PALISADE 13: Worth the Trouble Pt. 2
Transcriber: Iris (@sacredwhim)
Untapping Factions - Violet Cove 6
Untapping Factions - Carmine Bight 9
Untapping Factions - Grey Pond 16
Untapping Factions - Rose River 25
Untapping Factions - Jade Kill 44
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.
[Music Intro - “Nothing is Stationary” by Jack de Quidt begins]
Austin: And so I wonder if there is just like, a bunch of requests out for goods, right? For supplies. And they’re not—it’s not specific orders. No one’s calling you and being like, “Blue Channel, can you go drop off more canned corn on, you know, Rifle Island right now?” Yeah, go ahead.
Ali: The faction message board is lighting up [Austin: Yes, yes.] in terms of like, “can we have some light bulbs? [Austin: Mhm.] Can somebody help us organize this thing? [Austin: Yes.] We need some extra fuel.”
-
Dre (as Figure): I’m a creation of her magic.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, but people—people, you know. Perennial was a thing before she was.
Austin (as Hunting): Can’t we just—
Dre (as Figure): Perennial didn’t create me and the conditions upon which I was created.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, but like—but like—but power scaling.
-
Janine (as Thisbe): What do you need?
Dre (as Figure): Uh, in what context?
Janine (as Thisbe): What do you need to be free of the Witch?
Dre (as Figure): Oh, um... so you heard that.
Janine (as Thisbe): What do you need?
-
Sylvi: Cori has invited pretty much everyone to movie night.
Ali: It’s Cori’s week for movie night.
Austin: It’s Cori’s week for movie night.
Sylvi: It’s Cori’s week for movie night. And has just sort of been like, asking everybody with the biggest, widest eyes, “you’re coming to movie night this week, right?”
-
Keith: Phrygian’s got little lab coat, little goggles, got to be safe. Hands out worse goggles to everyone, not the kind that straps behind your head, and everyone gets a smock. And I have a little cart, and on the cart are—like a beaker, like a thing—little thing that holds like, 10 beakers. You know what I’m saying?
Austin: Yeah, I gotcha.
Keith: Yeah.
Dre: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Keith: With a—let’s—cartoonishly glowing green liquid inside, [chuckles] like something that Dr. Jekyll might drink.
-
Austin: Sometimes, you know, one a day is fine. Right? Two a day is probably fine, too. Six a day? Seven a day? It feels like there’s a network trying to figure out where you are going.
-
Austin: So you’re not gonna be a beacon, is what you’re telling me?
Sylvi: You know what? Yeah, I am. ‘Cause I’m tired. I had a really long mission last time, and it’s hard to do that when you’re not feeling well.
Austin: Wait, so, for real, you’re not gonna be a beacon?
Sylvi: [cross] Sometimes you got to take care of yourself. Yeah, no for real.
Austin: Reduce your Channel by 1. Permanently.
Sylvi: Okay.
Ali: [laughing] Permanently.
Austin: Permanently. Uh-huh. You’re at 2 Channel now.
Keith: I was just thinking that we should make things harder.
[Music Intro - “Nothing is Stationary” by Jack de Quidt ends]
[2:55]
Austin: We’re down to Brnine, huh?
Ali: Yeah, looks like it’s time for Command Deck/Briefing Room.
Austin: Mhm.
Ali: “The leading player helps plan for the upcoming Sortie, adding a d6 to the upcoming Plan and Prepare. They frame a short scene around this, either alone or with invited characters. Anyone may spend a token to choose one: contribute to the Plan and Prepare as above; report on aid they’ve given a faction, untapping it; report on intel that they’ve gathered—the director will reveal something useful about the Sortie; or volunteer to take point—you’ll lead the Sortie in confidence.”
Austin: So that’s—added that +1 to the Plan and Prepare right away. Is this you explaining the mission as we’ve kind of set up, sort of, the Baseline stuff? Is that like, what the—what’s the visual of the beginning of this scene that might be a montage?
Ali: Um, yeah, I feel like since we just talked about it, I think that maybe that makes sense. Maybe it’s Brnine in the briefing room again with like—standing in front of like, a projection screen with like, the old—I guess they wouldn’t be that old, like—like a mugshot—a mugshot. Of the, um—the—Silver-whoever that you mentioned.
Austin: Silverbrick, the architect, yeah. And urban planner.
Ali: Yeah. And like, a big sort of poster of like, what the advertisement for Baseline was.
Austin: Mhm.
Ali: And then like, maybe like a, um... it wouldn’t be like a note from Gucci, or from the Cause or whatever, but the sort of like, mission readout of like... whatever the intention is, [Austin: Mhm.] like, “go connect with this group” or whatever.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Um... And Brnine just being like...
Ali (as Brnine): Well, everybody, um... I’d like to thank you for, you know, everyone’s involvement in the last mission. Obviously, it is what it is, it was what it was. But the space that we got in Bontive Valley was critical to our success here on Palisade. And I understand that some of you have been spending time with some of the other factions, and I appreciate that.
Ali: And that could be a segue into people reporting on aid—
Austin: [cross] Right. I do have a question really quick. Did you tell people that they were bait?
Dre: That’s a good question.
Ali: [cross] Uh... [laughs]
Keith: Phrygian did for sure.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Did Phrygian know? Was Phrygian—did Phrygian get those—
Keith: Yeah, I was there.
Austin: But those were texts, right?
Keith: No, no, we had a conversation about it.
Austin: Oh, someone thanked you, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay.
Ali: Yeah, we talked to August Righteousness about it.
Austin: Right, and August was like, “yeah, I’m sorry, this isn’t the way I wanted it to go.” Right, yeah.
Ali: Right. And there was like, there was—there was a vibe shift in the party that like, [Austin: Yeah, okay.] both of us picked up on, and I think with Brnine being so weird towards Hunting and Thisbe that night [Austin: Yeah.] in terms of being like, “are y’all chill?” Like, “y’all are good?” That like, when Brnine came back, [Austin: Mhm.] it was sort of like a, you know, “let’s all talk about this. Let’s all explain what happened.” But also just being the like, “this is what happened, and it happened.” Um... so. [chuckles]
[6:16]
Austin: Okay. So, then there is a pivot to a sort of montage, presumably of some of y’all spending tokens [Dre: Mhm.] in order to untap factions.
Ali: Mhm.
Sylvi: Mhm.
Austin: What does this look like? Who is doing what? Feel free to play fast and loose here with time and space, you know?
Ali: Mhm.
Austin: Who is—yeah, who is spending stuff? Let’s get into it.
Sylvi: I feel like I should spend to help the Violet Cove out.
Austin: That makes sense to me.
Sylvi: Kind of just tracks. Maybe it’s like, the way this could manifest is like, a thing with Coriolis sending a bunch of like, battle data back about like, how her Chariot operated and stuff.
Austin: Mm, that’s interesting.
Sylvi: Like, the entire full readout of like, how it—the, like, penance stuff interfaced with her.
Austin: I’ll be honest, I think you need to like, go lift some boxes.
Sylvi: Do more than that? Yeah, I’m totally good to do that, I—
Austin: You know? Or whatever that looks like for the Dim Liturgy and the Cult of Devotion, you know? You could tell me what that is, but like...
Sylvi: Yeah, maybe it’s like a supply run, then.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvi: Yeah, like, um... not necessarily getting in the Chariot to do like, combat work, [Austin: Yeah.] but just like, it—we’ve made this mech look like Sam Porter Bridges, and now it’s bringing us our delivery.
Austin: [chuckles] Huge packages on its back, yeah.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: Uh-huh. Great.
Sylvi: Like everywhere that they can strap something down onto it.
Austin: While you’re there, do you say hi to your dad?
Sylvi: Um... he’s in meetings. It’s unfortunate.
Austin: Oh, he really—he sends you—
Sylvi: He got the message, but...
Austin: Yeah, he sends you a text, and he’s like, “Oh, I saw all the packages, kiddo. Thanks so much.”
Sylvi: “Great work, champ.”
Austin: Yeah, exactly. Do you know—do you know how iPhones have that thing—and it was like a big deal for them seven years ago, and now they don’t ever talk about it ‘cause who cares—where like, you can do an iMessage and like, hold your hand—your finger on the screen, and it’ll send like, a pulse to somebody. Do you know what I’m talking about? Does anybody remember this feature at all?
Sylvi: I think I remember this, yeah.
Janine: Yeah.
Dre: Mhm.
Austin: That is like a huge part of Devotion culture is you send someone your pulse, a copy of your pulse at that moment—
Sylvi: Oh my god.
Austin: —as a way of like, being like, “hey, we’re together. We’re both checking—”
Dre: Man.
Austin: “We’re both—we’re pulse buddies. We’re pulse locked. We’re pulse linked.”
Dre: The divine cringe.
Austin: [chuckles] That’s someone’s belief, Dre, okay? [chuckles]
[Dre chuckles]
Ali: Yeah. Come on.
Sylvi: Cori at least says this makes her very happy.
Austin: Alright, so that is one token and one faction. Let me untap the Violet Cove. Boom. All right, who’s up next?
[9:10]
Dre: I’ll do mine. I think I get a third message from the Witch in Glass that is like, “hey, you should go help out the people who actually made sure that I got my package.” And I go help out Carmine Bight.
Austin: You don’t have to go help them.
Dre: Oh.
Austin: They show up. I mean, they’ll need your help, but you don’t have to go anywhere. While you’re over the sea somewhere in your various journeys, a ship just—like, a submarine surfaces. And they like, send up a signal that they want to like, dock, or like, parlay, or whatever pirates say. [laughs]
Dre: [chuckles] Ahoy.
Austin: And, you know, they of course will help—or will accept your help, right? I think the person you’re talking to here is someone who Jack named in the last episode. It is... da-da-da, let’s see here. Iklins Slinger, who is—
Dre: Oh, that’s good.
