Transcriber: Jess Maciuch, JortsMachoooo#6341
[Music begins: TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.]
ART [as Sovereign Immunity]: I mean I think it's great—let Leap get it out of his system, and—better to have Leap pirating inside the tent, pirating out, than outside pirating in.
JACK [as Clementine Kesh]: Those Apostolosian smugglers, the Red Fennecs, you'll bring them with you... seems like they know what they're talking about. Yup...Gucci?
JANINE [as Gucci Garantine]: I would say—(sigh)
KEITH [as Exeter Leap]: Pew! Pew! Pew!
JANINE [as Gucci]: This is—
KEITH [as Leap]: Sorry.
JANINE [as Gucci]: Don't register this as me saying not to go ahead—cause I'm not saying that.
KEITH [as Leap]: Good, I will not.
JANINE [as Gucci]: What I'm saying is that it's naive to say that there is no counterargument to be made here.
KEITH [as Leap]: There's not a levy, don't—
ALI [as Kal'mera Broun]: (Sigh) Thank god, thank you.
KEITH [as Leap]: Don't pay a levy.
ALI [as Broun]: Yeah, mhm, won't be doing that.
KEITH [as Leap]: Come on, give me the—give me the tithe money and then I'll take care of it.
ALI [as Broun]: Wait, were you asking ME for the money?
KEITH [as Leap]: No, I'm not—(laugh) no I'm asking Tes for the money.
ALI [as Broun]: Ah, uh-huh.
KEITH [as Leap]: And then (clears throat), from you I will need the sign-up fee.
DRE [as Valence]: What is with this 'Clementine Kesh' woman?
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: Give it another week—Clementine Kesh will be cleaning the floors. I thought I was the one who wanted overnight revolution, not you.
SYLIVA [as Ver'million Blue]: Why does Clem still think she's in charge?
AUSTIN: Flyers—
KEITH: Flyers—
AUSTIN: Start appearing across the decks of Icebreaker Prime. They have the symbol of the Oxblood Clan—this kind of silhouette of an ox's head. And they ask the simple question: “When will the elections be held?” It's as if it is a pre-agreed notion. Maybe there was a miscommunication during the negotiations. Maybe someone promised something. Or maybe this is—this is simply very sharp rhetoric. They will not cede the ground as to whether or not elections will or won't be held. But the question, the Crossroad, is: “Will the Kingdom hold elections for who is in control?”
[Music ends]
AUSTIN: Welcome to Friends at the Table, an actual-play podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends. I'm your host Austin Walker, and joining me today: Keith Carberry.
KEITH: Hi, my name is Keith J. Carberry. You can find me on Twitter @keithjcarberry, and you can find the Let's Plays that I do at youtube.com/runbutton.
AUSTIN: Sylvia Clare.
SYLVIA: Hey, I'm Sylvie. You can find me on Twitter @sylviesurfer, and you can listen to my podcast Emojidrome on your podcast app of choice.
AUSTIN: Ali Acampora.
ALI: (Clicks tongue) Hi, you can find me over @ali_west on Twitter, and you can find the show over @friends_table.
AUSTIN: Art Martinez-Tebbel.
ART: Hey, you can me find on Twitter @atebbel, and you better be listening to this show on Apple Podcasts, or I swear to God—
AU (overlapping): What?
ART: Or—
DRE (overlapping): What?
ART: —Or, uh...
ALI (overlapping): What?
ART: —Pandora. Cause—
KEITH: What? No podcast app of choice.
ART: Yeah. NO podcast app of choice.
AUSTIN (overlapping): What?
ART: Podcast app of MY choice. Or—I think I'm still required to say—
AUSTIN: (Chuckle) You are.
ART: —or on Pandora.
AUSTIN: Or on Pandora. What—What is this? Is this a bit that I missed the beginning of cause I was late?
ART: No, it's a—it's just not a very good bit? Sylvia—
KEITH (overlapping): Sylvia said "podcast app of choice."
AUSTIN: I see. Now I understand.
ART: I'm choosing the—
[SYLVIA dying laughing in the background]
AUSTIN: I'm thinking about this game...I got notes up...I got—I'm trying to figure out what we're doing today....I, yeah ok.
JANINE: You know there's never been a left-handed podcast app?
[Laughter]
AUSTIN (overlapping): Andrew Lee Swan.
SYLVIA: For the record, Art, I got it. I just wanted to let it flop on principle. (Laughs)
[AUSTIN laughs]
ART: Yeah, it wasn’t GOOD, but you don’t have to just like—
AUSTIN: I didn’t get it. I wasn’t explicitly trying to call attention to it. I thought I missed something—Andrew Lee Swan is joining us.
DRE: Hey—
ART (overlapping): Do you want me to do a clean one of these?
AUSTIN: No.
ART: (Laughing) Oh ok.
AUSTIN: Impossible. Andrew Lee Swan.
DRE (overlapping): Yeah I got—I got nothing. You can just—you can just go to the next person. (Laugh)
AUSTIN: @Swandre3000 on Twitter. (Deep breath) Jack de Quidt with us!
JACK: Hi! Hello! You can find me on Twitter @notquitereal, and buy any of the music featured on the show at notquitereal.bandcamp.com.
AUSTIN: And Janine Hawkins.
JACK: Hi, you can find me on twitter @bleatingheart.
AUSTIN: You can, as always, support the show at friendsatthetable.cash or by search for “Friends at the Table” on Patreon. And as always, we do have merch out there. We don’t really shout that out too much. Friendsatthetable.shop will take you to the shop that has—what’s still available there, Art and Ali?
ART: Very little. Um, we also have some stuff you can’t buy on Fangamer too, but if you tell Fangamer you want more, they might make more.
AUSTIN (overlapping): They might make more.
ART (overlapping): They are not making more of that—
AUSTIN: Yeah. So wait—we still have the tote bag, the Snowfari tote bag and shirt. Or are those gone?
ALI: Um, I think we still have some of those, and then we have the Hieron posters.
AUSTIN: And we have the Hieron posters, which are sick.
ART (overlapping): Yeah we got—we got—
DRE (overlapping): I will say, on the website it says tote bag is out of stock.
AUSTIN: It’s a good tote, I’ve been using this tote, so that’s a shame.
ALI: Oooh. (Disappointed) Aw.
ART (overlapping): Yeah, this tote bag seems to be out.
AUSTIN: I have this tote all around Astoria so if you see this tote out and about, then—I was gonna say it’s me, but probably not (laugh). It’s probably not me. Unless you live in my neighborhood, in which case, hi. Nice to meet you. [DRE laughs] Um—And yeah Fangamer, we still have merch there. Uh, alright. We, today, are going to continue our game of Kingdom. The Kingdom March 2020 playtest, or the K2 March 2020 playtest by Ben Robbins. Ben’s games are great, and I’m having a good time with this one, and we’re gonna pick this one up and—and hopefully, play our hearts out with it. Do people remember what the Crossroad is?
KEITH: Yeah it was uh—“Will the Kingdom hold elections?”
AUSTIN: (overlapping): “Will the Kingdom hold elections?” Very basic, yeah. And the basic premise was that these flyers started showing up with the Oxblood clan logo on them, with the question “When will the elections be?” Very forceful. Alright, so—does anyone have a scene for the Crossroad “Will the Kingdom hold elections?” Where do we wanna begin?
ART: I have a scene ready—
AUSTIN: Ok—
ART: —but I don’t need to go first if someone has like, “I need to be…”—if someone has like a timely scene.
AUSTIN: I think let’s go for it.
ART (overlapping): Sounds like no.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Let’s go for your enthusiasm, yeah.
ART: Alright. I need a bunch of people who represent groups of people…and none of those people can be Clementine Kesh.
AUSTIN: (Laugh) Is this like a big meeting?
ART: Um, no it’s not everyone. Some people can’t be in this.
AUSTIN: Is this like, Gucci?
ART: It’s probably not Gucci—This is people that Sovereign Immunity thinks...
AUSTIN: Are pro…
ART: ...are people that Sovereign has done favors for—
AUSTIN: I see.
ART: —or are ideologically similar to...
AUSTIN: So maybe that is…so, what we’re talking about is the radicals on board. Or the people leaning towards that sort of action.
ART(overlapping): Yeah. Mhm.
DRE: So when you say “Sovereign Immunity’s...like their politics,” what does that include?
ART: I mean, it’s complicated, but I mean—[AUSTIN and JACK laughing] Sovereign Immunity sees himself as a revolutionary, as someone who is into radical politics. Sovereign Immunity got in trouble for—
KEITH(overlapping): Sedition.
ART: Taking up arms against the state, yeah.
[AUSTIN laughs]
DRE: Um...I think you can make an argument for Valence to be there—
AUSTIN: Yeah.
DRE: —but I don’t know if Sovereign Immunity knows them well enough?
ART: Yeah, and you don’t owe me anything.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: That’s true.
DRE: Yeah.
ART: This is gonna be clearer—
DRE: I will say that’s not really how Valence works, but (chuckling)—
ART: —this might be a ripple. You might end up being talked to by someone who was at this meeting.
AUSTIN: Sure.
DRE: Fair.
ART: But this might just be like…this might be like The Blossom, this might be Millie, this might be…
ALI: Uh—
ART: Oh, I’m sorry?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Ali, what’s up?
ALI: Sorry, um, I—two things: I could either have Eiden there because he’s part of the Sable court… but like willing to throw punches?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: Great.
ALI: Or my other thing was like—I was thinking the other day when I was thinking about gearing up for this, was that like—I don’t know if Broun and S.I. have interacted like..offscreen as Broun is trying to (chuckle) establish themselves as like…a jerk? I don’t know how to describe it. (Laughing) But like as Broun is interacting with people from the prison, and S.I. is trying to—
AUSTIN: Right.
ALI: —be friends with people in the prison, is there like a crosshatch there—
ART: There certainly could be, and if you’d like to be at this meeting, that’s great.
AUSTIN: My gut here is, what’s really important is the exclusions more than the—
ALI (overlapping): Sure.
AUSTIN: Unless, if my gut on where you're going with is right, I guess is what I mean here.
ART: Yeah, it’s not Clem, it’s not Gucci, it’s almost certainly not Gur Sevraq—although I could see this ending up with someone needing to go get Gur Sevraq.
[ALI exhales a laugh]
AUSTIN: Right, of course. Um—It’s probably not Agon, who is a cop...
ART: Right.
DRE: Nobody is playing Jesset City, but he might be—
AUSTIN: (overlapping): Yeah, I could have Jesset there, I can step into Jesset easy for this. Jesset is one who would be here one hundred percent—
KEITH: It’s Jesset City not Jesset Easy.
[Laughter]
AUSTIN (Exasperated): Oh my god. Yes.
ART: And should I start with the Prediction that this scene is gonna make, or should I build to it?
AUSTIN: Let’s build to it. Let’s—give me that good dramatic build. Give me the “Who, what and where?” I guess, first. So—
ART: It might be—It might go both ways. (Chuckle)
AUSTIN: I don’t know what that means.
ART: The dramatic—the drama might go the other way.
AUSTIN: Oh I see what you’re saying. You’re saying you have like a really interesting Prediction that you want—
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Just make the Prediction, then make the Prediction in fiction early. That’s my direction. So where are we? What is going on?
ART (overlapping): Um—Where are we? Who has a good…secret place?
AUSTIN: The refuse center.
ART: (overlapping): Who has a good place for a secret—[ALI laughing] That’s not bad.
AUSTIN: It’s not bad.
ALI: There’s a bunch of rooms? Yeah...
ART (overlapping): Make-shift shop is a good one too, but that’s under…
AUSTIN: Tes’ili.... Tesi’ili could be there.
ART: Haunted deck is also a good one, but—
DRE: (Emphatically) HAUNTED DECK! I don’t know what it is. That’s why I want you to go to it.
ART (overlapping): But what if—
[AUSTIN chuckles]
ALI: But no one would go there cause they’d be scared.
AUSTIN: Mhm.
DRE: You could go to my engine room.
JANINE (overlapping): What if you get the ghost on your side?
[ALI chuckles]
DRE: It’s very loud in there.
KEITH: Maybe they should be scared.
AUSTIN: Oh the engine is great! The engine room is—
ART (overlapping): The engine room is great, yeah.
AUSTIN: —extremely good mafia movie vibes. Extremely good “turn the washing machine on before you say crime shit.”
[JANINE laughs]
ART: Yeah, and I want it to just be like—Have we painted a lot in the engine room yet?
[Pause]
AUSTIN: Not at all.
DRE: (Negative) Mm-mmm.
AUSTIN: Who is the engine room? That’s Valence, right?
ART (overlapping): I want the engine room to be like it would be in Alien. Right? I want it to be HOT in this room.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah. Yeah.
ART: IT’s—yeah. Everyone’s just like a little shiny.
[AUSTIN laughs]
ART: It’s a very sexy meeting.
AUSTIN: Alright so let me get the final headcount. Valence, yes?
[DRE laughing in the background]
AUSTIN: Great, thank you. Valence? Yes.
ART: Sure, yeah.
DRE (overlapping): Yeah, I’d like to be there.
AUSTIN: Exeter Leap?
KEITH: Um. I don’t know—I feel like either of my characters could be there.
AUSTIN: True. Art?
ART: Um. Maybe its—
AUSTIN (overlapping): Is Leap too wild?
ART: —maybe it’s Apparatus because Millie covers…
AUSTIN (overlapping): The Rapid Evening. Ok.
ART: The Leap. The—yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah
ART: And Millie’s a major.
AUSTIN: Millie’s a major. Yeah, that makes sense. Apparatus, Millie…
SYLVIA: Thank you.
AUSTIN: (Chuckles) Broun? Sounds like yes.
ART: Yeah, yeah.
AUSTIN: Um… I would say Eiden or Morning Bride could be there. Probably Eiden as the fist-swinger.
ALI: Yeah. I could voice both Eiden—
AUSTIN (overlapping): So Ali is—yeah. I will also—I will do Jesset City and I can do The Blossom also.
ART: Great.
[Pause]
AUSTIN: So what is happening?
[Pause]
ART [as Sovereign Immunity]: Look. Hi—
[ALI chuckles quietly]
AUSTIN: It’s “VRUM VRUM VRUM RUM RUM RUM.”
ART: Yeah.
[JANINE laughs]
AUSTIN: VRUM VRUM VRUM VRUM VRUM VRUM VRUM.
[Laughter]
AUSTIN: It’s sounding—now I’m sounding like the Cookie Monster.
[Laughter]
DRE: Yeah, you are.
AUSTIN (laughing): I lean towards muppet real quick.
SYLVIA: Man, is the engine room haunted too?
ART (overlapping, imitating Cookie Monster): ME WANT ELECTIONS.
AUSTIN (laughing): Yes.
ART: Um—
AUSTIN (imitating Cookie Monster): ME WANT MILLENIUM BREAK.
[Laughter]
ART (imitating Cookie Monster): E IS FOR ELECTIONS. THAT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME.
ALI: (exasperated) Oh, boy.
[Everyone loses it]
AUSTIN: Alright.
ART: And scene. Prediction: If yes, it becomes a children’s show. The whole show ends up being—
ALI: Wow.
AUSTIN: That’s Zo’la’s big reveal…
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Alright. So.
ART: Um...
AUSTIN: VRUM VRUM VRUM.
ART: Um, I think it’s—there is the cantankerous, like the clattering, the humming, the… I don’t know that a spaceship engine would be really clanky? But for this it is.
AUSTIN: Yeah. This isn’t a spaceship, this is a big walking fortress. It can make whatever noise we want.
KEITH: Probably blinks—red blinking lights.
ART (overlapping): Oh sure, yeah. It’s a sea ship.
AUSTIN: Yeah, it’s not even—
JANINE (overlapping): There’s probably one thing that’s really quiet, so someone tied a clanking thing to it, just so you know it’s actually running.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Right. Uh-huh.
ART: Yeah, it’s just like a wrench banging against—
AUSTIN: CLANK clank CLANK.
JANINE: Just like, a card in a wheel.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Ca-CLANK. Yeah.
ART: (Chuckle) And I think Sovereign Immunity still like, talks a little softly. I think it’s trying to just draw people in to get that conspiratorial vibe going before we discuss this conspiracy.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah.
KEITH: It’s important.
ART [as S.I.]: Look. You’re all here because you…have affiliations with or represent some less established factions on this ship. (Pause) Do you understand what I’m saying to you?
KEITH [as Apparatus Aperitif]: You’re saying we’re not important.
ART [as S.I.]: No. I’m saying you’re disenfranchised.
AUSTIN [as Jesset City]: That’s why I made the flyers. Yes!
[Pause]
ART [as S.I.]: There—this… I think this is gonna happen. I think we’re gonna have… an election. I think that it’s—uh, you know—great work on the flyers. Having the flyers say “When will the elections be held?” Great work. It really puts you on top of the messaging there.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: Mmm.
ART [as S.I.]: We need someone…who wins the elections...that will represent the revolutionary politics that this group—that the Millenium Break needs to have.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: That’s what the election’s for—
ART [as S.I.] (overlapping) We need me.
SYLVIA [as Millie]: (scoffs) Oh. Ok.
KEITH [as Apparatus]: You’re proposing an alliance.
ART [as S.I.]: I’m campaigning.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: (Pointedly) Normally you make your own flyers to campaign, Sovereign Immunity.
ART [as S.I.]: Well someone told you to come here.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: (chuckle) You got me there.
ART [as S.I.]: That was my flyer.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: Yes.
DRE [as Valence]: Ok, so what’s the pitch?
ART [as S.I.]: I mean, I can give us the things we want, the things we need. I can shake up the established power. I’m not…I’m not an aristocrat. I’m not a…
ALI [as Broun]: (Clicks tongue) You’re pretty aristocratic-adjacent.
KEITH [as Apparatus]:: Yeah, don’t you work for that…mean girl?
[Laughter]
SYLVIA [as Millie]: You spent the entire—
ART [as S.I.] (overlapping): I have never worked for Gucci. Not once in my whole life.
[Laughter]
JANINE: Or Regina George!
[Continued laughter]
AUSTIN: Yeah. (Exasperated) Uhm. God.
SYLVIA [as Millie]: You’ve spent the entire time I’ve known you just sucking up to Clem. I…why should I trust you with this?
ART [as S.I.]: Because this is what I—this is the moment I’ve been waiting for.
SYLVIA [as Millie]: Ok? So?
AUSTIN: Let me—The Blossom—
SYLVIA [as Millie] (overlapping): I’m in prison and being forced to fight a war for people. Tell me something that matters.
