Transcriber: #Daneran6021 [having transcribed the Live at the Table episode, then editing that for the main feed]
AUSTIN: The Road to PALISADE is a show about war, politics, religion, revolutionary violence, and the many consequences thereof. For a full list of content warnings please check the episode description.
KEITH: One of my regulars, one of my, you know, “I see you every, I see, you know, you're a once-a-month” kind of guy. He'd been in a fight, you know, it wasn't that bad, it's, you know, enough to where it's like, I'm gonna go get a drink and talk about that I got, I'm— I'm a little beaten up. There's a crowd of people who are trying to lay hands on every single truck that comes in. And it's holding things up and people are like: "don't touch my shit. Get away. Who are you?" Um, and, uh, he got out, tried to confront these people, and they, like, ganged up on him.
AUSTIN: The people in the Mirage, the leaders in the Mirage…
[“Permanent Peace” by Jack de Quidt starts playing]
AUSTIN: …don't want us to get involved, they're cowards, they're letting people die, we have a responsibility, we're supposed to love each other, let love be your weapon. You know, raise your love up like a sword. Um, this is my next song, "my love is a sword and it's sharp"…
JACK: Basically, like, taking a stock audit in the morning, figuring out what I've got…
AUSTIN: [chuckles quietly] Hm.
JACK: …what I've got to sell. Um, and I open, uh, one of the containers, uh, and there's a man inside. [chuckles briefly]
AUSTIN: [chuckles, surprised] Oh!
JACK: And he is wearing, Pact colors. And he puts his hands up, uh, and he surrenders. Uh, and he is preparing to, he is prepared to defect. He says that there are people on Palisade who have had enough of the war. They want the war to end. And that uh he just needs someone to take care of him here.
ALI: Carrying like a… like a computer device but, like, on the screen it's, like, just, like, little tiny little dots of of this map of the Brink of people. Um. And I think… Like, she notices one of the the names appear.
[“Permanent Peace” swells to new heights, with the drums and the electric guitar kicking in]
ALI: Like, appear-appear. Um, and it's uh somebody who was formerly missing, [chuckling] who could possibly now be in a cult!
JACK: Huh.
SYLVI: The phone lights up in a certain sequence, or whatever communication thing lights up in a certain sequence that makes her go to the bar restroom…
[“Permanent Peace” reaches a lull, with hesitant synth twangs.]
SYLVI: …where the mirror starts displaying text that is meant for her once it registers that she is in there. And I think it's just these big, blocky red letters: “Unsanctioned Divinity detected onboard the Brink; Monitor threat level while awaiting further instructions; Kill list remains unchanged.”
[“Permanent Peace” picks back up in full force, with drums and the electric guitar and plays to its end.]
AUSTIN: Welcome to Friends at the Table, an actual-play podcast focused on critical world-building, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends. I’m your host Austin Walker. And joining me today, Jack de Quidt.
JACK: Hello. Uh. You can find me on twitter @notquitereal and buy any of the music featured on the show at notquitereal.bandcamp.com.
AUSTIN: Keith Carberry.
KEITH: Uh. Hi, my name is Keith Carberry. You can find me on twitter @keithjaycarberry and you can find the let's plays that I do at youtube.com/RunButton.
AUSTIN: Sylvi Claire.
SYLVI: Hey, I’m Sylvia, and you can hear more of me if you search Emojidrome 2.0 in your podcatcher of choice.
AUSTIN: And Ali Acampora.
ALI: Um. Hi. You can find me over @ali_west on twitter and you can find the show over @friends_table.
AUSTIN: Today we are continuing our game of Orbital, “a sci-fi rpg of precarious spaces amid interstellar war” by Jack Harrison. Um. You can find links to that in the description of this episode. Um. Last time we… introduced the game… And we set up our characters and we… set up some of the Aspects of everything. I feel like maybe we should— We did an intro. We did, like, we— our intro sequences. Where we… did some stuff. Do we want to go around the room and let's say, maybe start with Keith here in the top left and introduce— reintroduce our characters…
KEITH: [overlapping] Sure.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …by name at least? We don't have to read everything, since we just… we did just do that episode. But just… maybe name, pronouns, class or playbook… I don't know, is there anything else super important…?
KEITH: [overlapping] Uhh…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It's just like, premise of who— what their what their deal is.
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah, sure.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] And then also go over what your Aspect is.
KEITH: I could do a deal.
AUSTIN: Your starting Aspect.
KEITH: My character's name is, uh, Cheal Pushy. My, uh, playbook is The Heart. Uh… Pronouns he/him. And his deal is that… in trying to… um… In penance for some mysterious crimes of the past has opened a nightclub/comedy club… and… Hmm. Is there any other— Oh, this whole— This other side is not my deal. That is my…
AUSTIN: That's the Aspect. Yeah.
KEITH: That's my Aspect. Um…
AUSTIN: But yeah.
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah. Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That's your vibe, right? And The Heart is someone who is…
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah. That’s my vibe.
AUSTIN: …“a hospitable individual with their own venue serving the community.” And then, what is your Aspect?
KEITH: Um. My Aspect is… Scum and Villainy. Uh…
AUSTIN: Hm!
KEITH: And we've got two gangs: the “weird Orchard Syndicate” and the “zealous Broken Circle.”
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: Uhh… Yeah.
AUSTIN: Cool. Uhh… Ali!
ALI: Um. Hi. Yeah. I’m playing… Mustard Red.
[AUSTIN chuckles discreetly]
ALI: Um. [chuckling] She is a… like, administrator / is involved with the… What is it? The Brink Proxy?
AUSTIN: [overlapping, uncertain] I think that’s right…?
ALI: [overlapping] Which is a community effort of…
AUSTIN: Where was that at? [overlapping] Yeah.
ALI: [overlapping] …people coming up with the upkeep of the ship. I think that's on…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It’s over here. Yes.
ALI: [overlapping] The Station Itself. Over there. Yeah. Umm… She… [laughs] She believes that, um, you know, with careful vigilance and… you know, keeping track of people she can keep the station more safe. Um… Kinda plunky… [laughs, overlapping] I don’t know…
AUSTIN: [half-chuckling, overlapping] Wait, clunky or plucky?
ALI: Yeah. I’m allowed to be plunky. Uh…
AUSTIN: Wait is plunky a thi— I don't know what plunky is. Is punky…?
ALI: [looking for words] It’s like a— a— [overlapping] personality trait!
KEITH: [overlapping, nonchalantly] It’s like when you’re carelessly playing a piano.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Wait! I thought it was…!
ALI: [laughing] When you're a go-getter… [overlapping] You’re a little off, but people like to have you around…
SYLVI: [overlapping] You mean plucky.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I think… I think that's plucky.
ALI: [laughs] Did I just say it wrong? [overlapping] Is that…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No, I—
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah.
KEITH: [overlapping] It’s just, it’s plucky, not plunky.
ALI: Plucky… [laughs]
AUSTIN: I like plunky! I like it with an “n.” [overlapping] It’s just— I didn't know if it was a different thing.
JACK: [overlapping] Plunky is way better.
SYLVI: [overlapping] I do prefer it.
KEITH: Plunky is when you're plucky but also clumsy. [half-chuckles]
[AUSTIN chuckles]
ALI: Uhuh. And also maybe evil or just a little and off— [laughs]
AUSTIN: Wait! Okay.
ALI: [chuckling] We're gonna see what happens…
SYLVI: Okay.
AUSTIN: Great. Oh we should also—
ALI: [vehemently] Evil is probably push’ it— We're gonna see what happens. [chuckles]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Aha.
ALI: [overlapping] Play to find out what happens. But…!
[SYLVI laughs]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] We shou—
JACK: [overlapping] Mustard seems like a weird little freak.
ALI: [overlapping] Yeah!
KEITH: [overlapping] Right. You have an evil job!
AUSTIN: Yeah. You an evil job.
KEITH: How long did you have that job, by the way?
ALI: No! I’m— You know… [laughs]
AUSTIN: Listen, Keith! People in the world are just trying to get by… [laughs, overlapping] they just have the job…
[KEITH laughs]
ALI: [overlapping] You know it's not just getting by!
[AUSTIN & SYLVI laugh]
ALI: It’s a community effort of… of station upkeep.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
ALI: And it's important, and sometimes you push it a little far and your mentor hates you now.
AUSTIN: [half-chuckling] I simply wouldn't work for Brink Proxy for 15 years. I would just find a different job!
ALI: [laughing] Okay! I— You know what…?!?
AUSTIN: It's fine. Um…
ALI: [overlapping] But Brink Proxy is different.
JACK: [overlapping] Also, like, Brink Proxy aren’t evil, right?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No, no-no-no.
ALI: [overlapping] From what Mustard is doing. Yes. Ye-ye-yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Brink Proxy is actually fine. Brink Proxy is actually fine. Um. I also just realized, we did not go over… Let's also include Connections to player characters and NPCs. Uh.
KEITH: Alright.
AUSTIN: So let's do yours, uh… What's…? Mustard. And then we'll go back and do Cheal’s.
ALI: Sure-sure-sure. So, mine’re— that is with Cheal: that I recently called— uh, caught Cheal gardening, which I know he is banned from.
AUSTIN: Oh, right!
[JACK laughs]
ALI: Um… [chuckles] I also have a connection with, uh, Paris, who's Jack's character. I asked Paris to find me a rare and dangerous fashion magazine from a distant planet.
AUSTIN: Right.
ALI: Um. I told Austin this [chuckles] the day after we recorded this last, that I woke up in the morning and I said to myself: [half-chuckling] “did we invite a magazine that killed people?” And we did do that.
AUSTIN: We did.
ALI: Um. Magic of storytelling.
AUSTIN: Uh-hum.
ALI: And my… [chuckles] My two… like, resident connections are: my former mentor turned into my biggest critic, who is—did we name that person…?
AUSTIN: [semi-tentatively] Yeah, that's… Craig.
ALI: [laughing in disbelief] Is it Craig?!?
KEITH: Right, Craig. [overlapping] Yeah, Craig.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Craig.
KEITH: My employee.
ALI: Okay. [overlapping] Craig, the employee, yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum, uhum.
ALI: The— Yeah. And then… [laughs]
AUSTIN: [chuckling] And Joe De Vivre.
ALI: And Joe De Vivre!
[KEITH laughs]
ALI: [laughing] The charming rogue I can't help loving!
[AUSTIN sighs]
ALI: Who is the twin—question mark—of Joy De Vivre.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
ALI: We'll get into that later.
AUSTIN: We’ll get into that later. Uh… Can we get yours really quick, uh… Ch-sssh… Cheal?
KEITH: Yeah. [overlapping] Uhm… We…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I almost said Chugie. I almost said Cheugy, that's a different thing.
[ALI chortles]
KEITH: That's wrong.
AUSTIN: That's wrong.
KEITH: Uh. You can call me Pushy.
[AUSTIN and SYLVI chuckle]
KEITH: Uh… We already talked about getting caught gardening by Red Mustard; but uh I also… heard a rumor that…
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: …3T is loading guns onto the orange shipments.
AUSTIN: Right. We have the blue orange shipments are about to come through, [overlapping] that's going to be one of the things that we talked about.
KEITH: [overlapping] I should write down that they’re blue oranges.
AUSTIN: You should. You should. And then your two NPCs…?
KEITH: Uh, right.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Craig.
KEITH: [overlapping] So I have Craig, the perfect employee that I just can't stand.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: And then I have The Ghost?
[AUSTIN chuckles]
KEITH: Question mark? [overlapping] That watches over me.
JACK: [overlapping] Oh, yeah!
AUSTIN: Yeah, right. Um. Okay, so let's move over to Jack!
JACK: Yeah. I’m playing Paris France. Pronouns: he/him. Looks like a young Christopher Walken.
AUSTIN: Hm.
JACK: Or I guess a Christopher Walken of kind of any age, honestly. [overlapping] I am—
AUSTIN: [overlapping] There's a great fan art of this character out there today.
JACK: There's some fantastic fan art [overlapping] of this character out there.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yes.
JACK: He is someone who, um… whose body is gradually becoming plastic. Specifically, like, plastic… plants and foliage. He is a Source, “a resourceful individual with the connections to get what you need.”
AUSTIN: Mm.
JACK: I have a connection to Mustard Red, who asked me to import a banned fashion magazine containing fashion that is dangerous to look at. Potentially from Columnar, outside in The Principality. And I also know Deutsch Synchro's true identity as—spoilers—a Principality spy, and see that connection as a valuable source of contraband—potentially, including a magazine that… kills you.
[ALI chuckles]
JACK: I found a stowaway defector from The Pact inside a shipping container and agreed to take care of them… despite knowing that, right now at least, I don't have the resources to do that… or the wherewithal to do that successfully.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right.
JACK: [overlapping] I have two connections…
AUSTIN: We have a name for that person, do we?
JACK: No, not yet. No.
AUSTIN: [quietly] Okay.
JACK: Um… And also, like, I don't want to reveal that I know they're there, for fear of also revealing my relationship with Deutsch Synchro…
AUSTIN: Right, sure.
JACK: …or inviting extra scrutiny. Um. My two relationships are: with Pinball, my old boss, I guess at The Markets back when I was some sort of low salesman—who still thinks he's calling the shots, despite the fact that I do not work for him anymore; and False Fruit…
[AUSTIN snickers]
JACK: …an orchard guildsman, one of the creepy orchard weirdos… who is a rival fruit trader.
AUSTIN: I just realized, Ali, we did not go over your Aspect. But let's finish up. Jack, talk about The Station Itself, and then we'll come back over to yours, Ally.
JACK: Yeah. The Aspect that I am playing is The Station Itself. Let me just go back over to it. Here. I pick it up when someone interacts with life support systems, wanders unmapped corridors, or seeks the strange. The book asked for a kind of AI entity. A sort of Siri or Cortana—
AUSTIN: Uhum.
JACK: But we've decided instead that it's a group of volunteers operating, essentially, a switchboard called Brink Proxy, whose two directives are: “bread, water, and rest” making sure everybody is fed, everybody has a place to sleep, and everybody uh has enough water; and, additionally, to “maintain the upkeep and development of The Station.”
AUSTIN: I love— The most… The most Twilight Mirage thing there could be is: this thing asked us for a Divine and we gave it a bunch of people—and said “no-no-no, people are going to do that one! Don't worry about it!”
JACK: [chuckling] Yeah! Yeah. God, if we were in any other [overlapping] of our sci-fi things, we'd have…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah!
JACK: …that's a Divine right there! [overlapping] But in the Mirage…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It would be! But Mirage: switchboard! Um, Ali! Can you go back and tell us about your Aspect?
ALI: Yeah, my Aspect is The Unaffiliated. I pick this up when someone is dealing with their friends and neighbors, or new people— “or when new people arrive on the station.” The Aspects that are attached with this is an upcoming event called The Cycle End Feast; the station's pretty busy right now with… fruit excitement.
[AUSTIN snickers quietly]
ALI: But [chuckles] soon at the end of this, um… the people who stay here and… live here are gonna have a celebration of the refilling the battery, or whatever.
AUSTIN: Uhum.
ALI: And then… [laughs] the Naming System for the different sections of The Station are that they are numbered.
AUSTIN: Alright. Do you know how many numbers there are?
AUSTIN: Like, what's a high number?
[a brief pause]
ALI: [unsure] Like, a 47?
AUSTIN: Okay. So it's like there's, like, up nearly 50. Around 50. [overlapping] Total.
ALI: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay, cool.
KEITH: Sorry, this is number of what?
AUSTIN: Sections on the station.
KEITH: Sections. [overlapping] Okay, gotcha.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. That way, you're like “you want me to walk all the way to section 48?” You know, that means something. [overlapping] So.
ALI: [overlapping] Sure-sure-sure.
AUSTIN: Um. And I’ll just note really quick, Keith: The Scum and Villany is picked up when someone “visits the seedier parts of the station, witnesses a shady deal, or when things are too quiet.” All these Aspects, like the player character sheets have moves on them that you can do, and then also guidance, and scoundrel names and other stuff like that to to pick from. I mean, yours have scoundrel names because it's scoundrel stuff, Keith, whereas I think Ali's has stationer names. Yeah. Excuse me. Um.
And as a reminder: those get picked up— those are yours right now, because you're starting with them. But let's say, Ali, you're in a scene and you're, like: “I want to talk to my neighbor.” You don't have to play both of that. Somebody else can pick up the Aspect Sheet.
ALI: Uhum.
AUSTIN: Those get picked up and put down as we play. Um… Sylvi!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Well, hello!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Talk to us about your character and your Aspect.
SYLVI: My character is… Deutsch Synchro. Real name is Lament. I am The Shadow. Pronouns are they/she. The Shadow is “a concealed individual working towards a secret mission.” Um. So, like, I guess worth mentioning that I’m a spy for The Curtain.
AUSTIN: Uhum.
SYLVI: We decided on The Curtain, right? Yeah.
AUSTIN: I think you were The Curtain, I’m pretty sure.
SYLVI: Yes. [overlapping] Yes, I was the Curtain.
KEITH: [overlapping, half-chuckling] I do love the spy who can't remember which side… [chuckles]
[AUSTIN chuckles]
KEITH: [laughing] …they’re spying…
SYLVI: [half-chuckling] Really inspired by Revolver Ocelot.
[AUSTIN & JACK laugh, ALI chuckles]
SYLVI: [excitedly] Listen! Maybe this becomes a character trait, who knows! Play to find out what happens!
AUSTIN: Play to find out! Right!
SYLVI: Umm… Let's see. What's… important things on my character sheet. Um. Right. Starting with the notes: “Paris is keeping my identity secret.” Which we mentioned because I am a valuable source of contraband. I’m also helping 3T, Austin's character— 3T, right?
AUSTIN: 3T, yeah. [overlapping] Ye-ye-yeah.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Ye-yeah. “Build a network of contacts who can aid their cause.” Which I’m sure is, like, super good for them. Um…
AUSTIN: [snickers, then in a regular tone] I think those are the big things.
SYLVI: I think those are the big things. My Aspect is The Lambent Strand, which is not what we're calling this because this, [half-chuckling] ‘cause there are— already two— both things in our setting.
AUSTIN: [uncertainly] Do we have lambent stuff? Do we have lambents?
SYLVI: [overlapping] We have the— oh no, I’m—
ALI: [overlapping] We have the Lambent House.
SYLVI: Yeah, the Lambent House.
KEITH: [overlapping, unintelligible] That’s the Lambic.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh! No, that's a Lambic.
SYLVI: Oh, right! Okay.
AUSTIN: Yeah that's different.
[ALI chortles]
AUSTIN: That’s a type of beer.
KEITH: [overlapping] That's very close.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That's fair. That’s fair. It's very close.
SYLVI: Umm. Okay, nevermind. Well… I didn't want to call it lambent. [overlapping] So…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah! No-no-no, that's fine! Eh, yeah.
SYLVI: We're call— “Glowing thread weaving every life together into a great tapestry.” We are calling this… The Fervor or Devotion are the two names we've got for it right now. Um. And I pick up when “someone draws on cosmic energies, asks for answers from the stars, or when a weaver reveals themselves.” [overlapping] Um…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] A “weaver” being someone who can work this power.
SYLVI: Yeah. And, um… This is, like, tied directly to the new cult that's been showing up on…
AUSTIN: Yes.
SYLVI: …the Brink.
AUSTIN: One of our Threats.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Which I’ll get to once I’m— Let me do my little intro and then we'll hop over. I should note there is also The Markets as an Aspect that no one has picked up yet. If we do need to pick this up because something's happening with The Market we should— we have to, then, “name an outside investor and two intentions.” Of which there are some suggestions here, but we have our own things. We could probably figure out. Um…
KEITH: Did we do… uh… bonds?
AUSTIN: Oh, no. We did not do bonds for The Shadow… For Deutsch. Deutsch? [overlapping] What are your— Did you?
SYLVI: [overlapping] Wait, didn’t I? I thought I did.
AUSTIN: Maybe you did. Yes, you did! [overlapping] You did! You did! ‘Cause you you did—
JACK: [overlapping] Ye-yeah!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Ye-ye-yeah!
AUSTIN: Oh, do we do NPCs?
SYLVI: [uncertainly] Do we do that?
KEITH: [overlapping] That’s what we didn’t do.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah, we've been doing these. That's what we didn't do. [overlapping] We didn't do NPCs.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Oh, okay!
AUSTIN: [overlapping, ] We didn't do… [half-chuckling] Cratch…
S: [overlapping] Cratch Hatchet!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …for Joy.
SYLVI: [half-chuckling] Wow! That was a name I sure came up!
[ALI giggles]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Aha! Cratch Hatchet!
SYLVI: [overlapping] The surly space hauler I play cards with. And Joy De Vivre. The beautiful spacer I told everything to.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Aaah!
SYLVI: [half-chuckling, overlapping] Who’s Joe De Vivre's twin I’m assuming.
[ALI chortles]
SYLVI: [overlapping] Um, I guess sounds… Aha?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] And Joy…! You told everything to Joy. You told everything to Joy.
SYLVI: Yeah, I told everything to Joy.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Daaamn!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Well, she's very pretty.
AUSTIN: Okay. [chuckles]
SYLVI: Um… I guess, worth mentioning [half-chuckling] my handler got killed and that didn't come up last time…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh! I didn't know that!
SYLVI: [overlapping] But I should have brought that up in my… my first…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Sure!
SYLVI: [overlapping] …my first scene. Yeah. That was my complication, [overlapping] my handler got killed yesterday.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] And you’re— You're a humanlike android, it says here.
SYLVI: I am a humanlike android…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] With bunny ears.
SYLVI: [overlapping] … with bunny ears. [half-chuckling] That’s important to me [overlapping] that we got that out there.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That's important. That is very important. Love that.
SYLVI: Fully articulating robotic bunny ears.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum. [chuckles]
SYLVI: [overlapping] Thank you.
KEITH: Oh, robotic? Not— Not biological.
SYLVI: No-no, I’m an android.
AUSTIN: Yeah, but you could be an android with bunny ears.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Hmmm.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] You could just have bunny ears. It's Twilight Mirage.
SYLVI: [overlapping] You know— Yeah, I know but this is, it’s not what I want…
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: No, I get it. That's fine. Ye-ye-ye-yeah.
[SYLVI laughs]
AUSTIN: You're allowed. Mustard is a cyborg… Paris is a human with the… [overlapping] collapsing plastic plant flowers…
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay. Making sure everybody's on the same page. Um… I am playing The Signal, “a compelling individual looking to create political change on The Station.” My name is Teleos Triton Tanager, or 3T. I am— use he/him. Umm. I am a rebellious pop star, musician, rock star, who… is specifically modeled after Teezo Touchdown. Uhm… My…
My vibe is that I think that we should be getting more involved in… what's happening outside of uh The Mirage. That there's this evil empire called The Principality and isn't our whole thing about stopping evil from happening and creating a better world and making sure that people are safe and protected…? We have all this technology and we have all this… this power, and we have this history of standing up against fascism and against imperialism and now we're just going to cower here in the fucking Mirage? I thought we were better than this. Let's get out there, etc.
And… my… relationships: “Deutsch is helping me build a network of people sympathetic to my cause.” And as established, I… Do we have— Oh, right. You…. Pushy knows, or believes, has heard rumors that I’m loading guns and weapons onto the blue orange shipments. And also, I think Pushy and I have a loose relationship, because Pushy runs a venue and I’m sure I’ve played that venue. I’ve since moved on to bigger venues here. But I think we probably go back. Um. [overlapping] I also—
KEITH: [overlapping] Sometimes you just want a smaller, more intimate show.
[ALI murmurs in agreement]
AUSTIN: Yeah, exactly. 100%! My two NPCs are: Coracin Seventine, who's the head of security, the pissy bureaucrat trying to shut 3T down; and Display Knife, my rival and one-time lover. And then my Aspect… This isn't me. This is me.
The Interstellar War, “an all-consuming conflict burning across the stars. Pick up when someone deals with soldiers, officers or spies; or discovers the war is closer than they thought.” The three sides in our war: The Pact of Necessary Venture; The Curtain of Divinity; and Millennium Break. The two— the differences between them all are “their colonial excuses and their vision for the future.” Um… I will be lifting— picking that up to play that whenever that stuff happens. Um.
Do we want to define The Market stuff right now? Just so that we have it in case it pops up? I realized we probably should have done that before but… Who… do we think has money, who would want to, like… “Pick up when someone seeks a buyer; shops for something uncommon; or needs a job done.” “The ways we trade for resources on this station.” The things are: “an outside investor” and then “two intentions.” Do we have something that fits right for outside investor?
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN: I guess Stel Orion in general. Right? Could Stel Orion… could some corp from Stel Orion want to be, like, using this as an opportunity to [overlapping] fuck with stuff? Because they're not in the war.
JACK: [overlapping] It’s interesting. Would the…
AUSTIN: Or they're in the war, but they're in the middle of their own internal civil war, they don't have a unified front.
JACK: I think they would need to make a… This is— This is play to find out what happens.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum.
JACK: [overlapping] I think they would need to make a really good case to just show up and be, like, expect The Mirage to start buying from them. Um… Given what we know about The Mirage. But that might be fun to see.
AUSTIN: I mean, it could be parts of Stel Orion that are aligned to… The Pact, who are not as aggressively imperial. Aren’t— Did not literally invade Palisade, because… The Curtain beat them to the punch. Or it could be parts of Orion that are tied to Millennium Break, right? [overlapping] This could be an outside—
JACK: [overlapping] Right.
AUSTIN: You know. Millennium Break has money parts. Have criminal enterprises that have money. What was… Tes’ili Serikos's group called? [overlapping] Uhh…?
JACK: [overlapping] Oh god.
AUSTIN: God… The… The Fenex? [overlapping] The foxes?
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah. It was something like foxes. When you said Tes’ili, the first thing I thought of was a fox, and I couldn't understand why.
[AUSTIN laughs]
JACK: So I think it is, like… [overlapping] the Red Fennecs, or something.
[ALI murmurs in agreement]
SYLVI: [overlapping] I think it was The Red Fennecs. That sounds very familiar to me.
AUSTIN: Yeah, The Red Fennecs. “Technically, the Red Fennecs are an Apostolosian logistics and transport squad. In actuality, they’re utilized by their commanding officer, Tes’ili Serikos, as the backbone of a humble smuggling operation.” Maybe that's developed into a front for some sort of… you know, scheme to make Millennium Break money on the up and up? You know? Tes’ili survived all this, right?
JACK: Uhh. [semi-convinced] I… believe… so.
AUSTIN: That sounds right to me. [overlapping] I don't see any notes of them dying.
JACK: [overlapping] I think we last saw them in the Kingdom game.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Tes didn’t… Tes is sturdier than that, I feel.
J: [overlapping] Real little weirdo.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That could be fun. That could be… It could be fun for that to have turned into, like, Red Fennec… Red Fennecs Delivery and… you know… Something. Or, like, Red Fennecs— Like, what's the— what's the cleaned up… version of a smuggling operation? What's the front? How do you clean up… this name?
JACK: It could just be, like… RFE. [overlapping] Red Fennecs Enterprises.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] RFE, RFI!
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN: Ye-ye-yeah.
JACK: And I think that they've become known as blockade runners.
AUSTIN: Hmm.
JACK: They've become, like, extremely successful smugglers in terms of being able to punch through… Principality blockades.
AUSTIN: Uhum.
JACK: Which is why they're valuable to The Mirage. Because— Or I don't know if they're valuable to the Mirage. They claim that they can add value to the Mirage by being like: “we can get stuff in and out easier than anything.”
AUSTIN: Right, [overlapping] totally.
JACK: [overlapping] Whether or not that's true.
AUSTIN: Totally.
KEITH: [looking for clarification] So they have a cleaned up image. But they're just saying like: “hey, we can do our crime stuff for you.”
AUSTIN: I think that if it's— If it's Tes’ili, Tes’ili is truly in it for the profit, and like: yeah, they'll do some blockade running. But, like… Tes has always been… business first. And, like, I think that there would be the opportunity here to… Like, [overlapping] I bet RFE…
KEITH: [overlapping] Business first, ask questions later.