Austin: Jack describes as “the pirate fleet’s sword arm, naval tactics, fire and fury, fiercely loyal to Captain Knaggs.” Captain Knaggs runs the group. “If Carmine Bight wants to put the fear of god into a target, they send Captain Slinger.” Jack’s facecast for that is “someone like the essayist and novelist Arundhati Roy”, who I will send this exact picture of her to you all, which is so great to me because Arundhati Roy is like, really thoughtful and—not quiet, but determ—like, sort of determined about every single word she says when you hear her speak. And I think this person, I think that Iklins Slinger is much more rough around the edges. [chuckles] Is much more, “fuck you, I can tell you fuck you because I could kick your ass, but I do love you.” And she shows up with a prize for you? You see, the—Carmine Bight, they’re pirates. That’s like the thing that they are. And they—that’s a specific thing in Armour Astir. Some people might remember this. Does anybody remember what pirates do? It’s like a special thing.
Dre: Oh, no.
Keith: No.
Austin: Let’s read here. Sorry, they’re—they’re not pirates, they’re adventurers. “They oppose with bold action and unpredictable tactics,” and when they win a scene, they get a special outcome, and their outcome is “deliver a cut of the loot to the Carrier, flip a coin: heads, it’s valuable; tails, it’s treasure.” They—when they were fucking up the Bilateral Intelligence Service’s special agent, and the agent’s boat and the other resources that the agency was putting on trying to steal back the Iconoclast—wound up destroying it and salvaging it, and taking a bunch of super powerful and expensive gear. And they, as part of their job, is to use that to buoy the supplies of the various factions. And so they can’t untap people, but they can deliver cuts of treasure. And so you all get—and maybe make a note of this on the big notes section, Ali—a—you get a piece of tr—[chuckles] a piece of treasure.
Dre: Nice. [chuckles]
Austin: You get something that is a +4 piece of treasure. I imagine that it’s like, expensive Kesh machinery. But it could also be a thing, right? Like it’s a +4 thing. It’s a—we kind of went over this last time, last downtime, and we kind of fucked it up a little bit, from my understanding. I’ve tried to like, wrap my head around it a little bit more, but—normally the way you get stuff is you do a Somewhere Nearby scene, right? “Typically”—this is from “Acquiring Equipment” on page 60—“typically, there isn’t anything for sale on board your Carrier. Okay, there’s probably a quartermaster you could requisition things from if you’re willing to wait for it to be shipped out, and maybe you could persuade a private merchant to tag along, but in general, if you want to buy something, you need to go out somewhere and find it. The Somewhere Nearby downtime scene is generally how this is done, with options for finding things available locally, whether they’re common or difficult to find. Objects have a value that determines how costly to acquire they’ll be. Generally speaking, an object’s—the higher an object’s value, the richer a place you’ll need to go to find it. Small farming towns do not sell legendary artifacts, usually. Value is provided for all example equipment below and is determined as follows.”
So, small things—just generally, things have a value equal to their tier. So a Tier 1 gun or grappling hook has a value of 1, you know? A Tier 2 thing would have a value of 2, a Tier 3 thing would have a value of 3. So if you had like, a—if you wanted to go get an assault rifle for your mech, for your altar, that would have a value of 3 to begin with. And that’s before it then has tags on it, you know? That’s before it has like—I mean, I guess those have to even out still, right? Then if you’re trying to just straight up get a big mech or a jeep or a spaceship, so like Ardents—which are any vehicles—Altars, and Carriers, have a value equal to their tier squared. So a regular—if someone of you lost your mech and you wanted to buy a new one, you would need 9 value. So that’s kind of a good way of thinking about it, right? You—if the Chariot Mk II blew up tomorrow, and you needed to go shopping and get another one, you would need 9 value worth to get it, which you could get from Somewhere Nearby, which is where you—you roll a d4, and then you can get up to that much in value of a thing.
Treasure is just straight up worth 4 value. So, they bring you something that’s worth about half a mech. [chuckles] They bring you that much treasure, that much value of—maybe that’s loose electronics. You can tell me what it is. Again, it was kind of like a naval battle, and this is like the scrapped or salvaged equipment from a bunch of spy boats that were in a cool naval chase. You tell me what it is, but let me tell you, this could be useful on your next Sortie, having 4 value worth of stuff to spend, you know, as you—
Ali: Who was this gift from again?
Austin: This is from Carmine Bight, the pirates that it sounds like Figure is about to go help out as part of their scene. But yeah, it’s plus—it’s something—it’s an item with the +4 Treasure tag. I think it’s probably a big crate of like, expensive electronic components that they’ve salvaged from these destroyed spy ships and then kind of cleaned up, that could be reused, you know? The sorts of like, things that if you—this is like very “right to repair”, right? Like, we don’t—we can’t afford to go buy a new, uh, tracking device every time the tracking device in your ship breaks down or whatever. We can’t expend—we can’t go out and expect you to buy a new air compressor. But what we can do instead is give you the equipment you need to fix your air compressor. To fix the weapon tracking and the friend or foe system or whatever. Right? So it’s like diodes and computer chips and, I don’t know, whatever other weird mechanical and electronic devices that they were able to steal. And it’s just like, in a big crate. So. A little treat.
Dre: Thanks.
Austin: That’s—shoutouts to the crew of, or to the folks in Carmine Bight. But Figure, you end up going with them.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: What’s that look like?
Dre: That’s a good question.
Austin: What’s it like when the Figure hangs out with a bunch of pirates?
[Ali chuckles]
Dre: I mean...
Austin: You also end up probably meeting some Hypha here. For instance, the character I played in Lancer who showed up last time is part of this crew.
Dre: Oh.
Austin: Narmine Te’ketch is here. And presumably some of the other Hypha from that, and even potentially from the Sable Court.
Dre: Hm.
Austin: I heard we’re looking for witches.
Dre: Oh. Hmm. Um...
[Ali gasps]
Dre: Oh, yes?
Ali: I’m just—I think that connections are being made. [chuckles]
[Dre and Sylvi laugh]
Ali: The opportunities are lining up for Figure.
Dre: Uh...
Ali: Another life is possible.
Austin: Do you even make note of it? Do you—do you—do you... Like, is that—sorry, did you end up rewriting that Hook? You did, right. We talked about it.
Dre: Yes.
Austin: So given that your Hook is now “the only way to escape the Witch is to endanger others, but they seem eager to accept the risk”, now that you’re like, thinking about escaping, does that mean that making note of like, “oh, there could be some witchy people here.” [Ali chuckles] Does that even register? Do you even let yourself let it register?
Dre: Not yet. Like, I think it’s like, if—if I came back to the ship and someone was like, [Austin: Yeah.] “hey, what kind of people did you meet?” And I just would be like, “oh, well, you know, some of them seem to be into weird space magic.” And they’d be like, “dude! You need someone who’s into weird space magic!”
Austin: [laughing] Uh-huh.
Dre: But yeah, I don’t think Figure is able to like—like, I think what you said, right? Figure is not ready to accept that this is a reality, that this could be real—
Austin: So I’m not advancing the “find an alternate source of sustenance for you.”
Dre: [strained] Ohh... that would be nice, but...
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Listen.
Janine: I think we sort of established that like, Figure can’t advance that.
Austin: Yep. Yep.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: I love it. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page with it, you know?
Dre: Yeah. No, instead I probably just go over there and I get in my mech and I help blow things up because that’s all I’m good for.
Austin: Again, that’s not what this is. This is not you going to blow things up. This is you’re untapping the faction.
Dre: Oh, sure.
Austin: You’re going there to like, move boxes, to cook meals. Like, what do you do? What’s the way you help people here? Like, ‘cause if it’s—and if you struggle at this, that’s like, an important thing to put on the screen. You can’t—you cannot spend a token to do this if you can’t do it.
Dre: No, I can do it. I think it probably is just like, manual labor. It is like, moving things, probably helping repairs.
Austin: Mhm.
Dre: They just got done with a big ship battle, right? So.
Austin: Yeah, they got—they need repairs for sure.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Patching up some stuff.
Dre: Mhm. Like, yeah, I don’t think Figure is like, a whiz mechanic, [Austin: Mhm.] but if you pilot a mech for long enough, you probably learn how to do things like quick patches and things like that.
Austin: Yeah. A thing that I think is worth—you know, there is—you’re around a bunch of people who also are battered and bruised in different ways. You know, not to lean too hard into like, the “pirates who have peg legs and hook hands” thing. It’s not that—except that like, that comes from a specific place, right? [Dre: Right.] Which is that like, you’re in the middle of nowhere, you’ve been hurt, and we have to like, do field medicine on you to make sure you’re okay. In general, these folks are more beat up than most of the folks in the rest of the Cause. Certainly more than like, Violet Cove or Rose River, maybe not quite as much, or maybe around the same amount, as the folks in Grey Pond and Jade Kill, but maybe even more than Jade Kill, who’s been mostly in a defensive posture lately.
And I think to some degree, there is like, seeing your Scorched Peril still be on you, right? Seeing that you’re battle-damaged, right? We have battle-damaged Figure in Bismuth action figure mode right now. [Dre chuckles] You get a lot of like, you know, respect from the other pirates here. Like, yeah, it’s clear that you are someone who is, you know, you are not a—someone who just like, hangs out and does weird tech shit from some base somewhere. You’ve seen action, you’re part of the Cause in the way that they’re part of the Cause. They take that seriously. And I think like, give you the amount of shit that they give to each other in a way that’s like, you could take it, you know? So, you get to be kind of like, one of the crew while you’re doing this.
[21:40]
Austin: Alright, who’s up? Who else is spending a token?
Janine: I am.
Austin: Alright, Thisbe.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Who are you untapping? Who are you working with?
Janine: Um... Well, it was going to be Carmine Bight, [chuckling] so I had to kind of change my plans.