KEITH [as Apparatus]: Yeah, what happens to—
AUSTIN: —The Blossom steps forward. Who is a very big man. Uh, I would clock him at like 6’8”–6’9” and probably three to four hundred pounds. And he steps forwards, has like a big staff. It’s like he’s from the wrong game. (Laugh) It’s like we pulled him from Hieron. [KEITH laughing in the background] A long robe on. Big twisted beard. Bald. and he goes… (sigh) Does he use your name? Byron?
KEITH (overlapping): The Disciples of Phantasmo—
AUSTIN: The Disciples of Phantasmo are here! No. Byron is your—is your like, personal name, right?
ART: It’s my personal name in this phase of my life.
AUSTIN: Ok, right.
[as The Blossom]: (Sigh) I can speak for Byron. I think it is fair what everyone says about your adjacency to the nobility—you are a Sovereign Immunity after all, aren’t you? But, what people here may not know is the number of noble lives this man has ended. When he was The Farmer, he held a small planet with nearly no support except the strength of his will and leadership. And lords threw themselves at him to get what he had. We lost count how many died on that world. I have no doubt in The Farmer’s politics, or his commitment. In fact if there’s anything I…I worry he might take it too far, too quick.
KEITH: Out of character, the second—this is the second guy that’s friends with Clem.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Oh yeah. Uh-huh. Well—there’s like a patronage. There’s like a—she buys his beer and he—there’s almost a Broun-Gucci relationship between the two? You know what I mean? But yes.
ART [as S.I.]: Millie, I thought I could change Clementine.
SYLVIA [as Millie]: (scoffs) Well, great job.
ART [as S.I.] (overlapping): And I still might.
[Pause]
SYLVIA [as Millie]: Look—
ART [as S.I.]: It was the shot I had. I was in prison.
SYLVIA [as Millie]: We… like—
DRE [as Valence] (overlapping): Why are so many of you talking about still being imprisoned while we’re on this ship?
ART [as S.I.]: Oh we’re all still in prison.
[AUSTIN laughs]
DRE [as Valence]: Why? How?
ART [as S.I.]: Uhm. Because of Crysanth, I think is the easiest answer.
SYLVIA [as Millie]: It’s sorta like—you know how there’s a big war happening right now? Both sides have a very lengthy rap sheet for me, and I kinda don’t wanna get killed the second I leave.
DRE [as Valence]: That’s... understandable but, I thought you meant that you had like trackers or like things in your brains or something
AUSTIN [as Jesset City]: We probably all have those.
DRE [as Valence]: Well, like a bomb or something.
[KEITH laughs]
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: We—who knows? This administration?
ALI [as Broun]: Valence. (Laugh) What are you talking about?
DRE [as Valence]: I don’t know. It was in a weird book I read when I was flying over here.
[AUSTIN and ALI laugh]
ALI: I think that Broun said that telepathically.
AUSTIN: Oh! (Laughs)
ALI: Just like—
[as Broun] (emphatically): What are you doing?
ART [as S.I.]: I can bring the nobility to heel.
DRE [as Valence]: Well when are you gonna start doing it here?
ART [as S.I.]: When you elect me. I don’t have any power right now.
KEITH [as Apparatus]: But what do you plan on doing? What are your...aims?
ALI [as Broun]: You’ve had them on leashes this whole time.
ART [as S.I.]: (Defensive) I have not. What are you talking about?
ALI [as Broun]: Well—I guess I don’t know you that well.
AUSTIN: “I just listen to the podcast—I just edit the podcast.”
DRE: “I read about you in the papers.”
[ALI laughs]
SYLVIA [as Millie]: There was a chance, S.I., when we could have gotten out of here, very early on. And I trusted you to help us. I stayed because I thought you could do something, and...
ART [as S.I.]: This is the time when I can do something.
SYLVIA [as Millie]: Then—(sigh) I don’t know. You’re gonna have to do more to convince me. Like—you’re…(defeated) So far you’ve been all talk.
ART [as S.I.]: I haven’t had an opportunity until now. This is—this is a power vacuum.
SYLVIA [as Millie]: Mhm.
KEITH [as Apparatus]: Opportunity to do what?
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: What comes next?
ART [as S.I.] (overlapping): To do what I started decades ago.
SYLVIA [as Millie]: You kidnapped a baby.
[Laughter]
AUSTIN [as The Blossom]: It was an important baby, to be fair.
DRE [as Valence] (overlapping): You kidnapped a BABY?
[Continued laughter in the background]
ART [as S.I.] (overlapping): It was a REALLY important baby!
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: It was a very important baby.
DRE [as Valence]: Who was the baby?
KEITH [as Apparatus] (overlapping): It was the king baby.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: Who was the—Valence. The baby is Dahlia, the Princept of Apostolos. The Apokine. One of the two leaders of—
SYLVIA [as Millie]: I mean I’ll be honest I thought he was bullshitting about it the entire time until the big guy said something.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: No he’s—
DRE (overlapping): I think Valence telepathically says to Broun:
[as Valence]: Oh wow we REALLY don’t know him.
[Laughter]
ALI [as Broun]: I’m saying.
DRE [as Valence]: Ok let’s say you get elected. What are the first three things you do?
AUSTIN: First thirty days in office.
ART: What the—Jesus, Dre. I’m not fucking here with a—
[Laughter]
DRE [as Valence]: Well you’re saying you can’t do anything until you get elected, so what are you gonna do when you get elected?
KEITH [as Apparatus]: All I have is your idea that our politics are the same, or even close. I don’t know you and I don’t know what you stand for.
ART [as S.I.]: I really think the thing I did was pretty famous.
AUSTIN: It was very famous. Guys, it was—It was....Nideo—
KEITH (overlapping): It was a long time ago! I don’t know who’s been working—
AUSTIN (overlapping): No, no, no no—Out of character real quick. We have established that Stel Nideo has spent twenty years in shame because of this. This is like—this is bigger than George—this is like—it’s huge. Like we don’t have an American equivalent. It’s bigger than Watergate. Do you know what I mean? Like—
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: It’s HUGE! You’d know—
SYLVIA (overlapping): When I said I didn’t believe him, I just meant like he was lying about being that guy.
AUSTIN (overlapping): No, totally.
SYLVIA: Not that it didn’t happen.
AUSTIN: But I’m just emphasizing it is an established fact that that is a thing that every character, except for Valence who wasn’t here, would have lived through or seen the repercussions of, in the sense that it was such as—it’s like why the war is happening, right? So you might be like “Who cares?” but you would know it at the very least.
SYLVIA: Well ok, actually. Hmm—I have an idea for—
KEITH (overlapping): Ok then I change—
SYLVIA: —something Austin said out of character, but I’ll figure it out. So, I think Millie says like:
[as Millie]: All you’ve done is start wars. Is that what you’re gonna keep doing? This? Like—I thought we were trying to end what’s going on on Partizan.
ART [as S.I.]: If a war—I mean sometimes you end war by fighting it really well. We’ll see what happens.
SYLVIA [as Millie] (Disbelieving): Ok. I’ve done that for a very long time.
DRE [as Valence]: Millie, what do you need to feel like you’re not in prison anymore?
SYLVIA [as Millie]: (Sigh) I mean...
KEITH: Leap is here!
[as Exeter Leap]: It’s for Clementine Kesh to be in prison instead.
SYLVIA: I mean like, that is kind of—
ART (overlapping): I mean Leap is—
SYLVIA: —kind of the answer, but like Millie… I think she doesn’t have an answer to this, like in character.
AUSTIN: Mhm.
SYLVIA: I think she straight up doesn’t have an answer for this.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: All of us will be in prison until—not in prison...none of us are living the lives we want. My kin in the Oxblood Clan slave every day for Orion. Who tell us we do so freely, because we get pennies on their…not just dollars, on their millions. (Pause) The whole thing needs to come down. Immunity, can you—can you do that?
ART [as S.I.]: Absolutely.
AUSTIN [as Jesset] (overlapping): Is that what you’re committed too?
ART: Yes.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: And risk losing the power you have now?
ART [as S.I.]: The power is nothing for me. (Pause) I spent decades in prison after the last—my last political maneuver.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: It sounds like you should run, and we’ll see what happens.
ART [as S.I.]: My thoughts exactly.
ART: “If the Kingdom holds elections, Sovereign Immunity will win.”
AUSTIN: That is the Prediction. That can be Challenged. That can be overturned.
DRE: Uhm—
AUSTIN: That is what happens where you are a Perspective.
DRE: Could I Challenge it?
AUSTIN: Uh-huh, one second. Uhm...go ahead. What is your counter?
DRE: (Sigh) Cause I do think that is an outcome, but I think it's like—that is the second thing that happens. Like something has to happen before that can happen. Can the Challenge be like “Sovereign Immunity will win if…?”
AUSTIN: You would say, so—
DRE (overlapping): Or is that just adding on an extra question to it?
AUSTIN: (Reading from Kingdom by Ben Robbins) “If you want defeat or circumvent what another character did, you can Challenge it, prevent Predictions from coming true.” You can prevent it from coming true, at which point... the two of you would just need to basically hash out—this is the thing that’s actually interesting. No, I think...hmm. Because the way this is written, it’s “Declare whose actions you’re Challenging, then describe what you do to overcome it. That player responds with either ‘Yes, it works.’ Which is to say ‘Yes, the overcoming of it works.’ ‘Yes, it works if you did what they said was necessary to succeed instead,’ or ‘Yes it works, but there’s a consequence, some fallout, or repercussion of the action.’” And in that case, the action would be challenging it and overcoming it.
DRE: Gotcha.
AUSTIN: One thing that you specifically do is counter-predict.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Valence could just do—you could do another Prediction that would actually interestingly be separate from this Prediction, and could be Challenged separately. Which is interesting. Do you have an idea for what that thing is?
DRE: Like what the counter-Prediction would be?
AUSTIN: Yeah, or what the—going back to you saying “I think something else has to happen first.”
DRE: I think if everyone was questioning basically Sovereign Immunity saying like “We need you to put up before you get our vote,” it would have to be—Sovereign Immunity would have to make some sort of—
AUSTIN: That can be a Prediction, then. You could make the Prediction “Sovereign Immunity,” with—I guess with Sovereign Immunity’s approval, with Art’s approval, “Sovereign Immunity will make some grand gesture that brings people on board.” You know? At which point—
ART: That would be a separate “If yes” Prediction?
AUSTIN: It would be, yeah. Or you could hold a—you could do a second Prediction—this is weird game mechanics shit—that is “Sovereign Immunity will NOT win if you hold elections,” and Art could Challenge that in order to—I think maybe that’s the cleanest way to do what you wanna do.
DRE: Ok.
AUSTIN: Right? Because then it does put it back in Art’s hands to try to show that your Prediction is incorrect, or for someone to show that your Prediction is incorrect, which would require some sort of action, right?
DRE: And we can make more than one Prediction right?
AUSTIN: Mhm. Mhm.
DRE: Ok. I think now, then I’ll just an—If that’s ok with you, Art—I’ll do an additional “If yes, Sovereign Immunity will make…” I don’t know if decree is the right word, but basically “Will say something anti-Clementine Kesh.”
AUSTIN: Ooh.
ART: Uhm...I have a very delicate Challenge to that, which I’m not even sure the Challenge rules are good for?
DRE: Well I’m also just open to you helping me wordsmithing that too—
ART (overlapping): Sure.
DRE: —if that sounds like, too out of character.
ART: I guess it’s less about like—I want a subtle—I will rebuke Clementine Kesh, but not openly or verbally.
AUSTIN: (Snorts) That’s a big difference.
JANINE: What?
DRE: Yeah, how do you quietly rebuke someone?
ART (overlapping): Well, I’m not—
AUSTIN (overlapping): What Sovereign Immunity—dog whistles, is what he is saying.
[ART laughs]
AUSTIN: He is saying “Everyone will know what I mean.”
ART: Yeah, those work! All the time! The whole modern political landscape is based on them.
AUSTIN: But we’re in a—I think it’s fair to say that we’re in a—I think it’s fair for Dre to say—It’s up to Dre. If that’s enough for Dre. Um...
ART: I think that’s very fair. And then you can...uh...no, you know what—
DRE: Is there something that Sovereign Immunity has been like, holding back as like a power play against Clementine Kesh. Like is this something where that trigger could be pulled?
ART: I mean, in a way everything Sovereign Immunity has been doing has been a long term play against Clementine Kesh. That’s the secret.
DRE (overlapping): That’s fair.
[AUSTIN laughs]
ART: Everything Sovereign has done to help Clem has been...to not help Clem.
AUSTIN: Mhm.
DRE: Maybe I’ll just change it from “publicly say” to “will actively undermine Clementine Kesh?”
AUSTIN: You don't think that gets away from the point you were trying to make and that the group was trying to make? Which is they need to see some…
DRE: Yeah…
AUSTIN: ...symbol of Sovereign Immunity’s commitment. We can also just like house rule this for clarity. That is, like...once we get these two things together, we could combine them as a premise if we needed to, as a Prediction, but—
DRE: I’m also fine just deleting this cause there’s another thing that I have in mind that I would like to—
AUSTIN (overlapping): You could do multiple Predictions.
DRE: —pull the trigger on Perspective-wise.
AUSTIN: Right, well—I guess that’s the thing, right? It's like, at the end of the day we could always come back and Challenge “Sovereign Immunity will win” with what you said before, right?
DRE: Yeah, yeah.
ART: I’m also willing to just let your Prediction ride. I’m willing to just drop my Challenge and you can have it as originally said.
AUSTIN: Put it back.
DRE: Ok. We’ll just leave it there.
AUSTIN: Ok.
DRE: And I guess, you know, if we decide—
ART (overlapping): Cause I can always—we can always decide to—
DRE (overlapping): If we decide that it doesn’t fit, we can house rule it later. Or something.
AUSTIN: Mhm. We’ll come to it.
DRE: Ok. Cool.
AUSTIN: My guess is some shit’ll pop off between now and then anyway, so...we’ll see.
[DRE laughs, JANINE grimaces]
AUSTIN: Any Reactions to this scene? Or additional Predictions? Uhm—Apparatus, you were here, so do you also have a Prediction based on that scenario?
KEITH: Yeah, I’m working on something...I’m tryna—if someone has a Reaction, we can get to my Prediction as I’m thinking on it.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, sounds good.
JANINE: I have a really important question for you, Austin. Because it’s about Gucci’s motivations as off camera.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah.
JANINE: Does she care about being in charge? Or is she kind of—is she the kind of rich person who like...has the stuff she wants and is kind of in it for the game, you know?
AUSTIN: She...she has cared her whole life because she has been around mostly Kesh nobles, and then people who work for her. And who—she’s very—I mean the name of her mech is “The Transgresse Oblige,” right?
JANINE: True.
AUSTIN: She believes she has a responsibility to be a leader because—in the “Noblesse Oblige” way, right? Which is like—she has…
JANINE: The training?
AUSTIN: The training, the schooling, the privilege...She should do that. Whether that carries here? I think it might, in terms of like...unstated bias? But is not a core ideological element. Horizon is a—Horizon would prefer a world without kings, you know?
JANINE: Mhm.
AUSTIN: That world might still have an aristocracy. That world may still have...a house of lords and a house of commons—you know what I mean? But—
JANINE: Mhm. So her opinion is probably going to change based on what the alternatives are?
AUSTIN: Yeah. I think that’s totally the case, right? I think she’s someone who could be—she’s like one of those people who could be wooed to the more radical side of this. So that’s my answer. My out-of-character answer. Clem? How are you doing?
JACK: Uhm. Well, electoralism is very important…
[Stunted laughter]
JACK: ...to a functioning society. Uhm, you know where would be, without—
AUSTIN: Kesh has elections, you know?
JACK: You know…
AUSTIN: Technically.
JACK: And sometimes… and sometimes people you don’t want to win elections uh… do better than you think. Like…that Whitestar lady is probably higher up the court than Clem thinks.
AUSTIN: Almost certainly. Yeah.
JACK: But um...yeah I’m trying to think what...man—I might just do a short Reaction scene, right?
AUSTIN: Mhm.
JACK: Which is just a broadcast saying:
[as Clementine Kesh]: Hello. This is Clementine Kesh. Recently, pamphlets were distributed across Fort Icebreaker by the Oxblood Clan asking “When will elections be held?” I’m happy to announce that elections will be held in the coming weeks—
JACK: I think she actually says a day. I’m only not saying a date cause I don’t know how the months work (chuckle).
[as Clem]: Elections will be held on the 14th, and based on the democratic principles of this great moon, will be executed and monitored with the highest possible levels of fairness. Anybody who has any questions about the process is free to...visit me, [AUSTIN laughs in the background] or any other people in leadership positions aboard Fort Icebreaker. In addition, I will be delighted to cast my vote on Voting Day alongside you. Thank you very much.
AUSTIN: Fuck.
JANINE: I got such airplane vibes from that.
[KEITH laughs]
ART: Voting Day is really pitch perfect, I just wanna—
AUSTIN (overlapping): Voting Day. Yeah, I love voting day.
ART (overlapping): Voting Day is great.
AUSTIN: Voting Day is in a few weeks.
KEITH: I do have a Prediction, which is that “If no, there will be a riot on Fort Icebreaker.”
DRE: Aw. That was gonna be MY Prediction.
AUSTIN: Will not be ???(shrunk?). There we go. All the more reason for it to stand.
[TIMESTAMP 00:35:43]
DRE: Mhm.
SYLVIA: I have a quick Reaction?
AUSTIN: Sure.
SYLVIA: Which is that Millie’s like...really excited that things could shake up here, even if she’s not really that trusting of some people—
AUSTIN (overlapping): How do we see that? What is the...what is the like—yeah…
SYLVIA: So I think it’s like she is helping hand out flyers.
AUSTIN: Mmm.
JACK: Aw.
AUSTIN: Love it.
SYLVIA: She’s like:
[as Millie]: No, you make sure you do this. Trust me.
KEITH: Milie’s canvassing.
SYLVIA: Yeah. She’s canvassing. She’s getting involved. She’s joined the DSA.
AUSTIN: But is she just canvassing—has she backed—has she endorsed a candidate? Or is she just like—
SYLVIA: No.
AUSTIN: “Rock the vote! Get out there!” [ALI laughs] “Every vote matters!”
SYLVIA (overlapping): No she just wants-
KEITH: VOTE OR DIE!
SYLVIA: If people—if people ask, she says “Anybody but Clementine Kesh.”
AUSTIN (laughing): Wow.
[JACK laughs]
SYLVIA: She’s being very upfront about it.
AUSTIN: Love it. (Laugh) “Never Clem! #NeverClem.”
