Transcriber: Lu
[TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER. starts playing]
AUSTIN: As things continue to get worse across the moon, as this plague spreads through crops, as the rationing becomes more severe, as the blame starts to be put on- someone is looking for a scapegoat? And you get the sense that someone is looking for a scapegoat, that is absolutely the vibe in the reporting on it, etcetera- you get a message from them, from that group of Millennium Break, that says that that group is potentially under threat. The Equiaxed commune- they're not a military group, they're a small community that barely gets by. They literally live under the nose of the rest of the Columnar, they live literally underground in Vigil City, and the situation with them is that they had previously come under threat, years ago, by a Divine- a Divine named Asepsis, which is a Divine that keeps the city streets of Vigil City clean.They have a device that stops Divines, that's what they believe they have- at least some Divines, it seems to work against Asepsis- and they… have been fed false information. That device has been sent away, and that means that device, which is called the EDICT System, is not there to protect them from the Divine Asepsis anymore. And so, they are incredibly vulnerable right now.
JACK (as Clementine): I want to get out of here, and I don't know what the path is to getting me out of here. But if— if helping on the front lines is the way, then I'm more than happy to lend you my services.
KEITH (as Apparatus): You will go out to the front lines, and you will come back to the cell.
JACK (as Clementine): Fine. I wasn't expecting to get out straight away.
KEITH (as Apparatus): There's no ‘straight away’. It took a lot to get the people that you had behind bars out of bars, and it will take something even bigger to take you out.
AUSTIN: Two things happen. The first is, it self-destructs. And as it does, this wave of acid pours through this cave, and does a lot of damage to you and your mechs, and a lot of the rest of the crew that's here. You manage to protect all the people here, I'm not retracting my previous “despite losses on our side, the civilians of the commune will be safe”, that's still good. I am also not retracting “we will take severe losses in the rescue”.
AUSTIN: And- I kind of imagine the idea- this just turns into a longer siege than everyone was ready for, and it's just like they keep fucking coming, and you're outside invaders from a terrorist group assaulting what seems to be a big collection of very important resources that they didn't know was there. And people who have been scapegoated with this disease. So my pitch on where the severe losses come from- it comes from the next week, it comes from the next week of slowly trying to escort people out of here successfully, getting to- y'know, on board to escort ships, back into the sea- it comes from, y'know, having to fight your way across Columnar land? Basically, and that's a tough fight.
[TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER. stops playing]
AUSTIN: Alright, so it's time for the next crossroads, which I haven't prepared. I gave y'all a setup here, um- the last time that we played, with regards to the Summer Passage, but I kind of want to open- I'm curious how the Millennium Break wants to take advantage of this idea that a huge amount of very influential and powerful people will be on the isle of summer in the middle of the sea- not too far from where you’ve now set up shop outside of Auspice- and will include, reportedly, the Princept Cynosure Kesh, the kind of Kesh Princept, and whether or not that's something that you will take advantage of in any number of ways. Now that people’ve slept on this, are there pitches for what this crossroad should be?
SYLVIA: I wanna go to this real bad [laughs]
Au: Okay!
SYLVIA: I just think it makes sense as a big opportunity for us to gel all these… players on Partizan on the same place? And for Millennium Break to make a play and become like, a thing?
AUSTIN: So let's- I'm gonna sketch- I'm gonna list- if people suggest potential crossroads for it, what would the crossroads be? Do you have one in mind, Sylvi?
SYLVIA: No, I was just kinda giving it a temperature check- [laughs] I didn't think of the specifics.
JACK: [overlapping] Okay, let's- let's start big. I wanna swing for the fences.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: Let's kidnap the Princept.
AUSTIN: “Kidnap the Peaceful Princept…”
SYLVIA: Oh, I was gonna say kill, but kidnap is good too.
[Sounds of agreement]
AUSTIN: I'll write that down.
JACK: Sure, yeah, uh-huh.
KEITH: Well, so- now that's a good point, that kidnapping introduces… um-
JACK: Kidnapping has worked really well for us as an organization in the past?
KEITH: Well-
ART: [overlapping] I disagree- [Jack laughs]
KEITH: [chuckles] What I was gonna say is that kidnaping introduces now-
JANINE: [overlapping] Feels like Princepts apply the slime- have slime rules, when you kidnap them.
KEITH: [overlapping] - a mission, there's a mission now for the enemy which is, um- reverse the kidnapping.
AUSTIN: Whereas you're saying if you do a kill…
KEITH: If you do a kill, there's nothing to fix.
AUSTIN: Also- wait, Janine, did you say the Princept has slime rules?
SYLVIA: [laughing] Yeah, wait-
JANINE: [amused] I said that, um… when you kidnap a Princept it seems to evoke slime rules, when you cut it in half instead of killing it.
[Keith laughs]
SYLVIA: Ohhh, that's good, that's pretty good!
JANINE: You kidnap a Princept, you end up with two more—
AUSTIN: [amused] Yeah, uh-huh, yeah, I like it. Right, because when you kill a slime in a videogame there's two…
KEITH: Political hydra.
ALI: Ohhhh….
AUSTIN: And when Sovereign Immunity kidnapped the previous Princept it split into two Princepts-
JANINE: My other suggestion is this cast photo from A Knight’s Tale.
AUSTIN: Love it, wow.
JACK: Wow, yeah!
ART: [overlapping] What was that a suggestion of…? Are we doing this?
[Sylvia laughs]
AUSTIN: Holy shit.
ALI: Joining the competition I think? Is that it? Winning it?
AUSTIN: Are we already there? Are we them? [Janine laughs]
ALI: We’re them.
KEITH: We’re them.
AUSTIN: I think I'm already doing my best to map characters here. Incredible. Incredible, I love this dude in the armor on the right? Wow.
ART: He's the bad guy- [overlapping] it's weird that he's in this photo, yeah.
SYLVIA: He's the bad guy...
AUSTIN: I- he's in the cast-
JANINE: [overlapping] He's in Dark City, right? That's the guy from Dark City?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh, is that the guy from Dark City?
JACK: Ohhh, wow!
AUSTIN: That's a, uh…uh-? Rufus Sewell.
JANINE: Young Fortinbras, that's the only person I know-
JACK: God, what a movie that is.
DRE: Young Fortnite?
AUSTIN: Young Fortnite.
JACK: Yeah, young fortnite!
AUSTIN: [amused] What is good everybody, it's me, Young Fortnite!
JANINE: [laughing] Soundcloud rapper Young Fortnite. [Dre cackles]
AUSTIN: God…
ART: This movie is incredible, if you're listening to this and you haven't seen this movie- put pause on your podcast player, go watch this movie-
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Knight’s Tale?
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah! It holds up.
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah!
ART: -come back.
SYLVIA: [overlapping] It's pretty good! Queen is diegetic music-
JANINE: [overlapping] I truly hate the cloth- I know it's like, “Oh, iconic, it's so weird, it's-” I hate it. With my life.
AUSTIN: Anyway-
ART: [overlapping] Janine’s wrong, go watch this movie.
JANINE: [overlapping] It's very Partizan though, that outfit is- [laughing]
AUSTIN: Oh yeah, that's- that's Crysanth Kesh outfit, this is- yeah. They put the Nike symbol on the armor??
JANINE: [overlapping] They put the Nike symbol on the armor, yeah…
SYLVIA: [amused] Yeah, they put the Nike symbol on the armor because it was lighter, so he could move better while he was jousting…
AUSTIN: Wait, excuse me? What? What do you mean it was lighter?
SYLVIA: [amused] Yeah, I- I don't know. I don't know, I don't remember, I saw this movie- the last time I saw this movie I was twelve!
KEITH: [overlapping] “The swoosh makes you good”
DRE: Well- so, I think it was because- his blacksmith was a woman who is basically the best blacksmith, but they wouldn't let her be a blacksmith because she's a woman? And I think that the Nike swoosh is like her trademark.
ART: Yeah. She invented the Nike swoosh and then-
JANINE: Her name is Joseline Nike [Austin chuckles]
ART: - and then however many years later, let's just pick a number out of nowhere- 1200 years later, Nike stole it.
AUSTIN: Stole it, right, of course. Yes. anyway, so the fourth suggestion- or the third suggestion I guess? Is to join the tournament.
JANINE: I mean, if you join the tournament, and win, and look super cool, then everyone is suddenly like “Hey, they look super cool”.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
ALI: Yeah…
AUSTIN: That's on the table, I'm not- yeah, uh-huh.
KEITH: So we have kidnap the Princept, kill the Princept, join- just do the tournament regular style-
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: I don't think that one and two are mutually exclusive from three, I think we can do both.
AUSTIN: That's true.
JACK: [enthusiastically] Uh-huh, uh-huh! [Ali laughs]
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: I guess that's true. [laughing] You could predict one or two, using three as the- [Ali giggles]
KEITH: That's true.
AUSTIN: It's true.
SYLVIA: We mentioned that there's a lot of food and supplies going to this, right?
AUSTIN: This is- yeah, I wanna emphasize that this is… an absurd like- sort of-
KEITH: [overlapping] The Olympics.
AUSTIN: It's worse than the Olympics, it's the Olympics during a world-wide food crisis, where they're shipping food- food lavish, incredible, food that is not very efficient to this place, because people are coming here from all over the world- and off world- for this big, dramatic, yearly event. Once every 500 days- or this one month every 500 days, there's this incredible tournament. And the Princept doesn't even always come, but this time the Princept is coming, presumably because he wants to make a play for unity, and putting all this behind us- he’s heard that there's some issues on Partizan, maybe his people heard that he's supposed to make a show- y'know, he's supposed to be here. And so yeah, it is opulence in the face of crisis. And so… yeah, yeah.
KEITH: So the Met Olympics.
JACK: [overlapping] Oh, it's the Met Olympics!
SYLVIA: [overlapping] I think raiding them-
AUSTIN: It's the Met Olympics.
SYLVIA: Oh god…
ALI: I don't wanna take joining off of the table, but I would love to set up like, a supplies blockade?
KEITH: Ohhhhh.
AUSTIN: These are all things that we can talk about- so, I'm gonna list it as another thing, supply blockade.
KEITH: Um… and I want to-
SYLVIA: [overlapping] Yeah. 'Cause anything to like, re- sorry, something to like, reroute the supplies that they're getting to people who actually need it during a famine seems like a pretty good move from a revolutionary group?
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So it sounds like- what we shouldn't do here is get ahead of ourselves with building the crossroads. One of the things with building- I should've read this bit before we did this bit? [Ali chuckles] But when you make a crossroad, what you really want to get to is, uh… “It's something the kingdom has to decide, not something that is done to it. You pose a simple yes or no question-” which we should recognize by now “Ask people if it interests them, describe the situation-” which we’ve done, but the thing we should be careful about here is not talking about the consequences of choosing yes or no yet. I know our brains are filled with those, 'cause it's very easy to do that? But we shouldn't do that yet, 'cause we don't wanna go into this like we’ve done with past ones like “Oh yeah, we’re all gonna say yes, obviously”. And really, one of the things we should be thinking about is what would the consequences of saying yes here be that are not desirable, and what are the consequences of saying no that are desirable. Um… so, something to start thinking about there.
AUSTIN: [cont.] But it sounds like- do we have a strong feeling here?
KEITH: I just wanted to add- 'cause we have ‘kill the Princept’ on there- and I guess I just wanted to make sure we weren’t limiting ourselves to killing only one important person.
AUSTIN: Yeah, of course.
SYLVIA: Yeah!
AUSTIN: Again, we can't- that's a prediction, we can't- that's not a- the thing could be “Will we kill the Princept?” as the crossroad, but-
KEITH: And then as a consequence, “If yes, we also kill other people”
AUSTIN: [overlapping] - other people, yes, exactly. We don't need to list all possible consequences here, we just need to figure out what the question is.
SYLVIA: I think “Will we participate in the tournament?” is probably a good one for that? Because like, the no for that could be that then we do the blockade, or like…
AUSTIN: Right, exactly.
SYLVIA: - or stuff like that, and then the yes is the other stuff we mentioned.
AUSTIN: The other stuff, yeah. Alright, so-
KEITH: And like with the riot thing, we can have “Kill the Princept” on both.
AUSTIN: On both if we wanted to, right. Um… “Will the kingdom participate in the Summer Passage of Arms?”
ART: There's definitely just been Olympics during terrible times, right?
KEITH: Yeah, they still do Olympics to this day!
[Austin and Jack laugh]
ART: Well- sure.
JACK: 1936 was….
AUSTIN: Bad!
JACK: Awful.
AUSTIN: Yeah, awful time!
ART: That's the Hitler one, right?
JACK: That is the Hitler one, yeah.
AUSTIN: It's the Hitler one!
ART: Yeah….
AUSTIN: Yeah, absolutely.
KEITH: You can say a lot about the Olympics board, but ethical integrity isn't-
JACK: [laughing] None.
AUSTIN: Isn't one of them!
KEITH: [laughing] Isn't one of them.
AUSTIN: Alright, “Will the kingdom participate in the Summer Passage of Arms?” is the initial thing here- and yes, the Met Olympics is a perfect, perfect analy- or, analogy here. Who wants to kick things off with a scene? Um… as a reminder, the way we all know about this is because a letter for Clementine Kesh was intercepted with the invite from Crysanth- which is bad in some ways, 'cause it suggests that she knows that- well, it's interesting right? 'Cause it suggests that she knows that Clem is here, and the letter is addressed to Clem- I also imagine it as being opened in like, a safe room, 'cause what if it's a bomb? I think I said this when I first read this to you, when I first suggested it? Um… but we don't necessarily know- inside is basically an official invite to this event, which is to say, as a sponsored competitor, y'know?
ART: Right.
AUSTIN: So…
KEITH: Which I think is a red flag for participation.
AUSTIN: Sure, totally. If you… I'm trying to figure out how to give people this information. I think after some initial feeling it out, one of the- you learn that you actually have another sponsor potentially? Which is Cas'alear Rizah, of the Swordbreakers- is also inviting you as a guest, if you’d rather register under them? And that is that invite that came via the Strand Semaphore, the official- not the unofficial Semaphore, but the official Semaphore network, also for Clem. But I feel like that's one of those things where like, you go to register, you ask like “Oh, we believe we have an invite” and the person is like “Oh, you actually have two invites on record!” [laughs] Y'know, it's one of those things, and then “Oh, yes of course, I know- there's the Crysanth one, and then- I don't have my notes in front of me, who’s the other?” and they go “Oh yes, of course, it's Cas’alear Rizah, from the Swordbreakers-” and you go “Oh yeah, of course, of course”
KEITH: “We’re just getting ready for many things, with so many different people, so it's hard to keep it al straight…” [Austin laughs]
AUSTIN: Um… so, what is the first scene of deciding whether or not to participate here?
KEITH: I have sort of a loose mesh of an idea, so maybe I should wait.
AUSTIN: Let's just go, let's do it. [laughs]
KEITH: Well- I mean, eventually, if it doesn't get any better, that's what we’ll do.
AUSTIN: Fair.
JANINE: I have a slightly less loose mesh.
AUSTIN: Okay, what's up Gucci?
JANINE: Um… I think Gucci knows that if we do ths damn hing, we have to look fucking amazing while we do it?
AUSTIN: Uh-huh
JANINE: Um… and I think that this scene is specifically like- before we can even decide if we go, we need to figure out if we can do a good showing. Because if we agree to go and we look like shit then we might as well not have gone. So this is Gucci- I think this is Gucci, for all intents and purposes, auditioning people. Being like “If you think you're super cool-”
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh my god… amazing.
JANINE: “-show up! Show me how cool you are, do your cool shit, right here, right now”
AUSTIN: Who shows up? What do we got?
SYLVIA: [amused] I mean, Millie is there.
KEITH: Leap- yeah.
AUSTIN: Um… I haven't thought through what this event looks like, is the honest truth? Like, the Olympics is interesting 'cause then it's like,a bunch of different events that you're competing in, right? Not that medieval tournaments were not that, but I'm curious if it is- is it like, here are the seven events, is it like- or is it even more like...think about feudal japanese court, where yes, of course there are games- and there are winners and losers- but it is not even as organized as “everyone gets a point” so much as like “everyone knows who won the poetry contest”. Right?
ART: Well, as they covered in the documentary “A Knight’s Tale”-
AUSTIN: Yeah, thank you. [Jack and Janine laugh]
ART: There's like a melee, then there's the joust- I think there was another event- they have all sorts of stuff!
AUSTIN: Great, thank you A Knight's Tale.
