Transcriber: Max (@MGold#7272 on Discord) 00:00:00- 02:24:39
00:00:00
(“TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.” starts playing)
AUSTIN: With ease and peace the prophet Gur Sevraq ambles down the endless halls of Kesh’s Winter Palace in Cruciat. Though this is his prison, it is also a library, a repository of information which they are uniquely suited to comb through, but as Sevraq pours over volumes of heterodoxy, as he traces routes across privileged maps with spindled claw, it is his erstwhile congregation which most clearly sees the future. Though they may not have their prophet’s divine perspective, they have instead a view of the world only available from an island at the heart of its central sea. From the top of the bell tower attached to The Church of the Resin Heart, the coming weeks are as evident as the wake left behind the ships that churn across Partizan’s ocean. A week ago The Prophet’s Sea was predictable and placid. Today the Stels prepare for war. Orion freighters writhe in logistical lines hauling raw materials of death, rough metal, unrefined fuel, uncut paper, and unspilled ink. Columnar sea lifts arrive with dashed speed, each with some prototypical weapon and a scientist or two eager to see it used. Nidean airships, once a surprising sight, now land as daily punctuation, trading diplomats for spies and spies for priests. All of that is to say nothing of the north sky which tells its stories in bright flashes of violence, as Kesh and Apostolos’ battle ships lob shells at each other across the curvature of the moon’s horizon. Caught by the terror of that sky the church sends a message to a new ally, The Society of Banners and Bright Returns.
(“TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.” ends)
AUSTIN (cont.): Welcome to Friends at the Table, an actual play podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends. I'm your host Austin Walker. Joining me today: Andrew Lee Swan.
DRE: Hey, you can find me on Twitter @SwanDre3000.
AUSTIN: Janine Hawkins.
JANINE: (With her mouth full) Hey, sorry. Can you come back to me? (Laughing) I just took a huge bite of something.
AUSTIN: (smiling) Uh-huh. Alicia Acampora.
ALI: Um, Hi you can find me @Ali_West on Twitter and you can find the show over @Friends_Table.
AUSTIN: And Janine Hawkins.
JANINE: (laughing) Hey, you can find me @BleatingHeart on Twitter.
00:03:08
AUSTIN: Mm. Before we dig into this downtime episode I do have a couple of quick announcements. The first is that the postcards are out and about. I've seen some photos of people getting them which is exciting. I wanna shout-out Simon Sweetman who did most of the art for this postcard, um, with, uh, also shout outs to Connor Fawcett who did some additional help with the design. Connor is doing the next postcard and then we’re gonna kind of like bounce between Connor and Simon for this whole season of them. Um, uh, for people who don't know, the postcards are a Patreon tier where you receive a kind of a really cool in-world postcard with some microfiction on the back and on the front is some incredible art. You've already seen that the first of these is basically a big collectible trading card of the troop, the kind of default like standard Zaku, mass produced mech, that we've seen a couple of times on the show. It's like a trading card of it, and the back is basically a diary entry from a little columnar girl. Little is probably strong. I think originally she was going to be a little girl now is more of like a young teen. Um, and there will be an ongoing story there. So look forward to that over the coming months. If you missed this first one it is not too late to get the rest of them. I will tell you the rest of them are going to kick ass and you'll be able to put together the bulk of what's happening even if you jump on the train now so again that is Friendsatthetable.Kesh. That is where the patreon is. The second thing is obviously going to be a little sadder. At the time we are releasing this, um, well I'll just break the illusion: I'm recording this well after we recorded the episode and we just kind of sneakily snuck it in to the top. Sneakily snuck. That's how you can tell I'm a writer cause I just use the adjective form of the verb and it's fine.
Um, we, um, the COVID-19 situation right now is obviously a downer for a billion reasons not least of all the direct impact that it’s going to have on people around the world, the direct sickness, illness, death that is happening now and is it going to continue to affect us. My heart goes out obviously to everyone who is listening. I know a lot of us with people who are immunocompromised or who are older or who are just generally being put in harm’s way because they have to go out and work because they're in the healthcare industry, or because they're in what is deemed an essential job, or because governments happen taking the necessary steps. So please now that you're in our thoughts. We're sending you as much love and support as we can. Um, because of that we do have to say that we were planning on doing a live show this year. At this point, because of COVID-19, it seems deeply irresponsible for us to go forward with that plan or even pretend we could even get a venue at this point. We certainly wouldn't want to bring a bunch of people together in the same place anytime soon and our guess is that cancelled events right now are going to be scrambling to get the theater spaces and other live venue spaces that will open up later in the year, if things are wrapped up, if the COVID-19 quarantine stuff has wrapped up by then even. So, we are committed to figuring something out next year. (Laughs) My hope is that we’re able to do maybe two live shows next year. I don't want to commit to anything yet because who knows what any of this looks like in a year.
What I do you want to say, and one thing here is that we've heard, and you know we’re living through it too-- we know how important it is to have distraction right now and to have a little bit of extra comfort and relief. And we also know that a lot of people are kind of tight on money right now, and that like those two things often go head-to-head against each other. You know, on the same day you get laid off Animal Crossing might come out and you’re like, well, shit, the thing I want most is Animal Crossing, but the responsible thing I should do is save my money because of being laid off, or because my hours are reduced, or because who knows what sort of bill Congress is going to pass, or whatever legislative body is in your nation, in terms of relief bills.
So what I'm announcing now is we are making all of season one of Bluff City free, uh, for the future. You can get it by going to our Patreon page, but it would be a little easier to just go to tinyurl.com/freebluff. F R E E B L U F F. I tried to get /bluffcity. That was taken. Don't go to Tinyurl/bluffcity. I think it's just like some trash like site, some like placeholder site. Tinyurl.com/freebluff will take you to the patreon page which will have all of Bluff City season one unlocked for everyone to support-- or everyone to listen to. If you are a $1 backer which is where you get the clapcast, I think it will just automatically go into your RSS feed. I think you need to be at least a $1 backer to get the RSS feed. That's a patreon side thing that's not something we can put the switch on to turn on, unfortunately. And we don't want to drop a year-plus of episodes into your main feed overnight. So the best thing to do is just tinyurl.com/freebluff. F R E E B L U F F. That will get you all of the Bluff City season one episodes.
If you haven't listened to Bluff City, it’s probably close to being one of my favorite things we've done. It’s kind of an anthology season where we do a bunch of one-shots kind of layer over each other to produce a kind of image of this city, called Bluff City, which is kind of a fictional Atlantic City. We've released a few different episodes from that season into the feed. What I'll say is like, even though it starts as one-shots, I promise there is a pretty dramatic conclusion that ties a lot of things together. It’s in some ways it's one of the most ambitious things we’ve done, but also one of the goofiest and most sharp pieces that we've made, all said, that whole season. So I think you'll like it, and I hope it can provide some distraction in troubling times. Alright, I'm going to shut up from the future and very calmly and, check this out, I'm going to throw to the conversation that was already in progress and I'm going to do it in a way that makes you think like, wow, Austin was already talking that whole time. I'm gonna do that by taking like a deep intake of breath. I’ll be like (inhales) uh, so, okay and then it'll go right into it. Ready? Get ready for it. Um, so, are you ready to do another downtime?
00:09:49
DRE: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: Before we started, or really at the end of the last session, we rolled for entanglements. And does someone want to read the entanglement you got? Does anyone have it in front of them?
DRE: Yeah, I can get it.
AUSTIN: Okay.
DRE: Um, letter from home. One of the squad's pilots receives a personal message with bad news. They must use a downtime activity to cut loose or suffer three stress.
AUSTIN: Which is not the worst thing in the world--
DRE Mm-mm.
AUSTIN: Because, because after all y'all probably need to cut loose anyway--
DRE: Yeah!
AUSTIN: Is my guess.
ALI: Yes.
AUSTIN: Does anybody have ideas for what-- who gets a bad letter here? Also wait did we-- we may have skipped one thing, because I know we did payment and stuff because there just wasn't much cause you were working with an independent squad and independent squads don't really pay like that.
JANINE: They pay in magic powers.
AUSTIN: Did you pay in magic powers, which y'all have (laughs). But I don't remember if you did the upkeep bit. I feel like Ali, you were specifically asking about whether or not you have the resource to fix up your shit and I think that all happens-- that particular thing happens before we get to entanglements. I’m just bringing that up because-- I guess in this case it's not going to come up with a cut-- you have to cut me loose or take stress. Um, but there was a chance that if you had rolled a different entanglement things would have gone bad and I would have wanted to give you the opportunity to do upkeep first, you know. Did you wanna do that? Do people want to use their free upkeep action before we do entanglements?
ALI: Yes.
DRE: Probably.
JANINE: Yeah...
AUSTIN: Okay the way that works is one material, you roll it to determine how many quirks to unfill in, to like refresh I guess is the term--
DRE: Okay.
AUSTIN: Which, Thisbe, you have three marked. Valence, you have two marked. Broun, I think you have three marked also, right?
ALI: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: And again it's a good thing you all sold those trips before, because otherwise you would not have the Kesh to do this, so to speak. So I'll mark you down three personnel-- no not personnel, three materiel which leaves you with two materiel. You each get roll one D6 and subtract that.
00:12:12
ALI: I rolled a six? (laughs)
AUSTIN: That'll clear them all out. You're good.
JANINE: I’m two. I’m the only person who got a shitty roll!
AUSTIN: Damn, y'all blowing these sixes. (Dre laughs) Dre also got a six.
DRE: Can I trade Janine? Can I give Janine my six?
AUSTIN: You can-- you cannot. Janine could spend another material for that other to refresh that other quirk.
JANINE: That seems extremely expensive, though.
AUSTIN: That’s a very expensive-- that's a very expensive spend but--
JANINE: No.
AUSTIN: That's true.
JANINE: I think I'll pass on that.
AUSTIN: Okay, you can clear whichever one you want. So, yeah. Yeah, it explicitly says if the result is higher than the number of quirk boxes filled the remainder is wasted. So it goes. (Ali laughs) Alright, so, you know, maybe that's the thing that's happening. Y'all are like doing the quick refreshing. You all are like going through and polishing the mechs and making sure that all the pieces are in the right places, and that you're not like going to get caught you know unprepared and stuff. Making sure your limbs can compact again and folding those roters down again, Dre, when someone gets some bad news from someone. What would this even be? Y'all are such an interesting crew for this particular... thing. It's like Broun are you the only person here who has someone who they would be like--Well I guess I have one that's not-- Hm, I have an idea, but I feel like it's not… it's not “letter from home,” you know what I mean? I guess it doesn't explicitly say it has to be from home. It just says one of the squad's pilots receives a personal message with bad news. They must use a downtime activity to cut loose or suffer three stress. So it doesn't have to be about family or someone you knew it just has to be bad news right?
ALI: Yes.
AUSTIN: How do you all feel about like going on like an island vacation for the episode? (Dre laughs)
ALI: That sounds perfect.
AUSTIN: Or at least for part of it.
ALI: That sounds amazing.
DRE: Yeah, that sounds alright.
AUSTIN: Alright, so I think the letter that shows up is for Valence and it's from one of the people you met from the Isles of Logos when you went to the Church of the Resin Heart, Gur Sevraq’s crew. Um, (laughs) where-- how would you get this message? Would this be hand delivered? I think this would be-- this is one of those things that would show up from like a courier and not like over any sort of-- this doesn’t come into your Palace unit. This is the kind of thing that's a little too important to even risk putting it through a system like that and it's also delivered more quickly than that system could do. In a weird way you can maybe, like, get some certain stuff done by delivering — more quickly by courrier than by digital in this world because of how much lag time all that shit has. And I think it's just like, you know, it's delivered by someone who's been hired by The Scriveners Guild and you probably dealt with this person before a few times and they hand you a letter and it's handwritten and it says…. um... Sevraq is gone. Can you come?
00:15:33
DRE: I'm assuming this courier doesn't know context or anything?
AUSTIN: No, definitely not. I think this is like you tip the courier and they go on their way, you know what I mean? It's signed Avar, who is the head of security for the church that you knew and I think you know there’s... a little bit more like we can offer you, you know, boarding, but we don't know what to do. We need help and advice.
DRE:Yeah I mean Valence would definitely go you know I still have a project to try and build a relationship with them--
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
DRE: So, hundred percent would go.
AUSTIN: Are you bringing-- are you telling people about the situation here?
DRE: Um, yeah because like Broun and Thisbe had agreed earlier to go to sell those mechs to them.
AUSTIN: True.
DRE: So I don't think it would be like I hate you guys have to come with me but if you're interested maybe this is a chance for us to keep you know working with them. Maybe we could sell future stuff to them…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
DRE: Duh-duh-duh-duh.
AUSTIN: So you all hop on the first boat to the Isles of Logos, which I guess we haven't described the actual islands that much yet I think? Is that true? The Isles of Logos-- I guess let me just like set them up again like pseudo-politically. The Isles of Logos are an independent nation an empire that does not have independent nations in it that are not like the Stells. Or I guess the other way you can think about it is there’s a billion independent nations it's just they’re all part of a Stel. They all report up to some house, some noble, some company that it itself-- reports up to the head of the style and so there's a degree to which the Isles of Logos don't that itself reports up to the head of the Stel. And so there's a degree to which the fact that the Isles of Logos don’t report up to anyone other than the princept directly that makes them very unique. And then, you know, aesthetically you have an area that has been allowed to develop without taking too many nods from the other kind of architectural and aesthetic influences that are running through all the other Stels. Or the other way to think about it is they have those sorts of, um-- they have a mix of all those influences because everyone comes through the Isles of Logos, right? And so I think it's, there is like a capital city and I don't remember the name of the city. Let me see if I have it... buh-buh-buh-buh-buh... Oh yeah, of course, it is just called Logos City, it is like the capital city of the set of aisles and it is this, like, interesting mix of religious destination, lots of churches. It's technically the home of Progressive Asterism the big church of like all the different sub-divine cults and churches, so there's a bunch of those, but then also this sort of like, um, tropical agricultural like self-sustaining culture, so there's-- and on top of that it's also a resort. So it's like this three-part blend of things. It's very faith focused, lots of churches. It's very nightlife focused because lots of people visit here and they don't visit here only for religious reasons and then also it's one of the only places that’s like-- it grows enough food to support the locals to live here. It has enough local industry to make the things that people need. It's a lot of handcrafted stuff. It’s a lot of stuff that is just made to be used and it's not so much like they're looking to-- cause they're not involved in the rest of the Galaxy’s shit, they’re not looking to export much. And so I think that’s like--in my mind I'm imagining it as sort of like a almost like a Cuba in terms of aesthetics, very--- or like Havana specifically, like some of the photos I've seen of Havana with some like closely-packed buildings, but kind of so close to some rural areas and it's really nice to be there. Um, have ya’ll-- uh, Thisbe and Broun have you been to this place before? Cause I know we've seen Valence there on screen, but I don't know if you all have been here before.
00:20:29
ALI: I don't think so. Not very long or like.
AUSTIN: Like maybe to catch a different boat?
ALI: Right, Yeah.
AUSTIN: Like the way I've technically been to Chicago or whatever but that's not actually what happened.