DRE (laughing): Yeah.
SYLVIA (laughing): Yeah!
KEITH: “A-B-B-C-K! Here’s a pen!”
AUSTIN: God.
[SYLVIA laughs]
DRE: “I really don’t agree with Sovereign Immunity‘s policies, but #NeverClem.”
AUSTIN: #NeverClem.
SYLVIA (laughing): I hate this.
AUSTIN: It’s miserable. Uhm…alright. Any other Reactions or new scenes?
DRE: I know I—Valence would like to have a scene with Broun.
AUSTIN: Like a scene scene?
DRE: Mhm.
AUSTIN: Ok.
ALI: Hello.
AUSTIN: And Broun, what is your belief with Valence—what is your bond with Valence, rather?
ALI: My bond with Valence is “I need Valence to keep their promise to me, but I don’t believe that they can.”
AUSTIN: Hmm.
KEITH: What was that promise?
ALI: That Valence will help me—either connect me with people or actually help me get a spaceship off of Partizan. That is my own. That I pilot. (Laugh) It needs to be a spaceship, I need to pilot it. It needs to not be on Partizon. One two three.
AUSTIN: “I need to get the fuck out of here,” yeah.
ART: Well the spaceship is gonna start on Partizan. I think—
ALI: Well yeah.
AUSTIN: Well yeah.
[ALI laughs]
ART: Get on the spaceship, then it’s leaving.
AUSTIN: “I got a bridge I can sell ya too,” shit.
[ALI continues laughing]
KEITH: It needs to be a spaceship—not just ANY spaceship—it has to work. And be here.
[AUSTIN laughs]
ALI: Broun deeply does not wanna just like get on a transport or whatever. Broun wants to sit in a pilot’s chair. Never have to see anyone again that they don’t want to.
AUSTIN: Yup.
KEITH: God, I haven’t finished the last episode on the other side. What happened?
AUSTIN: This has always been Broun’s drive.
ALI: Oh, this has been my drive, yeah.
KEITH: I guess maybe you just sound more serious about it now.
AUSTIN: Or—
ALI: Finish that episode.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
DRE: Mhm.
KEITH: Yeah…
DRE: Also we had a fight.
ALI: Yeah.
DRE: But kind of made up.
[ALI and AUSTIN chuckle]
AUSTIN: Jesus Christ. Feeding everybody right now.
[SYLVIA and ALI laugh]
DRE: What? Friends have fights!
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: Friends have fights.
KEITH: And non-friends have fights, just like—
AU: Just saying.
ALI: Right
DRE: It’s true.
[SYLVIA laughs]
DRE: Yeah, people that don’t like each other, they fight all the time.
[AUSTIN laughs]
ALI: Yeah. Mhm.
AUSTIN: What is the scene?
DRE: Well, Valence is in the engine room, but Broun doesn’t have to be there.
ALI: Sure.
AUSTIN: Mmm. Mhm. Also, Keith, they have a telepathic bond now.
[ALI laughs]
DRE: Yeah.
KEITH: Oh I knew that—that I knew.
ALI: Between friends.
KEITH: Well I actually—I knew that—I guess I didn’t know they had a bond, but you know, Valence can talk in people’s heads.
AUSTIN: Yeah but now it’s the other way around too.
DRE: Mhm.
KEITH: OOOH. Ok. I thought—earlier when it happened I thought that it was Ali just knowing that Valence would be reading their mind.
AUSTIN: No. In fact, you should listen to that episode, Keith.
ALI: Yeah, you should listen…(laughing)
DRE: Mmhmm. (Sighs)
KEITH: I’m halfway through.
DRE [as Valence]: Broun, I need some advice.
ALI [as Broun]: Oh, sure. Yeah, what’s up?
DRE [as Valence]: I know that you weren’t like...a fan of this at all. And...I’m really not happy with how things have gone so far.
ALI [as Broun]: Oh you mean “this” as in like, this big stupid spaceship? Or—
DRE [as Valence]: Yes, this big stupid spaceship and like—
ALI [as Broun] (overlapping): Sure, yeah.
DRE [as Valence]: A lot of the people on it.
ALI [as Broun]: Yeah, what the fuck?
DRE [as Valence]: (sighs) What the fuck indeed. Um...I don’t even think—I don’t even feel on the same page with Gur anymore.
ALI [as Broun]: Who the fuck even WAS Gur.
DRE [as Valence]: That’s a really good question.
[ART laughs]
AUSTIN (overlapping): Listen to this podcast.
[ALI laughs]
ALI [as Broun]: Like—I thought we were just like, working...and like just chilling...and making money...and it was going well...and then like, this whole time you were on the phone with this preacher? And now we’re here?
DRE [as Valence]: Not the whole time. Really I was just once on the phone with him.
ALI [as Broun] (laughing): Well sure.
DRE [as Valence]: And by the phone, you know I mean like...you know.
ALI [as Broun]: Right.
ART: The space phone. We all know. Space phone.
DRE: No the brain phone.
AUSTIN: The brain phone.
[ALI laughs]
ART: That’s the phone in space!
AUSTIN (disagreeing): Mm.
ALI [as Broun]: (Sigh) Well I mean it could be worse. I—you know, it was fine to shake it up. What’s the advice you need?
DRE [as Valence]: I think I’m gonna run.
ALI [as Broun]: (Bursts out laughing) WHAT? For real?
DRE [as Valence]: Yeah. I think I’m gonna put it all out there.
ALI [as Broun]: And then what? That would be so annoying. You don’t wanna do that, Valence.
[DRE laughs]
DRE [as Valence]: It’ll be a lot more annoying if Clementine Kesh gets to stay in control of all this stuff.
ALI [as Broun]: Well then let’s just—What are you gonna run on? You’re not even from here. I mean not that that like—
DRE [as Valence] (overlapping): Are there rules about that?
ALI [as Broun]: Not that that like matters matters. But like, I just don’t understand...like why—this should be temporary for you.
DRE [as Valence]: Broun, I don’t get to go home.
ALI [as Broun] (incredulous): Really?
DRE [as Valence]: Yeah.
[AUSTIN laughs]
ALI [as Broun]: Well then you should—
DRE [as Valence] (overlapping): This is kinda it for me now.
ALI [as Broun]: (Sigh) There’s—
DRE [as Valence]: The only way I get to go home is if um...is if maybe God comes here and…
ALI [as Broun]: Oh right, yeah, God. Sure. Right. Sure.
[AUSTIN laughs]
DRE [as Valence]: I really wouldn’t want that, so…
ALI [as Broun]: Anyway. I—There’s—you know…if this is something you wanna do, there’s certainly worse people who wanna do it, and...I don’t know how I would help. I can try to. I don’t know.
DRE [as Valence]: I’m not really asking...for you to be like my campaign manager. Um...
ALI [as Broun]: I—good.
[SYLVIA laughs]
ALI [as Broun]: Is that “um” but like “Oh but that is sorta what I’m kind of asking?”
DRE [as Valence]: No.
ALI [as Broun]: Ok.
DRE [as Valence]: No, no.
ALI [as Broun]: Ok, cause it sounded like that—
DRE [as Valence] (overlapping): I mean, you’d be great, but no. It’s—
ALI [as Broun] (incredulous): No I wouldn’t! I’m an engineer. Do you want me to like make a robot that says “Vote for”—Oh my god, that such a good idea!
DRE [as Valence]: That is a good idea. See?
ALI [as Broun] (overlapping): Do you want to make a robot?
[AUSTIN and ALI laugh]
DRE [as Valence]: No, I’m asking because if you don’t want me to—If you feel that that is me...backing out of what I promised you, I’m not gonna do it.
ALI [as Broun]: Oh. No, I mean if you’re a leader, you could do anything for me. Are you kidding me? No, you should totally do this.
[SYLVIA laughing in the background]
DRE [as Valence]: Ok.
ALI [as Broun] (overlapping): Oh my god, you should totally do this. Wait, ok, but...like what are you gonna do? Like for real?
DRE [as Valence]: I told you, I’m gonna put it all out on the table.
ALI [as Broun]: Oh, yeah, ok. The table’s set. What’s on it?
DRE [as Valence]: Uhm…
[Laughter]
ALI [as Broun]: Exactly.
DRE [as Valence]: Well...
JACK: Not so easy NOW, is it?
[Laughter]
DRE [as Valence]: Probably a purple cloud.
ALI [as Broun] (sarcastic): Ha ha.
AUSTIN: They mean WEED.
[ALI and JANINE laugh]
DRE: No.
AUSTIN: #FreeWeed. That’s the Valence platform.
DRE (laughing): #DankValence.
ALI: “Bro, get that off the sign. Bro, get that OFF the sign”
[AUSTIN, ALI AND DRE laugh]
SYLVIA: “Bro, stop hotboxing the candidate.”
[Laughter]
DRE [as Valence]: I think—people think we have more time than we do. And I’m not saying it has to be me. But if I can at least...make that part of the conversation.
ALI [as Broun]: (Sigh) Ok, two things: You’re not—don’t—I mean, don’t get up there and start talking about the God stuff, cause no one’s gonna vote for you. It’s gonna suck. And I’m gonna be embarrassed for you. Two is...
[KEITH laughs, others join in]
DRE [as Valence]: There’s like a couple people here that are explicitly here cause of the God stuff. I don’t know if you know that—
ALI [as Broun] (overlapping): I know, but like—but it’s a bummer to be like “Oh you should vote for me or God’s gonna kill all of us.” It’s just, you know, messaging. The second thing—
DRE [as Valence]: You sure you don’t wanna be my campaign manager?
[AUSTIN laughs]
ALI [as Broun]: Well—(laugh) I thought we decided that I was doing that.
DRE [as Valence]: Oh ok, perfect.
[ALI continues laughing]
ALI [as Broun]: I told you about the robot. I...right. Valence, this is...a nice thing to do? But I mean to be honest with you, you need to be something more than just a different option. You know what I mean?
DRE [as Valence]: No, but I think I could.
DRE: And I think that’s probably scene.
AUSTIN: Yeah, mhm. That makes sense. Ok!
[ALI chuckles in the background]
AUSTIN: Good scene. Any Reactions here?
DRE: Mmm…
AUSTIN: Or any additional Predictions, Valence?
ALI: Yeah, we’re um...in a Predictions corner here. I suppose… (laugh)
AUSTIN: You could add more.
DRE: Could I make two?
AUSTIN: You can make one, I think—it doesn’t explicitly say. Let me see here.
DRE: Ok.
AUSTIN: I tend to like it to be one, because it should be drawn from the scene, but—
DRE (overlapping): Right, right. Yeah yeah yeah.
AUSTIN: I’m gonna check the text.
DRE: No, let’s keep it to one. Cause I think that is…
AUSTIN: Mhm.
DRE: I imagine that it probably is the text. Um...I don’t wanna say “If yes, Valence wins.” I don’t know. What’s the equivalent of being Sovereign Immunity’s vice president?
[ALI laughs softly]
JACK (sarcastically): Electoralism!
[DRE laughs]
AUSTIN: I mean, if that’s a...I mean, listen—
KEITH: Wait, we’re voting for PRESIDENT?
AUSTIN: (laugh) It’s not clear what we’re voting for, that’s the thing.
DRE: Yeah.
ALI: Yeah, are there like…is there different chairs? Is there just one?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Is there a council? Yeah, are there—yes, yes. Exactly.
ALI: Do we vote on how many people we’re voting on, and then we vote on who we’re voting on? (Laugh)
SYLVIA: Like we’ve had three people in charge up until this point, right? With Gur, Clem, and Gucci.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, but even that is not real, right?
SYLVIA: Ok.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Clementine Kesh has been “in charge.” What’s actually happening is that Gucci Garantine and Gur Sevraq have actualized pull where they can say something and it happens. You don’t have to be an elected official, or any—like, Millie could be a Power. Millie could Overthrow Clementine Kesh right now, and decide “I’m a Power.”
SYLVIA (overlapping): Don’t give me any ideas.
[AUSTIN and ALI laugh]
AUSTIN: Well and like—and that would happen. You could be the—the Power can be the hotshot pilot. The Power can be...
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: ...the cook in the kitchen who connects to everybody and is the person who really makes things happen, you know? Doesn’t have to be—
KEITH: And the thing that the book says is like “The king can be a Touchstone.”
AUSTIN (overlapping) Yes. Yes. Correct.
KEITH (overlapping) Like you don’t have to—as long as the king reflects what the people feel, and not Power.
AUSTIN: Right. These elections could happen, and no one could change roles.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Right? That’s the thing that’s extra scary about the way this stuff works, [ALI laughs] is that Clementine Kesh could come out still being a Power cause no one has tried to Overthrow her.
[Pause]
DRE: Though then maybe my Prediction isn’t about like, what thing Valence will win. But maybe it’s “If yes, Valence will become a Power.”
AUSTIN: You have to still—
DRE (overlapping): Or Valence will Overthrow…
AUSTIN (overlapping): Actually you could just choose—let’s see.
ART: Yeah, I don’t know that—
DRE (overlapping): You could just do that, huh?
ART: I don’t know that you can...because the Overthrow mechanics are separate—
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: I don’t know that you can like—
AUSTIN: You can just become a Power. If Valence wants to, this can be a moment that Valence becomes a power.
KEITH (overlapping): Well, I thought about this because I almost did it. But, if you were to make a Prediction that’s like “If the elections don’t happen, then...you know, Valence will Overthrow…”
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: “Valence will Overthrow Clementine’s role,” like—
AUSTIN: The thing there is—
KEITH (overlapping): All you have to do to make that true is just also do that move. Like it’s—
AUSTIN (overlapping): The thing there is it should just be—you should be fictionalizing the Crossroad Prediction at that point. Not talking about Overthrowing the role, because again, Overthrowing the role is a situation that has to...Overthrowing the role is the thing you can do whenever. That doesn’t need to be in the Prediction field, and also is almost a thing that’s happening at the game level more than the fictional level, if that makes sense? And has its own demands, right? To Overthrow Power means to do a specific thing. And...I would just say let’s keep it in terms of—the Prediction should be what happens to the Kingdom when—if this or that. You know? Not what happens to a specific character, even, ideally. Though I think that the election thing makes that very caught up in like specific characters, because that’s what we’re talking about. But, yeah.
KEITH: Right. Says a lot about elections.
AUSTIN: Mhm. Um…(sigh) I’m trying to think if I have—Gucci, do you have a scene? Who do we have left? We have Gucci…
JANINE: Yes.
AUSTIN: Broun, Clem…
JANINE: I do have a scene I’ve been waiting for when to—
AUSTIN (overlapping): Apparatus. Ok. Not Clem.
DRE (overlapping): I’m gonna think on this Prediction, and I’ll write it down.
AUSTIN: Ok, sounds good. Gucci!
JANINE: So...(chuckle) I think Gucci calls a debate.
ALI: Nice.
AUSTIN: Who is invited?
JANINE: And it is a—well that’s the thing is, it is an open floor debate because…
AUSTIN (overlapping): Ok.
JANINE: Because specifically I think our confusion about candidates and all that—that feels like a confusion that is maybe—exists? Extant. Because—
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, Mhm.
JANINE: You know, elections have been asked for. Elections have been called. There have been some like vague meetings and things like that, but in general it’s not like anyone’s hanging up a lot of like material or...you know—
AUSTIN (overlapping): Millie’s handing out all the flyers!
JANINE: Picking up babies and—well, ok. But still, there’s—you know.
AUSTIN: No, I get you. I get you.
JANINE: I also imagine there are people who are off-camera who have aspirations.
AUSTIN: Mhm. Yeah like—Jesset’s probably running.
JANINE (overlapping): In general, so—yeah, exactly. Exactly. So I think the thing that Gucci does is she announces that she is going to...hmm. I was gonna say she announces that she’s gonna sponsor debates, but I think she would be on stage even if she is just on stage as a way to prod others a little bit.
AUSTIN: Mhm, as like a—
JANINE (overlapping): As much as maybe if there’s a vacuum, make a move. But like, you know. So I think sponsoring isn’t correct there. But I think she basically just announces that there will be debates, and anyone who wants a spot at the podium can sign up on a sheet and it’ll be anonymous. Well, until they’re on stage, obviously. (Chuckle) Then it won’t be. [AUSTIN chuckles] And...oh we need a moderator and it’s been bothering me, cause I can’t pick who Gucci would be like—
ALI (overlapping): Thisbe.
JANINE: Hm?
ALI: (giggles) I’m suggesting Thisbe.
[Loud laughter]
AUSTIN: That’s very funny.
JANINE: Mmmm.
KEITH: Honestly, I would love to just do, like ten minutes of just everyone asking direct questions to whoever is running. I would love to hear that.
AUSTIN: So who is running? Let’s get some candidates out here. Voting Day candidates.
ART: Sovereign Immunity would not show up to Gucci Garantine’s debate.
ALI: Ooh.
AUSTIN: Ooh a no-show at the debate. Oof, bad look.
DRE: Ok, Valence shows up.
JANINE (overlapping): Ok.
KEITH: Wait, Sovereign Immunity’s running, though.
AUSTIN: Yeah. No-shows the debate.
ART (overlapping): Yeah. But Sovereign Immunity is running on a platform of not...kow-towing to aristocracy and so will not show up to Gucci Garantine’s debate.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Right, sure. Uh, are you public about the reason for not showing? Because otherwise it leaves it open to interpretation.
ART: I think he makes it clear, yes.
AUSTIN: Like, again, through what? Through a quote? Through a flyer of his own? Through a counter-debate?
ART: I think through—how would you...how would you communicate something to everyone in like a text medium?
AUSTIN: A flyer.
KEITH (overlapping): Flyer. (Laugh)
ART: Mmm, I don’t think flyers are futuristic enough.
AUSTIN: It—we’re not futuristic. We don’t have instant text chat in this world.
ART: But like—
AUSTIN (overlapping): I guess we do on this—I guess, you know what?
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: We do have the instant-text-chat person here.
ART: I think it’s just a flyer of ”One does not get power by asking for it from the elite.” And then the shepherd's crook on the bottom of it.
AUSTIN: Mmm. Ok. I think that’s pretty clear. So you don’t show. Uh, Jesset City...ooh see this is like—this changes the conversation. You’ve fucked up the conversation now. Jesset City was there ready to spit fire, and now it’s like “Well if I show up, am I the person who has saddled up with the reigning power?”
KEITH: I mean this was an open debate. This is like a town hall, basically, right?
AUSTIN: No but it’s—but Gucci is running it. [Pause, siren going off in the background] I think—
KEITH (overlapping): Sure, I mean it’s whatever, I mean—
AUSTIN (overlapping): I think the Oxblood Clan demands to be a co-sponsor of this.
