Transcriber: Brigid @woodlandmists/brighty#2727
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): We might best now be defined by all of the ways we are without. We are without uniforms, without full stores, without fuel to last us beyond this summer. We are without allies beyond those beside you, and without a land of our own. We are yet without formal creed. But we are not without object. We are driven by this one understanding: That history looms, not the way an ominous shadow casts over the land, but like a machine that weaves. We will set the pattern, pull the cloth, slide the shuttle, bring together each of our different threads into something that to look at it once complete, is to see something so essential, it is hard to imagine the world before it.
[TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER. by Jack de Quidt begins playing]
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): (continued) A future unlike the past. A yet unnamed
tomorrow. Together we will break this Millenium.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): (continued) Welcome aboard, we will find places for you.
Apparatus, do you know where there is any room available on deck?
KEITH (as Apparatus Aperitif): Oh sure, we have plenty of room. This place is nothing
but room.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Can you get them situated?
KEITH (as Apparatus Aperitif): Mm-hm.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Is there anything-
DRE (as Zo’la): (crostalk) Ooh, actually, can we run that back? I don’t think “plenty of
room” is really gonna play.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Uh, excuse me… Excuse me?
DRE (as Zo’la): It’s just, it doesn’t sound good to say that the base of our revolution has
plenty of room. Makes it sound like it’s just big and empty, nobody’s really here. What
about, punch it up to like, “bountiful?”
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): “Bountiful room.” That sounds better to you than “plenty of
room?”
…
ART (as A.O. Rooke): Yeah, makes it harder being up here, you know? You hear people
having fun and you’re just- nothing - I don’t know what I’m even watching for! No one
knows we’re here!
DRE (as Valence): Yeah, but, I mean they could. And hey, maybe once those- maybe
we could get some of those people to come up here, so we could just- we don’t have to
spend as much time up here for as long.
ART (as A.O. Rooke): Hmm, sounds like a security nightmare.
DRE (as Valence): I mean, they’re gonna be living here.
ART (as A.O. Rooke): Yeah, but I mean, you live somewhere doesn’t mean you guard it.
…
JACK (as Clem): I think probably, establishment of some sort of food pipeline on board,
is there anything that we can grow, is that a thing that you can do aboard a carrier? I’m
not sure, but I’m sure some of these people will have some experience with farming.
Guard duty, it’s very easy to watch a thing. I suggest that we bolster our guard forces.
Also important to consider, people’s willingness and ability to fight, were it come to it.
…
JANINE (as Gucci Garantine): I don’t like when leaders delegate the distasteful things.
Necessarily.
JACK (as Clem): Necessarily?
JANINE (AS Gucci Garantine): You are trying to hide yourself in this.
JACK (as Clem): Not at all.
JANINE (as Gucci Garantine): No?
JACK (as Clem): No, not at all. I’m simply delegating to people who know how to do
these things better. Gucci, you and I do not know how to farm a field. I bought you nail
polish last year.
…
AUSTIN: “We will help those displaced by the war on Partizan, whenever possible.”
[TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER. by Jack de Quidt ends]
AUSTIN: (continued) I’m gonna- mm- Gur Sevraq says no. Period. Not “whenever possible,” we will do it. And now we’ve described the outcomes, we wrap back around to a second Crossroad. I’ll again open the door, if anyone has one that they’re like, ooh, this would be a good Crossroad. But if you don’t, just say that and I can do this next one.
JACK: I’m ready to hear the next one.
SYLVIA: Yeah, I’m ready.
AUSTIN: Okay, I’ll take that as a “yeah, I’m ready.” That’s how I’ll take that. Um, so I think- I think it’s probably through Tes’ili Serikos that this opportunity emerges. Maybe not through tes specifically, cause I don’t want to take that character from you, Jack, but maybe through one of tes’ groups or many smugglers. Um, I’ve mentioned that Columnar and Orion, Stel Orion are in a bit of a hot conflict, a war in another name, in which they are sending privateers after each other, they are disrupting each other’s trade lines, they are, you know, enacting different, you know trade embargoes and blockades and stuff. Um, they are even sending covert teams into each other’s territory to hamper the production of- the kind of production of each other. Um, but they’ve not outright declared war. Um, one of the things that’s happening is that each side is of course selling arms to Apostolos, Nideo, and Kesh. And sometimes that is done above books, you know, and is shipped out in a big, you know, well-guarded convoy, and those are like- those tend to be previous contracts, right, or ongoing contracts. I think the public perception is hey, we already had submitted that we were going to supply x amount of Troop units, for instance, over the next ten years, and even though this war has happened, we’re committed to doing that.
New shipments of arms, however, are a little trickier, and maybe you could do it for certain things. Like maybe it’s acceptable to be like, oh yes, these are only for the war against the Branched, up near where that war is happening, and we’re allowed to ship that, off-world, to blah-blah-blah. Maybe it’s okay if there is, for instance, (laughs) a peasant rebellion that you need to put down. The world? Happy to have Orion ship those Troops to Stel Nideo to do that, or those units, you know, those mechs to do that. Um, because the world is fucked. Um, but when it comes to like, hey we want you to- we want- we’re happy to sell you arms to go fight this other Stel, it’s a little trickier.
And so, I think on both sides, what we start hearing a lot of rumors of, and what the Red Fennecs definitely learn pretty quickly, is there are some supply shipments that are coming up in the reports going missing as “salt shipments'' or “milk shipments” or “wheat shipments.” And we can pick one of these so that it has like, the 1423 Salt Wars, you know, like that vibe? And it’s true that to some degree it’s important to blockade, you know, and useful- or effective to blockade staple supplies, right? But what’s really happening here is there are the kind of cover vessels that are smuggling arms to the other three Stels are being targeted and attacked by the- by Orion and Columnar respectively. They’re basically sniping at each other’s secret shipments. Um, and I think the Red Fennecs see an opportunity here. Which leads us to our second Crossroad. Which is: Should we begin to rob the wealthy Columnar and Orion transport ships that stray too far into our channel, in order to address our resource needs? Should we become pirates? Basically. Um, Leap could also be easily tied to this idea, I don’t know, Leap, if you were in the room, when this news comes to light? Um, but-
KEITH: I think, you know, I think Tes- Maybe it’s like, Leap had just been kind of saying it for weeks, and just like, someone else saying it was like, oh yeah, that’s maybe going to be much better.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) That’s a good idea! (laughs)
KEITH: Like I’ve just been like, saying it. Like, wow, we really should- Like maybe we could just like, hit some of these ships?
AUSTIN: Mm-hm. Rob- Will the Kingdom rob the wealthy, or I guess specifically, the Columnar and- the Columnar- the clandestine- What’s another word for like, secretive? Um, there’s a specific word I’m looking for.
KEITH: Covert?
AUSTIN: There’s another word- Yet another word- There’s so many words that mean basically this thing.
(ART laughs)
KEITH: Yeah. Well, we’re looking for a very specific one.
JACK: (crosstalk) Does it sound like clandestine?
AUSTIN: I did say clandestine.
KEITH: (crosstalk) Yeah, not clandestine.
JACK: (crosstalk) Yeah, is it like, adjacent to that?
AUSTIN: You’re saying is there another- It might be. It might be. Furtive? It’s not furtive.
JACK: (crosstalk) It’s like contraband, but not.
AUSTIN: Yeah. It’s fine.
KEITH: Illicit?
AUSTIN: Illicit? Illicit? Hmm. Undeclared, like- hmm. Concealed? Hmm. It doesn’t matter. You know what I mean.
KEITH: Contraband, you looking for contraband?
AUSTIN: Not really.
KEITH: I didn’t think so, that one was a reach.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) No, yeah, yeah.
KEITH: Bootleg?
AUSTIN: I’m just gonna write secretive. “Columnar and Orion shipments, armed shipments-”
JANINE: Surreptitious?
AUSTIN: Surreptitious! Surreptitious. That might have been what I was thinking. “Columnar and Orion shipments in order to address our resource problem.” Boom. Eight ticks on the clock. The question is given. Um-
KEITH: Sub rosa?
AUSTIN: Sub rosa’s a fun phrase. Who wants to begin with a scene to set up the- what this is about? And also, does this sound, does this sound interesting to people? Do people want to decide whether or not we’re also pirates?
SYLVIA: Yeah.
KEITH: (crosstalk) Yeah, I mean Exeter Leap is there, I don’t know what the-
(AUSTIN and ALI laugh)
AUSTIN: Okay! Well then, what’s the first scene here, to start doing this? I’ll also, quickly, let me just go over these extra bonus rules that are on the screen, just as we’ve done a full set of these, just as an overall reminder of like, what’s at the table. To prepare your scene, tell us who is there, where you are, what’s going on. Show us what your character says, thinks, and does. Talk about the Crossroad, find out what other characters think about it. Use your role. If you don’t think it fits your character anymore, change your role to something that does. Respect the roles of other characters, recognize their contributions are true, don’t ignore or deny them. If you want to stop or overcome something that another character does, challenge it. If you don’t like what another character is doing to the Kingdom with their role, overthrow them and take that role away. And end the scene earlier rather than later. Um, as a final reminder notes, something has been shipped in a box that we missed because of a previous- because of a failing to bring on more guards from the refugees, or enough new guards from the refugees. And our manifesto has one rule right now, it’s: We will help those displaced by the war on Partizan. So, what is the scene that kicks off this new Crossroad?
KEITH: A minor character can’t do this, this isn’t- I mean Leap can be there.
AUSTIN: Yeah, you can. Leap- You can- You can say, I wanna do a scene as Leap, what you can’t do is do a scene as Leap, where then Apparatus does a Perspective thing, I guess?
KEITH: Got it. Okay. Yeah. But then, I could react to that scene-
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally. As Apparatus. Yeah. Totally. Totally.
KEITH: Yeah. I don’t have a Perspective in mind for this anyway, I’m just ready to go out there and do something. (AUSTIN laughs)
KEITH (as Leap): Oh my god. I am so good at this! This is like, literally my real job!
These- Orion and Columnar specifically!
AUSTIN: Who are you talking to? You should just do this scene.
KEITH: That’s what I’m doing, I’m in character already.
AUSTIN: Who is it with? Who is it with, where is it happening?
KEITH: Oh, I’ve gotta pick? Oh, right, I do have to pick, all right.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Yes, it is your scene.
(ALI giggles)
KEITH: Okay. So, let’s see.... (deep sigh)
ART: Remember, there’s always the blank wall I introduced in the preamble.
(ALI laughs)
KEITH: Mmm. It’s gotta be… Let’s say, Clementine… Gucci and… Sovereign Immunity? Yeah.
AUSTIN: That sounds good. Where is it?
KEITH: Yeah. Um. I think that I’m, like, walking around the hangar, in, or maybe on- like the top deck?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah.
KEITH: Like the airfield? In my mech. Like, I’m already- I’m stomping around in it.
AUSTIN: You’re like “I’m ready to go!” (laughs)
JANINE: (crosstalk) Put me in coach!
KEITH: (crosstalk) Yeah. I’m literally ready to go!
AUSTIN: And you say what you said before, which is, I do this, this is what I do.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: This makes it feel like they have to talk you down from doing it!
(KEITH laughs)
KEITH (as Leap): I guess I don’t have to go literally right now, but it’s- you know. I’ll- I’m-
I’m ready, I’m here. You want supplies, I got the supplies. The supplies are, figuratively,
already ours.