[Ali chuckles]
Austin: Uh-huh.
Janine: And also I need to kind of change what I’m doing. Of Jade Kill and Grey Pond and Rose River, [Austin: Mhm.] do any of them like, grow their own food?
Austin: I would imagine all three of them do.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: As a quick version of this, you can see on the far east of the map, New Oath, there’s this big Divine standing in—or kneeling in protection over a city [Janine: Mhm.] or township or something. That is where the bulk of people live in Rose River’s kind of community. And that’s like, a fully self-sufficient little, like, series of islands, right? So they grow all their own food there. I think that’s probably the one that probably—maybe needs the least help in some ways.
Janine: Yeah, I was gonna say that sounds like they don’t need help.
Austin: Yep.
Janine: So—
Austin: Grey Pond lives inside of caves in Sinder Karst. [Janine: Yeah.] And then Joyous Guard is a desert community, right? And so both of those I think could benefit.
Janine: Yeah. I was gonna suggest Grey Pond because the thing they do makes it feel like they would be extra stretched thin, [Austin: Yeah.] getting equipment to people.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: And I think Thisbe would probably correctly identify that as a pain point.
Austin: Sure.
Janine: Or a choke point, really, is the—everything else would recover more slowly if they’re not doing well.
Austin: Able to do their thing, yeah, totally.
Janine: Yeah. So I think the thing—I think the thing of it is that like, they have a harvest that like, is due in, right? [Austin: Mhm.] Like, of mushrooms or something. But like, they’re so pressed that they kind of don’t have—they can’t really sacrifice the people, so they’re worried, like, “is it just gonna like, rot, and then we’re not gonna have food, and then we’re gonna have a whole other”—so I think in that sort of situation, Thisbe’s like, “I’ll just harvest it all. I can just do it alone.”
Austin: “This is what I do,” yeah.
Janine: Yeah, “this is what I do, and I’m in a cave, so I don’t have to worry about being seen while I’m doing it. [Austin: Mhm.] And you guys can just focus on logistic stuff and equipment and whatever, [Austin: Mhm.] and I’ll just like, handle this.”
Austin: Love it. I want to signal that like, I already spent this thing, but again, this is why I got to advance Jack’s clock of “Uncover the Cause’s Membership” is. You’re right. You were out of sight, but all of the—everybody bouncing around all over the world, [chuckles] helping people. The signal of the thing that Asepsis warned you about, Brnine, of like, “hey, are there more people trying to pay attention to where we are?” That is a hundred percent true. I’m not advancing anything. But that is—I’m just underscoring that that is what happened fictionally here. Um, cool.
[25:07]
Ali: Can I... This doesn’t have to be a whole scene, but can I slightly piggyback onto Thisbe’s trip here to like, [Austin: Please.] bring Jesset a bottle of whiskey? [chuckles]
Austin: Love that.
Ali: Specifically because, and we—you said this in our Discord before, I don’t know that we’ve made this explicitly clear on call. [Austin: Mhm.] But the thing that happened with Grey Pond is that a bunch of those people got killed by—specifically an Affliction, but the fact that like, Jesset lost a bunch of his crew, I think, [Austin: Mhm.] is something that would sort of sit with Brnine in this moment, so.
Austin: Yeah, yeah. Jesset was at a party and then like, by the time he got back, learned that a bunch of people that he worked with had been killed by an Affliction as part of an op that they were trying to stop, you know, the Cause or the Authority from getting shit, you know? And like, cool, great. On top of feeling some sort of way about everything that happened with you, and the Blue Channel. So yes, I think that’s totally fine. So you—you and Thisbe show up here, Thisbe immediately gets to work with doing the best harvest anyone’s ever seen in these caves. And yeah, I think Jesset’s thankful for this. And is like—
Austin (as Jesset): It means a lot.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, man. That’s, uh, stuff’s tough.
Austin (as Jesset): I just wanted you to know the, um... Our rep voted no, also, I found out. About the bait thing. It was—it was split. It was split down the middle. And the general secretary tiebreaker vote, you know?
Ali (as Brnine): There was a vote?
Austin (as Jesset): Yeah. [sighs] As I understand it, every unit gets a vote. Got.
Sylvi: Um... [chuckles]
Ali (as Brnine): Uh-huh... I—
Austin (as Jesset): Which raises some questions to me, I think.
Ali (as Brnine): We would have done it. Is—is there not an avenue for me to just say that we would have done it?
Austin (as Jesset): I think your avenue is Gucci Garantine.
Ali (as Brnine): Ugh. [exhales] Yeah, yeah. Whatever, we—[stammers] we don’t have to talk about this right now. This is about your team—
Austin (as Jesset): Do you want a glass of the whiskey?
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, sure, yeah.
[Austin and Dre laugh]
Austin (as Jesset): Does Thisbe? Thisbe doesn’t drink, right.
Austin: I don’t think Thisbe drinks whiskey. Right?
[Ali chuckles]
Janine: Uh—no, no.
Dre: No time like the present, come on. [chuckles]
Austin: Okay. Listen, I don’t know. Listen, maybe—five years. I don’t know what’s changed. Um, do you leave this alone, or do you try to get more info?
Ali: In terms of the vote?
Austin: From Jesset.
Ali: Oh, no.
Austin: Yeah, in terms of like, “hey, what the fuck is going on up there?” Okay.
Keith: No?
Dre: No?
Ali: Well, no, because I think, like—
Austin: No, they’re trying to have a nice night with a friend. With someone who they have a deep connection with.
Ali: There’s that. There’s that like, Brnine specifically went there to be like, “hey, can we commiserate the fact that a bunch of your team died?
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: “And a bunch of my team didn’t die.”
Austin: Mhm.
Ali: And like, what happened was fucked up. [chuckles] I don’t want to say that it’s not fucked up. But I still think that Brnine is coming from the point that like, “if they had just been straight up with me, we would have done it.”
Austin: Right.
Ali: So like, that’s what needs to be fixed and not the, like—it’s the Figure scene again. [Austin: Mhm.] It’s like, let’s get to the place where this—the problem isn’t the problem. Right? So.
Austin: Mhm. Right. But also, we’re not having the Gucci scene this episode, so.
Ali: Sure. [giggles]
Austin: So also, Brnine is not getting to the root of the problem, because it would be awkward.
Ali: The camera is not invited. [laughs]
Austin: I see. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, great. I think that Jesset talks to you about the people who died. And it’s just like, one of those things where it’s like, it gets away from him. He doesn’t mean to. He starts by being like, “I don’t want to talk about it.” You know? Like, “let’s talk about old times, let’s talk about new stuff.” You know? What would you watch on the movie night, right? And the next thing you know, he’s like, naming people. And is like, you know. “Jezz was great. Jezz was, you know, always brought a laugh to everybody,” you know, just like, that type of shit. And deeply appreciates your company.
Ali: Nice. I get to have my cake and eat it too this episode.
Austin: Uh-huh.
[Sylvi laughs]
Austin: Alright. So that is Grey Pond unchecked. We still need Jade Kill. Sorry, Grey Pond. We still need Jade Kill and Rose River. And—
Keith: Well, someone has got two tokens burning a hole in their pocket.
Austin: That is Phrygian, isn’t it?
Keith: Yeah.
Ali: Oh, is it? Okay.
Keith: Yeah.
Ali: Oh, then we’re still gonna have an extra token around.
Keith: Are we? Who’s still got one?
Austin: We’re gonna have multiple extra tokens.
Sylvi: I’ve got one.
Ali: I still have one.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Keith: Oh. Oh, okay.
[Sylvi laughs]
Dre: Man, I could have spent my token and got a level.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: You can retroactively spend that token and get a level. I’m not going to keep you from advancing—
Sylvi: Oh, wait, really?
Austin: For—we had that scene that was—we had that scene that was like, a really good catch-all because it was Fade.
Dre: Yeah.
Ali: The movie night, yeah.
Sylvi: The movie night, yeah.
Austin: [cross] It was the one where what you do is—it was movie night. You spend a token to increase a Gravity Clock and get a point of Spotlight. That’s an easy, clean one. If someone ends up with tokens left, I’m a fan of the players, you know?
Sylvi: Yeah.
Ali: Mhm.
Sylvi: Let us load our save and then redo all the same options.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: [laughing] Exactly that.
Sylvi: Cori can put an extra XP in, yeah.
[Austin chuckles]
Ali: [chuckles] I will say that I’m eyeing Grey Pond because I wanted to do that Jesset scene, but I’ve been eyeing Rose River because that’s where the—I don’t know if the Twill are also there, but I know that Partial Palisade is there.
Austin: Partial Palisade is there. The Twill kind of have also been spread across these folks, but I think a lot of them ended up in Rose River. Rose River has the space, has the—kind of a very similar climate to what they’re used to, and to what their like, techniques will be useful for. Another reason, Janine, Thisbe, now that I think about it, Thisbe best served not there. The Twill who are there are probably doing a good job helping them with farming. You know? It’s like the thing the Twill did, so. I think definitely you were right that Grey Pond made more sense.
Keith: Um, Austin, clarify for me how this outcome works and how Grip works on Authority divisions, or divisions or—what are they called?
Austin: They’re called divisions, you got it.
Keith: Okay. So, Diadem Grav Train has 1 Grip because we—
Austin: Right. And I want to just clarify something for people listening. The way Grip is written working is like, different than the way it’s visualized in our sheets. So, we are using—sometimes we talk about Grip going up. We talk about there being 1 Grip on the Diadem Grav Train.
Keith: Right.
Austin: Really what that is, is that Authority is down to 2 Grip.
Keith: Okay, so it’s—
Austin: But the way it’s visualized for us, it’s easier to understand it as being...
Keith: So, a more accurate way would be to fill the Grip on all of these except 2 on Bontive Valley and 2 on Diadem Grav Train.