AUSTIN: …ask questions later. Right! Exactly. [chuckling] Exactly! I bet there would be a degree to which RFE might do business with all of the major Stels… through weird… you know… Through various fronts that have been set up, [overlapping] right?
KEITH: [overlapping] I… I was mostly…
JACK: [overlapping] I smell war profiteers.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ye-ye-yeah. Aha.
KEITH: [overlapping] I was mostly wondering. Is, like, well, if they're just going around being like: “yeah we'll smuggle for you” do they need a cleaned up… you know… [overlapping] RFE…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That's what I’m saying. They do. If they're if they're going to be The Markets and not Scum and Villainy, they need to be that. Right?
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: They're “the way we trade for resources on the station. Pick up when someone seeks a buyer; shop for something uncommon; or needs a job done.” Obviously, there's overlap with Scum and Villainy there, right? But they are— This group needs to primarily be— This outside investor needs to primarily be a business thing and not a smu— Like, I think they probably do smuggling. I bet they also do blockade running. But it's about the money, it's about the business. Um… “Choose two intentions” Their suggestions: “establish their franchises; commodify our traditions; control our media; offer conditional safety…
JACK: [exasperatedly] Ohhh, dear…!
AUSTIN: …make us a tourist destination; turn us into entertainment.”
[a brief pause]
KEITH: Oh, some of those are brutal.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Aha.
[ALI chuckles exasperatedly]
KEITH: [overlapping] Like, the ones that are kind of out of left field. Like, imagine a “turn us into entertainment” ending for…
AUSTIN: Aha! I— Easy to! Maybe not for— I don't think that that's an RFE thing.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Ohhh.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I don't think that's a— Tes’ili doesn't have the end— I mean, if this was Alise Breka’s Enterprises, [chuckles, overlapping] then maybe.
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] But it's not, right? I mean the last— [chuckles] Their outside investor lists are like: “red sun galactic, mag bank alliance, murdoch the undying.” [half-chuckling] I think it's pretty straightforward what they're… what they're gesturing at here. Which is why I initially was like: maybe we go Stel Orion. Or! Okay! If we want to go really evil, we do know that there is a Divine who is this. Right? This is The Divine…
JACK: Ohh.
AUSTIN: Fuck, what is the name of that Divine?
KEITH: [from a slight distance] The Divine Fuck.
AUSTIN: The Divine Fuck. Ummm.
[ALI & KEITH chuckle]
SYLVI: [overlapping] Damn.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ar— It's Arbitrage, right? It's… Or it's— is that right?
JACK: Arbitrage.[1]
AUSTIN: Arbitrage. Ye-yeah. Arbitrage.[2] Yeah.
JACK: Did we change the name…?
AUSTIN: We… we added the— a comma.
SYLVI: [overlapping, exclaiming] God!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It's The Divine, comma, Arbitrage. Uh-huh.
[someone snickers]
AUSTIN: Because— Oh, sorry. In Twilight Mirage it was The Machine Arbitrage. As it did not want to be considered a Divine. But under The Principality it's happy to be considered a Divine…
[JACK groans]
AUSTIN: …because you need to be one to get some extra… [overlapping] weight. And also…
JACK: [overlapping] I would throw out RFE for and replace them with the… and just make ‘em fuckin’ horrible.
AUSTIN: Ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-yeah. For sure. For sure, for sure, for sure.
JACK: Especially because The Mirage has a kind of queasy relationship [overlapping] with Divines, anyway.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That's exactly it! Right? It's like they would absolutely let The Divine in, if The Divine would’ve said: “I’m, you know, I’m from here! Look at your records! [overlapping] I’m from The Mirage!” Right?
JACK: [overlapping] Yep. Yep!
AUSTIN: Um. [half-chuckling] So what are these? What is the— What are these— What are these intentions?
[a brief pause, then at the same time]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I feel like—
JACK: [overlapping] Commodify traditions.
AUSTIN: “Commodify our traditions.”
[ALI sighs]
AUSTIN: I feel like this is light, but I do think “establish their franchises” is something I can read more broadly to basically mean like: “become the dollar.”
AUSTIN: Like, be the thing on which, like— Be the global credit system. Right? Like, you know who— You know the most stable thing in the world is the global credit system? Because everything is on it. Not everything, right. We've learned this recently with the war in Ukraine about how those systems work, if you hadn't known already. Umm.
But like: don't bother being… don't try to be the… There's a Stel Orion intro that's about this. Where I forget the exact— I forget the exact thing that that motherfucker says… but they're— You know, it's— It's one thing to be the… the clothing on the racks in the store. It's another thing to be the mall, where all of the stores are. And I think it's very Arbitrage to be like: “I want every— I want every… monetary exchange… Every purchase comes through my systems and I get a cut. Everything on Palisade, everything on the Brink, eventually, everything back in The Mir—”
We don't even know if Arbitrage ever actually left The Mirage, is the other thing. Right? We know that Arbitrage met with Thisbe on Partizan but we don't know that a machine even left The Mirage. Arbitrage could have been reaching through this forever. Anyway. So that's my pitch. My pitch is: I’m not going to even write “establish my franchise,” I’m just going to write “become the backbone of all commerce.” Light work.
Alright. So… that's us. We then ran our intro setup. We opened with “3T’s concerts are pushing the youth into wanting militaristic—” Oh, I should read our threats first, probably. Three threats: “hundreds of military starships are using a nearby moon as a staging area; residents have been disappearing emerging days later as new new members of a strange cult; and a huge shipment of blue oranges has pushed the Brink to the brink, there are too many people to safely house to keep well fed, etc.”
There’s also a bunch of visuals: “swirling nebulae; a skirt of various large ships permanently welded under the central structure; light tubes and lamps lit with bioluminescent algae-like organisms; navigational signage, well marked pathways; community gardens; central emergency generator, fiery, deliberately used as spa by residents;” Important!
“Battle damage, scars from a recent Principality attack, people are working to fix it; a mutated community garden with grasping vines and sprawling roots; stray signals, devices aboard the Brink will occasionally pick up broadcasts they weren't meant to; and invasive bird species, a misplaced shipment of birds moving through the space station led to a community of birds that now lives on the station.” Let me see them on the map. Okay!
[ALI giggles]
AUSTIN: Again, so. Here are the opening scenes: “3T's concerts are pushing the youth into wanting militarastic [corrects himself] militaristic intervention and The Principality.” We saw kids literally spray painting stuff on the walls about getting involved in the war. “Paris finds a stowaway and defector from The Pact and agrees to care for them.” That was one of the things you mentioned, right… Sylvi? Was that— Or was it Jack? [overlapping] Jack is Paris.
SYLVI: [overlapping] That’s Jack.
JACK: [overlapping] Um, that’s me.
AUSTIN: “While sipping coffee, Mustard notices a missing person reappearing,” after being put in the cult, presumably. “Lament receives orders, learns about secret Divine onboard.” A thing that we'd forgotten to mention, I guess. Maybe we've hinted at.
SYLVI: Yeah.
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN: And “Pushy talks to a black-eyed regular about the big groups of people laying hands on the trucks.” People are trying to get at those trucks. Alright. So! Let me hit the play button again! I’ve gone through all these… And we’re at… [looking for the relevant part in the rulebook] Creating characters. Connections.
Play guide: “Unlike many role-playing games, Orbital has a structured turn system throughout play. Every round each player chooses one of the three narrative actions to move the story forward: narrate a minor scene…” Like we already did. “...exploring your character's life in a short narration; framing a major scene, where you answer a story question through improvised play; and read the station, gather perspectives from your community on a vital issue. You don't have to follow the same turn order each round, but every player should take an action before anyone goes ahead.”
Um… Let me see if there's any— So we have that little board over there. For, like, marking all of this stuff. Which… Cheal, you've also gone. None of us have yet acted in this next round, obviously. We did our intro minor scenes…
KEITH: Wait, wait, sorry. When did I act in…?
AUSTIN: You didn't move your little… [overlapping] heart icon of yours.
KEITH: [overlapping] Oh! Okay, got you.
AUSTIN: Do you see on this board right here? The yellow— the yellow thing? It doesn't matter. All those need to go back the other way, anyway. Because we've all acted. [reads from rulebook] “Continuing play: From here take turns normally. Choose an action each round. Think about what your character wants to achieve and who could help them succeed. Bringing the characters together as swiftly as possible is strongly advised.”
“If you're struggling to come up with an idea, pause for a moment and talk with the table. Ask: ‘What do we want to find out next?’ As you discuss, consider the remaining station Threats, Aspects, questions and your character's motivations. At the end of every round, consider the Threats your station faces and decide if any were resolved. This might mean they were averted, or that they've already come to pass. Either way, cross them off from your Station Sheet!”
And when we mark the last threat as resolved, whether that's resolved and we're safe or resolved because it's come to pass. Bring things to— “It's time to bring things to a close. To wrap up loose ends play one more round.” We open that final round with a minor scene… and that demonstrates how our lives changed. Um. And then we debrief. Uh, so I think that that's the big stuff… This puts everybody through. Yep. Okay. Does anyone want to do… take their first turn… of this first full round?
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN: Are we missing…? Oh, you moved all the way back, I see. [overlapping] There we go.
JACK: [overlapping] Um. I have a question about the Aspects.
AUSTIN: Yes!
JACK: Um. The Aspects have a bunch of stuff on them, in terms of, like “pick up when…”
AUSTIN: Yep.
JACK: …in terms of, sort of, like guidance as to when the Aspects should become involved.
AUSTIN: Uhum.
JACK: Can you also use them to frame a major scene? Or do you have to frame a major scene involving your character?
AUSTIN: They are for your character. You're picking up… Anybody can pick up any Aspect. You are playing your character. Right? [overlapping] So…
JACK: [overlapping] I see. Okay. So the Aspects necessarily…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I believe that it’s true.
JACK: …become involved during somebody else's scene.
AUSTIN: That's correct. I’ll double— I’ll re-read it. Or I’ll read the full version of this from the book, since the shortened version here references that the book has longer things.
JACK: Okay.
AUSTIN: Um… Let's see. It might be the case that you can play as an Aspect, but let me… [overlapping] let me double check.
JACK: [overlapping] Well, I look at some of the stuff on Aspects… for example, on… On The Station Itself it says something like “trigger an ominous countdown” or [overlapping] “broadcast a message…” and…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right. Those are moves you can use in any scene. As long as you’ve—
JACK: [overlapping] Well, yes…
AUSTIN: …as long as someone has “interacted with life support systems; wandered unmapped corridors; or seeks the strange.”
JACK: Right. Yes.
AUSTIN: Do you see— You get what I’m saying? Like, that's the trigger. The trigger is…
JACK: For these things.
AUSTIN: Think about like a PBTA term. Where it says: “when someone da-da-da-da-da-da…”
JACK: [semi-excitedly] Yes.
AUSTIN: …then you get to say “I do _____.” I get to make one of this set of moves. Alright, let me read from what's a major scene. “A major scene could be a tense negotiation, a desperate conflict, or a startling discovery. It's you and your friends figuring out the answer to a compelling story question through improvised play.”
“It can be intimidating being asked to create a compelling scene from scratch, though. These steps should help you get there: 1. Choose a scene question. A major scene should tightly focus around a story question. A kinetic scene might ask: ‘can we fight our way to the bridge?’ Or a more considered scene might ask: ‘can we convince these soldiers to back down?’ or ‘what lurks in the shadows of deck seven?’” We are, of course, already know the answer to that one.
[JACK giggles]
AUSTIN: It's Phrygian. Um… “[2.] Choose characters: Choose two or more characters who are present. You don't necessarily have to choose your own character. Try to leave someone free to play Aspects, if possible.” Uh, that's the other thing is: so, if someone is not in a scene, they can play as many Aspects as they want. This isn't like— We are just all GMing and the Aspects give us a way to focus that GMing. You know?
JACK: Cool.
AUSTIN: So, then you “set the scene.” So, choose a scene question. Choose characters. “[3.] Set the scene, describing the environment and consider where are you, what's it look like, who else is present, what just happened.” You know, are you in an established location? What are the kind of textures and sounds and lighting of a place? Are there minor characters? Are there crowded streets? Were there recent developments between the the last scene in this one that we haven't talked about?
Then, just: “[4.] Choose scene start. Decide how the scene starts. If you've got a good idea, describe how the scene begins with your character making a move. What do they do or say? If you're struggling to think of an opening, ask another player to pick up a relevant Aspect and make a move to open the scene. How will your characters react? And then, once the scene starts players are free to describe their characters making moves, as the story unfolds and you explore your question. There's no fixed turn order, but try to give everyone a character to act. If someone—” [corrects himself] “But try to give everyone a chance to act.”
“If someone seems unsure about how to participate, ask them questions about their character to bring them into the action. You'll probably also have one or more Aspects picked up and used by players who can use their Aspect moves to introduce complications, pushing the story towards their desires. Everyone is responsible for bringing this scene to life, not just Aspects. You're all encouraged and empowered to describe environmental details, narrate minor characters' actions, and take ownership of the story.”
And then you play a scene until you feel like the scene's over. And if you don't reach a… a conclusive answer… that's fine! No big deal. So! So yes, Jack, you can totally set a scene to answer a question that doesn't have your character in it. I would say if you have a really good idea for The Station Itself, that's totally fine. I would… But following the guidance of trying to get characters together quickly…
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …I would like to at least think about which characters you're pulling together. You know?
JACK: Ye-ye-yeah. 100%.
[a brief pause]
JACK: That was not me volunteering [overlapping] to go.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh, I thought you were volunteering to go first. Um…
[SYLVI laughs]
JACK: No, no… Uh… Let's see… Hmm. Okay.
[a brief pause]
JACK: Yeah, I could go first.
AUSTIN: Okay! [chuckles]
JACK: I would like a scene between me and Deutsch Synchro.
SYLVI: [intrigued] Okay! Hello!
JACK: Where have we agreed to meet, if we want to talk about something that we shouldn't be talking about?
SYLVI: Ummm…
[a brief pause]
SYLVI: I’m— I’m looking at the map right now trying to decide this. [overlapping] Uhm…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] We can also invent new places, so…
SYLVI: Ye-ye-yeah. But it also helps me… [overlapping] figure… yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yes. I get you. I’m just letting— making sure you know you're not locked in if none of those work.
SYLVI: Umm… I feel like it's somewhere where… We're just gonna be tal— Like, we don't have, like… we're not talking code and shit. So I’m assuming it's somewhere where we don't want people listening.
JACK: Yeah.
SYLVI: Um…
KEITH: Or you could talk in code! That sounds fun! [chuckles]
[ALI giggles]
SYLVI: You know, we could try! We sure could try! Um…
[a brief pause]
SYLVI: I’m wondering— [chuckles] I’m wondering if there's a spot with a lot of birds so it's hard to record things there…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ooh, that's fun! Yes!
J: [overlapping] That’s really good!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ye-ye-ye-yeah! I’m…
SYLVI: [overlapping] Cool…
AUSTIN: I’ll add— Is there like a section of the place that's been totally taken over?
SYLVI: Yeah. What's the fucking… [overlapping] aviary isn’t the right word, is it?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah, an av— I think that's right. Is that not right?
SYLVI: Is it? Okay. Yeah. I just like… it's kind of an improvised one… it's— it wasn't meant to be.
AUSTIN: Yeah! Yeah. [chuckling] An improvised aviary.
SYLVI: Yeah.
JACK: Yeah. Um. God! There's a reason that the birds love this place! There's something in it that is, like, immensely compelling to the birds [overlapping] that the humans don't really care about.
SYLVI: [overlapping] I… My idea is that they're… This just came to mind, is that there's like a telescope or something tall, that sort of mimics a tree. [chuckles]
[JACK laughs]
AUSTIN: [laughs, overlapping] That’s very funny.
[ALI chuckles]
SYLVI: [chuckling, overlapping] But I don't know if birds are that simple. I don't know if birds are as simple as me.
KEITH: Birds are that simple, yeah.
SYLVI: Okay, cool. I’m glad to know that I’ve got— I’m bird-brained. A little bit.
[AUSTIN chuckles]
JACK: God. Yeah. So I guess, we're meeting standing under the tripod of this, [overlapping] like, structure…
SYLVI: Yeah.
JACK: …and there's just, like, birds whirling around us, and fighting, and you know…
[AUSTIN chuckles]
SYLVI: Umm… God.
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): Yeah, what did you want to talk about?
SYLVI: I think that's straight up how I open the conversa— I assu— You called me here?
JACK: [overlapping] Uh, yes, I did.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Okay.
JACK: I left a message in a dead drop. Otherwise, I would have come to the bar. Uh…
SYLVI: [overlapping] Uhum.
JACK: [overlapping] But, like, the fact that I left you a message in some sort of, like, spy game…
[AUSTIN chuckles]
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Hi, Deutsch…
SYLVI: [half-chuckling, overlapping] It’s different dumpsters we've got around the town… Yeah.
JACK (as Paris France): Thanks for coming. Um. I hope you don't mind all the— I hope you don't mind all the birds!
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [overlapping] I mean…
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Pretty… Pretty busy here.
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): You get used to them, I guess.
JACK (as Paris France): Umm… I have found another spy. I mean, I found someone… [overlapping] Um…
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [overlapping] Like—
JACK (as Paris France): I found someone… like you.
[AUSTIN chuckles]
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [overlapping] Okay.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] As you say that, the… “Remind them that the Assistant is always watching.” It can't hear you. But there is a camera that turns on its normal, regular… like, up in the distance in the corner, and just goes, like [imitates buzzing of the motors turning the camera].
SYLVI: Okay.
AUSTIN: [imitates some more camera movement] …as you correct yourself from saying spy to someone like you.
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): Future reference: let's try and use the euphemism for my occupation before just saying it!
[ALI chuckles]
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): In the future. But: [overlapping] what? Who?
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Point taken.
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): Where and how did you find this person?
JACK (as Paris France): Um… I wouldn't come to you Deutsch, if… You know, I don't feel good about— Hand on heart: I don't feel good about you being here…
[AUSTIN chuckles]
JACK (as Paris France): …but you know, we're both looking out for each other, and I think that… this is probably information that I ought to bring to you. I was opening a flower shipment in a crate, and there was a man in the crate where the flowers should be. He was wearing what looked like…
JACK: And Paris describes Pact colors. Or, like, Pact armor, without really being able to, like… I don't know that Paris has seen enough Pact soldiers to be like: “he was wearing Pact uniform” or whatever.
SYLVI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Uhum.
JACK: Um. But this would clue you in straight away.
JACK (as Paris France): Is that one of yours?
JACK (as PAris France): Or is that the other… the other one?
SYLVI: Oh, how do I want to play this?
[a brief pause]
SYLVI: I think she just says:
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): Thank you for bringing this to my attention. It'll be taken care of.
JACK (as Paris France): [with a tinge of uneasy humor] What does that mean, Deutsch?
[ALI chortles]
SYLVI: Hand on shoulder:
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): It'll be taken care of.
[AUSTIN chuckles]
JACK: [overlapping] Rapidly reali—
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [half-chuckling, overlapping] Means you don't have to worry about anything.
JACK: Rapidly realizing that he's out of his depth and being scared to push the spy—but feeling like he ought to push the spy:
JACK (as Paris France): He's not one of yours, is he? That's a— Oh, fuck. Are you— What are you—
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): Listen, Paris. The less you know, the better. I’m trying to help you out here, man. Plausible deniability and all that, right?
[a brief pause]
JACK (as Paris France): Well, that's not the way we do things here. You… that's, not—
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [sighs] Yeah. Nobody here seems to ever want to do things the easy way. Or the way I want to do it. [sighs]
JACK: Birds fl— [laughs]
SYLVI: [chuckling] Crosses arms and huffs, while birds fly by.
[AUSTIN lets a tired laugh out]
JACK (as Paris France): Look. Don't do anything… rash. When you meet them… I’ll tell you where they are. When you meet them I want to be there.
[a brief pause]
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [sighs] There's no… There's no other way you're telling me where they are, is there?
[a brief pause]
JACK (as Paris France): No.
[a brief pause]
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [sighs] You're a real pain in the ass sometimes, Paris. But yeah. Sure.
[pause]
JACK: Um…
SYLVI: [half-chuckling] She's fully like: “okay, I just I just kill this guy when Paris leaves.” [snickers]
AUSTIN: [chuckles in disbelief] Wow!
SYLVI: It’s her job!
AUSTIN: No-no, that's fair!
SYLVI: Assuming that's one of her three targets, too!
JACK: Oh, shit! [overlapping] Yeah she's been told that she has two targets on board!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: Right. But not given detail on who they are.
SYLVI: I think it's like names and faces. [overlapping] But that’s it.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Okay. Okay. But you don’t have this person’s name or face, so it could be.
JACK: [overlapping] This could legitimately— This could be one of Paris’s targets.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. Easy.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah. What was that question, Austin?
AUSTIN: You don't— We don't… You have not yet seen [overlapping] this new spy’s…
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: You couldn't… You couldn't say for sure until you do.
SYLVI: Yeah, exactly.
JACK: Also, to be clear: we don't even know if this person is a spy. This person described themselves as a def— they fled the war.
AUSTIN: Uhum.
JACK: Um. They might be a spy, but they were introduced, at least by the sort of the narratorial voice, as a defector.
AUSTIN: Right.
JACK: Umm…
SYLVI: Okay.
JACK: But Paris, having only encountered Principality spies on the Brink [overlapping] so far…
AUSTIN: [uneasily, overlapping] Hmm…
[SYLVI chuckles]
JACK: …he would be like: “okay!” [chuckles]
[AUSTIN chuckles]
SYLVI: Oh boy! [with rising unease] That's just a guy! And you told me that was a spy!
[ALI chuckles in sympathy]
SYLVI: And I— And it's just a guy!
AUSTIN: It’s just a defector, yeah!
SYLVI: Paris, why?!? I don't know why I’m rhyming now. I’m just— I started thinking it was funny…
[AUSTIN laughs, SYLVI chuckles exasperatedly]
AUSTIN: That seems like a scene to me.
SYLVI: I was gonna say: is there anything else, [overlapping] because I’m good.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Nah. That's it.
JACK: No, I think— Yeah, [overlapping] I think that's a scene.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Okay, cool.
AUSTIN: Um. [tentatively] I would love a… scene… with Mustard. Maybe just at your— Do you have, like, official title or a rank? Or anything?
ALI: [overlapping] That's a good question…!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Like, are you one of like 50 people who does this? Or are you like… Like, in charge of… a certain division or something?
[a brief pause]
ALI: Umm… I mean, Jack, did you have someone— Did you have, like, an amount of people in mind for the Brink Proxy?
JACK: I think it is like 40 to 50 people.
ALI: Okay, sure. Um… Then yeah. I guess I could be like a lead…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Okay.
ALI: [overlapping] I could be like a key holder, you know?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
[KEITH & ALI laugh]
AUSTIN: Ye-ye-yeah. Um, uh… So I think you just get… I mean I’ll just tell you the— I’ll tell you what the questions I want to answer with this scene, and I want to figure out how to best set this up. Which is: I want you to get— to keep Coracin Seventine off my back, who's the head of security. And to do that I need someone at the Brink Proxy to… make sure my stuff doesn't get flagged… or doesn't get on the top of the inbox… becasue it's on the bottom. Do you know what I mean? Umm. And so I wanna lean on you as, like… you know. [half-chuckling] A popstar has shown up to your office.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: You know what I mean? So, like, I think I just show up to Brink Proxy HQ. Which I don't know what that looks like. What's the— what's the interior of, like— what's the waiting room look like there?
ALI: Um… I guess it's probably one of those where, like— It's, like, just one floor with, like, a bunch of desks set up.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Okay.
ALI: [overlapping] Like, it's not a very like— This is like a rec center operation and not like a… like, an office-office…?
AUSTIN: Okay.
ALI: In my head…? But, like, um… So probably, like, a couple stairs by the door. Or a couple chairs by the door.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Okay.
ALI: [overlapping] And then like… This sort of deep room, where it's like people have their different stations set up, [overlapping] if you know what I mean.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Okay. Then I’m definitely there in, like… You know. Big sunglasses on.
[JACK chuckles faintly]
AUSTIN: Uh… You know… A mask on my face, like a… You know. A facemask. But, like, my hair is still filled with the glowy nails [half-chuckles] that I wear all the time.
ALI: Uhum.
AUSTIN: Anybody who— You know, there are other people in the room going: [whispering] “I think that's… I think that’s him. That's 3T. [in a hushed voice] I’m pretty sure that's 3T.” And I’ve just put in, like, a generic request to talk to the first lead that's open, you know what I mean? Just assuming I’ll be able to, like, put a little spice on it, you know what I mean? [mischievously] Put a little…
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Get a little… Get access to this through my natural charm?
ALI: [overlapping] Sure. Sure.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Whoever it is as long as it's not this particular person I don't like?
ALI: Uh-huh.
AUSTIN: Um. So I’m just waiting for my number to get called. You know?
ALI (as Mustard Red): Yeah… number 47? [murmuring, overlapping] I think…
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping] Oh, that's— that's me.
AUSTIN: And I, like, stand up and, like, you know, adjust my hat, or whatever. My hood.
AUSTIN (as 3T): [clears his throat] Ahem…
AUSTIN: And I come over and it’s like:
AUSTIN (as 3T): Um. Hey. Do we have a… Is there a room or do I just talk to you right here?
ALI (as Mustard Red): Um, we could talk here, but we can go over to my desk if you'd like!
AUSTIN: I, like, peek back. How many people are around your desk?
ALI: [laughs] There's probably, like… There's probably, like.. It's, like, two desks together…
AUSTIN: [half-chuckles] Okay.
ALI: …and there's, like, someone on the other side… you know what I mean?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
AUSTIN (as 3T): Uh. Let's do your desk. [overlapping] It’s one person. That’s fine.
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Okay, cool!
[the briefest of pauses, then almost simultaneously]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] And head back…
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Welcome to the Brink Proxy.
AUSTIN (as 3T): Yeah, it's my first time being here! Y'all are so busy!
ALI (as Mustard Red): Oh. Well, you know, there's a lot of issues to handle, so…
AUSTIN (as 3T): [breathily] I bet! I bet! In a way I kind of wanna— I just want to see if I can, like, help take one off the plate a little bit… from y'all…
ALI (as Mustard Red): [excitedly] Ohh! You're thinking of volunteering?!? You should have said it over there! [overlapping] I would have…
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping] Oh, no-no.
ALI (as Mustard Red): [deflated] Oh. Oh.
AUSTIN (as 3T): Uh. No. Not so much. Uhm. Can I sit? Is it okay to…? [overlapping] Okay.
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Ye-ye-ye-yeah!
AUSTIN: So, I, like, remove the mask a little bit. Um…
AUSTIN (as 3T): My name's Teleos. It's nice to meet you. What was your name? I didn't catch it.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Oh, I’m Mus— Wait.
ALI: [laughs, overlapping] What was my character’s name?
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping] I have that effect on people. It's Mustard!
[SYLVI laughs]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I see the name tag now!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Yes. Yes. Mustard Red.
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping] I love that! That's great. Mustard Red.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Thank you. Thank you… Parents did a good job on that one…!
AUSTIN (as 3T): Yeah, they knocked that one out the park!
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN (as 3T): I… uh… So I’m a musician.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Hm. Uhum.
AUSTIN (as 3T): I swear I’m not trying to sell you anything.
AUSTIN: Um…
AUSTIN (as 3T): There's a— There's someone who works here. Who… I don't know what his deal is…! But really hates me. [overlapping] And…
ALI (as Mustard Red): [taken aback, overlapping] Oh.
AUSTIN (as 3T): I don't think— I bet if you looked at the files you would see something about me. Teleos Tanager. Um. And I just wanted to know if there was a way to make it so… he wasn't so on my case! You know, you can, like, flag my profile… Or, like, put a little post-it note on it, or just, like… You know. Because I’m just an artist. And I— you know, in my mind this station, one of the things it does is it brings art to the forefront. Twilight Mirage, all about art. It's all about expression.
