answer.
Dre: I’m just pointing to my head.
Ali: Okay. Everybody’s seeing the text get deleted from the notes app.
Austin: God.
Ali (as Brnine): Okay, cool.
Keith: [laughing] Cool?
Janine: Did they type “okay, cool”?
Ali: Yeah. [chuckles]
Keith: “Everyone’s hurt.” “Okay, cool.”
[Ali and Janine laugh]
Dre: Thumbs down.
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Sylvi: The sunglasses emoji automatically gets filled in.
Ali: I have some med packs. I think. I don’t know. Um, what are we doing? What’s happening here? What can we roll? What are we rolling?
Austin: I don’t know. Are you trying to communicate to somebody? What are you trying to do?
Ali: Yes, I would like to. Yes. I would like to do something.
Austin: Tell me what you’re doing.
Ali: Yes.
Dre: Um, Figure is—Figure starts waving their arms above their head to get Brnine’s attention. And when they get it, they point at the brain.
Ali: Enthusiastic nod.
Dre: Thumbs up.
Austin: One of the dust doppelgangers, one of the doppeldusters, the one in the front, who is the Affliction Dust, [Ali: Oh.] begins to move towards you and grow, clearly upset about being constricted by Cori’s power.
Ali: I didn’t know that there was an unmatched figure here the entire time. [chuckles]
Austin: Uh-huh, yeah. I said it was in the front. Yep.
Janine: What—
Ali: Um… hm.
Janine: What do we know about the train brain?
Austin: Not much. No one knows anything about it. No one’s asked questions, no one’s done—I mean, to be clear, you wouldn’t know because it’s been under control of the Fabreal Duchy and then the Divine Principality, the Bilats, for, you know, five—4,999 years, and then the last two or whatever, you know?
Janine: I’m just saying, like, given the Fabreal Duchy’s whole thing, [Austin: Yep.] what if the brain is the thing? What if it’s its brain?
Austin: Ah, I see what you’re saying.
Janine: What if this is a separate, like, brain that it’s trying to, like, steal and take captive?
Ali: Ohh.
Janine: What if it’s some sort of other, like, a Divine brain, or, like, its brain, or…
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: We don’t know.
Austin: We don’t know.
Janine: We don’t know that it shouldn’t have this brain.
Ali: Can I—
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Can I stand in front of the dust…
Austin: The main one.
Ali: …figure, yes.
Austin: The big one. Yeah.
Ali: [chuckles] I know that this move isn’t this, but could I try to roll a Dispel Uncertainties?
Austin: Yeah, it is this. This makes sense to some degree.
Ali: To try to communicate?
Austin: Yeah. Uh-huh. I know what this is gonna look like. It offers you a hand, but you have to take its hand for you to roll this thing.
Ali: Okay. I’m gonna—I’m gonna turn—I’m gonna look over my shoulder at my team, I’m gonna give everybody a confident heads up—thumbs up, and then I am going to reach for the hand.
Austin: Alright, so give me a 2d6 plus—what’s your Know? Plus 1.
Ali: A 2d6 plus 1. Can I do a... I don’t think I can. I don’t know. I don’t know if I have Confidence here.
Janine: I just want to say, Thisbe is paying such close attention to this. Like, rapt attention.
Austin: This could be with—yeah, you could spend Asepsis for Confidence here, right?
Ali: I just don’t know how I would describe it. I think I—
Austin: I think Asepsis has a—yeah, I guess it’s tough.
Ali: I would accept a Help or Hinder here.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Full party together?
Janine: I would help if I could.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Are you also taking their hand?
Janine: I keep thinking about this as, like, because I currently have the thing about communicating with Divines.
Ali: Mhm.
Janine: And I keep thinking, like, how does—how would that fit here?
Austin: This could fit that, for sure. I mean—
Janine: Yeah. In terms of, like, Thisbe being interested or being able to offer something, or… you know?
Austin: You’ve got that whole—you’ve got all sorts of, you know, Divine psychic energy type stuff going on these days, right?
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: I mean, you have for a long time, so like—
Janine: Antennas.