JACK: I think these are like, strange space games as well. Like, I think we gotta have some wild space sports happening here.
SYLVIA: I… [amused] I have a suggestion for one, just because I've been watching a lot of sumo wrestling clips lately?
AUSTIN: Sure!
SYLVIA: And I think doing that in mechs would be sick!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ah, mech sumo. Yes!
SYLVIA: Just like a sort of ring out thing.
JANINE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh-huh.
JANINE: I mean, I think the thing to consider is that- I think fundamentally the olympic events were meant to represent things that were valuable skills? Specially- not so much now, but at the time- y'know, the idea of “throwing a spear really way is important if you are a strong person in ancient Greece”, things like that. So there's a degree to which it maybe makes sense to consider what are the important skills, because I bet poetry is one of them, I bet sumo wrestling with mechs is one of them, I bet shooting is one of them.
AUSTIN: Right.
ART: Janine to bobsledders: drop dead.
[Keith, Ali and Austin laugh]
JANINE: Well-
AUSTIN: Janine's canadian, please. So… she'd never.
JANINE: I mean, I'm not talking about Winter Olympics.. Winter Olympics are-
SYLVIA: Those are all useful.
JANINE: Exactly.
AUSTIN: [amused] curling, you gotta learn how to sweep in this world, yknow.?
JANINE: Curling is useful! It's-
AUSTIN: What's the thing you just said? Shooting? Art’s writing general things, what was the other one?
JANINE: Mech sumo, which was a big suggestion-
AUSTIN: [overlapping] we got that one, that was number one. The one with the bullet.
JANINE: Shooting, like sharpshooting.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I gotcha.
JANINE: Um… poetry.
AUSTIN: Yeah, gotta have poetry. Poetry contest.
JACK: Some kind of footwork game, like… like a sort of-
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Like dancing.
JACK: Well actually, I was gonna say like… [dre laughs] what's that- art?
AUSTIN: [overlapping, unintelligible] -I remember them.
JACK: What's that art show- the Ultimate Beastmaster.
SYLVIA: Ohhh, like an obstacle course!
JACK: Yeah yeah yeah! [laughing] Like an obstacle course.
[Austin laughs]
JANINE: Ultimate Beastmaster…?
AUSTIN: [amused] My suspicion-? My suspicion is that Ultimate Beastmaster is just Ninja Warrior with the serial numbers filed off.
SYLVIA: It is!
JANINE: [overlapping] Okay, okay.
SYLVIA: Except the obstacle course is shaped like the skeleton of a giant monster.
JACK: A dragon, yeah.
[everyone “ohhh”s]
SYLVIA: And that's why you're mastering the beast!
AUSTIN: Guess what everybody!
KEITH: And every contestant is dressed up like that guy, the beastmaster from that show the beastmaster.
SYLVIA: [overlapping] Also, CM Punk was on this.
AUSTIN: Yeah, you go ahead, you say it, I'm typing it- yeah.
JACK: [overlapping] It's actually in the skeleton of a giant beast.
AUSTIN: it's actually on the skeleton of a giant dead Divine.
JACK: Ohhh!! [laughs] Yes! Is that- is that heretical? Can we do that?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No, it was a bad Divine. It's not a real Divine, it's a fake Divine, it's a-
ALI: It's the Divine competition, so it's very respectful, and we have to be there! Duh…
[Austin and Jack laugh]
AUSTIN: Perfect… god.
ART: It's like, the Divine “Cheating in Sports” [Ali and Keith laugh]
AUSTIN: [laughing] Yeah!
ART: It's dead, it's good that it's dead.
AUSTIN: We killed it.
ART: And now we do sports there.
AUSTIN: I actually think I know which Divine it is. And it's not dead so much as…
KEITH: Dormant?
AUSTIN: Yeah, it's dormant, but everyone treats it like it's dead. I'm gonna change an entire set of prep that I had here right now. So- I'm gonna write this down- if you look at the faction list, there is an independent faction previously called “The Divine Providence”? The description of this faction, this tier four independent faction, was “They called me Providence, but I am only a servant. When Progressive Asterism was officially recognized, each of the Stels celebrated by colaboratelly building this Divine, yet 1000 years later it has never taken an elect, nor accepted the name that was given to it”.
AUSTIN: [cont] I'm gonna retcon that a little bit- it's not a retcon, 'cause it's never shown up in game before, and say that actually, when they built it, the first thing that it did was try to kill them. And so they laid it dormant, and decided to every year play games on it's corpse. As a way to like- whatever. This is how the Divine Principality does shit- and it has never been resurrected since, the Divine Providence. That is the kind of big obstacle course that you do your shit through. Um...
KEITH: Laser tag.
AUSTIN: Is that like, team based laser tag?
KEITH: Yeah. It's an ancient game. [laughs]
AUSTIN: Yeah, of course. True.
SYLVIA: [laughing] Just fucking battle royale.
AUSTIN: It's a battle royale, uh-huh. PZN Battle Royale [Jack laughs]. PXN BR. That's five, I feel like five is a good number. Well- is lazer tag not just sharpshooting? I guess it's team based, which is different.
ALI: Oh, yeah…
AUSTIN: What's missing?
KEITH: A biathlon, what are the two things you want to do together?
ART: [overlapping] Oh my god-
AUSTIN: Art?
ART: No, I'm just- biathlon is just the most boring sport you can watch. [Ali giggles]
AUSTIN: Oh, okay.
KEITH: Well, but we get to pick which two.
ART: It could be better things, but biathlons on earth, in the 21th century…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE: Swimming and bartering.
KEITH: [overlapping] I would bet they like skiing a lot, or-
AUSTIN: [amused] Swimming and bartering is very funny. [Keith and Ali cackle]
KEITH: [laughing] Who said that?
AUSTIN: Janine.
JANINE: It was me… [Keith and Sylvia laugh]
DRE: God…
KEITH: [laughing, overlapping] Trying to get a good price on this old stereo while doing the breaststroke.
AUSTIN: Well, I think you do the breaststroke, then you get off soaking wet-
JACK: [laughing, overlapping] Yeah, then you get out really quickly.
JANINE: [overlapping] It's on an island, you have to swim to an island and then on the island you have to get a good deal, and then you have to swim back.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
JACK: Oh, it's so good.
AUSTIN: I've written it down. This is the Stel Orion event, obviously.
JACK: Sure.
AUSTIN: Poetry contest is Nideo-
KEITH: [overlapping] Everyone hated it for years and years and then all of a sudden it got weirdly popular-
AUSTIN: -sumo is Apostolos.
KEITH: - at first as a joke, but now for real.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh! Sharpshooting feels like Kesh to me. That feels like Kesh, sharpshooting, and then Nideo is poetry, and the Divine Providence is Columnar. And then swimming and bartering Orion, look at that! Five events, one for each Stel, we did it.
KEITH: Which one is Columnar?
AUSTIN: The Divine Providence, climbing- the Divine Beastmaster? [laughs]
KEITH: Oh, okay.
AUSTIN: Alright, these are our events, one for each Stel, they're all ridiculous- who shows these off for Gucci? Who picks one of these as the thing that they want to show off?
ALI: Um… I didn't think Broun was gonna be a part of this until swimming and bartering was one of them. [Sylvia and Dre cackle]
AUSTIN: Yeah!! [Keith laughs]
ALI: [amused] I'm so suited that it just seems tough not to? I think two of the Beam Saber missions were aquatic based in Broun’s mind, so it's, um… y'know, it's a layup.
AUSTIN: It is a layup.
ALI: [laughs] I think the aside there, though, is that Broun is putting up fliers outside of the takeout- the tryouts room, that's like… “Aspiring mech sumoist? See Broun today for potential upgrades!”
AUSTIN: Amazing.
SYLVIA: Oh my god…
AUSTIN: Gur Sevraq is putting his name in the hat for poetry? [Sylvia laughs] He's extremely well read-
SYLVIA: [overlapping] I love it…
AUSTIN: They represent a style of writing that isn't very well known, and so it'll be very striking. Um… trust them to craft a message here. Is Millie in sharpshooting too clean? Is it too obvious?
SYLVIA: I think Millie is both going for the sharpshooting and the mech sumo? And is just like- whichever one you guys need me to pitch in for… but I think yeah, the sharpshooting is probably a little bit of a giveaway? Because she's been to super soldier school? Um… but- y'know. I'm happy to do either.
AUSTIN: Can I propose a special type of sharpshooting?
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: It is that you are linked to your mech in such a way that it's mirroring your movements, right? It's like, the most that we've gotten to like, G Gundam style- you're not in it, you're next to it? And it's mirroring your movements as close as can be, but- the thing that's difficult is that there are two targets, and they're not thrown at the same time? They're not thrown- it's not to ratio, it's not- there's another word for saying that that I'm not getting- it's not proportional in terms of their speed, or their angles- but you can only fire once per round. And ideally what you're doing is finding an angle where you're shooting both of them somehow with a single shot. Or with a single movement, you know what I mean?
SYLVIA: Yeah I know, this was made for her.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh. So it's like synchronized sharpshooting, but it's synchronized between a pilot and their mech. [laughs]
SYLVIA: Man, imagine if you already had a weird mind link with your mech!
AUSTIN: [laughing] Yeah, imagine! [Ali laughs] Um… we need a mech sumo pilot, we need someone to run the Divine Providence.
JANINE: Um… I was gonna say Thisbe could do any of those events.
AUSTIN: Which one? The mech sumo?
JANINE: The ones that are left.
KEITH: [overlapping] What's left?
ART: [overlapping] I think Sovereign Immunity could be a good Providence runner, but I'm also worried about being murdered if I show up to this thing!
AUSTIN: Fair!
ALI: Could we make you a mask?
ART: Yes you can, I would love to go with a mask! [Ali laughs]
SYLVIA: Can we- can we have team masks?
ALI: Yes.
AUSTIN: yeah!
ALI: I think they would just look like the big M. In a way that isn't shitty.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No, we would be killed.
ART: [overlapping] Wait- can it kinda look like the cartoon Robin Hood?
AUSTIN: The cartoon Robin Hood…?
DRE: Like, you wanna be the weird goose thing?
KEITH: [overlapping] You wanna be the fox?
ART: The fox, yeah- the goose? The goose isn't Robin Hood.
SYLVIA: [overlapping, amused] Is everyone getting fursuits for this?
DRE: [overlapping] No, but he wears- he wears a goose costume, right? When he…
KEITH: Yeah, which famous furry icon does everyone wanna be? [Ali laughs]
DRE: Well, Valence is already Valence, so…
JANINE: Thisbe is already Thisbe.
AUSTIN: Yeah… [overlapping] The furries have infiltrated.
SYLVIA: [overlapping] Two icons, wow…
ART: Well, I guess if I wanted to be an icon, I wanna be-
KEITH: It's Robin Hood, you've already nailed it.
ART: Yeah, alright.
AUSTIN: So it's a fox mask?
DRE: Or it's a stork? Is that what it is?
AUSTIN: It's probably a stork.
ART: I don't know how to search “disney robin hood-”
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It's a stork, it's a stork.
JANINE: Just search “disney robin hood cosplay”
AUSTIN: No, it's a stork.
ART: But I don't want people cosplaying-
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I got it, it's a stork. Or a crow? It's like a big orange mouth.
ALI: Ohhh…
AUSTIN: I love that.
KEITH: Oh, I remember that guy! That guy’s sick. [laughs]
AUSTIN: Robin Hood? [Artand Ali laugh, dre cackles]
KEITH: Is that Robin Hood?
AUSTIN: Yeah, it's a costume.
ALI: [laughing] It's a disguise!
KEITH: Ohhh, right! Now I remember for real!
SYLVIA: [laughing] “I fucking love this dude!”
KEITH: [amused] Look, I haven't seen this movie since I was four.
AUSTIN: [laughing] That's what people said in the strands of the Summer Passage when Sovereign Immunity takes the stage as a stork, “I fucking love this dude! I remember this guy!”
KEITH: “I remember this guy, where do I know this guy from?”
AUSTIN: [laughing] “Where do I know this guy from?”
KEITH: “Where do I remember this extremely big guy from?”
AUSTIN: [laughs] Who is that big man??
ART: Are those stilt legs?
AUSTIN: Yes!
ART: That's incredible, being able to do archey on stilts.
AUSTIN: Robin Hood.
DRE: Yeah, that's his whole thing.
AUSTIN: The whole thing-
ART: Respect. Human Robin Hood couldn't do that.
AUSTIN: I- we don't know that.
ART: He doesn't.
AUSTIN: You don't know that. All we have is-
ART: Is Robin Hood- in Prince of Thieves he doesn't do that.
KEITH: Uh, that doesn't translate well…
DRE: It's a Men in Tights deleted scene, Art.
AUSTIN: Yeah, obviously.
ART: [doubtful] Hm…
AUSTIN: A note that I was making before is that I think the event at this point is so far removed from the fact that it's the body of a Divine that it's not even called the Divine Providence, it's just called the Providence, the way certain… races get that style of- y'know what I mean? Like, a race can be called- I wanna say the regatta, but that's not what I mean, 'cause the regatta is a specific type of race- but y'know what I mean, “the ‘blank’”. If I search-
JANINE: Iditarod, the Iditarod.
AUSTIN: The Iditarod, that's exactly what I mean, yes yes yes, exactly. Thank you for coming through, I was- [laughs, Janine chuckles] I was grasping for something. Y'know, anyway- the Monaco- anyway. Uh…. so, mech sumo it sounded like Thisbe and Mow? Or is Thisbe Divine pro- we’ve seen Thisbe do parkour.
JANINE: Yeah, that's why I said either, like- we’ve seen Thisbe do parkour, for sure, she got strong legs [laughs]. But also Thisbe has a gorilla mech.
AUSTIN: True.
JANINE: So it could really go either way depending on who else, if anyone else, has a-
KEITH: [overlapping] Well, honestly I was gonna pick either one of those as well, those were gonna be my two as well, so… I guess which- where- I don't know who I would slot where.
ALI: Wair, wasn't S.I. doing the Divine Providence thing?
AUSTIN: I think maybe the Providence can specifically be multiple people, because it's so hard.
ALI: Yeah…
AUSTIN: Also I'm making it the final one, because it feels like it's the final one. No offence to swimming and [laughs] bartering biathlon.
ALI: Sure.
KEITH: I've got springy robot legs, and it's the Columnar even, so it sort of makes sense for Leap.
JANINE: True… my concern with Thisbe for the Providence was that maybe because it is a skeleton there are places that are too small for her?
AUSTIN: Yeah…
JANINE: Or alternatively things she might damage by bringing her car body down on them at the end of a jump?
AUSTIN: Fair, fair.
JANINE: Things like that, even though- y'know, we've established that there are accommodations made, I imagine for an event that has all of the Stels coming together there would have to be accommodations made for different bodies.
AUSTIN: Definitely. But also, it's still the principality that says like “Everyone can participate! As long as you are under 6’8”. Like- wait, that's not everybody [laughs] That's, in fact- there's a lot of people who are not under 6’8. Um… yeah.
ART: It's a shame though, 'cause Leap also has a mech that seems designed for sumoing.
AUSTIN: It's true! But more of like a ranged sumo, right? Leap’s thing is launches, you don't wanna miss. [Sylvia laughs]
ART: That's a strat, that's your sumo strategy.
SYLVIA: [overlapping. laughing] It's a E. Honda move.
ART: Yeah! E. Honda, champion sumo wrestler-
AUSTIN: Champion sumo wrestler, you're right. [Dre chuckles] [Keith overlaps, unintelligible] We can't- let's see how this shakes out, we don't even know if we’re going yet. It's not- y'know. But the tryouts happen, and you presumably try out for each of these things that you're interested in. Gucci, how do the tryouts go?
JANINE: um, I think they go well, I think they specifically- I think the real challenge with the tryouts is like… how to delicately change people’s appearance. In terms of like, how do you tell Sovereign Immunity “Okay, get a very nice shirt” [Austin laughs] “Don't show up in your green cartoon shirts”.
AUSTIN: See, 'cause- [amused] it's funny, 'cause when you started this scene I thought for sure you were going to be like “Gucci garantine commissions uniforms” and instead you were like “tryouts!”
JANINE: Oh yeah, sure, yes.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JANINE: I mean… yeah, sure, let's just go the full thing and say that we commission uniforms
AUSTIN: Good.
JANINE: And… yeah, they are- I don't know, colors. Uh… [Ali chuckles]
AUSTIN: Well-
JANINE: [laughs] They're red and gold and white.
