COUNTER/Weight 11: A Thing You Know About Nightclubs
Transcribed by:
Lulav Arnow (@spacetrucksix): 0m-15m, 45m-1h, 1h15m-1h30m
Alexis (@alexiorsays): 15m-45m, 1h-1h15m, 1h30m-1h37m (end)
AUSTIN: At the interior of the bar and nightclub Sine Wave, Jamil Quartz-Noble finds herself kneeling among a few dozen bodies. Some separate flesh from blood, while others vibrate holographically, a humming static where once there was a thing like life.
[0:00:13 - 🎵The Long Way Around🎵 starts]
AUSTIN: She sighs and shakes her head before lifting a finger to her ear and speaking to someone she knows can’t make this better.
AUSTIN (as Jamil): It’s too late. It’s live. All we can do now is damage control.
AUSTIN: And with a swipe of her hand, the holographic bodies evaporate - no trace left for when PrivSec arrives to conduct their investigation. And in the DJ booth, a pop song plays on repeat, aggressively joyous, and designed with a singular, final precision.
[0:01:40]
ART: If I may, I think I’d like to start this podcast out with like a heartfelt message to the listeners that I think we all will agree with if you - if, if we do it here. And, that message is that if you’re listening to this and you, and you live in Kansas City or the surrounding area, we hate you stop listening...go away.
[0:01:53 - 🎵The Long Way Around🎵 ends]
AUSTIN: Wow.
ALI: Uhhhhhhh
KEITH: Did some beef happen?
AUSTIN: Art’s a Mets fan.
JACK: Ohh…
KEITH: OHHH
JACK: Oh I see. So it’s a heartfelt message.
ALI: Wait weren’t they doing good?
ART: Yeah, the - the World Series is gonna be Mets vs Kansas City and it’s gonna start next week, and I don’t want any Kansas City fans getting any enjoyment from this podcast. Go somewhere else this week!
AUSTIN: This is going to be the opposite situation of like, the last year of this podcast, where whenever we mention a thing that’s happening in the news, people don’t hear it for like twelve years...
[laughter - Ali, Jack]
AUSTIN: Like, “oh, they must have recorded this forever ago!” This is like “oh you must have recorded this yesterday” and we DID.
[laughter - Ali, Keith]
ART: I hit one of those, right, like I did one of those like, crazy guesses like “Happy Thanksgiving” and then it worked?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Uh-huh, it lined up,
JACK: No, actually, as your-
AUSTIN: Welcome to Friends at the Table,
AUSTIN: Welcome to Friends at the Table, an actual-play podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, fun interaction between good friends, presented by streamfriends.tv and runbutton.net I’m Austin Walker,
JACK: [crosstalking gleefully] Ding ding ding!
AUSTIN: We’re playing The Sprawl by Hamish Cameron; my agenda is to make the Sprawl dirty, high-tech, and excessive; to make the big things bigger and the small things smaller; to fill the characters’ lives with action, intrigue, and complication; to entangle the characters in the Sprawl; and to play to find out what happens. I’m joined by Art Tebbel,
ART: Oi, mate.
AUSTIN: who hates…
[laughing - Keith]
AUSTIN: [in fond disbelief] Okay...good...good...
ALI: [through laughter] Jack he (unintelligible)
AUSTIN: Jack de Quidt!
JACK: Everything is pain.
AUSTIN: Ali.
ALI: Hi!
AUSTIN: ...Acampora,
ALI: Hey,
AUSTIN: and...and Keith Carberry.
KEITH: How’s it goin’?
AUSTIN: Okay. Good. I had to break it! I thought real hard about going around the table and then coming to Jack last, but I felt like maybe that structure would have encouraged more torture.
KEITH: Oh, I was definitely prepared to do it, but since no one else did I sat out.
AUSTIN: Right, I was- very deliberate. I was being very nice to a friend for once, as penance, for my own bad British accents. We are going to, today, start playing The Sprawl, really and truly. We did character creation last week, and I pushed us real hard to get into position to record...um, so, because we’re switching back to a Powered by the Apocalypse World[1] game, I know what I’m gonna do, which is, start this game off with some love letters.
ART: Awww.
AUSTIN: Dear AuDy - last night, during a dangerous sortie, you managed to capture the leader of the fanatical Iron Choir, Sister Rust. On your way to exchange her for money, while the rest of the Chime is asleep, you find yourself drawn into conversation with her. Roll +Edge. On a 10+ gain 3 hold; on a 7-9 gain 1. I’ll tell you what you can spend that hold on, uh, once you roll.
JACK: Okay, here we go.
AUSTIN: Look at that.
JACK: That’s an 11.
AUSTIN: Rolled an 11 - [Art whoops] - that’s a good roll. You have 3 hold to spend, and you can spend it as follows. You can spend it one-for-one to ask one of the following questions - and this is more than just questions here so I want to go through all of your options -
JACK: Cool
AUSTIN: I’ll also just paste them so you can-
JACK: I’m just marking down that I have three.
AUSTIN: Okay. Uh. Ask one of the following questions: “Am I the dead metal?”, “What does the Iron Choir really worship?”, “Where is the Iron Choir based?”, “What do you think of OriCon, the Diaspora, and Counterweight?”, any other question of your choice - but you only get one of those, so sort of one additional question; two: you can spend it to secure a legal bounty for Sister Rust and gain two credits; you could spend one of your hold to return her to the Iron Choir, where you will gain her as a contact who owes you a favor; or you could gain the blessing of the dead metal for yourself or the Kingdom Come - Rust gains access to those things, but in exchange we’ll give them the Encrypted tag, which is kind of a layer of narrative protection from me fucking with them.
JACK: Okay, how much, uhh…
AUSTIN: Three hold, and anything on this list is one hold, basically, and you can’t both secure a legal bounty and return her to the Choir [snickers].
JACK: Okay, right, so, I’d like to ask “What does the Iron Choir really worship?”? Oh, no, no, wait, no, wait, wait, no, wait...
{laughing - Art}
AUSTIN: Uh-HUH.
{laughing - Ali}
KEITH: I think he wants to change his mind.
JACK: I’d like to ask...yes, I’d like to ask, “What does the Iron Choir really worship?”.
AUSTIN: Okay. They worship...they worship a Divine, that stopped being the Divine it once was. They worship what is now- or what THEY consider, at least, the Divine Order, who was once the Divine Peace, which was piloted by Addax, the Candidate who was Jace Rethal’s biggest rival.
JACK: Okay, and it is no longer a Divine anymore.
JACK: Or, it’s stopped-
AUSTIN: It’s hard to tell-
JACK: -it’s stopped in some way…
AUSTIN: It’s hard to tell; here’s the other thing: it’s hard to tell where their dogma ends and when truth begins.
JACK: Yeah. Okay, question 2: “Am I the dead metal?”.
AUSTIN: Voluntarily so. They have categories for this sort of thing, and they have- there’s like, dead metal like their machines that they’ve built which were never alive; right, like it’s just engines and oil, and it just burns. And then there are things like you, and like Order, which chose to...die. Which chose to stop being kind of, connected to the world.
JACK: And in their eyes it’s death?
AUSTIN: In their eyes, that makes you “the dead metal”.
JACK: Okay.
AUSTIN: But- and in fact, it’s kind of like, better? Like the things that don’t choose to be the dead metal can’t be honored in the same way of the things that do make that choice.
JACK: Okay, and, last but not least, I think specifically as a result of the answers of those two questions - I don’t think that they were planning it, uh, I think I would like to return them to the Iron Choir.
AUSTIN: Okay. List her on your sheet,
JACK: Mmhmm.
AUSTIN: As a contact; don’t tell anyone on the ship! [chuckling] Or do, and then that’s a fun conversation.
JACK: Um, do I have…
AUSTIN: There should be a thing on your sheet that says “contacts”, yeah.
JACK: Rad, thank you.
AUSTIN: Okay! Next, on the list of love letters: Dear Mako, during your running as the Liberty & Discovery AutomatiCorp- so to be clear, that last one happened, like, immediately after our last session; the rest of these happen in the kind of weeks and months that follow in between our last full session and this one.
Dear Mako, during your run against the Liberty & Discovery AutomatiCorp, you stumble across what looks like a valuable cache of information about another faction. Which faction is it?
KEITH: Um, oh! It’s the people [stuttering] that found Rigour. What are they…?
AUSTIN: Oh okay sure, SnowTrak?
KEITH: SnowTrak, yes please.
AUSTIN: Yeah, okay.
KEITH [grinning]: Yes please I’ll take the SnowTrak one.
AUSTIN: Alright, uh [verbal stimming] as soon as you open the file, it begins to self-destruct.
KEITH: Oh.
AUSTIN: Do you 1) recover all the info you can and sell it? If so, gain 2 credits.
Recover all the info you can for your own use? If so, gain +Intel, which is a resource that you can use during the mission for a bonus.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: Search for specific information, wherein you can ask me a particular question about SnowTrak and I will answer it honestly and directly. Keep in mind that you know - YOU know that Rigour is a thing…”Rigour”, “Rigor”-
KEITH: Rigour.
AUSTIN: -the Divine, is a thing. Mako does not.
KEITH: Mako does not, okay.
AUSTIN: But! But! That’s the sort of thing that you could think about while framing your question for dramatic purposes.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: If that’s where you wanted to go.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Or, hot money.
KEITH: Well, I- what’s that?
AUSTIN: Money; money is also good.
KEITH: Money is good; I just feel like I’m in the hole, right,
AUSTIN: Yeah - yeah.
KEITH: To the point where 2 credits...what even is that.
[laughter - Jack]
AUSTIN: It’s true! That’s true.
ART: Sound financial planning from Friends at the Table
[laughter - Ali, Keith, Austin]
KEITH: So the intel- well, but listen, I’ve still got the merch.
AUSTIN: Mmhmm.
KEITH: I’ve still got the stuff.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
KEITH: Still in the boxes; it’s sealed - it’s vacuum-sealed. And the intel is cool because I can kind of use that as whatever I want later.
AUSTIN. Yeah. Yes. So you’re gonna take that?
KEITH: I think that I wanna take the intel.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: Cuz I can twist that towards a question that I want to ask,
AUSTIN: Yes.
KEITH: Or, like, if something pops up and I need to use it, I can do that?
AUSTIN: Yes, that’s exactly it, yeah.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So yeah, pocket that away; mark that down somewhere on your sheet that you have intel.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay. Dear Cassander Timaeus Berenice, House Pelagios: Soon after returning from your mission to space, you receive word that your cousin, Laris, would be visiting Counterweight. Laris serves as the high curate for the eidolon of communication, commerce, and conquest, and while their stated task on Counterweight is to negotiate the specifics of a trade agreement and to smooth over recent tensions, you can’t help but wonder if there are additional motivations at play.
Your family requests that you work as a bodyguard and guide for Laris during their stay on the planet. Do you agree? If yes, there’s a roll and stuff.
ART: Sure.
AUSTIN: Otherwise, if no, I will increase the Apostalos Empire clock by one segment. I’ll give you what you could get from the “if yes” here too: If yes, roll +Cool. On a 10+, choose 2; on a 7-9 choose 1.
In honor of your service, your family sends you something of value that you left on Apostalos. What is it?
Your time working in Monument Square leads you to make a new contact. Which faction do they work for, and why do they owe you a favor?
You discover something secret. Take intel.
You received a per diem. Take 2 cred.
On a 6-, you are recognized while serving alongside Laris. I will advance two corporate clocks by 1 segment.
ART: [sighs] See, part of this is that I’m a once-bitten, twice-shy problem here, which is the last time we were in a Powered by the Apocalypse system,
AUSTIN: Uh-huh?
ART: I consistently was unable to roll...anything, really.
AUSTIN: [laughs] That’s true.
ART: I looked at it and it’s like I flipped tails, like, 8 times in a row on a coin that had a 60% chance of hitting heads.
AUSTIN: [laughing] Yeah, that’s it, right.
ART: I also really don’t want to do it.
AUSTIN: Okay! That’s fair.
ART: But all the stuffs I’m doing - [Ali laughs] - there’s shiny objects, both literal and metaphorical, on the yes side.
AUSTIN: Mmhmm! There are.
ART: I’m gonna say no, though. Advance that clock!
AUSTIN: I’m gonna! Well, first of all I’m gonna write it in; I have to make this clock.
ART: Make that clock!!!
[laughter - Jack]
AUSTIN: Good. There we go. Okay! Next is Aria. Dear Aria, one day you receive a communication from EarthHome Resources, Intellectual & Human Division. It’s some sort of contract. It’s signed by you and it bears your bio-certification stamp, but you can tell that the signature is actually really old: it’s from when you were still trying to figure out what your signature should look like as a pop idol.
