Transcriber: Anton [Discord: Snap#1667] [0:00:00-0:9:00]
cole @themostmagicole [0:09:00-finish]
Austin: Welcome to Live at the Table, an actual play podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterisation and fun interaction between good friends... who are talking to each other live in front of an internet web chat… client. Uh [laughs] I am your host Austin Walker—
Keith [crosstalk]: So you’re saying it’s not Live[1] at the Table.
Austin: It is not Live at the… [in a dramatic voice] Live-
Keith: It’s not Live at the Table…?
Austin: I guess it could be Live at the Table. I feel like we should say Live at the table for, like, when we have guests or something. Like they can come Live at the table.
Keith: They can come, well—
Janine [crosstalk]: That sounds like we’re kidnapping them?
Keith [continuing]: I’ve never had a guest and been like, “You can live here.”
Austin: Well don’t…
Janine: Yeah… [Keith laughs]
Austin: Well, they’re very good guests, Janine. Y’know.
Janine [quietly]: Okay. [laughs]
Keith: Okay, that’s fair. Yeah, if you have a good guest you can kidnap them.
Austin: Oh man, people don’t know what the clap is for. So, let me just show you real quick, the clap—
Keith: People don’t know what the clap is for?
Austin: Well, how would they know? So—
Keith: We’ve been doing it for so long.
Austin: Ok, but look. So here’s Audacity—
Janine [quietly]: We’ve never explained it.
Austin: This is audacity, and if I clap— I’m gonna clap again, ready?
[Austin claps]
Austin: So that produces that affect right there that little… big line. That is where I clapped, and if you line those three up exactly, that should produce the— it should, like, line you up basically exactly, if everybody claps at the same time. And it’s especially useful if you also have an OBS file where you can just line it up with the sounds. Um… [pause] Okay, that’s... I’m gonna go back to actually the game. Bop! Okay! [Janine chuckles] So, I’m Austin Walker, your host. You can find me on twitter @austin_walker. Also joining me, Janine Hawkins.
Janine: Hi, I’m Janine Hawkins. I’m @bleatingheart on twitter.
Austin: And Keith J. Carberry.
Keith: Hi, my name is Keith J. Carberry. You can find me on twitter @keithjcarberry. You can find the letsplays that I do at youtube.com/runbutton.
Austin: And today we’re gonna be playing Downfall, uh, a new game that I have not played ever. I don’t think any of us have played this— this game.
Keith: No, I hadn’t even heard about it until yesterday.
Austin: It is by Carolyn Hobbs or Caroline Hobbs, who— [chuckles] who could say? Caroline Caroline, always always a mystery.[2] And, it is a game about building a society and then struggling... [laughs] kinda futilely, but Heroically, to save it as it falls apart due to a terrible flaw. I’m gonna just jump into it because I think that it’s a cool… it’s a cool thing because a lot of the text here is really good about explaining the concept of the game as you set it up. So.
Austin [reading from the book]: “Downfall is a collaborative roleplaying game for three people. The game takes 2-4 hours to play. During play you will create a fictional society together then play out its destruction. The object of the game is to find out how our society collapses and to make its downfall tragic, beautiful and meaningful. Together we’ll create a rich world, play characters struggling amidst the growing chaos, and witness the self-destruction of our home.”
Austin [smiling]: Nice and happy!
Austin [continues reading]: “The game is designed to be played from scratch: you don’t need to prepare any plot or character materials beforehand. Simply gather the following items: one copy of each character sheet, seven index cards, a pen or pencil for each player.”
Austin: I need to download those character sheets really quick. [sound of typing]
Keith: It, now it does sound super depressing until you’re like: ‘Wow, only one flaw at the root of your society?’ [Austin and Janine laugh] That’s a dream.
Austin: That’s all, no big deal. Okay, I’m gonna pull these… these sheets down really quick, from the old web. Here they are. I’m just gonna toss them over here so you can see what their deal is, and we’ll fill those out together. I just need to export them… whoops, I didn’t need to open up a second one of those. C’mon. Does somebody else want to keep reading this while I set up the character sheets? I’m on page… seven of this book.
Janine: Oh! Ah, I was on page… ten.
Austin [chuckling slightly]: No worries.
Janine: N- [laughs]. Ah, which section are we on?
Austin: I just finished- I’m at “What you Need.”
Janine: Okay.
Janine: [reading from the book], “What you Need. The game is designed to be played from scratch: you don’t need to prepare any plot or character materials beforehand. Simply gather the following items: one copy of each character sheet, seven index cards, a pen or a pencil for each player.”
Janine: Ah, “It’s best to have—” Sorry,
Janine: [returning to previous header in book], “Facilitating a Game. It’s best to have read the rules before playing for the first time. The text is laid out so-”
Austin [crosstalk]: We’ve done that. We definitely did that.
Janine [laughing]: We did.
Keith [quietly]: Yep.
Janine [resuming reading]: “The text is laid out so that it should be easy to flip through the book to remind yourself of the next step when you’re teaching a game.” [increasing in speed and mumbling over the course] “Each section has an overview of information, and there’s a quick reference to all the rules on page seventy.”
[Pause. Sound of Austin typing]
Austin: You can keep going. [Keith coughs quietly]
Janine [laughing slightly]: Uh, the next things big.
Austin [crosstalk]: Uh-huh? [Keith laughs]
Austin [crosstalk]: I’m still s—
Keith [crosstalk]: We can switch off. Janine, do you wanna switch off?
Janine [laughing a little]: Sure.
Keith: Ok, “Over—”
Janine [crosstalk]: I haven’t been a teacher for a while, so I’m not good at this anymore. [Austin laughs]
Keith [Reading]: “Overview: Creation. Our game is set in the Haven, a flourishing society that is ultimately destined to fall. The cause of this destruction is The Flaw: it is a human trait that we’ll see expressed in the culture of our haven, and it is the philosophical foundation upon which the Haven was built. The Flaw is the core theme of our game.”
[continues reading]: “We’ll craft our home by selecting elements, which are ideas we’ll take as inspirational to help—” Or, “as inspiration to help make a unique world. Once we’ve established the physical details of the Haven, we’ll create society’s traditions. Traditions are the practices and beliefs that define our Haven’s culture. They embody The Flaw. Traditions seem benign at the onset, but during play we’ll gradually twist them into sources of corruption within the Haven. With these few simple steps, we’ll have created a whole society together, complete with a rich physical description, and an interesting and detailed culture. If you don’t want to build a se—”
Keith: Oh, we’re— We…
Keith [continues reading]: “If you don’t want to build a setting from scratch, or you want to work within a specific genre, you can use one of the guides at the back of the book.”
Keith: We’re not doing that. We’re doing—
Austin [crosstalk]: Oh, we’re deffo— we’re deffo starting from scratch. Right?
Janine [crosstalk]: Mm-hmm.
Keith [crosstalk]: We’re deffo doing it from scratch.
Austin: I thought about looking at one of the guides.
Keith [crosstalk]: That looks like the most fun part, too.
Austin [crosstalk]: Yeah, it seems really fun.
Keith [crosstalk, quietly]: Like, for me, anyway.
Austin [crosstalk, continued] I’m very excited to build our own— our own thing that we’ll destroy.
Janine: The guides are interesting, but like, they seem like they are most helpful when you aren’t confident in your ability to string things together. Like, there’s... there’s a thing we get to do that involves picking things, um… secretly?
Austin: Mmhmm.
Janine: And I could totally see a situation where a group would pick things and then not know how to connect those things.
Austin: Right. Right, right, right.
Janine: Like, those sort of modules give you, like, themed sets of things that are sort’ve cohesive within their settings— [overlapped] So, I can understand that if you want to—
Austin [crosstalk]: So, that if you had to—
Janine [answering Austin]: Yeah. If you want it to fit. You’re still building your thing in those. But—
Austin: Totally.
Keith [crosstalk, quietly]: Yeah, we’re all—
Janine: That’s usually a thing we’re pretty ok with.
Keith: Yeah. Um…
Austin: Sorry, there’s one more sheet I need to— to grab. You can keep going Keith.
Keith: Sure! Uh…
Keith [reading]: “Define The Flaw. At the root of our society is The Flaw: a human failing that will cause our self-destruction. The Flaw is a social trait that most people in our society believe is beneficial. Our culture was built on the flaw but ultimately the flaw will cause our downfall. Choose the flaw together then discuss what it means. The Flaw will be the theme of the game, so we should choose one that interests everyone. We should discuss the flaw enough that we all agree on its definition. Write The Flaw in the center of an index card. Save space above and below it. We will describe how The Flaw manifests itself within the society in a later step.”
Keith: Uhh, they have example Flaws of,
Keith [reading]: “Ambition, classism, cowardice, distrust, greed, jealousy, loyalty, materialism, nationalism, perfectionism, pride, racism, selfishness, sexism and vanity.”
Keith [crosstalk]: Uh—
Austin [crosstalk]: What are— So, we can actually have that conversation right now.
Keith [crosstalk]: Yeah.
Austin: Is there any— is there one there that speaks to us? Or do we wanna do our own one separate from those? Or any... any ideas?
[short pause]
Janine: Umm…
Keith: I… I like the ones from this list—
Austin [crosstalk]: They’re pretty good.
Keith: —that—
Janine [crosstalk]: Yeah…
Keith [crosstalk] Yeah. Yes. Sorry, ah, that was half of a sentence.
Austin: Sorry, I should not have cut you off.
Keith: [laughing] That’s ok. I like the ones from this list that, like, can be passed off easily as a seemingly good thing.
Austin: Right, like, you have to work—
Janine [crosstalk]: Yeah.
Keith [crosstalk]: ‘Ambition’ is one—
Austin [crosstalk]: Right, you have to work for sexism—
Keith [crosstalk]: ‘Ambition’ is one where… Yes, exactly.
Austin: —to be good.
Keith: Um… it’s hard— Yeah, it’s hard to do like, “Hey, I’m the Pillar. I’m one of the three characters which we’ll get to—”
Austin [crosstalk]: Mhmm.
Keith [continuing]: “And uhh… I basically don’t mind that our society’s built on distrust, and I think that’s great.” [Austin and Janine both laugh]
Austin: I mean maybe there’s just a version of distrust that’s more interesting, like ‘secrecy’ or like ‘privacy.’ Or something.
Keith [crosstalk]: Yeah, I totally agree. I think we could—
Janine [crosstalk]: Mmm, yeah.
Keith [continuing]: If we wanted to pick something obviously bad, like ‘Racism’—
Austin [crosstalk]: Right.
Keith [continuing]: I think that we could fit— we could couch it in a different word.
Austin: Right, that would make it seem—
Keith: Like ‘Pride’ or ‘Nationalism.’
Austin [laughing]: Right like the other words that are already here. [Keith laughs away from the mic] Yes.
Janine: Yeah, that’s the thing is like, those… [sighs] Racism, sexism, classism. Those are most interesting when— to me, when they become attached to the other thing.
Austin [crosstalk]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally.
Janine [continuing]: Like, when you just say outright like: “Meh, our flaw is we think poor people suck.” Like, well, duh. It’s really h— it’s also harder to make characters [overlapped] who are, like, sympathetic to poor people—
Austin [crosstalk, laughing]: Wait. Wait. By— by: “Well, duh”... by “well, duh,” you meant that’s obviously a flaw. Not: “Duh, poor people suck.” [Janine laughs. Keith laughs away from the mic again]
Janine: Yes. Yes.
Austin: Just to be clear for the audience, listening at home.
Janine: Yes, but, like, when you attach classism to like ‘Cowardice’ or something, that’s infinitely more interesting.
Keith [crosstalk, quietly]: Mmhmm.
Austin: Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Totally. So, what do we think? Do we have one that sticks out here?
Janine: I kind of like loyalty, to be honest.
Austin: I like loyalty. [crosstalk] Loyalty’s pretty good.
Janine: [crosstalk] I’m not married to it, but—
Keith: I also like loyalty.
Austin: Okay. So—
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: So, the— what the book says is very important here is that we actually talk about what exactly we mean by loyalty. There's a— there's an actual play, like, example that the creator did. Um, and in it, they choose something that seems really obvious. I forget what like— it might be, like, materialism or something, but then they, like, take the time to be like, “Okay, well, what do we mean by that?”
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So in this case, what do we mean by loyalty? It might seem obvious, but, like, what are— what sort of examples of loyalty do we mean here?
[pause]
Keith: Uhh…
Austin: Are we talking about— are we talking about personal loyalty, national loyalty? Both? Are we talking about, like, specific oaths of— of loyalty and fealty? Or are we just talking about sort of an abstract notion that it is good to keep one's word? And— and you know what I mean? There's all sorts of— Like, there's the King Arthur style loyalty. And then there is the like, “I work the same job for my whole life” loyalty.
Janine: Mhm. Maybe like, a general sense of like, it's— it's better to stick with the familiar than to do the unfamiliar cause then it's like— then you have that element of, like, “This is my—”
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: “This has been my job for ten years. It is better than venturing off to do something new.” But you also get the like, “Well, I've known this person for ten years, and I should probably stick with them rather—”
Austin: Right. Over—
Janine: Stick with someone new, yeah.
Austin: Yes. Okay. I like that. I actually like that version a lot.
Keith: Mhm.
Austin: Alright. So what I'm going to do is I'm gonna take this weird floor here and change it to the word, “L—” It’s spelled wrong Loyola— loyalty. There we go. [Janine laughs] Okay. So,
Austin: [reading] “Together we'll create the setting for our game. The society will be exploring throughout the game will be called, the Haven. the Haven is about to be destroyed by its own failings. But now, when we create it, the Haven still seems like a healthy, thriving society. Each of us contributes an element that will inspire the setting. These elements are the foundations of the world we’ll create. Secretly choose one of the elements from the list below. Write your element on a scrap of paper, or just remember it for a moment. After we've individually chosen our elements, share them with the group. Then write them on the index card beneath the Flaw. Don't change your mind after you've seen the other elements. A surprising combination is part of the fun.
Austin: We should all just write it in the chat and just hold it until we— we’ll do a countdown, and then we'll pick. [Janine laughs]
Keith: Sure.
Austin: An important thing here is that we could go off this list. Like, we could— we could pick stuff that's not on the list here. The list is of like... like, I'd say forty things. Thirty-five to forty things. And we could create other things, but before you do that, just some notes from later in the book about what the elements should be— they should be material things. They shouldn't be abstract things. This is not the place for 'loyalty,' 'your pride,' or 'love,' or even 'art.' It is the place for like— the examples they give are, like, specifically 'music,' right? Or 'fire' or 'grass' or 'gravity.' There is some stuff in here that's a little more vague than that, like 'empire.' But even that is sort of specific. It also shouldn't be super specific. 'Trees' is here, but not 'the old tree down by the river.' So let's pick— let's— let's think about these. Colors are fine. All sorts of stuff. Hm.
Keith: Hm.
Austin: These are good words.
Janine: Yeah, I really like the examples. Like, normally I would rather like… do my own thing.
Austin: [interjecting] No, but some of these are good.
Janine: But some of these examples are real good.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: They speak to me.
Austin: Me, too.
Keith: I... I'm picking one that I didn't think I would pick.
[long pause]
Austin: I'm so torn. It's really good. Okay. Hm... I'll try to avoid the ones I think are super obvious. Sorry we’re— I’m— Ugh, this is really hard and interesting. Okay, I’ve got it. I'm good.
Janine: Mhm?
Austin: Let’s all type ours in and get ready. Are we all typed?
Janine: Mhm.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Three, two, one.
[sound of a click]
Keith: Oh, shit.
Austin: [laughs] Uh huh? Keith.
Keith: Sorry, I wrote it in the YouTube thing by accident, and I’m like, “I’m in the wrong chat.” [Austin laughs hard; Janine laughs quietly]
Austin: [still amused] Oh, that's really good.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: We chose “highway,” “swarm,” and “cave.” Those are three pretty disparate things. Uh, [reading] “Using the three—” er let me add those here really quick. “Highway,” “swarm,” and “cave.”
Austin: [reading] “Using the three elements, create the physical world and the Haven that exists within it. Brainstorm the setting together, spending a few minutes describing how each element, or their combinations, defines the world and the Haven. Make sure to use all three elements. Don't talk about the culture yet. We'll do that in the next step. Our goal is to have a short, clear description of what the Haven looks like. Something you'd be able to summarize in a few sentences.”
Austin: And their example in the book is like, they got “trees,” “ink,” and “noise,” and they ended up having, like, a really inky river and like— like, trees that make up the city. And there's just, like, the hustle and bustle and loud noise of the city. But we have “highway,” “swarm,” and “cave.” What are we thinking?
Janine: Are we dwarves or something?
Austin: [hesitant] Um… I don’t want to be dwarves.
Keith: [crosstalk, quiet] Maybe we’re gnomes.
Janine: [crosstalk] I'm trying to think— Mm. [coughs] Sorry. [Keith laughs hard, Janine laughs] I’m thinking of, like, where highway and cave coexist.
Austin: Right. Well, like… [sighs] There's— I think there's— I have two— there's two ways to do it. Alright, which is like, either the highways go through the caves, and then we are, like, dwarves by another name. Or dwarves. Or we're insect people. Like, or we are... Like, bug people comes to mind here because swarm and cave. [Janine groans lightly] Um, and also loyalty. [lightly laughs] But, or like we're bees or something?
Janine: True.
Austin: The other thing there, though, is— could be like a high and low thing, right? Like, there are highways, and then there are caves under the highways. Right? Like, there's a Mad Max version of this here.
Janine: [indistinguishable][3] highway.
Austin: Right? Where it's like, our society is a bunch of cities conne— or like, outposts connected by highways that are built in these different caves—
Keith: [crosstalk] Mhm.
Austin: —that are connected by highways. And there are swarms that— of something. Of animals, of machines, of something. Of dragons. Like, who the fuck knows? That attack across the highways. I'm very—
Janine: I kinda—
Austin: [crosstalk] They're bats. Bats is a good example from the chat.
Janine: I kind of really like the insects, like bees, kind of... thing.
Austin: So where do highways come from?
Janine: Um, I mean, your— your routes to get your pollen and shit.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: And the caves would be like, a honeycomb, that, like, little things are laid in and raised.
Austin: Okay. I like this.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Can we— Let's combine them. Let's do— let's do… cause I still— I really want there to be... I don't just want highways to be metaphorical.
Janine: Mhm.
Austin: I want there to be, like, specific routes. Like, totally bee people who live in honeycomb caves. But then, like, maybe there are other communities that are surround— like, maybe there's a central hive, and then it's connected to these exterior hives that are all in, like, eight different directions or something.
Janine: Mhm. [crosstalk] I wanna say that bees have this.
Austin: Keith just said, “Who are you guys?” Oh, good. Great.
Janine: [lightly laughs] I was gonna say I think— I— I don't know if it's bees or if it's ants that, like, have very specific paths that they communicate to each other.
Austin: [interjecting] Ants definitely do that.
Janine: [overlapped] So a highway thing does totally… work with that.
Austin: [crosstalk] Ants definitely—
Keith: [crosstalk] Also—
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Well, we’re just bug people, so like, we can be— we can be fantasy—
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: Bees dance. Bees have, like, communication dances.
Austin: Okay, cool.
Janine: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: Let's— well, let's get to the— We'll get to our— our dance in a second, I think.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Alright, so I think we have it, right? There are— there's a big central hive that is like— I'm picturing it as like— I think it's partially because the Downfall art is just a big floating castle in the sky— or, like, a big floating island— but I kind of picture it as just like, a floating hive in the sky. Do you know what I mean?
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: Yes.
Austin: Like, it's— it's... I just tried to drag it over here, and that didn't work at all. Um, there. It’s this thing. Boom. Ugh… I kind of love this. Okay. So now, next step. [thinking noises]
Austin: [reading] “Make sure you have enough of a setting to really know what the place looks like. You might want to spend a little bit of time talking about the world beyond the Haven as well.”
Austin: So, I think the Haven is just that central— that one central place. And then… Oh, like, maybe that's the thing, too, is like, it floats and... listen, bees need to land every now and then. We need to refuel. Like, there are spots between the different exterior, like, hives where you have to stop and, like, get— get your nectar or whatever. Do bees eat nectar, or do they make nectar? I always— I’m always confused by this.
Janine: They— Nectar is what they take in, I think.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: Or nectar— Wait. Maybe I'm… wrong.
Keith: Bees harvest nectar on their legs, not in their mouths.
Janine: [crosstalk] No, wait. They take in—
Austin: What do they do with the nectar?
Keith: They...
Janine: They do eat it—
Keith: —create honey.
Janine: But they also barf it?
Austin: [groans uncomfortably] They eat nectar.
Keith: I believe they— they use it to build the hive, [overlapped] and then they use it to, like, feed the larva?
Janine: [interjecting] Hang on. [continues while Keith talks] How do bees work?
Austin: [reading] “Basically, nectar provides an important energy source (carbohydrate) – it supplies a complex range of sugars, whilst pollen gives vital protein and fats.[4]” They— they get them both going on.
Janine and Keith: Okay.
Austin: I'm sure we have some bee experts in the chat here. They also make the honeycomb. Okay, uh…
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Listen, it's hard to know things about bees.
Janine: It is!
Austin: We’re adults, and I don’t have bee time.
Janine: I had to google it. And I— Yeah.
Austin: There was a time when I knew a lot about bees.
Keith: Yeah. [overlapped] I’m having a hard time—
Austin: Now I know a lot about budgets.
Janine: [incredulous] Was there?
Austin: Yeah. When I was a kid.
Keith: I'm having a hard time recalling, uh, Magic School Bus. So. [Austin and Janine laugh]
Austin: Okay,
Austin: [reading] “This isn't the end of our discussion about what our setting looks like. We should continue talking about the setting in later steps, learning more about it throughout the whole game. Traditions. the Haven was built with the Flaw at its center, and the Flaw reveals itself in our culture through traditions. Traditions are the customs, beliefs and practices that show how the flaw manifests in the society. They are something we do or believe. Traditions can describe how we interact with the Haven or even how we interact with groups or forces outside the Haven. We'll create six traditions that embody the Flaw and show us the culture of our society. And during play, we will watch as they are corrupted. Give everyone an index card.”
Austin: We're gonna use the thing that's in the bottom of my page for play order. So I'm on the left then— then Janine's in the middle, then Keith’s on the right. So I'm going to take this first card in the left. Then Janine then Keith.
Austin: [reading] “Give everyone an index card. Take turns choosing a category for the tradition you want to create from the list below. Tell the other players which category you chose and write it in small letters in the top right corner of your index card. Don't choose the same category as another player.”
Austin: So I'm going to choose... One second. I’m just gonna copy this cause it's small already. Um… There's a list here, again, of like, I'd say twenty-five categories. Um... I'm gonna choose— make the most Austin choice possible and choose “grief.” I want to make a tradition about grief. Um… so then I think— then I think you guys take— you each take a category also. [silence]
Janine: I don’t remember how to make— Okay, here we go. Uh… I'm gonna go with “naming.”
Austin: Good one.
Janine: I had to.
Austin: Uh, Keith.
Keith: I'm going to go with... “architecture.” No, that's— yeah.
Austin: Yeah, that works. Okay.
Austin: [reading] “Each player creates one tradition. We— we'll take turns creating traditions. We can go in any order. Think of a tradition related to the category you chose. Then describe the tradition and explain how it reflects the Flaw. If you can't think of a reason light embodies or exemplifies the Flaw, think of a different tradition. After you've described your tradition to the other players, write it in the top half of your index card under the category and draw a line below it. Write as few words as necessary. What you say is more important than what you write. Other players can ask questions, but they shouldn't give suggestions. Answer any question the other players have, taking your time and making sure everyone understands the tradition before moving on.”
Austin: Does anyone have a specific tradition in mind? [silence] I do. I can— I can go first if no one else wants to.
Keith: Okay.
Janine: Mhm.
Austin: I think that the… when— when anyone you are loyal to dies, you have to stop work. Or you have to stop doing anything productive for... productive or leisurely for a week. Like, the— there is— it's a thing that's just called, like, um... you know, The Remembrance, or something like that, in which you devote your— your entire life for that one week to remembering the dead individual. This is also one of those instances where, like, it says a lot about who you are actually loyal to based on your responses when someone dies. [pauses] So, yeah, it’s just like a mourning period, basically, right?
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: Okay.
Janine: I think... Oh, should we ask questions about that?
Austin: If you want to.
Janine: I don’t have any that come to mind.
Austin: If any come to mind later, I'm sure we’ll have time to fill it out.
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: Yeah. I think for naming there is a tradition kind of like, um... you know, Swedish surnames that are like... the dad's name and then, like, son or daughter after it? Like Jan's daughter?
Austin: Yeah, totally.
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: I think there's a tradition like that. I don't think it's necessarily parental... but— because bees don't really have like a parent. I mean they do, but it's, like, a weird— it's a different kind of family structure. [overlapped] But I imagine—
Austin: [crosstalk] Mm. But where do they come from then?