AUSTIN: Okay. Um… who else has a scene or a reaction here? I think any of the perspectives here can make a prediction, who were in this scene, which is, what? Gur and Broun? Yeah, in these tryouts, from watching these tryouts, from talking to each other…
ALI: Right, yeah…
AUSTIN: Anyone who was in this set of tryouts. Um… huh. I mean, I think- if yes- I'm just gonna say it, we will- [typing] Our performance will win us support- our outstanding performance [Dre laughs] will win us support from onlookers. I think from- not from onlookers, 'cause it's not that broad, but it's from the commonfolk of Partizan, because they love to see nobles fucking lose. [Ali laughs]
DRE: Fair.
AUSTIN: Broun, do you have one?
ALI: Um… [amused] I think seeing all of the excitement about this, I think it is “If no, Millennium Break will host a private tournament” [cackles, dre and Keith laugh]
AUSTIN: Ooh, I love it!
KEITH: Counterprogramming?
AUSTIN: Yeah!
ALI: [laughing] It's just- everybody is jazzed, maybe they realize down the line “Oh, this is a bad idea, we’re really busy” but they're like “But I spent a week training how to swim and barter!” [everyone laughs]
AUSTIN: Amazing…
ART: It's gonna be so difficult, building the giant replica of the Divine Providence.
AUSTIN: God… [Ali giggles]
DRE: I can't believe Broun is starting the XFL [Ali cackles]
AUSTIN: God, incredible.
ART: “No fair catches, damnit!” [Austin and Ali laugh]
AUSTIN: Um… does anyone have a followup or a new scene?
ALI: Um… I don't wanna take joining off of the table, but I would love to set up a supplies blockade? I don't wanna lose that in terms of strategic- y'know.
AUSTIN: So is that about um…. I guess we should just jump into it.
ALI: Yeah, um- 'cause I think it's- y'know, Tes being aware of where those trucks are going, right? And Apparatus being close enough to… the party organizational stuff, that they would sort of know where to find the weak points in that, and then-
KEITH: Drive like, food distribution connects?
AUSTIN: Yeah, definitely!
ALI: [laughing] I think so, yeah! [Keith laughs]
AUSTIN: Where is this happening? Is this happening like, on the isle in the leadup, is this happening in the base? Are you looking at maps?
ALI: Yeah, I think this is base- as close to a war room as we have- does Apparatus have like, an office? I know there's- the leadership is like a council now, but…
KEITH: I hang out at the after party and the after after-party party.
ALI: Sure. Sure sure sure sure. Right, so I think that Broun and Tes sort of want to find Apparatus- y'know when they're doing their thing but a little quieter, so they go to the after after-party party. Um… [laughs]
KEITH: It's good when it's loud! No one can- I don't know- I just mean, the more people that are talking, the less people can overhear.
ALI: Sure.
KEITH: That's the Apparatus method.
ALI: [laughing] Sure. Um… but yeah, I think it's Broun and Tes sort of… bringing this plan to Apparatus, jointly. And being like
ALI (as Broun): Listen, competitions are really fun, but like… y'know, we should bloody them in two ways? Um…
KEITH (as Apparatus): What's your plan?
ALI (as Broun): Well, there's all this food that is going there. And I think that if we set up a blockade, y'know, before the event- they're not gonna cancel it if they don't have the champagne that they need or whatever, but it would be really funny if we won and also people were really pissed because they were thirsty, right?
KEITH: [cackles] They're just mad the whole time, all of a sudden no one wanted to be there 'cause they don't have the right kind of salami [Ali laughs]
JACK (as Tes'ili): I mean, they might cut out some events. This is what I'm saying, these people- the right salami is missing, we have the salami, they don't want to go and- y'know, it's like a… the salami is most of it for them, honestly.
ALI: Oh, sure.
KEITH (as Apparatus): I have connects at… charcuterie-tutory. [Sylvia and Ali laugh]
DRE: Hm…
ALI (as Broun): Could we make- I mean, I guess if you're putting it that way, could we organize… the restaurant people to have a salami switch?
JACK (as Tes'ili): Oh! We just like- [sigh] don't get me wrong, I'm saying we take as much as we can from them, I'm not saying- I don't really care about the sports? I was never much of a sports person?
ALI (as Broun): Right. But that's an important perspective, we don't want the event to get cancelled because we took all that shit. Um… we can have it, we can have our cake and we can eat it too, by giving them a worse cake.
KEITH (as Apparatus): [overlapping] We can have their cake and eat it too.
ALI (as Broun): Yeah.
JACK (as Tes'ili): Yes! Okay, are we prepared- do we feel confident enough to… y'know, send through some worse stuff in confidence that we can get the good stuff?
ALI (as Broun): I mean, I think if we have our hands on the containers via the people who are packing them, we can do whatever the fuck we want.
JACK (as Tes'ili): Sure!
ALI (as Broun): Put some bombs in there, fuck it.
JACK (as Tes'ili): Yeah, I know a guy in the…. The hospitality industry for these people.
ALI (as Broun): Yeah, I'm sure there’s dozens.
JACK (as Tes'ili): Well, maybe one or two dozens- but yeah, I can make some calls, we can see if we could start pulling some fancy cakes, some fancy snack cakes out and replace them with some less fancy snack cakes?
ALI (as Broun): Right-
KEITH (as Apparatus): Sorry, why are we replacing anything? Is it just to keep them from canceling the event because they don't have any food?
JACK (as Tes'ili): Yeah, 'cause otherwise they'll just say “no food”.
KEITH (as Apparatus): I like no food, right? That's… I think that's- what if they open all the boxes of food so set up and they're full of dirt.
JACK (as Tes'ili): Well, that's- okay-
ALI (as Broun): That's hilarious.
JACK (as Tes'ili): That is funny. But- [laughs] but they would just stop the event.
KEITH (as Apparatus): I don't know, I don't know! There's a lot of money, all the advertisers already paid in… you can't stop the show, they need to have- they need to get what they paid for.
JACK: Tes is narrowing their eyes, they do not buy this [Ali laughs]
KEITH: Okay.
ALI: I think Broun-
KEITH (as Apparatus): I mean, we got trillions of dollars in ad money, in ticket sales and travel plans tied up in this already.
ALI (as Broun): I'm an ideas person. I- [laughs] I really value-
JACK: [laughing] Says the person who just built 500 robots.
AUSTIN: Yeah [Ali giggles]
ALI (as Broun): I- y'know, certainly there are, um… specifics of this plan that need to be sorted, I'm just offering my services as someone who could,um- help.
KEITH (as Apparatus): Bring those ideas to the table.
ALI (as Broun): Yes, yes.
JACK (as Tes'ili): And so am I. But I-
KEITH (as Apparatus): I'm fine with- ilike the- y'know, I remember Fyre Fest, [Jack laughs] I remember hearing this sort of-
AUSTIN: [overlapping] that was the joke I was going to make earlier when I shut up [laughs, Keith and Ali chuckle]
KEITH: Those people acted like cheese sandwiches was not food.
AUSTIN: I just want to- I do want to reiterate, this is as long as the Olympics are, it's a long time, and no food will cancel the- yeah.
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah, and it's on a remote- yeah.
KEITH: You don't think they'd be able to get some emergency food from somewhere else?
JACK: This is- we are stealing! Like, as far as Kesh nobility is concerned, emergency food- like, anything that they would bring would be better food that we have ever had in our lives. And if we hit in their supply chains-
KEITH: [overlapping] are you saying just send them the worse stuff.
JACK: Yeah, if we’re hitting their supply chains we would presumably be taking their backup stuff as well.
ALI: Yeah, I think the pres- the prediction is, um… “If yes, Millennium Break will send mech units to set up supply blockages” I guess.
JACK: Can I make a prediction?
AUSTIN: Are you- no, you're not- Clem was not here.
JACK: Oh, tes- ahh, I see.
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah, uh-huh. Sadly. You could do a reaction now, with Clem. If you'd like to.
JACK: I don't think anyone is telling Clem anything? I mean, I'm happy to be proven wrong here, but I'm trying to play Clem as though-
KEITH: [overlapping] We’ve had you hear stuff through guards before.
AUSTIN: Yeah, if you want to have heard a thing you can have heard a thing.
ALI:Right. Specially being like, walking through the halls, doing the farming thing…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah, doing stuff on the farm…
JACK: Yeah.
ALI: Yeah, you hear a lot of, um… you hear that we’re gonna steal a bunch of fancy cakes. [Jack and Keith laugh]
AUSTIN: Yeah, exactly. “Yeah, I don't know, I guess this was a letter from her mom- y'know, the woman in the brig?- yeah, that's her, her mom sent us a thing. Hah!”
JACK: Oh yeah, sure, okay. I think it's just Clem- it's a really quick scene of Clem talking to Mourningbride? And just saying like-
JACK (as Clementine): Crysanth asked them to come? They do not know what they are getting into.
JACK: And so I'm gonna make a prediction! Which is… “If yes,-” can I leave this kind of non-specific for now?
AUSTIN: [amused] It depends on how non-specific it is.
JACK: I mean, I wanna say Crysanth- Crysanth obviously has an ulterior motive, but it's like… how specific do I have to get by just being like “Crysanth will have outflanked us in some way”.
AUSTIN: I think that's fine with the note that we could probably challenge you to make it more specific?
JACK: Oh yeah, and then we could broker a-
AUSTIN: Yeah. Or I'll leave it open and just have you punish us if we say yes, right?
JACK: Yeah, I'll just say, um… “The Curtain-” 'cause I can't make character predictions “-has an ulterior motive in their invitation”.
KEITH: Only kinda motive they got!
JACK: Yeah [laughs] “Curtain can you be straight with what you want?” “Not necessarily!”
AUSTIN: Absolutely not. Never. [laughs]
KEITH: “I can say that I will, but I have an ulterior motive” [Austin chuckles]
AUSTIN: I think there- I would love a scene with Gur Sevraq, um… Gur Sevraq, Gucci, Apparatus. I think that's the- Sovereign Immunity, Sovereign Immunity also. And I think that this is at… this is in the engine room where Sovereign Immunity made that pitch to be like “Hey, vote for me”, remember that pitch, all those hours ago? And I think Gur Sevraq is like, leaning against some sort of very loud engine thing as you all come in, and stands upright, and they say…
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Thank you all for joining me- I have to say, the poetry writing and the robotic sumo fights are a fantastic diversion. But I want to know what it is we think will happen here. The Princept is there, the Peaceful Princept, Cynosure Kesh. I don't know that we even- we do not need to plan for something to happen to him for one of us to make something happen to him. But if we build a plan, then perhaps we can control what that outcome is. And so I want to know from each of you- what is it that we think is going to happen here? And what should it be?
KEITH (as Apparatus): Hey, you're the one with the fancy ball [Austin laughs]
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): It doesn't see the future, per se, it- it sees ambitions. Possibilities.
JANINE (as Gucci): My thinking is, if Crysanth invited us, then it's because she wants us to look bad. She wants to either make a very deliberate- [sighs] she either wants to hurt us directly or indirectly. It doesn't help her if we look good. She's not going to want us to look good. She's either going to want to take something, ruin something, or at the very least make us look terrible in front of everyone else- in front of everyone that we could recruit, everyone that we’re ostensibly going there to impress- and to do the opposite. If I were Crysanth, I would make a move against the Princept myself, and I would make it look like us.
JACK: Thanks, thanks Janine. [Austin cackles]
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Immunity, you know her better than most.
ART: Yeah, here's the problem- and I'm saying this as me, Art- which is that me, Art, has been distracted by the fun of doing these weird games?
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
ART: And I haven't been thinking about any of the stuff that my character would definitely have been exclusively thinking about.
AUSTIN: [amused] Yeah, uh-huh.
ART: So I have two choices here. Give just a bullshit answer [Ali laughs] Just like- start talking and hope it works.
AUSTIN: Yep!
ART: Or… push my character in the direction that I'm in, and be like, Sovereign Immunity is fucking dripping sweat, like “What?” [Ali giggles] “I've been working out, I'm trying to-” yeah, Janine in the chat says “Olympics go brrr brrr brrr” [Keith and Sylvia cackle] Um…
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Farmer, uh- I appreciate that you're taking a serious commitment to what is being asked of you, but- we are going against your former Sovereign, this is kind of a big deal.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): Um- of course it is, I'm- when I first heard about it, my immediate fear was that we were being lured here to be murdered, or framed, or anything. We’re going to a place where Crysanth is very powerful. And I hesitate to even attempt to outflank her on her own territory, but- I don't wanna seem like a broken record, but we could always kidnap a Princept.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): You have another kidnapping in you? All these years later?
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): I think I might have two [Austin chuckles] This one and then one later- I don't know who, but I'm just- [Keith laughs] I'm just trying to give you an honest assessment.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): [deep sigh]
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): We could compete, and we could try to let the event find us, or we could have a bigger… a bigger moment.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Bigger how?
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): Instead of competing we could use that as a pretense to get there, and then do something bigger, more terrible. I mean terrible in a more literal sense.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Hm. You've heard about-
AUSTIN: -wait, let me look at- where was that at? Okay, that was if we do go… we will set up supply blockades. Hm…
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Apparatus, what does the council think about this opportunity, what do you think? Is this how- is this how history turns?
KEITH (as Apparatus): I can't help but think that… the Stels which seem like an impossible target- limitless or near limitless resources at their disposal- I think Sovereign Immunity is correct in saying that the most effective route is to remove the pieces that command those resources. But I don't know that one Princept is enough.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): I'm formulating an idea. I will- let me- give me some time. thank you again.
AUSTIN: I'm gonna make a prediction, which is… this might be two predictions, shit. Hm…. um…
JANINE: Prediction one, the longer Gur Sevraq spends on this idea, the less good their poetry will be.
AUSTIN: That's true, uh-huh [Ali giggles, Dre laughs] Uh- I think that “If no, Millennium Break will lead a riot of workers on the island that ends in the Princept’s death” Um… which is to say- y'know, we’ll see how that plays out, if it plays out, but I think it's about- not washing Millennium Break’s hands, but emphasizing that it's- there's almost something like old Gur Sevraq manipulation here, right? Which is like… it can't be military action that kills the Princept, it has to be this wide scale violence on the island, front the people who are running the island for all these rich people, that ends in- that includes the death of the Princept, ends in is not the one I want here- “that includes the Princept’s death, among other nobles”.
ART: Point of inquiry-
AUSTIN: Sure.
ART: Um- “If yes, the Curtain has an ulterior motive in their invitation” should that be phrased slightly- 'cause the ulterior motive exists whether we say it or not.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right, you're right- it will- they will execute on that motive, is what you mean.
JACK: Yeah.
ART: Sure, yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah, okay.
JACK: I mean, I would be ready to change that to Janine’s idea, actually. If that's allowed.
AUSTIN: Oh, what was it?
JACK: Uh- Crysanth will kill the Princept, and blame Millennium Break. [Janine chuckles] Crysanth will frame Millennium Break for the death of the Princept.
JANINE: Sure.
ART: Can't frame it if I do it first.
AUSTIN: Right.
ALI: Yeah! We want the credit. [laughs]
AUSTIN: Uh-huh. Alright-
JANINE: Y'know, we do still have faithful people in the crew, and like…
AUSTIN: Yeah, no, this is-
JANINE: That would be a move that would not be universally approved of.
AUSTIN: Right, right. It would be bad- again, there are people here who are like- there are people here who are like “I love the idea of a figurehead Princept. The Princept unites us all across every Stel- what if there was a world in which they don't necessarily vote for anything or control anything, but we still have a Princept, of course” Like… the Princept is next to the Divine, y'know? It's next to the state, which is the most powerful and important thing in existence, so… those people exist in this fort. Alright that's my scene, who is up?
DRE: Can I have a reaction to that scene?
AUSTIN: Absolutely
DRE: Um… I think the camera cuts from that, I think Valence is… I'm gonna say they're down in the engine room, doing their kind of meditation thing, getting used to their new body. And they get like, a little ping on their messenger device, and it's Kenzi? Kenzi is letting Valence and the Millennium Break know that there is something weird going on with troop movements, and something is going to be left open during the Summer Passage of Arms. So Valence- I'm making the prediction that “If no, Millennium Break will acquire top secret technology from the Curtain”.
AUSTIN: Interesting! Valence… boom, you got it. Cool! Alright, we have three left, Sovereign Immunity, Millie, Apparatus.
SYLVIA: Uh- I think I have a quick one for Millie?
AUSTIN: Sure.