Roll +Mind to make sense of the contract. Make that roll and I’ll tell you, uh...
ART: Are you telling us that Aria can’t read?!?
ALI: [through laughter] It’s - that’s so her, though!
AUSTIN: It’s weird legalese from Disney; it’s Space Disney.
ALI: I have a -1…
AUSTIN: Okay you rolled an 8; an 8’s alright - an 8’s partial success.
ALI: [whispering] Gosh.
KEITH: I read a Buzzfeed article where Space Disney can legally kill you.
[laughter - Ali]
AUSTIN: That’s true!
[laughter - Jack]
AUSTIN: That’s 100%- I’ll link you to it! I actually linked that exact, like, contract to Ali while we were trying to figure out what Aria’s vision was a couple weeks ago.
KEITH: Oh really?
ALI: Yeah.
KEITH: That’s a crazy article.
AUSTIN: It’s like: this is the company you work for - [Ali laughs] - this company is the one that says, like...if they kill you it’s...not their fault, I think??
KEITH: It’s not that it’s not their fault, it’s...there’s a clause in the Disney contract for just being, like, “any employee at any level at a Disney park…” where, you can’t prosecute them for a crime that they commit?
AUSTIN: Yeah! Legal or illegal; it’s like, very clear.
KEITH: It’s very clear!
ART: That’s not…
KEITH: It’s like, crazy.
ALI: It’s like, “if you’re injured on the job, including death, Disney is not [mumbles to a stop]
ART: That’s not actionable…
AUSTIN: No, I know.
ART: If they’re negligent they’re negligent.
AUSTIN: But...they’re Disney.
ART: Sure.
JACK: That’s amazing.
AUSTIN: And now they’re Space Disney. Alright: On a 10+ ask 3 - you did not get a 10+ - on a 7-9 ask 1: What does this contract demand of me? What does this contract entitle me to? Who drafted this contract? When does it go into effect and for how long? On a 6-, it’s hard to push through the legalese but you’re pretty sure they just paid you 2 credits for something, [Ali & Jack laugh] so take 2 credits at least, and then ask me one of those questions.
ALI: [sighs] Um...what does this contract demand from me?
AUSTIN: It is an agreement that you made...how long ago were you working at the JoyPark?
[Ali inhales tentatively]
ALI: [whispering] Shit.
[laughing] Um… Like…
KEITH: Three weeks!
ALI: No she was...[under breath] Fuck!
[00:15:00]
AUSTIN: It was like years ago?
ALI: Yeah, it was years. She was hired when she was like seventeen, and she’s like twenty… six? Now? I think?
AUSTIN: Oh, okay. So like, almost a decade ago.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So this was like, this was like, once she was legal to sign contracts, I don’t know what that’s like in Space Disney, in spaceland-
ART: Seven! Seven.
AUSTIN: Seven! [laughing] Right. These were actually signed back when you were seven. You’ve signed over your rights to create new work using the intellectual property you’ve already performed for them. So what it’s demanding of you at this point, is just like, it’s demanding the right- it did demand the right to use your image in new ways. It’s part of remix culture! You know? It’s like they own your image, and your audio, and everything else so… that’s cool!
JACK: It could be worse!
AUSTIN: Here’s your royalty check!
KEITH: Yeah, I’m sure Space Disney definitely wants to still be associated with you.
[Jack and Ali laughing]
ART: Fun Friends at the Table trivia: the language that Austin just read is just from his Giant Bomb contract.
[Ali laughing]
AUSTIN: Yeah, that’s one hundred percent it.
[Everybody laughing]
ART: They’re gonna- CBS is gonna remix the shit out of him!
KEITH: It even says, yeah, it says, in parentheticals, “it’s remix culture.” [Ali and Art laughing] And then there’s a hyperlink to something that Les Moonves gave a talk about.
[Jack, Austin, and Ali laughing]
AUSTIN: [laughing] Yeah. Alright! So. When we pick up the game, it has been two months since the last session that we played; we talked last session about what happened, like in the character generation thing, what you guys were up to during that time. Today, you are taking a little bit of a break! It is the grand opening of the new BlueSky dome for the Krilham CED dome- I’m gonna bring you over to this thing. Now I’m pretty sure that the “CED” stands for “commerce and entertainment division,” or, sorry, “commerce and entertainment district,” but in the last week I’d forgotten that, and I knew it was like “commerce,” “entertainment,” and another “D” word… “Destination,” and I kept thinking of different “D” words, and I think that they like, in their marketing, they switch what “CED” means around. Like, “Come Enjoy Days!” [Ali giggles] Uh, [trying to think of something] “Comics, Education, and… Dancing!” Like it’s just, they do all sorts of just bad acronyms with CED. So you’re there, and it’s the first day, and you’ll see on the map, in general, there’s actually a lot more blue domes than there were the last time we played. The BlueSky prototype technology that had been one of the things that Cene was working on, months ago now, has begun to pop up around Counterweight, and in that added space, they kind of shifted things around. Like, Art! You remember when they moved the arch in, was it in Washington Square Park?
ART: Yeah!
AUSTIN: Where like, they just moved it twenty feet over, or whatever? That whole dome- everything in that dome got moved over like five hundred feet. Which like, very inefficient. But that’s the world we live in! And now there is a beach there, and it’s a kind of, it’s like a tidal pool, or like a wave pool, with imported sand from a different planet, probably from Kalliope, and lots of palm trees that were like genetically modified to work inside of a BlueSky Dome. And it’s a weird mish-mosh of what you- of what people think beaches are like. Like, people who’ve only ever seen beaches in movies, and are thinking that like “all beaches are like all of the beaches I’ve seen in movies!” So it’s a mix of like, Pacific beaches, and Atlantic beaches, and weird jetties, and those aren’t on these styles of beaches. And palm trees-
KEITH: Here’s the white sand section, here’s the craggy rock section.
[Ali laughing]
AUSTIN: Right. Exactly.
KEITH: Like how beaches are.
AUSTIN: Like how beaches are! It’s honestly not very safe. And you’re all there! And it’s- someone… I think… You were… Ok. Either, you could be there by your own choice, ‘cause it’s this cool grand opening of a beach, it’s the first beach on this planet, at least since there used to be water here. There used to be water here once, you can kinda see it on the map. There is not water here anymore. So there used to be beaches here, this is the first beach in a long time, and either you could be there by yourself, or you could be requested to be there, you let me know which.
ART: Request.
AUSTIN: Okay. Paisley Moon wanted to meet you here.
KEITH: I was already there.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: I didn’t know that we got asked. I just showed up.
AUSTIN: Are you in like, board shorts, or are you in like-
KEITH: I’m in board shorts, I’ve got a wakeboard. I’ve turned, I got a skin for my Ring of Saturn that turns it into a wakeboard.
ALI: Oh, boy.
JACK: Are those microtransactions?
[Everybody laughing]
AUSTIN: Yes. Ab-so-lutely. It’s also already built into the board, [simultaneous with Keith] so that you have to pay-
KEITH: [laughing] I just downloaded this skin from the cloud.
JACK: Oh, man.
ALI: [softly] God…
[Keith laughing]
AUSTIN: That’s the worst…
JACK: These board skins just aren’t what they used to be! You know, thirty years ago, we’d’ve gotten ten [crosstalk, inaudible]
KEITH: I hate when they build the DLC into the vehicles!
[Jack and Ali sigh]
JACK: God, it’s just so bad. Nobody’s doing it right.
[Austin laughing]
KEITH: Day-one patch for my car!
AUSTIN: What are you doin’ at the beach! Like, everybody. What’s this like for you?
JACK: Unpleasant.
AUSTIN: Have we all been to beaches in real life?
JACK: Yeah.
KEITH: I have, yeah, a bunch.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay. What do you- what are your characters doing on this beach?
KEITH: I was trying-
ART: I think, as a fish-person, I find artificial beaches especially jarring.
[Jack laughing]
AUSTIN: Out of all of your actual time spent underwater…
ART: Right. This is weird.
JACK: The centuries-
ART: Why are they doing this! Please stop.
JACK: I think that AuDy is, ah, I still can’t work out whether or not AuDy- oh, I assume that since… I think that they can cope with heat pretty well, but I don’t know if they can cope with water very well!
[Art, Ali, Austin laughing]
JACK: ...Tremendously! I think they can do fine, fine-ish, but it’d sort of be the equivalent of me accidentally walking onto some tar that hasn’t dried properly?
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: It’s- I bet on the underside of your foot it says “water resistant” but a more expensive model might say “waterproof.”
JACK: Right!
AUSTIN: Yes. Absolutely, yes.
JACK: Exactly. And I think that ah… does it have an esplanade?
[Silence]
AUSTIN: I don’t know what that is.
JACK: Like a promenade, like a walkway-
AUSTIN: Yes.
JACK: Okay. I guess AuDy is just standing at the promenade, leaning on the rails, watching the beach.
AUSTIN: That’s good. Is it like a boardwalk there, do you think?
ALI: Yeah…
AUSTIN: Yeah, I think that they straight-up build, like, they have definitely brought in, probably not EarthHome, but one of EarthHome’s competitors? For like the “Universal Studios” style. Or maybe it’s actually more like even a Great Adventure, or Six Flags, where it’s just like… “Yeah, this is pretty good, this is… I’m having fun here…”
JACK: Fun.
AUSTIN: They’re trying to evoke a period of time, and they’re trying to evoke fun, but they're not really… it always feels a little bit unnatural, and a little bit off-brand, in a weird way?
KEITH: This beach is off-brand.
[Art and Ali laughing]
AUSTIN: The beach is off-brand. Or like, the boardwalk is, too, in other words. Like, it’s-
JACK: Okay.
AUSTIN: I think it’s, again, a weird mish-mash of things-
KEITH: Like, it just feels like it’s… trying too hard?
AUSTIN: They’re selling you, they’re selling you snacks that were fa- that were like snacks from Counterweight from back before the war, you know? There’s an area of the boardwalk that’s like, “Oh, pre- Golden War Counterweight!” I’m sure there’s like a name for it, we haven’t thought of it yet, but-
KEITH: Is this-
AUSTIN: What the era is, the kind of pre-bellum era is, and it’s like “Aw, this is like classic Apostolosian snacks!” Like, funnel cake or whatever!
JACK: Churros.
AUSTIN: And like, no, this is kind- Yeah, it’s churros. This is kind of tacky, actually, like, we killed all these people…
[Keith, Ali, Art, Jack laughing]
AUSTIN: They’re not here anymore ‘cause they died, and now we’re eating their snacks.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: [laughing] And they’re not even good versions!
[Everybody laughing]
JACK: They’re bad snacks!
AUSTIN: You also know that! You eat one of those things, and it’s like, “this is terrible!”
KEITH: How do you fuck up a churro!
JACK: [simultaneous with Austin] Oh, there’s so many ways for that.
AUSTIN: You know, you use artificial sweetener, you use…
ALI: It’s like, hard, [crosstalk, inaudible]
AUSTIN: [crosstalk, inaudible]
ART: [crosstalk] Not enough cinnamon!
AUSTIN: Yeah!
KEITH: Every churro that I’ve ever had has been moist and nice and good.
AUSTIN: [crosstalk, inaudible] ...churros...
JACK: No, a bad churro tastes like the machine it comes out of.
AUSTIN: ...There. Yes.
KEITH: Oh, I didn’t know that there were churros that came out of a machine. I thought they were handed to you by a man in a stand.
[Ali giggles]
AUSTIN: All of the churros on this beach come out of…
KEITH: Come out of a machine?
JACK: A vending machine.
AUSTIN: It’s just one machine.
KEITH: [crosstalk] They come out of- the machine is just a person-shaped machine.
AUSTIN: Right, it’s JIM-22-
JACK: Right.
AUSTIN: Their whole job is just-
KEITH: Handing churros and all the various other sort of appropriative snacks.
AUSTIN: [simultaneous with Keith] Yeah. It’s weird! ‘Cause they come like, out of the mouth-space that JIM is at…
[Art groaning]
AUSTIN: And they come out, like, loose, and like “bleaugh,” almost like playdough? But when they come out, they harden instantly. It’s very strange.
[Jack and Keith laughing]
KEITH: Augh, no! This is bad! That’s a bad churro! [simultaneous with Austin] They ruined your culture!
AUSTIN: People love them, though! That’s the other thing! Everyone around you, they’re having the best time!