ALI: Yeah. I just feels like weirdly out of with a way that like, they wouldn't go there just because Oh, I wanna go check it out.
AUSTIN: Right.
ALI: And because it's not interested in that sort of like export issue.
AUSTIN: It's not an industrial hub in that way.
ALI: Right, right, right. It's also like outside of the five Stels, but not in an interesting enough way to get Broun, you know, a different pathway to somewhere, you know?
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally.
JANINE: It's like a place where you transfer buses and you get a bag of chips and some pop (Austin and Ali laugh) and listen to a podcast in a terminal and then you go to Lions Rest
AUSTIN: Uh-huh, right, exactly! You keep on going. Exactly. Alright. Cool. Thisbe, how about you? Have you ever done-- have there were passed through this place? And what do you think of a place like this? Does it even register as being distinct?
JANINE: I think Thisbe would have only been here if like the crew had come here before. She doesn't like to do a lot of solo stuff.
AUSTIN: Not a lot of tourism?
JANINE: Not too much. And I don't know that it-- I don't know that it registers cause like she’s... she has been similar places but they were probably like in space right?
AUSTIN: Right. Totally.
JANINE: They were probably more like the fuckin’ Titan-y space station, where it's just like, this is a big-- this is a lot of these things, but also there is no Earth-- there's no planet here it's just a floating collaboration...
AUSTIN: Yeah, and even that stuff is mostly multi-Stel more than no-Stel.
JANINE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You know what I mean? Like maybe you find the space station that is basically an Orion/Apostolos space station, that has a degree of unique autonomy in space somewhere but it all basically still rolls up to those Stels. This is a fairly distinctive vibe. So I think you find Avar at the docks. Avar is, for this side who has not actually met this character before, I don't think, is the chief of security for the Friends of Gur Sevraq. They are-- I've face-casted them as Asia Kate Dillon, you know, with a shaved head and in this case probably in like their security gear which is literally just their uniform from when they were a soldier for Kesh except all the Kesh emblems have been ripped off. And are maybe minus the jacket here, so it's almost like you met someone in a military-like dress shirt, but not the heavy coat that we saw them in in the previous episode in the prophet’s path. And they're like,
AUSTIN (as Avar): Valence, nice to see you. Your friends... I didn't know... Nice to meet you all.
ALI (as Broun): Hey.
AUSTIN (as Avar): Hi
JANINE: I don't think Thisbe says anything. I think Thisbe just looks. (Ali snorts)
AUSTIN (as Avar): Okay. We are making dinner if you wanna, uh, have you eaten?
DRE (as Valence): Uh, I could eat.
AUSTIN (as Avar): Okay. That's enough for me.
00:24:10
AUSTIN: And they bring you to this compound, which is where the like, where the people tightest to Gur Sevraq live. It’s attached to this church. I described this church to you before, Valence, when you were here, with like the big resin hard behind at the altar and the kind of just like-- I think you went to a basement cookout vibe, like a pancake dinner type thing (laughs). But in this same compounded there are like residential halls basically, almost like a modern-day comment would be sometimes attached to like a public church. Which basically makes it just look like an apartment building nearby (laughs). But you go there and I think like whatever you're going to get for whatever this cut loose roll is, for you at least, Valence-- and we can talk about if it's multiple people doing this or what, but it's like a family dinner. And it's-- Avar is basically like, before we talk about why I called you here I wanna make sure you--I wanna show you hospitality. And so it is Avar and their partner…. whose name I need to look up, oh! Their partner’s name is Ryrira, or just Ry, who is, uh, uses she/her pronouns and it's like the quartermaster for this crew. You know, she like kind of handles just like all of the supplies and making sure that they all know what they have and that nothing is missing. And the two of them have a little kid who is like a toddler named M’reb, M apostrophe R E B, who is just a little toddler who is like wandering around (laughs) and playing. And they're on like the third floor of this apartment building and you can kind of just like see the big planet that you're orbiting off on the horizon through a big window. And they're making a-- what's a good-- like a white rice and like stir fry dish, and it's just like a big self-serving thing. Like it's a big pile of food in the middle what different fixings that you can add to taste. Um, you're very big, Thisbe (laughs) and like I don't think we've seen you in purely residential spaces before. How does that work with you normally?
JANINE: Um, that's the thing that I’m like not sure about, cause Thisbe I don't think eats food...
AUSTIN: Sure.
JANINE: Like part of my part of my cut loose thing is that it has to reference refueling, um...
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
JANINE: And I don't think refueling is a thing that Thisbe can do in that house.
00:26:55
AUSTIN: Definitely not, but we can have this be as like a rolling thing where that could be part of this night of cutting loose, you know? This doesn't have to be-- you're not all just like I eat dinner and roll to cut loose because the way cut loose works is you actually have to talk about who you're spending that time with and gained a belief with them. So it is not just like: then you have this convers-- then you ate over dinner and you're done. So... so, I think it's fine if you want to say and then later that night I had to be refueling somewhere and Broun and I were hanging out or something, but it's up to you all basically to pitch me inside of this framework of being on this island and like getting a night to relax a little bit before you have to deal with whatever they've called you here for, to tell me what you want to do to cut loose. So if anybody has ideas besides dinner conversation I'm super open to them.
DRE: So part of this since you're cutting loose with another pilot this is how you develop like another belief about them?
AUSTIN: That is exactly right.
DRE: Okay.
AUSTIN: Yes. So I’m now remembering that you all have just not done cut loose yet on this side, right?
JANINE: Mm-hm.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So, when you cut loose… duh-duh-duh-duh-duh… And in fact, Valence, you have to cut loose or else you get stressed because you have a scar, (laughs) um. Let me see here. That was not the case last time because it was the first time after getting the scar, but now that it's been a full mission anyone with a scar has to cut loose. (Reading) When your pilot cuts loose you’ll remove some stress from your stress track. Pick another pilot and describe how the two of you spend time with the pressure you're under. This can only be done as a downtime action because to really dump some anxiety takes a fair bit of time. However you can decide that your pilot skips the next mission so that they can cut loose. Um, and you'll play a different member of the squad for that mission. This might be a new squady. (Not reading) You're probably not doing this. I don't think anyone needs to like straight-up skip to a new character, (Dre laughs) but that's on the table. If you were ever like I can't-- I can't think of the way for my character to get rid of enough stress before this next mission; I'm going to skip this mission and roll up a new character that is totally a thing we could do. (Reading) To see how much stress you relieve, roll dice equal to the number of ticks in your connection clock with the pilot joining you. Heal stress equal to the highest die result then add another tick to the connection clock. The accompanying pilot does not increase their connection as they are often asymmetrical and they also did not add dice to the cut loose roll for participating. (Not reading) Um, buh-buh-buh-buh-buh, y'all don't have any cohorts. You can spend personnel. You don't have any personnel points. Keep on moving. (Laughs.) Uh, yeah, here we go. Eventually the way this goes is like as you do this you gain more ticks in these relationship clocks and when you get to four-- With each tick you write a new belief. When you get to four or when you tick it-- when you cut loose with someone the third time adding that fourth tick, you get to test if one of those beliefs is true or not which gives you XP and a cool scene. But for now it's just like pick who you're cutting loose with. Who are you hanging out with? This night of food and-- You know, Avar basically says you're welcome to just like crash here there are clubs in the city if you wanted to go fishing there's fishing docks if you wanted to go bowling like it's a city it's like if you you could do whatever you want if you want to like hang out next to it the energy pump outside and plug your friend in laughs that's also a way to pass sometime you know?
00:30:29
DRE: Um, I would like to do this as a scene that I think starts with Valence's original belief about Thisbe but then that gets challenged, leading to a second belief.
AUSTIN: What is that?
DRE: So my first belief about Thisbe is, “I'm not sure why Thisbe resists her potential, but I want to open her eyes.
AUSTIN: Mm.
DRE: Um, and I think maybe then the cut loose just starts with them like filing in for dinner and it being uncomfortable for Thisbe to like find space. And so I think like Valence immediately spends a lot of time during dinner or being like, “Well, okay, we can just move these three chairs (Austin laughs) and then you can sit at the table and that'll be fine” and, “Well, I know you don't eat, but like I want to include like you in the conversation.” And so then I guess my question to Thisbe is how does she feel while Valence is trying very hard, maybe even too hard, to make Thisbe feel like included and like quote-unquote normal in this situation?
JANINE: Um, to be honest I think she feels annoyed or as close as she can feel too annoyed because--
DRE: Yeah.
JANINE: To her what's happening here is that Valence is spending a lot of time and energy that is-- on on her that is being taken away from everyone else. Like everyone else is ready to eat. They're just ready to sit down and stuff and they don't-- like she doesn't need to eat. She doesn't even really need the conversation. Like, so, so all this like fussing and delay to her just seems like-- you know she just doesn't-- she doesn't get it--
DRE: Yeah.
JANINE: And she kinda wants it to stop. Like she-- I think that would- That's kind of how I imagine this going, is like eventually she realizes this isn't going to work and then she like goes outside and like opens a window, if there's like a window in (Austin laughs) and then like--
AUSTIN: They’re on the third floor so not--
JANINE: Well, okay.
AUSTIN: Only cause I've said that explicitly earlier! (laughs)
JANINE: Shit, right, right.
AUSTIN: (laughing) That would be very funny though!
JANINE: Yeah, she's tall but she's not that tall.
AUSTIN: There could be a-- Okay what if there's like a balcony that doesn't have a roof over it? You know what I mean?
JANINE: Can you park a car on your balcony? (laughs)
(Dre laughs)
AUSTIN: It's a-- Okay, well, fair.
DRE: Well, yeah but most cars also can’t like walk up stairs.
JANINE: That's true.
AUSTIN: Right. I just want to say briefly that M’reb, the toddler, is like extremely interested in Thisbe, is very much like poin-- Like,
AUSTIN (as M’reb): Sheep. (Janine laughs) Sheep! (Dre laughs) Mama, sheep.
AUSTIN (as Ryrira): Yeah, yes, M’reb. Please…. (laughing) come over here. Sit on Mama's lap.
DRE: So does Thisbe say anything to Valence about this?
JANINE: Um…
DRE: Like that she expressed her annoyance in any way?
JANINE: No... I think…. Ugh, it's so hard to answer like where--
AUSTIN: We can just--
JANINE: Where there would be room for her, cause that’s the thing--
AUSTIN: It doesn't have to-- This conversation can happen after this sequence. Like I want to-- What's important is that you have this conversation not that you find the moment--
JANINE: No, but it matters because so much of Thisbe is not like verbally saying, “Hey, blah blah blah.” It's like doing the thing. It's finding the solution and doing the thing.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm. Right. The thing that I want-- The reason-- the only reason I'm saying what I-- The cut loose scene releases stress from Valence--
JANINE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Which means it can't just be a 20 second encounter during, or sequence, during which they see that Thisbe can't come in. It could be a conversation that happens about that-- or an attempted conversation-- that happens after that in privacy or somewhere else, but it can't just be-- It's not just the development of a new belief for Valence, right?
JANINE: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: It's also-- it is also what the book says, which is: it is the experience of spending time with your pilot to deal with the pressure that you're under. Um, and so that is again the release might not be felt-- Uh, the, sorry, the, it might be, the catalyst might be that you can't do this and Valence notices that you just don't want to be dealt with in this way, but there should then also be a follow-up that we actually zoom in on here.
JANINE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So that we get that moment together and that doesn't-- What I'm saying that doesn't need to happen during dinner happening. If we wanted to snap our fingers and it be 20 minutes after dinner, you know what I mean? That's totally okay.
00:35:05
JANINE: I mean I think the thing that she would say is to just tell them stop and eat. Like just-- just eat. Just sit down and eat.
DRE: Yeah, and I think for Valence that would be like a, “O-oh… okay,” kind of moment where without Valence-- or without Thisbe explicitly saying, “I want you to we used because it's really annoying me that you're bothering me.”
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
DRE: That with Valence being the empath kind of like picking up on that moment of like, oh I've I've overstepped.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: I've done something not okay here. Um... And so then maybe at a different point I think Valence would want to follow up with Thisbe about that. I don't know if that like, you know, after dinner when Thisbe goes out to like plug up to the charger or whatever--
JANINE: It's way more complicated than that, don't worry. (laughs)
AUSTIN: Yeah, I'm very curious what this is going to be.
DRE: Well is-- I mean is that-- would that be an opportunity for Valence to like help with anything?
JANINE: Uh, (laughing) um…
DRE: To actually be helpful and not, like, fussy-helpful?
JANINE: I mean… Maybe, yeah.
AUSTIN: What's that look like? What does the-- what does the much more complicated recharge look like?
JANINE: So my original idea-- Cause I had to like sit down figure like how does Thisbe like charge? And I was thinking of other like things that could work that were like closer to more traditional-- but they didn't feel like “this is fuel” they felt like “this is maintenance.” You know, like--
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
JANINE: There would be some sort of-- cause she's like full of resin and stuff that there would be like a flushing process with like acetone or something. But that's not fuel that's, again, that's like maintenance, um. That's her juice cleanse.
AUSTIN: (laughing) Uh-huh.
(Dre laughs)
JANINE: (laughing) So, so, in terms of actual fuel I was like, well I really like the idea of those old watches that you just shake them to wind them?
AUSTIN: Oh, sure.
JANINE: And they don't need a battery so it’s a watch that can essentially be charged by your own motion.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh, a kinetic watch. Is, I believe, what they're called.
JANINE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE: Or even just those watches that you would wind. Um--
AUSTIN: Sure.
JANINE: But then I was like, well that seems very very simple for a being this complex. So then I looked up, “most powerful battery.” (Laughing) Um, and there was a thing a few years ago called-- A few years ago there was a thing invented called a Xenon difluoride battery, quote unquote “the ultra battery.”
AUSTIN: Okay. Uh-huh?
JANINE: And it's like a crystal. And it's a crystal that is compressed with diamond anvils to change the crystal structure--
AUSTIN: Huh.
JANINE: To store energy. Um, so the thing I was thinking is that Thisbe is powered by something similar to this, like a crystal that is hyper compressed. But the specific thing with this is that it has to be compressed with the energy of like-- or with the like pressure of going halfway to the center of the earth, or something like that. It has to be under an extreme amount of pressure to change its structure
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
JANINE: Um, So I was imagining something sort of like that inside of Thisbe but like the what unquote diamonds anvils, do you like pressing factor is what's agitated by motion--
AUSTIN: How do you compress--
JANINE: But it has to be like--
AUSTIN: Oh, okay.
JANINE: Extreme motion. So--
AUSTIN: Okay. So it’s like you’re generating enough-- How do you do that?
JANINE: Running. Like, I think--
AUSTIN: I need-- This is--
JANINE: It's running, like I think it's specifically a very-- like, a very intense run, like not Naruto running but like-- (Janine and Austin laugh)
AUSTIN: (laughing) No, it's Naruto running, sorry!
JANINE: But I think basically it's like a thing were like her chest--
AUSTIN: (softly, amused) God.
JANINE: Like most of her body is very very very far forward. Like if she stopped moving if she would fall over.
AUSTIN: Right.
JANINE: And it is just like-- it is just like this back and forth--
AUSTIN: So wait, so does this mean--
JANINE: Kind of run probably on a strip of land or something like that that would compress.