Janine: It would be the person who sort of— who sort of nurtures that larva or whatever to a— to a stage where it would be named, names that um... child after someone that they are loyal to. Not necessarily for family, but just like, someone.
Austin: Oh, okay.
Janine: And you can only— you can probably only do it, like, once. So it wouldn't just be like, “Oh, bee queen’s daughter,” like a million times.
Austin: Right.
Janine: You know, you'd have to— it'd be different people, different roles in your life. And then, so everyone would have a different name by virtue of that.
Austin: Cool. Uh... any other questions about that, Keith?
Keith: Uh… no, not yet.
Austin: I imagine we're bee people. Zenanon— Zenanon says, “Are they literally bees, bee people or bee-inspired?
Janine: Mhm.
Austin: I think— I think we're bee people.
Keith: Beeople.
Austin: Beeople. Yeah. Thank you. Can you write that down, Janine? Oh, you’re already doing it?
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: I'm gonna give you this line here to place.
Janine: What's the— Yeah.
Austin: Uh, Keith “architecture.”
Keith: Uh, yeah. So I think that the structure of a hive [Austin hums agreement] puts you inherently in close proximity with a lot of people.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: And so I think that you end up having this sort of... inherent loyalty to... just, like, the— the people that you are forced to live between for your whole life.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: Like... like, you start— you start off in a specific spot, and like, it's a hive, and there's not much you can do about it. And so, like, you have this de facto relationship with... these people that surround you.
Austin: Does the architecture like— is it built for that? Are there like... like, does it— does the shape of—
Keith: Yeah. I think specifically the sh— like, the way that the hive is built is like... like, “Okay, you’re— this is where you're at.” Like, there— Uh, here. Hold on. Here's the— here's an important thing to note. I am not a hive expert. I don't know a lot about how beehives are made.
Austin: That’s fine.
Keith: But I imagine that the outer ring is a bunch of bee homes.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: And then you have to like, basically, like— and level, like, top to bottom, also. So, left to right and top to bottom. And then the inside is like... there's— there's more moving room.
Austin: Oh, I see what you're saying. Okay, in my mind. I thought I've got denser and denser. I didn't understand that. So you—
Keith: Yeah. So I'm— I'm like— Above and below you and to your left and to your right are basically big open air neighbors.
Austin: Gotcha.
Keith: That are just there for always.
Austin: Okay. Yeah, alright. I like it. Any questions about that, Janine?
Janine: Hm, I don’t think so. Nothing comes to mind.
Austin: Okay. So then, yeah, write it down. Keith.
Austin: [reading] “Next, we will create a symbol for each tradition. A symbol is a person, place or thing that's emblematic of the tradition. Symbols give us additional information about the tradition and provide a tangible way to show the tradition in play. Symbols can be objects, tools, icons, locations, emblems, people, etc.. For example, a white flag is emblematic of surrender. Rings represent marriage. The office of the President is a symbol of executive power, etc. Symbols can be general, ‘trees’ or a specific, ‘the elder tree.’ Pass your index card to the left and add a symbol to the tradition you received. Describe the symbol and then write it on the bottom of the card. You can also draw a picture of your symbol if you want to. Other players can ask questions to get more details about the symbol.”
Austin: So that means, Keith, you will come up with a symbol for the “week long mourning.” Janine, you will come up with a symbol for the “close quarters neighbors.” And then I will come up with a symbol for “naming.”
Keith: So we're doing a symbol and then like, a description? Like, why is this the symbol?
Austin: You don't have to write the description. You just have to come up with the— So, like, their example is—
Keith: [crosstalk, quietly] Oh, got it. Yeah.
Austin: Their example is: [reading] “Relationships. People proclaim love in the forbidden grove.” And then the symbol for that is “Black leaf, kept by the couple as proof,” and a little drawing of a black leaf.
Keith: And then it's sort of uh... [indistinguishable talking]
Austin: So, I'm gonna do the naming one. Janine, you'll do architecture, and Keith will do grief.
Janine: Mhm. Do we put this on that same cue card?
Austin: Yep.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: That's a— that's a... Okay.
Keith: What's up? [Austin and Janine laugh]
Austin: That's a “P”...
Keith: That's not— it’s not— I’m not done yet. Listen, I'm not an artist.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: That's an empty cup… is what it’s supposed to be.
Austin: Oh, Okay.
Keith: I don't like the color, but... I want to redo it in a better color. That's— [Austin sneezes] The default color was bad.
Austin: Excuse me.
Keith: [quietly] And then how do I erase…?
Janine: [quietly] Oop.
Keith: Oh, you found a little picture. That's way more impressive.
Austin: Boom. Boom, cheated. I'm a cheater.
Keith: God, you're a real cheater. How do I erase something? I just want to redraw this. But with—
Austin: Oh, I got you. [clicking sounds, a siren, and a long pause]
Keith: No, that’s not a circle.
Austin: Oop, there we go. So mine is just the name scrolls. There are scrolls that have all of the names— all of the names on them. And there's like, a keeper of the name scrolls. And on paper, this is just like, “Oh, yeah. This is how you know who is named what.” It also is a— it is also a reference of everyone's living loyalties. Right? It is— it is a way to track exactly who named what— named who after who. And so, you can kind of build a complex Big Data style, like, web of relationships. And I think that these scrolls are under lock and key. They are protected by force of violence. But they are also— you know, you kind of work your way through the bee-ureaucracy to get access to them if you need them for something.
Janine: Did you say bee-ureaucracy?
Austin: [quietly] I plead the fifth. [Keith and Janine laugh]
Janine: Mother fucker.
Austin: Thank you. Bee-g Data. Uh huh.
Janine: The symbol that I picked for the close quarters kind of neighbors is that sunflower seeds are given for housewarming, but also probably, like, celebrations that you would have neighbors over for.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Like, bee cookouts. You probably bring sunflower seeds. They don't eat the sunflower seeds cause bees don't eat seeds. I made sure to be clear about that. They’re just— it’s just a gift.
Austin: Okay. [laughs lightly] I see that.
Keith: I cannot make this smaller.
Austin: I got you.
Keith: Thank you.
Austin: I got it, I got it, I got it. I already— I fixed it. I got it. You're good. Don't worry about it, bud.
Keith: Okay, great.
Austin: Boom, you’re good. Um, Cool. So,
Austin: [reading] “Step four, repeat. We each create another tradition. This time we pass our creations to the right and add a symbol. In the end, there should be a total of six completed traditions. You can pick a category that was already used in the first round. Just don't choose the same category someone else chose this around.”
Austin: So again—
Keith: I didn't go for that last one, so I just wanna be clear that the empty cup is—
Austin: Oh, sorry.
Keith: You leave out cups for the people that were loyal to the person who has died, not a cup for the person.
Austin: Oh, interesting.
Janine: Oh.
Keith: So you have the people from their past that have already passed.
Austin: Alright. So wait, say that again. You leave it out for...
Keith: So when someone— when someone dies, you bring cups to the table for people that would have gone were they still alive.
Austin: I see. So you leave out the cup. I got you.
Janine: Oh, like my dad’s loyal to—
Austin: Right. Right, right, right.
Janine: —to Beter[5]. Bee-ter. That— Names— [amused] We need to figure out being names.
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: I don’t have big bee fun names.
Keith: So if I die, and then in two years, my sister died, there'd be a cup for me at my sister’s week of mourning.
Austin: Right. I'm gonna make it— I'm just— I'm just—
Janine: That’s cute I like that.
Austin: I'm just changing it up just a little bit. So it says, “Empty cup, left out for the loyal friends that have already passed and cannot attend.”
Keith: got it.
Austin: Just to— just to make it super, super duper clear. Okay. I really love that a lot. Alright, let's go back to the categories. Um... let's go in reverse order for picking these. So, Keith, you can pick one first.
Keith: Sure. Um… let's do... Hm...[ [long pause; clicking and typing noises ] It's tough. This is a tough one. [Austin laughs lightly] I'm trying to pull— Here's the thing. I'm trying to pull myself out of... “these are bees.”
Austin: Yes,
Keith: I'm trying to pull myself out of like, they’re bee... they're hu— they're half-man shaped bees that just do bee things.
Austin: Right. No, they're people. These are— these are people who happen to be bees.
Keith: They’re people.
Austin: Yes.
Keith: Happen— You're right. Yeah. So I'm trying to pull myself out of like, “Oh. it’s just a bunch of [???] hanging out in the hive.
Austin: Right, no.
Keith: So let's do, um... Let's do “justice.”
Austin: That's a good one. Janine?
Janine: Uh… I'm gonna do... fashion.
Austin: And I'm gonna do government work. Oop, oh, yeah. We can do that way.
Keith: Oh, I was just goin’—
Austin: Yeah, that’s fine. Totally fine.
Keith: Although if we want to have these lined up with the names, like, that's fine with me, too.
Austin: Yeah, let's do that. Just so I can have my head straight around it.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So that we can stay left, right— left, middle, right. Do you want me to drag justice over?
Keith: I got it.
Austin: Okay… Hm. Okay, so…
Keith: My font— Why do I have a different font than you guys? What font—
Austin: I'm just changing it. This is, uh, Patrick Hand?
Keith: [laughing] Okay.
Austin: I think.
Keith: Patrick Hand? Who's that?
Austin: Patrick Hand is one— it’s a Season Six character. We’ll get there.
Keith: Oh, it actually is called Patrick Hand.
Austin: Yeah, I wasn't—
Keith: Okay, I thought—
Austin: That wasn't a goof.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Okay, so I think let's see... Hm... [long pause, typing sounds] So... um… the... What's the shape in the bees hive?
Janine: Hexagon?
Keith: Hex?
Austin: Hexagon? It's a hex?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Okay. Um, so that means they're from the future.
Keith: It’s, uh, hexaGONal[6]. [Austin laughs; Keith laughs away from the mic]
Austin: That dropped already, right? That— that— [lauhs lighty]
Janine: Yeah, that was in…
Keith: That did. I saw a tweet about it.
Janine: [crosstalk] That was in this week’s.
Austin: [crosstalk] Alright, good.
Keith: [crosstalk] That I was hoping to avoid by saying it on the episode.
Austin: Uh, it’s very good. I need a, um…. I need a word. One second. [typing noises] It's a— it's a hexocracy... is the government. There used to be a queen. There is not a queen anymore. Six Heroes overthrew the monarchy. There are— there are still queens who give birth to children. But, like, this hive is a collection of a bunch of other hives that have come together. And so there are— there are like— the queens just live their lives and produce offspring, and are— and are, you know, probably still high up in the hierarchy of culture. But there are— there were six assassins who killed the original queen of this hive and, like, overturned an oppressive system of government in which there were, like, very harsh stratifications of class. And now everyone can trace back their loyalty and their name to one of those six.
And it's like the six— it's kind of like the six assassins all became one branch of the government, right? So there is like, “This side is the— is like—” Er, not one side, but they each take on one part of the duty of society. So, like, “Here is the military branch. Here is the... you know, medical leader.” Blah, blah, blah. We'll figure out what those are. [lightly laughs; followed by a long silence] Yeah, the “Hexumverate” is pretty good. I like the Hexumverate. Goingnowherelikeme says, the Hexumverate. Yeah. Boom. Done. Anybody else have their thing?
Janine: I have. Uh... okay so... people may or may not know this: beeswax is a pretty popular ingredient in cosmetics, especially if you do stuff homemade. It’s like— I think it's cause it's like a good way to suspend the actually beneficial stuff in there.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Mostly. And I think there is a practice of saving the wax, like, plug from the top of your little bee baby package... bundle... thing. You save that, and that becomes— and that's like, you know, that was put there by the person who was sort of taking care of you and whatever. That was made by them for you.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: So I think there's a practice of keeping that plug and then using it for, like, special occasion cosmetics.
Austin: That's interesting.
Keith: That's cool. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. So what do you mean by special occasion? Like, what counts as a special occasion in this culture?
Janine: I mean cause you have a limited— like, you only have one wax plug. [crosstalk] For each person.
Austin: Right, right, right. I get it. I get why. But like, so what? I just want to know what counts as a special occasion. Is it the same stuff that we would think of a special occasions?
Janine: I mean, probably. Like.. the things you would want to celebrate. Like, “Oh, you're— you've got a new member in your household. Or you... finished bee school?”
Austin: Yeah. You got— I got ya. [Keith laughs] Yep, mhm.
Janine: [amused] Bee prom, someone says in the chat.
Austin: Yeah. Bee prom. Love bee prom. [Janine laughs] Ugh. [silence] Keith, can I have one of the divisions here be justice? I don't want to take that. Like, just be one of the leaders is... hm.
Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure.
Austin: Okay, cool. Oop, that's not what I wanted. Fuck. [typing noises] So what's your thing, Keith?
Keith: Um, [clears throat] so uh… I think that there is a practice... Um, there's a practice in... sort of the justice system of, like, when somebody commits a crime, you have to... have… like— you have to have the— you have to have— people have— people volunteer themselves to, like, come up and say whether or not they're basically, like, disowning you.
Austin: Ooo, brutal.
Keith: And explain why. Like, as...and from small crimes to, like, high— Like, I imagine there's traffic courts where they go like, “Okay, and is anybody disowning this bee guy?” And no one is there to do anything cause it's like, “Ah, whatever.”
Austin: Right.
Keith: Or like, no one even show— no one even shows up to say, “Oh, I'm not disowning this person.” Cause it's like, “Who cares?” But then you have, you know, murder trials or whatever where you've got like—
Austin: Do you need some—
Keith: —families split over—
Austin: Right.
Keith: —lines of like, “Well, no, I'm not.” Or like, “Well, yeah, obviously I am.”
Austin: Is this a thing where you need— Is that like, the yes or no? Like, is who vouches for you? Like is it, “guilty, not guilty” based on… Is it democratic or is it…?
Keith: I consider that and then thought better of it. But I am also not opposed to it, if that's, like, something that we want to explore.
Austin: Well, I just want to know what the— what the result is. Like, is this just a situation where it's like… [sighs] Like, we think about going back all the way to Nacre in Hieron, we had the bit where it was like—
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: —the judge obviously gets a vote, basically. But then the jury is just the citizens of the city? And I don't know if it— Is that the same thing as this? Where like, the... the people who come forward, like, actually matter in terms of the... like, having a specific formal voice? Or is it um— is it just—?
Keith: No, I think it's just part of the punishment.
Austin: Oh, I see.
Keith: Part of you having committed a crime is—
Austin: [crosstalk] Got you. Cool.
Keith: —that you have... you— it like— you have your family coming up and being like. “You’re not part of our family anymore.”
Austin: Got you. Do you lose parts of your name when you do that?
Keith: Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah.
Austin: Cool.
Keith: Or if you don't lose, like— I guess you can choose to not lose parts of your name. But... I guess people would fucking hate you for it. [Austin laughs lightly] Like, “We know that—”
Austin: Right.
Keith: “We know that Johnson disowned you!”
Austin: Cool. Um… so now we have to do symbols again.
Keith: [wheezes a laugh] This is so fucking dark. I weep for these people. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Austin: So this time we pass to the right to add a symbol. So, Janine, you will add one for government? I will add one for justice, and Keith will add one for fashion. [silent pause]
Keith: Wait, sorry. I spaced out. What are we doing now?
Austin: We’re doing symbols again.
Keith: [crosstalk] Oh, the symbols. Got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: [crosstalk] But you're doing one for fashion this time, Keith.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Janine's doing one for government, and I'm doing one for justice. [silent pause; typing noises] My symbol for this, Keith, is actually it's a modification of the thing I was talking about with the names.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: It's that erst is part of names. You—
Keith: Mhm.
Austin: If someone pulls their loyalty from you, you carry it in your name. It's like, if you... if you took away your loyalty for me, I would be “Austin erst Keith”. as part of my lo—
Janine: Ooo.
Keith: Oh, okay.
Austin: And that's like, it's— that's a thing that happens enough that, like, it's a common thing, but it's— so it sucks. But it also is, like, it's not the scarlet letter, but it is— it is— because it's not as spectacular as the scarlet letter, or as, like a badge, it is.... it is kind of somehow more insidious than that. Where you just naturally do the calculation in your head about a lot of people you know. And if you can't undo it, right? You might add—
Keith: Right.
Austin: You might be able to have someone else give you their loyalty to you or vise versa, but like, you're never going to be able to lose that “erst” part of your name.
Keith: Right. Yeah.
Janine: We should decide what the opposite of that is.
Keith: That doesn't get inherited, right? That's just like— it's just the one person?
Austin: Right. Maybe there— there... You mean like, uh… if you have it, right? Yeah, I guess that's like... [sighs] What do you think? [pauses for a second] It's like a possess— is it a possessive? Is it like blank of blank? In the same way that like...
Janine: Oh, you mean the— the prefects?
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I was thinking of “whist” and “erst.”
Austin: Oh, that’s interesting. Yeah, I kind of like that a lot.
Janine: The breakdown of whist probably doesn't really work out in our favor, but the sound of it and the general feel I think does.
Austin: I like it a lot. Totally. I'm just gonna write that. [typing noises] Uh, you— can you say what the government one is?
Janine: Oh, sorry. Everyone carries a hexagonal emblem with them, but the material of it varies based on your, like, loyalty proximity to the six.
Austin: Oh, interesting
Janine: So if you are like— so it's not even like government rank, but it's like, if you are close to those people, you get a real fucking fancy emblem. And if you're like, far as far I can be, it's probably made of like... wax or wood or something like that.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Or paper and, like, isn't very durable, and you have to replace it a lot cause—
Austin: Right.
Janine: —bond— you don’t have a bond with them. Your bond with them is not very durable.
Austin: Right.
Janine: Replace it a lot.
Austin: Cool. Keith, are you filling in the thing about justice, or the thing under fashion? Cause I'll do the justice one.
Keith: Fashion. Fashion.
Austin: Alright. Let me just fill this in really quick.
Keith: Oh, was I—? I was supposed to do fashion, right?
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. I just—
Keith: Okay.
Austin: I’m gonna add this thing about names to being above justice.
Keith: Okay. Every time it's so big.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: [amused] Every time I change it to a smaller size then it's so big. [lon pause with typing noises]
Austin: Just gotta get used to get ol’ Roll 20. That's all.
Keith: More like RollFunny, the way this thing works.
Austin: Great. [Keith laughs away from the mic, then Janine laughs] Oh, that’s cool. So you— Do they wear the necklaces? Say what— say what you've written, Keith, cause people who are listening later cannot hear.
Keith: Yeah. So, I said, uh… Yeah, so um…
Austin: [crosstalk] Or cannot read.
Keith: I’m thinkin’ of like, the whatever— So, when you make the cosmetics, which I assume you, like, maybe would make before the first time you mean to wear it?
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: And then you would carry it with you, sort of around your neck presenting it as like— as a symbol of like… to show important events yet to come is what I wrote.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Mm. This is gonna be the most 90s slash early 2000s thing ever. When I was, like, thirteen or something in middle school, and body glitter was big, I got this make your own body glitter kit. And it came with these little hollowed out pendants shaped like stars and hearts and stuff for you to put on a string and wear and filled with body glitter. [Austin laughs lightly] Just in case you had a body glitter emergency that you like, [laughs] immediately needed body glitter.
Keith: That’s— So I wasn't— I wasn't thinking about, like, 90s body glitter toys, but that is sort of exactly what I was thinking of.
Austin: [crosstalk] That's really good. Yeah.
Keith: Like you— okay, so you have this— you have this special cosmetic that you can only use sometimes, but, like, no one wants to let it go to waste—
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: [crosstalk] So it becomes—
Keith: —by only using it three or four times so becomes part of your fashion.
Austin: Well, the other thing here that I love is you can see somebody.... Do you keep wearing the jar after you're done with it?
Keith: Um…
Austin: Like, is there an empty jar? Does that suggest something about... someone?
Keith: I bet there's like— I bet there's both things. Like, I bet there's people that, like, take it off and be like, “I used it all. Look at how great of a life I had, I’m—”
Austin: Right.
Keith: You know, “only so old and I already used up on my cosmetics.” And then I bet there's people that like are sentimental about their little jar and keep it forever.
Austin: Right.
Janine: For people who maybe, like, judge you, if— if maybe— maybe you're like— maybe they judge you in terms of like your bar for what is a special occasion might be too low—
Austin: Exactly.
Janine: —if that thing empties out too quickly.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Exactly. I bet you it's different based on who you're talking to.
Janine: “Oh, she's a— she's a party bee.”
Austin: [laughs] Exactly.
Janine: “She was out all night.”
Austin: Well, can I actually— I mean, speaking of that, can we actually shift? So I think we've been— I've been thinking about this up until this moment right now as being vaguely medieval. Um… what if it's, like, modern? Like, what if it's like, 1890 in bee culture? Like, what if it's— or actually like, 1910? Like, what if we are in pre-jazz era?
Janine: I mean, it still totally works. Like, cosmetic—
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: There were— By the— I want to say even before the 20s— they had, like, purses with built in makeup in them. Like, you get a purse—
Austin: Totally.
Janine: —that you could put your shit in, but also there's like, “Oh, there’s, like, a lip— there's like a lip gloss flappy part on the outside of it.” [overlapped] Like, that’s totally...
Austin: [interjecting] Yeah. Or, like, I mostly just want— I kind of want the notion of— The thing that I really want to evoke is the moment in western New York where people thought, “Op, this is— this is cool. Everyone's like— everything— modernism is here. Industrialism is here. All of these allegiances aren't going to fuck us. [Janine hums agreement] We've built the Crystal Palace. Like, we've overthrown the monarchies…”
Janine: [interjecting] Also, [overlapped] they've all already got the wasp waists. So, that one’s covered.
Austin: Say that again.
Janine: I said, they've all already got the wasp waists.
Austin: Right. Exactly. Perfect. So I think it's pre— uh, to be clear, it is not 1920s. It is pre-flappers. It is pre— It is like Downton Abbey season 1, season 2. It is not— I don't think we're all the way into flappers yet. I want that feeling of like— I want that pressure of— of modernity. Not like the full on. That's my suggestion anyway. I want there to be, like, the black bee hand, basically, in this world. [pauses] Okay.
Austin: [reading] “Characters. At the center of our game is a Hero, someone willing to stand against—”
Austin: Oh, actually, no wait. This is wrong. We have to do another thing first. Which is to name the Haven.
Austin: [reading] “Finally, think of a name for the Haven together and write it on the index card above the Flaw. This name is how we refer to our society, even if the outside world calls us something different. Keep the Haven information and the traditions in the center of the table where everyone can access them easily.”
Austin: Thoughts?
Keith: Hm…
Janine: Um…
Austin: That— [Keith laughs]
Janine: I typed in “bee vocab”— cause I typed in “bee words,” and then Google was like, “Oh, six letter words containing ‘bee.’” Aand it's just like, beetle beeper.” [Austin and Keith laugh] I'm like, “No, that's not— that's not what I wanted at all.”
Keith: How about bee jargon?
Austin: Yeah, I'm looking up a lot of information about bee's right now.
Janine: I'm on a page of bee vocabulary, and their— I think— I think their definition of vocabulary is way too broad because it contains words like, “overalls.”
Austin: That's not that's not bees. That's not bees.
Janine: That's beekeepers.
Austin: Yeah, that’s not the same.
Janine: Might perhaps, maybe wear overalls one day. [Janine and Austin laugh]
Keith: I’m at bushfarms dot com slash bees— bees terms dot htm. This is a pretty—
Austin: Oh, nice.
Keith: —good list, it looks like.
Austin: Um…
Janine: I can't tell if this is actually Dutch-amd breeches or if it's supposed to be Dutchman breeches. I don't trust this website enough to believe that this is what they meant to write.
Austin: Oh, is there like a… one second. Let's see.
Janine: “Chunk.”
Austin: No.
Janine: That's again— [giggles] fuckin’ “clean.”
Austin: No. [pause]
Janine: “Bare hand.”
Keith: Oh, hold on. [reading] “Demacree. This method of swarm control that separates the queen from most of the brood within the same hive and causes—[7]”
Austin: Ooo.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Spell that.
Janine: Hm.
Keith: D-E-M-A-R-E-E. Oh, I added a c in there—
Austin: You did.
Keith: —by accident. It is demaree.
Austin: Demaree. Swarming prevention method. Oh, weird.
Keith: It's— the goal is having a two queen hive and an increased production and reduced swarming.
Janine: That's interesting because we are—
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: —sort of a multiple queens society.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I was gonna say it didn't quite fit, but then you said the other thing, and it totally fits.
Keith: Oh, yeah, I stopped— I had read the whole thing and then didn't read the whole thing to you guys. [Janine and Austin laugh]
Austin: Demaree is kind of a good name. I kind of like Demaree. It kind of has like a—
Keith: It also sounds like a name like that you— where— that— It sounds like a weird just out of the Middle Ages name.
