Bluff City 29: Extracurricular: Out Of Time Pt. 3

Transcriber: happierstories#8865 [0:00:00-0:07:34] anachilles#0191 [07:34 - 136:40]

(LAST TIME ON: SUMMARY)

ALI: (as Caitlin) In your recollection, what was happening to the water pump that night?

AUSTIN: (as horse face) It was just-- all backed up. He got it fixed, we got the shipment. The shipment was overdue, we got in the truck. He got in his little Coop. He followed us down the road. Police sirens in the distance. We pulled over. Whitaker sa-- The client says, that we should pull over and answer any questions the police have. We're not carrying any contraband. It's not illegal to move water around. No prohibition on water, people would die.

(MUSIC - "Extracurricular: Out of Time")

So, we did. Officer called in back up. A second car came. And that's when-- it got dark, and when the police-- yelled. And when Hollis said to run. And I did. We all did. Then I read in the paper the next day, oh.. Police shot in shooting, or whatever the headline was. And then Hollis told me to go hide. He told me to go down to the docs, and get in one of them containers, that he'd make sure I had food. He's better than his parents. Not by much, but. He knows I'm innocent.

JANINE: (as grouse) Do you know anyone who... might be a regular at Gail Green's kinda... events? And who might be looking for some... You know, company?

ALI: (as caitlin) Well, it depends on... what you're going there for, but I, I could probably do better than armcandy. I know someone who's a caterer there.

JANINE: (as grouse) That's better than armcandy? (ART and AUSTIN laugh)

ALI: (as caitlin)

ART: (as champ) Well, you get tips.

AUSTIN: (as Gail green) Welcome to my party, I don't think we've had the chance to meet. How do you know Caitlin Key? Are you also troublemakers?

ART: (as champ) Hah.

AUSTIN: (as Gail Green) I'll take that as a yes.

JANINE: (as grouse) I prefer to think of myself as a trouble-solver, but that's not everyone's perspective, I'm sure.

AUSTIN: (as gail) Trouble-solver... What sort of troubles do you solve?

JANINE: (as grouse) (sighs) What kinda troubles you got?

AUSTIN: (as gail) Big ones. Big weird ones.

JANINE: (as grouse) The weirder the better.

AUSTIN: (as gail) My city is sick. It's always been sick, but in the last year... something's dragged it down. I don't-- It's dragged me down. I can't keep focus. I leave things half finished. The city feels half finished.

ART: (as champ) I dunno if that's a you problem. It is bonkers out there.

AUSTIN: (as gail) It's always been bonkers out there. This is something else. This is a strangeness. This is... this is a room half furnished, this is... I don't know. And I can't-- It won't crystallize in my head. It feels like I'm missing something big. Something important. And I keep reaching... I keep reaching for someone's hand that isn't there. And I don't know who.

(MUSIC ends: 03:35)

AUSTIN: (as Gail) I'm going to go talk to some more guests.

JANINE: (as Grouse) Can I just-- before you go, ask you one thing real quick?

AUSTIN: (as Gail) Of course. A refill?

JANINE: (as Grouse) No, no, um, I just wanted to know if you knew anything...

ART: (as Champ) But also, yes.

JANINE: (as Grouse) If you knew anything about the.. the pumping. The water pumping.

AUSTIN: (as Gail) Oh, the Whitakers.

JANINE: (as Grouse) Mm-hm.

AUSTIN: (as Gail) I... Some big construction project, they asked me if I wanted in on it. I have no interest in real estate. (sighs) I think they were describing... a tunnel, somewhere. And I said, "We already have so many highways in development, do we need tunnels too?" Anyways, that's the pumping. They, they need to get the water out.

JANINE: (as Grouse) Mm.

AUSTIN: (as Gail) So they can put the tunnel in.

AUSTIN: Meanwhile. Caitlin. You've been hanging out with Alexandra Hughes, who has been telling you all of the latest gossip about everyone in this room. Who is fucking who, who is not saying who but saying they are, who is stealing from who, who is actually worth nothing, who is a secret, you know, millionaire who is hiding it, and pretending to, you know, be a young upstart, so that when they have suddenly have money, they can pretend that they made it big. Who's an informant, and who's a snitch. You're just getting, this like, both barrels of goss right now.

05:04

ALI: Yeah, I... It's great. I'm enjoying it. There's... I've been trying to think about this because... as good as it's been to talk in character as Caitlin, I kinda wanna talk around it, because I feel like there's... There has to be a less direct way to sort of go about the information that she wants?

AUSTIN: Mm-hm.

ALI: And... I know that meeting someone at a party who wants to talk shit about a bunch of people (laughs) doesn't mean that that person's going to be very open and honest.

AUSTIN: Right.

ALI: Speaking as someone who talks shit about people at parties.

AUSTIN: Uh-huh!

ALI: Um (laughing). But I do think that there's like, if you spend a long enough time talking to someone and endearing yourself to them, by being like, "Haha, yeah, let's go make fun of this person, let's go see what's going on in the wine room,"

AUSTIN: Uh-huh (laughing) Yes.

ALI: You could eventually get to a place where it seems like Caitlin is sort of griping about... what she's been dealing with in her daily life?

AUSTIN: Mm-hm.

ALI: That, like, leads... to getting information about this person's relationship with Hollis, right?

AUSTIN: Yeah. And that's in terms of like, "I've shared my stuff, now it's time for you to share about your personal stuff," is like that vibe? Or...

ALI: I think it's a little bit-- That's the thing, I don't know if it would be like, "Well I'm working this kid, and, y'know, he's in trouble, yaddayadayah," and like, trying to get them to come to the same point? So she'll be like... "Oh... You know, you're on the opposite side of this, let's talk shit about what's happening," or if it should be the other thing of being like, "Well what's wrong with you?" 'Cause I don't know what would get more information, you know?

AUSTIN: Give me, give me the cards, and we'll,

ALI: Sure.

AUSTIN: We'll decide, basically, based on what happens here. (ALI giggles) So this is definitely a Charisma check again,

ALI: Yes, yes ,yes.

AUSTIN: -based on what you're describing. (hisses through teeth) Nightmare. Four of clubs!

ALI: Love it. Great.

AUSTIN: Is terrible! "If-- you fail on a trait check, and end up with clubs, the suit for your card, you botch. You also botch if you flip the Bad Joker. Not only do you fail, the GM poses an extra setback due to failure. In combat, a botch might--" blah blah blah, "If your character is trying to impress someone

0:07:31.5        

Austin:        They might anger them instead. That's not what happens here, don't worry. Uh... I think what happens here is, uh, the first thing that happens is, uh, she says —

Austin (as Alexandra):         [sighs] Verge, don't…

Austin:        I, so I, I think you try to come at it sideways, right? That's, that's the setup. Is, I think you try to do the thing where you're like, you explain, you talk about your day, and try to like, “oh, I'm working with this kid.” [laughs] and she says —

Ali:        Yeah.

Austin (as Alexandra):        Verge, I know... I — don't try to play me. I had a good time talking about all of the inadequacies of everyone in this building. That was a lot of fun. If you're going to come at me, come at me direct. Ask me for the favor. I'm…

Austin:        This isn't her voice. Her voice is longer. I, because we haven't been doing the voice, I didn't have it. Um, uh…

Austin (as Alexandra):        Verge, if you're going to ask me for something, ask me directly. Don't... play games.

Ali:        Right.

Austin (as Alexandra):        And at this point, I don't know that I'll answer anyway. I feel like you are... a little out of your depth. I don't want you or anyone else getting hurt. And the second that we start telling the truth, the truth is, is much, much more dangerous than anything anyone in this city knows.

Austin:        Uh, and at that moment the door opens, and one of the doormen comes in, and says —

Austin (as doorman):        Hey, uh, Miss Key, there are some officers here looking for you.

Ali:        [laughing]

Austin (as doorman):        Your friend knocked that guy out earlier, so we figured we'd come and let you know. Um, yeah. A big motherfucker. And two, two, two of his goons.

Ali (as Verge):        Cop goons?

Austin (as doorman):        All of them are cop goons. Myst. I'm not accusing you of being in... one of the alterators, or whatever they're called. Uh... but, they — they put your name in the air. So... get your group together and you should get out of here. We have your back, but if things come to blows, it's the Myst.

Art:        Is that an expression I should know?

Austin:        The name of the police is the, is the Myst. Because they're like the — mysterious phenomenon unit.

Art:        Oh, it's not like, it's the mist.

Austin:        Yeah, no.

Ali:        Oh, right right right right right right.

Art:        Yeah, no I remember now, not like —

Austin:        Yeah, yeah, not like — yeah.

Janine:        That's the 1920s way of saying, “get out of the party” — hit the mist.

Austin:        Uh-huh. Hit the mist, exactly. Mist it.

Ali (as Verge):        If you could lead me and them to my car, I'll figure getting out of here on my own.

Austin:        Uh...

Ali:        I'm, I'm saying this because I assume the cars are all in a different place, because of the valet situation, and [unintelligible]

Austin:        Oh, I see, you're saying like, lead us off, off — like away from the space.

Ali:        Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

Austin:        Uh, he says, like —

Austin (as doorman):        I have to get back to the front door. I'm sorry, Miss Key, but I, I cannot be — these are heavy hitters. I have a family, this job — I can't lose this job. I just wanted to give you a heads-up. Uh... also, Miss Hughes, I hope you had a good night. Uh, if you ever need an escort anywhere —

Austin:        And she's like, “ No... Barry. This is not the time.” Uh, anyway. What do you do?

Ali:        Uh... I was praying that person would be willing to send a message for me [laughing] so we could all just... be out of this house. But that's fine. Uh...

Austin:        I think we're going to get like, the good, the simple thing of like, y'all come out of the door at the same time, do you know what I mean?

Ali:        Right right right right right, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Austin:        Like they're here, and you're here, you know? Or here? That's a bedroom, so probably not there.

Ali:        Uh... I, uh, this person is staying at the hotel that I'm in, though, right?

Austin:        That's true. That is true.

Ali:        Yeah, sure. And I think the time sensitivity actually helps me here, because I can be like —

Ali (as Verge):        Listen, I, I apologize for how I approached you, but I would like to speak more. Uh, would you be willing to meet up later?

Austin (as Alexandra):        [sighs] Yeah. I'll see you down — I'll see you downstairs.

Austin:        By which she means, the speakeasy.

Ali:        Right.

Austin (as Alexandra):        If you're leaving now, I could accompany you.

Ali (as Verge):        It would... be a risk on your part.

Austin (as Alexandra):        A risk worth, worth the — a —

Austin:        That's not a saying. A risk worth the while, is not say saying, right? [chuckles]

Ali:        [chuckles]

Art:        I've never heard it, but —

Austin (as Alexandra):        A risk worth the while.

Ali:        I know what's being said.

Austin:        Uh-huh. Yeah. That's what she says.

Ali:        Yeah. Yeah, uh, I get what she means. We're, we're, yeah. Uh,

Austin:        Uh, so then yeah. The three of you meet along with, along with Hughes, uh, here like in this little hallway, uh, as you leave your respective rooms you bump into each other, thankfully. Uh...

Ali (as Verge):        We have to go. We're leaving, and we're not using the front door.

Janine (as Grouse):        All right, sounds good.

Ali (as Verge):        Perfect.

Ali:        Uh... [laughing] you, you like moving the comms as I'm talking is really funny. I'm like — eh.

Austin:        They're looking around, listen.

Ali:        They sure are. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're looking. Uh... where can we exit?

Janine:        I mean, these rooms have windows.

Austin:        These rooms have windows.

Ali:        Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Austin:        Uh-huh.

Art:        There's only like 3 of them.

Austin:        Out — in here, yeah.

Ali:        Let's go. Let's leap out of the G window.

0:13:31.5        

Austin:        This is, all right, it's — out of the G window.

Ali:        Yeah, because we entered through F, and —

Austin:        Yeah, I know, I see it. I know, I gotcha.

Ali:        Then F is an attached room and they follow us into F, and we leave out the G window.

Austin:        Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Give me a —

Art:        Oh...

Austin:        Yeah, the stuff is — there are, there's notation on this map. Uh...

Art:        No, no, I just couldn't find G.

Austin:        Yeah, it's over here.

Art:        Yeah, I got it. I said yeah.

Austin:        Mm-hm. Give me a... I think in general, we, what we need here is like, some sort of escape check, right? To get past their dragnet.

0:14:01.0        

Ali:        Oh, fuck — no, no, no, we don't need any [unintelligible] what are talking about?

Austin:        Oh yeah, [unintelligible] this is what you do.

Ali:        Yeah, I make portals for a living.

Austin:        You do.

Ali:        Uh, ba ba ba ba ba... dimension step.

Austin:        What's this do?

Ali:        Uh, wait, do I have the friends boost on this one?

Austin:        [chuckles] I love games.

Ali:        Or is it the other one? [chuckles] Weird, because I hate doing them. Uh, no, no, no, we're good.

Austin:        I don't think you need — do you need the friends power for that? The boost?

Ali:        I feel like there was a boost that was like, you take someone with you. And I didn't have it. But I also don't have it crossed out. So I'm looking through, that's so weird, I thought that I just had it. Uh, yeah, I'm going to, uh, walk out of this window [laughing while speaking]I think is what I'm going to do, unfortunately.

Austin:        Okay.

Ali:        Uh, uh, I think that makes more sense if like, I wait behind, because I can portal myself out, once I provide cover for everybody else.

Austin:        True. That's good, I like this. This I like.

Ali:        Yeah. Okay, sure. Uh, [giggling]

Austin:        So then, the rest is, so we need two — I'm going to need two things here then. Chanti or Elena, I need one of you to take the lead on getting out of here, which is...

Janine:        Yeah.

Austin:        Some sort of... you tell me what that looks like.

Janine:        Uh... I mean, you know, I think — oh, I have stealth.

Austin:        You do have stealth.

Janine:        I should be using something with stealth. Uh, —

Austin:        Probably.

Janine:        I mean, I would assume that stealth would let me fucking... get out of a fucking window without making a scene.

Austin:        Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. Uh... are you, is this a, uh, let's see, is this an agility thing, like you're sneaking around, you're being really, you're being very like, quick? Or is it a perception thing? Where you're like, it doesn't even matter, really — your score is probably the same in both of those? Yes, yes it is.

Janine:        Yeah, I feel like it would be, academically, it would be agility stealth, because it's like, you want to not make a lot of noise, you want to just —

Austin:        Yeah, sure.

Janine:        Get the shortest possible route. You have to like, get your, get your ass through a window.

Austin:        Yeah.

Art:        Mm-hm.

Janine:        [chuckling] You know.

Austin:        Get your horse legs through a window, got it.

Janine:        Mm-hm. I love that song. That's my favorite 1920s song.

Austin:         [singing with old-timey affect]Get your horse legs through a window! Yeah, it's great.

Janine:        [laughs]

Austin:        Give me a, agility check. Are, are you helping somehow, Elena?

Art:        I mean, insight feels relevant, but I'm struggling to —

Austin:        Uh... I feel like it's a little tough, when it's not like, you're looking at the cops who are looking for you, do you know what I mean?

Art:        Yeah.

Austin:        Uh...

Art:        Willpower, just like —

Austin:        I think you've, if you were like, if this was like, you were carrying people [laughs], you could do athletics. But I don't, willpower couldn't be bad in terms of, uh, mmm, I guess it says staying focused while, while under duress. This is under duress, right? Yeah. I'll give you willpower, just to like, keep your wits about you. So go ahead and give me an agility check. Agility stealth. Uh, it's an 8 of hearts.

Janine:        Hm.

0:17:03.2        

Austin:        This is the tough ones, this is, this is —

Janine:        That is the tough one.

Austin:        This is the one, right? Yeah. Uh-huh.

Janine:        Uh... because I could draw so much worse or I could draw so much better.

Art:        Well, with the help, it's a 9? I mean, that's pretty good.

Janine:        Yeah, how tough do we think this is? How —

Art:        They're not even over here. They're over here.

Janine:        [chuckles] that's —

Austin:        Those are the ones inside, I did say that.

Janine:        Yeah.

Art:        Yeah!

Janine:        Uh... so wait, what's the level, what level is a 9, again?