JACK: You just know that the JIM robot has to be connected with tubes to the back to a tank full of this stuff, and there’s all sort of churro crusting around the tank, where the tube connects…
[Everybody mm-hms, agreement sounds]
AUSTIN: Yes.
ART: The tank says “industrial churro goo” on it.
[Austin laughs, Ali groans]
KEITH: Is there just like- are there just fries. Can I just have some fries.
AUSTIN: Yeah, the fries are alright. Eh, pretty good.
KEITH: Alright, the fries are alright, can I have like a- you know those balance boards that’ve got like the cylinder in the middle, and it’s just a board, and you just kind of balance on it? You just like, swoop back and forth, you know what I’m talking about?
AUSTIN: I think I know what you’re talking about.
KEITH: I’m gonna do that with my sky board while I throw french fries into my mouth. And that’s my day at the beach.
AUSTIN: Okay, I thought you were gonna say “at seagulls.” There are seagulls here! They are not real seagulls. They are like, move in very predictable patterns [Ali chuckles], like they have three or four routines and they just cycle between those three or four routines. Again, everyone else is having the best time.
ALI: Is it possible to like, tan, or are people just doing that even though they can’t…
AUSTIN: There is a section of the beach where you can tan. Like, or actually I wonder if it’s even more personalized than that. I think it’s more personalized than that. There’s like a little thing that you wear, like it’s like you need beach tags, to go to this beach. The beach tag actually just has a little knob, and you can just turn the knob up and it like, turns up your local tan ratio.
JACK: It just slowly melts you?
AUSTIN: Yeah! Yeah. That’s good.
JACK: Cool! I love this place.
ALI: That sounds safe.
AUSTIN: Yeah, it’s fine. Don’t worry, everyone’s having a good time. After, you know, around noon, let’s say you’ve had a pretty good morning there, Paisley Moon shows up, finally. He was supposed to meet you there much earlier. We’ve- I mentioned this last night in our chat, but I’ve finally cast Paisley Moon after weeks and weeks and weeks. He is… a guy whose name I forget… He was just in “Almost Human,” ah, what is his name- Ah, Michael Ealy. Um, there’s a really good image of him somewhere… We’ve also cast Mako as a character from “Lost Planet EX Troopers,” which never came out in America, and I’m so mad that it never came out in America…
KEITH: Oh, god, it’s the perfect casting that there’s ever been!
ALI: It’s… Ugh.
AUSTIN: His name is Bren Turner, it’s really good… Anyway! So. Paisley arrives around noon, and kind of gathers you all, probably up on the little overlook that AuDy is on, away from the sand, and the waves are crashing in the back. I think he’s wearing like a really nice, like, a light suit, something that breathes really nicely, a light color. He is kind of… He looks kind of like a light skinned black guy, is what we would describe him as, blue eyes, almost like Illusive Man eyes, like a little too bright. Very well put together. Like, compared to some of the other figures that you’ve seen, or like, even like Jamil, who is, you know, pretty stylish? It feels like she’s always on the go, whereas Paisley feels like he’s always already been where he is. You know? Like, he’s very comfortable no matter where you put him. And he- go ahead.
JACK: Is- is Mako still “lustful” for him?
AUSTIN: Yeah, Mako, still lustful for him?
KEITH: Oh, yeah. Like, how relaxed this dude is! This is the most relaxed dude!
[Jack laughs]
AUSTIN: He is the most relaxed dude. Aria is still “affectionate” towards him, and Cass is still “respectful.” Which was not on this list, somehow, but was on Cass’s sheet. [pause] So, he like sits you guys down at kind of a- it’s one of those benches that’s like, circular at the- not benches, it’s a table. It’s like a circular table with a circular bench-thing. It’s not- it’s really not big enough, but he like sits all of you down but he keeps standing… It’s one of those things where he leads you over there, so everybody’s like oh, and sits down, assuming he’s gonna sit too, and then he does not sit, so suddenly he’s like standing above you and like, almost, it’s just a very obvious power play, but it still works really well.
AUSTIN (as Paisley): Glad all you could come out tonight… I have a little bit of a problem that I hope that you could help me with.
KEITH (as Mako): Yeah, sure, what’s up!
AUSTIN: Who is… who’s gonna talk the most, here? I need to know that, because that’s who’s going to roll the move “Get The Job.”
KEITH: Umm… Probably me or Ali.
ALI: Yeah…
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: We both have things with this dude-
JACK: So does Art.
KEITH: -where we would talk a lot.
ALI: Yeah.
JACK: Oh, that’s true.
KEITH: Yeah, but then also we both have the highest Charisma.
AUSTIN: Totally. Well, the highest…
KEITH: The highest whatever the new “Charisma” is.
AUSTIN: It’s actually- it’s kind of weird, ‘cause it’s not just that, it breaks down in a different way there, actually. Because, like Style is how you “Fast Talk” a person, right, whereas Edge is how you “Intimidate” a person.
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: I mean, unless you have a move that says otherwise, the thing that you’d be rolling for “Getting The Job” is actually Edge. [Reading from the book] “When you negotiate the terms of a job, roll Edge. 10+, choose three from the list below, 7-9, choose one from the list below: the employer provides information, useful information, you get intel; when the employer provides useful assets, get gear; the job pays well; the meeting doesn’t attract attention; and the employer is identifiable. And that’s an Edge roll, not a Style roll, actually. But, other people can help with the roll, when it’s time to make that roll.
KEITH: I forgot that we had all new stats!
[Ali giggles]
AUSTIN: I know!
KEITH: I only have- I have zero in Edge.
ALI: I’ll take it. I feel like Mako might be like, “I wanna talk, but I don’t know how to be like- I’m intimidated by him!”
JACK: [laughs] Yeah.
ALI: [laughs] “So I can’t, like, negotiate this contract.”
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: Also, Mako doesn’t have a great contract track record. [Everybody laughs] We’re gonna end up with a bunch of fuckin’ industrial supplies we don’t need!
KEITH: Listen, I have this, I have the most experience signing contracts here!
AUSTIN: Good.
JACK: Mm-hm!
AUSTIN: Let’s not- no. No. I almost let that one slide.
ALI: Anyway.
[Jack laughing]
AUSTIN: And then decided not to. I was like, ah, that’s true, he does have the most- no. No. [Art laughing] Disagree. Okay. Is anyone helping with the roll?
JACK: I ham one edge. So I-
AUSTIN: So you- the way you help, is you roll the move “Aid or Interfere,” again, a lot like… which is just, it is, if you open up your basic moves list- or maybe it’s not in basic moves, maybe it’s- I may have put it into additional moves. You roll plus links. Help or interfere… [reading from the book] “When you help or hinder another character, roll Links with them. On a hit, they take plus one, or minus two forward, your choice. Seven to nine, you’re implicated in the results of the other character and may expose yourself to danger, retribution, or cost.” So it’s like, you could get a negative move made on you if you help.
[00:30:34]
JACK: Okay. I have two links with Aria.
AUSTIN: Go ahead and make a roll, if you would like to help. And tell me how you’re helping, in this initiation.
JACK: Uh, so that’s 2d6…
AUSTIN: Yep. Plus 2. Yeah, there’s no quick button for rolling Links, unfortunately.
JACK: Okay, so I think that the way AuDy is going to help with this, is they’re just going to stand up.
[Ali laughing suddenly]
AUSTIN: Okay. Sure! And be a big robot, and like completely break the power-
JACK: Thirteen!
AUSTIN: Woo, nice! Alright, so take plus one on your roll, Ali.
ALI: Okay. So that’s just 2d6+2 now, ‘cause I have-
AUSTIN: 2d6+2. Yeah. Well what is your- your Edge is 1?
ALI: Yeah. Exactly, yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay. 2d6+2.
ALI: I got an 8!
AUSTIN: An 8, okay, listen, that’s better than a 6. By 2! [Ali laughs] On a 8, sorry, moving my sheet around here, [reading from the book] “you get one of the following things, from the list below: the employer provides useful information-” ah, the employer- Paisley’s going to explain this mission also, this is additional useful information-
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN: [reading from the book] “The employer provides useful assets, a job pays well, the meeting doesn’t attract attention, or the employer is identifiable.” The rest of these don’t, like- if you don’t pick one, it doesn’t mean, like if you don’t pick “the meeting doesn’t attract attention,” that doesn’t automatically mean that it does attract attention, but it might mean that!
ALI: Can we like play out the scene before I decide, so we know what the mission is?
AUSTIN: Sure!
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN. Sure. Ah-
AUSTIN (as Paisley): It’s a little bit of data recovery. I have a client who a had very important file stolen from them, and they understand that it is being sold to the highest bidder, sometime in the next 36 hours. The problem is that it isn’t being held in one place, exactly. It’s somewhere on lockdown, as far as I can tell, there’s a facility that has it- that’s connected to it over the mesh. And they’re holding it in one physical node, for some amount of time, and then transferring it to another physical node, somewhere else- somewhere in the Centralia area of Counterweight. It’s a big area. As best as I can tell, the best thing to do is to find that secure location, break in, lock down that location that it’s at permanently, locate it, and then send a different team to actually secure the file from the local machine. Simple smash-and-grab, you’re overqualified for this as far as I’m concerned. But I figured I’d toss you one, I know you all have been having a little bit of a rough time lately.
[Ali giggles]
AUSTIN: And he like grins, ear to ear.
KEITH: Are things not going well, guys?
ALI (as Aria): We appreciate that-
AUSTIN: [simultaneous with Ali] Things have not been going well, no.
KEITH: Are things not going well? Haven’t we been doing a good job?
ALI: Aria rolls her eyes really dramatically when he says things aren’t going well so he’ll toss us one, and then… I’m gonna go with… “The employer is identifiable?”
AUSTIN: Okay. How do you get that extra info?
ALI: I guess I ask him whose information we’re really getting?
AUSTIN: He plays cagey for a bit. Okay. You ask him whose- Okay. Hm. I’m just thinking of how honest-
ALI: Oh, is that two different questions? [laughing]
AUSTIN: It is two different questions. But I-
KEITH: Sorry, what were two different questions?
ALI: So-
AUSTIN: Whose data is it, and who are you really working for.
KEITH: Oh, okay, yeah.
AUSTIN: But because you asked it that way, you kind of- I think that’s a way of trapping- you spend the point, I’m gonna give you the answer. I’m not gonna take this away. You push him for a little bit on it. He’s-
KEITH: Physically.
AUSTIN: Yeah, you push him physically. That’s what I wanna say, like he’s acting cagey, so I’m just curious, how do you get him to break, here?
ALI: Umm-
AUSTIN: ‘Cause he’ll break, I’m not saying- you will get this, but I wanna see what that scene looks like.
ALI: [laughs] Umm, I dunno, she just like keeps pressing the issue, and being like, “come on. Like, you’re saying that this is simple, you’re saying that this above us, there’s something going on here…”
AUSTIN: He’s very, like, reticent to respond and to be open, and eventually, he says:
AUSTIN (as Paisley): Alright, fine. It’s data from the September Institute that got out in the open. And it is very dangerous data. It’s the sort of stuff that leads to lots of people being killed.
AUSTIN: And he shoots Cass a glance.
AUSTIN (as Paisley): And the group that I’m working for lost a lot of people to data like this before, and would like to see that not happen again.
AUSTIN: Cass, you know immediately that it is the Apostolos empire that he’s working for, so that’s his current client. Or some group therein, right, like the Apostolos empire is an empire, well it’s a planet now, but it was an empire once, it still has the kind of infrastructure of a former empire; it’s big, but someone there is the person sending- who wants this.
ART: Sure.
AUSTIN: Also, you’ve noticed that he’s gone from talking about this like “oh, it’s a file” to “it’s a thing that can hurt people.”
AUSTIN (as Paisley): So are you in?
[Pause]
ALI: I think Aria-
KEITH: Art is nodding.
[Ali laughing]
AUSTIN: Yes, Art nods.
ALI: I didn’t wanna- [crosstalk]
ART: Well Aria’s the one who’s talking, I didn’t want- [crosstalk]
ALI: Yeah, Aria kinda sits back and- [crosstalk]
AUSTIN: Well you can all- [crosstalk]
ALI: -looks at Mako and Cass, just like “mhmm.”
KEITH: Yeah.
KEITH (as Mako): No, those guys suck! Let’s do it.
ALI (as Aria): Alright! We’ll do it.
AUSTIN: Alright, so. When you get a job, everyone stakes Cred.
JACK: Oh, god.
AUSTIN: [clears throat] Excuse me. You spend one, two, or three points of Cred, staking it on the chance of the mission succeeding. You get rid of that Cred-- it’s gone-- and if you complete the mission, and you get paid in full, you get back twice what you staked.