Austin: Yeah. If you told me like—
Janine: It sounds French.
Austin: It does. Like, if you told me like—
Janine: Especially with the accents there. Like, two… two E’s with accents, and it’d be like, demaréé.
Austin: Yeah. [lightly laughs] The city of honey. Yep.
Janine: Just like, [typing] De— Ma—
Austin: Demaréé, the city of honey. This is what I'm writing.
Keith: Got it. I also like the idea that, like, all cities with these bee people are cities of honey.
Austin: Yeah, but this is the City of Honey, not a city of honey.
Keith: The City of Honey. But then, like, their Chicago is like, “We're also a city of honey.”
Austin: No, fuck that. That’s still the city in the wind. [crosstalk] I'm not visiting—
Keith: Lotta wind in the second city.
Austin: The sec— Yeah, exactly. Okay. So let's talk Heroes— er let's talk characters. And after we do characters, we'll take a break. Um, so… [thinking noises] Name the Haven; we did that.
Austin: [reading] “Overview. Characters. At the center of our game as a Hero, someone who is willing to stand against the Flaw in the face of the Haven’s coming destruction. The Hero is our main character, and through their struggles, we will see the world fall. There are many forces at work leading to the destruction of the Haven. Even as the Hero works to save the world, the Fallen—”
Austin: —who is the second character—
Austin: [reading] “—works to destroy it.”
Austin: Nope, that's wrong.
Austin: [reading] “The Fallen works to promote the very Flaw that will destroy it. the Fallen is our main antagonist, representing the people who try to strengthen and enforce the Flaw, even if it spells doom for the Haven. The society also has many average citizens who are content with life in the Flawed Haven. The Pillar is the character that represents these ordinary people. They accept the Flaw in the status quo while ignoring or apologising for the harm the Flaw does to the Haven. We will take turns playing the Hero as the Haven collapses. When you aren't playing the Hero, you're playing a supporting role as either the Fallen or the Pillar. Create the three characters together. Character creation is a collaborative process. Go for the obvious, create tight relationships, and don't worry about fleshing out the characters fully during character creation. We'll get to know them more as we play.”
Austin: So for the Hero,
Austin: [reading] “The main character of the game is called the Hero. The Hero recognizes the Haven’s coming doom and tries to prevent it. They’re our only hope, and yet they will fail. To create the Hero, discuss each of the following questions as a group and write your answers on the Hero's character sheet. Occupation. Choose one of the traditions and give the Hero a position or role in the Haven that relates to it. Rebellion. Choose a tradition that the Hero disagrees with and explain why they oppose it. This can be a different tradition from their occupation or the same one. Identity. Describe the Hero. What does the Hero look like? What is their name? The Hero wants to save the Haven. When you play the Hero, recognize and fix problems growing inside the Haven as it collapses. Fight in earnest despite your inevitable failure.”
Austin: So this is not the place where, like— the Hero through the end— through the bitter end believes in change, right? Like, that's part of the promise of this game, is you can't just play a Hero who like very quickly is like, “Opp, we can't save anything. This place sucks. I'm out.”
Keith: [laughs] “Bye!”
Austin: They— they truly believe that like this— this could work. So which tradition do you think the Hero is part of? Anyone have any good ideas?
Janine: Mm. [silence]
Keith: Um… [silence]
Austin: I have like—
Keith: I'm leaning towards either government or specifically justice. One of those two.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: I was kind of leaning fashion.
Austin: What's the— what would the job be inside of fashion?
Janine: Like, a person who specifically brews and concocts that cosmetics.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: Like, a lot of— there are a lot of cosmetic uses for beeswax in terms of like, you know, perfume people will press flowers into it, and they use it to get, like, the scent of the flowers off that way and then use the wax. And I think someone— it'd be interesting to do, like, kind of a cosmetic chemist.
Austin: Interesting. Yeah.
Janine: But there other— there are definitely a lot of other—
Austin: Is it a situation where that's a person who has access to people because they provide this service? There's like a… Like, not only are they making cosmetics through— through this, but like, they are the person who gets called in to make this special concoction of like—
Janine: Yeah, I mean [overlapped] you'd have to trust someone—
Austin: —out of the person’s wax plug.
Janine: You would have to trust someone a lot to do that, because—
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: —again, you only have that one wax plug. And, like, you don't want to fuck it up, and like, probably— probably way back when, people would just do it themselves.
Austin: Right.
Janine: But now everyone’s a little busier, and they don't necessarily— they want the—
Austin: Well, like—
Janine: They want their special occasion cosmetic to be good—
Austin: I bet—
Janine: —and not just like a Crayola crayon mixed in with beeswax.
Austin: Well, and I bet this is a person who can make it go further, right?
Janine: Mhm.
Austin: Like, “Oh yeah, they can— they can turn one night of— of wax into one week,” you know? Like, they know how to, you know, do whatever concoction—
Janine: They make the pigment really strong—
Austin: Yes.
Janine: —so that it turns out really— like, you don’t have to layer it on as much.
Austin: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Totally. That's... that's... I actually really like that. Because that's like someone who can— who has social maneuverability.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Keith, are you on board for this?
Keith: I also am on board for this. Yes.
Austin: Awesome. Cool. Alright. We're gonna need a name eventually, but for now, occupation. It's fashion, and… uh, it's like— like high society, like… uh, what's the word I'm looking for? Not— what s aesthe— aesthetician? Is that the word… that I don't know how to spell?
Janine: That’s some who, like, waxes your eyebrows and stuff.
Austin: Okay, well, then what's a— what's— like, cosm— cosmi— Like, who makes cosmetics?
Janine: Cosmetologist would be the person who puts makeup on you.
Austin: Yeah. But we're going, like, higher than that, right?
Janine: I think people who make cosmetics are usually more like chemists, or it would be called— I'm sure there's another term for it. But...
Austin: I mean we could make up a word, right? They could be a wax something; do you know what I mean? They could be like a... um…
Janine: What's the, like, fancy person word for wax?
Austin: [typing] Fancy person word for wax.
Janine: [crosstalk, amused] I feel like there’s a “V” in there or something. By the way, I have two different pictures of Victorian bee women. [giggles]
Austin: Good.
Keith: As far as I can tell, cosmetic chemist is just the— what these things are called.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: In the real human world that we live in.
Austin: [amused] Yeah, but this is a bee world.
Keith: Right. I'm just saying that's the— there's no better word that I can find.
Austin: The thing is that, like, the cosmetic chemists of our world, like, just like… [sighs] they just—
Keith: I can tell you that they can— they can make 90,000 dollars a year or more. I can tell you that.
Austin: Okay. Oh, look at that woman. [Keith and Janine laugh]
Janine: That's a bee woman.
Austin: That’s a bee woman.
Janine: Let's be clear. She’s an “A” woman. [Austin and Keith laugh at the joke]
Austin: Good. Great. [pause] Cause I want something that, like, isn't just, “Here is a person who makes this stuff,” but is also, “Here is the person who will show up and like…”
Keith: It’s— it almost has the gravity of like— of, like, someone who runs a funeral home. It's like that— not— but not in a sad way.
Right. Wait.
Keith: But where’s it’s like— you know how all the funer— all funeral homes are, like, owned by giant corporations, but they kept all the local names and all the employees to make it seem like it's a very personal thing? [overlapped] Where you’re going to—
Austin: What if it's bee-tician?
Janine: That's— We can't. We can’t keep doing the—
Austin: [crosstalk] Okay. Okay. Okay.
Janine: [crosstalk] I love them, but we can’t.
Austin: You’re— Ooo. Okay, wait. Here's one. Kirby Tandler says, “Waxwright.” And I kind of like waxwright.
Janine: Ohhh.
Keith: Oh, yeah. I like that. Yeah.
Austin: Waxwright’s super good.
Janine: That’s good. Yeah.
Austin: Waxwright’s very good.
Janine: Yeah, I like that.
Austin: High society waxwright.
Keith: It’s also— it is also... um, it also sounds like our last name, is all I was gonna say.
Austin: Um, yeah. Oh, it does. Maybe it's—
Keith: Sounds like the bee version of last name of Wayne Wright.
Austin: [amused] It does. Maybe it is also... who knows? We'll see. Step two, though, is “What tradition do they oppose? Why did they oppose it?” [long silence] Hm. [silence]
Keith: Okay. I've got something.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: I’m pitching this. I'm not married to this. They could be opposed to justice because they are making this— they're making these cosmetics for people who then are either disowned by or are forced to disown the people that they are loyal to. And so you've got like these... this group of people who are, like, no longer able to use their cosmetics because the person that they... either made it from or made it for—
Austin: Oh.
Janine: Mm.
Austin: What if it's even—
Keith: — are now “ersts.”
Austin: Yeah. What if it's even... Can I, like, jump on justice and propose a side thing?
Keith: [crosstalk] Yeah, no.
Austin: [crosstalk] What if it's—
Keith: I mean yes. Yeah.
Austin: I mean, like, what if this is... she's been conscripted to tur— to turn this thing that is cultural into something physical? Which is... she gets called in to add a dye permanently into someone's wax plug, who... once they get an ‘erst’ in their name.
Janine: Oh, so they can never use it again?
Austin: Or like— No.
Janine: Like a bright blue or something?
Austin: Right. Where they can use it, but there will— they will be walking with that bright blue forever.
Janine: Yeah. It'll be— it’ll be like 1915, and I'll be walking round with bright purple lipstick.
Austin: Right. Exactly. And— [Keith laughs in the background] And that is like... this is—
Keith: Hold on. Janine, do you know that that's the year that people had purple lipstick?
Janine: No, no. I mean, like that was when you could barely get away with wearing pink lipstick because everyone was still kind of buttoned down about stuff.
Austin: Mhm.
Keith: Oh, okay. Okay. Got it.
Janine: So purple would have been like, “Oh, you just don't want to live in this town anymore, huh?”
Austin: Right. Well, and like, this is it. Like, this is the moment that this goes from being a thing that is just background part of society. Where like, “Oh, yeah. Of course I know, you know, Jacob erst Ameel, or whatever. But like, now it's like, “Oh, no. Everyone sees— before you even know Jacob, before Jacob ever gets a chance to let you know that they're, like, an alright person, you see them and can judge them based on— based on... uh, specifically on the waxwright’s work.” You know? Like, that's the actual problem. That's, like, the double thing here.
Keith: So how does— I like this. But how does the dye work? Like, if somebody added dye to it, just don't use it.
Austin: Well, no, cause it's you're only— you only have the— it's your one jar. It's your jar.
Janine: Yeah, cause either— either you're showing— either you're showing up with bad makeup on, or you're showing up with no makeup on.
Austin: And you're carrying the jar on your neck.
Janine: Either way it's visible. Like, why wouldn't you be— And yeah, if you're carrying the jar, they can— they can see like, “Oh, you still have some of this left. Why are you— what's up?”
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: [crosstalk] “Why are you not—?”
Austin: Or like, you'll— they’ll just see that it's blue, right?
Janine: [crosstalk] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Like, they'll just see that you have a blue jar around your neck instead of the yellow or whatever the nor— the other colors are.
Keith: Can… what if I just take off my jar? And then I’ll put it on. But I have no makeup?
Austin: Then you're— Okay. Then that’s—
Janine: Then you're not wearing your jar.
Austin: Right. And then that's a whole other thing.
Janine: “Where’s your jar?”
Austin: Exactly. Like, this is the thing. Like, her... I'm now using she-her because I think somebody else did, and now I'm jumping on it. You know, the waxwrights, uh…
Keith: Well, we saw the A lady, so...
Austin: Right. We saw the— Once you saw the A lady... uh, sorry. I'm trying to figure out if Alady— Alady [ay-lah-dee], or something, can be a name. Once she— like, her entire craft has been weaponized now… to like, separate. You know?
Keith: Got it. [overlapped] Yeah, no. I’m into it.
Austin: I'm into it, too.
Janine: And like, wearing the jar is a really obvious, like, tie— like, a real obvious show that, like, you are loyal to someone and someone is loyal to you. So making that the symbol of your downfall or their downfall or something—
Austin: Right.
Janine: —is, like, incredibly… And not wearing that jar just like— just the same. Not wearing your jar is like, “Okay. So you're not loyal to anyone?” Like.
Austin: Uh huh. Mhm.
Keith: But what if you get caught with something else in your jar? You empty it out, you put something else in it. [indistinguishable words]
Austin: Right. Well, I'm sure you can get counterfeit wax, totally. Right?
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Like, I'm sure we— All of those are now things that we can think about, which is rad.
Keith: Right. No, I'm actually asking. Like, what is— what then? You get caught with counterfeit wax.
Austin: Let's— let's figure it out and play. I don't wanna answer that yet.
Keith: Alright.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Like, I think that's a good question. Uh, yeah. Awesome. Oh, the other thing there that's great is, like, it could be a situation where this is a person who has erst in their name, and it's one thing that they did wrong. One person in their life erst-ed them. And like, they still have a ton of people who are loyal to them and that they're loyal to, but all it takes is one, and suddenly you're marked Okay. What does she look like? [pause] Other than, “A” lady. [Janine giggles]
Janine: How “bee” we are we being with our bees?
Austin: You tell me. [Keith laughs]
Janine: [amused] I mean, that's dangerous. I've made some things.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: Okay. How about this? I like the idea of the Victorian silhouette bee. The rib cage, chest, sort of the “S” shape. I guess it would be the abdomen would be thrust up and forward.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: The thorax, I think, is the rear part would be sort of curved back and down. We can just keep that straight up. That's easy.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: Definitely some arms coming out of the waist... as well... right? Like— like—
Austin: [crosstalk] Oh, you’re talking about two—
Janine: [crosstalk] Two sets of arms, plus legs?
Austin: Yeah, two arms. Op, that's— Keith. Bad. [Keith cackles]
Janine: Continue. [amused] Oh my god... [Keith cackles even harder]
Austin: Go ahead and continue. It’s super bad. [Keith finishes up laughing]
Janine: Um… yeah, and… [thinking noises] I think facial features wise, maybe fairly human, but like.... slightly larger than normal eyes.
Austin: Do they have like—
Janine: Actually, no. I don't want— I don't want them fairly human cause on the forearms thing is like Goro-ish.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Janine: And that's not very dainty and bee like.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I mean, they're just like really classy, large, upright bee people.
Austin: There was that spider lady from Undertale? But bees.
Janine: Oh, yeah.
Austin: Remember her?
Janine: I didn’t— [whispers] I didn’t play Undertale.
Austin: Oh, my fucking god.
Keith: I also didn’t play Undertale yet.
Austin: Alright. Well, I'm really dope gif.
Janine: I'm not— I'm not proud of it like Keith is. I’m sad about it.
Keith: I’m not proud of it! I didn’t say I was proud. I’m just agreeing. I also— I haven't played it yet.
Austin: [quietly] I’ve left the game.
Keith: So we can’t use that as a reference point.
Austin: Well, I'm just gonna link this bee lady. Chill.
Janine: Yeah. I just— I think I've seen the spider lady, and she's cool.
Austin: The spider lady. There we go. Spider lady. Boom. Linked it, and then I’m gonna click it.
Janine: Yeah. I’m into that.
Keith: Oh.
Austin: But like, one less set of arms, right?
Janine: Um, yeah. Cause she's a spider, so that's different—
Keith: Right.
Janine: —than a bee.
Austin: There's some other good— there's some good fan art of this— of this spider lady.
Janine: I bet there's some dangerous fan art, too, so you be careful what you’re looking for.
Austin: I'm— I'm searching in a different— I’m searching in a different screen, just in case.
Janine: [amused] Okay, okay, okay.
Keith: What is this spider— what is the spider lady's name?
Austin: I don’t know. I did a search for “spider lady”...
Janine: It all just says spider lady. Spider lady by J Five.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Undertale spider.
Austin: I think—
Keith: Muffet.
Austin: Oh, Muffet.
Keith: Name’s Muffet.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Muffet.
Austin: She's good.
Janine: Yeah, I'm into it. That's a good— [overlapped] I feel like you could— [indistinguishable words]
Austin: It’s a good baseline. Yeah.
Keith: Yeah, are we doing two eyes, or are we doing compound bee eyes?
Janine: Well, bees have compound eyes, but they are just in the shape of two eyes, right? So it’d just be like two big eyes that are a bunch of little eyes—
Keith: Well—
Janine: —inside of the big eye.
Keith: —but then if they’re people sized then... they would have physical—
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: You would see the compound, like, hexes or whatever, right?
Keith: You’d see the compound.
Janine: I mean, yeah. But that doesn't look like individual eyes.
Austin: [affirming] No.
Janine: It just looks like weird... weird… mesh.
Austin: It's just like all Deus Ex in there. Yeah.
Janine: [laughs] Yeah.
Keith: It kind of looks like if your eyes were like a window screen, is sort of how it looks.
Austin: Yeah, I'm into that.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Does she have anything like... like— We've basically just described what the... culture or, like, what these people look like. What does she look like? Does she have a special style or special outfit?
Janine: She wears an apron.
Austin: Okay. Good.
Janine: Like a really nice, long, you know, Victorian sort of style apron.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: It, like, goes to the— reaches to the ends of your skirt, pretty much.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: So, like, someone in a children's book that just got done baking cookies.
Janine: [laughs lightly] Yes.
Keith: I'm looking at this, and that's what that outfit is.
Janine: You need like— Look. Have you ever gotten wax, especially colored wax, on your clothes? It's a nightmare. Even just normal makeup. [Austin laughs] Getting normal makeup on your clothes is the fucking worst. [laughs]
Austin: Janine, are you just going to make her look like Shirley Madison?
Janine: No, cause Shirley Madison is a young child.
Austin: Okay. Well, it’s—
Janine: And I imagine this bee lady as more mature, like Emma.
Austin: Okay. [Austin laughs hard]
Janine: And she has the little ruffly cap because you would want to keep your bee hair out of the makeup also.
Austin: Uh huh. Good. Great.
Janine: [laughing] I’m so sorry that Ali's not here right now.
Austin: I know. Damn. [Janine groans] Emma— Emma is a really good— For people who don't know, Emma is a really good—
Janine: I love Emma.
Austin: —manga about a.... a... She's a maid, right?
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: She starts out like— she is like an orphan who's selling oranges, and then, like, a really kind old teacher lady takes her in and trains her up to be a lady's maid, which normally would have been out of her reach.
Austin: Right. Right.
Janine: —because she was just like— Yeah.
Austin: Okay. I think that we have a good— we have a good— a lady. Six limbs. [crosstalking] Bee hair. Emma.
Janine: [crosstalk] I love that I was complaining like, “Oh, none of these things look like they could do the thing that I want to do.”
Austin: Emma.
Janine: And then we ended up with bee maids anyway, so.
Austin: From the maid mange. [Keith laughs] Boom. Got it. Okay.
Austin: [reading] “Fallen. The Fallen actively promotes the Flaw’s growth within the Haven. There are many in the Haven who support the Flaw. the Fallen is just one of them. They are an antagonist who creates challenges for the Hero throughout play. Discuss and write the following on the Fallen’s character sheet. Relationship to the Hero: What is the connection between the Fallen and the Hero? Choose one and describe it: “Family, ”Friend,” “Guardian,” “Leader,” “Lover.” Occupation: Choose a tradition and give it to the Fallen as a position or role in the Haven that relates to it. Identity: Describe the Fallen. What does the Fallen look like? What's their name? When you play the Fallen, your role is to challenge and oppose the Hero while advocating for the Flaw. While we, as players, know the Flaw is going to destroy us, the Fallen might honestly believe it won't. Alternatively, they might be fully aware of the danger and have other reasons for proceeding regardless.”
Austin: So family, friend, guardian, leader or lover?
Keith: Um… I guess if someone is making... the bee lady do... this thing, leader would not be out of the question.
Austin: Totally.
Keith: Like, if this is like a new practice.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Or a newer, at least.
Austin: It could be like the judge, or whoever, who, like, brought this practice into being.
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: Mm.
Austin: Also, I want there to be a judge.
Janine: It's a— it's a Victorian story of people falling and society crumbling, there has to be a judge.
Austin: Right, or a magistrate. Like, what's a good— An arbiter?
Janine: Oh, yeah.
Austin: One of— one of these for sure. An ar-bee-ter. [unsure] Uh, mm.
Janine: Hmm.
Keith: Do you know that there was a judge in Bee Movie—
Austin: A mag-bee-strate?
Keith: —called Judge Beeswax?
Austin: Bad. That's bad.
Keith: It is bad. No, it’s bad.
Janine: [incredulous] What a terrible name!
Keith: It’s bad, and the character design is super boring.
Janine: Did that movie have writers?
Keith: Clear— clearly not.
Austin: [laughs] Ha ha ha! Uh... let's go with— let's go with... we need a magistrate or arbiter.
Keith: Oh wait, this might be not— this might not be from—
Janine: [crosstalk] Oh, we didn’t name the— Did we ever name them?
Austin: . No, we didn't. We— she needs a name… badly.
Keith: This might not be from Bee movie.
Austin: What's her name?
Janine: Uh… I want to vote flower names, officially.
Austin: Good name.
Janine: But that’s not her name.
Austin: Flower Name. Got it. Flower Name Waxwright. Boom. [Janine laughs] Well, okay, so let's think about for real, what our… what our names work as. Because the names are— Children are named based on the loyalties of those raising them. So whoever raised her gave them a name— gave her a name based on a loyalty that the nurturer had. Right? What if her last name, or her first name, is based on whatever the Fallen’s name is? What if— what if she carries the judge's name?
Janine: Ooo.
Austin: That is, like, some classic—
Keith: [crosstalk] Real quick, I—
Janine: I was gonna say— I was gonna say, like a lot of the things we were saying about the Fallen could also apply to a guardian figure. What if it's kind of like a leader slash... not quite guardian, but like—
Austin: Yeah, something in the middle there.
Janine: Their guardian had a loyalty there, that they have to carry.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah.
Keith: I do want to issue a quick correction.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: That is not a character from Bee movie. It's a character from Maya, the Bee, which is a German book-comic series and animated television series from Germany.
Austin: Okay. Well, you know what? I really just want to say, Keith, I appreciate your, um… your—
Keith: I just don't want somebody listening and going like—
Austin: Yep.
Keith: —“No, that's Maya the Bee! That's from my favorite children's television show, comic book series and animated TV series.”
Austin: Mhm. Yeah.
Keith: So, yeah. We can get back to the show now.
Austin: I appreciate it. Uh… [long silence]
Janine: There's a flower called boneset. Is it too much to name the judge Boneset? That's… a lot. [laughs]
Austin: [in a gravelly voice] Arbiter Boneset. That's kind of good. I don't fuckin’— [Keith laughs] What's a boneset look like? Actually, I wrote—
Janine: [crosstalk] We’ll just have [???] like, Willy— Willy—
Austin: [crosstalk] I wrote bonset. Bon— bonset [boh-n-say].
Janine: Lily whist Boneset or something.
Austin: Is bon— does bonset [boh-n-say] mean anything in French? B-O-N-S-E-T.
Janine: I don't think so.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: Good... something. But.
Austin: Oh, wait. Boneset in... just—
[text-to-speech] “Bone-set.”
Austin: Wait, boneset just means botany?
Janine: No, it's a flower, isn't it?
Austin: I just did a search.
Janine: I'm just looking at a list of flowers and one of them is just called boneset.
Austin: Listen. French—
Janine: [reading] “The boneset is a wild flower that is easy to grow in most— in most soil types.”
Austin: [crosstalk] English to French translation—
Janine: [crosstalk; still reading] “Can pose a management problem.”
Austin: —dot com. E N dot B A B dot L A — enbabla[8] says that boneset means botany. [Janine groans]
[text-to-speech “Bone-set.”
Janine: What about cushion spurge?
Austin: No. [disgusted] Yuck. Mmm uh-un.
Janine: No? Okay.
Austin: Nah.
Keith: What about... hypopharyngeal gland?
Austin: That's a gland.
Keith: I'm just looking at— [Austin and Keith laugh] That is a— Yeah, it’s a gland. But the other thing is botany, so...
Austin: I just did a search for flower stuff. [long silence]
Keith: How about some of— how about like a hornet thing. Let’s see, hornet jargon.
Janine: Hyssop is good, too.
Austin: Hys— Ooo.
Janine: Hyssop sounds more like a name.
Austin: H Y S S O P?
Keith: Yeah, hyssop is pretty good.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Judge Hyssop is really good.
Keith: Yeah, I like Hyssop.
Janine: Whist Hyssop also sounds like some Dickensian bullshit, so.
Austin: Yeah. And well— And Hyssop is definitely Hyssop whist something, right?
Janine: Mhm.
Austin: Like, I want Dale, or something. What's a flower that has “dale” in the name? Like, two syllables— three syllables rather. Like, Hyssop whist da-da-dale. So four syllables.
Janine: I have never wanted Pitbull to be into, like, novelty rose breeding more than I do right now.