Austin:        In general, I will just say... 8 is like, uh... 8 is the equivalent of... mmm, I don't want to even say that. I don't want to say what I was going to say, because I think it would've given, it would've been too... I don't think it would necessarily have been honest. Uh, here it is. A 4 is routine, 6 is easy, 8 is average, 10 is challenging, queen is hard, ace is incredible. And, and —

Art:        So 9 is slightly above-average.

Austin:        And the scores can be — the scores can be, the difficulties can be in between those things. It just, those are the kind of —

Janine:        Yeah.

Austin:        That's the guidance they give you.

Janine:        Man...

Austin:        You have what, three cards here? Yeah, you have three cards.

Janine:        Yeah.

Austin:        You're on your first one.

Janine:        I just have such a bad feeling about drawing more, but I also feel like a should draw more because I have three. And this is only the first one.

Austin:        Mm-hm.

Art:        But you're, you're, you're, but you have a king and a queen out of the deck.

Janine:        Yeah, but there's still a lot of 10s and stuff in there. It's like with blackjack, you have to assume the dealer has a 10, because the 10 is the most common.

Art:        Well that's only if it's random.

Janine:        Mmm... [laughing] also, I've drawn more low cards than high cards, so...

Austin:        That's true.

Janine:        That means... [laughing] something.

Austin:        That's true.

Janine:        Okay, okay, it's an —

Austin:        There's an ace of clubs.

Janine:        It's an ace of clubs, so —

Austin:        A club is a complication.

Janine:        Yeah...

Austin:        A complication never negates the success of the trait check, it just provides a minor downside the character has to deal with. A good default complication is for the character to suffer disadvantage on their next trait check. Uh, uh, if your character hits the target score for the trait check but gets clubs, they're successful but suffer a complication. Uh, example of complications or an agility check, uh, are things like... uh, —

Janine:        Sprained ankle.

0:19:37.5        

Austin:        You balance, you balance well but you drop a held item. You dodge an object, but fall prone in the process. You drive well, but damage the car in a minor way. In combat, you take damage.

Janine:        Uh... this just affects me, right? Probably, like the consequence, probably?

Austin:        Uh... no. No.

Janine:        No?

Austin:        No. Why? Elena helped.

Janine:        Oh. Yeah...

Austin:        It's a group activity, this is a group... this is really a group trait check, is what we should have done, now that I think about it, but, uh, in which case... but I'm just going to let you be the lead here. But I'm just going to let you be the lead here, but in the future, this should have been a group trait check.

Janine:        How do we feel?

Art:        Uh... I mean, I mean, it's going to succeed.

Janine:        Yeah. With a minor complication.

Art:        And there's a lot of, there's a lot of bad cards in your deck.

Janine:        Yeah. I kind of feel like we should take the success and deal with the sprained ankle or whatever the fuck. Damage to the house. We rip a chunk of siding off. [laughing]

Austin:        [laughing] Not damage to the house, no.

Janine:        We can't close the window again, so it's like, oh, shit, they went out the window... my bird gets mad at me. These all work.

Austin:        Your bird — these all work, these are all good complications. Are you, so you're committing.

Janine:        Yes.

Austin:        Okay. You... uh, get to the, uh, to the car, you get to like the parking area, where the valets have all like, parked all the different cars. Uh, and you manage to get into the car, uh, and then you've realized that like, they've parked you in such a way that there is no safe way to just drive out. Like the front of this, you could walk into this parking lot, basically, but it's — you're like behind a bunch of other cars, do you know what I mean? So you've snuck away, but your car does not have an easy way out of this parking lot. They have to like pull the cars out one by one to make space for your car to drive out. And they're not doing that for you right this — or I guess they, they're like, “uh, which car is yours?” And you say this one, and they go, “uh, it's going to be like 20 minutes.”

0:22:05.1        

Janine:        We portaled a car before — does this, okay, so, mmm —

Austin:        [laughing]

Janine:        We portaled a car before, but also there is that other thing that like, we can't do. So, what, like...

Austin:        Wait, what other thing that you can't do?

Janine:        There's no like... she doesn't have like an escorting thing, right?

Austin:        Correct, yeah.

Janine:        But we have established that she can portal a car.

Austin:        She can portal a car. I would let you portal the car again. That's established. Maybe... grabbing a person by the hand and pulling them through is a different thing. I don't know how these magic — how these powers work. Y'all picked the boosts. I just gotta, I just gotta referee. She's also not here.

0:22:42.8        

Janine:        Wait, what? Oh, right right right. She's still inside, I forgot.

Austin:        She's inside, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is, y'all are still dealing with this.

Ali:        Yeah. [unintelligible]

Art:        Can I pick up the car?

Austin:        Ooh, can you pick up the car?

Janine:        [laughs]

Austin:        That's heavy. You have superstrength.

Art:        I have superstrength, the — superest strength there is.

Austin:        Whoops, sorry, my bad — boop.

Ali:        It's all good. [laughing]

Austin:        Uh... we don't use tokens very often, so.... Uh... superstrength's a —

Janine:        I mean, I can also just bird-fly out, if I have to, if we're going to get weird out here.

Austin:        [laughs] uh-huh.

Ali:        Can you — wait. [wheezes laughing] the birds will carry you?

Austin:        Oh, that's established. That's canon. We've seen it.

Janine:        Mm-hm. That was part, that was, that was why it's bird telepathy/bird telekinesis.

Ali:        Right. Right, right, right. I was like... you're not... going to transform into a bird? Because you said, “I will bird-fly out.” And I was like [unintelligible]

Janine:        [laughs] No.

Austin:        Right, no.

Ali:        Sure.

Austin:        Uh, I'm trying to see what strength 4 gets you. Because, Superman could do it. But you're not Superman, right?

Art:        Sure —

Austin:        They gave Al Capone 4 strength, in this game.

Art:        Well, Al Capone is famous for picking up cars over his head.

Austin:        [laughs] That's true.

Janine:        [laughs] That's why they call him Carface.

Art:        That's why they called him — Carface.

All:        [laughing]

Austin:        I always thought they'd be better to call him Carlegs, but... what are you going to do?

Janine:        You can't call a guy Carlegs, because then it sounds like you're saying he has a [wheezes laughing while speaking] fat ass.

Austin:        [laughing]

Ali:        [cackling]

Art:        [laughing]

Austin:        Oh my god. Uh... [laughs] I'm going to say you can roll to lift a car. I think that's a trait check.

Art:         Great.

Austin:        That's a strength check, which is, you have a 4 in that.

Art:        Uh-huh.

Austin:        We'll come to, we'll come back to that in a second. Caitlin —

Art:        Okay. Spend that time thinking about whether athletics helps this —

Austin:        It does. Uh... I don't need to think hard on that one. Um, uh, the door down the hallway opens as they start to get away, uh... and a cop comes down, like appears down the hallway, and, and yells backwards, as long as you give him the opportunity to yell, “ We got Verge!”

Ali:        Yeah, he does, uh, well — okay. I'm like — [giggling] Sorry, I've been spending this whole time looking at my skills and being like, what's sleight of hand get me here? Even though I have acrobatics and stealth, which is probably the stuff that I want.

Austin:        Yeah, probably.

Ali:        Uh, I think — hm. I don't know that I want the thing that happens to me, is to be seen. Obviously, I don't want that.

Austin:        Right. Sure.

Ali:        [laughing] I think the thing that I want to be doing is like, doing, trying to set them up on like a Scooby Doo thing that gets them nowhere, right? Like, if they come into the —

Austin:        Sure.

Ali:        Hallway, and see a door closing.

Austin:        Mm-hm. And then they go in —

Ali:        And then they open that door, and I'm not there.

Austin:        And you're not there, right, yeah, yeah, I gotcha.

Ali:        Yeah. Uh...

Austin:        So they see, so then instead of saying, we got Verge, here, he says like, “I think I'm on someone!” You know, and —

Ali:        Right, right right right.

Austin:        And this, this cop heads your way. This cop is Officer Porter. Uh, what uh, which, you just duck down one of these little, into one of these rooms?

Ali:        I think so, yeah. I think that I'm going for, yeah.

Austin:        Uh, so what do you, how does your power work? Like, mechanically speaking? You do a check for it, I'm guessing? Or does it just work.

Ali:        I... oh, uh, how would I know? I don't know. It works. It works. I've worked it. It works —

Austin:        What's the description say? Okay. [laughing]

Ali:        I've decided that it workers. Uh, the, the duration until the portal's closed —

Austin:        Oh yeah. Yeah.

Ali:        I just do it. I give up half my movement for the turn. So — you know, when I create it, I can only walk 15 feet.

Austin:        That's still far enough to Scooby Doo 'em, right?

Ali:        Right, yes yes yes yes yes. Yeah.

Austin:        Uh, so, I mean, I think you're, you're — here's what I actually want from you, is — this is some sort of, I think that, more, you're able to just do this. I'm not going to make you reduce your cards or whatever. Uh, uh, because you're doing it. Uh, but I do think this is some sort of stealth check for you. Uh, as to whether or not you can like, confuse them long enough to like, make them give up, or like, bounce or whatever, you know.

Ali:        Mm-hm. Mm-hm. Mm-hm.

Austin:        Uh, because you're going up against, you are going up against a group that is specifically, like, anti, like, superhero shit, you know what I mean?

Ali:        Right.

Austin:        Uh... so, this is a stealth check. What is, what is your — and, I'm really flexible on what the main stat is here, uh, because it could be agility, but can could be, it could, again, could be perception, pretty easily. Because it's like, are you paying attention to where they are, and basing where you're going based on that, you know what I mean?

Ali:        Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, sure. I think I'm going to go for perception in that case? Because I do think it is the sort of thing of like... well, what adjacent room here do I go into...

Austin:        Mm-hm.

Ali:        To make sure that I'm buying them the extra 40 seconds or whatever it is.

Austin:        Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gotcha.

Ali:        Uh... am I just pulling a card here?

Austin:        You are pulling a card. What is your... what is your, perception?

Ali:        My perception is 3.

Austin:        And you have a stealth. So, 4 cards. You've got plenty of cards to pull.

Ali:        But I hate them. [laughing] I fear these cards now.

Austin:        Mm-hm.

Ali:        First one, jack of... diamonds.

Austin:        Diamonds, yes. Jack of diamonds.

Ali:        That seems great.

Austin:        That is a, that would be the equivalent of a, of a, of an 11 in this game. You keeping it?

Ali:        Uh... I, I, I feel that it's a worthy gamble [laughing] if this is between challenging and hard. I'm going to stick with jack, thank you.

Austin:        All right. You stick with jack. And I think what we get here is the, you eventually portal away, and the room you were in, as you finally like, you get them the 40 seconds, you bounce them around, the cops can't find you. And, I think maybe even as you're doing this, you've realized the, the like degree of danger in might be higher than you thought, as, uh, one of the, uh, oh god, this could be actually bad.

0:29:27.9        Uh, no, I think it's fine, it's fine.

Ali:        [giggling]

Austin:        The... one of the rooms that you were just in, like, it's as if a cement, uh, like a, like a wrecking ball goes through the wall of one of them. Uh, as like a boulder, basically, like — just busts through the wall, as you begin to teleport away to the next one. Uh, but you do manage to get away. But like, the people chasing you clearly are more than just cops with guns. Or at least, one of them is. Uh, but yeah, you teleport away. Uh... where do you go, where do you teleport to? Do you teleport to the parking lot, where, where Elena is currently trying to lift a car above her head?

Ali:        [hesitating]... yes.

Austin:        Okay. Elena, I'm going to need you to make a trait check.

Ali:        [laughing]

Art:        Sure. I'm doing 4 plus 1.

Austin:        What's the plus 1 — yes, so a 5.

Ali:        Is it a car near our car?

Austin:         It's the car. It is your car.

Ali:        Is that our car?

Austin:        Yeah.

Ali:        Okay. Sure.

Ali (as Verge):        Hi.

Art (as Champ):        Hey.

Ali (as Verge):        Thanks for getting the car.

Art:        I'm the orange deck, right?

Austin:        You're the orange deck, correct.

Art:        Bam!

Austin:        The king of spades. The — that's —

Art:        Done!

Austin:        Incredible. Oh, it's actually not incredible. It's only above hard. It's less than incredible. I think king does it for me. Uh... [laughs] uh, and —

Janine:        Yeah, you lift a car, but it's not that impressive. It could be more impressive.

Austin:        It's just not incredible. Incredible is ace.

Art:        [laughing] Everyone's like, “she's trying really hard.”

Janine:        [chuckles]

Austin:        Yeah, uh-huh. [chuckles] Lifts the car above your hard. Uh, I think in this moment, uh, Alexandra Hughes, uh, lights a cigarette, uh, or pulls the cigarette away and goes — [deadpan] “Wow. She's strong.” [chuckling] And then takes a drag. What do you do with the car?

Art:        Uh... move it?

Austin:        Just walk it out of the parking lot?

Art:        Yeah, walk it to the, to the path?

Austin:        To the curb? [laughing] Yeah.

Art:        Yeah.

Austin:        Uh...

Art:        Probably kind of slowly. It's heavy.

Austin:        Yeah. All right. And, and then? Y'all have the camera here. What do you do?

Art:        Uh, who's our wheels? Who's the —

Austin:        That's a good question.

Art:        Who drove? Here?

Janine:        Caitlin, probably? Right?

Ali:        Uh, yeah, I was driving last time, so —

Austin:        Mm-hm.

Art:        Great.

Austin:        Uh, you're going to continue drive away as these, these cops give chase. They haven't, they haven't eyeballed any of you. Uh, and they're further away from you here than, than they certainly would have been before, but they are giving chase. The siren is on, they're in your rear-view mirror. Uh, Alexandra is laughing in the backseat, drunk. Uh... what is your escape plan, what is your, what is your, how are you — tell me how it looks to drive fast.

Art:        It's a lot like driving slow.

Ali:        Yeah. [laughing] You drive very quickly. Uh... I, you know. The, the, the same way driving is, just more intense.

Austin:        I'm just, I'm looking for like a, “we peel out, and then we cut down a highway.”

Ali:        Uh, right, right right right.

Austin:        I just need a little color.

Ali:        Yes yes yes yes yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. Okay, okay okay. Uh, oh, you know what I bet it is? It's, uh, like a situation where, uh, you know how you, like, we, we're driving away from this, this, this house.

Austin:        Mm-hm.

Ali:        But, we're kind of driving to the one highway exit that's near this house, so we can get back to the city.

Austin:        Mm-hm.

Ali:        It's one of those things where like, she's driving on the way that the, the like, north entrance to the —

Austin:        Oh, right.

Ali:        The Bluff City highway is, or whatever, but then, ends up like, peeling around and going onto the south entrance, because that's the way that she actually wants to go, but it's like, it's like a, yeah, it's a trick.

Austin:        Uh-huh. All right.

Ali:        [giggling] That's what it is.

Austin:        Give me... yeah. This is an agility check again.

Ali:        Uh-huh. Okay, sure.

Austin:        Uh, what is your agility?

Ali:        Uh... it's 2.

Austin:        Okay.

Ali:        Oh, I did spend a moxie before, when I, that failed card was my moxie, so now I'm going to spend —

Austin:        Right, just reduce down to —

Ali:        Another one.

Austin:        Sounds good.

Ali:        Or we'll see if I spend another one, [unintelligible] pull one right now.

Austin:        Yeah, you don't have a, you don't have a, you don't have the conveyance skill, presumably. To drive — you don't have like a cool driving skill? Okay. And yeah, I'll say this is agility. I don't know that anyone's going to — uh, people could help you here. Oh, you already drew.

Ali:        Ace of... I have an ace of diamonds.

Austin:        You have an ace of diamonds!

Ali:        Yeah.

Austin:        That's a damn good card. You're keeping the ace of diamonds.

Ali:        Uh, yes.

Austin:        All right. Uh, by doing this, you dodge a security checkpoint that was set up on the other on-ramp, basically. They were, they were like, waiting for you on the other on-ramp, ready to catch you if you'd gone down the right way, uh, and instead they like, have to like, hop back in their cars and peel around and try to get behind you again. Uh, but sooner than later, you do make it back to the city and lose them in some cross-streets and manage to get back to the Grand Canary.

