Transcriber: Cole
[sound of recorder buttons being pressed, tape reel rolling]
Austin (as Satellite, Gray Gloaming): Report 597. Priority. Abnormal exigency. Protocol code: I Quire addendum Miracle. Sub-protocols: Dark Day. Disavow. Begin voice signature. Satellite Observer, Gray Gloaming. Requesting direct communication channel with Chief Intercessor Keen Forester Gloaming. Connection established. Locked in broadcast mode. Oh. I… Begin transmission.
[tape recorder button pushed twice, tape reel rolling stops] [Jack de Quidt’s “The Notion’ begins playing in background]
Dad, I know you can hear me. I wish you would talk to me. I wish- I wish I could say that I knew what was going through your head right now. I know all the protocols. I know what agents of the Rapid Evening are supposed to do in the unlikely occasion that Crystal Palace goes dark. Scuttle all active operations. Secure undeployed assets. Disperse uncompromised field agents into deep cover identities. Sit tight. Wait for Crystal Palace to re-establish connection with you. But you’re not doing any of that. You didn’t think we’d notice?
The torch unit heist on Terncage. The open call for freelance pilots and fixers. The diverted medical shipments that vanished from Thyrsus. Seventeen 0-G construction robots that disappeared from the Gumption rebuild drydock. A cruiser’s worth of Q-Glass from the mines on Crown, bought for a single cred. And twenty-two hundred cases of jelly juice just gone from the manifest. Twenty-two hundred. We’re a truck stop, Dad. How could we miss that? In moments like this, agents like you are supposed to go quiet. Stay safe. But instead it looks like you’re stocking up for a war, Dad. And we both know you’re not a warrior. You’re barely a soldier. You’re just another agent, like I was.
Before Dark Day, you sent me a letter. You asked me and Demani to leave. To stay safe. Now I’m asking you to do the same. But you won’t even answer my call. And that has me extra worried because the thing you need more than ever is some good advice, Dad. You’re whole life you’ve been doing whatever Crystal Palace asks. I know how that goes. I have made peace with my time doing the same. But there’s another way. This last year of my life here in the Mirage with Demani and Mo and all the weird scoundrels and would-be heroes passing through the Brink, it’s all been so unexpected. And I’m just afraid you’ll never know how to see the beauty in that.
[Music finishes]
Austin: Welcome to Friends at the Table, an actual play podcast focused on critical world building, smart characterization, and fun interaction between good friends. I am your host, Austin Walker. You can follow me on Twitter @austin_walker. And today we are continuing our game of Scum and Villainy. A game by Stras Acimovic and John LeBoeuf-Little. A hack of Blades in the Dark by uh… oh my god, why am I blanking on my guy’s name? I don’t have my notes in front of me. That’s why.
Jack: John Harper?
Austin: John Harper. Thank you so much, Jack. Lot of things in my head right now. That was the voice of Jack de Quidt who is joining us today. Hi, Jack.
Jack: Hello. I’m Jack. I know who John Harper is. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Wow.
Jack: You can find me- [laughing] Getting owned for a second time.
Austin: Owned again.
Keith: Burnt twice.
Austin: Twice.
Jack: We owned Austin before the intro. That’s the uh- [Austin laughs] You can find me on Twitter @notquitereal, and you can buy any of the music featured on the show at notquitereal.bandcamp.com.
Austin: Also joining us, Janine Hawkins.
Janine: I’m Janine Hawkins. You can find me @bleatingheart on Twitter.
Austin: Keith Carberry.
Keith: Hi. My name is uh, Keith Carberry. You can find me on Twitter @keithjcarberry. You can find the Let’s Plays that I do at youtube.com/runbutton. And I am happy to say, last time it was a- it was a- it was a precognition, but this time we have actually done the marathon. It went really great. So, thank everybody.
Austin: Oh, what day did you do that on again? [Ali laughs]
Keith: That was the last Saturday in April.
Austin: Oh, the last Saturday in April.
Keith: April 28th.
Austin: Ok, great. Great.
Keith: 7pm April 28th to Sunday, April 28th.
Austin: Great. Great. I’m glad it went well.
Keith: April 29th!
Austin: Right. That’s how days work. [Ali laughs] Also joining us-
Keith: It’s not the same day. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: -uh, Ali Acampora.
Ali: Hey, that is me. Uh, you can find me @ali_west on Twitter. And you can find the show over @friends_table.
Austin: Sylvia[1] Clare.
Sylvia: Hi. I’m Sylvia. You can find me on Twitter @captaintrash, and you can find the other work I do online @emojidrome or videogamechoochoo.com.
Keith: I’m 6 episodes into emojidrome and those- they get cra- they get crazy in there.
Sylvia: There’s a lot of-
Keith: Some of these companies that you’ve never heard of that are doing emoji are really, really pushing the limits of what can be considered ‘dancing woman’. [Ali laughs]
Sylvia: I swear to god. [Keith laughs hards] The- I literally had nightmares about the moon emoji. [Sylvia and Ali laughs hard]
Keith: Oh, I haven’t gotten to moon. I’m excited for moon.
Austin: I’m excited to hear moon, yeah. Also, joining us, Art Martinez-Tebbel.
Art: Hey, you can find me on Twitter @atebbel, and you can hear thirty-seven and half percent of the people here um, [Ali, Austin, and Keith laugh lightly] talk about Kanye West on One Song Only @onesongpod on Twitter. And I think our next episode comes out uh, when you’re hearing this on Monday, April 28th.
Austin: Yep, that’s right. [light laugh] The last Saturday in April. [Ali, Keith, and Sylvia laugh hard] And finally, last, but not least, congratulation to- to our very own, uh An- Andrew- Andrew Lee Swan who just grad- just graduated? Just finished your test-exam? Your test-exam.
Dre: Yeah. Both. All of them. [someone claps]
Austin: Uh hm. Congrats to Dre.
Dre: Thank you.
Keith: Yeah, congratulations, Dre.
Dre: Yeah, I- I guess I don’t have anything to plus except my Twitter. It’s just swandre3000 on Twitter. Go look at the Gundams I build, I guess.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You don’t want to like- like- like-
Ali: You don’t want to plug your license? [laughs]
Dre: [laughs] Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, plug your personal- or your private practice?
Dre: [light laugh] Yeah, no. I’m good. [Ali laughs throughout]
Austin: Ok. [laughing hard throughout] Yeah, ok. Oh, you don’t- you don't want to like, do your work, but with fans? [Keith and Sylvia laugh hard]
Dre: Ok, here’s what I’m thinking actually. Would that count as a dual relationship?
Austin: That’s not a diss on fans, it’s just a- not a good relat-
Dre: I think that would be a-
Austin: Yes.
Dre: I think that would be a dual-relationship that I could not practice, so…
Austin: [laughing] ‘Well- well, Throndir, I’ve just- I’m just havin’ such a rough week.’ [everyone laughs hard]
Dre: I don’t- Man.
Keith: [imitating a fan] ‘Is- is the dog gonna be there?’ [everyone laughs hard again]
Dre: Oh god. Man, I wish. I wish.
Austin: Yeah, wait. Wait. Time out. Can you do a private practice where you also have a dog?
Dre: Oh yeah. [Keith laughs]
Sylvia: Therapy dogs are a thing.
Austin: That sounds good.
Dre: No, one of my professors like, trains therapy dogs, and he always has a dog at his private practice?
Austin: That sounds great!
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: Hm.
Austin: None of my therapists have ever had dogs?
Keith: Full disclosure. My boyfriend’s therapist has a therapy dog, and that dog is kind of shitty.
Austin: Ok, well… [Ali and Dre laugh] Don’t ruin my new dream.
Keith: I’m sorry. Just make sure you get a good one that like, likes people and isn’t, you know-
[heavy cross-talking]
Art: You don’t know that dog doesn’t like-
Dre: Yeah, that’s important.
Keith: Always wheezing. Why is your therapy dog always wheezing?
Janine: Some people just get- some people just get really fuckin’ rude and shitty when they get a degree, you know? [Keith laughs]
Austin: [laughs] Yeah.
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah, the dog- the dog was really nice before their degree. [Ali and Austin laugh]
Austin: And that was it though. [Dre laughs] I have to call you Dr. Dog now, alright. Uh, my goals today are convey the fictional world honestly, to bring the Twilight Mirage to life, to play to find out what happens, to make everything cool, weird, and touchable. Uh, we-
Keith: MD stands for medical dog.
Austin: [laughs] Alright. Good. Today we are doing our- our second downtime inside of Scum and Villainy. It should be fun. I did a lot more prep ahead of this one, which means that there should be less paperwork. So, for instance, the first step here is payoff and upkeep. The crew receives their reward for a successful job and does routine maintenance on their ship. Hey, Wound party, y’all made 10 cred.
Dre: Yay.
Janine: Yay.
Austin: Split that up the way you want to.
Dre: How many of us were there?
Austin: Uh, there were…
Keith: Three.
Dre: Four.
Keith: Four.
Austin: Four on your side.
Dre: So…
Austin: So that’s… three, three, three-
Janine: Oh wait, so it’s ten between- Oh.
Austin: Yeah. [light laugh]
Keith: I think we should figure out who it was that dealt the final blow and then give that person the extra credit.
Austin: [laughs] Wow.
Dre: What if we all just took two and then put two into the ship stores?
Austin: There you go. [laughing] We could see who just graduated with his therapy degree.
Dre: Yeah. yeah. [Janine laughs]
Janine: I think- I think two, and then the rest in the thing makes sense.
Keith: Yeah.
Janine: That’s fine.
Austin: So, two, four- So, two, four, six, eight, and then two more to the- the cred pool.
Dre: Ship stash.
Austin: Boom. Ship stash is up to full.
Keith: Listen, that works great for Janine and for Dre who were already fuckin’ rich, but I got nothing over here. [Austin and Ali laugh]
Sylvia: I’m also doing pretty good.
Janine: I don’t even have one line. We’re still all probably gonna die in poverty or whatever the hell- however this game works.
Dre: Yeah. That’s fine.
Austin: However this game works. Yeah, exactly.
Janine: Like, I feel like this game is supposed to go longer than we’re doing it for.
Austin: Oh, yeah. Definitely. 100%.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Um, but you know, it’s going along. It’s just- it’s just also cut between seven people. So, speaking of, Woun- er Murder party, y’all got 6 creds.
Jack: Oh.
Ali: Wow.
Keith: Ooo, sorry guys.
Austin: Which again, cut between three is two each.
Art: Even though we like, didn’t succeed? [Ali laughs]
Austin: That’s why it’s six and not ten. Yeah.
Ali: I’m takin’ it.
Jack: We half succeeded.
Austin: You half succeeded. You half succeeded.
Ali: I did not think we were gonna get any money. We didn’t any of it last time, so-
[crosstalking]
Jack: Who pays-?
Keith: Wow, it sounds like it went really bad for you guys.
Ali: Probably Brighton.
Austin: But you, you know- there was an outcome there that was not the worst thing.
Ali: Uh hm.
Austin: You stopped the NEH from having guns. Like, that’s a pretty big win-
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: -as far as the Brink is concerned. As far as Satellite and Primary are concerned. Um, so they’re- and as far as Seneschal’s Brace is concerned, right? So, between the two groups there, they’re willing to chip in and get you a couple bucks, you know? Um, you did not stop both murders. [Jack laughs softly] And the NEH slash the- the-
Keith: Did you stop either murder?
[heavy cross-talking begins]
Jack: Yeah, we stopped one.
Austin: Yes. They stopped one of-
Keith: Ok.
Austin: They stopped the important murder.
Dre: Ok.
Austin: They stopped the murder of like, the-
Janine: Did you cause any extra murders?
Jack: [unsure] Noooo…. [Ali breathes through the teeth]
Austin: It depends on what you- [inaudible]
Dre: Did you commit any murders?
Jack: Yes. Yes. I think so.
Ali: There was no violence, so…
Austin: Hmm.
Jack: Hey, yeah. Hey, you know Crystal Palace? [laughs] Uh, it doesn’t work right now.
Austin: [laughs] Yeah.
Dre: Eh, shit happens.
Ali: [overlapped] Um, in good news. I had a great night.
Austin: But that’s not on you exactly. [hearing Ali] Yeah, great. Yeah, you did have a good night.
Jack: [laughing] Yeah, you had a great night.
Ali: I had a great night.
Austin: Uh, hooked back up with your ex. You know how it is. [Ali laughs] Um-
Art: Some would say that Tender decided that her good night was more important than the mission or anyone on it. [Ali and Jack laugh] But I mean-
Austin: Tender- Tender-
Jack: Huh. [Ali and Austin laugh]
Austin: Tender was gonna have a good night even if it meant everybody else was gonna have a bad day. [Ali laughs] You know?
Art: Yeah. Who cares who gets shot in the face? [laughs] [Jack laughs]
Austin: So, actually before we go too far in, I want to do a, as quick as I can, summary of how we got here because there’s a lot, and it probably makes sense to like- You know, it’s downtime, and we’re going into not the final-final act yet, but we’re gettin’ there. And I want to just like, ‘Hey. Let’s re-calibrate.’ if that makes sense. And make sure we’re all on the same page.
So, from the top, let me just work through this. [laughing] Thirty-thousand years ago- [Austin and Ali laugh] Thirty-thousand years ago there’s a cultural schism. People don’t know what they want to do with divines. A lot people are afraid of divines. There is some fighting. There are a lot of different philosophical and religious schools of thought. And this woman named Kamala Cadence shows up, and she is like, ‘We gotta combine a bunch of those. I don’t want all of the divines to die.’ which is what she predicts will happen. And so she synthesizes all those groups and builds the Resonant Orbit and the Divine Fleet. They think everybody’s- like, the divines, people are both important. Divines are clearly great in this way humans aren’t, in terms of their capacities.
But hey, they- everyone is valuable. Every- you’re life is valid as a human or as a divine or as a- as a synthetic being. Um, there are tens of thousands of years of peace and growth, and you know, the Divine Fleet’s all about self-determination and expression and cooperation. There are like three hundred divines. And you know, there’s difference, but there’s- but there’s change. And there’s like, you know, compassion. It’s dope. It’s good. [light laugh] That lasts until like, a thousand years ago. Divines start dying off, and the Divine Empyrean creates this thing called the twilight mirage, which is this fake nebula that hides- er tries to hide the Divine Fleet from outside forces that have been picking away at it, bit by bit.
There isn’t a single reason why the Divine Fleet has started dying off, but divines start losing fights they shouldn’t have lost. Um, they start not being able to be rebuilt. All sorts of weird things start happening. Sometimes it’s the NEH. I think now we know that it’s probably also Advent here or there, you know? [Ali blows out air] Um, cause fuck them. You know, there’s three hundred of them. I’m sure twelve were killed by Advent, you know? About eight hundred years ago, Curiosity leaves the Fleet, visits a place called Quire, which is a single planet at the time. It’s a sentient world. It had its own golden era bef- in the past that had been ruined by Independence, which was a divine that had previously brought a bunch of war to Earth which had been moved to the center of the galaxy.
It- it arrived on Earth before that happened. It was still there while that was happening. It helped move Earth to the center of the galaxy. Also, Independence- So, Independence ruined two planets, at least. Earth and- and Quire. And also had been Kamala Cadence’s own divine. That- a lot of that comes out of the Godspeed Glory descriptions, so if you don’t know that stuff, that’s where to look for that. I think we’ve brought it up on the podcast also before, but I just want to like- That’s the clearest info on all of that stuff.
Curiosity comes back from Quire with the Sky Reflected in Mirrors and like, disappears into it and dies. Or kind of disappears into it at least. No one knows where it is. Um, and it is like, a big city space ship. And once it has kind of scanned Quire, a bunch of groups from the Divine Fleet, not a bunch of people- not like, millions of people or anything, but you know, some colonizing groups basically go to Quire to- to colonize it, and those end up being like, the- the Crown of Glass and the Skein and the- all of the ground factions. The ground game factions. Um… then what? Then the season starts. That’s all before the season starts.
Ali: Oh, ok. [laughs]
Austin: First season starts. First episode, two divines left. Gumption. Empyrean. The Fleet comes under attack by the NEH. The Beloved Dust, who are- you are Tender, Fourteen, ⸢Signet⸣. Y’all protect the Cadent Under Mirage. You make sure that she doesn’t get killed. You stop an attack- or you do your best to stop an attack on a public place. And we now know that both of those divines die. Gumption, very obviously and Empyrean in a way that um, Empyrean’s pilot- er Excerpt, Blooming, tries to hide, or does successfully hide until the holiday special.
Um, once that happens, the- everybody’s like, ‘Oh, we should find a place to live.’ And the crew of the Myriad, Gig, Echo, Grand, and Even get sent to- oh, and um, Alekhine, Alekhine Dendaro gets sent to Quire to make contact with the people there and like, set up a colony for the Fleet. And they go down there. They investigate it. They find all these descendants from the- from the Fleet’s other cultures. They meet the Crown of Glass. They meet Janey and Surge and some other folks and end up in the middle of a weird plot to overthrow the leader of those cultures. [exhales loudly]
Then in space, where meanwhile, as they’re doing that, the Beloved are kind of investigating those attacks. Y’all meet Chthonic, who is like, the ghost on Empyrean who is a cloud. You go to the rehabilitation center, Contrition’s Figure where you meet- I mean you meet a bunch of NEH people. You meet like, some people who d- who suck kind of a little bit, like Morning’s Observation. Some people who suck a lot like, Mother’s Story and Robin’s Song. And some people like, Declan’s Corrective, who like, you know what? You write in. Don’t write in. We know that- I know that lots of people hate Declan’s Corrective. And lots of people love Declan’s Corrective. Which is, you know, that’s what I hope- hoped for. So, um, but you meet all of them.
You, while trying to save Privign Station, which was like, home to kind of an ancient order of monks and also a place where the Rapid Evening, who are like- like… [exhales] they’re like space spies who can see the future- where they worked with the Divine Fleet to try to like, predict where Independence would come from, you know, if Independence would show up. You find out that the NEH kind of doesn’t give a fuck about the Divine Fleet, and it’s all kind of like, not a big deal, which is kind of a deflating moment. But along the way, both groups end up fighting or interacting with Iconoclasts or the Independents, groups that are affiliated with Volition, which are these- this giant post-divine thing that came out of the war against Independence on Quire. Volition wants to like, build axioms, we now know. It- it turns out that it successfully does that.
And the week-long war happens, and the miracle happens. The uh, some of you go to rescue the Cadent who's been kidnapped by- by Tender’s ex. [light laugh] Good job. Some of you go to kill Independence before it can join up with Volition. Some of you rescue people and help them land on what is now the eight planets of Quire. Which were formed because Quire, which is a living being- it’s a sentient being- I don’t think it thinks the way humans do, but it thinks- wants to help people, and so it uses its like, space magic plus the divine- er plus the twilight mirage to build eight planets, or separate itself into eight- into eight total planets instead of being one.
Um, and then we have a year-long jump in which the Divine Fleet becomes the Divine Free States, and the NEH starts landing and bringing in more colonists. Things go all weird- all timey-wimey. Lots of time passes outside the twilight mirage, outside of the Quire system, but inside it’s just kind of going by day-by-day. And a bunch of other groups also show up. The- some clones from the original um, culture of Quire, the Qui Err Assembly show up. They’re- they’re kind of clones from the Sky Reflected in Mirrors. Some- the Advent shows up, and we know that they’re kind of grave robbers. And then the Waking Cadent shows up and is like, ‘Yo, the Divine Fleet has lost its way.’
You all rejoin as the Notion. You go to Gift-3. You represent Seneschal’s Brace, which is the- the Cadent Under Mirage and Declan’s Corrective- again, I know. Uh, and then you go to Gift-3 where you help some teens build a home. The- the Sailors of the Ark. And you give them like, resources and a shield and like, legal aid and engineers. And then, meanwhile, the other half of that team, inadvertently creates Advent, the Advent group and brings together like, a bunch of other group- like a militia, the volunteers of Seiche, the Concretetown Particulars, who are like, divine hunters and axioms hunters, and Advent and some other- Ocom, I think the like- some telecom workers, basically. Um, but you also, that group also does reconnect two planets using a kind of a- almost like a fast-travel portal that lets them- families kind of reconnect and lets some trade happen and blah, blah, blah. So like, there’s good stuff there, but also Advent happens. Then you get scolded for doing that. [laughs] Nice work.
You meet the Cadent, the Waking Cadent in her ice form. And then you go to Skein, and that’s the stuff that just happened. The second miracle happens. You helped Qui Err summon Parhelia from its like, deepest regret and desire, which is- which is a big group of the Qui Err, and they join up with- this is like, during downtime now, they’re joining up with the Quire Assembly to form a bigger coalition. And the other group tries to stop Dark Day, which you thought you were going to do by preventing one of two murders- two murders? You prevent one murder. You prevent an innocent person from getting killed. Um, which is good. Nice work. [Austin and Ali laugh] That part’s good. But the person who- but that person was not the person who you needed to stop from dying to prevent Dark Day from happening. The other person died, and so Dark Day happened.
Dark Day ended up being Our Prophet who is the leader of Church of the Self and- and the current, the final hegemon of the New Earth Hegemony, shows up in her dope ship, shoots a bunch of light at the Crystal Palace, Rapid Ev- the Rapid Evening’s future computer, and prevents it from- from communicating with- with Quire. And this is her- and also, just kind of says like, ‘Yo, the Rapid Evening exists.’ Like, she- What she doesn’t say is like, ‘Oh, I wanted to have a bunch of guns so I could just take over this place. No big deal. But I don’t have those anymore so instead, what I’m gonna do is remind ever- or tell everybody about the Rapid Evening.’ Um, so she does that. She’s like, ‘Oh, the Rapid Evening is the real threat here.’ And then- Oh, also, also, Grand, you got fucked up pretty bad, and you have a status now. Did we decide on what that is yet?
Art: Yeah, right?
Austin: Yeah, do you want to pitch this real quick?
Art: Alright. Um, [Austin laughs] so you- you guys know uh, how we’ve all been like, on a team?
Jack: Hmm.
Keith: Yeah. Yeah.
Ali: Hmm?
Art: What if I didn’t want to be on the team anymore? [Jack laughs]
Keith: What do you mean?
Art: I don’t think that Grand Magnificent is having fun anymore. [Ali, Dre, and Jack laugh] And I would like to go home.