(SYLVIA laughs)
AUSTIN: Sovereign Immunity, Clem, Gucci? What is your response to this, to Leap stomping around the flight deck in his mech?
KEITH: (laughs) Pacing, with the mech.
JANINE: (crosstalk) Just to clarify, where are the supplies going otherwise?
KEITH: They’re going to-
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) To the other Stels.
KEITH: Yeah.
JANINE: Okay. Right.
AUSTIN: To like, to Apostolos, Nideo, and Kesh, to fight the wars against each other.
KEITH: It’s like the Brian Regan joke of two logging trucks passing each other on the highway?
(pause)
AUSTIN: You gotta do the joke, I can’t just- I don’t know that joke.
KEITH: (crosstalk) There’s two- You’re on the highway and you see two logs- two trucks, both carrying a bunch of logs, going in opposite directions, and then Brian Regan does his Brian Regan voice, where he goes, “You had logs? We sent logs!”
(some chuckling)
AUSTIN: Great.
ART: So what noun are you substituting for logs here?
AUSTIN: Robots. Guns.
KEITH: Yeah, war goods. Bullets.
JACK: Salt.
KEITH: (Brian Regan voice) You already had bullets?
AUSTIN: Right, but also salt, synthetic salt, also.
KEITH: Right, yeah.
AUSTIN: I mean, I guess in this case, they don’t have those things, they need them from Columnar and Orion, they’re competing over who gets the logs there fastest and most reliably.
KEITH: Sure, fair. That’s probably what those log trucks are doing anyway.
AUSTIN: Yeah, fair, yes.
JACK (as Clem): Yes, well-
KEITH (as Leap): If you don’t say anything, I’m just gonna go! I’ll do it solo!
(SYLVIA cackles)
JACK (as Clem): I don’t have any particular objection to this, it seems like it’s a useful,
uh, task, and it seems like we would benefit from the goods that you would, uh… pirate.
KEITH (as Leap): Yeah.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): Yeah, I also can’t see literally any reason not to support
this.
KEITH (as Leap): Yeah. I’ve been saying it for, for, I don’t know. At least a week.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): It makes Leap happy, which is important, because Leap is a loud malcontent.
(AUSTIN laughs)
JACK (as Clem): He gets to go pirate.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): Yeah, he gets to go do the thing he wants to do, which is
great.
KEITH: Well, out of character, I would be careful about encouraging Leap, though.
(AUSTIN and JACK laugh)
AUSTIN: Wow. WOW, I’ve never heard this from Keith before, ever in six- five and a half years of this show!
(ALI giggles)
KEITH: Well it’s- that’s why we gotta say it out loud, cause it’s always implicit, but no, every-
ART: (crosstalk) You’re telling me- You’re telling me you have a higher setting on the Leap dial?!
AUSTIN: Oh, yes, what?! Yes!
KEITH: Yes, absolutely! Yeah, the higher setting is like... is like a, is a coup, basically.
[TIMESTAMP 15:04]
AUSTIN: Yeah, I was gonna say, Leap at a ten is Leap does pirate shit for you, Leap at eleven is Leap does pirate shit to you.
KEITH: Yeah.
(JACK laughs)
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): Great, let’s let Leap get it out of-
KEITH: I have a line for later, it has to come up, I can’t wait for it.
AUSTIN: Good, great.
ART (as Sovereign Immunity): I mean, I think it’s great, let Leap get it out of his system
and… yeah, better to have Leap pirating- inside the tent, pirating out, than outside,
pirating in.
JANINE: (inaudible)
JACK (as Clem): Those Apostolosian smugglers- oh sorry, Gucci, go ahead.
JANINE: No, no you go ahead. That was out of character, Gucci wouldn’t say that.
AUSTIN: (laughing) I was gonna say, Gucci would never.
(JACK laughs)
JACK (as Clem): Those Apostolosian smugglers, the Red Fennecs, you’ll bring them
with you? Seems like they know what they’re talking about.
KEITH (as Leap): Oh, yeah, I know, I know, um-
AUSTIN: Tes.
KEITH (as Leap): I know Tes’ili going way back.
JACK (as Clem): Excellent, yep. Gucci?
JANINE (as Gucci Garantine): I would say this is-
(KEITH/Leap make blaster noises)
(pause)
KEITH (as Leap): Sorry.
JANINE (as Gucci Garantine): 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 Garantine): What I’m saying is that it’s naive to say that there is no
counterargument to be made here, because the counterargument to be made here is
that there are people in every Stel who rely on the various imports and exports to live
their lives. Bear that in mind. Again, it’s valuable to take resources away from parties
who are tearing each other apart, and apply them to ourselves-
AUSTIN: (laughing) Fuck.
JANINE (as Gucci Garantine): But, just bear it in mind.
AUSTIN: Gucci Garantine, not even “be careful about killing people” and instead “be careful of destroying the market, people need that to eat.”
JACK: God. Gucci- Gucci has accidentally invented the consequence of thievery, which I think is very-
(AUSTIN laughs)
KEITH (as Leap): If anything- If anything
JACK: “Yeah, if you take stuff from people, they lose it.”
KEITH (as Leap): If anything, pirating those weapons is gonna make things much safer,
in general. Or at least, much safer for us.
JANINE: I think- I should say that like, a big part of my read on Gucci’s character is her being like, yeah do stuff, but don’t kid yourself about what you’re doing. (laughs)
AUSTIN: Yeah, no, no. I’m happy with this characterization. This is as in line with my original- Before there was a Gucci Garantine, I absolutely had a note written down that was like for who that character would end up being that was basically like, “I will always defend your right to protest, but never to break the law.” (JACK laughs) Basically.
KEITH: Unless it’s my terrorist group.
AUSTIN: Right, no one gets to break the rules like- Change the rules, don’t break them.
JANINE: (crosstalk) Again though, she’s- She is totally saying, “No, break the rules, just know all the rules you’re breaking.”
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Yes. I’m just saying, that is the- You are one hundred percent in line with the characterization I had of Gucci from the very jump.
JANINE: Read the law book, then throw on the fire. (laughs)
AUSTIN: Uh-huh! Um, is there a prediction here? I think that’s the scene, we don’t need more than that. We can- You can commit to doing like- You can’t commit to “This becomes a thing that the Kingdom does” until the vote happens. You can commit to “Leap immediately goes and starts to do this” as like, a one-off situation.
KEITH: Yeah, test the waters.
AUSTIN: Yeah, exactly. What I’m curious about here is, was that a prediction from Sovereign Immunity about like, Leap’s malcontentedness, or a certain style of malcontentedness being brought-
ART: I can’t make a prediction about Leap.
AUSTIN: You can’t. You can’t, but you can make a prediction about- I guess you can’t make a prediction about how people feel either, cause that’s a touchstone thing, right? Hmm. Can you make a prediction about… anything here? Based on- Oh, you can make a prediction about it going well. You said Leap is good at this, right?
ART: Yeah. If yes, um, you know, Leap will be very successful. Overwhelmingly successful. No, that doesn’t- You can’t be overwhelmingly successful. Um.
AUSTIN: I think it’s a sliding scale of success.
KEITH: (crosstalk) You bet your ass I can, I’m the pirate that caught the ire of three separate Stels! Single-handedly! Well, with a group, but they’re fine, they’re not with us.
ART: I just don’t know that- “Leap will exceed all expectations in terms of piracy output.”
AUSTIN: (laughing) One more time, Leap will what?
ART: (laughing) “Exceed all expectations in terms of piracy output.”
(JACK laughs)
KEITH: Ooh, that includes my own expectations, that’s great.
(ALI giggles)
ART: Yeah, don’t think that you can expect enough.
AUSTIN: Boom. Good. Great. All right-
ART: I’m predicting that you are wrong about your expectations.
AUSTIN: Um. Any reactions to this scene? (pause) All right. Any follow up scenes? What’s next?
ALI: I have a scene in mind.
AUSTIN: All right.
ALI: Um, Jack, where do you think Tes’ili hangs out?
JACK: Oh, wow. Umm. (ALI laughs) Probably- You know how Art described the commissary as a shop that was a shop that isn’t functioning?
AUSTIN: Mmm.
JACK: I think that tes has kind of like, assembled a shop that is functioning somewhere.
(ALI laughs)
AUSTIN: Great.
JACK: Out of- God, what’s the funniest room on a- What’s the funniest non-shop shop?
AUSTIN: An infirmary?
JACK: Oh god, it’s like yeah, but with just goods on gurneys and things just like-
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Uh-huh.
(ALI laughs)
JACK: Like all set up.
KEITH: What- Engine room is another one. It’s incredibly hot in there.
JACK: Just very noisy, I don’t know if tes would want to be there.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) That’s good too, I like that too. We do have an engine room on deck already, or on list already. Um, what else, what else, what else. There’s a funny place.
JACK: (crosstalk) The idea of- Umm.
(pause)
KEITH: Lifeboat, in a lifeboat. Like, hanging off the side of the ship.
JACK: Yeah, that’s it. Yeah. (KEITH laughs) It’s a rescue launch. Yes.
AUSTIN: Yep.
ALI: Perfect. Um, okay, so I think right now this scene is just Broun and Tes, but if anyone is getting the sense of this scene and wants to come in, by all means. Um, I think it’s like, Broun coming down, into that room, sort of like, knocking on the edge of the door and looking around, and being like,
ALI (as Broun): Um, is there where pirate sign-ups are?
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): Oh! Ha! Yes, pirate sign-ups! Yeah, come on in!
AUSTIN: Can Mourningbride be here in the middle of a purchase?
(laughter)
ALI: (laughing) Yes!
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): Mourningbride, please just give us a moment.
ALI (as Broun): Oh, I’m sorry.
AUSTIN (as Mourningbride): (crosstalk) I… Is this where pirate sign-ups are? Why are-
excuse- hm. Have I missed something?
ALI (as Broun): I was having breakfast and I was hearing that we were gonna start
pirating and I would love to do that.
AUSTIN (as Mourningbride): Why are we going to start pirating?
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): Well! You know-
ALI (as Broun): (crosstalk) We need shit.
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): We- Yeah, we need shit, and you know, when the universe
extends a hand with stuff in it, you take the stuff.
ALI (as Broun): Mm-hm.
AUSTIN (as Mourningbride): I see…
KEITH (as Leap): Hey everyone, how’s pirate sign-ups going? Get any- Get anyone?
AUSTIN (as Mourningbride): (sighs)
ALI (as Broun): Oh hey, yeah, I’m here to be a pirate!
KEITH (as Leap): That’s great. I’m so glad that there’s so many people signing up.
ALI (as Broun): Yeah, I mostly do-
AUSTIN (as Mourningbride): Who are you?
KEITH (as Leap): Hi, sorry, Exeter Leap. Hi.
AUSTIN (as Mourningbride): ...Hello.
KEITH (as Leap): I’m a pirate. I’m sort of the pirate.
AUSTIN (as Mourningbride): (sarcastically) I’m beside myself. I thought we were
worried about being found, and now three people, who I barely know are telling me
you’re going to go out and draw a big target on our backs.
ALI (as Broun): No
KEITH (as Leap): (crosstalk) Well, the goal of the pirating is to draw a target on their
backs.