JANINE: Oh, sorry, she’s not like sponsoring it. I withdrew that. She’s not like sponsoring it, she’s just like—
AUSTIN: Also debating?
JANINE: —she’s just putting it together. She’s like organizing it and...yeah.
ALI: She made the binder.
JANINE: Someone had to call the event and she—you know.
AUSTIN: Right, right. Then I guess the question is like, is that just a matter of...yeah, alright. Then I think...it would totally change...yeah.
KEITH (overlapping):Well it’s now a matter of Sovereign Immunity has changed the conversation, whether it’s reality or not.
ALI: Right, when Sovereign says it, then it’s…
AUSTIN: Yeah, then it doesn’t matter, yeah. I think that changes the situation and Jesset—who is trying to position himself as more radical than Sovereign Immunity—can’t go.
KEITH: You could put out your own flyer.
AUSTIN: Oh, definitely does, right?
KEITH: I mean you could put out your own flyer criticizing Sovereign Immunity for...I don’t know. You could just say that—
AUSTIN: No, no, no—
KEITH: Put out something saying that Sovereign Immunity’s reasoning is wrong.
AUSTIN: But it isn’t, for Jesset City. It is for Mourningbride, it is for Agon, right? There are other people, but Jesset is the one for whom that particular line of attack—especially cause he’s young. He’s like twenty-three. He knows who The Farmer is. I think he like—
KEITH: I guess.
AUSTIN: —he’s exactly that sort of like...you know.
KEITH: Right. I mean—I was thinking like—I don’t know. If the—
AUSTIN (overlapping): No, I think that that—
KEITH: If the elites open their front door you can walk in and burn it down.
AUSTIN: That’s not him. Absolutely not.
KEITH: I know.
AUSTIN: Yeah, it’s just not, like—he doesn’t—yeah. He’s mad he didn’t think of this.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: He’s mad at himself for having thought about sharing a stage with someone who has...you know? Though, they did work with Horizon, which means maybe there’s a favor. So maybe that’s the most interesting thing—is he’s there, and is kind of like grimacing about it. So yeah, let’s go with that.
DRE: Let’s say if—cause if Jesset doesn’t show up, then I don’t know if Valence shows up.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh. So is that it? Is it—is it Gucci?
KEITH: Just an empty…(Laugh)
AUSTIN: Gucci, Valence—and again, there are NPCs here probably asking questions and stuff, right?
JANINE: Yeah.
ART: I don’t wanna ruin this scene. If it’s better for me to not have done that, I want to not do it.
KEITH: Can I make a Prediction?
AUSTIN: Sure.
KEITH: The winner—
AUSTIN (overlapping): Is this—
KEITH: The winner of the debate wins the election.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: You could make the Prediction. [JACK laughs] How does Apparatus make that debate—or make that thing? Come to that conclusion
KEITH: Well, no one’s gonna vote for someone that—like this their—this is THE opportunity for people to see who’s even running. This is a boat of strangers.
AUSTIN: Mhm.
KEITH: This isn’t like—this isn’t like Joe fucking Biden where everyone’s heard the name for eighty years.
AUSTIN: Right. (Pause) With the note that The Farmer is the one person whose name everyone’s heard for twenty years. But yes.
KEITH: Sure, you know.
AUSTIN: Sovereign Immunity—
KEITH (overlapping): Also propagandized as a terrorist.
AUSTIN: To a bunch of terrorists, yes. Uh...Sovereign Immunity is the Joe Biden of Partizan, is what I’m saying.
KEITH (overlapping): This is—this boat isn’t all terrorists.
JACK: Also, I want to be clear, Clementine is running but not attending.
AUSTIN: Ok, good to know.
[JANINE chuckles]
AUSTIN: Gur Sevraq is ABSOLUTELY not running.
JANINE: Is Gur Sevraq the moderator then?
AUSTIN: Yes, but then Jesset City shouldn’t be there. [JACK laughs] Or someone else could play Jesset for this sequence.
JANINE (overlapping): No? Well, yeah. That’s true.
AUSTIN: Cause I’ve only been playing him because he’s an NPC that no one picked, but…
DRE: I think it’s more important for Jesset to be there than Gur Sevraq.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah. I think he’s there watching.
JANINE (overlapping): Yeah. Yeah.
KEITH (overlapping): Who’s running—
AUSTIN: I think Gur is absolutely there in attendance, but this is a part of a move for him to not be involved, you know. I think he would also not want to be moderator here, actually. So, yeah.
JANINE: Um...you know what—
KEITH (overlapping): Who’s—
JANINE: I actually—I think I have a better—I think I have a thing here. I think I have a thing that would—I think I have a way around this.
AUSTIN: Mhm?
JANINE: In terms of moderation. Which is that I think the way this is run is...you know, they want an impartial moderator and because everyone here is from specific groups and a lot of those groups have interests, I think it is Thisbe as the moderator but I don’t think she is actively moderating—like I think she is there to one, enforce rules and time limits—
AUSTIN: Right.
JANINE: But two, she is reading questions that are submitted by the community.
AUSTIN: Right.
JANINE: She is just there as a sort of mouthpiece, which I think also, I would say I don’t need to—
AUSTIN (overlapping): Does she sneak one of her own in?
JANINE: I don’t think she has one.
AUSTIN: Ok.
JANINE: For this group, specifically. I think she would have one if certain other people were here.
AUSTIN: Sure.
JANINE: But I don’t think she has one from this group. I think she is happy to just read what people want her to read—
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
JANINE: And if someone goes long…
AUSTIN: Say…
JANINE: I don’t know—
AUSTIN: Yeah, her eyes glow and everyone’s like “Ok I’m done, I’m done.”
[ALI and JANINE laughing in the background]
JANINE (overlapping): I was gonna say do the Hypnotoad thing, but that’s probably not an accurate—she probably like, I don’t know, makes a long beeping sound or something?
AUSTIN: Yeah (chuckle).
JANINE: That’s canon. We’ve established she does that.
AUSTIN: She does. She does make noises. Um, alright!
KEITH: Who’s actually at the debates?
AUSTIN: I have written it down. Valence, Jesset, Gucci.
KEITH: Oh I thought Jesset pulled out.
AUSTIN: No, I said the whole thing with the Horizon relationship means that he’s there grudgingly.
KEITH: Oh, ok—yeah.
AUSTIN: Anyone else? I think it’s time for questions then. Where is this happening? What is the room that this is in? Is this like—has the room been converted? Is this like…
ALI: Has to be like...the cafeteria. Or like adjacent to—
AUSTIN: Yeah, that makes sense.
ALI (overlapping): Right? Like a kind of a high traffic area.
JANINE: I was gonna say either a mess hall, or like a hangar, just in terms of like—I mean, I guess if there was a higher turnout of candidates, then you’d want the hangar—
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: Yeah…
JANINE: —space kind of cleared out? Like USO-show style but…
AUSTIN: I think this still works though, yeah.
JANINE: Yeah, one of the areas with some pass-through.
AUSTIN: Totally. Uhm...I think we should get a question from the audience.
JACK: Should we go—should we do this like—should we go in order here?
AUSTIN: Sure (chuckle). Valence, Jesset, Gucci? (Pause) Or is there a different—or is there a different—does Gucci get—
KEITH (overlapping): Well I—what if I have a question for everyone?
AUSTIN: Yes. That then is answered in that order—that’s what I was saying.
KEITH: Oh ok, got it.
AUSTIN: Right?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: What is your question? Is this Leap’s question? Is this Apparatus’s—
KEITH [as Leap]: Hi, yes, Leap—Exeter Leap.
JANINE: Thisbe is saying this, so please say it as monotone as possible. Thank you.
KEITH: Oh, I don’t get to ask my own question?
AUSTIN: That’s—
JANINE (laughing): They’re submitted in writing.
AUSTIN: Janine just set that up, yes.
KEITH: (Sigh) I thought it was both. Um...
JANINE: If you put fun symbols in there she’ll read them out cause her text parser is very literal.
[AUSTIN and JACK chuckle]
KEITH [as Thisbe]: (Clears throat) Clementine Kesh is a dictatorial ruler of Kesh. She kept all of us prisoner. Exclamation point.
[AUSTIN laughs]
KEITH [as Thisbe]: Which one of the candidates on stage would arrest and try Clementine Kesh as a criminal and a war criminal. Question mark.
AUSTIN: Jesset City raises his hand.
DRE: Valence also raises their hand.
SYLVIA [as Milie]: WOO!
JANINE: Wait we’re raising hands and not—this is an out of character...we’re supposed to answer with words.
[KEITH laughing in the background]
AUSTIN: No, no. That was just Jesset being kind of a dick. Just being like “Yeah, this guy here.”
DRE: Oh I know what Valence says.
[as Valence]: I would, and I would like to point out that there is another candidate who chose not to be here because it seems he chooses not to share his feelings on Clementine Kesh, and has been putting posters up with a shepherd’s crook. People have asked me why I wear a wolf mask.
KEITH [as Leap] (muffled): Why
DRE [as Valence]: It is because I believe...that we are all one pack. And the time for shepherds to lord over us all like sheep is done.
ALI [as Broun]: Bravo, Valence.
AUSTIN: (Laughing) Yeah, just—just doing an arm pump. Just doing like a “Yeeeaaah!” [ALI laughing in the background] God. Uhm...Jesset says:
[as Jesset]: The wolf’s got it. I think...from what I have seen, Clementine Kesh has imprisoned half of this fort...has forced us to do her bidding, has gotten members of our community killed, and threatens to turn a revolutionary operation into her own private army. She’s done. There’s not much more to it. I don’t think anyone running who isn’t going to change things around here ought to be running in the first place. I don’t know anything about wolves—you know I have the blood of an ox in my veins—which is how you know that I personally have felt the slings and arrows of living in the principality. My understanding is that our good friend Valence isn’t from around here. And while I understand that they have their own concerns, I think that someone from Partizan should lead this operation. Which, by the way, does mean that Clementine Kesh, Sovereign Immunity...these aren’t names that should be in the conversation at all. I don’t know much about Gucci—about you, Gucci, apologies—
AUSTIN: I probably—he would probably say:
[as Jesset] Lady Garantine. I don’t know anything much about you and your history, but perhaps you can enlighten us.
JANINE [as Gucci]: Fundamentally, I believe that people who are working together towards common goals should be equals. They should be working at the same level. They should be on the same platform, and I think it’s unconscionable that there are people among us who do not believe that. I think it is unconscionable that there are people who have operated in ways that would put themselves above others in such a...such a dramatic way. I also believe it’s important to understand that...in such structures, power does not stop one level above you. It does not stop at the horizon—
JANINE: That’s—she wouldn’t say “the horizon” cause she uses horizon.
AUSTIN: (Laugh) Cause she uses horizon. Yeah.
JANINE [as Gucci]: It would not stop at the—ugh (struggling to find the word).
JANINE: What’s another word for that?
[as Gucci]: It would not stop at the vanishing point of your perspective, of your point of view. Things extend beyond, and there are power structures beyond what is immediate to us that also need to be taken to task.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: And that’s where we’ll go next.
AUSTIN: Says Jesset.
JANINE [as Thisbe]: Please, your time is finished, candidate Jesset.
[AUSTIN and ALI laugh]
JANINE [as Thisbe]: Also, in future, please refrain from personal attacks.
AUSTIN [as Jesset] (under his breath): This place has been personally attacking me my whole life.
JANINE [as Thisbe]: You’ve only been here a few weeks.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: I meant Partizan, specific—(holding his tongue) Mmh.
[Laughter in the background]
JANINE [as Thisbe]: Next question.
JACK [as Tes’ili Serikos]: Hello, this is Tes’ili Serikos. Given the difficulty that faces us aboard Icebreaker Prime, and the lack of resources—medicine, food, and guns—which candidate will commit to a rigorous and prolonged campaign to take from the Stels what we need?
AUSTIN: Jesset steps forward, leans into the microphone, and says:
[as Jesset] I think this is a great question. The one thing I would change about it is—
JANINE [as Thisbe]: Candidate Jesset, please wait your turn.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: That’s what we’re here for, everyone. To wait our turn!
DRE [as Valence]: I don’t mind if he goes first.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: Thank you, Valence. The only thing I would say is—
AUSTIN: Like waits to see if Thisbe cuts him off again. (Chuckle)
[ALI laughs]
JANINE: Thisbe takes Valence at their word.
AUSTIN: Ok.
JANINE: Not at their word, but you know.
AUSTIN: (chuckle) Yeah.
JACK (laughing): This fucking miserable American debate.
JANINE (overlapping): Thisbe is cool with it, just—
AUSTIN: Mhm.
[DRE laughs]
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: (Sigh) The only thing that I would add is that we’re not taking what we need, we’re taking back what we need. We already MADE what we need and they took it from us. So yeah. Columnar, Orion, armaments shipments—that’s a start. That’s a foundation for whatever we build.
[Pause]
DRE [as Valence]: I believe that we...will find what we need by no longer secluding ourselves in Icebreaker Prime. I think we already had a chance to start building those coalitions, and it was bungled when Clementine Kesh attempted to turn...refugees and potential allies into indentured servitude.
AUSTIN: Oof.
DRE [as Valence]: There are people who want this—who need this—and will support us, and will gladly join us. And will give us...their skills, their talents...and other resources.
JACK: Am I allowed to ask a follow-up question?
[Pause]
ALI (laughing): Tes is standing from the crowd.
JANINE: Um…(chuckle)
AUSTIN: Yeah.
[ALI laughing in the background]
DRE (overlapping): That’s a Thisbe question.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Tes is there…
JACK (overlapping): Yeah, yeah. Am I—Can I ask a follow up question?
AUSTIN (amused): Yeah, what’s up?
[JANINE laughs]
JACK [as Tes]: So, uh...Valence! Are you gonna stop the raids? Are we not gonna be able to send out the crews to attack the Kesh ships. You call yourself a shepherd—how are we supposed to protect the flock? Do you wanna ask the wolves if we could have their stuff?
[AUSTIN snorts]
DRE [as Valence]: No, I’m not a shepherd.
JACK [as Tes]: Uh you keep talking about a pack. All that pack stuff, it’s like the imagery is confusing to me.
[AUSTIN laughs]
JACK [as Tes]: I’m asking you pretty clearly, I think.
AUSTIN (overlapping): (Laughing) Broun writing down notes rapidly.
[Loud laughter]
AUSTIN: “The pack stuff is confusing…”
JACK [as Tes]: Are we gonna have to stop attacking the convoys? Cause uh, that’s how you got your breakfast, mate.
DRE [as Valence]: No.
JACK [as Tes]: You wanna say a bit more than that?
DRE [as Valence]: You said it was a simple question. I gave a simple answer. No, we don’t have to stop.
JACK [as Tes]: Ok. Good, thanks.
DRE [as Valence]: And like you said, now we can’t stop.
JACK [as Tes]: Thank you!
JACK: Sits down—
KEITH [as Leap]: [shouting] Hi this is Leap! This is Exeter Leap! I heard from Gur Sevraq that you were mad at — you were mad at them about the piracy that I’ve been doing! Are you lying now?!
DRE [as Valence]: Uh…
JANINE [as Thisbe]: We cannot do this right now.
[Laughter]
JANINE: Thisbe stands up, is very tall…
JACK (laughing): Beeping...beeping sounds.
ALI [as Broun]: On behalf of the pirates, Valence is cool with it.
JANINE (overlapping): Bumps her head on one of the cafeteria lamps.
[AUSTIN laughs]
DRE [as Valence]: I changed my mind.
[JANINE sighs]
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: It’s a bad look, buddy. You just…(sigh)
JANINE: Can Gucci answer now?
AUSTIN: Seems like it.
[ALI laughs]
JANINE: I think Gucci is like leaning one elbow on her podium, sort of watching this back and forth...and sort of when it settles slash when Thisbe sits down and is less tall again...I think she—that’s when she says her piece.
[as Gucci] (with an uptick): Our cause…
JANINE: She doesn’t say it with an uptick.
AUSTIN (laughing): Mhmm.
JANINE [as Gucci]: Our cause is...a righteous one. And it is a difficult one. And it is one that we need to be prepared to support with...fire and with passion...and as many of you know, I lost a friend of mine recently in the raids, and despite that, I understand there is a purpose to it, and that those raids provide for us and help us, and that—within reason—obviously we should not be taking food from the mouths of people who are like us who want more, but are not yet in a position to...reach for it. But, we should absolutely take from those who would use what they have to stop us. To limit the impact and limit the change that we can have on Partizan.
AUSTIN [as Jesset] (derisively): You can hear the words of the school in her. Is there anything else?
KEITH [as Leap]: Speak on that.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: Huh?
KEITH [as Leap]: [shouting] Speak on that!
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: Well, I—thank you for asking. It was uh, Leap?
KEITH [as Leap]: Yeah.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: Incredible work out there, Leap.
JANINE [as Thisbe]: I—
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: First and foremost, thank you.
JANINE: Ok. No, I think at this point Thisbe stands up…[Loud laughter] And I think Thisbe starts walking towards Leap.
AUSTIN: OH.
ALI: Oh.
KEITH: Ok.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: Hey-ey-ey-ey-ey. Hey. Hey! Hey! Hey! Leap is one of us! Hey! Thisbe!
ALI [as Broun]: Yeah, Thisbe, it’s chill.
JANINE [as Thisbe]: This is not how a debate is supposed to proceed.
KEITH [as Leap]: Uh obviously you’ve never seen a debate before, because ignoring the moderator is exactly how a debate is supposed to go.
[AUSTIN laughs]
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: It’s an open…
ALI [as Broun] (overlapping): Leap, just let her…(laugh)
JANINE [as Thisbe]: Leap, if you have any further questions, you will submit them to me on a page. I will ask them.
KEITH: I write on a piece of paper—I write “Speak on that” and hand it to Thisbe.
[TIMESTAMP 01:11:53]
[AUSTIN and ALI losing it in the background]
JANINE: Thisbe takes the paper, walks back to where she’s seated, and says:
[As Thisbe]: Follow-up question for Jesset City. “Speak on that.”