0:34:28.0        Uh, which, it strikes you — if they knew you were here, then they might know that you might be back at the Grand Canary. And, the question is, like, whether the Whitakers' protection is still applying in this moment. Uh, who, who could say? And, recall your cards. I think that's the end of that sequence. Uh... so you get back in, presumably, and then what? Uh, I think, I think Alexandra wants to go right down to the speakeasy and continue to like, to party.

Art:        It's exceedingly likely that Quickster dropped a dime on us, right?

Ali:        Yeah, this isn't... ideal. Uh...

Art:        I mean, I, we could talk about alternate theories here, but... who else knew where we were going? Wait did he know where we're going?

Ali:        We didn't tell him, no...

Art:        Well then I'm...

Ali:        Yeah, I feel like if it was a drop, it was from someone at the party? Uh... but, yeah, I don't know. I think the thing that's making me nervous right now is that we don't know, we don't know how, we don't know if our base is secure at this point [laughing]. Uh, uh, yeah. Uh... and I don't know a way how to assure that, if it's from an outside source. You know what I mean? Uh...

Art:        We don't know how these cops work. They could have magic —

0:36:05.4        

Austin:        They definitely have magic.

Ali:        Right.

Art:        They could be detecting us through magic.

Austin:        We, we've seen them detect through magic before also.

Ali:        Right.

Austin:        I'm not saying that's what happened in this specific case, this is not me being like, come on, pick up on it. I'm just saying that that is 100 percent a thing that we do know that they can do, or have done onscreen.

Ali:        Right. Yeah. Yeah, my thing is that we're here, but we don't know — you just said that we don't know if the, the Whitakers are still...

Austin:        Right.

Ali:        Uh...

Janine:        I mean, we need to fundamentally make a choice of like, do we want to go to ground, or do we want to pursue our leads?

Ali:        Right. Is there someone the drunk lady can lead us to?

Austin:        Uh... I don't know that any —

Ali:        She's staying at the hotel.

Austin:        She's staying at the hotel, that's what I'm saying, is like, no one that you wouldn't also know, probably. Uh... or... yes. But... uh, no one you wouldn't already know, right? Like any, any like, oh, here's like another different speakeasy, here's another little crash pad... is the same type of stuff you know, you know what I mean? The same type of favors you could call in.

Ali:        Right.

Janine:        I was going to suggest something like, going to try to find the Pump, or the actual scene of shit. Uh, which is a little bit of jumping from the trying pan into the fire, but is also inevitable to a degree, right? Like, that's [chuckles] we've got to get there eventually.

Art:        I mean, I'm dying to fight one of these supercops.

Austin:        You know, I thought it was going to happen a moment ago, Art, but...

Janine:        Why don't we see if we can find where the... where shit actually went down? Let's find this fucking tunnel.

Austin:        Uh, do you ask, do you, how do you, how do you raise... well, the fight didn't happen in the tunnel. The fight just happened on a street — like, on a country road, basically, leading from the Pump back to town. Uh...

Janine:        But there's like a, the tunnel's, the tunnel's probably near, right? If the Pump is there?

Austin:        Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just saying, the scene was not in a tunnel.

Janine:        No, yeah, no.

Austin:        Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I gotcha. Uh, uh, yeah. I think even, the thing here is, Alexandra can say, can take you there. If you say that's where we should go, I think she says —

Austin (as Alexandra):        [sighs] we just got back to town... you really want to go back out into the countryside? [sighs] Turn around, I'll take you there.

Austin:        Uh... she knows exactly where this happened.

Austin (as Alexandra):        So, I get the feeling, two of you aren't... native to our precious city.

Art (as Champ):        Yeah, you got that right.

Austin (as Alexandra):        So you're from the other place.

Art (as Champ):        Yeah, I guess so. From a different place that this.

Austin (as Alexandra):        Beautiful Bluff City.

Art (as Champ):        Why is it so weird here?

Austin (as Alexandra):        If I told you...

Austin:        She whispers to you in the backseat —

Austin (as Alexandra):        Then I'd have to tell Miss Key. And... I think it would be a little too much for her.

Art (as Champ):        [sighs] fine. Are there even days of the week? Is it a day of the week right now?

Janine:        [laughs]

Austin (as Alexandra):        Of course it is.

Janine:        It's Germsday.

Austin:        It's, uh, — [laughing]

Janine:        [laughing] You idiot.

Austin (as Alexandra):        [laughing] Ah... it's a workday in morning, and a weekend at night.

Art (as Champ):        Oh...

Austin (as Alexandra):        You should have seen how to used to be. Everything was... on edge. Everything was... [sighs] it felt like, if felt like your city and this place were getting closer together. And... now, they're getting further away, in some ways. And in others, they're closer than ever. It frightens me, if I'm being honest. Which is why I would like another drink [breaking out of whispering to address the whole car] Do you have anything, Key?

Ali (as Verge):        There's a bottle under the seats.

Austin (as Alexandra):        Thank you.

Austin:        Pop! Uh... [laughs] Drink!

Austin (as Alexandra):        Right up here.

Austin:        And you find your way to the, to the scene of the crime, uh... where things are style like taped up, you know, there's still like, police tape around this. Uh, you know, I think we're probably too far away from, I think whatever chalk outlines were here once are probably gone at this point. Uh... uh... you can see like tire marks still on the ground. You can see, uh, uh, I, I guess you're at a crime scene. I'm not going to just tell you shit. It's time to do criminal investigation shit. Uh, what do you do, at the crime scene?

Art:        [helpfully] Investigate it?

Austin:        Great. The — what else would I have expected from Elena “the Champ” Flores? [chuckles]

Art:        Uh, I mean it's been a long time, right?

Austin:        Yeah. Well, it's been a week. It's been a week, which is a long time. Uh, but, you know.

Art:        How, how do you even know?

Austin:        [laughing] That's great.

Janine:        I need to talk to birds.

Austin:        All right. Now we're fucking talking. How do you do this?

Janine:        Birds, birds live here, this is their neighborhood.

Austin:        Birds do live here, yeah.

Janine:        They know what's up. You gotta talk to the locals. And the locals are birds.

Austin:        Mm-hm.

Janine:        Birds... up to, but less than, 60 pounds.

Austin:        [chuckles] Of course. Uh, let's see here. What's a good, what's a good bird? What type of bird do you talk to here?

Janine:        What's, what's the landscape again?

Austin:        Uh, it's like, again, it's like, it's like, pre-development Los Angeles county, so, uh, it's — like, I think at this point it's like a little hilly, uh, it's, like brush, uh, I actually imagine it being like, uh, kind of like, low... like a low treeline, off to the side of the roads. Uh... the part that you're at still has like, some marshes. Uh... so, you know, pull from that.

Janine:        Aw, this site doesn't have pictures! Why do I even care, then?

Austin:        Mmm.

Janine:        I need pictures, I need to know what the birds are going to look like.

Austin:        We can pick whatever bird we want.

Janine:        Yeah, but I want like a cool... a cool, exciting bird.

Austin:        Like a... like a what? I don't know. Like a red-shouldered hawk. Or a... California scrub jay. How about that?

Janine:        [laughs]

Austin:        How about this California scrub jay? This is perfect. Sending you a picture of the scrub jay.

Janine:        Oh, we could talk to a roadrunner. That would be fun. But they probably wouldn't be able to do the thing I was looking at, which is fly around.

Austin:        [laughing] No, they wouldn't. Or — could they? Can roadrunners actually still run? —

Janine:        I mean, roadrunners can run —

Austin:        Or still fly?

Janine:        I don't know if they can... uh...

Austin:        Do they not fly at all?

Janine:        Rattlesnake chasing... rattlesnake fighter...

Austin:        They, they fly. They will fly to escape predators.

Janine:        Yeah, but I want someone who's like —

Austin:        They prefer to run.

Janine:        Really got a good lay of — well, I guess a roadrunner would know what's going on on a road.

Austin:        That's true.

Janine:        I mean, but the scrub jay's cute. That scrub jay looks like it wants to talk.

Austin:        I love the scrub jay.

Janine:        You know? That looks like an eager informant.

Austin:        Yeah. Yeah. [chuckles] That's an eager —

Janine:        [laughing] I like that.

Austin:        That — yeah, uh-huh.

Art:        Remember that you don't want his number, and you don't want to give him... [Art is, as is customary, making a “No Scrubs” reference]

Ali:        [snorts laughing]

Austin:        Uh-huh. Thank you.

Janine:        Or his worms. Because he's a bird.

Austin:        [chuckles] Mm-hm.

Janine:        Anyway, I'm going to interview this scrub jay.

Austin:        Uh-huh. How's this work?

Janine:        Uh...

Austin:        What do you say? How do you — do you speak English, does it understand your English?

Janine:        So...

Austin:        Or is this mental?

Janine:        So I have... right, I only have rank one bird telepathy, which means... I can listen to — well, I can do — oh, I have the group boost.

Austin:        No, you specifically have the thing that let's you — yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you're good.

Janine:        I have the group boost, which means I can talk to only groups, because of the way this works.

Austin:        No, it says, up to 6 willing targets within range. You're good.

Janine:        It just seems like such a weird hack for — because rank 2 is supposed to be the back and forth, for it telepathy.

Austin:        Yeah...

Janine:        But then if you get group boost, it's like, yeah, whatever.

Austin:        It's fine. Yeah.

Janine:        Uh... I could probably talk to a group of scrub jays. Uh... it doesn't matter. Uh, I think the, the, uh... the thing Chanti says is, is like —

Janine (as Grouse):                So, have you... [sighs] what loud things have there been lately?

Janine:        That's, I think, what she's going to lead with, is like — because that, that covers like, gun shots, that covers like, weird machines... uh...

Austin:        Mm-hm.

Janine:        She wants to know about loud things.

Austin:        I think the scrub jay is like, taken aback for a second and goes like [surprised bird chirp]—

Austin (as scrub jay):        Big trucks! Uh... wolf. Uh, uh, you.

Janine (as Grouse):        We're not that loud.

Art:        [chuckles]

Austin (as scrub jay):        You have a big car.

Janine (as Grouse):        Yeah, and that lady's in it, and... yeah. Okay, I'll give you that.

Austin:        [laughing] Wow. Get her.

Janine:        [chuckles] Uh...

Janine (as Grouse):        Any, any like... oh, uh, any sounds like trees breaking? Like a pop? Like a big pop?

Austin:        What are you looking for?

Janine:        The location of, of the incident.

Austin:        Oh, you're at the location. The location you found.

Janine:        Oh, okay, okay.

Austin:        That's what I'm saying, like — it's taped off. Yeah. You're talking to a scrub jay who is here, definitely where it happened.

Janine:        Uh... right. Right. Uh... then I should just ask, what —

Janine (as Grouse):        Did you see what happened here, before they put the ribbon up?

Austin (as scrub jay):        Uh... ribbon is bright. But it was very dark. It was very dark. And, uh, it was like a big spider.

Janine (as Grouse):        A big spider?

Austin (as scrub jay):        Like — I don't like the all-black spiders, with the long legs. They hurt people. They hurt birds. They hurt us. When you try to eat them, they bite back. She had long legs like a spider. [whip noise]

Austin:        There's like [fwee! Shoom!]

Janine:        What? [laughing] What?!

Austin:        I don't know how to make a — how does a bird make a [wha-chh] sound? They don't have, they can't do that.

Janine:        Like a whipping sound?

Austin:        Like a whipping, like a, no, like a stabbing sound. Like a [whip noise again]

Janine:        That's a —

Austin:        That sounds like a whip, actually. But like a ch... like a stab. Like a [crunch noise]

Janine:        [laughing] What the hell is going on? Uh...

Austin:        But they can't make that noise, so I think it just kind of tweets loud. Like a slicing noise? It makes like a slicing noise, but it's like on the —

Art:        You should have found a mockingbird.

Austin:        Nah, unfortunately, only found this scrub jay. [laughs]

Janine (as Grouse):        So it wasn't, uh... maybe it wasn't like a shooting? Like maybe it was like a stabbing, via some sort of spider woman?

Austin (as scrub jay):        Stabbing. Stabbing.

Janine (as Grouse):        The uniformed people got stabbed? Who got stabbed?

Austin (as scrub jay):        And — and stabbed.

Janine (as Grouse):        So they stabbed and also were stabbed.

Austin (as scrub jay):        They stabbed. They got stabbed.

Janine (as Grouse):        Hm... do you know where the trucks have been going?

Austin (as scrub jay):        Uh-uh.

Janine (as Grouse):        Is that because they disappear somewhere?

Austin (as scrub jay):        They go far. I don't go far.

Janine:        Okay. Fair enough. Hm...

Austin:        Uh... I think there is another thing here with the spider thing. Like the... uh... uh...

Austin (as scrub jay):        Strange spider. When... when we get bit by spider, we burn inside. This spider stabs. Burns outside.

Janine (as Grouse):        And this spider, is it the right size for you to eat, or too big for you to eat?

Austin (as scrub jay):        Uh-uh!

Janine (as Grouse):        Too big?

Austin (as scrub jay):        Very big.

Janine (as Grouse):        Very big.

Austin (as scrub jay):        You. As big as you.

Janine:        Hm. Okay. Well, I hate that. Uh... hm... I feel like there's something else here I should be able get at, but...

Austin:        Uh... I think I've given you — everything except motives, basically, for all of the — given what I've just given you, we now can reconstruct the basic, like, gist of what happened here that night, right? Which is... dude goes to fix the pumps. They fix the pumps. They get the water. They're coming back. They get pulled over. The cop calls in for backup. Some other cops show up, because it's more than this one cop. Three cops got killed here. Then, a spider showed up a spider in a uniform. We know it got very dark. And then, three of those cops got stabbed, with some sort of hot stabbing spider —

Janine:        [laughs] Yeah, it's perfectly clear. This is, we, we —

Austin:        I, listen, I'm using the words, I'm using the words the bird knows.

Janine:        Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Austin:        You're not talking to a person, right? They're trying to make sense of what they saw. And... and then everyone left. And like, that is the thing you know here, is... three cops got killed. It sounds like another cop in a uniform killed them.

Janine:        Cool. Okay. [sighs] Uh... do I have any hotel crackers I can give this bird for bag a good bird?

Austin:        Absolutely. 100 percent.

Janine:        Hell yeah.

Austin:        Absolutely eats 'em up.

Janine:        I'm going to split the crackers between this bird and the head bird, because the head bird also put in work today. Uh...

Austin:        Oh, [laughing] you still have the head bird on.

Janine:        Hell yeah, I'm not going to leave that head bird behind.

Austin:        Great.

Janine:        Loyalty.

Austin:        Uh... Verge and Champ, what are you up to? At this crime scene — are you looking for additional clues, are you... I'll just say, one thing is like, as you — as, I mean, I'm guessing, Chanti, you, you tell them everything the bird said?

Janine:        Yes. With an apologetic look on my face.

Austin:        [chuckles] Wait, why?

Janine:        Because it's... weird and confusing, and, you know.

Austin:        Yeah. As you describe the like... the spider leg is hot outside, the spider poison is hot outside instead of inside or whatever, you see there is like a streak of — what at first looked like it was burnt rubber is actually some sort of burn mark, along the pavement, as if something very hot had like streaked across the, across the ground.

Art (as Champ):        I still don't see how this gets us to another location.

Austin:        I don't, uh, I think, again, Alexandra, who gets to say the thing I was just thinking, is —

Austin (as Alexandra):        I don't think it does. I think you've just stumbled into... [sighs] some sort of, internal screw-up.Are

Art:        Are we just at, face it, Jake, it's Chinatown?

Austin:        No. I mean, there is motivation here. There are — there are — these characters have reasons that they did the things. It isn't nothing, you know. Not that that's what, “face it, Jake, it's Chinatown,” means, uh... but, but I think, I do think that what she's suggesting here is like, uh... there's no grand clue that's going to lead you to another place. You have the primary, all the primary players are on the table at this point. Base — basically. You don't necessarily know what the fuck this weird spider is, but like, there's no... there's no location, there's no secret location. Uh, outside of the tunnel, which, I guess, yeah, you could go try to find that tunnel. Which I certainly don't have a map for — uh... but, you know, it's a big tunnel. We didn't really need that mansion map in the end anyway. I thought there would be a fight at that mansion, and there was not. So... that's why a got that, that map.