AUSTIN: Does this mean that you and Valence go on a run together?
JANINE: Um…
AUSTIN: Like a quiet, oh you know, there's no conversation necessarily, but that's still very much a--
JANINE: The thing that I was thinking Valence might be able to help Thisbe with was making sure no one is like wandering around. Like, just sort of like--
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE: Bailey conceptualizing this as like, oh she could just run back and forth on the beach. And that would be like a nice moment with, you know, maybe the moons over the water or whatever.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
JANINE: And she's running back and forth and the problem with that is like other people are on the beach, and she's going fast, and sand does not have good stopping power and that could like kill a person.
00:40:08
AUSTIN: Sure, yeah, definitely. (Laughs) I need you to know when you were talking about how it's like you need to compress this thing and the only way to do it is to get closer to the center of the earth? I was like, are you just going to jump in the water and sink to the bottom of the ocean? (Ali laughing) What are you doing? I was like-- I worked through this thought where I was like, well they do live at that lighthouse, maybe she just disappears once a week to just dive to the bottom of the sea! Okay!
JANINE: Nooo, well, okay, that's, I think that's the trick is like I don't think Thisbe could survive the pressure that this crystal needs--
AUSTIN: Right, gotcha.
JANINE: To be energize, or whatever.
AUSTIN: Okay, well, I will let that be the both way cut loose if you wanted to be. You can both roll one die to relieve stress. Where are you at on stressed for both of you?
JANINE: I don't roll.
AUSTIN: Oh, you just take-- You just get minus five?
JANINE: Yeah, minus five and then minus scars.
AUSTIN: Can you read the thing for people so that they now?
JANINE: Yeah, um… it is part of my big purpose-built move that has a bunch of different things in it. Uh... (reading) When can you cut loose it must reference you refueling and you don't roll, instead you'll stress equal to five minus the number of scars you have. (Not reading) So I just take five.
AUSTIN: Alright so you go from seven stress to two.
JANINE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Very predictable, but also means you could never get more than five stress cleared. And also as you take scars you will be able to de-stress (amused) less and less, unfortunately.
JANINE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, uh, well then, Valence, go ahead and roll. Did you already roll?
DRE: I have not rolled. So do I-- It's how many ticks we have on our clock?
AUSTIN: You roll-- Yes, which is one right now, so--
DRE: Okay.
AUSTIN: Um, and then Thisbe, you should think of a different-- a second belief for Valance. And likewise Valence for Thisbe. You don't need to do it today necessarily, but it's not a bad idea to have.
DRE: Okay.
AUSTIN: Coming into this, Valence, you had seven also, right?
DRE: Mm-hm, yep.
AUSTIN: So now you have-- you rolled a five. So also down to two. Broun?
ALI: Hi.
AUSTIN: You have any cut loose ideas for this island?
ALI: Ohhh, yeah. I think that-- We're going to be here the whole downtime?
AUSTIN: Eh, As much as you want to be. You have three actions, right?
ALI: Okay
AUSTIN: So if it’s like, well I really wanna save one for when we get back to Oxbridge to do blah-blah-blah, that's totally fine, you know what I mean?
ALI: It’s not, it's not that I want to save it, but I think that Broun is so like annoyed and like stressed out and uncomfortable about being here
AUSTIN: Hmm.
ALI: And they could definitely cut loose while here, but like already being stressed out is bad enough, but the thing of like, we are going on two weird vacations in a row because of weird problems that these people have (Austin laughs) is like enough, and then to like arrive at someone's house?
AUSTIN: Uh-huh!
ALI: Where their family is there, when you like initially thought that it would be like, oh we'll go and there was like a problem, maybe we'll get a job out of it, and this guys like, “Do you want dinner?” (Laughs) It's just like, they're, they're, they're not having a good time. Um,
AUSTIN: Janine has a good question in the chat. Janine, go ahead and read that question.
JANINE: Is Broun good with kids?
ALI: I doubt it! (Austin laughs) I feel like that's such an easy thing for me to say say because I'm like not super good with kids.
JANINE: Kids are hard.
DRE: Mm-hm!
ALI: They're so hard! And I can't even like think of a situation that Broun would like being when they’re like around kids regularly, right?
AUSTIN: Mm-hm. Yeah, definitely not.
ALI: And like, also just like being in someone's house and then like sitting there being like, I could have a house.
AUSTIN: I- Yeah.
ALI This person has a house and a family like what did I do wrong that like I don’t have house--
AUSTIN: O-o-oh, wow!
(Everyone laughing)
AUSTIN: That is exactly the vibe. Like I can smell the room that y'all are in in my head right now. Like this feels like going to your friend’s aunt’s house, is what it should feel like.
ALI: Right.
AUSTIN: Where like, this isn't even your mom, dawg. Like, you don't even you don't even know these people like that! (Ali laughs) Like, they use spices I've never heard of! What is this? Like that's the vibe.
JANINE: There’s like a whole shelf of like little crystal animals and you're like, what the fuck?
AUSTIN: (Laughing) Yes, exactly! Like it's like ve-- in my mind it's the most seventies apartment oh, and they have not (Ali laughs) you know what I mean? Like one of those rugs, like a circular rug that has like five different colors that are like a concentric oval, one inside the other one and it doesn't feel good to stand on, but it's good because it protects the hardwood underneath even though the hardwood isn’t in good shape anymore even. Old couches--
JANINE: Unscented decorative candles with a layer of dust on top--
AUSTIN: Yes, one hundred percent!
JANINE: and perfectly white wicks.
AUSTIN: Yes! Yes. And they're not bad people, they're just busy. These are busy people.
ALI: No, no, no.
AUSTIN: They just got back from the desert. They walked across the desert. (Ali Laughs)
ALI: Yeah. Exactly. But, yeah, Broun is having the literal worst time and then like imagine that plus being there, not with your friends, with your coworkers--
AUSTIN: Do you have friends? (Ali laughs)
00:45:00
JANINE: Oh God!
AUSTIN: Like a real talk, does Broun have friends? That are not like--
ALI: I think so. I feel like Broun is... like (sighs) has like had to establish a network of people for themselves to always be willing to like (Austin huffs)
JANINE: Those aren't necessarily friends.
AUSTIN: No, I love to refer to my friends as a network of people.
JANINE: Speaking of someone who plays the character who developed a network of people, those aren't necessarily friends.
(Everyone laughing)
ALI: But I do like-- I think that Broun can hang, is what I think. I don't think that Broun has close relationships.
JANINE: Are there people who think that Broun is-- are there people that think their relationship with Broun is closer than Broun thinks their relationship is?
ALI: Absolutely.
AUSTIN: (long sigh)
JANINE: Okay.
AUSTIN: God.
DRE: Like Valence is probably one of those people (laughs)
JANINE: Oh yeah, Broun, Brouns my best friend. (Ali laughs.)
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh-huh. Classic Mitch Hedberg joke: I don't have a girlfriend but there is someone who would be really mad if they heard that joke.
(Everyone laughing)
DRE: (Laughing) God.
AUSTIN: Um.
DRE: Oh man.
ALI: Anyway, that's all to say that I think, (laughs) the initial cut loose that I had was, um, Broun just going to Thisbe and being like, can you move some boxes for me? And they end up driving to this like marketplace, um, and I think that, I think it still works in the setting--
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: Of being like, Thisbe like standing outside this apartment building, I guess (laughs), and Broun just being like, “You wanna go somewhere?”
AUSTIN: Thisbe?
JANINE: Uhh, this doesn't-- cut loose because there's three of us it’s all just like a whatever everything? It's not me--
AUSTIN: It's a chain. It's a one-on-one one-on-one type thing.
JANINE: Okay, okay.
ALI: Right, yeah. The player picks a pairing.
AUSTIN: Yes, exactly.
JANINE: I just wanted to make sure I wasn't gonna trap myself into or exerting, or overindulging.
AUSTIN: No, no, no. It only goes one way, normally.
JANINE: Right.
AUSTIN: I let you do the double Valence thing cause that's fine but no, you don't need to, yeah.
JANINE (as Thisbe): Where do you need to go?
ALI (as Broun): Well, I was just gonna get out of here for a little bit, uh... (Janine laughs) Just come on. I'm walking this way. Just come on.
JANINE: I think there's probably a really, like a, the, “I'm just going to get out of here,” doesn't register as like anything to Thisbe (Austin laughs), so it's just like a long stare until, until, until (Austin laughs) Broun--
ALI: Right.
JANINE: Asks her to just go and then yes, yeah, she’ll follow.
ALI: Especially since I think also Broun and Thisbe's interactions are just like, hey here's this task you should do. (laughs)
JANINE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.This is like the first time that is not the case, right?
ALI: Um.
AUSTIN: That we've seen certainly.
ALI: Right. Um, I think this is probably the next morning, um, because with the dinner and then the after-dinner it's like weird to be like, “Oh, I'm just going to leave your house-
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: And then come back after everyone is asleep.”
AUSTIN: Totally.
ALI: Which is like also stressful when you wanna leave someone's house.
AUSTIN: Also they put you in a different apartment, by the way. Like, when it's time for like night time, when it's sleep time, they put you and Valence and Thisbe, if she wants to be in an apartment she can barely fit in? They’re like, “oh yeah, we have an extra unit in this complex,” cause it's their, it's like their commune, right? Um, and so, they just put you in one that's like, you know, barely furnished and has, (Ali laughs) you know, maybe like a poster on the wall. You know what I mean? It's like one of those- it's like not a-- it’s not really an apartment so much as the sketch of an apartment and now you are in it for the trip.
JANINE: I think Thisbe is probably very happy when that happens because the idea of staying in their apartment, or even outside is scary because she's scared of hurting that kid. Very real fear of like, oh that kid could just like be behind me one time.
AUSTIN: Yeah, definitely. (Ali laughs.) So yeah, where do you go?
ALI: Um, just walking for a while, I bet. I think...
JANINE (as Thisbe) Do you want me to carry you?
ALI: Since it's like a- (dissolves into laughter)
AUSTIN: (delighted) Ohh...Ride on Thisbe’s back like a little kid!
JANINE: Thisbe big.
AUSTIN: (laughing) Thisbe--
JANINE: I just, I just like--
AUSTIN: Thisbe is big!
(Dre laughs)
JANINE: I want to you to know that as I said that I just like, smirked and shrugged like, you know, Thisbe big.
AUSTIN: Thisbe big! (laughs)
(Everyone laughing)
ALI: God. No, I think--
AUSTIN: What’s a nice thing you could find on this walk?
ALI: Yeah, I was, I was gonna say, I was gonna synchronize the ideas, um, (laughs) because I think that because it is a bustling city they do end up at like a big fancy, well not fancy on my God, but like a big marketplace with like a different stands--
AUSTIN: Like an open-air- oh, yeah.
ALI: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: Totally.
ALI: Um, and there's just like whatever. There's like people selling interesting sorts of nuts.
AUSTIN: Yes. (Janine laughs)
ALI: There’s people selling different crafts that they've made.
AUSTIN: Totally.
ALI: There's just like a stand of like a bunch of like old posters for movies people have (laughing) never heard of.
00:50:00
AUSTIN: A hundred percent.
ALI: That sort of thing.
AUSTIN: Yes. Does like one, like a card table unfolded with just like 30 different baseball cards and that it (Ali laughs) and each of them are way more expensive then they should be considering that they're not even protected, they're just kind of out in the elements. Someone's walking around playing music. Like it's very- Yes, I know exactly the place. I've been to this place that you're at. Oh! (Ali laughs) Uh, you get to see him! Uh... Let me see, what is... Sorry, uh, you get to see... you get to see them. Apparatus Aperitif is here, for sure, like basically as the last stop in their, in their, uh, kind of, nightly duties. Apparatus Aperitif is the night mayor of Logos City who’s like job it is is basically to make sure that clubs and kind of any sort of sex workers, anything that tends to happen at night, any of the businesses of the night that need like help get help that they need, um, get support, get it like, if someone has gotten like really too drunk in a club, or if someone has gotten into a fight at a store that's open at night, stuff like that this is the person who's like in charge basically overnight. And. They. Look. Like. This. As a reminder. Um, remember that gif that was going around a few weeks ago of a person who is, like, dressed in a suit made of mirrors--
ALI: (quietly and laughing) Oh, fuck you.
AUSTIN: With a skull mask made of mirrors? Uh, this is Apparatus Aperitif. They make sure everything goes okay. Um, and imagine that person who's just struttin’ through this market looking for something, like, gives you all a wave, is like
AUSTIN (as Apparatus Aperitif): Are you find-- are you finding everything okay in this check? Everything going alright?
JANINE: Can I just say is there's never been a NPC character that I wanted to hear Jack play more than the night mayor?
AUSTIN: Oh please! (Ali laughs) I desperately want Jack to--
JANINE: More than anything!
AUSTIN: Jack, I'm sorry Clementine is dead. You are now Apparatus Aperitif, (Janine and Ali laugh) the night mayor of Logos City.
AUSTIN (as Apparatus Aperitif): Are you two finding everything here in the market?
ALI (as Broun): Yeah. Yeah, this is a big place.
AUSTIN (as Apparatus Aperitif): It's the best market on this moon.
ALI (as Broun): Looks like it. Um, my name is Broun. Nice to meet you.
AUSTIN (as Apparatus Aperitif): A perfect name, Broun. And your big friend? Janine laughs)
JANINE (as Thisbe): Thisbe.
JANINE: Actually I don't, well--
AUSTIN (as Apparatus Aperitif): Thisbe--
JANINE: Yeah, I mean,
AUSTIN (as Apparatus Aperitif): Do you--
AUSTIN: No?
JANINE: Well, I almost don't know if Thisbe is how she would identify herself, but it doesn't really matter.
AUSTIN: Wait, what's that mean? No, that matters! What?
JANINE: I think, I think Thisbe is just like the thing that the farmers called her because she called herself, “This Being.”
AUSTIN: Right.
JANINE: So,
AUSTIN: But so she doesn't refer to-- she responds to it--
JANINE: Yeah, cause that's what-- I mean she responds to--
AUSTIN: If someone said, what do people call you?
JANINE: If she feels like people if someone is calling her anything she’ll respond. If she thinks it’s directed at her.
AUSTIN: (quietly) God.
JANINE: I mean, I think at this-- I say it doesn't matter because I feel like it's been long enough and she holds the farmers in such esteem, that it is like a thing of if someone asks for her her name
AUSTIN: Right…
JANINE: they don't want to hear “This Being” or whatever. They want a name.
AUSTIN: Right.
JANINE: So Thisbe is a name, you know?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Um.
AUSTIN (as Apparatus Aperitif): Well, Broun and Thisbe oh, I have a special discount for you.
AUSTIN: And two-- Let me just explain. This person's like a walking disco ball, like made up of dozens of little mirrors and like projecting the sort of reflected lights that a walking disco ball would. And two of them the like metal mirror plates on the on their like the breasts of their suit open up and little like card coupons come out and they grab one in each hand and lay them out to you like, to both of you, and it's like 15% off one purchase in the market. And they’re like,
AUSTIN (as Apparatus Aperitif): These are my last coupons for the night. This is all I got on me. I wish I could offer you more. But I have to see that every guest leaves Logos City happier than they arrived. So please avail yourself to everything we have on offer. Enjoy your time here, and if you stay for another night and you have any questions you'll be able to find me. I'll be wherever it's brightest. (Ali laughs)
AUSTIN: And does a little bow and goes on their way.