SYLVIA: Um… which is- I think she has really really thrown herself into training for this? Just like, she practices everyday basically. But it's different than usual, because this is for something recreational, so people are coming and having- like, Si'dra and Broun I can see coming up and hanging out and talking about strand shit while Millie is practicing? And it's more of a social thing as opposed to feeling [ALI: awww] like preparing for war- even though Millie is fully prepared for an assasination. And I think it's juts like… y'know fucking- [laughs] what is the name- Summer Passage fever has taken over Fort Icebreaker! [Ali giggles]
AUSTIN: [amused] Amazing.
SYLVIA: It's sorta what I'm getting at, here.
AUSTIN: God…
ALI: God…
AUSTIN: We have uniforms and everything.
ALI: I'm making a prediction, “f yes-”
AUSTIN: [overlapping] This is a- go ahead.
ALI: “-Millie is gonna look sick as shit!” [cackles]
SYLVIA: Fuck yeah, buddy!
AUSTIN: [typing] “-Millie is going to look sick as shit….” [Ali and Sylvia cackle] it's in there, uh-huh
ALI: Thank you.
SYLVIA: Ah, thank you. [Ali laughs]
AUSTIN: Apparatus, Sovereign Immunity.
ART: I don't have an idea…
AUSTIN: Do you have anything with A.O.?
ART: That would be a great thing to have an idea about, I appreciate you… [Ali laughs] nudging me in that direction, that's a good- a good thought. [laughs] I mean, I'd like to retroactively go and paint A.O. into the background of a bunch of scenes we’ve already had.
AUSTIN: A.O.- yeah, definitely, I think A.O. Is also probably down to be in the Divine Providence- also was thinking of A.O. as being potentially in other events, but given the breakdown here I think that that's- y'know.
ART: I mean, I guess I can have a reaction scene of Sovereign Immunity and A.O. coach training for Providence?
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah!
ART: The like, Rocky style scene, the… I mean, Rocky never did it with two people.
AUSTIN: Right.
ART: I guess Sovereign Immunity could be Mickey and A.O. could be Rocky.
AUSTIN: Or- didn't, um… isn't there one where they train together with, uh… Apollo training together?
DRE: Yeah, I think that's right.
ART: But wasn't that for- that wasn't- the fight wasn't against Apollo.
AUSTIN: No
DRE: No, it was like, Apollo had his fight against the russian guy-
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah.
DRE: And Rocky was training for another fight, I think?
ART: Apollo dies against the Russian guy.
AUSTIN: Right-
DRE: Well, I know, but this is before that.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: Yeah, he might train him to fight "Clubber" Lang.
AUSTIN: Ohhh, that makes sense, yeah.
ART: I think we do have the same last shot as the last shot of Rocky III- not exactly, but Rocky III ends with Apollo and Rocky having one more match, and I think we end with A.O. and Sovereign having one more race?
AUSTIN: Love it.
ART: And they start, they run towards whatever weird, jacked up, fake Providence we’ve assembled in, I assume, the hangar bay?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Oh god, just like, military scrap, shit we found on the beach, like- [laughs]
ART: Yeah. Painted to look like stuff too, like- I'm still going off this dragon head that is on-
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. It is a dragon head, that is 100% what I imagine the Divine Providence looks like, it's a big fucking dragon. It's a big dragon Divine, it always has been in my mind, so yes.
ART: So it's painted cardboard, but it looks like a dragon, and the two of them are running towards the mouth of the dragon and it just freeze frames?
AUSTIN: God… amazing.
ART: We have freeze frames, right?
AUSTIN: We have freeze frames, freeze frames exist on the Millennium way- wave. Um… fantastic.
ART: With whatever 80s synth anthem you wanna put.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh. Um… alright. Apparatus, final scene.
KEITH: Okay, I have a scene… I'm gonna say it's- Leap is there, Millie is there, Gur Sevraq is there, Broun is there, and Sovereign Immunity is there.
AUSTIN: Okay, big scene.
KEITH: Big scene.
AUSTIN: What's the scene, where are we at?
KEITH: Um…. I think that we’re at the after party, at a big community table but we take up the whole thing.
AUSTIN: Yeah-
KEITH: Or a big enough chunk of it that everyone else just goes to a different table.
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah
KEITH: They're doing their own thing, leave those- they're fine somewhere else. Um…
KEITH (as Apparatus): I'm worried… this is worrying me, I'm worried that this sucks.
SYLVIA (as Millie): Yeah?
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): What's ‘this’ in this sentence?
KEITH (as Apparatus): Everyone is so excited now about these games!
ART: Sovereign Immunity is still drenched in sweat- [Ali chuckles] clearly came just from working out.
KEITH (as Apparatus): And- and I feel like- I feel like it has so easily distracted us. I think- regardless of if it's a trap or not, it's captured something within us that is not good for the mission.
ALI (as Broun): We want to look sick as shit in front of rich people. Embarrass them.
KEITH (as Apparatus): Yes, I think that- I understand the impulse. I was on board. But I'm seeing the desire to look sick as shit in front of rich people has… almost completely derailed our ability to accomplish anything.
ALI (as Broun): Well that's not fair, 'cause you look like a mirror person everyday. [amused] And we just want to compete-
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): [overlapping] And you look sick as shit.
KEITH (as Apparatus): [overlapping] I have some mirrors, you can have some mirrors.
ALI (as Broun): [amused] I can't walk around like that! What I can do is- [giggles]
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): [overlapping] That would be biting your style.
KEITH (as Apparatus): I have my old- I have a closet full of old styles, you can have any of them.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Not making that more attractive, friend. Old styles-
KEITH (as Apparatus): I mean, three seasons ago, three, four seasons ago- that's in now.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): And these- I'm not sure you understand, these rich people have all wronged us, and so we’re gonna show up looking sick as shit, and then they're gonna be like “Oh no, we shouldn't have done that to these people!”
ALI (as Broun): Mh-hm.
KEITH (as Apparatus): We should just focus on killing them.
SYLVIA (as Millie): I'm pretty sure that's part of the plan too, right?
KEITH (as Apparatus): But I'm worried that we spend so much time with the games that we don't have- we don't have anything!
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): I'm gonna look so sick as shit when I win this thing, they are gonna drop dead.
KEITH (as Apparatus): I'm feeling even more convinced hearing the arguments- [Austin laughs] if anything it's maybe-
SYLVIA (as Millie): [overlapping] What?
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): [overlapping] Broun has already- Broun.
ALI (as Broun): Yes.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): We’ve already built all these, um… scrimmages, setups, we’ve already set up training grounds- we can hold a secondary tournament here- we can even invite other people, people from across Partizan- if we wanted to-
KEITH (as Apparatus): People we actually like!
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): - to hold our own games. I've heard you speak about this, Broun. So it's not like this isn't covered, right?
KEITH (as Apparatus): Oh, we can still steal all the good food?
ALI (as Broun): I- yeah, I mean… I think that we kinda wanted to kill all of those people, and win, and steal from them at the same time- and why not do all three? I don't understand-
KEITH (as Apparatus): Because we’ve stretched ourselves too thin!
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): It's not that I don't think we could win and also kill the Princept, or kidnap the Princept or whatever it is that we wish to do. It's that I think there will be fallout we don't- we don't anticipate, if we let Crysanth be the one in control of the how and the when of that. Which is what she will do, if we follow her gameplan.
KEITH (as Apparatus): And- Gur, if I can add on to that- the fallout thing, I'm totally on board, I think you're totally right- but the fact that you had to say “kill or kidnap or whatever”? I think speaks to- we know exactly how the games are gonna go-
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): [overlapping] This is why I thought we’d come together.
KEITH (as Apparatus): - but we don't have a plan otherwise. We don't know anything!
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): I don't want to seem out of character here-
KEITH: [amused] Sorry, do you mean- is that Sovereign Immunity saying that? [Ali laughs]
ART: Yeah, uh-huh. I guess maybe it's not that-
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): Do we- do we need to kill this Princept?
SYLVIA (as Millie): Yeah.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): What did the Princept do?
KEITH (as Apparatus): They are a Princept.
SYLVIA (as Millie): [incredulous] Have you seen the war going on?
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): Is that them? I’d kidnap a Princept, I've done more damage to Princepts than anyone in this room.
SYLVIA (as Millie): For now.
[Austin chuckles]
KEITH (as Apparatus): In the span of a week, Sovereign Immunity has gone from saying that he has two kidnappings left in him to now not even being convinced that one kidnapping is worth it.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): Well, I'm- I'm not ruling out kidnapping! But i- I've kidnapped a Princept and they didn't die. Sometimes you kidnap someone for something else. Sometimes you're kidnapping a Princept to-
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): [overlapping] This is what Gucci was saying about them splitting like slimes.
KEITH (as Apparatus): Right, I'm on Team Kill, but-
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): -to bring attention to a larger cause.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Let's speak openly about what we think happens here, then. If we kidnap the so-called Peaceful Princept… I suspect we could try to use him as leverage to give us supplies, additional territory, perhaps put a hold on the war which is killing people, and not just those employed by Stel Kesh or Apostolos or Nideo, but also normal people who are in the towns being invaded. Um… I also suspect that in a long enough- over a long enough time, whatever peace is negotiated will fall apart as, again, Dahlia of Apostolos will not wish to secede that Cynosure is the true Princept, they will want to maintain their status as Princept- over a long enough timeline is that the Stels falling apart, maybe Apostolos becomes an empire again, or something else.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): [cont] If we kill the Princept… I suspect we see chaos. No one to rise and stand in his place, at least not immediately. A group of people vying for the throne of Kesh, during which time Dahlia gets to say that they are the rightful and only Princept. Ushering in their own millennium, perhaps. And… it's hard to say what that would mean for regular people. Probably more war? I'm not sure. Neither is without benefits nor without serious costs, so if we say “kidnap or kill” it’s only because I think the calculus is not simple. That doesn't mean we shouldn't take an action here, and I think I'm with Apparatus in the sense that we shouldn't find ourselves so distracted by the joy of competition that we lose sight of our goals, or allow ourselves to be manipulated easily by the galaxy’s greatest manipulator, something that many of us know all too well. I'm sorry to be a downer.
KEITH (as Apparatus): Yeah, hate to be a bummer.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Can we- can we get another pitcher, maybe?
KEITH (as Apparatus): Oh, we can get two.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Some buffalo wings?
KEITH (as Apparatus): Can we get some buff chick over here?
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): We can't call it buff chick. [amused] We can't say “Can we get some buff chick over here”. We cannot.
KEITH (as Apparatus): They know, they know my order.
SYLVIA: [overlapping] Y'know what, I'd say that a lot, actually! [Austin laughs]
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): They're just going to send Millie over. [Art and Keith laugh]
ART: These days, maybe Clem!
AUSTIN: [amused] Maybe Clem. Oh my god…
KEITH: I think that- I think that I'm going to order that… a percentage of practice time be dedicated to a collective- I guess task force on nailing down details of-
AUSTIN: [amused] The assassination attempt? The assassination/kidnapping attempt?
KEITH: Teah, yeah, working that stuff out, that's sort of- what is it that we’re doing? Working that out, so that we don't have to do it narratively till the very end.
AUSTIN: [amused] It's- it's the very end, just so we’re clear. Unless people have more scenes.
KEITH: Yeah, good point.
AUSTIN: No, I get you- but this scene would have happened a week before, two weeks before, who knows.
KEITH: Right, exactly.
AUSTIN: Um… who else here is a perspective, Sovereign? No, Sovereign is a touchstone, was there a perspective in this scene?
ALI: Um-
SYLVIA: [overlapping] Broun.
AUSTIN: Broun was here, okay. Do you have a prediction, Broun, based on this scene? Or reaction to this scene?
ALI: [sighs] Yeah, um… I- it's tough, because we have the ‘no’ prediction of the Princept dying in the riot? I feel like there might be a “If yes…” but the killing is staged?
AUSTIN: I mean, is that- isn't that already “The Curtain will frame the Millennium Break for the death of the Princept”?
ALI: Ohh, sure sure sure, right, yeah. Hm…
AUSTIN: I think I have a ‘no’ prediction that's important. And that is- I'm serious about this. “If no, Millennium Break will look sick as shit when they arrive to save- arrive to support the riot”.
KEITH: Nice.
ALI: Sure.
AUSTIN: I need a- I need another prediction here to make it really work? And I'm just trying to like, psychically connect with you…
ALI: Oh, I'm closing my eyes and trying to-
AUSTIN: Close your eyes. This is not- I don't know how to make this just work.
ALI: [amused] Just DM me.
AUSTIN: Oh right, yeah. Um…
ALI: [cackles] It isn't cheating!
KEITH: Or you can also just say it outloud.
AUSTIN: No, can't do it, we’re psychically connected here. See?
ALI: Uh-huh
AUSTIN: [amused] The connection goes ‘click click click’.
ALI: Um… yeah, I think given that Broun was in that conversation and- y'know, the opening of “Why should we even fight?” was there, that Broun is just like “i can set up these fucking blockades”
AUSTIN: Right.
ALI: [laughing] So I'm repeating it into the ‘no’.
AUSTIN: Right, no matter what, we’re gonna steal their food, right.
ALI: Right. Broun, the people pleaser “You don't wanna join the fucking thing? Sure, I'm taking those cakes” [laughs]
AUSTIN: Right. We’re taking their cakes no matter what.
KEITH: Yeah, I was actually- I had referenced this in the last scene, but I was going to try and figure out how to challenge this into one of the…
AUSTIN: So here’s my- here's my “I think we’ll look sick as shit”? Be with me here. The first set of food supplies show up, it's just dirt. The backup set of food supplies show up, and it's us in our fucking mechs. [Ali giggles]
SYLVIA: Oh my god…
AUSTIN: That's why-
JANINE: [overlapping] I didn't- it took me a full fucking second to understand that you didn't mean that the first food truck was dirt [laughing] Like, they were shipping dirt to the party.
AUSTIN: Oh. No no no-
ALI: [overlapping] Oh! No, that's what he meant.
AUSTIN: But not intentionally- yes, not- they didn't intend to-
JANINE: [overlapping] Yes, we swapped it.
AUSTIN: We’ve swapped it, that was an analogy that was used in the previous Broun-Apparatus scene, I believe.
JANINE: [amused] Sorry.
AUSTIN: No, you're fine.
KEITH: Yeah.
ART: I have a challenge to this prediction?
AUSTIN: Yes.
ART: Which is that I think the fiction clearly supports that sending mechs in boxes that are supposed to be something else is called “pulling a Sovereign Immunity”?
AUSTIN: Yeah, sorry, when they- when they pull a Sovereign Immunity-
ART: [overlapping] And I think the name should change then. Yeah.
AUSTIN: [typing] “Pull a Sovereign Immunity… to support the riot”
DRE: Wait, so did Mourningbride pull a Sovereign Immunity?
AUSTIN: Yeah, earlier- yes, that was- Mourningbride was pulling a Sovereign Immunity earlier, with- when she snuck courage on board via- yeah, uh-huh, true. Alright, does anyone have any final reactions or scenes? We got a lot of predictions to read through, so- Will the Kingdom participate in the Summer Passage of Arms? If yes, our outstanding performance will win us support from the commonfolk of Partizan - Gur Sevraq. Broun?
ALI: Um… if yes, Millennium Break will send mech units to set up supply blockades.
AUSTIN: Clem?
JACK: If yes, the Curtain will frame Millennium Break for the death of the Princept.
AUSTIN: Broun?
ALI: [laughing] If yes, Millie is going to look sick as shit.
SYLVIA: Uh-huh!
AUSTIN: If no, Broun?
ALI: [amused] If no, Millennium Break will host an internal competition.
AUSTIN: If no, Millennium Break will lead a riot of workers on the island that includes the Princept’s death, among other nobles. Valence?
DRE: If no, Millennium Break will acquire top secret technology from the Curtain.
AUSTIN: Gur-- that's me. [amused] Millennium Break will look sick as shit when they pull a Sovereign Immunity to support the riot. And-
ALI: Millennium Break will send mech units to set up supply blockades.
AUSTIN: Alright, it is time to vote! Powers, when you order the kingdom to do some- that's just your general power thing, that's not the specific thing… alright “Resolve the crossroad: powers, make a decision, which of the crossroad’s paths do you follow? Describe how your character makes the kingdom do it.
KEITH: Apparatus votes no, I think we got a little bit of this already. Um… and it's, y'know- I think it's a lot of reminding people to pay attention-
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Eyes on the prize?
KEITH: Yeah, exactly.
AUSTIN: I can't believe Apparatus is like “Don't have fun. No more parties”. [Ali laughs]
JANINE: I made you take all those strategy lessons, but fuck’em.