[More laughter in the background]
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: Oh you know I will. Um...Let me gather my—Gucci Garantine...I can’t rise vitriol to my voice, because I know that Gucci has done a great deal of service to regular people here on Partizan. I fought with Gucci multiple times now, alongside her. I know that those of you in Horizon have donated your time, dedicated your blood, and given—in some cases—your lives for the betterment of people on Partizan. But our leader cannot be someone schooled by the very education system we want to overturn. They can’t have lived in the palaces we want to overrun. We can’t elect someone whose first instinct will have been shaped and coded by the system that has oppressed all of us for so long. Maybe that’s a (chuckle)—a vote for Valence, who is not from here at all, and who has not been touched by the hand of the Principality. Maybe I’m ceding something here. But I think, personally, that whoever leads us should have known what it is like to feel the boot on their back. And Gucci, to her credit, has not been that boot in my experience. But, she also hasn’t felt it. Not like us.
AUSTIN: Jesset sliding into the “You know, everyone up here is friends” mode.
JANINE: Mmm.
[Pause]
AUSTIN: In the chat, Dre and Ali smartly noted that we should have grabbed the Firebrand rules for debate and just completely didn’t see it until it’s too late, unfortunately—
ALI: Um…
JANINE (overlapping): Oh wow…
AUSTIN: —but shoutout to those rules.
JACK: This may not be our last debate.
AUSTIN: No, fair. Fair.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: And also, I will say I think it is within the realm of Kingdom to not necessarily have a clear victor in that way.
JACK: Mmm. Mhm.
JANINE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So. I don’t think it’s as open and shut as that. But shoutout to those—
JACK: Yeah, it’s kind of the “Don’t play as individuals” in the Quiet Year vibe.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Mhm, right. Exactly.
JANINE: Are there any other questions that we wanna…
ALI: I have one.
JACK (overlapping): I’m tryna think.
DRE: It might just also be worth it to close it there to keep things moving…
KEITH: I’ve got more. I got more. Let’s do more.
ALI (overlapping): No, I have questions.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Wait-wait-wait let’s get Ali’s, cause I don’t think we’ve heard Ali ask as either of the two characters.
ALI (overlapping): No. I’m asking as a different character.
AUSTIN: Oh, ok.
[ALI giggles]
ALI [as Alise Breka]: Alise Breka here. I’m curious about the future you all have in mind for our dear Millenium Break. Do you envision it as a sixth Stel, or for something different and grander? And if so, how will you get us there?
DRE [as Valence]: I can’t imagine it as a sixth Stel. It’s called Millenium Break, not Millenium...Build Sideways.
[Snorts and laughter]
JACK: Polite laughter in the hall.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
[Continued laughter]
KEITH: Groans.
JACK: Thisbe tilts her head.
AUSTIN (laughing): Yeah.
[KEITH laughs]
ALI [as Broun]: Colder, Valence.
[AUSTIN laughs]
AUSTIN: Is there a vision though, after that?
DRE [as Valence]: I don’t have a 10-step plan. What it looks like is the elevation of the many. As Jesset so eloquently put it, the people who have been held down with boots on their back.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: I think I have a 10-step plan. The first—
DRE [as Valence] (under their breath): SHIT.
[AUSTIN, ALI, and JACK laughs]
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: First, we take what we have here and we figure out how best to instrumentalize it—to take our strengths, separate our weaknesses, and find a foothold in—as our friend Valence did suggest, part two: we make landfall somewhere. We get territory where we can help people, where we can bring people if they need somewhere to go. Where we can farm and take care of ourselves, and...separate ourselves from the system that hates us so. In fact, that’s our third step, is establishing not just territory, but something self-sufficient. Something that takes care of itself. We will be building not only our own farms, but our own weapons. That means factories. That means bringing people over from the rest of the world, as Valence suggested, who are amenable to our aims, and who have righteousness in their hearts. Four, we expand. We don’t just expand here, but we create some sort of foothold in space. We have to get off of Partizan if we want this to change anything. On a long enough timeline, one or the other of the Princepts will simply come and squash us if all we are is on Partizan. Which brings me to step five: we take the Partizan system as a foothold for what comes next. This is a big step. I don’t think it’s light. I think driving the Stels, or converting them, or doing whatever needs to be done here will be difficult. We will be aided by the fact that right now, out there, they’re all trying to kill each other. We may only need to clean up the pieces and offer people hope in what comes next. Six, we have to unite with the other people doing this out there. I don’t...I’m not a religious person. But I’ve listened to Gur Sevraq talk about connecting across the galaxy—across the rest of the Principality. In my heart, I think there are other people out there trying this right now, and we just don’t hear about it cause the principality keeps it from us. The Farmer, twenty years ago, tried it, and what if it’s not the case that that was a unique instance, but that what was unique about it was that we learned about it. What if people are fighting out there all the time? Seven, we find those people. We join with them. We bring everyone into—I almost said the Oxblood, but into whatever this is—Millenium Break, whatever comes next. Eight, we push out all of what is already here—all of the corruption. We purge it from society. No more nobles. No more...magistrates. Nine, we figure out how to live like we started. Small communities. Individual worlds, individual cities, individual towns. Connected through communication, not through hierarchy. Every factory that the Oxbloods run, runs itself. There is no king, there is no tyrant who demands that one factory do what the other—do the same thing as the other one. We work together, we have our strengths. And ten is open. I don’t know what comes after that. I can’t see that far. But it’s important to leave that space open, and not imagine the ninth as the final step. Ten steps. Millenium Break.
JANINE [as Thisbe]: I believe that’s 9.33 repeating steps.
AUSTIN [as Jesset]: (Sighs) I was never good at math.
[Pause]
JANINE: Um, I think Gucci says:
[as Gucci]: Good at speeches, though.
[AUSTIN chuckles]
JANINE: And that’s sincere. That’s not…
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
JANINE: That’s not her being like “Yeah, good job!”
AUSTIN (laughing): Mhm.
JANINE: Or shooting back for the school thing. Um...good where it counts.
AUSTIN: Mhm.
JANINE: Well, that’s arguable. [AUSTIN and JANINE laugh] I think Gucci...I think Gucci like nods a bit, and like when the audience does their clap-clap-clap, she also clap-clap-claps and says:
[as Gucci]: You know, I don’t think there is a template for what we need to do...or we should do. I think it is a thing that we are going to have to figure out, and we are going to have to be checking ourselves constantly because it is going to be—regardless of who is in charge, regardless of their schooling or their lack of schooling—it is going to be perilously easy to fall into old habits, and to repeat old patterns. And...I don’t even know that I can say I have a 10-step plan, because those steps are going to always be changing. We are going to always have to adjust what we’re doing as we look in the mirror and see what we’ve done.
AUSTIN: I think that that is probably as good of a scene call as possible, because I think it’s pretty clear what the three...like visions are, if that makes sense? And everything else can extrapolate from that. And also because we need to keep moving in this—on this one.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Uhm...alright! Does anyone have an immediate Reaction after that last scene?
ALI: I don’t have a Reaction, but I do have a scene, I think?
AUSTIN: Ok.
ALI: I thought it could have been a Reaction, but I think it might be a scene with Broun and Millie? Um...because I—(giggles) so, the sort of first idea I had for this was…Broun and some of the other sort of more revolutionary-bending people, trying to find a...like a system of being able to communicate like information about who is running and stuff like that, that’s a little bit more private than flyers are? (Laugh)
SYLVIA: Ok.
ALI: Yeah, the first thing that I was thinking of was like “Oh, you could um...like put morse code in different ways the lights blink,” or whatever. Or you could have like announcements during the day that are like “Oh, engine clear five through three,” or whatever, and really that means something else. And (laugh) I had that at the start of this recording, and then Broun became a campaign manager.
[Laughter]
AUSTIN: Mhm.
ALI: So I think the result of that is like Broun ends up doing a better and more complete job than they—(laugh) they would have, cause they end up like involving more people in the process...and then through trying to like legitimize what they’re doing for Valence’s sake. Like actually makes it a meaningful thing for like, the other candidates, and for the people who want this information. Because I think that the...the debates were fine, but there are still sort of the people who want to be able to read what those statements were after the fact, right? They couldn’t go to the debate because they were watching the deck or some shit—
AUSTIN: Mhm.
ALI: —or, you know. Anything. (Laugh) They have new questions after the fact, or whatever. And...I think the reason I...tapped Millie for this is because I think Broun would be like “Oh, you’ve already been the face in terms of just getting people to vote. You could also be the face to let them know that there’s this other place where they could sort of...get information. (Laugh)
SYLVIA: Yeah, I mean, we could also get like—like I know Si’dra...we could get them involved with this...
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, I think Si’dra would definitely be involved in that—
ALI: Yeah…
SYLVIA: And like—
AUSTIN: —since si has like a whole—that is si’s whole thing, you know?
SYLVIA (overlapping): Yeah...and we could make just like a localized Strand Semaphore thing, maybe?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, a little like—
ALI (overlapping): Oooh.
AUSTIN: —could like do that, and maybe like branch the Palace and like have an internal wiki, basically. Slash, you know messaging—basically combine those two things. That’s fun.
ALI (laughing): So I think it’s like Broun coming to Millie with this idea, and then Millie being like “Yeah, I have all these resources to do it way better,” and Broun being like—
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah...already hanging out with Si’dra…
ALI: —chill! (laugh).
ALI [as Broun]: Yeah, so I was thinking that like there’s these unused radio signals in the...the Icebreaker that we could put these out through.
AUSTIN [as Si’dra]: Does everybody get in on it? Can everybody join, or is it like—is there a service fee, do you have to have clearance? Like what’s the vibe?
SYLVIA [as Millie]: Everybody’s gotta be able to get in on it, right?
AUSTIN [as Si’dra]: Yeah. I’m good with that. I just wanna make sure that like...like what if we have a spy or something?
ALI [as Broun]: Wait, like a...election spy?
SYLVIA [as Millie]: Yeah, because we’d be just making this for the—this would be like a single use thing, currently.
AUSTIN [as Si’dra]: No. What? No one’s gonna use it for the election. You think if we make this thing for the elections, it’s gonna last? I’ve been making communication networks my whole life. Let me tell you, the first time that I made one was on an Apostolosian cruiser, and it was like—kinda like this, where you were supposed to come in and check for your day and be like “Hey, yeah, I did my rounds.” But real quick, people decided that like that was how they would set up like...poker games and like...off base hook-ups and stuff like that using codes. Like no one (laughs) uses the system for the thing you build it for. This is gonna last a week.
SYLVIA [as Millie]: Ok.
ALI [as Broun]: Sure.
AUSTIN [as Si’dra]: Whatever we make has to be like—you have to know it’s gonna be used for everything.
ALI [as Broun]: Yeah. Well...yeah. That seems chill. I’m a little election focused right now, but yeah!
[Laughter in the background]
SYLVIA [as Millie]: I mean it could be useful afterwards though.
AUSTIN [as Si’dra] (overlapping): We could like debut it...right.
SYLVIA [as Millie]: Yeah.
ALI [as Broun]: Right.
AUSTIN [as Si’dra]: Who gets to see all the messages?
SYLVIA [as Millie] (overlapping): I think si’s got a really good idea.
ALI [as Broun]: Who can see them?
AUSTIN [as Si’dra]: Yeah.
ALI [as Broun]: Well we...um...I guess—
AUSTIN [as Si’dra]: Like let’s say one of the candidates and another candidate decided that they wanted to like team up secretly, and like—I don’t think that’s gonna happen, but just in case, right? Would that be a thing that like some third party could be like “Wait a second, you’re not allowed to cheat!” or whatever? Or like, if someone was like, “Hey, let’s steal all the pudding” is that a thing where like...someone is supposed to see that and be like “No, look! They’re gonna steal all the pudding, stop ‘em!” first?
ALI [as Broun]: Oh, well I mean, if you have that sort of ambitious pudding plan, you should be better about how you’re gonna post it anyway. That’s...you know. That’s on them.
AUSTIN [as Si’dra]: Yeah, people are dumb...is the thing. How do you think I learned that people were like using the check-in plan to do poker games and hook-up? They’re not smart about how to use the systems, they’re just gonna use it like that anyway.
ALI [as Broun]: Sure, sure. Yeah.
AUSTIN [as Si’dra]: Let me just work on some stuff and we’ll—let me just work on some stuff. And then we’ll see what it is. Cause it’s cool. I like this idea a lot. I just need to like...do it.
ALI [as Broun]: Yeah...do you need any...
AUSTIN [as Si’dra] (overlapping): And then see like who gets to run it.
ALI [as Broun]: Like how...mmh—
SYLVIA [as Millie]: Do you any—do you need anything? I can—just let me know.
ALI [as Broun]: Yeah…
AUSTIN [as Si’dra]: No, yeah, absolutely. I think it should be like a cool thing we all do.
ALI [as Broun]: Right...that we’re all doing.
SYLVIA [as Millie]: That we’re—all of us. That we’re all—all three of us.
ALI [as Broun] (overlapping): Yeah.
AUSTIN [as Si’dra]: Yeah...all three of us. We need a name for it. (Clicks tongue) I’ll dream about it.
SYLVIA [as Millie]: ...Cool.
[ALI laughs, SYLVIA joins in.]
ALI: I think Broun’s having that feeling of like, when you invite one friend out, and they’re like “Oh, here’s my other friend,” and then...but (laugh) just like “Oh, hi—”
AUSTIN: “Hi…” yeah.
ALI: “—nice to meet you. This is my idea.” (Continues laughing)
AUSTIN: Uh-huh. Sometimes you’re just ready. Sometimes you’re waiting to have the conversation, you know what I mean?
[ALI and SYLVIA laughing in the background.]
ALI: Um...great. That’s great. (Laugh) No, that’s great. I um...yeah. I...it’s weird cause I was trying to think of like what...what the actual...Touchstone thing would come from this would be?
AUSTIN: You don’t even need to do anything, necessarily.
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: A Touchstone doesn’t have to—A Touchstone’s ability is different than a Perspective. It’s more like the Power—
ALI: Right, yeah…
AUSTIN: —in the sense that—what you’ve done is express a need to talk to each other, right? What you’ve shown is people here want to talk to each other, and want to talk about the elections, and like that means it’s a hot topic, if people want that, you know?
ALI: Right. Yeah.
AUSTIN: It doesn’t have to be that you put a token or anything like that.
ALI: Sure—sure-sure-sure. Yeah, um...but the one thing that I was thinking of is that like…(sighs) I think that the point at which...you’re able to make all of that stuff really accessible, people start to...either group together candidates in their mind by overlap—
AUSTIN: Mhm.
ALI: —you know what I mean? Where people are starting to think of like “Oh, well it would be really great is Jesset and Valence, and—”
AUSTIN: Right right right.
ALI: —and maybe S.I.
AUSTIN: Worked together, blah blah blah.
ALI: —as a group. Yeah yeah yeah. So, yeah.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah. Alright! Uh...I have a scene with Valence and Gur Sevraq. I think that this is in...the library that Valence is in? Has that been converted to like Valence HQ?
[DRE snorts]
AUSTIN: It’s like...flyers and posters and...stuff.
ALI: God. (Laugh)
DRE: Ugh. God. Yeah...wait, did Broun make ‘em? Valence wouldn’t make those.
AUSTIN: No, of course.
DRE: But if Broun made them, then yes.
ALI [as Broun]: Valence, this is a flyers game. Do you see how many flyers there are on this ship? If you don’t have a flyer, you don’t have a campaign.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq] (tentatively): Hi—
DRE [as Valence]: (Sigh) Ok.
ALI [as Broun]: Oh.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: —Kal’mera...Valence. I didn’t mean to interrupt anything. I can come back.
DRE [as Valence] (overlapping): No, it’s ok. Come in.
ALI [as Broun] (overlapping): I’ll go. (Laugh)
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: You’re doing a wonderful job, Broun. [ALI laughs] They’ve never seemed as pragmatic as with you running their campaign. (Pause) Can I have a seat, Valence?
DRE [as Valence]: Uh, yeah. Absolutely.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: How do you think it’s going?
[Pause]
DRE [as Valence]: How do I think what is going?
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: The election.
DRE [as Valence]: (Sigh) Eh, I don’t think I’m gonna win, but that’s ok.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: I think you have a better shot than Jesset. (Pause) But maybe not as good as Gucci. Which is what scares me.
DRE [as Valence]: I assumed Jesset was probably gonna be the person to win.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: I think if it was you and I voting...and you couldn’t vote for yourself, that might be the case. He’s a great rabble rouser. He’s like twenty-three. He...is a little too much for people, I think. Good ideas—
KEITH: Gur put the group together.
[Pause]
AUSTIN: What’s that mean?
KEITH: I mean...you know, why invite all the people that would vote for Gucci, who Gur seems to not like?
AUSTIN: Gur didn’t put the group—Gur was invited to the group. Gur didn’t put the group together. You’re confused.
KEITH: Gur didn’t put the—everyone that came to…
AUSTIN (overlapping): Valence invited Gur to this.
KEITH: Oh. Oh, right.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: At the beach thing.
AUSTIN: Mhm. Yeah, this was Horizon and—this starts with Horizon and Oxblood.
KEITH: Ok.
AUSTIN: Which is the divide, right?
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: I look out there, and I listen to the people on board, and...I don’t see it. There are too many options, first of all. And everyone wants something that feels like compromise. Jesset’s big plan is scary. I think he’s right. I think that is the path we should take, Valence. But, dreams of changing the entire galaxy put people off who aren’t sure that they’ll have dinner in three weeks. (Pause) And...Gucci is just...just ambitious enough, just connected enough, just familiar enough. (Pause) I don’t know. I think you could beat her, but five people running...for what seems to be one position…
DRE [as Valence]: So what are you proposing?
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: Nothing. I’m not here to propose anything, I’m worried. I came to confide my fear. (Pause) And Gucci would be an improvement—
DRE [as Valence]: (Sigh) Sorry, I’m used to lots of pointed questions lately.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: Fair. And I know I’ve thrown some at you. I mostly wanted to come and talk to see how you were doing.
DRE [as Valence](overlapping): I should talk to—(sigh).
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: You don’t strike me as the campaigning type.
DRE [as Valence]: Better? No, I don’t like it. But, at least it feels like something’s happening. Maybe I’ll go talk with Jesset and...we can consolidate.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: You can try, and I hope that works. (Sigh) I don’t want this thing to blow up. Not this soon.
DRE [as Valence]: I don’t think it can move forward with everyone staying here, though.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: (Sigh) I know. We’ll have to look into something. (Soft laugh) I haven’t even started the search for the Exemplar. It’s all so much.
[Pause]
DRE [as Valence]: When are you gonna tell me more about Perennial?
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: What would you like to know about her? She’s...magnificent and terrifying. (Sigh) I can’t tell if she’s indifferent to us or...monitoring everything we say. (Pause) I’ll tell you more after the election. How about that? (Playfully) If you win, you’ll have executive privilege.