Austin: That is right. We are—
Keith: Which is why—
Austin: We are eroding their Grip on those.
Keith: Which is why Jade Kill can fell a Pillar with zero Grip.
Austin: Yes.
Keith: It’s not they can fell a Pillar—
Austin: Yes. With—that has not been—correct, yes. Yes.
Keith: —that has not been affected, they can fell a Pillar that has been affected three times.
Austin: That is correct. They can fell a vulnerable Pillar.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: You can think about—here’s the trick. Pillars are just like main characters. You need to put three Dangers on them.
Keith: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: Right? It’s the same system, it’s just factions.
Keith: Right.
Austin: This is the—this is—Briar, shoutouts. Very clever. You know? It’s the same shit. You put three Dangers on there, three Risks on there, and then they’re vulnerable. And then you can knock them out. Right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So, yes.
Keith: Um, okay, so—I just wanted to make sure that Jade Kill wasn’t three times more powerful than I thought they were. [chuckles]
Austin: Correct. Yeah. They are not the most powerful group in the world, correct, yes.
[33:56]
Keith: Right. Okay. So, I’m gonna definitely start off with my token going to Rose River. Do we—we don’t have Rose River saying what it is they need, do we?
Austin: It is, again, they’re just very stretched thin. They have a lot of, um—
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: We didn’t come up with like, a particular thing. Again, in this case—
Keith: Well, this is a natural fit for Phrygian.
Austin: Right.
Keith: They’re scientists who wish they could stop being soldiers.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Keith: That is basically exactly what Phrygian is. So, I think that there’s not just a sort of natural kinship, but I think that it also feels like, “oh, I could maybe be effective there,” or “whatever they’re doing, maybe I can help.”
Austin: Yeah. We’ve gone back and forth a lot this season talking about where does Phrygian feel comfortable, where is, like—the Branched, where does the Branch still feel like outside versus accepted, et cetera.
Keith: Mhm, mhm.
Austin: There’s no doubt in my mind that the folks who run Rose River—or sorry, the folks who make up Rose River, find you—you do find kinship here, right? Completely overcoming whatever the broader, you know, world’s disdain for the Branched is, the bigotry and xenophobia and all that shit. I am less convinced about Veronique and Fealty specifically, because Veronique is like, so much raised in the... you know. [Keith: Yeah.] Veronique is an Elect, you know? From the Principality originally, and I think she probably still has a little bit of that in her. But the people you’re there working with certainly are happy to...
Keith: Maybe in the—one of the people in the galaxy here who might have been there besides me.
Austin: I believe—I would totally believe that Veronique and Fealty fought Branched before, in fact. Right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Again, I would leave it to Jack and Art to answer for sure, but—but yeah, I could imagine that. But I do think that in general, we’re talking about Rose River as people who, again, the combination is the people who followed Veronique and Fealty here, and then a New Earth Hegemony sleep detachment squad that is so far out of time [chuckles] that they have become kind of just like... They’re not here just to—they’re here to learn, they’re here to figure out stuff about the world and what their place is in it. Think about the sort of most melancholy moments of Morning’s Observation during Twilight Mirage. It’s a whole crew of those folks trying to put together what—trying to get back to a Tuesday. You know? And they’ve been trained to do something they don’t want to do, but they’ve also been trained to, you know, figure shit out, and so that is what they’re doing.
Keith: Mhm.
Austin: So yeah, I think you have a... What do you—what type of tasks do you help them with when you’re there?
Keith: Um...
Austin: Are you doing science shit? Are you like, serving—is this a situation where like, they’re low on researchers because their researchers keep getting called off to do science shit, and so you’re like...
Keith: Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking. I was like, “give me some math to do. Give me some chemicals to mix together.”
[Sylvi laughs]
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: “Let me drop ‘em on your skin.”
Keith: Yeah. Let me—
Janine: Phrygian heard there was a math harvest going unattended and decided to step in.
[Austin and Keith laugh]
Austin: Oh, that’s very funny.
Keith: I can show you all my... I’ll show you all my Branched math tricks that they don’t teach in Divine Principality School.
[Dre laughs]
Austin: Did you, like, realize that they don’t know Common Core or whatever, they just know—they do it long ways?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Great.
Keith: You don’t add the two digits up to 9 to get multiplications of 9 in your head?
Austin: Exactly. Yeah. “We all do that, the Branched.”
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Perfect. Alright. No longer tapped. You spent that token. Let’s keep going around, and then, Keith, if you need to spend the second one, or if no one else wants to, because they know you will—
[Sylvi laughs]
Keith: You know, I’ve got that extra token so that I can do stuff like this. That’s part of why I took it.
Austin: Sure.
Keith: But if someone decided that they wanted to use their last token to go to Jade Kill, I will find something useful to do with my token.
Austin: Oh, sorry, really quick—did we also want to have a Partial Palisade scene here? Is that part of why we—
Ali: I did, yeah.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Ali: It’s super goofy for me to just piggyback on both of these other token spends, but like, I—
Austin: Unbelievable.
Ali: I had just said that I was gonna use my token for that, so... I would like to speak to him, please.
Austin: Unbelievable. Captain—Captain’s priv—
Keith: Oh, is Partial Palisade at Rose River?
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: Oh, I didn’t realize that. Okay. I would—
Austin: Captain’s privilege, I guess.
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: I would love to talk to Partial Palisade.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, sure.
Ali: I’m power-metagaming [Austin: Extremely.] [Dre: Sure.] because I have so many NPCs I want to talk to. Anyway, yeah, Phrygian, let’s go talk to Palisade.
[38:40]
Austin: Where do you find Partial Palisade? Palisade’s at... I think Palisade’s doing what we last heard from Palisade, which was like, “I just want to help people. I just want to do—like, I don’t have magic powers anymore,” basically. Right? He’s like, “I am just a guy in a shell of a body. I have some of my knowledge.” So I think he is—you were doing the math harvest, he has been part of the regular harvest, you know?
Keith: Mhm.
Austin: Got a wheelbarrow full of shit, you know? Literally. He’s helping—not the harvest, actually. He’s helping to plant the next set of crops. He’s got a bunch of fertilizer.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): Oh, Brnine. And Phrygian, I couldn’t forget.
Ali (as Brnine): Right, yeah, hey.
Keith (as Phrygian): Both right. Yeah, hi.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): How have you been? What are you doing this way?
Keith (as Phrygian): Math harvest.
[Sylvi laughs]
Ali (as Brnine): That. Mhm.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): Math harvest... Sure. Learning new things every day. Um... Can I—
Austin: You know, taking gloves off, right? Isn’t sweating, but in my mind, if this big robot body could sweat, would be sweating, you know, from under the heat of the sun.
Keith: Doing sweating things?
Austin: Yeah. Moving wheelbarrows and shit away.
Keith: Like touching forearm to brow—oh, and I mean like, acting like someone who sweats.
[Ali chuckles]
Austin: [cross] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that whole—like, I am—yeah. This is—but isn’t doing that shit because he’s not sweating, you know? But does take the gloves off, you know, like, “okay, I’m gonna talk to you. I’m not gonna keep doing my work. That would be rude.”
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, you, uh—you got a minute? We just wanted to—I wanted to talk to you for a sec.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): Yeah, give me—
Austin: And just like, reaches over and is like—
Austin (as Partial Palisade): [shouting] I’m going to, uh—I’m gonna—[normal volume] you need ten minute? Fifteen? What do you...
Ali (as Brnine): Ten.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): Ten... [shouting] Give me fifteen. Alright.
Austin: Thumbs up.
Keith: Thumbs up.
Austin: And he like, gestures to like, a nearby, like, tent that we can all hang out under. You know, like a—not a tent, but like a—[Ali: Mhm.] you know. You know what I mean. There’s some shade, shade and iced tea and stuff.
Keith: An awning.
Austin: And water. Yeah, mhm.
Ali: I think specifically from working with Thisbe, Brnine has brought like, the opposite of like, one of those laptop, like, lap pads or whatever, just to be like, “oh, my robot is overheating. I have this like, cooling pad or whatever for them.”
Austin: Uh-huh?
Dre: Mhm?
Ali: [chuckles] ‘Cause like—so, I—
Austin: You have a cooling pad for Palisade?
Keith: You have a Chillow.
Ali: Why I’m saying this out loud is because I, in my head, thought it would be funny if Brnine was like, “oh, I want to come talk to you. Here’s this water bottle,” and then realize that they can’t—[chuckles]
Austin: They can’t—they don’t drink water. He doesn’t—yeah, it’s not...
Ali: [chuckling] They can’t give him water bottles, so.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: They had to think of this other weird thing that seems weird, but it’s very natural. [chuckles]
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvi: So normal.
Austin: Extremely normal.
Janine: I can—can I suggest something? Can I suggest what this is?
Austin: Please.
Ali: Please.
Janine: You know those like, stick-on hot and cold patches for your like, muscles?
Ali: Mhm.
Janine: What if it’s like that, but a heat sink? Like, it’s an aluminum flexible pad that you can stick on a robot when it’s overheating?
Sylvi: Ooh.
Austin: Oh, that’s very funny.
Keith: [laughs] “I brought you this heat sink.”
[Ali chuckles]
Janine: [chuckling] Yes.
Austin: Wild.
Keith: Just stick aluminum fins all over. “Here, I brought this for you.” [clicks tongue]
Ali: Well, this—this is—in a world where like, [Austin: Right.] robotic people exist, [Janine: Mhm.] this is something that you get at the bodega next to the counter.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Uh-uh.
Ali: Like you would a bottle of water. Like it is a—[laughs]
Keith: You’re right. This isn’t funny at all.
[group laughter]
Austin: Extremely normal.
Dre: That’s why people say our show isn’t funny, because we talk about doing real things like this.