Keith: Hold on. [Austin laughs] Are we hav- Are we supposed to be having fun here? [Austin and Sylvia laugh]
Art: I don’t really care if you’re having fun. [Austin and Ali laugh] [Keith laughs hard]
Ali: To be fair, the last two missions we did were like, people asking you a favor. So, I don’t know if you’ve been on the team this whole time, right?
Art: See. And- and lack of support like that- [Ali laughs] is part of why I don’t want to be on this team anymore.
Austin: Um, is it- So-
Keith: What does this mean for- for Art then?
Austin: I don’t think anything in the near future, right? I think this is like- we- I think this is the beginning of a turn for the character, right?
Art: Yeah. I think I’m gonna start talkin’ to some people who might be able to get me back to my old life-
Jack: Oh no.
Art: -of not giving a shit about stuff. [Ali laughs]
Jack: Oh, that sounds more ominous than everything you’ve said up to this point. [Austin and Dre laugh]
Art: I was sugar-coating it. [Ali laughs]
Jack: Oh, [light laugh] oh god. [Keith laughs]
Art: I was employing a rhetorical device to make it seem more agreeable.
Dre: So, lying?
Jack: Ah.
Austin: Is that- yes.
Keith: Lying, yeah. Lying.
Austin: I think that we would- I think-
Jack: Did you use deception or influence to-? [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah, I think we can check the book, but I’m pretty sure that counts as sway. I think that’s sway more than consort. [Jack laughs]
Art: But we’re already- we’re already- We know each other.
Austin: Right. Well, yeah, but your- deception. Mmmm. I could go either way.
Jack: Quick question.
Austin: Limited effect on sway.
Jack: Can he retire? Is this one of these situations where-
Austin: He could-
Jack: I mean, can you leave the- [quieter] can you leave the Notion? Or are you just-
[heavy cross-talking]
Austin: Oh yeah, totally.
Jack: Are you just-
Austin: Totally.
Jack: -kind of [inaudible]
Austin: But it’s not the-
Keith: I-
Art: But I wouldn’t have anything. I need to get-
Austin: It’s not the mob.
Art: -some stuff.
Austin: Yes. I guess what you’re-
Keith: You know-
Austin: -you’re saying what you’re interested in is Grand doing a heel turn over the next little bit.
Art: Yeah.
Jack: Shit.
Keith: Heel turn. [Austin, Ali, and Jack laugh]
Ali: I mean, there’s- there’s always that time in your life where you’re like, ‘I want to quit this job, but I have to find another one before I quit it.’
Austin: Right.
Art: Yeah. I just want another job, and if that job is helping someone murder the rest of you, [Jack laughs] I just have to be open to the opportunities as they present themselves. [Ali makes uncomfortable noise]
Jack: It got worse again.
Austin: I have not pitched him that. [Ali laughs] I want to be clear. That one doesn’t come from me. [Keith laughs]
Jack: Yeah.
Keith: I would like to say though, at first, I was like, ‘Fuck off.’ Like he gets- he’s, you know, like, ‘Oh, I’m not having fun. I want to leave.’ What a shit head.
Jack: No, yeah.
[cross-talking]
Keith: But now, I’m like, now we don’t have to fuckin’ have Grand around. Yeah.
Jack: I’ve come around on it. On that bit.
Austin: Yeah, uh huh.
Jack: But I- you know.
Austin: Great. Um, so that was pay. We need to do upkeep now. So, when you do upkeep, two coms plus the one engines is three. Plus one haul is four. Plus one weapons is five. Plus crew quality is six. Divided by four. Rounded down. So, it is- What is that? That- Was that one? That’s one. So, do y'all just want to pay that out of the vault- er out of the cred in your ship?
Jack: Yeah, that makes sense, right? That’s-
Ali: Sure.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: You can also skip- you’re also allowed to skip it. It just- then I get to roll on the skipped upkeep roll.
Jack: No.
Janine: I don’t think we should do that in fact.
Jack: Fix it.
Ali: We have the money.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: This is what the money’s for. [Ali laughs throughout]
Janine: Yeah. It’s-
Austin: Oh, that’s what that means.
Jack: As a wise man says.
Janine: -what the money's for.
Austin: Yeah, ok.
Keith: Ok. Well then, how about that fuckin’- all the rich people can pay, and then everyone else doesn’t pay.
Austin: I’m just pulling away. Yeah-
Ali: Yeah, it’s not-
Keith (?): It’s from their pocket.
Janine: Yeah. Our ship doesn’t need to retire. [Ali and Austin laugh]
Keith: How much do we have in the ship thing?
Austin: Three.
Keith: I thought we only had the-
Austin: You had four. You had four. Now it’s three.
Keith: Ok.
Austin: There were two in there.
Keith: Oh, it only cost one? That’s fine.
Austin: Yeah. It only costs one. [Dre, Jack, and Ali laugh]
Keith: I thought it- I thought it was one per everyone. I was like, ‘that’s crazy.’
Janine: Our ship’s not that good.
Dre: No.
Austin: It’s a pretty good ship. Wait a second.
[cross-talking]
Dre: I mean, it is.
Janine: Our ship-
Jack: [overlapped] A great ship.
Dre: It’s just not that good.
Janine: Our ship’s not like, fuckin’ 7 or 8 creds good just for upkeep.
Jack: True.
Janine: We don’t have butlers. [Ali laughs]
Austin: We don’t have butlers.
Keith: We don’t have bedrooms. Yeah.
Ali: We don’t even have rooms.
Austin: We don’t have bedrooms, no. [Jack laughs] No. No, that’s true.
Dre: Yeah.
Janine: People sleepin’ under pool tables on this thing. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Alright, well we should really briefly, while we’re here, you should tell me what you want from this playbook advancement.
Janine: What are our choices here?
Austin: I felt like we were close before. It’s the-
Ali: Yeah, there was one I really wanted.
Dre: It was loaded for bear?
Ali: Yes.
Dre: Right?
Keith: Loaded for bear. Right.
Janine: Oh yeah.
Austin: What’s that mean? Let’s read it.
Dre: Uh-
Austin: Here we go. Your crew can carry plus one load. They have distinctive and high quality armor. When you wear armor, it counts as heavy armor. Two uses. Each crew member’s load maximums are increased, so light load becomes one to four. Medium, five to six. And heavy, seven to nine. Who crafted such distinctive armor? And who might recognize its make? Heavy armor allows you to also tick the second heavy armor box on your sheet to reduce appropriate damage.’
Keith: Um, I would like to say that I know that I pushed for the other thing last time-
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: -and if we had picked loaded for bear first, then I would not currently be- [Austin laughing]
Dre: Crushed and exploded?
Keith: -crushed and- and exploded.
Ali: See. What'd I tell ya?
Austin: Extremely true.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: That’s ex- Yep. Uh hm.
Ali: What’d I tell you?
Austin: Cool. [Dre laughs] Who got you this armor, and what’s it look like?
Ali: Hmm.
Austin: Also, I really love- I really love us talking about not being sure what Grand’s future with the Notion, and then being like, ‘Got this custom armor.’ [Ali laughs]
Dre: Just for you, buddy.
Jack: Oh.
Dre: God.
Ali: It’s confusing to wear. Still? Probably.
Janine: ‘We- we got it from this guy. He said he- he said he went to college with you or something? I don’t know. He’s real famous and rich now. It’s funny.’ [Ali and Jack laugh]
Austin: [uncomfortable] Hmm...ohh.
Sylvia: They’re all personalized. Everyone’s got their own- their name and a number on the back.
Austin: God.
Ali: Um, can I- Can I make a suggestion?
Austin: Yes.
Ali: This is purely selfish, but can that lion man make us some armor? Does he make armor?
Austin: Hmm.
Dre: [referencing an in-joke with tone] Oh, who’s that lion man?
Sylvia: Yeah, who-
Ali: [laughing] The lion man you guys hung out with.
Austin: You’re game.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: It was, uh, Saint Sommer.
Ali: The Saints. He’s got-
Austin: He was a Saint of the-
Sylvia: Oh right. Yeah.
Dre: Yeaahhh. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Janine: He- he just fights people.
Keith: Oh, I thought maybe there was a different lion man.
Sylvia: I thought you meant a different one.
Ali: I didn’t know if you guys- I haven’t listened to any of that yet.
Austin: Ali, I love that you were like, ‘There’s a Saint whose name- who is a lion person. He fights next to a lion robot. That motherfucker-’
Keith: Saint Lion-man.
Austin: ‘-makes armor.’ [Ali and Austin laugh]
Keith: Well, just in case. It was just in case.
Janine: I like the idea of Tender sending an email just to be like, ‘Hey, can you get- Ask that guy if he can like, Voltron us or something?’ [Ali and Austin laugh more]
Dre: Yeah. Do you make zords and or zoids?
Austin: Zords and or zoids, please? Can I get a zoid, please?
Jack: The Saints might not be a bad idea. Austin, is there any way we could get armor from the saints, or would that be like a whole thing?
Janine: Did they care for us at all?
Austin: No. Like, Saint Wynter does.
Keith: I think like, we don’t like the Saints.
Ali: Ok.
Dre: I thought- I thought we- I thought we like-
Austin: Y’all made- y’all had like a end of-
Keith: I like some of the Saints.
Austin: -end of summer break like, high-five. But like, not like we’re gonna make you armor.
Dre: Well, yeah. We’re not buddies, but we’re fine with them.
Keith: No, here’s the thing. The Saints suck. [Austin laughs lightly] All- we- they- Come on. We’ve like what? One tops of the Saints, and we’ve met what- Twelve Saints now?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Eight.
Dre: Eight, yeah.
Keith: Eight?
Janine: Ok, so who makes shit?
Austin: Uh, there’s a bunch of people, right? So, we know-
Dre: Surge and Janey, Cascabel-
Janine: Who makes shit and doesn’t hate us?
Austin: Yeah, Surge and Janey, Cascabel-
Keith: I feel like-
Austin: I feel like Cascabel is probably the go-to here, but…
Keith: I feel like um-
Austin: Um, the Brink could get it for you probably.
Ali: Hmm.
Keith: The lion- the lion man isn’t any help, but we could go somewhere else in the Skein to satisfy Ali’s need to get armor from a lion. [Ali laughs hard]
Ali: I appreciate you.-
Austin: God.
Ali: -um, you know, thinking about my needs.
Keith: I’m trying.
Austin: Uh… I should note some updates on the faction sheet. If y’all want to pull up the faction sheet real quick. That might help us make this decision. We got some- we got some shifts here. Sol’s Vanguard, which is the NEH military, you have a negative one with them now.
Dre: Cool.
Austin: The Rapid Evening, you are down to a negative two with.
Dre: Cool.
Austin: Uh, the Qu Err Coalition, you’re up to a plus one.
Ali: Oh.
Austin: So, nice- nice job.
Dre: That’s nice.
Austin: Seneschal’s Brace, you’re up to a plus two. The Earth Sphere Economic Concern, you’re down to a minus one. That’s new. Sui Juris, you’re up to a plus one. And the Brink, you’re up to a plus two. And Terrion, you’re up to a plus one.
Keith: Who are the Brink?
Austin: That is uh- uh, Demani and Gray. Satellite and- and Primary. They were on the like, space truck stop. Like-
Jack: Oh.
Austin: -place where-
Jack: So, be- because we stopped one murder, they’re kind of-
Austin: Yeah. You-
Jack: Yeah, they don’t resent us.
Austin: -and you- well not the murder. No one cared about the murders.
Jack: I did.
Austin: The murders were a fuckin’ swerve.
Keith: You know what?
Austin: The thing that mattered was that they had guns. They were gonna start shooting people.
Keith: You know what? So, first of all, nothing with Cascabel Arms. That’s, you know, com on..
Austin: Yeah, it’s like a- it’s a weird thing that y’all don’t have a plus one there. I don’t know why- I think just cause the way that this worked out, you didn’t get a plus one, like in terms of-
Keith: That’s fine.
Austin: -how that worked, but you- I- Ca- I’m just gonna give you a plus one. I think it’s- I think it’s- it’s- In fact, here is how I can justify it. Uh, you know whose glad that there aren’t more guns in the- in the sector?
Keith: Cascabel Arms.
Austin: Cascabel. [Jack and Janine laugh]
Dre: Yeah.
Keith: You know- Ok, so I’m gonna say that we should get our armor from Cascabel, both cause it- it makes sense, and then also, we’re out here doin’ all this fuckin’ shit. [Ali laughs] Like, you know, sometimes it’s the worst.
Austin: [overlapping] Period. The end.
Ali: [laughing] We’re gonna just let him die?
Keith: Right? But like, come on. The- the least you can do is give us some new, sick armor to help us out. Right?
Austin: You sound like everyone who’s played a JRPG and then gotten like, right before the last boss, is like, ‘I can’t believe you guys are still makin’ me buy health potions. I gotta go fight Sephiroth.’
Keith: Yeah, right?
Austin: ‘Give me a health potion.’
Keith: Right? You still gotta buy this. Like, ‘Oh, I’m about to save the world.’
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: ‘That’ll be $18.’ [Ali and Austin laugh]
Austin: You have a negative one with Volition itself. [laughs] Um, you have a plus one with the Wound. You have a minus one with the Church of the Self and a plus one with the Waking Cadent. So yeah, I think Cascabel’s probably the right call there. Alright, so I think we’re good on that. So, now we know that the crew can carry plus one load. You have distinctive and high quality armor. When you wear it, it counts as heavy armor. So, that’s great. Good job, everybody.
Alright, so we’ve done- we’ve done payoff and upkeep. We’ve done leveling up stuff. Heat. Um, I’m just gonna tell you what happened with heat. The Wound got some- got some heat from um, like the fact that it was like a big fight. But like, not that much because it- it like, things- people weren’t dying left and right. Do you know what I mean? I think that y’all got the uh, two heat: ‘contained standard exposure’. In fact, I think this-
Keith: Honestly, we were in a big fight, and less people died than on the other side.
Austin: 100% yeah.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: You’re 100% true.
Keith: I don’t think anyone died.
Austin: Uh, the other side would have had again, six: ‘wild devastating exposure’, but again it was- [Keith laughs] it- which would have been six heat, but the- Our Prophet and the Church of the Self really put it up- put the blame on somebody else, which was- which is literally one of these things. I still didn’t give them zero heat which would have been ‘completely quiet, others blamed’ because there was still like, violence at the hotel where they were trying to protect one the- one of the marks.
Uh, Fourteen-Fifteen did fight a bunch of cops and did crash a mech into the side of a floating uh, arcology. So, you know. There’s definitely some exposure there, but where they really got it was plus one heat: ‘high-profile or well-connected target’, ‘public use of artifacts’ and ‘killing of hegemonic citizens’. Those really added up bad.
Keith: Oh yeah. When you kill a hegemonic citizen, they hate that.
Austin: They hate it. It ain’t good. So that goes up to a- you’re up to three heat at this point. And I have already rolled on the next step, which is entanglements, which is fantastic. I did that during my uh, prep episode.
Ali: Thank you.
Austin: And so now we can just jump right into it a little bit.
Keith: Love to be entangled.
Austin: Uh- boy, should you.
Keith: Don’t at me. [Austin and Sylvia laugh]
Austin: God. Was not an invitation. Um, so, well here’s what I rolled. I rolled the level three entanglement, Ur field. And what it says is, ‘the closest jump-gate calls to each of you in a language you cannot understand. Resist with resolve of take level one harm from the visions you cannot escape. What you choose to do with the visions is up to you. They end after you leave the system or the next downtime, whichever comes first.’
And so, that doesn’t happen because we don’t have jump-gates. Um, but something does happen, which is I think it has been like, a day. Y’all have all managed to get back to the World Without End. You’re hiding somewhere in it because of three hea- er three wanted levels rather. You probably just can’t just have it parked [laughs] in the middle of Terncage. Like, the biggest city. You probably want to keep a kind of a low-profile. Um, so either you’re in low orbit, or you’re like hiding in a jungle or in the Wound somewhere near- near Parhelia maybe? Up to y’all, but uh, what does happen is… you’re all in your rooms. Everyone’s kind of in a decompression mode.
And between the death of Ache, the axiom, so close to the- the kind of exposed mind of Quire, the arrival of Our Prophet and the activation of the Restitution of All Things, and the kind of blinding of- of Crystal Palace, and then the um, the second miracle happening in Parhelia and all of these new communities of Qui Err showing up and kind of coming out of nowhere, uh the… the twilight mirage itself is having like, a weird- it’s taking on a weird property and has kind of opened itself up as a communication medium for anyone who has like, been near an ax- near an axiom in the last day or near Quire itself in the last day.
Like, y’all are all just like, hyper-sensitive to psychic- to kind of psychic phenomena right now. And on top of that and like, none of that actually triggers it. The thing that triggers it is the fact that the Rapid Evening here have one, lost connection with Crystal Palace, but two, are like both sides are trying to reconnect. And so you’re just getting Crystal Palace shooting kind of like, um, waves of information at the mirage trying to reconnect with the Rapid Evening here.
And you know, normally no one would feel that. Like that’s just- like, whatever, it’s just sending satellite signals in the air and like, no one would catch it. It’s all hyper-decrypted- er encrypted or whatever. But because of all of this other stuff, you’ve been made hyper-susceptible to it. And so, sitting alone in all your rooms, what you’re gonna get here is some visions and also a level harm that you can choose to resist with resolve, if you’d like to. So, we should walk through these one at a time is basically what we should do, I think maybe. Who wants to go first?
Keith: Uh, I’ll go first cause I have a question about the harm that I already have.
Austin: Uh hm.
Keith: Do I still have that? Is this cumulative?
Austin: Oh yeah. 100% you still have it.
Keith: What is going on?
Austin: Yeah, you’ve not- you’ve not gotten to downtime yet. And when you get to downtime-
Keith: Allllllright.
Austin: -downtime-
Keith: Hit me with the vision.
Austin: Uh huh. Uh huh. So, the vision for you- What are you doing? Where are you at in the- in the ship again? Do you remember what your bed is? Or what your like cabin crew-?
Keith: Yeah, I sleep- I sleep underneath the pool table.
Austin: Uh hm. Great. Um, so while you’re underneath the pool table, I also think, at this moment, Morning's Observation is playing pool above, like at the pool table. Um, and you hear- he catches it first because he is a stratus, and you hear him drop the pool cue and the pool cue just like, slams in the ground next to your head. And then like, a second later, this vision wipes over you. And what you see is Advent ships above Brighton with these kind of um- they’re like this kind of like, weird multi-medium net where it’s like, ‘Oh, they’re using light and sound and texture and fabric to build this- this special type of net to try to capture this gigantic- like, wave?’
There’s like, literally a massive wave of water, a kind of blob of water, in space that they are trying to capture. Um, and it- they don’t manage to do it at first, and then you see a kind of light from something down on the- on a small island on Brighton light up. And then you can see that the like, the netting kind of all energizes at once, and then it like, closes in around this- this liquid form. And then from there, you get this like, very strange second image which is of Crystal Palace, which is kind of what it sounds like. Crystal Palace is a gigantic computer made of glass and crystal inside of a bunker somewhere in Kesh.
It looks almost like standing in the middle of a- of the entryway to a church, if the church was made of glass and crystal, and if it was like, kind of- there was a constant hum of- of a super-computer. But the hum almost has a certain like, choral quality. Um, and then you-
Keith: Coral like chorus or coral like-
Austin: Like chorus. Like chorus, yeah. C-H-
Keith: We were talkin’ about oceans, so I thought maybe…
Austin: Right, no. Fair. Fair.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Um, well, so then you turn and look behind you, and I can run with that, and there is another copy of Crystal Palace, except it is made of water and coral. And it is- Advent is building their own Crystal Palace. That is what their goal is. That is what your vision is of. They are taking the technology and the kind of casing that they can get access to on Gift-3, now that they have their paws on Gift-3. They can kind of take a lot of that technology, and now they’re using this living ocean as a super-computer.
Or that’s what their goal is is to capture this living ocean and turn it into something that can do what Crystal Palace can do. They didn’t know what Crystal Palace was until Our Prophet showed up and was like, ‘Oh yeah. These people over here. They built like a super-computer that can predict the future.’ And Advent was like, ‘We got- we should get one of those. That’s what we should- We’ve been wanting to capture this living ocean, but we didn’t really know what to do with it, but now we know. We’re gonna build a super-computer.’
Keith: Oh, they already wanted the ocean.
Austin: Oh, that’s what they were doing on Brighton and on Gift-3 already.
Keith: Ok.
Austin: They were already like, ‘we got to figure out how to capture this weird living ocean. I bet someone would pay us a lot of money for that.’ But now they’ve gone from that to ‘I bet we could build something that could see the future.’ And you’re not quite sure why they think that this ocean can see the future. Though it has always been able to uh, to escape their attempts to capture it until now. So, that is what your vision is. So, here’s my question for you. Do you want to take this level one harm, or do you want to roll to resist it?
Keith: What’s the consequence of failing to resist it?
Austin: Uh, I mean, so when you roll to resist, you take stress equal to six minus whatever you roll.
Keith: Ok. You take stress equal to 6 minus whatever I roll.
Austin: Right, so you’d be rollin two- you’d be-
Keith: Uh, I’ll take it. I’ll take the-
Austin: You’ll take the level one harm.
Keith: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Alright.
Keith: I- If I get two more stress than I’ll-
Austin: Then you’ll- you’ll take a status.
Keith: I get a status.
Austin: There’s nothing wrong taking a status, but that’s fair.
Keith: No, you’re right. I do not want one.
Austin: Fair. So, I think maybe for you- what’s- what’s Gig’s reaction to seeing this vision? Is it like- what’s the kind of mental status, or the mental ef- the mental damage here? Is it like, um, like, anxious?
Keith: I-
Austin: Is it-?
Keith: Yeah, it’s- I think it’s anxious. I think it’s sort of a-
Austin: Is it distraught? Is it distracted?
Keith: No. Anxious is right.
Austin: Ok.
Keith: I’m worried about- I’m worried about um- I’m worried about Advent do- doing anything.
Austin: [light laugh] Fair.
Keith: Um, and then I’m also worried that they’re doing it like, near my buddy.
Austin: Fair. Totally. Alright. So, go ahead and add anxious as a level one wound. Alright. Who wants to go next?
Ali: I can go.
Austin: Ok. So, uh when this happens to you, you’re in your little room near the launch po- launch pods for your mechs, right? Um, and yours is interesting because it’s shared. It’s not just you. It’s every strati in the system. Everyone who has psychic powers is in that same space. I think it’s very similar to- I don’t know maybe- I’m curious like, who- who- you’re probably the most powerful stratus here? Ooo.
Ali: Fair.