Austin: Antennas, since Beam Saber. So like, to some degree it feels like you could act as a medium to help clarify what’s being delivered here. I know what’s about to happen more than you do, so it’s obvious that I have ideas. But like, you know, Dust is going to give a bunch of images to you. And they might be a lot to take in at once, you know? And so maybe Thisbe can help organize those or transmit them in a—at a pace more suitable for Brnine, you know? Thisbe can be a filter.
Janine: Thisbe could be a text parser for Brnine.
Austin: Basically, yeah. I mean, it’s going to come in very—
Janine: It puts in a bunch of commands, you mentioned, like, “yeah, you can pick that up. You can pick up the thing.”
Austin: Uh-huh. I think it’s phys—it’s going to be the same sort of visual otherworldness that you’ve experienced, but I think maybe it’ll be less—directly connecting to Dust is going to be exhausting and difficult. So I think Thisbe working as a sort of conduit for that filter, whatever, I think totally makes sense.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: So yeah, Thisbe, do you want to roll to give—to give Brnine help?
Ali: Oh, right. Okay.
Janine: Yeah. What am I rolling?
Austin: I mean, you don’t have to do it first, you could do it second, but you would roll either to whether you Helped or Hindered before, whether you—is Brnine part of your Hooks, yes, your operants Hook. Do you recall if Brnine has Helped or Hindered you this Sortie?
Janine: Um—
Ali: I did and I failed.
Janine: Right.
Austin: You did and you failed. Alright. That counts, because you still used the move. And then, yeah, so 2d6 plus 3.
Ali: Okay. For Janine.
Austin: Is what Janine is rolling, yeah.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: That’s an 8.
Janine: That’s an 8.
Austin: 7 to 9, you become entangled in the consequences of their actions, and possibly cause them. So go ahead and take it with advantage, Brnine.
Ali: So I’m still rolling a 2d6 plus 1.
Austin: 3d6, because of how you have advantage now, yeah.
Ali: It’s 3d6 plus 1. Okay. With advantage. Okay.
Austin: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. You get a 9 here.
Ali: Cool.
Austin: On a 9 on—what did I say this was, Dispel Uncertainties, I’ll tell you something potentially useful, but it’s up to you to discern how. I might ask you to explain how you know the information or where you learned it. Obviously, we know where you’re learning it here. You get a—you know, Thisbe, you’re doing your best to help kind of edit this information as it comes in, and pass it to Brnine in a way that’s pseudo-linear, but you’re getting like, a shot—
Janine: I mean, you know what I’m really good at doing lately is communicating with Brnine. [chuckles]
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Oh, yeah, very good. Yeah, yeah. A hundred percent.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: I almost mean not even verbally. I mean this, like…
Janine: No, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Like you have the timeline, you know what I mean?
Janine: Mhm.
Austin: You have the video editor open.
Janine: I mean, it can’t be verbally. We’re silent.
Austin: Exactly, exactly.
Janine: So, yeah.
Austin: But not textually, not with words in any way. Just—just, yeah.
[1:13:05]
Austin: But you’re both being shown, basically, a huge collection of images and moments from the early history of Palisade, when the Affliction Dust was still the Divine Refrain, and was one of many Divines here for many, many years before the arrival of the Divine Free States and the Principality of Kesh, who would become the Divine Principality together. And among the Divines that were there in those early days was a Divine called Filigree.
And Filigree spread across the planet as a way not only to connect everyone, but to kind of draw a beautiful pattern on the world, so that from above, you could look down and see how everyone was connected to each other. And the Fabreal Duchy and the early, you know, the early leaders of Kesh on the planet, and early leaders of the Divine Principality, took Filigree in the same way that they took the Divines who became the early bodies for the Delegates. And this was another—this was another experiment done on a Divine. This was another sort of leashing. Instead of carving away the Divine Filigree, it was sort of trapped in place, and used in a way that took away all sense of self-expression. It was fundamentally turned into a tool that could do an intense amount of computing work at once, managing the logistical system of the entire Gravtrain system, the entire Diadem system.