AUSTIN: [laughs] Well, the strategy lessons are still good, the strategy lessons are still- we’re fighting, right? Those strategy lessons were for the military part of this, not the competition part of it, I believe.
KEITH: Yeah yeah yeah. The task force stuff?
AUSTIN: The task force, yeah. Gucci?
KEITH: But we’re doing- we’re gonna do the second thing so that's the fun- that's even more fun! Have it at home, with all of our friends.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE: I mean, I think I vote yes, because… y'know, we- we wrapped up a lot of really good, competent characters in the game itself, but also there are a lot of really good, competent characters who are still free, and who have- y'know, if we have been doing these “Okay, we have our practice time for these games, but also we have our practice time for actually getting shit done” Then a really appealing idea to me, in terms of how I picture that in my head, is that there is a class of people who are training as competitors, and a class of people who are training as a strike force. Um… to actually like- y'know, to swoop in, to try and get the Princept out for whatever purpose or- I think that's the- I think that's the play that Gucci would make, if only also because… this is a big opportunity to not just be cool for ourselves, but be cool for people who maybe have doubts and haven't had the chance to actually see us in person.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh. Count the votes, the majority wins. Right now there's no majority, if someone wants to change the outcome, they have to challenge a power’s decision or overthrow them, otherwise the crossroad is now decided and there's no going back. So, right now there's a tie. If it stays a tie it's a stalemate, and we will add two more checkboxes to the crossroad and the touchstones will have an opportunity to decide how the kingdom feels and check or uncheck crisis boxes, and then we’ll continue through normal play. At this point, though, the door is open for anyone to challenge either Apparatus or Gucci, or to overthrow them.
AUSTIN: [cont] Let's see… I don't have a good challenge for either of them.
ALI: [sighs, laughs] I can't think of anything besides like “Someone wants to participate so bad that they [laughing] overthrow-” [Austin chuckles] I don't think anyone is there.
AUSTIN: Well, it doesn't- an overthrow can be symbolic, right? An overthrow can be just like “We’re going, we're going to these games” and everyone just gets on board the ship- the helicopter and goes. It doesn't have to be “-and now I'm in charge!” it can be a kind of symbolic “changing of the guard”, if that makes sense. Or a- just a social shift? Um…. hm.
ART: Yeah, it's like saying “We’re not gonna do that” and then everyone goes and does it.
AUSTIN: Right, right.
ART: It doesn't- they didn't overthrow them, it's just like they didn't- they didn't have that juice.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: So if there's no challenge then it just goes to the touchstones?
AUSTIN: No, it goes- the touchstones get to either add or subtract crisis box from the crisis meter, then we get two more scenes and we come back to here, and someone has to break or a new power will be in place to have enough of a swing.
JACK: Um- a rules thing.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: I can't overthrow or challenge because I've already used my prediction powers, right?
AUSTIN: Not true.
JACK: No?
AUSTIN: Uh-uh.
ALI: I think this is a different phase of the game-
AUSTIN: You would abandon your prediction, is what would happen.
JACK: Ohh.
AUSTIN: And another perspective would have to choose to pick it up.
JACK: Ohh, I see. Okay, so… so I could challenge by overthrowing, and in doing so would lose my prediction.
AUSTIN: If no one else picked it up.
JACK: Right. But I don't know narratively how Clem would go about taking power in a way that doesn't feel cheap or sudden.
AUSTIN: Yeah. I-
ART: You can challenge without overthrowing.
AUSTIN: You can do that without overthrowing.
ALI: [overlapping] Yeah-
JANINE: I also do have a suggestion for how Clem could take a kind of power.
JACK: Oh, yeah?
JANINE: I mean, if the thing that the strategy committee is partially concerned with is “What the fuck is Crysanth Kesh gonna try and do to us?” and “How do we get around it, how do we anticipate and work around it?” [Austin laughs] Who do you ask on this ship other than-
ART: [overlapping] There's literally-
AUSTIN: Yeah. There's something- there's a Hannibal Lecter quality.
JANINE: Yes! 100%!
JACK: [overlapping] Oh, it’s so good!
JANINE: It is Clem being wheeled out with a fabulous manicure and a wire mask. [laughs]
[Jack and Ali laugh]
AUSTIN: This is incredible because mechanically, if Clem took power, her prediction “The Curtain will frame Millennium Break for the death of the Princept” would clear. Because…
ART: It would be abandoned.
AUSTIN: It would be abandoned, yes- someone could pick it up, yes. A different perspective could pick it up. But it would be abandoned, which is fascinating.
JACK: Oh, I actually like this quite a lot, um…
AUSTIN: There are ways for you to get there- one is, Clem could overthrow someone. Clem could overthrow Gucci, right? [laughs] Or we could add to-
JANINE: She absolutely could.
AUSTIN: Which is great, which is fantas- which is Hannibal, right? [laughs] Which is “Oh, you've finally come to me”, y'know? Or it could be a thing that happens in the following scenes if we go the tie game, add two more rounds to the clock way, y'know? You could become a third power, or you could overthrow to become a second power.
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Actually, overthrowing Gucci doesn't make sense, because Gucci is the one who said yes. You have to overthrow Apparatus.
KEITH: Yeah, I wasn't gonna say anything, but I caught that. [Austin, Jack and Janine laugh]
JACK: Oh my god…
AUSTIN: But becoming a third power and being the swing vote is kind of great. Um… for the sake of time we could also just have you do that- you could do that in- when I go “Does anyone want another scene?” You could've done that then, and this is not me saying we do a pickup to clean that up, either. It's me saying… if we don't feel like doing two more rounds of scenes, and that's the only scene we have, we could just do that now and have a scene where this happens. Unless someone really wants another additional scene, but in that case we can just do whatever that scene is too.
JACK: Yeah, okay, I would like to… change my role, I'm gonna become a third power.
AUSTIN: Unbelievable… alright, what's this look like? Can we get this Gucci Clem scene please?
JANINE: Yes- I mean of course, yes!
AUSTIN: Uh-huh [Ali laughs]
JANINE: Yeah, so I think to some extent this is always kind of what Gucci has been angling for? To a degree with Clem? In terms of like… you know, when she was putting down those seeds to try and get Sovereign Immunity arrested, and to try and push people in the direction of “Well, look, if you're not gonna arrest him, then what are we doing? We need to figure things out-” like… having someone sitting in a cell does nothing. So for her- maybe this is a thing that Gucci’s been waiting for a window? Um… but also waiting for a window in a way that is probably a little bit naive? [laughs] I'm not gonna pretend that this is a big masterplan, necessarily, it's a thing that- maybe the opportunity presents itself- I don't even know if she's the person that recognizes the opportunity. Maybe someone comes to her with it, and she is like “Oh, actually, why don't we talk to Clem. Why don't we put Clem in-”
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Hm- yeah. It's someone saying “We just don't know what to do about this Crysanth thing”, right?
JANINE: Yeah. And then it's like- “Well, we know someone who does, or who can at least inform us a bit” and I think it is… Gucci showing up with- it wouldn't be a pardon. It wouldn't be a pardon, but it's an acknowledgement that there's only so many times you can have someone locked up in a cell and wielding them out and expecting them to be useful, right? It's absolutely not a pardon, but it's maybe like a work leave or something, something of that nature that is like “You're still in shit. You are still-”
AUSTIN: Oh, you are letting her out, though. This is not a Hannibal situation.
JANINE: I mean, that's what I'm trying to do with the “You're still in shit” thing.
AUSTIN: Right.
JANINE: They're not letting Hannibal out necessarily, but Hannibal got a lot of things out of that.
AUSTIN: I see, I see.
JANINE: Hannibal got moved to a prison that he preferred, Hannibal got access to things that he liked…
AUSTIN: Right. So is this literally like… here's a bottle of wine, here is- here is a nicer cell. Or-
ART: Does anyone else remember how that part of Silence Of the Lambs ended?
AUSTIN: Uh-uh! [Janine laughs] I think it was was a happy- it went well.
ART: ehhh- maybe go watch it later. [Janine and Austin laugh]
KEITH: I haven't seen it but I know that that guy ate people, which is basically what Clem did, so.
JANINE: [laughing] Yeah, yep. Um… so I think this is Gucci showing up with an offer, there's like-
JANINE (as Gucci): We need help to deal with your mother, [Ali and Dre laugh] because we know that she-
KEITH: Because we want to play the games instead of not playing the games! [Dre cackles]
JANINE: Because- it's because we want to use the games, she wants to use the games and we want to use the games, and someone’s gotta do it better than someone else. And we think we can do it better than her. [laughing] Which again, maybe a little bit naive, but you gotta make big moves.
[Dre laughs]
AUSTIN: Love it.
JANINE: Shoot your shot!
KEITH: This is great.
AUSTIN: Shoot your shot, it's fantastic.
Keith I've- I have a reaction to this?
AUSTIN: Wait, we’re not- we haven't done the scene yet!
KEITH: Oh, we haven't done the scene- oh, right, that's-
AUSTIN: [overlapping, laughs] We can't do anything until we hear what Clementine Kesh says to this fucking offer.
JACK (as Clementine): Is this a pardon?
JANINE (as Gucci): No. it's an opportunity to screw over your mother.
JACK (as Clementine): Hm.
[Sylvia and Ali laugh]
JANINE: And that's not me saying that out of character, I think Gucci says that. Maybe not in so many words, just like-
JANINE (as Gucci): Look… I know- look, we've all seen Crysanth Kesh.
JACK (as Clementine): It is… frustrating that she would make an offer like this, and you would- you know, plan to go straight away, without consulting me until now. I've heard you've been planning for weeks.
JANINE (as Gucci): Training takes time.
JACK (as Clementine): What does this look like? What help do you think that I can give you?
JANINE (as Gucci): I think we need to be able to think like she thinks, and… the- you know, a lot of us are equipped to do that in a very limited capacity. I think I can anticipate things in a limited capacity. But none of us have spent the time, none of us have as much up close perspective as you do.
JACK (as Clementine): Huh. There's only so much I can do. We… we are not in a position to be able to move against Crysanth in a way that she won't have anticipated-
JACK: Oh also, Icebreaker is bugged? [laughs]
AUSTIN: Yeah, yep.
JACK (as Clementine): We’re not able to move against Crysanth in a manner which she will not have anticipated. If you are expecting that because I bear her surname I will be able to provide some counter-Crysanth maneuver that will weaken her, as much as I wish I were able to do that, that is not something that we can do. [pause] It's not a pardon but- I could leave? I can leave the cell?
JANINE (as Gucci): Well no, 'cause you just convinced me that you have nothing for me, so I'm just gonna go now.
[Sylvia cackles]
JACK (as Clementine): Well, no, hold on-
[Keith and Austin laugh]
JANINE (as Gucci): Yes?
JACK (as Clementine): What I'm saying is, if you go in there without talking to me, your best case scenario is- I don't know, you all die? Millennium Break- she's probably planning something like- she's gonna make you look like monsters in front of the moon.
JANINE (as Gucci): That's what I thought.
JACK (as Clementine): But, if you have me on staff- well, no, not on staff, in an advisory capacity- [Austin chuckles] I think that I could probably help point out traps, point out dangers, maybe come to some kind of an understanding with you as to where Crysanth might be more or less likely to strike.
JANINE (as Gucci): I think that would be very useful.
JACK (as Clementine): It's going to have to come at a cost, you know. I'm not going to be able to help you if you're just going to say “Well, let's calm down and see what Clem thinks” every so often, my words are going to have to have some weight among you and among Apparatus.
KEITH: Shit outta luck there. [Sylvia laughs]
JANINE (as Gucci): The weight that you have- and this is my advice to you, Clem- the weight that you have is when you apply actual expertise, and not imagined expertise. Lean your weight on what you know, and on what we need, and people will have to take you seriously. Say whatever shit you read in a book, and no one will.
JACK: [sighs] God, I wonder if… I think Clem says-
JACK (as Clementine): She will have been delighted to hear that.
AUSTIN: Yeah…
JACK: Playing that like, Crysanth would’ve just gotten that message straight away-
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh-huh.
JACK: And yeah, I'm going to- I'm gonna change my role. From a perspective to a power.
AUSTIN: Incredible. Apparatus, it sounded like you had a reaction?
KEITH: Um… yes. Uh… [pause] Apparatus and the legislature are going to use- disseminate fliers advocating for abandoning the- what is it, the summer something?
AUSTIN: Passage, the Summer Passage.
KEITH: The Summer Passage games, as… [pause] how- I had a phrase for this- basically as consorting with the enemy, we’re fraternizing with them, we’re playing- we’re literally playing their games?
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
KEITH: And that we should abandon it- I can't- I don't have an order for it, but I'm-
AUSTIN: [overlapping] yeah, ordering- it is an order to do that.
KEITH: [overlapping] Disseminating anti-game propaganda.
AUSTIN: Yeah, that's an order, that works. Um… I have a reaction. It's technically a small scene, but it's- uh… [amused] I really just want this image, which is- now that Clementine has said, and has made it known that maybe Crysanth is listening in- I think here is the way in which Gur is going to make a prediction that ties back around to this, which is… on the deck of Fort Icebreaker, with the sun setting on the horizon- or the planet setting in the horizon, they have set up a chess table for Clem and themselves, and are using it as a way of silent communication. And specifically, what they set up to see if this makes sense as a particular way to get around the Crysanth gambit that's about to happen, is… I'm just gonna say the prediction, and we can imagine that a chess maneuver here that matches it- which doesn't make sense in chess, because of the way chess works. What if instead of “The Curtain will frame Millennium Break for the death of the Princept'' it's “Millennium Break will kidnap the Princept and make it seem as if it's a rescue”.
JACK: Oh ho ho!
KEITH: I thought you were going somewhere else, which is we were going to kill the Princept and frame Crysanth Kesh.
AUSTIN: No, I want this to be- because who the fuck is Crysanth Kesh- like, I don't care about Crysanth Kesh. I care about Millennium Break being loved. Gur Sevraq- there's always a Crysanth Kesh, there's always gonna be a Crysanth Kesh. We’ll kill her, there will be another one tomorrow. Um… but if we can build a movement that is loved and that is successful on all fronts, that is the thing that will turn the tide of history. This Princept is a fucking nothing anyway, y'know? So, owning that symbol is more important than like, hurting Crysanth specifically to them. So yeah, “Millennium Break will kidnap the peaceful Princept in a ruse dressed up like a rescue”.
ART: I'm not… y'know, abandoning the idea of killing Crysanth and seeing what happens. You say another one will come, [Austin laughs] I say maybe it won't, I mean…. I think we have to teach the controversy.
[Jack laughs]
AUSTIN: I'm not saying we never kill her, I'm just saying in this opportunity, the way to wound the Curtain is to make Millennium Break big. That's what Gur thinks.
JACK: Crysanth Kesh is what you get when her predecessor plans for someone killing them.
AUSTIN: Right, right, right. Yes. um… alright. We’re now ready to do- actually, given the fact that we just did two scenes, I think we should give the touchstones an opportunity to use the power that they were rightly vested with? Which is, before that happened you should have been able to- since we did end up doing two scenes there- decide whether or not to increase the crisis by- increase or decrease crisis by one each.
SYLVIA: I think I'm good, I don't think I'm gonna increase or decrease.
AUSTIN: Millie- sorry, Sovereign Immunity?
ART: Oh, I think that sounded like an increasing crisis.
AUSTIN: Okay! We’re now at-
ART: Anytime someone says “-like Hannibal Lecter”- [Keith, Jack and Ali laugh] I think crisis goes up.
AUSTIN: We’re at six of eight.
ART: Anytime something’s like Silence Of the Lambs, crisis should go up one.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Only two more and we’ll hit crisis. Um…
KEITH: I don't remember anymore what hitting crisis does.
AUSTIN: Crisis happens, we’ll-
JACK: It's not good.
AUSTIN: It's not good. “We reach a critical moment and see if the kingdom survives or falls”, is what happens. Um… alright, so, back to power. Back to resolving this. I'm not gonna go through each of the crossroad predictions at this point, we’ll get those when we get to those. Let's vote.
JACK: I am voting yes, and I'm also doing it presumably in a room with other people! Which is great!
[Ali giggles]
AUSTIN: It might not even be like, “I vote yes and that's why people listen- and that's why it happens”? We can characterize that as being part of… people hear you say “We’ve accounted for what my mother will do” and that's enough to sway voters, right?
JACK: Yeah yeah yeah.
AUSTIN: Again, we don't have to think about this as like “there are three people in charge”- the same way that Apparatus represents people, in a sense you're representing people who agree with your vote, given that what we’re going is that there is a legislature.