ALI: (laughing) God.
JANINE (as Thisbe): I think if that line about wanting everyone to have a great time was true they would carry more coupons. (Ali laughs)
AUSTIN: It's-- D-- ugh.
ALI: I think it's perfect because I-- I do-- I had imagined this as Broun going out, like, when the sun rises.
00:55:03
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally. That's exactly the vibe.
ALI: Like I'm trying to sleep in this shitty bed.
AUSTIN: (laughing) Uh-huh.
ALI: I can't do it. It is socially acceptable for me to get up now--
AUSTIN: (laughing) Yes!
ALI: So I'm going to.
AUSTIN: God. Right, cause also, we haven't talked about time zones, but it is definitely a different time zone. It is three, it is you know the equivalent of going from New York to California and being like, I'm the only one up! This fucking sucks! (Ali and Janine laugh) I'm the only one up in this house. I'm wide awake and everyone else-- I can't even move! Or else I'm going to make noise and they're going to say I got them up early. They're not going to say it because they're polite, but I know! (Ali laughs) (Austin huffs)
ALI: Anyway, the last two night coupons,
AUSTIN: (laughing) Yes.
ALI: And all of these stands opening up around them is perfect. (laughs)
JANINE: I think Thisbe hands hers to Broun and just says, “Thirty percent.” (Austin and Ali laugh)
AUSTIN: (laughing) I don't think that's how coupons work!
JANINE: She's never had to use a coupon! (Ali laughs)
AUSTIN: True.
ALI: No, Broun is very carefully looking to see if there's any fine print on these coupons and I think that it probably says one per transaction or whatever.
AUSTIN: (laughing) It probably does.
JANINE: That’s still two transactions!
AUSTIN: That's two transactions, yeah. That is a plus. (Sighing) God. (Ali laughs)
JANINE: Just go to that booth that's selling the old timey rock candy and peanut brittle and snacking beans and just get some. (Austin and Ali laugh)
ALI: Um, I think that Broun ends up finding a stand that has a bunch of different like... it's like that weird bop-it that they were playing in the first episode?
AUSTIN: Mm.
ALI: But it's like (laughs) and I bet it's not even like from the manufacturer, I bet it's like from a community of people who really liked this type of toy--
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
ALI: And like made their own like challenge cartridges. (laughs)
AUSTIN: God, I love this.
JANINE: Crowd-source your bop-it.
ALI: So you can like-- right, yeah. (Dre laughs) So you can like switch it out and it gives you like different sorts of puzzles, um, like different time ones where like, oh--
JANINE: Bop-it but also HitClips. That's a good-- (Ali laughs)
AUSTIN: Ahh, bop-It but DropMix.
JANINE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Where you can combine-- you can decide what each of the bop-it bops, what like sound library each one is pulling from.
JANINE: Bop-it playlists. (laughs)
AUSTIN: I love it.
ALI: Yeah. Oh my God.
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh-huh.
DRE: It's just that one vine on repeat.
AUSTIN: Haha, the beginning of the ne-- (laughs) At the beginning of the next season of Friends at the Table I'm gonna release my bop-it playlist, kinda get everyone in the mood.
ALI: Oooo, yes, thank you! (laughs)
AUSTIN: You’re welcome.
ALI: Um, anyway, I think the way that this like strengthens, um, Thisbe and Broun’s relationship though is that Broun ends up giving coupon back to Thisbe and is like,
ALI (as Broun): Did you see anything you liked? (Austin huffs very quietly in amusement)
JANINE: Uh… I know what the boring answer is here, (Ali laughs) but I also know what the fun answer is and I'm actively gonna choose the fun answer. She points to a sarong, like a wraparound like tropical print (Dre laughs) beach skirt.
DRE: Oooo!
JANINE: Probably fairly short on her. It would probably be like knee length on a person, but it's like a little--
AUSTIN: Right.
JANINE: You know, it's like a wrap around mini--
AUSTIN It's like a sash on her, basically. (laughs)
JANINE: Um, (keyboard clacking) no, it probably be like a--
(At the same time)
AUSTIN: Bigger than a sash though.
ALI: Does she wear it around her wrist like a bracelet?
JANINE: No, no, no. It be like-- I mean a wraparound.
(Everybody laughs)
JANINE: I have a sarong like this like wraps around like four times (Austin laughs) so I feel like Thisbe could– (laughs)
AUSTIN: (Laughing) I'm sorry. Dre in the chat. (Ali laughs) Go ahead, Dre.
DRE: Yeah, it's the-- that's the summer SSR Thisbe.
JANINE: Uh huh?
AUSTIN: Uh huh? She’s the Super Rare…
JANINE: It's like a picture of her playing beach volleyball in it.
AUSTIN: Uh huh. Yes, you only get the actual picture of her playing beach volleyball if you get three of them and you feed the second and third one to the first one. I can't wait for the Partizan Gacha Game. We're going to get there one day.
ALI: Mm-hm, we are.
AUSTIN: God.
ALI: We are.
AUSTIN: God. So wait, do you get it, do you get the sarong? Also do you have one in mind? Do you have a picture that's on route?
JANINE: Um... there's not like a lot of good-- I mean, there's a lot of pictures but none of them are like really exciting, so I'm just going to post a picture of one that is vaguely evocative. (clicking) (Ali laughs) From rowd dot (starts laughing) J one dot wang? What? (Dre laughs)
AUSTIN: Great.
JANINE: (laughing) What is this website?
AUSTIN: The internet be like that. Okay, sure!
JANINE: It has like elephants on it which is actually kind of fun in the context of Thisbe.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
ALI: Yeah, yeah, um.
JANINE: It's like blue and white and red and black.
AUSTIN: That's pretty. (Ali laughs)
(At the same time)
AUSTIN: Uh-
ALI: I think-
AUSTIN: Oh.
ALI: Go ahead.
AUSTIN: No, you go ahead. Let's stay on this for a few seconds.
ALI: Okay, yeah, I think when Broun points-- I mean Thisbe points Broun is like,
ALI (as Broun): (surprised) Yeah? Fabric? (Janine and Austin laugh)
00:59:58
JANINE (as Thisbe): No?
JANINE: Like I-- Like very specifically like, (Dre laughs) is that a no? Like Thisbe doesn't know what to do with that its like,
JANINE (as Thisbe): It is fabric, yes. Is that bad?
ALI (as Broun): No-no-no-no, well, I’m just like, you know. It looks nice... What are you going to do with it?
JANINE (as Thisbe): Wear it.
ALI (as Broun): Oooooh. (Dre snorts quietly)
JANINE (as Thisbe): Should I not?
ALI (as Broun): Yeah, yeah, that works.
JANINE (as Thisbe): (uncertain) Okay.
AUSTIN: I just want to remember, real quick, Broun: wearing sweatpants. (Austin and Ali laugh) Wearing video game sweatpants.
ALI: (groans) I think Broun makes an attempt though of being like,
ALI (as Broun): Yeah that would really-- the silver on your chassis, yeah, that would look great.
JANINE: I don't know if Thisbe believes that — what they're saying. (Ali laughs) I don't know that Thisbe reads honesty in that, but— (laughs)
AUSTIN: God. Um, do you get it? You should each buy one thing and it sounds like this is the thing Thisbe is buying.
JANINE: It’s an island beach episode, I gotta– I have to buy…
AUSTIN: Yeah, please. I'm with you. Yes.
JANINE: …something funny and like, cute.
AUSTIN: Yes. Agreed. Agreed.
JANINE: And it's like this or like some kind of fun necklace and this is way better.
AUSTIN: This is way better. I need to know, Broun, what is your purchase here?
ALI: Um, I think Broun—
AUSTIN: Oh, is it the Bop-it thing? It's the Bop-It stuff.
ALI: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: Yes.
ALI: They got a couple of those.
AUSTIN: Good, I like this. This was a good shopping trip.(Ali laughs) Broun, you should roll your one D6.
ALI: Oh, yes.
AUSTIN: The thing I was going to note before but I didn't want to cut anybody off is, everyone should click through on that gif of the disco--
ALI (whispers): Jesus Christ.
AUSTIN: You only got three. You only got a three. That leaves you with how much stress still?
ALI: It's fine. I have like four left.
AUSTIN: You have four left. Yikes. You could do another Cut Loose this downtime and risk over-indulging. (laughs) We'll see. We'll see how you feel. If everyone clicks-- clicks through on the gif of the person in the suit, the skeleton disco suit. It's an IMGUR page and just so people can look it up it's called trippy it was posted by TheEy3ofRa but eye spelled with a three instead of the second e. There is a volume slider that you should definitely turn up.
DRE: Oh.
ALI: Ohhh.
AUSTIN: Because it's definitely not what you might necessarily think or hope it is but it's an important reminder to what being around this person would actually be like. Which is just (laughing) it sounds like a bunch of mirrors clacking against each other. (Ali laughs) (Dre laughs)
DRE: Yeah.
ALI: (Laughing) I’m so happy about it. I love it.
AUSTIN: Just constantly. It sounds great. I love it. It's very good.
ALI: It’s so good. I want to be around this person forever. (laughs)
AUSTIN: (Laughing) Damn! God. All right so you all have cut loose. While they're out, Valence, while they're out shopping I think over a much calmer, like, oatmeal breakfast-- How do you eat, also? Is there a mouth hole on your-- on your fox mouth?
DRE: Yeah! I open my mouth, and I put food in it, and I chew.
AUSTIN: Okay, okay, I still don't understand how your mask works in my-- I think I understand how it looks, but I don't know if there was a mouth hole. That's all. Okay. The, uh-- Over a much calmer breakfast I think it's just you and Avar they lay out what's up. And they say. Uh,
AUSTIN (as Avar): I hope everyone settled in and had a good night. Um, look, (sighs) we were doing the-- the pilgrimage. We were walking the pilgrimage. We were moving down the Prophet's Path a few days in and we were attacked. And, you know, the troops that you had helped. The troops that you sold us helped and definitely kept a lot of people alive, so thank you for that, obviously. There was... some messiness and a group of people.. a group of people who I think are from Kesh? Maybe? Convinced Gur that they should go with them. That it would be safer. Because another attack could come. And... now Kesh is gearing up for this advance and it hasn't broken wide yet but... they're saying that Apostolos has Gur Sevraq. But I-- I'm pretty sure those people were from Kesh! They made a big deal about not being discovered! About how-- that don't let anyone know we’re from Kesh. But maybe that was like a double-- you know what I'm saying? (Dre hums) So like, is he kidnapped? I don't know. We have no way of getting in contact. People want to know where they went, and we’re keeping people as calm as possible... but-- but we're worried… and there's all this noise about war and… (sighs)
01:05:44
DRE: Austin, I have a mechanical question.
AUSTIN: Sure.
DRE: Do you think Gur Sevraq and I have a-- what you would call a revealing interaction between us?
AUSTIN: (long breath out) You know, there's two answers here and it's up to you to decide what you think, cause one was that you've been here before right?
DRE: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: And you saw-- you came to a-- you know what, I'm just gonna say yes. I think... I think it depends on how-- if you think about “revealing” as one way or both ways, right?
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Because I think seeing someone like Gur Sevraq deliver a sermon with the sort of authenticity and genuine access to what they feel is probably definitely at least gives you that one way direction.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: The question for me is whether or not you need the both ways on that? And if so, the the follow-up I have is you could always flashback and have some other sort of interaction first. But I think it might be enough. Why do you say that? Is it because you have a move?
DRE: Yes, um.
AUSTIN: This is a new move, right?
DRE: So yes, I have not used this move yet. I have the move “telepathy.” I can communicate directly to a person's mind as though speaking normally if I previously had a revealing interaction with them.
AUSTIN: That's-- that's a powerful move.
DRE: Mm-hm
AUSTIN: How does that work? Do you know how that works? Have you done it before?
DRE: No. I think this is—
AUSTIN: So you think--
DRE: —a new thing—
AUSTIN: Yeah.
DRE: —for Valence.
AUSTIN: Okay.
DRE: I do think-- I do like the way that you framed revealing for this move because I think-- and I think that's how I'd like it to be for Valence going forward (Austin hums) because I think I would much rather “revealing” be like, I've seen a strong and powerful part of like what drives you as a person.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
DRE: And not “revealing” like, as in I know your dirty secret.
AUSTIN: Yeah yeah yeah, definitely. I think it's about it's like seeing someone in their most enthusiastic open self—
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: —more than about like-- I mean someone's dirty secret can be when they're at their most enthusiastic and open self—
DRE: Sure.
AUSTIN: —but that's more about society than their own sense of self or whatever. The fact that it would be a secret in that case.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: But I think this is a case where the-- it's not like you know Gur Sevraq’s secret story that gives you access. It’s specifically that you've seen them do the thing that he does, you know? What-- what does this feel like? To have this sort of communication?
DRE: So I think part of why this is new for Valence is it part of this is tied up in that haunted scar.
AUSTIN: Mmmm! Mm-hm.
DRE: Um, and I'm trying to remember the ways in which you did kind of described you know basically when Valence initially got that scar and they were basically
AUSTIN: Well
DRE: flooded with
AUSTIN: Yeah
DRE: like imagery and sensory things
AUSTIN: Yeah, sound and visions and motion and a feeling and like proprioceptive like the feeling of movement even. You know like that feeling you get when you feel like you're falling like sometimes when you're going to sleep and you like that jolt? It's like that, you know? Sometimes, but it's also-- it was also seeing a visualization of the people that had been-- whose stories had been written about inside of the Divine Past, you know? And some of them coming to life, like the way that we saw kind of ghosts in the forest, even, via perennial wave, Stuff like that. So yeah, it's this like-- is this something that then just kind of triggers because Valence is thinking very--- like... has like a very active thought about Gur Sevraq? Do you know what I mean? Like
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Is this just like you're thinking really intensely and then like, oh shit this is happening?
DRE: I think this is probably the first time where they are doing it in that way where they are trying to do it intentionally and actively and intensely.
AUSTIN: And reaching out. Give me--
DRE: I think that experience of being haunted like
AUSTIN: Yeah
DRE: Opened an awareness for them of this part of them that has led to them developing telepathy.
01:10:00
AUSTIN: mm-hm. Yeah.
DRE: But it has taken a while for Valence to like accept that part of them in to feel okay about trying to probe into it.
AUSTIN: I think this is going to be something like a gather information roll. It’s a fortune roll because there's a degree of distance here. You've never really done it before and it is not like-- you know, if Gur Sevraq was in this room, I think that's one thing, you do you know what I mean?
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: But--but given this I think this is some sort of role. What do you think this is?
DRE: I mean could this be a... like gather information using farsight?
AUSTIN: Well how’s farsight work? That's survey, right?
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah totally absolutely. That is what you do.
DRE: Okay.
AUSTIN: Yes absolutely. Yeah, go ahead and do that. So that's a three D6. This is not a downtime action. This is not you using one of your three downtime actions which we all still need to take but...
DRE: Five.