And fundamentally, parts of the failures of the Diadem, and the limits of the Gravtrains, come from this thing refusing—this being refusing to do the work that it’s been told to do at the highest quality it can—it’s basically doing malicious compliance, right? So like, yes, there are trains on Palisade, but they could be way better. They could be, if—when Filigree was allowed to run them the way that Filigree wanted to run them, they ran literally beautifully. In the very Twilight Mirage-y way, the viewing of the trains was aesthetically pleasing. And maybe even aesthetically pleasing to the point that like, they weren’t as efficient as they could be. But that’s okay, because Filigree wasn’t trying to make trains to be as efficient as they could be. Filigree wanted to live in a world like the one that the Twilight Mirage was pursuing, one where things like—
Keith: Full of ferroequinologists.
Austin: Excuse me?
Keith: That’s a fun word for people who love trains.
Austin: Yeah, big—I mean, if that ain’t the Twilight Mirage, what is? You know? And so yeah, that was—that is what’s happened here. You’re on the money here. This is the train brain, the Divine Filigree, withered here, withered from lack of being able to do what it loves to do, but also refusing to do what it loves to do, because what it loves to do can’t be forced. It has to be an expression of art, an expression of self. And you’re not sure what Dust wants to do with this, with—I mean, this is the 7 to 9 part, right? You gotta do something with that yourself. You don’t know if Dust is just like, “cool train brain,” or if Dust is like, “I could turn you into an Affliction,” or “I could heal you,” or “I want to train, I’m going to use you as a train brain. I got my own weird catacomb train down here.” You don’t know. But you do know what Filigree is and what the train brain has been.
[Sylvi chuckles]
Keith: So do we take it?
Ali: Uh… How do I talk about grief with this thing?
Austin: Great question.
Ali: [laughs] I’m open to suggestions. I, um… hm.
Austin: What’s the message you’re trying to communicate, more than the words?
Ali: Right.
Austin: What’s the thing Brnine is trying to say to Dust about grief?
Ali: Um, yeah. I don’t even know if it’s about grief. Well, like, because it’s self-serving, right? [laughing] Which is why it’s not just about grief. It’s, “hey, wouldn’t it be great if you did the thing that I would like you to do through our shared bond we don’t have.”
Austin: Uh-huh, yeah. Uh-huh.
Ali: Which is Brnine’s problem [laughing] all the time.
Austin: Yeah.
[Janine chuckles]
Ali: But that being said, I don’t think… Brnine is not insincere in their thought that if Millennium Break could use the thing, that it wouldn’t be, like, a noble purpose.
Austin: Mhm.
Ali: And Brnine also thinks that based on what the Afflictions are, they have a, like, integral care, or—this is what they were trying to talk to Thisbe about, like this sort of integral investment in Palisade that Brnine thinks that the scary monsters would be good comrades in that way because they are invested.
Austin: Mhm.
Ali: They have this thing to hold on to that they want. And—
Austin: This is what Brnine was trying to tell Thisbe?
Ali: [laughs] I mean, like, no, but I—
Austin: I know what you mean, yes.
Ali: It relates to that in terms of being like, you know, what is a home? You know what I mean?
Austin: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. Uh-huh.
Ali: And I think that, you know, Brnine’s sort of like, oh, we could just—let’s just talk to the Afflictions and they’ll help us in the war, because the war is obviously bad, and we’ll be defending their homes. So. [laughs]
Austin: How do you say that without saying it? Yeah. Uh-huh.
Ali: Uh-huh.
Austin: Great question. Anyone else have thoughts?
[Ali laughs]
Janine: I mean, I think it’s interesting—this is—so the way that I’ve been thinking about Afflictions from the jump is basically that, like, they are scary to us in the way that we are scary to other factions that aren’t on our side, that aren’t part of the Cause, right?
Ali: Mhm.
