Begin log. Nyla Westedge. Handler. Pilot Division.
I have rewritten this numerous times. I think
I'm now considering that these will be seized
as part of one inquiry or another. It's not the
first time this thought has occurred to me, though
I used to call it paranoia back in those days.
Now it feels realistic, considering everything.
Through my role in the chain of command, through
my decisions and my guidance, the lives I have
destroyed are now counted in the hundreds of
thousands. If we succeed in our mission, perhaps
I can still be redeemed. A hundred thousand lives
for hundreds of millions. How could anyone claim
I have made the wrong choice? People are reaching
their limit. Transfer requests are being thrown
away by the dozens. We all knew we couldn't leave
so late in the game, and yet... We're trying
anyways. Who can blame us? We really see it now,
the cracks starting to form. I think, at last,
the doubt has reached me, too. What if the projections
are wrong? What if we fail and it was all for
nothing? What if the winning move was not to
play at all? You can judge all you want, but
you weren't there. You didn't feel the weight
of it. You just stood by with your arms crossed,
with your clean hands, with your implacable expressions
and your downward glances. If we manage to win,
nobody will even notice we did anything at all.
They'll think all the killing was just cruelty
on a distant world. And if we lose, well, we'll
have more urgent problems on our hands. End log.
Okay, so you have returned from your mission.
Duty is dead. Retribution is driven off. Joseph's
frame is destroyed, and the rest of yours are
pretty damaged, except for Hex, who seemed to
escape most consequences. You are directly responsible
now for the deaths of countless civilians, but
we do not have time to unpack that right now.
Were these craft... takes you back to the base
and lands beside the Moondevils, where a small
crowd awaits them and you on the tarmac. The
two other remaining Moondevil frames, besides
Crow's, limp out of the ship. They are very badly
damaged. Tapper's frame is missing an arm, and
a large chunk has been cut out from it, just
barely missing its cockpit. And Green's frame
is missing its entire sensor suite and head,
and is being piloted with its cockpit open so
the pilot can see. You see Crow walk up to a
woman and two children in the crowd. He shakes
his head at her and she collapses to the ground
in grief while the children look around confused
as if looking for someone missing. He leaves
them and then goes over to you four. And he claps
a hand on Geist's shoulder in particular and
says, solid work, Dusklights. Go get some rest.
We'll debrief tomorrow. And after that, I think
some celebration is in order. Yeah. I guess we'll
see. Was it like that when you killed the other
one? What do you mean? I don't know, that bloody...
Uh, we lost some good soldiers with the other
ones, yeah. Alright. I guess that's it. We'll
see you later. He nods. Unless anyone else is
trying to grab him. No. Okay, so... Gopher slinks
out of Worthy's ship and is confronted by Nyla.
She launches into a very long lecture, which
she kind of shrinks away from. You know, he's
still traumatized from his experience with those
two virtues, and he kind of just lets her lead
him away back to the hangar. Bye, Gopher. Do
we make out what they're saying or no? I mean,
what you would expect her to say is like, you
are so fucked. Like, I'm going to make sure you
are, like, written up. I'm going to make sure,
like, you have a handler. Like, I'm going to
handcuff you to the fucking hangar if I have
to. Stop this from happening again. Like, we
won't put up with this insubordination. You know,
all that jazz. The good stuff. Does she look
at us at all? Like, are we culpable? Like, I'm
curious. Oh, yeah, I'm sure she casts a venomous
violence. We kept him alive. God damn it. We
did our job. You're all such great deadbeat fathers.
Didn't keep any of the civilians alive, but we
kept Gopher alive. Yeah, that's what matters.
Listen, Loyal, it's us versus them, Loyal. Who's
them again? I don't know all of a sudden. Uh
-oh. And you are left now. There's a crowd of
people. You see probably the... I'm still going
to say Green has a significant other, at least,
who is happy to see that he's back. The crowd
is mostly focused on the Moon Devils. Yeah, let's
just slink away. I don't think Geist... Geist
doesn't really want any of this attention. He'll
just look at the squad and be like, I think we
should get out of here before anybody notices
we're here. You know, if they ever do. Agreed.
great yeah he just he was to leave yeah it's
like you have it's dinner time in my head um
you have basically the rest of the day free and
you have a debrief tomorrow morning um we can
we could do i think i want to mission complete
after the debrief okay cool so if there's anything
you want to do prior to the the briefing let
me know otherwise we can just flash forward to
that time Yeah, I think Geist is going to just...