AUSTIN: Five! So that's like medium something basically. I think-- tell me how this looks in your mind before I suggest anything if you have, like, a strong image. Because I have a particular cr-- are you still using the book to do this?
DRE: No, I don't think so. I think this is different.
AUSTIN: Okay. Then I think there is a fun little thing here which is like
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: you look down at like you're-- You're, you know, sitting up straight and kind of look down to focus your mental energy and you can feel yourself moving from bit of the Perennial Wave to bit of the Perennial Wave. right? Like molecule to molecule, you know? Tiny nanomachine to nanomachine. You can feel the breadth of The Prophet's sea as your focus travels across its waves and when you open your eyes and you're looking down at the table, you are looking at a book. But you're looking at a different book than your religious text. You're looking at a book that Gur Sevraq has open because currently Gur Sevraq is walking around in a library in Cruciat, the kind of Kesh capital on Partizan, and they have books open all around them on this library table in this palace library and all of the books are actually-- it's a mix of religious texts, historical texts, you know, books about divines, books about-- uh, what's the word I'm looking for not heretical but.... Buh-duh-duh-duh… What's the-- why am I blinking on this other word?
DRE: Apocryphal?
AUSTIN: Uh. apocra-- there's another word. That’s closer. We're getting there. Um..
JANINE: Apostate?
AUSTIN: Not apostate. Like heterodox? But there is a better word than heterodox… um, for like the sorts of heretical Christian churches of the Middle Ages.
DRE: Hmmm.
AUSTIN: There are books of like what we think of as like Gnostic sects of... Asterism like things that have been-- that are really built around the idea of there being kind of like secretive of mysteries that have been kind of pushed aside or quieted. Like basically, Kesh is the one place in all of the kind of principality that keeps records of the things that would be considered heretical everywhere else. And, in fact, frames them in this much more academic sense, where instead of being like, oh this is-- this is apocryphal and just wrong, or this is straight-up a sin or a crime, they present them in this much more like, oh maybe this maybe this had an access to a certain degree of information or a different understanding of something than what was-- what we know now to be the truth, but we're going to keep these books for XYZ reason. Now, we're going to keep them under lock and key, we're going to put them where only people with certain approval are allowed to see them, but it turns out that the Winter Palace of the princept is one such place that keeps forbidden books around. Because when you're the princept you can do whatever the fuck you want. And so-- and so yeah. You're kind of like cohabitating a space, in a sense, you're sort of seeing Sevraq vision and I think you like look up and then it's as if they are now on the other side of the table looking straight at you. And you can ask a question. For a five, for sure.
DRE: Oh... I think the main question is like, are you okay? Are you being held here against your will?
01:15:00
AUSTIN: Um, he says,
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): I am studying, Wolf. I am under lock and key but... I do not feel under threat. In fact, I have come under the protection of a group called the Rapid Evening and you, you're with my followers? Yes?
DRE (as Valence): They’re very worried.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): (sighs) I see.
DRE (as Valence): I'm a little worried.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): It is right to worry. Generally. What comes next is not guaranteed.
DRE (as Valence): Do I need to come get you?
AUSTIN: I think... God. (Sighs) I'm trying to think about what he would be allowed to know and whether that would be-- I think at this point. (Sighs) There's like a really interesting timing here that I'm trying to work through, um.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): No. I have more reading to do yet. Attend to my people. And let them know the day comes soon. That I am in the wilderness but that I will return the bounty.
DRE (as Valence): Okay. I will check in with you again soon.
AUSTIN: And he nods. I also thought I said that. It also sounded like I said that, Janine.
JANINE: It really did. It sounded like I said woof.
AUSTIN: It did sound like I said “woof” instead of “wolf,” I know. (Laughs) Alright, so,
DRE: I do like the idea of that being-- of you know as you described like traveling across like an actual geography,
AUSTIN: Yeah.
DRE: Cause I think that also opens it up to being a very tumultuous and an unpleasant experience if it goes poorly.
AUSTIN: Yeah, if you roll bad, if the wave is high, etcetera, you know?
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So each of you still has, uh... I guess you don't still have three cause you each cut loose, right? That was part of the thing with the entanglement is it requires you to spend one that way. (Janine hums) But you each have two more downtime actions. Do you all know what you want to do? Also wait, real quick, Valence, do you basically just communicate that to Avar?
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay. They are happy to hear this, but also worried and they-- I think they straight up tell you like,
AUSTIN (as Avar): My job is to know when Gur Sevraq is in danger, even when he thinks he's safe. So, just know that you might hear from me before you hear from them. Especially if things turn out the way that I worry they will. So, just know... there might be another message. (Sighs) Especially if things turn out the way I worry they will.
DRE (as Valence): Please keep me informed.
AUSTIN: And they nod. Alright. Two more things for your downtime. Does anybody know what they want to do next?
DRE: What does it take,
AUSTIN: As a reminder these are-- Go ahead.
DRE: To repair my ship? Or my vehicle?
AUSTIN: Good question. Let's see. Where are you at right now in terms of damage? Okay, you have two level one things in terms of damage right?
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay, so, is that true for everybody?
JANINE: I-- so I remember writing mind down but it's not on my sheet. I think I have a level two but--
AUSTIN: Okay, so that was--
JANINE: I don't know.
AUSTIN: You did. You did. I just didn't-- So here's a thing that happened is it was the same one as was written on a Clementine thing and Jack while playing also did that with Keith, so I thought that they may have done it with you and it was the same word so I cleared it but it was lacerated.
JANINE: Okay.
AUSTIN: It was a level two lacerated but I don't remember-- I couldn't recall if that was true for Mo?
JANINE: Yeah
AUSTIN: That was?
JANINE: Yeah, he has like a big slash on his chest.
AUSTIN: Got you. Okay cool okay. Good to know that that was real. So... the way that this works is there is a move called uhhh tuh-t-t-t... It's not recover. It is “fix”: use technical skill to repair a vehicle with damage. When you use technological know-how and materials to fix a vehicle roll-- to fix a vehicle, roll engineer, (laughing at the way he said it the first time) to fix a vehicle-roll... you roll engineer. If you lack a workshop squad upgrade it costs two stress to repair your vehicle as you lack the proper equipment to do proper repairs. I think y’all have a workshop at home, right? I'm pretty sure that was one of the first things you got.
JANINE: Yeah, right? Yeah.
AUSTIN: So you don't take any stress to do this.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: One hundred percent. So you don't take any stress for that. When duh-d-d-d. So you see on your sheets next to your damage there's like a repair clock?
01:20:09
DRE: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: I almost said to the east. To the right of that damage chart there is a repair clock. You basically roll engineer, or you have someone on the team roll engineer, but it doesn't necessarily take-- it doesn't take their things. It's still going to take your things.
DRE: Okay.
AUSTIN: You're like-- you're not going to put all this on Broun and take all of their downtime actions. The result-- and this is a thing we're going to use-- we're going to specifically use rules that are a little bit more forgiving for you all, but by default it would be that you fill that clock, and then when you feel the clock you get to mend some of that damage. Um, level one-- the way this is going to work is for level one damage... “When a pilot performs a downtime activity fix they remove all level one damage from their vehicle even if they do not fill the repair clock.” Otherwise, you have to fill the clock and when you fill the clock you reduce things by a level, basically. Which makes Mo really a bigger fix in this way, unfortunately, cause Mo has level two damage, right? (Dre hums) But Valence, yours is probably just gonna take-- you just need to take a single fix action.
DRE: Okay.
AUSTIN: Do y’all want to do that right now?
DRE: I know that's one of the things that I was going to use my --one of my downtimes for.
AUSTIN: Okay. Fictionally before we leave this island is there anything anyone wants to do on this island before before y'all bounce?
ALI: Oh, uh... I guess not.
AUSTIN: Okay, you don't want to. I knew you were thinking about selling those those pieces but I don't know if you want to do that here or somewhere else?
ALI: Oh, I was going to salvage them and yeah that was also a question I had cause I don't know that I would have liked brought them all the way with me?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: Um, but,
AUSTIN: It's pretty funny to think of you at that marketplace also just like selling pieces from recovered columnar mechs. (Ali laughs) But it's up to you.
ALI: The thing that I was thinking of was Broun like just like grouchily being like on the boat that they came in on with the fucking-- like the giant mech arm that they brought with them.
AUSTIN: (laughing) That's very funny.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: Breaking it down for parts instead of like hanging out
AUSTIN: Breaking it down for pieces
ALI: with people, yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah, that's kind of nice. So you just get some boat drinks and going you have some music going, you got a wrench, you know? (Ali laughs) Let's do that first because you're going to need-- you might-- that material might come in handy while repairing stuff so
ALI: Oh, sure.
AUSTIN: Let's start with that. Broun, when you take apart a vehicle, a damaged vehicle, for its valuables roll engineer and gain supply equal to the result. So. Go ahead and give me your engineer. You're gonna roll engineer a bunch it sounds like?
ALI: Yeah and the positions don't matter for this?
AUSTIN: Nah. It's just two D6 cause that’s what your engineer is.
ALI: Okay, I’m just
AUSTIN: Unless you have another thing? But I don't think you do.
ALI: No, I'm just going through the-- Oh, that didn't work.
AUSTIN: Wooh. That’s a one and a three. That’s a three.
ALI: Wooh.
AUSTIN: So you get one supply point for those things, unfortunately. (Ali sighs) Uh-huh. Listen.
ALI: (sighing) God.
AUSTIN: The dice be like that sometimes. (Ali laughs.) You just cut it up too bad.You know what I mean? It's like maybe a combination of that plus just the way that it's designed plus remember that they’re--
ALI: Yeah I--
AUSTIN: they’re Columnar designed mechs. Maybe they're not things that you--
ALI: Yeah yeah yeah, I think that-- it was one leg and it was one arm, and the arm was like a flamethrower,
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: and I think Broun had this like very careful like, like torched knife and they're cutting through this flamethrower because they're like, sick! I'm going to be able to make a flamethrower! I'm going to make so many things with that throw flame (Austin laughs) and they're like cutting through it and then there's like the pop sound (Austin groans) and they have to like get rid of the whole thing cause like all of that like stupid flamethrower juice is like all over the inside of it now and it's just like, I can't do anything with any of this now!
AUSTIN: (laughing) It's all going to light on fire. It's going to ruin everything.
ALI: Pretty much. Yeah.
AUSTIN: God.
ALI: So.
AUSTIN: But then you cut apart the leg and get some stuff from that, okay.
ALI: Yeah, and it's just the one material, enough to fix something.
AUSTIN: (laughing) Something, yeah, enough to roll one upkeep down the road. (Ali laughs) Okay. Great. Thanks. Alright, I'll add that one back to your material chart. Boom. Um. (Ali hums) Jesus Christ. What's next? What is-- what is next?
ALI: Oh, do you want me to roll for Dre's assist or Dre's fixing?
AUSTIN: Recover? I think it's both Valence and Thisbe?
JANINE: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: I'm guessing, Thisbe, you’re also doing it, right?
JANINE: Yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay, so with Valance’s you don't even need a role because it's just-- we're using the alternative better recovery rules, so. But Valence you're doing that once and it's just like-- you're able to clear those off cause they're both level one. But for Thisbe, go ahead. Yeah, Broun, roll engineer you can get help on this. Ooo! Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait! You might be able to get that flamethrower! (Ali laughs.) I just remembered an important rule. It's an important rule that we've skipped. So--
01:25:00
JANINE: The important rule is: if Ali ever rolls for a flamethrower, Ali gets a flamethrower. (Austin laughs)
ALI: (pleased) Yes. Thank you.
AUSTIN: We'll see.
JANINE: We hacked it in.
AUSTIN: If a pl-- (Laughing) We hacked it in, exactly! It’s a house rule. “If a pilot or cohort assists with a downtime activity, except for cut-loose, describe how they help and take one D-- take plus one D. This costs no stress and no downtime activity of a pilot assisting. So does anyone want to help Broun salvage this, these, this flamethrower alarm?
JANINE: I can help.
AUSTIN: Give me a dice. Give me one D. (Ali and Janine laugh) Trying to get above the three.
JANINE: Well there's the problem right there.
AUSTIN: (amused) Uh-huh.
JANINE: (doubtful) Okay...
ALI: That's not bad.
JANINE: Eyyy!
AUSTIN: Six!
ALI: Hey, there you go!
AUSTIN: Look at this! (Laughing) Now I need a narrative of what happens that prevents--
JANINE: So, I think I already know the thing that happens, because I almost did it as a joke when
AUSTIN: Uh-huh?
JANINE: when Ali explained what probably happened, was-- you know, I think Thisbe is-- Thisbe doesn't have any engineering skill, but Thisbe is like fairly aware of like herself, um,
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
JANINE: And probably is aware of like-- oh there's probably like if that's a flamethrower or anything there's probably some kind of line-- there’s gonna be some kind of fuel supply in there because those arms are meant to be blah blah units whatever like, some, there's some sort of rationale for like her being like, slow down. (Ali and Austin laugh)
AUSTIN: God.
JANINE: You're going to cut the line.
ALI: (sighing) Perfect
AUSTIN: Perfect
AUSTIN: So yeah you get the three material instead. I've put those in the bin so that you're back up to five which is a pretty good amount.
ALI: (quietly) Yay.
AUSTIN: Okay, so now that you're doing fix you can again add another one D if someone else is helping you with this-- with this fix. But yeah, it's engineer and what you really want is a crit here. Anything less than a crit is not going to do it unfortunately.
ALI: Okay, um, so should I roll the two dice and then... does somebody else wanna like agree to help roll their one dice?
AUSTIN: Yeah, that should be fun oh, let's do it that way. That’s the fun way to do it.
JANINE: Can I help again?
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN: Yeah, definitely. A hundred percent. No one is stuck in this.
JANINE: Cause I imagine Thisbe is very hands-on in terms of maintenance with Mo.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: That makes perfect sense.
DRE: Only one of us can help right?
AUSTIN: I believe so.
DRE: Alright.
AUSTIN: Let me double check... It doesn't explicitly say. I would say yes? Cause you can't--
DRE: Yeah, I mean--
AUSTIN: Two people can't help--
DRE: That’s the rule for all the other assists.
AUSTIN: Yeah, exactly.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Exactly.
ALI: Okay I'm going to roll. And I got to six.
AUSTIN: And you got a six. Well, wait, Janine should also roll because if there's a crit here this is very good. It's not, unfortunately. But the six is not bad, though. The six fills the repair clock three times and that's pretty good. The problem is it's not enough to even repair it once.
ALI: Whaaat? (laughs)
AUSTIN: So the repair clock is four steps. This is why we’re using the alternate rules that are-- that are better-- that are like kinder. Mechs be taking damage. Think about 08th MS Team. They had to put a whole different head on that fucking mech. (Ali and Dre laugh) For like the second half of that show it was the wrong one. So yeah, the way this works is that there's a four-step healing clock basically. It's the same for people. Both people and mechs have four-step healing clocks, and if you fill it, then you reduce each detail of damage that the level has by-- or that the whatever the body is, the human body or the person body or the mech body, by one and you clear the clock and then there's a roll over to the empty clock. But that means that straight up like, um... you... you need to fill that clock to get a repair. Um… Oh, here you go! “You can spend one material for plus one day to the role or to increase the result by one level.” So if you want to spend a material, that would increase the result from a six to a crit, which would roll you over-- which would fill the clock once, then immediately roll you over, which I would say would clear that level one since the level one is basically any degree of repair fixes level one harm. So, if you spend a material I will let you clear this entirely.