ALI (as Broun): Yeah.
(AUSTIN snorts)
KEITH (as Leap): And then break through the target, take all the stuff, and come back
here. With it.
ALI (as Broun): I think you’re assuming we’ll be bad pirates. And I know that I’m new at
being pirates, but rest assured this will be successful.
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): (crosstalk) No, you’ve got potential. I can see it in you.
ALI (as Broun): Uh-huh, I stole all your shit, remember?
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): Yes I do!
AUSTIN: (shouts a noise like he’s been punched)
(ALI laughs)
AUSTIN: Oo-ooh! The body, just, dead.
KEITH (as Leap): Oh, you two have met?
(more laughter from the group)
AUSTIN: I don’t- I don’t think the Hyphan antlers can curl up and like, in cringe mode, but if they could, it would have just happened.
JANINE: They creak like an old chair.
AUSTIN: Yeah. (imitates the sound of wood creaking) “What was that?” “Don’t worry about it. My horns.”
AUSTIN (as Mourningbride): I’m going to leave you three to it. And- who were you
targeting exactly?
KEITH (as Leap): Oh, just the- just the- you know. Other Stels. (SYLVIA laughs) Ships.
AUSTIN (as Mourningbride): Okay.
AUSTIN: And leaves.
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): So, Broun. What is it that you’re looking for, you know,
particularly, in terms of- Is it just the sign-up sheet, or is it like the full loyalty program,
or…
KEITH (as Leap): And what role do you see yourself participating in, as a pirate?
DRE: Where do you see yourself as a pirate ten years from now?
(laughter)
ALI (as Broun): Great questions. Um, I’m happy to see that you’re handling this so
efficiently. Um, I’m mostly a technician, but my mech has a bunch of pockets in it? And
I’ve been stealing stuff for years. So…
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): It has what?
ALI (as Broun): Well, I built it so there was a bunch of pockets in it so I could steal shit.
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): That’s how you did it!
ALI (as Broun): Yeah!
KEITH (as Leap): That’s how it starts too.
(ALI laughs)
AUSTIN: That’s how it starts, you know.
KEITH: Yeah. (laughs)
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): Well! Yeah, absolutely! Of course! Uh, that sounds, that
sounds excellent. There is, of course, the matter of the tithe to talk about. The levy.
ALI (as Broun): Oh.
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): No, no, no, you don’t need to-
KEITH (as Leap): Excuse me, the what?
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): Oh no, you don't need to- Exeter, you and I were like this.
KEITH (as Leap): Are you doing this, for real? How much have you gotten from that?
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): Well, I don’t think it’s to concern you, Exeter.
(AUSTIN laughs)
ALI (as Broun): I think we’re both now concerned.
KEITH (as Leap): Yeah, we’re both now concerned. There’s not a levy. Don’t- don’t pay
a levy.
ALI (as Broun): Thank you. Yeah, mm-hm. 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 and DRE laugh)
AUSTIN: Oh my god.
ART: Wait, if you’re not gonna contribute- ah, never mind.
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): Well-
ALI (as Broun): Wait, were you asking me for the money?
KEITH (as Leap): No, I’m not- (breaks off laughing) I’m asking tes for the money.
ALI (as Broun): Ah.
KEITH: And then, (clears throat) from you, I will need the sign-up fee.
(laughter)
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): Don’t give him the sign-up fee. It’s just... (KEITH cackles in the
background) These pirates… People are just gonna steal from each other all the time.
Look. I’m grateful to have you. You seem like you know what you’re doing. Do I wish
that you had given me back the things that you took before you ruined my operation?-
ALI (as Broun): Oh, I don’t have that shit anymore! It was a bunch of cigarettes and shit!
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): Well it was a bunch of- it was valuable! Well, I mean- Look,
you know, there’s uses for stuff like that, namely money. It’s less the stuff you stole, and
more the operation you destroyed, but like, you know. It’s in the past, it’s in the past.
AUSTIN: I just want to point out, you also-
KEITH (as Leap): Is this why you were in jail?! Or whatever? (AUSTIN laughs) Did you
get sent to jail because they stole your cigarettes?
ALI (as Broun): Did you get sent to jail because I stole your cigarettes?
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos) Yes.
AUSTIN: Well, it wasn’t-
ALI (as Broun): (crosstalk) Oh, fuck.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: It was kind of jail, right?
ALI: It wasn’t jail, it was the front lines.
AUSTIN: It was the front line. To clarify two things-
ALI: (crosstalk) Which is a jail.
AUSTIN: Which is a jail of a -
JACK: (crosstalk) A war jail.
KEITH: (crosstalk) Right. Forced to fight or else sent to jail.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Yes. The other thing is, you did also steal-
KEITH: (crosstalk) A sort of plan that we should all be familiar with on this boat.
AUSTIN: Oh, yeah! (laughs) You did also steal those three Troop units, which you then sold to Gur Sevraq.
JACK: Yeah, this is the thing that Tes is not mentioning. (ALI laughs)
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): But, you know, look, let’s let bygones be bygones. We gotta
stick together, everybody on board this ship is snakes and I think that we can get some
good business done!
AUSTIN: Good.
ALI (as Broun): Yeah, I owe you one.
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): Yes you do!
KEITH (as Leap): We should focus on the snakes that are on other ships first.
JACK (as Tes’ili Serikos): Yeah, um. Yeah.
AUSTIN: That seems like a scene to me.
JACK: Broun has- I don’t know if- I don’t know if you consider that your debts are paid. I don’t know if Tes does.
(AUSTIN and ALI chuckle)
AUSTIN: Right, but here we are. All right, um. It sounds like, Touchstone-wise, Broun, you’re putting a token in pro-pirating?
ALI: Um, yeah, I- It’s funny, cause when I started this scene, I was like, oh, I’m gonna describe this and then have to describe (laughing) the distance between the general…
AUSTIN: Wait, between the?
ALI: Between the general population and um-
AUSTIN: Oh, you don’t! Whatever you feel is what the general population feels.
ALI: Yeah, I just- I- Let me- (breaks off into giggles) Cause I think that um, Broun is very eager, cause Broun is predisposed to be very eager for these things.
AUSTIN: When your character expresses an attitude, the people of the Kingdom automatically feel the same way.
ALI: (crosstalk) Yeah. Right. (laughing) And while I do not think that the people in the Kingdom are as gung-ho about going forward, because they aren’t used to stealing, I do think that there’s sort of a community idea that like, “well the thing that we’re doing is a thing, right?” And like, you can’t have- One, you can’t be precious about like, who are we gonna take stuff from, because like, everybody else has been taking stuff from everybody on this ship for so long that who gives a fuck?
AUSTIN: Right. Right.
ALI: Um, and then also just the thing of like, this community knows that they need shit.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
ALI: So…
AUSTIN: Yeah, I think that that is- the cause might be different, but your enthusiasm is reflected across the crew at this point. Someone can challenge that, but I’m putting Broun, token, under Yes. (ALI chuckles) Broun happy token. All right. Any reactions to that sequence?
KEITH: Meeting a lot less resistance than I anticipated.
(laughter)
JANINE: Kind of already stole a big fort thing, so everything else is…
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) It’s true, it’s true.
(various noises of agreement from the cast)
AUSTIN: Uh-huh. Thank you for the smiley-face Broun.
JACK: (crosstalk) I wonder if there’s just like a- like a one-second shot of Clem at her desk seeing a ship launch off Icebreaker, out of the window, followed by like, four other ships launch, and Clem is just like, oh. There they go!
[TIMESTAMP 30:08]
AUSTIN: Yeah. Um, I think I have a reaction with Gur Sevraq, which is Gur Sevraq talking to- Mmm, actually this is a scene. This is a scene. Can I ask for a scene with Agon Ortlights and uhhh…. Hmm. Who else here is- And Valence. And the scene I would love for this to be is for- I mean, I don’t know how Valence feels about piracy specifically, but maybe the line of- What happened here is- I’m asking if this is good for you, Sylvi, is that Agon is like, “you cannot steal from Orion ships, I run Orion ships!”
SYLVIA: Yeah, that makes sense!
AUSTIN: And went to Valence with that, and then Valence came to Gur Sevraq with that, and now we’re talking in like- we’re talking quietly in the chapel, in like the corner of a- the fort chapel. The chapel has six different religious- like, in the corner are different banners, each which has to be pulled out and set up, depending on which service is ongoing, and there are people in the room, in the back currently setting up for like, the next- for like the Sable Court service that’s going to start in you know, thirty minutes. Um, and I think the sequence is Valence brings in Agon to be like, “you have to let me talk to someone who can stop this or can- I have to be able to voice my opinion about this to someone who matters.” Um, does that work for y’all?
DRE: Yeah.
SYLVIA: (crosstalk) Yeah, sure.
AUSTIN: All right.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Valence. Sister Agon. What is it- Are you here to see the
Hyphan service?
SYLVIA (as Agon Ortlights): (laughs) Yeah, no. Not right now. Uh, we have some
problems that we need to talk about immediately.
AUSTIN: Gur Sevraq’s eyes go wide, robot eyes go wider and look at Valence, as if he’s been, you know like, what’s the word I’m looking for. Like, sucker-punched here, is like,
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Some problems, I see. What sort of problems do you mean?
SYLVIA (as Agon Ortlights): These raids? That are being planned? The pirate raids that
are being called…
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): (crosstalk) The pirate raids?
SYLVIA (as Agon Ortlights): On Orion. Transports that my people help run. You plan-
your people- The people here are planning on raiding those, which personally speaking, seems a little counter-intuitive, seeing as how we use my soldiers to help run this thing.
AUSTIN: Out of character real quick. Did anyone cut Gur Sevraq in on this plan?
(pause)
KEITH: No. I didn’t.
AUSTIN: Sounds like no! Okay.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): There are raids happening against explicitly Stel Orion ships,
you’re saying?
SYLVIA (as Agon Ortlights): That’s what I’ve heard them planning. Something about
Orion and Columnar routes, but honestly, I’m just concerned with my people right now.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Valence-
DRE (as Valence): (crosstalk) Gur-
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Did you know about this?
DRE (as Valence): Just now. What is with this Clementine Kesh woman?
(beat, hysterical laughter)
DRE (as Valence): First she turns-
AUSTIN: (laughing) Friends at the Table, Season Six, Partizan or What is With This Clementine Kesh Woman?
DRE (as Valence) First she turns the opportunity to help people into indentured servitude
and now we’re launching pirate raids?
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Well-
SYLVIA (as Agon Ortlights): (crosstalk) Pretty sure one of the pirates is also an
indentured servant.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): That’s- yes, that’s true. Would be true. One of the- I think
what you mean is one of the indentured servants was already a pirate.
SYLVIA (as Agon Ortlights): I just got here.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): I understand. The-
(KEITH laughs)
DRE (as Valence): Wait, so the people that have been working with her this whole time
are also her indentured servants?
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): That’s a very generous euphemism.
DRE (as Valence): Okay, so what’s the not-generous euphemism?
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Prisoners. The Rapid Evening is a group of prisoners. The
current circumstances are an improvement, though not by much.
DRE (as Valence): And you thought it was a good idea to rope her into this, why?
JACK: Ooh!