Art:        I mean, what if we just kicked up a big ruckus, and... maybe this... spider-person's gonna come fight us.

Janine:        Did that description sound to you like a thing you wanted to — well...

Austin:        [chuckles]

Art:        I'm way tougher than that bird!

Austin:         [laughing]

Janine:        I guess we also fought that shark-person and did okay.

Austin:        Right. You've been superheroes for a year. Right?

Janine:        Yeah.

Art (as Champ):        Animal people are sort of becoming our specialty.

Janine (as Grouse):        That's true. I guess I kind of forgot that relative to us, it's actually — the bird was very insistent about the size, but I guess if it's just us-sized, that's, that's pretty manageable, actually.

Art (as Champ):        I, I mean, I never would, but I bet I could scare that bird pretty bad.

Austin (as Alexandra):        That seems below you.

Art (as Champ):        I agree, but I'm just saying, for, for context.

Janine:        I was about to, uh, — I totally forgot where we were. I was like, well, we should just pull over to the side of the road and call the police. We can't do that, we don't have cell phones.

Austin:        You are pulled over to the side of the road! [chuckles]

Janine:        Well, we're halfway there. We just have to shout really loudly.

Austin:        [chuckles] Uh-huh.

Janine:        Or perhaps I could go tell a bird... uh...

Austin:        Go get the police.

Janine:        Tie a note to a bird saying, “police, come here.”

Art:        Or we could just go throw a trash can —

Austin:        What was —

Art:        We could just go throw a trash can through a police window.

Ali:        Wait, wait wait wait. Can we slow down? [sighs] Uh... I just wanted to say that was a bad idea. I don't have a better one.

Austin:        [laughs]

Janine:        I think we need to find the tunnel. Like, I, I, I think like... [sighs]

Ali:        We don't know what that is. Like, no one who's — the characters don't have a vector to that, right?

Austin:        You just know it's somewhere in the wetlands, right? You know that it's being drained, the wetlands are being drained, so that that can be built more, you know? Uh... but yeah, I, I, you can start looking for it.

Ali:        Yeah, I don't know. I, I... yeah. I didn't think our characters had any idea about the tunnel being built, beyond... there being a water pump. So I just don't know...

Austin:        Yeah.

Ali:        The connection, right?

Austin:        The only thing that I can think of is that the Bluff City characters did see a vision of it when they were on the other side at the beginning. That was part of that opening narration. They could — maybe that clicks into place for them, in a way that wouldn't necessarily for Verge. But, uh... but even that's kind of a reach. Uh, but like, I — you know that it's this big tunnel — you know that it's a big deal, you know?

Ali:        Right. Uh... yeah.

Austin:        Or you know that the Whitakers and the Nebraska — you know that like the crime syndicates are working on it together.

Janine:        Yeah, that's the thing, is like I, I refuse to let go of the fact that like —

Austin:        Gale said that.

Janine:        A fancy playboy is out in the wetlands fixing a water pump for some sort of weird tunnel project that no one thinks is necessary, except for the Whitakers. That's weird. Like that's 100 percent —

0:56:41.7        

Art:        Well I mean, fancy playboy criminal scion.

Janine:        Uh, sure, but —

Austin:        And decent mechanic.

Janine:        Yeah...

Ali:        Right.

Janine:        I, I don't know that like, Al Capone's son was out there fixing water pumps, is all. I guess I don't know, but...

Austin:        Did Al Capone have a son? [typing]

Janine:        Yeah, he had like a little boy, right?

Ali:        [laughing] Maybe not.

Art:        I mean, he was Catholic, right?

Austin:        Yeah.

Ali:        [laughing]

Janine:        I think I saw him on —

Austin:        One child.

Janine:        On Boardwalk Empire, he was like, kind of frail, I think?

Austin:        His son... lived until 2004.

Janine:        Damn. Good run.

Austin:        Mm-hm.

Art:        I mean, he comes from a strong stock. His, his dad could lift a car over his head.

Austin:        [laughing]

Janine:        That's true.

Austin:        Mm-hm.

Ali:        [chuckles]

Janine:        I heard that on a podcast, so it's true.

Art:        I read it in a book! Well, someone I know read it, and then told it to me.

Janine (as Grouse):        So what's the plan?

Art (as Champ):        I think we should either find the tunnel, and start punching people there —

Janine:        Mm-hm.

Art (as Champ):        Or, go back to town, and start punching people there.

Janine (as Grouse):        I mean, look, we're already out there, right?

Ali (as Verge):        Right. I don't think that the town will do us any good. And, uh...

Art (as Champ):        I mean, eventually they'll bring out the right people.

Ali (as Verge):        [sighs] It's an inelegant solution for the situation we find ourselves in. Yeah. Sure. Let's go find it.

Austin:        What, uh, what is — I think my question here for Caitlin is, what is the outcome she's looking for? Because, if there's a, if there's an idea that we can find that suits the outcome that she's looking for, we can brainstorm that together. But, it does seem like she's like —

Ali:        Right, yeah, no.

Austin:        “I don't want to get into a fight.”

Ali:        Well, yeah, I — she lives here. She knows people here. She's dealt with the cops before.

Austin:        That should, we should — you should, you should raise that in-character, because I think that's an important distinction between you and these like, these kids who came to town last week, you know what I mean?

Ali:        [laughing] Yeah. Uh —

Ali (as Verge):        Going to start a fight with the cops for no reason is a very bad one. Uh... uh...

Art (as Champ):        I mean, we do have a reason.

Ali (as Verge):         We'll always have a reason. That's not what I mean. Uh... [sighs] what we're not going to get is a solution from that. What we'll do is get killed or, uh, captured, or studied, or... [laughs] put to work service. Uh... you know. If they saw you lift that car, I'm sure they could figure out a use for you, if this goes badly.

Austin (as Alexandra):        They could have you in a uniform.

Ali (as Verge):        You wouldn't be the first.

Art (as Champ):        It doesn't — it doesn't matter. We've got to do something.

Ali (as Verge):        Right. Yes. I'm just saying, we shouldn't start a fight. But we should go... Grouse is right. We're out here anyway. We came here to get to the bottom of this.

Janine:        Didn't this... I just want to double-check something. I was under the impression that this shit went down, like, the same night that the Champ and Grouse got like, sucked into Blue.

Austin:        Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah.

Janine:        Uh... okay.

Austin:        Mm-hm.

Janine:        I think that's like, extra incentive, then, for Grouse to be pushing the tunnel agenda, because it's like, this clearly has something to do with why we're here, and I don't particularly want to stay here, actually.

1:00:47.3        

Austin:        Mm-hm. Yeah. Totally.

Janine:        It's like, fun to play dress-up for a while, but then you're playing dress-up in a weird authoritarian time-hole.

Austin:        [laughing] Bye, Caitlin! Have fun in your — [laughing]

Janine:        And you're like, missing a semester of class and shit, and it's getting a little real.

Austin:        Uh... yeah.

Ali:        [giggling]

Austin:        Uh, how do you find the tunnel? Is this more bird shit?

Janine:        Uh... if it's more bird shit than I have to think of something more clever to do with a bird than just talk to a bird.

Austin:        Oh, I was going to say we could just handwave it if we — because we know you can talk to birds who can help you scout for things, do you know what I mean? Like, and I'm thinking about the comic version of this, which is like, you turn the page, and it's, the car is on the road, and there's a bird leading you somewhere, you know? A different bird, but a bird.

Janine:        Yeah.

Austin:        Or that you talk to a network of birds, like, ask around. Like, I, we don't need to —

Janine:        Yeah.

Austin:        This is a very crunchy game, but we don't need “get to the next scene” to be a big crunchy action, you know?

Janine:        Okay. I've been thinking of like, ground birds whose nests have been disturbed by like vibrations and whatever. Or like their hunting was fucked-up because they couldn't feel the bugs, because there was like, weird machinery happening underground or something.

Austin:        Yeah, no, that's, that's fair, totally. Uh... and I, that's, yeah. What I love is the, the montage of you talking to various ground birds — [laughing]

Janine:        While everyone else is just sitting in the car fucking bored out of their fucking minds. [laughing]

Austin:        Yeah. While — while, uh, and I think as Alexandra starts to sober up, she is able to offer some additional context to some of the stuff she said before. And so, in the background what you get is her, is her describing three cities, uh, uh, and like, or describing different places she's been that clearly fit into three different cities. Uh, you get the impression of Alexandra, for you, uh, uh, Champ is someone who's like — been to Bluff City, and been to other places. Uh, if you're from Bluff City, just to reunderscore this, like, the idea of like, being to a different city is also like, “yeah, okay, sure, there's lots of cities.” Because those cities come into existence as you go to them — [laughing] you know? Uh, so that's not, like, a strange thing.

Art:        Right.

Austin:        What is strange is the way this city is. And for Caitlin, the thing that can be kind of weird about that conversation is the parts of it where... she's being very specific about places out of town. You know? Uh, and, it just like, it's — I think maybe for you, part of the vibe is, when you have a really talkative passenger as if you were a cab driver, do you know what I mean? And you're like, “yeah, okay, buddy. Whatever you say.” [laughing] “Yeah, sounds great.” Like, that's the sort of... rambling she's doing. Or the opposite, when you have a really talkative cab driver, who's like, “oh, I went to these places,” and like — yeah. “Oh, you're going to Indianapolis? I went to Indianapolis once. Da-da-da-da-da.” Like, yeah, okay, great.

Ali:        [chuckles]

Austin:        Uh, but yeah, you can find your way there. And I think at some point, you find your way to a quarry, uh, where just as the quarry, just as the docks were open late at night here, back in Bluff City, this quarry is open late into the night. Uh, and lit by a number of low, uh, uh, lamps, like electric lamps, uh, that are all running off of generator power. And you can hear the vibrations of those generators, or like the engines of those, those like gas generators. You can see the, the lanterns going down into the mine. Uh... you can, you know, you can hear people, you can hear, like, the, the machines, digging away. But it is also just people. Like, digging a hole into the ground.

1:04:23.1        Uh... uh, and there's a bunch of people here. Uh, and most of them are dressed very similar to the way, uh, Horseface was, in terms of like, uh, you know, work shirt, suspenders, you know, work pants, boots, a little, a little flat cap, up top, if they're outside. Inside with a mining helmet. You know, that type of vibe. There are dozens and dozens of people in this operation. Uh... and it is, it is distinct in a way, that, I don't know if you remember this, but from Messy Business we talked about how Blue is a city of duplicate places, of everything having very similar visual style, of everything having like, hey, this is the same... like, the Grand Canary is like, a class-B hotel, right?

1:05:04.5        And there are like, 20 other hotels in town that have the exact same layout. And so, this is not one of those places. Like, this feels striking to you in a way that it's like, this is a new place. Uh, you know, even, even the mansions are gauche in the same way. Uh... but this place is different. And there's a lot of people here.

Art (as Champ):        I mean, I think, I think we should break something.

Austin (as Alexandra):        [chuckles] And then what?

Art (as Champ):        And then see what happens!

Austin (as Alexandra):         [sighs] I did see you lift that —

Art (as Champ):        What's the best-case scenario? They finish their mobster tunnel?

Austin (as Alexandra):        [sighs] [pause] I'm not the one throwing fists.

Art (as Champ):        Great.

Ali (as Verge):        Wait, wait wait wait wait. What's plan B? What's step 2?

Art (as Champ):        I fight the people who come...

Austin:         [laughing]

Art (as Champ):        Who try to stop me?

Ali (as Verge):        And then?

Art (as Champ):        [as if, what other possibility could there be] I win?

Janine (as Grouse):        [laughing] That's not what a plan B is.

Art (as Champ):        Well, no, she asked what step 2 was.

Janine (as Grouse):        Okay. Okay. Well, look...

Art (as Champ):        Plan B, we run away? This doesn't work, if something comes that —

Janine (as Grouse):        Maybe there's some kind of foreman's office with some paperwork we can go through.

Art (as Champ):        Oh yeah, they probably have their business plan for their illegal tunnel operation.

Ali (as Verge):        Well, someone has to keep track of something.

Art (as Champ):        I don't think we're in a Sherlock Holmes story here.

Janine (as Grouse):        People are still out here wearing pocket squares, so you don't know. They don't have a computer to keep that stuff in. They don't have... smartphone, email to, to lock. They don't have a Dropbox.

Art (as Champ):        I think they still have talking.

Ali (as Verge):        Wait wait wait wait wait, what's a smartphone?

Austin (as Alexandra):        What's email?

[beat]

Art (as Champ):        Look what you did.

Ali:        [cackling]

Art (as Champ):        You're making a paradox or something.

Janine (as Grouse):        I don't think it's that, we're not in a time — we're not in the — I don't know, we are... [laughing] I don't know. Uh...

Austin:        Uh...

Art (as Champ):        It's going to be so you were never born. You're going to — a lizard's going to be President.

Janine (as Grouse):        Some gossip columnist knowing the term email isn't going to affect my birth in the slightest. [chuckles]

Art (as Champ):        You don't know!

Ali:        [silently laughing, trying to keep it together]

Austin:        She's — well...

Ali:        I think this conversation has actually split at this point, where it's like, uh... Grouse and Champ doing this banter, and [giggling] Caitlin and the other woman just kind of, quietly to themselves, like, “is it a phone with a dictionary attached?”

Austin (as Alexandra):        It must be, it must be... an E, what could the E stand for?

Ali (as Verge):        Can you ask it questions?

Janine (as Grouse):        Exciting.

Austin (as Alexandra):        Early — an exciting phone.

Janine (as Grouse):        [laughing] exciting mail.

Ali (as Verge):        Ooh.

Art (as Champ):        No one said ephone, there's no — no, there's no ephone!

Austin:        [laughing hard] They got confused instantly, yeah.

Ali (as Verge):        There's no ephone...

Austin (as Alexandra):        Exciting mail...

Ali (as Verge):        You don't say... hm.

Austin (as Alexandra):        Words that begin with E... an eager mail?

Ali:        [cackling]

Ali (as Verge):        Oh, eager —

Austin (as Alexandra):        A...

Art (as Champ):        The word you're looking for doesn't exist.

Ali (as Verge):        My mail is so rarely eager.

Austin (as Alexandra):        It's so, it's so — egg mail.

Ali:        [laughing]

Art (as Champ):        It's egg mail.

All:        [laughing]

Art (as Champ):        That's how criminals operate in our world. They send letters in cartons of eggs, because who would look in a carton of eggs?

Austin (as Alexandra):        Egg mail...

Art (as Champ):        It's egg mail, you got it —

Austin (as Alexandra):        Well, why hasn't it been invented yet, then?

Ali (as Verge):        Of course.

Janine (as Grouse):        Your eggs aren't big enough.

Austin:        Arms crossed —

Austin (as Alexandra):        Excuse me? [laughing] My eggs are plenty big.

Art (as Champ):        I'm saying, they're not. We have...

Austin:        [laughing]

Art (as Champ):        Extra large eggs.

Austin:        I hate this.

Ali (as Verge):        This is all fascinating...

1:08:49.3        

Art:        I think jumbo, is jumbo an egg size? Can you get jumbo eggs?

Austin:        I do want to — uh... maybe not yet, right? I don't know.

Art:        I'm just talking about now.

Austin:        Oh, yeah. You can get —

Art:        You, Austin — do you get jumbo, jumbo eggs?

Austin:        Do I get jumbo eggs? No, I get extra large eggs.

Art:        Is jumbo — is jumbo a size of egg?

Austin:        Yes! Jumbo is a size of egg.

Art:        Are you sure?

Austin:        Yes!

Ali:        Well, you'd have to go outside of the chicken, right?

Janine:        What?! [chuckles]

Ali:        There's no jumbo chicken, chicken egg.

Austin:        [laughing] wait —

Ali:        [laughing] Well, I'm just saying you'd have to get a different sort of egg. You would have to get an egg that's in the —

Austin:        No, jumbo is just a regular size of egg.

Ali:        Chicken egg, jumbo... no way!

Austin:        Yes way!