Austin: Hmm... Hmmm.
Ali: Mmm.
Austin: There are two more here now. So, there’s- Our Prophet is here and so is the Waking Cadent.
Ali: [laughing] Oh, cool.
Austin: So, also there [laughs] is the subconscious version of ⸢Signet⸣ who is still in your mind, who you never got rid of.
Ali: Hi, ⸢Signet⸣. [laughs]
Austin: [laughs] So, it’s the- it’s the three of you- four of you if you count subconscious ⸢Signet⸣, but also Lily Lysander is there. Declan's Corrective is there. And Morning’s Observation is there. They are probably some other figures here, like given the increase of people who have come here. I have to imagine there are a couple of additional strati. A couple of a different pe- uh, additional people who have this kind of psychic like, hacking power or some- something in that space. But cause there are like, you know, tens of millions of the people here now versus during the miracle. But I don’t think we need to know their names right now.
Ali: Uh hm.
Austin: That’s where your OC shows up, people are home. [Ali and Sylvia laugh] I’m dead s- I’m dead fuckin’ serious. I always appreciated that shit.
Sylvia: Yikes.
Ali: Sure.
Austin: I- That’s- when I was a kid, I was like, ‘oh, I’m that guy in the back.’ [Ali and Austin laugh] ‘I’m the one in the shadow.’ [Keith laughs] ‘While the Joker and- and um… uh, and Poison Ivy are playing cards, I’m the one in the back.’
Ali: Wow.
Austin: Not me, but my characters. Anyway. So, [sighs] what’s this look like? I think it probably looks similar to that cool jellyfish bit from the- before the miracle, from Godspeed Glory.
Ali: Uh hm.
Austin: When Declan’s Corrective was kind of illustrating that like, Volition was showing up. Do you remember that?
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: But I also think it kind of looks like that episode of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex that is just like, a big- it’s like, all the hackers got together on an online chatroom, and they’re just standing in a circle looking at a projection in the middle. Do you remember that episode?
Ali: [laughing] No.
Austin: Well, imagine like, the major and also five real corny-looking hackers are all standing in what looks like a gameshow set. And I think it’s sort of like that here, where it’s just like, you’re all at a podium or at like a- at like a, like a standing- so like, a podium, all looking towards the center where the system is being- or the system is kind of represented in- and the galaxy is represented in these very abstract ways. I don’t even think it’s like a jellyfish. I think it’s almost like- um, what is the google paint 3D thing for VR? Google draw?
Keith: Sketchup.
Austin: Sketchup? Is that what it is?
Keith: Yeah. I’m pretty sure.
Janine: I don’t it’s- Is that for VR?
Austin: No, I’m talking’ about the- what’s the-
Janine: I think that’s just like, for- it’s like, CAD type thing.
Keith: Oh.
Austin: What’s the VR one?
Keith: Uh, yeah. You’re right. I’m getting it mixed up. Uh, Google VR.
Ali: We’ve said it before.
Austin: Tilt Brush.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Tilt Brush.
Keith: Tilt Brush, right.
Austin: So, I think it’s very Tilt Brush-y, and I can tell you what you believe is happening here. Which is the- [light laugh] You are pretty sure that whatever the fuck that Our Prophet is doing, she is draining the mirage in some way.
She’s like, literally taking energy from it. She’s taking the mirage itself. It’s like she’s vacuuming it up the way- or like, drilling for it or mining for it. And in the process, a hole appears that Volition is able to escape through, or at least like, start to reach out through into the greater galaxy.
And I don’t know that it clicks with any of like- I think it clicks with multiple people in the room at that moment that the mirage is a jail for Volition. All the other stuff that’s happening here, rad. But also, what Quire has done is kept Volition here, preventing it from like, throwing axioms onto planets where there are just like, currently people living their fucking lives way away from here. So, um, and you see that that like- that is a- a- what the direction you’re kind of headed in here.
Ali: Hm.
Austin: Um, and I think y’all all see that and are able to like, make eye contact, but not able to communicate… until the Waking Cadent raises her hand and everyone else fades away. And we’ll come back to that, I think, after we do the rest of these. [Ali laughs] Um, Tender, do you take the- the resolve? [overlapping] Uh, do you take the damage or do you want to roll to resist?
Ali: [overlapping] Uh, I’m gonna be taking the harm, yes.
Austin: Ok. So, go ahead and take a level one- what is- What is it? What is the-
Ali: Um, I like distracted of the-
Austin: Yeah, that’s fine.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: It’s kind of like, ‘oh, a lot is going on, all at once.’
Ali: Yeah. It’s just- yeah.
Austin: Yeah, ok. Cool. Who wants to go next?
Dre: I can.
Austin: Ok. So, I actually think… alright, so, I think yours fires off um, with- [light laugh] as a- as a- it’s kind of confusing at first. And it actually gives you access to something you hadn’t thought about in a while, which is even though you are now completely in tune with your hybrid, and you’ve kind of just reached this hybrid state, right? We’ve never talked about your hybrid- you’ve never talked about the alien that you kind of um, became- reached the symbiotic relationship with and then merged with completely. We never talked about its memories, right? And its visions of the- of the universe. We never like, saw what it saw before it merged with you.
Um, and this activates that in a- in a really weird way. Which is that one, you learn that this hybrid that’s in you already experienced time nonlinearly. Which is to say that it knew it was going to merge with you well before it merged with you. And so that experience for you when you like, ‘ah, the only way we can survive is together’, for it was like, ‘we’ve already survived together. We’re going to merge.’ It’s like, very Doctor Manhattan view of- of time. Um, and in that moment, you also see another memory of the future that it already has. And it is- [sighs] I think it’s of you alone… opening a door with like, you know- we’re in full-on kind of finale, ‘I’m gonna give it all I got, blood is dripping down my face, I can’t give up here’, and just being utterly surrounded by people wearing the Advent uniforms.
And behind them is like- it’s like a control room of some sort. It’s like you’ve infiltrated a- a spaceship. And behind them is a giant map of the system, and you can see red X’s over the symbols of the other major powers. You can see that the Waking Cadent’s symbol has like an- has like an arrow pointed outside of the system. You can see that there’s a red X over Volition. You can see that there is um- that there is kind of arrows pointed between Quire um, the- Our Prophet and the Divine Free States and Seneschal’s Brace, who is up there, which is surprising for you because Seneschal’s Brace has not rated enough in the past to have shown up and like, been on any map anywhere.
As a reminder, Seneschal’s Brace is the group that you technically work for. The Notion is a- is an arm of Seneschal’s Brace that is the Cadent Under Mirage and Declan’s Corrective and the kind of planetary government of Seneschal. And then they close in on you, and that is what you remember. You don’t remember what happens from there. Who’s next? Also, wait. Sorry. Do you- What do you want to do? Do you want to take the wound or do you want to-?
Dre: I’m gonna try to resist.
Austin: Ok. What is your resolve? One. [laughs] Alright.
Dre: One. Let’s do it.
Austin: Let’s do it. Give me that roll. 1d6. That is a three.
Dre: Three.
Austin: When you roll a six, you roll six and minus the highest die result. So that’s a three. You take three stress, and you get a status.
Dre: Yeah, ok.
Austin: Um, where are you at? You’re in the cockpit when this happens?
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: What’s it look like and what- what’s the status that you take?
Dre: I think what it looks like is probably gonna depend on the status I take cause I have-
Austin: Yeah.
Dre: -cause I have two- kind have two or three ideas. Eh, I think I have two.
Austin: Uh hm.
Dre: Um, either obsessed or vicious.
Austin: Interesting. What’s-
Dre: And I think the- the obsessed is- is pretty straight forward. I mean it is- it’s like, Even was already feeling pretty gross about the role that he played in kind of-
Austin: Uh hm.
Dre: -pushing up Advent, and I think like, seeing Gigas go through everything that they went through-
Austin: Right.
Dre: -only like, kind of like, furthered that for him. And so I think it could either play out in the obsessed and that’s almost like, the like, you know, whenever Even isn’t doing stuff, he’s like, on a computer somewhere like, writing his like, expanding his document like, tracking everything they’re doing and stuff like that.
Austin: Right.
Dre: Or-
Austin: And even more than that, is it something where it’s like, even on missions that have nothing to do with Advent-
Dre: Yes, absolutely.
Austin: -you’re like- yeah.
Dre: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Um, or it’s like, you know, he’ll like- he might be ditching something that’s probably important for the rest of the group because it’s like-
Austin: Right.
Dre: -nah, I got this tip on this Advent thing.
Austin: Right.
Dre: But I- then I think the way that it plays out with vicious is just that like, when Advent is involved, there is like- it’s like, there’s no prisoners. It’s like-
Austin: Right.
Dre: It’s us or it’s them.
Austin: Yeah. I’m good with either of those.
Janine: You could still get that with obsessed right? Because that's how you’re-
Dre: Yeah.
Janine: -you’re statuses work is like, when they get you into trouble- when you’re obsession plays out-
Austin: Right. Yes.
Dre: Sure. I think the difference there is like, you know, we need somebody from Advent, and they’re like, ‘no, I want to give you this information’, and obsessed is like, ‘yes, give me all the information.’
Austin: Yes.
Dre: Vicious is just, ‘nah, fuck you. I’m smoking you. I don’t care what you have to say.’
Austin: That is the important distinction I would say, in terms of playing those to get you into trouble. To get you XP.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Um, which are you more interested in playing is the first thing I want to ask.
Dre: Ummm…
Austin: Because it’s one of those things where it’s like, there is sometimes- it’s like, ‘oh, I’d love to read this character, but I don’t want to be this character’-
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: -and I’m not pushing you one way or the other here. But I am- I’m- It is about what you want to play first and foremost for me. And the second is this kind of bigger picture of what is the arc for Even that you’re interested in?
Dre: Right. Yeah.
Keith: Uh, Dre, if you have- if you’re having trouble, I have a thought on it.
Dre: Yeah. sure.
Keith: Which- which is that, if this is inspired by your experience with- with Gigas, then it sounds like, smoking someone who’s-
Austin: Hmm.
Keith: -from Advent-
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: -that’s trying to change doesn’t seem like in alliance a hundred percent.
Austin: Yeah. That’s a good call.
Dre: Hm.
Austin: Because like, you- this arises from meeting someone from Advent who you saw the capacity to change in.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: And you saw as a hu- as not a human, but as a person, right? You saw that they were like, someone who existed and despite not coming from here, despite being raised way closer to Advent’s culture than your own, did take steps.
Dre: Man, maybe the flipside of that is- that maybe it’s then soft?
Austin: Ooo. Were you like, you’ve- you’re- you can’t help but see the like- You know what? I’m- I’ll be honest. You and I just had that talk about where Even was in terms of looking at the big picture.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: And like, which factions were attractive to Even. And there was a sort of soft-pedaling like, ref- like, fence-sitting that’s kind of interesting.
Dre: Hmm.
Austin: Where it’s like, ‘I just got to get everybody in a room together. We just gotta work it out.’ [Keith laughs] But also-
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: -we’ve seen- we’ve seen Even live through that and regret it already, right?
Dre: And regret it. So, yeah I don’t - I don’t think it’s that. I think maybe obsessed then.
Austin: And so, obsessed.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Um, alright. So, mark that down. Uh, cool. Who’s next? Oh yeah, so yeah. So, what does that look like for you in the moment?
Dre: Oh, right. Um, I think it probably is like, suddenly like, the- the ride is a lot more bumpy than it normally is because he is like- he is like, kind of half flying the ship, but half like, working on something else.
Austin: Do we literally see like, tendrils off doing other things? [light laugh]
Dre: Yes. Yeah. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Very good.
Dre: And like, you know, whatever like, crappy room somebody’s in like, something like, falls off the shelf and like-
Austin: Right.
Dre: -might hit them on the leg or something like that.
Austin: Right.
Dre: The pool- the balls on the pool table probably start like, rolling around.
Austin: Yeah. Cool. Um, who is next?
Janine: I could go.
Austin: Ok, so ⸢Signet⸣, where are you right now? You were in the room that you share with Grand Mag?
Janine: Probably, yeah.
Austin: Ok. So, you are suddenly just in Belgard. You can see through Belgard’s HUD. You know like, the names and data. The sort of like- you can see where everyone is, and who needs help. And you can account for- you know, Belgard is at full divine status at this point, and like, you can account for everybody in the system, which is you know, mil- hundreds of millions of names, or dozens of millions of names, depending on which- which sheet I’m looking at at any given moment. Uh- [laughs] I’m actually looking at the one that has all the numbers on it. So, thirty, fifty- it’s like a hundred million names, basically.
And you know, you can- you’re- it’s Belgard, so Belgard can make that consumable to you in various ways. And the vision that you see, and this is where things, I think, maybe start to get tricky because it suggests, if you share all this information later, but, at least for the audience, that there are different visions of the future here. The vision you see is one in which Seneschal’s Brace wins. It is the- Again, through Belgard’s HUD, the- the moment when the Waking Cadent leaves along with a number of ships from the Divine Free States, where Our- Our Prophet has been driven away- [sighs] but where there are all of these major issues that on the ground, you can see that a lot of the concerns that Our Prophet had about Earth are slipping in here.
Especially as NEH culture continues to merge with the Divine Free States culture and things like poverty and hunger do begin to creep in and systemic inequality. And- and more important than that, there is something from this perspective, and I think it’s maybe Belgard’s ability to track change and like, track- you know, ‘hey, I know how long it’ll take for this- this bad problem to become a worse problem. I can see how long it will take for the people on this ship to repair it and whether or not it’s worth my time to go repair it or if they will have it in a good place.’ What- Right, exactly. Exactly. Um, nothing is moving. There is this sort of terrible stasis in which you can very clearly see things that I think you would identify as injustice. The Qui Err are allowed to stay, but only on two worlds. They are not allowed to expand beyond that because those other worlds already have tons of people, and those other people don’t want to give up more space.
And because between the- the Cadent Under Mirage having lost some of her people in the kind of civil conflict with the Waking Cadent and the- the bureaucrats of- of the DFS, of the Divine Free States also kind of entrenching themselves as the kind of power of the state more than the people are and then on the side of the- the NEH, the sort of like, technocrats and- and corporations there doing the same, there’s a lot of sacrifice in the name of stability. There is this endless feeling that like, we are on the brink of something bad, but Belgard can tell it’s not gonna come. It’s just this endless like, feeling that you’re at the edge of the cliff. And that is- is what you see. And so one, I need to know if you’re gonna roll to resist.
Janine: I am.
Austin: Ok. Give- let’s do that first. Because then something else is gonna happen, too.
Janine: Um.
Austin: What are you- what are you at now? You’re at- you were at- fwoof- you were at seven.
Janine: Uh hm.
Austin: Your- your resolve is two, so… not the end of things.
Janine: Uh, do I just click- ok.
Austin: Yeah, you got it. Uh, so you take three, and you also get a status.
Janine: Alright. Do I clear my stress?
Austin: You clear your stress, yeah.
Janine: Ok.
Austin: That’s the nicest part about this. [laughs]
Janine: Uh hm.
Austin: Like, you get a whole downtime action back basically-
Janine: Oh, that’s true.
Austin: -cause you’re not gonna be spending it managing your stress. So-
Janine: Uh, I know what status I’m gonna take.
Austin: What is it?
Janine: I’m taking cold.
Austin: Mmm. What’s that look like in the moment?
Janine: Um, I think in the moment, it probably doesn’t look like anything.
Austin: Uh hm.
Janine: I think it is- is a very like, even after the vision is over, it’s a kind of like, staring at the wall thing.
Austin: Uh hm.
Janine: Because what I think it really is is just a- [laughs] I think it’s- it’s- I think it’s like, very suddenly she remembers how old she is.
Austin: Mmm.
Janine: And she remembers like, how long she has been around, and that she has- has been around trying to cultivate this thing that is just over.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: As far as she’s concerned, it’s just done.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: And she should be done, too.
Austin: Uh hm. Cool. So, before you actually as back staring at the wall in your own room, the Waking Cadent also breaks through to you and pulls you, along with Tender, in mind to her. And we’ll come back to that again when we wrap with- with everyone else’s stuff here. Um, who’s next?
Jack: I can go.
Austin: Alright. You were- What are you up to? Are you doing some legal work?
Jack: Um, I- I think Fourteen is actually resting.
Austin: Oh.
Jack: Everytime- everytime we sort of- we see Fourteen outside of the thing, they are- they’re- they’re doing legal work.
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: And I want to have an image that’s not that. But I think that- I think they’re writing notes.
Austin: Ok.
Jack: I think they’re- I think they’re lying in bed. But I think it’s different, right? It’s different to-
Austin: I mean, is it notes about something else entirely? Is it not legal notes? Is it just like-
Jack: No, this is-
Austin: Cause we- you have that belief about- about-
Jack: Yeah, this is like note-taking.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: This is them essentially uh… you know, spending time to try and- try and get stuff- to try and get stuff in order. I think they’re in their bed, which they have. I think they’re like, lying on front in that like- like, characteristic image of someone-
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: -like, hanging out on their own in a bedroom.
Austin: Yeah. yeah.
Jack: You know, like, writing on a notebook that’s resting on another book.
Austin: I think something special happens here. You and I have talked about this off-mic a little bit. And we could still do the resolve roll if you want, but I think that this- that the like, the impression of this blast from Crystal Palace mixed with the- the wound. The open wound of- I mean, the open psychological wound of- of uh- [light laugh] Not the Wound on Skein, but the- the kind of psychic damage of everything that’s happened in the last couple of days for you, um, you know, including being in a room where the axiom Compel was- or part of it was, [sighs] you slip into… into what’s between life and death again, for the first time since the miracle.
For the first time in over a year. And you do get a vision of the future. And I- [exhales] Here is where I would like you to make a decision. It sounds like there is something in this kind of stream, and we’ve talked about this stream once before, right? We’ve talked about it with Fourteen, when you became- when you became your current form. Um, whose name I’m forgetting. What is wrong with me?
Jack: Uh, the Body Politic?
Austin: The Body Politic, thank you. Where you saw the stream for the first time. It was not instantaneous, and it was slower. And we talked about it feeling bad that it was slower.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Either, and I- I think you’re gonna get pulled into this no matter what, based on what we talked about here, but you can decide whether or not you want to take this less effect harm or roll for- to resist it or just take the stress. It’s up to you here. And take the status.
Jack: S- so part of this is- is mostly about- about what sort of narrative focus we want to-
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: -apply here, right?
Austin: Uh hm. And I’m gonna resolve that before I resolve this scene, if that makes sense, cause I want to know what state of mind Fourteen is in as we go forward.
Jack: Yeah, absolutely. I think I’m going to um-
Austin: Cause there’s- to- to- to lay it out because people aren’t seeing this screen at home-
Jack: Oh yeah.
Austin: You have eight stress. There’s a chance you roll a six and get no stress.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: In which case, this is a really interesting sequence comparatively.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: But also there is a version of this which is like, if you were interested in having a status here, you can just make that happen, you know?
Jack: I think I am about as interested in having a status [Austin laughs] as I am in that roll going really weirdly.
Austin: Yeah. Me, too. Alright.
Jack: So, I’m prepared to roll-
Austin: Let’s do it. Roll resist.
Jack: Uh, resolve?
Austin: Sorry, resolve. Yeah, roll resolve to resist. Yeah. You resist. [Jack laughs] You rolled two sixes actually. In fact, you clear a stress. We never get crits. You critted on your resolve resist. So, you go down one here. [Dre laughs] On- on the-
Jack: Oh wow.
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: Ok.
Austin: So, let’s talk about what you see. You enter into this stream of data and- and life and like, you- it’s strange because it’s populated immediately in a way that it has not been before. You can see other kind of highways that- I mean, I guess Castlerose has had them before, right? So, you’re not the only one who’s used this technology.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: But you can see that like, literally physically in the direction of the Restitution of All Things, there are highways going out between it and various churches throughout the sector. And you know, it’s not busy, but you can see the- the sort of like, data highways in our weird space, magic, internet, facsimile. And you find yourself drawn that- there. Or maybe, do you go there on your own behest? Is that the difference between failing this roll and you doing this on your own out of curiosity?
Jack: No. I think- I don’t think that Fourteen has ever been able to choose how they move inside the data stream.
Austin: Ok. Ok.
Jack: And I think that it’s important to maintain that.
Austin: So then is this just- is this just the Body Politic has died. Just the way people do. That whatever the impact of- that the- the receiving all at once what Crystal Palace was sending that is meant to be decoded through K upside switchboard or whatever other technical jargon I normally use, and instead it hit you. You who has this special thing in you to tell it to let you do this. It just overwhelms you.
Jack: Yeah. I’ll tell you exactly what it is, and I’ll tell you why I lose stress as a result.
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: And [exhales] I want to be clear here, as well, that like, Fourteen is gonna get another body. This is not Fourteen’s final death. And I don’t want to characterize it like that, but in the moment that Fourteen realizes that this is happening to them again, something that they’d been desperately hoping to avoid, they are seized by the thought, ‘well, I died in bed.’ [Austin laughs] Um, like this is the first time that has ever happened to them.
Austin: Right.
Jack: They- they- they were in a body, and they used it comparatively harmlessly compared to what happened before. And they died in bed. And that causes them to lose stress.
Austin: That’s extremely good. So, you’re pulled that way, and I think it becomes clear very quickly, as you speed up on your way to the Restitution of All Things, which in this space does just look like, this- this gigantic glowing light. Um, amorphous, you know? Like, it isn’t- it isn’t- you can- you can kind of cover your eyes and make out its shape a bit. Or cover your eyes and you mind, however this works. And you’re being drawn to where Our Prophet is, and it- it clicks in for you.
And maybe you even see the- the- As you wake up, you see what it is, and it is like, the Castlero- the Castlerose apparatus 2.0 or 3.0. In fact, maybe you get in this- in this mode of vision of past and future together. Past is that when everything fell apart for Castlerose during the miracle, she did what opportunists do and called in favors. And one of the things she did was to sell this part of the Castlerose apparatus and all of the design notes she had on the other part, on the part about making bodies, back to the NEH, where it sat in a drawer for hundreds of years until Our Prophet found it, or some scientist who worked for Our Prophet found it and rebuilt it and- and proved it.
The thing you see in the future is this place is not for you anymore. I- it- This might not even be a literal vision of the future. This might literally just be- Fourteen Fifteen is pretty savvy- not savvy enough that the crew has the savvy reputation. You’re still weird, but um, you’re pretty savvy, and you know that you- what you found is a loophole. Our Prophet did not anticipate anyone to move through this space, and she will not let that loophole stand again. Oh! We should- we should- [light laugh] I just realized, you died. We have to figure out what memory you lost and also if new symptoms manifested.