(someone laughs loudly)
SYLVIA (as Agon Ortlights): Have you seen the fort we’re standing in? As much as I
don’t like her, I have to admit, she gets things done.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Agon speaks well here. From this fort, we will change
Partizan. Clementine Kesh will be dealt with.
AUSTIN: And is like, deadly serious.
KEITH: (muffled chanting from the background, like he has his hands over his mouth) Back from the raid! Back from the raid! Back from the raid!
(laughter)
SYLVIA: God…
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Agon-
ART: I’m sorry, I can’t hear the chant, can the chant be a little louder?
KEITH: (louder, still sounding like he has his hands cupped around his mouth) Back from the raid! Back from the raid! Back from the raid!
(more laughter)
AUSTIN: Okay, great.
SYLVIA (as Agon Ortlights): I think they’re back from the raid.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): (crosstalk) I think they’re back from the raid.
JACK: Hark! The raid has returned!
(AUSTIN laughs)
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Agon. I understand that there are appeals here that will, no
doubt seem unsophisticated and selfish. I will not waste your time with those, though I
suspect you would hear those if you wanted to from the raiders who have just returned
from their task. Here is what I will tell you. We could simply target Columnar ships. I
suspect that would only draw a greater target on this operation.
AUSTIN: I’ll note, this is not a prediction, this is Gur Sevraq, who is not a Perspective, making a sort of informal prediction.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Certainly, by making sure that our targets are spread between
the two Stels, we allow ourselves to operate without either one of them bearing down on
us. Or either one of them taking the blame for what we do. Or both of them taking the
blame for what we do. Any new attention would be disastrous. But, if you would
appreciate it, I could make sure that, for the time being, there are rules in place around
the protection of prisoners, the use of force, and similar concerns.
SYLVIA (as Agon Ortlights): (sighs) Yeah, okay. This isn’t- We’re not finished with this
though.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): No, of course not.
DRE (as Valence): We are definitely not finished with this.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Valence, are you worried if this continues?
DRE (as Valence): What are we doing here?
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Beginning something.
DRE (as Valence): It looks like the thing that has already begun and been going on for a long time.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): The thing that has already begun and has gone on for a long time is that the people in charge have been prying from the people on this vessel everything they own. This piracy has gone on long before-
DRE (as Valence): (crosstalk) Yeah, and then the one who’s in charge here wants to pry from everybody who gets on this vessel!
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Wait, who’s prying from- You’ve lost me here.
DRE (as Valence): The indentured servitude part.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Yes, we’re changing that as we speak, Valence. Who do you think is signing- mm. I suspect that Exeter Leap is jumping for joy at the idea of robbing the ships that pass nearby. I suspect he would be doing that whether or not we ordered him to do it. Which is, again, Agon, I had no part in doing.
SYLVIA (as Agon Ortlights): It’s fine, I mean maybe we should have just kept him locked up though, geez.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Absolutely not.
SYLVIA (as Agon Ortlights): Oh. Well. (KEITH laughs) Agree to disagree.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Agon, I need to be clear that I respect and appreciate all that your people have done for us. We knew that there would be rocky times ahead, this is one such time, we will get through it and I will take your perspective seriously. Valence-
DRE (as Valence): This is pebbles compared to what comes. You just gave me a speech and a lecture about how I was too weak for weeping over killing someone and now you’re playing buddy-buddy with someone because it’s convenient to get what you want?!
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): I did not lecture you, we had a conversation. Agon, could you give Valence and I a moment?
SYLVIA (as Agon Ortlights): I was kinda starting to get that impression, yeah. (ALI giggles) Um, if you need to sort of talk to me about this raid situation, you know where I am.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): (crosstalk) I know where you are, yes, of course. Valence. I neither lectured you nor did I… demean your response. Death that you cry for, I understand much more than any sort of problem with robbing from the Stels. I came into a situation where Clementine Kesh had already turned prisoners into her servants. Now, that situation has improved. With the Oxblood Clan on deck, with Mourningbride and the Sable Court here? Give it another week, Clementine Kesh will be cleaning the floors. I thought I was the one who wanted overnight revolution, not you.
DRE (as Valence): I’m not asking for revolution, I’m asking for not feeling disgusting and disillusioned for who we’re working with.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): Well, then you ought to leave Partizan. There is no one here I would not feel disgusted by, in some way, working for. No one here is uncompromised. I hate that I’ve had to sit at the table with Clementine Kesh. My options have been to change Clementine Kesh, or to change the table. I have taken both options. We now have a much larger table and more voices are at it. Do not doubt my strategy here. It has gotten us this far, it will take us further. Alternatively, you can go back to your island, and tell me how that will save your people.
DRE (as Valence): You already know my people are gonna be fine, we saw how it happened.
AUSTIN (as Gur Sevraq): I’ll reiterate what I said before. I’m not sure that these people will not find a way to kill our God. Give it enough time. You know that they are cruel and that they are committed. I have to help them prepare for the service.
AUSTIN: And Gur Sevraq just leaves. He goes over to the corner and helps them set up the lectern and stuff. That is the scene. Do you want to make a prediction, Valence?
DRE: Yes. Um. “If yes, the extra resources will allow people to more openly question Clementine Kesh.”
AUSTIN: All right. Boom. Valence. And also, who was that first prediction? Was that SI? That was SI, right? Done. All right. That is Gur. Turn three. Any reactions to that scene? All right. Next scene-
KEITH: I have a reaction as Apparatus.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Oh, sure. Yes. Yeah, cause you have not made a prediction yet.
KEITH: I have not. So I think… (pause) It feels kind of cheesy, cause I have a reaction and then I have a prediction that’s not entirely connected to the reaction. Well, let’s do it and let’s see how it plays.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) See if you can make it- yeah, yeah, yeah. What’s the reaction?
KEITH: I think Leap’s gone and given different things from the raid to different, you know, different groups, and I think that Aperitif is passing out like, nice, plush pillows, cause one of them was a truckful of like, incredibly soft pillows, and is giving people pillows. Starting with the people passed out at the afterparty-party (DRE laughs) and then sort of moving outward from there.
AUSTIN: We can talk about this, cause like, Apparatus doesn’t stop being the Night Mayor, right?
KEITH: No.
AUSTIN: Continues to help people get home when they’re drunk and lost on this giant fortress.
KEITH: Yeah. Yeah.
AUSTIN: Continues to help people have like, supplies for when they’re hungover, or like, hey, here are some condoms, be safe, have fun.
KEITH: Yeah. Everywhere needs a Night Mayor.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm!
KEITH: Um, and I don’t-
AUSTIN: Is it something that Apparatus like- Can you jump to it from seeing how nightlife shifts while this kind of trial period is going on?
KEITH: Trial period of?
AUSTIN: What is the- Of Leap going out and doing piracy shit. Like in other words, people-
KEITH: Well, I think there’s just a general mood- like sleeping on the floor, like with no pillow?
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
KEITH: Like, now everybody brings their pillow to- (breaks off laughing)
AUSTIN: So yeah, what’s the prediction then, is the prediction that like, the quality of life will improve, if yes? Or is it, that if no, people will be upset cause these luxury goods will stop being around?
KEITH: No. (sighs) I don’t know.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) You can’t decide if people get upset, but.
KEITH: (crosstalk) I had a good prediction- I can just not do my prediction now, I can do a prediction later, right?
AUSTIN: Yes. Yeah, you can- Yeah, you can totally wait until the final- until the-
KEITH: Yeah, I think I’m gonna wait. I have a prediction, but I don’t want to tie my prediction to this scene.
AUSTIN: Okay.
KEITH: But I do- Because the prediction here, the obvious one is just improvement of mood, but I don’t- I don’t want to waste it on like “people like having stuff.”
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) You can’t even- The thing is, you can’t make that prediction because that’s a Touchstone role.
KEITH: Right, yeah, that too.
AUSTIN: You could say like, “there is more stuff around,” but you can’t necessarily say people will like it. Um, for whatever reason, Touchstones-
KEITH: (crosstalk) I can say that people’s mood is improved, but I can’t make it true.
AUSTIN: You cannot make a prediction about whether or not people’s moods will change. You can’t.
KEITH: Right. Yeah.
AUSTIN: Because attitudes of people are about Touchstones.
[TIMESTAMP 45:00]
AUSTIN: (cont’d) That’s like the one thing you can’t predict. Um. All right, next scene. We still have a Valence scene, a Millie scene, a Sovereign Immunity scene, a Clem scene, and a Gucci scene to go. Those could also be short reactions, short descriptions of what’s happening. I know a lot of those people have been in scenes already, so if you wanted to do something lighter, but still make a prediction or give me an image, that’s also fine.
SYLVIA: I can like, give another quick one.
AUSTIN: Sure.
SYLVIA: Um. I feel bad because I haven’t played Millie in like any actual scenes yet, but it’s fine. I just like, have this idea of a conversation like happening between- happening among the crew of like, the original Rapid Evening, like A.O. and Leap and Millie about like, “hey, it’s way harder for them to keep us under control here.”
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Do this scene. This should be a scene.
SYLVIA: Yeah?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: All right.
AUSTIN: Where is it? What’s going on?
SYLVIA: I wanna say it’s like, cafeteria area, I guess?
AUSTIN: Yeah. That works.
SYLVIA: Wherever they’re eating. Um-
KEITH: This is everyone but Clem.
SYLVIA: Pretty much, yeah. I mean, SI not there either.
KEITH: Okay.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Okay, so, so-
SYLVIA: None of the cops in the Rapid Evening are invited.
AUSTIN: Okay. So A.O., Leap, Millie. Figure A?
SYLVIA: Figure A can be there if you want.
AUSTIN: (laughing) Yeah, Figure A is there. Great.
KEITH: Playing three songs at once on a little speaker.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Yeah.
SYLVIA: Well, what I- I like them just like- they’re having lunch and like, sorting through shit that Leap got at the raid.
AUSTIN: Oh, that’s really good, I like that, yeah.
SYLVIA: And that’s something that Figure A’s just doing a lot of.
KEITH: Like categorizing things maybe?
SYLVIA: Yeah, but like, they’re sort of like- The rest of them are like, fucking around with it too. And I think at one point Millie’s just like,
SYLVIA (as Millie): Hey, why do we still listen to Clem?
KEITH (as Leap): We don’t. I don’t.
SYLVIA (as Millie): Yeah, but like- Okay, you don’t. Why- Why have we- Okay, better
question. Why does Clem still think she’s in charge?
KEITH (as Leap): Because-
SYLVIA (as Millie): (crosstalk) You know what I mean?
KEITH (as Leap): Pretending to be in charge is the only way to seem like you’re still in
charge.
SYLVIA (as Millie): But like, Leap, people are listening to her!
KEITH (as Leap): I know, it’s a tragedy.
SYLVIA (as Millie): So- Okay, let me just like, sort of bridge this gap here that we’re
having between our two thoughts.
KEITH (as Leap): Yeah.
SYLVIA (as Millie): What if we put her into prison? And we were the ones-
KEITH (as Leap): Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me right now?
SYLVIA (as Millie): No, I’m not kidding you right now.
KEITH (as Leap): Do you- I- ah- Sounds a little familiar! I think someone maybe had this
idea!
SYLVIA (as Millie): (shouting) What! Hey! Okay! Hold on! Hold on! Hold on! Hold on!