He's got a lot to think about. He's just going
to leave. He's just going to wander off and go
home to his miserable little bachelor apartment.
I'm imagining all of us just leaving in totally
opposite directions from each other. Yeah, Geist
is heading to the nearest station to start submitting
reimbursement orders for all the ammo. You know,
kind of juice in the numbers a little bit. We
need more supply. You get tax breaks for using
the bullets that have seeds in them. Not just
that. You gotta use it or lose it. Niall's gonna
cut the budget next quarter if we don't use everything.
Oh, fuck. Please. No. Okay. Next day. Get up
nice and early for your morning briefing. It's
in the usual conference room. Nyla is there,
as is Director Jermaine. Only Crow is present
from the Moondevils. Director Jermaine is leading
the conference. He greets you all as you come
in, and he speaks once you're all sitting or
standing near the table, in Loyal's case. I don't
stand, I float. It's an important distinction.
I'm sorry. He says, crow has already filled us
in on the moon devil's part uh we're pulling
footage off your frames but i'd like to hear
your recap of um your side of the events uh i
think geist would give i don't think there's
anything he would want to admit he would give
a fairly um honest retelling but he might I'm
not going to say that he juices up Gopher's side
a little bit, but he maybe makes him seem a little
more heroic and a little bit less like he was
just stomping on people than what really happened.
He probably is at least mostly honest about the
dangling. In Geist's telling of the story, Melvin
made a pretty good show of himself, or at least
not an embarrassingly bad one, up until things
got really out of his... out of his weight class
at the end there when retribution showed up but
i don't think he's gonna i don't think he would
intentionally obfuscate anything including uh
hex sitting there blasting away at the dam repeatedly
while we're trying to not get killed okay uh
yeah jermaine like takes it in and says okay
and the um just to be clear uh Nyla was not present
at this briefing. The dam, its destruction, was
ordered by Crow. Yeah. Well, he said it was a
tertiary objective to disable the hydroelectric
plant. We didn't... We weren't necessarily supposed
to flood it, but it was presented as... A potentially
acceptable part of the mission parameters. Okay.
Well, that could be problematic. From a military
standpoint, it did do a good job of dispersing
a power center of the Clusterist, but there were
a lot of civilians and noncombatants there, and
it might make us look a little unsympathetic.
We're just going to have to hope the media back
on Earth doesn't latch onto this and that we
don't get too many sob stories pointing in your
direction. But... You think that's likely? Well,
I'm not a media expert, but it is a great opportunity
for the Clusterists to make us look like the
bad guys here. Yeah. Listen, you did a damn good
job, you know. You held up your end of the mission.
You let the devils do what they needed to do
without getting into any trouble. And just take
it easy today, but report to the mess hall at
1800 hours for the celebration. Okay? Alright.
Anything else from anyone? Geist looks at Loyal.
Specifically. The entire time this is happening,
I'm just envisioning Loyal just like... In his
tank, trying to hold really still, but just like
trembling slightly with a cocktail of emotions.
Anger, fear, grief, many things. Mostly anger.
But he's not saying anything. The guy still turned
back and be like, I guess that's it. It was bad
business, but we... Took a big piece off the
board and I guess at this point that's the best
we can hope for. Alright. Dismissed. Yeah, Geist
just leaves. He looks... He's not happy about
what happened as much as he hates Clusterists.
He... I think he feels bad because he told Loyal
that he wouldn't destroy the dam and he didn't.
But it still happened. Uh -huh. And he feels
kind of responsible for that because even though
he doesn't really have any skill as a commander,
he considers himself the leader of the team,
warranted or not. Oh, he is. So he feels guilty
about it, not because of all the people who died,
but because he feels like he let his friend down.
Great. Let's do mission complete. Let's get paid
for this. Yay, the blood money, my favorite part.
So you're going to roll 3d6 and take the highest
die. That seems... Four. Four, yeah, all right.