ALI (as Mustard Red): [murmurs understandingly]
AUSTIN (as 3T): And… You know. It's… it's hard to get to concerts, it's hard to— You know, I’m trying to— trying to build, not just a fan base, but a movement.
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN (as 3T): You know what I’m saying?
ALI (as Mustard Red): [a bit too enthusiastically to be convincing] Sure! Yeah! Movements! Yes! Yes. Um. Well, the process here would be that you would— Do you feel like you're being, like, harassed, or…?
AUSTIN (as 3T): Yeah!
ALI (as Mustard Red): Oh! Oh. [overlapping] Okay.
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping] Not just me, but my fans!
ALI (as Mustard Red): Oh… [overlapping] Well…
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping] Absolutely! People are being followed! I know people have been— You know, there are people who put up flyers and stuff for me, and they get scared away! It's fine to put up a flyer to say “oh, End of Cycle is coming”! But it's not enough to say— You can't put up a flyer that says “hey, uh come to the— Come to the show! 3T’s going to talk about how important it is that we get involved and punch The Principality in the face!”
ALI (as Mustard Red): Hmmm. Hm.
AUSTIN (as 3T): I’m sorry, I’m just a little…
ALI (as Mustard Red): No-no-no! Passion is always okay in this office! Um…
AUSTIN (as 3T): I saw the sign. Yeah, I saw that it said that. Out front.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN (as 3T): That's why I felt comfortable…
ALI: [hard to understand through her laughter] The fucking…! [laughs] It’s like…! [laughs] There can't be, like, one of those, like, engraved wood— Like, she's not that much of a dork. But, like, to have that on her desk!
AUSTIN: [half-laughing] She might be! I don't know!
[ALI laughs]
JACK: [half-chuckling] With a bird perched on it…
AUSTIN: Aha!
[ALI finishes laughing]
ALI (as Mustard Red): Well, the usual procedure is that you and anyone else that you feel has been mistreated would submit a… a form, and a third party here at Brink Proxy would look into… this person's behavior, and speak to them about it… And we would settle it that way!
AUSTIN (as 3T): [sighs]
ALI (as Mustard Red): We would have, like, an internal investigation, you know? Um…
AUSTIN (as 3T): Is that like— That's the usual way of doing it. But, like, is there like a… expe— expedited-type-situation?
ALI (as Mustard Red): [tentatively] Well, is this time sensitive? [overlapping] Because there is a…
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping] Yeah. You know, it really is. It really is! Because: End of Cycle, right, plus we have the oranges going out soon, right? And a lot of these people are only here for the oranges! I don't wanna— Or, like, part of that process. I don't want them leaving, thinking: “oh the Brink is…” you know, “a police state.”
ALI (as Mustard Red): [murmurs understandingly]
AUSTIN (as 3T): Do you know what I mean?
ALI (as Mustard Red): Uhum.
AUSTIN: Can I spend my token, to “sway audience into impassioned action,” as a strong move?
[laughter in the background]
AUSTIN: I think you can always say no to that. Uh…
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN: Because it's your character. But… But that's my pitch. My pitch is: I’m trying to— I don't know that you're a— I mean, you’re audience! You're not a fan. You're certainly not a fervent supporter…
ALI: No.
AUSTIN: …ready to act. I could also be “diffusing a tense situation with my humor or beauty.”
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: I’m very hot. All this—
KEITH: It did almost seem like she didn't know you.
AUSTIN: [excitedly] Yeah, a hundred per— I don't know that she does!
[ALI chuckles]
ALI: I— Well… Yeah… I might. I should know. I’m, like, young-ish, right?
KEITH: You also watch everything that's happening [overlapping] on there…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right.
ALI: Right. Ye-ye-yeah.
AUSTIN: Right.
ALI: Um… Also, like, probably into pop culture and— Like, I think the, like: “we want the Brink to be, you know, full of art” is part of…
AUSTIN: Yes!
ALI: [overlapping] …her…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] You’ve probably seen me on whatever the Brink’s, like… I think that this is someone who's just had his first late night tv performance. Do you know what I mean?
ALI: Sure.
AUSTIN: You know, like, when Tyler went on… on whatever, 12 years ago, and everyone's like: “Yo! What the fuck is happening!”
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: That's the era we're at for 3T.
ALI: I feel like I should do a coin flip…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ahh, that’s fun!
ALI: [overlapping] …because I think saying… I think saying “you don't want the Brink to be a police state”
AUSTIN: [chuckling excitedly, overlapping] Aha!
ALI: …is like… [laughs] Like, a very charged thing to say to the character that I’m playing.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh!
ALI: So do you want heads or tails?
AUSTIN: I want heads.
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN: You've a literal coin in your hand?
ALI: No, I’m doing Google's…
AUSTIN: Oh, okay. Sure.
ALI: Yeah, sorry. Um… That was the tails. [laughs]
AUSTIN: Fuck. Okay. That's how it goes! [chuckles a little]
ALI: Um. Okay. Well, the scene isn't over yet.
AUSTIN: It's true!
[a brief pause]
ALI: You only introduced yourself as 3T, right?
AUSTIN: No, I said Teleos! I said my— I said my— I gave you my government name.
ALI: [overlapping] Okay, sure.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I mean my government name is just Teleos Triton Tanager. It's just TTT. So…
ALI (as Mustard Red): Well, Mr. Tanager,[3] I’m very sympathetic to what is important to you with this issue. But we do have these… systems for a reason. And I can't give you preferential treatment. You see how many people are here! The form does have a… space to say that this is… you know, to be expedited, and we can have someone look at it, you know, probably tomorrow. But…
AUSTIN: I think I… like, lean back, but in the way that sometimes leaning back is like leaning forward. Where, like, what I’m doing is dropping [overlapping] the professional posture…
KEITH: [overlapping] You mean that like in a western.
AUSTIN: Right. Ye-ye-yeah. Ye-ye-yeah!
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: It's like I’m buttoning my top button in terms of like: “alright, let me be direct.” I’m going to ask a player “how can I get your character to join my cause? If you share an approach, you get a token.” And I think I straight up just look at you, you know, and I say:
AUSTIN (as 3T): Mustard. I get that I touched a nerve. But I think that's partly what good art does, and it's what I try to do, and I didn't mean to… malign you or what you do here. But when I touch a nerve, to me that means that I hit something. I hit something close. And I— If there’s something… Is there something that I could do to help you… period. Help you. Or to help explain my position better?
AUSTIN: How can I get your character to join my cause? You don't have to say yes to this! You could say: “no, I don't want to share an approach.” [overlapping] But if you do share an approach you'll gain a…
ALI: [overlapping] Sure, su-su-sure. Yeah…
AUSTIN: …I’ll gain a toke— or you'll gain a token. I won't. I will not.
ALI: Yeah… Um…
ALI: I’m wondering if there's, like, a win-win situation here? Of being, like: “well, I could… I also want Coracin to be…”
[AUSTIN murmurs understandingly]
ALI: “…focused on this other thing so I could also do my shady…”
AUSTIN: [laughs] A-ha-ha!
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: Speaking of shady…
ALI: Ha?
AUSTIN: Haa…!
KEITH: A, a— I can make a move when I witness a shady deal.
AUSTIN: Oh yeah! Uh-huh!
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: And so I want to know when in here the deal is witnessed… to the point where I can do an Aspect move? I don't wanna…
AUSTIN: I mean…
KEITH: I don't know if the line is “you've offered kind of a shady deal…?”
AUSTIN: Yeah. I think it's if it's taken up, right?
KEITH: Okay. [overlapping] Okay.
AUSTIN: I don't know! I think that's— I think that— We've not talked about your… [half-chuckling] the person across the other side of the desk yet! But there's probably a witness to this conversation, right?
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: Yeah.
ALI: I could do… I guess I don't want to extend the scene, but the way that we've set it up we could do like: “well, we could talk about this later” [overlapping] sort of thing.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum.
ALI: Um. And, like, talk about it in, like, the bar or whatever. But this is, this is your Aspect triggering and not… [overlapping] your character triggering… Okay.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yes. That is… That is… ye-yeah, ye-ye-yeah.
ALI: Um.
KEITH: [overlapping] From my…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] From Keith. That is, yeah. That is the Scum and Villainy Aspect. What's your thing? What do you— What move are you looking to take, Keith?
KEITH: Umm… I was bouncing between… “offer something rare or illicit at a ruinously high price”
[ALI & AUSTIN chuckle]
SYLVI: [faintly, overlapping] Oh my god.
KEITH: [overlapping] Uh… And… I was thinking that… you know, potentially, you could have your problem solved in a sort of… you know, not strictly legal way. As long as you fork up the cash. Or! That the… Is it a security guard? That's who's like bugging you?
AUSTIN: Yeah, it's the head of security. It's Coracin Seventine.[4] Seventine. [overlapping] The head of security.
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah. Um… The head of security… may be taking this as, like, a threat against his job…
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: …and deciding to… “threaten a resident's life or livelihood with violence.”
AUSTIN: Just, like, stomping out in the middle of this and, like… chasing me away? [overlapping] Having been watching this?
KEITH: [overlapping] Uhmm. Or, you know, on your way home.
AUSTIN: Right. Right.
ALI: Oh, su-su-sure.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That's kind of—
KEITH: [overlapping] Or like when… when the paperwork goes through and he sees, like: “oh someone's put a complaint against me. Oh, it was 3T?”
AUSTIN: Right. [emphatically] I’m not putting in any paperwork! I want less paperwork, Keith!
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] 3T wants there to be…
KEITH: [overlapping] You— It’s not your job to put in or out paperwork.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That's true. That's true.
KEITH: [overlapping] This is an Ali.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: It is on Red— Mustard Red.
ALI: Yeah. And I think some of the… like, compromise that she would make here is, like: “well, fill out this form so we can do the investigation or whatever. But if you, like… if you… if you tell me if you have, like, an upcoming event or whatever… I can make sure that this person is, like… you know, stationed somewhere else.” For instance. Um. [overlapping] I think that’s…
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping] Alright, yeah. I have a show this weekend, coming up. It’s a big one.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Oh, yeah?
AUSTIN (as 3T): Yeah. Um… It's… You know. I’m going back to my roots… I’m going… going back to Pushy’s! You've been to Pushy’s?
ALI (as Mustard Red): Oh, yes, I love Pushy’s!
AUSTIN (as 3T): One of my first shows… you know, me and Knife back then… [mumbling] which I don't even talk about that… But it was the two of us on there. Very intimate. And… [chuckles] Not togeth— I mean. Things with Display were intimate at the time, also. But not on the stage. That would be too far for me. But!
We were doing a show, and that was kind of the start of the… my whole thing. I kind of realized up there that it was time for us to go different ways… and… So I’m going back there. I’m gonna do a show with some people, and I think it's gonna be a big deal. So. We're shooting the whole thing. I’m filming the whole thing. Um, you know. So. That's the one. If we can get that by this weekend so that— you know. No harassment, and whatnot. That would be great.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Well, between you and me: I think that you should be able to do this show of yours… while we have more people at the station.
AUSTIN (as 3T): Gotcha. [overlapping] This makes sense
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] So.
[ALI laughs]
ALI (as Mustard Red): So. I could look in to see what my options are… But harassment is a very serious deal! And we don't want people on the Brink experiencing this! So if you could do this… If you could fill out this form and have all of your fans who have experiences as well…
AUSTIN (as 3T): [chuckles]
ALI (as Mustard Red): …come here and submit forms, as well… [overlapping] we can…
AUSTIN (as 3T): Wait, can they submit it online? Can they submit it through the Mesh?
[someone whispers “oh, god!” in the background]
ALI (as Mustard Red): Oh, they sure can!
AUSTIN (as 3T): Oh, that's great!
[ALI & SYLVI laugh]
KEITH: You're gonna get mobbed. [laughs]
AUSTIN: Jump cut:
AUSTIN (as 3T): [with the cadence of an influencer addressing their audience] What's good, everybody! I got a simple request for you today! There's a link in the bio! If you just— In the response to this one there's a link. You just go through and fill that out! You let them know that we want an unharassed concert! No cameras! No security! This is about art, and expression, and freedom. You fill that out, you submit that.
AUSTIN: Thousands of people.
KEITH: [giggling] No security!
[ALI & KEITH laugh]
JACK: Youtube… Youtube autoplay, next video: “Brink Proxy is looking for emergency volunteers.”
[ALI & AUSTIN laugh]
AUSTIN: Is this your— Is it— Sorry. Is this your answer to “how can I get your character to join my cause,” or we just not answer that one? Are you not getting a token for that? ‘Cause I raised that and then [half-chuckling] we got distracted with other stuff…
ALI: Oh! I guess, yeah! I guess I’m joining the cause in the— Yeah. I think the… like, admission of, like, “oh I think that your art is important.”
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Okay. So the way to get you…
ALI: [overlapping] And then I help you with this, like, under the table way…
AUSTIN: Right.
ALI: But also she's going to be like: “dude, you have to follow the rules!” [empathically, overlapping] “Hey! Follow the rules!” [chuckles]
AUSTIN: Right. Okay, so the way— [half-chuckling] So the way to get you to join my cause is to show you that I’m willing to fill out forms. If I…
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: That's the answer. Okay. Yes. Take a token!
SYLVI: Oh, my god!
AUSTIN: Take a token.
ALI: Sure.
AUSTIN: Great!
ALI: Well, I guess the impassioned plea of being, like… you know, “I want to do this now, while…”
AUSTIN: Right, right, right.
ALI: Right. Yeah. That was— That was the thing that won the argument, but…
AUSTIN: Yeah. The way the lures work isn't— The way the lore’s work is like it's, to you, straight up, “is there a way I can get what I want from the situation,” basically?
ALI: Oh, su-su-sure. [overlapping] Okay.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] You see what I’m saying? So. So, in this case, you take a token. You can just take this one, because I’m going to say that getting all of my audience to submit forms is “sway an audience to impassioned action.”
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: So that hopped— That jump cut. I’ll just drop this right into Mustard's…
ALI: [murmuring, overlapping] Okay, cool. I’ll take one… Ye-yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …token pool. Oh, you already got one. Okay. Yeah. There we go! Um. I think that that's my scene! [in a lower voice] I’ll move my thing over.
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN: [in a regular tone] The third thing that we can do that we haven't done yet is “read the station.” Which is… sort of similar to, if you remember in… in Quiet Year— Excuse me. Quiet Year? Like, “hold a discussion” type thing?
KEITH: Uhum.
AUSTIN: You choose a topic; you go around in a circle; and everyone says— weighs in, basically. And you can speak either as your character, or as, like… a class of people. You can say: “here is how the… the smugglers think.” “Here is how the gardeners think.” “Here's how, you know, the musicians think.” Or the artists. Or something. You know.
KEITH: And were those both major scenes?
AUSTIN: Those were both major scenes just now.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yep.
KEITH: [overlapping] Okay.
AUSTIN: A minor scene is like what we did last time. Which was, like, very brief little… [overlapping] vignette, you know.
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah. And what you just just described, that's “read the station”?
AUSTIN: That's “read the station.” Yeah, exactly.
KEITH: Oh, and there's all the tokens! Look at that!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah.
KEITH: [overlapping] There's so much here…
AUSTIN: I know. There's… It's—
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It’s a lot.
KEITH: [overlapping] It’s— It’s really easy to get lost.
AUSTIN: It literally is. Correct. For sure. [in a hushed voice] I’ll move this board outta the way. We're not using that. [in a regular tone] So who is up? Either Mustard, or Deutsch, or Cheal.
[pause]
KEITH: Hm.
[a brief pause]
ALI: Yeah, I kind of want to set up a scene in Pushy's but now I’m, like… undecided on, like, what the intention would be.
AUSTIN: What is an open question for us right now, and what's going on on this station? We have… three Threats: “hundreds of military starships… nearby; residents disappearing into the cult; and a shipment of blue oranges pushing the Brink to the Brink.” We can zero in on one of those and highlight it, or raise a question about how people are responding to it, or develop one of the ideas.
ALI: Uhum.
KEITH: Ahm… Yeah… Let's see…
[a brief pause]
KEITH: I have an idea for a scene but it… Uh… It's in the exact same place as the last scene, so I don't want to do it.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: [half-chuckling] Uhum.
SYLVI: We've done that before, [overlapping] haven’t we?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah.
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah. Let's see. Um… I’m also just trying to remember, like, where everyone… like, hangs out…
[pause]
SYLVI: I mean, the good thing is we're early enough in this [overlapping] that a lot of that stuff hasn't been defined yet.
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: 100%. Yeah. That's exactly right.
[pa brief pause]
KEITH: [unsurely] And… when we frame a scene can we… I know that it said to leave space for a character from someone's Aspect to show up. Can you specifically frame a scene [overlapping] that includes…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. It’s a minor character, or…?
KEITH: Yeah. Just like, you…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Totally.
KEITH: [overlapping] Can just be, like— Oh. Can I have a character that represents… [overlapping] like, the Unaffiliated.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] A hundred percent.
ALI: [overlapping] Uhum.
AUSTIN: Imagine you are a GM here.
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah. Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Like, truly you can put whatever you want in the scene as long as… If another player… If another player… Again Ali does not own The Unaffiliated.
KEITH: [overlapping] Right.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Anybody can pick up The Unaffiliated when they have an idea for what to do when someone is dealing with their friends and neighbors.
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It's just marked here, ‘cause it's, like, easy to start with one that you're paying attention to. You know?
KEITH: Um… Okay! Then I have a big ask, then.
[a brief pause]
KEITH: Can I have a scene with me…? With… The Monitor, and with two people from The Unaffiliated?
[a brief pause]
ALI: Sure!
AUSTIN: Wait! Who was the— Before The Monitor? Who was the…?
KEITH: Oh, me.
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah. Ye-ye-yeah. So you and Mustard, and then two random unaffiliated people?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: What type of people?
KEITH: Uh. [measuring out words] I’m looking for people who are complaining about the new weirdness on the station.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right.
KEITH: [overlapping] This is specifically… about the cult.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] The cult…
KEITH: [overlapping] This is people who maybe their friends or family has gone missing…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yep.
KEITH: Maybe their friends or family have shown back up and are being weird. Um. I know that I’ve been hearing about people harassing truckers…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right.
KEITH: [overlapping] …because the truckers come to… Pushy’s and… are, like… [overlapping] complaining…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Are complaining? Yep!
KEITH: …about, like, weirdos.
[AUSTIN & SYLVI chuckle]
KEITH: So, and… and… [chuckles, overlapping] and I think…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Poor Mustard just getting… [overlapping] getting all sorts of notes about harassment today!
KEITH: [laughing, overlapping] Yeah, there’s a lot of stuff happening on the station!
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN: Yeah that makes sense though.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Uh, yeah. I can— I can be one of these randos if— unless Sylvi and Jack want to be.
SYLVI: [half-giggling] I’m happy to be a rando! I’m always happy to be a rando.
[AUSTIN chuckles, a brief pause]
JACK: Yeah, go for it! Austin and Sylvi randos.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: And this is happening at Pushy's? Where is this happening?
KEITH: This is… I could have invited… I’ll say that I’ve invited… Mustard to Pushy’s. Uh… I… There's, like, a… an assemblage of… of citizens. Or residents. [overlapping] At Pushy’s.
AUSTIN: [in agreement, overlapping] Hm. Uhum.
KEITH: So as not to, like, have to mob/wait in line…
AUSTIN: [chuckling] Aha!
ALI: Hmm!
KEITH: …at…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] The—
KEITH: [overlapping] Ali, what is the name of the… your, like, office?
ALI: Oh. The Brink Proxy [overlapping] is the name of the organization…
KEITH: [overlapping] Brink Proxy. Right.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum.
KEITH: Um… And they seem— They seem very… pretty accessible! [chuckles] They seemed very secretive in the setup game, and now we've got…
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: [chuckling, overlapping] …house calls and dmv lines…
JACK: [overlapping] Right now… Yeah. Right now they've also got, like, a load of 3T stans in there, as well…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Aha!
JACK: [overlapping] …so it makes sense that it's, like…
SYLVI: [overlapping] Oh my goodness…
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah. This is— This is maybe even, like, Pushy trying to go down there to complain, and, like, [overlapping] there's a line out the door and while I’m dealing with that…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Aha!
JACK: [enthusiastically] Ouhh!
KEITH: …I’m calling— I can do a house call.
ALI: [overlapping] Uhum.
JACK: [overlapping] Real quick! Austin. You don't have to decide this now, but I would love to know later what 3T's equivalent of, like… army is. Like, [overlapping] what… what are your fans…
AUSTIN: Ooooooohhh!
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: That's great! That's a good question! Okay, I’ll think on this.
KEITH: Sorry, 3T’s version of what?
AUSTIN: Oh, boy!
ALI: The BTS Army. The Beyonce [overlapping] Hive. Um.
KEITH: [overlapping] Ohhh! Okay, got it…!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ye-ye-yeah, ye-ye-yeah.
ALI: The… Swifties…
JACK: [overlapping] Swifties!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Swifties. Ye-ye-yeah.
SYLVI: [overlapping] The Bards.
ALI: Orbits, obviously…! Um… But anyway.
[AUSTIN chuckles]
JACK: LOONA. [chuckles]
KEITH: The Fourth T.
[ALI laughs, Austin sighs]
SYLVI: Oh my god…
AUSTIN: Yeah, I’m gonna have to think on it. Because I need it to be good.
[the briefest of pauses]
AUSTIN: Anyway.
[ALI laughs]
ALI: Um. Yeah. So I show up at my appointment to Pushy’s on time—perhaps early. I come in. I see people are still, sort of… you know, mingling. I order a drink. I stand at the front of the room.
ALI (as Mustard Red): [energetically] Hi, everybody! Um. I’m here from the Brink Proxy, and I heard that you wanted to discuss some issues that you've been having. Um, so let's just talk about it!
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): Ok— Okay, great. [overlapping] Red — oh.
ALI (as Mustard Red): My name is Mustard Red, I…
[ALI chuckles]
ALI (as Mustard Red): …have been volunteering with the Brink Proxy for about three years now. Um… I’m excited to help.
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): [asking probably out of character] It's a volunt— This is a volunteer position?
[AUSTIN laughs.]
ALI (as Mustard Red): [interpreting the previous question as in-character] Oh, ye-ye-yeah! Do any of you want to… recruit? I have some volunteer forms here!
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [overlapping] No!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] If anybody would like to—
SYLVI (as a space trucker): No!
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): No.
[KEITH laughs]
ALI (as Mustard Red): It's very rewarding! [overlapping] But perhaps we’ll talk about it…
SYLVI (as a space trucker): [overlapping] I have a job already!
ALI (as Mustard Red): Well… You—
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): Something happened to my cousin!
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): We're at my job, and something's happening to cousins!
SYLVI (as a space trucker): Something's happened to my walk to my job and I don't like it so much!
ALI (as Mustard Red): Well, then, what's happening?
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): All the lights are weird!
SYLVI (as a space trucker): [hushed] Weirdos everywhere…
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): There's crowds by the trucks and people are disappearing!
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [almost shouting] What happened to my cousin?!?
ALI (as Mustard Red): Well, we have— We have been aware of some of the disappearances… and the reappearances of… citizens of the Brink. Um. And we've been looking into it. Um… But… has… any of your family… seemed sick? Or would you say that they're, like…
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [standoffishly] Is weird a sort of sick?
ALI (as Mustard Red): Um. It can be! I guess it depends! In what way have they been weird?
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [sighs, then overlapping] My cousin—
SYLVI (as a space trucker): [bluntly, overlapping] Talking about weird stuff. Like—
[SYLVI snickers]
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): Yeah! Being interested in weird stuff!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Well, the…
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [overlapping] My cousin Toaster doesn't— says that he's not allowed to talk to me anymore. Because I don't— Because I don't have the same amount of belief. And I said “how do you measure belief?” And he said “with a little device they put on my arm.” And I said “what's that?” And they said, uh… “you'd have to fill out the paperwork and come to a meeting.” And I said no. I said “no, I’m not doing that.” That's dangerous. I don't know, meeting with who?
ALI: I’m taking notes.
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): Thank you.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Can you describe the device on your cousin's arm?
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): No, I— [restarts] My cousin said they couldn't tell me what the device looked like, unless I signed the paperwork and went to a meeting…
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Ohhh!
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [overlapping] …and I said “no, I will not do that! I don't believe in meetings!”
ALI (as Mustard Red): That's a smart— Well…!
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [overlapping] I don't—
SYLVI (as a space trucker): [overlapping] I don’t think it's right that people are going around putting things on arms!
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): And again—just so that we're clear—this is not a meeting, this is an assemblage.
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): Thank you. I appreciate the clarity.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Um. Well, to make another thing clear I just want to say that putting devices on arms is allowed on the Brink. So that is not actionable on its own. We also don't… [tentatively] like, fix relationships…? [in a regular tone] I think that maybe you could open your heart up to your cousin.
[SYLVI laughs]
ALI (as Mustard Red): Um. But this is a concern. I don't want to dismiss…
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): You don’t— [overlapping] That's very rude!
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): [overlapping] It sounds like you’re dismissing!
[ALI bursts out in laughter]
SYLVI (as a space trucker): Every time I talk to you guys, it's “we can't fix relationships”!
[ALI, AUSTIN & KEITH laugh]
SYLVI (as a space trucker): What are you good for?
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): You understand that dozens of people have been reported missing! And then they show up—I get that most of them show back up—but…
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): We went from no-one ever disappearing to now dozens of people disappearing! No-one ever used to disappear!
ALI (as Mustard Red): There has been an increase of disappearances… um…
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [overlapping] We don't even know—
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): [overlapping] Tell them the percent! Tell them the percent increase!
SYLVI (as a space trucker): [frightened] There's a percent?
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): Yeah, there's a percent! Do you want— Do you need me to tell them?
SYLVI (as a space trucker): [hushed] Oh, I hate when figures are involved…!
ALI (as Mustard Red): There has been a 22% increase—
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): 22!
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): No. No.
[ALI laughs]
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): 22 is not very much!
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): From— Depends on what the previous number was!
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): It was very low! Went from very low to very high!
ALI: [through laughter] Okay.
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [indignant] There are 22 disappearances a day?!? That's what I just heard! [overlapping] That's the fact I’m gonna repeat!
[AUSTIN chuckles]
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): [overlapping] There’s been 22 disappearances a day! That's a… That's a 1600% increase in disappearances!
ALI: [laughing] Okay!
SYLVI (as a space trucker): That number's so big I can't even understand it!
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [standoffishly] What happened to my cousin?!? You don't even know the name of the group!
ALI (as Mustard Red): Well, no. And… um… Do you have any contact information for your cousin?
[SYLVI bursts out in laughter]
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [loosing their temper] I said! Their name is Toaster!
ALI (as Mustard Red): Okay. Yes.
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): Toaster Wroaster.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Coaster Roaster. [overlapping] Okay, that…
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): Toaster!
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): With a “w”!
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [emphasizing it] Wwwroaster!
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): Wroaster.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Wroaster. Got it. Um. [gathering herself] Well, we have been looking into this cult issue… um… but…
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): [alarmed] Cult?!?
[ALI chuckles, the others are getting rowdy]
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): Wait a second!
SYLVI (as a space trucker): [overlapping] Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa!
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [overlapping] Wait a second!
[ALI laughs]
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): Wait a second! You know, and it's a cult?!?
[a brief pause, ALI is still chuckling]
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [shouting] Hey everybody!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [her words are slurred as she’s trying to defuse the situation] Hey, wai— no-no-no…!
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): [shouting from a distance] Mustard Red said there’s a cult! And they're kidnapping! And she's trying to play it down!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Well, can we…
SYLVI (as a space trucker): [overlapping] And it kidnapped 16 000 of us!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Can we— Can I could I speak—
[ALI & SYLVI chuckle]
ALI (as Mustard Red): Could I perhaps speak to you not as a representative of the Brink Proxy for a moment? Because… they don't call it a cult. [chuckles, overlapping] But…
JACK: [overlapping] A brief pause here. The power goes out.