AUSTIN: Figure A says,
AUSTIN (as Figure A): I recall seventeen instances where Exeter Leap-
SYLVIA (as Millie): (crosstalk) (shouting) WAY worse timing!
AUSTIN (as Figure A): -suggested that we place Clementine Kesh into a prison or
something adjacent to a prison, categorically.
SYLVIA (as Millie): (crosstalk) Okay! Fine!
KEITH (as Leap): Can you play those back?
SYLVIA (as Millie): (crosstalk) Okay, Leap’s always right, everybody loves Leap, I get it.
KEITH (as Leap): We gotta put Clem in jail.
SYLVIA (as Millie): We gotta put Clem in jail! Also, okay, fucking-
AUSTIN: How’s A.O.? Is A.O. just watching all this, what’s-
ART (as A.O. Rooke): What’s- What, I thought we were gonna listen to some recordings.
(AUSTIN and SYLVIA laugh)
KEITH (as Leap): Yeah, run through ‘em!
AUSTIN (as Figure A): (as Leap) “Hey, why don’t we just put Clem in jail and take over?
We have all the power here!”
SYLVIA (as Millie): Ehhh.
ART (as A.O. Rooke): Hmm, I don’t think I was there for that one.
AUSTIN (as Figure A): (as Leap) “Small idea, what if we just put Clementine in jail and
we took over the palace and had our whole entire situation reversed. Wouldn’t that be
better?”
ART (as A.O. Rooke): Mmm.
KEITH (as Figure A): (as Leap) “I’m over the Clem thing, no offense Clem. Shouldn’t
she be the one in jail?”
(AUSTIN laughs)
SYLVIA: God.
ART (as A.O. Rooke) Yeah, I remember- That one, that was the most recent one. Why
aren’t these in order?
SYLVIA: (crosstalk) At the end of every clip, there’s just Millie going “Ehhhhhh.”
KEITH: (crosstalk) They’re alphabetical.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) (laughing) They’re in alphabetical order, yeah.
KEITH: Yeah.
ART: Alphabetical by location.
AUSTIN: (laughing) Yes.
SYLVIA (as Millie): Okay! Okay! So! I was wrong and I admit that. It’s like, cool, we’ve all made mistakes. I just think now it’s a little easier because we’re not in the middle of the city that her family owns? And like, I have like access to- You know, a lot of the soldiers here really like me.
KEITH (as Leap): Yeah, and no one really likes Clem.
SYLVIA (as Millie): No one really likes her! Have you like- we should-
ART (as A.O. Rooke): No one likes her.
KEITH (as Leap): No one likes her.
SYLVIA (as Millie): I was gonna say “have you thought about that,” but Leap, you have thought about that the most.
KEITH (as Leap): Yeah!
AUSTIN (as Figure A): Seven people do like Clementine Kesh.
SYLVIA (as Millie): Can you give me the full list?
KEITH (as Leap): Yeah, can we hear that?
ART (as A.O. Rooke) Seven?
AUSTIN (as Figure A): Seven.
SYLVIA (as Millie): I don’t believe you.
KEITH (as Leap): I- ugh, yeah, sure, what are the seven?
SYLVIA (as Millie): That’s like, three too many.
AUSTIN (as Figure A): Sovereign Immunity.
SYLVIA (as Millie): Okay.
ART: Don’t know about that!
AUSTIN (as Figure A): (crosstalk) Gucci Garantine, sort of.
ART (as A.O. Rooke): These both- These are tenuous so far.
KEITH (as Leap): These better be in ascending order.
ART (as A.O. Rooke): Yeah, this better get to more liking.
AUSTIN (as Figure A): Thetonious. Gucci’s bodyguard.
KEITH (as Leap): Okay.
SYLVIA (as Millie): Okay! Sure!
AUSTIN (as Figure A): They think that Clementine is kind of funny sometimes.
KEITH (as Leap): Okay.
ART (as A.O. Rooke): Kind of funny sometimes is the standard here?
AUSTIN (as Figure A): Comparatively to the people in this room, yes.
ART (as A.O. Rooke): Okaay.
AUSTIN (as Figure A): Zo’la, who likes the powerful, innately.
SYLVIA (as Millie): So far- Yeah, and is also being paid by Clem.
AUSTIN (as Figure A): (crosstalk) Alise-
SYLVIA: Oh no, wait, paid by Gucci, my bad.
AUSTIN: Paid by Gucci, yes.
AUSTIN (as Figure A): Alise Breka, who understands that Clementine Kesh has a unique position and perspective on events, and who was, of course, schooled in Kesh matters, in Kesh schools.
KEITH (as Leap): That one’s disappointing.
AUSTIN (as Figure A): The Blossom, who thinks of Clementine Kesh as a protégé.
KEITH (as Leap): What? Some of these are without- These last two are legitimately surprising! Okay, keep going.
(SYLVIA laughs)
AUSTIN: This is according to a whole situation that Jack set up months ago and I have to be honest with it.
ART: Isn’t this like- So it’s only one more, right? Or was that it? Was that seven?
AUSTIN: I think there may be one more. Um.
AUSTIN (as Figure A): I do.
(KEITH, SYLVIA, and ART “aww”)
ART (as A.O. Rooke): Why?
SYLVIA (as Millie): Now, notice how her mom wasn’t there. That’s pretty funny!
KEITH (as Leap): Yeah.
AUSTIN (as Figure A): (crosstalk) Her mother does not like her very much.
ART (as A.O. Rooke): Yeah, that’s fucked.
SYLVIA: (crosstalk) And then they all laugh!
AUSTIN (as Figure A): I will say that I have browsed the annals of history. I have seen
the depths of what humanity can do. Clementine Kesh is a footnote, at best.
KEITH (as Leap): Sick. Um. We can take the shoe off that foot, like this week, I bet.
(AUSTIN laughs)
ART (as A.O. Rooke): I don’t think that that’s the… That that’s what that means.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Is that what footnote means?
KEITH (as Leap): I think- Well, I think a foot is more powerful with a shoe on. So you
take the shoe off, and then they’re a footnote.
SYLVIA (as Millie): (crosstalk) That is- I- I mean I guess it probably depends on the note,
but I don’t know if you wanna-
ART (as A.O. Rooke): (crosstalk) Like a sock-note.
KEITH (as Leap): It really depends on what?
SYLVIA (as Millie): Oh, I was just gonna say, I think it depends on the foot, but we don’t
need to get into that while we’re eating lunch.
AUSTIN: I think that is scene.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Um, is there a- is there a Touchstone vibe here, are you pro or anti-
SYLVIA: Yeah, so I think it’s like, we’re pro this move, and then like the larger thing there is that people are losing confidence in sort of, just the power structure going on here, in general.
AUSTIN: Yup.
SYLVIA: Like there’s- There’s starting to be a questioning of like, why are these specific people giving us orders? With Gucci, it’s more like, well she has military experience and stuff.
AUSTIN: Right.
SYLVIA: With Clem, as things go on, it just kinda like, well it’s her house, so we should have to play by her rules I guess.
AUSTIN: (laughs) Right. House mom. All right.
SYLVIA: Okay.
AUSTIN: I’ll mark that as a scene.
SYLVIA: Thank you for making me do that as a full scene.
AUSTIN: All right. Valence, Sovereign Immunity, Clem, or Gucci.
(DRE sighs)
ART: I’m struggling with this because I don’t- Sovereign Immunity doesn’t care about this.
AUSTIN: That’s okay, you can make a prediction separate from not caring about it.
ART: Um. And then I feel like I need to make a No prediction, cause all our predictions are on the other side.
AUSTIN: That’s probably a good idea.
ART: But also, I’ve already made a prediction, I can make two predictions?
AUSTIN: You can make as many predictions as you want, for as many scenes as you’re in.
ART: Um, I think I just want, like a reaction scene?
AUSTIN: Sure.
ART: Just like, very quickly of just like, Sovereign Immunity overlooking the sorting of the goods from the first raid, like checking some stuff off, and like it’s- this is not an interesting or meaningful scene, but like, we gotta- You know, reporting back to Clementine with like, oh, this is what we got, this is what it cost, this is what it’s, you know, here’s the return on piracy.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Is there a prediction as you’re doing this?
ART: Um. Yeah, I think if we don’t do it, more crew lives will be spared. Or is that an “if yes?” “If yes, people will die?” Or an “if no, people won’t die.” It’s “if yes, people will die,” that’s what I’m going with.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) “If yes, people will die,” yeah, yeah, yeah.
ART: So, “If yes, some,” you know, “some pirates will be killed in the raids.” So I didn’t do a very good job of coming up with an “if no.”
AUSTIN: Yeah, I get it though. Boom.
KEITH: What is a “if yes,” but an “if no” but worded different.
AUSTIN: True.
DRE: I think as a reaction to that scene that just happened…
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
DRE: Um, like I almost- Like, I wonder if the reaction scene is that like Valence is kind of like, walking by and overhears this and like, sticks their head in.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
DRE: I think the “If no, there will be an armed mutiny against Clementine Kesh.”
AUSTIN: Mmm.
DRE: Or maybe not just against Clementine, but like an armed mutiny of the perceived power structure. Yeah.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Against the current leadership, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Boom. All right, Clem and Gucci. Need scenes or reactions from y’all.
JACK: Yeah, I’m just trying to think of a sort of appropriate reaction. I don’t think there’s a scene here. Um. I think it’s- I think it’s Clem living out the fantasy of being a pirate queen on some level, right?
AUSTIN: Yeah.
JACK: It’s like, Clem standing on the- on a catwalk over a hangar as goods are being brought in, and I think there’s definitely this moment of reflection of just like, “well Clementine, look how far you’ve come from running a gang of prisoners out of Cruciat.”
AUSTIN: Uh-huh. God. It’s fucking Benjamin Horn pretending to be a Confederate general or whatever in the first- or the second season of Twin Peaks, is that to deep a cut?
KEITH: No.
AUSTIN: Just like, all dressed up, like living his best imaginary bullshit life. I guess you are literally commanding pirates in this moment, he was not literally ordering people around in the Civil War, but.
JACK: (laughs) It’s a fairly large distinction, but yeah, no, I do see what you mean.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Yes. Yeah.
JANINE: Is Clem actually giving orders? Like, as people are unloading stuff?
KEITH: No. No way.
AUSTIN: Clem?
JACK: No, I think so. Yeah, I think so.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk): Yeah, Clem can answer that.
KEITH: Oh, well what’s the order? “Yeah, keep unloading boxes.”
(JANINE laughs)
JACK: No, I think it’s like, distribution, I think it’s- I think it’s- Clem isn’t just a- Clem is a bad leader, but she definitely has characteristics that you would look at and go, there is some leadership happening. Um, like, Clem is not always lounging in a chair with a like, a long cigarette, even though that happens, you know, regularly.
JANINE: Not infrequently.
JACK: So I think she’s, you know, she’s pointing-
KEITH: (crosstalk) How long?
JACK: You know, I’m making it with my hands. Like this long?
KEITH: Okay. That’s big. That’s like four feet.
JACK: (laughs) Yeah. It’s incredible. “Carry that over there, this needs restocked there, take that down to Tes’ili,” you know, that kind of stuff.
AUSTIN: Yeah, it is the case that Clem is a Power, which means that when she orders the Kingdom to do something, the Kingdom does it. For that to change, she needs to change her role or be overthrown. Um, so for now, she does literally be- she is able to give commands and people do still listen to her. They might be not happy about it based on the way the Touchstones have done, have said stuff, but she is not yet not a Power.