[Ali laughing]
Austin: [laughing] It is why. “Oh, good. We’re doing fucking critical worldbuilding now. Can’t even have the joke. Can’t—”
[Keith and Ali laughing]
Austin: “Oh, fuckin’—supposed to—what do you—go to the space bodega and get a water cooler or whatever. No, now just regular information is lore. Cool.”
Keith: I heard PALISADE was crazy normal this week.
[Austin, Sylvi, and Dre laugh]
Ali: Hey, if it’s good enough for Tony Gilroy, it’s good enough for me. Okay?
Austin: I agree. I agree.
Ali: amorecivilizedage.net.
Austin: Shoutouts to Tony.
[Dre and Ali chuckle]
Austin: Tony Gilroy come through.
Ali: [laughs] Anyway.
Ali (as Brnine): Um, so... I, um...
Ali: And like, glancing to Phrygian.
Ali (as Brnine): I wanted to ask you something. Um...
Austin (as Partial Palisade): You seem real nervous.
[Keith and Dre laugh]
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, well, I—so... [nervous chuckle] we don’t know each other super well, but I’m the type of person that if—
Keith (as Phrygian): Who is nervous.
[Dre chuckles]
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, Phrygian’s around me a lot, this is... [nervous chuckle] Um—
[Sylvi laughs]
Ali (as Brnine): I’m the type of person who if somebody asked me the type of question I’m gonna ask you, I would either run or hit them.
[Keith laughs]
Austin (as Partial Palisade): You’re really selling me on whatever’s about to happen.
[Austin and Ali laugh]
Austin: Janine in the chat says—
[Dre and Ali laugh]
Austin: [laughing] “Brnine heard there’s an anxiety harvest they need help with.”
[Janine and Ali laugh]
Ali (as Brnine): Um, I—does—does—does—is the name—is the name Lattice familiar to you?
Austin: Fuck. That was me. That was Austin. [Ali chuckles] This is a good question. It has to be. There is a—there is a look of recognition. And, uh—oh, you know what? Sorry. Mm...
Ali: Hm? [chuckles]
Keith: Hm.
Austin: The thing that’s interest—there’s something interesting happening here. So... yeah, I think there is a look of slow recognition, and then he sits down, and he goes—
Austin (as Partial Palisade): Lattice was, um... Lattice was from somewhere else. Lattice was from... Lattice came with us when we left the fleet. Good soul. Nobel. They were a Nobel. Never heard of ‘em before. Showed up. Best as I could tell, never really fit in. But when we came to do this, Lattice came with us. I don’t remember who Lattice was with... It’s images mostly, you know? But... it was with one of the other ones.
Austin: And it’s not clear what necessar—I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know what you think he means when he says “Lattice was with one of the other ones,” but.
Ali: Sure. Um...
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, I... ran into them recently, and they mentioned you.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): When did you—that—it was thousands of years ago, how could you have run into Lattice?
Keith (as Phrygian): We ran into you.
Ali (as Brnine): Right.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): Well, I’m a special case. Someone resurrected Lattice?
Ali (as Brnine): [stammers] Um, I mean, I don’t understand the ins and outs, but they’re...
Austin (as Partial Palisade): Antiquity.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, that was another one.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): I don’t...
Ali (as Brnine): A thing that they said.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): Antiquity was a Divine, was one of the other Divines that came here with us. And Antiquity could, um... Antiquity was good with memory. You could leave a sort of—more than a message, almost like a part of yourself with Antiquity for all time. You met Antiquity?
Ali (as Brnine): I went to a theater. Do you know what the Afflictions are?
Austin: And I think maybe it hits—it must hit him first, because at this point he’s heard of the Afflictions. But it now clicks into his head, which is there are five of them. And he came here with five other Divines.
Ali: Bum-bum-bum.
Austin: And they were not like this. They were not sending invisible triceratops minotaurs to hurt people. [chuckles]
[Ali chuckles]
Austin: They did not have minions as such. And he’s like—
Austin (as Partial Palisade): On one hand, I guess I’m not alone. On the other, I guess some of my greatest collaborators are a terror to the people of this world now.
Ali (as Brnine): Wait, so—wait, hang on.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): That’s what you’re telling me.
Ali (as Brnine): So y’all—wait.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): It was me and five other Divines and the people who came with us. And we thought we could build a home for the rest of the people of the Divine Fleet to retreat to, because of how we were being harassed by and—you know, working with people from the New Earth Hegemony today is a strange thing. I remember personally, I lost people to them. But 5,000, 6,000 years, you know? Anyway, it was six of us. It was me and Antiquity and Reflection and Logic and Decisiveness and Affection. And our Excerpts.
Austin: And like, as if remembering someone, having someone brought to mind, not just one person, right, but like thinking about not just now the Divines that are now in his mind revealed to have been Afflictions now, but also just like, remembering someone and the person who brought the best out of them, you know? Remembering someone and then remembering them around someone who made them even better than what they were normally. Thinking about other people and their Excerpts, thinking about his own Excerpt from when he was—from when he was a Divine still, sets him back even further, like, leans back in the chair, crosses his arms, closes himself off.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): I don’t know that we can—I don’t—I’m gonna have to ask around about—I’m gonna... [sighs] You took all my words.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah, sorry, man. I, um, I—I just—I saw the—you know, you know, sometimes you meet people, right? And we—
Austin (as Partial Palisade): How is Lattice?
Ali (as Brnine): Well, um... It was kind of a brief conversation. They—
Austin (as Partial Palisade): Did you both get to talk to... talk to them?
Keith (as Phrygian): No, I just missed it. But from what I heard, they didn’t seem exactly like a terror.
Ali (as Brnine): No.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): Okay.
Ali (as Brnine): Just sort of standoffish, which is understandable.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): Hm.
Ali (as Brnine): I just, well—I’d like to find them again, but I just thought I’d—I thought I’d ask you about it.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): You know, I think you brought me a surprise today. I’m sorry I don’t have more to help you with.
Ali (as Brnine): No, no, I just—you know, following leads. Um...
Austin (as Partial Palisade): Uh-huh. I—you know, if you see them again, you tell them hi for me.
Ali (as Brnine): Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): [muttering] Antiquity. God damn.
Ali (as Brnine): I’m s—do you want me to—I could do the—I know they’re waiting for you out there, and if you want some time...
Austin (as Partial Palisade): No, I want to get back to work. That’s what I want to do.
Ali (as Brnine): Fair, fair.
Austin (as Partial Palisade): Thanks so much for coming by. I hope the rest of your trip here in New Oath is good. Good luck with the math harvest.
Ali (as Brnine): Right, yeah, we’re—yeah. We’ll be around, but yeah. Yeah. See you around.
Keith: Phrygian clicks in a clicky pen.
[Austin hums] [Ali chuckles]
Austin: And then like, does the like, walk past both of you, hand on both of your—one of your shoulders, pats to both of you, and then keeps on moving back into the fields.
Ali: Cool.
Austin: Mhm.
Ali: Just ruining days.
Austin: Mhm. [chuckles]
[Ali chuckles]
Austin: I know everyone’s thinking, wait, does that mean that each of the Afflictions which already has three names actually has a fourth name? And the answer is yes.
Dre: Sure, why not?
Austin: It sure does mean that.
Keith: I tell Brnine—
Keith (as Phrygian): When we’re gonna have conversations like that, you should tell me first.
[Austin laughs]
Ali (as Brnine): Oh. Right. I’m sorry.
Keith (as Phrygian): It’s okay.
Ali (as Brnine): Did you wanna...
Keith (as Phrygian): No, I just—I just... would have liked to prepare.
[Sylvi laughs]
Ali (as Brnine): Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I—you know, I’ve been—I’m kinda in my own head about this too.
Keith (as Phrygian): I saw.
Ali (as Brnine): [nervous chuckle] I mean, you remember.
Keith (as Phrygian): Remember the Affliction? Yeah.
Ali (as Brnine): Right. Yeah, the—right. The—you remember the Affliction. Right. That’s—mhm. Uh-huh.
Keith: Clueless.
Ali: Uh-huh. [chuckles]
Austin: Yeah. Uh-huh. [laughs] Good. Good, good, good.
Dre: What else is there to remember?
Ali: Mhm.
Austin: Mhm. Alright. I will untap Rose River. Done.
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Anybody else’s scene you wanna—
[Dre, Sylvi, and Keith laugh]
Austin: —you wanna grapple hook onto?
Ali: [laughs] Any other emotionally charged conversations that I wanna have while...
Austin: Mhm.
Keith: You know, I guess, in a way, this is your Command Deck scene.
Ali: Right.
Austin: It sure is.
[Keith laughs]
Ali: [laughing] It sure is. It sure is.
Austin: Yeah. Uh-huh.
Ali: Um...
Janine: If you want to just sweat into this cup, I can use that to water the new mushrooms.
[Keith and Austin laugh]
Ali: [chuckling] Come on, man.
[Sylvi, Dre, and Keith laugh]
Dre: Damn Brnine, they beating your ass in the quote retweets.
Austin: They are beating your ass in the quote retweets! Damn.
Sylvi: Bro onto nothing.
Ali: Kalar, everyone’s being really mean to me.
Austin: [laughing] Who let them cook?
Sylvi: Who let them cook?
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Alright, we still have Jade Kill.
Ali: We do have still Jade Kill. I’ll go talk to Kalar.
Austin: [chuckles] Yeah, okay.
Keith: Oh, is this your—this is your scene?
[Austin chuckles]
Ali: I mean, do you want the Spotlight? Or do you want to go...
Austin: Who wants—yeah, who wants to retroactively spend “get an extra point of Spotlight” versus who wants to get...
Keith: So I actually already took that Spotlight. So I guess there’s nothing really I could do. Because I took that Spotlight already and had my scene.
Austin: Right, sure. I’m saying you could multi—you could double dip on that shit, but it would mean giving me more flavor, you know? So.