[others chuckle]
JACK: [chuckling] Please continue, Ali.
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): It's the cult! [overlapping] It's the cult!
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): The cult!
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): It’s the cult!
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): They're comin’!
ALI (as Mustard Red): Stop saying cult so loudly!
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [whisper-shouting] It's the cult!
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): [whispering, overlapping] It’s the cult!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Stop saying the word cult!
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [whispering intensely, overlapping] It's the c-u-l-t!
SYLVI (as a space trucker): [hushed, overlapping] Oh no, what if she’s with the cult.
[ALI is chuckling]
SYLVI (as a space trucker): Okay, we'll just call it the c-word.
ALI: Okay…
[SYLVI & AUSTIN chuckle, ALI bursts into laughter]
ALI: [laughing] No, we’re not—!?!
KEITH: C-U-L-Tuesday.
[AUSTIN, SYLVI & ALI laugh]
AUSTIN: [tired from laughter, from a distance] Ohh, nooooo!
[a brief pause, then ALI clears her throat]
AUSTIN (as Kengine Engine): [meekly] Don't we have emergency power?
JACK: Little emergency power lights flicker on from the generator. They're not enough to light the room. They're little… golden dark orange neon bars that run alongside the bar and up and down the walls. [overlapping] You can now see each other…
KEITH (as Cheal Pushy): [overlapping] Sound like the electricity was responding to what you said…!
JACK: …but the vibe in the room is, like, way more intimate than it was previously.
AUSTIN: Are there… [overlapping] Are there…
SYLVI: [chuckling, overlapping] Maybe I don’t need to fix my relationship…!
[AUSTIN chuckles]
AUSTIN: Is there a symbol for Devotion, Sylvi?
SYLVI: Oh! I’ve been thinking about this. I think— I definitely wanted, like, a shield or something in there…
AUSTIN: [intrigued, overlapping] Ouuhh!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Maybe it's like a… [trails off] It's like a shield… with… two hands, like— like, holding each other… But they were, like, cuffed together, as well…?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I feel—
JACK: [awe-struck, overlapping] Whooaa!
SYLVI: [overlapping] That’s what I got, off the top of my head.
AUSTIN: [enthused] And they're cuffed together! Oh my god! Write that down somewhe— Write that— Can you write that down in the notes section of the…
[ALI laughs]
SYLVI: Ye-ye-yeah. Uhmmm…
AUSTIN: I think that there is a “use visions to clarify or confuse,” here!
SYLVI: Yeah! [overlapping] Absolutely!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Where that symbol must’ve— Like, the lights flicker on in some sort of way that, like… Maybe it's like a bunch of… It's like a network— Not a network. Like, a wall of led lights. And they flicker on in a way that, like, shows that symbol. You know, it's, like, up on the stage behind the stage there's just, like… you know, a thousand lights from whatever the last act was here. Or maybe it's setting up for 3T's upcoming show, and it's in the… the handcuffed shield….
SYLVI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: …Devotion symbol. Also, they're called The Troublemakers. Jack.
JACK: [overlapping] Oh, yeah…!
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That's what 3T's fans are called.
SYLVI: [quietly, overlapping] Ahh, let’s go!
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping, like an influencer addressing their audience] What's good, Troublemakers?
ALI: [overlapping] Yeah…
AUSTIN (as 3T): We're going to be at Pushy's this Friday. Tickets are rare, but I guarantee you there's not going to be any security, and there's gonna be enough room to stand and get into some trouble.
JACK: And if you say on Twitter, even just passingly, that “3T's work is powerful, but maybe lacks a little nuance sometimes,” your mentions are gonna be ruined.
[AUSTIN laughs, ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN: Oooohh… Um…
ALI: [giggling, overlapping] Stan 3T!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] As a reminder to people— [chuckles] Yes. As a reminder to people— A reminder to people in the… chat and people listening: Devotion is one of the other names for The Lambent Strand, “the glowing thread weaving every life together in a great tapestry,” that we also said was something weird, specific to what's happening on the station right now. The thing that— The example that I gave during the first session was that normally there is, like… technology that stops working when the Brink is this far out of The Mirage, or at the edge of The Mirage. Because the Perennial Wave starts to get in. But for whatever reason that stuff has been shielded [chuckles] by something. I did not intend for that to have a great uh synergy with your “shield with two hands holding each other.”
SYLVI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: But there it is!
SYLVI: I’ve had the shield thing for months now!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Love it!
SYLVI: [overlapping] So that just worked out great!
AUSTIN: Huh. Interesting. Funny that you would be thinking about Devotion this early.
SYLVI: [half-chuckling] Weird! Did I let that slip? It's fine! Let's keep going!
[ALI & AUSTIN chuckle]
AUSTIN: Um. Is that the scene, Keith? [overlapping] I feel like that might be…
KEITH: [overlapping, undecided] Uuuuhhhmm…!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Do you want more?
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah, that’s a scene.
AUSTIN: Things are bad with the cult, basically.
KEITH: Yeah.
ALI: Yeah.
KEITH: And it seems like progress is slow.
JACK: Poor Mustard. [chuckles]
AUSTIN: Poor Mustard.
ALI: I would like to have everybody write down their names and the names of people that they know who have interacted with the cult, just to have these names.
AUSTIN: [sighs tiredly] Certainly, bureaucracy will save us!
ALI: Aha!
SYLVI: Toaster Wroaster [overlapping] with a “w.”
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Toaster Wroaster, with a “w,” thank you very much.
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN: That was my cousin's name.
ALI: Right.
SYLVI: Yeah.
KEITH: Yeah. Not my uncle, Cousin Smuzin.
AUSTIN: [chuckles] Right.
SYLVI: [chuckling] Yeah!
AUSTIN: Cousin Smuzin. [overlapping] Alright.
JACK: [overlapping] With a “w.”
SYLVI: [overlapping] I don’t like Smwuzin!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Mwuzin.
SYLVI: [overlapping, half-chuckling] Smwuzin feels like a verb!
[AUSTIN laughs]
SYLVI: Mwuzin? Anyway.
AUSTIN: Alright. Mustard or Lament!
[pause]
ALI: Um… [overlapping] Yeah.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Sorry, someone in the chat called Millie Catholic, and I need to set the record straight!
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Wow!
ALI: [hard to understand over her laughter] Damn!
[SYLVI chuckles with her discreetly]
AUSTIN: Aha.
[the laughter dies down, then a brief pause]
SYLVI: Um… I’m tryna— I’m still trying to figure mine out… in specific. But we could talk through it if… Ali, you're still trying to find… You also did just, like, feature in two scenes…!
AUSTIN: Eh— yeah!
ALI: [in agreement, overlapping] Uh-hum!
SYLVI: [overlapping] So, like, if you need a little break to think about your own framing scene, I can take over here for a minute… Um… I feel like we gotta do the meeting with— Is it too early to do the meeting with this proposed spy?
AUSTIN: No, I feel like that's…
SYLVI: That's… That’s kind of where I felt like my… story was going. Um… I think… I mean, Jack, you can help me out with this, because… Paris is setting the meeting up, right?
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah.
SYLVI: [overlapping] But I was think— Honestly, we might… [chuckling] maybe we said this was at Pushy's, as well! I was kind of picturing… Deutsch’s… like, undercover, like, bartending job to be at Pushy’s. Um… But I also feel, like… picking a public location for it, so the—definitely both of them are spies, definitely two spies—it won't turn into, like, a shootout or anything.
JACK: I think, um, Paris has also, specifically— Paris is concerned that Deutsch is just gonna kill this person and be done with it…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Hmm.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Uhum.
JACK: …so has tried to— has tried to pick a public… a public location. Whether that is at the… at Pushy's, or at the public baths at the spa.
[SYLVI chuckles]
SYLVI: [half-chuckling] The public bath has a real fucking…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum!
SYLVI: [overlapping] …like, The Irishman vibes…
AUSTIN: Uhum!
[ALI chuckles]
SYLVI: [half-chuckling] …or something. I don't know. We could do that.
JACK: I’m up for— Yeah, I’m up for whatever. Um…
SYLVI: Um…
JACK: Public place, good… lots of people around…
SYLVI: Do we… Does anybody want to be this… this guy accused of being a spy by— or assumed to be a spy?
AUSTIN: I will happily be any NPC anybody ever needs.
SYLVI: Cool! Um…
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN: What's the… Jack, tell me about— What this pers— this defector…
JACK: [overlapping] Um…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …is— looks like!
JACK: [overlapping] They are…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] And feels like. What the vibe has been.
JACK: [overlapping] Presumably, now they’re no longer in a uniform. Um. We've established that Paris can't provide for them. Although, part of the way I’m reading that is “Paris doesn't have the ability to provide for them,” which is why they have looped Deutsch in [overlapping] so quickly…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Riiight!
JACK: [overlapping] …as, like: “I need some help.” But Paris has given them just sort of, like… a Brink outfit!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum.
JACK: [overlapping] You know, like something that someone would wear. In my head—and you're welcome to inflect this any way if… as the scene progresses, Austin—I think this person is a defector. They were afraid. They fled from a battle, [overlapping] in which a lot of their people…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Are they… Columnar or Apostolisian? You said they're Pact, so…
JACK: Yeah, they're Pact. Which do you think is more interesting? [overlapping] Who— Who—
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It doesn't— I—
JACK: Who do feel more excited to play? [overlapping] Um…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I could play either pretty easily, I feel.
JACK: Let's say they are from Stel Columnar.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: And let's say that they… their ship was shot down and through a series of, like… like a— like, an escape chaining into another escape found their— smuggled their way onto a transport that got them onto the Brink.
KEITH: Who's this? What is— What is their name?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhh…
JACK: [overlapping] They don’t have a name, yet!
AUSTIN: They do! Their name is… uhm…? One second. Almost there. Uh… Their first name is Kinghton. K-n-i-g-h-t-o-n. And… I just need one more thing… Their last name is… Well, I need more than that! Uh… Knighton Reach. Reach’s their last name.
KEITH: W-r-e—
AUSTIN: [half-chuckles] W-r… [in a regular tone] R-e-a-c-h. Knighton Reach. Um… Purple shell with… gold and white… coloring on, you know… or, like, you know…
AUSTIN: Not flare. What's the word I’m looking for. Um.
JACK: Details? [overlapping] Detailing.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] You know. Detailing! Yeah, detailing. The… They have one of those faces that's, like, robot faces that's, like… a sheet of glass, behind which you can just see computer stuff? Wiring, and boards, and cables, and lights. [half-chuckling] They have RGB in their face.
I think that they probably use… they probably have, like, a war mask… war helm thing that covers that up. Or it's made of, like, bulletproof glass or something? I think it's probably cover it up normally. In fact, maybe you can see that, like, normally you can't see in past this glass? And they're supposed to be metal there, but that's been torn away in a fight, and has not been replaced yet. They use they/them.
[a brief pause]
SYLVI: Um… Paris, do you… I was gonna ask who arrives first. I think that if I do arrive first I wait outside until I see someone else go in.
AUSTIN: I’m definitely there first. I’m there first, I’m sit— I’m seated.
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Not in the bath, but, like, on like a…
SYLVI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: …like, on a bench. My hands—like, not… in a prayer, but, like… fingers interlinked—looking down… my one foot tapping. You know, not tapping, but my knee bouncing up and down nervously. Um…
JACK: And then I will be… And then I’ll be there… subsequently. I am in the… I am in the bath. It's like a… like, a large communal sort of hot tub, public bath thing. I have my shirt off, and you can see that… my body is becoming plastic… is… like, breaking directly from flesh and blood into… like, ferns!
AUSTIN: Hmmm.
SYLVI: Hm!
[a brief pause]
SYLVI: Alright, I think I’m… Well, I’m getting there third, and I think it's just like:
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [nonchalantly] Well, Paris, I’m glad to see you got comfortable! Is this your friend?
[a brief pause]
JACK (as Paris France): [slightly uneasily] Yes! Take a seat!
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): [out of their depth] Who— who— Um, who is this?
JACK (as Paris France): Uhh… Knighton, this is, uh… Deutsch. They are somebody who… I believe has experience with, uh…
JACK: Paris is looking for the words in a public place. [overlapping] Um…
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [assertively, overlapping] I’m here to help.
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): Yeah? How— How can you help me?
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): Well… I mean… It depends. Um… On, you know, things like what you're doing here…?
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): [overlapping] I’m— Ugh—
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [overlapping] What are you looking for…?
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): [rapidly] I have to get into the Mirage. I think it's the only safe place.
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): Hm, hm.
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): [overlapping] I—
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [overlapping] Sounds pretty urgent.
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): [with a tinge of hope] Can you get me there?
[a brief pause. Jack starts to say something, then they abort it]
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): I mean it could take some time, but… It's not above, it's not out of my… capabilities.
JACK: Paris shifts uncomfortably. The idea of getting further into The Mirage is something that seems like… they would not feel happy with Deutsch doing. [overlapping] Uhh…
SYLVI: Deutsch is also lying.
[AUSTIN chuckles]
SYLVI: [overlapping] I don't think that…
JACK: [overlapping] Yes.
SYLVI: …they have the ability to get into The Mirage right now. I think they are trying to figure out if this person is a spy [chuckles uncomfortably] by talking to them…
AUSTIN: Right, right.
JACK (as Paris France): You can get into The Mirage, Deutsch?
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): I’ve got my ways.
JACK (as Paris France): Wha— What ways?
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [with mischievous humor] Well, if I told you they wouldn't be my ways now, would they? They'd be our ways, and I don't want to share.
[a brief pause]
SYLVI: Big smiles, by the way, right now. [chuckling] Just… unsettlingly friendly expression on her face.
JACK: Paris is not buying it.
AUSTIN: Neither is Knighton. But Knighton’s too nervous to even say or do anything.
KEITH: Not buying the friendly smile? Or not buying the “has ways”?
JACK: Um… Not buying the friendly smile. And also recognizes that… Correct me if I’m wrong here, Austin: Paris could get deeper into The Mirage. As a citizen of The Mirage, on the Brink. Right?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah!
JACK: [overlapping] Like, we can head back towards Quire if we want.
AUSTIN: The Mirage— Or the Brink will get there, right? Six months from now it'll be as deep in The Mirage… or a half a year from now it'll be as deep in The Mirage…
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …as it is currently far away from The Mirage.
SYLVI: Yeah. I think something worth saying here is that Deutsch doesn't even know how…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right!
SYLVI: [overlapping] …like, she's getting off the Brink. Like…
[AUSTIN & JACK chuckle]
SYLVI: Extraction has not been a plan yet…
AUSTIN: Right.
SYLVI: …um, again, her handler's not in the picture anymore. Ummmm… I’m trying to think of a question that she'd ask… I— I want a question about the… the fleets near— like, the ship nearby…?
AUSTIN: Ye-ye-yeah.
SYLVI: Ships nearby. Um… Because that feels, like… both a very, like— One: a pressing thing at the time; but also, like: “did you come from one of those?” Like, how did you get…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah…
SYLVI: [overlapping] How exactly did you get on here?
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): [tentatively] I was… I was part of the 42nd… 42nd… Stellar Unit, and it was a fight. With… I don't know… Kesh? Nideo? They boarded. And… they took the ship, and I got to an escape pod… And they took that. And they took me prisoner. And two weeks later I found an opportunity and I stole a little ship and I’m here now. I’d rather not go over all the details. It was… [overlapping] I’d rather not go over the details.
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [overlapping] Sounds very stressful. I understand.
SYLVI: I think, like… Oh, no. Because you… like, you're doing the hand thing, so maybe, like, a gentle hand on the knee [overlapping] that's like bouncing a bunch.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Aha! Yeah! Yeah. I stop it. Completely. In the way that's like…
SYLVI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: “Okay, I’m being touched and don't want to…” “I don't want to be punched uh and so I’m going to remain completely still now that someone's hands are on me.”
[a brief pause]
SYLVI: I think it just like lingers for a second and it's like:
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): That sounds like a really tough time.
SYLVI: And then, like, she pulls back, as like:
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): How about this: I’ll start looking into things to get you out of here quicker than the… Brink’s schedule… and then maybe we can have… you know, when you're feeling up to it a bit more of a chat about what happened with you in the 42nd, yeah?
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): [slightly frightened] Y-yeah! Anything! Anything so long as we can start working towards… getting me somewhere safe.
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): Uhum. Alright. Sounds great!
SYLVI: Um… Out of character question: I don't think money is like a… obj— [overlapping] like, a object for our characters, right?
AUSTIN: [chuckles, overlapping] Yeah. No, no.
SYLVI: Uhh…
AUSTIN: Unless— Unless you want to not have money. Do you know what I mean? [overlapping] Or want to be able to…
SYLVI: [overlapping] No, I want her to specifically be giving this guy money for a place to stay. Um. But, like, not enough for it to be like…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVI: …you can get out of somewhere….
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Like, enough money to where, like, she knows where he could afford— they could afford with that, [overlapping] you know?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. Yep, yep. They… Yeah, sure. So, that's a… It's weird, right? Because, like, Brink Proxy is supposed to make sure everybody has room, right?
SYLVI: Uhum.
AUSTIN: “Bread water and rest.” But I think that might be a different thing than private quarters. Necessarily.
SYLVI: Yeah. I feel like the way I’ve been picturing that is that there's, like… a lot of, like, free communal hostel spaces…?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. Totally.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Like, h-o-s-t-e-l, not hostile.
AUSTIN: [chuckles, overlapping] Yeah. Aha.
SYLVI: Umm… Yeah. So this would be, like, get you somewhere private…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum.
SYLVI: [overlapping] …where you can hide away… while I go and see if you're one of the people I have to murder. That last bit’s implied. Or not implied! That last bit is unimplied!
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVI: That last bit is only to me!
AUSTIN: Yes.
[SYLVI chuckles]
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): Thank you, thank you. Thank you both.
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): No problem. You take care of yourself.
AUSTIN: And just kind of gets up and begins to walk away.
JACK: Uuhh… Actually, once Deutsch leaves… can I have a moment [overlapping] with Knighton?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh, sure. Yes.
JACK: Um… Hmm.
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): Thank you so much… I— This was more than I expected. [overlapping] I’ll be honest…
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] I don’t think you need to thank me. I think that that was more intense than I thought it was going to be.
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): I will tell you, my… my ability to tell what's tense and what's not is a little out of whack…!
JACK (as Paris France): No, no. I feel— This is on me. I shouldn't have put you through that. I guess I thought… They're the only person on the station that I know that has anything linked to… anything that's going out on… you know… on Palisade, and I thought that maybe they might be able to help, but I…
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): Um. Wait, what… what do they do? How are they connected?
JACK (as Paris France): Oh.
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): I thought they were just a fixer.
[KEITH laughs]
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): [with growing unease] I thought they were just a person who… They're not— Who— Who'd you connect me with? Paris. Who was that?
[a brief pause. JACK sighs.]
JACK (as Paris France): Well.
[SYLVI laughs]
JACK: Um. Do I know… that you are specifically… Do I know what side you're on, Sylvi? Or do I just know that you're a spy?
SYLVI: I… I’m trying to figure out— We wrote it down that you know my true identity…
JACK: Ohh…!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] U-hum!
SYLVI: [overlapping] …which at the very least to me…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah.
SYLVI: [overlapping] …means you know that I’m affiliated with The Curtain. Um… I don't think you know that I am, like… specifically a killer [overlapping] or anything…
JACK: [overlapping] I don’t— And I don't know that your handler is dead, or whatever.
SYLVI: Yeah. You don't know. You just know that I’m… my name is Lament, I’m from The Curtain, and I work for The Curtain. [overlapping, trailing off in a lower voice] Um. From The Curtain. Ya’ know.
JACK: [overlapping] I think that… Knighton… Sorry, the— Paris tilts his head back… [half-chuckling] This is the opposite of 3T's sitting back in the chair.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Aha!
JACK: [overlapping] This is Paris sitting back at the bath just, like: “Oh god!” He says:
JACK (as Paris France): I think she calls her army The Curtain. Or she works for some sort of army called The Curtain.
AUSTIN: Face— I mean: all of the lights on the inside of my face turn off.
[a brief pause]
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Oh, god!
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): [overlapping] I have… I have to go! This is…
AUSTIN: I put the money back. I put— I give her money to you.
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): [desperately] I don't know what I was thinking. I don't— I don't know what I was thinking!
AUSTIN: And just takes off in a sprint. Almost slips on some water from the bath. Finds… their way through and then disappears into the station.
JACK: Uhh… What's the move that I took that gave me that token?
[AUSTIN chuckles]
JACK: It was “commit to provide for someone you know you can't support.”
AUSTIN: Aah, yes! Uh-huh!
SYLVI: Wow! I was trying to do “let someone struggle rather than break your cover.” Which I guess I kind of did…?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Eehh…
SYLVI: [overlapping] But I don't know.
AUSTIN: Yeah! That's…
JACK: Yeah, you didn't break your cover!
AUSTIN: You didn't break your cover!
SYLVI: Okay, I’m taking a token, then.
[a brief pause]
JACK: Bless The Mirage, thinking that The Curtain is an army!
AUSTIN: [half-chuckling] Aha!
JACK: [half-chuckling] Rather than the galaxy's most unpleasant organization of spies.
AUSTIN: [sighs] God…
SYLVI: [overlapping] I’m very glad that worked. [??? – 1:41:20]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I mean, at this point it also is both in some ways, right? Yeah, that worked. That was great.
JACK: [overlapping] It’s a full faction in The Principality. Yea.
AUSTIN: Yes. I’ve been actually thinking about them doing a rebranding soon. [overlapping] So, that's the thing that could happen…
[SYLVI laughs]
JACK: [overlapping] How exciting!
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: When we left… We can spoil PARTIZAN, right, in these?
AUSTIN: Ye-ye-yeah. Yes.
JACK: Um… By the time we finished PARTIZAN, have they elected a new Gabardine yet?
AUSTIN: I don't think s— Not that we had seen. [overlapping] We didn't know who was in charge of…
JACK: [overlapping] But they definitely have now!
AUSTIN: Yeah. We have no idea who was in charge of The Curtain—I believe at the end. I don't rememb— Who was the representative in, like, the big fleet battle at the end of… of that? God, how many episodes did PARTIZAN have? I used to— I knew this last… [overlapping] I got it right!
JACK: [overlapping] 40-something?
AUSTIN: Yeah, it's 47. Um, I think it's 47. I went to for— I typed PARTIZAN 45, because I was pretty sure that would get me the on the final arc…
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN: …and it absolutely did! So… I don't think we saw… a de facto leader of The Curtain. We saw… a number of other people tied to them, but mostly we saw Pact folks, like Xiphion. So. Anyway. [overlapping] I mean…
JACK: [overlapping] Xiphion rules! We're gonna see more of them!
AUSTIN: I hope so! We'll see! We— There's lots of stuff in PARTIZAN that we might just not see! Because… it's silly sometimes to be like…
JACK: [overlapping, unintelligible] [??? – 1:42:39]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …”and then everybody who's over there is here now, too!” You know? Um…
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Ayway. It's— That was a fun scene. Good scene.
ALI: Um! Yeah! I guess uh for the final scene I… was thinking that… I might be— Oh! [starts laughing]
AUSTIN: Uh-oh!
ALI: [laughing] Sorry, I did… I did a weird thing with… Miro, where… I was, like, trying to move it, [overlapping] and then it just, like, kept going…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Aha!
ALI: [overlapping] As if I slid a puck across the board. But it was— My camera, just moving away from our entire game.
AUSTIN: [overlapping, tired] Ohh.
ALI: Anyway. Um. I was thinking: because this has been, like, [half-chuckling] a Mustard-heavy… arc…?
AUSTIN: Uhum.
ALI: I can narrate a minor scene of… her, like… Sitting in the Brink Proxy office… like, going over the, like, scheduling thing to get… [hums while stalling] Ba-pa-pah! [in a regular tone] …the security guard off of 3T's face, but also, like…
AUSTIN: Uhum!
ALI: …like, eating, like, noodles or something at her desk or whatever…
[AUSTIN giggles briefly]
ALI: …and just watching like a live feed of Toaster Wroster…
[AUSTIN & KEITH laugh]
ALI: Toaster Oaster…? [laughs]
AUSTIN: Yeah. What's Toaster even up to? What's—
JACK: [overlapping, compassionately] Ohh…
AUSTIN: [overlapping, half-chuckling] What's going on with Toaster? Ahhh…
ALI: [overlapping] She’s eatin—
JACK: [overlapping] I had a detail!
ALI: Sure!
JACK: Um, they keep checking their pulse.
[ALI chuckles slightly]
AUSTIN: [enthusiastically] Oooh!
JACK: [overlapping] Checking their pulse on their wrists.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That's so good! Ooohh!
SYLVI: [overlapping] For sure.
JACK: [overlapping] Checking the pulse by, like, feeling it in their throat. Going about their day, checking their pulse.
[a brief pause, then simultaneously]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Not going for a run and then checking?
KEITH: [overlapping] Weirdly, or…?
AUSTIN: Good question.
KEITH: …or m— or matter-of-factly?
JACK: Um… I don't know! Ali? I feel like Mustard is the queen of…
[ALI laughs]
JACK: [half-chuckling] …spotting people doing weird things on security footage.
[ALI laughs]
ALI: I feel like it's probably… Like, it feels a little compulsion-y?
KEITH: [overlapping] Okay.
ALI: [overlapping] But there's, like, a calmness about it, you know? Like, as if it's like happening on a schedule?
KEITH: Okay.
ALI: Uh…
KEITH: So this is not someone who's noticed that something's weird with their pulse so they keep checking it. It's someone who's like: “oh, gotta check my pulse!”
ALI: Yeah. I think that's accurate. [overlapping] I think that's how I would describe that.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah.
ALI: Yeah.
KEITH: [faintly] Okay.
AUSTIN: That works!
[pause]
AUSTIN: Um…
ALI: Um… And then that's a full round.
AUSTIN: That's a full round! Do we think we've solved any of these threats? [chuckles]
[ALI & JACK laugh]
KEITH: No.
AUSTIN: Okay.
SYLVI: [tentatively] No…
ALI: [semi-seriously, overlapping] We're supposed to be solving these, now? Hang on…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Well, they're resolving, not solving.
ALI: [overlapping] No, I know… [chuckles]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Re-solving, I guess, is what I should have said. [chuckles faintly]
SYLVI: [exaggarated] Me? Solve problems?
ALI: Uhum!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Never.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Doesn't… That sounds the wrong way around.
AUSTIN: Alright! Well, new round! Who's… There's no, like, big re— end of round thing that we have to worry about. You know what I mean? We just keep rolling.
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN: So. And everybody gets to act again.
JACK: I have a—
AUSTIN: And we don't have to keep order. So. Yeah, go ahead!
JACK: I have a question! And the question that I would like to explore is: “why does Mustard Red want a magazine that kills people?”
[ALI & KEITH laugh]
ALI: That’s a really good question!
AUSTIN: Great question.
ALI: Um…
JACK: Uh… Is this something you would be interested in exploring, Ali, [half-chuckling] or should we look for another scene?
[ALI laughs]
ALI: Yeah! I… When I’d suggested the magazine before it killed people…
[AUSTIN chuckles]
ALI: …I was just like: “oh this is a character trait, she would be interested in, like, fashion.” But I was thinking since, like, maybe there's, like… there's, like, photos of someone from the Brink in the magazine…?
AUSTIN: Ooo…!
ALI: Um…
JACK: Oh, wow!
[ALI laughs]
JACK: Let’s— Let's play this! Let's play this scene out! Um. I think I would like to meet Mustard…
[a brief pause]
ALI: Sure.
JACK: …in the break room at Brink Proxy.
ALI: [chuckles, overlapping] Okay!
JACK: [overlapping] Where I am restocking a vending machine. And on seeing Mustard I just take, like, uh two drinks and two snacks out of the vending machine and I, like:
JACK (as Paris France): Hey, have you got five minutes?