KEITH: The important thing is that she’s probably getting credit for this despite not doing anything more than just allowing Leap to do it.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Yeah of course! Yes!
JANINE: Um, so I kind of imagine Gucci as like, just- I think for Gucci this is like, a kind of a settled issue and she’s maybe just doing other stuff? Like, I don’t really have even a reaction for her here.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
JANINE: But part of that is also because I really, really, really want to do something with Thisbe here.
AUSTIN: Mmm. Mm-hm.
JANINE: Because this is like a big problem? If Broun is super pro this and Valence is super anti this, Thisbe doesn’t- Like, it has to be a thing of like, either Thisbe does not know what to do, or Thisbe is sort of vacillating between helping each one of them. Um, and the idea of Clementine standing there giving orders as Thisbe and Broun are part of this group that’s unloading a haul is very interesting.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
JANINE: Because we haven’t had a lot of- Thisbe has not interacted with any of the Rapid Evening.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Is there a scene here in which you’re trying to work this out, or is that just a quick shot?
JANINE: It might be a quick scene. It might be a scene of like, Thisbe is very big and very strong, so she’s- She has a big part in moving the stuff around, and is probably getting a lot of the “put this there,” etc.
ALI: Oh, yeah, this is- this is Thisbe’s time that Broun volunteered on her behalf. Like, “yeah, go-” Yeah.
JANINE: (crosstalk) Yeah. I mean, that’s the thing, right, is- yeah. Thisbe’s going to listen to Broun and she’s going to intuit what their- you know, what they want as much as she can. Um, you know, Valence is probably not going to be giving counter-orders, but Thisbe is also probably picking up a vibe there to a degree, again, as much as she can. But, you know, Broun, like you said Ali, would volunteer her time, and she would be participating in this, and maybe- Maybe this is even her closest encounter with Clementine so far, she’s definitely seen Clementine around, but this is maybe the first time Clementine has like, spoken to her.
[TIMESTAMP 1:00:06]
AUSTIN: Clementine, what do you think of this big deer robot?
JACK: Pretty cool!
(SYLVIA laughs)
JACK (as Clem): Pretty cool!
ALI (as Broun): Oh, thanks! (KEITH laughs) Yeah, we been working together for a bit,
this is Thisbe. Thisbe, you can introduce yourself.
(pause)
JANINE (as Thisbe): I’m Thisbe.
(AUSTIN laughs quietly)
JACK (as Clem): Hello Thisbe. My name’s Clementine. I’m running this place. You can
carry a lot of stolen goods!
(pause)
JANINE (as Thisbe): What are you?
(AUSTIN laughs)
ALI (as Broun): Thisbe.
JACK (as Clem): I beg your pardon?
JANINE: And I think Thisbe looks at Broun and says,
JANINE (as Thisbe): What is she?
(DRE giggles)
AUSTIN: Not how I expected this to go.
ALI (as Broun): She’s um… (stutters) Excuse me? Um. (SYLVIA laughs) She’s a
woman, she’s a princess I think.
JACK (as Clem): Yes.
(pause)
JANINE (as Thisbe): Do I listen to her?
(pause)
ALI (as Broun): Uh…
(laughter)
AUSTIN: A question complicated by her being here!
JACK: Clem, with her head cocked, just watching this situation.
ALI: (laughing) I think Broun um… recognizing the social dynamics here is like, quickly being like,
ALI (as Broun): Well, we, you know Thisbe, we want to be supportive to Millenium Break
and supporting Clem I think is part of that, Thisbe. (clears throat)
JANINE: Um, I think Thisbe looks back at Clem and is like, you know, her face is like a solid thing, it doesn’t really communicate emotion. There’s, you know, some things can be communicated by the posture of her head or, you know, certain things that happen with her eyes, kind of. I don’t know how much disbelief can be communicated here. (ALI and JACK laugh) But I think it is like, a very long look at Clem, and a very long look at Broun, and a very long look at Clem again, and then I think Thisbe just goes to put the boxes she was carrying wherever they were supposed to go, and doesn’t really reply further to that.
AUSTIN: Amazing. All right, that feels like a scene. I also miss Thisbe, Dre. Agreed. All right. It is time to resolve the Crossroad. First up is to review the Crossroad, let’s go through it. “Will the Kingdom rob the surreptitious Columnar and Orion arms shipments in order to address our resource problem?” Can we start with the No prediction from Valence? Valence.
DRE: “If no, there will be an armed mutiny against the perceived power structure.”
AUSTIN: Woof. If yes, Sovereign Immunity?
ART: “Leap will exceed all expectations regarding piracy output.”
AUSTIN: Uh, Valence?
DRE: “The resources will allow people to more openly question Clementine Kesh.”
AUSTIN: And then who was this third one? Was this-
DRE: I think that was-
ART: That’s me again.
AUSTIN: That’s you again. Okay, right.
ART: Some of the pirates will be killed in the raid.
AUSTIN: We also have a happy token from Broun and from Millie, who are both pro-piracy. (ALI and SYLVIA giggle) In this instance, at least. So, Crossroads. Um, Powers, it’s time to make a decision. Um, we’re at the discussion point.
KEITH: Oh, can I add a- a thing?
AUSTIN: You will do it after the vote.
KEITH: After the vote?
AUSTIN: Yeah. Perspectives will- cause you have not done a prediction yet, right?
KEITH: No, no. I just couldn’t remember if it happened at the start of the Crossroads thing or at the start of the Perspective, like, round.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) I don’t believe so, I’m double-checking. Um, let’s see. “If a Perspective made no predictions, if a Perspective character never made a prediction for this Crossroad, they can make one now and narrate that outcome immediately.” So yeah. You can wait until this vote happens.
KEITH: Got it.
AUSTIN: Because that means you could make one according to if it was a yes or a no, instead of making it now, and then it being ignored.
KEITH: (whispering) Ah, powerful.
AUSTIN: It’s very powerful. Yeah. People can challenge you on it.
KEITH: Right.
AUSTIN: The Touchstones can challenge you on it, or other Perspectives can. I can’t. Or, I could challenge you, but I cannot overthrow you. Anyway. Um, how are the Powers feeling? Gucci, Clem?
JACK: Well, I’ve had a great time being a pirate.
(pause)
JANINE: They have great hats.
AUSTin: Are you about to say, “and that’s that,” or are you gonna say… Like that was a fun phase or are you saying we should keep doing it?
JACK: Oh. No, I mean I think it does seem to be providing results.
AUSTIN: Agreed.
JANINE: Yeah.
JACK: Also Gur had that very heated chat with Valence.
AUSTIN: Oh yeah.
JACK: It would be weird for Gur to be like, “Well you know. I thought it over. No piracy.”
AUSTIN: No piracy actually. Yeah. Mm-hm. Gur says pirates. All right. That sounds like a yes. Is anyone challenging or overthrowing?
JACK: (crosstalk) You want pirates, pirates, pirates?
AUSTIN: Pirates, pirates, pirates. Dot com. (JACK and SYLVIA laugh) My favorite video game website. Uh, all right. Unless someone is overthrowing us, which is a hell of a thing to do, given there’s three of us. You’d have to overthrow two of us or challenge two of us. Um, it sounds like this is passing. And also everyone seems to be on board. Except for, I guess, Valence and Agon and Mourningbride. Um, all right. Perspectives, show us the consequences. “Tell us whether the predictions on the winning side of the Crossroads came true or not, describe your character seeing what happens.” Let’s go down the list, and at the end we can introduce a new one from Apparatus. So, Sovereign Immunity. Tell me what it looks like for Leap to exceed all, uh, aspirations. Er, expectations, rather.
ART: I mean, it’s just like, ship after ship full of guns, right? And other weapons? This is all arms shipments, so it’s guns, and space guns, and mech parts, and… lasers.
KEITH: I think there was- I talked about there being pillows, and then there was something about space salt.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) You did talk about pillows. There is some other stuff in there. The bulk of it is arms shipments, that is what we had said. That is what the Crossroad is. So it is mostly- It is mostly not pillows, it is mostly arms shipments, per the Crossroad.
ART: Army pillows, you know, they’re tough, they’re not great pillows.
AUSTIN: All right. Um, Valence. Show us people more openly questioning Clementine Kesh.
DRE: Um. I think there is a shot of like, Zo’la with a camera, like, kind of fervently filming a conversation of people, just like, very upset, very frustrated, probably taking more- more of the things- So if all these extra things came in via piracy, there’s probably things in place for people to ration, like who gets what, and I think people are just kind of ignoring that.
AUSTIN (crosstalk) Right.
DRE: Not in like a hoarding food kind of way, but like a- “I don’t need two of this thing, but I defintely need more than three of this thing, what the fuck?” And people just kind of- It just becoming okay to ignore that.
AUSTIN: Right. And, Sovereign Immunity? Show me people being killed in the raids.
ART: Um. It’s tricky cause we don’t know any of these pirates really, right? The-
KEITH: We know two of them!
AUSTIN: We know more than- We know Leap, we know Broun, we know- I’m sure Tone has helped.
KEITH: Maybe Rooke.
AUSTIN: Rooke, yeah.
ART: Sure, but it’s not gonna be any of them.
AUSTIN: Why?
ART: Cause those are all people’s characters right now.
AUSTIN: Ask them.
ART: Umm.
AUSTIN: I think Tone- I think Tone dies. I think that Gucci’s- I’m happy- Gucci’s bodyguard can die here. I think any of those characters can die here. That was one of the things you predicted.
ART: Sure.
AUSTIN: You can get approval, you’ll need approval to kill a character, but like, I don’t- we cannot play this game with kid gloves where our good characters have plot armor.
ART: Sure. Um, yeah, I guess anyone else? Leap? Broun?
KEITH: Um, I’m not dying, no.
ALI: Yeah, I cowardly pass for now.
KEITH: I do exceed all expectations, so.
(ALI giggles)
AUSTIN: You do, you do. You exceed all- that is true. You are protected, you are literally protected.
SYLVIA: I think dying would be-
KEITH: (crosstalk) I could even challenge this based on that, we know that that’s true, cause we already resolved it.
ALI: Um, Broun is so self-preservating, to the point that they would have maybe stepped behind Tone. (laughing)
AUSTIN: Geez.
ALI: Like, Broun is behind-
ART: What if you stepped behind A.O. Rooke?
(gasps)
ALI: Aw.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: No, I work for his mom. (laughs)
AUSTIN: So?
ALI: (laughing) Me and his mom have this whole situation going on right now.
AUSTIN: You sure do!
ALI: And I would pull him out of the fucking line of fire. Unless you wanna kill him.
ART: I’m gonna kill A.O. Rooke.
(shocked laughter)
AUSTIN: Okay.
ART: I don’t want to, I love A.O. Rooke.
AUSTIN: He’s great.
ART: But you’re right, we need- we need to have our knives out, right?
AUSTIN: You can- Someone can challenge him on this.
(SYLVIA makes a distressed noise)
JANINE: I- mm.
ALI: I-
SYLVIA: We were just planning a mutiny!
ALI: I- Can I challenge it in Broun- saying that Broun would try to save A.O. Rooke? Am I allowed to do that or I can’t cause I’m a Touchstone?