Art:        [laughing hard]

Ali:         Oh yeah, okay... a jumbo egg is [giggling] 70.9 grams, and a very large or extra large is 63.8. Wow.

Austin:        Oh my god.

Art:        And I bet some of these didn't exist back then.

Austin:        I bet. Anyway...

Art:        [chuckles]

Austin:        I will say, if we can just pause and talk about the metaphysics of Bluff City as a series really quick, uh... people who have listened to the intros of this — or, of the last arc, know Alexandra Hughes as the narrator from those. She is like, what if Lovecraft was less racist. Uh, and also in our world, Lovecraft stole, bought, like, bit his style from her. Uh... uh, she was like an early cosmic horror author, and he was like, “what about that, but... I could yell about the Jews and the blacks.” And, uh, she, we know, has been to Bluff City, has been here, to Blue City, and is from Bluffington, originally. Is, was born in Philadelphia. Her, her grandfather owns a place in, in Bluffington. Uh, and what is being communicated here is, the Bluff City of when she — the Bluff City she has been to does not have email. [chuckles] Which is meaningful, right?

1:10:38.2        It means that she's been to a Bluff City that is before email exists, at the very least, which even though Bluff City is timey-wimey, means that there is some sort of historical something, about Bluff City. But also, she's here, now. You —

Art:        Well, also there's probably characters in Bluff City who don't have email.

Austin:        Probably, right? Yes. [laughs] But like, she wouldn't know what a smartphone is, she doesn't know what a... you know what I mean? So, just, I'm just clarifying.

Art:        Right, doesn't know what a jumbo egg is.

Austin:        Doesn't know what a jumbo egg is. It's a fascinating idea.

Austin (as Alexandra):        Perhaps it's... elite mail. Mail between the elites.

Ali (as Verge):        Oh, of course it's elite mail.

Austin (as Alexandra):        That makes sense.

Art (as Champ):        We just said it was egg mail!

Austin (as Alexandra):        I don't believe it. I think you're keeping the secret of email to yourselves.

Ali (as Verge):        Yeah.

Austin (as Alexandra):        Also the ephone. I suspect there is an ephone. And you wouldn't like me to know about it. Rude.

Art (as Champ):        I — that doesn't — no. I've told you about all the phones, I think. Well... okay. There's phones you don't know about, but it's fine. [chuckles]

Austin:        [laughing]

Austin (as Alexandra):        I would like a phone with a little keyboard that swings out.

Austin:        [laughing]

Janine:        I would love, I would love to get her started on a Sidekick or a Razr.

Austin:         Oh god, the dream.

Art:        Those are both real words.

Janine:        Exactly, that is exactly — yes. Yes.

Austin:        [wheezes laughing]

Art:        You're a sidekick. See, it's complicated.

Janine:        Maybe we should start her out on a Cricket though.

Austin:        God. What are you doing? All right. Uh... I think she like, says...

Austin (as Alexandra):         Miss Key, do you remember when things used to be different around here?

Ali (as Verge):        Uh... yeah, absolutely. Uh —

Austin (as Alexandra):        What if I told you that all of that changed because of... I think, this?

Ali (as Verge):        I thought it was in response to the parade. That they...

Austin (as Alexandra):        It was a little of... column A, and a little of column B. The... they knew they had to get things back on track. And someone told them how to. Someone gave them the ability to, that make things like this —

Austin:        And like, gestures all around her.

Austin (as Alexandra):        And in exchange, the normally very, very, uh, stuck in their ways City Hall made an exception, for this.

Austin:        And gestures to the tunnel project.

Austin (as Alexandra):        I thought it was a metaphor. But it's a big hole in the ground.

Ali (as Verge):        Champ, you wanted to destroy something?

Art (as Champ):        Yep.

Ali (as Verge):        Perhaps we can find an opportunity to throw a wrench while we're here.

Art (as Champ):        Great. So like, one of these... machines? Or...

Austin:        There's some digging machines, uh... from the outside anyway, there's some digging machines, there's some, you know, uh, there's lots of, uh, again, lighting equipment, generators, things like that. But there's just lots of people who are like just going down there and digging with shovels and pickaxes. Uh, there are other pumps nearby, you know.

Ali:        Oh yeah...

Austin:        But there are some like big excavator-type machines, sure.

Ali:        Yeah, I, I guess we're not going to like... find the golden gate or whatever, right? But there, there, there is this immediate desire to be like, oh, we should —

Austin:        Fuck this. Yeah.

Ali:        We could stop them from doing this, right. We can stop this... if we can, we can find a way to sort of, destroy this project. Uh, and that's like the long-term thing that would be good, versus just helping this kid, or whatever.

Austin:        Right.

Ali:        Uh...

Art:        I mean, if I was doing construction work and someone came over and wrecked all the equipment... I would go home.

Austin:        Mm-hm.

Janine:        Or potentially call my crab-faced boss.

Art:        I'd do it from the road. I mean, I guess they don't have carphones, but you know —

Austin (as Alexandra):        [with wonder] Car phones!

Janine:        [laughing]

Austin (as Alexandra):        Now that... makes sense.

Ali (as Verge):        Yes. Yes.

Austin (as Alexandra):        They should —

Art (as Champ):        Everything else comes from that.

Ali (as Verge):        What comes — what?

Janine:        I mean, the police —

Art (as Champ):        It's the same technology.

Ali (as Verge):        Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. So you're saying that the, the eager phone comes from a car.

Austin (as Alexandra):        The car delivers it.

Ali (as Verge):        Well, that's obvious. How else would it get around?

Austin (as Alexandra):        Of course.

Art (as Champ):        [mumbling] No, no, I mean...

Austin:        [laughing]

Ali:        Uh...

Austin:        Colder. Colder. Uh... all right. Do you get to it? What do you do? I don't have a quarry in front of me. We're just going to use the theater of the mind.

Ali:        Right. Yeah, uh, yeah, I, I uh, — you want to like —

Austin:        Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to use this warehouse, uh... pretend there's to walls, and that these are like machines. We don't need to use this map, but, you know.

1:15:54.5        

Ali:        They're just, they're just digging, though, right?

Austin:        That's all they're doing, yeah.

Ali:        That's the thing of it, it's just taking dirt out of the ground, there's no way to be like —

Janine:        Could we like, pull a fire alarm or something? Just as a starting point?

Austin:        It's very sweet that you thought that there's any safety regulations for the people working here.

Ali:        [laughing]

Janine:        There's not even like a, like a horn on a post somewhere?

Austin:        Yeah, there's, there's like a... there's probably like a, like a horn on a post somewhere. There's probably like an, an announcement system on like a pole.

Janine:        Oh, do they have, do they have, uh, do they have the birds for gas? The gas birds?

Austin:        Canaries?

Janine:        They — I think they used other kinds of birds, but yes, canaries.

Austin:        Oh. Sure.

Art:        Isn't that for deeper work than this?

Austin:        Probably. But this is a comic book. Sure.

Art:        Sure, yeah.

Janine:        I was, I was going to say like, can I tell the canaries to play dead? Like to fake dying, so everyone's like, “oh, fuck, gas!” And then they run. [laughs]

Austin:        How — [laughing] you have to get to one of these birds. I think that that's in the mine. I don't think that you can... intuit that there's a bird under — underground, that you can't see.

Janine:        What is telepathy if not extending your mind beyond sight? Especially when I have group boost and range boost.

1:17:05.0        

Austin:        Hm... I'm checking, is what I'm doing. This is the game we're playing. It's all fun, until you have to decide whether or not telepathy works out of sight.

Janine:        [chuckles]

Austin:        I guess it doesn't say. It doesn't say. You can — oh, it's 30 feet. I don't think there's a bird within 30 feet that's one of those birds.

Janine:        Okay.

Austin:        You have range boost?

Janine:        I do.

Austin:        You can — that's 100 feet. Uh... I think even from up here, that's still too far. You've got to be a little closer. You've got to get down into the shit, you know?

Art:        Can't we just like... tell them? Like, hey, your boss sent us, we're shutting down production for the night.

Austin:        Totally. We gotta get off the boat and start doing stuff.

Art:        All right. That's, that's my plan.

Art (as Champ):        Hey, boss has sent me, they told me y'all are doing great, but there's, uh, there's a mix-up with the transportation, and we gotta shut down for tonight. Come back, you know, tomorrow, maybe the day after. Call in.

Janine:        You're still wearing an evening gown and a fur, right? [laughing]

Art:        Yep.

Austin (as guard):        Who are you? Who is — who is she?

Austin (as additional guard):        Yeah, who are you?

Art (as Champ):        I — I just said, the bosses sent me.

Austin (as guard):        Which bosses?

Austin (as third guard):        Yeah, which bosses?

Art:        [chuckles]

Art (as Champ):        Uh... you know, Sonny.

Austin (as guard):        That's the name of Al Capone's son!

Art:        [chuckles]

Austin (as other guard):        He could lift a car, you know.

Austin (as third guard):        His son?

Austin (as other guard):        No, Al Capone!

Art (as Champ):        I — yeah, the son's very little.

Austin:        Uh... this is a charisma check. For sure, Elena.

Art:        Uh-huh. Well, I don't have that and none of my skills are relevant, so let's just see what the top card of my deck is.

Austin:        [laughs] Let's do it. Is anyone helping?

1:18:53.1        

Janine:        Mm-hm.

Austin:        How? How are you helping with this deception?

Janine:        Uh... uh... diplomacy?

Austin:        What's that look like?

Janine:        That looks like —

Austin:        How is your diplomacy helping you in this scenario?

Janine:        That looks like, uh, Grouse, uh... grabbing nearest clipboard —

Austin:        Also in a, in a dress —

Janine:        And standing behind Champ, uh...

Austin:        Uh-huh?

Janine:        And like flipping through the pages, and like —

Austin:        I just need to note, I just need you — I don't think diplomacy works here. It says, “all while being honest and forthright.”

Janine:        Oh. Uh... insight?

Ali:        Mmm.

Janine:        [laughs]

Austin:        [reading] Perceiving others' intentions, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.

Janine:        They want to — they want to follow, I'm perceiving that maybe they want to follow orders and not get in trouble, so...

Austin:        [chuckles]

Janine:        So I'm trying to look authoritative.

Austin:        Okay. You give Art the plus 1 to the one card that he's flipping.

Art:        Well, wait. If we're using insight — can I use insight for this?

Austin:        Sure. So you get two cards.

Art:        All right, so I get a second card? All right.

Austin:        5 of diamonds.

Art:        I'm... I'm going to take a second card.

Austin:        Yeah, I bet.[laughing] 2 of hearts!

All:        [laughing]

Janine:        All right...

Art:        It didn't work.

Austin:        Uh...

Art:        I tried?

Austin (as guard):        You dames gotta get out of here.

Art (as Champ):        All right, plan B.

Art:        And I, I, I wreck some equipment?

Austin:        Wait, wait a minute. Slow down! Panel one. [laughing]

Janine:        [laughing]

Austin:        All right, plan B. And then... what happens?

Art:        I wreck some equipment...

Austin:        You gotta walk me through it a little bit. Paint me a picture, what's the next panel look like, my friend?

Art:        Okay... uh, I think Elena kicks off her fancy shoes —

Austin:        There we go, this is what I'm talking about.

Art:        And... runs over, I guess, I think, maybe it's a — mmm, see, this is the thing about superstrength. You always see people do it in mid-air. And that doesn't make any sense. Because of like, the, the way that strength works, you know?

Austin:        It just means you, you did it first.

Art:        Well it's —

Austin:        You did it on the way.

Art:        I did it on the way —

Austin:        You jumped really far —

Art:        Because, because you, you can't — you're not pushing against anything in the air.

Austin:        [laughs] Yeah, fair.

Art:        Same reason Roman Reigns' Superman Punch doesn't make any —

Austin:        There's a lot of reasons why it doesn't make sense.

Ali:        Well, wait wait wait wait wait. Okay, hold on. [laughing]

Austin:        Okay, I'm ready for this.

Ali:        It perfectly makes sense...

Austin:        Yeah.

Ali:        And, to that point, uh... I think that... it's like, when you punch water, and you create like an air tension before you punch the person, so they're like, “ugh, I got hit with this hard... you know, wave of air, and then I got punched — “

Janine:        The thing you're talking about is anime.

Ali:        The, the fist.

Janine:        You're talking about anime.

Austin:        Roman —

Ali:         That too.

Janine:        Not — you can't —

Austin:        Okay, why does he cock his fist, like a gun?

Art:        Because it's a, because it's a gun.

Ali:        Because it's a power-up.

Austin:        But it's not called the shotgun punch, it's called the Superman Punch. Superman doesn't, doesn't have a gun. You're thinking of Batman.

Art:        It's — I mean, it's based on an MMA move that like, actually works, but —

Austin:        It doesn't, it doesn't. No one does the Superman Punch in MMA anymore, because it doesn't work.

Ali:        It does work. You're using the force of your body, the force of the jump, the force of the air, the force of the gravity, and they combine — [laughing] to be a super-hard punch.

Austin:        Right, it's like an exponential —

Art:        Ali, I want you to try to punch something... find something soft that you can punch —

Ali:        [laughing]

Art:        Punch it standing still, and then Superman Punch it, and tell me what you think is the stronger punch.

Austin:        You can put your shoulders into a standing punch, it's great.

Art:        Yeah. Your, your hips are going into it, it's... all your, your — anyway. Because it's a comic book, Elena leaps in the air and punches one of the excavators.

Janine:        [laughs]

Austin:        [laughing] Does the Superman Punch on the excavator... that is a strength check... 4.

Art:        And then [ooooo, ahhhh] and then [unintelligible]

Austin:        Right, uh-huh. Thank you. Give me, give me your — what is, what is this? This is a strength — fisticuffs?

Art:        Fisticuffs?

Austin:        Yeah. I think fisticuffs works. I'm going to let fisticuffs work, yeah. It does. That's a 4 — what are you rolling? Your 5 cards?

Art:        The 5, yeah.

Austin:        The first one's a 4 of clubs. Jack of clubs! Now, I want you to... not yet, this is a, this is a tough thing that you're doing. Even with superstrength, this is a tough thing to do. Right now you're at a thin — or you're at a jack of clubs. Clubs are bad.

Art:        But jack is good.

Austin:        Jack is good. Jack is, uh, in fact, we know —

Art:        Hard minus one.

Austin:        Mm-hm. Hard minus one.

Art:        You said, you just said it was a hard thing, so I should keep drawing. I got three more of these. Oh, I don't feel good about this all of a sudden.

Austin:        Okay.

Art:        All right, I'm doing it. I've already pulled one out. So I don't think I can stop —

Austin:        Put it down on the — on the table. That's a 10 of clubs. You're going down.

Art:         10 of clubs.

Austin:        You're going, you were at the jack, we're at the 10, now. The 3 of spades.

Art:        3 of spades.

Austin:        Last card, right?

Art:        Oh my god... yeah.

Austin:        The 9 of spades.

Art:        9 of spades.

Austin:        Do you keep it?

Art:        It's a spade.

Austin:        Are you going to, are you going to, are you going to go up to, are you going to moxie?

Art:        How — I don't think I have a moxie, do I?

Austin:        Yeah, you definitely have moxie, you start with three moxie.

Art:        Oh, you start with three moxie? I mean, a 9 of spades is pretty good.

Austin:        Is it?

Art:        Isn't it? It's a spade.

Austin:        It's not even challenging.

Art:        Well, it's only one below challenging.

Austin:        Uh-huh. [chuckles] I'll let you keep it. This is on you. I'm just reminding you of the thing.

Art:        How — can I spend all of these moxie if I need to?

Austin:        No, you can only spend one moxie per thing.

Art:        Uh... okay. Whatever.

Austin:        Uh... actually — wait wait wait wait. Wait wait wait. I think the actual thing here is, yeah, no, no, no. Oh yeah. Yeah. Mm-hm.

Art:        Oh, wait, what about my perks? Do those help?

Austin:        What perks?

1:24:47.4        

Art:        Penetration boost, that lets me punch through metal.

Austin:        That seems useful. What's it say?

Art:        You can punch or throw through up to 8 inches of concrete or a thin steel plate to hit something — I guess that's not what I'm doing.