[DRE laughs]
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: If you need anything, let me know. I am...pulling for you. Jesset first, then you. But—
DRE [as Valence] (overlapping): Thank you. Mmm, Fair.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: —it is what it is.
AUSTIN: Gur Sevraq is giving up the role Power and taking Perspective, and making a Prediction that is “If there are elections, Jesset City will lose.”
[Pause]
ART: Ooh we’re gonna learn a lot about the rules for contradictory Predictions.
AUSTIN (overlapping): It’ll be like “Crises!”
[ALI and DRE laugh]
JANINE: If we were gonna have a crisis, though, it has to be around this.
AUSTIN: That’s a good one.
JANINE: It HAS to.
DRE: Yeah.
[Pause]
AUSTIN: Alright! Uhm...that’s Gur’s turn. Apparatus! You got a scene? You got a Reaction?
KEITH: Yeah...I um...I actually was thinking about having a scene with Gur.
AUSTIN: Sure. You catch me in the walk-and-talk out of Valence’s library headquarters?
KEITH: Yeah..yeah. This could happen right after that.
AUSTIN: Sure.
KEITH: That works for me. Just two...two Perspectives hashing it out.
AUSTIN: Hashing it out.
KEITH: Yeah...Let’s gab.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq] (overlapping): Apparatus.
AUSTIN: In my mind...in my mind—
KEITH [as Apparatus] (overlapping): Gur Sevraq.
AUSTIN: —I think of Apparatus as being almost like a—like an older sibling figure to Gur, in terms of age difference. Does that make sense?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: And in terms of just like, that relationship.
KEITH: I—um...yeah. I think—like from Gur to Apparatus?
AUSTIN: Apparatus is the older one.
KEITH: Oh. Yeah, no, I mean but from Gur’s—Gur thinks of—
AUSTIN (overlapping): Of Apparatus as an older…
KEITH (overlapping): —Apparatus as an older sibling.
AUSTIN (overlapping): ...as an older sibling, yeah yeah yeah.
KEITH: Ok.
KEITH [as Apparatus]: (Sigh) I’m worried about the ship.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: That’s fair. What specifically?
AUSTIN: I say as people walk past us like, with flyers and…you know, yelling...and you know. All that shit.
KEITH [as Apparatus]: We haven’t done ANYTHING!
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: I know. I know. I think that’s what Valence means when they say that we need to make...make space of our own, and then go from there.
KEITH [as Apparatus]: But I thought the ship was making—was the beginning of making the space.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: I think it is. I think there are just differences in expected time tables. Some people wanted to be in the streets of Cruciat by now. Others understand that if we were, we’d be crushed.
KEITH [as Apparatus]: There has to be something that we can do besides...letting a few people...run raids on ships and sitting and trying to vote for something. I don’t even know what we’re supposed to be voting for. What does the winner call themself?
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: (Exhales a laugh) That’s a good question. As the person who arranged for the elections to occur, I’m surprised Clementine hasn’t given that. A last act of power before she’s dethroned.
KEITH [as Apparatus]: I don't know...I don’t know that I can get people to vote...without letting them know what they’re voting for.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: Whatever the name is, we know that it is a leader. We know that it is someone who...sharpens them. And that will encourage them to do. Like you used to do for me.
KEITH [as Apparatus]: It feels like we’ve designed a blank check. “You’ve won the election, now do as much as you think that you should be able to do. Go for it.”
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: “Go for it.” (Pause) Better that than one that bounces, right?
KEITH [as Apparatus]: If the check is too high, it’ll bounce. You can write whatever you want on there. That’s what a blank check does.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: I guess I should say, rather that than the same bounced check that we’ve had for the last few months. Different issuer at least. (Pause) This metaphor is getting away from me. (Laugh)
KEITH [as Apparatus]: Yeah.
[ART laughs]
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: Cash? We need cash—
KEITH [as Apparatus] (overlapping): You’re not good at metaphors.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: —that’s what we need.
ART: There you go.
KEITH [as Apparatus]: It’s like a jar of bees.
AUSTIN [as Gur Sevraq]: (Laughing) Yes.
AUSTIN: Uhm...do you have a Prediction here?
KEITH: I think I do...something bad, but how bad is it? Let me think on the wording of it. If anyone has a Reaction or another scene to do…
AUSTIN: Unfortunately...we don’t.
KEITH (overlapping): If not, then I can just do it at the end.
AUSTIN (overlapping): If someone has...if someone really has one, let me know. We can fit it in, but…
KEITH: Oh is this—am I the last one? Ok, yeah, I’ll—well we can do...no let’s let it ride. Let’s let it ride, and when it’s my…it’s my turn, I’ll slide it in there.
AUSTIN (overlapping): We—no, we need it now because we need it for the vote. You’ve already done one this round, so you can’t—you can’t now—
KEITH: I can’t fit it in at the end?
AUSTIN: No…
KEITH (overlapping): OH, ok.
AUSTIN: ...it has to come before—it has to come before the Powers decide. For listeners, the last time that that worked that way was because Apparatus had not made a Prediction yet, and there’s—you’re allowed to hold it in that case. Which is really a rule for people being ousted as Powers—
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: —so that they can still do something if they become a Perspective.
KEITH: Well, it doesn’t say that.
AUSTIN: No, I’m just saying, that is the example that the book gives explicitly.
KEITH (overlapping): Oh, ok, got it.
AUSTIN (overlapping): That’s why—that’s like the—to make sure that if you’ve been ousted as a Power, you can still do something, is why that general rule happens, but it says “If you haven’t yet made a Prediction this round…”
KEITH: I’m tempted to just repeat my last Prediction, but for “If yes.”
AUSTIN: Which was “If yes, there’s a riot?”
KEITH: There will be a riot.
AUSTIN: That’s fun.
KEITH: Uh, yeah let’s do it.
AUSTIN: That’s really fun. Ok, sure. (Pause) I should also note that um...there was a Valence Prediction in there that we missed, which was that “If no, Valence will leave the Kingdom,” from Valence. And that was from a while ago, right?
DRE: Mhm.
AUSTIN: That was a Reaction or something? Uhm...alright! There’s our turns. It’s time to do the damn thing. [DRE chuckles] (Reading from Kingdom by Ben Robbins) “Decide together if this is going to be the end of the game.” I don’t think it is. (Chuckle) We’ll see how it goes, I guess. (Continues reading) “Read aloud the Crossroad, the two choices, and all the Predictions to remind everyone what is at stake.” I’ll start with the Crossroad: “Will the Kingdom hold elections?” “If no,” Apparatus…?
KEITH: “There will be a riot on Fort Icebreaker.”
AUSTIN: Valence?
DRE: “If no, Valence leaves the Kingdom.”
AUSTIN: “If yes,” Sovereign Immunity?
ART: “Sovereign Immunity will win the election.”
AUSTIN: “If yes,” Valence?
DRE: “Sovereign Immunity will publically say something anti-Clementine Kesh.”
AUSTIN: Apparatus?
KEITH: “The winner of the debate will win the election.”
AUSTIN: Gur, “Jesset City will lose.” And, Apparatus again.
KEITH: “There will be a riot on Icebreaker.”
AUSTIN: Alright! With all of that, Clementine Kesh, Gucci Garantine. (Reading from Kingdom by Ben Robbins) Which path of the Crossroad do you make the Kingdom follow? Describe how your character makes the Kingdom do it.”
JACK: Well I’m voting “Yes.” And I’m voting for Clementine Kesh. It’s like the...my context here is the British government doing it, but like the Prime Minister going out and making a big show of putting the thing into the ballot box.
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: Yeah, photo op. Photo op vote.
[TIMESTAMP 01:45:22]
JANINE: Didn’t Gur just say you couldn’t vote for yourself.
JACK: Oh that’s true. Ok. Um…
JANINE (overlapping): Does she do it anyway?
[AUSTIN laughs]
AUSTIN: Well, is it… it’s a closed vote, right?
JACK (overlapping): No, no.
JANINE (overlapping): Is it like different handwriting? Just writes it in with her left hand?
JACK: Um…
ART: Wait, you shouldn’t be voting because the—this vote is about if the election—if the other two vote “no,” there’s no election, there’s no vote.
AUSTIN: There’s no other two, there’s only—wait wait wait. There’s not—there’s only one.
JACK: Oh, that’s true.
AUSTIN: There’s only Gucci.
JACK: That’s true.
AUSTIN: I’m not a—
ART (overlapping): Oh, there’s only Gucci.
JANINE (overlapping): Oh, right.
JACK (overlapping): So we don’t necessarily see…Clem voting. I’m just—I, Jack, am voting “yes.”
ART (overlapping): I’m getting a headache.
AUSTIN: Yes. Yes.
JANINE: I’m also voting “yes” for the...I don’t think Gucci would stop the elections at this point.
AUSTIN: Right, so is it the same thing of just showing...showing Gucci helping people to the polls? Or like—again, handing out pamphlets on how to flip the switches, or whatever?
JANINE: Yeah, I think that’s probably—you know. I don’t think she’s campaigning. I think she is just specifically like—she has made sure there are people around who can officiate and are like, you know, “Here’s how you press—here’s the buttons and here’s the stuff.”
AUSTIN: Mhm.
JANINE: I don’t know that Gucci even does the appearance of casting the ballot. She might vote, but she—I think she just like, does it discreetly.
AUSTIN: Mhm. Vote discreetly, my lord.
[JANINE laughs softly]
AUSTIN (laughing): No one even knows that anymore. It’s so old. Alright. That sounds like it’s going forward, which means we can cross out the “No’s,” and…
JACK (overlapping): Oh boy. Now we’re going—
AUSTIN (overlapping): ...get these Yes’s. So!
JACK (overlapping): Mr. Bone’s Wild Ride.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh. (Reading from Kingdom by Ben Robbins) “Perspectives, tell us whether each of your Predictions on the winning side of the Crossroad came true or not. Describe you characters seeing what happens. If you decide a Prediction did NOT come true because the situation changed or you decided you were wrong, cross it out. If someone wants to stop your Prediction from coming true, they can Challenge or Overthrow you. Declare before Perspective narrates what happens. Remember, you cannot change once you’ve used your role, so if you voted as Power, you cannot change to Perspective. If there are any abandoned Predictions—” there aren’t any. That would be if someone who WAS a Perspective BECAME something else and left their Predictions behind. “If no one has a Perspective”—that is the opposite of this one. (Continues reading) “If Predictions contradict each other! If one Prediction contradicts another, one of them must be wrong! If neither Perspective concede, and neither is Overthrown, then they are both wrong and neither Prediction comes true. Check a Crisis box to reflect the confusion and misinformation. Repeat for each pair of Predictions that contradict each other.” So we built ourselves a logic puzzle here, but we should go back and start at—does ANYONE want to stop their own—decide that their own Prediction was incorrect? (Pause) No, ok.
[Laughter]
AUSTIN: So. Does anyone want to Challenge or Overthrow Apparatus, Valence, Gur, or Sovereign Immunity as Perspectives? Which would invalidate their Predictions.
JACK: But Janine and I can’t, right?
AUSTIN: Yes, correct. So I guess Touchstones...Touchstones: Millie or Broun, do either of you want to (laughing) Overthrow a Perspective here?
[SYLVIA sighs, exasperated]
ALI: God. (Laugh)
AUSTIN: Or Challenge. You could also Challenge.
ALI: Right…
AUSTIN: The Challenge is lighter.
SYLVIA: Part of me kinda wants to let this ride, but I’m not sure…
AUSTIN: Mhm.
ALI: Right. Um…
JANINE: The riot really sweetened the pot in an interesting way.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
SYLVIA: Yeah…
KEITH: I—if neither of the Touchstones have a potential Challenge—I don’t know if I have one, but I do have an idea for one that I wanted to at least say. Which is that, if...you know, Millie seems all in for voting, and Broun is Valence’s…[ALI laughs] campaign manager, then it might be worth it to Challenge...I guess it was “Jesset City will lose,” not “Gucci will win.”
AUSTIN: No, one-hundred percent. I made that very carefully. Yes.
KEITH (overlapping): Oh.
ALI (overlapping): Yeah.
JANINE: Mhm.
KEITH: Ok. Yeah I guess then I don’t have a...I guess I don’t have one then.
ALI: Feels like we need a Challenge, I just don’t know...(laugh)
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JANINE: I mean—
ALI (overlapping): ...where and what it should be.
JANINE: —I know I’m a Power so I don’t have a say in this, but I had been thinking like—at first I was like “Well it doesn’t make sense to me that Jesset would lose and Sovereign would win, because Jesset has a similar platform, but also showed up to spread the platform.” However, Jesset kind of made Sovereign Immunity’s case—
AUSTIN: Mhm.
JANINE: —and Sovereign Immunity is a more well-known figure, so people could be like “Well I agree with Jesset City—”
AUSTIN: “But he’s young and…”
JANINE: “—but I don’t agree with Jesset City.”
AUSTIN: Yeah, huh-huh. Exactly.
ALI (overlapping): Yeah.
AUSTIN: “I love the platform, I don’t trust him to be able to do it.”
[SYLVIA groans in exasperation]
ALI: Right.
ART: Yeah that debate was a shit-show. We can—
AUSTIN (laughing) Uh-huh.
[ALI chuckles]
ART: —we can...resolve the conflicts by saying that Sovereign Immunity won the debate by not showing up.
[AUSTIN laughs loudly, others join in]
DRE: I mean, that’s not...the worst idea.
AUSTIN: Who are the Perspectives again?
KE (overlapping): No, I—as the maker of that one, that doesn’t work.
[ALI chuckles]
JANINE: Well, then you should have said—then my thing was wrong, right? Or…
KEITH: No, the winner of the debate—that doesn’t include NOT showing up, by that—
JANINE (overlapping): So then you’re saying “Sovereign Immunity won” is wrong.
AUSTIN: Right, then you’re challenging the Sovereign Immunity one.
KEITH (overlapping): No, I’m saying that the winner of the debate will win the election as a…
ART (overlapping): Well no, we’re gonna have a conflict. Neither of us is gonna back off our thing, and Clementine’s gonna win.
KEITH: ...as a Prediction. Right. As a Prediction that does not include anyone that didn’t show up. That was the point of that one.
AUSTIN: I see what you’re saying. Yeah yeah yeah.
ART: I mean what you did AFTER I said I wasn’t showing up—which was a shitty fucking thing to do…
AUSTIN: We can—we can—so. So. We should take these one at a time, because that is the rule. (Reading from Kingdom by Ben Robbins) “If one Prediction contradicts another one, one of them must be wrong.” So. First one: “Sovereign Immunity will win” does not contradict “Sovereign Immunity will publicly say something anti-Clementine Kesh”—does contradict “The winner of the debate will win the election,” because Sovereign Immunity was not at the debate. So, at that point, one of them must be wrong. (Continues reading) “If neither Perspective concedes, and neither is Overthrown, they are both wrong, and neither Prediction comes true. Check a Crisis box to reflect the confusion and misinformation.” Which does mean...if those are both wrong, Clementine Kesh will win. (Chuckle) Right?
ALI: No…
AUSTIN: Or I guess it’s not true, because it could be someone—
DRE (overlapping): No...
AUSTIN: —who lost the election, but was at the election.
KEITH: Lost the debate—
ALI (overlapping): Lost the debate, but was there.
AUSTIN: Sorry, lost the debate. Right right right.
ART (overlapping): Wait, but...I don’t know who has the—none of the rest of the—how do we say who wins?
AUSTIN: We...this is—I think the realm of Challenges, and being Overthrown.
SYLVIA: I guess personally speaking, I would say like, I thought Jesset won the debate...and like because of that, I was looking at this like “The winner of the debate” and “Jesset City will lose” kinda contradicted each other. But that might just be making more problems.
AUSTIN (overlapping): We have…
ART (overlapping): But if we’re doing this contradiction first, and neither Keith or I will yield here—as it appears we will not—then…
AUSTIN (overlapping): Both are wrong.
ART: …”The winner of the debate will win the election” is wrong.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: So “Jesset City will lose” is also…
SYLVIA: Ok.
ART: ...is no longer contested.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Right. Exactly. Because these two will have cancelled each other out. It will not have cancelled out “Sovereign Immunity will publicly say something anti-Clementine Kesh,” though.
[KEITH and ALI laugh]
ART: I wanted to challenge that in the next section.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Ok. Um…
KEITH: Isn’t there a barter phase for this one?
AUSTIN: Yeah, it’s the Challenge—it’s the Challenge thing.
KEITH: Right…ok.
AUSTIN: Which is that...If you’re Challenging “Sovereign Immunity will win,” you should come with a...with a Challenge. You should say what happens instead. And then Art will say “Yes, that works, yes it would work” if you did...what he says was necessary for it to work, or “Yes it will work, but there’s a consequence or some fallout or repercussion.”
KEITH: Um...ok, so…”Sovereign Immunity will win the election, but is not allowed to take power.”
AUSTIN: I think this is the...other...I guess that does—does that work? Yeah, I guess that that’s—
KEITH (overlapping): I mean “power” in a narrative sense, not the role.
AUSTIN: The literal role.
KEITH: Right.
ART: Oh, I don’t care about the literal role. Done. Accepted.
[AUSTIN snorts]
KEITH: Ok. So it’s...
AUSTIN (overlapping): So wait —wait wait wait. Pause.
JACK (overlapping): Wait wait wait. Can we just go over—wait, what have we agreed to?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Let’s unfold that cause I think we may be at cross ends, yeah. What did you just say the thing was? (Pause) Keith.
KEITH: Sorry, me?
AUSTIN: Yes.
KEITH: Oh, uh…”Sovereign Immunity will win the election, but isn’t able to actually assume the…”
AUSTIN (overlapping): Take power.
KEITH: “...take power—assume the…”
ALI (overlapping): Well, become a Power.
KEITH: “...narrative role.”
ART: Wait, do you mean the game role, or…?
KEITH: No, the like...the—it’s though because we’re using the word “power” in two different ways.
AUSTIN: Let’s say “executive…”
ART (overlapping): Yeah, use a synonym.
KEITH (overlapping): Let’s say you’re president—
AUSTIN (overlapping): Let’s use “president.”
KEITH:(overlapping): —you win the election, but you don’t become president, still.
AUSTIN: Oh.
KEITH: Like, Clementine is like “No, I’m still—I’ve decided that I didn’t want this election,” or whatever.
DRE: Can I…offer a counter-Challenge?
ART (overlapping): Oh , I don’t think you can...do that.
AUSTIN: Mhm. Let’s talk through it. What’s up, Valence?
DRE: The other Challenge I would offer is that…“Valence wins and basically asks Sovereign Immunity to...kind of do for Valence what he had been trying to do with Clementine.”