Keith: I could—you know, I could double—I could—what I could double dip on is Hallways and Listening Posts.
Austin: [cross] Advance a clock. Hallways and Listening Posts.
Keith: To advance my—
Austin: Your good breath mode.
Keith: My good breath mode, and get my good breath—
Austin: You can complete good breath mode. Yeah. Well, you’re out here doing science anyway. I feel like in some ways, it’s sort of, you know. Yeah, fine.
Keith: Okay. Yeah. I would appreciate that, Ali.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Alright, so then, Ali, go ahead and spend your other token. Phrygian, you get good breath mode, which means you get the thing you wanted, right?
Keith: I do, yeah. I can go to my sheet right now.
Austin: Yep.
Keith: Go to Caustic Breath.
Austin: Mhm.
Keith: And take off “Messy”, and I’ll come up with a new name. It is no longer—well, I guess it’s still caustic, for other people.
Austin: [cross] I mean, it’s still caustic, but it’s—yeah, uh-huh. Maybe it’s not breath anymore. Maybe it’s—I don’t know, you think about it. You tell me what it ends up being.
Keith: [cross] Yeah, I’ll think about it.
Austin: Yeah. Okay.
[56:30]
Austin: Jade Kill, meeting up with Kalar. Kalar has—Kalar looks a little—I guess, did Kalar actually take any damage in that fight? Kalar looks—you know, some feathers are out of place, you know?
Ali: Mhm.
Austin: But big arms wide open as you arrive to give you a big hug. And is just like, you know, “Brnine, did you get the box that I sent you?” You know, like that sort of stuff, right?
Ali: I think Brnine does a really half-assed like, mouth whistle.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Ali: To be like, “I’m here,” or whatever. It was like, “just whistle if you need help,” or whatever it was.
Austin: It was “just whistle if you need help,” yeah. Uh-huh.
[Ali chuckles]
Ali (as Brnine): I need some help, buddy.
Austin (as Kalar): What do you need?
Ali (as Brnine): Oh, man. This is so fucked.
Austin (as Kalar): What? What’s so—what? Is everything alright?
Ali (as Brnine): Oh, do—did you know about the vote?
Austin (as Kalar): [sighs] I heard about the vote.
Ali (as Brnine): Sure, sure. You were on the—
Austin (as Kalar): [cross] Righteousness was furious about it.
Ali (as Brnine): You CC’d on the vote?
Austin (as Kalar): No, after. I didn’t know until after we took Carhaix.
Ali (as Brnine): Oh. So they also didn’t tell you? What the fuck?
Austin (as Kalar): It could have leaked. If they had told us that there would be a distraction... But I heard after. I do think it potentially breeds paranoia. You think you can’t trust the person you fight with, the person in the trenches with you. But I guess paranoia has a place in war.
Austin: Asepsis, plus one point Kalar.
[Ali chuckles]
Ali (as Brnine): Eh, it is what it is. What do you need?
Austin (as Kalar): [sighs heavily]
Austin: And like, gestures behind, and there—it’s just like, a bunch of buildings have been fucked up in Carhaix between them taking the city, and then the Ramondre, who’s one of the swordbearers, coming and fucking them up in an attempt to duel Kalar. And so it’s lots of like—it’s literally like, patching up holes in the sides of buildings with, you know, plaster and wood and all sorts of shit like that. Like—and it’s a big project, and you’re just like, one more body to help do that. And then I think besides that, it’s probably also dropping off food, because the—you’re so far away from everybody up here that it’s like, it can be tough to get food both—it can be tough to get food into this city that they are now occupying effectively, right?
Something that came up in the conflict turn is like, Carhaix has been a—this was not a liberatory action, right? They are occupying Carhaix. Carhaix was a city that was run by the Fabreal Duchy well before Nideo came and took it back over, right? And so like, this is a city of—there are obviously people who are happy that they were, you know, that were liberated from this, the Delegates who were effectively slaves here, very happy to have been freed. But there is definitely a sort of like, class of clerks and, you know, like kind of lesser nobles and the households of lesser nobles who believe in the Fabreal Duchy and that system of governance, because it’s just drilled into them and has been for generations, that feel like they’re under occupation by an enemy army, right?
And so I think the other thing that’s just partly here is like, there has been lots of sabotage, there has been lots of like, stuff is going missing, people are stealing munitions, people are stealing food supplies. And so just kind of re—helping to re-up on that stuff, and maybe even track down some supplies that have gone missing, you know. An extra pair of eyes and ears for a little while, Kalar is very happy to have gotten. And I think, you know, it’s while doing this stuff that Kalar comes back to the vote thing. And he goes—Kalar was he/him, right? I’m not getting this wrong, right? Kalar was like bird dad. Right?
Keith: Yes.
Sylvi: I’m pretty sure, yeah.
Ali: Mhm.
Austin: Yeah. He’s like—
Austin (as Kalar): You know the fucked up thing about the vote is the person who cast the final vote isn’t even from here. They’re from the Mirage. And that’s fine. The Mirage is under threat. The Mirage has a target on it. But... you know?
Ali (as Brnine): We’re not from here. I’m not from here.
Austin (as Kalar): No, I know. But I feel like if there’s a deciding vote, it should be—it shouldn’t be someone who hasn’t even lived with the Principality. I just—
Austin: And part of this is Kalar still has bad feelings about Divines in general, right?
[Ali hums]
Austin (as Kalar): I don’t know.
Keith: I’m not—I don’t think—I’m not here. But—
Ali: You can be. I’ve—
Austin: [laughs] You’ve been lassoed into every other—I don’t know how Phrygian turned out to be like, Brnine’s, like, first lieutenant, like, first mate on the ship—
[Keith and Ali laugh]
Sylvi: I kind of love it.
Austin: —but it’s happened. It’s so funny to me.
Ali: “Yo, Phryge.”
Sylvi: Captain ordered me to be their bestie.
[Keith, Ali, and Austin laugh]
Austin: I mean, truly—[laughs] truly sometimes you—
Dre: I will not follow orders that punish me, but I will follow orders to be bestie.
Austin: To be bestie.
Keith: I—yeah, I show up. I thought that I was here to untap the faction, but I guess Brnine got here first, and I’m gonna take my supplies that I towed here because I can fly home.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Keith (as Phrygian): Hi.
Austin (as Kalar): Phrygian.
Austin: Another big hug to you. He says and then gives you—he just does that.
Keith: “Another big hug to you.”
Austin: “Another big hug to you.”
[Sylvi laughs]
Keith: This is our—that’s—that is our, “we’re new to the Blue Channel” secret hand—not Blue Channel, Millennium Break secret handshake.
Austin: Secret—yeah. Yeah, from back in the day.
Keith: We say “another big hug for you” and we hug each other. [laughs]
Austin: [laughs] Yeah.
Keith: That’s our secret handshake.
[Sylvi laughs]
Austin: Oh, guys being dudes. Incredible. Alright, what’s—yeah.
Sylvi: Oh, dudes rock.
Keith: Okay, fast forward—
Austin: You’re gonna be the person—yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Keith (as Phrygian): I thought that the whole reason that we had to be duped was because we had someone from the Millennium Break on our ship and we didn’t trust them.
Austin: Or from the Twilight Mirage, you mean?
Keith: Oh yeah, sorry.
Keith (as Phrygian): From the Twilight Mirage and we didn’t trust them.
Austin: It was a new arrival from the Twilight Mirage, not someone who’d been vetted yet. Saffron—he doesn’t know who fucking Saffron is, right? But he’s heard this story. Like, the person who joined your ship hadn’t been vetted by everybody yet. “So we weren’t sure.” It was someone who arrived with General Mourning, you know?
Keith: So who was the deciding vote?
Ali: Wait, so we got—we got—not only were we sent a potential spy, but we were—
Austin: Well, everybody who came with that group is a potential spy, because they just arrived. Right?
Ali: Did—did—
Austin: All of General Mourning’s people, the Cause has been suspicious of, just generally speaking.
Ali: But did every faction get a new recruit? [chuckles] Like—do you see—it’s double dipping a little bit. We were double dipped?
Keith: We were double dipped is what we’re mad about.
Austin: You were double dipped.
[Ali chuckles]
Austin (as Kalar): You were double dipped. That’s fair. I don’t—to answer your question, Phrygian, it’s every group has a vote. For us—
Keith (as Phrygian): Except us.
Austin (as Kalar): No, you have a vote.
Keith (as Phrygian): We didn’t vote—we didn’t vote to use us as bait.
Austin (as Kalar): Gucci votes for Blue Channel.
Keith (as Phrygian): Did you know that?
Austin (as Kalar): Did you not?
Keith (as Phrygian): [indignant] No, Gucci’s not—isn’t on the ship. Gucci’s not doing any—the only thing Gucci does is tell us what to do.
Austin (as Kalar): Well, it’s the unit. The unit is Blue Channel. It’s more than the ship.
Ali (as Brnine): Well, yeah, it’s Millennium Break.
Austin (as Kalar): No, ‘cause Millennium Break is integrated across, but there’s you, and then Gucci has some other operatives that operate under the Blue Channel unit name, sometimes.
Keith (as Phrygian): I think that that’s a scam.
Austin (as Kalar): You didn’t know about this?
Keith (as Phrygian): No.
Austin (as Kalar): Well, in this case, my understanding is Gucci also voted to tell you, to be clear. Gucci wasn’t voting to hide it.
Keith (as Phrygian): I mean, well, that’s still—
Sylvi: Well, in that case.
Keith (as Phrygian): It’s the principle.
Austin (as Kalar): I just want to be clear.
Ali (as Brnine): I mean, we know—I mean, Gucci is our—Gucci’s our commanding officer, so.
Keith (as Phrygian): Okay, but Brnine, what percent of the effective fighting force operates on the ship under your command?