JACK: Let's go play games.
JANINE: Gucci also votes yes.
KEITH: Since we’re re-voting…
AUSTIN: Uh-huh?
KEITH: Could I abandon my role and use another role?
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally.
KEITH: I'm abandoning my role. I think, uh- I don't think anything changes narratively, I just think the introduction of Clementine Kesh as someone who wields authority again… just dissolves the efficacy of Apparatus and the legislature.
AUSTIN: Okay! With the note- with the mechanical note that the only thing stopping them from having it is taking it.
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: Do you know what I mean? I just wanted to- because-
KEITH: [overlapping] But I can't take it as a power.
AUSTIN: The thing that I want to be clear is, Clementine Kesh did not overthrow Apparatus. So actually I don't know that what we can say is “They lost power because Clementine Kesh-” because that didn't happen. I mean, they lost power relationally-
KEITH: [overlapping] It didn't happen-
AUSTIN: - in the sense that now there is a third voice in the mix, when it comes to the mechanical aspect of voting? But fictionally speaking- or mechanically speaking, she did not overthrow you and retract that power? So I wanna make it clear, I don't think that it's respecting that mechanical thing if the result is- the mechanics already represent them losing that power, do you know what I mean? It's why you're a one in, instead of a one in two now. If there's a further slip from that, then that should be an additional step in the fiction that is about not just- not just what's already been represented, but actually some additional movement there. Or something with Apparatus specifically.
KEITH: Um…
AUSTIN: Clem’s reintroduction does not mean you lose power.
JACK: You still have your vote. Like… this could very easily have gone the other way, which is Clem immediately loses this first vote.
AUSTIN: Or voted with Apparatus.
JACK: [laughing] Or voted with Apparatus.
KEITH: Well- you're technically right that it could have, but the whole thing was framed as a way to get the yes vote. I mean, it could've been the reverse thing, where it was framed to get the no vote.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No, I just wanna be- the thing to me, the thing that I'm running into is mostly just that the mechanics do already represent the thing that you say happens without you losing power. The thing that would then be you deciding to step away from power should be framed as a new additional aspect, or should be… yeah, I think it has to be something different than just “a new thing steps in”. It could be Apparatus saying “Fuck it, I don't want to be doing this anymore” or something, but it can't be… it can't just be “there's a third party here”, because that's already caught up in the rules, you know?
JANINE: Also, to be clear, it wasn't a thing I suggested 'cause I wanted the yes vote from Clem, it was a thing I suggested because Jack was like “I want to go- I want to have power but I don't know how to narratively do that”, and I said “Here's how you’d narratively do that”.
AUSTIN: Right.
JANINE: I was actually 50% braced for Clem to be like “Actually, we should not even tangle” [Jack laughs]
AUSTIN: Right. Um… so yeah, my question there is, if you're going to back down as Apparatus being a power, and seed that vote, basically, I wanna know- what does it look like, for Apparatus, to do that?
KEITH: So- well then, I guess it's- you know… Apparatus represented the literal government? Where Gucci never had a real position, right? She was just someone that people listened to?
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: And Clem is the same sort of boat, so I think that- I don't know if it's the, um… the shifting of the government from operating as a government to operating as a sort of… anti-shadow government?
AUSTIN: The thing that is frustrating for me is that by stepping away you are ensuring that, versus- the next round someone else could stand into power who is on that side of things, but now that wouldn't swing it, because Apparatus would have given up on it. It is ceding power vs being overthrown, you know?
KEITH: Right. But Apparatus could also then do an overthrow.
AUSTIN: Right. Well then, is that what's happening? Is Apparatus stepping down to plan an overthrow? What is the-
KEITH: Yeah, that was my move, yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay. Then we should see that, we should see that part of Apparatus’ brain working such that is “I can do more as an oppositional force than as one-in-three- you know, in the chamber, so to speak. Right?
KEITH: Right. Yeah, that's what I was saying.
AUSTIN: Do they keep their role as- fictionally speaking, are they still in that room?
KEITH: Um… yes.
AUSTIN: Okay. Alright.
KEITH: But I think it's a lot of- I think it's that run of fliers that was like “Hey, it would suck if we were part of this game 'cause we would literally be playing their game- to play their game”?
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
KEITH: I think it's a lot of that, I think it's a lot of- we don't understand why, or maybe we do understand why but Apparatus is like-
AUSTIN: That would be a touchstone decision, but yeah.
KEITH: Yeah, it's… [amused] it's writing anti government op-eds.
AUSTIN: Despite being in the government.
KEITH: Right
AUSTIN: Okay. Alright, let's resolve then, let's go into the predictions. Um… so. Let's go through them in order. We said yes, which means we cross off the ‘no’s… which are all of these, an incredible amount of them this time! Alright, “If yes, our outstanding performance will win us support from the commonfolks of Partizan”. What does this performance look like? Let's go down the line- mech sumo, Thisbe, mow. Tell me what this looks like.
JANINE: Uh… I mean, it's- you can't spell- um… [Sylvia cackles]
AUSTIN: Uh-huh? What's up? [Janine laughs]
ART: I'm so excited to hear what you were about to spell.
JANINE: [laughing] You can't spell sumo without mo! If you spell Mow wrong, 'cause I've been spelling mow with a W, but in this moment it's spelled just MO.
AUSTIN: [amused] Uh-huh- you can't spell sumo without mo, and then a really tiny W underneath on the t-shirt. [Janine laughs]
ART: This is incredible the movie Dodgeball energy.
AUSTIN: Oh, Absolutely! [Dre laughs]
JANINE: Um- so I think Thisbe has a pretty sick advantage here? Which is that she sits outside of her fucking mech! She's not inside the mech, so when those mechs hit and body check, it's probably a lot less disorienting for her, it's probably a lot less weirdly stifling and weird when you hear cockpits grinding together and shit?
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
JANINE: 'Cause she’s just like, on the back. She's just kind of good. So in terms of like… you know, there's a degree on which this sport is a battle of mech v mech, who has the best mech, whatever. But it is also- there is a degree of like… pilots playing chicken, right? There's a degree of- you hear springs snapping and whatever, and hydraulic lines creaking, and you eventually have to back off a little, because there's a mental aspect- and Thisbe doesn't really have that concern? She has a very calculated understanding of both her capabilities and mow’s capabilities- in a way that I think makes her a very very difficult opponent [laughs]
AUSTIN: [chuckles] Um… who’s next? Let's go down the line, Millie.
SYLVIA: Yeah, um… I think- I like the idea of this being one of those things that just goes- like, when there’s a tie, it just keeps going until the tie gets broken? And I really like the idea of Millie and some, I don't know, Kesh marksman dueling it out for like, way too long until they like… they falter just a little bit, and Millie does a Ricochet shot or something? 'Cause we've talked about how you have to get the two things at the same time? It's very flashy, it's really twisting the knife. It's good!
AUSTIN: Amazing. Gur Sevraq, in this poetry contest- definitely in costume, by the way- [Sylvia laughs] since a war is still currently being fought over him- um… I think delivers a- this is the- here's the “fuck Crysanth Kesh specifically” thing, is… I don't know that the poetry that Gur Sevraq delivers is a particularly, um- right now, it doesn't move anyone. In 10 years, people are gonna look back and be like “YO, that was Gur Sevraq! [laughs] That was Gur Sevraq standing in a stadium and delivering a poem that was about being hidden in plain sight. That was a poem specifically delivered to the people there who knew it was Gur Sevraq, which is”- I guess Crysanth doesn't know this yet, right? Doesn't know that Gur Sevraq is here. So it's even more of a thing, it's even more like “One day you will understand what's happening to you right now, and when you do-”
KEITH: If we are bugged then maybe she does know?
AUSTIN: Oh, I guess that's true. Yeah yeah yeah. Almost certainly then, yes. Um… and then so- yes, she knows, and it's built to get under her skin and try to put her on tilt, a little bit? Y'know what I mean? I was playing a game of Valorant last night, [Ali laughs]like I've been doing, and about- we were down 7-5, and one person told us that we weren't allowed to hold angles on offense? You're only allowed to hold angles on defense, which is to say, you're only allowed to stand still and guard when you're on defense- which is not true. And we were like, “that's not- do you know what game you're playing? That's not how this game works”, and then that person said a slur, said a homophobic slur, and- I was playing with a bunch of queer people, including myself, and we were like [laughing] “Yeah, you got us. That's true, yep- we’re gay, you got us!” And then we won like 7 straight rounds, and they were so on tilt from them calling us a slur and not tilting us, they got so mad that they just made every mistake possible? And that's what I'm trying to do with Crysanth Kesh, I'm just trying to put her all the way on tilt so that when things are going bad, she's so pissed that she's not making good decisions.
AUSTIN: [cont] Um… anyway, that's my story about how don't fuck with me in Valorant. So, Clem- actually, wait, there's another one here. Broun, there we go. Wait I'm skipping ahead- yeah, no, Broun is next, that's right, yeah.
ALI: Yes.
AUSTIN: [amused] Swimming and bartering biathlon.
ALI: Hi. [laughs] Doing great, Broun’s great. Um… there's like, people in the audience who are like “Did Broun go to mech school off of like a swimming scholarship?” [Austin laughs] And that's not true, but they're allowed to make people think that for today. I think they're wearing a little unitard bathing suit that's, um… red? Like [laughing] a white, with gold buttons, cropped jacket? [laughing] Gucci trying their best in a swimming competition to make Broun look okay, um… I think that they have a little- there's like a little fanny pack that they swim with, so when they get to the other side they can barter very well. I think bartering works really well, and Broun’s experience from- just experience, but also like… Broun has always gotten by by bartering skill? And I think the judge was not- y'know, the decoy barter [laughing] was not anticipating someone who wouldn't just be like “Well, I have all this money, and these horses, and this old wine that I can give you” but for Broun to be like “Well, I can make you this shit, what do you want? What do you want?” and then- [laughing]
JANINE: [overlapping] “Fuck you, I’ll walk away from this deal. You don't even know, I'll just swim right back there, I don't need this!” [Austin, Ali and Sylvia laugh]
AUSTIN: God…
JACK: It's so good.
JANINE: [laughing] “Take your medals!”
JACK: I just had a little treat experience, which I wonder if any listeners did, which is- I had forgotten it was swimming and bartering, so when- [everyone cackles] when Ali was describing the swimming part, I was like “Oh yeah, describing the swimsuit, this all makes a lot of sense, that must be for swimming glasses-” and then when you were- as we moved to bartering I was like “Yes! I forgot about that!” [Ali laughs]
ALI: Yeah, it's amazing. Good for Broun.
AUSTIN: Amazing. Alright, Divine Providence, who- how does the run in Providence go for Leap, Sovereign Immunity, and A.O. Rooke?
ART: I really believe A.O. Rooke should win, but I don't really wanna just say that unilaterally.
AUSTIN: I want that to happen only because I want K.O. Rooke to see.
JANINE: I was just gonna say-!
ALI: [overlapping] Oh, yeah!
JANINE: -I want her to be like, watching on TV or something-
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uh-huh, broadcast. Yeah yeah yeah.
KEITH: Unfortunately Leap wants to win and also doesn't know K.O. Rooke. So I don't know how we resolve that.
AUSTIN: I mean, it's not about Leap knowing, it's about Austin- it wasn't an in-character- [amused] Gur Sevraq doesn't know A.O. Rooke and K.O. Rooke exist in that relationship, in a mother-son relationship, but, um… yeah. Tell me what your movements are like, tell me what your vibe is.
KEITH: Is- I just wanna make sure that I'm clear on what exactly this challenge is, is it- we’re climbing up this thing?
AUSTIN: Through it- it's Ninja Warrior, it's that style of-
KEITH: [overlapping] Through it, up it, trying to get to the top?
AUSTIN: Yeah! Yeah yeah yeah. It's hard, right? There are things that are just- I can't do it. Y'know?
KEITH: Right. I think Leap’s doing a lot of big jumps, nice, springy leg jumps. But then also- I think I'm kicking into like, bone, and using it to make footholes wherever.
AUSTIN: Hm…
KEITH: Those are my two tactics, big, springy jumps and just creating crevices in the bone.
AUSTIN: Sovereign Immunity?
ART: I think. And I'm probably only reaching for this because of The Last Dance- but I think Sovereign Immunity looks like Wizards era Michael Jordan?
AUSTIN: Ahh, uh-huh!
[Sylvia laughs]
ART: Like… doesn't have the hops anymore, at all, but it's really solid fundamentals, you know? Can't do the big jumps, but has impeccable timing on little stuff, really god at the thing where you grab a bar and push yourself over it?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: The kind of thing I could never dream of doing. You know, that kind of stuff, he's got a really good “I should've stopped doing this five years ago”. [Austin laughs] “Should've let the retirement sink in”.
AUSTIN: Who in the competition does Sovereign Immunity decide belittled him in some way? Or- [Sylvia cackles] decided he shouldn't have- y'know what I mean? I need the Jordan in this.
ART: Do you have a list of people in this?
AUSTIN: No, but… [Art laughs]
KEITH: Leap, A.O. Rooke-
AUSTIN: Yeah!
ART: It's- there's a space Kwame Brown, who, uh-
AUSTIN: [laughs] Okay.
ART: -Sovereign Immunity told about the event. This is from the thing. And then just showed up to practice like- “You suck, I'm better than you, I'm still doing this-” and just trash talking the whole way through all the practices, just got completely in their head. They were a number one pick, they were going to be a big deal! Instead they just performed really badly as Sovereign Immunity does how they do, and then like “We practiced this! Do better! Do better! I can do that, why can't you do this?”
[Austin chuckles]
AUSTIN: God… and then you're also-
ART: [overlapping] I can't believe they didn't do an episode on the Hall of Fame speech-
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I'm so mad. I'm so mad than it stopped- I get it, it's the Last Dance, but-
ART: Yeah, it's not what the documentary is about, but-
AUSTIN: But- please give me a follow up.
ART: The world needs to know.
AUSTIN: The world needs to know.
KEITH: I didn't watch this, but it sounds like Michael Jordan is not nice.
AUSTIN: Michael Jordan is like- seems to have final cut on this thing? And still comes across like a fucking asshole, so…
[Ali laughs]
SYLVIA: [overlapping] Oh, definitely. That's why it's so good!
AUSTIN: Exactly, that's why it- that's exactly why it's still as good, is that by all rights it should’ve been a fluff piece, and instead he still looks like a fucking piece of work.
SYLVIA: [laughing] What- it's- let's move on, I can't-
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yes, leave that for our last dance spoilercast later.
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: How does A.O. Rooke do?
ART: I think A.O. Rooke is really good at this! He's young, he had the less spiteful form of training… you know, I think he's just- he has that weird class, he does the- I thought he was the hot-shot or the…
AUSTIN: The ace? He would have been the rookie, if earlier this season Jack had decided to play him when Clem was hurt. He would’ve been the Rookie. Which is like, a really interesting- you know that thing y'all can do when you have Future on your side, and you can change, uh… a failure to a success? That's just a Rookie move. That's just a thing the Rookie can do by default- not by default, but it's one of their moves. So it's a lot of like… a lot of that style of thing in war stories, the rookie knows how things were done back home and can kinda move abilities around to kinda represent that maybe they don't know how they do it in military school, but, back on the farm, this is how we shoot womp rats.
ART: [overlapping] He used to bullseye womp rats- yeah.
AUSTIN: Literally the womp rats, yeah, exactly. Yes, stuff like that.
ART: But yeah, I like that energy for A.O.- a young Luke Skywalker.
AUSTIN: Yeah! God.
ART: Who I think would be great at a giant obstacle course- I don't know what I'm basing that off of-
AUSTIN: Dagobah?
ART: I guess what is the Death Star but a big obstacle course-
AUSTIN: [amused] Okay, you went Death Star.
ART: Grappling hooking and…
AUSTIN: Yes, the interior, the death star interior you're saying- yes.
ART: Yeah, interior death star is an obstacle course.
AUSTIN: Um…
KEITH: Exterior death star is an obstacle course too, it's just in space and no one ever climbed on it.
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah.
ART: You can't breathe out there.
KEITH: No.
ART: As established by the X-wing-
AUSTIN: You can just get a helmet, I've seen Clone Wars.
KEITH: No, but it's greeble city.