Austin:        That's sort of what you're doing. It's probably not a thin steel plate, unfortunately. It's probably a thick steel plate.

Janine:        I mean, a machine's got an interior and exterior.

Austin:        It does. You're punching into the interior, is what you're trying to do, right?

Art:        Sure, but what does using a boost do?

Austin:        It lets you do it, in this case. It's fine. Uh... go ahead, and, here's what I'm going to need you to do. I'm going to need you to do, uh... uh... what is your, your — the, I think it's Suits Hit. So what is, what is your suit? Your suit is spades?

Art:        Yeah.

Austin:        Uh... that's, I think that's good damage. I think you did a good job here.

1:25:32.2        Uh, the thing is, it's not hard to hit it, it's hard to hit it and do damage, to a big piece of machinery. Uh... the fact that you have that, that super-penetration power, or whatever, and the fact that you —

Art:        I also have damage boost, if that helps.

Austin:        Oh, what's that do?

Art:        Uh... I have to close the thing...

Austin:        Great.

Art:        Uh... that's not what I wanted. Uh... major powers... superstrength... damage boost — plus 2 hits, damage.

Austin:        Plus 2 hits damage. Love it. Uh... and you rolled a spade. That's 6 damage, which is a lot of damage. Uh, yeah, I think you, you punch through the side of this excavator, and you find inside a bunch of gears and shit, uh...

Art:        Oh, wait wait wait, I can't use these boosts, because they reduce the number of cards and I used all my cards.

Austin:        Used all your cards, you're right. You can't use all these boosts.

Art:        So it's just suits damage and it doesn't penetrate.

Austin:        You put a big dent in the [laughing] side of this, excavator. [optimistically] It makes a lot of noise. That's exciting!

Art:        And I, I, I'm hoping it's intimidating.

Austin:        Sure. Uh... no. I don't think it is. I mean, yes, it is, but what it does is, it makes those three guys who were talking rush you, and they go, uh... —

Austin (as guard):        She's hurting the excavator!

Austin:        And one of them tries to —

Art:        The excavator's [unintelligible]

Austin:        One of them tries to spear you, and like, football tackle you, is really what's happening here.

Art:        [laughs]

Austin:        What is your agility defense?

Art:        I don't know.

Austin:        Oh, boy.

Art:        9.

Austin:        9's not bad. This character has a... da-da-da-da da-da-da-da-da... where are, where are my stats at? Here we go. Uh, has agility fisticuffs, 2, and then fisticuffs is a third one. I think on this, I think I only draw one card, and then add to it, is I believe how these contested ones going your way go. Uh, let me double-check. Reaction checks... da-da-da-da-da.

Art:        Oh, I want to see what my other power does before we get into this.

Austin:        Yeah, that sounds good.

Art:        Uh...

Austin:        Also, I think we are in initiative. What is everyone's, what is everyone's agility/sense reaction? Oh, everyone should make an agility/sense reaction check at this point. Or I guess, let me do this last thing, and then we're all going to do that, and then we're going to be in initiative. Get ready to beat up these thugs.

Art:        I just take one less damage for each attack.

Austin:        Oh, that's still good.

Art:        Uh... that's physical or force — [unintelligible] not really relevant in this —

Austin:        Not really relevant in this scenario, okay. Uh... all right, yeah. So I'm just going to do a character versus — or this is an NPC trade versus you, actually. Uh... yes. Okay. The GM uses these same rolls while having NPCs attempt trait checks opposed by your character. Your — what was your agility defense again?

Art:        9.

Austin:        9. Okay. Uh... so, I draw for... Ken, the first of these, of these, uh, kind of security guard workers who — I think the other workers are watching this, very confused, and very concerned. I'm going to reshuffle my hand here — okay, there we go — and I get... uh, what'd I say before, agility fisticuffs? 3 cards. That is a 10 of clubs. Uh... I don't want the disadvantage. I'm going to draw again. The 4 of hearts. Less good. I'm going to draw it one more time. That is the 7 of hearts. I'm going to burn one of my own moxie to, to try to hit you once. I do not. I fail. I fail to do this. Uh... this person charges at you. What do you do to get away from this, this tackle?

1:29:26.2        

Art:        I mean, I think it's one of those things where like, to, to most, to like a trained fighter, most people just act really slowly and telegraph a lot.

Austin:        Yeah, yeah.

Art:        So I think it's like, as someone's just like, kind of just like, walking, moving to the side, you know?

Austin:        Yeah, totally. Uh, all right. Uh... let me spend — their, that one moxie is spent. Uh... all right, now it is time for initiative rolls. Except we don't roll dice. We... all draw —

Art:        We draw a card.

Austin:        We draw a card, because that's the way this game works. Uh, I'm guessing no one has the special initiative thing?

Janine:        I have no idea that is, so no.

Austin:        Uh, it's the, it's the —

Art:        No.

Austin:        The thing that I said a moment ago. The sense reaction, uh, or, no, it is sense. Who has sense? People have sense.

Ali:        I have sense.

Austin:        Yeah, so you get a, you get to add another... yeah, you get to, you get to do the whole thing there. The GM makes a similar reaction check, da-da-da-da-da. Uh, oh, it's a reaction check. Which means you just roll, you just draw one card, right? So reaction checks, the way these work, is that you just draw a single card. You add the skill to your, your thing, if you have it. You add like one, to the, the thing that you, the one card that you draw. Or you add that, and you add your, whatever your skill is.

Ali:        Okay. So when I draw this card, I get plus 1.

Austin:        So, yeah, what is your, what is your agility?

Ali:        Oh, my agility — I'm, sorry, I'm hovering over this card so I'm just going to pull it and then look at my...

Austin:        That's your queen right there, right?

Ali:        Yeah.

Austin:        All right, cool.

Ali:        Uh, my agility is two.

Austin:        Okay. So then that goes from a queen, to a king, to an ace. And then you have sense. So it's an ace plus 1.

Ali:        Okay, cool.

Austin:        Which is true, which is a thing that you keep. So you're at ace plus 1, which means you're probably going to go first. Everyone else should do this also, including me. I'm going to do this as a group for them. Uh... they do not have the sense skill. Uh, so, they have king. Elena, you got a 7.

Art:        That's correct.

Austin:        Do you — you don't have sense.

Art:        That is also correct.

Austin:        And Chanti.

Janine:        I got a 5.

Austin:        Okay. So it's going to go, next up in this initiative order is, Verge, then it's going to go, the, the street thugs — which is the name of the characters in the book — then it's going to go Champ, and then around to Chanti, and we'll rotate at that point. So, what do you do, Verge? There are three, there are three of these folks. One of them has, uh, like a metal plank, or a metal, like a pipe. Uh... the other two are unarmed. One of them just missed wildly trying to tackle Champ, and slammed into an excavator, leaving a second dent behind. Not great. Not a great look.

1:32:14.8        

Ali:        Yeah. Uh... sorry, I'm just like, trying to figure out... what's happening.

Austin:        Just a fight.

Ali:        Uh... but I can create a force field.

Austin:        You could do that.

Ali:        Which is probably what I should do, in a fight. Um... 4 by 4...

Austin:        I think we had said before that, like, if you have time to set it up, you can put it in front of yourself as a way to just like —

Ali:        Right.

Austin:        Have the, the shield. And I forget what we ended up, I think we ended up making it so that, once it's up, as long as you have it in front of you, it can take a hit or something. Uh... right? But, that... or is it, you have to — someone can try to, someone can try to get around it, basically, and it gives you some sort of bonus. Because the book, remember, just doesn't say what to do with this thing. The book just says —

Ali:        Well, it has a bunch of rules, like if it persists, if it follows you, how big it is, things like that.

Austin:        Totally.

Ali:        So we were trying to figure out, like, does it cover my torso, or whatever.

Austin:        Right. Well, we know it's 4 by 4.

Ali:        Anyway, I'm not using it, so —

Austin:        Okay. [laughs]

Ali:        It doesn't matter. Uh... [giggling]

Austin:        It's just silly. It's just so silly that it says —

Ali:        Yeah.

Austin:        That there's to way to know what you're supposed to do with it. Anyway...

Ali:        Right. Uh... continuous once activated, who cares? Uh, yeah, bad. But what I am going to do is, uh, try to create a portal next to one of these dudes, and then give them color hit damage. Whatever the fuck that is. [laughing]

1:33:45.1        

Austin:        That means that you're going to do damage equal to, I think it's 1 or 2, depending on if it's red or black, basically.

Ali:        Okay. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Okay.

Austin:        There's also suits damage, which is 1, 2, 3, or 4, depending on if it's a club, a heart, a diamond or a spade, I believe.

Ali:        Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I think what it actually is, is that it's like Caitlin taking a few steps back, because I think that in her heart of hearts... what she wants to do is, do the thing that Grouse suggested, which is like, find, find the thing. Find proof, find something you can show somebody. Find a receipt somewhere that... will be valuable.

Austin:        Uh-huh.

Ali:        But also, she doesn't want to leave these two kids fighting on their own.

Austin:        Right.

Ali:        Uh... and can fight better from afar, anyway. So like, as she's walking backwards, she's opening the portal for this person and then like, jumping back into it, punching them, and then jumping back out, which I assume is how this works. Uh...

Austin:        I guess so, right? It doesn't — it's pretty open. If you wanted to like, attack with — because it says — [laughs] what's the actual thing say?

Ali:        Well, so, it says, uh, force blast boost, which is what I'm using — choose a target adjace — ajay — ugh — adjacent to a distant portal. The target takes color hits damage force when you pass through. Uh...

Austin:        Yeah, I feel like that's like, you're able to like, and then you also have the thing that you pass through and then pass back, right?

Ali:        Right, yeah.

Austin:        Yeah.

Ali:        So she's creating the distance, going through it, hurting somebody, and then jumping back. So she's like —

Austin:        I actually think there's something related — it actually doubles here, which is interesting, because they're going, you're, they're going to take color hits damage when you step through. You're also able to go through, like, swing a punch at them, and then, and then return. So, you can also do a regular attack here. They're going to get the color hits damage when you step through. But you could also be swinging a punch.

1:35:31.6        So it's almost like when you step through, the, the portal like shakes, and goes [boof], and they take like, ooh, they like, get hit from that, you know what I mean?

Ali:        Yeah. Right right right. Yeah.

Austin:        Uh... so do you want to do, also do some sort of like, do you want to swing a punch, do you want to fight in some other way?

Ali:        Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh... I have a... I have an acrobatics skill. I have a strength of 2.

Austin:        I think it's probably just the strength of 2. So give me —

Ali:        Yeah, okay.

Austin:        So give me, give me two cards here, to see if you hit them. Uh... the force blast will hit no matter what, because they're near it. Uh...

Ali:        Sure.

Austin:        Whose 5 was this? This was Janine's, right?

Janine:        Yeah.

Austin:        Okay, I'm — this is your row down here, Janine.

Janine:        Okay.

Austin:        All right. 6. Do you take the 6 of hearts? Or do you draw again?

Ali:        What was...

Austin:        We don't know yet, because it's a new fight —

Ali:        [chuckling]

Austin:        Uh, yeah, it's a new fight. Uh...

Ali:        What's the, the black/red split there? Is red worse or better?

Austin:        Red is neutral.

Ali:        Or is it —

Austin:        Red is the one that has no positives or negatives. Or you mean for damage?

Ali:        Yeah. Because it's color damage.

Austin:         Uh, for damage... black is better. I believe. I was just looking at it. I was just looking at it. Then I looked away. Uh... black is better on damage, yeah.

Ali:        [sighs]

Austin:        But also, you have to hit — well, you don't have to hit. But you... you have to hit, for the punch you'd have to actually still hit them, uh, but...

Ali:        Yes yes yes. Yeah. Uh, I'm going to draw one more time, just because I —

Austin:        Okay. You can.

Ali:        Am scared...

Austin:        Mm-hm. Hey, that's a 10 —

Ali:        And that's a 10 of diamonds!

Austin:        A 10 of diamonds, there you go.

Ali:        Yay.

1:37:01.1        

Austin:        Uh, so you're going to do — fisticuffs, I think, does color damage also. Uh, yes, it does. Fists do color damage. So you're going to do 2 damage to this guy, as you pop out of the — this is, let's say this is the one who missed the spear, landed in the... hit the excavator —

Ali:        [giggling]

Austin:        And then you like, pop out of a, pop out of a portal, clock 'em in the head? Is that the gist of it?

Ali:        Yeah.

Austin:        And then hop back in the portal and keep going on your way?

Ali:        Mm-hm.

Austin:        Okay. Boom! He like, [laughing] stumbles back to the ground and is like, “ow!” Then the, uh, the two other ones, I think, come in, uh, at... you uh... I'm going to say on Champ, because you're the one who's been the clearest, most active fighter, even though, uh, you hit a machine and not them, uh, because Verge disappeared. Verge — and I think at this point, they go, “we got one of them alt — alternators!” And the two, one of the ones with the metal pipe, uh, uh, charges you. What is your agility defense again? Uh, this is you, Champ

Art:        Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's 9.

Austin:        9. Okay. Uh...

Art:        I put my feet up and realized that I could not get to the microphone.

Austin:        That's a problem. All right. So, again, their fisticuffs... get 3 cards.

Ali:        [laughing]

Art:        I'll just sit, I guess...

Austin:        Ooh, that's the Good joker.

Ali:        Yay.

Austin:        It's good for me, not for you. [chuckles]

Ali:        Oh...

Austin:        [chuckles] I mean, you're fine.

Art:        That feels inconsistent. You should be trying to get the Bad joker.

Austin:        Well... no! Uh... for me, on a Good joker, I hit you, uh, and also, I get a boon. Uh... so, uh... oh, if you get the — and, you get to immediately take a second trait action. Love it. Incredible. Uh... so, [laughing] I hit you, I'm going to do damage. Uh... which is... uh, would you say a pipe is a knife damage?

Art:        No. What? It's a —

Austin:        What type —

Art:        Do you have a bludgeoning weapon to compare it to?

Janine:        Yeah, it's blunt. Maybe like a bat, or something.

Austin:        But it's metal, it's not just a bat.

Art:        Like a —

Janine:        Crowbar.

Austin:        It's like a metal bat.

Ali:        They make metal bats.

Art:        Well, what's —

Austin:        Goods and services...

Art:        Where, where — compare bat and knife and we'll see where we're at here.

Austin:        Uh, I would love to do what you said.

Ali:        Oh, meet in the middle, yeah.

Austin:        I would love to see, to do the thing you said, if only this book... here we go. Knife/dagger. Improvised club — club, club/staff?

Janine:        Yeah, it's, it's improvised, it's by definition improvised. It's just a piece of garbage.

Austin:        It is by definition improvised, you're right. So it's color plus 1, which is the same as knife/dagger. The difference between improvised and knife/dagger is, a knife/dagger costs 5 dollars. That's it. That's the only difference, statistically. [laughing] Uh, so you're going to take color, which in this case, will stay black plus 1. Uh... so you're going to take 3 damage.

Art:        And then minus one from my —

Austin:        Minus one, so, so that means you get 2. And then, I get to make — because it was the Good joker, I'm going to get make another, another immediate attack. This person, uh, just has fists though. So it's, it's a —

Art:        How am I tracking this?

Austin:        In your sheet

Art:        Lies.

Austin:        Lies. This is in your sheet. Oh, hits.

Art:        Hits.

Austin:        That's what they're called.

Art:        Hits.

Austin:        Hits, hits points.

Art:        Minus two.

Austin:        Yeah.

Art:        Yeah, I went from 10 to 8.

Austin:        Okay. Uh... all right, second person comes in, with a fist. 5 doesn't do it. 10 of spades does. Uh... with a boon, [chuckles] again. Uh... in fact, I should have, I just realized, in retrospect, the Good joker gave this a boon also, uh, but doesn't, doesn't need, because, you know, that's, it's a hit again. Uh, the boon is that you're going to be in dis— disadvantage, while these two people are on you. It's just like, having a second person to manage, and actually, them getting a couple hits in on you is a little surprising. You're going to take 2 damage here, it gets reduced down to 1. Because of your superstrength, or whatever.

Art:        It's the other one, but yeah.