Austin: [laughs] Ha!! [Keith laughs, Austin sighs]
Keith: These are— I've googled “dale flower”—
Austin: [quietly] Yeah, me, too.
Keith: —and all that’s coming up is people named Dale who own flower shops.
Austin: It’s not— it's not there. It’s just not there.
Keith:It’s just not there.
Austin: I don't think there is one. I'm looking on Scrabble words, and it's just not...
Janine: Mm.
Keith: On Scrabble words?
Austin: Just like, I'm looking at a website that would— that would help me find words with “dale” in the world— in the word. Do you know what I mean?
Keith: Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Janine: I mean, daylily is almost there.
Austin: Yeah. Hyssop whist Daylily? Mm. Doesn't have it.
Janine: No.
Austin: Uh, Hyssop—
Keith: We could just reverse and call it, Dilylal. Wait. No. Dilydale. [Austin and Janine laugh]
Janine: That’s a kind of chicken.
Austin: Hyssop whist Lilydale. Um… we don't— it doesn't need to have “dale.”
Keith: Lily is fine. Let’s see the types of lily.
Austin: Hyssop whist Lily. Yeah. Hm…
Janine: Yarrow?
Austin: Hyssop whist Hops?
Keith: Hyssop whist Easter Lily.
Austin: That's good.
Janine: Whist Hops is kind of cool.
Austin: You like whist Hops? Judge Hyssop whist Hops?
Keith: [amused] Wait.
Janine: [amused] I love that!
Austin: Yeah. Done.
Keith: There is also a type of lily called a lilium superbum. Which is— [everyone laughs]
Austin: And so that makes her... “Name” whist Hyssop?
Janine: Uh…
Austin: What's her first name?
Janine: Malva? Lobelia.
Austin: Mm.
Janine: Lavender. Um…
Keith: Wait, sorry. What did we decide on the name for the judge? Final name?
Austin: Hyssop whist Hops.
Keith: Okay.
Janine: What about Holly whist Hops?
Austin: That's pretty good. I like that a lot.
Keith: Yeah, it's good.
Janine: This is a good game. I'm really happy.
Austin: [lightly laughs] Uh huh.
Keith: I like this game so far, too.
Janine: [amused] This is my shit so hard.
Austin: This is really good. Okay.
Keith: Hold on. But the next part is we have to destroy it.
Austin: Well, okay, let’s continue. One second.
Janine: Well, yeah.
Austin: So we know that this judge is obviously in “justice,” right? Like, is the person who did the thing... Justice... is the judge who enacted the... um, wax... thing. [lightly laughs] I need a break soon.
Janine: Mhm.
Austin: [typing noises] Is the name... What's the word I'm looking for? Um... I've lost all of my words. Somehow in the last two seconds, all the words disappeared. Not name inspiration. What is the stupid word I'm looking for? [Keith laughs]
Janine: What?
Keith: The, uh... I don't— I don't know what you're trying to say, so I can't help you—
Austin: Like—
Keith: —is the problem.
Austin: [sighs] The— the person who she was named for there. There's a word for just that. If you were named for something.
Keith: Namesake.
Janine: Namesake?
Austin: Namesake. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Keith: A couple of people in the chat got it before you even described what you're talking about. So good on them.
Austin: Yeah. Good on them. Namesake for Holly and the… uh... and the confidante-mentor to Holly's guardian. What does Judge Hyssop whist Hops look like? [silence]
Janine: Uh… a tall, confident bee man.
Austin: Uh huh. Good. Good so far.
Janine: Probably also— I don't know what this style was called, but there is definitely a style like... late Victorian or early Edwardian where the men were also, like, really corseted and kind of like uncomfortable looking. He probably looks really uncomfortable.
Austin: Yeah?
Janine: I don’t know. Unless—
Austin: Oh, I see what you're talking about. I think I see what you're talking about.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, I definitely think that that's true.
Janine: I kind of want him to wear a lot of like... I don't— I don't— I have— I have no idea where this idea came from—
Austin: Uh huh?
Janine: But I kind of want him to have, like, a jacket with lapels, but the lapels are covered in ruffles. Not like sideways out ruffles or like cravat ruffles, but, like, rough ruffles that are like popping out almost like a fur collar. But it's not fur, it’s ruffles.
Austin: Does he also have fur?
Keith: Are you talking about Jerry Seinfeld's puffy coat?
Janine: No.
Austin: [typing] Jerry Seinfeld’s puffy... coat or shirt?
Keith: Puffy shirt. Puffy shirt.
Austin: Puffy shirt.
Janine: No, that's a pirate shirt.
Austin: Oh, no. That's not this.
Janine: It's the opposite. That's very, like, loose and billowy.
Austin: That’s not— that’s bad. Yeah.
Janine: [crosstalk] This is like, very um… if you’ve ever seen like those— those—
Keith: [crosstalk] But like, sorry— but just the ruffles in the front.
Austin: No, no, no, no, no. That’s different.
Keith: Not that?
Janine: No, no. It's like—
Austin: No.
Janine: It's more like if you've ever seen a pair of those, like, really silly looking ruffly underpants.
Keith: Yeah. [laughs] Yes, I have seen those!
Janine: That are all— that are just like all the ruffles, but it's like— it's like that, but on his lapels only.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: [amused] Oops All Ruffles[9].
Austin: I'm looking for— But not all ruffles; just lapel ruffles.
Keith: [amused] Is the look, yeah.
Austin: [joking] Sorry. Spoilers for Twilight Mirage next episode.
Keith: Hold on. Is it like this? I have— I found something. Let's see. Copy image address. This is a real thing and not a joke. [Austin exhales] Is it like that? But for a judge bee?
Austin: No. I think it's fuzzier than that.
Janine: Oh, yeah, no. It's like multiple layers.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Okay, well, that I didn't get.
Janine: It's like if you— it's like if you made a fabric that was just ruffles and then you put the lapels— [laughs]
Keith: [laughs] Hold on. Hold on. I'm getting closer. I'm getting closer. This is— The picture here is too small.
Janine: I don't want to just link ruffle underpants, but like...
Keith: Well, I know what the ruffle underpants look like. I'm just having trouble finding that in anything that’s not ruffly underpants. Just link it. That'll be—
Janine: [sighs, crosstalk] Fine. I’ll link ruffly underpants—
Keith: [crosstalk] Maybe I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Janine: —in this fucking chat. [Keith laughs]
Austin: Uh huh. Go for it. I’ll click it and show everybody.
Janine: And they’ll get to see exactly what I mean when I link these ruffly underpants.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: I’m gonna get a classy picture of the ruffly underpants.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Like that.
Austin: Yeah. Okay.
Keith: Yeah. That's— that's what I was thinking of.
Austin: Me too.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Jacket was ruffled lapels. [typing noises] You know, like now on those underpants.
Keith: And now I know what you mean be the layers.
Austin: Got it. Okay. Last, but not least, the Pillar. Kind of least. [laughs lightly]
Austin: [reading] “The Pillar is a normal person in the Haven.”
Keith: Nah, I read the book. It's kind of least.
Austin: Yeah, [laughs lightly]
Austin: [reading] “Content to live in society that they are part of. They are— there are many within the Haven who are complacent. The Pillar is just one of them. They push the Hero towards accepting the status quo. However, the Pillar is not necessarily opposed to the Hero. They’re someone the Hero can talk to about the Haven. Discuss and write the following on the Pillar’s character sheet: Relationship to the Hero: What is the connection between the Pillar and the Hero? Choose one and describe it. “Family, ”Friend,” “Guardian,” “Leader,” “Lover.” Uh… [laughs] Occupation—
Austin: [laughs] I don't know what that cadence was.
Austin: [reading] “Occupation: Choose tradition and give it the Pillar a position or role in the Haven that relates to it. Identity: Describe the Pillar. What does the Pillar look like? When you play the Pillar, resist change, apologize for or ignore the harm caused by the Flaw. Your role is to complicate and support the Hero while upholding the Flaw. Don't worry about giving the Pillar a connection to the Fallen. The character's connection to the Hero is what drives the game forward.”
Janine: So I kind of have a basic idea for the Pillar maybe.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: I think the Pillar should maybe be one of the queens.
Austin: Oh, that's really good.
Janine: Cause they’re not like— they're not in charge of the thing anymore. But also, I very specifically want to resist the idea that they're just, like, in a room having babies constantly.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, totally.
Janine: Because that's really upsetting.
Austin: Yeah, that's gross and bad.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Is it family or friend? Or...
Janine: I think—
Austin: Lover?
Janine: I bet the queens are universally treated as family cause, like, you don't know which queen you came from.
Austin: True.
Janine: Like, maybe you do depending on where you are. But like—
Austin: I feel like that’s—
Janine: It would probably just be easier to treat all queens like family.
Austin: Yeah, do they—
Janine: Because they even if they're not yours— your family, then they're your family's family or something. Like.
Austin: Is that a situation where it is... Like, does everybody get to talk to the queen, or is this a situation where, like, Holly has built this relationship specifically up? [pause] Is this— Actually, wait— Actually, is this situation where it’s, like, part of... Like everybody could go visit the queen at a certain point in their lives, but being a waxwright means that she has had the opportunity to slowly build this relationship to be more traditionally familial?
Janine: I think— You know what it is? I feel like.... I feel like maybe the queens are... I don't know if everyone had this relationship, but when I was in elementary school, there was this really nice lady, who lived on the same street as my grandmother, named Sue. And she just, like— a lot of people— a lot of the kids walked past her house on the way home. But she was just like— you could always stop there, and you could always talk with her, and you could always play with her dogs, and sometimes she had cookies. And she was, like, the sweetest person on Halloween. Like, you always had to stop at her house and show her your costume. [Austin laughs lightly] And like, I imagine maybe it's a relationship of, like, that, where it's like a neighborhood aunt maybe? So it's like... everyone has some degree of relationship.. with her, but maybe the Hero in particular, like.. [sighs] extra admires her or something? Maybe gave— maybe they share wax working tips?
Austin: I mean, maybe she did teach her how to do the specific thing.
Janine: Mhm.
Austin: Right? Like, maybe—
Janine: That seems like knowledge queens would maybe have— like maybe hold.
Austin: Totally, totally.
Janine: And they can have a teaching role.
Austin: Yeah. So— so... she's probably— she's probably also in fashion. I wonder if there was, like, a— I wonder if there was a... like an industrial revolution around fashion here. Like, I wonder if this is part of the thing. I mean, there must have been, right? Is that— is that Holly has, like, figured out this new chemical style of thing. Like, that's why she's able to do all the stuff that she does. And she used it with, like, a combination of new industrial technique and then like, the— the tips given to her by her Pillar.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Right? Or by the— by this Pillar.
Janine: Maybe that was how it used to be, was like the Pillar would, when someone came of age be like, “Okay, here's how you put the mica in your— in your wax and you melt it down over this double boiler.” And now it's like, she's that sort of contact point for someone who's doing it better now.
Austin: Right.
Janine: Trying to improve the methods.
Austin: What’s she looked like?
Janine: Someone else should do that. [laughs]
Austin: I think she's big. Like, I think she's like—
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: —like, I think of my aunts and my grandmother, who are like big ladies [amused tone] who are also wearing ruffly things, but the other type of ruffly. [Keith laughs] Like, big looser ruffles.
Janine: Mhm.
Austin: But also like deeply— She's like an old church lady. Do you know what I mean? Like, in my mind, she wears lots of hats.
Janine: She’s also had, like, six million children.
Austin: Right.
Janine: Like, you know.
Austin: Big lady.
Janine: Your figure goes. It just happens. You live with it.
Austin: Right. Right. Totally. Um, I think, like, lots of very color coordinated outfits.
Janine: Ooo.
Keith: My grandma loved to wear big, gaudy purple shit.
Austin: Yeah. That's one hundred percent. Like, I literally am thinking purple in my mind. Like, hundred percent.
Janine: Brooches?
Austin: Brooches.
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: Always a brooches, a necklace and a bracelet. Never— never one without the others.
Austin: [typing noises] Boom, got it. Actually, I’m going to cut these off there and do a different set— Oop. Come on over there. And then text. Come on. Text. You got it. Boom. Okay. Uh… oop, op! Alright. So we've created our Haven, we've created our traditions, we've created our, uh… our Heroes. Now it is time to... it’s time to take a break. And then we come back, it will be time to destroy the world. Fun. Alright. I'm gonna throw up a card, and we're going to take, like, five minutes and then we'll be back, everybody. Sit tight.
Keith: Are the mics staying live, or are we going off [indistinguishable]?
Austin: Mics— I'm going to go off mic. I'm going to go off mic. Mics will be off. I just need to put this thing here so that we'll have... this dope logo, and then— and then we'll be— we'll be good to go. Alright. Muting the mics now. We'll be back in five minutes.
Austin: [continuing after break] And... we're back to Live at the Table for hour three, I guess, of the show. We've made our world. The world of Demaree, the City of Honey. Its fatal Flaw of “loyalty.” It's elements of “highway,” “swarm,” and “cave.” Its six elements: “grief,” “naming,” “architecture,” “government,” “fashion,” and “justice”— or not elements, uh, traditions. We've made our Heroes: Holly whist Hyssop, Judge Hyssop whist Hops, and a Pillar whose name we forgot.
Janine: Oops.
Austin: Queen something. Is there another name for queen that's like... like— I guess not. Maybe there's— they keep their names as Queens. It’s just there's multiple queens.
Janine: Is there a flower that’s—
Keith: Oh, I thought you meant, like, “What’s another word for queen?” Like, we could— they could be queen and then another word for—
Austin: Oh, no. That’s not what I meant. Um… what is— what is this word? What it is... I don't know this word. RAN-ee? Ran-EE?
[text-to-speech] “Ranee.” [rah-nee]
Austin: Ranee. I don’t know what ranee means. That’s— Oh, it's the wife of a Raja, apparently. [a scream is heard in the background]
Janine: Mm.
Austin: Let’s just do, queen. Let's just stay with queen. Like, I think maybe they keep their names. Or they keep their title. But it's just a title, you know?
Janine: Yeah. They don't have a “whist” though, right?
Austin: No, definitely not. Right? Or is it like— is it whist Demaree?
Keith: I was just— Yeah, I totally—
Janine: Oh, that might be what it is instead of queen.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Isn't that a lot more efficient?
Austin: Yeah, totally. Totally.
Janine: And no one else would necessarily— [audio cuts out]
Austin: [crosstalk] It’s like, Name whist Demaree?
Janine: —like, the place.
Austin: Yeah. Totally. What's— Okay, so then what’s her— what's her—
Janine: You know, it would, in terms of a revolution, reinforced like, “No, these are— these aren’t heads of state. They’re, like, loyal to the state. They're employees of the state.”
Austin: Yes.
Janine: Or whatever.
Austin: Yes, they are of the state now. They are not of their monarch— They are not— Yeah. Which, like, underscores that if they are ever not that, then they lose whatever it is that— that keeps them as being kind of important in terms of their, like, status. Um, name though? First name.
Austin: I’m just gonna think of my “aunt” names, and like, that's gonna be...
Janine: A lot of those will be flowers, probably.
Austin: Eh, I’ve got lots of like... I got a lot of aunt and— and, like, grandmother and great grandmother Elizabeth’s with variations on what that is. So I have like, an Aunt Elizabeth, and I also have like, Aunt Betty and Aunt Bitsy. You know what I mean? Like, I got all of those.
Keith: Do you have a Liz?
Austin: I got a Liz. Yep. [lightly laughs]
Keith: Bitsy is good. We could just go down aunt… aunt names.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: My grandma's name is Lorraine.
Austin: Lorraine's alright.
Keith: Nancy.
Austin: Mmm.
Keith: Patricia.
Janine: Petunia.
Austin: Mmm. [silene]
Keith: Even I won't stand for Beatrice.
Austin: No.
Janine: I still— I still really like Malva. Malva might be better here. I don’t know.
Austin: Malva’s alright. Yeah, Malva’s alright here.
Keith: Malva does sound like a weird bee term, even if it’s not.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: It is a flower, but also—
Keith: We’ll be like, “Oh, the—” Oh, okay.
Austin: Is this another— Wait. Did you mean that— is this another Seinfeld reference from you?
Keith: From me?
Janine: No.
Keith: No, I didn't do it.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: I only had the one.
Austin: Malva is like—
Janine: Oh, right. The— Mulva. Right.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: I totally forgot. No, it’s a flower.
Keith: Wait, what is the Seinfeld connection here?
Austin: “The Junior Man” episode. Jerry dates a woman named Mulva. He can't remember what her name is though, but he remembers that it rhymes with a part of the female anatomy, is, like, the joke. Rhymes with vulva.
Keith: Wretched people.
Janine: I totally, like, never got that joke because—
Austin: Yeah, well.
Janine: —I just never encountered Mulva as a name.
Austin: Right. Until now, when you want to name our queen it.
Janine: Yeah. [Janine and Keith laugh]
Austin: Queen Bee Movie. Great.
Keith: Man.
Janine: Shit. We could go— we can do— there's other things. Lobelia.
Keith: It's so— it’s such— it's very fitting. This is off topic.
Austin: Uh huh?
Keith: It’s very fitting that the last episode of that show had them all being arrested for being shitty.
Austin: This is— [laughs]
Janine: Oh, there’s a flower called a Jack in the Pulpit. That should have been our judge's name.
Austin: Oh, that's a good name. Too bad.
Janine: Yeah. Hepatica?
Austin: I don’t want two [sounding out] “heh, hy” names.
Janine: There was another one that was good. What the hell was it? Uh… [typing noises]
Austin: I'm getting a random flower generator.
Janine: It had a “T.” It started with a “T.”
Austin: Tulip.
Janine: Where’s the “T”s? No. Tithonia was another one.
Keith: Oh, spiderwort. That's a flower. [Austin groans]
Janine: [disgusted noise] Gyu-fgh.
Austin: Random flower. Come on. Give me some random flowers. I just want to look at some flowers and find a name.
Janine: Clover?
Austin: Clover. Mm. That's not really what I'm looking for. Um… Ginger?
Janine: Crown Imperial?
Austin: [breathes a laugh] That's a little on the nose. [Janine giggles] Lilac? Lily? These aren't random. This is just a list of flowers. Maybe they have like... no.
Janine: Poppy?
Austin: Mm. We're going to be here all day.
Janine: Bugleweed.
Austin: Got it. [Keith cackles] Got it.
Keith: If I can figure out how this is pronounced, I can...
Austin: Type it.
Keith: —give you a suggestion. Oh, I got a Google thing this time.
Janine: Oh, Aster's good, too.
Austin: Spell that?
Janine: What do you have to Google? Aster is A-S-T-R-E— er, sorry. A-S-T-E-R.
Austin: Aster whist Demree? Yeah, I like Aster because it feels like Astor. Like, A-S-T-O-R, which is a name that has, like, connotations to this time period as being like—
Janine: Mm.
Austin: —the rise of the... the kind of, you know, upper middle class then all the way up to like the richest people in history. Like the Astor family.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: This word ended up— this word ended up being liliaceae. [lih-lee-ay-see-ah]
Austin: Lillacia? [vih-lay-see-ah]
Keith: Liliaceae.
Austin: Liliaceae.
Janine: Mm…
Austin: Feels like a disease. It's not— It feels like I have to go get that treated.
Keith: It kind of looks like a disease, honestly. [Janine laughs]
Austin: Oh, this is not— I don't like this plant.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I guess this is just— Is this all just... No, it looks sick. This thing you’ve— this thing I'm looking at—
Keith: It does. No, I agree.
Austin: —looks like a sick plant.
Keith: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [overlapped] But it’s not.
Austin: It's cool looking. I kind of like how it— like, I like how it flowers, actually. But.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Maybe that's actually—
Keith: It is cool. It does kind of look sick.
Austin: [laughs] Both meanings.
Keith: It works for Pillar.
Austin: It does work for Pillar. That's the thing.
Keith: “Hey, it’s cool, but it's kind of sick.”
Austin: Well, like, also is like, kind of like the downfall of society, you know? Like.
Keith and Janine: Mhm.
Austin: And then, like, she could be called Lily. Do you know what I mean? But that's not what her name is.
Janine: Yeah, yeah.
Austin: I kind of like it. Spell that again.
Keith: L-I-L-I-A-C-E-A-E.
Austin: Liliaceae. Yeah, I'm into it. Alright, time to destroy our society.
Austin: [reading] “Now that we've created our unique Haven, we’ll play scenes and narrate the story to see how it is destroyed by the Flaw and the failures of the people who live there. We will take turns playing the characters in their dying world and explore their roles in the downfall of their home. This overview is a summary of playing the game. Each step is covered in detail later in this chapter. Choose someone to play the Hero first.”
Austin: Janine, I'd like you to so that I can play a different role first.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: According to some rules of the— or suggestions in the back of the book.
Austin: [reading] “Give them the Hero's character sheet. The person on their left will play the Fallen first, and each person on their right will play the Pillar first. We’ll role play each character and turn. The Pillar’s player is responsible for making sure everyone has the correct character sheet throughout the game.”
Austin: [laughs lightly] Um, corr— “Step one—” So— so in this case, I'm going to start as... I was going to make— I'm just gonna add a token that is just our names so then we can move those around. Janine? [thinking and mouse clicking noises] Patrick Hand, there we go. Grab that. [landing mouth sound] Tchwoo.
Keith: I really thought you were saying like, Patri-canned or something.
Austin: Nope. [laughs]
Keith: It’s Patrick Hand.
Austin: It's Patrick Hand.
Keith: Great font name. Love it.
Austin: Oh, it's fantastic, isn't it? Yeah.
Keith: [in a gruff voice] “What tongue is this written?” “It's written in Patrick Hand.”
Austin: [laughs] Okay. So, step one— I’m gonna walk through how this works, and then we'll dig in and start off. So,
Austin: [reading] “Step one, corruption: The Pillar will describe a tradition being corrupted by the Flaw. Then step two, the Hero will frame a scene: The Hero’s player frames a scene about the Hero. The scene may be a reaction to the corruption or something unrelated in the Hero's life. Step three, the Fallen frames a scene: The Fallen’s player frames a scene about the Hero. This can be a continuation of the previous scene or something else happening in the Hero's life.
Show how the downfall develops based on what the Hero did or didn't do to stop the Haven. Challenge the Hero, and make life difficult for them. Step four, reflection: The Hero reflects on the current state of the Haven. The Hero briefly narrates their thoughts and feelings about the Haven as a reflection of the previous two scenes. After the reflection in the second round of play, and on every subsequent round of play—”
Austin: So not on the second scene, but, like, we're going to go around once where, like, Janine is the Hero, I'm the Fallen, Keith is the Pillar. Then— then there will be a new round in which we swap positions. [pulling from the reading] And then on the end of the second round of play, during reflection, we'll decide together if we are close to the end of the game. If we decide we are and that it's time to destroy the Haven, the following round will be the final one. And instead of rotating characters, we will continue to the collapse.
Austin: [reading] “Step five, rotate characters: Give your character sheet to the player on the right. After the final scene, each player narrates a short vignette from the Hero's perspective as the— about the Haven as it collapses.”
Austin: So step one is that the Pillar describes corruption.
Austin: [reading] “At the heart of our self-destruction is the Flaw. Although the Flaw helped us build our Haven, it is now destroying our home by corrupting our traditions. Whoever has the Pillar character sheet narrates the corrupting force of the Flaw within the Haven. While the Pillars player is the one who narrates the corruption, the Pillar’s character is not the one causing the event to occur. The Pillar’s player chooses a tradition, then describes a new situation or current event where the Flaw is causing the tradition to become harmful. You should be able to describe the corruption in a sentence or two, and it must relate to the tradition you chose.
The corruption is common knowledge and many— and most people in Haven should be aware of its existence, even if they have a different interpretation of its significance. In the beginning of your game, you can start with low key problems or jump right into huge disasters. It's fine to showcase the same corruption multiple times. Just make sure it grows with each iteration. Throughout play we'll build up to greater and greater instances of corruption until at last the Haven collapses.”
Austin: So, Keith, how does “loyalty” corrupt one of our six traditions? And I guess we're already saying that fashion is corrupted. Or maybe this is the scene in which that happens? It’s up to you, obviously.
Keith: That's— Yeah. That's what I was not... I was kind of on the fence between like, for the first scene, potentially just rehashing what we feel about the relationship between fashion and justice. Or sort of second thing—
Austin: Right. Well, so this first thing that you're choosing isn't even a scene. It's just two sentences that says out loud, “blah, blah, blah.”
Keith: Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: So, yeah, up to you.
Keith: Um… hm.
Austin: Uh, Keith, did you step away from your microphone at all?
Keith: No, no, I'm right here.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: Why?
Austin: People said you were quiet.