JANINE: Um, how much of that do we have again?
AUSTIN: You have five, because you had two and then you just-- you just-- fixed-- or a salvaged that arm and leg.
JANINE: Um, I would really really like to clear it. I don't want that to be a unilateral choice--
AUSTIN: Oh it's-- Yes, it's a rough thing to be--
JANINE: for a team resource. But it’s a thing that like-- if someone was gonna be like, actually why don't we just put a pin in this for a bit, they would have to look Thisbe in the eyes and say that. (Austin laughs)
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: Yeah, no, I know.
JANINE: They would have to climb up on a ladder and look Thisbe in the eyes. (Austin and Ali laugh)
AUSTIN: Alright, well, I will delete one of those then. And yeah, clear-- you can go ahead and clear that then Thisbe. There you go. Okay. So that leaves us with what left? We each have-- everybody still has one more. Right? Yes. ‘Cause everyone cut-loose, everyone did a recover or salvage and now everyone has one more downtime activity.
ALI: Can the long-term project move be used to further your drive clock? Or is that just--
AUSTIN: Absolutely.
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN: Totally. The way that works is that you basically come up with a downtime-- a long-term project that when you complete it it increases the drive clock. Also, Valence, you should go ahead and mark that last “build a relationship with the Disciples of Logos.” For the-- what we just did?
01:30:00
DRE: Okay.
AUSTIN: That to me suggests a one tick at least. Being like, I talked to your boy, it's alright, don't worry about it, is definitely a plus one, which completes that. Which to me suggests increasing the overall relationship for the whole squad. So I've done that now too.
DRE: Okay.
AUSTIN: Did you have a long-term project in mind? In fact, wait, you have a long-term project going already, don't you?
ALI: I have two of them. Yeah.
AUSTIN: You do.
ALI: Which is why I was like trying to figure out how what, um,
AUSTIN: Right.
ALI: I should do with my last time. I do-- I have a question which might not end up being anything or seen or anything,
AUSTIN: Mm-hm?
ALI: but I'm like kind of curious if like… like what Gucci is up to? (Laughs)
AUSTIN: Right, cause you know Gucci?
ALI: Right.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: In my head I'm like, does she care that I'm on the Isles of Logos? (laughing) Does she-- Is there information that she wants?
AUSTIN: Can you-- Let's quickly-- Let’s do a Gucci-- Let’s do a Gucci scene. Please.
ALI: Sure.
AUSTIN: Cause we haven't had you and Gucci show up together yet, despite the fact that you also came in with a relationship with her. Do you want to explain what that relationship is again?
ALI: Um, yeah. So Gucci, if you know from the Rapid Evening side, is like a Kesh um... I'm just going to say government offiiiicial?
AUSTIN: Yeah, that's right.
ALI: Sort of. She has like an active role within that society that comes in and that is also secretly running a resistance group.
AUSTIN: Yes.
ALI: Broun knows Gucci’s secret identity. Idon’t--
AUSTIN: Correct. Well--
ALI: I don't know if Broun knows her or cares (Austin laughs) that she's Gucci, right?
AUSTIN: Or that she's like-- You don't know-- you don't know her nickname. It's like, what if you knew Bruce Wayne dressed up as a something and beat people up and you knew that he had like a batcave or he had like a cave where he kept a bunch of gadgets and shit. (Ali laughs) But you didn't give a fuck about like Batman. Right?
ALI: Right. Yeah. It's like that exact sort of thing. And to that point.
AUSTIN: (laughing) Which is
ALI: That I don't give a shit about it.
AUSTIN: extremely funny, just to be clear.
ALI: (laughing) Is that I also know her as this person who's like rich and also fighting for this cause that who gives shit about. (Austin laughs) So I... you know up those labor costs a little bit, when she’s like, hey, my resistance group has been damaged can you help me out?
AUSTIN: God.
ALI: She's good for it. It's fine.
AUSTIN: You know how we were talking about the question of how would you use collect in a way that would make you not feel terrible? (Ali laughs.) I feel like that would be a way.
ALI: Sure.
AUSTIN: But also-- but also I wouldn't mind just talking about-- One is, I hadn't considered this but I could easily cook up your next mission being something from Gucci. That would be very fun, actually. (Ali laughs.) I think that might be a thing-- now that you brought this up I'm like, hmmm, hmm-hmm-hmm. I see.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Let's see.
ALI: Yeah, I don't know. We'll figure it out.
AUSTIN: But also I do think that we had talked about “collect” and “collect” is a downtime action we haven't seen on screen yet. It says, “choose a region to collect from and roll dice equal to its wealth rating. Gain the amount of supply points equal to the highest di rolled. However, those supplies aren't meant for you. (laughs) If any of the dice come up as a one, gain the supply points but immediately roll an entanglement on the table.” I just want to be clear, if any of the dice come up as of one, not at the highest dice is a one. If any of them come up with a one
ALI: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: “gain the supply points but then immediately roll an entanglement on the table determined by your relationship with the faction that controls that region.” Which is Kesh, in this case. “If a faction does not control the region, use your status with the squad that has the strongest presence in the region,” duh-duh-duh and then-- and then it does like that if you keep doing “collect” you get minus dice. I don't know if you remember we had that question on Tipsatf the Table about this specific move?
ALI: Oh, right, right, right.
AUSTIN: Austin Ramsay has gone in and modded this rule-- has fixed this rule so that after each time you do a collect the subsequent ones take a minus one D to a minimum of zero as targets begin taking additional precautions. (Ali laughs.) So. So, yeah, so, if you wanted to collect from Horizon, from-- from House Brightline, which is the kind of resistance group house inside of Stel Kesh, that's extremely funny and I would absolutely allow it and allow you to have that scene. Just tell me what that looks like. Cause basically what that would be would be like you're getting paid to do a job, right? To do like a repair job, basically, right?
01:35:11
ALI: Oh yeah yeah yeah. Okay, yeah, that's probably the best way to do it. Cause I was like how am I going to just sit in a conversation with this person in this downtime (laughing)
AUSTIN: But like maybe
ALI: about something that’s not
AUSTIN: Maybe it's a situation where, like, on your way to the Isles of Logos you basically send Gucci word that's like, “Oh I'm going to be in independent spac.e I'm going to be in an autonomous region. If you want to bring some stuff here, I can fix it without it being on anyone's radar, you know? Or if you have stuff here already, which-- which she does. (Ali laughs.) Like, she just-- The Isles of Logos is a place where Horizon is operating.
ALI: Okay, yeah.
AUSTIN: So it's totally possible that like she brings you out to, you know, some sort of like sugarcane field and halfway in the middle of the field half of the-- like there's just like an elevator in the middle of the field, do you know what I mean? Like the whole-- an entire like city square block starts to descend down into the ground with you on it, um. This is not a thing I planned on but it's totally here if that's a job you wanna-- if that's an extra roll you want to do.
ALI: Sure, yeah, I, yeah. (Laughs)
AUSTIN: Does anyone come on you for this trip? Or is this a very private Broun trip?
ALI: I don't know if this is the sort of client that you(starts laughing) don't share with the rest of your crew.
AUSTIN: Ah, I see.
ALI: Part of me thinks yes.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
ALI: But I do not object to anyone who wants to be in the scene.
AUSTIN: I'm putting it to you all.
DRE: Oh man. I'm interested in having Valence in this scene
AUSTIN: Yeah.
DRE: but I also don't know if Broun would like-- (laughing) I'm trying to think of what would drive Broun to ask Valance to come with them.
AUSTIN: Maybe it's straight up-- it could be that Gucci does straight up say, like, also I think I have an opportunity for you and the rest of the Society.
ALI: Right, yeah. I-- Yeah.
AUSTIN: You know what I mean? If it's like a, come do this thing and then also while you're here duh-duh-duh-duh-duh... Also, this could be the place where you're doing all of the fix up and repair stuff for your own shit. That way we can like stay on the island, so to speak. You know what I mean? We can retroactively say you're doing it in their workshop
ALI: Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah.
AUSTIN: if that makes sense?
ALI: I do really like that-- I think that If we
AUSTIN: Do you know what I mean?
ALI: Think of Gucci as knowing Broun before they joined SBBR, it’s definitely a thing of being like, oh I can still do repairs for you but I sort of have this other side gig. And then also Gucci being like hey I have some repairs for you
AUSTIN: Yes, exactly.
ALI: And Broun being like, um, I'm about to get on a boat to the Isles of Logos (laughing) so I am-- I maybe can't (Austin laughs) But then it ends up being a thing that like lines up really well.
AUSTIN: Yes. Well she's like oh actually that's perfect. That means I don't have to move my shit to you then,, really. Thisbe, are you also along for the ride to this big-- I said sugarcane field I'm also imagining it as a cornfield. Just like a imagine just you are standing on a cornfield and then suddenly just, boom ch-chunk, you're just in a fucking elevator going down into the ground. Love it.
JANINE: I mean this is one of those things where if like if someone made some sort of vague indication that they wanted Thisbe to come
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE: then she would come. But
AUSTIN: Okay
JANINE otherwise I think she would just stay behind.
AUSTIN: Um, up to you all then. And Valence and Broun.
ALI: Yeah, sure, um.
AUSTIN: Okay
ALI: (laughs) Um. I don't know how to like start the scene.
AUSTIN: I mean, I think you, you know, you go down there and it goes like-- it ends and you're suddenly like in a huge underground mech base. You know, with like a half-dozen-- maybe more than that-- like pretty... they need some fixing up but they're like very-- they're the sort that you would-- If you were a rich girl (Ali laughs) and you were like, I want an army, (laughs) (Ali laughs) you would-- and you had the money. This is that, right? And so there's just like dozens of those. There are people in uniform. Kind of-- they’re in uniform but I bet it's probably like that style of like Star Wars Rebel uniform where it's like, there's a through line here but it's sort of-- It's like the Star Wars Rebels or it's like working at Starbucks (Ali hums) where like, khakis and a black shirt, please. Like you don't have to wear the Starbucks black shirt but you need a black shirt. Or working retail in general. You often get that rule of like, here is the the basic dress code. You can come with your own whatever color outfit that is, but that's the color that we all have to wear to identify ourselves as employees here. So I think it's a lot of that. And it's like dozens of people down here and then Gucci... who… um, do you-- I know, Ali obviously as the editor of those episodes, you need to know who that character is, but I don't remember if-- or I don't know if Dre and Janine know who Gucci Garantine is? Or what she looks like or what she wears?
01:40:13
JANINE: For me I think I like seen the name but that's about it.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Let me... I'm glad I opened up my Rapid Evening doc for this because (Ali laughs) turns out I needed some stuff (laughs) from over there this episode also. So, in my mind Gucci Garantine is played by the model Amy Deanna who is... a really cool model. She is a black model with vitiligo. Which is-- which means she has kind of like white patches of skin or like decolored patches of skin. The model Amy Deanna does and Gucci Garantine. She has just like this very-- this air of being like completely in the right place wherever she is. Which probably comes from being like a noble atache of Kesh and being told your whole life that wherever you are it is the right place to be so long as no one has been born above you in that place. And let me tell you, no one on the Isles of Logos at all has been born about Gucci Garantine. She has like-- the hair that I really love for her is the sort of like-- it's like a natural pompadour? It's like a kind of tight-- it's like tight curly pompadour to the side a little bit with braids kind of where-- like on the side of her head. And I need to find some way of telling people where they can find this hairstyle. I guess it's-- is it just black natural bridal hairstyles? It is. If you do a search for “black natural bridal hairstyles” it is the first hit. Which is very good for being able to tell people where to look at this really dope like curvy haircut. It's sick. And she is wearing-- she generally is like someone who wears a lot of red gold. And black. Like, that's kind of like her trio of colors. And I think she like open arms welcomes you as-- as you arrive on this giant elevator. And says, um,
AUSTIN (as Gucci): Welcome to Horizon. It's so good to finally see you here and let you show-- or let-- It's so good to see you here finally, and I'm really excited to show you everything we have going on, Broun. There's obviously a lot that's happening behind me right now, but we can just-- there's a lot of stuff to get to, but if you have any questions, or if you want me to show you around, if you want me to introduce you to any of the other engineers, or talk about our vision, um, you let me know. But for now at least, we're just having a lot of trouble with the targeting computers on like four of our units, so if you could start there that would actually be ideal.
ALI (as Broun): Yeah, will do.
AUSTIN (as Gucci): Your friends can also come, obviously. Gucci Garantine.
AUSTIN: She offers a hand.
DRE (as Valence): Nice to meet you. I'm Valence.
AUSTIN (as Gucci): I like your mask. I do mask-- I also have a mask. I'm not wearing it but I do-- I like masks. Who made yours?
DRE: Um. Oh boy, that's a great question. Who did make it?
AUSTIN: That is a great question.
DRE (as Valence) A friend of mine back home.
AUSTIN (as Gucci): And where is back home?
DRE: Hmm.
AUSTIN (as Gucci): A mask maker like that deserves a debut. There'll be some sort of event soon in Cruciat, I'm sure, and if I could arrive wearing a mask like that it would do wonders for their career as much as it would for my night.
DRE (as Valence): Um, I actually haven't spoken with them in a while. I'm not sure where they are now.
AUSTIN (as Gucci): I see. Well, if you find their information-- I promise I'm not trying to put you or them on the spot, but it would be a wonder…
AUSTIN: (laughs) Gucci would pay! Gucci does not pay in exposure, Janine. (Dre giggles) Alright. You should do this collect action to see how this goes. And then we can roll from there.
ALI: Sure. What are my collect for this? Or what do I roll for this?
AUSTIN: You roll their wealth rating which-- the wealth rating is very high here, I believe. Let me double check my notes. Cause Kesh is riiiich! Let's see.
ALI: I feel like I've put one foot into a well (laughing) and I don't know what’s gonna happen!
01:45:00
AUSTIN: You're gonna make a lot of money is what you're gonna do.
ALI: Sure. I hope so.
AUSTIN: So when you collect you roll-- as long as you don't get a one, you know? I’m going to say you roll a three because this is-- this is-- Kesh has basically two different wealth ratings. There’s the wealth rating for people-- for the city of Cruciate which is four, and then there's a wealth rating for like the rest of Kesh and that's at three. So I'm going to give you that one because you're not in the-- you're not where the Rapid Evening is in a fancy fucking palace. This is just like Kesh territory, basically. I mean you're not even in Kesh territory they're-- they are from that place, so go ahead and roll three dice and you will take the highest number in supply points.
ALI: Okay. I hate that, but okay.
AUSTIN: Is anyone helping? Is anyone helping? (laughs)
ALI: No. I don't want (Laughs)
AUSTIN: No? But what if there's a-- what if you get really good?
ALI: I know, but what if somebody gets a one?
AUSTIN: Let's roll these three and will decide if someone wants to help out after the fact.
ALI: (laughing) It’ll be a one! Okay. Ahh!