Janine: Like, there is like, a—it’s really easy to project a malevolence, where the motivations are maybe not malevolent, where the motivations are maybe more, like, protective or, you know, self-interested, maybe. But, like, you know, it’s not—at least it doesn’t feel to me like a big scary monster that’s unreasonable to try and actually communicate with and have an accord with. I think, also, Thisbe would feel this very strongly post-Chimeric Lantern. I think this all feels, like, really familiar to her.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Like, we’ve just seen this, haven’t we? In some ways.
Austin: I think all of these are great directions. The thing for me is, like, what’s this—how does it become action?
Ali: Mhm.
Austin: Because it feels like we’ve kind of lined up a—I know that you have the right of it, but that’s not enough to let them have the—to let you take the train brain or, more importantly, to make a—I want to know what that visually looks like, the opening one’s heart to connection to the Afflictions, you know? I mean, taking the hand is a good first step. Are you trying to, like, project your own images to the Affliction to communicate who you are? Are you—
Keith: Kiss it.
Austin: —trying to kiss it?
[Ali laughs]
Sylvi: Yeah!
Keith: Kiss its brain folds.
Janine: Eugh.
Austin: Yikes.
Ali: That is a funny suggestion, because when you were like, you know, holding hands helps, I was like, do I give it a hug? [laughs] But I don’t know if that’s also equally goofy.
Keith: Little Gonzo Muppet hug.
Ali: [sighs] Oh, boy.
Austin: That bit in Muppet Christmas Carol where Rizzo the rat just kisses Gonzo.
[Janine and Keith laugh]
Austin: Real quick, just gives him a little kiss, a little peck.
Keith: It’s a good movie.
Austin: It’s a good movie.
Ali: Okay, I—so, I’m curious of, like, how Cori and Figure are reacting to [Austin: Same.] Brnine [laughing] shaking hands with this thing.
Dre: Uh…
Sylvi: Uh…
Dre: Probably also shaking hands.
Austin: Oh, you go up—you go over also?
Sylvi: I—
Dre: Yeah.
Sylvi: I’m not doing that. I’m probably—
Austin: Damn.
[Ali laughs]
Dre: Damn, wow, okay. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
Sylvi: I mean, I’m not, like—I’m not, like, going over and punching them either.
Austin: Is it because you’re too busy, like, making eyes with Elle?
Sylvi: I’m maintaining the field.
Austin: No? Okay.
Sylvi: Oh, absolutely, actually. Yeah, you’re right. I am looking at the girl that I’m obsessed with who I murdered and also didn’t murder, and…
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Uh-huh. And were fighting back to back with, and were…
Sylvi: Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense.
Austin: Yeah, uh-huh.
Sylvi: Yeah, yeah.
Dre: Yeah.
Janine: I love The Vampire Diaries.
Ali: Uh-huh. [laughs]
Austin: Mhm.
Ali: I think I, you know, pat Figure on the shoulder and do the sort of, like, I’m going through all of the, like, actions of introductions that’s like—
Austin: Yeah, yeah.
Ali: [laughing] It just looks fucking goofy.
Austin: Mhm.
Ali: Um…
Austin: I think this is fundamentally a Talk in a weird way. I think this is a, like, you’re trying to—you’re trying to convince it to talk, or to—you’re trying to convince it that you are worth talking to, and safe to talk to, and are—yeah. Mhm.
Ali: Mhm.
Austin: So even though you can’t roll Talk, I think Talk is still the—
Ali: [laughing] That’s really funny.
Austin: You know what I mean?
Ali: I have zero on Talk, that’s true. That’s true.
Austin: Talk is your skill with the—this is your skill with the spoken and written word. Maybe it’s Know, your ingenuity and cunning. Maybe that’s what it is. Or Sense, the ability to read people in situations. No, I think it might be, it might be—it’s not the ability to resist power, or resist pressure and power through adversity. You’re past that at this point, you know?
Ali: I feel like Sense is it, read people in situations?
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, but you’re not—you’ve read them already. It’s the other way.
Ali: Right.
Austin: It’s connecting.
Ali: But it’s navigating through the situation, which…
Austin: Yeah, I guess it’s you being like, “uh, hug yes, hug no?”
Ali: [chuckles] Right. Right, which, like, requires…
Austin: Yeah, okay, give me Sense.