Jack: Oh god. Yeah, we have to roll for that, as well. I was just expecting the-
Austin: We have to roll for that.
Jack: I was just expecting the memory.
Austin: Me, too. And then I-
Jack: But we get the fun-
Austin: I looked at the move. I went back.
Jack: Oh, cool.
Austin: I went back and looked at... Your sheet from The Veil [light laugh] says, ‘after a gift from your disease manifests itself, roll symptoms. [laughs] Your symptoms is three.’ Uh, so trigger-
Jack: Is that good?
Austin: No. ‘After a gift from your disease manifests itself, roll plus symptoms. On a ten plus, the MC chooses one and your symptoms manifest themselves well. On a seven to nine, the MC chooses two from the- from the seven to nine list below. On a seven to nine, I may only choose one.’ Um, so do you want to just do this in The Veil? Is that what we should- We should do that, right?
Jack: Yeah. Let’s-
Austin: This move still exists. You’re still that character. You didn’t like-
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: -you didn’t shake this. This isn’t- you know?
Jack: Yeah, this is actually really important, I think.
Austin: Yes.
Jack: Like, we moved on from that character sheet. Fourteen did not. Um-
Austin: Right. That is what this- that is what this disease is for you, right?
Jack: Yeah. Roll 2d6 plus three.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Oh.
Austin: That’s an eleven. So, um, the pain hits, take one harm. So, we’re gonna need you to have a harm on top of whatever harm you may already have in that-
Jack: Ok. I’ll go back to my other-
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: -character sheet.
Austin: Yeah, you can swing back over to the other sheet.
Jack: Oh no, I don’t have any harm right now, so I’m- I’m good.
Austin: Ok, well, so then take a level one harm. We’ll figure out what that is in a second.
Jack: Uh hm.
Austin: Um, so… and your symptoms manifest. And one of those symptoms is um- Alright, so your symptoms now are- it’s replacing and/or eradicating your memories.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: One. Two, you’re being replaced or incorporated into the veil. Two. Uh, are you there still?
Jack: Uh huh. Yeah, I’m here.
Austin: Alright, sorry. You got- you got a little robot-y for a- for a moment. Which third thing, there is a noticeable change to your dermis .
Jack: Woah. For real? That’s what it says?
Austin: That’s your- that’s your third symptom, which means- So, one, I don’t know that- I think may- or maybe it was only- maybe it was we were marking both of those as like, evidence of both of those things happening.
Jack: Like a transformation.
Austin: Yeah. But I kind of like the notion, like what if you just have weird, metal skin?
Jack: So, is this- Yeah. So, I mean-
Austin: What if you’re- So, we- You’ve never been in a synthetic body, have you?
Jack: I mean, so this is like- this is the thing with Fourteen which is like, I assume that they have.
Austin: Right.
Jack: We have- we haven’t seen it on screen, and they might not even remember times where they were.
Austin: Right.
Jack: I don’t want to say they’ve never been in a synthetic body before, but the fact that we’ve never seen them in a synthetic body is perhaps telling.
Austin: Right. What if this is-
Jack: Um, yeah-
Austin: -a synthetic body?
Jack: Yeah. I kind of- [exhales] and this is- this is more of a stylized thing than anything else, but like, I don’t want to stray too close to pala-din here-
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: -in terms of like, a synthetic, armored unit.
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: But part of that can be like, how we describe the visuals of this character, and how the characterization comes- comes through. So, I’m not super worried about that. But yeah, love the- What if I’m just a- what if I’m just a cool robot?
Austin: Ok. Um, so your sy- your symptoms are now plus four. This is it.
Jack: Ok. I see.
Austin: Yes. So, you’re up to four.
Jack: Wow. This actually works pretty well, given-
Austin: It does. Yeah.
Jack: -the framing that we have here.
Austin: It totally does. So, but what does- because I had an eleven, I get to one, the pain hits, you’re gonna take one harm.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: We’ll figure out what that harm is in a second. Two, everything fades- uh, then two, I get to choose two from the list below. ‘Everything fades to black as you pass out, you lose control over blank, one of your symptoms manifests itself in a big way, or you lose track of blank.’ Now here’s the other thing. Um, I- you do gain a new symptom on top of the ones you have already.
Jack: Mmm.
Austin: So, the remaining options available from The Veil are, ‘your physiology produces cytotoxin when blank, you’re turning into some other form of organic life through metamorphosis, your body is rejecting cybernetic implants and/or your neurochip, and you have a mentally projection only you can see with its own agenda.’
Jack: Um, maybe this is a case where we- where we- where given this, we could talk about it and go over this in the next episode.
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: Does this have to happen now? I- I don’t know whether or not-
Austin: Oh, it has to happen before you… I’m fine with this, as long as it’s something that- that like, we retroactively make sure if it makes sense for. But like, it should happen before you’re onscreen in a big way again.
Jack: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.
Austin: Because it would effect that.
Jack: I just- I feel like-
Austin: Well, the other thing is, if I knew what it was, I could choose one of your symptoms manifests itself in a big way, and with- I mean I- I could do that anyway with the current symptoms. And maybe that’s- maybe that is what I do, and I actually just do that with one of the established ones. Um, I- Oh, so, we should talk about what memories you lose because that’s the important part of the- the kind of-
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: -core disease.
Jack: I want to find something that sits between an easy option, which is saying Fourteen forgets something that we as the listeners have no understanding of or connection to, but is important to Fourteen. Which doesn’t make it any less valid, but it makes it narratively sort of simpler, almost to say like, Fourteen forgets a specific day ten years ago or something.
Austin: Right. Right.
Jack: The- the other side of that, which I’m equally not as interested in is we say something like, Fourteen forgets Waltz Tango Cache, which is- throws narrative wrenches in the works, but is both kind of neat- too neat for like a- like a third act thing of just saying like, ‘Oh, Fourteen doesn't know who this character is.’
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: And also kind of flies in the face of the way we’ve been describing this incarnation of Fourteen taking notes and- and trying to keep on top of things.
Austin: I mean, I guess it does, but I- it also… I have two thoughts there. One is notes are a way for people who- for everybody to keep track of things. Those who have varying degrees of memory loss included. Right? Um, I- I don’t think the fisher- that the fisherman was saying like, ‘Hey, if you’re losing your mem-’ I mean, the fisherman was kind of saying, ‘Hey, you should take notes because there’s a chance you’ll lose an important memory and you’ll have notes, at least then, right?’
Jack: Yeah, yeah.
Austin: I get the cle- the cleanness really- the cleanness argument does appeal to me that like, ‘hey, if you forget who Grand Mag is-’ ‘hey, if you forget who Waltz Tango Cache is-’ that’s like- we always try to go a little step- like, one step to the left of on the nose, you know?
Jack: What about someone like Activation Stevenson?
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: And not just him, but um, that man who Fourteen met on the pier with his son?
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Uh, who had the son. And even beyond them, just a list- a list of people that Fourteen would come to and visit ostensibly not out of obligation, but clearly out of obligation.
Austin: Right.
Jack: Um, you know, clearly out of, ‘I’m a Castlerose assassin, and I need something from you.’
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: ‘We’ve been friends for a long time.’ Um, you know, like a- a woman pushing a kid in a pram or like, an elderly professor in- in some place. And- and in this moment, that- that resource- that- those- those connections that, looked at in the cold light of day and looked at by Fourteen, the Body Politic,-
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: -Fourteen would be able to say like, ‘I’m- I was using those people- those- those people.’
Austin: Right.
Jack: Um, that obligation is- is gone. And that obligation is gone, not just for Fourteen, but for those people as well. And I feel like that is a- that is a middle ground there.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: It makes- it makes sense.
Austin: I- [exhales] I- The- Here is a- Here is my- my one fear about this is is I don’t want- It is a really easy alibi to stop remembering that you were a killer in a utopia.
Jack: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: And I don’t-
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: That’s what doesn’t sit right for me about-
Jack: To say-
Austin: -’I forgot that I used to exploit people.’ Um, because-
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: -that forces Fourteen to not have to confront that.
Jack: To say, oh that- Well, it’s- it’s actually the- the same thing as we were saying about moving on from the character sheet, right? You know, like-
Austin: Right, right.
Jack: -Fourteen did that. That is still there for Fourteen.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Yeah, you’re right. Um, but it- And the danger there is that we just move into this broad thing of like, well, Fourteen forgets a bunch of stuff.
Austin: [laughs] Right. Exactly.
Jack: Which is not really- That’s, you know- that’s-
Austin: And it’s not how we described the- the mechanic working or the-
Jack: No.
Austin: -the mechanism- not the mechanic, but the mechanism of their memory loss has not been, ‘here is a-’ I mean, again, it’s definitely in our power as narrators, especially given the move, or the- the wording, ‘one of your symptoms manifests itself in a big way’ to be as broad as we want here. Um, and I- [exhales] Two things here. One, we could go really big. Which is Fourteen remembers they did some work for Castlerose and knows that it was bad and doesn’t remember any of it specifically, but is left with that lingering like, ‘I was a bad person for a long time, but now I’m with this life.’
The other thing we could do is to re-introduce certain memories at this moment. And have it be about the instability of memory-loss in which, in this form, in this- specifically this synthetic form, right? Suddenly there is an accountability or there is a um- you have- you gain access.
Jack: Cause it does say ‘memories are eradicated or-’ There’s another word in there, isn’t it?
Austin: Replacing and/or eradicating your memories. I mean, that’s the other one. We could invent memories. Things- Fourteen could remember things happening differently than they happened.
Jack: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: Like, is there a world in which Fourteen- and- and maybe this is happy for Fourteen in a sense, right? In which Fourteen remembers being less severe with Sho. [Jack exhales] Is there a world in which Fourteen remembers themselves being- being a better killer than they were? [laughs] Uh, or being-
Jack: Just being like, ‘oh, I was the best at that.’
Austin: Or being the person who wasn’t exploiting people and was actually friends with Activation Stevenson.
Jack: Yeah. Yeah, this is the way to go, right? The way to go-
Austin: I think so.
Jack: -I feel is- is this alteration. Is this- is this- Yeah.
Austin: Though does that lean too much in the tragedy direction? I think it can, and we should make sure it doesn’t.
Jack: Yes. I think something like- I’m interested in the narrative implications of Fourteen knowing that they did some work for Castlerose, but not- knowing that it sucked. Knowing that it was- that it was-
Austin: [light laugh] Yeah.
Jack: -that there- that there was- that there is a shadow there. That there is like a shade there. And presumably knowing what Castlerose is, as an agency. In the same way-
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: -that other characters go, ‘Oh, Castlerose assassins.’
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: But never quite knowing like, ‘Was I a broker? Was I like a-? What did I- what did I do there?’ And- and on the one hand, that opens the door to- to discomfort and tragedy, and it’s important not to go, ‘Well, that doesn’t happen.’ Cause it does.
Austin: [light laugh] Right.
Jack: Um, you know, that’s there. But at the same time, if we’re talking about Fourteen as this character who for the last year or so spent time trying to you know, plant seeds and- and nurture things and has now begun to realize that there’s ways you can do that and still have a sword in your hand-
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: -um, the idea of Fourteen saying, ‘I have this nebulus shape that is- that is nipping at my heels, and I can use that information in some- I have to choose how to use that information in some way.’
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: -feels resonant. I don’t know. How do you feel?
Austin: [inhales deeply] I- I- I think we’re in the right direction. I think the thing- the thing that gets us to the end game of what you just suggested, which is this sort of like, sword in one hand, book in the other, should be about filling in a particular memory or set of memories at Castlerose that- [exhales] Like, you know, maybe it is an invented story. Like, there’s a degree to which I like the idea of like, ‘oh, right. I’m going to raise the sword on behalf of good and also be a- a um, a thinker and a- and a person of society.’ -um, that is grounded in a version of some of their work with Castlerose that did not exist.
That is like, ‘ah, yes. I was- I was too- I was- The shadow of Castlerose was- was dark, but when I think about it, these good moments were the ones that stood out.’ And like, no, those good moments were not- You’re- You were remembering a brighter version of yourself than you ever were.
Jack: Ok.
Austin: Which is- which almost is in line with the Quire stuff in a weird way, right?
Jack: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What about this? Fourteen did two jobs for Castlerose.
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: That was it. One- one [Austin laughs] One contract.
Austin: Uh huh.
Jack: Which went pretty well. And then one piece of follow up work which went pretty well. And then that was it. And I think when Fourteen- [sighs] You know when you wake up after you’ve had a nightmare that you can’t remember?
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: And you’re like, ‘I slept through the night’, but there’s this sort of pull- there’s this sort of shape. Fourteen can say, ‘I did the first job. It went well. I did the second job. It went well. I got out of the business.’
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: And there’s still this thing there that they can’t quite get. But I- the idea of being like, ‘Yes, I was a Castlerose assassin twice.’
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: We don’t know they’re not- We- we, as storytellers, don’t know the number of people that Fourteen killed-
Austin: I have a guess.
Jack: -while at Castlerose. But like-
Austin: I’d say like, fourteen? Fifteen?
Jack: [laughs] Right. Yeah, exactly. Um, but you know, rendering as- as thousands, hundreds, tens of units.
Austin: [laughing lightly] Yes, right. Yes, exactly. Who could say?
Jack: It’s- it’s a big number, and it’s a really unpleasant number.
Austin: Right, so instead, it’s just like, yeah, I had this period of life.’ Let’s go from- Can you we go- go from two to three? Can we do like, a good one, a bad one, a good one?
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Like a Fiasco ending? [light laugh]
Jack: Yeah. [light laugh] Yeah. But that wouldn’t be-
Austin: White die, black die, white die.
Jack: I also want to make sure that like, this is not- this is not a position of naivety. Fourteen doesn’t feel the pull-
Austin: Right.
Jack: -and go, ‘that’s nothing to worry about.’
Austin: Right.
Jack: It’s- it’s the opposite of that. Fourteen remembers the three and feels the pull and goes, ‘Alright. Ok. Alright. Something is gone here.’
Austin: [laughs] Right.
Jack: Fourteen- Fourteen knows that they lose stuff, as well. That’s-
Austin: Yes, a hundred percent. And- and they have notes that say as much now, right?
Jack: Yes.
Austin: I mean, now they probably have notes that say, ‘when I did the blank job’ and that note refers to a memory they don’t have anymore.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Right?
Jack: Yeah. Yeah, I think that a lot. I think the idea of- of taking this assassin who is- who has such volume behind them.
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: And having that volume, not be reduced to three hits, because it hasn’t gone away.
Austin: No, but it’s- but it’s transparent now, right? It’s like, you used to be carrying around a- a gigantic like, you know, five liter water cooler sized you know, uh, thing of like, of tea. And it was brown and murky. And it’s- now it’s water. And you can see through it. You- you know- or it’s like, it’s the same amount, but poured into individuals jugs, and it’s just wa- And it’s just water. And you’re like, ‘ah, mm. I can’t make out the shape of these things-’
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: -anymore.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: ‘And I think there used to be more of it, but mmm.’
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: Alright. I like that a lot. Um, so I think that’s- that’s the manifest- the symptom manifesting in a big way. And then I also think you just- Here’s what I’ll say. I think you lost track of time. When we come back to you for the downtime, it will have already been a week.
Jack: Oh god. [laughs]
Austin: Alright. Cool. Who is next?
Art: Um, I could go.
Austin: Alright. I think yours is really easily.
Art: Sure.
Austin: Um, you’re in the other half of that room that- that uh, that ⸢Signet⸣ is in. What was Grand’s favorite meal ever?
Art: Oh, this- that’s not a question you just ask me.
Austin: Ok.
Art: Well, I just did- I did a very good job of this two years ago. [light laugh]
Austin: Ah, right. Fair.
Art: What would a mech designer who lives in a place that’s always changing like to eat?
Austin: Some sort of fusion something?
Keith: Potted-lobster.
Dre: Corn dogs.
Keith: Gushers. Fruit gushers.
Dre: Mmm.
Ali: What’s the- Art keeps doing pasta. What’s the pasta that’s like, just pepper and um like, parmesan cheese?
Art: I don’t know.
Keith: All the pasta I’ve ever had was flour.
Ali: N- [exhales]
Art: No, what?
Ali: Frickin’ [laughs]
Art: Like, it’s like black pepper and yeah, and uh, and- and pecorino, right?
Ali: Yeah, and it’s like, just that, and it’s just about the like, purity of those ingredients.
Keith: Cacio e pepe?
Ali: Yes. Yes.
Keith: Is that what it is?
Ali: Yes.
Keith: Got it.
Art: Yeah, a place by me does a really good job at that. But that’s- We’re definitely not there. [Ali laughs] We’re definitely not- Although- although actually like, this kind of thing is- Like there’s an Italian place near me that’s an Italian place that’s from New Orleans’, so it’s like-
Austin: This is- Yeah.
Art: -Italian-New Orlean’s fusion.
Austin: Yeah, this is- That- Yeah, that is like, one hundred percent. I definitely had L.A. in my mind when I said- when you said what would a mech designer like to eat. Like, especially the artist side of it, where it’s like, it’s that blend of authenticity and also things costing too much money, you know?
Art: Sure, so I think my answer is it’s a ha- it’s like a- it’s like an appetizer order of that, and an o- and an oyster po’boy-
Austin: Mmm.
Art: -which is a hundred percent a meal you can get at this restaurant. And it’s great.
Austin: That sounds good.
Dre: [quietly] Does sound good.
Austin: So, you’re having that, and let me tell you something real quick, and this is gonna maybe say something very clear. The sky is blue. And there is a sun.
Art: Mm.
Austin: Not-
Art: Mm.
Austin: Not this bullshit, Our Prophet has a ship that’s a fake sun. There’s the sun. And um, and you stay there. And you’re eating. And you’re laughing. And there are people that you do not recognize there from all sorts of alien species, including the ones we’ve seen like, Gigas and Kitcha Kanna’s. Including other humans. And you are no- [laughs] You are nowhere near the mirage. You’re- Or the mirage is gone. Pick your- Pick your poison. Um, but you are not- The mirage is behind you. You are happy, and you are well-fed and well-paid and safe. That is the future you see.
Art: Cool.
Austin: I think it’s probably fair to say that like, just the- There’s a version of this that’s just like, ‘Oh, how- Well, those are the aliens I recognize.’ But we would probably go further than that and say, ‘You’re in Advent space, wherever you are.’
Art: Uh hm.
Austin: And do you want to take the wound or the resolve check?
Art: Well, my stress is at zero because I just took a status, so I-
Austin: True.
Art: -think I’ll resist this one.
Austin: Sounds good.
Art: It’s resolve, yeah?
Austin: Yeah, resolve. You got a five, so you take one stress from this.
Art: Alright.
Austin: Um, we should note that you now have an obsession, also separately, right?
Art: Yeah. I have obsessed, and I am obsessed with getting enough money to retire.
Austin: Well, right now you have three credits in your stash, so-
Art: I have two in my- my- I’m gonna move those two over.
Austin: Ok, I gotcha. Cool. Alright. Um, who is next? Is it- is Sylvia the only one left? Is-
Sylvia: I think so?
Austin: I think that might be right. Let me look at my notes. I think that that’s right. Yeah. So, you actually also have a status now, right?
Sylvia: Yes.
Austin: Um, do you just sort of drag yourself back to- Oh right, you snuck out of the hospital, right?
Sylvia: Yeah, and then I begrudgingly called someone to pick me-
Austin: To pick you up, yeah.
Sylvia: -cause I didn’t want to worry them.
Austin: Where are you at in the ship again?
Sylvia: I think I was in one of the like, fishing roo- like, the supplies that had like the fishing stuff in it-
Austin: Yes, that’s correct.
Sylvia: -cause I was using a net as a hammack-
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: -is the one thing I very vividly remember.
Austin: A hundred percent. Yes. Definitely. Um, so can you be like, doing some workout- like, kata-type shit?
Sylvia: Hell yeah, I can, Austin.
Austin: Alright. Good. [Dre laughs] So, I think in between strikes, you’re getting snapshots from Quire and Crystal Palace. This kind of blend. I think there’s- there are like, dueling snapshots, in a sense, now that you’re haunted by Quire, of what’s ahead for the Qui Err coalition. Which one, it’s the Qui Err coalition now and not the Qui Err assembly. The assembly was just the group on Moonlock.
Now that group on Moonlock has hooked up with- or- or I guess, in your vision, over the next few weeks, basically, they are going to have hooked up with the group on- on Skein with- with Parhelia and its associated- uh, the associated regents. And you get a vision of the Qui Err coalition launching the Sky Reflected in Mirrors off of Moonlock, which um, is a thing they’ve been working on behind the scenes. I’ve been rolling dice for them to do that between every arc.
Um, they- And then from that, with that they will activate something inside of that ship to help them retake Moonlock. But then you also see a tension sparking between them and members of first, the NEH, but also Seneschal’s Brace, who can’t quite figure out what to do with the Qui Err. Or how to respond to them. But then you also see that the community on Skein grows. And what was once just a single metropolis with a kind of associated smaller townships, regents throughout the continent that it’s on, becomes a kind of sprawling nation until itself.
And then the rest of your visions are this kind of blend of seeing what all of the other factions- how the other factions are- are kind of responding to the arrival of the Qui Err. So, one of the shots you see is um, the Waking Cadent’s Beloved Nights, who are Massilia d”Argent, ⸢Blooming⸣ , somebody you don’t recognize or that you can’t quite see because I don’t know who that fourth one is yet.
Could be one of you. I don’t know. And one of them is someone who only you recognize, I think. Or no, I think anybody else on the ground team would recognize is Alekhine is there. Is one of the Beloved Nights, formerly independent Alekhine. And they are fighting alongside the Qui Err coalition. So, the Waking Cadent has thrown in with the Qui Err.
Um, and you see them kind of in space, in mechs fighting alongside the Sky Reflected in Mirrors in this fight against Advent and some other forces. And um, there’s a point at which you see- you can kind of see in the cockpit, I’d say, of Massalia’s mech that there is basically a clock ticking down. And when it hits zero, they disengage, and you can see the fleet of the Waking Cadent leaving because you know, in all of her glory, with all of her belief that the just thing is to give the entire system to the Qui Err, her priority is to convince the remaining people in the Divine Free States here to leave. To give up on this place and leave. And she is committed to that.