Austin:        Oh, okay. Uh, it goes back to you... uh, wait, who's up next? Wait. Is it back to — oh, it goes back to Elena here, because Elena got the, the 7 for your initiative.

Art:        Yeah. So, disadvantaged is...

Austin:        Bad.

Art:        [chuckles] What does it do to my cards?

Austin:        It — bad. It does, uh... I think it means that you have one less card? Uh... yes. Yeah. You reduce your card count for this next check.

Art:        All right. So, I'm just going to do fisticuffs, strength fisticuffs — with the guy with the pipe.

Austin:        Yeah, get him. That's —

Art:        So it's a 4.

Austin:        Ben, is that one's name. Yep, still 4.

Art:        Great. Not going to keep the —

Austin:        Not going to keep the 7 of diamonds. Probably a miss. Bad...

Art:        I'm not going to keep the Bad joker.

Austin:        You have to keep the Bad joker.

Art:        Oh, fuck!

Austin:        That's why it's called the Bad joker. It's not just in there [laughs] for fun.

Art:        Well, if it was the — it was the card you had to take, you would have to take it.

Austin:        Uh-huh.

Art:        That happens all the time.

Austin:        In this case, drawing the Bad joker means, uh-oh, I drew the Bad joker... uh, uh, if you draw the Bad joker, you immediately end your turn and can't draw another card regardless of how many you have available. You fail at any check you were attempting, and suffer a botch. Your character cannot act again until your next turn. Uh... [laughing] if you botch, not only do you fail, but the GM imposes an extra setback due to the failure. In combat, a botch might mean your character falls down or drops a weapon. Uh... I think you just get another pipe across your back. I think that like, they're hitting you faster than they... here's, it's, it's time to, it's time to do some like, superhero shit. Uh, it's clear that these people are hitting harder than normal workers should be able to hit. Uh, and they shouldn't even be able to keep up with you, like you said.

1:43:02.7        Uh, you, again, you are going to take 3 damage. Which drops to two. Where are you at now on hits?

Art:        Uh, oh, shit. Oh, fuck. Uh... so it's 2, 1, 2? So I'm at —

Austin:        You're at 5.

Art:        5.

Austin:        Yeah. Mm-hm. All right.

Art:        This is getting dire.

Austin:        Yeah, you're halfway —

Art:        Although I think... I think, two hits is a lot for a botch, when it says fall or drop a weapon, or 20 —

Austin:        It's color, it's color hits.

Art:        Percent of your — hit points.

Austin:        Or it's, it's color plus 1, because it's the person with the pipe.

Art:        Yeah, I'm saying it's not consistent with what the rules say.

Austin:        No, botch says, the botch says, doesn't it say specifically? That you can take damage?

Art:        I remember you saying fall down or drop a weapon.

Austin:        I thought it said, or — or — I'd rather play — I'll play buy the rules. If the rules doesn't say I can hurt you... uh...

Art:        I mean, it's fine, it's going to be fine.

Austin:        Okay. I'll roll with it.

Art:        I can't fucking find it, so —

Austin:        Uh-huh. That's my greatest weapon. Injure yourself is one of these, which, great. Uh... anyway. Uh, we are down to, we are around to you, Chanti.

Janine:        Okay. Uh... I'm going to send my little bird into someone's eyes to peck at them.

Austin:        Great. Is this the, is this the, uh, is this the head bird?

Janine:        Yeah.

Austin:        Okay. What is, what is this roll? This is bird telekinesis, right? This is ranged attack telekinesis or whatever?

Janine:        Uh... well... I don't, I don't think —

Austin:        Or puppeteering? Sorry.

Janine:        I, yes, it's puppeteer. I don't think it would be range boost. I think we're all close enough in that that doesn't —

Austin:        Sorry, I meant attack boost. Damage boost. Whatever it is.

Janine:        Damage boost. Yeah. Yeah.

Austin:        [laughing] Yeah, yeah.

Janine:        Or steal boost, but that's a bit grim, so... [laughing]

Austin:        Ugh... no, that's — ugh. Yeah. No. Wrong. Wrong tone.

Janine:        Go with damage boost.

Austin:        Yeah. Uh-huh. Go ahead and give me a roll, I think it's a puppeteer roll, it's a power check, versus the target's body. So, the target's body score, or body defense, in this case is... I'm going to say that this is, again, it's 9. It's 9. Okay. There it is. So, I shouldn't have said that. You should just do a power check. What is, how much, what is your power score?

Janine:        What does that mean?

Austin:        How many points do you have in puppeteering?

Janine:        3.

Austin:        So you have 3 cards.

Janine:        Okay.

Austin:        That is a 7 of spades.

Janine:        It's a 7... that's a 4.

Austin:        That's a 4.

Janine:        Come on... that's a 9... of clubs.

1:45:41.8        

Austin:        There's a 9. 9 of clubs. Uh, the, the, I can tell you the thing here is, it starts pecking at this thing, at this person — they grab the bird, and hold onto it. Uh, you get to do damage, you do color damage, which is not bad. Uh, which, is this the one with the club, or the, with the pipe? Or is this — which one is this, that you sent it at? Or is it the one who had already been hurt?

Janine:        Good question. Uh...

Austin:        The, the like, the pure, interesting challenge here is, the one that's already been hurt looks pretty hurt. The one who is, uh, the one with the pipe is beating the shit out of your friend.

Janine:        Yeah, the one with the pipe, then.

Austin:        Okay. Uh, you manage, that person drops the pipe, uh, and has to try to like, get this bird under [laughing] control. Uh, so that's going well. You do 2 damage. All right. We are back around to... Verge. It sounds like you're trying to get to where there might be some information. People at this point are screaming, people are running around, someone says, “call the cops,” uh, someone says, “no!” [laughing] “no, don't do that!” Uh... and it's chaos.

Ali:        Uh... Champ. [giggling]

Art:        Yeah.

Ali:        Would you rather I use my dimensional pocket to give you like, a weapon, or... would you like a force field?

Art:        I would like a force field, as I am going to start using damage boost on these fools.

Ali:        Sure, okay, wonderful. Uh...

Austin:        Which I don't think you roll for, right? Does it just do it?

Ali:        No, yeah, I'm looking —

Art:        It, it —

Ali:        At the boosts, because I can... I can like set it and have it stay there and move away from them.

Austin:        Oh, okay.

Ali:        I can also have it move with me, if we want it to like, move in a unit. Uh, and then the other thing is, at the beginning of my next turn, if somebody tries to hit the force field, the attack goes for the attacker instead.

Austin:        Right.

Ali:        Which is something I'm going to have to wait for the loop for.

Austin:        Mm-hm.

Ali:        But that does mean that I would like to activate it.

Austin:        Yeah, done. Activated.

Ali:        [giggling] Yeah. I think Caitlin's doing sort of mini-jumps, you know? Uh, she's able to kind of get in and out and through the fighting in a way that works, and eventually is like, near Grouse and the Champ again, and pulls up the, the whatever. Uh...

Art:        Is this like that awesome bit at the beginning of X-Men 2 where Nightcrawler's going through the White House?

Austin:        Oh yeah, definitely, for sure.

Ali:        [giggling]

Austin:        That, that bit's cool. That bit's great. I should see that movie again. I wonder if that movie is still good.

Ali:        Yeah, uh, is that my whole turn? I feel like —

Austin:        No, that's a free action. You can do something else.

Ali:        I should be able to do something else, right? Yeah. Uh... so... two guys, still? Guy with the pipe is getting pecked at.

Austin:        Mm-hm. Guy half, half-knocked-out on the ground, who you punched last time.

Ali:        Okay. Right. Uh... sure. That's great. Uh, sure. Yeah. Uh, [laughing] sorry, I'm looking through all the stuff that I can do. Do I just like, kick someone? I'll do a kick, I'll do like a jump-kick to somebody.

Austin:        Love it. Uh, that is another fisticuffs, agility fisticuffs, unless you have like, agility martial arts or something.

Ali:        I have acrobatics.

Austin:        I think acrobatics is explicitly not fighting.

Ali:        It's a jumping kick!

Austin:        I know, but that's the game we're playing, this is, this is the thing.

Ali:        [laughing] I know.

Austin:        That they do.

Ali:        Yeah, no, no, no, I made this character very weak, uh, on purpose. Uh, drawing 2 cards, still, though?

Austin:        Yeah, agility is 2, right? Uh, 8 of clubs. Do you keep it or do you draw again?

Ali:        Uh... I'm going to keep it.

Austin:        You miss. The person dodges out of the way, uh, letting you know at this point that... 9 is the score you want, based on previous rolls — previous attacks.

Ali:        Sure.

Austin:        Dodges your jump-kick, uh, uh, and says, “what, no portals this time? Weirdo! We'll put you in a hole, how'd you like that?”

Ali:        [laughing]

Austin:        Uh —

Ali:        Oh, that's a great idea. We should throw all these people down this hole, and then bury them.

Austin:        Oh my god. This person — which one was this again? Was this the person who was hurt, or the person who had previously had a pipe?

Ali:        Uh, I guess it's the person who's still standing, right?

Austin:        Yeah, so the... wait, so the third one? Or... there's three.

Ali:        Oh, if there's a third person, then yes, yeah.

Austin:        Okay. Okay.

Ali:        Uh, yeah, if the, if the pipe person is... dealing with a bird, there's a person on the floor, and if there's a third person, I'm [unintelligible] the third person.

Austin:        Right. And your, your body score is 9, right?

Ali:        Yeah. Yes.

Austin:        Okay.

Ali:        I think... yes.

Austin:        Okay. Uh, ba ba ba ba ba... all right. They, that one that you just, like swung and missed at, swings back at you. Fisticuffs, again. 5 is a miss. 8 is a miss. 2 of spades, is a miss. Spending their one moxie... 3 of hearts is a miss. Swinging and missing at you, uh, all the time.

Ali:        [chuckling]

Austin:        Sven. Poor Sven cannot land a punch. Uh... I don't know if it's because you're portaling around, or what? But, for someone who talks a big game, cannot follow it up. Um, Elena, we are back to you.

Art:        All right. I am going to use my damage boost —

Austin:        Uh-huh. Which reduces one of your —

Art:        One less card.

Austin:        Yep.

Art:        And I'm going to — the guy who hit me with the fucking pipe, he's the one.

Austin:        Okay. Uh...

Art:        So I get four cards.

Austin:        Yep.

Art:        And there's not another Bad joker in here.

Austin:        There's only the one Bad joker.

Art:        All right.

Austin:        There's a Good joker. Oh, there's a king of clubs...

Art:        But I would still deal black damage?

Austin:        You would still deal... are you... how's damage boost work, what's damage boost say?

Art:        Uh... doo-doo-doo-doo... I should just keep this stupid power [unintelligible] window open.

Austin:        Mm-hm. Or take a screenshot, or... it does, it does, plus 2 hits.

Art:        Plus 2 hits.

Austin:        Nice. Great. Uh, so, yeah, it would be color plus 2. So it would be 4.

Art:        How many hit points can these people have?

Austin:        Who can say? I mean, if you knock one out, I'll tell you.

Art:        Uh... I'll keep that, yeah.

Austin:        Okay. Uh, you knock this one out. What's it look like? They have 4 hit points, they have 4 hits.

Art:        Sure. Uh... I mean, I think it's just as simple as like, you catch, I catch him on the jaw, right?

Austin:        Yeah.

Art:        Like, and he goes out, like —

Austin:        Like boom, just, that's it. Yeah.

Art:        Just bam, just —

Austin:        Boom, bam. Yeah.

Art:        It's that quick, it's a, it's a — and, and it's, it's, it's, it's very, you know, it's stronger than normal, it's like, it's not like, oh, he crumples, it's like, oh, he's 5 feet that way.

Austin:        Totally.

Art:        I didn't use the, the, the knock-down boost, which is different, or the — I don't have push, but like —

Austin:        Yeah. Yeah.

Art:        You know, we gotta get some color here —

Austin:        Yeah, definitely. I think the boon here is like, part of your powers are about momentum, right? They're about like, kinetic energy. And I think you get to roll in to do a second attack here. Uh... against the other one, who's... either of the other, other two.

Art:        Uh... I'm, I'm sorry, Austin, I — that's a club, not a spade.

Austin:        Oh, I'm sorry. My bad. Damn.

Art:        So if you want to, maybe the, maybe the momentum's carrying me too far.

Austin:        The momentum has carried you too far, and your fist, you, you hit the excavator again, and this time it goes through, and your fist is stuck in the excavator, in the gears. It's not painful, but you're stuck there. You're going to have a hard time defending, you'll have disadvantage in your next attack. Or the next anything you do.

Art:        Sure.

Austin:        Until you spend an action freeing yourself from this thing.

Art:        Yeah.

Austin:        Uh... so yeah. Okay. Now we come back to... Chanti. So we've got one down, one in pain, uh, and one, in a melee with Verge, and both of them are missing a lot. They're just — [laughing]

Janine:        What's, what's —

Austin:        They're just very skilled.

Janine:        What's the status of my bird?

Austin:        Guy still has the bird, can't do shit until he deals with this bird. Bird has him — they're, they're — has your bird, you can't attack with that bird again, uh, without getting the bird back, but also, that person doesn't have a pipe in his hand anymore, so...

Art:        Wait, that wasn't the crowbar one?

Austin:        Oh, it was the — wait, which crowbar one?

Art:        I thought the, the —

Austin:        Oh, I guess so. Yeah, I guess the bird is free then. Yeah, okay, yeah, you're good.

Art:        Yeah, that guy, that guy's done.

Austin:        That's Ben. Ben is dead. Ben — not dead, you didn't kill him. Well... who can say?

Janine:        [laughing]

Austin:        [laughing] You hit him real hard.

Janine:        Okay...

Art:        Someone can say!

Austin:         A doctor, but you're not a doctor.

Janine:        Okay, so...

Austin:        Okay, so there's... bird's back.

Janine:        So is there just one, one major player right now, left?

Austin:        There's two, there are two people left.

Janine:        But isn't one of them super-hurt?

Austin:        One of them, was the one who is — uh, pretty hurt. But like, who cares, because that's not the way the system works. Until you're, until you're knocked out —

Janine:        Right.

Austin:        You have all your strength. [chuckles]

Janine:        True, okay.

1:55:17.0        

Austin:        There's the one who basically is, is, probably now back on his feet and about to hit Elena again, uh... because, that, he was, he was the one who missed the spear and ended up hitting the excavator and has probably gotten back onto his feet at this point. And then there's the one who's in the melee with Verge.

Janine:        Okay. Uh... I guess... I'm going to pick up the pipe and throw it at someone's head.

Austin:        Love it. That's agility ranged attack, I believe.

Janine:        Sure.

Austin:        The throwing, or whatever the skill is. It's definitely agility. Ranged weapons. Uh... [laughs] yes. I'm guessing you don't have ranged weapons, but —

Janine:        Nope!

Austin:        You can give me your agility. Again, 9 is the score to beat.

Janine:        That's an 8.

Austin:        That is an 8...

Janine:        That's a king...

Austin:        Hey, that's a king. There's your king of clubs.

Janine:        Of clubs, but...

Austin:        Yeah. But you're going to do color damage, color plus 1, because it's an improvised weapon, which is 3. Which one are you, which one are you aiming at here? The hurt one?

Janine:        The one who's causing the most trouble.

Austin:        Okay, that's... it's either of them. You can — do you want to take someone — I'm just going to tell you the right thing to do, I'm just going to tell you. Which is the one who's about to Elena, who is stuck in this excavator, uh, whose fist is [laughing] stuck inside of an excavator, is probably going to get hit by this person. And you throwing this, this pipe at their head will knock them out. Uh... and so you're able to do that. Uh... uh, and then the, I do think that the, uh, the, what do they call it? Not a botch, but a... it's less than a botch, but it's not as good as a... it's not as bad as a botch, but it's not a positive thing.

Janine:        Fumble.

1:57:00.4        

Austin:        Uh...

Art:        Disadvantage?

Austin:        [unintelligible] call it a disadvantage — it's a success with a complication, obviously.

Janine:        An oops.

Austin:        An uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh! Is... that... you... uh, I think that you, you actually find yourself in this moment, kind of pushed to a... uh, pushed to a... to a point where like, this starts to feel like a little desperate, you start to lose sight of what the situation is in this moment, because there are so many people running around, like, the fight is only these people, but you realize, you almost threw it at someone who was just trying to run by, do you know what I mean?