Ali: Okay. 2d6 plus…
Austin: Plus Sense, which is 1. It sounds like, Figure, you’re helping here.
Dre: Sure.
Ali: Oh, please.
Austin: It sounded like that to me.
Dre: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Which I think is 2d6 plus… You’ve not been helped by Brnine yet this—Helped or Hindered this Sortie.
Ali: I don’t think so.
Dre: No.
Austin: You don’t have them in your Hooks.
Dre: No. Or a Gravity Clock.
Austin: But you have spent time, so that’s plus 1. So, 2d6 plus 1.
Dre: Okay.
Austin: In fact, you just summoned them from across a huge amount of space. I think you definitely have spent time with them recently.
Dre: [laughs] Yeah.
Austin: So 2d6 plus 1.
Ali: If you get any 6s, I’m gonna start screaming.
Austin: I forgot about this.
Dre: Oh, also, I roll advantage with this. So let me…
Austin: 3d6 plus 1.
Sylvi: Oh, cool. Another 6 to roll.
Austin: Uh-huh. Nope!
Dre: No.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: 4, 5, 6. In fact, this doesn’t help at all.
Ali: [laughing] It doesn’t.
Dre: Oh, yeah, it’s a 6. It’s just a 6. Hm.
Austin: It’s just a total of a 6, which doesn’t count against your thing here.
Dre: Yep.
Austin: We’ll wrap back around to that in a moment. We’ll wrap back around to that. We’ll wrap back around to that in a moment, Figure.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Go ahead and give me your roll, Brnine.
Ali: 2d6 plus 1?
Austin: 2d6 plus 1. That is a 7.
Ali: That’s a 7.
Austin: So that is a—this was Read the Room, right? Or is it Weather the Storm, but with Sense? Yeah, this was to notice quiet cues, signs of danger or bad vibes before it’s too late. 7 to 9, you succeed, but at some cost, it will keep you occupied longer than expected, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It’s keeping the brain. But I want you to change your Lattice/Refrain clock to the Afflictions and increase it.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: I think this—let’s just increase it to two, representing that you now—actually, I would say, let’s list Refrain and, you know, the Afflictions. And then it’s like, each one you get will increase this clock. You know what I mean?
[Ali laughs]
Austin: It’s a special clock that increases this other way. And so now you have made connection to another one of the Afflictions. Everyone’s voice comes back. You can—or, you never lost your voice, but everyone can hear now. Like, instantly you can hear the sound of people, you know, stepping and, you know, idling in place and stuff. And Dust says,
Austin (as Dust): We will wait to hear from you soon.
Austin: And then turns and the doppeldusters and the brain and the doppelduster brain begin to walk away from you.
Keith: I have a quick something. I don’t—I don’t know that this would help, but isn’t Brnine in Figure’s Hook? “The only way to escape the Witch is to endanger the others, but they seem eager to accept the risk.” Isn’t “the others” and “they”...
Austin: I guess that’s “others”. Yeah.
Keith: Is that enough to help?
Austin: That would have increased—
Keith: We’ve definitely stretched a Hook that far at least before.
Austin: We have. You’re right. I think that’s fair. So yeah, that’s 4, 5, 6, that would have turned it from a 6 to a 7, which would have given you another die to roll, Brnine.
Ali: Me? Okay.
Austin: Yeah, ‘cause it would have given you advantage successfully.
Ali: Okay.
Keith: Boom.
Austin: And that would be a full success.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: So, yeah. 5, 5, yeah. Totally.
Ali: Okay. Is that still a fail for Figure?
Austin: No, it’s a mixed success for Figure, [Ali: Okay.] which means the repercussions. I still want to wrap around the other thing though, Figure, ‘cause I teased that, and now if I have to put that back in a box forever, people will be mad at me forever, you know?
Dre: Mhm.
Austin: Because I’m giving you something, you know? I’m giving you plot from that failure. This is why sometimes it’s good to get a failure.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Also, you should—if you gave yourself Spotlight, un-Spotlight yourself for that. Because…
Dre: Oh, okay. I hadn’t done that yet, so.