AUSTIN: (laughing in delight) You critted and got a one! At the same time! (Janine groans) You rolled six, one, six. This is the perfect situation in my opinion.
AUSTIN: I'm so glad for this. I'm so glad-- I did mentioned how I-- you know maybe I'll just do a drive clock thing she’ll tell me how to get on this planet. But no, this is better.
AUSTIN: (quietly) Fuck. Jesus Christ.
ALI: I wanted to use this move. I've been waiting to use this move.
AUSTIN: Alright. So you gained supply points equal to the highest dice rolled. With a crit I'm going to give you more than six. (Ali laughs.) Like, it doesn't say you can-- so sometimes it'll say if you crit... I'm gonna see something. Uh… Cause there's something-- a similar thing that's like on a critical role instead of taking six, take nine and I want to see what that's for and if that would be applicable here because it would be very good. And it would have a really good-- it would open up the possibility for something for you all that we had not-- has not happened yet and I want to happen so badly for you. Here it is. Okay. You know what it is, it is-- I'm gonna say that this is totally right! So when you take a supply role from an employer action if you roll a crit on that you get nine supply points. This is basically getting one of those (laughs) (Ali laughs) so I'm going to say you take nine supply points with that crit, but you also have to roll an entanglement because you rolled six, one, six, the best possible roll you could have gotten
ALI: Thank you, yeah.
AUSTIN: in my opinion. So
ALI: Yeah. This breaks bad because--
AUSTIN: Yeah, go ahead.
ALI: Gucci.
AUSTIN: What does this look like? (Ali laughs.) Yeah, go ahead.
ALI: I have a joke which is that Gucci gets like an itemized list of Broun's like whatever which says like exposure $1,000 and she’s like wait a minute? (Austin laughs.)
AUSTIN: God. So, take nine supply points which I'm gonna write down. We have to figure out what those are by the end of the session, but I think that's worth noting is like, you're now in a position to where you could be the group that-- you could go up to tier one here. You have what you need to go up to tier one. Because-- let me just pause for a second. Who else has moves at this point? (Ali snorts) Who else has downtime actions before we advance and roll is entanglement?
JANINE: Uh.
DRE: Um, I still have one more to do.
JANINE: Same.
AUSTIN: You still have one more. Thisbe you did-- what did you do? You did cut loose
JANINE: And repair.
AUSTIN: You did repair! So you also still have one.
JANINE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: The thing that I want to-- the thing I want to put on the table for y’all is that you could upgrade your tier to tier one which would be very helpful because it means that just all of your shit is better and I kind of love the idea of Horizon just being like, all your shit should be better. (Janine and Dre laugh) Like, if you spend-- and also I love this about Gucci, is that there's a world where-- So to go up in tier it costs a lot of material and a lot of personnel but it raises your tier which means that you're just better than what you were before and means that you can kind of punch higher against-- against higher tier targets and against, at that point, lower tier targets too. It will-- it would cost you four personnel and four material to do this. I'm trying to find the place in the book. Where is it?. Squads and actions. Squad advance- squad advancement? Squad... development. Here we go. “You can increase your squad tier by one by spending an amount of each supply point type equal to the new tier times four.” So going from zero to one is four, going from one to two its eight, etcetera. That in my mind would be very funny because it would be like her saying, listen, this is a really big bill. I could pay you or I can make sure that you are outfitted in better stuff forever. And that would be raising your tier and also you get one extra bonus supply point that you could put into whatever because you got a nine instead of getting-- instead of taking the-- or instead of getting nine loose supply points she is basically saying, now immediately spend eight of those supply point with me, (Ali laughs) so I can increase your tier. Which is exactly the sort of thing she would do. So just putting that on the table. And I'm putting that on the table now, because I wanna give you that before you do an entanglement if that's a thing you want, because if this turned into a fight or something it would be better to have that tier now than later. (Laughs) And that is a big group decision cause eight is a lot of supply points to spend.
01:50:55
ALI: Can we wait until the end to make the decision?
AUSTIN: I want to make that decision before you roll the entanglement.
ALI: Okay, yeah, fair.
AUSTIN: But yes. You can do all your other downtime stuff before that. But that was why I was trying to figure out-- does anyone else have a downtime thing to do? So, let's talk about what those other downtime things are then, I guess. But think over, marinate on, that question while we do it. Uh, Thisbe and Valence, what do you want to do with your last downtime actions?
JANINE: Um, I wanted to just put some time into my long-term project.
AUSTIN: Good call. So you’re doing that research into where the farmers are from, right?
JANINE: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: How are you doing that? What does that look like?
JANINE: So I just got-- I just had that meeting with the… uh, god, I forget their name.
AUSTIN: The Sable Court?
JANINE: Yes.
AUSTIN: Yes.
JANINE: The leader there.
AUSTIN: Yeah, the Lowess.
JANINE: Yes!
AUSTIN: A word I only know cause you told it to me... (Janine laughs) a year ago, when we did that game.
JANINE:I don't remember anything from even a month ago, so.
AUSTIN: 2020, baby.
JANINE: Yep. So, I think-- I think the thing that basically needs to happen is Thisbe needs to like sit down with that data, with that like, (Austin hums) um, with that data and also that perspective
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE: and like reevaluate the list she’d been working on and re-evaluated where she’d been searching.
AUSTIN: Cool. I think that that is probably-- what did we roll last time for it? Was that study?
JANINE: God, I don't remember.
AUSTIN: I think it was. I think it was study. Study is described as “when you meticulously examine details for better understanding.” That to me sounds like study.
JANINE: It couldn't have been because I couldn't have rolled anything if it was study. (laughs)
AUSTIN: You could’ve. You could have rolled two D zero. and-- or two D one to take the lowest, or pushed yourself or whatever. Um… It could have been interface. Maybe it was interface. That's what it was! (Janine hums in agreement) It was interface because you're working closely with your like a digital list stuff.
JANINE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: That's what it was.
JANINE: It was spreadsheets. I remember now.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm. Mm-hm. So yeah this could be cross-referencing that.
JANINE: Okay.
AUSTIN: You can also ask for help here if anything wants to help, but I don't know if this is the kind of thing you can see someone helping with? But
JANINE: Are there any like observatories here?
AUSTIN: Probably... yeah! Definitely. I could-- I'll allow it.
JANINE:Um, I actually don't know how an observatory would help more than like a list of like yours with all these planets. But also I guess it
AUSTIN: You tell me. You have the brush.
JANINE: I guess actually in terms of like we have established that they're sort of limited... there are limitations on the spread of information, right? In this world?
AUSTIN: That is-- Yeah. The thing that we -- the thing that specifically the Lowess kind of gave you was that you can't just look at what is being publicly made available, if that makes sense? That there are like planets and stars and spaces that have been basically erased from the map but that which do literally exist still. And so yeah, maybe there's a degree to which you can imagine using an observatory, or something, that would let you-- especially here in the Isles of Logos that are not part of any of the Stels
JANINE: Yeah, exactly.
AUSTIN: That would have that information. Yeah, totally. This could be the night before even. You know, before you go into the secret facility of the freedom fighter group?
JANINE: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: I would allow that. Does anyone wanna come and help? Or again-- Thisbe, is this a thing that you want to do privately?
JANINE: I think if it is a thing of like, oh hey here's a unique opportunity to access the information available at this observatory, Thisbe would probably approach, um-- would probably approach Broun and Valence and be like, hey can someone come-- I need-- can somebody do me a favor and basically like help me find a book? Like it's that kind of thing. It’s very much like there's there's… there’s probably some
01:55:06
AUSTIN: (laughing) Can you please ask this is in character because I desperately need to know how Thisbe says it.
JANINE: (laughs) Ah, it's hard.
JANINE (as Thisbe): Would one of you be able to accompany me to the observatory?
ALI (as Broun): You need something?
JANINE (as Thisbe): Yes. I um… (Dre huffs) I need some information and I believe I may need assistance in accessing the information.
JANINE: I do not know how to use a card (starts laughing) catalog, essentially. (Austin and Dre laugh.)
ALI (as Broun): Yeah. I uh, sure, yeah
AUSTIN: Alright.
DRE (as Valence): Yeah. I can-- I can come help. I've spent time in libraries.
AUSTIN: Love it. Alright. Give me your role here. What's this-- what's this look like? And what are you rolling, Thisbe?
JANINE: Um, I think this looks like... this is like a-- this is like a cross-referencing thing, right? Like Thisbe is referencing her notes her
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
JANINE: her Research basically. And then it is a matter of cross-referencing it with like things that are isolated to this to this observatory, to this facility. That are maybe like even you know we have the rules about like monopurpose screens and things like that
AUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah.
JANINE: And a lot of like I associate that a lot with like the-- how in Star Trek they used to have the like-- oh, what are they called? Datapads or something? And you could have like a stack of datapads on someone's desk cause they're very busy (laughs).
AUSTIN: (laughing) Yeah.
JANINE: And it's like it doesn't make any sense at all in the context of iPads, that you’d just have a stack of these electronic whatevers.
AUSTIN: Right why wouldn't you just have tabs or you could switch between windows?
JANINE: Right, why would you just have a networked whatever connection, Etc. So I'm imagining it's something like that's where it's like it's a lot easier for Thisbe to access the information that she has in her internal systems than it is for her to go through all these individual sort of access points. Basically.
AUSTIN: Right, except that now you need to do that also so having extra hands helps
JANINE: Exactly.
AUSTIN: So, alright so give me-- give me one D6-- give me two D6 since you're getting help. That's a six.
JANINE: Yay!
AUSTIN: Nice work. That fills that clock. That's three ticks. You're already at three ticks. It's a five-step clock so that means you found the farm. What-- what? What's that look like? How do you get there? Are you just kind of like crossing things off? And also more importantly does this feel exciting for Thisbe? What's this feel like?
JANINE: (sighs) Um… I think for her it has that feeling of like completing a thing. Like, it's not completed. There still a lot of steps needed to actually do anything with this,
AUSTIN: (laughing) Yes.
JANINE: but it is feeling of like, there's this thing I was working on for a while and now the thing is done.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
JANINE: And that's a like a good feeling. I don't think she has a lot of like deep attachment beyond that, at this stage especially, cause it's still very far away, um.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE: But
AUSTIN: Yeah, I don't even-- I don't even know where it is I'm not looking at the galaxy map that we've been using. I've said this a couple of times this season, but like there's obviously a mystery around what happened to Past and what's going on do you know beyond the Partisan Gate and what's up with Gur Sevraq. There’s stuff that I do know, but I'm doing my best to be very open-ended with a lot of things. I don't have some secret twist about where Thisbe is from (laughs) like in my back pocket. There is no you know eleventh-hour turn where I'm like, aha Thisbe has secretly always been a divine. Like, we're not doing that here. So I kind of-- I'm open to what you think. Where is this farm? Is there an importance to it? Is there a-- Or is it just on some planet somewhere where you may as well just throw a dart at the fucking galaxy map?
JANINE: I think it has to be-- it has to be a place that can be forgotten, right?
AUSTIN: (quietly) Yeah
JANINE: Like it has to be a place that the absence from a lot of official information that she was accessing isn't a thing that everyone is like, well that's, you know-- that you know it's not like a forum of planetheads out there who are like, well, that planet full of gold why don't they mention it on the maps? (Austin laughs) Like it can't be important in that way. It has to be important in the-- in like a much more illusive way. I think.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm. How do you mean elusive?
JANINE: Like the importance is... I mean Thisbe is a very rare old robot who got dumped there (Austin hums) so there's probably something happening there at some point
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE: But it's not a thing that's like really obvious at the moment. Or-- and again I also don't have any ideas about that. That's a thing that I'm just kind of playing by ear.
AUSTIN: mm-hm. We can talk off mic.
JANINE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: and like figure out something but the gist of it then is that it is a forgotten world. It is a world that there are people on it, theoretically. There must be people on it. There-- it's certainly close enough to the it's certainly part of the principality because we know you got bought there by a mercenary unit at some point. (Janine hums) So it's not like no one goes there. But it is also something hidden from public view. Do you know how long ago it was that you were there?
02:00:25
JANINE: Um, not that long. Like within
AUSTIN: A handful of years?
JANINE: Within a decade, probably.
AUSTIN: Okay. Okay, cool. Interesting. I definitely have ideas so we can talk
JANINE: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: off mic about what's possible here. But yeah you find it. I'm not even going to say-- I don't even know for sure which Stel it’s in yet but like you have a space and it's like you can point to it on a map now and be like, that's it that's the planet that they found me on. Like, do you tell Valence and Broun?
JANINE: Um.
AUSTIN: That you found what you were looking for? Or do they just continue looking at books and going I don't even know what the fuck I'm looking for here?
JANINE: I mean at this point they probably have some inkling, right? Because it would be like Thisbe has her list of criteria. Thisbe has her list of like, here's how many moons, here's how the sun-- here's how it moved around the sun.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE: Here is-- You know here are the properties of the terrain and all that. Like that's all the stuff that they're cross-ref-- cross-referencing that's the stuff that Thisbe has is basically like isn't relevant to the planets that she has listed but you know where the missing links here what planet is it relevant to in terms of what's missing.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE: So they definitely know that she's looking for something extremely specific and then they're definitely gonna know that she's looking like, oh okay, at some point. (laughs) Like I don't think it's a matter of telling them, it's probably just a matter of when they find the planet that matches all these conditions is and isn't ruled out and everything else has been mostly ruled out Thisbe is probably like, okay, we can go now. (laughs) (Ali laughs.)
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: Alright. Well, you can advance your drive clock. To two. Which is a serious-- which is getting there. (Janine hums) It's halfway to one drive clock. (Ali laughs)
ALI: I actually want to briefly say-- because I... I didn’t say what my new Thisbe connection is.
AUSTIN: Oh yeah, what is it?
ALI: And I was like curious if Broun even knew about the search Thisbe was on.
AUSTIN: Yeah...
ALI: Because there hasn't been a scene where there’s been like a group thing.
AUSTIN: Do you wanna have that conversation?
ALI: Um.
AUSTIN: Or Is this just a passive recognition?
ALI: Right, well, I mean, I think that it happens in the process of helping Thisbe with this thing all day. (Austin hums) (laughs) That it's this sort of like realisation that's going on and then Broun having this like-- Broun just being like really sad that like, they're not gonna get there. (laughing) That's so typical. (Austin groans) And then also just being like, well I also want to leave this place but I couldn't even think of a place that I wanted to go.
AUSTIN: Right.
ALI: Anyway, my new bond with Thisbe is going to be: If Thisbe wants to get off this planet maybe I can-- maybe I can make them help us both get off. (Janine laughs) (laughing) I'm going to write that better In an hour or so.
AUSTIN: Yeah yeah. I get it. Yeah. Totally. Ali laughs. Good. laughing. Perfect. For the record, Valence and Thisbe, did you all write down new beliefs about each other?
DRE: Um, I don't have a set one yet.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm
DRE: Like, kind of like the draft one I've written is something along the lines of: Thisbe is more simple and straightforward.
AUSTIN: Okay, sure, that's definitely a direction. You can work on that two. Thisbe, do you have one for Valence At this point? Or second one?