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: Extremely valuable job perk, by the way!
[ALI is still chuckling]
ALI (as Mustard Red): Yeah, sure! Yeah.
[a brief pause]
JACK (as Paris France): Busy day here! Are these… Who are all these teens?
[KEITH & SYLVI laugh]
ALI (as Mustard Red): Oh well, we… we had some issues with harassment with one of our security guards. It's very tragic.
JACK (as Paris France): Oh, security guards have been harassing people?
ALI (as Mustard Red): Apparently [overlapping] You know, all these kids…
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Fucking Brink Proxy not what it used to be! Am I right?
ALI (as Mustard Red): Yeah! All these kids are just trying to have a good time… and, apparently… someone on our staff has been… You know. You know, giving them a hard time!
JACK (as Paris France): [in a hushed voice] You know who it is?
ALI (as Mustard Red): [in a hushed voice] Yeah it's… it’s…
ALI: [continuing without missing a beat] I’m gonna scroll up a little bit to find out who… [chuckles]
AUSTIN: Coracin Seventine.
ALI (as Mustard Red): It’s Coracin Seventine. [overlapping] Head of Security!
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Seventine?!? I was just refilling his vending machine in his office! He seemed like he wasn't doing any harassing, but that guy… Yeah…
[AUSTIN chuckles]
JACK (as Paris France): I’ve never had a good feeling about that guy.
ALI (as Mustard Red): See? You give someone their own vending machine and it separates them from the rest of the people!
JACK (as Paris France): Look. I mean, look. [gradually growing to a half-chuckle] I’m not here to throw blame around Mustard but I have to remember that Coracine gets a vending machine with a Brink Proxy directive. I’m just filling up the vending machine here! [overlapping] If I was in the business of selling vending machines…
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] No, no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no no. I’m not saying you… I was the royal you, not you.
[AUSTIN laughs]
ALI (as Mustard Red): [half-chuckling] I just think when somebody gets [overlapping] their own vending machine…
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Oh! One gets their own vending machine! Right!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Right! It affects the way that they interact with people, and the way that they're able to relate with their fellow man, you know? It's ve— Yeah. It's… It's hard to talk about.
[AUSTIN & KEITH laugh, then ALI & SYLVI chuckle as well]
AUSTIN: [tiredly] Ohhh…! Perfect!
JACK (as Paris France): So, I know you're wondering and I don't have the magazine with me, yet. I’m sorry.
ALI (as Mustard Red): [whispers] Sure. [in a regular voice] Yeah, I… I’m disappointed, but I understand! You've a lot on your plate!
JACK (as Paris France): And I— I did track down some additional information about the magazine, that I think it would be good to dis— to sort of go over with you. As a responsible buyer-seller sort of step.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Hm. Uhum, uhum. [overlapping] Well, that should be above board.
ALI: [overlapping] Wink.
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Uh… The centerfold… The centerfold kills you if you look at it.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Ex— Excuse me?
JACK (as Paris France): Is this news to you?
[a brief pause]
ALI (as Mustard Red): Did somebody die?
JACK (as Paris France): Uh… No… I— Well, I have to assume, in the past. Uh… I have to assume in the past, otherwise people wouldn't have known. This seems to have been… Okay. So, I think I’ve traced the magazine back out to one of the planets out there called… um, Columnar… where…
[AUSTIN chuckles quietly]
JACK (as Paris France): I don't fully know what's going on but they made some fashions that kill you if you look at them. And then they decided to take a photograph of it. This is— Why do you think the magazine is so hard to get, Mustard? It's because the centerfold kills you if you look at it!
ALI (as Mustard Red): Mmm…!
JACK (as Paris France): Why—
KEITH: I have a practical question.
ALI: [overlapping] Yeah.
JACK: [overlapping] Yes.
KEITH: Is the reason it came from Columnar because they're mostly robots and so they didn't realize that it killed you if you looked at it [overlapping] until someone who wasn't…?
JACK: [overlapping] We’ve talked about this! The, uh…
AUSTIN: [chuckling] I think they're just very avant-garde!
JACK: [overlapping, half-chuckling] Yeah.
KEITH: [overlapping] So they— That was intentional. Like: “what if we made fashion that could kill you?” Including people from Column— robots from Columnar? [overlapping] Who were also killed…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I think we could find four artists in America, right now, who would do this if they could. If—
JACK: [overlapping] I mean…
[ALI chuckles]
JACK: …Be very careful about what you search! Performance artists [overlapping] like Chris Burden have been doing stuff like this forever.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] This is what…
JACK: Um…
AUSTIN: This is what I’m sayin’.
KEITH: Well, the— The question is just practically: the Columnar set out to create a death…
JACK: [overlapping] Yes.
KEITH: [overlapping] …a death fashion. Not: they made a very dangerous fashion…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I susp— [sighs]
KEITH: [overlapping] …that became a death fashion when non-robots looked at it.
AUSTIN: If I’m getting specific I suspect they made a death… a death textile. Or a death shape.
KEITH: [overlapping, murmuring] Death-tile…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] And then someone was, like: [overlapping] I’m going to…
JACK: [overlapping, half-chuckling] Make it into our clothes?
AUSTIN: Death style, but make it fashion. You know?
KEITH: Right.
JACK: [overlapping, chuckling] Tyra Banks.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] “I’m saying something about this!” Right?
KEITH: [overlapping] Right. Right.
AUSTIN: “I’m saying something about the death-tile.”
AUSTIN: I’m making it… I’m— “What if fashion could kill?”
JACK: [overlapping] Something—
AUSTIN: [overlapping] You know? And I bet the magazine has warnings on it, and it says “don't look at it!”
KEITH: [overlapping] Don’t open this.
JACK: [overlapping] Okay, yes. Something that they weren't sure would happen and realized quickly—and this perhaps leads to the fact that the magazine is rare—is they weren't sure the effect would propagate through a camera.
AUSTIN: Right.
JACK: Um… They didn't know that it would kill you in the magazine. Maybe there were people on set, who were like: “shoul— are we really gonna do this?” But they printed the magazine anyway, and discovered quickly: yes, it does kill you if you look at it through the camera.
AUSTIN: Uhum.
JACK (as Paris France): So, why do you want this— Okay. Question 1: do you still want this? Knowing, once again, that— I understand that it's a double spread, on the left hand side are two tall people and on the right hand side is a child—it's kids fashion I guess—
AUSTIN: [overlapping, chuckling uncomfortably] Oh my god!
JACK (as Paris France): …on the right hand side… And… it kills you if you look at it? Um. Question 2: why did you want it in the first place?
ALI (as Mustard Red): Well, first of all, I would still like it. Thank you.
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping, chuckling] You would?
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] And thank you for the heads up.
[KEITH laughs]
ALI (as Mustard Red): Yes! Yes! Um… And…
[AUSTIN chuckles, ALI laughs briefly]
ALI (as Mustard Red): The reason that I need it… Um…
JACK (as Paris France): Yes?!?
ALI (as Mustard Red): …is… because, um… there is an article in the magazine about someone from the Brink!
AUSTIN: Hm!
JACK (as Paris France): What?
ALI (as Mustard Red): A historical figure… from the Brink… was interviewed in this magazine… and I haven't found any scans of it online. I’m… sort of figuring out why, now. So, I would like to have a copy.
[the briefest of pauses]
ALI (as Mustard Red): That's so weird that they wouldn't just censor it! Or, you know, reproduce it without the death pictures!
JACK (as Paris France): I don't know what's going on out there…
[AUSTIN & ALI chuckle]
JACK (as Paris France): And… Look, if I’m being honest, Mustard, this week has been very complicated for me in terms of what's going on out there.
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Oh…?
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] I will do my best to… I’m not going to get into it.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Hm.
JACK (as Paris France): I will do my best to get this to you. Um… You be careful of it. Okay? I don't feel good about this being on the station. Um… But you've always done right by me in the past…
ALI (as Mustard Red): [with an emphasis that comes across a bit insecure] Oh, I assure you that it'll be very safe in my possession… I will not let any death photos leak out. So.
[SYLVI laughs]
ALI (as Mustard Red): Rest assured.
[a brief pause]
JACK (as Paris France): Okay! Yeah.
[ALI chuckles]
JACK (as Paris France): I mean, that answers the question!
JACK: I think a big vibe here for me is when you described this character, Ali, you'd described that great webcomic.
[ALI laughs]
JACK: It's like weird girl x weird girl.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum!
ALI: [overlapping, laughing] Aha!
JACK: And I subsequently read it, and it's so good! And it… It involves someone who just, like, watches security camera footage of accidents?
ALI: Aha!
AUSTIN: Uhum.
JACK: But yeah. So I think that is…
[ALI chuckles]
JACK: …that is also what I’m playing into with a magazine that kills you if you look at it. It doesn't have to be kids fashion! I said that just as improv…
[ALI laughs]
JACK: …and then I realized exactly how ghoulish it was!
[AUSTIN chuckles, ALI laughs]
JACK: What I was going to say was: on the right hand side is a dog.
[AUSTIN laughs]
JACK: But then I realized that, like: [chuckling] dog fashion?
SYLVI: [overlapping] Damn.
JACK: [overlapping] Wha—
SYLVI: [blasé] What about it?
[AUSTIN & ALI laugh]
JACK: …would play in a… in an even weirder way…
AUSTIN: [tired after laughter] Aha!
[SYLVI chuckles]
JACK: The right hand side is indistinct. Is it kid's fashion? Is it dog's fashion? Is it something just on a mannequin?
AUSTIN: Uhum. [overlapping] The…
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah, it's a relief to Paris to know that she doesn't—at least, apparently—want to use it to kill somebody.
AUSTIN: Do you leave, Paris? I have a little… a little stinger for this.
JACK: Yes, I do leave.
AUSTIN: Um… [imitating phone notification] Abadoop! You get a message, Mustard… on your… Are you, like, tied into the Mesh the way most Twilight Mirage characters are?
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Is it, like, augmented reality stuff? Okay. A picture appears. Uh… It's the fa— It kills you— No. It doesn't kill you.
[ALI gasps in shock]
JACK: [overlapping, chuckling] Mustard dies?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It's the cover of the magazine! It's the cover of the magazine. And it says, you know, [exaggerating] “deadly fashion!” And it's— It is the big censorbarred version of the fashion— All you see is, like, the heads and feet of the models posing. Um, we do see the name of the article you're looking for… which is like a… This would have been from… God! It's…
My thinking here is that it is actually a… It's either an interview with an AI construct version of someone who used to be on the Brink, or it is a… Because when Columnar joined it had already been some time by the time this… by the time… [with newfound vigor] Let me give you the pitch! It was either going to be an interview with Grand Magnificent or Morning's Observation.
ALI: Uhumm.
AUSTIN: These are the two people who we know would make sense to be in a weird avant-garde fashion magazine. To me. Personally.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: But Columnar doesn't join until… the Victorious…? No, The Perfect Millennium—which is thousands of years later. So, I could very much imagine it being, like, a Morning's Observation… like, AI… Or: some sort of “interview out of time.” A previous interview with an obscure fashion legend from the Twilight Mirage that gets published in the piece. Do you know what I mean?
ALI: Oh su-su-sure, yeah.
AUSTIN: Either— Or! Maybe it's the two of them interviewing each other about their art, which is actually extremely funny.
[ALI and then JACK laugh]
AUSTIN: Um… They are both long past by now. I mean, Grand obviously ended up as a sort of an Excerpt? But not— Not in the same way like Signet was, let's say.
ALI: Uhum.
AUSTIN: And I suspect by 5000 year— Again, even if we only say 1000 years or 500 years later— Whatever we ended up saying last time, here. I think you said 500. That's still far enough away that I don't think that they were probably alive. You know? Um… So! But that— that image shows up and it says:
AUSTIN (as the message): The magazine is onboard. I can provide you with a copy… for a nominal fee.
AUSTIN: And this is: “introduce an opportunist or hustler with a predatory offer.”
[ALI laughs]
JACK: Oh, sick! Is this from the Scum And Villainy Aspect, Austin?
AUSTIN: No, this is The Divine, Arbitrage. This is from The Markets.
JACK: Aahh, fuck!
ALI: [surprised] Oh! And this is straight to Mustard?
[SYLVI chuckles]
AUSTIN: Straight to Mustard.
ALI: [muttering] Well, sure! I mean, I— You know… [laughs faintly]
AUSTIN: It's simple. It's as simple as this: all you have to do is make an account with the Arbitrage…
SYLVI: [with pained glee] Uhum!
AUSTIN: With The Arbitrage. Right? With the… you know. The Divine Paypal, basically.
ALI: [overlapping] Oh, su-su-sure…
SYLVI: [overlapping] God…!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That's all! You just have— The payment has to come through that. It uses a special currency, that only works there. You have to buy that currency. Um… Don't worry where that currency comes from or how much it costs to produce.
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN: [with a hint of a chuckle] Mustard doesn't seem like she would care, necessarily.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: You just transfer your Twilight Mirage… whatever… credits… We don't know how money works in the Twilight Mirage at this point. We don't know if there is a… It seems to me like there is some sort of currency unit, but I don't know what the place of markets is inside of The Mirage.
We left it really going towards… I don't— [half-chuckling] I don't think that was market anarchism, is where we were leading it. [chuckles] I think we were leading it away from markets pretty strongly… but I can imagine a place like the Brink has some sort— something beyond… has some form of exchange and potentially some sort— some form of currency.
But this is Arbitrage very much trying to get people into a system. Where, like, this currency system is long-term going to try to supplant whatever the Brink and then The Mirage uses as its [overlapping] primary mode of exchange.
JACK: [overlapping] Whoohf…!
AUSTIN: And so, it's simple! [with increasing speed] You just sign in and… You make an account. You can use your regular Mesh account—it just links right up. It just links right up. It's really easy. Already— It already has the… API hooks… for it. Um…
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: And then you just say go ahead, and just, you know, transfer over some… it's… It's, like, no fee, actually! For small purchases? There's no fee, even. You just have to use that one. And then the… the magazine will be moved to you. It's just currently onboard someone's ship… someone's ship who's docked, and they are going to get a message that says “someone wants to buy your cursed magazine.”
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: And that person is going to go: “oh, shit! Really? I wanted to get rid of this thing! This thing is cursed.” And… provide it for you!
[ALI sighs]
AUSTIN: If you say yes…!
ALI: Seems like a win-win…
AUSTIN: Yeah!
ALI: Um… [overlapping] Yeah…
KEITH: [overlapping] Which is exactly what a win-win is! [laughs]
[general laughter]
ALI: That's such a funny thing, is… Like, I could… It would be… There's a version of being honest to the character where it's, like: “she would be aware of cybersecurity, and she would be very…”
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum.
ALI: [overlapping] “…protective of her personal data… being someone who, like, manipulates others so often.” Like, you probably wouldn't be the person who's like: “Yeah I’ll give this weird program my information.” But I don't think…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum.
ALI: …I think it's better to just say yes to thi— [laughs]
KEITH: I think— I think you could go that way though! [overlapping] That didn’t sound wrong!
ALI: [overlapping] Sure! Yeah. I mean that's a version of a person who exists, but I don't want to say “no, thank you” to this funny setup. So! [laughs]
AUSTIN: Yeah. Let's do it! Um. [overlapping] Cool!
KEITH: [overlapping] It would be really funny, though, if we zoomed in on the Twilight Mirage in the immediate aftermath of the Twilight Mirage finale and they had just all become weird mutualists… [overlapping] doing like…
[ALI & KEITH laugh]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. Yeah. Keith, like, trust me: one of the things that, like, threat— in my mind that is threatening the Twilight Mirage on the inside is 100% an-caps.[5] Like, 100% is… you know, people who think that the market has a strong place inside of society and that, like…
JACK: Whoohf!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] You know that… this is…
SYLVI: [overlapping] The worst villain you’ve come up with yet!
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Listen.
JACK: Basically, [overlapping] it's the…
SYLVI: [overlapping] C’mon…
JACK: …if someone gets their own vending machine [chuckles] in their office…
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Yeah, aha! Yeah. I mean, also… you know, there is definitely… I don't think that 3T understands that he leans towards a sort of, like, nationalist anarchism…? But there is that strain of nationalism here that is, like: “fuck yeah, the Twilight Mirage is the best place on earth!” And “the Twilight Mirage is— should not— there should not be outsiders here.” [overlapping] And “we should go…”
KEITH: [overlapping] And we should prove that by going to war!
AUSTIN: Right! By going to war. Exactly. [overlapping] Aha! So.
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah. Right. I really want to problematize that the more we…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah! Oh! I think it’s—
JACK: [chuckles, overlapping] …the more we explore this game.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yes. Yes. So.
JACK: Yeah.
[a brief pause, then simultanuesly]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I don't think it's an easy—
JACK: [overlapping] Well, not that we’re—
AUSTIN: For what it's worth, fuck the Principality!
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Someone should fight The Principality! Like, it is not— It’s hard!
JACK: [overlapping] I’ve been thinking about this all fucking week! [chuckles]
AUSTIN: Aha!
JACK: Yeah. To be clear I don't think that any of us are here like: “Yay! Ye-ay! Let's go!”
AUSTIN: [chuckles] Yes.
JACK: But I wanna make sure that we don't… uh… In understanding that we all feel that way…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. Lemme… Yeah.
JACK: [overlapping] …I want to make sure that we don't get characters on screen that don't also feel that way.
AUSTIN: Uhum. Uhum…
JACK: Uh… God.
AUSTIN: Anyway. That seems like a scene, Ali.
ALI: Yeah!
AUSTIN: Uh… [overlapping] I have a minor scene…
JACK: [overlapping] Oh, we’re going to Craigslist for the magazine that kills!
AUSTIN: [chuckling] H-aha!
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN: I have a quick minor scene, I think, for 3T… which is…
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN: Which is being… Okay. So. I think the… that Coracin Seventine has been shooed off the case, so to speak, but is not agreeing with that, and is keeping… up with the with trying to follow whatever 3T is up to, and spots 3T helping direct people loading things onto the blue orange trucks. What are they?
JACK: [overlapping] Ohhh, shit!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Who could say! Is it guns? I don't know. I know if it's guns or not but…
[ALI giggles]
AUSTIN: …but it looks like it could be! It looks like it's crates of something!
JACK: [from a distance] Shit!
AUSTIN: Also, I forgot to keep up our… keeping track of all the scenes and I’m too lazy to try to catch up! [overlapping] So I’m stumped.
JACK: [overlapping] Do you want a conversation there? Or do you want to just play that as a minor scene?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No, I think it's a minor scene. I think that it's just, like, Seventine looking around the corner. You know. Or, like, zooming in on a camera, even though he's not supposed to, you know? Um… Et cetera. So, yeah, that's my minor! Very easy!
[pause]
KEITH: Uh, okay. This is a new round. So now it's a…
AUSTIN: Anybody can go!
KEITH: …me, Deutsch, and Paris, that need to go.
AUSTIN: Uhum.
KEITH: Okay.
[a brief pause]
JACK: Wait. I don't know if Mustard went. I think I went. Yeah, there we go.
KEITH: Oh.
[a brief pause]
KEITH: Um…
[a brief pause]
KEITH: We haven't seen anything… Have we done, like, a Threat One scene yet?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Not really, no.
KEITH: [overlapping] Okay.
AUSTIN: I mean… It's in the conversation.
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: Right?
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: But… Not explicitly.
SYLVI: Yeah, I was trying to pull it in a bit more into the… [overlapping] spy scene. But it was a little tough there.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah, I— The spy stuff is sort of there, right? Yeah.
SYLVI: Yeah.
[pause]
KEITH: [sighs] It's a lot of— A lot of different parts.
AUSTIN: Stay focused on something that is… you are just interested in!
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You know? Which could be: [chuckling, overlapping] “have you heard that people are emerging days later as new members of a strange cult?”
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah.
KEITH: [overlapping] I am interested in that, yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhh… It could be anything.
JACK: We're still at the… that point of the game where we're sort of splashing around, [overlapping] finding the threads.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. Yeah. The throughlines.
KEITH: Yeah.
[pause]
KEITH: Um…
[a brief pause]
ALI: I think that's everything as far as scenes, right?
AUSTIN: I think that that's right. [overlapping] Thank you for helping me catch up.
JACK: [overlapping] Thank you, Ali.
KEITH: Oh jeez. Okay, great.
[ALI giggles]
AUSTIN: [chuckles] Aha! Hey, we also haven't met your ghost yet. That's a good point. [overlapping] Thank you, garrulousMonolith.[6]
KEITH: [overlapping] We haven’t met my ghost… Let me read what the hell it says about my ghost…
JACK: Yeah, could you read it aloud? I want to know what your ghost's deal is based on what we know so far! [chuckles]
KEITH: I— The problem is that I deleted the sticky note that had— that…
JACK: Aahh!
KEITH: …explained it.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I think it was just what you wrote! Yeah!
KEITH: [overlapping] I think there was no explanation! It was just what I wrote…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah, it is!
k. [overlapping] “The ghost that watches over me.”
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: At which— In the— In the actual text it was… it's “the software ghost” that watches over me.
AUSTIN: Right. The digital ghost or whatever. Right.
KEITH: Um…
[a brief pause]
KEITH: Okaaaay… Can… I… [chuckles] Um… Uh. Mustard, what was your relationship with Craig, again?
ALI: Oh, Craig was my former mentor, another Brink Proxy person…
KEITH: [overlapping] Okay.
ALI: [overlapping] …who now can't stand me because I think that… Craig knows that I’m, like, using my access to information about people to monitor them.
KEITH: Wow. Okay.
[ALI chuckles briefly]
KEITH: Um… Then… [tentatively] Can I have…
[a brief pause]
KEITH: …a scene with— [energetically] Actually, I’m gonna do a minor scene! And it's just going to be… with… Craig and… Pushy in the bar… cleaning up. Um… Like, before the… show. Because there's a… there's a 3T show later— Is it later today?
AUSTIN: Later this— is— This weekend. [overlapping] Mis— Question mark, question mark, question mark.
KEITH: [overlapping] It’s this week. Okay. So we’re— We’ve gotta do preparations. Like, we've got to move… tables to side— like, to accommodate the larger crowd… And so we're just getting things ready in advance. And, uh… Pushy's sort of, like, kind of grumbling about Craig not being really good at cleaning. Meanwhile…
[AUSTIN chuckles briefly]
KEITH: …uh… Pushy's got, like, a bunch of tentacle arms coming out of… his backpack that's, like, he basically is Doc Oc cleaning…
[AUSTIN chuckles]
KEITH: …stuff. And it's, like: “Craig's so slow at cleaning!”
[AUSTIN chuckles]
KEITH: And… they're talking about the… meeting of everyone from earlier… Sorry, the assemblage. Uh…
AUSTIN: Thank you. [overlapping] No meetings!
KEITH: [overlapping] Because that… That one guy wouldn't show up to a meeting! [chuckles]
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: [laughing] So you gotta call it an assemblage! [in a regular tone] Um. And… I think Craig is… is gonna talk some shit about… Mustard Red. Who…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Wow!
KEITH: [overlapping] …Pushy has known… but… Craig would, I think, be like: “you ha— you can't— you can't— You're gonna go complain— You can't complain to a Mustard Red! They're like… She's, like, a wild card. Like…”
[ALI giggles]
AUSTIN: Wow! [chuckles]
KEITH: [assembling the sentence slowly] Like, she seems really into Brink culture, but is, like, too into access.
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN: How does— How does that hit for… for Pushy?
KEITH: [overlapping] Uuhm…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] And what's the expression we see on Pushy's face?
KEITH: Uuuh…
[a brief pause]
KEITH: I… I think he has sort of a naturally grumpy face… and is… scowling… in a way that it's, like: “well, it's Pushy. Pushy's always kind of scowling.” But I think that what's happening is like, “well if I can't go to the Brink I’ve got to do some other thing to take care of this.” Because— We don't— We don't just have the cult we have the…
AUSTIN: Uhum!
KEITH: …weirdos who I think are part of the cult who are also holding up the truckers trying to drive through. And— Which is already causing a problem. And so… It's, like, “is no-one doing something about this? We had this meeting! Is that meeting for nothing?”
AUSTIN: Uh… We had what?
KEITH: Assemblage! Assemblage!
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Thank you!
KEITH: And that's my scene.
[a brief pause]
ALI: Um. I feel like I might also be able to do a minor scene? This could be a major scene, I guess, if anybody… [chuckles] …if anybody wants to play, uh… Joe Davier. [chuckles, overlapping] Joe De Vivre.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ohhh! Joe De Vivre!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Ohh, boy…
ALI: But one of my moves is… “dispatch a capable agent under your command…” And I think we've— we've had enough of these, sort of like…
AUSTIN: Uhum!
ALI: …cult monitor scenes, or whatever, that it… it feels useful to, like, have, like, action being taken on that? Um… [hushed] So I’m gonna put this token back into the token thingy. [in a regular tone] But yeah! I think it's basically just her, like, meeting up with Joe to be like: “hey, can you follow this person?”
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ouuuhh!
ALI: [overlapping] Or: “can you…” Like, I think I know who might… be, like, recruiting people or, like… You know. Involved in, sort of, the, like, cult-cult, and not, like, one of the people who have sort of been coming in and out.
AUSTIN: Not the new recruits, but someone, like…
ALI: [overlapping] Right.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …who's been there for a minute.
ALI: Ye-ye-yeah. I think that she's been, like, watching the new recruits eno— enough to be, like, now it is time to get someone to… act on… [laughs] a cultist? Like, a capital C Cultist? And I don't think that the scene needs to be more… [overlapping] involved than that, you know?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah, I think that makes sense! I have something to bounce off of that, but not— I’ll wait until after this next Lament scene. This next Deutsch scene.
SYLVI: Eehh… Same person…
AUSTIN: Yeah, well.
SYLVI: …two names.
ALI: Uhum.
SYLVI: Umm… I was actually thinking [chuckles] I might do a minor scene, as well! But it was to decide whether or not that… Sorry, what was that…? Did we get a name for the… like, Columnar refugee… or…? [overlapping] I guess escaped POW.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah, Knighton. Knighton Reach.
SYLVI: Knighton. Right.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Right here.
SYLVI: I… I was gonna figure out if Knighton, or not was… one of my targets or not! [overlapping] Uhm…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right! Well, now you've seen Knighton's face, right? Though, you've seen— You’ve seen Knighton's face after its normal face shield has been ripped off! Which was not intentional, but that's kind of funny. Right?
SYLVI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: But, you know, a purple gold and white… Columnar probably would still be what the dossier says, if… [overlapping] if they were one of your targets.
SYLVI: [overlapping] The… The way I’ve been thinking about how the— I’ve been trying to think of, like: “okay, if I don't have a home, how do I keep— how do I, like, communicate and look at orders?” Because the Shadow is very much described as slinking around the Station.
AUSTIN: Yeah!
SYLVI: And I described the thing with the mirrors… last time. And I think that is gen— where, like… She went to the mirror at the bar and that displayed, like, I think the words that showed were, like, “unsanctioned divinity detected…”
AUSTIN: Right. [overlapping] Yep!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Or something about the cult.
AUSTIN: Uhum.
SYLVI: Uhm… And I think that, like, the mirrors are how The Curtain’s been communicating. They, like—I don't, I don't think that they're special mirrors, I just think that there's a way that they broadcast across mirrors—that, like… when one of their agents… Maybe they… the agent has an augment for it, too…
AUSTIN: Right.
SYLVI: But… it becomes sort of a display or like a messaging thing for them. Like, where, like, images and text and stuff shows up for… for The Curtain’s operative. And, like… In my head it is extremely like a… early CG-like render of this person's face, and it either says like… [half-chuckling] “terminate,” if it's the target. Or like not import— Some synonym for not important that I can't think of right now!
AUSTIN: [a half-chuckle] Uhh…! [overlapping] Yeah…
SYLVI: [overlapping] So I’m just gonna flip a coin!