Keith: I see people keep saying that I got quiet, [crosstalk] but I've been at the same volume with the same distance from the mic—
Austin: [crosstalk] I haven't fucked with Keith’s—
Keith: —the whole time.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: Yeah, I can— I can turn myself up a tiny bit, if that’s what—
Austin: Let me do that. Let me do that. So that it’s the same on OBS. And that we're not—
Keith: Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: The two sentence thing, is that— is that from you, or is that from the book? I don’t remember
Austin: No, that's you. That's the Pillar.
Keith: Okay.
Austin: That's from the book.
Keith: No, no, sorry, I—
Austin: That's all—
Keith: Yeah, okay.
Austin: Everything I've read is from the book. That's two sentences. Yep.
Keith: Let's see. I do wanna— I guess I do wanna start with justice. So now I'm just trying to think of how to, like, capsulize that. Do we want to go with, like, what's one step further than?
Austin: Sure.
Keith: Cause I remember they had— in the book, it had like, if you do the same thing, you have to escalate it?
Austin: Yeah, totally.
Keith: Do we want to start off with escalating from like, “Okay. Uh, the waxwright was uneasy about the thing, and then now here's a thing on top of that that's even worse.”
Austin: That totally works for me. You have something in mind?
Keith: Yeah, I was thinking of that, um… that— they… that the sort of justice hex of the government starts enforcing that after you've been convicted and your wax has been dyed, that you have to wear the— wear the makeup till your next time that you're out.
Austin: Out of, like, prison, or out of…?
Keith: Yeah. Next time you’re... like, when you get out of prison, I guess, you go to the store or a party or something, like, you've got to wear.
Austin: Ohhh, you're next, like, public appearance, you have to wear it.
Keith: Yeah, so not only do you have ruined makeup, they also are saying now you have to wear this until it’s gone.
Austin: That's really interesting. Cool. I like that a lot. Okay. Janine, it is time for you to frame the first scene of the game as the Hero.
Austin: [reading] “The Hero player frames the scene about the Hero. The scene may be a reaction to the corruption or something unrelated in the Hero's life.”
Austin: So I’ll read from the scene section here.
Austin: [reading] “Scenes are always about the Hero. And the Hero must be in every scene. Use scenes to challenge the Hero while exploring their life and relationships. During scenes, we get to explore the Flaw and its corruption of the Haven. We'll play at least six scenes. Two, as each character. We can— we can choose to destroy the world and end the game after we've played all six scenes and each player has played— has had the chance to play the Hero.
Framing scenes: The Hero’s player frames the first scene, and the Fallen’s player frames the second scene. As the Hero, you should frame scenes that explore the Hero's life, show how the Hero reacts to the corruption, or show how the Hero works to ha— works to save the Haven from the Flaw. As the Fallen, frame scenes that challenge the Hero, show the repercussions of the Hero's actions or inactions from the previous scene, and put the Hero in difficult situations.
Where is the Hero? Frame scenes by giving the false information: where is the Hero, who is with the Hero, and what is the situation? And then whoever choose— whoever is the scene framer chooses who is in the scene and who is going to play any secondary characters that might be involved. Because the Hero was in every scene, the Hero must always role play themselves. The Fallen and the Pillar may play secondary characters as the scene demands. It's okay to frame scenes for just one or two characters. If you want a character to join mid-scene, you need the scene framer’s present permission to do so.”
Austin: So what are you feeling, Janine?
Janine: Just to be clear, the, uh, the wax stuff gets dyed if you commit a crime and are disowned?
Austin: Yes, if you are disowned.
Keith: Yes.
Janine: But also, is it— is it also if the person that you're loyal to is disowned, or something? Like...
Austin: I don’t—
Janine: Is there an angle where—
Austin: [crosstalk] Not yet.
Janine: —that person fucks up?
Keith: Not yet. Not yet.
Janine: Okay, okay. I just wanted to—
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: —be sure about that.
Austin: I'm gonna— while you're thinking, I'm gonna keep reading.
Austin: [reading] “During scenes, describe what your character says, does, thinks and feels. Express your characters fully as possible. You have a limited amount of time to play each character before the next person gets them. When you play your character, say what you do and what the outcomes of your actions are. Sometimes your actions will affect a character someone else is playing. That's okay. You can describe what you do to other characters and what happens to them, but you cannot say what another part player's character does or thinks.
Each character has a different role to play in the story. When you play your character, try to stick to your role. The Hero is the star of every scene, so all scenes should be about them in their life. When you play the Hero, your role is to try to save the Haven from its destruction. Even if the Hero is someone insignificant in the Haven, they have the ability to perform meaningful actions. The Hero can raise armies, overthrow governments, shape religions. They have great power, but often at a cost.
Like the Hero, the Fallen can have a lot of power in the Haven. However, they're always they always support the Flaw. When you play the Fallen, you should challenge and antagonize the Hero. Put the Hero in situations where he must either support the Flaw or lose something that they care about. Give the Hero's actions consequences.
The Pillar is different. The Pillars an average member of the Haven content with the status quo. When you play the Pillar, provide the Hero someone to communicate with about their problem. Don't try to change the Haven. Leave that to the Fallen and the Hero.”
Austin: And the last note here. I'm not gonna read this whole thing, but whenever you're playing a Pillar or a Fallen and you're playing a secondary character in a scene, you should continue to play your role. So even if you are— even if you, Janine, you frame a scene where you're like, “Oh, the judge isn't in this, but Austin, I would love you to play this like... like aristocrat,” or something, I would still be playing the role of the Fallen in which I'm trying to push the status quo, basically. And the Pillar would— would be like just representing that they're okay with the status quo.
Keith: Yeah, it says— I don't know if you read this part already or read past it, but it specifically says, like, about the Fallen and the Pillar, like, there are a lot of people that are—
Austin: Yep.
Keith: —actively supporting the Flaw. This is just one specific person, so.
Austin: Totally.
Janine: Okay, so... I think the scene is that a really big crime thing... has happened. [laughs]
Austin: Yep.
Janine: I know specifically what the crime thing is. I just don't know how to say... Whatever. So it's basically that a group of— of bee people had their paper hexagon emblems, but they were getting really sick of, like, how easily they fell apart. Like, anytime they got damp or whatever, they would just break, and they had to get a new one. So what they did was they, like, layered some paper with glue to try to make it sturdier.
Austin: Mm.
Janine: But that technically classified it as a different material that would—
Austin: Right.
Janine: —that would, like, classify it as, like, a card or whatever. Card stock or something. So there was, like, a technicality of being like, “Well, this is a different material than paper now. Are you trying to impersonate someone of a higher—”
Austin: [crosstalk] Right. This is— this is counterfeit.
Janine: “—proximity?”
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Yeah. [overlapped] Exactly. Like— yeah.
Austin: Like, if this is firmer than paper then it— if someone saw it, they would think that you're— [hiccups]
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Excuse me.
Janine: The point of paper is that your thing is— isn't durable, so if you make it more durable, you're trying to move into a different—
Austin: Interesting.
Janine: —class of emblem.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: So all of these— so it's like a very sudden influx of people who are coming to Holly whist Hyssop’s shop to— because they have to get their shit dyed.
Austin: Right.
Janine: So it’s a combination of like, this isn't fair because they were just trying to... They were just trying to have a slightly more durable, more practical emblem. And also just like, “Fuck, I have all this work now.”
Austin: Right.
Janine: Like, there’s so much here that it’s not fair.
Keith: If anything, they were trying— they were trying to not get caught disobeying the law by having a worn out piece of paper.
Austin: Right. Right.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: They were doing their best to— to be... Cool. So is this scene— is there more to this scene than that? Or is there, like, a conversation here that you want to have?
Janine: I think in this scene, Holly has an assistant.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: Who's probably… [sighs] I want to say Keith would probably play the assistant.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: Just someone who is supposed to, like, do the grunt work of, like, warming up the wax and stuff.
Austin: Right.
Keith: Mm.
Janine: Do I have to name them, or does Keith name them? How does that work?
Austin: Up to y’all. We can— any of us can name these NPCs. I'm just gonna make a new thing for, like, random NPCs.
Janine: Okay. I kind of wanted to name her… um, shit, I forgot what her last name was— what her last—
Austin: We don't— let's not do last names for these characters unless it’s super important—
Janine: Okay, yeah. That’s— that’s much easier.
Austin: —because we just don't have the time.
Janine: Just— Yeah. Let's call her Anemone.
Austin: Cool.
Keith: So, wait, Nemone?
Janine: Anemone.
Keith: Anemone, okay.
Austin: [Mah Nà Mah Nà melody] Boo-boo. Ba-doo-doo[10].
Janine: Okay. [laughs lightly]
Keith: [continuing the song] Anemone.
Janine: And I think the judge is also there to oversee.
Austin: Oh, really? Okay, cool.
Janine: Cause, like, I mean—
Austin: To make sure it’s—
Janine: —maybe he, like, escorted out all these people there—
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: — to be like. “Okay. Now I have to make sure that you're all handing in your wax to this—”
Austin: Yep. Totally.
Janine: “—state approved waxwright to get the dye in there.
Austin: Did I spell Anemone, right? Yeah, okay. Good.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: [typing] And that is Holly's assistant. Okay. Um… cool. So it's like— how many people is it?
Janine: The people who are handing in their wax stuff?
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: I think there's probably like— she doesn't have a large shop front. Most of the space would be in the back.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: So there's probably only room for a line up, like 5 deep, but the line continues on into the street.
Austin: Yeah, I like that.
Janine: There’s probably like—
Austin: [microphone gets hit] Oops, sorry. Shit.
Janine: —fifteen, twenty people total.
Austin: Right. Awesome. Cool. Um… go ahead. You're the— you’re in charge of the scene, so how does it open?
Janine: Right. Um.... I think it opens with Holly and Anemone— Normally they're not both at the front. Like, part of the reason that Anemone is there is, you know, watch the burner and if someone comes in, you take their stuff, and you give them their slip of paperwork so they can claim it and whatever. And, um— but because there are so many people, and they have to process them and their wax quickly— and, like, you don't want to mix those orders up.
Austin: Un-un.
Janine: You do not want any errors there cause then—
Austin: Yeah, that’s a big deal.
Janine: Even with the criminals. Like—
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Janine: —you just don’t do that. So they are both upfront, like, filling in these little claim slips and... completely, I think, not super comfortable having the judge, like, watching over them. It adds a layer of tension—
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: —that Holly's probably really bad at hiding. She generally likes working with people under happy circumstances.
Austin: Sure. So what’s she's doing? Like, give me an actual— what's the camera see at the start of this? Like, I already got that there's a great establishing shot of, like, the people outside the door of this shop, and then inside, and we go further in, and then there’s Holly. What's she doing?
Janine: She is sort of half bent over the counter, filling in paperwork, probably with two arms.
Austin: [laughs] Right.
Janine: Like, she’s probably, filling out two things at the same time. Because why— why have extra arms if you're not going to use them? So lots of furious scribbling, and— you know, one receipt goes to the person, and the other receipt gets wrapped around the container.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: God, they probably have to, like, wait outside or something while it's being done.
Austin: Oh, sure.
Janine: Because otherwise they'd be walking around without their cosmetic container.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: And that would be a whole thing. So they also— there's also this urge to, like, “We need to fuckin’ start on these because these people are just going to be here all damn night if we don’t.”
Austin: [laughs] Uh huh. Yeah. I think the judge is pacing back and forth alongside the— the ones who are out— er, let's say inside. And there's, like, a bailiff outside watching the ones who are outside. And, like, one of them begins to speak up— like, mumble and the judge just kind of shoots up a look like— like, squeezes in his big bee eyes and kind of squints and— and the criminal shuts up.
Janine: I think Holly probably also— Like, that catches Holly's attention, and she looks up and is like,
Janine (as Holly whist Hyssop): You know, it’d be a lot easier if— if we could do this in small groups. I think doing it in a... in a big batch like this... like they're— like they're animals is... is the worst way to do it in every sense.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop whist Hops): Efficiency is next to loyalty, Miss Holly. We do not have time to do them in small groups. There are another dozen waiting for us at the courthouse as it is. Perhaps your assistant could help you with the... whatever it's called. The chemistry [sighs] instead of handling paperwork.
Janine (as Holly): The way you've chosen— Sorry. The way that we have chosen to punish these people is— is very labor intensive. It requires a degree of expertise. She's not gonna be ready to do that kind of thing for some time.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Does that reflect the degree of training you've issued?
Janine (as Holly): That reflects the degree of training necessary to do this job, right?
Austin: One of the— Go ahead.
Keith (as Anemone): I’ll, uh— help in whatever way I can. [breathes a laugh]
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Good to see that you're loyal to the one who pays you.
Janine (as Holly): Anemone’s a very good worker.
Keith (as Anemone): Thanks. [Austin and Janine laugh]
Austin: There is, like, a sound of like— I think outside the bailiff hit somebody who was trying to cause some shit, and the judges just shakes his head.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop):Every moment we wait is another opportunity for violence.
Janine (as Holly): [sighs] Seems good workers are in short supply.
Keith (as Anemone): Me? Me?
Austin: [laughs] Aw.
Janine (as Holly): Oh, I— No, you’re good. I was saying that— him, the other one, the guy—
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Ah, well—
Janine (as Holly): —is not good.
Keith: Anemone starts, like, going way faster. [Janine breathes a laugh]
Austin: [laughs] Aw. Judge Hyssop lifts up one hand and begins counting, and then another hand and counting as he speaks, and says,
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Hm just a month ago you would have only had one, two, three customers on a day like today. But today they're lining outside the door. I would think that the increased income that you're receiving for all of this work could perhaps give you the resources necessary to hire more help. The Hexumverate pays well.
Janine (as Holly): I mean. That's nice and all, but I don't want to be— I don't want to enjoy my work only when I'm in the shop. I don't want to have a good time only when I'm in here When I walk outside, I see everyone with, you know... well, not everyone, but when I go to a party and I see a group of people there with the blue and the purple that's not— that doesn’t make me happy. [crosstalk] It doesn’t make me happy like a big shop.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Well, that is the point of the blue and the purple, is to discourage more people from committing crimes. You're doing the best you can. I recognize that.
Austin: There's another hit from outside. And I think that— that might just be scene. Right? Like, this is the current state of things.
Janine: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: Okay, we should— I should actually note that that is how we end scenes, is just, like, when someone thinks the end of the scene is here, say, “scene,” And then if someone still has, like, one or two things they want to get in, they can get in, but no new action. Don't extend the action. Okay, so I'm gonna frame the second scene. I would... What I want to see is… Let's see. Where's the Hero? Who is with the Hero? What is the situation? Here's what I would love to see is, I want to see a scene with, um… Liliaceae and Holly in which someone connected to Liliaceae has been found guilty of a crime, And she's requesting that— she's not requesting that Holly go soft on her, right? She's just kind of bemoaning that this has happened. And— but also, like, [sighs] “That's the way it is.” And then maybe there's also, like, just a servant who— who's working in the same place. Like, maybe this is dinner later that night, or something?
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Just at Liliaceae’s, like, apartment— er not apartment, but, like, Penthouse. Right? That's on the exact furthest side of— the of the hive, or of the city. So that, like, it’s just this beautiful view. It's like the perfect view out into the world where there are these giant trees in the distance, and you can see other hives hanging in the air, in the distance connected by these loose strands of material. Or, like, by— by other flowers that are floating in the distance, which are kind of like the refueling areas.
Janine: Mm.
Austin: So, yeah, that's— that's my suggestion for this next scene. So it's Holly, Liliaceae, and then a servant, who— who I'll play. Whose name is, um— his name's Clover. [Janine laughs lightly] He's like the butler slash cook.
Janine: Do I start this one also? [overlapped] Or does Keith?
Austin: Yep, totally.
Janine: Okay. Um… [silence] Yeah, I—
Austin: Or I guess maybe— maybe it does make more sense for Liliaceae to begin talking about this thing that's happened.
Janine: Yeah. Or just like, “I'm really sorry about your friend.”
Austin: Right. Yeah, that could also work.
Keith: Did we name or put a circumstance to the crime of... the friend?
Austin: No. Totally up to you.
Keith: Okay.
Keith (as Liliaceae): [exhales] Holly, I've never been in this sort of pickle before.
Janine (as Holly): Well, no, I imagine... I imagine people closest to you tend to behave. [pause] Well...
Keith (as Liliaceae): I mean... and there's nothing I can do about it. I mean, there's... I don't know if I've ever had to speak on a crime before. [pause] I don't like it, but I understand.
Janine (as Holly): Do you? I mean, what did they do? Was it that bad?
Keith (as Liliaceae): They stole something. A small something, but big enough.
Janine (as Holly): Did they have a reason? Did they just want it?
Keith (as Liliaceae): There's never a reason to steal something.
Janine (as Holly): There are reasons— there can be.
Keith (as Liliaceae): There's never a good reason. Stealing is stealing. It's not— it's wrong.
Janine (as Holly): I mean... I guess.
Keith (as Liliaceae): How are we supposed to trust each other if we’re stealing?
Janine (as Holly): What if someone steals cause they need something?
Keith (as Liliaceae): I suppose they should have asked for it.
Austin (as Clover): Speaking of asking for something. What will the ladies be having for dinner?
Keith (as Liliaceae): Do we have soft crackers in yet?
Austin (as Clover): [hesitating] One more time, ba-dum?
Keith (as Liliaceae): Soft crackers.
Austin (as Clover): Soft crackers
Keith (as Liliaceae): Do we have soft crackers in yet? Yes.
Austin (as Clover): They are currently on their way from one of the outer hives.
Keith (as Liliaceae): Do we have the hard crackers still?
Austin (as Clover): We do have— I could try softening the hard crackers for you.
Keith (as Liliaceae): How would you soften them?
Austin (as Clover): A little bit of nectar goes a long way.
Keith (as Liliaceae): A little nectar; not too much nectar.
Austin (as Clover): I— Of course.
Keith (as Liliaceae): Clovey, not too much nectar.
Austin (as Clover): Never. And Miss whist Hyssop?
Janine (as Holly): Is there anything like—
Keith (as Liliaceae): Anything you want.
Janine (as Holly): I don’t want to be an incon—
Keith (as Liliaceae): Except soft crackers.
Janine (as Holly): Well, yeah. I put that together. [Liliaceae clears her throat] I don't want to— I don't want to be any trouble. Is there just like... you know, if you have some, like, soup on the oven— on the stove already or something. Anything like that would be fine.
Keith (as Liliaceae): Clover, did we keep the soup on or did we take the soup off?
Austin: Clover, like, knows the answer and doesn't know what the right answer is. Like, he— he knows what he did. Nut he—
Keith (as Liliaceae): We kept the soup on for you. He'll get you the soup.
Austin (as Clover): Of course. [Janine laughs]
Janine (as Holly): I mean, if it's not— if it's still on.
Austin (as Clover): It is. Absolutely.
Janine (as Holly): If it’s not any trouble.
Keith (as Liliaceae): It's— it’s absolutely still on.
Austin (as Clover): I will be right back.
Austin: And like steps back and away, I think Clover has very dark wings that look like— like tuxedo tails, basically, you know? [Janine and Austin laugh] Heads back into the back office. I think you—
Keith (as Liliaceae): How much—
Austin: Go ahead.
Keith: Oh, no. You go. You go.
Austin: Nothing yet.
Keith (as Liliaceae): How much dye do we put in the... makeups? Is it a lot?
Janine (as Holly): It's quite a lot, yeah.
Keith (as Liliaceae): Is it overpowering?
Janine (as Holly): If— I mean, if— if it wasn't being paid for, you know, by the judicial branch, I don't think most people could afford it because it is a very intense… uh, not— not the easiest to come by pigment. You know, the easiest ones are— are reds and browns and yellows, and the ones that we would use just normally. Pretty much anyone can afford those. But... blues, purples...they stain. Especially on the— on the yellow they stain. You can't see them so much on the black.
Keith (as Liliaceae): Hmm.
Janine (as Holly): I don't like it.
Keith (as Liliaceae): I don't like that we use so much of it.
Janine (as Holly): Are you saying I should use less?
Keith (as Liliaceae): No. I'm just saying, I don't— I don't like the waste of the... It's a shame to waste such dyes... [pause] on criminals.
Janine (as Holly): I guess.
Austin: Clover comes back in with some soup that has been very quickly heated up. [Austin and Keith laugh] Is taking the bet that Holly won't throw him under the bus that it's just kind of lukewarm.
Janine: It’s, like, cold in the middle and she definitely won’t bring it up.
Austin: Uh huh. Uh huh.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: And then he says, like,
Austin (as Clover): I've heard that there is a... group of people petitioning that the color be changed from blue to orange. But I don't know. That seems like it might take away a bit of the sting, as it were.
Keith (as Liliaceae): Hmm.
Austin (as Clover): Here you are.
Keith (as Liliaceae): Orange is a nasty color.
Janine (as Holly): The sting is what kills you.
Austin (as Clover): I'm just saying those people, they think they know what is best, and I wonder if— I wonder if people like that need to be taught that the judges and the members of the Hexumverate have given this great deal of thought already. And perhaps in your— in your visits around the hive, you can talk to people and convince them that would— that... I'm sorry. I speak out of place. Apologies. I just wish—
Keith (as Liliaceae): No, Clover. I'm glad you thought so hard on this.
Austin (as Clover): I just wish—
Janine (as Holly): Can I ask you a question Clover?
Austin (as Clover): Of course, I am— I'm at the service of the ladies.
Janine (as Holly): Do you know anyone who has the blue?
Austin: [pause] Like, Clover’s wings flicker for a second and like, looks down and then looks away... and then back and then,
Austin (as Clover): No one who is not—
Keith (as Liliaceae): Clover, out with it.
Austin (as Clover): No one who is not better for wearing it. [pause] It is a symbol of misdeed, and they… those who I know, who wear the blue, every day they strive to be better citizens of Demaree.
Keith (as Liliaceae): Orange is a nasty color, though.
Keith: I think that’s scene.
Austin: Okay. After those two scenes, the… um...
Austin: [reading] “The Hero reflects on the current state of Haven. The Hero briefly narrates their thoughts and feelings about Haven as a reflection of the previous two scenes.”
Austin: Trying to see if there's any extra stuff here. Here we go.
Austin: [reading] “Reflection: Describe how the Hero feels about the current state in a sentence or two.”
Austin: And then uh,
Austin: [reading] “Reflection is used to pace our game. Hero’s impressions help us judge how close the Haven is to downfall. Use reflections to highlight the Hero's internal struggles as the world they love destroys itself. It also gives us a way to pass the Hero off to the next player. You can use reflection to show the next player how the Hero might behave in future scenes.”
Austin: So how does Holly feel?
Janine: I think, Holly— This is very much like the beginning of Holly acknowledging that she is unhappy with... with this in particular.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: —with, like, this thing. Specifically, you know, her— her passion of this... this sort of wax cosmetic thing that she has sort of made her whole deal is, it's supposed to be a thing of celebration, of celebrating the people who gave you this life that is so joyous.
Austin: Mhm. Yeah.
Janine: Or celebrating things within it. And now it's being used as this thing to take the person— you know, whoever... whoever raised you— it's taking this gift they gave you and turning it into a mark to spoil all of those moments.
Austin: Right.
Janine: And, like, every moment going forward, just because you did something that like... maybe you didn't have any choice to do or is completely—
Austin: Right.
Janine: —is like one bad call that is now going to taint not just your life going forward, but is tainting the legacy of the person who, you know... helped you be here.
Austin: And, like, anybody else who you've given your name to also.
Janine: Yes, and that, like—
Austin: So—
Janine: —people have to talk about you like your trash now because of—
Austin: [finishing the sentence] The blue.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: I've been trying to— I've been struggling to figure out a consequence for this— for this whole set of scenes, and I think I figured it out. So,
Austin: [reading] “During the scenes, the Hero may do something you think should result in an unforeseen consequence. When you play as the Fallen, you should look for opportunities to create a consequence in the Hero's actions. A consequence is something that happens to the Hero or the— or the Haven as a result of the Hero's action. It's the cost of action. What the Hero's sacrifice is when they get their way.
When you play the Hero and you want to do something, simply narrate what the Hero does and what the outcome is. After the Hero has stated what they do and the results, the Fallen has the option to add a consequence. If the Fallen thinks that something the Hero does deserves a consequence, the Follow says— the Fallen says, ‘But there is a consequence.’ The Fallen then narrates, the consequence that results from the Hero's action. After describing the consequence, the scene continues.
A scene can have multiple consequences. But there can be only one consequence for each action taken by the Hero. Consequences should be meaningful sacrifices or unfortunate outcomes that naturally result from the Hero's actions. They shouldn't undo what the Hero wanted to have happen or negate the Hero’s intended outcome.
While the Fallen’s player narrates consequences, the Fallen’s character is not necessarily causing them. The Fallen doesn't need to be in a scene to describe a consequence. Furthermore, the Fallen doesn't need to add a consequence for every significant action.”
Austin: What I want to do is add a consequence. Which is— what is— what's Holly's current material for her... for the emblem?