KEITH: Three. I stake three.
AUSTIN: [mutters] God. Okay!
JACK: How many do you have? Keith?
KEITH: Uh, I don’t think I have any.
[Jack and Keith laughing]
ALI: You should have five…
AUSTIN: No, you should have five. Everyone started with five.
ALI: [whispers] God…
AUSTIN: Lemme finish reading this before you stake three. [reading from book] “If a result of getting the job was ‘the job pays well,’ you get back three times what you staked instead of two,” so that’s a thing- you didn’t choose that, you didn’t choose ‘the job pays well.’ “If the job is particularly high-profile or the employer wants it done quickly, the multiplier may increase.” Um, I don’t think that this is going to increase, you have 36 hours, which isn’t a ton of time, but it’s not like, tonight. “Staking three Cred on a job raises the stakes, draws attention, and therefore increases the risk of the job. For every player that stakes three cred on a job, the Legwork or Action clock advances. Advance the Action clock by one first, then the Legwork clock. Continue to alternate.” So!
JACK: This is a really cool mechanic.
AUSTIN: It’s a pretty cool mechanic. So over on the clock screen… They have Mission clock written instead of Action clock, and I’m not gonna change it. So, if you stake three, let me know… What I will say is, for people at home, there are clocks on the screen, we talked about these last week. They’re kind of like pie charts, it’s like a circle. And the top right, the bottom right, and the bottom left quadrant are kind of big pie pieces, so it’s like from, kind of like noon to fifteen hundred hours, from fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred, from eighteen hundred to twenty-one hundred are three big slices.
KEITH: We’ll call them fourths.
AUSTIN: We’ll call them fourths. Yeah. And then, from twenty-one to twenty-two, from twenty-two to twenty-three, and twenty-three to midnight, are all big-- or, sorry, little slices that make up that fourth quadrant, that fourth-
KEITH: Sixteenths.
AUSTIN: They’re sixteenths. Thank you. Uh… And… They… Or actually, are they sixteenths?
ART: They’re not sixteenths.
AUSTIN: They’re not sixteenths.
ART: They’re twelfths.
AUSTIN: They’re twelfths, yeah.
KEITH: Sure.
AUSTIN: Each one is an hour, yeah.
KEITH: Oh, okay, I thought there was four little slices rather than three.
AUSTIN: Nah, there’s only three. Ah, from- as the mission clock advances, things get worse. For the first few, it’s fine. From fifteen to twenty-one hundred, or from noon to twenty-one hundred, no problems. Once you hit twenty-one hundred, things start to a little bit worse.
KEITH: This reminds me of Forbidden Island, a little bit.
AUSTIN: I never played that.
KEITH: It’s a cooperative, fighting against a sinking island, and as you move, you sink more pieces of the island.
AUSTIN: Interesting. Ohh, cool.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah, so that’s- this is similar to that, in that things will get worse and worse as the mission clock advances. As the legwork clock advances, the mission target becomes more and more aware of what is happening, and can ready additional things. Which is to say, that at twenty-one hundred, the mission clock might advance by one. At twenty-one hundred of the legwork clock, the mission clock might advance by one. Or, some other stuff could happen. You could get interfered with, et cetera. So, Aria, is Mako staking three cred?
KEITH: [dramatically] No, I’ll stake two.
AUSTIN: Listen, I’m not saying you can’t!
KEITH: I just don’t want to be the person that ruins things every time!
[Ali and Jack laughing]
ART: I don’t think that’s true!
KEITH: Even though I don’t feel like a lot of stuff’s gone wrong!
ALI: Or you don’t want to ruin things yet, is probably more accurate? [laughing]
AUSTIN: Wow.
KEITH: I wanna wait ‘til later to ruin things, when the stakes are higher.
AUSTIN: Okay. That’s… Yeah, that’s what we call drama, in the world.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: What is everybody else staking? Let me know.
KEITH: [laughing] I prefer to call it tragicomedy.
ALI: I’ll stake two.
ART: I will also stake two.
AUSTIN: Keith? Or, sorry, Jack?
JACK: Uh, I will also stake two.
AUSTIN: Everyone stakes two, okay.
KEITH: I’ll stake three.
[Ali sigh-laughing]
AUSTIN: Okay! Well, I’m gonna mark that. There we go.
JACK: We’re just handing Austin money, now.
AUSTIN: Oh, whoops, I put this in the wrong… Layer… token layer! Okay! Mission clock advanced! Uhh…
KEITH: It’s fine!
AUSTIN: It’s fine. It’s totally fine.
KEITH: It’s part of the game! It lets you have multiple people stake three!
[Jack laughing]
AUSTIN: It does! Everyone can stake three, right out the gate, it’s totally true! That would be a bad idea, but that’s true. Alright, before you leave, Paisley also says, also lets you know that the one thing that they do know is that the file is currently being protected by a group that is registered as a security firm in the OriCon database of companies, like it had their weird data signature the last time they got a glance at the data, so that’s one lead that you have. The other thing is that… He tells you that there’s at least one, maybe two other clients-- or not clients, other factions that have their eye on this thing, and might have people running interference, attempting to do an interception on the data. So, here’s the other thing I’m gonna explain, which is, when you do, in this game, one of the ways you mark experience is to follow Directives. We talked last week about your Personal Directives, for instance, Cass’s are, “When you put the advice of Koda ahead of the mission, mark Experience,” and “Rejected- when your former membership to the Apostolos royalty hinders the mission, mark Experience.” There’s also Mission Directives, that are separate from your personal ones, and you get experience whenever you complete one of your Mission Directives. The first one is always “get the mission,” so everybody mark experience now!
ALI: Ha-ha!
ART: Hey!
AUSTIN: The last one is always some version of “complete the mission.” Get paid. The ones in the middle are the ones that are kind of up in the air. So for this mission, I’ll put this in Skype, it is: One, get the mission. Two, locate the data. Three, recover the data. And four, get paid. So you’ll mark experience any time you do any of those things. So now we’ve entered what is called the Legwork phase. Oh, yeah, yeah. I said everything else? I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything else. So! [reading from book] “The Legwork phase is the phase in which the team prepares for running a mission. You hit the street, you do research, you reference contacts, to gather information, to make a plan, and to collect appropriate equipment. The longer the team spends on Legwork, the more risk that they have that the Corps involved will find out about their plans and prepare a specific defense for them.” So start- I guess this where you might want to start looking at your moves, and thinking about, how do you go about researching this stuff?
KEITH: Uhh, that reminds me, that last week, when we were doing the character creation, [Austin mm-hmms] I took a hiatus on- hiatus? I took whatever the appropriate word for that would be, on choosing my… programs?
AUSTIN: Your programs, yes.
KEITH: I did choose my programs, but then I forgot what we decided the analogs for the “hardening firewall processor” and “stealth” were? Oh, they’re just written in.
AUSTIN: They’re written in, and I’ve even gone in and added the- I messed with some people’s character sheets, while you were gone, by the way? And like added in the right numbers for stuff, and stuff like that.
KEITH: Okay.
[0:45:00]
AUSTIN: Basically everybody I messed with, here or there. So you took programs “Lockdown,” which lets you do “Compromise Security” a little bit better, “Manipulate,” which is when you “Manipulate Systems,” you get to Hold one more, and “Sift,” which is you can research better, specifically for pay data, which is a thing...oh it’s both: when you do research OR pay data.
KEITH: Or pay data, yeah.
AUSTIN: So one thing that I think we talked about very briefly before, that I wanted to emphasize here, is that you can have - you can kind of - we’re kind of treating you like a weird wizard, right? And so, those are the three programs that you know, but you need to spend time to like, lock them into your stratus brain. So, which two do you have - and that’s equal to your Processor.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: Do you know what I mean? So you can have two in your - like, loaded up at any moment, but you own three. So, what is the...what are the two that you have loaded in right now?
KEITH: Right now I’m going to do, um...Sift and the Lockdown.
AUSTIN: Okay. Those are good. Mark those somehow? I don’t know how - maybe just in those parentheses you could just write, like, “loaded” or something. You know?
KEITH: Yeah. I uh…
AUSTIN: Or some better, cooler word.
KEITH: I had copy-and-pasted it from the book and they had parentheticals, and I just left the parentheticals there because they look computery?
AUSTIN: [overlapping] I think they look cool.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: It does look computery,
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: I like it a lot. Anyway! Okay! So! What do you do to research this? Again, taking a look at your moves and at both the basic and additional moves list you can find in the “Handouts” section of roll20.
KEITH: I’m switching the word “loaded” to “engaged”.
AUSTIN: “Engaged” is good. There you go. That’s the real stuff. I should also go over - so, I’ll go over what the things are that you can do here. Like this is the - in the legwork phase...uh, there’s a lot of things you can do, y’know? You have all of your moves basically available to you, but some of the ones that you might want to think about are things like, if you were casing a place - assessing it using Assess; if you knew where it was you could go and Assess a place, where you kind of Discern Realities from Dungeon World, right? Which is: you can go in there and can ask some questions to me about what it’s like: what’s there; what’s safe there; what’s dangerous there.
You could Play Hard- or, no, you couldn’t Play Hardball, that would be, not - I guess you could; you could go threaten violence on someone you knew to get information from them. You could Research, which is “when you investigate a person, place, object, or service using a library, dossier, or database, or combination of them, ask a question from the list below:” - and then you get to ask a question, from this list below.
You could Hit the Street, which is “when you go to a contact for help, you get to roll Style, and then on a 7 or more you get what you want; on a 10+ you even get a little something else, but then there could be some complications there. You could also just invent a contact: “once per game” - once per session, rather - “you can declare a contact. When you need to call in a favor from a new contact, name and describe the contact, then say why that contact owes you a favor or why you owe them a favor. The MC will ask you some questions about the contact and your relationship. Add the contact to your list. You can only declare a contact once per mission, although certain playbook moves may allow you to gain more contacts in similar ways.”
And then...I think that’s about it; I think everything else is...those are like the sorts of moves you should be looking for in terms of...how to do research on this, so, any ideas?
KEITH: Is there like an Apostolosian embassy on Counterweight?
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: Yeah, it’s in Centralia...it is in a place called Monument Square, which is where you were a couple of months ago, where the food riot - or, not riots - where the food protests were?
JACK: Near Orth’s office.
AUSTIN: That’s...yeah, near Orth’s office, there’s kind of like a group of different embassies, including an Apostolosian one. That’s the one where Lys- Lyssa...Lyssa, is that what I said her name was? Laris, rather, Laris, uh, was going to be working out of. They’ve since gone back to Apostolos but...but yeah. So there is one.
KEITH: I want to hack into their computers with my head.
AUSTIN: Okay. Let’s...I’m gonna make that just a research roll?
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: Instead of making you go through - like, I don’t want to dig deep into the-
KEITH: [finishing sentence] You don’t want me to jack in?
AUSTIN: Yeah, I don’t want you to jack in and do all of the Matrix stuff because that will drag stuff down?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Let’s say that you’re able to do it in a way that’s like, you’re getting access to less-protected stuff; like, the most protected stuff is deep in [Keith vocalizes assent] something that is like, you would need a whole other run to do.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Y’know, it might even just be a time thing, like the time that you would need to get through to their deep-web stuff would just be too- and so you, uh-
KEITH: Right, and since this - Cass knows that this is who Paisley’s working for, just like sort of, Apostalos generally, like, somewhere in there is where Paisley’s client is?
AUSTIN: Yes.
KEITH: So I’m not really looking for, like, where the thing that we’re looking for is, because they probably don’t know,
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: - or else Paisley would have told us? I guess what I’m looking for is: what it is,
AUSTIN: What it is?
KEITH: And why it’s dangerous,
AUSTIN: Sure.
KEITH: And where I’m supposed to be getting it.
AUSTIN: Okay. So, yeah, gimme a Research check, which is Mind.
KEITH: My Mind I believe is 2?
AUSTIN: It’s 1.
KEITH: It’s 1?
AUSTIN: You just click the button; there’s a…
KEITH: Oh, Synth is 2, okay.
AUSTIN: Yeah, Synth is 2. There’s a little button that you can hit.
KEITH: Got it.
AUSTIN: One second, I need to turn sounds on; I’m not getting sounds in roll20 anymore…
ALI: Hmm.
AUSTIN: And I want sounds.
ALI: Yeah, [unintelligible]
KEITH: We-
AUSTIN: I want, like, the “bloooop”.
ALI: [giggles].
AUSTIN: Yeah. Are you getting the bloop?
ALI: Yeah.
JACK: Oh yeah, plenty of bloops happening here.