Great, and then you get one personnel and one
materiel for democracy. Yay. And then you're
going to get four rep total. four rep okay i
got our sheet open here dust glides okay so we're
back at empty rep so four rep is quite a lot
uh nice you get two rep for the base you get
plus one for the tier and you get plus one uh
because virtue is involved nice um guys you're
going to check a tick in your drive clock because
you had a hashtag retribution encounter yeah
That's two. That's two in the drive clock. Every
pilot can now spend a materiel to roll a die
and you get that many quirks back and remove
all level one harms and damages. So I just want
to double check something. I only have one level
one damage on my frame and nothing else. I junked
a couple things, but does that seem right to
you? Did I avoid getting real fucked up? Yes,
Retribution, for the most part, ignored you.
Nice. I love how I get to clear my level 1 harm
of lingering guilt after flooding this city.
It doesn't seem right. I'll say that. Just start
a long -term project to kill Hex and that can...
It's not lingering anymore. It's just productive.
It's kind of a full -body guilt that you can
operate with. Sorry, it's one die. So you spend
one material. I'll take off... D6 Quirkspec.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'll take off the one material,
because everybody needs to do this, right? I
assume. Is Joseph actually? I don't have a ship
anymore, right? Yeah. Okay. So everyone who isn't
Joseph, remove any level of harm and damage,
then roll a d6 and get that many quirks back.
Those are quirks you expended on the mission,
if any. I only got one, so I'm going to waste.
Oh, we can cook the books, right? We should definitely
cook the books. During downtime, yes. Okay, yeah.
I forgot that this was just another thing that
happened. Lucky. Yeehaw. I still have Breach
Cockpit and fucked up. Yep, you do. You did get
fucked up. I got fucked up. Messed up. Okay.
Harold, what's your damage situation? Harold's
fucked up, sir. Looking at the sheet, we got
input delay. We got dented. And your quirks,
did you use any? We didn't. I'm not seeing any
checked off. Okay, well, yeah, you got pretty...
You got away with a lot. Being the least favorite
friend paid off. It did. So if you want, you
can spend... Well, we already spent it, so just
remove Dented. That's gone now. Sick. Yeah, it's
probably still worth it for that alone. Yeah,
it's a good price. Nothing happens to armor,
right? Uncheck that use right there, but keep
it on your gear. Your Soul Union goal increases.
You are gaining one status with the Moondevils
and with the Shovel Scum, which is going to take
your status with the... moon devil is plus one
and shovels gum two plus one as well are you
handling that yes i don't have that sheet open
okay thank you i got it and i think i might have
already done this i need to check on the desk
light sheet but you gained no i don't think i
did okay so you gain seven trust with the peacekeepers
which is a okay momentous amount yes we we only
have two spots left so yeah it overflows Okay,
so we get five and then does our relationship
go up a point? Yes, you're now at level two with
them, which is going to increase things for you.
And your relationship with the Clusterists goes
down to minus three finally, which will open
you up to more dangerous entanglements in the
future. They finally care enough about us to
hate us. Geist, you get to mark two ticks in
your connection clock with Retribution. Oh, shit,
really? Yes. Okay. Okay, the connection clock,
that is filled up. So you get to choose... What's
the target pilot, which is me, for a truth about
one of the beliefs tied to them? Okay. Okay,
so it has to be about one of the beliefs that
I have. Yes. I guess you've gained insight through
fighting him in some way. Okay. Psychically or
otherwise. So I guess this is a pretty easy sell.
Is he still human? Yes. Hmm. That's actually
probably very good news. Still human. Well, who
are you asking about? retribution like is there
and underneath all that alien tech is there like
still a guy who can like walk around and go to
the mall and you know here's what i'll tell you
to make it a little more interesting than me
saying yes is that the pilot of retribution and
where that starts and where retribution ends
is very indistinct now okay The vessel, I guess
we would call it, the human, is human. Like,
he could theoretically walk around if he was
in that position too. But when he is operating
that machine, he is host to something, I would
say. Okay. That, I think, makes sense to me.
So do I get a third belief about him now that
this clock has filled up? I think you clear them
all and you make a new one. I clear all of them?
I have two right now. I don't understand. I don't
understand how they accumulate. I might have
done something wrong. So, usually you'd make
a third one, and then when the fourth box checks...