Janine: Oh, um… I don't think she's super... I mean, she's taking— she's having dinner with... with Liliaceae, but I don't think that means she's got like, a metal emblem or anything. She probably has, like, varnished wood.
Austin: Okay. So I think when she arrives home from that visit, she finds— here's the consequence for kind of going along with all this— she gets a new emblem, and it's— it's not metal either, but it's like… like a really polished resin or something. It's something that's like... I'm—
Keith: Like a petrified honey?
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, totally. Which is—
Janine: Ooo.
Austin: Which is, like, you're up there now. Good job. You're going along with it.
Janine: Yeah…
Austin: And you are like— you've gotten the opposite of the blue now, right? Like, people... There is now some optional… uh, what's the word— like, title that you have. Like, that— that you kind of— it's not— it's not like you've been knighted or something like that, but there is a certain like phrase that people are supposed to use around people who have this sort of emblem.
Janine: That's good.
Austin: Okay. So now we—
Keith: Do we want to name a title for it? Or do you wanna—
Austin: Yeah, totally. If you have one.
Keith: Um...
Austin: Lift this mic up so I stop hitting it.
Keith: I don't have one. We could take a second or, I guess, we could just, like, wait until it comes up and think of it then.
Austin and Janine: Yeah.
Keith: If we want to move things forward.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: It also, like— it might not be a title. Like, not all titles get strung into your name the way that we tend to use titles.
Austin: Totally, totally.
Janine: Like, sometimes it's something that you— that you fill into a magazine subscription card, and sometimes it's not.
Austin: [laughs] Totally. So now we rotate. The player to the right becomes the thing that you are. So based on the bottom here, Keith becomes Hero, I become Pillar, and Janine becomes Fallen. So I’m gonna move these over.
Keith: I thought you said left before.
Austin: Nope. Right.
Keith: Okay, got it.
Austin: I'll double check, but... [reading] “Rotate characters— “
Keith: No, it’s—
Austin: [still reading] “Pass your character sheet to the player on your right.”
Keith: Got it.
Austin: So there we go.
Janine: With the cue cards, I think it was left sometimes, but—
Austin: Yeah, that was for— that was for— Yeah. The Tradition.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: That's what that was. Okay, so now we start again.
Keith: It also doesn't seem like a super important like—
Austin: [amused] No, no.
Keith: Like, “Oh we— [shouting] we rotated the wrong way!!”
Austin: As long as we’re consistent. As long as we each get to play the Hero once.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Alright. So we're back to the top. I'm pretty sure. Let me make sure. Yep. So the Pillar’s player describes a Tradition being corrupted by the Flaw. Uh, it's architecture. A new rule goes into place. You... you need to leave a gap between anyone who's— wears the blue. Anybody who wears the blue doesn't get any neighbors anymore, not even other blue neighbors. And that has two things. Which is it literally brings other people closer together. Physically, it puts them tighter together. It also strips good apartments and living quarters away from people wearing the blue and redistributes them to people who are not criminals— uh, who are no— er sorry, who are not wearing the blue. Because remember, like, all it takes is you’ve become— you gain “erst” as part of your name to get the blue.
Keith: Mhm.
Austin: So their— including their— So there are people who win the trial and then also still get their er— someone still disowns them, and so they still have to wear the blue.
Keith: Yeah. Right.
Austin: And so those people lose—
Keith: And it just— it just has to be specifically the person that—
Austin: [finishing the sentence] Named—
Keith: —that—
Austin: —that their name came from.
Keith: Right, yeah.
Austin: So not even their mentor. Not even their—
Keith: What a dick. Imagine being that dickhead.
Austin: Imagine. Imagine. [lightly laughs]
Keith: I guess we’re about it right?
Austin: Yeah, we're getting there. So the Hero frames the scene. That's you, Keith. What’s your— what’s your first scene?
Keith: Um… hm. Okay, I would like a scene where... Holly is walking through a sort of public space.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: And there are two... “wersts”... “ersts.” [Austin laughs] “Ersts.” [Keith and Janine laugh] Two “ersts—”
Janine: That's what kids call them.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: They call them “wersts.”
Austin: Yeah, the “wersts.” [Keith laughs]
Keith: Two “ersts” speaking to each other about this on a park bench.
Austin: I think the— I think the kids go like, [mocking, sing-song] “Ersty, ersty. You’re the very wersty!” [Keith and Janine laugh] It’s, like, that sort of like... dancing around.
Keith: Oh, that’s so mean. Children are horrible. [laugh]
Austin: Children are bad. And also they’re little bee children, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So they’re, like, literally fluttering around, and like jumping and flying for a little bit.
Keith: Yeah. And then, like, jump around and do, like a— a quick— like a— like a sting in the air.
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: Like a, “I'm stinging— if you were closer to me, I'd be stinging you.”
Austin: Yes, exactly. Also, sometimes they're larvae. I don't know. Anyway.
Keith: Uh…
Austin: So they're talking. There's two— there's two—
Keith: Yeah. Do you want to— do we want two quick names for these... “ersts”?
Austin: Sure. I just have a list of flower names up. I like one of them being Zinnia. Her name is Zinnia.
Keith: Zinnia’s good.
Austin: And what's the other one?
Keith: Um...
Austin: But also, how is this about the Hero? That's the key of these scenes. This needs to be about you.
Janine: Mhm.
Austin: As the Hero.
Keith: Okay. I was thinking that is gonna be about me because I was going to... interject into the thing, but I—
Austin: Totally. That's totally fine.
Keith: But I can make it more focused.
Austin: [crosstalk] It can totally be that.
Keith: [crosstalk] Yeah, so I was thinking, like, they're talking about this, and I was going to just start listening and then jump into the...
Austin: Um...
Keith: [crosstalk] We need one more name though.
Janine: [crosstalk] It could even be like—
Keith: Or they could— they probably recognize me, they could call— I could get called over.
Janine: Yeah, she's probably done their— like, their... makeup.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I mean, yeah. Sure. Totally. The thing that's tough here is that whatever characters we are playing—
Keith: Right. You're right to be the Fallen and the Pillar.
Austin: And the Pillar, right?
Keith: As these— as these two ersts. Yeah.
Janine: Mhm.
Austin: Which means that we need to be pro this?
Keith: Yes.
Austin: Which is...
Keith: Or you need to— or, I guess, the Pillar needs to just be like, “Oh this is how things are.”
Austin: Right. Totally.
Keith: [crosstalk] And the Fallen—
Janine: [crosstalk] Can’t there be…
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: Can't there also be characters that aren't played? It's just specifically—
Austin: Yep.
Janine: —if we play them out that they have to be—
Austin: Totally.
Janine: —Fallen and Pillar.
Keith: Right.
Austin: Yes. But then no one's playing them.
Janine: So it’s also… Well, yeah...
Austin: So like, you could—
Janine: I mean, I was gonna say that, like, one of them could— one of them could be played and the other one could be... just kind of... [overlapped] assumed, or like—
Keith: [crosstalk] I thought specifically that this would be a good challenge for a role play for you guys.
Austin: [amused] Uh huh. [Janine laughs lightly]
Keith: Of, like, having to be like... like, apologizing for or ignoring the issue for Austin, and then sort of in favor of... sort of, like, imagine what Clover is saying about knowing people who are better for it [Austin sighs] and being that person. Who are people that I do know also.
Austin: Mhm.
Keith: [crosstalk] Like I—
Austin: [crosstalk] Maybe it’s—
Keith: I’ve met people that are, you know, part of something that's bad and on the receiving end of being part of something that's bad, and being pro that thing.
Austin: Sure. Do you have a name for— for the other person?
Keith: Um… Let’s see.
Austin: I can just name another thing.
Keith: Yeah, give me another flower.
Austin: Bluebell. Dahlia.
Keith: I'll have a list for next time.
Austin: Uh, Iris.
Janine: Mazus.
Austin: Spell that.
Janine: Mazus? M-A-Z-U-S.
Austin: Mazus.
Keith: Oh, Z[11] .That's my favorite letter. [Austin laughs quietly] “Z.”
Austin: Okay.
Keith: Yeah, I like those. Yeah.
Austin: What if it’s—
Keith: Zinnia and… [overlapped] Mazus?
Austin: Zinnia and Mazus. So Zinnia— I think Zinnia is like…. I think this is like how— how you— Holly gets— er, this is how this situation gets Holly's attention, is just Zinnia is like,
Austin (as Zinnia): Mazus, I know that we have to wear the blue, but did you have to… [hems and haws] We could've gotten out of there without this part of it. If you just didn't throw us under the bus. [pause]
Janine (as Mazus): [crosstalk] Well...
Keith (as Holly): [crosstalk] Hey, guys—
Keith: Oh, you— Oh, still goin’? You guys go. [Janine laughs lightly]
Janine: Uh, I was gonna say like… [whispers] Oh, god. Do we know— I guess we don't. I guess we don't. Okay. Um.
Austin: Do we know what? Because we just answer whatever that question is.
Janine: What's— how Mazus threw them under the bus.
Austin: Up to us.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: What I imagine is, like, Mazus Is the one— Like, Mazus maybe called a witness that thought— [laughs] that they thought would be good and ended up being bad. Or like—
Keith: Actually, I'm sorry. I want to change this scene.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: I'm changing the scene on you guys.
Austin: Done.
Keith: I want Janine to be Clover instead.
Austin: Okay. Oh, that's good.
Janine: [laughs lightly] Return of Clover.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And then— and then— Oh! Is Zinnia the one who...
Keith: Zinnia is now a—
Austin: [understanding] Ah.
Keith: —is an “erst,” too.
Austin: Okay. I’m just gonna leave Mazus as a name here.
Keith: Yeah, I— Here's why. I just wanna explain my decision.
Austin: Yes.
Keith: I like this scene of the two “ersts” on the bench talking to each other, and one of them is—
Austin: Upset?
Keith: —a Fallen and one of them is a Pillar. I don't like the scene where then I'm there, like, telling them— like, telling the person whose lives are changed that they're wrong. That's the part that I don't want.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: So I'm— that's why I'm changing it, specifically.
Austin: And so did Clover— what's Clover’s relationship? Is Zinnia the friend that Clover mentioned?
Keith: Yeah, I think so.
Austin: Okay. And—
Janine: What if he's, like, bringing something from Liliaceae?
Austin: The thing to remember is, he is the Fallen in this scene.
Janine: That's— well, yeah. But he's also the butler.
Austin: Totally. But, like, he's the butler to someone—
Keith: He can be supportive of his friend and also...
Austin: Okay.
Keith: —thinks that his friend is in the exact right spot.
Austin: Right. Totally. So what's he bringing? This still feels like it's not about the Hero.
Keith: [laughing] Soft— soft crackers!
Austin: This just feels— [Austin and Janine laugh lightly] I just— This really doesn't feel like it's about the Hero.
Janine: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah…
Austin: This needs to be— I need to know what the Hero is trying to do. Remember, like, the Hero can change faith.
Janine: Oh!
Keith: Uh, they could be—
Austin: The Hero can...
Keith: I’ve—
Janine: Zinnia was gonna get her stuff dyed, right?
Austin: I think her stuff is already dyed.
Keith: I think, uh— I think that... I think— Okay. I know. This is a con— it's a conversation about the… um, it starts— at least, it starts off as a conversation about like, “Well, what about that orange dye?”
Austin: Okay. Um...
Austin (as Zinnia): Thanks so much for the crackers, Clover. This is— [sighs] it's a— it's a soft bread that gets you through a hard day.
[Keith laughs]
Janine (as Clover): That should— they should put that on the packaging.
Austin (as Zinnia): Has— has whist Demaree made any mention about the orange dye? I would... I, of course, need to wear the dye, but I just think my natural complexion would be better with an orange. It would be easier to get through the day.
Janine (as Clover): If there are too many colors of dye, I think it would just confuse people.
Austin (as Zinnia): Mm, true. I guess the whole point is.. Yeah.
Janine (as Clover): It's very clear; it's identifiable. It’s— People know exactly what it means when they see it. That's worth something.
Keith (as Holly): Clover, you guys got, uh, the soft biscuits in.
Janine (as Clover): Yes, they came in— [laughs out of character] just this morning.
Austin: Zinnia like—
Keith (as Holly): Oh, really?
Austin: Zinnia looks down, like, as not to make eye contact with the person who— who made their blue dye. Kind of like—
Keith (as Holly): Have we met?
Austin: —out of shame.
Austin (as Zinnia): I was in your shop the other day. Miss whist Ho—
Austin: Miss Hossyp. Hyssop?
Austin (as Zinnia): Whist Hyssop.
Austin: Right.
Keith: I think that, um—
Janine: Like the judge.
Austin: Right, like the judge. Yeah.
Keith: I think that— that… when she says that, I notice the blue dye, and I sort of like,
Keith (as Holly): Oh, right. Yes.
Keith: And maybe kind of move past it a little bit. [Austin and Keith breath small laughs]
Keith (as Holly): What are you, uh— what are you guys doing out today?
Janine (as Clover): I was delivering some soft crackers.
Keith (as Holly): Just a biscuit run? Have you—
Austin (as Zinnia): I'm applying for a job— Do you need any assistant at the shop, Miss whist Hyssop?
Keith (as Holly): Oh, actually—
Austin (as Zinnia): Honor— Honorable... Honorable whist Hyssop. Apologies.
Keith (as Holly): I just— No, it's— Yeah. I actually just had a judge yell at me for not having enough people working at the store. So, I guess, feel free to apply.
Austin (as Zinnia): That would be… [sighs] No one— no one wants to hire a blue.
Keith (as Holly): Really?
Austin (as Zinnia): It's a bad look, I was told. I don't fit the culture.
Keith (as Holly): Sorry, a bad look, literally. Or like implied?
Austin (as Zinnia): Both. The blue is just very bad for my complexion.
Keith (as Holly): Both? I heard they're trying for an orange.
Janine (as Clover): I wouldn't buy soft crackers from a blue.
Austin (as Zinnia): See?
Keith (as Holly): But you’d give soft crackers to a blue?
Austin (as Zinnia): I'm a butler. [Keith and Austin laugh]
Keith (as Holly): What's the difference between soft crackers from a blue and soft crackers from anyone else?
Austin (as Zinnia): [overlapped] You don’t know—
Janine (as Clover): I don’t know. What's the— what's the difference between a blue and a not blue? A blue’s apartment and a not blue’s apartment? There is a difference. We ascribed the difference.
Keith (as Holly): I guess the difference is that a blue’s apartments are much bigger.
Austin (as Zinnia): You don't know— you don't know why the soft crackers are soft, if it's from a blue. You don't know why the—
Janine: [laughing] Gross. Gross!
Austin (as Zinnia): Why all the— where all the stuff... You can't trust a blue. I get it.
Keith (as Holly): Well...
Austin (as Zinnia): So, I would just be— I would be... if you could— I just clean up around the shop. Just...
Keith (as Holly): Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin (as Zinnia): If you need any paperwork. If you need—
Keith (as Holly): Submit the application. I'm sure I can figure out something.
Austin (as Zinnia): Great.
Keith (as Holly): I've only got an assistant, and all of a sudden we've got, like, ten times more people coming in, and it's a real headache.
Austin (as Zinnia): Thank you so much, whist Hyssop.
Keith (as Holly): Um.
Austin (as Zinnia): I'm gonna go apply right now.
Keith (as Holly): That's great. I do hope you can get some orange because it would go great with your complexion.
Austin: Just like a big smile and, like, the blue is just bad. It's bad. [laughs] It's very bad. And I think that’s scene.
Janine: Uh—
Austin: Unless you have something else.
Janine: Do I get to introduce a consequence?
Austin: Yeah, totally.
Janine: Anemone quits.
Austin: Ooo, interesting.
Keith: Ooo.
Janine: When— when Zinnia comes in and says, “Oh, Holly told me to submit an application, and I'm really excited.”
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: And Anemone’s like, “Okay, bye!”
Austin: [laughs] “Oh, it’s like that? Bye.” Great. Good. Cool. Gonna make that ex-assistant.
Janine: Erst. [Austin and Keith laugh hard]
Austin: Cool. Next scene... is yours to frame, Janine.
Janine: Okay. Um...
Austin: Still about the Hero. But you can frame it.
Janine: Yes. I think this scene is... Mm… Okay, I think this scene is— I think this scene should be Holly and Zinnia working in the shop. Like, Holly is training Zinnia to do the things—
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: —that Anemone was already trained to do. Even if Anemone wasn't, like, top rank or whatever, she still knew how to work the burner and get the right temperature and all that. She knew what a double boiler was and those things.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Um… and I think this is also the scene where Judge Hyssop whist Hops comes in with the other... fifteen, was it?
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: That needed their dyes. I think this is— They’re in the middle of training, and he shows up with the next fifteen, like, “Okay. Let's get to it.”
Austin: Okay.
Keith (as Holly): Hey, Judge, I got a new assistant.
Austin (as Zinnia): H— hi.
Keith (as Holly): Just like you wanted.
Austin (as Zinnia): Judge.
Austin: Like. waves.
Janine (as Judge Hyssop): Yes, I... I remember you. You hired a blue, Holly?
Keith (as Holly): Yeah. I lost the other one, but I'll get another other one.
Janine (as Judge Hyssop): Another blue?
Keith (as Holly): I don't know. Depends who applies.
Janine (as Judge Hyssop): Well, I've got fifteen new assistants for you then, I guess, if you'll start processing them.
Keith (as Holly): We are taking applications!
Austin (as an unnamed blue): [mumbling] Started taking applications. Did ya hear that? She's taking applications.
Janine: [amused] That's Mazus, right?
Austin: [still mumbling] That’s— It’s me, Mazus.
Janine: [laughs lightly] Grizzled bee criminal. Okay. [Austin and Keith laugh]
Austin: [still mumbling] She’s got all of Mazus’s. [Keith laughs away from the mic]
Janine (as Judge Hyssop): If you could— if you could just hurry things along then with your new assistant, who I am sure is very talented and... now, perhaps more moral than when I last met her.
Keith (as Holly): Well, that's the point of the blue, isn't it?
Austin (as Zinnia): That's right. I'm— I'm going to go make another batch.
Austin: And, like, in her nervousness, I think— I think Zinnia makes a mistake in the formula. It has not been trained well enough yet. And then like, I don't know if there's more small talk or what, but eventually there's— Zinnia is like,
Austin (as Zinnia): [panicking] Uh, Holly! Holly! Holly! Holly, Holly, Holly, Holly.
Keith (as Holly): [crosstalk] Hey, hey, hey, hey. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin (as Zinnia): Come back— come back into the back room. I really need to show you something.
Keith (as Holly): Okay, I’m back here. Hi, I'm here. I'm back here. What’s up?
Austin (as Zinnia): I did a thing by mistake. I did a thing, by mistake.
Keith (as Holly): What did you do by mistake? It's okay. It's just— What's up?
Austin: She's like— she's like... closes the blinds to, like, the back room where all the chemistry stuff happens. Closes, like, the— the furnace. Like, uh, puts the fuckin ket— Like, the um—
Keith: Kiln?
Austin: Not the kiln. No.
Keith: Burner.
Austin: The— Not the burner. The thing—
Janine: Oven?
Austin: The chimney. The chimney. She closed the chimney so, like, sound can't get out.
Janine: The flue?
Austin: The flue. She closes the flue. She's like,
Austin (as Zinnia): I made it. I made it wrong. I made it wrong. It changes color. It changes color. If you— All you have to do is add water, and it changes color by mistake. We have to get— I'm sorry. I ruined the whole batch.
Keith (as Holly): Hold on. Wait, is it—
Austin (as Zinnia): It looks like—
Keith (as Holly): What colors does it change to?
Austin (as Zinnia): It depends on what it's made of. But it's blue, and then— and then— and then if you just add a little bit of...
Austin: And she, like, tosses some— some like, saltpeter in and adds some water, or something, and it changes from blue to just like, a regular color. Like, it's just a nice red. Like, a nice soft red.
Janine: There is like, a legit—like, a flower— I think it's called pea flower, or something— that when you add any kind of acid to it, it goes from a really rich blue to a purplish pink.
Austin: Right. Perfect. So that's exactly what happens.
Keith: Sorry, it's a pea flower?
Janine: Yeah. You can get it like a— It’s a very beautiful, very disgusting tea.
Austin: Huh.
Janine: It’s what it is. Anyways.
Austin: Oh, wow, that's really— Look at that. That's wild.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: So, yeah, that's— that's what she does. And she's like,
Austin (as Zinnia): [quietly] It just looks like regular make up. It just looks like regular wax.
Keith (as Holly): Well, okay, so. Hold on. That's— Two things. One, it does look blue until you add the stuff to it.
Austin (as Zinnia): I can make it go back to blue. I just had more... Um.
Keith (as Holly): Hold on. Don't put anything more into the thing.
Austin (as Zinnia):Okay.
Keith (as Holly): So, I tryin’ to decide. We could just leave it like it is. Most people are not gonna be adding blue to their thing. Two. Second thing is we can probably get it to just be blue, and if it changes, changes to something, uh… more not... I guess, regular.
Austin (as Zinnia):Like what?
Keith (as Holly): I don’t know. I don't know. If it was like a— if it was like a blue to like a... Is it a blue to like a— like a lavender? That’s—
Austin (as Zinnia):We could do— may be able to fix this to make it more lavender, I guess. I— I just ruined the whole... This was a person’s wax.
Keith (as Holly): [crosstalk] We’ll just see what happens when I do this.
Austin (as Zinnia):This isn't—
Austin: Mhm.
Keith: Squirt some in there. Squirt some blue. I mean, some more blue dye in there.
Austin: What happens?
Keith: I think it probably dilutes it slightly so that it's— it's more blue, but maybe not blue enough.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: Or I take a samp— It's blue. How about this? It's blue, and I take a sample of it, and I add water to it, and then it's just not blue enough. It's blue— It's better than red and pink, but it's not good.
Austin (as Zinnia): This is Mazus’s. He's going to be furious.
Keith (as Holly): Well... sure. But... It's fine. There's no one— nowhere in the law does it say we are not allowed to make a mistake. That's not against the law.
Janine (as Judge Hyssop):Is there something wrong back there?
Keith (as Holly): No, I'm just showing her how to do the dyes.
Janine (as Judge Hyssop): May I have one of these soft crackers? [Austin laughs]
Keith (as Holly): You can have half of one soft cracker.
Austin (as Zinnia): You'd be surprised about what's illegal. What's erst—
Austin: What's— what's erst— not legal, “erst” worthy?
Austin (as Zinnia): —“Erst” worthy these days? Especially with a name like yours.
Keith (as Holly): Mm. Well... how about this? I double the blue, and it makes it, again, better, but not perfect.
Keith: And then this is the... Is this the— just the dye that I'm working with, or is this an actual—
Austin: No. This is like— this is— this is Mazus’s wax.
Keith: This is someone’s actual thing. Okay. [pause] Yeah. This is good.
Austin (as Zinnia): Okay. Let’s— we’ll see.
Keith (as Holly): And— Oh! Here's what we— Here's No, here’s what I’ll do. I have one more idea.
Keith: I add a little bit to make everyone sort of the same color. [Austin breathes a laugh] So that they all look the same sort of—
Austin: Off blue?
Keith: Off blue.
Austin: Oh, fuck. Okay.
Austin (as Zinnia): This is a bad idea, Holly.
Keith (as Holly): I mean, it's— it's my thing. I'm— I'm the person that does the thing. No one told me, “Here's the shade of blue.” They just said make them blue. This is a new blue.
Austin (as Zinnia): All right, fine.
Keith (as Holly): Next time though? We're going to do the old blue.
Austin (as Zinnia): If you say so, Hol?
Keith (as Holly): No. Nah, this is the new blue. [Austin laughs] This is the new blue.
Austin: I think scene? Unless there is a consequence here, Judge?
Janine: I— Mm. I'm kind of torn. Like, I want to— I want to add a consequence here. Like, I want to add some weight, but also I don't...
Keith: Holly's a professional, she knows what she’s doing.
Janine: It’s gradually— She is gradually lightening the shade of blue.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Uh, the thing I really want to do, I think, is a thing that steps on one of the rules, which is that I can't undo a thing that Keith has chosen.
Austin: Correct. Yeah.
Janine: Although it wouldn't— it's not really...undoing. I don't know.
Austin: What is it?
Janine: I was gonna say, like, the thing with that— with that thing that's reactive to an acid, if they— if people figured out they could use a stronger acid. But that feels a little bit like... like backtracking?
Austin: Yeah, a little bit.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: It's a thing that you could, I think, introduce the next time you're, like— er, I guess maybe not the next— If you're a Hero, or if there's another place to do the consequence, or something. I don't know.
Janine: Yeah. I think for now, there's no obvious consequence.
Austin: Cool. Alright. Well, the next... If that's the last— the end of that scene, it is now time for Reflection.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: [reading] “The Hero reflects on the current state of Haven. The Hero briefly narrates their thoughts and feelings about Haven and their reflection of the previous two scenes.”