You see Our Prophet, the- the leader of the Church of the Self and big portions of the um, the NEH in front of a map that is like, the map of the system. And you can kind of see parts of Skein and all of Moonlock turn from NEH blue to the Qui Err coalition’s burgundy, grey, and white. And you can see her, but you also see her at the grand opening of the first Church of the Self in Qui Err territory. So, there’s like, a little give- a little- little back and forth there. You see Declan’s Corrective and the Cadent Under Mirage staring at a similar map. And they keep like, trying- trying to draw out different border alignments that make everybody happy, and they just like, can’t do it.
It’s just like, staring at and like, flipping through various rejected maps- or like, not even flipping through, I think literally they have physical print out maps that they’re like, ‘Nope, this one, big ‘X’ on it. This one, you know, the- the NEH you know, corporations rejected it. This one, the you know, Count Aram Nideo rejected from- from the DFS. This one was rejected by so and so.’ And like, they just can’t figure out the way to cut up this- this region, this whole system in a way that makes everybody happy, which seems to be their goal. Um, you see Count Aram Nideo, who for people who don’t remember, is the person who had ⸢Signet⸣ do- get like, some laundry or groceries or something in the very first episode of the Beloved side.
Janine: It was a cake, right?
Austin: It was a cake, yeah.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: If- In the descriptions here and there, Nideo has slowly been raising in stature. He was originally a Note and then a High Note, and now he’s a Count. All of the Divine Free States bureaucrats have like, musical notation ranks. As a thing that’s slowly been happening in the background in weird episode descriptions and stuff. And in any case, he’s a Count now, and he- You see him meeting up with Templeton’s Faire, who is you might recall is like, this shitty admiral of the NEH navy, space navy.
And they’re meeting up in this kind of- You know, we’ve talked about the Brink as being a cool, kind of um, shadow broker-y, sort of like Omega in Mass Effect 2, right? Like, oh- it’s like, cool bars, and like- it’s kind of like a truck stop a little bit. Kind of has like, some charm to it. And it’s run by trustworthy spies. Um, well, there’s a place that’s called and is- is the machine Arbitrage, which is the opposite of that. Which is cold and chrome and heartless. And you see them go into a room, a negotiation room there where the two of them- again, this is
Count Nideo, who is one of the chief bureaucrats of the Divine Free States and Templeton’s Faire, on of the- the chief military officers of the NEH- meeting up with Kitcha Kanna, from Advent. And I mean, you can kind of just see it pretty clear- clearly. Um, and I think part of this is just that Quire is translating the- the signal for you in a weird way. Or at least is- is giving you its interpretation of the signal from- from Crystal Palace.
They are making a deal with Kitcha Kinna to be the aggressor because they can’t convince their people to be the aggressor against the Qui Err. And so, they are basically together, despite being at odds with each other, agreeing that Advent should be who fights on their behalf against the Qui Err. Um, and you know, they’ll- they’ll slide some resources to Advent’s way.
Keith: Sorry, it’s the Advent and who?
Austin: It’s- it’s everybody. It’s the D- it’s the Divine Free States. It’s NEH. It’s- and it’s those two paying Advent to go after the Qui Err.
Ali: Hm.
Austin: Because these bureaucrats in both the NEH and the DFS know that they cannot either con- convince the people at the very top, either Our Prophet or the Cadent Under Mirage or the Waking Cadent or Declan’s Corrective, any of the major powers at the very top, none of them are like, ‘we should go to war and fuck up the Qui Err’.
And very few people at the low end would say that that’s the right thing to do, but everybody involved- it- the Qui Err are a thorn in their side, and so these kind of mid-level assholes in the bureaucracy and the- the kind of military, kind of career military officers have decided that the best way to do this is to force- is to push on the Qui Err with Advent as a- as a disinterested third party that allows them to keep their hands clean. And then finally, I think this is what makes you make this roll, if you want to or you can just- you can just take the level one- uh, for you, it would be a level two because you already have-
Sylvia: That’s what I was gonna ask.
Austin: -both level ones. You have Bruised and Pummeled as your level one harms. So, this would be a level two harm for you. You’re there. You’re on the Sky Reflected in Mirrors. Or your- your- your vision is of the- not the cockpit, but like, the bridge of the Sky Reflected in Mirrors. Because you kind of like, see the cool, huge dome around this floating city in space.
And you see that the person- um, you kind of see an empty captain’s chair, and you can see a little cape that’s been kind of cut off and is like, on the ground and the camera kind of comes up and it- it’s uh, the Annex. It’s- it’s Iota Pretense, the leader of the Qui Err um, assembly part of the coalition um, getting kicked to the ground and then killed by Ballad Reverie, your older brother.
Sylvia: Cool.
Austin: I think that is where you have to make a roll or take the wound.
Sylvia: Um, I guess I’ll do it. I’ll take the- I’ll do the roll.
Austin: Alright, so that’s a resolve-
Sylvia: With my one in resolve.
Austin: -with your one resolve. Alright. Love to get stressed immediately. [Dre laughs]
Sylvia: I mean, you know. We got down time coming up.
Austin: You do have down time.
Sylvia: Ah!
Austin: Alright, so you take- you take two stress. You rolled a four. That’s not bad.
Sylvia: I can live with that.
Austin: Yeah, totally. Alright, so that is your entanglement for this round. Um, but there, again, there’s a little bit left here, right? So, we have to figure out- what’s going on with Fourteen, and we have to figure out what’s up with- with the Waking Cadent, Tender, and ⸢Signet⸣. Um, and then we’ll get to like, actions. So, I’m gonna be very broad, I think here. Tender and ⸢Signet⸣, I think it’s maybe unspoken.
I think you know, I’ve drawn on some David Lynch stuff this season. I think the Waking Cadent is very David Lynch-y in some ways, in a similar way Acre Seven can be. And I think this is an unspoken sequence. It’s like one of those sequences from Twin Peaks: The Return, where Cooper is just in like, the weird purple like, greyscale place, and no one is talking, and it’s just like, wandering- like, looking at shit.
Um, and what the Waking Cadent does for you is kind of build you a- or like, using her cool powers of- of ice and uh, and crystal- like those are her two big things- She’s kind of taken over Privign’s station and turned it into her own temple and ship- And using ice and- and these- and crystal, she builds you a model of the By-and-By as it was in space originally, not now as it’s wrapped around Seneschal’s Brace. And kind of paints you a picture reviving Anticipation and directs you to the planet Altar. You know there is like- I think she builds like a- kind of a um, a fairly large structure that looks like the planet Altar, but made of ice instead of sand and dust and dirt and you know, there’s-
I don’t know if I’ve- remember if- if I’ve mentioned this, but like, Altar is covered in tombs and monuments and each of the little relics that was on Seance has kind of scattered across the planet, and many of them have become- like, they hit the ground and the kind of divine power inside of them sprouted entire structures around them. And so, one of those is the temple or the mausoleum or the- the cathedral or the catacombs of Anticipation. And there is a relic there that she shows you she has the power to turn back into the divine, Anticipation. And this is her offer to the two of you.
Um, and to prove that she means it, you see ⸢Blooming⸣ enter the room. This- or that- this kind of- You’re in her temple space, but also in this weird middle ground stratus like, mind space, and she brings ⸢Blooming⸣ in. And walking behind ⸢Blooming⸣ is the d- or hovering behind ⸢Blooming⸣ maybe is the divine, Compulsion, which she crafted out of the axiom, Compel. Which Massalia recovered after y’all fled all of that. [Ali makes uncomfortable noise and then laughs] Uh huh.
Ali: Cool.
Austin: That was really fun moment during my drawing maps stream when I rolled to successfully make a divine and got like, a bunch of really good rolls. It was fwoof- didn’t expect it. [Ali and Sylvia laugh lightly] Expected it to be a thing before the finale. I think I got like a crit or like, two sixes or something, so. Um, I don’t what that- What- what Compulsion looks like. Any i- Any cool ideas for a design for a mech called Compulsion, or a divine named Compulsion.
Art: I want it to have like, a really detailed pattern carved in it, right?
Austin: Yeah.
Art: Or like- or like, the script from those notebooks from Seven. Like, something where it’s just like- so you do like a really intricate great pattern or the opposite of that.
Austin: Or the terrifying opposite of that.
Art: Right.
Austin: It could be like they made-
Art: Depending on how- how good you want- quote, unquote ‘good’ you want this to look.
Austin: Right. I mean, it could be something like the name of every other divine, including ones not inside of the Divine Fleet etched in it.
Art: Sure.
Austin: In this really cool pattern. In a kind of single line. Like, it starts at the forehead and there is like, a circle there that represents you know- there’s like- there is some sort of character in the forehead. Um, whether that’s like a clear English letter or something else. But then like, it- in a single script that goes from there and wraps around the entire body of the entire divine. And this is absolutely a humanoid mech. Waking Cadent is all about humanoid mechs. She really loves the human figure. She thinks that humans are important, etcetera.
Art: I would like to apologize really quick again that every idea I’ve had this season has just been just horrible for fan artists. I’m just- all my ideas are like, ‘what if it was really hard to draw?’ [Austin, Keith, and Ali laugh]
Austin: But then like, from the forehead all the way across, all the way down every limb is an unbroken line of text. Of- of script, writing from one name to another. You know the obvious thing on the forehead is Rigour, but that seems too on the nose.
Ali: Hmm.
Austin: You know? [light laugh] I- But maybe it is. Maybe it’s a line. Do you know what I mean? Maybe it’s like, Rigour, Liberty, Discovery, Righteousness, and then down and down and down and down and down and down and down.
Keith: So, it’s like- it’s like a biblical list of descendants.
Austin: Yeah, it’s like- Ex- That’s- Yes.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: It’s literally like be- begot.
Keith: Yeah, it’s begot.
Austin: It’s so-and-so begot so-and-so, you know? Um, I kind of love it.
Ali: I like the idea of like, the limbs being really long though, even though it’s human.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Like, I at least like-
Austin: [overlapping] Yeah, what’s that one-
Ali: I imagine it always like, lurching almost.
Austin: Yeah, what’s that-
Janine: You know, um-
Keith: Yeah, that was my first-
Janine: Laput- Laputa [la-pyu-ta] Castle in the Sky?
Austin: Uh hm.
Janine: Or La- Laputa [la-pu-ta] Castle in the Sky where they have-
Austin: I don’t think it’s La- Laputa. [la-pu-ta] [light laugh] I don’t think it’s- [Sylvia laughs]
Janine: Well, I mean, Japanese, they don’t have a- It’s not pyu, it’s pu, right? So-
Austin: Right. That’s true. That’s true. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Janine: Um, the- But they had like, very, very long, but also very flat segmented arms.
Austin: Uh hm.
Janine: Maybe something kind of like that, if you want it kind of-
Austin: Yeah, that’d be cool.
Janine: -kind of like, a long extension-y thing.
Austin: I don’t really like Warhammer 40K like, designs a lot, but every now and then you see like, a Warhammer marine that has like, a- um like, vestments on. Do you know what I mean? That has like, a long white scarf or like, a cape or other sorts of fabric. And I- I really like the notion of like, the long arms, but then also long is this kind of long, white like, almost- almost a scarf or there’s another word for- for what I’m talking about- not a sash, but like, a vestment stole. Uh, if you type in stole, type in stole vestment. [typing]
Keith: Oh, like East- like Easter. Like, Preaster.
Austin: Like- Yeah, like preaster. Yeah, exactly. [Dre laughs] So yeah. So that is- that is what y’all see. Um, and I think when you return to your selves, in your minds, the information on like, where to go and what to do is sent to you very clearly. And you’re told that a contact that the Waking Cadent trusts one Sho Salon will happily guide you there.
Ali: Ok. [laughs]
Austin: So, little preview of what’s to come for y’all two. Um, Fourteen.
Jack: Hello.
Austin: Who are you now?
Jack: So, I wake in- Yeah, in a- in a bed with- with sort of- a sort of a protective glass apparatus around it.
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: In the Restitution of All Things?
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: I did not expect this. This is not-
Austin: You’re there now.
Jack: This is not something Fourteen saw- saw coming. Um, and I guess this is also something that Our Prophet did not anticipate. Presumably Our Prophet-
Austin: Correct.
Jack: -wanted bodies. Wanted like-
Austin: So, yeah, I think you’re in a room that is filled with other bodies. Um, behind glass or you know what? I- I think it’s actually just more on brand for this ship that is partially made of metal and partially made of light, like hard light-
Jack: Mmm.
Austin: -for you to be behind a screen of light. Um, and to touch it, it feels like running water.
Jack: And is this the case that what- what happened here to get me here- if another Castlerose agent died, would they be sent while the loophole is still open? Or was the loophole open for such a brief amount of time that-
Austin: I think the loop- the loophole opens because of all of the things we just talked about.
Jack: It’s like-
Austin: Because of the combination of the Crystal Palace signal plus Our Prophet, plus the Restitution of All Things firing its weapon to blind Crystal Palace. Um, plus I think you’re the first one. I think that’s actually the most important thing. You’re the first one, at this point. I think everybody who is a crystal- er a Castlerose agent was like, ‘wahh, you know what? Life seems good.’ I don’t know that Castlerose still has the apparatus up and running.
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: In fact, in fact, we know- Uh, so, you know, I don’t know if Fourteen Fifteen has a sort of ‘Grosse Pointe Blank’ style like, um, [light laugh] association of bounty hunters and assassins that they’re a part of. Um-
Jack: Maybe they were, but they refuse to join.
Austin: Sure. So, yeah, that makes sense. In that group, people- people have been talking a lot lately about how the Qui Err assembly had retaken that technology and has been over the last couple of months, trying to figure out how to generate completely new bodies, almost like-
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: -procedurally generating new people of the Qui Err like, race basically- or- or species. And so like, no one has been putting themselves that far in harm’s danger. So, I think you’re the first one to come- to go through it probably? And you’re certainly the first one to go through it since- since Our Prophet arrived. Right? Our Prophet arrived yesterday, so no other Castlerose agents have died between now and then.
Jack: Right.
Austin: Good job, being the first. Uh-
Jack: So, this is- this is officially my last- my last body.
Austin: I mean, unless you take over this ship that’s filled with-
Jack: Right. And- and-
Austin: -soldiers.
Jack: Yeah. Um, and somehow manage to get the system working for me again.
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: So, I think the first thing that Fourteen notices is that um, where the Body Politic was- was sort of small and- and little, this is- this is no longer the case. [Austin laughs] Um, they are like a- they like a-
Keith: You’re really small. Really little.
Jack: I’m tiny. I’m- I fall straight out of the bed between the fabric. [Keith laughs]
Austin: [laughs] Wow. [Jack and Sylvia laugh]
Jack: No, I’m very small. Um, no. I’m like, beefy.
Ali: Mm.
Jack: Um, Fourteen is now like, like a big person. And second thing Fourteen notices is that they are damn robot. Um, I don’t quite know how to describe the robot in part because- because this is probably a new model of Earth robot that we haven’t seen before. This definitely isn’t like a torch unit. Um, it’s not like a new sort of torch unit, but I think it’s probably adjacent. There’s something similar to the torch unit here in terms of- probably in terms of the way they move and in terms of um, the way the joints- the joints work.
They way the uh, the limbs attach to the torso. And perhaps this new body isn’t quite as- as gigantic as the- as the real big torch units because those are pretty- pretty massive, I think. Um, but this is a- this is a large, square uh, robot. In terms of how they look, the Met Gala was yesterday.
Austin: Uh huh, that’s true.
Jack: So, uh, I’ve been thinking a lot about um, what this incarnation of- of Fourteen looks like, and how they behave. And I think that their almost like a knight. In that they’re like, a stalwart sort of- just a big, stalwart character. It’s hard to-
Austin: Like Arthurian knight? Not like, a-
Jack: Yeah, like a-
Austin: -thirteenth century, crusader knight?
Jack: Yeah, like- Like, yeah, like an Arthurian knight. Like a- like a sort of a- a chivalric Knight of the Round Table-
Austin: Right.
Jack: -Lancelot sort of- sort of figure. It’s hard to sort of say exactly- exactly how this character is- is because in all of the previous bodies that we’ve jumped into, we jumped into them sort of active.
Austin: Right.
Jack: Um, you know, we- we were able to see Worthy of Grace as the opera singer. And we were able to- to pretty quickly establish that something really weird was going on with the Body Politic. But with this new body, which I think is called um- I wrote it down. Uh, Car- Carcanet’s Ironclad.
Austin: Mmm.
Jack: A carcanet is a sort of like, jeweled necklace. Um, it’s-
Austin: It’s like a heavy necklace, too, right? Like it’s- When I think of a carcanet from- I think of like, the like, crowned jewels. Like- like a heavy-
Jack: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: -metal and jeweled like, necklace.
Jack: In that way that medieval jewelry when it got really intense was like, extremely intense.
Austin: Right.
Jack: Um, very Met Gala. Very like-
Austin: Yeah.
Jack: Very over the top, but in a very like, ornate- ornate, rich- rich way.
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: And perhaps the armor that- that Carcanet’s Ironclad wears is even something that the robot sort of bolts onto themself, you know? Think- I think we’re almost looking at a robot wearing armor. Not in the way that all of Earth’s robots wear armor that they have like, reinforced plating, but um, that this unit, the robot in the bed or the booth or the like, the robot bay or something- I don’t- I don’t quite know what this- this is where I am. Perhaps the robot in there is- is still big, but slightly sparser. There are almost pieces of it missing, and we can see them almost like a medieval knight would keep their armor. We can see them beside- beside the booth.
Um, I’m trying to think if there’s anything, any other sort of visual cues that I’m thinking of. I’m thinking of Earth’s torch units meets someone really beefy meets Joan of Arc meets I guess, like Zendaya from the Met Gala last night. And I think we just get this image of Fourteen sort of gaining consciousness in this robot. I’m not sure whether or not they have features, humanoid features. We’ll need to get into this in the future. Fourteen just awakening and- and realizing, ‘I’m- I’m on the Restitution of All Things. And I’m like, a robot now. And I have no idea what on earth is happening.’
Austin: Ok. Um, we should talk about down time actions. Fourteen, I’m very interested-
Jack: Jesus. Do I have to do down time actions?
Keith: Yeah, we all have to do that. [laughs]
Austin: Everybody does. Yeah. Let’s blow through them.
Jack: From the Restitution of All Things?
Austin: [enthusiastically] Yeah.
Jack: Like, ‘Good morning. Now it is time for work.’
Austin: ‘Now it’s time to-’ Well, like, I don’t know what that is for you, but like, it could be interesting. Like, I don’t know if- [sighs] Like, I know how this- how I want this to play out in terms of the next major mission you’re on. Because the next major missions everyone is on are very small.
Jack: [quietly, in high-pitched voice] Help. Help. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Yeah, I think- uh, we’ll get there. Let’s- let’s talk about down time actions and- and try to move through them at a- at a kind of a pace. Um, who wants to go first?
Dre: I can go first cause I know what I’m gonna do, and it’s gonna be pretty simple.
Austin: Let’s do it. Even Gardener.
Dre: Uhhhh, I’m gonna train prowess.
Austin: Ok. Is this-
Dre: Which I believe is our special one that we get two of.
Austin: I was gonna say. Yeah, I’m pretty sure-
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: -you have a bonus for that, right?
Dre: Yep.
Austin: Yep, you- Bonus for tr- for prowess training, which gives you an additional thing? That right? How does that work?
Dre: Yeah, so I get two instead of one.
Austin: Yeah, I think that that’s right. Yes. You get two XP instead of one when you train a given XP track.
Dre: So that levels up my prowess.
Austin: Hell yeah.
Dre: Ugh, and I don't know if I want to take helm or scrap right now. But um, yeah, yeah, yeah. The other thing I want to do is um, I think I want to acquire an asset, and I think Even wants to try to get a better weapon from Cascabel.
Austin: Oh, interesting. Ok. What’s the- Yeah, so what- what type of weapon are you looking for?
Dre: Um, I mean, I guess originally I was thinking a gun. And I know that it- they’re like, the one-time-
Austin: Uh hm.
Dre: -use things, but I think even that would be useful.
Austin: I mean Cascabel has- I mean, no, Cascabel has real guns.
Dre: Ah, ok.
Austin: That’s the thing. Cascabel knows how to make- That’s what makes Cascabel Arms a faction is Cascabel is the one person who knows how to craft-
Dre: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: -with the Q-Glass. So, yeah. It’s a special item, I think, for sure. So, things I will say. One, you should get a plus one to it because you are specifically allied with Cascabel, so you’ll be rolling three six. And you can spend a credit to increase a roll by a result level. So, you can- for any downtime activity- everybody remember this- you may spend cred after the roll to improve the result. So, you can increase the result level by one. Not the- not the number, but like, the- So, you could roll a two and spend a credit to get a four, you know? So, yeah. Go ahead and roll your three dice. That is a six.
Dre: So, could I spend a cred to make that be a critical?
Austin: To make it a crit? Yeah, a hundred percent.
Dre: I’m gonna do that.
Austin: Alright, so you now have acquired a- What’s this- what’s this look like?
Dre: Hm. So, Even had like, his like, revolver or something-
Austin: Uh hm.
Dre: -from the- from the post- er from the- from the pre-Miracle.
Austin: Yeah. We kind of like- It kind of got weird there, right? Because I know that Four- or uh, Grand ended up with it in the sequence fighting Independence. And then-
Dre: Yeah, that’s true.
Austin: -Grand has it or a version of it now-
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: -that is like, the dragon mouth pistol. [light laugh]
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Which presumably-
Dre: You know- No, I don’t want a revolver.
Austin: Ok.
Dre: I want like a- I want like a- like- like, an SMG or something like that.
Austin: Ok. Is it like, a big SMG or is it like a- like a smaller SM- Do you know what I mean? Is it like-
Dre: Right. Yeah.
Austin: -a machine pistol or it is like-
Dre: Like, is it an uzi or is it like a-
Austin: -an MP5 or-
Dre: -like an UMP or something. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, yeah.
Dre: I think it’s more like an MP5 or an UMP.
Austin: Ok. Yeah, I think that you can get that with the critical success here.
Dre: Ok.
Austin: Um, so the thing that I will say is the way that this works is you don’t get to- this is a temporary asset.
Dre: Uh hm.
Austin: So, temporary use is one significant period of usage that makes sense for the asset. Typically the duration of one job. An asset may also be acquired for standby use in the future, blah-blah-blah. If you want to acquire an asset permanently, you can either gain it as a crew upgrade using the rules for advancement or work on it as a long term project to set up a permanent acquisition. So, what you could do is after you use it now, on the way back, you could be like, ‘oh, I’m gonna actually turn this UMP now that I have it, I want to make- convince Cascabel to let me have it,’ right?