Oh, because I got two points at once? Yeah, so
you erase all previous beliefs, and then you
write a new one related to the truth you just
learned. Okay. And then I can clear... So I clear
the belief ticks, and then I'll put a new one
down, and I think my new belief is going to be...
Red truth. either the man or the machine has
likely been personally wronged by me in some
way at some point. That's my new belief. That's
why I think why he hates me specifically so much.
Okay. You get a Geist 2 XP just for the rival
stuff. Yay! Okay, I think it didn't resolve.
And now we're going to do pilot XP. If you express
your tragedy, history, or opening, you get one
XP. Not quite. If you struggled... Go ahead.
I was just going to say, my tragedy is that my
girlfriend was killed by retribution, and my
history is that I used to be a moon devil, so
I feel like both of those kind of came into play.
Sure, I'll take it. If you struggle because of
your beliefs, scars, or your vehicle's quirks,
you get one XP. Does my frame blowing up count
as struggle? Well, that's not technically your
vehicle's quirks. Damn it. My biggest quirk is
that it is destroyed. It is in multiple pieces.
I mean, you could argue that your beliefs led
you to abandon your vehicle. It's okay. We don't
need to give you any XP for that. I don't think
I got any XP. I mean, you kind of struggled because
you were determined to... helping gopher yeah
i would say that counts that's definitely a belief
thing and it definitely took away from the mission
because you were saving his stupid ass when you
could have been completing objectives and i have
to save gopher multiple times do i get two xp
uh no you get one for this one um hex you struggle
because of your beliefs because you're focused
on the mission i would say How about Paranoia?
That was also a thing, but I wasn't sure if that
really... Yeah, sure. Take XP for that. Did I
address anything with Understanding or Poise?
You tried to do psychic stuff, I guess. Yeah,
sure. For the Ace, you know what yours is. For
Joseph, address a challenge with Stealth or Evasion.
I would say Evasion, you definitely did. Evaded
Dine. Is this playbook XP? Is that where you
put it in? It goes wherever you want, baby. It's
general XP. You can put it in your skill trackers
or in playbook XP. And if you did this multiple
times, you can take 2 XP. I think I only did
it once. This wasn't a stealthy evasive mission
at all. Squad XP? You are going to get 2 XP for
challenges above your tier because you fought
a retro virtue. Yeah, okay. What is your reputation?
I feel like we got a new one as discreet, but
our initial one is daring. Yeah, well, you're
not discreet, but that was daring, so you get
1 XP. Express the goals, drives, inner conflict,
or instinct of the squad. I would say definitely.
Yeah, I would say the inner conflict thing definitely
with Hex killing all those innocent people and
Loyal probably not wanting that to happen. That
right there I think is a good... That's the first
time I think the inner conflict of the squad
has been so clear -cut, maybe. Yeah. So get 2
XP for that and then 1 XP just for your success
in the mission. Nice. We're one box away from
another squad level, which is pretty cool. Hell
yeah. All it took was some trauma. All it took
was some trauma. I'm telling you, that's the
moral of this game, is that struggling will make
you stronger. We're like Saiyans. Every time
we get our ass kicked, we're more powerful. I
love it. So there's going to be a celebration
tonight. I don't know if you want to do anything
prior to that celebration, but if you do... You
can let me know. And then after that celebration,
we will get into the actual downtime where we
take our downtime actions. It's really tempting
to have Geist just show up to this thing hammered.
But maybe I'll have that happen naturally while
he's there. You're pretty alright for a robot,
Joseph. He's grappling with a lot of things.
Joseph, you look just like my girlfriend. A lot
of things. I remember when she used to turn her
frame on and you'd say, activating combat mode.
Those were the days, buddy. Yeah. So, what do
your casual clothes look like? Or your party
clothes, I suppose. I know one of you is a dolphin
and a machine, and one of you is a robot, so
that's a little harder for you. Does Joseph wear
clothes ever, like, over top of his robot frame,
or is that undignified? He just shows up in a
suit. Yeah, it's like a full three -piece tux.
It's, like, all, like, pinched and torn around,
like, the knees and elbows because of the fabric.
I don't know if this guy's wearing any clothes,
sadly. Giant Hawaiian shirt. Yeah, exactly. A
little party hat and a gold chain. No pants.