JANINE: I think one that I have in my head is something along the lines of like: Valence has confusing priorities or… (Austin hums) something like that? Like I don't think Thisbe understands sometimes why they... why? (laughs) I think that confuses her. She can't get her head around that.
AUSTIN: Okay. Cool. Alright, so, wait, do we have one more thing for-- Valance has a downtime action still and then we can roll this entanglement?
DRE: Yeah I was going to try and work on my long-term projects of finding out who attacked the Nobel.
AUSTIN: Okay, you're going to do that this same place. Unless you have another way-- what-- what is your what is your method here?
DRE: The only other thing I can think of would be calling my new best friend, Kenzie.
02:05:02
AUSTIN: Yeah, let's do it! What's the-- what's the-- god, what are you asking?
DRE: Uh...
AUSTIN: And also you are probably not calling. You're definitely not calling her cause there's just not a global phone network here. You can send a message. And if you...uh, I guess you can you can send a message that sets up a call because there is a group in Columnar called Strand Semaphore which is basically the only way that you can send instantaneous a message around the planet and that's like a Columnar specific like--- it's like a Columnar startup basically. “Using ancient Hyphen technology, this messenger service is able to send text based communication to anywhere on the moon so long as they’ve built an outpost there. So yeah, I imagine they probably have a place-- it's basically like a LAN cafe that you go to to text people from. I bet you there's one of those on the Isle of Logos in Logos City and there's definitely those where Kenzie is from, in Vigil City out in Columnar territory so you could definitely send a message via that that would basically request a call or request a meeting, a text meeting. (Laughing) In the future obviously you have to send RSVPs to have AIM conversations is what I'm saying. (Dre hums) But yeah, I would let you do that.
DRE: Okay.
AUSTIN: What is the-- I feel like that's going to be a consort or a sway?
DRE: Yeah. I think--
AUSTIN: What are you asking? (Dre sighs) (Laughs) Also, new friend Is strong but I like it.
DRE: Yeah, I know, it is.
AUSTIN: Kenzie is definitely like a kind of mixed-- a mixed relationship at this point. Not a rival necessarily cause you haven't declared that but
JANINE: Friends are people you don't kill, technically.
AUSTIN: Fair.
DRE: That is that is a good starting ground for a friendship.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
DRE: So maybe the roll here is that I am swaying Kenzie to even have this conversation in the first place?
AUSTIN: I think you-- I think that given-- given the outcome I'm going to let the conversation happen. I'm not-- Kenzie is interesting. Kenzie’s story is interesting. I want her to be on screen and in this case literally on a screen or her text will show up. And an avatar. So I'd rather just get to that con-- get to the actual roll, you know, and see how it goes.
DRE: Okay. Sure, sure.
AUSTIN: God, also, Valence in a LAN cafe that has like-- definitely has like Strand Semiphore-- There’s like-- they sell hoodies that just have their logo on it which is definitely like someone holding flags cause semaphore is that thing where you communicate via flags, you know? It's-- it's good. Anyway. You got a coffee or tea going. It's good.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So what do you ask? And what are you rolling?
DRE: Um. I think the end goal here is, you know, from the conversations of Valence had with... oh, I need to check my notes and see the name of the person.
AUSTIN: I think it was Morningbride told you.
DRE: Yeah, Morningbride basically said that like this was probably the result of somebody manipulating The Strand
AUSTIN: Yes.
DRE: in order to reach the Nobel homeworld.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
DRE: And so I think Valence is contacting Kenzie to basically say, I know someone is manipulating The Strand to work in ways that it is not-- (Austin huffs) I don't know if it's meant to? or allowed to?
AUSTIN: Right. God. It's also very funny because you're communicating on a device that is also appropriating ancient Hyphen technology to--
DRE: (mutters) Great
AUSTIN: It's just-- it’s just fucking shitty imperialism all the way down.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Give me a sway.
DRE: Okay.
AUSTIN: Which is one D6. Again, if someone wants to help you they can but I don't know what that looks like. (Laughs) I guess you have two people in that booth giving you-- giving you fucking AIM tips. (Dre laughs)
JANINE: Set a status message. (Austin laughs)
DRE: What's your favorite song? What are you listening to today?
AUSTIN: Yeah, put lyrics in your away message. (Laughs) Select a-- oooh, so that's a one. Yikes. Take one-- you're still gonna--
DRE: It’s a three.
AUSTIN: Yeah sorry, but it's a one tick.
DRE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: One to three is still not good. So put one tick into the long-term project here. You still have seven more to go so that was a really rough roll. I think that the response is… (sighs) not dismissive necessarily, but is like, what are you even talking about? And you go back and forth like that, I guess. Um... let’s just have the conversation even though it's text based. What do you ask specifically?
02:10:11
DRE: I think if she knows of anyone within Columnar that might be performing
AUSTIN: Right.
DRE: like, you know, either experiments, experimental missions, like stuff that would be off-the-books
AUSTIN: Yeah, I think she responds just like,
AUSTIN (as Kenzie): It's all experiments, experimental missions, and off-the-books. We’re Columnar. This is what we do. The Strand? What's The Strand?
DRE (as Valence): I don't quite understand
DRE: in quotation marks
DRE (as Valence): “The Strand” either. (Austin laughs) But isn’t this what Columnar is all about??
DRE: Two question marks. (Austin laughs.)
AUSTIN (as Kenzie): You're asking me for a favor. You are asking me to look into this…
AUSTIN: Dot-dot-dot.
AUSTIN (as Kenzie): I know you saved Cobra’s life in the all but this is kind of a big ask.
DRE (as Valence): What can I do to make you have more trust in me?
AUSTIN (as Kenzie): You can owe me a favor.
AUSTIN: Wink. (Dre laughs)
ALI: (hums at the innuendo)
AUSTIN: Not like that. (Ali laughs)
DRE: Yeah yeah yeah. (Austin laughs)
DRE (as Valance): Well you already didn't shoot me so that’s fair.
AUSTIN: She says,
AUSTIN (as Kenzie): Haha. (Dre laughs)
AUSTIN: (Laughing) Haha LOL.
DRE: Yeah, that was wild LOL.
AUSTIN: (Laughing) Yeah.
AUSTIN (as Kenzie): I'll look into it.
AUSTIN: She says. Um,
AUSTIN (as Kenzie): Anything else?
DRE: Oh boy. (Austin laughs) (laughing) Like, yes, I think it is very much Valence being, like, oh yeah and also like, what did you have for dinner last night?
AUSTIN: Oh my God! (laughs)
DRE: I went to the Isles of Logos and had this this and this.
AUSTIN: (laughing) Yeah. Have you ever had rice before? Uh, yeah y'all can chat. Listen, you rolled bad so I'm not going to say it goes great (Ali snorts) but y'all can chat a little bit. I'm-- you know. You know, I'll let you cook a little and we'll see how it goes. I think that there's just a-- (Laughing) Janine! You have to stop!
(Everybody laughing)
JANINE: The asterisk didn't show up. They made it italic. It’s a shame.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I still understood. Do you need another chat first said, “Kenzie01283 said: LOL JK unless…” and then ”Kenzie01283 asterisk looks at you asterisk” which is italicized, which is still understood to be emoting
JANINE: Yeah. Yeah.
AUSTIN: For sure.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: God. Yeah, you can talk for a little bit. I think you-- There's a degree that’s like-- there's a degree of like a cat playing with a mouse here, which is like, (skeptically) alright we'll see where this goes, Valence. Like I was going to shoot you a few few weeks ago, but yeah we can talk, I guess. But then like yeah, you talk for a little bit and maybe like part of why you don't get much good information-- the big reason you don't get much good information is cause like Kenzie doesn't fucking know anything about this particular thing. But what I will color in a little bit for you is to the degree that you can even say this on-- via a main
DRE: Yeah. Yeah.
AUSTIN: via a service that would theoretically be keeping records of what said, you do get a little bit more about her deal and her desire to like get promoted again. She doesn't go into detail as to why she got demoted and all of that. And I think at one point she just straight-up says like,
AUSTIN (as Kenzie): How did you know about my demotion?
DRE: Oh I mean that's an easy explanation. And like Valence hacked into their-- or her mech
AUSTIN: Right.
DRE: And was able to kind of review personnel files.
AUSTIN: And she goes
AUSTIN (as Kenzie): ooooh (laughs) I thought you might be involved in what happened.
DRE (as Valence): No. Honestly I was just looking for anything I could use to just stop the fighting and that was the first thing I found.
AUSTIN: Um, she says,
AUSTIN (as Kenzie): That's ironic because trying to stop fighting is what got me in trouble to begin with.
DRE: Uh... Valence sends back a sad wolf emoji.
02:15:01
AUSTIN: Perfect. And it goes on like that. You don't get more at this point but that is definitely a little bit, you know. (Laughs) Janine is now just RPing as Kenzie in the chat. God. Alright, do y’all want to roll this entanglement? And wrap up and see what this is? Maybe it's going to be good. Maybe it'll be not a big deal.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You know?
ALI: It'll be fine. It'll be good. It'll be fun to do and good. (laughs)
AUSTIN: You do not get to be BigWolfAwoo87. (Janine laughs) (Dre laughs) (Ali sighs) (laughs) God.
JANINE: Anyone who got a message from that screen name would not answer. (Ali laughs) (Austin laughs)
AUSTIN: You don't know what Kenzie is about. (Janine makes a doubtful sound.) You don't know where Kenzie’s life is. So, also again since I've given you some time, would you like to upgrade your tier?
JANINE: It feels like if we don't do it we’ll never be able to do it? Like it feels kind of like
AUSTIN: Yeah
JANINE: one of those things.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
AUSTIN: It does! It feels so much like you just won the lottery in a weird way. (Laughs) Including the entanglement attached with it.
ALI: Right. And we'd end up we have for material right now we'd end up with three.. one supply left?
AUSTIN: You'd end up with one-- Well, you end up with-- right now you have nine supply. Eight of it would go towards tiering you up.
ALI: Okay yeah, and then we would have one left over.
AUSTIN: I mean actually, you could split it up-- you could split that nine supply up however you want to. Right? So like you could... do you know what I mean? You could end up-- there's a way to game this in a way.
ALI: With a bunch of personnel and a bunch of material? Or?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Cause you could do-- you could theoretically put all nine of it into-- into-- if you wanted to end up with four personnel instead of four materiel this is the point where you could do that, you know what I mean?
ALI: Ohhh. Oh oh oh yeah.
AUSTIN: You basically because you have-- that nine supply is loose so you could tell me, yeah we're going to spend that for materiel we already have to help the tier up, then we'll spend four personnel from the nine supply and then we'll split that remaining five up between the two. Do you know what I mean? You could kind of-- you're gonna end up with five points total that you can put anywhere.
ALI: Right. I feel like I prefer just spending the eight and leaving materiel as it is and then having one in personnel?
AUSTIN: Sure.
ALI: But I'm up to group ideas there.
JANINE: I’d be fine with that.
AUSTIN: Okay. Valence, you're good to?
DRE: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: Alright, so that raises you to tier one. You've beaten the Rapid Evening there despite being a smaller group. I think it's-- I think credit goes to your general mercenary nature. You're always looking to get ahead. (laughs) Y’all are definitely the most successful Squad we've ever had in Friends of the Table. Lots of lots of just wins. Win win win no matter what.
ALI: But also the way this happens is that a rich person sees my like cracked iPhone 6 and is like (starts laughing) (Dre laughs)
AUSTIN: You're calling me out specifically, Ali.
ALI: (Still laughing) Oh no!
AUSTIN: (reassuring) It's fine. No, I have a seven, it's fine. It's fine. I want there to be phones I care about again! I'm saying it into a microphone because I haven't done that. I have put-- I saved up and put the money aside to get a new phone and I every day for the last week I've been like, maybe tomorrow I'll go get that new phone. I just don't care. (Dre hums) My phone's battery is dying. I could just go replace the battery and that's probably what I will end up doing. But I saved up the money for it. I have-- (sighs) I just don't care about any of these fucking phones.
ALI: Yeah yeah, they're all so bad.
AUSTIN: God. (Laughing) Janine, you can't just RP in the chat! (Everyone laughs) But Gucc1G4ng with the I and the A as a one and four is definitely Gucci's Semaphore AIM name. (Dre giggles) God. Alright, so I need to roll it and entanglement here for y’all. Or you need to. And that is tied to your relationship-- because of the way this rolled-- I’m double-checking it, but I think it's tied to your relationship with Kesh? Which is probably zero. I'm pretty sure. Duh-d-d-duh... Where is it? Collect. Here we go. No, that's repair. That's recover. That's a long-term project. Collect. “Entanglements are determined by your relationship with the faction.” Okay. So that is I'm doing this on the Kesh one because that's the-- that's the wealth I let you roll. So your relationship with Kesh is buh-buh-buh-buh. I closed the thing. There it is. Clea-- it's neutral, so it's a zero. It doesn't go either way. Which means zero or higher: Table C. That's a good table! That's the table you're on right now. So you now will roll a number of dice equal to three minus your squad’s relationship with your patron faction. Which is Orion. And your relationship with Orion I think it's pretty good right now. Yeah, you got a one with them so you're going to roll two dice. So someone roll two dice on Table C of the entanglements. Which is what got you here to begin with.
02:20:26
DRE: Hm.
AUSTIN: I think you take highest. Oh wait, do you also still have that thing that lets you?
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay.
ALI: Re-roll it, yeah.
AUSTIN: So give me two D6 twice.
DRE: Oh, twice?
AUSTIN: Yeah, you roll twice and pick the one you want.
DRE: Okay.
AUSTIN: So that is a... four.
ALI: I'll roll the second one.
AUSTIN: And that is a three. So your options here for an entanglement are... I almost thought it was the same exact shit. (Dre laughs) Okay. “Cooperation: a squad with plus three status asks for a favor. Agree to do it, or forfeit one rep per tier of the friendly squad or lose one status with them. The favor must be completed by the end of the next mission and may take the form of a long-term project. The mission objective or secondary objective: if you don't have a plus three squad status you avoid entanglements right now.” Or “Embedded favorite: the squad is burdened with an NPC that it's superior is fond of and believes needs field experience. The NPC must accompany you on your next mission and get out intact. If you refuse to take the NPC along take minus two trust with the faction pressuring you to break them in. (Laughing) If the NPC dies take minus three trust (Ali laughs) and if they are injured take minus one trust. The NPC is a temporary specialist cohort with quality equal to the squad’s tier minus. What if this is just Gucci? (Ali sighs) (Dre and Ali laugh) What if this is you’re burdened with Gucci? (Ali laughs despairingly) On your next mission. And I don't know what that mission is yet! I have to sleep on what that is. But, I definitely think there's a world in which this sequence ends with you basically being called into like a room with a projector (“TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.” starts playing) and her being like, I have to go somewhere and I need a special escort. (Ali laughs). And I think-- are you good with that? Do you want that? Or do you want cooperation instead?
DRE: I like the NPC one more.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: It's so fun. It's so fun
JANINE: That’s way better. (Ali laughs)
AUSTIN: Mm-hm So let me sleep on what this mission is, but yeah, you're gonna do some work for Horizon the resistance group next.
ALI: God.
AUSTIN: So that's... fun.
02:22:29
(“TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.” ends)
02:24:38