AUSTIN: Why am I not getting the bloop?!?
JACK: We could do [unintelligible] for you if you want
AUSTIN: I see it...I think I see it. Can you guys just make some bloops for me?
KEITH: [like a slide whistle] Blooop!
JACK: [sedately] Bloop.
[Ali giggles]
AUSTIN: Those are not good bloops.
ALI: [affecting offense] Woah...that’s rough.
KEITH: [crosstalking] If-
JACK: [crosstalking] I really wanted to just be someone morosely saying “bloop”.
KEITH: If Art wants to assist me, I’m sure he knows how these computers are laid out better than I do.
ART: I can’t assist you after the roll!
AUSTIN: You can assist him after the roll.
KEITH: [impishly] We’ve done it before!
AUSTIN: You can assist him after the roll.
KEITH: Alright.
AUSTIN: Otherwise, there’s no risk, right? Like...um...okay, “when you research”...just a second; lemme pull up my moves list…”when you research-”
KEITH: Oh wait, do I get a +1.
AUSTIN: What do you get a +1 from?
KEITH: From Sift: “Take +1 ongoing to Research”
AUSTIN: Oh yeah, totally!
KEITH: Boom, 10.
AUSTIN: Nice!
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Good work. Research: “When you investigate a person, place, or object, or service using a library, dossier,” et cetera, roll Mind. 10+, take intel - so take intel.
KEITH: Okay, got it.
AUSTIN: I will answer your question-
KEITH: I have 2 intel.
AUSTIN: Right. I will answer 2 questions from this list.
1: “Where would I find ‘blank’?” - which, again, I’m not going to answer it as if they know - like, I’m answering what they could know.
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: 2: “How secure is ‘blank’?”.
3: “Who or what is related to ‘blank’?”.
4: “Who owned or employed ‘blank’?”.
5: “Who or what is ‘blank’ most valuable to?”, and then
6: “What is the relationship between ‘blank’ and ‘blank’?”
I think there’s a version of that in there which is close to what you want to know?
KEITH: Yeah; I want to know what is...Following what you gave me,
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: ...the question is “what is the relationship between the files and Apostalos?”?
AUSTIN: Sure, that’s a good- that is a good way of putting it, yeah.
KEITH: Um…
AUSTIN: Um...They- the person who is there- so what you find is, you find communication between...let’s think...someone named “Joras” and Paisley? And Joras was writing- or, was getting Paisley involved, because they found out that the September Institute had developed a thing called the “Gnosis Virus”, G-N-O, S-I-S, and that it had gotten out. That someone had stolen it from the September Institute and was looking to sell it. And the reasoning behind it was: Joras thought that the Apostolosian Empire would be blamed if something went wrong with it, and so their response was “we need to get this thing and lock it down, before it spreads”.
KEITH: Okay, so this is a virus created by…?
AUSTIN: The September Institute.
KEITH: The September Institute, that…?
AUSTIN: Joras is not really clear on what it does, but it is, uh...y’know, Paisley obviously pushes for details, y’know, and kind of...I think you pull up their, like, chatlogs, basically.
JACK: An audiodiary.
AUSTIN: ...Yeah. Well, it’s an audiodiary that’s a conversation between the two of them,
JACK: Right.
AUSTIN: so it’s even like, it’s with video, and it’s like, their faces and stuff. And Joras is kind of like- Joras is like the mid-level manager who knows that the oil crisis is coming and can’t do anything about it; you know what I mean? Like, sees all of the paperwork there and is like, “Well...I- Yeah; uh-oh.” Like…”Aeuh...this is the one thing I can do, is I can reach out to a third party and maybe intercept this thing before it blows up in our faces, because we can’t have another war”.
As far as they can tell, it has something to do with neurology, and...and brain, stuff - not an expert. And there is a link that Joras sends- the thing that makes Paisley decide to accept the case - because Paisley is very, like, standoffish; like does not like doing work for the Apostolosian Empire as far as...as far as, kind of, that’s at least how he communicates it? Y’know, he’ll work for whoever, but also he has his preferences...and his fees; his added fees.
Joras links to a news story that shows that twelve people died in a nightclub in Centralia - a couple of weeks ago - and that Joras is kind of saying: “this is the sort of thing that happened”...and it’s just like, hemorrhaging, and all sorts of, like, seizures, and…
KEITH: Oh so this is...a virus virus, not a computer…
AUSTIN: It’s not clear.
KEITH: Or it’s both, or who cares, because everything’s computers anyway?
AUSTIN: Cuz everything’s...yeah.
JACK: Maybe I should have taken that tight encryption.
[laughing - Austin, Ali]
AUSTIN: So yeah, that’s what you get.
KEITH: Mkay.
AUSTIN: Wait, you have a follow-up - you also have a follow-up question.
KEITH: I do have a follow-up. I want to know who, besides our client, the virus is most valuable to.
AUSTIN: Um...the- yeah, that’s easy, actually. The group that wants it the most - and Joras is actually concerned about this - is the Diasporadic Department of Material Resources,
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: who is kind of...it depends on who you talk to, but there is a group of people who talk about them the way- You ever hear about how Coca-Cola maybe killed union leaders in Colombia?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You ever hear that? It’s like, that sort of thing, where it’s like…”yeah, the Diaspora does some bad shit over on Slate”, or, y’know, like, “the DDMR, who is the group that, like, is in charge of industry in the Diaspora, is maybe not as democratic as the rest of that place is and is maybe kind of a police state...that’s not great” and they would love something like this that like, kills people in a way that is hard to trace and can suppress, y’know, people. So them - they’re definitely one of the other clients, or one of the potential purchasers.
JACK: Right.
ALI: Yes…
AUSTIN: Alright. Yeah, pretty nice.
JACK: Do we wanna head for this nightclub? Do we know where it is, uh, from the video?
AUSTIN: The nightclub, uh...the nightclub deaths came a couple of weeks ago?
JACK: Okay; I’m just wondering whether or not we would be able to- I’m unsure as to whether or not- we’re just looking for a foothold, right?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: If we know that deaths happened in this place, I’m trying to…
AUSTIN: Mhm, it’s…[trails off].
JACK: I wonder whether or not we’d be able to speak to any patrons, or- I mean, what would they tell us?
AUSTIN: Everyone there died that night. Which is-
JACK: There were only 12 people in the nightclub?
AUSTIN: Yes.
ALI: Oh my god.
JACK: Ok. That’s not a very popular nightclub [snickers].
KEITH: It was closing time.
AUSTIN: You- It’s complicated.
JACK: Oh, okay. [Ali “oh”s in apprehensive comprehension.] Alright.
AUSTIN: Well, here’s a thing you know about nightclubs, now, is that like: plenty of people go out to nightclubs without ever leaving their house anymore.
JACK: Ah.
AUSTIN: So there were twelve bodies in that nightclub that night.
JACK: Right, okay.
ALI: Huh. Right.
JACK: Alright. I mean I-
AUSTIN: Uh but yeah you can totally go there. I as the GM am, uh...You can totally go there, and...you can declare a contact, maybe, there; that would be the one way that I would like, be...able to give you something, do you know what I mean?
KEITH: Also...yeah.
ART: Wait, I’m not sure this is useful information, though.
[Assent from Ali and Jack]
ART: Like...we need to know where we’re going; what this- more about this virus doesn’t seem super- like, don’t- don’t...don’t inhale it.
[laughter - Ali, Austin, Jack]
KEITH: If- but we also don’t know if it’s, like, a real- like an actual virus or not.
AUSTIN: It’s hard to tell.
KEITH: Like, an- right. I’m-
ART: I’m not sure that matters either, though, like once we’re in, it doesn’t matter what it is as long as we’re standing in front of it.
ALI: Right...
KEITH: Well, if it’s- well, I’m saying that if it’s...
JACK: I’m just wondering whether or not we might find anything in the place that it was used, that might- well, no, because we don’t know what this thing...
ALI: Yeah. I don’t think, like, with the way that this world works, we would be able to find, like...
JACK: We’re not going to Hansel & Gretel our way back to the…
ALI: Right.
AUSTIN: [chuckles] You might, but it’s not a...that might not be the easiest way to do this.
JACK: Right.
AUSTIN: Uh, you- but you could totally, again, if you wanted to drum up a contact there, who might know something, we could? But like, that’s- I don’t wanna-
ART: I think-
AUSTIN: I’m not saying you can’t do that, [talking behind Art] but I don’t really think that’s right.
ART: I think right now we either need another research roll? I don’t know if more than one person is allowed to research per mission…
AUSTIN: Mhm! Totally; totally.
ART: Or we need a contact who knows where we’re going.
JACK: Do we have- does anyone have any contacts that specialize in trans- like, current contacts that specialize in, like, investigation or transportation of illicit things, maybe Jamil?
ALI: I mean, the point of this game is that you can just make one up right now…
AUSTIN: You can! But you could also return to a previous one;
JACK: Yeah, totally.
ALI: Yes.
AUSTIN: ...you could also just make one up right now.
ALI: Um...
JACK: Sure; I’ll make a contact.
ALI: I think AuDy might know the...the transportation guy.
[Ali bursts out laughing; Jack follows suit.]
AUSTIN: Yeah, that’s true.
ART: Ouch.
JACK: [smilingly] Which transportation guy?
ALI: What!? The-
AUSTIN: Talk to me about your transportation person.
JACK: Uhhhhh okay.
AUSTIN: Who are they? Do you owe them a favor; do they owe you a favor? And why?
JACK: I think that they are a sort of Shadow Broker character.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: Except they are incredibly localized to Centralia,
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: which means that they are functionally useless everywhere else,
AUSTIN: Mhm.
JACK: but they have decided they can make a great of money, by essentially focusing on this specific area. You ask them something about another place on Counterweight, and they’ll go “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about”.
[laughter - Ali]
AUSTIN: Right.
JACK: I think they are...probably a networked robot, that is...
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: ...that is sentient, and is operating under incredibly tight decryption? And is basically sorting objects purely on its encryption status. They don’t know what the secrets it’s sending are,
AUSTIN: Sure.
JACK: They just know that they’re big secrets.
AUSTIN: Cool.
JACK: And you can talk to this robot, and you can just say “oh I want something, like, super secret”...or whatever.
AUSTIN: [chuckling] Right, like, again: you do know- there are some things you know about the file. You know the way it’s weirdly encoded- or, like, secured? And you know that it is a security company that is registered to OriCon,
JACK: Totally.
AUSTIN: Is the one that is running the security on it. So that’s something to go on.
[1:00:00]
JACK: So this is like, the Cryptarch for secrets, basically.
AUSTIN: Right. Where do you meet this robotic ally… Contact?
JACK: Um… I think I meet them in the… what’s the major newspaper? Or… news…. I don’t know if print media exists- what is the major-
AUSTIN: Ah… It doesn’t, but there’s a- but Jamil works for a paper, or for a publication at least.
JACK: Okay.
AUSTIN: I forget what we named it, and it’s gonna kill me. Um…. We can just make one up. It is the- you know what? I bet you Centralia has a local paper.
JACK: So the Centralia Herald.
AUSTIN: ‘Cause that’s- yeah, totally.
JACK: So this shadow broker is the ah… is the… what’s the word I’m looking for? Oh! The appointment booking software in the lobby of the Centralia news.
AUSTIN: [laughs] The Centralia Herald’s, like, receptionist area, basically?
JACK: Right, yeah. Yout have to book six unique appointments and then the screen just changes.
AUSTIN: Okay. And what do they look like?
JACK: They look like… a computer!
AUSTIN: [amused] Oh, okay! Just a computer! Just a-
JACK: It’s just a terminal.
AUSTIN: They have… Okay, it’s just a terminal. That’s actually really easy. Um, okay! So I think this is a different move, this is a move called Hit The Street!
JACK: Oh god, I have-
AUSTIN: When you go to a [inaudible] for help, roll plus Style-
JACK: Oh, yes! I love to roll style! [laughing]
AUSTIN: Uh-huh! Yeah, you’re really good at Style! AuDy has a negative one Style.
JACK: Yep! I am a fridge! Okay, here we go!
[Austin laughing]
KEITH: Okay, wait, can I aid this?
JACK: Yeah, probably. I would appreciate it.
AUSTIN: Yeah, you totally could. Narrate how.
KEITH: I would like to aid this. Uh- he- Jack- AuDy’s just gonna be hangin’ out with this computer, right?
JACK: Yeah! I think so! Well, I’m not networked, so the only way I can hang out with it is to stand near it.
AUSTIN: You have like a, you literally have a computer terminal that you’re typing into?