Yeah, I think he's just going all natural. I
don't know if he could do anything else. I feel
like Geist doesn't even have any nice clothes.
It's just something that never occurred to him,
so he's just going in his blue jeans and his
brown bomber jacket that kind of covers up his
gross blue skin for the most part, except for
the stuff that's on his face. Just with a white
t -shirt underneath. How long is this party supposed
to go for? They didn't provide you that information.
Going in with bad intel. I was about to say.
Fucking Nyla. Has biz cash changed much? It can
change as much as you want it to. It has. I like
that. I prefer that. He's just wearing standard...
I guess formal attire for the barracks or whatever
is on base. So maybe a polo, slacks. But he's
not going in the main part. He's paranoid. He
doesn't like crowded places. There's too many
bombs. Weirdo. Yeah, I forgot to mention, we
already rolled our entanglements, but we're kind
of homebrewing some of the table results now
since we're pretty late in the plot. And so that
is going to come up later, probably, what we
rolled. But just a heads up. Anyways. Okay. So
the celebration is taking place in the mess hall.
It is lit up with all manner of lights, at least
however many they could find lying around. People
are in a mixture of their casual clothes, like
T -shirts and jeans, future T -shirts and future
jeans. And, you know, like their military formal
uniforms. There was no real memo as to what people
are supposed to wear. There is an eclectic crowd
here. A lot of people, I mean, anyone you want
to be here can be here. But just to list them
quickly, the bone pickers are here, including
Mahogany Cola, who is now walking for the first
time in a while on his new prosthetics. The three
remaining Moondevils are here. Nyla is here.
The director, Jermaine, is here. All of the Shudderbugs
are here. Captain Warrock is here. Luigi Solare
is here. Ziggurat is here. Whitecliff is here.
And then Gopher and Dr. Grace. Yes. My peeps.
How's Gopher looking? He's in the punch. Of course.
Face down. He's like, he's sitting in a shitty
plastic chair in the corner, not facing towards
anything, and he has a cup of punch. You want
to dance, Gopher? I'm not going to do that. Take
off his glasses. Yeah. Move his hair. And you
can go around and talk to whoever you want. Or
you can wait for people to walk up to you. Whatever.
No, I definitely want to go talk to Melvin, my
man, right away. Geist goes and he grabs a cup
of punch of his own and then he pulls up another
shitty plastic chair by Melvin and he's like...
Mel, how you doing, kid? And then he kind of
does his usual ritual of taking out his gross,
weird syringe that he uses to inject himself
with beverages and starts kind of like awkwardly
pouring it in and spills a little bit on his
jeans. Just going over talking to Melvin like
it's the most casual thing in the world. And
anyone can cut in to like anyone talking to anyone
else if you want. Just, you know, raise your
hand or whatever. Come say hi. Come say hi to
the boy. But, yeah, go for... Melvin. Full name.
Mel is kind of dissociated. He's a little shell
-shocked. He's like, oh, hey, guys. I'm doing
great. This punch, it's really tart. You know?
It's a really tart punch. Yeah, you're still
in the fugue state, huh? What? Don't worry about
it. It won't last forever. Look, I just want
to say that you didn't do maybe as terribly as
I feared or maybe as I expected. But, you know,
if you want to be a frame pilot, if you really
want it, you have to understand that you give
up something of yourself. you know to be able
to do this you know it's not easy you get that
now i tried to warn you you didn't listen but
that's fine i didn't listen either but you still
have an out here you can just go back to being
you know go for yeah um uh yeah i'm gonna stay
in the hangar for for the time being uh nyla
wouldn't wouldn't let me out anyway so uh yeah
thanks um I'll see you around. Yeah. Geist injects
his punch and then kind of leaves. Yummy. It
isn't tart at all. He lied to me. Go for it!
Where are your taste receptors? In your veins?
Well, no. The food gets injected into the stomach
area for convenience sake, but it's processed
for taste. There on site. Right there on site.
I love it. Yeah. Go straight to the brain. Whoa.
Inject it right through the blood brain barrier.