AUSTIN: It is, it is. Um… alright. It sounds like there's debate over who won, which I'm- I would rather just make true, that there's debate over who won, than have a fight about who won [laughs]. So-
KEITH: I was gonna suggest rock paper scissors, but I like-
AUSTIN: It's ambiguous. Uh-
ART: Yeah, everyone has some violations, and there's some debate over how much- what time penalty each is worth…
AUSTIN: Yeah- but Millennium Break fucking does the damn thing, people are impressed. We can keep on moving. Uh- people all over the planet are blown away by this, it's a whole thing. I think- [amused] I know this, on the podium- despite- we're not here as Millennium Break, right? Or are we? What do our uniforms look like, do they have the big M?
ART: I thought we had sick uniforms.
AUSTIN: But do we have the Millennium Break logo on us?
ALI: I think that we-
KEITH: [overlapping] You said that if we did that we would be killed.
AUSTIN: Yeah, that seems risky!
ALI: Ohh, but they should be- they should be embroidered on our outfits in such a way that when the spotlights hit them you can see the M, but when we came through security it was just like “Oh, you're just wearing a red coat”.
AUSTIN: That's exactly it.
JANINE: [overlapping] I had- I had an ultimate idea- because that still feels like it might get us killed? [laughs]
AUSTIN: Uh-huh!
Janine. Although it's really fucking cool. The thing I was thinking of is- so you mentioned that Broun had a little jacket type part on the uniform, right?
ALI: Yeah, uh-huh.
JANINE: What if everyone has that little jacket type part, and then the jacket is hiding- the Millennium Break logo is on the back or something?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right, it's the NWO reveal.
JANINE: And everyone, at the very end, as we’re all getting our flowers and waving and shit- and then we’re like, walking out to our waiting helicopter- we just rip the jackets off and put them on the ground and leave them there.
AUSTIN: Right, the-
ALI: [overlapping] There's fireworks. In the shape of an M.
AUSTIN: Right. This is the riot, right? This is the thing. [Ali laughs] It happens in the same moment. The thing I was gonna say is, I do just need A.O. Rooke, like a member of the NWO, drawing a big M in the sky and then crossing it out [Ali and Janine chuckle] to show the cameras- to be like “That's right motherfuckers, that's who it is!” Um… but no, I think- that's it, we do it all there, and that is how that part of this goes- we’ll wrap back around I guess to how it all really shakes out in a second, but “Millennium Break will send mech units to set up a supply blockade.” Broun, does that go the way it sounds like it goes?
ALI: Um- yeah, I think so! Yeah. I think it would be easy to do, and we have the connections, and we have mechs.
AUSTIN: Yeah
ALI: Y'know, we pull it off and have a big champagne party [laughing] when we come back to Fort Icebreaker, and then sell all the other shit so we can actually buy real good food that lasts for a long time-
AUSTIN: -for a while, uh-huh.
ALI: - and not shitty caviar.
AUSTIN: Right. “The Curtain will frame Millennium Break for the death of the Princept” is abandoned, does any current perspective want to pick this up?
ALI: It would become challenging your final one though, right?
AUSTIN: Yes it would, we would have to- yeah, absolutely. [pause] “Millie is going to look sick as shit” [laughs] Broun?
ALI: Yes. Yeah. uh-huh.
AUSTIN: I think we’ve hit this, it sounds like…
SYLVIA: Hell yeah.
ALI: Yep.
SYLVIA: New record! [Ali giggles]
AUSTIN: New record for looking sick! Turns out there was a sixth contest, [typing] “Looking sick as shit...” [everyone laughs] “...Millie” Just write-in.
KEITH: First time ever we’ve invented a reward on the spot.
AUSTIN: Yeah. “Millennium Break will kidnap the peaceful Princept in a ruse dressed up as a rescue” Um… so yeah, to build on that Janine idea of revealing the jackets, everyone is like “Oh my god, that was Millennium Break the whole time”... elsewhere on the island is when things blow up, right? How- who is it, who do we frame? Can we frame… hm…. 'Cause framing the Curtain is very complicated. Right?
KEITH: Okay, so just think of the Curtain-
AUSTIN: [laughing] Right, exactly.
ALI: Look, I- when you had suggested it, there was an idea that came to my mind immediately, is that that's really easy to do because you can back- you can backframe having Gur as part of Millennium Break as rescuing Gur?
AUSTIN: Right.
ALI: And then… rescuing the Princept is an extension of that.
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: Can we frame one of the major Divines.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: You- hm…
AUSTIN: Uh-huh? What's up?
[Ali laughs]
SYLVIA: No, I've done that, I've- hm. I was gonna say Motion, because my rival, duh… but at the same time I've already had Millie- I mean, this doesn't have to be Millie's decision I guess. I've already had her frame Apostolos for something, and- y'know.
KEITH: Yeah, I was gonna suggest a Kesh Divine, because then it would just add fuel to the war?
AUSTIN: Specifically- what I'm thinking here- it's the Kesh Princept that we’re kidnapping, and so the thing that- it would be interesting, I think, if we framed Kesh- we made it look like Kesh was trying to kill their own Princept.
KEITH: Yeah, right, exactly. That's where I was going too.
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally. The Curtain doesn't work only because the Curtain is so-
ALI: [overlapping] Ohhhhh-
AUSTIN: What's up?
ALI: Uh- Sylvi says in the chat, “Is there another Kesh house we can frame?” Um… and I think that- [laughs]
JACK: Oh! Ohhh!
ALI: [laughing] Yeah, having Clem involved and having her be like “Yeah, House Brightstar!” [Jack laughs] “I got power back and I'm gonna use it in the worst way immediately, 'cause I missed the rush”.
AUSTIN: Clem, what was your idea?
JACK: House Whitestar… oh no, just Ali’s absolutely right [Ali laughs], it's Lucia Whitestar!
AUSTIN: Yeah. It is, it's Lucia Whitestar who was that commander you hated in the Fort Icebreaker arc- who is part- god- the cousin or something to Cynosure Kesh, I believe.
JACK: Yeah, because- look, Austin!
AUSTIN: Yeah, I know!
JACK: Of course Kesh nobles want to take the position of other Kesh nobles! That's pretty much what you do!
AUSTIN: [laughs] That is what you do, yes. Um- let me describe Cynosure Kesh a little bit here. Cynosure Kesh is a… you know, middle aged bureaucrat basically? Cynosure Kesh is like, if you can imagine a conservative… not even think tanker, like someone who is famous for doing- someone who works with the International Monetary Fund a lot, right? That style of deficit-hawk, person who thinks small countries need to do a better job at investing in their local infrastructure so that western companies will come and- or will help you invest in local infrastructure! But to do it, what you have to do is stop keeping our companies from coming here and exploiting all your natural resources.
JANINE: Food will come after Broadband.
AUSTIN: That's exactly right, that's 100% who this motherfucker is. That is like… what his life was before he suddenly became the leader of Kesh? [laughing] You know, technical leader of Kesh, I guess. Um- and so yeah, I think this is Lucia Whitestar- who does not understand- I mean, lucia isn't actually doing it, right? But the people don't understand, Lucia isn't even close to the line of succession. They see this happen and it's like “Yes, of course, there's an internal conflict over who’s in charge”, y'know, “These motherfuckers came from House Whitestar, this is whitestar thinking that he hasn't done enough for them, blah blah blah”... and so- [amused] and also, y'know what the great thing about this is? We know we have the national anthem on deck. [laughing] That's how this season started, with playing their national- the house anthem of Whitestar!
JACK: [laughing] Oh, god… I also like- this is a very Clementine plan, as well? Because who would Clementine choose to frame. Like- Clem’s inability to make internally consistent plans is like- anybody who’s really looking here would be able to go- “Wait a second”.
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah. [Ali laughs] This is also the second time we’ve had a fake fight. Except I guess in this case- is it like- I guess i'll narrate, it is my prediction. I think that it's like- we have mechs dressed up like they're House Whitestar mechs, and they are fighting Crysanth’s mechs… also? Presumably? Who are there to make us look bad? And then we reveal our real mechs and our real shit? I guess?
JACK: Yeah, yeah! I mean-
AUSTIN: We don't even need to be in mechs right? This is the thing, we just show ourselves as Millennium Break. So whoever those mystery mechs are that- whoever the mystery attackers are that Crysanth put into place are clearly not Millennium Break because we just declared ourselves Millennium Break at the height of this event. So it's very clear who we are, and then we manage to, in the chaos- there's a gunfight, y'know, a rolling fight through the stands, the whole thing is a nightmare- y'know, it's, um… Janine, in chat you mentioned that this is the like the very first mission of Twilight Mirage in a sense, right? Everyone here has gathered to watch the sports and suddenly all these things that have secretly been building up in the background immediately blow up. Um…
JACK: Someone receives a donut box, and they open it, and there’s six donuts inside, and they just enjoy donuts while watching sports.
AUSTIN: [amused] Yes, there's no gun in this one. [Jack laughs] And yeah, there- we manage to get away with Cynosure Kesh, middle aged bureaucrat, salt and pepper hair- I think he's probably handsome, but he's a very particular kind of handsome. He's a very like, gaunt- he carries his gauntness well, but there's not a lot of skin on the bone on this dude. And he was supposed to give a big speech, and instead- he probably gave a big speech at the top of the event, he probably gave a big like, “I'm glad we could put aside our troubles to show that we are all still part of one big Principality, we’re all- duh duh duh duh duh- whatever our differences- blah blah blah blah” And now he is in the back of a helicopter with a bag over his head [laughs], being like “where are you taking me?”. So… what did Apparatus become? Did Apparatus become a perspective or a touchstone?
KEITH: I did sure become a perspective!
AUSTIN: Alright! So, are you going to make a prediction?
Keith: I am going to make a prediction. And, uh… I had a couple of ideas along the way, but I think that I landed pretty solidly on that, uh… with our- 'cause we have this- uh- “Our outstanding performance will win us support from the commonfolks of Partizan” and I think that along with that support comes a total misunderstanding of what Millennium Break stands for. Um… I think people don't know what we are? Not only have we not made a clear statement, we’ve made maybe even the opposite standing of what we were intending to make? And so we continue to have these Millennium Break cells pop off, but now some of them are pro-Stel, maybe even specifically pro-Stel Kesh… organizations.
AUSTIN: “Millennium Break cells-” can I suggest something here? What if they are Millennium Break cells in the pocket of the Pact of Necessary Venture?
JACK: Ohhhh, they're fake.
AUSTIN: - specifically they're- it's not that they're fake, which is- it's that the Pact of Necessary Venture sees here an opportunity to… create a less radical, a more reformist, and a more in their pocket version of Millennium Break, mixed in with our own cells, right?
KEITH: Yeah, yeah. Sure, that works for me.
AUSTIN: “Millennium Break cells associated with the Pact… emerge across Partizan” Does anyone want to challenge or overthrow that prediction?
ALI: I… um… I feel like I want to challenge it just because… I think that I want to establish that they're outside of the established Semaphore communications?
AUSTIN: Right.
ALI: I would hope that that would be adapted in such a way that it's like… by invitation?
AUSTIN: Sure.
ALI: And that Si'dra would be on the ball enough on that- we already have one bug, [Austin laughs] I would love not to have seven or whatever.
AUSTIN: Keith?
KEITH: Um- I mean, I accept that but with the caveat that none of the new Millennium Break cells nor any of the public know that that's a distinction.
ALI: Sure. Yeah yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah, sure.
ALI: I just mean internally, we would still have our- [unintelligible]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] “These are not on our- on the real Millennium Break’s internal Strand network” Boom, okay. Uh… alright! That is a crossroads. It is time to do two things- no, it's touchstones time! Touchstones, how do we feel about how this went? Tell us how your character feels about everything that happened, that's how the people of the kingdom feel too. Check or uncheck up to two crisis boxes to reflect your feelings.
SYLVIA: I'm gonna at least uncheck one here, actually? 'Cause we did that- like, we succeeded in that operation, we got the Princept, we- a lot of progress was made there. And I know there's some other shit going on now with that last prediction, but I think on its face people are feeling pretty good.
AUSTIN: Who else is a touchstone now? Sovereign Immunity, right?
ART: Uh, yeah, it's…
AUSTIN: It's just you two, yeah.
ART: Oh, yeah. Huh! Um… i'll second that for the-
AUSTIN: Second as in subtract another one or agree that one should drop?
ART: Agree that one should drop, I don't wanna- it's becoming a little clear that Millie and I have different ideas of what is and isn't a crisis.
AUSTIN: Yeah! [Ali laughs]
ART: But I think that we can get through this just by… y'know, give and take here. Um- [laughs] I do think- you know, the mood is great! We won, we did our thing, we got to do our NWO celebration- I mean, what’s there to be mad about?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Great theme song-
ART: Yeah, it's- it's that like… you know, I don't wanna put too fine of a point- I see the like, everyone is participating on the big party, the lowkey riot, turning cars over in the streets- we don't have cars or streets but y'know.
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah. We have cars- wait, we have cars.
ART: We have cars?
AUSTIN: Sure!
JACK: Yeah, Icebreaker prime is huge!
AUSTIN: Yeah! And we have these land bases now. We have land bases all over the place, we have cars!
ART: Yeah yeah, turn some cars over.
KEITH: They do parades by the big central hallway almost everyday. [Jack and Austin laugh]
ART: Rock some lampposts, y'know? It's good times. And some people probably got hurt- but it's fine, they're gonna be fine, they fell off a lamp post, you brush it off. In a week you're great.
AUSTIN: [laughing] Uh… alright, that is-
ART: Sovereign Immunity hanging from a lamp post- [Austin cackles, cheers]
AUSTIN: Sovereign Immunity saying “Unlike Agholor” [laughs] That's a Philadelphia Eagles joke for all my Philly fans out there. Um… wow.
SYLVIA: [overlapping] “Unlike Cynosure-”
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Dre, thank you, for in the chat saying “I can't believe Art made us all Philly sports fans” Thank you, Dre.
DRE: Uh-huh!
AUSTIN: Being locked in with me.
KEITH: I still don't understand, so I'm glad that Dre got it even before Austin said anything.
AUSTIN: Yeah, it's fine. There is-
ART: [laughing] Are you challenging my prediction?
AUSTIN: No! [dre chuckles] Alright-
ART: Lots of towns do this, this isn't a Philly exclusive.
AUSTIN: [amused] Not a Philly ‘sclusie, no.
SYLVIA: But Philadelphia is the place where they like, vaseline the lamp posts so people-
DRE: [overlapping] They've really refined it and taken it to the next level. [Ali laughs]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] We don't win that much, okay??
KEITH: Why do people climb the thing?
AUSTIN: 'Cause it's fun! You're fucking Apparatus, it's fun to climb shit!
ALI: [overlapping] Yeah!
SYLVIA: [overlapping] It's fun…
KEITH: Okay, I wasn't sure if there was a second- a bigger thing than just fun. It's fine.
AUSTIN: “Bro, I'm up here. What's bigger?” [everyone laughs]
JACK: “I was on the ground, now I'm up here!”
KEITH: You climb trees too? Is it climb anything climbable?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Climb whatever! I'm in a city, I don't see too many trees, but if I see one I'd climb it!
ALI: Yeah, the thought process is like “Oh my god, they won! Oh my god, I won! Oh my god, I'm gonna climb this thing!” [laughs]
SYLVIA: Yeah…
KEITH: I get it. It's just- it's different than, uh- the Massachusetts impulse, which is to- I don't know, break something I think?
JACK: Comes from a similar place, right?
KEITH: Right, sure.
ART: They don't want- those are not designed to be climbed on, they break. [Ali giggles]
AUSTIN: Alright, we’re through that prediction, through that crossroad, and… before we move on to the final crossroad, we do need a law for the manifesto. A seventh law. Do we have any ideas from our current powers, which are- who, Gucci and Clem?
JANINE: I'd like to propose “Be sick as shit”.
AUSTIN: Uhhh! Uh-huh!
JACK: Uhhh, that was a recurring theme during the-
AUSTIN: That was on both sides of the “If yes/if no” [laughs]
JANINE: [laughs] It's important to us to be sick as shit.
AUSTIN: Also, I have to admit, after sleeping on it I am mad that we didn't have some sort of Partizan contest? Some sort of sick spear fight as part of this?
[Ali laughs]
JACK: Ohhhhh… ohhh, that was bad work!
AUSTIN: It's bad work, we all fucked up, we really did. So let's just say retroactively that that was in there too, and there was-
JANINE: Who was there?
AUSTIN: um, who’s good at spears?
ALI: A.O.