Ali (as Brnine): Of Gucci’s command?
Keith (as Phrygian): Of the Blue Channel.
Ali (as Brnine): Of—
Ali: I mean, it has to be—but like—this is like an out of character question, because like, [Austin: Uh-huh.] the nine people who are on the Blue Channel is not the majority of Gucci’s responsibility at this point, right?
Austin: Gucci—well, it’s tough, right? Because you have a very powerful Carrier, which is something that most other factions don’t have. I think what Gucci has, as the commander of the Blue Channel faction—which, she has not told you that that’s how this has been operating—[Ali exhales] is y’all as the primary asset, and then she probably has a few other guerrilla teams, right? Like, this is the thing, you’re a guerrillas unit. So that’s the other—she probably has like, some saboteurs spread across the planet that she can activate at various moments, right? You know, when you did that—do you remember going back to the beginning of the first mission, it was like, “oh, go do the—get the—turn the train tracks to a certain way,” and then someone will go get all of the supplies from the trains that go to a place they didn’t expect to go to?
Ali: Right, yeah.
Austin: Those may have been Gucci’s other Blue Channel squads, who don’t necessarily—you know? They don’t necessarily think of themselves as being part of the same unit as you, necessarily, you know?
Ali: But are they other Millennium Break people?
Austin: Yeah, they were other Millennium Break people. Mhm.
Ali: Okay.
Austin: And probably other people who are—who Gucci has approved to join up with them. Gucci’s double dipping. Gucci’s making you feel like you’re in charge, but Gucci’s in charge.
[Ali chuckles]
Austin: But Gucci’s not in charge, right? Gucci has one vote in six—
Keith: Right, Gucci has legacy diplomatic authority based on last season’s weirdness.
Austin: And also, Gucci is also, like, the advisor to Millennium Break’s actual leadership off-planet here. Like, Gucci is the primary contact for Millennium Break on the planet, and so also has that extra bit of power. Now, it’s not official. Gucci’s not making decisions for all of Millennium Break here, but Gucci is the one who calls command occasionally, you know? Or sends word back to central Millennium Break—there’s probably no central command, right? But like, to the rest of Millennium Break leadership, which is out somewhere else and not here, you know? So, yeah, Gucci’s being—Gucci’s doing Gucci things. And also—
Keith: Yeah. Brnine, when was the last time you saw Gucci besides the party that we were sent to distract us?
Austin: Gucci wasn’t at that party.
Keith: Oh, right, Gucci wasn’t at that party. I forgot.
Ali: Gucci was at—the last time I would have seen Gucci was between—right after the first mission. During that downtime, I was like, off the ship for a little bit [Austin: Mhm.] to check in at like, a Millennium Break base—or like a call base.
Austin: Did you even see Gucci there then? Or did you just get messages from her?
Ali: I think we narratively said—I mean, we could have not. Like, that scene wasn’t on...
Austin: I don’t remember. Yeah.
Ali: But like—
Austin: You got the mission, though.
Ali: We had narratively said that like, I did that to check in with her because that was just sort of like a, you know, “doing the paperwork” sort of activity that I would be doing.
Austin: Right.
Ali: But be—and then she called me afterwards to be like, “oh, while you were here, I wasn’t able to tell you this thing.”
Austin: Yes, you’re right. Yes. That did happen. So, then. It would have been after that first mission. Yeah.
Ali: Mhm.
[1:08:57]
Austin (as Kalar): Anyway, my point is, the tie-breaking vote came from some bureaucrat from the Twilight Mirage. Not even a soldier, not even a commander or a tactician.
Keith (as Phrygian): What kind of bureaucrat?
Austin (as Kalar): There’s this space station they have. It’s called the Brink. And it’s someone who used to work there, who—I don’t know how—she wound up general secretary of our little operation.
Keith: Oh, no.
Austin (as Kalar): Mustard Red.
Keith: Oh, my God.
[Ali chuckles]
Sylvi: [chuckling] Wait. Wait a sec. [laughs]
Keith: Ali?
Ali: [chuckling] Huh?
Austin: What’s up?
Ali: What? Why are you looking at me?
Keith: I don’t know. Why am I looking at you?
Ali: [laughs] Listen, I have nothing to do with this. I got a DM from Austin today—
[Austin laughs]
Keith: Oh, come on.
Ali: [laughing] —that was like, “hey, Ali, I need permission to do something pretty evil tonight.” [Austin laughs] And I said, “oh, boy.” And then, you know what?
[Sylvi laughs]
Keith: “Hey, all I did is put the cards in the deck. I didn’t deal ‘em.”
[Austin and Ali laugh]
Ali: Listen, a character had to do this thing that Austin already had happen, right?
Austin: Well, it’s just time to reveal it.
Ali: And it’s just, you look at—you look at the cards that you have in your deck.
Austin: Can you remind people who Mustard Red is?
Ali: Mustard Red is a very, um... [laughs]
Sylvi: [scoffs] Uh-huh?
Keith: You totally got me, because I was a hundred percent ready for this to be 3T.
[Ali chuckles]
Austin: Oh, no. 3T is back on one of the Quire planets.
Keith: Yeah, I had forgotten.
Austin: Under house arrest. Yeah. Mhm.
Keith: I had forgotten that that happened. So I was like, who could this be? It’s got to be 3T or something, right? No.
Austin: Mm-mm.
Ali: Mustard Red is a very, um... A community leader who is [chuckles] very involved in local politics. And [laughing] she—
Keith: Very diplomatic.
Ali: She, um... you know, was an organizer, and a fixer of things on the Brink. And through... some casual online shopping—[laughs]
[Keith laughs]
Dre: I was literally about to ask, alright, what did she do wrong? What’s wrong with her?
Keith: Oh my god.
Ali: —and then the investigation of some disappearances, quote unquote, on the Brink, at a very brief time, that ended up being sort of overblown—
[Austin laughs]
Ali: —and was completely normal and consensual, by the way—
Sylvi: Mhm, mhm, yeah.
Ali: —you know, just sort of, got a promotion, and, um, kept following her passions.
Keith: Sorry, can you tell a little bit more about the online—casual online shopping?
[Ali laughs]
Austin: First of all, what was it she was shopping for? Second of all, who was it that ended up being the broker?
Sylvi: Some details on the passions, as well?
[Keith and Ali laugh]
Dre: Mhm, mhm, mhm.
Ali: She was searching for some vintage magazines, some Twilight Mirage history. Because she’s very proud.
Keith: Yeah? Normal stuff? Normal kind of magazine?
Ali: Normal magazine [laughing] that kills people when you look at it.
[Keith laughs]
Sylvi: Oh, okay, I was going to ask if anything special happened when you read it.
Ali: It just happened to kill people, but it’s very—it’s—
Austin: [cross] Well, it’s not all of it, there’s one spread if you open—
Ali: [cross] It’s just the one page.
Sylvi: Uh-huh.
Ali: And it’s really, it’s really—you know, it really speaks to what the Twilight Mirage is capable of. And it’s—it’s art, you know?
Austin: Mhm.
Ali: And—
Janine: Me unboxing my Ring VHS tape and putting it on the shelf.
[Ali, Keith, and Austin laugh]
Austin: Who helped you get it?
Ali: Um, a wonderful little marketplace that’s just opening up called [laughs] the Divine, comma, Arbitrage.
[Keith laughs]
Ali: Very interesting name that I think also really speaks to the history of the Twilight Mirage.
Austin: True.
[Dre hums]
Ali: And, you know, we have to protect our values, and—
Austin: Hey, really quick, Ali, can you do me a favor and click on “The Authority/Divisions”, [Ali laughs] and then under the Frontier Syndicate, the second of their Pillars? Can you read me what it—just what it says?
Ali: Um, his says “the Divine, comma, Arbitrage.”
Austin: Oh.
Ali: “The immortal machine turned de facto treasure keeps the Frontier Syndicate a step ahead in all matters of commerce.”
Austin: Gotcha.
Keith: And sorry, who is that voting? On...?
Austin: Oh, Mustard Red.
Keith: Mustard Red.
Austin: For the—and so here’s—you know, you get the story from Kalar. Mustard Red was a mid-level bureaucrat a couple of years ago and seemed to always have the right answer for the situation. Seemed to be able to put people in the right places, get things—get people connected when they needed to be, find the supplies that you needed at the last minute, and bit by bit rose to prominence. It was like there was a—she went from being someone who was totally adequate, a member of Brink Proxy, someone who did a lot of help, really into surveillance, just generally was good at it.
Ali: Mhm.
Austin: And then it was like something clicked, like there was a—like she had a collaborator no one knew who helped her get the best out of herself. I wouldn’t say that she’s the Excerpt of the Divine, Arbitrage at this point, [Ali chuckles] because the Divine, Arbitrage doesn’t use terms like that.
Sylvi: [cross] You wouldn’t say that.
Austin: Those are antiquated terms, frankly.
Keith: Austin, [Austin: Yeah.] you fucking put a Palpatine in our season.
Austin: No, no.
Keith: Yes.
Ali: A Palpatine?
Austin: Palpatine doesn’t have a little robot voice in his head helping him make terrible decisions.
Sylvi: Are we sure?
Dre: Oh, that’s the only—okay, that’s your argument as to why it’s not Palpatine. [laughs]
Keith: No, no, it’s—no, it’s not—
Austin: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, oh, yeah. You’re talking about the both sides are on the—
Keith: [cross] Divine Arbitrage is the Palpatine.
Austin: Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.
[Ali chuckles]
Keith: Divine Arbitrage. And Mustard Red—
Austin: And you have no idea. Uh-huh.
Keith: Right, no. Mustard Red is the CIS.
Austin: Correct. Yes.
Keith: Right.
Austin: That is correct. The Confederate—
Sylvi: Excuse me?
Austin: The—[laughs]
Sylvi: Sorry, huh?