AUSTIN: Ohh…! Okay!
SYLVI: I… I mean, like, fictionally, I don't think it makes sense, but I could also see it being like not a— Maybe I do a D3 and one of them is “not one of your targets, kill anyway.”
AUSTIN: Oh my god! [overlapping] Do a D3!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Listen…!
KEITH: [laughs, overlapping] Yeah…!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Okay, cool!
KEITH: [laughing, overlapping] This is really good…!
AUSTIN: Yeah. The target of opportunity.
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Honestly, maybe we just go with that! That's kind of fun, right?
SYLVI: I mean, I rolled a three, [overlapping] and that was gonna be, so…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Alright, there it is! That's the one!
SYLVI: There we go!
AUSTIN: Ahhhh…! Because maybe I saw something while I was captured. Maybe— [overlapping] They don't know. And I’m es—
SYLVI: [overlapping] Didn’t you say… you got escaped… Ugh! You got captured [overlapping] by Curtain people…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I did!
SYLVI: [overlapping] …and escaped from them?
AUSTIN: And then escaped! [overlapping] Yeah!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: So…
AUSTIN: Totally-totally…. Yeah. Viable. Good. Love it.
SYLVI: Yeah, okay, cool! And that's my minor scene. [overlapping] I’m so glad I rolled a three. [chuckles]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Alright. Um… I love that. I… have a request for a major scene.
SYLVI: Uhum.
AUSTIN: I don't know why I moved that over to—
[SYLVI chuckles]
AUSTIN: Move it back over now! Umm… I… There is a… So, I think 3T… reaches out to all the Troublemakers and says:
AUSTIN (as 3T): “I really want this next show to be special! I really want… If y’all have any ideas for how to, you know, zhuzh it up, how to make it extra, how to make it… you know, that much more…? The most memorable night the Brink has ever seen? Let me know!
AUSTIN: And I would love for… I would love “offer strength at a personal cost” from The Lambent Strand, from Devotion. I want someone from this cult to reach out. And be like: “Yeah, we can help you!” [overlapping] to 3T…
[ALI laughs]
SYLVI: [overlapping] Okaay…
AUSTIN: …but I don't know who that is, or what that person is like, or what that encounter is like… But I want that… I want that connection to be… to be drawn.
[a brief pause]
SYLVI: [overlapping] Oh, man…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Because I’ve, like, basically put the word out to the devi—
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah…
AUSTIN: You know what I mean? I’ve been like: “I’m here at the crossroads, devil! Someone make me… come make me an offer!”
SYLVI: Oh someone's gonna be there, right?
AUSTIN: Uhuh!
SYLVI: I’m trying to just think of, like, what the… what the, like, higher ups of this cult specifically look like… in my head.
AUSTIN: Is that who comes…? It’s someone who's— who's, [overlapping] like, well established?
SYLVI: [overlapping] I think… I think it's someone who is, like… Like— God! Like, what am I— What comparisons am I— I’m trying to make a comparison here, but the… the… they're all horrible, because I’m thinking about cults! Um…
[KEITH laughs, ALI chuckles]
KEITH: Kind of unavoidable.
SYLVI: [chuckling] It was gonna be like… Okay! I’ll just say it! Like, the only— You know how David Miscavige exists? And is kind of, like… That's the guy that runs Scientology, but nobody would recognize him on the street?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Aha! Yes, totally!
KEITH: [overlapping] That’s true. I wouldn’t.
SYLVI: It's that type of guy! Where it's just like very unassuming…
AUSTIN: Aha!
SYLVI: I don't have a name off the top of my head… Looks like… he'd work in an office, [chuckles] maybe? Um… [overlapping] Buut…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] And it's just just a regular— It's just like a suit? Is this like a… wears a button-down shirt, but the top button is unbuttoned, and, like, [overlapping] wears a blazer with it…
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah! I think there’s… No, it's a button— a button-up shirt with the… the… like you said, the top button unbuttoned.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum!
SYLVI: [overlapping] And I think… I think he's got cufflinks, though…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh, sure! [sighs]
SYLVI: [overlapping] …that have the little shield on them. Um… And there's just, like, little things like that that are like… slight embellishments. I haven't, like, settled on a color for any of them…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right.
SYLVI: [overlapping] But, like, his clothing has that integrated somewhere.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Okay.
KEITH: [overlapping] This guy looks like a combination of, like… a state senator and, like, the businessman villain from an 80s movie?
[AUSTIN laughs]
SYLVI: Yeah. I figured out what I was… who I was picturing!
AUSTIN: Uh-huh! [overlapping] I’m ready!
SYLVI: [overlapping] An this is because I watched this recently. And it is kind of that. It's the IR— If anyone's seen Fargo season 3, the IRS agent in that…?
JACK: Ohhh! Is that… Hamish Linklater?
SYLVI: Um… I think so…? The guy from Midnight Mass.
JACK: It is Hamish Linklater!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah.
JACK: [overlapping] One of my absolute, like, all-time favorite character actors. Dude rules.
SYLVI: He’s great! Um… Yeah…
KEITH: [overlapping] Oh, he’s really funny!
SYLVI: [overlapping] That’s sort of like… I have a picture, hold on! Let me put that in the chat [overlapping] before I forget…
JACK: [overlapping] He's really good in… Legion, too! I mean, he's good in everything! I like Hamish Linklater.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yes! Oh, I forgot that he was in Legion!
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah. This guy. [overlapping] Sure-sure-sure-sure-sure.
JACK: [overlapping] He’s the weird little fuck in Legion.
AUSTIN: Sure. Yep.
[ALI chortles]
SYLVI: Yeah. He's great at being a weird little fuck.
AUSTIN: [chuckling] Uh-hu-hum!
SYLVI: Um… And, yeah. Like, I think… The reason he pops into my head is because he has a very, like, this— When he smiles very widely, it's, like, very distinctive. I’ve noticed it in, like, a few of the roles he's played. And then, also, the sort of corporate look here [overlapping] is exactly what I’ve got in mind.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum.
SYLVI: Um… I think he always— he keeps calling you friend. Or, like, referring to you as his new friend?
[someone lets out a tired sigh]
SYLVI: I don't know if we want to talk this out specifically…
AUSTIN: Yeah yeah yeah yeah! Oh, yeah!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Cool.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I want this to be a major scene.
SYLVI: Okay, then yeah!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Where do we meet?
SYLVI: Hm. What's this guy's name? Shit. I think where they meet… A thing I think they've been doing is making a show of, like, eating in the common areas with the other people in the Brink more often?
AUSTIN: Ouh, sure! [overlapping] Aha!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Um…
JACK: [overlapping] Ibex is here.
AUSTIN: I was gonna say! I was gonna say, I’d love a… I love a… We've been— We've been— I’ve been listening to COUNTER/Weight recently, and all those commissary scenes are great! And here we go again!
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Fantastic!
SYLVI: Um… I have a last name, but I don't have a first name.
AUSTIN: What's the last name you got?
SYLVI: Pasodoble.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Pasodoble…
SYLVI: [overlapping] Like the… Like the dance.
JACK: The dance!
SYLVI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Oh, sure!
SYLVI: Um…
[a brief pause]
SYLVI: But I don't have a first name.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Aahh!
SYLVI: [overlapping] And— If this guy might turn out to be someone major and I don’t wanna…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Pasodoble! Bucho! I got it! Ye-ye-yeah! Aha!
SYLVI: Oh shit! Wait, that is… [overlapping] two-step!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Two-step! Aha! [half-chuckling] This is not— This is no Bucho.
[ALI giggles]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I know Bucho!
SYLVI: [overlapping] This is not Bucho.
[a brief pause]
JACK: What about an initial?
SYLVI: And I think the meeting there just probably…
AUSTIN: Sorry, Jack, what was that?
JACK: Oh, I was going to say what about an initial? What if it's just like L. Pasodoble?
[the others voice enthusiasm]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh, I love it!
JACK: [overlapping] Or M. Pasodoble.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Sure!
JACK: C. T. H. Pasodoble. [chuckles] I’m realizing now that I’m also— This is just riffing off V. M. Varga [overlapping] from Fargo…
SYLVI: [excited, overlapping] It is!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It is! Yeah.
JACK: [overlapping] Completely accidentally, but…
AUSTIN: I like C. T. H. a lot.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah, sure! I’ll go with…
JACK: [overlapping] And it's like Conrad Tetrakal… Somebody…
KEITH: [overlapping] It’s so long! It’s longer than a name could be!
AUSTIN: [flippantly] Yeah!
JACK: Yeah.
SYLVI: [hushed] Oh my god. [chuckles]
AUSTIN: Aha. Um. I take your card and I sit down at the commissary. Um… I have a plate of food. I didn't realize this was gonna be, like… just a meeting. And I look across, and you don't have any food and I get kind of confused.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): Oh, no, I don't mind! Please, eat! I—
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping] Ehh…
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [overlapping] I’m happy to meet here, but…
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping] Eh…
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [overlapping] …everyone's got needs, and that's not gonna distract from any of our business. [overlapping, unintelligible] if you kind of munch away.
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping] I like the food here, is the thing. A lot of people say that you got to…
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [overlapping] Delicious.
AUSTIN (as 3T): I think it's delicious. I just think it's one of the best parts about the Brink. [overlapping] Good food for everyone.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [overlapping] There’s a lot of love that goes into this food.
AUSTIN (as 3T): That's— This is— And that's… This is what I’m sayin… is: I know… I’ve read about out there, and a lot of people don't— they don't have bread and water! Let alone, you know… one of these!
AUSTIN: Lifting up a double cheeseburger.
KEITH: Damn.
AUSTIN: And I’m taking a sip from a chocolate shake.
[KEITH coughs]
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [very amiably] It truly is a struggle out there! I’m glad that we found ourselves in somewhere so hospitable!
AUSTIN (as 3T): I agree! Anyway… Cath[7]… What's the… What do you… Who do you represent?
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [sighs] That is such a difficult question to answer! I guess I shouldn't name them all… But you've seen us around the station. Me and the friends of mine. Um…
AUSTIN (as 3T): The f… Your frie…? I…
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [murmurs unintelligibly]
AUSTIN (as 3T): I mean, I got a lot… There's a lot of fans who come, so I’m sorry I don't— I’m not trying to diss— It's a lot of— There's a lot of people for me to keep up with.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [chuckles softly]
AUSTIN (as 3T): Um, you said you're the friends of… what?
SYLVI: Um… I think there's like a… like a… That sort of, like, polite laugh, when it's like: [half-chuckling] “Oh, this person doesn't really know who they're talking to [overlapping] right now!”
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No. Aha.
SYLVI: But, like… trying also not to let on that you're like: “this person doesn't even know who I am!”
[AUSTIN & SYLVI chuckle]
SYLVI: Um…
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): We…
SYLVI: [chuckles] I thought of an answer that feels like it's just me not having a name yet, but it's… whatever.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): We prefer have— We've been preferring not to define ourselves yet. But our group has been on the Brink now for…
SYLVI: Like, pauses to do some math.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): I think about three or four months at this point? Um…
AUSTIN (as 3T): Alright! Well, I’m— I was born here, actually. You know, I’ve been around The Mirage, obviously. [overlapping] Tours and whatnot.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [overlapping] Uhum.
AUSTIN (as 3T): But I was born in Sector 22! And…
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): Oh, wow! It's always such a pleasure to meet someone who's actually a local here!
AUSTIN (as 3T): I… You know. I’m not trying to draw any…
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [overlapping] Oh, I didn’t mean it like that!
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping] I’m not trying to say who is who isn't, you know.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): I just mean your familiarity with the place. You know? Comes in handy!
AUSTIN (as 3T): Agreed.
[a brief pause]
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): So. M-my friends and I we're… we're just sort of an upstart community here. I know that, you know, we've ruffled a few feathers, no pun intended!
SYLVI: As a bird flies by.
AUSTIN: [chuckling] Uh-huh!
SYLVI: Um…
AUSTIN (as 3T): You and me both. And that way we're alike. I don't— [overlapping] I mean…
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [overlapping, friendliness turning a bit sinister] I think there's a lot of ways that we're alike.
SYLVI: Um. [flustered] Austin. Oh. I’m scrolling. But I’m so zoomed in. What's 3T's first—Telios!
AUSTIN: Telios. Telios…
SYLVI: I think…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] We… we…
SYLVI: [overlapping] …he calls you Telios. And he's like:
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): We've got a lot of things in common, Telios.
AUSTIN (as 3T):. Yeah. It's— Sorry. Telios is my last name. Tanager is my first name. [overlapping] It's just back—
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [in disbelief, overlapping] It's your first name.
AUSTIN (as 3T): Ye-yeah, no-no. Of course. We all got different things.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): Well. Tanager.
SYLVI: And, like, a bit of a— like, cheesing it a bit with the smile when he says that.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): I think we're alike in the way that we want to see what's best for the people. The common people, you know?
AUSTIN (as 3T): I think that we are totally aligned! I’ve been trying to get that message out! Because, again, I’ve— Here, let me put it to you like this: [in a calm & convinced manner] The world is big. Right? You take any… globe and you think about where we are. And it's, like, we're at the top of the globe. We're just up there, at the very peak. And we look around and it's good here! And we look out oh it's sunny out, it's beautiful! The Mirage is around us!
But you start going south, and bit by bit you see people don't have it as nice! The sun isn't out there, so they can't grow crops. Which means they don't have food. Uh… [his agitation grows in increments] Oh, the waters there are real high, so it floods all the time—and not like in the regular “you need a floodplain to produce good agriculture.” Just, like, lots of floods. And we're up here…! I don't hold it against anybody that they don't know. Because you're in The Mirage, you're in The Mirage, you're in The Mirage! You know what I mean? But we're out here now.
Being in Brink means… sometimes we got news updates about what was going on out there. And growing up I asked my folks every time… “Why is it that The Principality gets to do what it does and we don't help people?” And now, here it is! You know… a decade later. And here they are, knocking on Palisade’s door! So if we don't stop them here I know they're going to come for us, and we need to do more than stop them! We need to… eh… Someone has to do something, and no one out there is doing enough.
[pause]
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): You know, it really does my heart good when I meet someone so young with such fervor in them!
AUSTIN (as 3T): This is my life. This is not a costume.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): No! No! And I would never imply that! Tanager, I see your vision… for this. You and I, we're just trying to connect the strands of this net that all of us exist in. You know, they've been frayed! And if we all just come together, we can show that… there's nothing that's impossible for us! But, unfortunately, like you said, people just kind of want to hide their head in the sand.
AUSTIN (as 3T): This is—
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): And it's up to people like you and me to pull them right out of it. Isn't that right?
AUSTIN (as 3T): I don't know… Listen, it's one thing when my fans come together and they listen to me… but… And that means a lot. I know they like the music, and so they're gonna listen to me! But I don't know you from anybody! I don't know you from Arbit! So the fact that you're listening to what I have to say and are taking it seriously, it means a lot. Um… I don't know… [tentatively] I don't know enough about what you do… to see where we could connect but… I would love to talk to some more people and see what the deal is and maybe we could meet up, and…
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [overlapping] Oh!
AUSTIN (as 3T): [overlapping] I have a show coming on friday or on this weekend.
SYLVI: Um. Out of character question: you put up signage for that, right?
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah! There’s signage up. Ye-ye-yeah. 100%.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): Yes! I think I’ve seen some of the…
SYLVI: I wonder if he slips and calls it, like— says something, like, younger members of our congregation…
AUSTIN: [chuckles, overlapping] Aha!
SYLVI: [chuckling, overlapping] …that just tells, like, it's a little bit religious…? It’s like…
AUSTIN: I think that's— Yeah. Uhum.
SYLVI: Yeah.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): I think I’ve seen some younger members of our congregation talking about… um… talking about that! Maybe I’ve seen a flyer or two at our meetings… Seems like a wonderful time!
AUSTIN (as 3T): Listen, I saw you wince, just there. Like, when you— I saw— I’m… I notice things. Uh… [overlapping] I’m pretty perceptive.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [overlapping] You seem like a very perceptive young man.
AUSTIN (as 3T): Congregation's not a bad word! You shouldn't… I don't know why you do that. We're in a congregation. Together. All of us. And there might be a smaller congregation. Like, you're in the back left of the pews and I’m in the top right, or whatever. But we are in it together in that way. And I wish someone would stand up at the pulpit. [pained] I’m trying to! And… I’m trying to!
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN (as 3T): Anyway, thank you so much, Cath. It means a lot. Um…
[SYLVI chuckles a little]
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [with hushed compassion] C. T. H. It's… [overlapping] not a name.
AUSTIN (as 3T): C. T. H. to you, too! Um…
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): No— Um.
[KEITH laughs]
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): You take care of yourself, Tanager! But if you need anything, the Friends of Devotion are here for you.
AUSTIN (as 3T): [mumbling potential rhymes] Friends of Devotion. Yeah. Motion, devotion. [snaps back to the conversation] Yeah! Uh! Anyway. Yeah.
AUSTIN: Shake your hand, stand up.
AUSTIN (as 3T): You sure you don't want anything?
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): Nohh! No! I’ve gotten more than enough sh— [tongue twisted] Uh! Ugh.
[AUSTIN chuckles]
SYLVI: [half-laughing] I’m gonna do that again!
AUSTIN: Aha!
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): [in a somber voice] I’ve had more than enough nourishment today. Thank you.
AUSTIN: [chuckling] Alice…
SYLVI: [half-chuckling] He gives you another one of his cards.
[ALI chortles]
AUSTIN: Oh great! Great!
AUSTIN (as 3T): C. T. H…! C. T. H.
SYLVI (as C. T. H. Pasodoble): Now you're getting it.
AUSTIN: [half-chuckling] Alex Horta in the chat says: anarcho-cathol— catholicism. Definitely exists!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yep.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I promise you, christian anarchism is, like, a for-real for-real thing, so… Anyway. Good scene!
SYLVI: Yeah!
AUSTIN: Uhh…! Boom. What was the last name again, C. T. H…?
SYLVI: [overlapping] Pasodoble.
JACK: [overlapping] Pasodoble.
AUSTIN: Pasodoble!
SYLVI: Yeah.
[pause]
ALI: Oh, I wanted to double check Knightonon's pronouns! Is it he/him or was it they/them?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] We were doing they/them with Knighton.
ALI: [overlapping, quietly] Okay. My baaaad… Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Thank you.
ALI: [overlapping, quietly] I thought so, but…
AUSTIN: The Friends of Devotion… Okay! Who's up?
ALI: That's the end of this round, right?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No, it was the beginning of the next round.
SYLVI: [overlapping] That was the start of this round.
ALI: [overlapping] Oh! Oh, oh.
AUSTIN: Ye-ye-ye-yeah. I’d already gone last round. That was the start of this one.
ALI: [overlapping] Right. Okay.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I feel like this will be our last round, also.
ALI: [overlapping] Okay.
AUSTIN: For the— For the day. Not for…
ALI: [overlapping, chuckling] The game. Ye-ye-yeah. Uh-huh.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I don't think we've resolved any of this.
ALI: Uhuh.
KEITH: It’d be a very complicated finale scene, though.
[ALI giggles, JACK chuckles]
SYLVI: [half-chukling] And then the Brink blew up!
AUSTIN: Yeah…!
KEITH: Thank you to whoever keeps moving my thing back and forth, to the right section!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh, I’ve been doing it.
KEITH: [overlapping] ‘Cause I keep forgetting to do that.
[KEITH & ALI laugh]
AUSTIN: Yeah, no worries.
JACK: I’d like to do a minor scene… I’d like to narrate a mino— [resonsiders] Uh… Hm.
KEITH: Hmm.
JACK: I’m wondering if it'd be a good time to try out a… “read the station”? Just to get a sense of how that plays? Um…
AUSTIN: Yeah, I think it's a good idea!
JACK: Yeah, okay!
AUSTIN: We haven't done one yet. Do you want to read the rules for it?
JACK: Yeah. Yeah, go through it! I think— I think I have a broad idea of what to do, but…
AUSTIN: Yeah. [reads from rulebook] “When you read the station you step out of your character's role to portray different groups’ attitudes and feelings concerning a particular issue. First, decide on the topic under discussion. You might talk about previous scenes, events, a particular station issue, or a wider cultural or philosophical point. You can frame the topic as a question, as in ‘should we accept deserters as refugees’? Or a statement, as in ‘the deserters will bring the war upon us.’”
“Share your views. Then, starting on your left, each player takes turns weighing in on the topic. You can speak as a class of residents, like ‘the smugglers’ or in an established group, like ‘Red Sun Galactic.’ Give a sentence describing how that group feels about the issue. The views shared are always opinions and beliefs not facts. In conclusion: once everyone's weighed in, including you, the discussion is over. You don't need to settle on a unified position: communities are messy and contain multitudes. Instead, draw upon what you've learned to color your actions and inspire your questions in subsequent scenes.” So you have a question in mind? To see what the various factions on board feel like?
[a brief pause]
JACK: Yeah. Uh. Let's— Let's just let's do a big swing! “Should the Brink itself intervene… with the conflict on Palisade, uh… apart from the majority of the Twilight Mirage?” Essentially, “if they're not acting, should we act alone?”
AUSTIN: This is kind of, like, easy for me to answer as the Troublemakers; but I’m going to answer as the Troublemakers… And maybe as “young people aboard.” Um… Broadly. Which doesn't mean there aren't exceptions. But the answer is: yes. But I think it's a really— so, I mean, just give this the actual word for word. Um…
AUSTIN (as the young members of the Troublemakers): Yeah, of course! I don't understand why we haven't gotten involved yet, at all…! We have all this stuff… We definitely have good weapons! Why don't we go help people on Palisade? They need our help! They said they needed our help. Why don't we just help them? I don't care how expensive it is, we need to help them.
SYLVI: [tentatively] I have something.
AUSTIN: Uhum.
SYLVI: Kind of, for, like, some of the, like, haulers and truckers. It feels weird calling them truckers, ‘cause they're not trucks, but…
AUSTIN: No, they’re truckers! They’re space truckers!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Okay, cool.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] This is established: Grand spent a year… spent a year as a space trucker.
JACK: [overlapping] Oh yeah, he specifically did!
AUSTIN: Yeah. Uhum.
SYLVI: Okay. Um. Yeah. Um… [hushed] I’m trying to find the voice for this. Um…
SYLVI (as the voice of space truckers): Listen! we all saw those ships when we were coming in here! There is nothing we can do against a force that size other than get blown to kingdom come!
SYLVI: That's the thing that I can't say, ‘cause that's the name of a ship.
AUSTIN: You're allowed! [overlapping] It's been 50 000 years!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Okay, cool!
[ALI & JACK chuckle]
SYLVI: [chuckling] It's been 50 000 years? Okay, cool! Well, that's my statement then!
AUSTIN: Aha. 55, I want to say, but yeah. [chuckles]
SYLVI: Yeah. I think that is basically it. There's just a lot of fear of the size of… the militaries that have shown up here.
[a brief pause]
ALI: Um. Yeah. I think I could speak on behalf of, like, security as a whole… Maybe not specifically Brink Proxy or Coracin… And the response is…
ALI (as the voice of security personnel): As a neutral station… we have our own priorities, and our own… assets, and our own people to take care of. We've specifically not gotten involved or thrown our hat in with any other organizations and we're not about to start now! Especially not when it will put a target on our back.
KEITH: Um. Remind me, who we can— We can answer as our character, we can answer as…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Any— No. Any group onboard. Yeah.
KEITH: [overlapping] Any group.
JACK: [overlapping] Any… sort of faction. Yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Faction or collected group, the way that Sylvi did the haulers and truckers…
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …that's not necessarily one company, but… you know.
KEITH: Hm. Then I’m going to answer on behalf of the Orchard Syndicate.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ouh! Yes!
JACK: [excited, overlapping] Ohouhh!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] We've not heard from them yet! This is the zealous group…? [overlapping] Or is this the weird…?
KEITH: [overlapping] The weird group.
AUSTIN: The weird— The weird group! Okay!
KEITH: Uum… [excitedly] Ouh! Fuck! I just remembered that… there's guns in their ships!
AUSTIN: Are there?
JACK: Maybe.
KEITH: Maybe.
AUSTIN: Maybe!
[ALI laughs briefly]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] We haven't decided that yet!
KEITH: [overlapping] I guess who knows what they're for!
AUSTIN: We don't yet— We don't— You have heard rumors and Coracin saw me helping to load things on board.
KEITH: The Orchard Syndicate says:
KEITH (as the voice of the Orchard Syndicate): No! Absolutely no! War would be terrible! What a terrible idea! We absolutely, definitely…
[AUSTIN & JACK laugh]
KEITH (as the voice of the Orchard Syndicate): …do not want to go to war!
AUSTIN: Huh!
KEITH (as the voice of the Orchard Syndicate): [with rising exaggeration] That seems like something that would be bad for everybody.
AUSTIN: Hmm!
[a brief pause]
JACK: Yeah. Sounds… Sounds good! Um. I think— Is this— This is not like Quiet-Year-style where I get a wrapping up one, do I?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No, you don't get— No, you don't get a follow-up.
JACK: [overlapping] I pose the question. Yep.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] You pose the que— Yeah.
AUSTIN: I mean, wait! Did you not…? Did you give an answer at all?
JACK: No, I did not give an answer.
AUSTIN: Oh, then yeah! I think you do get to. Uh…
JACK: [overlapping] Um… This…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It does not says— It says once everyone has weighed in including you. So: yes. You do get to weigh in.
JACK: Um… Hm. This is coming from…
[pause]
JACK: Uh…
[a shorter pause]
JACK: Huh. This is coming from agitators within the Troublemakers. Sort of older— Slightly older people. But I think still young people, but slightly older than the Trou— the Troublemakers in the sense of, like, “army.”
AUSTIN: [half-chuckling] Uh-huh!
JACK: Um…
KEITH: Medium age.
JACK: These are people who are, like: “Yeah, you know, Carly Rae Jepsen's Emotion was a great album!” You know what I mean?
AUSTIN: [chuckling] Aha! Yeah, I do.
JACK: Umm…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK (as the voice of the older members of the Troublemakers): For too long Palisade has languored on the outer Mirage. Of course we should drive The Principality off! But I think that the time has come for us to reclaim that land…
[AUSTIN chuckles]
JACK (as the voice of the older members of the Troublemakers): …for the inner Mirage.
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN: They moved the Earth, why can't they move Palisade?
[a brief pause]
JACK: They did! They moved the Earth very well!
AUSTIN: They did!
JACK: Um. I think also, wasn't their system of government in Seattle for a long time? [chuckles]
AUSTIN: No that's just for Morning's Observations.
JACK: [half-chuckling] Morning's Observation was from Seattle.
AUSTIN: From Seattle. An island city called Seattle.
JACK: [half-chuckling] I didn't know if Seattle was where it was all happening on Earth. Who knows.
AUSTIN: No. No!
[ALI chortles]
AUSTIN: But I guess… Morning’s Observation did have, like, a… tie to the throne, right? So…
KEITH: That's why it's called Sea-attle. It's an island.
AUSTIN: Oh, right!
[the others join in on the faux-realization]
AUSTIN: Sea is right there!
JACK: Ooooh! Sea-attle!
SYLVI: [tired] Oh my god!
AUSTIN: Uhum. Uhum. [chuckles]
JACK: Ohhh…!
KEITH: [muffled, overlapping] I messed up.
AUSTIN: [half-chuckling, overlapping] Anyway!
KEITH: [muffled] There we go.
AUSTIN: Uh. Alright, We’ve three more!
[a brief pause]
KEITH: I don't have any tokens…
AUSTIN: You can get some! Always get some!
ALI: [overlapping] Yeah, time to do some moves.
JACK: [mocking, overlapping] Gotta make those nice weak moves!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh, yeah. Aha!
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN: Also, people should remember that they get to use their Lures… to give other people tokens… by asking them their various Lure questions… in scenes. Let's try to work towards those…
ALI: Oh, mine has been covered this whole time!
AUSTIN: Oh, no! Ooh, that's a good one, too! Gonna read that, Ali?