Dre: Right.
Austin: You’ve basically called in a favor, and he’s been like, ‘alright. I’m giving this to you for now, but I- this is too dangerous to have.’ In fact, like, maybe it’s- if it’s an SMG, this might be like, a one of a kind. This is like, a prototype.
Dre: Yeah.
Austin: Because all we’ve seen from Cascabel so far are like, rifles. Like, single shot rifles and pistols. So, the idea of like, ‘hey, you could put this on burst mode’ is scary, especially given that the whole last arc for the other side was ‘no one should have guns.’ So, I think it’s- I think that’s- lines up with your obsession though, pretty cleanly. I do just want to really quickly sketch a scene where Cascabel is a little concerned about giving this to you.
Dre: [laughing] Yeah.
Austin: Cause that’s-
Dre: That’s fair.
Austin: I don’t- We don’t need to zoom in here, but there’s a degree to which Cascabel is concerned for you and is like,
Austin (as Cascabel): If you ever need anything- if you ever want to be talked out of anything, you let me know.
Austin: And that’s- that’s the line, I think. Who’s next?
Keith: Hey. Ok. Um, alright, so there’s two things that I definitely have to get done-
Austin: Oh yeah. One hundred percent.
Keith: -and then one that I want to.
Austin: Yes.
Keith: Um, so the- We should start off I think with my stress.
Austin: Yeah, sure.
Keith: Cause it’s high.
Austin: It is.
Keith: It’s high. I- I know that it- maybe I should start off with-
Austin: [overlapping] Oh, wait. Wait, wait. Here’s- Yeah.
Keith: -fixing the crushed and punctured. But I wasn’t sure if there’s something stressful about healing, so I wanted to do the stress first.
Austin: You would not be rolling to heal probably. I think ⸢Signet⸣ would be rolling to heal you. A crew member can roll their doctor action instead, if they tend to your wounds.
Keith: Ok.
Austin: Which is gonna be better than crew quality minus one, which is the default roll. I think.
Keith: Ok, yeah. Let’s do- let’s do that then.
Austin: ⸢Signet⸣, what is your- what is your doctor roll? Two?
Janine: I got- Yeah, I got- er I- Yeah, I got two in doctor.
Austin: Yeah. Also, you could treat yourself, but it would cost you a stress to just doctor yourself.
Janine: Does this cost me an action?
Austin: No.
Janine: Ok.
Keith: See that’s- That must be what I was thinking of.
Austin: Yes.
Keith: That’s why I think I wanted to do stress first.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: But we could- Let’s- I’m not gonna do that. Instead, we can do- [Austin laughs] we can have the doctor do it. The doctor in air quotes. [Austin laughs lightly]
Janine: Mm.
Austin: Wow. [laughs]
Keith: Well, you know. I- I have heard-
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: -a lot about that ⸢Signet⸣ was a doctor and then whe- in the middle of me-
Austin: [quietly] Oh my god.
Keith: -being crushed and punctured, ⸢Signet⸣ was like, ‘well, I’m not a real doctor.’ So-
Austin: Oh my god. This-
Keith: So, I didn’t forget it. Um-
Austin: Um, so the way that this works is, you have this healing clock. ‘When you receive treatment for the recover action, clear all level one harm. If you have harm remaining, advance your healing clock on your character sheet just below your harm tracker, according to your recovery roll.’ So, go ahead-
Keith: So, remove anxious.
Austin: Well, right- Not anything yet, until you-
Keith: Right. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: -until this roll happens. But yeah. Go ahead. And then we’ll see where you get on this recovery clock.
Keith: Ok.
Janine: What position and all?
Austin: Uh, you’re just gonna roll controlled. Controlled um-
Janine: Ok.
Austin: -you have that fine thing, right? So, that’ll increase your-
Janine: Yeah, I got a fine med kit.
Austin: I’ll say that increases the-
Janine: Is that standard or-?
Austin: -uh, It is standard, but I’ll base it- er make it great, but whatever.
Janine: Ok.
Austin: It’s not really how this roll works.
Janine: Well, still.
Austin: But because you have a fine med kit, I’m going to increase the- the thing by one. So, was a four. I’m gonna up it to a six, which means that you uh, Gig, get to mark three steps on that recovery bit. On the recovery clock here.
Keith: Three steps on the recovery. Can now-
Austin: Yeah, so you’re at three. So-
Keith: So, I’m halfway to not being crushed or punctured.
Austin: You are halfway.
Keith: Can-
Austin: Yes.
Keith: So, how- Wait, I’m- Can I now just be either crushed or punctured?
Austin: No.
Keith: This is-
Austin: You’re still a level two wound.
Keith: I’m still- Well, I- No, I’m not trying to- I just mean-
Austin: Oh, oh, yeah.
Keith: -the sheet-
Austin: You know what? You could be- Let’s be punctured instead of cru-
Keith: Ok.
Austin: -or what do- what do you want to do. Up to you.
Keith: I think uh- I feel like I can get around better as punctured than crushed, so-
Austin: Uh huh.
Keith: -I’m no longer crushed. I’m still punctured level two.
Austin: Uh huh.
Dre: You’re just kind of leaky?
Keith: Yeah. [Ali makes a long uncomfortable noise] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Ugghhhh.
Keith: Like, sort of, you know, fresh stitches, I guess.
Austin: It may be worth you time to try to heal again. [light laugh]
Keith: Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s um- let’s do it again. Let’s uh heal- let’s heal him up.
Austin: Uh, and then do you have a cred which you can then spend to try to reduce your- to do your vice resti- your- your vice thing, you know?
Keith: How many- Do I only get- I only get two actions?
Austin: You get two actions. Then you can buy more actions with cred.
Keith: Ok. Got it. Alright. So, um, yeah let’s do my second action.
Austin: ⸢Signet⸣, can you- can you continue to administer aid?
Janine: Uh hm.
Keith: I want to get healed one more time, and I’m gonna be totally healed up and- and good.
Janine: There you go.
Austin: That’s a six. So yeah. You are.
Keith: Excellent.
Austin: Look at that. Boom. What’s- what’s this-
Keith: Alright.
Austin: What’s it look like to heal someone in the future? In a- in a ship that doesnt have a fuckin’ [laughs] med- med bay.
Janine: Yeah, I think we’ve said before like, ⸢Signet⸣ herself is not like- it’s all just like, shit she can do probably with the exuviae and with her like-
Austin: Uh hm.
Janine: -um, she- remember she had like that heads up display implant-
Austin: Yes.
Janine: -thing for Belgarde’s- So, it’s- it’s probably just like, a lot of- There is probably like, a little cauterizing thing in the bug, and it’s just like-
Austin: Uh hm.
Janine: -a lot of the bug going around- crawling around with lasers and little stitchy bits. It’s probably very gross to look at.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: But also probably cool cause it’s all like, shiny and like, fancy. It’s like a fancy surgeon bug.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Fancy bug. Yeah.
Janine: And then like, a bunch of like laser screens or something.
Austin: Love to get healed by a bug. [Janine laughs] God. Fuck.
Keith: I love to get healed by a fancy, professional bug with good manners. [Austin laughs]
Austin: Oh god. Alright, so now are you gonna spend that cred so you can indulge your vice?
Keith: [elongated note] Uhhhh, you know, I would rather work on my clock.
Austin: [somewhat apprehensive] Ok. You have s- Ok.
Keith: Listen, everybody else got a status. [Sylvia laughs] I don’t really want one, but if it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna be because I-
Janine: You feel left out.
Keith: Because I- No, if it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna be because I don’t have a choice in it. Not because-
Austin: Ok.
Dre: You know if you get one in the middle of a mission, you’re like, out of the whole mission.
Keith: I thought it just the scene. I thought it was till the end of the scene.
Art: And this is a choice.
Austin: No, you’re lost.
Art: This is your choice.
Keith: Oh. No, no, no. Ok. Yeah, well it’s- I didn’t like the choice before where it was like, I could either be anxious or obsessed. I’d rather be anxious. Uh, so I guess I’ll spend a- I’ll- I guess I’ll do the stress one. So, that’s six.
Austin: Ok, I get that you want to do this- this repair show.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: I think we could probably talk about that show as being broader than that at this point, now that you’ve seen more shit. Um, I mean listen. You could convince someone else to pay for you to do your repair show clock.
Janine: Could he-
Keith: Yeah, any Richie Riches in our group want to toss a cred over here? I mean I’ll just spend two cred. I don’t give a shit.
Austin: You’re gonna spend both of them on these actions.
Keith: Yes. Yeah.
Austin: Ok. So, indulge- indulge this vice first.
Keith: Ok.
Austin: You are going to roll your worst attribute rating, so go ahead and click any of those. What is your- what is your um- your vice?
Keith: Oh, my vice is um, like, retracting into my little turtle shell.
Austin: Uh hm.
Keith: And being like, grumpy and wanting to be alone and not wanting to talk to any idiots.
Austin: Big mood.
Sylvia: Uh hm.
Austin: Not that last part. I love you all. [light laugh]
Ali: Mm. [Dre and Sylvia laugh]
Keith: Listen. It’s sometimes the people that you love are idiots-
Austin: Yeah. [laughs]
Keith: -when they try to talk to you, and your grumpy and tired.
Austin: God.
Dre: Fair.
Austin: Uh hm.
Keith: Um, alright. No bonus dice. There we go. A two and a one. Great.
Austin: Oh my god. Why did- Ok.
Art: Wait, Gig’s vice is napping?
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: Yeah, basically.
Art: Is that- Did I hear that right? Ok. [Ali laughs]
Austin: Uh hm. You clear stress equal to your highest die result.
Keith: So, two.
Austin: [laughing] So you get two gone. Fuck dude.
Keith: That’s fine. I still have a- one mission’s worth of uh, stress in there.
Austin: I guess. Alright. And so then, you’re gonna spend your other one on advancing this clock.
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Yes. So, go ahead and roll rig.
Keith: I’m rolling rig. Well, I- I guess I-
Austin: It’s a six clock segment.
Keith: I guess I’m trying- Let me think of what I want to fix for- what I want to show them how to do.
Austin: Yeah. Are you working with the people in um, Parhelia this time?
Keith: That would be good. I mean I- I- Yeah, that would be- I like them.
Austin: They seemed cool. We haven’t really met them much.
Keith: They seemed cool, but they feel- I feel like they had a whole city. They have all of it.
Austin: They have like, a whole city. But like-
Keith: They- and they had been living there, right? Too.
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: So, it’s not like-
Austin: But you know what they didn’t have is like, the weird NEH technology. They had never dealt with those weird bug creatures-
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: -that y’all took out there. Um-
Keith: Yeah. You know- Ok, I- I think I know what I want to do is I want to- I want to show them how to build a sort of communication relay so that they can have-
Austin: Mmm.
Keith: -sort of short distance communication with the other sort of groups that are on the planet, with-
Austin: On Skein.
Keith: Right.
Austin: Sure.
Keith: Without having to like, bring all these people that were just blowing up their town into their town.
Austin: Right. Right. Like, they’ve never worked with the mirage before, right?
Keith: Right. Yeah.
Austin: So, like, being able to send messages through the mirage and stuff like that- Yeah, I’m- I’m cool with that.
Keith: Ok. So-
Austin: It’s like, your home radio project. So, give me a Rig.
Keith: Give me a Rig. What is this-
Austin: You know if you get-
Keith: -position? Does it matter probably?
Austin: Risk- or Controlled standard is fine.
Keith: Yeah, controlled standard. Boom. Four, four.
Austin: Ok, so that’s two more- two more segments go up on that. Because it’s a limited, but then you get the extra one, so you’re gettin’ there. One more episode of this and you’ll have a season of your- of your TV show. [Ali laughs]
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Which we’ll have to figure out what that means. Like, what does it mean that we’ve now seen Gig working with the Sailors of the Ark, and now working with Parhelia and the Qui Err Assembly. Um, I’ll say this- Like, it’s immediately a different thing than only working with Brighton for a year, right?
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: Lots of people are like, ‘Hey, yesterday this new whole culture showed up out of nowhere, and today it’s on- it’s like, everybody is learning about it.’
Keith: It’s on TV.
Austin: It’s on TV. Like, yeah.
[crosstalking]
Keith: They’re on TV. Which is not-
Austin: Right.
Keith: It’s actually not weird that a new- a whole-
Austin: No.
Keith: But it’s- it’s maybe-
Austin: They would definitely-
Keith: It’s not weird for us. Maybe it’s weird for the mirage.
Austin: I think it’s- I think it’s not weird so much as the- the thing that isn’t weird is that it would be- It wouldn’t be weird for it to be on TV or for it to get coverage. What is surprising and good is that what you are doing is like, ‘Oh, hey. Like, let’s do some exchange.’ Like, ‘here, I’m gonna show you all how this mirage stuff works and we’re gonna like, Anthony Bourdain this-’
Keith: Yeah.
Austin: ‘-and I’m gonna learn about your culture a little bit and show an- a very naive audience that you know, just because you’re not from here doesn’t mean you’re not people’, which is what Advent would like people to believe.
Keith: ‘Do you guys have jelly juice?’
Austin: Right. Exactly. And they do. They have an entire different culture of jelly juice. [light laugh] They have a whole different culture.
Keith: Probably still doesn’t work on me.
Austin: Oh god. Alright. Let’s keep moving. Who else has things to do during downtime?
Art: I have a relatively quick one.
Austin: Sure.
Art: I would like to repair my shit.
Austin: Fair. Uh, alright. Repair. ‘When you repair, you take time to buy the appropriate parts and oversee major fixes to the ship’ or in this case, to your personal vehicle. ‘If you want to repair a crossed wire or sparking oscillator, you just need a Rig roll. These kinds of repairs fix battle damage and bring back systems from the brink. When you take the repair action, spend one cred and clear one damage on a ship system.
The mechanic’s balling wire and twine power allows you to- to do some of the work yourself. And use junk found on the- on the cheap to fix up your vehicle, removing the need for cred to be spent on making repairs faster and cheaper.’ Um, god. Do- I just- I kind of just want to let Gig’s ability work for you here, the way that S- uh, ⸢Signet⸣ could roll stitch. That makes sense to me, right?
Art: Alright.
Austin: That like, you and- We get a shot of like, you and Gig working on your vehicle together?
Art: Sure.
Austin: You know what I mean?
Art: Especially because like, you know, mechanic was my second choice-
Austin: Right.
Art: -playbook.
Austin: Yes.
Art: I mean I’m- I was definitely the mechanic the first half. [laughing]
Austin: Right. Yeah.
Keith: Um, wait. Am I helping? I can help.
Austin: Yeah. You don’t have to roll anything.
Keith: No, no. But I’m just-
Austin: This is a real easy thing. You spend one-
Keith: I’m agreeing to help. You know.
Austin: Yes. Yeah, I appreciate that you’re agreeing. You’re basically spending one to clear the damage that your ship took.
Art: Alright.
Austin: So, yeah. So, that- that can be cleared now.
Art: [quietly] But like- Oh. Oh, oops. Boom.
Austin: Spend that cred. Or actually, you know what? You don’t have to spend any cred. You don’t have to spend the cred because that’s what- that’s what Gig’s move is. That’s like his thing.
Art: Oh, sure. Cause it started at one. Great.
Austin: It starts at one, yeah. Exactly. Um, so nice work.
Art: And the other thing I would like to do is take a playbook XP.
Austin: Oh, can you just take a play- You can train playbook also?
Dre: Yeah, I think so.
Art: Yeah, yeah.
Austin: Yes, you can. Awesome. Nice. Go for it. So, does that put you over?
Art: No, I’m one- I’m one off. So, I gotta-
Austin: Ugh.
Art: I got to do something next time. I gotta- I gotta try to uh- use charm on this at least once.
Austin: You could only train a given track once. Once per downtime unfortunately.
Art: Once per thing, yeah.
Austin: Yeah. Alright. Cool
Art: It’s fine. I’m- I can be charming and or audacious.
Austin: [laughs lightly] You? [Art laughs] Alright. That was like, a ‘You, of- Like, no way.’ And like, of course you can. That’s what that was. Who’s next?
Art: Her?
Austin: Yeah. [laughing] Not- It was the opposite of that. [Sylvia laughs]
Sylvia: Um, I think mine’s pretty quick, if we want to do that.
Austin: Ok, yeah. Let’s do it.
Sylvia: Um, well the big thing is I want to recover.
Austin: Yeah, you’re- You’re not in a great place. Uh-
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Uh, ⸢Signet⸣, do you want to roll again?
Janine: Yeah, ok. [Ali laughs]
Austin: God. Just like, going from-
Sylvia: Thank you.
Austin: -going from room to room with exuvia and like, ‘alright, how you doin’?’ I guess you have that fine bedside manner, right?
Janine: Oh, yeah. Totally. Yeah.
Sylvia: Just like, right after you’re done with Gig, I walk in like, ‘Hey. Hi.’ [Austin,Janine, and Sylvia laugh]
Austin: Here’s the thing. Bruised and pummeled. Uh- [light laugh]
Janine: Oh, that was a bad one.
Austin: It’s ok because it doesn’t- as long as you receive treatment, you clear all level one harm.
Janine: Ok.
Austin: If there’s level two harm here, that would suck. ⸢Signet⸣-
Janine: So, I could have just walked in here and sneezed on ‘em and left.
Austin: As long you rolled-
Sylvia: [laughing] It’s pretty much just like, handed me a bag of- like, a pack of bandaids.
Austin: Yeah.
Sylvia: It’s like, ‘you’re fine. Go on.’ [Janine laughs]
Austin: ‘You’re good. Get out of here, kid.’
Sylvia: Um, and then the other thing I want to do is just training as well, cause I’m one point away from leveling up my prowess.
Austin: Hell yeah. So, wait.
Sylvia: Might as well.
Austin: You have a prowess level and a playbook advancement?
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: Aw, nice. Alright.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: In fact, don’t y’all have- y’all have the prowess ability, right?
Sylvia: Uh, yeah. So, I- Would that roll over after-
Austin: It rolls over, yeah.
Sylvia: Ok, cool. I’m gonna put that point into skulk.
Austin: Ok. Gonna be sneaky.
Sylvia: do we want to go over the move I’m taking now cause I know that.
Austin: Yes. If you know it, totally.
Sylvia: Um, I was gonna take the bodyguard move. ‘When you protect- protect a crewmate, resist with plus 1d. And when you take harm, clear one stress.’
Austin: Cool. Yes, we’ve seen that move in action because the exuvia- the Angler exuvia has that move, and it’s dope. You know, if you recall when y’all were fighting at Barricade, that move came up. And it’s a cool move. And I’m glad to see it happen at human level and not just at mech level. So, rad. Um, and we’ve seen Echo do this before, so-
Sylvia: Yeah, like, I’ve definitely like-
Austin: This is a classic Echo maneuver.
Sylvia: I’ve literally described myself as a bodyguard for you guys before, so-
Austin: From the jump, yeah.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Austin: I do love you getting that move after seeing the vision of Pretense-
Sylvia: Yeah, for sure.
Austin: -being killed also. So-
Sylvia: Another- another happy accident on Friends at the Table.
Austin: Always. Alright. Um, Fourteen?
Jack: Ok, so I actually get an extra downtime action, if I want because I’m the Speaker.
Austin: You get that for- you get an extra downtime action to acquire assets or to lay low specifically.
Jack: Or to lay low. Yeah.
Austin: Um, which would reduce your wanted level which you know.
Jack: So, it’s- it’s kind of like a free thing for reducing my wanted level in addition to another thing, right?
Austin: Yeah. Or- or to acquire assets, which is like-
Jack: Mm.
Austin: -getting a cool thing, you know?
Jack: Yeah, I’ve just sort of been assuming that I was gonna lay low, but at the same time, acquiring assets is good.
Austin: Acquiring assets on this ship is a really cool idea. [light laugh] Like, what do you just fucking steal?
Jack: Yeah, so alright. I guess- question number one, does anybody here seem to know that I’m not supposed to be here?
Austin: Um, I don’t think you’ve been seen yet, right? Like, the area that you’re in is like- So, this place is huge. This is a city in space. This is- this is-
Jack: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: -an aircraft carrier or bigger, right? This is like, the Sky Reflected in Mirrors in that, yeah you’re able to- to move through this space as um- what was the- what was your name again one more time?
Jack: Um, it is Carcanet’s Ironclad.
Austin: C- as Ironclad.
Jack: Carcanet’s- Ironclad.
Austin: Which is their first name in- in this culture. Um-
Jack: Yeah, cause it’s an Earth name.
Austin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you’re walking through this ship that is like, in my mind, blue and white and literally like walking on bridges of physical light. Of like- of like, concentrated, hard light that you can walk on. And then like, going through the cafeteria or one of the many cafeterias on this vessel.
Jack: Yeah. Yeah.
Austin: I think you- you wake up in a very high security area, but like, as you slowly- We get the sort of reverse of the first time that we saw Fourteen Fifteen going deeper and deeper into the guts of Seance.
Jack: Oh yeah.
Austin: And we get them popping more- into more and more um, open spaces until like, maybe we even get them walking past a live sporting event in the middle of this ship, ya know?
Jack: Yeah.
Austin: It’s like a- it’s like a - it’s like swimming.
Jack: Earth has arrived in a big way.
Austin: Yeah. Yeah, Earth has arrived in a big way, and they’re playing Blitzball. [Jack laughs] Because the thing I was gonna say is like, what if there was just a floating pool of water and people were swimming in it. And then there was a ball. And ‘Oh, that’s Blitzball.’ The thing I’m describing is Blitzball. [light laugh]
Jack: It’s also water polo, right?
Austin: It- Well, except that they’re not all the way in it, you know?
Jack: Oh right. Yeah. [light laugh]
Austin: In this case they’re all underwater. But also the water is just floating in space, in the middle of this ship. So-
Jack: God. So, I think-
Austin: Welcome to Earth.
Jack: So, I get- I get two activities plus one-
Austin: Lay low.
Jack: -activity to either lay low or-
Austin: Yes.
Jack: -acquire an asset.
Austin: Yes.
Jack: Hm. And assets can be basically anything, right?
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: So, I could roll for an asset to try and communicate with the crew.
Austin: Totally.
Jack: If that was a way we wanted to do it.
Austin: Yeah. I-
Jack: That’s-
Austin: I think I’m gonna say you cannot get just someone to take you off of the ship.
Jack: Yes.
Austin: That seems like a thing that they would have on pretty firm lockdown.