Austin: Who do you think?
Keith: I think it's terrible how much of... how much people are caught up on... this one color. And I'm sort of glad that the color got screwed with, even just a little bit.
Austin: Okay, cool. Do we think that the society is heading for collapse in the next set of scenes?
Keith: No.
Austin: No.
Keith: [overlapped] We also can’t yet cause we—
Janine: I feel like we need at least another set.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: So it'll be two more sets basically, at least. So.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Okay, cool. Rotate characters one more time... or more than one more time now. But. So I become Hero, Janine becomes Pillar, Keith becomes Fallen. [pause] Boom. Pillar, you have to corrupt one more tradition.
Janine: Hmm…
Keith: Or an already corrupted tradition, but worse.
Austin: Right, yes. Exactly. Totally.
Janine: Right. I need to— Okay. Hang on. What— Latin word for blue. Oh, that's just a flower, huh? Okay. The thing I want to corrupt— I want to corrupt “naming.”
Austin: Okay.
Janine: So children are named based on the loyalties of those raising them. I want something in the name. Like, basically, if someone— if the person that you are “whisted” to—
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: —does a crime and they get “ersted”—
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: [aside] This is a hell of a thing we've made.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: —then I think what has to happen is you become— you have to change your name to like... Maybe it's just something like, “whist hyacinth” cause that's just a flower. But like—
Austin: Right.
Janine: It's something— you still get to be a “whist” because you didn't do anything wrong.
Austin: Right.
Janine: But it's, like, to blank out that person because they fucked up.
Austin: Mhm.
Keith: Like— Wait. So what did you say that it was?
Austin: Whist Hyacinth.
Keith: Okay.
Janine: Or something, yeah.
Austin: So there's now just this whole new family of— Yeah.
Janine: And even— even having it be “Hyacinth,” which is also a flower and fits the naming convention, kind of lessens the burden on that one person because it's still like, “That could— that could just be a name. We know it's not, but it's not like we're just calling you ‘whist Blue.’”
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Or “whist None.”
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: You know?
Austin: Okay. So I’m gonna frame the scene. I think we actually get a montage of just, like, making more and more of these things, making more and more of the waxes. More and more people are being put into— given the blue. And— and the second thing that we see is like, we see— we see it like— it, like, jumps between two things. She's prepping the blue for people, and then she's going from a kind of personal home to personal home; to residence to residence, and is, like, meeting with high class people. And you notice it through the... like, through the sequence of events that bit by bit— and it's not clear if this is intentional— it's not intentional at first, at all— she just naturally starts making regular makeup bluer. She starts dyeing the waxes bluer as just— she likes the— she likes that nice light blue. And so it goes from being, like, a nice— you know, a deep red to being someone who... you know, or from yellow to red, from red to purple, and bit by bit it gets lighter.
Janine: I mean, there is also a blue-red. [crosstalk] Like, there’s a type of red lipstick that’s more red—
Austin: [crosstalk] Totally, but—
Keith: [crosstalk] This is a real reverse—
Austin: Wait, wait, wait. But bit by bit, it just gets to be the fact that that nice light blue that was going around before is in— is not— it's indistinguishable from what she's giving her clients. And it... eventually then, like, she— there's a scene of her noticing it, and being like— and like, seeing the two jars next to each other, picking up the wrong one, going,
Austin (as Holly): [gasps] This is the wrong one. This is the one for— for Mazus, too.
Austin: Right? Or whatever. For another— for another person. And then putting it down and grabbing the other one. And it's the one for, like, Liliaceae’s next big event, right? Liliaceae wanted her to— to give her some new color for this new big event. And she picks it up, and it's the same color as the one that would have been for this— for this “erst.” And she just, like, nods her head and leaves to go meet with Liliaceae and deliver the new color. So I want a scene with Liliaceae and Clover and— and me. And it's at an event. Like, we've met at an event. Like, she— she— It’s just like, down to the last minute, right? Like, Liliaceae sent in her wax the night before to be like, “We have to get this— I've just changed my mind.” You know, “The— the yellow that I have is— is completely out of fashion.” That type of thing. And now it's like, Holly's delivering at some ball in the front of— you know, meeting her in her limousine or something. And like, door closes, Clover is in the front seat driving— er like, in the driver's seat, and Liliaceae is in the back.
Austin (as Holly): [sighs] Aunt Lil, sorry it took so long. Here you go.
Austin: And, like, hands over the jar with this very faint blue.
Janine: I think Liliaceae, like, opens it. Like, she doesn't even, like, really register the color on the bottle—
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: —cause she's just trusts Holly so inherently she just goes straight to, like, “Okay. Opening it and putting it on.” And then she gets her... bee finger? [Austin and Janine laugh] We didn't really think this through, did we?
Austin: Uh huh. Her bee finger.
Janine: Like, she dips it in there and, like, warms up and gets a bit of the product on there, and is like,
Janine (as Liliaceae): Sweetheart, this is blue.
Austin (as Holly): No, that's slate. That's slate. It's very... hip.
Janine (as Liliaceae): I— I'm a rather— I'm a rather— I'm not— I'm— I'm not old, but I'm— I'm mature. I'm not too concerned with— with the trends, Holly It's blue.
Austin (as Holly): Okay. Well, it's— well, it's not really though. It's a different— It's like— um...
Janine (as Liliaceae): It's— it's beautiful. It's a beautiful color.
Austin (as Holly): Well, if you're not— then that should be all you need to know.
Janine (as Liliaceae): You know what— what blue means, and—
Austin (as Holly): You're gonna go in there tonight, Aunt Lili, and you're going to see a lot of people have this color now. And not all of them are—
Janine (as Liliaceae): That’s an ominous thing to say.
Austin (as Holly): No, I'm just saying not all of them are “ersts”. Not all of them are blues.
Janine (as Liliaceae): Then how will I know who is actually blue?
Austin (as Holly): Oh, you know. They— An event like this, there's probably... This is a high class event, isn't it? You know these people. You would have heard if— if one of them had done something “erst” worthy.
Janine (as Liliaceae): That's true. Is this— is this a thing people are requesting of you, Holly?
Austin (as Holly): Some people. Like you said, it's very pretty.
Janine (as Liliaceae): [sighs] It's very pretty.
Austin: I think scene, unless Keith has a consequence.
Keith: I do have a consequence.
Austin: What's the consequence?
Keith: They approve the protesters’ demands for orange makeup.
Austin: [laughs] That's really good.
Janine: Ohhh.
Austin: It's super fucking good. Perfect.
Janine: I bet that petition is, like, a little bit old at this point, too.
Austin: Yeah. Yep.
Janine: Like, people kind of dropped the issue when the blue started spreading. And it's like, “Oh, hey, by the way… This thing you wanted....”
Austin: Mhm.
Keith: And they trumpet it as sort of this big thing, like, “We're loosening our... regulations.” [laughs]
Austin: Uh huh. Yep. Perfect.
Janine: Yeah, that’s good.
Keith: Loosening so that people can— people can be more accepting of “ersts”.
Austin: Uh huh. Alright. So Keith, frame the next scene.
Keith: So I think that it is... Holly... with…. With Anemone and... an “erst” who's come in to have their blue changed from orange. And it's one of the first.
Austin: Change to orange?
Keith: Change to orange.
Austin: Okay. Oh, wait, do you mean Anemone? Or Zinnia cause remember, Anemone quit.
Keith: Oh, sorry, I got that— Yeah, I got these mixed up. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, okay. Who is the person who wants the blue changed to orange?
Keith: Um, Thrip.
Austin: [hesitant] Okay.
Keith: Thrip is just a— just an “erst.” T-H-R-I-P.
Austin: Thanks.
Keith: It's a type of bug.
Austin: Gotcha. Who's playing— who are you playing in this, Keith?
Keith: Oh, good point. I forgot about that part.
Austin: Who's the Fallen? And who's the Pillar?
Keith: Thrip— I guess Thrip can be an un...
Austin: If someone's playing them, it has to be one of these things. Unless it's just a background character.
Keith: Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Austin: Okay, cool
Keith: Background character. And I think it's you and— or I think it's, uh... Yeah, you and Janine.
Austin: Okay. So— so at this point, Zinnia is Pillar still.
Keith: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Okay. Cause that can change. You could play Zinnia as a Fallen at this point, but you don't— that's— Okay. Um…
Austin (as Holly): Zinnia, I just don't want to do it anymore. I want to— Blues and oranges... This is not why I started doing this. When Lily taught me to do this, it was about bringing out the best version of yourself. It was about highlighting some— some angle of your face. It was about showing your best side. It was about looking courageous or ferocious or coy. It wasn't about... marking what someone else thought about you. It was about figuring out which version of you you wanted to show the world. It's bullshit.
Janine (as Zinnia): No, I'm— I mean... What's a feature, if not something that you can lose and have get worse over time, right?
Austin (as Holly): Zin... You mean that.
Janine (as Zinnia): [indistinguishable] you… highlight different—
Austin (as Holly): We are a few weeks away from someone being— someone telling me that I could never hire you because you're a blue or an orange or a “whist” or an “erst” or, I don't even know anymore.
Janine (as Zinnia): No one would tell you you couldn't hire me cause I'm a “whist.” That’s—
Austin (as Holly): What if you were a “whist Hyacinth”? What if you were a “whist Hyacinth”? It's not that far off.
Janine (as Zinnia): Well, they're doing fine right now.
Austin (as Holly): Are they?
Janine (as Zinnia): They'll probably be fine. Logically, it has to stop somewhere. You think it's not like we're gonna get to “whist Hyacinth second time removed.” You know, it'll stop where it needs to stop, and then everything will normalize.
Austin (as Holly): It does have to stop. You're right.
Janine (as Zinnia): [crosstalk] Then everyone will know where they stand.
Austin (as Holly): It's stopping.
Austin: And she, like, grabs all of the waxes and puts them into a big vat together and mixes them together. She mixes everybody— and she has like— so she has Thrip’s. She has something for, like, a number of higher ups in the Hexumverate, and she has Judge Hyssop whist Hops’ wax. And she mixes them together, and they're all the same color now. And they're all just this, like, kind of shitty brown.
Janine: I think Zinni is just in shock. She can't believe that just happened. I don’t think that she does anything there.
Keith: I think there is a consequence for that also.
Austin: Oh, yeah. I would hope. [Janine laughs]
Keith: Yeah. Um, let's see...
Austin: Mecha[???] says, “Ah, wax colored.” Yep. It just looks like wax now. [Janine and Keith laugh]
Keith: Um… Okay. I think... I think they start— No, that— I can't do that. That's... Let's see. My first— my first impulse was that they start coming out with laws based on, like, there's a different color for... like, per crime committed.
Austin: Mhm.
Keith: Not just criminals get one color, but then I was thinking that that's kind of stepping on the thing that you did. I wasn't sure.
Austin: I think that's a fine law. Like, it just reflects whether or not Holly will deal with— do you know what I mean? Like—
Keith: Sorry. Well, I mean— I mean, I wasn't sure if that constitutes as, like, I can't undo what you did.
Austin: I mean, what she did was just—
Janine: She did, like, a corruption.
Austin: Yeah, I guess that does— that does feel like a corruption more than a consequence.
Keith: Sorry. So you're saying that is allowed or unallowed?
Austin: No, I think that would be allowed if you were the Pillar making a new corruption of one of the things.
Keith: Oh. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: I think this is— I don't think it's a consequence.
Keith: Yeah, I agree. Yeah. That’s— yeah. What's the consequence of that? Um… Oh, Okay. I know the consequence of that. The peop— every single person who's wax you combined is now under an investigation.
Austin: Oh, interesting. Okay.
Janine: Hmm.
Keith: For— for having— for having wax that is not appropriately colored to their… station.
Austin: Right. So like, everybody— is it the— [crosstalk] Holly is like—
Keith: It’s the same— it’s a sort of— it's a sort of hold, like, from the harder stock cards.
Austin: Right.
Keith: Where it’s like, “Oh, this wasn't anybody's fault, but, you know, the laws of the law.”
Austin: Yep. And now—
Keith: So now they're— now they're like, “Oh well, you've got this weird— you've got the same color as all these people. It's the exact same color. [crosstalk] So we have to like, look—”
Austin: [crosstalk, finishing the sentence] “You must be part of a criminal conspiracy. You must be a revolutionary.” The judge is— There’s—
Keith: [laughs, crosstalk] Yeah, who are these people?
Austin: Right. A newspaper, comes out—
Keith: Who are these lowlives and these high— highlives that are walking around with the same brown color.
Austin: Right. Cause like, that's the thing, is like, I bet no one even notices it at first, right? Like, this isn't— it’s just like, “Oh, this is a weird color. I guess this is what's hot right now. Mm.”
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: And then— Yeah. And then like— like, the newspapers say like, “Revolutionary Judge” question mark? [Keith and Janine laugh] Um…
Keith: “Hero Judge?”
Austin: Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
Keith: “Hero Judge Uncovers Wax Conspiracy.”
Austin: God. Okay. Uh, reflection. Unless there's another— Yeah, I think it's a reflection now. Um, she's fired up, right? Like, this is— this is— she's remembered the thing... In delivering that monologue, she remembered why she wanted to start doing the thing— she remembered why she wanted to become a waxwright. Which was to help people bring out their— their— you know, a version of themselves that they— that they want to express. And, um, has decided to go all in on this, whatever that means. She doesn't know how to do that quite yet maybe, but, like, she is ready to take real action at this point and not just sit in the backseat and watch things happen. Um… do we think next thing is the final— the final set?
Janine: I kind of do, to be honest.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: I don't know yet if I think that.
Austin: I'm gonna lean towards yes, if only because we've been going for a long time.
Keith: That's true. We have been going for a long time.
Janine: Yeah, we've been going for a while, and also, like, it feels like... things coming to a head in a story about how everything falls apart is—
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: —you know, that's where it goes.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Once there's that revelation then.
Austin: Alright, let's rotate one more time.
Keith: No, this one doesn't have a rotation.
Austin: It does. We still have to do one more.
Keith: The last one—
Austin: This is the—
Keith: The last one doesn't rotate.
Austin: This is—
Keith: You just go straight on.
Austin: No, because you... if you did— once you decide that you're going to the ending. what it says is, “the next set—” Like, we're not in the ending now. What— when you finish the reflection—
Keith: Oh, this is the ending. There's one more...
Austin: Right. Once you decide—
Keith: When you rotate, and there’s—
Austin: —that you're collapsing, you then rotate one last time so everybody still gets one last set of scenes to, like, really get there. That's— that's the thing.
Keith: Oh, I thought it said, like, “if you were part of the scene where they decide, ‘Hey, this is the final scene,’ then—”
Austin: Maybe you’re right.
Keith: “—you do another set of scenes, but you retain those characters.”
Austin: Oh, maybe. Let's see. Uh, “After the reflection—” [thinking noises]
Keith: I think that that’s what it said.
Austin: [reading] “If we decide to end the game and destroy the Haven, then we'll play two more scenes and return to reflection.” Um... it doesn't— I don't see anywhere that says you don't rotate.
Keith: Where did I get that? I know where— I know where I thought I read that, so I can— let me go to that spot.
Austin: Yeah, see if you can find it.
Janine: It might be for the— I thought that was for the conclusion.
Austin: Yeah, I think that's for the conclusion. Cause it still says, even like— if we decided to— “if we decide it's time to destroy the Haven—”
Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Here it is. I found it. [reading] “After the reflection in the second round of play—”
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: “—and on every subject of play we'll decide together if we are close to the end of the game. If we decide it's time to destroy the Haven, the following round will be the final one. And instead of rotating characters—”
Austin: Right.
Keith: “—we’ll continue to The Collapse.”
Austin: Right. That's “and after the following round.”
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: “Instead of rotating characters, we’ll continue to The Collapse.”
Keith: Oh, Okay.
Austin: Not— not—
Keith: I was reading that as—
Austin: Yeah. Not right now.
Keith: —“Instead of rotating characters, there's another scene where we just are the same characters.” Got it.
Austin: No, we— [crosstalk] we rotate one more time.
Janine: [crosstalk] No, The Collapse is like a separate…
Austin: Yeah. Set of things..
Janine: …thing. Yeah.
Austin: Alright. So we rotate one more time, which means... So wait. I've now lost it a little bit. I am the Hero. Janine, you become a Hero again... Right?
Janine: Hooray.
Austin: And then Keith becomes the Pillar. And I— Right, cause we're going back to what we were to begin with.
Janine: Yeah, we’re back the way we started. Yeah.
Austin: Alright, cool. Pillar.
Keith: Hello.
Austin: Corrupt a tradition.
Keith: It's so corrupted already; it’s hard to pick one.
Austin: It's pretty— it’s pretty up there.
Keith: Um… grief, I'm corrupting grief.
Austin: Ooo, okay.
Keith: Werst— er werst. [laughs] Ersty-worsties—
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: —are— are no longer allowed to have… their week of mourning. And “ersts” are no longer allowed to attend to others’ week of mourning.
Austin: Okay.
Janine: [hesitant] Ooo.
Austin: That's a good— that's good scene material.
Janine: Yeah. [pause] Uh…
Keith: This is a cool game, you guys.
Janine: Okay.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: [crosstalk] This is cool.
Austin: Now that we’re, like, in the rhythm of it, it's super good. Cause it's pretty quick given, once you're like, “in it-in it.”
Keith: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Janine: I think— I think I know what this scene is, too.
Austin: Yeah?
Janine: I think this scene is... someone Zinnia knows has died.
Austin: Mhm. Okay.
Janine: And Zinnia is... very upset.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Obviously, as one would be. And has to like— A: has to work through that. B: Can't go... put a cup for— for the person that was bonded—
Austin: Right.
Janine: —to that person. The way that this is about Holly, of course, is that Holly wants her to do those things.
Austin: Right.
Janine: And, like, wants her to— is like...is— I don't know. This depends a lot on what Zinnia would want to do. But is probably being like,
Janine (as Holly): Okay. Well, we can disguise you— like, we can get this— we can get you in like a— like a nice cloak or something. And we just put your, you know, we'll put your wax on the inside so people won't, like, see the little— they won't see it. And you can just go there with the cup, and you can put the cup there. And then we leave, and then, like, you won't have to work this week. You can just... you know. Like, you can hang out in the back. And just relax. Uh, because you'll get in trouble if you're somewhere else. But you can be here; you just have to… you just have to... It's fine. It's great. It's a good plan, right?
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Um…
Austin: So, Keith, are you still playing... Is— is Zinnia still Pillar, or has she moved to Fallen?
Keith: Is that up to Janine or up to me?
Austin: I think it's up to Janine. She frames the scene.
[a large bang can be heard]
Austin: I don't know what that was.
Janine: [sighs] It's tough. I could see it either way. I could see this also being the thing that pushes Zinnia to Fallen, because Holly has like— Holly is maybe pushing her a little too hard. Like Holly is doing the thing that well-meaning people involved in social conflicts try and do, which is, like, try to help someone who maybe just wants to mind their own— they just want to do their thing. Like, they just want to live their life. And Holly is— is sort of trying to push her into being a more aggressive person—
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: —than maybe she's comfortable being. But I could also just see her being Pillar and... you know. I'm not sure.
Austin: If you let her be Pillar, I have a good— I have a good Fallen sce— like, thing for this scene. But.
Janine: Oh, that's true. Cause if they're actually like going to the thing—
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: —to put the cup in. Okay. We should do that. That's way better.
Austin: Yes. Yeah.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: So they're there. You've talked her into going. She just feels uncomfortable about it?
Janine: Yes.
Austin: Okay, cool.
Janine: Yeah. [Keith groans]
Austin: Alright. [Janine laughs] What's the room look like?
Janine: Um… I think—
Austin: And our— Is it disgui— is there a disguise? Like, what happened here?
Janine: So I think Liliaceae… er sorry, I just keep looking at the thing with Keith's thing...
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: Name on it.
Austin: Zinnia.
Janine: Zinnia is, you know, wearing a cloak. Her face is probably still, like, visible. But the thing that Holly is banking on is that... Zinnia’s friends and family will, like, tolerate her being there because it's a show of support. It's maybe not the smartest thing to bank on, but like... she's— Cause going there in secret and just leaving a cup would probably not necessarily work. Cause there would be, like, people around. It's probably a relatively large room—
Austin: Yes. It's a— it’s a— Yeah.
Janine: But, like, they probably use, like, a receiving room of some sort for something like that because...
Austin: Are there other people here?
Janine: Yes. I don't think it's like—
Austin: Okay.
Janine: I don't think it's a big event.
Austin: Right.
Janine: But I think you would probably have someone... you’d probably have a few people around to, um... You'd have— you'd have a few people around to, like, make sure everything's going okay.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Like, I feel like— I feel like there's a lot of weird shitty accidents that could happen if you just had an empty room full of very important cups.
Austin: Mhm. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Janine: Like, there is someone— Someone knocked over the cup pyramid every fuckin’, you know.
Austin: [laughs] Yeah. So— yeah. Okay. Here's a thing the Fallen— Here. I just wanna introduce this Fallen thing. Do you want to talk with Zinnia first about all this? Before I throw my wrench?
Janine: I think if we're presuming that they both agreed to be there, then.
Austin: Right. So I think there's probably, like, a couple of other people here also paying respects as part of this. And then there's a knock at the door. And also, like, a flash of thunder and lightning. And whoever is the cup guardian opens the door. You know, who’s, like, basically like a— the equivalent of a mor— not a mortician, but a, uh... what's the name of a person who runs a funeral home? There's a name for that, isn't there?
Keith: There totally is, yeah.
Janine: I thought that was just a mortician.
Austin: Maybe that is a mortician. Then the mortician opens the door and is like...
Austin (as unnamed mortician): Oh… Judge.
Austin: And it’s Judge Hyssop whist— whist Hops with—
Keith: Funeral director! Sorry.
Austin: Funeral director. Thank you.
Janine: Mm, yeah.
Keith: [crosstalk] I totally clipped on that, sorry.
Austin: And there is a— the judge comes in with a bunch of police and shoves the funeral director out of the way and steps into the cup room, and then goes over to one of the other people who are kneeling. And, like, one of the cops just shoves them on the ground and holds them down and arrests— er, like, handcuffs all four hands together. It's a really cool— like, it's a really unique looking handcuff that— It’s a single cuff that cuffs all four arms behind their back.
Janine: You mean a circle?
Austin: [joking] It's a circle. [laughs] No, I think it's four… I think it's four little circles. You know?
Janine: Ah. Yeah.
Austin: And—
Keith: But connected together?
Austin: Connected together.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Maybe it's worse. It's six. It is the— t's the— it's the symbol of the Hexumverate.
Janine: [overlapped] They’re putting bee people in a six— in a six pack holder?
Keith: And it's a— It's a hog tie?
Austin: It's a hog— Yeah, it's a hog tie. They hog tie this person.
Janine: Oh god.
Austin: Legs are bent back. And the judge says, you know, “Thrift—” Sorry,
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Thrip erst—
Austin: What's the flower name? Thrist?
Janine: Chrysanthemum.
Austin: Thrip— I thought we already had chrysanthemum as another thing. No? That was Hyacinth.
Keith: Lacewing.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Thrip erst Lacewing, you're under arrest for attending a morning ceremony while an “ernst.” You will be brought before... the highest court... and sentence will be passed.
Austin: And the judge turns and looks at you, Holly.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Mm. Waxwright, I did not know you knew the deceased.
Janine (as Holly): I know a lot of people here. I'm a waxwright.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Hm. Who is your friend?
Janine (as Holly): [pauses and laughs] This is my assistant. She's here assisting me.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): A new assistant? Or is that Miss Zinnia?
Keith (as Zinnia): Same— same assistant, sir.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Oh, Zinnia.
Janine (as Holly): She's here assisting me.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Oh, Zinnia... how did you know the deceased, Zinnia?
Keith (as Zinnia): Uh… mostly I'm just here assisting.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Zinnia, I thought you were a loyal member of the Hexumverate
Keith (as Zinnia): I am, and I am also a loyal employee of Holly’s.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Oh… there are many loyalties. Such is life.
Keith (as Zinnia): I feel very strongly about the person who gave me a job.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): That is noble. [sighs] It is good to have people who are loyal to you, Holly. I have a number of them with me now. Take her. Take them both.
Janine: Can do something as that’s happening?
Austin: Absolutely.
Janine: I think Holly keeps a lot of her pigments, like, on a belt in vials and stuff, sort of like samples that she can, um…
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: ...pull out. And it was probably a little more relevant when people wanted, like, custom reds and pinks and things, and yellows.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: But she has a vial of the blue pigment, and the blue pigment is like a really— especially when you don't dilute— is, like, a really intense— like, it stains you. And we're talking about bee people—
Austin: Right. Yeah.
Janine: —who have, like, fur and exo skeletons and shit—
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: —and not, like, skin that sloughs off. [Austin makes a sound of disgust] So like, you know, when you use sharpie your skin— [crosstalk] or whatever, it comes off.