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Yeah, you can challenge.
KEITH: Anyone can challenge.
ART: Well, the challenge I get to tell you what…
AUSTIN: Yes. You say, no I don’t- You say- The way the challenges work is at this point, Ali, you will get to say, um, buh-buh-buh. “Hey, wait, I’m challenging this, here’s what I’m doing to overcome it.” And then Art will respond to that. So what are you doing to overcome A.O. Rooke dying during one of these raids?
ALI: Um, yeah, I think that the (laughs) the sort of enthusiasm around the piracy creates sort of a, like a stronger squad setup that like… Yeah, that’s the thing that Broun would do, or Tes would do, or whatever, which is like, we have the sort of, we have like, our aces of this pirate team, right? And there’s sort of the like, “Oh, I’ll take your shift or I’ll cover moving these boxes,” or whatever that they wouldn’t, sort of let someone out to dry like that?
AUSTIN: Art? Yes it works, yes it would work if you did what you say is necessary to succeed instead, or yes it works, but there’s a consequence, fallout, or repercussion of the action.
ART: And to- I’m sorry, let me just summarize the- I was distracted by a snack being delivered to me.
AUSTIN: Oh, okay.
(ALI giggles)
ART: You’re saying there are people on the mission that you wouldn’t put in danger?
ALI: I- yeah.
ART: Is that what you meant by aces, that there’s like an in-group of protected pirates?
ALI: I suppose so, yeah. Cause I mean, I don’t want to take away the thing that like, people die at all. Right? And I also don’t know that the people I’m describing would’ve stuck their necks out in the same way for Tone?
AUSTIN: Right. So is it more specifically that the thing that happens here is, yeah. There is an in-group, and the in-group protects itself.
ART: Okay, then I say yes it works, but the consequence is it weakens the unity of this mutiny group, because a lot of the people who are gonna be involved in it saw that there are some people who deserved to be saved and there are some people who don’t.
AUSTIN: Right. Do you accept that Ali? You can counter.
ART: (crosstalk) So you can- So that’s- That’s what I would offer you to save A.O. Rooke.
ALI: Um. No, I didn’t want to describe something that didn’t have the openings for those major consequences, right. And it certainly is in line with the thing that I said.
AUSTIN: No, I love- yeah. That works. That seems like it works. If Ali- Unless you have another counter that’s like, “Oh, well what about this.”
ALI: Um. No.
AUSTIN: All right.
ART: Pleasure doing business with you.
(laughter)
SYLVIA: God.
AUSTIN: Um, so, specifically here then, I’m going to add another thing underneath that sounds like- Or I guess I’ll modify this, which is like, “Some of the pirates will be killed in the raid and-” Um, how do you want to phrase this, Art?
KEITH: “It’s always the least popular pirates.”
(ALI laughs)
AUSTIN: Fuck. God.
ALI: We all draw straws at the top of the mission.
ART: But you don’t, that’s the thing!
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) But it’s not- but they’re trick straws!
ALI: (laughing) Broun is always holding them!
AUSTIN: God. Uh, is it “and the fact that some get more protection than others drives a wedge in the group?”
ART: Yeah.
AUSTIN: The mutinous group is what you had said, specifically?
ART: Yeah I mean, or the whole group. Some of them probably don’t give a shit about the mutiny, they just care that they fucking saw the people had to die to save the other people.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Right, yeah.
ALI: I actually have one tiny counter there, which is I don’t know that the people who are supporting mutiny would like- I mean the thing that they’re not doing there is protecting the rich, established person, right?
AUSTIN: I mean, Tone is not a rich person.
ALI: Okay, yeah, sure.
SYLVIA: (crosstalk) Yeah.
ART: But they’re seeing the world they’re being offered isn’t the one where there is no favoritism, it’s just different favoritism.
ALI: Oh, sure.
SYLVIA: It does like, establish a divide too between like, the… What’s the? Horizon folks (AUSTIN: Horizon, yeah.) and the Rapid Evening a bit more. Like- I guess Broun’s not part of the Rapid Evening, but A.O. is, so.
ALI: Yeah, I was- What I was pitching was that it’s like more of an upstairs/downstairs sort of divide.
AUSTIN: Mmm. Okay.
ALI: And that that’s why Tone sort of…
AUSTIN: Gets got.
ALI: Yeah, I mean-
JANINE: I mean it confirms the downside of Gucci’s bond, right? Like that’s why I can’t see this being a divide that’s just between like, the mutiny group, because to me, this is like, Gucci sees this as like, “Oh, so you protect him, but you wouldn’t protect my…”
AUSTIN: Right.
[TIMESTAMP 1:15:00]
ART: Well, I’m just trying to like, envision the run-of-the-mill pirate who’s seeing, you know, people are dying from this, but like, “Well, Broun works with A.O.’s mom, so A.O. gets to be in the safe part of the mission.”
AUSTIN: No, totally. I think you’re right then. Then it doesn’t have to be the mutinous group, it can be a wedge in the group- Is it according to kind of class loyalties or according to previous organizational associations?
ART: Well A.O. Rooke doesn’t have class, he has status, he has…
AUSTIN: Yeah. Yeah.
ART: He has, uh-
JANINE: Connection.
ART: Right, he has a connection.
AUSTIN: Yeah. That’s why I say according to-
KEITH: He’s a likable onscreen presence.
AUSTIN: Right. Or, according to popularity then. Or according to previous relationships, according to personal charisma.
ART: It’s nepotism, right? In this particular case, it’s nepotism.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) It is nepotism. But it’s also reverse nepotism because- It’s nepotism- It’s this particular group’s nepotism, right?
ART: I mean every bit of nepotism is a particular group’s nepotism.
AUSTIN: Yeah, I know, yeah. But I’m saying it’s not the rich person didn’t get to live. Tone didn’t get to live, despite being connected to one of the Powers.
ART: Right, but the person connected to the person in charge of the pirates did.
AUSTIN: Did, yeah. Mm-hm.
ART: I think it’s like a mask-off moment.
KEITH: (crosstalk) I- I have like a- I have a narrative question on this, which is how do we set it up so that Rooke is in a safer part of the mission when Rooke’s whole thing-
AUSTIN: Oh, it’s who gets the armor plates. It’s who has the extra ammo. (KEITH: Okay.) It’s who gets assigned to the mission where they’re- where you know there’s going to be greater resistance. It’s all of those things that keep real people safe in these circumstances. It’s favoritism.
KEITH: Yeah. It seems especially tough to save Rooke this way because Rooke’s whole thing is being brash and overconfident.
AUSTIN: It’s loyal and eager, but you can be-
KEITH: Sure.
AUSTIN: That can be managed. And maybe Tone is also those things, and doesn’t get managed, you know what I mean?
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: You know. Who do you take off the leash, so to speak. Not to call those characters dogs, they are not dogs. Um, but, you know.
DRE: Yeah-
KEITH: (using a funny gruff voice) Skydogs! Yeah they are, skydogs!
AUSTIN: They’re skydogs.
DRE: In the scene where Tone was on camera, with the SBBR mission, like-
AUSTIN: Yes! They went out there, they were like, “I got this, let me go do this.” And the difference between someone being like, “A.O. no, stick to the guidelines,” and A.O. being like, “Man!” and Tone being like, “I got this, don’t worry,” and everyone being like “All right, if you say so.” Like, “Have fun!” Is- Is this. I like it. Um. All right. So that- Oh! And now another prediction from Apparatus.
KEITH: (sighs) Um. Well I guess it’s gotta- It’s gotta be, now, that “over time, the raids will become less effective and more dangerous.”
AUSTIN: Oof. Okay. Anyone want to challenge this?
(pause)
ART: It seems only logical.
KEITH: Yeah.
AUSTIN: As they start getting more defenses, etcetera, yeah.
ART: Yeah, if my- If I was getting robbed all the time, I would be more careful.
KEITH: Well, and Ali introduced a lack of integrity into my pirate group!
(ALI giggles)
AUSTIN: Damn.
ALI: (laughing) I’m so sorry.
KEITH: My noble pirates dashed with a handful of fake straws!
DRE: I mean, we’ve all seen the first Fast and the Furious movie, we know how this goes.
AUSTIN: Yeah, that’s true.
KEITH: I have not seen that one, no.
AUSTIN: Oh my god.
ALI: Oh.
SYLVIA: Have you seen Point Break?
KEITH: Yes, I have.
SYLVIA: Then you’ve seen the first Fast and the Furious movie.
KEITH: Oh wow.
(AUSTIN laughs)
ART: Oh my god!
ALI: I should see Point Break again.
SYLVIA: I’m not wrong!
KEITH: Wait is- The first Fast and the Furious movie- that movie’s not as good as Point Break, is it?
SYLVIA: It’s not. I should stop before I’m kicked off the show.
KEITH: (crosstalk) The only good movie made by the- the Zero Dark Thirty director? What’s her name?
SYLVIA: Point Break whips.
DRE: I should watch that one.
SYLVIA: Katherine Bigelow?
KEITH: Yeah.
SILVIA: Director of Near Dark, classic film? Uh, it’s great.
AUSTIN: Director of uh…
SYLVIA: Strange Days.
AUSTIN: Strange Days! Strange Days fucking whips too.
KEITH: Strange Days, I don’t know that one.
SYLVIA: I’m recommending the good ones and none of the weird military propaganda ones.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) None of the shitty ones.
KEITH: As far as I know, Point Break is the only good movie-
AUSTIN: Period.
KEITH: -that she’s made. No, that’s she’s made.
DRE: (crosstalk) Yeah, fair.
KEITH: Which is why she’s married to James Cameron, who also made one good movie based around water, and that was The Abyss.
AUSTIN: Right.
SYLVIA: That is a hot take, wow.
(KEITH laughs)
AUSTIN: It’s- Yeah, it’s a big- It’s a take.
SYLVIA: Okay.
ART: Well, I think- I would say that James Cameron has made one good movie about each element. (KEITH laughs) His fire movie was, of course, Terminator 2.
AUSTIN: Oh, okay.
ART: His air movie was Aliens.
SYLVIA: I thought it was Avatar.
AUSTIN: I thought it was Avatar also.
ALI: No. Cause it wasn’t a good movie.
ART: Yeah. Avatar’s not a good movie. Not compared to Aliens.
DRE: (crosstalk) That wasn’t- That was not James Cameron, was it?
ART: What?
ALI: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Avatar?
DRE: Oh, sorry, I’m thinking of The Last Airbender.
SYLVIA: (crosstalk) You’re thinking of the M. Night Shyamalan one?
DRE: Yes, no, the blue people movie, yeah.
AUSTIN: No, that would be every element.
DRE: Well that’d be the unobtainium movie.
AUSTIN: Right. Oh, you’re right. That’s the unobtainium. Uh, yes. His earth movie is Blade Runner?
ART: That’s not- That’s Ridley Scott.
JACK: (crosstalk) That’s Ridley Scott.
AUSTIN: That’s Ridley Scott. I’m sorry, I’m really- yeah, wow, bad. Whew. Close.
KEITH: Who you said because of Aliens and Alien is made by Ridley Scott.
AUSTIN: (crosstalk) Who- right. Alien, exactly. That is one hundred percent what happened. That’s a hundred percent the leap that I made. You’re right. Wait, what’s his earth movie than?