Jack: And I think it would be interesting to go for the quality of that contact-
Austin: Mm. Uh hm.
Jack: -be determined on a dice roll-
Austin: Yes.
Jack: -rather than just saying like, ‘Oh yeah. You can- you can call Tender.’
Austin: Totally. Yeah, go ahead and give me that roll.
Jack: Sure. So, it’s just 1d6, right? It’s just-
Austin: Uh, it would- No, it’s 2d6 cause it’s crew quality. So, 2d6. That is a three. So, it is negative one- It’s a one quality. [light laugh]
Jack: Oh, that’s so good.
Austin: Right? We- Let’s- let’s wrap back around to what the call looks like, after we do the others things.
Jack: So, I want to recover.
Austin: Sure. Which heals.
Jack: And what does- Yeah, I know straight away what this looks like. Which is what this looks like is Fourteen getting out of the bed and having that scene of them like, putting on the armor and like, walking through the thing.
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: And then there’s a point where they just turn around and walk straight back to the bed again. [Austin laughs] Cause they’re just like, ‘woah.’ It’s like when you stand up too fast.
Austin: Yeah, alright. So, roll again your crew quality minus one. So, roll one die.
Jack: Right. Ok.
Austin: You rolled- you got a five. There you go.
Jack: And I get rid of that- that level one harm. Um, and then I’m going to indulge my vice.
Austin: Ok. Which is-
Jack: So-
Austin: -being a legal aid here?
Jack: Yeah. Um-
Austin: Or has that changed in some way? Is that the same?
Jack: [exhales] So, my vice is actually obligation.
Austin: Well, it’s obligation, and the type of obligation is- it’s a legal aid. So, does that change now that you are now um, in this new body?
Jack: Can I- Mm.
Austin: Do- do you want to sleep on it? [light laugh]
Jack: I- I think I know what the answer is which is no. You’re obligations do not disappear when you switch bodies.
Austin: Right. Right.
Jack: Those obligation- you know. Fourteen has a chain of obligations behind them to various people.
And they can’t just say like, ‘well, I’m a- I’m a like- I’m on the Restitution of All Things now. Sorry.’ Um, but if you’re up for it, what we could say is that the quality of the contact that I can have with my clients is the same as the thing I just rolled.
Austin: Yeah, ok. That’s cool. Yeah, I love that. Which is low.
Jack: So, I’m able to- I’m able to give them a message that says something like, ‘Hey, a weird thing has happened. Stuff’s gonna be weird for a while. I’m doing the best I can.’
Austin: Right. Ok. That- I like that a lot. Cool. Go ahead and give me your lowest- So, you’re insight roll here.
Jack: Do I just press indulge vice?
Austin: Uh, yeah. That actually might work. Totally.
Jack: Let’s see. Bonus dice, zero.
Austin: Uh hm.
Jack: Oh dear.
Austin: Clear an amount of stress equal to the highest die result. That’s one. You’re still at six stress.
Jack: Yeah, it turns out that that’s actually extremely stressful. [Austin laughs]
Keith: Yeah. I thought I had it bad.
Austin: God.
Keith: I don’t, it turns out.
Austin: Alright.
Jack: Well, it’s cause my clients just like, ‘sorry, I can’t. The signal’s real-’ [laughs]
Austin: ‘I can’t make it out.’ Yeah. Uh, mm.
Janine: Imagine writing like, twenty out of office emails, but you don’t have access to your own email. [Ali and Jack laugh]
Austin: Right.
Janine: You just send them all from like, a stranger’s phone. [Austin, Ali, and Jack laugh]
Austin: Oh god.
Jack: ‘It’s Fourteen. Hello.’ [Austin and Jack laugh]
Austin: And you like, can’t remember if your client’s email is like-
Jack: Oh gosh.
Austin: -like, j.smith or john.smith or-
Janine: ‘I’ll just send it to both. It’s fine.’
Austin: Right. Exactly.
Jack: That’s exactly what this is.
Austin: Oh, it’s so good.
Jack: Oh dear.
Austin: Alright.
Jack: It’s so stressful.
Austin: Cool. So, is that you, Four- Oh, so the last thing here for you is you’re gonna call for help, presumably?
Jack: Uh hm.
Austin: Um, and so here is where I’m gonna just GM this a little bit. I think that call comes in after Tender and ⸢Signet⸣ are off to Altar and after Even, Echo, and uh- and Gig are on their way to Brighton. And the only one on the ship at this point is- is Grand Magnificent. And it’s just- Do you remember that- how the ship has that thing where it goes like, ‘Bedtime. Bedtime. Bedtime’?
It’s that really annoying like, cuckoo clock sound, where it’s just like, ‘Phone call. There is a phone call. Pick up the phone. There’s a phone call. Phone call. Pick up the phone. There’s a phone call.’ Like over and over again until Grand picks up. And does Grand pick up, I guess?
Art: Uh, yeah. Sure. I mean anything to stop that noise.
Austin: Yeah. Uh huh. [Ali and Austin laugh] What is uh- Grand-
Keith: Why didn’t you just pick up when you knew that the phone was ringing? [Austin laughs]
Austin: Give me a- What do you say to Grand, Fourteen? Also, has anyone found Fourteen’s body? Or just no one checked in?
Keith: Four- Where does Fourteen sleep?
Austin: Fourteen has a bedroom.
Jack: Grand!
Keith: What?! There’s bedrooms?
Austin: Remember Fourteen has the- There’s one bedroom. There’s the captain’s room.
Keith: Yeah, I know. I remember.
Austin: Yeah. Ok.
Janine: Maybe ⸢Signet⸣ was- was going from doing that- going from room to room, making sure everyone- ‘Y’all need healing? You- you need a bandaid? You need- Oh shit.’ [Jack and Ali laugh]
Austin: Oh shit. Oh shit.
Janine: But also like, yeah this happens sometimes. Like, as far as people finding- finding Fourteen’s dead body go, eh. Seen that. Seen it.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Seen it. Been there.
Keith: You sayin’ it’s-
Austin: Yeah.
Keith: -it’s the lowest stakes dead body to find.
Jack: Of the crew probably. [laughs]
Keith: Of the crew, right.
Austin: So, what do you say to Grand? And how can you say it in only twelve words?
Jack: [laughing] It’s like a telegram. Oh dear. Um, I’m just gonna count really quick.
Art: Yeah, be sure to say ‘stop’ or I won’t know that you’re- you’re on a new thought.
Jack: Ok. [laughs]
Jack (as Fourteen): Grand Magnificent. Body swapped again. Open Prophet’s bodyguard now. Send help immediately.
Austin: [laughs] I actually love reading this in a fake David Lynch voice.
JACK [laughs] Yeah, exactly. It’s- it’s Gordon Cole.
Austin: It’s is. It’s Gordon Cole. ‘Body swapped again.’ [Austin, Jack, Ali, and Sylvia laugh]
Jack: ‘Send help.’
Austin: ‘Send help.’
Jack: ‘Immediately.’
Austin: ‘Immediately.’ [Keith laughs]
Art: Um, is that enough information? Do I know where that is?
Austin: [overlapping] ‘Our Prophet’s bodyguard now.’ Um, I- You know who Our Prophet is. You know- I think you can get the gist.
Art: Oh-
Jack: Yeah, I mean the fact that the message is-
Austin: I can’t believe Fourteen Fifteen’s new character is David Lynch as a big knight. [Keith laughs]
Jack: Yes. Um, oh god. I was like, before the message, I was like, ‘I’m gonna need to work out what this character’s voice is’ and now I know. [Austin laughs]
Austin: God. Ugh.
Jack: I think the fact also that this message has clearly been very difficult to send-
Austin: Right.
Jack: -gives Grand some clue of like, what- what is the worst place that Fourteen could be sending this message from.
Austin: God.
Art: Um, so I don’t want to go by myself-
Austin: Uh huh.
Art: -if it’s this dire.
Austin: Who would you call in for help? I’m happy to give you a uh- an NPC to call on here to go for this- your next heist mission which is ‘I need to steal Fourteen Fifteen from the-’
Jack: [laughing] From the flagship of the NEH.
Austin: ‘-fuckin’ flagship.’ Yeah, the flagship of the NEH.
Art: Do- do we know someone who’s good at stealing people from NEH flagships?
Austin: I don’t know. We got a couple weeks. You could think about it. So, I think maybe that’s the thing is like, do we get just Grand looking at the rolodex? ‘Who the fuck do I call?’ [light laugh]
Janine: Is Morning’s Observation busy? He’s right there, right?
Austin: He- he’s around still. Um-
Ali: He isn’t-
Jack: He’s kind of in a place, right?
Ali: He doesn’t like to go on missions.
Janine: Oh.
Austin: I think actually- Yeah, I think he probably has gone back to the Brink at this point, and is like, ‘no.’
Art: Did I ever get an explanation as to what happened at the end of that last thing?
Austin: I mean, I think you were in the back of that stolen shuttle that Morning’s Observation took that was like the-
Art: Morning’s Observation also showed up and like- and merc’d some people.
Austin: Yeah. Um, Morning’s Observation got pushed around and could feel that you needed help. And Morning’s Observation went through boot camp and is a trained soldier. And like, the thing you saw him do is the thing he was sent here to do. He was sent here on a sleep detachment to kill people and cause disruption. And to operate torch units, which they should have taken into account. Because boy was he better at doing that than they were. And to- and you know, I don’t know. Morning’s Observation spent some time with Fourteen Fifteen. And we’ve seen what happens when Fourteen Fifteen gets into an elevator, you know? Blood follows.
So, the same thing happened there. And I think it was a combination of like, the interrogation that Fourteen Fift- or that uh, that Morning’s Observation went though. And sensing via being a stratus that you were in trouble and putting together what had happened here with the Compel device and the Church of the Self. And I don’t think he’s eager to talk about it with anybody. I could conceive of him opening up about it at some point, but I don’t think right away. That is a part of him he does not like very much.
And I think we probably get him looking very upset at work, you know? With like, the greasy apron on, and he’s just very short with everybody for a few weeks. You know? So, I don’t think- I think no. You’re not gonna get him to go rescue Fourteen Fifteen. [light laugh] You got some time. We can think about it. Figure out if there’s somebody else. Could spend another credit to acquire an asset and hire somebody to help.
Art: [Grand’s thoughts perhaps] I don’t- I don’t know- Can’t you just like, get yourself out of there? Just like, ‘hey, I’m- I’m going out for some smokes’?
Jack: [repeating Fourteen’s message] Send help. Immediately.
Art: Well, I understand that I can’t talk to you back, but- [Austin and Jack laugh] I’m just sayin’ like, we’re not exactly- We’re kind of short-handed right now.
Austin: God.
Jack: Wow. Jesus.
Art: Well I’m just- I’m not goin’ by myself. That’s a suicide mission. That’s- Then we’re both in trouble. That’s just twice the people in trouble.
Jack: And thus Maelgwyn remained in the vault. [Austin and Ali laugh]
Austin: Oh my god. [Jack laughs]
Sylvia: Jesus.
Austin: Ugh. [Ali sighs]
Art: I wasn’t involved with any of that. [Ali and Austin laugh] And will not be taking responsibility.
Austin: Fair.
Art: Who likes Fourteen Fifteen?
Ali: Me! [Ali and Sylvia laugh hard]
Art: So, you’re not here.
Jack: Jesus.
Austin: You’re not here. You’re gone.
Ali: [laughing/whimpering] I know. I’m- I know.
Austin: That’s how this works.
Janine: I feel like we would have made some kind of like, contingency plan. Like, ok. We found Fourteen Fifteen dead. Usually when that happens-
Austin: Hm.
Janine: -they have to reconnect with us somehow. Sometimes they did it independently. Sometimes they- we needed to- So, like, would we have been like-
Austin: [overlapping] I know who it is.
Janine: Yeah?
Austin: Ali’s gonna be so mad at me. [Ali sighs]
Janine: It’s Maelgwyn.
Austin: It’s Waltz.
Janine: Oh.
Ali: I- [laughs]
Austin: It’s- Waltz Maelgwyn. [Jack and Janine laugh] It’s Waltz Tango Cache. That’s who you know who would go on this mission.
Jack: It is.
Art: Yeah, that sounds like fun.
Jack: Yeah, I mean. You know, it’s the like, send a real piece of shit after piece of shit principle.
Austin: [laughing] Jesus.
Ali: Actually, I wanted to talk to Waltz in my downtime, so can I-?
Austin: Ok.
Ali: I can still do that?
Austin: You’ll get some Waltz time.
Ali: Ok.
Austin: Yes, totally.
Ali: [laughing] Can I tell Waltz to go help Fourteen?
Austin: No, cause you don’t know yet. It hasn’t happened yet.
Ali: Yeah. I know.
Austin: Sadly.
Jack: Oh.
Ali: Tender treats Fourteen like a stray cat. Is just like, ‘yeah, they died. They’ll come back.’ [laughs]
Austin: Right. They’ll come back. That’s what happens.
Jack: [laughing] They’ll come back. They’ll come back.
Austin: Alright. Yeah, I think Waltz is gonna go with you, and that is the right choice.
Jack: Cool.
Art: Alright. I’m excited about it. Sounds like a good time. We’re gonna-
Austin: Fucking god.
Art: -we’re gonna have some good conversations.
Austin: Uh hm. Alright, so that is your- your turn, Jack. If you want to go to bed now, feel free.
Jack: I think I- I think I mi- I think I might.
Austin: Fair. Same with you, Keith. I know you’re sick. Um-
[crosstalking]
Dre: I think Keith already left
Art: Keith-
Austin: They already- they’re gone.
Jack: I just- I want to just re- register my displeasure, Grand [Ali laughs] before [laughing] I go. Now I’m gonna go to bed.
Austin: Ugh.
Art: Well, I- I did all I could with the resources available to me. I’m not the one who decided-
Jack: You put the phone down. [Ali and Austin laugh]
Art: To think about your problem. [Jack laughs]
Janine: It was a resource, and it was lacking.
Jack: Mm. Uh hm.
Austin: Alright.
Art: I didn’t tell everyone else to leave the ship. I think I deserve credit for be- [Jack laughs] If I wasn’t here, no one would have answered the phone.
Austin: That’s true. No one would have answered the phone. That’s true. That’s true. That’s true.
Jack: I don’t need to clap, do I?
Ali: No.
Art: And no one would be going with Waltz Tango Cache to rescue you.
Jack: No, that is tr- He just- [sighs] Tender would just be like, ‘Jesus Christ! [Ali and Jack laugh] What- where did they go?’ [overlapped] Alright, goodnight everybody.
Art: Yeah, but then she’d get-
Janine: [overlapped] Have a good night.
Art: But then Tender would get there and would be like-
Dre: [overlapped] Night, Jack.
Art: -‘well, let’s forget about Fourteen Fifteen and see-’
Austin: [overlapped] Bye.
Sylvia: [overlapped] Night.
Art: ‘-who’s here for me to talk to.’ [Ali laughs] Be like, ‘Hey, I’m Tender. I’m here to rescue-
Jack: [overlapped] Yeah. Alright.
Art: ‘-my friend who’s body jumped into someone-’
Austin: [overlapped] Have a good night, Jack.
Art: ‘-here. Do you know who they are?’
Austin: Love you very much.
Jack: I’ll see you soon. [everyone laughs]
Austin: Bye.
Jack: [laughs] Goodbye.
Ali: It’s effective.
Dre: Way to keep goin’, Art. Just keep goin’. [laughs]
Sylvia: That whole scene- That rules especially if you think of I’m going to bed as in character and just Fourteen getting back into the little like, [Ali, Janine, and Dre laugh] hospital bed thing.
Austin: God. Um, who’s next?
Ali: Is it me?
Austin: Sure. I think it’s you and ⸢Signet⸣ are the ones left, right?
Ali: Ok. Uh, yeah.
Austin: Is there anybody else? Yeah, I think that’s it. Alright.
Sylvia: Yeah.
Ali: So, I [laughs] would like to do some downtime. I have some stress.
Austin: You do.
Ali: I would like to try to get rid of some of that stress.
Austin: You’re gonna indulge your vice.
Ali: Yeah. I- [laughs] I don’t know where I’m opening up shop, so to speak, because we’re not-
Austin: Of the wanted level?
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Uh, I think Parhelia, again the kind of new place where the um, the Qui Err are.
Ali: Oh, sick. Yeah.
Austin: So yeah. They are- They will happy to- to host you. I think even the- [light laugh] as part of, you know- They understand The Notion as to hav- having been kind of important in what’s happened here. And so I think even you know, one of the people who shows up at the- at the Steady is Solemn Scale. They are the kind of leader of Parhelia and this whole kind of branch of the Qui Err coalition. Which is like a bio-regional democracy.
They very much believe in like, natural, regional borders that emerge from nature, and kind of- kind of an ecological- They’re like- they’re very eco-friendly vibe. But also kind of like, looking at the ways in which natural ecologies create um, kind of cultural and social groups naturally, in terms of like, ‘hey this river or this lake or this um, like- this soil grouping that allows certain people to- er allows people nearby to grow certain crops.’
Like, that’s a natural affinity that we should- It’s not about like, keeping borders so much as it is about recognizing those similarities and- and letting those people govern themselves, so that someone who is like, in a city somewhere far away can’t be like, ‘oh yeah, what you should do is change all of your crop rotations.’ Like, no. The people there probably understand it, and likewise, those people should not be the people who tell the people in the city like, how they should be using the minerals from the mines nearby or- or whatever.
And then, that kind of levels up higher and higher until you- for this group of the Qui Err, they are talking about global and- and kind of continental um, kind of geo and- and ecological regions, so that you can say like, ‘well, we also want to make sure that the big picture does not get unbalanced. We’re all- we are all concerned about that.’ And so, you know, they’re still butting heads and stuff, but Solemn Scale is the leader of Parhelia. He is- er sorry. Pahe- uh, Solemn Scale is they/them. So, Solemn Scale is- They have grey skin. They have red hair, and I’ve written down here, ‘like Demona from Gargoyles, the cartoon that is good.’ If you’ve seen Gargoyles the cartoon, that’s good. And then they have like, horns that grow directly from their forehead.
Like, not- not that they grow out of the forehead the way that Iota Pretense is or the Body Politic’s did. Not just like, spine- Not like, bony spines. Like, their forehead just becomes cool horns that wrap behind them and kind of twirl. It’s just like, ‘oh there’s just a bone plate in there that is like, long and cool.’ And they have- I’m- I’m kind of imagining them like I said, Demona from Gargoyles meets Ryoma from Fire Emblem. Um, who was that big, rad samurai who wears all red armor. They are- We’ve seen lots of kind of slight Qui Err. They are big. They are like, 6’7”, 6’8”. Broad shoulders. They are like, big sh- like, wide, square chin. Bright eyes.
They are like- they have like, the build of Zarya from- from uh, Overwatch. But also like, a slightly more- They’re- They’re able to slip into a slightly more serious vibe. And so, they absolutely come out to your- to your grand opening of the Steady in- in Parhelia. [light laugh] Um, and meet a bunch of people and like, bring other people from the Qui Err coalition to like, hang out. It’s a lot. Especially cause I don’t think that’s what you wanted to do. [Ali laughs] Do you know what I mean? You’re like, ‘ I just wanted a cool place where I can set up my bar.’
Ali: I don’t know that she minds, right? It’s like a-
Austin: Right. Totally.
Ali: It’s like a ‘welcome to the neighborhood,’ [laughing] but like opposite sort of thing, right?
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Where it’s like, ‘hey-’
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: -’congratulations on your neighborhood’, I guess. [laughs]
Austin: Yeah. Um, Gig is definitely like, doing some bullshit there, too, I’m sure. So, what do you want to do? What is the- Do you just want to roll the-
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: -the stress here?
Ali: Let’s just do it. It’s you know-
Austin: Alright.
Ali: -it’s nice.
Austin: Give me your- your lowest attribute. So, you have two in everything. So, go ahead and-
Ali: I can just hit this indulge, yeah.
Austin: Just click indulge vice, yeah. [Ali laughs] Two. So, you also have a lot of stress still. So, five stress.
Ali: Ok, perfect. Um, I feel like it’s almost like- This time it’s almost like a- like a tavern, you know? Where it’s like-
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Because the city is outside instead of it being like, a cool like, club or whatever. It’s just like-
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Like a- like a long bar with like, an awning like, all made out of wood-
Austin: Ok.
Ali: -and just like- You know, you come on down-
Austin: Totally.
Ali: -and like a bunch of table in front. And then, yeah. I also wanted to talk to Waltz Tango Cache to- He had told me to be aware of the Waking Cadent, and I would like-
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: -to know why he thinks that.
Austin: Totally. Uh, that sounds like a consort, gather information, basically, right? You’re basically doing a long term project, right? That’s part of your Waking Cadent long term project?
Ali: Yes. Yes, yes, yes.
Austin: Alright. So, one thing is I’m gonna move that from an eight segment clock to a six segment clock and leave you with that two that you had. Cause you just naturally learned more. Or I guess the other thing I could do is leave it at eight and advance you to four-
Ali: Ok.
Austin: -just naturally from the visions you’ve seen. You’ve learned a little bit more about her. Um, so I would say this is- What is this? This is consort probably?
Ali: Sure.
Austin: Um, cool. Hey, you got a six.
Ali: [laughing] Ok. It’s all good.
Austin: So, do you want to spend that credit to advance it to-?
Ali: [blows air through lips] ‘brbrbrbrbr’ I think that happens when I advance it. I’m already like, on the way.
Austin: So, if you advance it from- So, right now- So, right now you have- you’ll advance this by three. So, it’ll go from a four to a seven, and you’ll be one segment away from filling the clock.
Ali: Ok.
Austin: If you advance it from- if you spend that credit, it’ll- you’ll advance it by five which will fill out the clock, and I’m gonna tell you who the Waking Cadent is.
Ali: Oh. Like who- like who. [laughs]
Austin: Like who.
Ali: Ok. [Dre laughs] Um, sure. That’s a credit to spend.
Austin: That’s a credit to spend.
Ali: I have to like- [overlapped] I pay for dinner.
Austin: What’s that look like? What's that- So- so you know, the credit- You know what it is? Here’s- I’m gonna suggest a thing which is Waltz Tango Cache has information. Let’s start with what you have already, and then we’ll get to the little bonus.
Ali: [laughing] Ok.
Austin: How’s that sound?
Ali: [laughing] Sure.
Austin: Can ⸢Signet⸣ be here for this?