What does one shot do to you? Probably it would
kill him if that was the case. Yeah, I guess,
is anyone interested in us? Is anybody, like,
clamoring to get a piece? Yes, I mean, there
are people who would like to talk to various
people. I think Ziggurat would approach you,
Geist, and say, Garrett, I take it the direct
interface has proved successful. No more hiccups,
hmm? Uh, yeah, I mean, that... That weird shit
hasn't happened again. It held up pretty good
on the last drop, so I guess so, yeah. She snakes
around you a little bit, as she does, and says,
I think you may be ready for another test, then
I will reach out to the scheduling department.
Okay. I guess that's probably fine. Geist has
always been, like, super uncomfortable with her
because she's very weird and, like, very... I
mean, she's got, like, a pyramid -shaped head
and, like, a bunch of little, like, prosthetic
tentacle arms, right? If I'm remembering what
she looks like correctly. She has a dodecahedron
head. That's it. It's way weirder than a pyramid
head. Also, her back and spine is elongated and
can move akin to a snake. Oh, that's pretty cool.
She's like a slinky in my mind. She's constantly
gyrating. Yeah, Geist doesn't really like being
around her. I think if you tossed her down the
stairs, she'd like... That was great. That was
good foley. Whitecliff is in the corner drinking
in silence, but staring at Joseph. Joseph is
doing his best not to look at her, but he knows
she is looking at him. Dr. Grace is... Who's
actually physically wounded? Are any of you?
I don't think I am. I have no damage. I think
oil is the only one who might be harmed. Yeah,
a little headache. Oh, I'm cured. We're all good?
Yeah, so Dr. Grace, Like, kind of looks over
you all, and is like, no damage sustained to
the body, at least? We managed to pull one out
without getting beat the hell up. Can't say the
same for the frames, but, you know, wasn't a
bad drop. Fuck the frames, I don't care about
them. Alright, you be good, enjoy the party,
I'm gonna go check on the others. She does the
same routine for basically everyone except for
Joseph, who she's not responsible for. Joseph
eyes her from across the room. I feel like at
some point Geist goes over to the rest of the
squad and he's like, Guys, I want to go see how
Mahogany's doing, but I want to go by myself.
Come with me. Sure. I'll come with you. Loyal
hasn't been there for at least a good, like,
30 to 40 minutes. I feel like he stays in his
room until he can't bear being alone anymore,
and then he just kind of, like, appears somewhere.
So I don't know, like, I want to roleplay this
out. Oh, sure, yeah. Hey, you can sit it out
if you want. You can show up during the speech.
No, he doesn't. Have the mental fortitude to
be that alone at this moment, especially not
as a dolphin. Damn, that's depressing. Yeah,
come be with your school of murderer friends.
Yeah, you go for Tamag Nicola. I think he might
be using a cane or some sort of assistant to
walk. The prosthetics he has, unlike hexes, are
not top of the line. They're military surplus.
Or I guess just military. What happened to Mahogany?
TKR eviscerated his body. Yeah, during... Remember,
he almost died. It was in the factory assault
when the... Yeah, the martyrdom scream came to
life. Yeah. He is looking a little wobbly and
he says, Oh, well, if it isn't my favorite squad.
Look who's walking around again. Looking good.
I see. As good as it gets. Still haven't gone
back in a frame. I don't know when that will
be, but Joseph, I'm sorry I haven't been able
to do our checkups lately, but you seem to be
holding up okay? I'm doing quite alright. Don't
worry about me. Now, if you don't mind me asking,
what's the story with that broad across the room
who's been eyeballing you? She's... You could
say she's one of my handlers from Suped. Ah,
that explains it. Yes, she, um... I doubt she
will say anything. She might just stay over there.
Real hush -hush, black -budget type shit. She
gives me the fucking creeps. Well, I'm not gonna
lie. That turns me on. Go talk to her after this.
I think that it's about at this point that, like,
something just kind of floats away without saying
anything to go over to the punch bowl. And then,
like, his little, like, straw attachment kind
of goes out from the front of his exopod and
goes into the punch bowl and, like... Probably
like a gallon of it just gets drained into his
dolphin body. There's a lot less punch suddenly.
If Levin is upset about this or not, it's up
to him. Well, it's funny you say, because the
caterer of the event, Luigi, will approach you
at this point. I don't know how long it takes
alcohol to hit a dolphin system, but probably
a good couple minutes. Loyal, my friend. Hello,
Luigi. Hi. I have some good food for you. I prepared
it special, knowing you were going to be here.