AUSTIN: That Sovereign Immunity becomes the Sovereign Immunity of Valence.
DRE: Yeah.
ART: I would do that if you abandon your other Prediction.
DRE: Which is…?
ART: That I don’t have to publicly say something against Clem.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Well this is a great in-character bit, right?
DRE (overlapping): Sure.
AUSTIN: (Laugh) It’s like there’s almost something good here of Valence—of Sovereign Immunity being like “I don’t wanna go down that road, I don’t wanna burn that bridge yet, so…” That’s interesting.
KEITH: Unfortunately, I reject that.
AUSTIN: It doesn’t—you’re not in that conversation.
ART (overlapping): But that doesn’t matter. If I make my Prediction, we don’t have a conflict anymore.
KEITH (overlapping): Am I not?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Not the Valence one, no.
[Pause]
KEITH: Ok, this is...those didn’t contradict, so there’s no…
AUSTIN (overlapping): But...the one that is…
ALI (overlapping): Dre’s making a new Challenge.
AUSTIN: Right.
KEITH: Ok.
ALI: An additional Challenge to your Challenge that Art prefers.
AUSTIN (overlapping): You can then Challenge this new one, right? Which is…
ART: Well, no cause I’m abandoning…(unintelligible) challenge is abandoned...
AUSTIN (overlapping): No, actually, wait wait wait. No, no, no. Keith’s has to resolve first.
KEITH: That’s what I thought, yeah.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, because the one that is...the one that the—THE current one is “Sovereign Immunity will win,” and “The winner of the debate will win the election,” which is…
ART: Gotcha.
KEITH: It’s order of operations, and I’m multiplication.
[Laughter]
AUSTIN: Mhm.
ART (overlapping): I’m rejecting Keith’s Challenge.
DRE (overlapping): Keith comes first in PEMDAS.
AUSTIN: Alright...are you also…
ART: Well actually—let’s go back to Keith’s Challenge, because I don’t think we can do the thing that Keith said, because by saying that...We can’t undo the Power’s decision, which it sounds like what Keith was saying—
AUSTIN: Yes.
ART: —which is that Sovereign would win, and then they would declare that there was no election—and I think that’s undermining the Powers.
AUSTIN: Yeah the Powers—
KEITH (overlapping): I…
AUSTIN: —the Powers could have said “No” and still colored it as “Yes, of course there looks like there’s an election, but we win.”
ART: So if you would like to rephrase your Challenge to something I think I can give you, we can keep talking.
KEITH: Ok, that’s sort of—yeah, that’s sort of what I was thinking is that—I mean, we had the election, it just didn’t do anything. But I guess that that…
ART (overlapping): No, I think that’s not what the Powers said.
AUSTIN: Right. If the…
KEITH: Yeah, uh...
AUSTIN: ...yeah, we can’t retroactively make Clem and Gucci have done fixed elections. They would—they could’ve DONE that—that would’ve been within their—they could have said “No…”
KEITH (overlapping): Yeah.
AUSTIN: “...it looks like there’s elections, but no, there are not actually elections. We win”
KEITH (overlapping): Right. Ok.
AUSTIN: But that isn’t what they did, and that’s an important distinction.
[Pause]
ART: So do you have a different Challenge?
AUSTIN: Likewise, Art, do you have a Challenge with the debate one? Could you make the debate—change the debate one?
ART: I mean, I did and Keith rejected it.
AUSTIN (overlapping): That was the…“Sovereign Immunity…” right right right right.
KEITH (overlapping): Yeah, it was the “The winner of the debate is…”
ART (overlapping): Sovereign won the debate by not attending.
KEITH (overlapping): ...right, for not showing up.
ART: Cause the debate was a shit show.
[ART chuckles]
KEITH: I thought the debate went great. (Pause) Usually when I watch a debate, I get a psychogenic stress fever…
ART: So I don’t think—Keith, go ahead if you have another Challenge, otherwise I’ll hear Dre’s Challenge.
AUSTIN: But Dre—there won’t be one, because both of them will be dead.
KEITH: Yeah, if there’s…
ART (overlapping): No, Dre can still Challenge my Prediction.
AUSTIN: No, the step here in…
KEITH: Cause if there’s no…
AUSTIN: ...in “The Resolution of a Crossroad” is—let me just double check it, that way…(reading from Kingdom by Ben Robbins) “If neither Perspective concedes, and neither is Overthrown—” not just Challenged, Overthrown, “—they are both wrong and neither Prediction comes true. Check a Crisis box to reflect the confusion and misinformation. Repeat for each pair or Predictions that contradict each other.”
KEITH: Um…
ART: But isn’t it—“If someone wants to stop your Prediction from coming true, they can Challenge or Overthrow.” That’s not still...
AUSTIN (overlapping): Oh you’re right. I guess, at the—BEFORE the contradiction even occurs, that could happen. Correct. You’re right. So, (chuckle) this is like extremely Robert’s Rules of Order shit.
[DRE laughs]
AUSTIN: Before we even got to the contradiction, Dre could have tried to Challenge this. To change it.
KEITH: Right, so we’re rewinding the tape back to the last step?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah, I’m fine with that. Yeah yeah yeah yeah.
KEITH (overlapping): That’s fine. I’m fine with that.
AUSTIN: So Valence, go ahead and give me that—what was that again?
DRE: “Valence will win and basically ask Sovereign Immunity to be their Sovereign Immunity.”
ART: Well I can’t give you the win, because there’s still—if I drop this Prediction, the Jesset-Debate contradiction still holds…
AUSTIN (overlapping): Well then we could...yeah, but then that…
ALI: Then Valence would have been the one who…
AUSTIN (overlapping): ...then we’ll have to...right.
ALI: ...won the debate, I guess?
KEITH: Um, no, that one doesn’t...that’s not a conflict, because “Jesset City will lose” still means that Valence can win...and doesn’t…
AUSTIN (overlapping): No, but the thing is…
ART (overlapping): But Jesset won the debate.
AUSTIN: ...that Jesset won the debate, which would then make Valence winning the election a contradiction with “The winner of the debate will win the election,” at which point you could just then say “No, I concede that I was wrong about that Prediction.” If we wanted to just like clear it, and give the Valence-Sovereign Immunity ticket the go-ahead. (Laugh) Alternatively, would—again, could be Challenged by...I guess, still—by Sovereign Immunity and Valence, let’s say, as to why that isn’t the case.
[Pause]
KEITH: Ok. So...we just…
AUSTIN (overlapping): Let’s start with the—let’s start with the one that we know is good, which is “Sovereign Immunity…”—which is, “Valence will win and Sovereign Immunity will be their Sovereign Immunity,” right? That’s what we believe currently. And the exchange there was that the—”Sovereign Immunity will publicly say something” is false now. Right?
DRE: Yes.
AUSTIN: Ok. (Typing) “Valence will win, and Sovereign Immunity (exhales a laugh) will take, you know, will become their S.I.” So now…
KEITH (overlapping): And so…
ART (overlapping): So there—now the conflict is furthered.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Now the conflict is “The winner of the debate will win the election” with “Valence will win,” because it doesn’t seem as if Valence won the debate.
DRE: I had that really good one-liner at the very beginning…
AUSTIN: That’s true. You had a great—that whole first opening bit was great.
ALI (overlapping): Yeah. Valence…
AUSTIN (overlapping): There is a world where we can flip this and say “Actually Valence did win that debate.”
ALI: Right...yeah…
KEITH: Yeah, I don’t feel like I have a real...Challenge to this, cause my Prediction was...meant to cause Crisis with the original Prediction.
[Laughter]
AUSTIN (sarcastically): Great. Uh-huh.
KEITH: And so...I didn’t really have a stake in who won the debate cause I made the Prediction before the debate started…
AUSTIN: Mhm.
KEITH: ...so I guess that’s...whether we wanna say that my Prediction was wrong, or…
AUSTIN: That Valence won.
KEITH: ...or Valence won the debate, I guess I’m fine with either of those.
AUSTIN: (overlapping): Sure. Alright. Jesset City—
ALI (overlapping): I—
AUSTIN: Oh, go ahead?
ALI: Oh, sorry, I was just gonna say I could easily see...over time, it ending up that Valence comes out on top there, because the more that you examine the sort of Jesset-Gucci fight, and then also their relationship, it’s also like “Oh, they’re actually really close…”
AUSTIN: (Clicks tongue) Right
ALI: Yeah, but they had all of these like…
DRE (overlapping): Oh man.
ALI: ...you know, they kept throwing punches to each other instead of sticking to the...whatever.
AUSTIN: Mhm. I think that it’s clear then, now. And then “Jesset City will lose” is clear. And now it is the riot. Does anyone want to Challenge the riot, or Overthrow Apparatus as a Perspective? Or is there a riot after this election?
[ALI laughs]
ALI: It’s so hard being the person who takes the riot off of the table. (Laugh)
SYLVIA: Right?
AUSTIN: Mhm.
DRE: Um...hold on...I gotta go look at the character sheet really quick.
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
ALI: Sure.
AUSTIN: Keith, I hope you’re getting ready to characterize this...riot. Describing what your character sees happening as a riot breaks out, unless the Challenge comes.
KEITH (overlapping): Yeah.
[ALI laughs]
DRE: Cause there’s “Partizan sheets” and there’s “Copy of Partizan sheets.” I don’t know which one is the right one.
AUSTIN: It’s just “Partizan sheets.” “Partizan sheets” is what you want.
[Pause]
DRE: Um...so I know this is kind of like...I don’t know if this goes against the kind of spirit of Kingdom, but one of Valence’s moves that has not been shown on screen yet is that they can summon an AR storm in their immediate vicinity, such as swirling ads, flashing neon, heavy smog, shouting, etc.
SYLVIA (overlapping): WHOA.
[ALI laughs]
SYLVIA (alarmed): Uh…
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
DRE: And...my Challenge would be “The riot initially breaks out...but then Valence summons an AR storm, which is just the vision they received...of God basically decimating the fleet…”
SYLVIA (muffled): Oh my god.
JANINE: (Laughing) Oh my god.
DRE: ...and (laugh) basically giving a speech that is along the lines of “If we don’t get our shit together and unite, then this is gonna happen to all of Partizan.”
AUSTIN: Keith? That’s a Challenge to “There will be a riot.”
DRE: Valence does have the scar of Righteous, I will remind everyone.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
KEITH: Um...so, wait. So the...the Challenge is that there's a riot, and then you’ll give everyone a Doomsday vision?
DRE: Yeah, basically.
AUSTIN: (Tongue-in-cheek) To calm them down.
KEITH: To calm—I mean I guess that’s the…[JANINE and AUSTIN laugh] that’s my “Sure that works, but it doesn’t calm anyone down...at all.”
[ALI laughs]
DRE: Oh, I don’t think it—yeah, it’s not there to reassure people, it’s to stop the riot.
KEITH: Ok, I think that...I think that the consequence of that is that before...the riot is able to end, the panic caused by the apocalyptic vision kills people in the riot.
DRE: Oooh. As opposed to—what does the riot do? Cause I think a riot—like, that already seems to imply that things will be…die
KEITH (overlapping): Destroys...destroys a bunch of property…
DRE: Oh.
KEITH: Maybe, you know, starts a fire somewhere.
DRE: Yeah.
AUSTIN: What’s the character of this riot, as you imagine it?
KEITH: Um...I think…
AUSTIN (overlapping): What are the chants? What are the things people are yelling?
KEITH: I didn’t think of any slogans. I had this idea that no one knew what they were voting for, and so voter turnout was really low, and so now we have a new leader that’s a total question mark, voted for by, you know, a tiny percentage of the people on this boat. Maybe not a tiny percentage, but like, you know, a lot of people didn’t vote.
DRE: So is the riot just calling for a second election?
KEITH: I don’t know what they’re calling for, but they’re definitely calling this an illegitimate election. There was no—there’s no constitution, there’s no, you know, limiting order of the executive branch. We don’t even know if this is an executive branch. We don’t know if we just hired a boss or a president or a general or whatever. No one knows anything! This wasn’t a real vote. This wasn’t anything! We’re gonna burn (laugh) something down!
DRE: I think if it is the choice between property damage and like people dying, then I would withdraw my Challenge.
AUSTIN: Yeah, just let it happen.
DRE: Yeah. Cause Valence is Righteous, but they are still the person who wouldn’t want people to die.
AUSTIN: That makes sense to me.
ALI: Yeah. It’s tough cause I almost wanna Challenge this...riot thing...just on the basis of how many people we’ve seen involved in the election?
AUSTIN: Right, right. In other words, the—what we’ve seen is actually lots of involvement, and…
ALI (overlapping): Right.
AUSTIN: ...yeah, what would that Challenge be?
ALI: Um...I think that the Challenge would be that...instead of a riot...at the results of the election...whoever wins—which is Valence in this case—would be met with like an immediate list of demands, instead of it just being like “Oh, hey, congratulations. Let’s see how you do.” It’s like “Oh, hi. You’re responsible to us now, and...these are the things that we want.”
AUSTIN: Mhm.
KEITH: Uhm...so the Challenge is that instead of a riot, there’s immediate pressure on the new leader?
ALI: Right. Well, but like ot the point that...you know, it’s been...organized, right?
AUSTIN: Already. Right, like we had that whole thing set up about there being tech to talk about the election set-up—
ALI (overlapping): Right.
AUSTIN: —so we know that people have been talking about it. And could have organized that set of demands, right? (Laughing) Could have shown up with a constitution.
ALI: Right, instead of saying there’s no constitution, it’s like “Hey, congratulations, you’re the leader. This is what you’ll be doing. This is what your responsibilities are. This is what our demands are…There’s a separate list for requests. Do the demands first. Thank you. Goodbye.” That sort of vibe.
[KEITH sighs]
ALI: The reason that seems attractive to me is because it would mean that like instead of—like all of those people would be making these decisions beforehand, right? Where it’s like “Oh, it’s weird that, you know, thirty percent of the people that we didn’t think were gonna vote didn’t,” and the reason they were is because (laughing) they were like “Oh, here’s actually what the laws are.” (Continues laughing) Or something like that. Or—
AUSTIN (overlapping): Mhm. Well like—the other thing here is like, you can get even more direct than that, right? A Challenge doesn’t have to be what happens after to calm it down, right? It can be “Oh, there—here’s my Challenge, is: there were steering committees, there were a bunch of smaller conversations that happened via the systems that we saw get set up by Broun, Millie, and Si’dra. There were—there is a constitution.” Like—that stuff—a Challenge can have that stuff in it.
ALI: Ok, sure.
AUSTIN: To address—I’m just saying like that is—just to think about it, it’s almost like thinking about it as Resistance in Beam Saber or a Flashback, where like—we can—you can address the root cause of a thing in a Challenge, as a way of redirecting where the story is going, if that makes sense. Because—
ALI (overlapping): Oh, sure sure sure. Yeah.
AUSTIN: —there’s only eight turns in every scene. We cannot show the camera—the camera can’t be everywhere when we’re trying to do both character drama and big picture stuff. But if we think that the people in the Kingdom would have been engaged enough to do that—which it seems like they would have been, given how active everyone was—then we can have that conversation and frame a Challenge around...specifically addressing the idea that people weren’t involved in figuring out what the form of the government was. I think we the players didn’t figure out what the form of the government was, necessarily—
[ALI chuckles]
KEITH (overlapping): Yeah…
ALI (overlapping): Right right right.
AUSTIN (overlapping): —Cause the scenes aren’t built like that.
KEITH: I wanna say I did—I did...foreground this by...in several scenes—I think in all three scenes that I was in—asking the question “What actually is happening?”
AUSTIN: Totally, totally. I’m just saying that the Challenge is a place where we’re all able to actually say “And because you asked that, people got together and did that. Is that enough to have stopped a riot?”
KEITH: I think um…
AUSTIN: Or do you really just want there to be a riot? Which is a FINE impulse.
[Pause]
KEITH: So—wait, so, can I just get the pitch one more time on what the final wording of the Challenge is?
ALI (laughing lightly): Sure. The Challenge is that “Rather than a riot caused by misunderstanding of the election, the people who would have felt strongly about that would've had a list of demands for the leadership based on who they picked.”
KEITH: And that these would have been...out in public, or at least in the candidates’ hands before the election?
ALI: Possibly. I mean I think the major thing for the...pitch that I’m making is that the...the sort of flow of power would go bottom up in that way? And that that group might have wanted to sort of spring that on the candidate and surprise—like I don't know if that’s more of a...a better way of doing that, right? But...yeah. Time-wise it doesn’t make a difference to me so much.
KEITH: Ok, I’ll say this. We can do that, and instead of a riot there’s...protests, like just you know peaceful protests, but they last longer.
AUSTIN: Like weeks of protests after the election...until, you know, points A-Z are dealt with, or whatever.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: I like that.
ALI: Yeah...perfect.
AUSTIN (overlapping): You good with that Ali?
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Alright! (Typing) “There are weeks of protests following the election...pressuring the winner to concede to the group’s—or to like the population’s actual demands…”
ALI: Mhm.
AU “...including—” I’m asking this, Keith, is that including like a clear constitution?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Or a clear working document, some sort of clear organization?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um...Alright! That is...that is a Crossroad. We did it, we got through the election. (Laughing) The hardest thing we’ve done in this game is also one of the hardest things we’ll have to do this year. In America. God. So...Touch—or actually we haven’t yet. Touchstones. You still have a thing to do.
ALI (laughing): Yes.
KEITH: Oh, I also—I think I wanna change my Role. Can I do that now? Or should I do that later?
AUSTIN (overlapping): You can’t be a Touchstone…
KEITH (overlapping): I know that I can’t—
AUSTIN (overlapping): You can’t—yes.
KEITH (overlapping): Well I know that I can’t actually DO anything as a Touchstone—
AUSTIN: Yeah.
KEITH: —but I can change now and then pass on this turn, yeah.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Mhm. Yeah...totally, totally.
KEITH: I think that uh...Apparatus is now a Touchstone.
AUSTIN: Is this like...just starts hanging out with people more? Starts—stops being kind of back and starts being like—
KEITH: I don’t think Apparatus could possibly spend any more time with people.
[AUSTIN and ALI laughing in the background]
AUSTIN: Ok. Uhm...alright. Touchstones. (Reading from Kingdom by Ben Robbins) “Tell us how your characters feel about everything that’s happened. That’s how the people of the Kingdom feel too. Check or uncheck up to two Crisis boxes to reflect your feelings.”
SYLVIA (on an exhale): Ok.
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: How is it? How’s it going?
SYLVIA: So I think there’s like...I think like there’s a good feeling in the air about like...like having—people having some control over who’s in charge now.