AUSTIN: A.O., this is it. A.O. is the spearmaster for sure. Agon, probably…
ALI: Wait, A.O. was in the…
AUSTIN: Providence, so probably not A.O., we don't wanna double book him. [laughs]
JANINE: I was gonna say-
AUSTIN: [overlapping, laughing] We can't have him in a tag team match and then also in the championship match [Ali laughs]
JANINE: I was gonna say doctor Schuyler, but then I realized that the image I had in my head that was amusing me was not of a spear fight, it was more of like a spear based rhythmic gymnastics? [Sylvia cackles] Just like, nailing-
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That's possible! What if it is just like, doing a cool spear kata? Like, doing a spear demonstration- you know what I mean?
JANINE: That rules, that rules.
AUSTIN: That rules! [amused] Doctor Schuyler turns out is sick spearist.
KEITH: Not just an old doctor.
AUSTIN: No! Not just an annoyed country doctor, also check out this dude with a spear! Alright, laws. I mean, is “Be sick as shit” something that you can play with here, or do you want to instead talk about like, kidnapping the Princept, or…?
JANINE: Um…
JACK: [overlapping] I was thinking about-
AUSTIN: … Food stuff? Taking risks? I'm thinking about- the core dilemma there was about whether or not we commit to focusing on raiding this place, or winning the public support and raiding this place? [laughs] Like, what the balance was between those two things?
JACK: Is it something like- is it something that also reflects the fact that kidnapping the princess- the princess? The Princept, we’ve kind of like- [laughs] we’ve kind of dealt a blow to Partizan’s traditional structure? That's close to “Burn thrones, build tables” but it's sort of like… kidnaping Princepts is a really big deal-
AUSTIN: I've heard that from someone on this party. I feel like that's happened before, I don't know. [laughs]
ART: It's kind of overrated, if you ask me. [Jack and Austin laugh]
JACK: More trouble than it's worth?
ART: It's a lot of trouble and very little payoff. [Sylvia laughs]
AUSTIN: Um…
JANINE: There's also maybe something to like… “The only way to change the field is to play on it”? I might still be getting too caught up in the sports theme.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
JACK: Oh, a sports metaphor isn't bad! [laughs]
JANINE: “You gotta pick up the ball to carry it, so you can throw it to the one who kicks it”.
AUSTIN: This is now on the side of like, bad, inspirational hip-hop lyrics [Janine chuckles] Corporate- y'know, event hip-hop. Um…
JACK: Okay, I have two bad suggestions.
AUSTIN: I'm ready for them.
JACK: I'm gonna put them out, we can workshop them.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh!
ART: Great
JACK: Bad suggestion number one: no more Princepts. [laughs]
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: Bad suggestion number two- and this falls in with Janine’s sports metaphor one- we don't have to play by their rules. That one feels like a real Hot Topic shirt of a law- [laughs]
[Ali giggles, Sylvia laughs]
ART: [overlapping] Well, congratulations for vetoing your own-
JANINE: [overlapping] “We can take their ball and go home” [Austin laughs] We can take the ball and go home, and the ball is a Princept.
AUSTIN: And the ball is a Princept, yeah, uh-huh. Um… y'know-.
ALI: I'm not in this, but- [laughing] a thing I keep coming back to is like… “Yadda yadda, and make sure you bloody their noses”?
AUSTIN: Hmmm.
JACK: Ohhhh. By beating them at sports and taking their Princepts.
ALI: Yeah!
AUSTIN: Right. “If you have to play on their field, bloody their noses”.
JACK: Ohhh, that's good. That's good. Um… y'know, I don't hate “If you must play on their field, make sure to-”
AUSTIN: “If you must play their game-”?
JACK: [overlapping] Ali said it better. [laughs]
AUSTIN: How did you say it? Well no, 'cause Ali said “Yadda yadda yadda… [laughing] bloody their noses”.
[Ali laughs]
JACK: [amused] - bloody their noses.
SYLVIA: Yeah, that's what it is.
KEITH: Different parts of it were good in different places. [Ali laughs]
JACK: Splicing them together!
ART: “Yadda yadda yadda, bloody their noses” and then five seconds of Seinfeld music.
AUSTIN: [amused] Yeah, uh huh… [music foley] [Ali and Janine laugh]
JACK: Yeah, “If you must play their game, make sure to bloody their noses”.
JANINE: I like- yeah, I mean, I think I like that in terms of- it feels like a satisfying conclusion to come to after Crysanth like, strongly tried to… not just embarrass us, but also kind of embarrass us? That is kind of the thing- there is definitely presumption that we would think we could compete and we wouldn't be able to?
AUSTIN: Right, right.
JANINE: So the idea of like- one, it's already presumed we can compete. That is not even in question. Two, fuck you. [laughs]
AUSTIN: Uh-huh…
JACK: Uh-huh! It was never about the sports, but it was also about the sports. [Ali chuckles]
AUSTIN: It was also about the sports…
JANINE: About flipping you off in the stands. [Austin laughs]
AUSTIN: Alright, that seems set. So… what's up with the Princept? What do you do to Cynosure Kesh? 'Cause the last time that we saw him was you ushering him onto a helicopter to whisk him away, and I think in that moment he was probably like “Oh thank god, you're getting me away from those radicals” and then, within… [Ali laughs] y'know, five minutes, he's like “Oh no”.
JACK: “The radicals!” [laughs]
AUSTIN: “The radicals are here! In this helicopter” [Art chuckles] Um… what do you do- is he in the brig? What is he- how do you treat this- the leader of half of the principality? Give or take.
JANINE: I don't think we can put him in the brig because, like… we’ve established that we have a lot of people on board who- we have enough people on board who value that authority structure to break Sovereign Immunity out of prison, so why wouldn't they break the Princept out?
AUSTIN: Uh-huh
JANINE: [laughing] And also be super, super pissed. Because it's the Princept.
AUSTIN: So is it a….
KEITH: Hidden?
AUSTIN: Yeah, is it Gur Sevraq-hidden? [Janine laughs] Is it… is it a guest, the way that the original Princept kidnapping was? Like “Oh yeah, we’ve taken this person as a hostage, they will be taken care of, they will be fed safe food, given adequate room, provided protection… but also they are a hostage” Is that the vibe?
JANINE: [overlapping] That would be how I'm leaning, but I'm curious what others think.
JACK: Yeah, I like the idea of “guest” with very heavy inverted commas around it, where it's like… it- your situation here is very clear, in the sense that you're being treated comfortably and you cannot do anything that we don't want?
AUSTIN: Uh-huh. Um… I- go ahead, Ali?
ALI: Oh, um- I was just gonna ask, is there any desire from the Princept to like, walk the floors, or-
AUSTIN: Absolutely not!
ALI: [laughing] Okay! [Jack chuckles] No, yeah, they were just kidnapped, that's fair.
AUSTIN: He is like a… like a baby- [Sylvia cackles] He's like- he has not been-
KEITH: [overlapping] Do you mean he’s like four years old, or you mean he's a scaredy cat?
AUSTIN: He's a little child- no, no, he's a scaredy cat, he's like… he was not prepared for any of the part of this that he was- you know what I mean? Like, he was not raised for this-
JACK: I have a deeply cursed facecast for him?
AUSTIN: Please, what's up? [Sylvia laughs]
JACK: Like, tremendously cursed.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I'm ready.
JACK: Uh- Keir Starmer, the new leader of the Labour Party.
AUSTIN: Oh- sure, absolutely, love it!
JACK: Just google Keir Starmer, [spelling] K-E-I-R Starmer, S-T-A-R-M-E-R.
AUSTIN: [overlapping, laughing] Yeah, this is exactly right. This is exactly right. Like, deeply bureaucratic haircut-
SYLVIA: Ugh…
[Ali sighs]
AUSTIN: Very much built to be the figurehead of a thing that doesn't have an ideology that works for any of the people involved? [laughs] Uh- with the thing itself, except for the ruling class. Um… yeah.
ALI: Big, uh… CEO energy.
AUSTIN: Big CEO energy. I mean, this is the thing, that like- if I open my document that has all the intros for this season in it, I believe- I hope it's in here, let's find out- the things that this dude is famous for, before his… you know, being risen up to the Princept basically, were- let's see… he wrote a collection of verse called “In All Days the Sun Second” that was just the most shitty imperialist poetry you can imagine. He was part of the Kesh-Coronet Trade Dispute of 1390? Which he lost- [laughs, Jack chuckles] but was part of, which is a Kesh and Orion trade dispute- he was the Kesh, uh… representative there. The elect Rye, who now we know as part of Necessary Venture, was the Orion representative, and kicked his ass? Though he describes it in this intro as a “harmonious outcome for the principality at large”? [laughing] So yes, 100% a failed Labour leader, yeah- Labour Party leader. Um… and yeah, he is that exact style of ineffective- and just doesn't have it, right? Was never convinced he had it, because it wasn't- he wasn't indoctrinated from birth to be told that he was Princept material, he was indoctrinated from birth to say that he was better than most people in the principality- but there's a difference between that and being next of the God-head of the state, y'know what I mean?
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: And so I think he's like- he whines a lot? He does not- he doesn't have a speech in him? He's very much like “Well, you will get yours in the end. So there.” and it's like “Uh, bruh, just shut up- just stop it”. Mewling is maybe a thing to describe the way he speaks as. So yeah, I think he’s very content to sit in the room that you put him in, and to read whatever books you read him, and to sip his tea, and to… wait, because he thinks that “Any day now, they're gonna come and rescue me”.
KEITH: But it's not any of the good tea.
AUSTIN: Thank you Keith, yeah. [Ali laughs] As the official Friends at the Table tea master-
DRE: [overlapping] Go off, Keith! [Jack and Austin laugh]
AUSTIN: It's bad tea. I don't know what makes bad tea, but I believe you.
SYLVIA: Just boring, I guess? Probably?
AUSTIN: Sure.
ALI: Bad leaves…
AUSTIN: Bad leaves.
JACK: Tannin.
SYLVIA: [overlapping, unintelligible]
KEITH: [overlapping] Crumbly, broken leaves, black tea, it's overroasted..
AUSTIN: It's overroasted, that's what- that's where I was going, for sure.
ART: All black teas? Jeez…
AUSTIN: Well no, I wasn't saying all black teas, I was saying- yeah.
ALI: The overroasted ones.
AUSTIN: The overroasted ones, yeah.
ART: Got it, I was- this was a collection, not a- this was an inclusive, not an exclusive.
AUSTIN: Yes, not an ex- correct [Ali laughs] Correct, yes.
SYLVIA: Speaking of though, maybe we should get — see if they have any tea to spill on the Pact of Necessary Venture.
ALI: Ohhh, yeah…
ART: [laughs] Great transition.
SYLVIA: [overlapping, laughing] Sorry…
[overlapping, unintelligible]
AUSTIN: No, there's been a thing that I've been trying to figure out how to give to you? For...a while, and it's a simple thing, but he cracks pretty quickly? He's not in the Pact of Necessary Venture-
KEITH: [overlapping] Shocker.
AUSTIN: Um… he is, again, a complete figurehead who is being used by everyone who has ever met him. Which means that he is being used equally between- he is like a ball being passed between the Curtain and the Pact of Necessary Venture, right? He's like- “Please sign this, sir” and it depends on who's around him, is what… generates what he signs, right?
KEITH: He's like a cartoon character, where other people are running past him and it's just making him spin in circles?
AUSTIN: 100%
SYLVIA: [overlapping] He's, uh… alright, no.
AUSTIN: What were you gonna say?
SYLVIA: I was gonna compare him to the mayor in Final Fantasy 7, but that doesn't really work.
AUSTIN: No, that works. The mayor in Final Fantasy- specially the original Final Fantasy 7 mayor, who is just like, in that room- the remake one is a little too…
SYLVIA: That- I was thinking of the original one, but then I was like “everyone is gonna think of the remake, who isn't actually a character”.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No, I'm with you. We’re linked up, Sylvi, you and me. Yeah, yeah.
SYLVIA: [amused] Okay, good.
AUSTIN: The original one is just like… he sold out to Shinra, and happily did so, and is now like super disconnected- once the recognition of having been the one who did all the bad things? [laughs] But he’s just been completely rendered, again- just obsolete, basically.
AUSTIN: [cont] Um… anyway, yeah, that's him. And here he signed a bunch of stuff, and I think maybe one of the things you get out of him is… he lets on that he is like- “The bread shortage was supposed to end all this anyway.” And like “Uh? Uh- excuse you? The what? Okay, what?” And so yeah, I think you get out of him- he doesn't say the word ‘Pact of Necessary Venture’, but when he starts listing the people involved I think he says Rye- which is the elect name of the elect of Space, one of the key Orion members of the Pact of Necessary Venture- um… it was the person who set up the blockade to keep shipments- food shipments from arriving on Partizan. And- y'know, under duress he eventually admits that there are people who were basically building the plague that would ruin a lot of the crop supplies for this cycle, this was a manufactured plague, this was a manufactured food shortage. And also that Columnar was the one who started blaming the Equiaxed for the food shortage and for the disease “jumping from machines to crops”. And like, all of if manufactured, shitty-
KEITH: [overlapping] Was that true? Did it do that, or was that just fake?
AUSTIN: um, I think it was probably true in the sense that the Columnar, the Zenith Fund, built something that would do that? But where it started was wrong, right? Was used so that Columnar could get access to the Equiaxed commune and get public support for when they outed that commune, right? So- y'know, he spills like- a good metaphor for something that spills, what's a good… he spills like milk- that's bad, I don't like that.
KEITH: He cracked like an egg.
AUSTIN: He cracked like an egg, yeah, absolutely. And so…
JACK: Wait, just to double check, the plague was on the Pact side, or the Curtain side?
AUSTIN: The Pact side, the Pact side. 100% the Pact side.
JACK: So, to destabilize the moon.
AUSTIN: Destabilize the moon, and help their part of the revolution, yeah, 100%. And like- he doesn't even understand it, what he’s talking about is built to make him less powerful, right? Like, [laughing] they did that so that they could further their- which, you have more information about the Pact at this point than this dude does, which is wild, since he’s the Princept [Ali giggles].
AUSTIN:[cont] Um… and I think this is important, because… what I'm teeing up here is that as this motherfucker is toiling away on his memoir in some bedroom that you put him in, you get a message from a representative of his rival, the Glorious Princept, Dahlia, the Apokine, leader of Stel Apostolos, who is also the sole elect of the Divine Commitment. You know, with Millennium Break’s big debut behind them, I think that this message comes from someone you know, someone familiar- Cas’alear Rizah, who is the leader of the Swordbreakers, and also is Dahlias adopted sibling. The message does not only come to Clementine’s private terminal, it also comes through a secure back channel that is set up with Sloe Uplight and that large cell in the city of Marengo, and Prophet’s path, and Auspice- that whole area that y'all have some pseudo control over. And in that way it almost is recognition of Millennium Break as a whole? And what they tell you is…
AUSTIN (as Cas’alear): Millennium Break: if you know me by reputation, and you know me to be an honest and fierce defender of my Apokine’s vision for the principality. I have communicated with them, and together we recognize your autonomy and we request your aid in a matter here on Partizan. Though I do not know if our visions for the galaxy align, nor even if you have your sights set so high, I do know this: we share a common sense of justice, and more importantly, we share a foe. It pains me to say this- the Divine Motion, member of the Pact of Necessary Venture, has all but thrown a coup here on Partizan. For the average warrior of Apostolos, little has changed. But beyond closed doors, even the already overzealous commanders of our forces have been pushed even further.
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AUSTIN (as Cas’alear): [cont] Motion’s tendrils have snuck into our naval leadership, into our military academies, even into a deeply regrettable wing of Apostolosian military and genetic research. And now she is beginning a new offensive across Partizan in aims of turning this world into a new base of operations for the Pact of Necessary Venture, and presumably to ends I can not even comprehend. She will begin by conquering cruciat, which is why we must conquer it first. Despite knowing my loyalty is to Dahlia, Motion does not know that I have seen through her schemes, or that I know where her true allegiances lie. Which is why I must make this proposal now, while I still have the advantage of surprise: I aim to leak word of motion’s impending attack to my contacts in Stel Kesh. Kesh then will direct the whole of their might to clash against motion closer to the Apostolosian border, and while both are busy, you- we- can liberate Cruciat, and develop a base of our own. From there, motion, the Pact, the Curtain… Whomever we must rally against, we’ll at least have a safe home to do it from.
AUSTIN (as Cas’alear): [cont] I know that there are many risks in this. I know that you are overextended already- but I believe that together we can build a bulwark of justice. I am no prophet, but I believe that with cruciat under our control we can change the fate of Partizan. I break swords. You break millennium. One has to wonder, what might we break together?
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