Ali: If ⸢Signet⸣ would like to be, yeah. [Austin laughs]
Austin: Or I mean, real- real talk, it could also just be a thing that Tender keeps separately, and that’s knowledge. That’s this kind of like, great irony thing. It’s up to y’all.
Ali: [laughs] Can I have the information first? Can it be like a Tender invites Waltz out, and then depending on-
Austin: Yeah, totally.
Ali: -what it is, it’s either like-
Austin: Yes. Do you share-
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Cause yeah. Then you would get the- the sharing information-
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: -of like, scene. Alright. So, Waltz tells you he was tapped to be one of her Beloved Nights. And he showed up, and it was real weird. [Ali laughs] She had stitched together the Privign station using- She had taken- Do you remember the iconoclast who was like, the big like, light being that was tormenting y’all in Privign? Or in Benthos?
Ali: Oh yeah. Like right outside the-
Austin: That almost killed- Yeah, that almost killed ⸢Signet⸣.
Ali: Uh hm.
Austin: And then ⸢Signet⸣ like, blew it open with- by confronting it with like, a feeling of personhood and- [light laugh] and kind of- not hope, but individuality, basically.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: And I guess it’s how I would- I would summarize that encounter. The Waking Cadent pulled it back into existence.
Ali: Bad move.
Austin: And then stitched together Privign station with its body. She like, turned it into like, effectively a sort of living concrete to keep the station from falling apart. And to torment it because it is an affront on people. It is a- it is uh- It, in its actions, not to mention its form, is built to hurt people and has done so. And because she wanted to show the other people there that that was a thing she was capable of. And so, Waltz Tango Cache, with his grenade head, was like, ‘I gotta get out of here. [Ali laughs] This place is bad.’
Ali: Fair.
Austin: Um, but there’s more, which is like, she seems really dedicated to everything she believes in. There’s no wiggle room. And that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t believe that people can’t make mistakes. She isn’t like- [sighs] She is- She- She believes in confession. She believes in- in self-improvement. But she sees herself as being someone who cannot bend. And she sees the Fleet having landed as- and taken over these places that are not theirs- as an incredible failure of- of morality. The Resonant Orbit was supposed to be- was supposed to be separate. Her vision of utopia was- was one that was very limited.
She doesn’t think that the goal should be to bring everybody in to your utopia because that is how you end up like, Our Prophet. That is how you end up like the NEH, where you make compromises until, while you might be helping lots and lots of people, there are people who are at the bottom rungs and who cannot get out of that space. And so, you have a moral responsibility to detach yourself from those things. Especially if you can. And she believed that the Divine Fleet could do that again. And so, her goal is the rebuild the Divine Fleet and to leave. Waltz was not built for it. Like, Waltz was barely built for the Beloved, you know?
Ali: [laugh lightly] Aww.
Austin: That was already a little bit of pomp and circumstance too much.
Ali (as Tender): No, Waltz, you’re great.
Austin (as Waltz Tango Cache): Ahh.
Ali (as Tender): You’re award winning.You’ve won awards.
Austin (as Waltz Tango Cache): I win award- I won all my awards before I was part of the Beloved.
Ali (as Tender): Exactly. That’s your resume.
Austin (as Waltz Tango Cache): Right, but all the uniforms and the- [Ali sighs] code names.
Ali (as Tender): Eh, just-
Austin (as Waltz Tango Cache): I already have a code name. It’s Waltz Tango Cache.
Ali (as Tender): Great code name.
Austin (as Waltz Tango Cache): You know, I won an award for it. [Ali laughs]
Ali (as Tender): You won the code name award, too? What year?
Austin (as Waltz Tango Cache): I would tell you the name of the awar- I can’t tell you.
Ali (as Tender): Ok. Ok. I understand.
Austin (as Waltz Tango Cache): It’s all secret code.
Ali (as Tender): I’m not a part of the- you know. I’m a big fan. But that’s- Yeah.
Austin (as Waltz Tango Cache): Yeah. I appreciate it, you know? I- I meet a lot of fans, but I can tell you really follow the work.
Ali (as Tender): [laughs] I try to.
Austin (as Waltz Tango Cache): But then, I- On my way out, he- [exhales]
Austin: What is the Waking Cadent’s version of the exuvia? Cause he stole it. [Ali gasps]
Janine: It has to be something kind of snowy, right?
Austin: No, the ice is a new thing.
Ali: [laughs] Ok, what’s-
Janine: Crystally then?
Ali: What’s in between bug and ice? I already have crystals.
Austin: I know what it is. I have a question. What was Independence's first body like? Before it was a bunch of cannons. Before the Earth remade it as a bunch of cannons. A weird millipede bug like, gunship. I need to find the first time Independence came up on Friends at the Table. One sec.
Ali: [laughs] Ok. That’s all you got to do.
Austin: I have it cause it was a- it was a- Alright, so this is not- [exhales] So, there’s an episode of Counter/Weight where Independence shows up in the background for a half second from ever and ever and ever ago in like- but before Counter/Weight. It’s like a- a flashback to an earlier event. Um, and the candidate for Independence, which is sort of like, Counter/Weight’s versions of excerpts, if you haven’t listened to Counter/Weight yet. And this is not a big plot spoiler, so I’m just- I’m willing to tell you this thing is um, the candidate is like- is like an excerpt, is like, the pilot of a given divine. And in this little vignette, Kadaknath, who is the candidate, receives something from a bunch of- from people that Independence and Kadaknath had saved, basically.
And people were sending them these things to be like, ‘Hey, here. Thank you for that. And you’re gonna protect from this big, big, big terribly bad thing.’ And it was reams and reams of kind of jeweled cloth. And um- I’m trying to find the exact phrasing I used here. Yeah, I don’t have it exactly, but it’s just like- I think it’s like, almost like a um, almost like a star. Like a bro- like a brooch. Like a star-shaped brooch, but made of this like- pink is too light when I say the word pink, so like, slight- What’s darker than pink, but not quite purple?
Janine: Like rose is more of like, a lightened red.
Austin: Yeah. But like, a kind of shiny jeweled rose. Like a ribbon- or not like a ribbon, but like a- like a silk or something, right? And you hold it. Like, he just gives it to you. And it’s heavy. Like it’s heavy immediately. And so that credit you’re spending is opening it. [Ali laughs] And I don’t know how you open it? How do you- What- what’s the thing that you do to open this thing?
Ali: Uh, first I make like, a spot. [laughs]
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: Like I go into a mind zone.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: Just to have like, a you know, a safe spot, I guess.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: I mean, it’s just the like- it’s the altar that she made, right?
Austin: Right. Yeah, totally.
Ali: It’s just that.
Austin: Totally.
Ali: But you know, empty.
Austin: Yeah, that makes sense. Uh, and so like, do you open it like, where all the candles are or like, in the- in the middle where there’s the kind of like, all the faces of the different excerpts?
Ali: Yeah, that was-
Austin: Or whatever?
Ali: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Austin: Alright. So, I think what happens is like, you pull on the right part of the star or something, right? Or it- it catches the light from the excerpts, and it’s been so long, so remind me if I’m mis- if I’m misdescribing this- if I’m describing this the wrong way, but the whole thing is if you look at the- the sculpture in the center from a different perspective, you would see a different excerpt, right?
Ali: Yes.
Austin: It was kind of like a lenticular or whatever.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: It snaps into place, and you recognize her not through her visage necessarily because you weren’t around to her, but through her power of presence. Through the knowledge that she was Independence’s excerpt. That she was the first excerpt. It’s Kamala Cadence.
Ali: Oh.
Austin: It’s Kamala Cadence. It’s the fir- it’s the founder of the Resonant Orbit. [Ali laughs]
Ali: Ugh, that’s too bad. Um-
Austin: Um, and you don’t know what this means, right? LIke, they found her in a- in a fuckin’ pod in space. And is that coincidence? Is that Quire? Is that the mirage? Like, what is that? Certainly you know, I think in the years to come, if that information gets out, you’ll have people say, ‘ah that’s not the real- that’s not the real Kamala Cadence. That’s just one that Quire cooked up because someone dreamt it hard enough. The same way that it dreamt up all that technology on Gift-3.’
But you’ll have other people point to data that says, ‘well, here is what we’ve learned about the historical Kamala Cadence. She was minimized inside of the Resonant Orbit. She was part of a movement to kind of herself reduce the con- the power of the divines, despite that fact that she had brought them into the Resonant Orbit. And was jettisoned at some point. Not killed.’ They couldn’t stab her in the back exactly.
But the records show, she was- and maybe you can even confirm this stuff now by digging deep into records and digging into like, things that have been locked, you know, in- behind cabinet doors and like, inside of thirty firewalls, and blah, blah, blah. But like, that is- and- and again, who knows? Maybe that data was fabricated. Who could say? Like, I- I don’t want to confirm this. I think it’s an important thing to not fully confirm this. But it’s her. Like, regardless of whether or not she’s the one who was flung out of a ship fifty- forty-nine thousand years ago. She is here now, and she has claim on being Kamala Cadence. And no one can come up with data or proof that she isn’t. Um, she certainly has the knowledge of Kamala Cadence. She certainly has the information about the founding of the Resonant Orbit.
And I think that the- her version of the exuvia um, paints the picture of the founding of the Resonant Orbit in a different way than many of you have seen. Which is here is the pitch on the Resonant Orbit as y’all describe it to each other in daily life. There was a time when it became clear that the divines were too dangerous and were going to kill us all. [light laugh] And there was debate about what to do. Whether or not we should plead- plead our fealty to them and let them become our gods. Or whether or not we should try to kill them and go down in a fight, even if we don’t win. Um, and Kamala Cadence rose up and built the Resonant Orbit by convincing everyone involved, all of these disparate schools of thought and- and the divines themselves, at least a number of them, that what we can do is live in harmony together.
And her initial motivation in this becomes clear in- in the sort of living journal of her life is that like, [exhales] her initial reason for doing this was not- was not to save people from the divines. She’d run the numbers. The divines weren’t gonna win that war. We would crush them. We would do what Earth did to Independence. And so, her cause for starting the Resonant Orbit was to keep these beautiful things called divines alive. And bit by bit, over time, as the Cadent, that relationship changed. She had a split with Independence who refused to join the Resonant Orbit and who tried to kill a bunch of people and who she sent packing and who wound up on Earth years later.
And she started souring on the- her core philosophy that meant that people were- were only as valuable as divines were. And began to pursue a new vision for which divines would work for as many people as they could. Not as slaves, but not as this sort of like, equal partnership thing either. And from what you can kind of gather from this thing now, she’s somewhere in the middle and is kind of unsure.
I think that we get flashes of the Cadent Under Mirage here, which is like, time has clearly changed, and Kamala Cadence knows that she is not necessarily- that the people who got rid of her did so because they may have been right to some degree. And she isn’t sure what she thinks quite yet in any sort of final sense around people and divines. But she knows that she- she does not want divines in the hands of people who would not give the Qui Err their land back.
She knows that she does not want divines and axioms in control of the NEH, who would turn them into machine to keep a system that oppresses people in power. And so, she sees herself as an alternative. And has begun gathering support among the masses. So, that is Kamala Cadence, the Waking Cadent.
Ali: [makes uncomfortable noise and laughs] Cool. Love-
Austin: I did not expect to give that today. So, that’s always fun.
Ali: Love to know that.
Austin: Uh huh. So like, wake up in front of like, Waltz. Like are you just like, in- still in the Steady. And he’s like,
Austin (as Waltz Tango Cache): So, how’d that go? [Ali laughs]
Austin: Like, cause- he didn’t see any of that shit, you know?
Ali: I figured it was like a ‘do that later’. Like-
Austin: Yeah. Ok. Ok.
Ali: -’thanks for this.’ Yeah.
Austin: Gotcha.
Ali: Like an after dinner like- you know.
Austin: Uh huh. He just wore it like it was a fuckin’ prom um- What are those called?
Ali: Corsage.
Austin: [laughing] Yeah, corsage. God.
Ali: God. He made it work, too.
Austin: Uh hm. He’s good. [Ali and Dre laugh] He pulled it off.
Ali: Um, oh that sucks to know that.
Austin: Uh hm.
Ali: God. Don’t tell ⸢Signet⸣, by the way. [laughing] Um, sorry ⸢Signet⸣.
Austin: Gonna- Ok, so you’re not telling ⸢Signet⸣. Ok.
Ali: [still laughing] No.
Austin: Great.
Ali: Um, I don't’ know. I feel like- Cause that’s- I think that uh, Tender has not had a conversation about her faith with ⸢Signet⸣ since the like-
Austin: Right.
Ali: -you know, since the year-
Austin: It’s like-
Ali: -break.
Austin: -the miracle, basically?
Ali: Right. Yeah.
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: And then also just being like, ‘well, I’ve been in a bad place with it. Do you also want to be?’ Um-
Austin: Right.
Ali: It’s just like, this is uh-
Austin: Yeah.
Ali: From someone who like, hooked up with their ex-girlfriend and did not like, [laughs] feel any less stressed from doing that- [laughs more]
Austin: Uh hm.
Ali: -it’s just like, ‘Ok, I’m just gonna-’
Austin: Float on by. Let’s just take it a day at a time.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Cool.
Ali: I will process that later. Cool.
Austin: Does that turn you away from wanting to retrieve Anticipation?
Ali: Ugh [laughs uncomfortably] God. I don’t even know.
Austin: Uh hm. I mean, you could retrieve it and then not give it to her, right? [Ali sighs] You could retrieve whatever this relic is that she’s given you information to find, and then give it to the people who- who ⸢Signet⸣ and Even and uh, Echo gave Polyphony and Barricade. Polyphony is still Polyphony, the axiom, by the way. Not- has not been turned into a divine, and they’re still working on Barricade.
Ali: [laughs] Alright. That would be at the end of that mission either- anyway. The thing we’re taking- Uh, ⸢Signet⸣ right here- I mean Tender right here is that like, she was like, ‘the Waking Cadent is an asshole, but I should go hear her out. Cause that’s what Kamala would do. Cause she was great.’ [laughs]
Austin: Uh hm.
Ali: To set this like, very much like, Saint Mary thing. Like, yeah. Hell yeah.
Austin: Right. Right.
Ali: And then like, was like ‘oh shit.’ [laughs]
Austin: Uh huh.
Ali: Fuck. So, yeah. I don’t know. I think it’s still very much like- I know what to do in the moment. I’ve always known what to do in the moment, so I’ll know. It’s the-
Austin: Great.
Ali: It’s the thing. [laughs]
Austin: Love it.
Ali: Uh hm.
Austin: Alright, those are your two, right?
Ali: Um, I was gonna say technically the Waltz thing is free cause if you have that move for Bounties.
Austin: That’s not- You don’t get to like, call on a person for that.
Ali: Yeah, I do.
[crosstalking]
Austin: Do you? What’s the- Oh, you do. Uh, yeah.
Ali: It’s any time that I do like, research to find-
Austin: Ok. But that one-
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: I thought you meant- Sorry. Yes. That’s totally cool. Yeah. An extra downtime activity to work on long term projects that track bounties.
Ali: Yeah.
Austin: Yeah, ok.
Ali: So, I’m gonna take-
Austin: I thought you meant the- I didn’t understand. I thought you were talking about something with Waltz, and I was like, ‘wait, you don’t have a special thing with Waltz’
Ali: Oh. Right. No.
Austin: ‘-where you just get a Waltz scene for free.’ [Austin and Ali laugh] Alright, cool. So, then what is your third?
Ali: Um, I’m just gonna try and resolve cause I have this final here.
Austin: Gotcha.
Ali: And I need to decide where to put it.
Austin: Alright. Figure it out. ⸢Signet⸣.
Janine: Hey.
Austin: Hi.
Janine: Uh, I want to roll on my long term project which is the axiom
Austin: Yes.
Janine: -protector-y, divine-y thing.
Austin: Go for it. What were you using for that? Attune?
Janine: I want to say I was using Attune because it was like- it was- it’s a mechanical thing, but the way I was doing it was by tapping into Belgard’s like, thing with like, perfect efficiency of materials and like-
Austin: Oh, right, right, right. That is the roll.
Janine: -assembling, disassembling- Yeah.
Austin: Yes, totally. That is what it was. So, yeah. Go ahead and give me an Attune. Uh-
Janine: Um-
Austin: Tryin’ to think if there’s anything special here.
Janine: Oh, I want to-
Austin: I don’t think so.
Janine: I think I want to push myself and-
Austin: You can’t push-
Janine: -and-
Austin: -during non-action rolls.
Janine: Or sorry, I was- I meant uh, doctoring. Can I not do the doctor thing?
Austin: Oh yes. That you-
Janine: To- and that’s pushing myself, but-
Austin: You could push yourself to roll your doctor rating-
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: -if you’d like to. So, yeah. So, take two stress for that.
Janine: Ok.
Austin: Yes.
Janine: Ok.
Austin: I think- Yeah.
Janine: Ok.
Austin: I’ll let that happen.
Janine: What’s my stuff?
Austin: What is the- what is- What patient, research, or posting did you learn this trick from?
Janine: Um, it’s hard to be specific here because it is already broadly like, kind of the thing.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Specifically I think it would probably be- it would probably relate to like, a long time ago having to repair a very specific, very particular system in another divine-
Austin: Mm. Uh hm.
Janine: -that was like, kind of obtuse and not just like, ‘Oh, your arm is fucked up. Ok. Zap-zap-zap. You’re all fixed.’ But like a-
Austin: Uh hm.
Janine: But like a fixing the vector through which this divine did its thing.
Austin: Right.
Janine: And that’s a- that’s a slightly more complicated procedure, even for Belgard.
Austin: Awesome. Yeah, go ahead and give me doctor. You get the four which is two things? Two segments, which finished it.
Janine: Nice.
Austin: Boom. Alright, so what are these? What do they look like?
Janine: You tell-
Austin: I know what they do.
Janine: We had them before, right? Like, they’re just copies of the-
Austin: Everybody had weird, different version of it though, right? Because Echo’s just went into their cool eye patch. Your was in the exuvia. And uh, Even had his inside of the robot, right?
Janine: You know what it is? I think it’s like, in a crime show- er like, in- in a sort of- I don’t know- miscellaneous like, drama type things from a very long time ago- I think I’m remembering this right. This happening sometimes. But like, if they wanted to like, quote-unquote hack something or like, put a tracker on someone, it would just be like, a little circuit board with an LED light or something that they like, slipped into their shoe.
Austin: Yeah.
Janine: Or- or like-
Austin: Uh huh. Totally.
Janine: -put in their fuckin’ glove compartment or whatever.
Austin: With like a fuckin’-
Janine: I think it’s just like that.
Austin: Like a watch battery. Yeah. Ok.
Janine: It’s like you just jam this in the side of whatever you want. [laughs]
Austin: And then it can detect axioms and divines and all that.
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Awesome. So like, here- I’m gonna give you a thing really quick which is a like, knowledge thing in doing this um, is that the names given to the axioms by this thing are um, are not the only names they could- like, one of the things you come a- you come across is that when it scans an axiom, it’s like, ‘oh yeah. There’s like, twenty possible names we could give this.’ And then it gives whatever like, the most likely analysis is. But there are absolutely times when it’s like, ‘oh, this could Barricade or Wall. There’s a fifty-fifty chance, and it picks the first one.’
Janine: Mm.
Austin: Which like, makes it very clear that what this does is it definitely identifies weird and it can definitely give you a good idea of what to call it, but this is not by no means a final name. Do you know what I mean? There is definitely- there are definitely cases that you’ve seen in testing or that are in the kind of programming of it or in the- as you kind of work through the Belgard HUD of like, ‘Oh. Like Belgard knows when someone is J. Smith versus John Smith.’
Janine: Mm.
Austin: Belgard does not get the- does not get email addresses wrong. This thing totally would. This thing like, absolutely is- It’s as good as it can get because these things don’t have identities in that way, you know? So, you know, there is- there is definitely a world in which Exuberance- er Ebullience could have been Exuberance. Uh, but this thing would have called it Ebullience and then that’s good enough for us. You know?
And that it’s also programmed to connect to like, a thing and be like, ‘Ok.This thing is- this thing is Ebullience and so that means the next one that has similar properties, that one could be Exuberance. And it would- will try not to repeat itself, you know? Uh, alright. So, what is your se- So, everybody gets those. Everybody should add this to their- It’s just like, um, to their communicator which is a free thing. Is just like, communicator and like, weirdness detector. [light laugh] Nice work. [typing]
Janine: Yay.
Austin: Alright, so what is your second thing?
Janine: Uh, I think I’m just gonna train and take a playbook XP.
Austin: Take a- take a playbook XP?
Janine: Yeah.
Austin: Cool. I think that that is it. [thinking sounds] duh-duh-duh I want to make sure there’s nothing else big to catch y’all up on.
Art: Alright. Only four hours, guys. Good work.
Austin: I’m not surprised. [several people exhale]
Dre: It’s us.
Austin: Here are the other- It’s us. It’s us. So, I think that like, the- the things the- The rest of this stuff kind of happens over the course of a few days, basically. Of- or days- or let’s say a week. We’re gonna probably time jump by a week or two in terms of the group that goes to Brighton gets information from Seneschal’s Brace- Maybe it doesn’t even come into Seneschal’s Brace. I think it comes in probably- I think actually Even, you just figure it out through your obsession, right? You pick up uh- Between that and then like, this- the vision that Gig had and the vision that Echo had that the- that Advent has this facility on Brighton that is tied to their efforts to capture the Wandering Sea.
And that if you disrupt that, then you can prevent them from doing that. And it’ll be a good way to keep them from seeing the future, which seems like a good thing to prevent them from being able to do. I really just want to have like, the shot of the three Brighton crew like, landing New- at New Independence. Like again, in the kind of shadow of Independence, and Gig running over to like, hug Kent Brighton.
[Jack de Quidt’s “The Notion’ begins playing in background]
And then going from that to this like, really wide shot of a huge temple with really long stairs that go up like a kind of tiered pyramid. And Sho, who like, is a year older, but looks three years older, you know how that happens sometimes in your life, like stepping down the stairs with a smile on her face to see the two of you there. Sword at her side still. And then- and then phone starts ringing, and we get Grand looking through the rolodex to try to figure out who the fuck to call to come help Fourteen Fifteen. And then like, ‘it’s been- Oh, hey. I was supposed to get back that thing I left- Hey, uh, is Tender here?’
Art (as Grand Magnificent): Nope. Get in the car. [Austin laughs]
Austin: We got a heist to do.
[Music plays out to end]
[1] The name in the audio recording is no longer in use, hence the audio/transcript discrepancy.