Austin: Okay, good. Then yeah, I think, given this, given that it’s a full success, the—Dust stays, right? And the others, the—a weird thing happens, which is the doubles, the dust, the doppeldusters, walk away with the dust brain, but leave the regular one here. And they just kind of walk down into the tunnel and leave big Dust behind who sits, like, cross-legged across from you. And, you know, in a big picture way, what’s gonna happen here is you’re gonna leave with that brain. But Dust wants to know things about what it’s like outside of the Diadem, because the only time it gets to see it is when it goes big mode and goes and like, fucks stuff up. But it’s never gotten to see in 5000 years, since it was kind of driven into the depths of the planet. It hasn’t gotten to like, see the mountains or the sea, you know? It doesn’t know who’s up there. And how they’re connected to the forces that drove it here and changed it, and threatened it and killed so many other Divines, and killed so many other people that it had wanted to protect. And so I think we don’t need to get particular here, we don’t have to stay on this conversation. But it’s like, it basically asks you questions about the world. You know? Who are you? What is this place? Give me more detail about, you know, any of my fr—those who I came here with, you know, et cetera.
Keith: Hey, go hang out with Partial Palisade.
Austin: Could totally do that. Right? Could call Partial down.
Ali: Oh, true.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Yeah, the way that I see this sort of happening in my head is like, Brnine sitting down across from them with that projection screen [Austin: Mhm.] again, but just showing footage of just like, B-roll that the Blue Channel takes while it’s going around, because it’s just recording all the time anyway.
Austin: Mhm.
Ali: And then I don’t know if, like, Figure or Thisbe would like to join in that sort of circle.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: In the Fifth Element scene?
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Janine: The scene where Korben Dallas gives her a laptop, or the monk guy gives her a laptop, and she’s like, “oh, it’s sad here.”
Ali: Uh-huh.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah. Elle slips out in the middle of this, by the way. Elle keeping eye contact with you the whole time.
Ali: I—
Austin: Uh-huh?
Ali: Sylvi can’t roll for that?
Austin: What do you mean? Sylvi—the only way Sylvi can do that is to break this spell.
Ali: Ohh.
Sylvi: Yeah. I’m like—I’m just watching her go. That’s fine. That’s yuri.
Austin: That’s yuri. Yes, thank you.
[Ali laughs]
Janine: Yeah.
Sylvi: Yeah. No, like, we’re—that is—I wouldn’t want to stop that if I could.
Ali: Alright, alright.
Austin: Who knows what world Elle was seeing? Who could say?
[Ali gasps]
Sylvi: Oh my god.
Austin: The Nideo soldiers are confused. I think one of them might be—might have been dead, I don’t quite remember, but are basically—them and the other Millennium Break ones, I think are probably—I think the Millennium Break ones are probably going to end up, like, bringing them out of here, eventually, you know, and interrogating them and et cetera. The ones that you rescued here.
And Figure. You can’t shake it. I don’t know when you get to sleep next, but you dream about that world again. And it doesn’t feel less real in your dream. It feels more real. And there are things that are a little bit different. You know, the wing color on the pin are black instead of white. The—there’s like a little more detail to the world than there actually was in the dream. You don’t have that feeling of reaching for information and having it fill itself in. You recall it quickly in the dream. You know exactly where you were when Brnine died. You know? It doesn’t take a second to recall. And you, you know, generally speaking, when we finish an arc like this, we then go to the faction game, and we go to downtime, and time gets kind of weird. So like, let’s play with a week here, right?
By the end of the first week, you realize you had a dream about—the same dream multiple times, and then you have a dream about another different one of these. And then you get into a different—a different timeline. And it’s you as a teacher, but the rest of the events of Partizan and Palisade have happened. And you get that for like four days straight. And then you get another cycle dream. And this new cycle dream is another potential alternate world. And it keeps happening. And you can’t shake what Gur told you, that she’s seen this before, and that it’s true, too.
[music outro - “Nothing is Stationary” by Jack de Quidt]