JACK: Yeah, totally. I think it’s like a Skype chat, right? Or does it talk?
AUSTIN: So you’re not going there, you’re actually just going there from the Kingdom Come?
JACK: Oh no, I am going there. I’m standing in the lobby as if I’m booking an appointment.
KEITH: I think-
AUSTIN: Oh, okay. There are also lots of people walking to and from places, I think the Centralia Herald’s building is one, filled with other things that aren’t the Centralia Herald, it’s a skyscraper and they’re renting out tons of other office spaces, and also it’s a nice, it’s like a glass… not just a dome, but also like a… what’s the word I’m looking for? It’s like a glassed in courtyard, almost.
JACK: Yeah, with like a little tree.
AUSTIN: Yeah, exactly. And in Centralia, there aren’t trees everywhere. Centralia is not a BlueSky Dome, so like, these little places are like little respites from a smoggy, shitty outside.
JACK: It’s like a very tiny, kind of crappy Citadel in Mass Effect.
AUSTIN: Yes. Exactly. So you’re up on this little- So this terminal is also old. I think this terminal pre-dates the war. It’s an old terminal-
JACK: Everybody always complains.
AUSTIN: Right. Exactly. And you manage to connect into- do we have a name for this thing? For this contact? We should name them. Do they identify as a sentient thing? Or just like-
JACK: Oh, yeah! I think so. I mean, you’re pretty good at robot names, Austin.
AUSTIN: I mean, you know. It’s been a while. Uh, let’s do… I’m trying to think, is this in line with like, the JIM style naming, or is this-
KEITH: This robot sounds like a Benny to me.
AUSTIN: Yeah?
[Jack laughs]
KEITH: A Benny.
AUSTIN: Short for beneficial… it’s like the Beneficial…
JACK: It’s like the Beneficial Automated Appointment Booking System of Centralia Herald.
AUSTIN: But you call them Benny. Totally. Okay. write that down in your contacts list. And then give me-
ART: Wait, that acronyms out to “BAABS,” if we wanna....
AUSTIN: Yep! It’s Babs.
ART: If we wanna…
AUSTIN: Benny, Babs, whatever you wanna-
KEITH: [laughing] Benny Babs…
AUSTIN: Babs is really good.
JACK: Yeah, I’m up for that.
KEITH: Benny gets really annoyed when you point out that their acronym doesn’t actually come out to Benny. It’s like, shut up, it’s fine.
[Ali laughing]
AUSTIN: Yeah!
KEITH: I think the way that I’m helping is that I’m like really obnoxiously sort of back-seat driving, like trying to tell AuDy-
AUSTIN: [laughing] You can’t say “I’m being obnoxious is how I’m helping!”
KEITH: Nononono! I think I actually am helping, because maybe AuDy isn’t great at talking to other robot things.
AUSTIN: Oh, okay.
KEITH: And just being like, no, they don’t like it when you ask it like that, you gotta ask it this way. And he’s just like, ugh, fine, whatever.
AUSTIN: Alright, roll links- roll your Links with AuDy.
KEITH: Alright. Do I have a Link?
AUSTIN: I don’t think so!
KEITH: I don’t think so either.
AUSTIN: So roll just 2d6, straight!
[Keith laughing loudly]
AUSTIN: Good job. I’m still not getting those beeps and boops! [Keith beeps and boops] Keith rolled a three. A two and a one.
KEITH: I rolled the lowest possible thing you can roll, and then one more than that.
AUSTIN: That did happen. That did happen. Ahm….
KEITH: So yeah, I was just being obnoxious. I wasn’t obnoxious and helpful.
AUSTIN: That’s fine. So you’re being- [pauses] As Mako is being very loud, and kind of like, explaining to AuDy what they should say to Benny Babs, you… it feels for a brief moment like someone else is part of that conversation. Like someone chuckles and walks by. And like, maybe they’re chuckling to a podcast they’re listening to, but it kind of feels like they’re chuckling at you being a goofball. You’re not sure what that’s about! Jack!
JACK: Hmm!
AUSTIN: AuDy! Roll… Roll…
JACK: Style!
AUSTIN: Hit the street! Roll Style.
JACK: Ah. Cool. Here we go. Here we go. And…
AUSTIN: When you - yep!
JACK: Go! YES!
[Art and Ali cheering]
AUSTIN: You rolled a ten! Even with a negative one, you rolled a six and a five, minus one is ten! Hit the street! Style! [Reading from the book] “When you go to a contact for help,” hah, Art is pumping his hands in the air. “When you go to a contact for help, roll Style. Seven plus, you get what you wanted. Ten plus, you get a little something extra. Choose either intel or gear. Seven to nine, choose one from the list below-” you don’t need to do this! But if you had rolled a seven to nine, it would either cost you extra, take time to put together, or attract unwanted attention, complications, consequences, or you would need to do them a favor in the future. But you don’t need to, so you just did this right! I also just love this as Mako’s like, “no no no no. Here’s what you gotta do. I know how to talk to a computer.” [Ali giggles] And AuDy’s like, no. No. No. Okay. So what do you want, AuDy?
JACK: Um, I would-
AUSTIN: I think that a [rhythmic] “dun-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh” comes up on the terminal. What do- “duh-duh-duh-duh” What do you want, AuDy?
JACK: I think that I would like- I can’t get gear from this thing, can I?
AUSTIN: Eh, sure.
JACK: Well how do I get gear from a terminal?
AUSTIN: It’s all about, it’s the Beneficial Automated…
JACK: Booking system!
AUSTIN: Booking System! It just books you a thing. Like, you’re gonna walk outside and a truck is gonna pull up with gear in it. [Jack laughing] Like, [thick Jersey accent] “It says to deliver this here, I guess! Well here’s a robot, I’m gonna give the package to a robot, the robot’ll know what to do with it!”
JACK: I think I’m going to go for gear.
AUSTIN: [laughing] Okay!
ART: I don’t wanna tell you what to pick Jack, but if you remember, we went out there trying to find where the thing was.
JACK: Oh, right, I just sort of assumed that that’s coming…
ART: Oh, that’s just coming?
JACK: By default? ...In addition?
AUSTIN: Yeah, that’s coming, I wanna know- Intel or gear is your bonus thing.
JACK: Absolutely. It’s like, we’re dealing with the thing that causes people hemorrhage, and I have a feeling that gear may come in handy.
[Ali giggles]
AUSTIN: Yes. It totally might. It totally might!
ART: One of those anti-hemorrhage masks.
JACK: Oh, yeah, totally!
AUSTIN: Umm…
KEITH: The benefit is that AuDy has nothing to hemorrhage.
AUSTIN: That is true!
JACK: Well we don’t know how it affects robots!
AUSTIN: That’s also true. So…
JACK: I’ll mark gear.
AUSTIN: Mark gear, that’s one. Two, Benny Babs tells you that a file, some data matching that description, has been passing around through Centralia and the nearby domes over the last couple of weeks. It did definitely appear at that nightclub, so that’s one confirmation that it was involved there; two, it seems like it’s tied to a facility in Dome 32, which is over to the west. [Inaudible crosstalk] That’s like where an incoming connection is, over the mesh. Also, I’ve decided we’re calling the matrix the mesh, or the internet the mesh, I’m stealing that from something, I cannot for the life of me remember where, it might be an anime, it might be something I hate… I vaguely feel like I was watching something I didn’t like, and I was like, ugh, I don’t like this, but they’re calling the internet the mesh [Jack laughs] and I like that a lot, so I’m gonna take that. They may have called it meshnet, I’m just calling it the mesh.
ART: “Meshnet” is awful.
AUSTIN: Meshnet’s awful. Don’t go to meshnet.
JACK: Well what’s great, is someone’s going to tell us what it is on Twitter within minutes of this episode going live.
AUSTIN: Yes. Yes. Like, yeah, you idiot, it’s “Duhh.” “Oh, yeah, like Duhh! And I kinda liked Duhh!”
JACK: Actually I’m just going to leave a space here for you to type the Twitter message: [pauses for several seconds] Great, cool, thanks.
[Ali laughs]
AUSTIN: I really appreciate it. Ah, alright. So you know, one, you know that it is a thing that- the control center for the thing is in Dome 32, that’s where it- and right now, it is in… it is somewhere in Centralia, but that over the last week, that thing has moved once a day, every day. Or, once a day, every day, at a random time.
JACK: Okay.
AUSTIN: It’s always in the PM, never in the morning, so it’s always in its place for a kind of large amount of time, but it never goes more than a full day in the same place. So in other words, this is kind of like, it’s kind of weird to explain this. So there is a file, and there’s only one of them. It can’t be copied, it can’t be, kind of, moved to one place from another place without it kind of leaving that first place? It isn’t like a normal file. It is on a computer system, it is being held on servers. But it moves from server to server, and it’s gone from that first server, and there’s no data connected to it. And it’s doing that, and it’s being moved and being protected in that way, because of something in Dome 32.
JACK: Okay.
AUSTIN: Um, because you got a ten, I’m just gonna give you the whole thing. Well, not the whole thing, but, you’re able to cross-reference that, okay, what’s in Dome 32, what are the security companies there, the only OriCon registered security company there, is there’s a base for Horizon Tactical Solutions.
ART: Ohh, fuck.
JACK: They made those mechs, right, that we…
ALI: Oooh…
AUSTIN: They don’t make them, they are [inaudible crosstalk].
JACK: Oh, no, they piloted those.
KEITH: Do they buy them?
[Jack chucking, Keith laughing loudly]
AUSTIN: They do use a bunch of Snowtrack mechs! They were there defending Snowtrack when you-
JACK: They blew up the BlueSky dome!
AUSTIN: No, that was the Weightless. That was the Weightless.
JACK: Ah, yes, you’re right, sorry.
AUSTIN: These are the people who were hired by-- The Weightless kidnapped Cene, Horizon was like defending the Snowtrack facility where Cene was being kept.
JACK: Ohh, that was that thing’s leg I blew off!
AUSTIN: Yeah, no, he’s dead.
JACK: [Disappointed] Oh.
AUSTIN: His name was Pretty and he is dead. I had to strike his name out, yesterday.
JACK: Great.
AUSTIN: Like, oh yeah! He died. [Ali laughing] So yeah, that’s what you know.
JACK: So are we going-
KEITH: Let’s go there!
JACK: Should we go there?
KEITH: Yeah. Let’s go there.
AUSTIN: So here’s what I’ll say, is, we’re very close to what I would call the “legwork” segment; or not real close- if you go there, we’re switching from “legwork” to “action.”
JACK: Yeah.
ART: I got two moves, then.
ALI: Umm…
AUSTIN: Okay. Yeah, I don’t wanna do anything where- Okay, let’s go through both what Cass and Aria-
ART: Aria might wanna go first? ‘Cause my thing, my things benefit from me knowing more.
AUSTIN: Okay.
ALI: Uhh, I was gonna “declare contract” to learn more about the security, but if we know that it’s Horizon, maybe that’s not… necessary…
AUSTIN: [Simultaneous with Ali] Totally fine. No, that’s a totally fine thing to do. So what’s your contract that you’re declaring?
ALI: Um, well actually, before I-
AUSTIN: Let’s- go ahead.
ALI: Sorry, before I decide, there’s like, Horizon is doing physical security for the place, but then there’s also like, it’s encrypted with a thing? Or...
AUSTIN: No. So they’re doing-- It’s like a leash, right. The file is leashed to a… The file is being moved from place to place. Imagine the file is a dog. We all like dogs.
JACK: Oh I love them!
AUSTIN: Imagine the file is a dog that killed twelve people in a nightclub a couple of weeks ago.
JACK: Oh. I like it less.
AUSTIN: It is being-- and imagine, like, oh, what do you call where it is that dogs get taken when they’re bad dogs?
KEITH: The pound?
AUSTIN: The pound wants to capture this dog! Right? But, the dog doesn’t want to get captured. So it moves, from that nightclub to another place the next night. So the pound goes to the nightclub, and goes, “ah, I guess it’s not here!” and it does that every night. The dog is also being held on a leash by somebody in Dome 32. It’s a very long leash.
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN: Now. And that leash is like telling the dog where to go. So, you need to not only find out where the dog is, you need to make sure you have the people holding the leash, or you have the leash, so that the second that you show up where the dog is, they don’t pull the leash and drag the dog away.
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: That’s what the security situation is with Horizon. Horizon is holding the leash.
ALI: Ohhhhh....
KEITH: So you’re saying that we gotta split up.
AUSTIN: It seems like it!
JACK: Hah! This always goes well for us.
ALI: Okay, yeah. I’m gonna “hit the street” with a contact that I’m now gonna declare, who is a guy named Wes.