[Ali laughs]
Austin: Okay, Sylvi, you—Star Wars?
Keith: Yeah, have you heard of Star Wars?
Sylvi: Yeah. I—
Austin: Uh-huh. Do you know the Separatists?
Sylvi: I’ve—yeah, no, I’ve seen the original three.
Keith: You’ve seen the droids. Okay, yeah.
Sylvi: Yeah, that’s the one I’ve seen.
Austin: That’s the Confederacy of Independent Systems, or the CIS.
[Ali chuckles]
Austin: I think it’s rude, personally.
Sylvi: Anakin Skywalker coming out of a “Down with CIS” starfighter and beating up everybody.
[Austin and Ali laugh]
Austin: Anyway, um—
Ali: Mustard Red was also completely normal before she interacted with Arbitrage anyway.
Austin: And the Cult of Devotion, worth remembering.
Ali: Uh-huh.
Austin: Who Arbitrage was also working with at the time.
Ali: Yep.
Keith: Right, so is—is Mustard Red Devotion right now?
Austin: You don’t know Mustard Red. And here’s the thing, I want to be clear about something. This is very important. You might note the Bilateral Intercession has a clock that says “Uncover the Cause’s Membership”. It hasn’t filled yet. That means they don’t know. There are people—it’s not like Arbitrage is like, “alright, here’s who the members are.”
Keith: Yeah, well, Arbitrage isn’t—Arbitrage doesn’t care.
Austin: [scoffs] Arbitrage cares a lot about other things.
Keith: Well—right, Arbitrage doesn’t—it’s not—I’m not saying Arbitrage doesn’t care about anything.
Austin: Uh-huh.
Keith: Arbitrage cares about Arbitrage’s stuff.
Austin: Oh, yeah.
Keith: This war could go either way, and Arbitrage wins.
Austin: [hums] [chef’s kiss] Don’t you love the free market?
Keith: Which is the exact same thing as Palpatine!
Austin: [laughs] I like to think that the Divine, Arbitrage and Palpatine want different things.
[Ali hums]
Keith: Sure.
Austin: [cross] But that’s because I know exactly what the Divine, Arbitrage wants.
Keith: [cross] But that’s because they’re—that’s because George Lucas hasn’t heard about capitalism.
Austin: [laughs] He has, because remember, he has that interview where he talked about how Soviet filmmakers had a lot more freedom than American filmmakers because capitalism is that much worse at ruining art. He knows.
Keith: Okay, yeah, that’s fair. He’s just bad at putting that stuff more explicitly in his movies.
Austin: Yes. That is correct. Yes. Also, I think he thinks Palpatine is just a funny little wizard warlock evil man. [Keith chuckles] Right? Anyway. Yeah. So Mustard Red—and, you know, plenty of votes don’t get tied. Most votes don’t get tied. But, you know, sometimes...
Ali: W—
Austin: What’s up?
Ali: But she—so she’s voting on behalf of Mourning’s...
Austin: She’s voting on behalf of the Cause. She gets to be the tiebreaker vote in votes where there’s a tie. That’s all.
Ali: [laughing] Oh, what?
Keith: She’s the vice president.
Austin: Right. That’s correct. She doesn’t get to do—that’s all she—and otherwise, she takes notes. She puts—she helps out the agenda. [Ali: Mhm.] So like, if a bunch of people come to her, if everybody has like a thing to do today—
Ali: [cross] Oh, yeah, her—oh, her—
Austin: —she’s like, oh, “I’ll put these in the right order. That way we get to the right things in the right amount of time.”
Ali: “You know, the way that Mustard color-codes these folders, I don’t know how we’d do it without her.”
Austin: [laughs] Exactly. Ali, exactly this. Everyone—
Keith: So she acts like a secretary, but she’s actually the vice president.
Austin: Well, you know, she’s the general secretary, [chuckling] which you might read to mean the head of it. [Ali chuckles] But also maybe just a secretary generally. It’s not really clear, it doesn’t really matter, the key is she’s—everyone loves working with her. She’s very good at getting you what you need. She’s deeply connect—she’s connected to the Cult of Devotion, she understands them. She’s not like, you know, she’s not in Dim Lit—or she’s not in Violet Cove, you know?
Keith: Right.
Austin: She’s not in the Cult of Devotion. We know she did some Cult of Devotion things back on Brink proxy.
Keith: And at what point between then and now did Mustard Red become nice to work with?
Ali: [laughs] Hey!
[Keith laughs]
Austin: Oh, Arbitrage gave her lots of tips. Arbitrage is always in her ear being like—
Ali: “Download this meditation app.”
Austin: [laughing] Exactly.
Keith: “Don’t tell people about your magazine collection.”
[Ali and Austin laugh]
Austin: “You should keep that a secret.”
Ali: I think, famously, the last image that we got of her was, when she got her corner office, was putting that magazine on the, like, rack by the door.
Keith: In public?
Austin: [laughing] In public? As just like—
Ali: Yeah.
Keith: Oh my god.
[Dre and Ali laughing]
Keith: By the way, I think my favorite thing about that whole—listen to Orbital, oh my god. It’s so good.
Austin: [cross] People who haven’t listened to Orbital. If you haven’t, if you skipped the Road to PALISADE—
Keith: [cross] It’s a little season, basically.
Austin: Yes.
Keith: My favorite part about that season, maybe literally my number one favorite thing, is that we never get any insight why Mustard Red wants this magazine. Just does.
Austin: Ali just explained it.
Sylvi: It’s normal for girls.
Ali: It’s normal for girls. It’s a part of Twilight Mirage history. [Austin: Mhm.] And I think that we specifically said that there was an interview between Grand Magnificent and—
Austin: [cross] Oh, Grand Magnificent. Was it Morning’s Observation or was it—
Ali: [cross] Morning’s Observation.
Austin: Yeah, uh-huh.
Ali: Where they were interviewing—
Austin: That’s Brink history, you know? That’s—
Ali: Yeah. That’s Brink history.
Austin: Yeah. Mhm.
Ali: You have to support your values.
Austin: I need you to know how long—how badly I’ve wanted to reveal this, and haven’t had the opportunity.
[Ali chuckles]
Keith: [strained] Oh my god. Oh my god.
Sylvi: You can picture Mustard Red making like, stan TikToks about Grand Magnificent now.
[Ali chuckles]
Austin: Oh my god. Incredible. And then going to vote on sending people to die.
Sylvi: Yeah.
Austin: Yep. Alright.
Sylvi: That’s what—I think that’s what Swifties would do too in that situation, so.
[1:20:52]
Austin: So, it seems like at the end of the day the options are—I mean the options as always are whatever you want, but it seems like the big ones in terms of what y’all want to do is: go forward with the plan that the Cause has asked you to do, go open up Baseline, help them do a little revolution of their own, and that can become a sort of staging ground for the rest of the Cause in the South; or continue investigating the—your bad vibes about the Devotees, Brnine, and potentially while doing that, figure out what’s up with the Dim Liturgy—or, sorry, with Violet Cove in general. Your characters don’t necessarily know that there are 2 Grip on them from the Authority, but you were there, there were bad vibes all around. And, I don’t know, maybe it seems like you could go there and get some Figure in Bismuth replacement power source info, potentially, too. Before we wrap up, is there a strong feeling one way or the other so that we kick things off next time in one direction or the other?
Keith: Is that a clock? Is the Figure stuff a clock?
Austin: Yes, Thisbe is—Thisbe started a clock earlier—
Keith: Okay, got it.
Austin: —under the Cause faction thing, which is “find an alternate source of sustenance for the Figure in Bismuth”, tentative six, which I think is right. I think six is probably right, especially if it ends up being a specific adventure, we can just roll in with that. Feelings? Is it time to go help Figure and investigate the Violet Cove? Or is it time—and maybe, I don’t know, say screw you to Gucci? I don’t know what the vibe is on that.
Sylvi: [chuckles] I’m happy to do that. I’m happy to—Sylvi is happy to help Figure stuff.
Austin: Right. Cori needs—Cori needs to build a church, so.
Sylvi: Cori might be a little weird about not doing direct orders, but we gotta find out who she prefer—like, who’s her real captain, Brnine or Gucci?
Austin: Mhm.
[Dre hums]
Ali: Yeah, you know what? Captain’s orders. [giggles]
Austin: Ah. Is that what it is? Is it—
Sylvi: Aye, aye!
Austin: Okay.
Janine: I mean, I think it’s fair that there’s maybe a tone of like, not only did they set us up last time, we also, you know, in our downtime, did a lot of shit to help everyone else out. I wonder if there’s just a tone of like, we need some us time—like, not us time, but like, we have earned a little bit of slack to pursue something that is not directly handed down by the Cause, right? Like, I don’t know—yeah, I don’t know if it’s necessarily rebellion to Gucci’s orders, but like, I—that feels appropriate. I don’t know the way to frame that in character, I don’t know—I don’t—my first thought was like, maybe Gucci cuts slack, and I was like, nah, fuck that. [Ali chuckles] That’s—like, maybe she’s not as harsh about doing the thing, but it still should be like, an internal decision of “no, we gotta—let’s handle this. Let’s handle this now.”
Austin: I’m gonna do the thing I always do before we wrap up here, which is I’m gonna say, okay, I like this. The world will move on without you. Things will continue to happen. Not being sent to go help Baseline means there will be repercussions from that, in the same way that not going to deal with the stuff at Violet Cove. Like, there is no safe move here. You’re picking where you want to put your attention, but I’m being the honest GM that I am when I say, when they look for you for support and you’re not there, there will be consequences to that, regardless of what Gucci might think. You know? There will be worldly consequences.
Janine: It’s repercussions all the way down, baby.
Austin: It sure is.
[Sylvi laughs]
[Music Outro - “Nothing is Stationary” by Jack de Quidt begins]