AUSTIN: Mhm.
SYLVIA: Despite the protests happening and stuff. Um...and so I think there’s just like...for better or for worse, people are feeling like inspired to get things done.
AUSTIN: How does this—how do we see this with Millie specifically, cause it’s about how YOUR character feels.
SYLVIA (overlapping): With Millie specifically, it...yeah, with Millie specifically, Millie’s like really thrown themselves into this communication project...because it is like, something they are doing with someone that doesn’t require them to shoot a gun.
AUSTIN: Sure, yeah.
SYLVIA: And they’re really thrilled about that, cause it’s a really big change. And I think that is kind of carrying on to everybody else, where it’s like “Oh, things feel like they’re changing now…”
AUSTIN: Right…
SYLVIA: And that’s like spurring people on…
AUSTIN: Does she feel like that is like...I’m curious if she feels this way, and by extension other people feel like “Oh wow, look. This is a concrete thing that—it’s possible to imagine this existing throughout Partizan.” Like a communications network where people can talk to each other about shit whenever they want to.
SYLVIA: Yeah it feels like—it feels like something good, more than any—like cause Millie’s done concrete things, it’s just they’re always violent, right?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah. Yeah.
[ALI chuckles]
SYLVIA: It feels like a concrete thing that feels like it’s building something, as opposed to breaking something.
AUSTIN (overlapping): I like it. Yeah. Millenium Build.
[ALI laughs]
SYLVIA: Yeah!
AUSTIN: ...Sideways. (Laugh) [DRE laughs] Broun. How do you feel?
ALI: I...Yeah, I think some—Broun’s is something similar to that. I think personally for Broun...they...the way that I was thinking of them, especially as like helping the election to the side, was like trying to do...a legitimate job so Valence wouldn’t…(laugh) so if they did fuck something up, and were evil about it, that it wouldn’t fall on Valence. They were actually taking those precautions. And I think that the sort of ripple effect there is that like…(exhale) I think the...community has more sense—or like more confidence—in the overall structure of the system, because they feel like they...they have hands in it now, right? Do you know what I mean?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Mhm.
ALI: (Pause) Sure. (Laugh)
AUSTIN: Yeah, I like it. I like it a lot. Do y’all increase or decrease Crisis, or leave it as it is? It’s currently at one.
ALI: (Clicks tongue) I think I wanna...toss a point in there…
AUSTIN: Yeah...just from—
ALI: ...just to have it there….
AUSTIN: Sure, yeah.
ALI: Just because I feel like...I don;t feel like it’s a huge increase, but I feel like that there’s enough..up in the air right now…
AUSTIN: Yeah…I think that is super fair.
ALI (overlapping): That if it doesn’t get kind of soldered down, then it’s just gonna get hotter, you know what I mean?
AUSTIN: Totally.
ALI: So. Yeah.
AUSTIN: Millie, similar?
SYLVIA: I’ll leave it.
AUSTIN: Ok.
SYLVIA: Cause I kinda feel the same, but I think just adding one’s enough…
[ALI giggling in the background]
AUSTIN: Sounds good!
KEITH: “Either solder, or it’s gonna get hotter!” That’s what we say.
[ALI continues laughing in the background]
AUSTIN: That’s the next campaign thing. Um…
ALI: Broun for...team. Lead engineer. (Laugh)
AUSTIN (overlapping): Uh-huh. Lead Engineer. Right. Totally. I mean that is a question that we can kind of ask ourselves, also, is like “Do people end up with very specific roles like that as we go forward?”
ALI (overlapping): Valence’s cabinet…
AUSTIN: Right, exactly! Yeah.
[ALI and DRE laugh]
AUSTIN: Which is gonna be in Valence’s hands in a moment, I suppose. In fact—in fact, one of the rules that I suggested before was that after every third Crossroad—instead of this being a thing that you kind of choose to do between Crossroads, I wanted it to be every third—we do a thing that this thing calls “Time passes.” (Reading from Kingdom by Ben Robbins) “When a player chooses to make time pass instead of starting a new Crossroad, we take a break from the action, let some time go by in the Kingdom. It’s a lull in the drama that gives the characters a chance to reflect on their lives. While time passes, you can change roles, but not Overthrow your role—Overthrow or use your role. Follow these steps: How Long? Decide together if this is going to be the end of the game—” It’s not. Unless it is, unless we’re like “That’s it! We did it!. Kingdom is stable,” which I don’t think that’s true. (Continues reading) “Decide how much time will pass: months, years, or even decades.” Probably not that much. Is it like—do we get like a downtine of a few weeks? Or like—how long is this kind of like...we jump ahead a little bit? Probably long enough for Valence to get situated, right?
[Pause]
DRE: Yeah I’d say like one to two months…?
KEITH: First—right after the first thirty days in office.
AUSTIN: Oh, I like that. I like that. A lot.
DRE: Mmm.
AUSTIN: Right? So you get a month—
DRE (overlapping): That sounds good.
AUSTIN: Yeah...I kind of like that. People agree? (Pause) Alright. (Reading from Kingdom by Ben Robbins) “Describe…”
JANINE (overlapping): Yeah.
AUSTIN: “...what your character’s life is like during the hiatus. Tell us something good, and something bad in your life. Keep it personal. Focus on your character, not the Kingdom. You can describe new developments in your own life—like marriage or kids—but do not introduce new developments for the Kingdom, except extensions of what we have already seen. Each player who wants to retire their character now should say so. Narrate a brief epilogue of them retiring, dying, or leaving the Kingdom. You’ll introduce your next character later on.” I don’t think anyone’s doing that, but if you are, you could do that. So who has like a quick image of what your life is like during the first thirty days of Valence’s (chuckle softly) term?
JACK: I think Clem is frustrated that she didn’t win…[ALI chuckes] but is not terribly bothered, because she knows what her role is, still. [AUSTIN and KEITH laugh] I don’t think Clem—I think Clem, you know, is just sort of like “Well, I rather hoped people had come out more strongly for me, but that’s fine.” And I think...you know, spends time doing what Clem does, which is...ten percent actively doing leadership things, thirty percent pretending to do (laughing) leadership things, and the rest is loafing.
AUSTIN (amused): Great. Good.
KEITH: And part of loafing is bragging about how many leadership things you do.
[AUSTIN laughs]
JACK: Yeah, yeah, but like focused. Clem’s trait is Obsessed...and I think that there is a particular kind of Kesh loafing that you feel like with the right kind of guidance and ability, you end up with people like Crysanth.
AUSTIN: I have one for Gur, which is...Gur Sevraq spends this month working on—taking Apparatus’s thing to heart, which was like “We have to start doing things.” And the thing that Gur Sevraq starts doing is working with Zo’la to start cutting videos—start cutting Millenium Break promos...that start getting fed into the major cities and passed around in pamphlet form throughout the Prophet’s path. But like all the—basically gets distributed to Lion’s Rest, to Cruciat, to Oxbridge, to Pique City. All of the major cities on the planet start getting these broadcasts of Gur Sevraq talking about Millenium Break, and what Millenium Break stands for. Working probably with Jesset, who had that speech. Working with Valence—trying to work with everyone like “Alright, how do we start to talk at all about what Millenium Break is?” And these aren’t like big cut-in to the broad—cause that’s just not a thing that exists. But there are almost like...maybe works with Si’dra too, to build like something that you can side load into your Palace, you know? Where like here is a way to watch something that isn’t just the...Palace feed, you know? You’ve hacked into your own device. And it’s like footage of the...Millenium Break helping people. It’s sermons about change and opportunity and stuff. And it’s like “If this sounds interesting to you, Millenium Break. Find us.” You know? And so that is what Gur Sevraq is doing. (Pause) Oh, also a note here: everyone should check a box—and I’ll just go do this for you—on your downtime—on your personal drive clock, as this is time allowing everyone here to work on your personal drive, so if you need some...you know, direction for coloring that, this is the—that is some for you.
ALI: I think for Broun...it’s really just Broun…(laughing) being around people more, in that sense. They hate everyone—No, but it’s like really...like by becoming closer to Tes’s crew, and like in a legitimate way. Not just like “Oh, hi, I’m that person who stole stuff from you.” (Laugh)
AUSTIN: Uh-huh.
ALI: Or like—I have this like very specific image of Broun like...going to say “What’s up” to Tes, grabbing a bunch of boxes and stuff, walking down to the office that like Millie and Zo’la are in, working on the communications thing…
AUSTIN: Or Si’dra. Si’dra’s on the communication thing.
ALI (overlapping): Oh Si’dra, yeah, sorry. (Clears throat) Helping them with that for a little bit...going to Valence’s office, looking through the like—all of the notes that they have that are now written on the back of unused flyers. (Laugh)
AUSTIN: Amazing
ALI: Too many printed out flyers.
AUSTIN (overlapping): God. I can’t believe we’ve like, professionalized Broun in this way…
[ALI and DRE laugh]
AUSTIN: ...Very smart suit on, you know? Ugh.
ALI (quitely): Just Broun…
AUSTIN: I do love the idea of Broun like having a good time on this vessel, despite everything. It’s great.
[ALI laughing in the background]
AUSTIN: Alright, who else? Who else has a scene? Not a scene, but you know. A Shot.
SYLVIA: I kinda have one?
AUSTIN: Ok.
SYLVIA: Which is like...I think that like Millie’s been working a lot with Si’dra and Broun on this thing primarily…
AUSTIN: Mhm.
SYLVIA: ...but that like...thing Valence said to her—the like “What will it take for you to feel free?” has been bugging her in the back of her mind, so I think we get shots of her like every night at whatever firing range there is… [AUSTIN exhales a laugh] on this ship. Just like training for hours without telling anyone.
AUSTIN (sympathetic): Millie.
SYLVIA: Cause she’s just like...trying to figure it out.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Damn. Damn. (Pause) Uh...who else?
KEITH: I’ve got one.
AUSTIN: Mhm.
KEITH: Um...I think it’s...Aperitif is doing what they’re calling...house parties?
AUSTIN: Uh-huh!
KEITH: And so, taking the party into...people’s dorms and doing—I guess doing—I guess like almost...whatever the...what is it? Mysteries….Metronomica?
AUSTIN (overlapping): Mysteries Metronomica, yeah yeah yeah.
KEITH: Yeah. Doing like the...their version of preaching, almost?
AUSTIN: Yeah…
KEITH: I think that...they may be...the most disappointed with Fort Icebreaker so far...
AUSTIN: Mhm.
KEITH: ...and are doing essentially exercises in having people identify the parts of...to the two—both to themself and also to each other—the parts of Fort Icebreaker that haven’t—that look too much like the rest of Partizan.
AUSTIN: Mmm. That’s interesting. That’s a fun practice.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Uh, is Leap working on the escape clock during this?
KEITH: Um...no.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Is that just a part of—is that just part of being here? You said no?
KEITH: No, because Leap is working on the ring.
AUSTIN: Oh, sick.
[ALI chuckles]
AUSTIN: Sick. Love it. Do you want me to put a—do you want me to advance that clock instead?
KEITH: Yes, please.
AUSTIN (overlapping): That’s fun.
KEITH: However many times that gets advanced, I wanna advance that.
AUSTIN: Yeah, that’s good. I love it. Uhm…
KEITH: Leap isn’t—and I can—I mean I wanted to do this anyway, but Leap is pirating…
AUSTIN: Yes.
KEITH: ...and so I don’t think that there’s any less of a desire to...to not be imprisoned.
AUSTIN: But is pirating.
KEITH: But there is—yeah. There’s like this escape valve for the pressure...that is—that has let him prioritize the ring.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Does Leap feel that Valence is imprisoning him now? [KEITH sighs] Or is that still just Clem, in Leap’s mind?
KEITH: I don’t think—I think Leap thinks—and I was hoping to show this with Leap’s question at the debate—but...I feel like everyone who’s not actively pushing Clem off of Fort Icebreaker is contributing to his imprisonment.
AUSTIN: Ok. For the record, what I’m doing is...advancing the Vernacular one up by like half of where it is. I also just finished in that last Figure A one. Figure A now up and about—we’ve already kind of seen them moving about on their own a little bit, so at this point Figure A is just like ready to be a crew member. And then, yeah, you’ve gotten halfway there on the Vernacular rings.
KEITH: Great.
AUSTIN: Alright! Who else has a shot of passing time? Valence. What’s up with Valence?
DRE: (Sigh) I think Valence has almost like the same conversation—not the same, but a similar conversation with Sovereign Immunity that they did with Broun.
AUSTIN: Mmm.
DRE: Like there’s the scene of like Valence’s head opening up and the little purple gas cloud floating out.
AUSTIN (laughing): Ok.
DRE: Uhm...Hey, how does Sovereign Immunity react to Valence being a gas alien?
[ALI laughing in the background]
ART: I honestly have no idea how to react to that. [ALI and AUSTIN laugh] Which I think means just like—it’s just like conditioned cool. Right? That’s just part of [SYLVIA laughs] doing this job, is like...don’t fucking have a big reaction when it turns out someone’s a gas alien. [DRE, KEITH, and AUSTIN laugh] That’s really rude.
KEITH (overlapping): Wait hold on. Pretty sure—
ART (overlapping): There might be like a whole unit where you spend like a month where people come in and do something weird and you’re just trying to stone-face the whole thing. [AUSTIN laughs softly] Just like a gentle nod.
KEITH (overlapping): Is that a retcon? Cause I’m pretty sure that I heard that Valence was—I almost am positive that at some point they said that they’re flesh and bone.
AUSTIN: Absolutely not. Right?
KEITH: No?
DRE: (Negative) Mm-mm.
KEITH: There’s—well cause at the beginning of the other side, I think Austin you said—
DRE (overlapping): Oh boy, you really didn’t finish the last half of the other episode, did you?
KEITH: I told you, that’s as far as I got.
ALI (overlapping): (Sigh) So there’s...Keith. Keith, so there’s cloud flesh…
KEITH (overlapping): Cloud flesh.
ALI: ...on Valence’s like suit.
KEITH: Ok.
ALI: That retracts into their (laughing) robotic body and is a cloud that is inside of the hand of the…
KEITH (overlapping): Ok. Well you...There was—
ALI (overlapping): Sorry for stepping over you there Dre. (Laugh)
DRE (overlapping): No, you’re good.
KEITH (overlapping): At some point there was an eating scene, and—
DRE: Oh sure, Valence eats.
KEITH: —Austin, you accused, quote unquote-like, you know, you didn’t really accuse—you accused Dre of Valence having a mask for a face, and Dre was like “No, I’ve got a mouth. I’ve got like a flesh mouth.” I could’ve sworn—it’s fine. I mean—
[TIMESTAMP 02:30:08]
AUSTIN (overlapping): Uh…
DRE (overlapping): Valence eats.
AUSTIN: Valence does eat.
KEITH: Ok.
AUSTIN: I guess?
DRE: Yeah, no, there’s like a definite like “Has to eat to power the robot” stuff….
KEITH (overlapping): I believe Dre on how Valence looks, (laugh) it’s fine.
AUSTIN: Ok.
DRE: ...Thing going on there.
KEITH (overlapping): Oh, yeah—it’s a Leap.
DRE: It’s a what?
AUSTIN: It’s a Leap. An Exeter Leap.
KEITH (overlapping): A Leap. Leap does the same thing.
AUSTIN: Leap does the same thing.
DRE: Oh. Oh, ok.
AUSTIN (overlapping): You both eat to power your robot suit. Uhm...alright!
ART: Lots of people eat. You guys aren’t—
[ALI laughs]
AUSTIN: Special.
JANINE (overlapping): To power their robot suits.
DRE: Heh, yeah.
AUSTIN: Alright, what else—what else do we got?
DRE: So I think—I think it is Valence like giving their whole backstory, including kind of a primer on the Nobel and what sent Valence to this system…
AUSTIN: Do you talk about the vision? Do you talk about “Autonomy Itself” slash—
DRE (overlapping): Mhm. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.
AUSTIN (overlapping): —your god? Ok. Great.
DRE: And then I think there’s also a much smaller scene of Valence reaching out to Kenzi.
AUSTIN: Oh, nice. Interesting.
DRE: And being like “Hey...like I think something’s starting here that you might be interested in.”
AUSTIN: Kenzi’s response to you is…
KEITH: Big rocks.
AUSTIN (overlapping): …“That sounds great. I can’t. Something...there’s some stuff happening here. I think some people might get hurt soon. I might need your help. I’ll let you know.” And that is it. I think it starts with like “Are you sure this is secure?” (Chuckle) You know. But, yeah. Uhm...who else? We need a Gucci, we need a...I think that’s it. Is that it?
ART: No, I—
AUSTIN: You need a—we need a Sovereign, right.
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Gucci?
ART: If you’re ready, Janine, go. Otherwise I have—I’m also ready.
JANINE: Yeah the thing I was gonna say about Gucci is that I think like—I think from day one...Gucci is like...making it a point to show that she’s cool with this. [AUSTIN laughs loudly] Look...I mean it’s—
AUSTIN (overlapping): No, I get it.
JANINE: —it’s funny, but also it’s important—
AUSTIN: Mhm.
JANINE: —because she knows what she is…
AUSTIN: Mhm.
JANINE: She knows what she is to some—obviously not all—but some people here.
AUSTIN: Mhm.
JANINE: And she knows that it’s important to...show, you know, deference and support and be like “You own the election. I was also running. I’m cool with this.” You know, like “I’ll pass you security reports, and like watch reports and whatever. And like I’ll make that I’m keeping you in the loop with the shit that’s going on, you know, in various places that I know about, or whatever,” like—I think it’s important to her—it’s not just making a show for the sake of making a show. It’s like...you know, “You won, we need to make this work.”
AUSTIN: Mhm.
JANINE: “One way or another.” Um...It is also obviously political, but (clicks tongue) fuck politics, baby!
AUSTIN (overlapping): Yeah. Yeah.
ALI: (Laughing) Mm-hmm-hmm.
AUSTIN: Sovereign Immunity?
ART: Sovereign Immunity is very concerned that he’s about to get murdered.
[AUSTIN and JANINE laugh]
AUSTIN: Ok.
[Music begins: TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER.]
ART: Because...of what’s happened...and I’m not really sure what not getting murdered looks like.
AUSTIN: (Chuckle) Being in public a lot.
ART: Or like...yeah.
AUSTIN (overlapping): Or like, not being public at all. (Laugh) One or the other.
ART: Yeah, it’s one of those, right?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ART: But yeah, I think it’s like being very careful in anything but the most public thing, and in public being like, you know, back to the wall.
[Music ends]