AUSTIN: Okay. Hey, Wes.
ALI: He’s like a recruiter, or like, if you’re a guy who wants a job, he’ll set you up with one of the security companies on Counterweight. I think Aria’s known him for a while just through like doing different jobs and such; I think that he owes me a favor… because I gave him an autograph that he gave to his niece.
[Everybody going “awww”]
AUSTIN: That’s very nice. That’s really sweet. That’s good.
ALI: So.
AUSTIN: Are you visiting in person, or are you calling?
ALI: I think I’m visiting in person. ‘Cause that’s how he likes to operate.
JACK: Do you think he’s hoping for another autograph?
[Ali laughing]
AUSTIN: I think he- If you already gave him the autograph for nothin’-
JACK: Oh, that’s true.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: He’s not looking for anything, he’s just happy to see you again.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You meet him at a seafood restaurant. It is an open-air place where there are people preparing, like, sushi, and lobster, and all sorts of different stuff, and there is just kind of like, you go up and you pay at different vendors, and you bring it back to a central location and you sit down and eat. It’s also getting to be- it’s about sunset now, in terms of the time of the day it is, just so you’re aware.
ALI: This is so nice!
AUSTIN: It’s very nice.
JACK: It’s a seafood sunset date!
AUSTIN (as Wes): Aria! Nice to see you, how you doing?
ALI (as Aria): I’m good! How’ve you been?
AUSTIN (as Wes): I’m great. Thanks again.
[1:15:00]
ARIA: Yeah
WES: Y’know, uh, Melissa loved it - she really- just a big fan...
ARIA: How old is she now?
WES: ...a lot of her friends have- Uh, she’s seven...t- seven; she’s seven. [Ali barely suppresses laughter.] Y’know, I’m very busy. [through own laughter] It’s hard to keep up, y’know, I never know if she’s seven or seventeen. Somewhere in there; somewhere in-b- somewhere in between seven and seventeen.
ART (joking as Wes): She’s been signing a lot of contracts; that’s how I know.
[laughter - Ali & Austin]
WES: She really idolizes you. [Aria awws] She’d just love to grow up to be you.
ARIA: Aww, yeah, well.
WES: She loves your new song.
ARIA: [chuckles nervously] Ah, well.
[Keith laughs off-mic]
JACK: Sorry, Art just posted in the chat: “Aria’s hit new song, ‘The Chime Are Dangerous Terrorists’”.
[laughter - Ali, Austin, Keith]
AUSTIN: [fondly] Oh...oh, boy.
JACK: I love that song - ah, so good.
ART: Yeah, it’s a really catchy bridge.
AUSTIN: The- yeah.
JACK: So catchy.
AUSTIN: So there is a new Aria Joie song out right now: it’s called “Skylight L-” or, uh, “SkyBright Love”, that is getting some momentum on the charts.
[Ali giggles]
AUSTIN: Weird...it’s about the blue skies in Counterweight’s future.
JACK: Oh, god.
AUSTIN: The beautiful blue skies in Counterweight’s future.
ALI: Yeah...she’s thrilled. Um, but also, like, Aria Joie’s, like, personal Soundcloud is really active lately? Um, so, a few people are like “wait, what’s going on?”
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: “These are also direct messages that are in competition with each other”. Like, the Aria Joie fanboards are flipping out.
AUSTIN: Well, it’s weird bc like the blue- the song- the song “BrightS-”, uh, “SkyBright Love” is very clearly about, like, using technology & friendship to, like, save a broken planet and also a broken heart? Whereas, like, none of the technology message is really in your personal Soundcloud stuff,
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Right? Like...but if you’re only half-listening, the way most people do, because like…”I don’t have time to dissect these Drake lyrics; like, it’s just a good beat”. Like “Oh yeah, she’s talking about the environment and all this stuff! Cool, she’s way into- She’s, cool, she loves these BlueSky domes; cool”.
ALI: Yeah, like, if you had it shuffled on your Aria Joie playlist, it would fit in perfectly…
AUSTIN: Right. Right, Exactly.
ALI: God.
AUSTIN: So, what do you want to know from this guy? And then roll Hit the Street.
JACK: It’s about security, right? So like,
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: We want to know, like...if this dude is, like, a recruiter, he might know-
AUSTIN: He knows-
JACK: -something about, basically, “what are we gonna see around and inside this building,
ALI: Oh, okay, yeah.
JACK: “in terms of people with guns.”
AUSTIN: Yes.
ALI: Yeah. That was the question that I was thinking of, but I don’t know if it’s more interesting to be like “Hey, how do we cut this leash”, or like…
AUSTIN: Right. Uh...he wouldn’t know about the leash.
ALI: Okay, yeah.
AUSTIN: That’s a little bit more, like,
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: What they’re actually doing moment to moment? But he could totally tell you details about the facility itself and like how it’s protected, and, et cetera.
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN: So, go ahead and roll Hit the Street. Ah, it made a beep for me! Thank you. Look at that, a 10+!
ALI: A ten!
JACK: Aw, yes, we’re rolling so well!
AUSTIN: Very nice, yeah,
JACK: Except for that one time that Keith didn’t.
[Ali laughs]
AUSTIN: Except for that time that Keith rolled a 3.
KEITH: Do I mark XP for that?
AUSTIN: No, you don’t mark XP for that in this game - it’s all directives, all the time.
ART: This game really punishes failure in a way that...Dungeon World explicitly rewarded failure.
AUSTIN: Yeah...different- cyberpunk is not fantasy, y’know? Uhh, “when you hit the street”...um, we just did this, right. So, “you get what you want”, so I’ll give you that description, and then also tell me do you want Intel or Gear?
ALI: Iiiiii am going to take some Intel.
AUSTIN: Okay. He says, like, “yeah, yeah; uh, I’ll send over what I got for you; it’s, uh,” and like you get a file that just says, like, y’know, “additionalInfo.horizon- .hts.info”
[Jack chuckles]
AUSTIN: It’s a very strange- very strange file formatting, on Counterweight. Wes explains that that base is...um, it serves two purposes? Y’know, Horizon has a bunch of different facilities on Counterweight - that one is a combination of data security and also is their, like, mecha bay. So there’s actually, like, big hardware there, in terms of like- they have a couple of Luna bodysuits there, which are the kind of like man-sized mech suits that SnowTrak makes. They might have a Saturn there, which are like the giant quad-walking mechs. And he says that they have something experimental, that SnowTrak just put out, called the Venus. They just moved it there for trials & testing. But yeah, a lot of hardware there - it is definitely one of their most- y’know, it’s not their most secure location: a person could get into it, but if you get caught, you’re outgunned. I don’t know; it’s pretty dangerous.
JACK: Luckily we’ve never been caught.
[Ali chuckles through her nose]
AUSTIN: Correct; right.
ALI: Um, well-
AUSTIN: And then mark that Intel, by the way.
ALI: Yeah.
ALI (as Aria): Um, well it was good seeing you. Thank you for this.
AUSTIN (as Wes): You too!! I’ll tell Melissa that...you love her…
ARIA: Aww, I do.
AUSTIN: I- that is- yeah, that’s...he’s very- he’s very awkward. [Ali chuckles] It’s- he just wants to be a good uncle, but is also...he and his sister don’t really talk that often; it’s very complicated.
ARIA: Call me if you need anything else.
WES: [downward inflection] Of course.
AUSTIN: And he like, just goes back to eating and like, kind of expects you to leave, like “I’m gonna eat now...bye.”
[laughter - Ali & Jack]
AUSTIN: Alright, any other moves- Art, you wanted to make- Cass wanted to make the, uh, Make A Plan move?
ART: I might also wanna- no, I guess not…
AUSTIN: Every-
ART: I was gonna be like “maybe I should also do a Research hit”, but like…
AUSTIN: Totally could; every time we-
ART: I don’t know what here- “where would I find it”, we know that; “how secure is it”, we kind of know that…
AUSTIN: Mhm.
ART: “Who or what is related to (blank)”, I don’t know that I care.
[laughter - Austin & Jack]
ART: “Who owned or employed (blank)”, also like, I...we either know it or I don’t care. “Who or what is (blank) most valuable to”, I mean, us, right? We’re the ones going to get it.
[Jack chuckles]
KEITH: Listen, man, it’s not important until you ask - or until you didn’t ask.
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah. That’s exactly it.
ART: “What is the relationship between (blank) and (blank)”...no, I think we’re good. I think we’re good.
AUSTIN: Okay.
ART: Everything’s fine.
AUSTIN: So, the only other thing I would suggest- the only- the other things I would suggest, the only last one would maybe be Assessing the actual place. Um, because then you- one of the things with Assess is that you can spend 1 hold at any time to ask a question, and then [Jack “oh”s in the background] I’ll reveal the answer, and then you get a bonus when acting on those answers.
ART: Oh, that’s a good one
JACK: [crosstalking briefly] My book-
ART: Yeah that’s- I’ll go Assess it; I’ll go stake it out.
AUSTIN: Okay. So that’s like-
JACK: [crosstalking] Can I assist with that?
AUSTIN: I don’t think so; I think you’re doing your stuff with-
JACK: Oh, okay, cool; that makes sense.
AUSTIN: You and Mako are off talking to Benny Babs, uh, while t-
JACK: [crosstalking] I just have that rotor with sonar, uh...but if-
AUSTIN: That’s a pretty- Yeah, actually, you know what, yeah, that’s the sort of thing where, totally, you could support with- like, from a distance with that?
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I think that’s fine.
JACK: Do I roll for that, or do we just-
AUSTIN: [crosstalking] Give me a Links roll.
JACK: Okay cool.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Gimme a- gimme a-
JACK: I have 2 with...uh...Cass.
AUSTIN: Cass. Nice. So you’re, like, providing video footage of the place?
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Okay.
JACK: Also, you asked us to name it- name things,
AUSTIN: I did!
JACK: and this is called the Junebug Aerial Photography Drone.
ALI: Aww.
AUSTIN: Aw, Junebug.
JACK: It is too noisy to provide any accurate aerial photography, [Austin laughs] but is tremendously useful for seeing things from a distance. Ope, 7...whoops.
AUSTIN: Okay, gimme a- Okay, that’s fine...when you roll a 7 to help, I think you open yourself up to consequences. So...
ART: Oh, I- someone saw your big fancy drone.
JACK: Sorry, Cass.
AUSTIN: Yeah, someone saw your big fancy drone.
JACK: [grumbling, or possibly drone foley]
AUSTIN: Okay, go ahead and give me an Assess roll. Jesus Christ!!! A perfect roll.
JACK: Oh, plus- 13!
AUSTIN: 14.
ALI: Woah!!
AUSTIN: 14! I’m not-
JACK: That might be our highest roll ever.
AUSTIN: Uh - yeah. I expected to advance this Legwork clock a little bit, at some point...it’s not like you have a- you don’t even have like a 2 in Edge; you have a 1 in Edge.
ART: Okay.
AUSTIN: So.
ALI: God....
ART: Well…
AUSTIN: “When you closely study a person, place, or situation, or when you quickly size up an opponent or charged situation, roll Edge. 10+, gain 3 hold-” so gain 3 hold - “7-9, gain 1 hold - in the ensuing action, you may spend 1 hold at any time to ask the MC a question from the list below if your examination could have revealed the answer.” So, tell me how you’re examining it, first of all - I guess you’re using this rotor drone?
ART: Yeah, and I think I’m also trying to like-
AUSTIN: [finishing thought] What else?
ART: On the ground, right, like, it’s…
AUSTIN: Mhm.
ART: It’s a facility- it’s a secure facility but it’s not like there’s not a sidewalk, right?
AUSTIN: Right. There is a sidewa- it’s like, a sidewalk, and then a, uh...there’re places where there is, like, chain-link fencing with barbed wire?
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: There’s also places where it is just, like, high walls - high, like, solid, walls, with cameras and stuff everywhere. Pointed inwards and outwards - so they definitely see you walking around a little bit, but you don’t draw any attention.
ART: Sure.
AUSTIN: And you manage to keep, like, your face hidden and stuff like that. Here are the questions that you can spend that hold on - you can spend it now or you can hold it; it’s up to you. Uh, and then you take +1 forward when acting on the answers of these questions. So,
1: “What potential complications do I need to be wary of?”
2: “What do I notice despite an effort to conceal it?”
3: “How is ‘blank’ vulnerable to me?”
4: “How can I avoid trouble or hide here?”
5: “What is my best way in/way out/way past?”
6: “Where can I gain the most advantage?”
7: “Who or what is my biggest threat in this situation?”, and
8: “Who or what is in control here?”