ART: I don’t know what his earth movie is, I had three and I had to-
SYLVIA: It’s Titanic, ironically.
(laughter)
AUSTIN: Ironically.
DRE: Cause the boat goes to the bottom and hits the earth.
KEITH: (crosstalk) It sinks to the bottom of the earth.
AUSTIN: Yeah, uh-huh.
SYLVIA: What is an iceberg, if not cold earth?
AUSTIN: Cold earth.
(laughter)
KEITH: The problem with it is that James Cameron has intentionally designed his career to make as many water movies as possible.
SYLVIA: I hate him.
KEITH: Yeah, me too, he’s the real- James Cameron- Here’s my real hot take. James Cameron is the real Michael Bay.
AUSTIN: Ooh. Wow.
KEITH: Everything that everyone has ever defended Michael Bay, actually they should be defending James Cameron, who is what people say Michael Bay is.
AUSTIN: Wait, this one thing- We can’t go down this road. We have to move on.
SYLVIA: We- We- Yeah.
AUSTIN: We have to move on. Um. Touchstones.
ART: Are you defending Michael Bay?!
AUSTIN: We have to move on!
KEITH: No, no, I’m not, I’m defending James Cameron.
AUSTIN: We have to move on! (ALI giggling) No one challenge Keith- James Cameron is a beloved- We have to move on. Touchstones! Hi.
SYLVIA: Oh, right.
AUSTIN: Talk to me about how you think about this. Tell me about what the Touchstones feel. How your characters feel, how the rest of the people in the Kingdom do, and whether or not a Crisis box is checked. You can check up to two.
SYLVIA: Well, I think like- I don’t know, we can figure out the Crisis box after I talk through this a little. My sort of take on it was sort of like, making like, the stuff we talked about with the aftermath of like, Tone dying. Like, people being less trusting and stuff. Sort of that, just emphasized, that split between people of different factions, like people who are more sympathetic towards like, Gucci and Horizon, and people who are more just like, “I’m just here because this is the best option for me.”
AUSTIN: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Um. Yeah. I don’t know.
AUSTIN: No, that makes sense. Um. Broun?
ALI: Um. Yeah, let me try to… Hmm. This is a perspective on like, the Crossroad in general, or just like…
AUSTIN: The outcome, yeah. It’s-
ALI: The outcome, yeah, okay.
AUSTIN: Yeah. It is “how your character feels about everything that has happened.” Quote/unquote. So, including the predictions coming true.
ALI: Right. Um, sure. Okay, I think that this works for Broun as an analog because I think that Broun is someone who definitely presents to be more willingly violent than they really are. Sort of much like the last SBBR mission, kind of regretting what they’re doing, how this has sort of gone, realizing that they’ve sort of pushed a rock down a hill and it kept moving. Then I think that the sort of wider opinions of the group is that- Like, I think that there are definitely people here who, you know see Millenium Break as sort of a last resort and kind of understand that they have to throw everything that they can into it.
AUSTIN: Yeah.
ALI: Whereas, there are people who are sort of wondering- you know, being in a difficult, dangerous position your whole life, you come onto the ship, it seems chill, people start dying, and then you think “Mmm. I had like, a house before I came on here, right?” So, I think that it- the like, sort of questioning element is sort of more, where it’s either people are sort of being like, “Oh, we have to cool this down before this gets out of hand.”
AUSTIN: Yeah. Is that how Broun feels?
ALI: Um.
AUSTIN: Because that is- I know I’m hammering this but that is-
ALI: (laughing) I know.
AUSTIN: That is the thing. It is not like a, you have to tell me what you think is happening on board. It literally is, Broun represents a collection of people. And I know that that’s a weird thing because it’s easy for us- And the alternative here is, maybe Broun should not be a Touchstone if they’re perspective- If their feelings are not in line with other people. Maybe it’s time for Broun to move on to being a Perspective or a Power.
ALI: Okay.
AUSTIN: But that’s up to you. But I- It should be Broun. Broun should feel the way that you’re responding because that is like, the way the game works.
ALI: No, absolutely. And I was trying to describe Broun sort of torn about this decision (AUSTIN: Mm. Okay.) to be able to describe that there were two different groups of people who felt differently.
AUSTIN: Totally.
ALI: Whereas, Broun very much wants this to succeed so their own goals can succeed.
AUSTIN: Mm-hm.
ALI: And they don’t want to go home because they lived in a lighthouse and hated it.
AUSTIN: Right. That to me, is telling, because what you’ve done then is said, yeah, not everyone has to go back to the lighthouse that they hate, not everyone wants your specific goals, but what you’re indicating is there is a real- a really significant amount of people who are here because they have a goal that is separate from the success of this thing, for the success of this thing is just a way to get to that goal. That to me is indicative of what the kind of the population, (ALI: Yeah, yeah, yeah.) or this part of the population is there. You know? You don’t have to worry about telling me about the people who care wholeheartedly about this thing, you know? (ALI laughs) Do either of you want to introduce a Crisis point? Or two?
SYLVIA: I feel like we could like, maybe do one? But it might also be early for that? Yeah.
ALI: (crosstalk) Yeah. I was thinking of doing one and I would prefer to do one over two.
AUSTIN: Okay. So one between the two of you.
ALI: Yeah.
SYLVIA: Yeah.
AUSTIN: Cool. That is marked. “The Crossroad is now finished, if all the Crisis boxes are full-” they are not, we are good. We still have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight- or seven left. Um, as a note, there are as many Crisis boxes as there are players, that is the thing that I didn’t say up top, I apologize for not saying that before.
KEITH: Which means we have a lot of boxes.
AUSTIN: Yeah, totally.
ART: And that’s a- That’s a change right? It’s supposed to be players plus one.
AUSTIN: It used to be all- yes. It used to be players plus one, but having eight players is too many players, and so-
ART: Yeah. I agree.
AUSTIN: I almost made it less than eight. I almost made it like, six. And I was like, hmm. That could be three turns if things go real bad, and that’s probably not enough space. When things go bad we should feel comfortable fucking pouring points into that thing, you know? Before we move on. Before we go to the next Crossroad, actually Gucci, Clem, and Gur, or I guess just as players, Janine, Jack, and I need to come up with a new law for the Manifesto. The first one, as a reminder is “We help those displaced by the war on Partizan.” What the hell did we learn and decide to codify from the experience of piracy, losing Tone, the emergence of in-groups and out-groups, everything else.
JANINE: The increasing difficulty of piracy too, right, that was a thing that came true?
AUSTIN: Yes, yes, yes. Definitely. That did come true.
JACK: Leap did fantastically!
AUSTIN: Leap did great. Good job Leap.
JACK: More than- Exceeded expectations. Exceeded all expectations regarding piracy output.
AUSTIN: That’s true.
JACK: Um.
AUSTIN: Is it about being willing to take up arms? Is it about being more careful with the people on board? Is it about… Because this can be prescriptive or descriptive, right? If it’s prescriptive, it’s like, here is what we hope to do going forward. If it’s descriptive, it’s like, here is a trend we’ve seen and we think this is true about who we are.
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: And as a reminder there will be a time later where players will be able to come back and re-address this Manifesto. Um, but people in Power are the ones who add to it in this drafting phase. I feel like… I think my gut is about who we take from or about the legitimacy of taking.
JACK: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. It’s like, um. (long pause) It’s something like “We are fighting a war. If other Stels’ transports fall into our grasp…” (sighs) It’s something along this avenue, right?
AUSTIN: It should be broader than that. It can’t just be “we’re gonna keep doing piracy.” Right?
JACK: Sure, but like, we probably want to specify that we’re not gonna roll up, yeah, into villages and start requisitioning goats.
AUSTIN: Mmm. Mmm. Okay.
JANINE: Mm-hm.
AUSTIN: So this is like, “Millennium Break will target-” We’re only doing arms shipments, but that feels like a real shaky ground to try to build- Again, we don’t need to live by this law, this is like, our aspirational manifesto, right? This is what we will show the world at some point. Uh, so yeah, maybe it is as clean as like, “We will take from those who pursue unjust wars to enable our own one for justice” or something like that. Is that too- Is that too-
[TIMESTAMP 1:30:04]
JACK: (crosstalk) It’s a bit woolly.
AUSTIN: That’s very Gur Sevraq also, right? Like, it’s very like, “We’re doing the right thing!”
JACK: Our war for justice-
AUSTIN: Is good, yeah.
JACK: Our war is the just one. Those guys… Um.
AUSTIN: Mm. There is a world in which, you hit on something before, which is like, it’s about the ocean. It’s like, we’ll hit- We know the people who are on the ocean are huge companies and state individuals, not small, independent shipping boats in the middle of the fucking sea.
JACK: Yeah.
AUSTIN: So is there a degree of like, anything that comes to our territory? Any- Anything that comes here is like fair game because we believe that it’s not going to be-
JACK: Yeah, because there’s the double purpose there of like, protecting Icebreaker, to a certain extent.
AUSTIN: Mmm. Mm-hm.
JACK: Where it’s like, all of the medicine and the food, that’s just a bonus. Or rather, protecting Icebreaker is the bonus.
AUSTIN: Is the- right.
JACK: And we got a bunch of food and medicine at the same time.
AUSTIN: Yeah, and guns. We can’t just lie that we got a bunch of missiles.
JACK: And guns. And we stole a large amount of armaments.
AUSTIN: Yeah, maybe that’s the play here, maybe that’s the most honest thing, right? Is like, we will defend our territory and take from… take from those who pass through? Take… And claim? Any armaments-
JACK: Claim is good.
AUSTIN: Yeah. Any armaments or supplies- Any supplies? Any… (sighs) Really struggling with how to define this like-
JANINE: I kind of want language, something that like, emphasizes that this is not like, you know, a fishing boat kind of thing. Which like, we know, but I think is important to make sure that language is in the thing we’re actually drafting. Um, so like, for me, my gut says something like, you know, we- Something about like, adding losses to their ledgers or something, because that implies that someone is keeping ledgers, that implies a degree of like bureaucracy and institution that we’re taking from, and not just like, people who are shipping… pumpkins, I don’t know.
AUSTIN: How about-
JACK: Stels’ troop transports, troop transports are a good-
AUSTIN: How about “We will claim supplies only when it adds losses to the ledgers of the unjust.” Which is- (JACK laughs) Which is such bullshit.
(JANINE laughs)
JACK: Oh my god. Thank you. Gur, licking the end of their pen and being like “Yes!”
AUSTIN: Uh-huh! “Got it!” Uh-huh, done. Swish. All right, speaking of the unjust, let’s move on to the next Crossroad. I don’t know how much time people have, if we want to go into this next one, but let me at least set it up. Sound good?
(various Yeahs from the cast)
AUSTIN: Fliers-
KEITH: This is gonna be three sessions.
AUSTIN: Fliers- Almost certainly. Fliers- Well, we’ll see how long this next one goes. We’ll see how quickly we hit Crisis. Fliers-
KEITH: Fliers.
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.
[TANAGER. PERFECT. TOUCHPAPER. by Jack de Quidt begins playing]
AUSTIN: (cont’d) And they ask a simple question. “When will the elections be held?” It’s as if it’s a pre-agreed notion. Maybe there was a miscommunication during the negotiations, maybe someone promised something, or maybe 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 plays out till the end.]