[ALI laughs]
ALI: Which of your character secrets have I discovered?
KEITH: Ooh, that is good!
[pause]
KEITH: Who's left? It's me…
SYLVI: Me.
ALI: Yeah, and me.
KEITH: Okay.
SYLVI: Yeah.
[a brief pause]
SYLVI: [muttering] I’m trying to think of something.
AUSTIN: It can be as big or small as we want.
ALI: [sighs] Yeah.
SYLVI: I mean, I kind of have a small one. But it also feels like maybe it shouldn't be minor. Maybe we could make it ma… Agh… [sigh-chuckles]
AUSTIN: Hm! Up to y'all! You know, it's…
SYLVI: [overlapping] I just think it’s—
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Feels like we're… we’re in a boiling— Things are starting to boil a little bit, so…
SYLVI: Um… Yeah… So I… [tentatively] I was gonna kill Knighton.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh yeah, let’s…
[ALI laughs]
SYLVI: [overlapping] And then we have that caused— cause some sort of complication.
AUSTIN: Ooh, yeah!
SYLVI: Umm… Which… [overlapping] I don’t even think…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] “Do something terrible because you were ordered to”...?
SYLVI: Yeah. I think… I think that…
AUSTIN: Let's do that scene! [overlapping] Let's just do that scene!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Well, okay. Cool.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Follow— Follow that urge! If anyone— If any of y'all ever have, like— the, like, “I think maybe this,” just do it. It is better to do it and we'll find it in the…
SYLVI: [overlapping] Okay.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …in the doing it! And a… And it’ll end up better, because that's where your heart was, you know?
SYLVI: [overlapping] Um…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] So.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Where…
AUSTIN: So where is it?
SYLVI: …would we find Knighton. I’m— It's— I think it's, like… I don't know— Because of the— I’ve been thinking of the Brink a lot in similar ways to, like, an airport. Where even if it's really late, [overlapping] it’s not, like, quiet. You know?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Sure! Yeah, I think that's true. Yeah.
SYLVI: Um. So, I— It would have to be somewhere… [overlapping] secluded…?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It could also be like an airport in that other way, though. Right? Where it's, like, the hub is always…
SYLVI: [overlapping] That’s ture!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …busy. But you can be in one of the, like, the side wings of an airport, the… the various terminals. Where it's, like: technically, it's open. But it's dead. And maybe there's, like, some people sleeping on some benches, or whatever…
SYLVI: Yeah…
AUSTIN: …but, like… none of the stores are open anymore. [overlapping] You know?
SYLVI: [overlapping] Oh, isn’t it like one of the, like, less densely used, like, hostel areas that we mentioned earlier?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. I think so. Because— Because, remember: Knighton has… doesn't have any money; Knighton doesn't have any… you know, people here anymore; and, like, ran—
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: they ran off into the dark, effectively; rejected your offer of having a place to stay, because they wanted to avoid you, obviously. At this point. And yeah, maybe found a hostel very far from everything. Because that's the… that was what their, you know, instinct was. And because it's further away, it actually has some vacancy. It actually has some space. Because, remember, the Brink is packed with people right now. So you have to get pretty far away… You got to get to like Sector 48 or 50…
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: [chuckles, overlapping] …before you're far enough away that, like, you… Which is like— You have to imagine you've walked down one entire frigate that's been welded onto the side of this this, kind of like, center trunk or stem of the of the Brink. And then walk down another one that's been welded to that. And then, like, a little smaller ship attached to that. And in there, there's a hostel. You know? Um.
Because that's like what these side wings are for the Brink; are, like, permanently attached ships. So you're— You're— It's you walking through all these different, like, interior designs? Because you're going from ship model to ship model? [overlapping]
SYLVI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You know?
SYLVI: [overlapping] Uhhh…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh, god.
SYLVI: Yeah, I don't know if we need to make this a major. I don't think there's any real dialogue here. We can kind of describe it as we go…
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVI: I think the way— I’ve described… Deutsch as wearing gloves [overlapping] all the time.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum.
SYLVI: And I think this is when one of them comes off. Um. That’s to explain what the concealed weapon I carry is!
AUSTIN: Uh-huh!
SYLVI: And it's that my hand is… it… What if it turned into a sword?
AUSTIN: Oh, shit!
SYLVI: And I think it's like a real quick, like…
[a brief pause, then simultaneously]
SYLVI: [overlapping] Actually, what happens… You’ve…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No, I think we have to have the scene!
SYLVI: Yeah. We can have the scene!
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVI: But you've seen Hunter x Hunter now, [overlapping] so I can reference how Killua’s hands do!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ohh…! Yeah… I can— Yeah, you can reference how Killua’s hands do!
SYLVI: And that's what I’m thinking of. Kind of.
AUSTIN: [sighs] Uhmmm…
SYLVI: Except it's metal, like, coming together to form one blade, [overlapping] ‘cause she’s a robot.
AUSTIN: To form a single blade.
SYLVI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You know. I think you find Knighton sitting on… the bottom of a bunk bed. Like, looking at the door. Just watching the door. Waiting for the door to open. Waiting for this moment. Waiting and waiting and waiting. Um. And, you know, they hear you— They hear the front door of the place open. They hear some footsteps. Then the door to the hallway opens and they hear some footsteps. And then, like, [imitates a mechanical whooshing sound]! You know, the door panel slides up. And they just, like, look up at you… I’m gonna use the Aspect move… not this Aspect. I’m using the— I’m picking up “when you're dealing with the friends and neighbors.” So I’m picking up…
SYLVI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: …The Unaffiliated for a second to “ask for help with problems that can't be solved alone.”
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): Is your name really… Deutsch?
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): [chuckles briefly] I wouldn't be very good at my job if I told you my real name the first time we met, would I?
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): Why'd they send you after me? I’m nobody. I don't even pilot anything. I’m… a bad mechanic.
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): That's the tragedy of it all, Knighton: wrong place, wrong time.
AUSTIN (as Knighton Reach): You don't have to do it. You don't have to— I—
SYLVI: She cuts his head off. [chuckles]
[ALI chuckles uncomfortably]
AUSTIN: [imitates the sound of a machine winding down]
JACK: [overlapping] And…
SYLVI: [overlapping] It's easier when you do it before they start begging.
AUSTIN: Aha!
JACK: And a vase on the side of the hostel explodes in blaster fire as the second spy on the station Gimme Gimme deployed onto the stage…
[SYLVI gasp-chuckles in shock, ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Let's go!!!
JACK: [overlapping] … by The Pact takes an open shot at you.
SYLVI: [elated, overlapping] Let’s go!
JACK: I am introducing the move: “pull a weapon on somebody.”
AUSTIN: [laughing] Hahaha…! [sighing, overlapping] Aaah…
JACK: [overlapping] … From— From outside Gimme Gimme who is The Pact—is Columnar Apostolos and… It's just Columnar and Apostolos, right, Austin?
AUSTIN: Yep, that's The Pact. Columnar and Apostolos!
KEITH: Uh…
JACK: Um.
AUSTIN: [with admiration] Gimme Gimme! [overlapping] Ahh!
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah. Gimme Gimme is a… Columnar robot who instead of having, like, humanoid legs has multiple sort of, like, rolling wheeled legs. Almost like a Strandbeest. We've— [overlapping] We've had a Strandbeest on the show before…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ohhh! We have!
JACK: [overlapping] Um…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yep! Icebreaker Prime was a big… was a Strandbeest. [overlapping] It's a particular one.
JACK: [overlapping] Who devised Icebreaker Prime?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I don't fuckin’... That was…
JACK: [overlapping] That was the — Kesh built it or something. I don’t know.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Motion! Apostolos! Apostolos.
JACK: Oh, right —
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right? No, you're right! Kesh built it and Apostolos— No, it was Apostolos’s the whole time!
JACK: [overlapping] It was Apostolos, and we stole it… [chuckles] We stole it from them!
AUSTIN: We stole it from them. Yeah.
JACK: I wonder if this is similar tech, but just on a smaller case. So Gimme Gimme comes rumbling down the corridor, their legs kind of, like, barreling underneath them.
AUSTIN: Their many legs.
JACK: [overlapping] And… Yeah…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] There are dozens of little legs. Or big— Or big chunky legs, because that's the Strandbeest that… Icebreaker Prime was based on.
JACK: And shouts:
JACK (as Gimme Gimme): Always were a coward, Lament! Now I have you where I want you!
JACK: And I think we could play this out as just like a chase and have these characters disentangle… now.
SYLVI: Yeah.
KEITH: [overlapping] But…
JACK: But—
SYLVI: [overlapping] Real
SYLVI (as Deutsch Synchro/Lament): Ughh, this motherfucker again!
AUSTIN: Aha!
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah!
SYLVI: [chuckling, overlapping] I think she actually says that!
KEITH: I do also… I was—
[AUSTIN chuckles]
KEITH: What is the— Is there any written rules on doing two moves?
AUSTIN: No, if someone has done the thing…
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah.
JACK: [overlapping] This’d technically be three moves! But yes
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: [half-chuckling] ‘Cause Austin had… Knighton and ask for help…
KEITH: Oh, right…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yes.
JACK: [overlapping] Then I had Gimme Gimme shoot…
AUSTIN: Uh-huh!
KEITH: Uh. And I have “seize a vital asset with swift force.”
AUSTIN: Oooh!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Of… course…
KEITH: [overlapping] And it doesn't say that I’m limited in any way on what kind of asset I can take, here. Right?
AUSTIN: That's true.
KEITH: Uhm…
AUSTIN: Yeah. As long as it's “pick up when somebody visits the seedier part of the station; witnesses a shady deal or when things are too quiet.” I would say the far reaches of the station are [overlapping] absolutely the seedier parts of the station.
KEITH: [overlapping] The seedier part of the station. Yeah.
AUSTIN: We've talked about that, so…
KEITH: So… I was thinking one kind of vital asset is the… heavy and expensive… magnet that is essentially the linchpin to the station’s… gravity support systems.
AUSTIN: Oh my god. [overlapping] Who’s…
SYLVI: [overlapping] Oh my god! So the gravity goes out during this chase?!?
KEITH: [overlapping] Gravity goes out!
AUSTIN: Oh, hell yeah!
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Let's fucking go!
JACK: [overlapping] Is this a completely separate— It's as though there's another tabletop game being played off screen…
[ALI chuckles]
JACK: [half-chuckling] …in which a bunch of people have just successfully stolen the gravity lynchpin?
AUSTIN: Or is it related, Kei— Or is this what Gimme Gimme is doing?
KEITH: This is— This is not related. [overlapping] Gimme Gimme is not in on this.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] This is just unrelated. The gravity goes out. Someone else is playing Heat Signature right now…
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: …and shit has just popped off…
KEITH: Yeah.
SYLVI: [with a tinge of chuckle] Two spies shooting at each other in the air.
[KEITH laughs]
AUSTIN: Fuck!
KEITH: Spinning, like the T-rexes from…
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uh-huh!
SYLVI: Oh, absolutely! Like, the… impact from the guns! [half-chuckling] It pushes them—is the way I’m thinking of it.
AUSTIN: Yeeaah!
JACK: [with an exaggerated TV announcer voice] It's robot versus robot here on the Brink tonight!
[SYLVI chuckles]
JACK: [continuing in the same voice] One's got 500 legs, the other one's got bunny ears!
[AUSTIN chuckles, SYLVI & KEITH laugh]
SYLVI: Ahhhh…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] God…
SYLVI: [overlapping] She still couldn't hear you coming!
AUSTIN: And do you get away? I’m guessing, here? [overlapping] Deutsch?
SYLVI: [overlapping] I think at this point, yeah.
KEITH: [overlapping] Who’s… better at…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I guess— I guess this is less Deutsch, this is more a Lament…
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah.
KEITH: Who's better at navigating in zero-g?
AUSTIN: Good question.
SYLVI: Um… Uh… Me. Because I wanna get away.
KEITH: [overlapping] Fair.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Hm.
SYLVI: [chuckling, overlapping] That's my answer to the question!
JACK: [overlapping] I mean, I think that's the answer to this, right? Where it's like— it's actually more interesting if these two spies know that they're out there; have prepared to take active action against each other;
SYLVI: [overlapping] Uhum…
JACK: [overlapping] …but, like… the gravity going out provides the means by which they… have to disengage.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeeaah. That's great. Love it. [overlapping] Fantastic.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah. Okay. I’m into it.
JACK: I wonder if, you know, there's like this shared moment of like: “it's the fucking Mirage!” You know?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeeah! [chuckles]
JACK: [chuckling, overlapping] What did we— What did we expect here? As, like, their moment is ruined.
AUSTIN: [whispering] God…!
[SYLVI chuckles]
AUSTIN: Perfect.
SYLVI: [overlapping] God. Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Alright. Well, that's a good scene!
SYLVI: Yeah, I’m happy with that! Umm…
AUSTIN: Mustard or Cheal! And then we'll be done!
JACK: Cheal is such a good name! Keith, you've been on a real tear of, like… weird names lately!
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: Thank you.
JACK: [overlapping] I feel like Sank Gettliffe and Cheal Pushy…
[KEITH laughs]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Sank is great!
JACK: [overlapping] … are, like, real top tier Keith names…!
KEITH: I forgot about Sank!
JACK: Whatever's going on in the naming part at the moment, it’s going very well!
AUSTIN: Huhh…!
KEITH: Um… I want to do something weird with the magnet!
[SYLVI & JACK laugh]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh, I bet!
JACK: [in their previous TV announcer tone, overlapping] AND a magnet has been stolen!
[AUSTIN & KEITH laugh]
KEITH: I want the Orchard Syndicate to show up with this magnet.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] A’right…!
KEITH: [overlapping] And try to do some sort of rite with it.
AUSTIN: [tiredly] Oh my god… I can't believe we have multiple fucked-up up cults…
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Which is like…!
KEITH: [overlapping] It doesn't have to be multiple!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] It— Well…
KEITH: [overlapping] They could be related…! The emergency could be the…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I guess they could be related to the friends of Devotion.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Ohh…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. It's true.
JACK: [overlapping] I’ve got a pitch for…
KEITH: [overlapping] They— It could be…
JACK: I have a pitch for how they could be related.
KEITH: Okay.
[a brief pause]
JACK: But no, maybe I don't! No, maybe I don't.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Well—
KEITH: [overlapping] I’ll tell you my— what I was gonna say. Which was not something I’d really thought through.
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah, that was more—
KEITH: [overlapping] But… But my impulse… My impulse was that the… the Red Fennecs… the RFE, whatever…
AUSTIN: Uhum! [overlapping] Ye-ye-yeah!
KEITH: [overlapping] …it was basically that sort of thing. Where it's like the Orchard Syndicate is the sort of professional arm that, like— this cult's been here as long as this Orchard Syndicate’s been around…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right.
JACK: [overlapping] Oh, are you saying that the Orchard Syndicate is a front for the cult?
KEITH: Yes.
SYLVI: [intrigued] Oooh!
JACK: Yes.
[a brief pause]
KEITH: But maybe it is the second cult! Maybe this is an opposite…
AUSTIN: No, I think that makes perfect sense!
JACK: [overlapping] No, yeah…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I think that that makes perfect sense.
KEITH: Okay.
JACK: Um…
AUSTIN: Yeah. Which is very funny because: are they involved with the blue orange stuff? Are they the ones moving the oranges, presumably? They're an orchard. I guess they're not… Oranges don't come from orchards, but blue oranges might.
KEITH: Um, well, or— Oranges come from a grove…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right.
KEITH: [overlapping] …and a grove is just an orchard.
AUSTIN: Is that true? Yeah, I guess that's true.
KEITH: Um.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. Okay!
KEITH: [overlapping] I remember looking at it when we talked about it.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Then, yeah.
KEITH: [overlapping] And then I was like… I read the definition of grove and I was like: “that's just an orchard.”
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhh… Yeah, then—
KEITH: [overlapping] “A group of trees of indefinite extent but not large enough to constitute a forest…”
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah!
KEITH: [overlapping] “…especially such a group considered as furnishing shade for avenues—” Oh, that not—
AUSTIN: Hmmm… That's not the part. [overlapping] Anyway!
KEITH: That's just the duckduckgo definition. That's not what I was looking at before.
AUSTIN: Right. Sure. The point is: could definitely have oranges.
KEITH: [overlapping] Definitely.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] And definitely have blue oranges. “A fruit garden is generally synonymous with an orchard, although… it is set on a smaller, non-commercial scale; may emphasize berry shrubs.” Okay. Sure. Anyway. The… I like that as— The fourth thing, I think that's very funny to me, is that, like, I’ve already been working… 3T has already been working with the… with the Orchard Syndicate…! Putting stuff on there! So, like…
SYLVI: [tired whisper, overlapping] Oh my god.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …doesn't even understand that the Friends of Devotion are related. And… doesn't, like…
[KEITH laughs]
AUSTIN: Is going to end up working with the same group twice.
KEITH: Yeah.
SYLVI: [commiserating] Ohh!
KEITH: Um… Is this a… you know, occult-front breakdown of communication, or is this just, like: “let's get him again…”
AUSTIN: I think it's let's… let's bring him in.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: Let's bring him in from the cold and let him in.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] You know?
KEITH: [overlapping] Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um… What's the scene that you want to do with them? Is that— Was that it? Kind of the minor scene of them. [with growing intensity] What are they doing? What's the ritual? What are they doing? [overlapping] What are they doing with the magnet?!?
KEITH: [murmuring, overlapping] What are they doing.
AUSTIN: “What do they do to my cousin?” [chuckles]
[KEITH laughs]
KEITH: Okay. What are the pieces that we’ve got?
SYLVI: [overlapping] Put your cousin next to a big magnet.
[AUSTIN chuckles]
KEITH: [overlapping] We've got the co— We've got the people disappearing; we've got the cousin; we have the checking of the pulse; we have the weird touching of the trucks. Um…
AUSTIN: They're just touching the trucks?
KEITH: Yeah. They're touching the trucks!
AUSTIN: They’re just touching it!
KEITH: Well, they’ve been laying hands on the trucks.
AUSTIN: They've been laying hands.
KEITH: They've been trying to get at the trucks and touch them and do weird things. I’m gonna— I’m gonna say that they've— they've… Here's what they've done: they've… broken several trucks… Like, rendered them inoperable via sabotage… and are surrounding them with magnets.
AUSTIN: [clarifying] Not their own trucks.
KEITH: No, not their own trucks. These are trucks that truckers are, like: [shouting] “What are you doing? Stop this!” Surrounding with magnets… and then they've taken this— the big magnet from the gravity thing and they've put it in some sort of privileged position. And I don't know what this does! They’re just doing this.
AUSTIN: There's no gravity on board now, is what you're telling me.
KEITH: Correct.
JACK: [overlapping] Fuck…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Is that onboard even the— Maybe there's gravity on board like a handf— The ships that are docked, the regular ships that are docked have their own gravity. But.
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: Once you're on board the center station…
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: …definitely not! And then probably even the extended ships. Because most of those are just wired into the main…
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …system. They're not—
KEITH: [overlapping] Some people have magnet boots!
AUSTIN: Great.
KEITH: Some people. [overlapping] The Orchard Syndicate did!
JACK: [overlapping] Gimme Gimme made it very difficult to get all the magnet boots.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: [half-chuckling] Aha.
KEITH: The Orchard Syndicate, they all had their magnet boots on!
AUSTIN: Ahh! Of course!
KEITH: Um… Yeah. And so they're… They're surrounding a handful of trucks with magnets; Put this… giant magnet as a centerpiece… and there…
AUSTIN: Alright, so minor scene!
KEITH: Minor scene.
AUSTIN: Boom. Uuhhh… [slower, as he types it up] The Orchard Syndicate does a magnet ritual.
[ALI chortles]
AUSTIN: [overlapping, continues] No-one knows…
JACK: [overlapping] I love that these fruit growers all… We have seen them just heavily mechanized, so far.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah! Yeah.
JACK: [overlapping] It's all been like, trucks and magnets and grav boots, and it's, like… these are orchardeers or whatever.
KEITH: Fruit looks really different in the year… you know.
AUSTIN: Uhum.
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: 900 000.
AUSTIN: Uhum.
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN: Alright! Mustard!
ALI: Yeah… Um…
AUSTIN: Take us out!
ALI: Sure… Yeah…
[SYLVI giggles]
ALI: There's been a lot of, like, cult setup? Um… I don't know. I feel like— I don't know if it should be, like, the 3T concert, or maybe, like, a sound check situation? Of…
AUSTIN: Uhum.
ALI: Like, maybe…
AUSTIN: We've no gravity, still.
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN: Right? We're in that, [overlapping] still.
KEITH: [overlapping] Uhum.
ALI: [overlapping] Okay. Well, then, maybe should— It should be— My scene will be fixing that, I guess? [laughs] Instead of doing personal investigations…?
AUSTIN: I mean, I guess we could hand wave it and be, like “it got fixed off screen.” But I would like to s— [overlapping] I would like to…
ALI: [overlapping] You would like us to keep… no…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …give it the credit of— at least seeing it for a few…
ALI: [overlapping] Oh, for sure.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] …a few scenes, maybe… That seems like we've set up a funny bit that we shou— and, like, an interesting bit which is, like: “well, what happens…” I mean, maybe the thing that happens is this is what Proxy Brink does. [half-chuckling] They're ready to go with a backup magnet. I don't know. You know? Maybe that's fine. We can say that… that's what we end up seeing. [overlapping] But I would like to answer it rather than just, like…
ALI: [overlapping] Handwave it, ye-ye-yeah…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Either answer it or… Or! Right. Ye-ye-yeah.
ALI: [overlapping] Or like move the camera…
AUSTIN: Exactly.
ALI: Sure. Yeah, then I guess that makes sense in terms of, like… I guess it could be a minor scene then, of… like… different Brink Proxy, like, authorities, like… Authorities. [mutters] You know what I mean. [laughs briefly]
AUSTIN: Uhum.
ALI: But like… going from like… like, section to section, having to do, like, a manual reset or whatever, on each of the…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Mmm… Yeeaah.
ALI: [overlapping] …the, like, gravity stations? So it probably takes, like, a day of being like… Well… You know... All of— If there's, like, a— If there's, like, a health clinic in Section 34, or whatever, like, moving people to… a health clinic on, like, Section 2 or whatever where gravity has been restored…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum.
ALI: [overlapping] On top of, like, going down the line of, like… each of these little sections to… to restore that. Because I’m sure it's, like, a to do. Um…
KEITH: I think… you maybe have a new app that can help you with this.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Oh, word?
KEITH: Yeah! This sounds like a— This sounds a little bit like a Market… “an opportunistic hustler…” Or a…
AUSTIN: Ohh! It does!
KEITH: Or a… “someone struggling to resist the allure of outside investment” to me.
AUSTIN: Uhum. Yeah.
JACK: Alternatively…
AUSTIN: This could very— Uhuh!
JACK: I spend a token and play “saunter into a scene with a tantalizing offer.”
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ooh!
[ALI chuckles]
KEITH: [overlapping] Ooh!
AUSTIN: What's the offer? Also, can Joe De Vivre be there, helping you?
ALI: Sure.
AUSTIN: Joe's there. Joe is a “charming rogue…”
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: “…that you can't help loving.” And Joe is 100% casing all of these places. Joe's like—
[JACK laughs]
AUSTIN: This, like, gives Joe access to every ship that is part of the central structure, because… Or at least whatever subset the two of you are going on.
AUSTIN: And Joe is, like— Joe has green hair. It's swoopy hair. It's like green swoopy, you know, pompadour, maybe, type vibe. And it's, like, very much very clearly, like: “I could steal from this place. I see how I could get in and out of this place.”
[ALI is chuckling]
AUSTIN: “Oh that's a great ship you— you brought me on to.” Anyway, that's what's happening when you saunter in. What's the saun— What's the offer?
[pause]
KEITH: Paris?
JACK: Yeah, I’m— I’m thinking. I’m thinking— I’ll offer you Paris, the cit— the French city!
[AUSTIN & KEITH laugh]
ALI: [excitedly] Ooooh!
AUSTIN: [laughing] The island city of Paris!
JACK: [chuckling] The island city of Paris! Oh, the Seine has taken Paris by this point.
AUSTIN: [chuckles] Uh-huh!
JACK: Um…
KEITH: [softly] Hmmm…
JACK: This is something that Paris wants.
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN: This is something that Paris wants?
JACK: No, no! I mean, the tantalizing offer— The fact that I’m making a— Well, there's ways of thinking about making a strong move, right?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Uhum.
JACK: [overlapping] Like, it's like: on the one hand making the strong move lets you…
[a brief pause]
JACK: I pitched this because it seems like there is a very natural conflict here between the new force of the markets in Arbitrage and Paris, a salesman aboard the Brink.
AUSTIN: Right.
JACK: Uhm…
AUSTIN: Especially since Keith was literally about to pick up Marketplace— or did, and say: [overlapping] “show someone… struggling to resist the lure of outside investment.”
JACK: [overlapping] Oh, yeah. Yeah. The reason that I went “wait, actually is this a thing?” is because that conflict feels like a very…
AUSTIN: Yeah. [overlapping] Yeah.
JACK: [overlapping] …natural conflict.
AUSTIN: So, then, let's make it very clear! Right? Which is that, like, eventually… as you're doing this process… sorry… Mustard! You get that same [imitates app notification sound] badoup! And it's a message from… Arbitrage again… that is, like… You know: “I can restore the gravity.” We can get the gravity back on board instantly. “Simply sign in with your… Brink Proxy account, and set up a small contract fee and I can handle… I can… provide a… We can provide a… you know, a middleman service for gravity.” [chuckles, overlapping] You know?
KEITH: [overlapping] We’d love to monitor this thing…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Ye-ye-yeah!
KEITH: [overlapping] …something like this happens again.
AUSTIN: In the future! Exactly!
JACK: Here is my proposal.
AUSTIN: And that is when you enter the scene. Do you literally enter the scene, or do you send another message?
JACK: I am— Uh— I am there when… she gets that message.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Okay.
JACK: [overlapping] And my immediate— I think I’m there because you are inspecting the bit of the Night Market where we're all just like pulling oranges back down into… [chuckles]
[AUSTIN chuckles]
JACK: …crates or whatever.
AUSTIN: [chuckling] Crates that are also floating away! Crates that have been magnetized or tied down or something.
JACK: And I think I can't help but:
JACK (as Paris France): What is that? Who…? Who is texting you?
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [murmuring] Now, it's a little rude if you ask me!
[ALI laughs]
JACK (as Paris France): Oh, we go way back! I’m trying to get her a magazine that kills people!
ALI (as Mustard Red): Hey!
[KEITH bursts out in laughter]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): Hm. La-dee-da!
[ALI laughs quietly]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): I knew your tastes were expensive but…
AUSTIN: Also, you have that magazine now, Mustard. [overlapping] That magazine showed up yesterday.
JACK: [overlapping] Oh, hell yeah!
ALI: [overlapping] Okay…
JACK (as Paris France): Still no update! Sorry Mustard.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Yeah. Well, don't worry about it. I’m… I’m… This is a… new retailer on the Brink.
JACK (as Paris France): [surprised] A what?
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Well, you know…
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): It's someone who makes a suit again, obviously!
JACK (as Paris France): Shut the fuck up, Jerry!
[JACK chuckles]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [indignant, overlapping] It's Joe!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] It's Joe!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): What? Come on! Get my name right!
JACK (as Paris France): [chuckling] Oh, Joe! I see! Sorry, Joe.
JACK: [laughing] I thought you were a different NPC. I thought you were just a random…
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [pulling JACK’s previous sentence into the fiction] Oi! Then you call me an NPC! This guy!
[JACK & ALI laugh exasperatedly]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [a bit smugly] You see, because it's a tailor but it's a re-tailor.[8]
ALI (as Mustard Red): [unimpressed] Hm. Very funny.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): Thank you. I thought so!
[a brief pause]
ALI (as Mustard Red): Anyway! Apparently they're, you know, trying to set up a business here on the Brink and…
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] What do they—
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] You know, support local businesses!