Janine:        Mm-hm.

Austin:        So you'll be at disadvantage for your next attack, if what you do is an attack. Not just disadvantaged no matter what, but the next time you do an attack, you're like, “all right, I have to be slower and more cautious, so that I don't hurt someone I don't mean to.” Uh... so yeah. Uh, and now, I think we are back around to Verge? Yes.

Ali:        Yeah, I think so, unless you take a turn.

Austin:        Nope, I go after you. One more person left here, the one that you're in a fight with. Sven.

1:58:11.6        

Ali:        Oh, one time before the beginning of your next turn, when a physical attack is absorbed by the force field. Has any of these people attacked me?

Austin:        They missed, remember? [laughs] They missed three times.

Ali:        Right. Right right right. Well, what I mean is, this had to be... you know what I mean? Uh... that the, the way that this move works is that it would have to be, I have to wait for the turnaround. But I guess it doesn't activate, does no one try to —

Austin:        Someone tried to hit you. So, that, you're saying that that would have bounced — the thing should have bounced back and hit him?

Ali:        Right. Yeah. When a physical attack is absorbed by the forcefield, the attack instead strikes the attacker. So I think that you have to pull cards...

Austin:        Uh, da-da-da-da-da, I don't, because...

Ali:        Dealing damage based on the attacker's card flip to make the attack.

Austin:        Okay. So it is just... yeah. I'm going to say it hit the forcefield, then. Uh... fuck. I'm — I'm going to — ooh. Who could even say what card that was? I'm going to draw a new card and just say that it's going to do that damage, because I don't remember... or can a figure this out? What did I do? What did I last draw cards to do?

Ali:        Well, it doesn't —

Austin:        It was to hit you, right?

Ali:        Was it — yeah, it was what you last draw —

Austin:        Then it's red, then it's red damage, right? So that's one damage, to, to this person. They are, again, they are gonna — no, it's your turn, it's your turn. So what do you do?

1:59:32.9        

Ali:        Yes. Uh, cool okay. They're taking —

Austin:        Yeah, they took one damage from this. I'm holding a card that I can't play yet, so [laughs] I'm just going to hold it until we're there.

Ali:        Sure. Uh, the thing I should do is teleport away and help Elena, right?

Austin:        Sure. I'll let you do that, that seems like a, a turn, is like, help her get her hand out of this excavator, right?

Ali:        Right. Yeah, perfect. Yeah. And, uh, yes.

Austin:        All right.

Ali:        [laughing] I'm trying to figure out if like, sense, or sleight of hand...

Austin:        No, I don't think there's, there's no roll here. This just happens. You just, you're able to do that.

Ali:        Yeah, yeah. Okay. Perfect.

2:00:05.9        

Austin:        Uh, all right. Uh, the thing I'm going to do that is actually not going to help at all, or is not going to help me, who's stuck holding this card until something happens, uh, the last of these, the last of this crew says, “you know what? It's over.” And pulls a gun out, and says, “everyone stop right now!” And is trying to intimidate you. Uh... I guess I, I will play this card. And the intimidation attempt here is... uh, will give you disadvantage, if you, uh, if you don't already have it, uh, to like act while this person is threatening you with a gun. They're not particularly good at this, uh, that's a 2 of diamonds. Uh, and this is going against your, uh, your mind score. What is your mind score?

Ali:        Uh... mine is 10.

Austin:        Uh, great. Uh, and this person —

Art:        Mine is 9.

Austin:        Has all — doesn't have any, doesn't have any moxie, so that's it. Doesn't work. [chuckles] Puts — just seems scared, you know? There's a degree to which the way the gun is wavering in his hand just doesn't, he doesn't have it — he might not even have the safety off. I don't know if there were safeties at this point. He might not even have it loaded right. [chuckles] It's like a, it's like a big revolver, but like, hands are shaking. And that's his turn. Wait. No. We're good. Phew. I thought I was looking at the... I thought I was looking at the wrong stat sheet, I thought I was looking at the stat sheet for a horse. Uh... [laughing] instead of this person.

Ali:        [giggling]

Art:         Ha! Ah-ha!

Austin:        I was not. It's fine. [laughing] They both have charisma one, which I think is rude to the horse.

2:01:48.0        

Ali:        Uh, great.

Art:        Fucking big-ass horses, thinking they're so cool.

Ali:        Is it back to...

Austin:        Yeah, sorry, it's back around, at this point to... uh, Elena, whose hand is free.

Ali:        Elena.

Art:        [unintelligible] whose hand is free. Uh... Could I use penetration boost to like, crush the gun? Or is that just strength in general?

Austin:        I think the fact that the penetration boost helps you break through metal means that you can do that. Uh... this is, this is, again one of the weird things about boosts here, right? Is like, if you had strength 5 but didn't have penetration boost, am I supposed to say, no, you can't do that? Do you know what I mean? Or that would require you to use penetration boost? Penetration boost says punching. Are you not supposed to be able to do this unless it's a punch? You know? [chuckles] But I don't, but I —

Art:        Oh yeah.

Austin:        We're so deep into this, I'm just going to say... I, I think it is just your superstrength.

Art:        Or should I just draw for it?

Austin:        You just draw for it, it's your strength. It's your strength. Uh... it's your strength — okay, the rule —

Art:        I just want to walk up to this guy and grab the gun and crunch it —

Austin:        And break it, yes.

Art:        And tell him to just fuck off, just go home.

Austin:        Yes.

Art:        God! Is it this hard not to go to work?

Austin:        Yes. We have bills! [laughing] Hey! Look at you, Good joker! Follow me on Instagram...

Art:        It occurs to me this might be intimidation, but whatever.

Austin:        I mean, it is. I think it's strength intimidation, right? That's what you're actually doing.

Art:        So it's crunching the gun and being like, “just get the fuck out of here. Jobsite's closed.”

Austin:        Uh... if I — you know, backs away and says —

Austin (as guard):        “You can't close this up! You can't close this up! I need this! Who sent you?”

Art:        Well, they didn't fall for my lie, so I can't give that answer again.

Art (as Champ):        No one sent us. It's just us.

Austin (as guard):        Did you say Justice?

Ali (as Verge):        Yes.

Art (as Champ):        Yes.

Austin:        [laughing] Okay, that's a — that's a [unintelligible] I stole that, I stole that from, uh, Planetary. Shoutouts to Planetary, it's a really good comic series.

Ali:        [giggling]

Austin:        Uh, people should read it. Uh, uh, you got a Good joker here, which means you get like a bonus here, which means that you get like a bonus here, which means this is someone who is ready to be grilled for information. Because he's involved, maybe knows more.

Ali:        Uh...

Austin:        And he's like —

Austin (as guard):        Just, I — I'll leave, but you can't, you can't shut this place down! How are you going to — you can't — there are so many people who work here! Our job is to keep the people here safe, and you came here and you — that excavator's going to come out of somebody's paycheck!

Art (as Champ):        Who here makes them to pay for that excavator?

Austin (as guard):        Exactly.

Art (as Champ):        No, my way.

Austin (as guard):        No, what? Your way — my way! We're all going to take a pay cut for the next 2 months until that thing is fixed.

Art (as Champ):        Fine, fucking — who runs this, who's your, who's, who's the boss?

Austin (as guard):        Who's the boss?! You know this is a, this is a big operation. This is a city project.

Art (as Champ):        This is a — no, no, no. No it — no.

Austin (as guard):        Yes!

Art (as Champ):        This is the Whitakers —

Austin (as guard):        It's the city. Yeah, the Whitakers and the Nebraskas, and... I heard, uh, what are they, out of town family, uh, the, the Verandanzas or something like that? It's a bunch of different — money from everywhere, but the city said yes to this project — this is a city project! The police come through here!

Art (as Champ):        The police come through and tell you you got to pay for excavators?

Austin (as guard):        Yes!

Ali (as Verge):        Who hired you?

Art (as Champ):        All right, fucking —

Austin (as guard):        Who hired me? Uh, uh, a guy came through, with a big truck, and said he was looking for, uh, workers. I said, I got bills to pay, I'll be a worker. He said, do you want to dig or do you want to make sure people who are digging are safe? I said, you know, digging doesn't sound too good. I get to stand around with a pipe, yelling at any, you know, kids who come around trying to cause trouble or get into danger... I'll, uh, fight off a bear. Whatever it is, I'll do that! Because that doesn't happen that often. There aren't many bears around here.

Art (as Champ):        Did a bear come by here?

Austin (as guard):        A bear came through once before I was hired, I get to now say I'm part of the people who keep the bears away.

Ali (as Verge):        [sighs] Go home.

Austin (as guard):        You are... getting into... some real stuff here.

Ali (as Verge):        And it's our stuff to get into. Go home.

Austin (as guard):        I'm just looking out for you. The — do you know about the Black Widow?

Art (as Champ):        I'm going to say a little bird told us something about that —

Austin:        [laughing]

Art (as Champ):        And you're going to think... that I'm fucking with you. But I need you to know that I am not fucking with you.

Ali:        [cackling]

Austin (as guard):        Listen. Lieutenant Merisi he, she doesn't — she doesn't take shit from anybody. And she checks in once a week. I need you to... someone here is going to get hurt because of this. She's going to hurt somebody. You want to know —

Art (as Champ):        Well, I'm going to hurt her first. Don't you worry about people getting hurt.

Austin (as guard):        Okay.

Art (as Champ):        What — say that name again, though, because I wasn't... paying attention.

Austin (as guard):        Mary. Uh, Lieutenant Merisi, Mary Merisi, M-E-R-I-S-I.

Art (as Champ):        Mary Merisi. I'll take care of Mary Merisi, and I'll take care of the one they send after her, and I'll take care of the one they send after her.

Austin:        I — I think he's like instinctively put his hands in like, prayer, a little bit, uh, and is like —

Austin (as guard):        They're going to keep, they are going to keep sending people. They want this damn tunnel built.

Art (as Champ):        Well, if they ever send anyone badder than me, then you're in trouble, but until then, you're fine.

Austin:        [chuckles]

Austin (as guard):        You're going to put me out of work, you do such a good job of protecting people.

Art (as Champ):        You, you, you — you stay, I'm not going to be here all the time, so —

Austin:        [laughing]

Art (as Champ):        Someone's gotta call me.

Austin:        [laughing]

Austin (as guard):        How am I supposed to — there's no phones out here!

Art (as Champ):        There's no phone?

2:07:57.6        

Ali (as Verge):        Uh, I believe she has something called an ephone you might be able to [laughing] communicate with her on.

Austin:        [laughing]

Austin (as guard):        An “effin?”

Ali and Art:        [laughing]

Ali (as Verge):        Would you leave —

Austin (as guard):         Yeah? Oh, would I? I thought you said when you leave —

Ali (as Verge):        Yes!

Austin (as guard):        I thought you had more coming, I thought you were saying — when you leave — comma...

Ali:        [wheezes laughing]

Ali (as Verge):        The door is right there, sir.

Austin (as guard):        We're outside.

Austin:        [laughing]

Ali:        [giggling] She's pointing to where a door would be.

Austin:        [laughing] Okay, good.

Ali:        She's gesturing, this is where you go to leave.

Austin:        All right, all right. Picks up his friends...

Ali:        [still laughing]

Austin:        Uh... everyone else is fleeing at this point, and, yeah. You know, there were sparks from the broken excavator, everything is busted... they begin to leave.

Janine:        What a fucking nightmare.

Austin:        Uh-huh.

Ali:        Uh, does that name immediately ring to me? Lieutenant whoever?

Austin:        Merisi, Mary Merisi, uh, yeah. It does. It totally does.

2:08:59.6        Uh... she's, she — how long have you been — I guess, again, this has been going on for like a year, she is someone who, early, early last year, right after the parade when things started going bad, uh, was someone who you thought maybe you could do some work with. Uh, and the next thing you know, she signed up to be a cop, right? Uh, you get the feeling... when you knew her — I'll say this, I'll, I'll — you know what? Uh, draw me one card. There's no negative consequences here, I just want to — this is one of those like, just, good luck cards.

Ali:        Sure, yeah.

Austin:        5, 5 of hearts. Uh, you got the feeling from her, from a, from a, a job you did with her once, that she wanted... she felt the change real bad. The like, pre-parade, post-parade Blue real bad, because she was in a bad place already. Uh, and the last thing she told you was, uh, that... she heard an opportunity about getting to go out of town. Uh, and then, next thing you know, she was part of the Myst PD, and that meant that like, you know; someone who you thought was maybe going to be on your side of the law was against you. But like, you never really ran into her. She, she kind of kept her nose clean, as far as that stuff goes. She's not someone who comes around and, uh, like, tries to, you know, extort anybody. She's not one of like, the trouble cops. You know, because even with protection, sometimes you get squeezed from both sides. Sometimes you got to end the money up to the Whitakers and the Nebraskas, but you also have to send money to the cops to turn the cheek — look the other way, not turn the cheek, to — what's the word I'm looking for? You know, look the other way.

2:10:39.8        

Ali:        Turn their cheek.

Art:        Look the other way?

Austin:        Look the other way. Yeah.

Ali:        [giggling]

Art:        [chuckles]

Austin:        That's turning the cheek, you gotta —

Art:        A thing you have to do, to turn your cheek, to look the other way.

Austin:        Yeah, uh-huh.

Ali:        [laughing]

Art:        Your eyes are going, your cheeks are going.

Austin:        Yep. Uh, so, yeah, that is the person. You know, you know that that is, that is what she is. And she worked her way up really quick.

Ali:        Okay.

Austin:        Uh, I think the fact that he says Lieutenant Merisi is like, Lieutenant? She was on patrol...A year ago.

Ali:        Right, okay. Uh...

Austin:        Do you do the thing where you were going to dig through paperwork and stuff here?

Ali:        I think so, yeah. I think it's also the, the like... uh, her being like —

Ali (as Verge):        Well, Champ, I suppose we could have went to the Police Station... gone to find someone to beat up. [sighs] Give me a minute and we'll drive out.

Ali:        Uh, and yeah, I think that it is — uh, I, yeah, they're, I... I want there to be a paper trail, I want there to be —

Austin:        Yeah, yeah, there is.

Ali:        Yeah, an opportunity to organize after this, right?

Austin:        Yeah, so I think — do the, the office is built into the side of this like, big hole in the ground, basically, right? Uh, uh, and as you get closer, uh, you do, in fact, uh, feel the presence of birds, Chanti, as the three of you, or four of you now that Alexandra's coming down with you also, uh, uh, [chuckles] the, there is the, there are birds down there. They're not dead, uh, but there is something weird about them. You can feel them vibrating in a way that's like, you can't get... you can get access to their minds, but they're not communicative. There's an office, uh, to the side, Caitlin, that does have a paper trail, and does have like, tons of paperwork about this. And it does, because it's all above-board, as far as you can tell? And, what it does say is like, uh, it, it puts Lieutenant Merisi as like the... police contact for this project, if that makes sense.

2:12:40.4        Uh, and basically says, if any of the following names come up, you are supposed to be the one who — you know, make sure Merisi knows, or that Merisi is supposed to be backchanneled, basically. So, for instance, for instance, uh, and you find this in the contract — if a Whitaker shows up, uh, uh, to the, to the project, or associated with the project, in a vehicle, you know, that's tied to the project, something like that. You, uh, uh, Merisi is supposed to be told that, uh, privately, and is going to, is supposed to go and handle the situation, to wait until Merisi shows up. Uh, and I think it kind of clicks into place for you that what happened here is, a cop thought they saw a bootlegger, because they're a cop and they don't — you know, there are bootleggers at this point, you're one of them. [chuckles] Uh, in the process of calling in the plates and saying, hey, these are the numbers that we have, it becomes clear that Whitaker is involved.

2:13:38.0        Merisi gets wind of that, shows up [music begins playing] and kills the cops, because Whitaker can't be... who knows why. You, you have to go talk to Merisi about what's going on here. Uh... uh, or what the Merisi's angle is. Uh, and, and, is now going to throw Horseface downriver for what happened, basically.

[outro plays]