Austin: [amused] One— Wait, one: can we not talk about skin that sloughs off, as if it's just a thing.
Janine: [amused, crosstalk]] Well no, your skin comes off in layers—
Keith: [crosstalk] Oh, you don't know about skin slough?
Austin: [disgusted noise] I know, I know.
Janine: It happens. It just, you know—
Austin: But the way you say it!
Janine: So you know, if you scrub— if you scrub a permanent mark hard enough—
Austin: [uncomfortable] Uh huh.
Janine: —on like, skin-ass-skin, it'll come off.
Austin: Yes.
Janine: If you do that on an exoskeleton. I imagine it doesn't really work.
Austin: Yes. I gotcha.
Keith: Cause it'll just slop off. [Janine and Austin breath light laughs; Austin sighs]
Janine: So I think what she does is she takes this vial of the really intense blue pigment and whips it into Judge Hyssop whist Hops’ face.
Austin: [sighs] Alright. There is no immediate consequence outside of you’re both pinned down and arrested.
Keith: That's a pretty immediate consequence.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: [laughing] It’s a fair one.
Austin: And the next scene that I'm gonna— I'm going to...frame is that there is a... God, I'm gonna make a big swing. Get ready. I think we get, like, again Holly— We get Holly and Zinnia in jail together. And then... I guess let's just open on that. And then there's a thing that I want to introduce halfway through. But just— I just— I want the two of them talking in jail.
Janine (as Holly): I'm sorry, Zinnia.
Keith (as Zinnia): Well, it's okay. You— you shouldn't be here. Only I should be here.
Janine (as Holly): No, I think it's the other way around.
Keith (as Zinnia): I went into the house, and I knew I wasn't supposed to. And you didn't, you know, technically commit any crime.
Janine (as Holly): I mean, I kind of made you go. I certainly enabled you, and maybe pushed a bit.
Keith (as Zinnia): Well, uh… Well, it's— you know, if it was gonna be anyone that they took, it was gonna be me anyway. So it's upsetting that it's the two of us, I guess.
Austin: The sound of thunder and lightning continues. There's rain coming down on Demaree, on the hive. And I think that you're at the top— like, you're at the very top of the hive, so it's just like super loud outside.
Keith (as Zinnia): I wish I never had to go here again.
[Austin makes a sympathetic sound]
Janine (as Holly): Yeah, I also— I wish that for you, Zinnia.
Austin: And then there was an incredibly loud hit of thunder. Another big, bright blast of lightning. And then you realize it's neither of those things. It is an explosion. And then the sound of... gunfire? These bees have guns. [Janine laughs] And there— Like, a rope—
Keith: I mean, hey, you said it was like, you know, 1910.
Janine: That’s what sunflower seeds are for.
Austin: [laughs] The rope drops down through the ceiling, as a hole is blasted in the top. And it's gross. Like, the ceiling is just the ceiling of the hive, right? So it's not gross for you, cause it’s, like, what you live with, but like, it's gooey. The ceiling is, like, gooey and like—
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: But also like— or maybe not. Maybe it's not gooey. Maybe it's—
Janine: I don't think it would be gooey.
Austin: It would be—
Janine: The goo is for the babies.
Austin: [crosstalk] Right. It would be...
Janine: [crosstalk] The goo is to feed the babies. So, it’d be, like, dry, and… crunchy.
Austin: It would— Yeah, like papier mâché. Right?
Janine: And crusty.
Austin: Like— Yeah, it’s crusty.
Keith: Like sugar crumbs.
Austin: Yeah, exactly. And a rope ladder drops in. And then, like, you can hear gunfire coming from the top. And a face pokes its head out.
Keith: Why are there—
Austin (as unnamed person):Hurry up!
Austin: Says the person there.
Keith (as Zinnia): Hurry up what? No, I'm supposed to be in here.
Austin: It's Clover, and he has orange and blue painted across his face... like a flag.
Janine: Woah!
Austin: Its orange, blue, orange. [Keith cackles; Janine laughs]
Keith (as Zinnia): Uh, Clo— Uh, Clover!
Janine (as Holly): I...
Keith (as Zinnia): What are you doing?
Austin: And then, like, you hear him run away cause I can't play him in this scene because otherwise he'd be the Fallen. He's not the Fallen.
Janine: That’s— oh, yeah. That's true. Shit. Okay.
Austin: The Fallen is the sound of footsteps. The Fallen is Judge Hyssop whist Hops who is getting closer and closer to the jail shells— cells.
Janine: We have wings. Let's just fucking fly up. Fuck this ladder.
Austin: It's raining. It's pouring.
Janine: Oh right, shit.
Keith (as Zinnia): I'm— very specifically was told to be in here. We were both specifically— very specifically told we have to be in here.
Janine: [sighs. Okay, Holly— Holly is already climbing up this ladder. She is showing Zinnia like— Oh god, what did she say?
Janine (as Holly): Would you—
Janine: Something like,
Janine (as Holly): Would you rather be here or in the shop? We need to go. There's nothing for us here.
Keith (as Zinnia): Uh… uhhh.
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Oh, Miss Holly.
Keith: Zinnia flies up.
Austin: [laughs] You can hear, like the judge's baton slapping against the the cell bars as you guys fly away. And I think we— I think this is, like, a rad chase sequence. Tell me what happens in it, Janine. Since it's your— [Janine sighs] you're still the Hero.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: But like, this is—
Janine: So—
Austin: I imagine we still have some use of wings, but it is like... pouring out.
Janine: Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Austin: So it's like a little floaty jumps and stuff.
Janine: Yeah. So I think what happens is... they get up to the sort of exterior of a hive, and… Holly would probably have... Well, a rope ladder would be too big for that— I don’t know. She’d probably just, like, kick whatever was anchoring the rope ladder out so it would just fall sort of uselessly inside the cell.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: And then probably a lot of sliding down the hive. Like, if we're imagining a sort of typical sort of almost cone shaped, but, like, very rounded hive, there'd be a sort of— there'd be an area that you could slide down in the rain that’d be kind of bumpy.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: And then a steeper drop off.
Keith: I was—
Janine: So probably... What were you gonna say?
Keith: Oh, are you saying— So is there like a spot where they can slide down and it's bumpy, or are the— is the— is it like… Is there something to navigate? Or is it like, “Oh, this is just a horribly rocky ride down of this thing?”
Janine: I think it's like a very bumpy slope kind of thing.
Keith: Okay, yeah.
Janine: But they're basically… Um, [whispers] my cat is outside meowing right now. [Austin laughs; Janine sighs]
Keith: Aw, poor cat wants to be in. Every cat that’s out wants to be in.
Janine: And the opposite also.
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: So Holly— Holly's, like, trying to lead Zinnia sort of sliding along this sort of wet exterior slope thing towards— there's like a little— probably like a little...I imagine, because this hive is like a city that might be little balconies and things that sort of stick out. Or, like, little—
Austin: [crosstalk] Mhm, oh totally.
Janine: [crosstalk] —ledges and outcroppings that are sort of cut into the side.
Austin: [crosstalk] Yeah, one hundred percent.
Janine: [crosstalk] But not so much the top because that would be a vulnerability. But on the sides— [audio cuts out when Austin starts]
Austin: [crosstalk] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Janine: She’s probably trying— She's sliding down this sort of gentle slope-y part, and when it gets the steeper part, she is sort of skipping with her wings and stuff to go from, like, window frames and balconies and stuff to kind of get down lower.
Austin: Yeah. I think Hyssop whist Hops is, like, revealed in this moment. Like, does the thing that happens in movies like this where he kind of throws off the... the kind of genteel kind of position he always holds— his— his posture kind of changes, and reveals, like, he's not just a bee; he's a fucking hornet. Right?
Keith: Yeahhhh.
Austin: Like, he’s this, like, gigantic dude, right? Like, and, like, has the wing strength to try to like— he can't fly in in the rain either, but he's able to take these huge long leaps where he, like, jumps out off the side and then hovers back down towards to try to catch up. And is just like— We just get the thunder and lightning, rad, you know, chase sequence here. He has— he has cops who work for him who are just not— they’re in the middle— they’re just like wasps or something, right? And they're not able to catch up. But like, they all slip off and fall to their death. Or they get zapped by light. Like, it's— you know. You know how this shit goes. You've seen movies.
Janine: Mhm.
Keith: Real quick. What do you mean by that they were in— that they were in the middle? The wasp cops.
Austin: I was just saying that they're like— they're not— in terms of, like, strength or, like, dangerousness—
Keith: Okay.
Austin: They're not... they look dangerous, right?
Keith: Right.
Austin: They look like the way wasps do, but they're no— They’re not hornets. They're not bigger.
Keith: Right.
Austin: They're not like a giant hornet, which is like...
Keith: Totally inconsequential. I always thought of it— Pokémon evolution style as—
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: —bee, hornet, then wasp.
Austin: Oh.
Keith: But I do— [overlapped] I do feel like—
Austin: [crosstalk] I think hornets are gigantic. Er, not gigantic. But are... I thought wasps were…
Janine: Are those big horrifying Japanese ones, hornets or wasps?
Austin: I think those were hornets. I just looked up—
Janine: [crosstalk] I think they’re hornets, too.
Keith: I always think of hor— My idea of a hornet is like a yellow jacket.
Austin: Okay. Well, now we're back on youtube— er on—
Janine: Well, all these things suck. [Keith laughs]
Austin: Yeah, they all suck.
Janine: I'm not— I'm not googling any of these—
Keith: [amused] They all—
Janine: —cause they all suck, and I hate them.
Keith: Hey, bees are nice. Only wasps and hornets suck. They both want to eat you.
Austin: Yellow jackets are wasps. Wasps are yellow jackets. Hornets are a different thing. [pause] I think? Hornets are also wasps. Okay. This is...
Keith: Okay.
Austin: Impossible.
Keith: Okay, so— so there's smaller hornet and a big ass fucking hornet.
Austin: [laughing] Yes. This is— Yeah. There are three bees. There are three— there are three types of bees on the screen. One of them is very big. One of them are middle, big. The rest are you guys. [Janine laughs]
Keith: Mhm.
Austin: And I mean, I think that the backdrop to this is like... revolution, right? Like, this is—
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: —bumbling in the back— like, on the next watch through this movie, what you'll see is all of the times that Clover has secretly not been the Fallen or the Pillar, and has, in fact, been trying to— You get, like, the shot of Clover going off to heat up the soup and, like, trading off with— you know, information with somebody and whispering—
Janine: He was— he was smuggling... like, rebel communiques in the soft cracker boxes?
Austin: In the soft crackers. Yes, exactly. Exactly. [Keith laughs]
Janine: Mhm.
Austin: And I think maybe it comes in from one of the other like six cities, right? Like, this is one of the other six cities. It's not just that this is all about the blue. Like, it is about the blue, but the blue is the thing that— Well, we can get into this in the collapse, actually. So, let's just finish up the scene. How does it end, Janine?
Janine: Um… [sighs] I think it maybe ends rough, but not terrible. Like, sliding down a thing and trying to like, reverse Assassin's Creed your way down raining bee— like, a beehive in the rain with like windows and stuff, and also you're probably wearing a bee version of those little Victorian boots—
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: —is probably, like, rough. I imagine there's a lot of like... bumping and sort of falling a little too far before your wings catch—
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: —and stuff. And eventually, just like landing sort of on a terrace on the bottom tier.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Like, ragged. Kind of worse for wear. Like, clothes in bad shape. Wings also in bad shape. Fuzz bad shape. Everything in bad shape.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Probably more and more looking to hide at that point than keep running or join the melee.
Austin: Yeah. Well, we get— and we probably get the like— we get the judge who is also, by the way, still covered in blue, right? Like, huge splash of blue across his face, right? From— from—
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: From when Holly threw it at him. We get him, like, landing and then going down onto two legs— er four legs, rather, and like— but still stand— like a centaur. Like a bee centaur. Right? Walking around with, like, a Tommy gun, or some shit as he— as he moves around, and like, looking behind. I guess the bottom of the hive, and, of course, in my mind that means it's like storage. There's crates down here. There's like, um, you know. Or maybe this is where they make the honey. You know? This is where they make the— they make the nectar. How's it work? Which— what turns into what again? Honey that’s—
Janine: What?
Austin: What's the relationship between honey and nectar?
Janine: Oh, nectar— nectar turns into honey.
Keith: Pollen gets turned into honey.
Austin: Pollen gets turned into honey.
Keith: Oh.
Austin: Right. [second guessing] Right?
Janine: Oh right. Is— Nectar is what they eat. And then pollen, they barf up into honey?
Keith: Is the— Yes. Yeah. I know that they collect the pollen on their legs. That's all that I know.
Austin: Mhm.
Keith: And then I think that that becomes honey.
Janine: Yeah, they have, like, little leg pockets.
Austin: Okay.
Keith: Yeah. And it’s adorable.
Janine: Oh, we should have used the leg pockets for the dye thing.
Austin: Well now you have— Now you can have something in your leg pockets right this second.
Keith: I was looking up Japanese hornets, and I did find a video that I put in the chat—
Austin: I don't want to watch this.
Keith: —of Japanese hornets attacking a beehive.
Janine: Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.
Austin: Oh, that sounds terrible.
Keith: Which is very relevant now.
Janine: Nah-uhn.
Austin: [quietly] Japanese hornets.
Keith: They're huge. They're— You're right. They're gigantic.
Janine: No. No. No.
Austin: I just want to see— [shouting] Oh my god! They're so big!!
Keith: They’re so big.
Austin: Jesus Christ!
Keith: They're so big.
Austin: Well, this is what's after you right now.
Keith: [crosstalk] They make the bees look like little babies. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah. So do you just hide? Do you attack back? What do you do?
Janine: Uh… oh. Um, okay. So I think she's hiding, and maybe he's, like, coming after her and, like, snooping around and stuff. And I think in her adorable little bee leg pocket, she has a pair of, like... decent scissors. Like, those big,,. they're mostly made for cutting fabric. They're very large, heavy, like, all metal— like, kind of— the kind of scissors you'd find in a drawer at your grandma's house—
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: Like, old and sturdy.
Austin: Are they actually the— are they actually from grandma's house? Are they actually from Liliaceae’s... Do you know what I mean? Like, are they hers?
Janine: They might— I mean, they could be. It could have been like a— like a, “I need to borrow some scissors to open up the packaging for this bullshit that I ordered.”
Austin: For these soft crackers. Got it. Uh huh. [Janine laughs]
Janine: I was gonna say, like, pigments and stuff. But sure. And she'd meant to return them, but hadn't cause she got arrested or whatever.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: So I think she takes those and cuts a bit of cord that's holding a box that Judge Hyssop is passing under.
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: So there's like a— you know— you know; you've seen cartoons.
Austin: I've seen cartoons
Janine: [laughs] It’s like a rope and a pulley, and then it's holding, like, some kind of net thing with a box of— of whatever. So I think while she's hidden, she's— she tries to cut that rope.
Austin: Yeah. I think that happened. That's totally— that's rad. And then yeah, just like... killed or knocked out or whatever. It hits him, and then, like— you know, he's probably marching around and like— and he’s in full on cartoon bad guy, Christopher Lloyd at the end of Roger Rabbit. You know what I mean? [Janine laughs] Like, that's where he's at. Like,
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): Holly!
Austin: Like very much just being—
Janine: That guy with the big face and Rescuers Down Under?
Austin: Yes. Totally. Like, just complete menacing asshole. And then— and then I think maybe the last thing he says before the box hits him is... [sighs]
Austin (as Judge Hyssop): We could have ended this chase minutes ago. Remember, efficiency is next to loyalty.
Austin: And then, like, cut. Box falls, hits him on the head, drops him. And then I think scene. Reflection? Or do we not go— we don't go to reflection. We just go to... Is this where we don't do reflection, or do we still do reflection? Let's see. Um...
Janine: I feel like this is where we don’t cause reflection’s big feature is like, “Here's where the next person is picking up.”
Austin: Totally. [reading] “Decide—” [thinking noises] “Instead of rotating characters.” No, I think we still... No, yeah, you're right.
Austin: [reading] “After the final scene, each player narrates a short vignette from the Hero's perspective.”
Austin: Alright. So...
Austin: [reading] “Collapse. After we've roleplayed the last scene, each player gets an hour and a final short moment as the Hero— as the Haven collapses. If we haven't seen the Haven collapse yet, this is the time to describe its final destruction. At this point, the Hero is allowed to die, if we want. Give them a—”
Janine: I don’t want that.
Austin: No.
Austin: [reading] “Give the Pillar’s current player— “
Austin: So that's Keith.
Austin: [reading]“—the index card with the Haven information on it and flip over the character sheets.”
Austin: It doesn't really. We're not going to do that.
Keith: Yeah. [Janine laughs]
Austin: Cause they're not physical.
Austin: [reading] “The player holding the card describes the Haven’s collapse through to the Hero’s perspective. Pass the card to the right and repeat until everyone has narrated a short vignette of the Haven’s collapse. Once every player has narrated the final moment, the game ends.”
Austin: So, it’s gonna go Keith, then me, then Janine.
Austin: [reading] “If the Hero dies before you make your vignette, use your vignette to describe how their death worsens the Haven's downfall. The Haven has fallen, brought low by the very Flaw that once made it great. Our Hero’s futile task is complete. Perhaps one day we can salvage something from the ruins of her former home. Perhaps not.”
Austin: So, Keith, give me a vignette.
Keith: [sighs] Um… Hm... I think— Okay, so Holly... after getting in and drying off amid— I would say a lot of chaos and violence— the... and after much arguing, the... pieces of the resistance form a replacement police presence for the people that they just ousted.
Austin: Mm. Okay. The hive is broken up. It like— Remember all of the places where there were... empty because of the blue? The ar— Because of the corruption of the architecture? The rebellion, revolution, whatever has— or, like, the other— the other— You know what it is? It’s like, the other six sub-hives that are off, like, in the distance basically have been having this revolution line those areas with explosives, and they literally break the hive into six. And they float off in different directions down the highways and then kind of hook up to the— like the floating flower areas. And so what was once this great big single city of Demaree is now these six independent hives. These six— like, that are each connected to whatever the other distant ones were instead of being this one group thing. So it, like, totally fractures what had previously been this, like, one great city around all of the bees, where they are all working together. And I think we see—
Sorry, the— Holly needs to be there. And I think she has to choose one of these. And I think she... goes with the culture and arts one. Where, like, hopefully can continue her craft. And if seen, like— she's doing the opposite that— what she used to do; she's applying the makeup to good citizens. But it's just the opposite of what she did before, right? Like, now the loyal are marked as being exceptionally loyal instead of it being that you marked the “ersts.” You marked, like, the people who are loyal to you— You basically mark those who are “whist-rebellion,” you know?
Janine: Mm.
Austin: Janine, final seeing this scene. Final vignette.
Janine: Final scene. So I think... the... Oof. Hm. Hmm!
Austin: Uh huh.
Janine: It's tough. I think the final scene that we get is... So, Holly has started applying makeup to the loyal, and I think we get a scene of her former assistant, Anemone.
Austin: Oh yeah.
Janine: Who has also ended up at this, you know, colony.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: Because, you know, she also likes art and stuff.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: But she's not like there cause she was enthusiastic about this whole process. [Austin laughs] She's— she is not one of the whist rebellion.
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: But she also, like— you know, she loves the makeup and stuff. That's why she was with Holly in the first place, because she loved that so much. And she is, like, begging Holly for— for like her— I don't know if she's begging for her job, or if she's begging for make— like, cause she wants the cosmetics herself.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: And it’s— iIt's putting Holly in that same position again of like, Why are some— why can I do this for some people and not others? Why do I have to make some people prettier and other people not? And it seems... [sighs] I don't— I'm a little unsure of where I want to finally end that, but I think the final scene would be like... her sort of raising, like, one of those really thin lip brushes—
Austin: Mhm.
Janine: —with like a little bit of— of wax— of the colored wax on the end. And, like, raising that up to Anemone’s face, kind of.
Austin: Yeah. That’s good.
Janine: Uncertain. But still moving in that direction because that's what she believes.
Austin: Mhm. Okay. I think that's going to do it for our first Live at the Table. This game is really cool. I'm really in love with it. It's really great. I really want to play it with everybody. You can find me on Twitter @austin_walker. Where can people find you, Janine?
Janine: Uh, you can find me on Twitter @bleatingheart.
Austin: And you, Keith?
Keith: You can find me on Twitter @keithjcarberry. And I would love if you went to youtube.com/runbutton and watched Run Button videos that I do.
Austin: You should also go to contentburger.biz. That’s— that’s—
Keith: Yeah, you go to contentburger.biz.
Austin: That's another place to go.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: That's the Run Button GameWisp where you can support Keith and Kylie[12] as they play through games, both good and bad.
Keith: Yeah, yeah. We're also— we're getting our Patreon back up and running, too. So patreon.com/runbutton.
Austin: Oh, thank god.
Keith: Yeah, right?
Austin: [laughs] Fuck.
Keith: Yeah. We had a— we had an episode of— pretty recently where I was a little bit... I was a little bit drunk, and I just shat on GameWisp for, like, twenty five minutes.
Austin: Oh boy.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Uh, great. Good. Great and good.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You can also find everything we do obviously at friendsatthetable.net. And also, you can support us— if you’re already hearing this obviously— at friendsatthetable.cash. Uh, tell your friends, because we— we love doing this, and the support that you give us is what lets us do this. Like, I mean that sincerely. We've got a lot of great messages lately about people saying, “Hey, guys, don't burn out. Don't over— don't stretch yourselves.” And we— I love you for saying that, but also, I promise we gave that a lot of thought.
When we set the goals, we set them in a way that was about ensuring that having that extra support could let us do this comfortably without burning us out. You know, we kind of said, like, “What is the position at which we can shift things in our lives such that now we will have the time necessary to do this.” And so, you know, the levels are what they are because they let us do this comfortably. And I really— You know, I'm thrilled that this is, you know, part of how I pay my bills now. Like, all I want to do is tell stories with my friends. All I want to do is entertain people and, you know, hopefully tell some stories that stick with you. And I can't begin to express how amazing it is that— that this is part of my life.
So thank you all so much for that. Again, you can support us on Patreon, friendsatthetable.cash. And yeah, just tell your friends, and thank you. That's gonna do it for us today. We will be back on Thursdays, as always, for regular episodes. So— so check that out, obviously. Ummm, and I think that's it.
Janine: We gotta clap out.
Austin: We gotta clap out.
Keith: I would like—
Janine: Gotta clap out.
Keith: I would like to say—
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: —GameWisp is like—
Austin: Oh boy.
Keith: —like mostly fine to use.
Austin: [amused] Uh huh. [Janine laughs]
Keith: It's— it's not as good as Patreon to use, but they were— their backend stuff has only gotten worse as we've been a part of it. And that's the issue.
Austin: Totally.
Keith: That's why we're doing both now.
Austin: Totally. Alright. Let's do a clap. Let’s clap at twenty?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Okay.
[one simultaneous clap heard]
Austin: Damn good clap! We found the good clappers. I don't know. [Janine laughs]
Keith: We did. We really did. This is the first time I think that the three of us have clapped to— only—
Austin: Only us.
Keith: —us together.
Austin: We're figuring it out.
Keith: And we found the— Yeah. Because this was— I’ll say this. Three separate claps for me—
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: —was the same rate apart—
Austin: Right. Right.
Keith: —as the last time.
Austin: I got it.
Keith: Yeah. So.
Austin: Good clap. Great clap. People— the best clap.
Keith: Yeah, great clap.
Austin: They're saying it in chat all the time. We got the best claps. [Janine laughs] Alright, everybody. I'm going to stop streaming. Thank you again. As always, we will be back. Have a good one.
Keith: Yeah, later.
Janine: Night.
[1] The joke here is that Keith says Live [/lɪv/] [as in "I Live here"] as opposed to Live [/lʌɪv/] [as in "I saw a live performance."] For the Duration of this bit when referencing the first version of “Live” the word will be italicized.
[2] Another pronunciation joke, the name Caroline is first pronounced Carolyn [with a shorter, softer i-sound, like the word in] and then Caroline [with a longer, harder i-sound, like the word line]. This joke is a throwback to one in Marielda, and as such those spellings have been replicated here. Caroline Hobbs is the correct spelling of the author’s name.
[3] 15:05.
[5] A pun on the name Peter.
[6] A reference to an episode in which the Friends discuss which syllable the emphasis belongs on.
[9] A play on the cereal name, “Oops All Berries.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap%27n_Crunch#Variations
[10] Austin does the second half of the popular tune, Mah Nà Mah Nà, as if “Anemone” replaced the “mah nà mah nà” part of the song.
[11] Said as “zed” since Janine said “zed,” the typical pronunciation of “Z” in Canada, where she lives. “Zee” is the typical pronunciation for “Z” in the United States of America, where Keith lives.
[12] The name in the audio is no longer being used.