ART: [grinning] Uh, what- what is my best way in?
AUSTIN: Um...it depends on what you mean by “you”. You as an individual? Like, an individual-sized person?
ART: Yeah, or the individuals I’m closely affiliated with.
AUSTIN: Right, sure. I think the easiest way for- that you see...I think that they have a weak side, um...there is- so they have this, like, backyard area...or, not “backyard”; it’s actually the side...it’s like- So here’s a building; the building is a square - right, or a rectangle or something, right? And then, the front door is obviously super well-guarded, the- the kind of back area, and then to the- to the right of it, is...is part of this, like, fenced-in area? But the left side is just, like, facing a street. And there’s cameras there, and there’s a guard who goes on patrol on that side, but it’s a loading dock, and like, you needed...it- they don’t let the loading dock- you don’t drive through the fencing to get to the loading dock - there’s no gate back there; it just- it drives through a giant loading bay that opens up, and then- and like, into a warehouse. That area there - it’s facing the street - is probably the most susceptible to being- uh, to immediately get into the facility without being seen, right? Because it’s like, it’s warehouses back there; it isn’t the big open area that is the courtyard- or, like, the kind of- the testing ground area, and it isn’t a front door.
ART: [quietly] Ah.
AUSTIN: So that’s like their weakest bit.
ART: Okay, and I guess I sort of want to open this up to comments. I want at [sic] least hold one of these, because these are some useful things later. Do you think-
AUSTIN: Yes.
ART: Uh, “what do I notice despite an effort to conceal it” is worthwhile here, or worth saving?
[brief silence]
ART: Team.
JACK: I wonder whether or not that might be more useful situationally?
ART: Yeah, perhaps.
JACK: Y’know, like, we come into a big room...that usually happens, right, we usually come into a big room.
AUSTIN: Lots of big rooms.
ART: Yeah, we’re fans of big rooms. Alright, I think I’m gonna keep my other two holds.
AUSTIN: Okay. Totally good. Now you want to make a plan?
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Is that what it sound- that’s what it sounded like. So now, let’s say that it is...it is...everyone’s back together and it’s like 10pm that night. You’re in the Kingdom Come, which is in or around Centralia...What do you do?
ART: Alright. So, we need to locate the virus, and we need to get someone in to hold the leash.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: How- ugh, how are we going to find the physical file?
AUSTIN: The facility will- will be able to give you that information.
ART: Okay, but that means our-
KEITH: Yeah, we could-
ART: Our mobile team has to be very mobile.
AUSTIN: You know that it will be in Centralia or a nearby- Or, like, when I say “a nearby dome”, I mean the spaceport or the Krilham CED.
ART: Oh, that near.
AUSTIN: That near. Not like, Dome 32, or OriCon Expeditionary - like, it’s tho- it’s that central trio of domes.
ART: Okay. We need-
KEITH: Umm…
ART: We need Mako on the inside team, right?
AUSTIN: There will probably be security of a...of a...yes.
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN: You do need him there.
ART: And it-
KEITH: Yes.
ART: And then it should be…
AUSTIN: Because you need someone to hack into stuff-
ART: [crosstalking] And then it should also be me because I have the holds that apply to that facility.
JACK: Uh, that’s true.
KEITH (as Mako): [beginning at the same time as Jack’s next line] Alright, me & you-
JACK: Unless you come in on radio, but, like, y’know.
MAKO: Me & you, Cass; let’s do this!
ART: Yeah, I guess the obser-
KEITH: I feel like-
ART: I just realized it could be Mako & AuDy...because I think AuDy is the one who could most...no, no that’s not right. Well cuz with the cameras...with the camera drone, I could…
MAKO: Cass, we never hang out anymore; let’s do this.
ART: Yeah, I think it is Mako & Cass.
JACK: [laughingly] Okay.
AUSTIN: Uh...that’s a good name for a movie,
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: I’ll say: “Mako & Cass”.
JACK: Tagline: “We never hang out anymore!”
KEITH: [indistinct, cut off by laughing]
ART: Also Mako’s kind of our Enzo, so it all kind of makes sense.
ALI: Yeah?!?
AUSTIN: Right.
[laughter - Ali & Art]
AUSTIN: That’s true.
KEITH: Who- wait, who?
ALI: We’ll talk about it later.
AUSTIN: The- don’t worry; I’ll link you to a thing. Uh…[slowly and declaratively through the first half of Ali’s next line] Can’t. Teach. That.
ALI: No, cuz you can’t show him a picture of Enzo Amore; [Austin laughs] it’s gonna be a whole conversation cuz we’re gonna have to explain so much.
ART: I almost linked someone when I was like- when we were doing that casting conversation, it’s like: “Oh, here’s Cass”- it’s like, that’s not true, but it’s just- it would be funny to…
KEITH: I like that anime guy better than this weirdo…
ALI: [bursts out laughing]
KEITH: This is a weirdo.
ART: Alright.
ALI: Oh...I love this so much, but-
ART: [crosstalking] Which means that we need- I mean AuDy and Aria...
KEITH: He’s different in every picture and still is weird.
ALI: [laughs]
ART: Uh, AuDy and Aria makes sense as the hunt team, too, because they’re super mobile: they have a spaceship and they have our most mobile rigs.
ALI: Our spaceship isn’t very mobile, but I- the Brilliance could get us around.
KEITH: I mean, well, it’s fast.
JACK: My dog has eight legs...[Ali wheezes with laughter] that’s- that’s two times as many legs.
ALI: You just still have your dog?!
AUSTIN: Wait, I thought it was six legs.
ALI: It’s eight.
AUSTIN: Eight legs?
JACK: No, it’s an octopet.
AUSTIN: It’s a spider dog, right, yeah; okay.
[All laughing]
ART: I think it’s ten legs! I think it’s-
JACK: No I’d- notice it on my dog.
[1:30:00]
AUSTIN: It’s weird, ‘cause like, it’s eight legs, and then its body is just, other legs, but horizontal, instead of vertical.
ALI: Jack, didn’t we say that it was like four legs usually, but then the legs will like, split, when it has to go somewhere really fast?
JACK: Oh yeah, it- yeah.
AUSTIN: That’s really cool. Okay.
JACK: It’s like if you’ve seen Interstellar? It’s the bit where the robot turns into a big asterisk shape and rolls.
AUSTIN: Okay.
ART: Well if it’s in the spaceport, we’re gonna want the Kingdom Come, but otherwise it’s probably gonna be the Brilliance on recovery.
[Overlapping “okay”s]
ART: I think like, we don’t know where- we have no way of knowing where the last point is, do we?
JACK: No. And we need to get somewhere fast.
ART: Yeah. But I guess I just need you guys like, out there, chilling? Right? We’ll radio you contacts, and then you need to book it.
ALI: Yeah.
JACK: We should go- okay.
ART: We should go late at night, right? We should go at like ten or eleven at night, ‘cause it’s more likely that they’ve moved it recently?
JACK: Yes!
ART: And that it’ll stay there ‘til at least noon the next day. We have, you know, we have thirteen hours, or whatever.
JACK: Sure.
ALI: Yeah, we can get the…
JACK: Yeah, that works.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
ART: What am I missing at this point? What more planning do we need here? Uh, we need to get Mako in, and we need to get Mako hooked up?
AUSTIN: Mm-hm. Mako can hook himself up.
ART: Right.
AUSTIN: Mako’s- that’s the thing with Stratus. Yes.
ART: But he needs to be inside the building.
AUSTIN: Yes.
ART: And… we can just get in through the loading dock, right? We don’t even need a big stupid diversion, which was my plan until like, a minute ago. Which was like-
AUSTIN: Yeah!
ART: “Hey! We can just shoot a big missile at the door, and then sneak in the side!” I don’t know that we need that!
[Jack laughing]
ALI: [Laughing through words] That’s also a terrible idea!
AUSTIN: Hopefully, though-
KEITH: That’s also a really bad idea.
ART: It draws the people to the front, and then you sneak in the side! What-
[Ali laughing, groaning]
ART: I’m pretty sure that’s how Napoleon did it!
KEITH: Oh, you’re saying, don’t sneak in- you’re- yeah, Napoleon died, alone! On an island!
ART: Yeah, we’re gettin’ to that.
KEITH: ‘Cause they caught him!
ART: That’s how this game ends! Don’t kidnap anyone.
ALI: [Simultaneous with Art] When a missile comes to your building, you protect all of the doors!
[Keith and Art laughing]
ART: We have a difference of opinion about missile… [Ali laughing] But yeah, I have faith that, between Cass and Mako, we can get past one guard-
KEITH: Do you think we could just tunnel- we should just tunnel underground.
ART: We don’t have that technology.
[Ali laughing]
AUSTIN: Or the time.
ART: Unless you wanna break the vacuum seal of the tunneling robot-
KEITH: [Shouting] I have new- I have construction robots!
AUSTIN: Yeah- Is it time to open them up?
KEITH: No…
AUSTIN: Lose all that value immediately?
KEITH: No, no…
ART: But you gotta be careful, you don’t know when they’re gonna put out the new model of the tunneling robot- then you’re basically sitting on garbage.
AUSTIN: I mean, you just found out from Wes that they have a new model, in the warehouse, right now!
ALI: Mako, destroy all the robots that they have in the warehouse, and then sell them new ones.
[Somebody howling with laughter]
KEITH: No, no, here’s what I’m gonna do- I’m gonna hack into their thing and I’m gonna create a false deal where they bought the robots from me.
ALI: [Breathless] Oh my god…
KEITH: I’m going to plant- I’m going to tech-incept-- I’m gonna techcept a deal--
[Ali laughing]
ART: I want everyone to know that that is not part of my stated plan, and therefore he does not get a plus one on it.
ALI: What!
[Jack and Austin laughing]
ALI: That’s an incredible idea! Why are you not letting him do that!
[Keith laughing]
AUSTIN: I’m saying no to the word “techcept.” [Ali and Keith laughing]
ALI: Oh, okay.
AUSTIN: That’s what I’m saying no to. Okay.
ART: And then I wanna roll “I Love It When A Plan,” which gives me secret A-Team powers. They’re not secret powers, really.
AUSTIN: Okay. No, not at all. Make the roll. This is the start of the mission! This is it!
ART: Yeah, this is it, right. Everyone’s ready?
JACK: Yeah!
KEITH: Everyone’s ready.
ART: Okay, a ten!
JACK: Woo!
AUSTIN: Boom! [Reading from the book] “At the start of the mission, roll Edge. On a ten plus, gain three Hold. During the mission, spend one Hold for one of the following effects. One: you have that piece of gear that you need, right now. Two: you appear in the scene where you are needed, right now.” Those are really good ones.
ART: Yeah.
KEITH: Those are really good ones. Do I get- is this just for Art, is getting these?
AUSTIN: It is just for Cass, yeah.
KEITH: Okay.
JACK: That is such a good move.
KEITH: It’s a great move.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Soldier’s pretty good. Soldier’s a good playbook [inaudible].
KEITH: Oh, do I get some shit for- What’s my- Oh, I get a breakin’ into places thing.
AUSTIN: When it’s time to break in, yeah, that’s when we’ll make that move.
KEITH: Alright.
AUSTIN: So! It’s the next day. We do like, the transition clock, where it’s like, the shot of Centralia, or of Counterweight, kind of spinning, or rotating, and then it zooms in a moment and the sun kind of rotates around, and it goes from light to dark, or dark to- you know, it comes back around? It’s that shot?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So where are people? I guess- it sounds like Cass and Mako are in Dome 32, and it sounds like Aria and AuDy are in Centralia somewhere?
JACK: I think AuDy’s charging in the Kingdom Come.
AUSTIN: Okay.
ART: Which is probably in the spaceport, ‘cause that’s near one of the- that’s one of the three place it could be?
AUSTIN: Sure.
JACK: Yeah, that makes sense.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Aria, you get a phone call. It’s from Jamil!
ALI (as Aria): Oh! Hi!
AUSTIN: This comes through while Cass and Mako are like, moving into place. We get a shot of them and that in the background, and then phone call ringing- what’s your ringtone? What’s Aria’s ringtone?
ALI: It is like a MIDI version of her first song.
AUSTIN: Nice. Good. That rings up, and it’s Jamil.
AUSTIN (as Jamil): Aria!
ALI (as Aria): Hey, what’s up?
[1:35:05 - 🎵The Long Way Around🎵 starts]
AUSTIN (as Jamil): [Hesitantly] I just got word of something that… I hate to come to you directly like this, but there’s something very dangerous out there, and I need to make sure that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
{episode ends 1:36:50}
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