JACK: What the—
[general bewilderment and laughter]
SYLVI: Oh my god.
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Let me see—
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I almost did a spit take. I came so close!
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: And, like, truly all of my will had to be summoned to keep… [overlapping] this sparkling water…
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Let me see the—
JACK: I think I’m gonna read the… licensing agreement. Um… I’m gonna be the weirdo who reads the license agreement on the bottom.
[ALI chuckles]
JACK: And I’m gonna hand it back and say:
JACK (as Paris France): [jovially] Ahhh, you don't want anything to do with this, Mustard.
ALI (as Mustard Red): [with some stand-offishness] Oh, and why don't I?
JACK (as Paris France): You think it's strange that you haven't heard any of this shit in Brink Proxy? They've come straight to you?
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Well I…
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] You’d be the first to know?
ALI (as Mustard Red): First of all: I’m very connected. And, you know, I’m a person…
[SYLVI chuckles]
ALI (as Mustard Red): with my own identity and I can make my own choices!
SYLVI: [with quiet bewilderment] Oh my god!
[ALI chuckles]
JACK (as Paris France): Okay. When you submit this you're doing two things: you are signing an ongoing contract; and you are buying into a new system of currency aboard the bridge.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [overlapping] Oh, my…
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] They're trying to invent a new sort of money.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): We're all trying to invent a new sort of money.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Uhum.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): Obviously.
JACK (as Paris France): Are we?
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): I don't know, you got your suit, I got my hair…
JACK (as Paris France): Wha— I don't understand what you mean. That doesn't seem like—
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): Mustard’s got her skill set.
JACK (as Paris France): This doesn’t seem like inventing a new kind of money at all! Have you— Have you moved us onto the metaphorical level here?
ALI (as Mustard Red): I think what Joe's trying to say is… that we ha— all have our own impulses.
AUSTIN: Thank you. [overlapping] Mustard gets me.
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] I’m s—
[SYLVI chuckles]
JACK (as Paris France): Some people's impulses is to… sign away… an ongoing financial obligation to whoever the fuck this is!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): I got it!
AUSTIN: Bonk! Gravity comes on and we all fall.
[ALI laughs]
JACK: [half-chuckling] Did you get it by signing the thing?
AUSTIN: No, no I just like turned the handle for this one sector.
JACK: [chuckling] Oh, for this— Oh, for this room!
AUSTIN: Yeah. For this room. Yeah. Just wanted to interrupt you rudely [half-chuckling, overlapping] by turning on gravity.
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Look. I don't— I don’t know who this is. And as— And as a salesman I would like to know more. So I’m prepared to cut you a deal.
[AUSTIN chuckles]
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Excuse me?
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Me and my guys… I’m prepared to cut you a deal, Mustard! Me and my guys will get the gravity… up and running. Sorted. I know people in the fish market. I know people in the spa. I know people in the vending machine— the place where all the vending machines come from. They gotta be— They gotta come from somewhere, and I know those guys. And… some of them have been tinkering around with all the panels and the internal gravity systems. Uhm.
We could get this thing running in no time. Hell, I’ll even throw in the magazine for free when I get there. In exchange, whenever you get a message from these fucks, could you send it straight to me?
ALI (as Mustard Red): You can just sign up for their newsletter!
[KEITH bursts out laughing]
JACK (as Paris France): I don't want to sign up for their newsletter, Mustard!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): But wait! You're saying you could get this all done by tomorrow… it sounds like… Mustard, this person you're talking to could get it done today!
[the briefest of pauses]
JACK (as Paris France): Uh— And I could get it done for free; with no further— This is me cashing in my favors, bud! What you're doing is asking for favors from somebody you don't even know.
[a brief pause]
JACK (as Paris France): [slightly sardonical] Support local businesses!
[ALI & AUSTIN laugh]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): Damn.
ALI (as Mustard Red): [sighs]
AUSTIN: I’m reminding everyone to remember their Lures.
ALI: Oh, su-su-sure. Yeah. Um… [laughs] Well…
ALI (as Mustard Red): Well. I’m… surprised that you think so little of me that you think that I would… [overlapping] make an agreement…
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] This has got—
[ALI chuckles]
JACK (as Paris France): Did you— Mustard. Mustard!
[ALI giggles]
AUSTIN: [forcefully] Arms crossed, standing behind Mustard. Backing you up.
JACK (as Paris France): Friend to friend: did you read the licensing agreement?
ALI (as Mustard Red): Of course I did! And there's costs to business, Paris!
[pause, someone exhales frustratedly]
ALI (as Mustard Red): You know, sometimes you need to… sacrifice some of yourself or some of your privacy for the greater good! And getting that magazine was a greater good for me! [overlapping] Which is why I signed—
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] What?
[ALI chuckles briefly]
ALI (as Mustard Red): Which is why I signed up! But I wouldn't make an agreement on behalf of the Brink without… without discussing it with the rest of the Proxy!
JACK (as Paris France): This thing sold you the magazine that kills people?!?
ALI (as Mustard Red): Perhaps…
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): I thought you were selling the magazine that kills people!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Well, not efficiently!
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] I was gonna sell the magazine that kills people!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): But you didn't do it!
JACK (as Paris France): [with repressed anger] Because this fucking vulture swooped in! And now they've got your inform— And I bet you had to pay for it with some kind of, like, fuckin’... what— What's the currency called? People always want to give money a new name.
AUSTIN: [half-chuckling] Fuck. What's a good fake name for money?
JACK: Glint.
AUSTIN: That Arbitrage could— Did you just say blint?
JACK: No, Austin! [laughs]
[ALI laughs]
SYLVI: Blint!?!
AUSTIN: I think—
JACK: [chuckling] Was blint there? I said glint. With a g.
AUSTIN: [chuckles] Glint. [overlapping] Blint, but with a g. Yeah. U-huh.
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Well, just so you know, that there was a 30-glint sign-on bonus… when I received the message, so the magazine was basically free! And if this is what this is about…
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] I didn’t—
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] …if you're upset at me for reaching out to another source I apologize for that. But… You know. You don't have to be upset about this.
JACK (as Paris France): [dumbfounded] I’m not— I can't belie— Let me just recap the offer here for you. Real quick.
[ALI chuckles]
JACK (as Paris France): I get the gravity on for you for free. All favors: we're done. I even— Okay. I can't give you the magazine anymore because you bought it [overlapping] from this fucking shadow—
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] I’ll take another copy! What are you talking about?!?
[AUSTIN & KEITH laugh]
JACK (as Paris France): Another copy doesn't exist!
SYLVI: Oh, my god!
[ALI & KEITH laugh]
JACK (as Paris France): [bargaining] You know how long…
KEITH: [through laughter] Paris, you're being a fucking idiot of course… of course you'll take another goddamn death magazine!
[general laughter]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): I mean, there's probably another copy out there! [overlapping] You could probably get another copy!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Yeah…!
JACK (as Paris France): There were four copies in existence!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [overlapping] I thought you—
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Everything other than those four were pulped by a machine that they made specifically to destroy this magazine.
[There’s a chuckle in the background]
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] I had time to trace the—
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [overlapping] I thought you could get us anything! You can't get us magazines 2 through 4?
JACK (as Paris France): [with growing agitation] I was to getting you the magazine! And then the shi— What's this company's name?!? What does it call itself?!?
ALI (as Mustard Red): [stalling] Um… what does it call…? The Divine, comma Arbitrage.
AUSTIN: [chuckles intensely] U-huh!
ALI (as Mustard Red): It's very clever when you think about it.
[AUSTIN is chuckling more intensely]
JACK (as Paris France): [very unimpressed] Why is it very clever, Mustard?
ALI: [chuckling] Well, because— [bursts into laughter]
JACK (as Paris France): Joe. Mustard. Why is it clever?
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): It's funny. It's a joke! But, like, it's professional.
JACK (as Paris France): I’d—
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): Like casual fridays. It's like a joke, like casual Fridays is.
[ALI chuckles, SYLVI laughs]
KEITH: I feel like Joe is a mirage created by the Divine, Arbitrage just…
[JACK laughs]
KEITH: [overlapping] just to be…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh my god!
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: [through laughter] …in its corner.
AUSTIN: [chuckling] U-huh! Uhum!
[KEITH laughs]
KEITH: Yeah, it's funny. It's… Yeah. We all think it's really good!
ALI: I— You know, I spent a token to have a… an asset… [chuckles] “to dispatch a capable asset.” And… having someone agree with me… is that! [laughs]
[JACK laughs]
AUSTIN: Aha!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That’s right!
ALI: [overlapping] That's games, baybee!
AUSTIN: “Capable asset,” right here! That’s games!
JACK: Okay. I think Paris just straight up says it:
JACK (as Paris France): This is dangerous bullshit, Mustard! What would it take you to take my deal?
JACK: This is me deploying my lure: “ask a player what would it take you to get your character to…” I guess, shake hands with Paris.
[ALI laughs]
JACK: [overlapping] I wasn’t being clear here…
ALI: [overlapping] Again, I… it's funny…
JACK: It’s not just shaking hands.
ALI: [overlapping] R-right.
JACK: [overlapping] The deal comes through.
ALI: No-no-no. And I think it's kind of funny because, like, Mustard was not gonna agree— Like, she was being honest when she said she wasn't gonna agree to this, like, on a… professional level. When she had, like, used this thing for, like, a personal one… Um…
AUSTIN: Uhum.
ALI: So the, like, big concern here is, like: “well, eh, sure.” I think the… the price that she names is… Like, the argument she basically makes is, like:
ALI (as Mustard Red): Well, you say you know all of these people who are willing to help, but they're not willing to help when there isn't an emergency. So…
AUSTIN: Hmm!
JACK: [overlapping] Shit…!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] I want you to get at least 10 of your supposed friends to volunteer for the Brink Proxy!
JACK (as Paris France): Ohhh!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [hastily] You can get more than 10. You can get more than 10.
JACK (as Paris France): Yeah, done! Absolutely!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): No-no-no, more than ten! More than— More than that! [overlapping] You, it has to be —
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Let’s shake on it.
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] More than that! 20.
JACK (as Paris France): 20? Done!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): 20 is not— [overlapping] More! More!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] That’s a lot of people!
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Oh, wha—
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): It’s not a lot. [overlapping] More!
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Butt out of it, Joe!
[JACK chuckles, ALI laughs]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): Got— [gives up] Ehm… Fine, 20.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Fuckin’ Joe!
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] 20— 20 people!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] It’s a small office!
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Gravity back on.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [whispering] You get a better office, too!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] This can’t get me an office, he can’t…
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] I can’t give you an office… I am not a real estate…
[ALI laughs]
JACK (as Paris France): What was that, Mustard? He can't even…?
ALI (as Mustard Red): Don't worry about it!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [whispering] Tha’s wha’m sayin’... I’m saying… I bet the Divine, Arbitrage could!
[ALI chortles]
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] It’s called that—
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [overlapping] It’s the comma, it kills me every time! [chuckles]
JACK (as Paris France): It's called that because it's a Divine, you idiots!
[AUSTIN chuckles intensely]
ALI (as Mustard Red): [curtly] Divinity is very inspiring.
[the briefest of pauses]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): There's all sorts of different types of Divinity.
[a brief pause]
JACK (as Paris France): [exasperated] Ohhh, my…!
JACK: Just, like…
KEITH: Divinity is always okay in this office.
[ALI chuckles, AUSTIN & JACK laugh]
ALI: Except when I’m researching this cult. Which we’ll… [laughs] Which we’ll get into…
JACK: [overlapping] Oh, my god!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Aha. We’ll talk about shortly.
AUSTIN: Huuuhhhh…!
JACK: Just in a— Paris is in a fuckin’ foul mood.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [overlapping] Well, you took the deal—
KEITH: [overlapping] It’s so funny that you're offering to do this for free and they're like: “what do you mean?”
[ALI laughs]
JACK: It’s because! [half-chuckling] It's because it turns out the Divine Capital is fucking compelling!
[AUSTIN snickers]
JACK (as Paris France): Um… [sardonically] But you get a sign up bonus of 30 glints! And — and correct me if I’m wrong here, Mustard — if you tell a friend you get 150 glints!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): You get 100— Yeah. Did you know that if you subscribe to the monthly service you get five free games a month?
ALI (as Mustard Red): Wow.
[SYLVI groans]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): But they're free.
[ALI chuckles]
KEITH: The question is: how much glint does it cost to remotely monitor the gravity systems.
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): It earns you glint.
KEITH: [overlapping] It doesn’t cost you a month…?
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [overlapping] For each— No. For every— For every piece of… [chuckles] For every time there's a gravity mistake that it catches, you get one 1/100 of a glint coin.
KEITH: [unimpressed] Wow.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Oh, wow.
SYLVI: [exasperated, overlapping] Wow, cool…
KEITH: [overlapping] So you'd be losing money…
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [overlapping] You're losing money.
KEITH: [overlapping] …not to sign up.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Uhum.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): That's right. Yeah.
JACK (as Paris France): [fed up] Oh my god!
KEITH: And also just don't ask what a glint is! [chuckles]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): It's fine. It's one unit. Like, 1 glint is 1 unit…
KEITH: A glint.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): …and a unit is a unit of glint. [overlapping] Exactly.
KEITH: [overlapping] Right.
JACK: I want to be clear here… in order to sort of, like, color Paris's characterization here: the vending machines do not require money.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] No. Yeah.
JACK: [overlapping] You go up to them and you push a button and it dispenses you food. [chuckles]
AUSTIN: Uhum!
JACK: Um. I’m trying to play it— [overlapping] play a salesman who, like…
KEITH: [overlapping] But then how do you know how bad people want each particular thing?
JACK (as Paris France): It doesn’t matter.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): Yeah, it's going to help us figure out— Okay, but you go up to the vending machine… [overlapping]
JACK (as Paris France): Uh-huh!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): And you do this? You do this. You refill them, right?
JACK (as Paris France): Yes, I do.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): And you go up and: “Oh no! There is no more cookie bars!” There's only the Calci-yums left.
JACK (as Paris France): Uhuh.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): And no-one likes the Calci-yums because they're gross. And the… You say: “Okay. But, I guess, I’ll just put them all in there.”
JACK (as Paris France): No, I don’t.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): But if it costs glintcoin, you would know you don't have to put [overlapping] any of the Calci-yums left…
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] Joe! Joe! I understand you're excited about this.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [brashly, overlapping] It's new!
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] But when I see that there’s no… [chuckles] I just write down “more cookies needed in Seventine's office.” And then I bring more cookies!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [overlapping] Oh, boy! What an example to give, huh, Mustard?
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): Your bo— Your— This fucking guy with the personal vending machine gets more cookie bars!
ALI (as Mustard Red): [overlapping] Uhum.
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] You know how I feel about Seventine.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): The glintcoin system is just more freedom for everybody. Because that way we can decide who gets the cookie. You— [overlapping] I wanna spend my glintcoin on a cookie.
JACK (as Paris France): [overlapping] You’re breaking my heart, Joe! You’re breaking my heart.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [overlapping] I didn't know that we were that close!
SYLVI: Damn. They got history.
[ALI chuckles]
KEITH: It's called freedom of speech.
[AUSTIN laughs]
SYLVI: Oh, fuck off!
[someone laughs briefly]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): I see where you're coming from. I get it. You've been here for, what? 90 years?
[someone chuckles]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): That must be… It must be hard to see things change.
[a brief pause]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): But this system's quick!
JACK (as Paris France): But it's not good!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): What's the difference?
JACK (as Paris France): [chuckling] Look, fuck off, Joe!
JACK: Just, like, goes to try and— Off goes Paris to try and, like, call in a bunch of favors; and broker deals; and hand around a piece of paper with a “sign up to Brink Proxy, please comma, for Paris.”
[AUSTIN sighs]
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): I know that guy means well, but… jeez! Some people can't tell the way the wind is blowing!
ALI (as Mustard Red): He seems very jealous over this Divine, Arbitrage thing. You know?
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): I do.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Just be… [overlapping] better!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): [overlapping] It’s like… Yeah. It's like… you know… my mom used to make a great pot roast. When the diner started selling better pot roast, I didn't get mad! I just started eating the new pot roast.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Hm. Uhum.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): It's just like that.
ALI (as Mustard Red): It's exactly like that. And who am I to deny myself a better pot roast?
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): I think you deserve one. If I can be honest with you. Mustard, you work really hard. You deserve a good pot roast.
ALI (as Mustard Red): Well. When we're done here… maybe we can head to the— [through laughter] the Brink Diner!
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): U-huh.
ALI: [laughing] That's coming up with the name for the Brink Diner! Just saying those words!
[JACK laughs]
AUSTIN: [sighs exasperatedly] Ahhhh…! Just the Brink Di— It's called the Brink. [overlapping] That was the— You know.
ALI: [overlapping] Okay, Ye-yeah.
AUSTIN: Uhum. It's called the Brink. That’s what we called it. Uhum.
[ALI giggles]
AUSTIN: And that's a scene, I think!
ALI: It sure is!
AUSTIN: [through laughter] Yes. “Ma De Vivre.”
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: [through laughter] That’s it, pteroid![9] Alright. I don't think any of our things have resolved.
SYLVI: [whimsically, overlapping] Nope! [chuckles]
KEITH: [overlapping] Nope.
ALI: Hmm…
AUSTIN: Nothing's resolved bad, yet, either? Right? Nothing's, like… [overlapping] come through…
KEITH: [overlapping] Correct.
SYLVI: [overlapping] No, I don't think so. I don’t think either one way or the other.
KEITH: [overlapping] Although, there's a very big threat that's been totally unaddressed.
AUSTIN: Yes. Totally. [overlapping] 100%.
KEITH: [overlapping] Which is notable. It is notable for its absence.
AUSTIN: Yeah. U-hum. U-hum. Uugh.
[SYLVI laughs]
AUSTIN: I feel gross.
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah…
KEITH: [overlapping] I like that we've introduced a de— like, a sort of dedicated crypto bro.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVI: [through laughter] I can't believe Joe De Vivre’s a bitcoin guy! Yo, Joe, how many apes did you slurp!?!
[AUSTIN & KEITH bursts into laughter]
ALI: Come on…!
AUSTIN: Ohhhh… nooo…! I’m sorry!
ALI: [overlapping] You’re like— You’re like—
KEITH: [overlapping] Ali, how do you feel—
AUSTIN: [overlapping] But you said…! You said that Mustard sucks.
[ALI bursts out in laughter]
AUSTIN: And so… Mustard sucking means that Joe gets to suck worse.
ALI: [whispers] Sure. [in a regular tone] Sure.
AUSTIN: Because that's the thing, right? The whole point is that Joe is, like, a skeezball that Mustard is like: [faux-enamored] “Well you have to understand…”
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: [continuing in the same tone] “He's really cute, and like… He has like… He's funny.” You know what I mean? And, like…
[ALI sighs]
AUSTIN: …if you're already a weirdo — who's bad —
ALI: Uhum.
AUSTIN: …Joe has to be worse!
ALI: [overlapping] We just…
JACK: [overlapping] You took the deal that—
ALI: We just have weird ideas about cyber-security… You know… [chuckles]
AUSTIN: Right.
AUSTIN (as Joe De Vivre): I just think things should be more open!
KEITH: I’ll say: I don't think that Joe has to be worse. You don't have to…
[ALI laughs]
KEITH: …fall in love— You don't have to fall in love with someone that's worse than you. But it's definitely possible. It’s basically 50-50.
ALI: [overlapping] Right.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] That’s the— But that's the com—
AUSTIN: The way that's phrased: “the charming rogue…” I guess Joe could be the charming rogue who listens to, like, lefty podcasts instead. Then— And from—
SYLVI: [commiseratingly] Eehh…!
AUSTIN: You know what I mean? But I think it's funnier if Joe is… [overlapping] just a naive…
KEITH: [overlapping] Oh, yeah. Way funnier.
[AUSTIN laughs briefly]
KEITH: It's almost as funny as calling your company The Divine, Arbitrage.
[AUSTIN & ALI laugh]
AUSTIN: [tired, overlapping] Oh, nooo…!
KEITH: [overlapping] That's funny!
JACK: [overlapping] Because a Divine knows that— the Divine knows what it can do, right? Arbitrage is presumably like: “People will sign up. I don’t need to hide what I am.”
AUSTIN: Yeah! 100%! Yeah. 100%!
JACK: I also don't think it's too out of the realm of possibility that there would also be people like Paris, who…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh, yeah!
JACK: [overlapping] …working in sales in the Twilight Mirage, would be like: “That's a Divine.”
AUSTIN: You— Yeah. I think to do the thing you do in the Twilight Mirage — like, truly seriously — I think for Paris to exist on the Twilight Mirage, Paris has gone through a lot of education.
JACK: [half-chuckling, overlapping] Soul-searching?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] And just through experience has known this… To know: “What I do is dangerously close to a thing we eradicated.”
JACK: Yes.
AUSTIN: “What I do in restocking things and getting people things that they need gives me a lot of power over people and I could invest that power into myself, and make myself the source—” [overlapping] I mean, you are literally called The Source, right? But, like… Right.
JACK: [overlapping] We saw Paris screw it up! Earlier this episode! Right? Paris caused Knighton's death, because…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right. Yes.
JACK: [overlapping] …they were like: “I’m a capable enough broker to be able to draw these disparate threads together…”
AUSTIN: Right.
JACK: You know?
AUSTIN: This is— This is the thing, right? It’s that, like… the person in the Twilight Mirage who does this knows that they are a broker; they are a connector; that they bring things together. The person… The bad version o’this does believe they are the source. They believe that they are the thing that is the most important. That is what The Divine, Arbitrage is. Right? The Divine, Arbitrage sees oranges and guns… [overlapping] and people…
JACK: [overlapping] Magazines that kill you…
AUSTIN: …and magazines that kill you, and says: “All of these things are just things that need to be rearranged. And I get to take a cut whenever anything gets rearranged. And if I don't— If I’m not the vessel through which these things move, they're not moving as efficiently as they could be… and… that's a waste. That's just— That's just wasteful.”
And so, there is, like, that— I think that— I suspect that Paris has been very well educated about that threat. In, like, no uncertain terms! In the same way that, you know, the world that we dream of in which, for instance: “Yes, we have the we have contemporary technologies and machine learning; but we're also, like, the people building them have been — not just, like, took a machine learning ethics class, or an AI ethics class and they're like: ‘well if they ever start talking like people that means we have to treat them like people’”
[JACK chuckles]
AUSTIN: “— but actually think about the repercussions of… the ways in which… you know, machine learning is based on the amalgamation of lots of data… often data that belongs to other people; or that's tied to the invasion of privacy… stuff around, you know, what does the creation of new stuff do in terms of our biases, our established biases, and political power, and etc.”
Like, that's the sort of stuff that you have actually gone through. So, yeah. I think you can recognize exactly the thing that is happening here. This is like: “red alert, someone is trying to create capitalism inside of the Twilight Mirage!” And— And create it in pretty much the most heinous form it could be. Right? This is monopoly capitalism. This is digital monopoly capitalism, without any sort of check or balance or competition or anything else.
JACK: It’s—
AUSTIN: Not that any of those things are enough to make it good, but it's literally the worst version of it. So.
JACK: [overlapping] It's very literally one entity.
KEITH: [sardonically, overlapping] Uh, there’s plenty of checks, Austin!
AUSTIN: [replying to JACK] Yes.
KEITH: There's plenty of checks! I get a little check every time I get a sandwich from the sandwich shop—
[the others laugh]
SYLVI: [overlapping] Oh my god!
KEITH: [overlapping] And I get a free sandwich.
AUSTIN: [overlapping, through laughter] And when I get 10 checks I get a free sandwich!
[AUSTIN & KEITH laugh]
ALI: Hey! Hey! Hey! [half-chuckling] Getting checks on sandwiches for sandwich shops is, like, a historical… like, important thing within the Twilight Mirage! So don't…!
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Oh you're right!
JACK: [overlapping] Oh, yes! There is a—
[KEITH laughs]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Sure. Aha! This is true.
JACK: [overlapping] Yeah.
KEITH: [overlapping] So you’re just predisposed to…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] So there is an anticipation to—
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Aha! Yes.
KEITH: …predisposed to being like: “Oh, yeah! Checks for sandwiches! [overlapping] That sounds awesome!”
ALI: [chuckling, overlapping] Ye-ye-yeah!
AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah..
JACK: But I do want to…
AUSTIN: You gotta go to every floor of the Brink and get the check from each floor!
ALI: Mm-hmm!
JACK: Mustard! Did you take the deal there, Mustard? Or… [overlapping] Because we left that conversation on bad terms…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] With Paris?
JACK: …but was it leaving on bad terms: having signed the deal and being grumpy about it; [overlapping] or was it leaving on bad terms of you being, like—
ALI: [overlapping] No, absolutely! And I don't even think it was, like, a grumpy thin— I mean, I can't say how Paris feels about it. But again, like…
J: Grumpy.
[AUSTIN chuckles, ALI laughs]
ALI: Mustard wasn't gonna take that deal from Arbitrage… because she wouldn't make decisions that affect, like, the entire base like that.
JACK: Right.
ALI: And it's just assuming, like: “Oh, it's two people in the market, who are, like, competing with each other and that's why…
AUSTIN: Uhum!
ALI: “…that's why Paris seems so upset about this.”
JACK: Right.
ALI: But, like, the deal was get people to sign up for… you know…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Get 20 more volunteers on… Brink Proxy. Yeah.
ALI: [overlapping] Right.
JACK: [overlapping] Yes. Which… Yeah, I’m… I’m happy to do… in exchange for: “don't do this.” [chuckles] Which you were gonna do anyway!
ALI: Uhum.
[AUSTIN chuckles]
JACK: And give Paris— Next time it texts, send it to Paris.
ALI: Sure.
[a brief pause]
JACK: [tired] Uugh…!
ALI: Well, I’m going to get, you know, “refer a friend bonus.” [chuckles] So I’m happy to…
AUSTIN: God!
SYLVI: [overlapping, in disbelief] Oh my fucking god!
ALI: [overlapping, through laughter] You— Like, you know, all these texts. So. It’s a win-win-win.
AUSTIN: [overlapping] An entire person just— Yeah. This is… This is… You're the type of person who cuts out coupons not because you use them or need them, but, like, there's something compelling about the process of maximizing coupon usage. [overlapping] Do you kno—
ALI: [overlapping] Yeah. I guess. Well… I think also the other thing is that, like, it's one thing for Mustard to have… like, a personal need, and to fulfill it with this, and it's another thing to be, like…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah. This is true. Uhum.
ALI: [overlapping] “Oh, I will hand over the Brink’s gravity system to this entity that I don't know.” When, like, her thing is, like… “I fear our home will become— will be destroyed. Or will be sold, or whatever.” So, like, those are… those are like…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Right. Right. There's a difference.
ALI: [overlapping] …she’s directly against… Ye-ye-yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: …her, like, goals in the Brink. But, like: “This thing is gonna get me this magazine that I want for a personal reason” is different from the other thing. So… [overlapping] Is that our game? [chuckles]
AUSTIN: [overlapping] Yeah! Okay. I think that's our game for today!
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah!
AUSTIN: None of these have resolved…! Uh… In fact, I feel like we've added threats… [chuckles]
[ALI giggles]
SYLVI: [overlapping] Yeah, it’s fine…
AUSTIN: [overlapping] And… Yeah! That's gonna do it for us…! Thanks for joining us! We'll be back! Hopefully, next week, for some more of this!
[“Permanent Peace” by Jack de Quidt plays and the episode concludes]
[1] They pronounce it like “arbitridge.”
[2] Pronouncing, this time, as Jack, like “arbitridge.”
[3] She pronounces it, probably mistakenly, as “Mister Taninger.”
[4] Pronouncing it as “seventeen.”
[5] Anarcho-capitalists.
[6] In the chat.
[7] Probably misreading C. T. H.’s name on his business card.
[8] Sounds like “retailer.”
[9] In the chat.