I don't think that's a good idea. No? No, it's
all right, though. Thank you for the gesture.
I appreciate you, as always. I know you're probably
shaken up, but is it true what I'm... hearing.
Loyal, like, is visibly shifty at this, has a
lot of side eyes, and then looks at him and is
like, yes, it's true. I... I'm sure you did what
you had to do, but I don't know. I... was just
trying to... save someone else and then i look
around like is melvin there at the punch bowl
anymore is he kind of wandered off uh you look
i guess at this point he's no longer in his seat
he's he's mia now maybe you saw him when you
came in and he's just not there anymore if he
was like on the ground laying on the floor these
are the corners and we're just slumped it's like
just looking over at The person who he spent
all his efforts trying to protect and could not
stop the dam from breaching due to this is just
like looks at Luigi and says things continue
to happen. I don't know what to say. It's just
I'm glad I don't have to be making decisions
that you seem to have to make i should tell you
this uh loyal uh that i'm probably not going
to be on planet much longer good get out yeah
just uh finishing up things here i'm gonna try
to convince the peacekeepers to let me go but
uh who knows i just it's uh especially after
what just happened i it's I can't be part of
this anymore. Let me know if there's anything
I can do to put a good word in for you. Also,
let me know if they're going to put out more
punch. Here. He produces another, like, bag of
it. Pours it in. You can just carry this one
with you. Dolphin -sized Capri Sun pouch. Yeah,
I think Loyal just gives him a look, nods, and
just floats away holding his Capri Sun pouch
and punch. Great. I think while you three, I
guess, are together, Captain Warhawk, Captain
Spud, is going to approach you and say, Hey,
man, how's it hanging? Who's he talking to? I
guess Geist, but broadly all three of you. So
Joseph and Loyal? Joseph and Hex, because you
guys are all together, right? Yeah. What did
he say? Hey, man, how's it hanging? Okay, well,
I don't like this guy, so I'm not going to respond.
I said to the left. Cold shoulder, literally.
That's radical. Listen, Boys, we could have really
helped out there on that last mission. You know,
taking care of those little freaks on the dam.
Just, you know, keep us in mind. You know, we're
getting bored. We're getting stir -crazy. We
handle ourselves just fine. Look, we appreciate
your unit, but this one was completely out of
my hands. I mean, we... We're under very, very
strict orders from the Moon Devils who we were
working under to not leak a word of this to anybody.
I wouldn't have been allowed to bring you boys
in if I tried. All right. That's, you know, it
is what it is. Just next time, give us a call.
We've been training and we're getting bored.
That's all I'm saying. We'll get you in the field.
Right on. Hang loose, brother. He goes for a
fist bump, dap combo. Yeah, I'll reciprocate.
I'm not going to leave him hanging. He goes for
Hex next. Hex just gives him a nod. Okay, he
goes for Joseph next. Oh, I'm going to give him
an even bigger nod. His fist is hanging there,
and he spins on one foot and locks on to Loyal,
and fist raised, he starts walking towards Loyal
across the dance floor. Loyal, run! Loyal, run!
Oh no. There's not much punch left in my punch
bag I was just given. How thick is the bag? As
thick as you need it to be. I imagine it's like,
you know, like a big, like a six gallon catering
size bag of punch. Like it's not intended to
be drank by a single person. Yeah. Loyal notices
this with just enough reaction time to remove
the straw from his bag and just swing himself
towards this fist bag first so that all of the
liquid inside of it explodes on this guy. Oh
no. No. You guys gotta be nice to Captain Spud.
We need him. He's our cohort. What if he's a
mole? I could mess it up as an accident. Captain
Spud is... formal wear soiled and he says that's
a that's a major bummer bro that's a huge bummer
i guess what the hell hey man you know what else
is a huge bummer we just killed like hundreds
maybe thousands of children just like not even
12 hours ago oh yeah i mean uh That's a war,
bro, I guess, you know? You gotta surf the wave,
you can't fight it, right? No, I don't, I don't,
I don't think so. No. Did you prepare that line?
No, I was improv. It just comes naturally. I
am from California. It's your regional bonus.
That was the funniest shit I've heard all day.
Well, you stay cool. Keep the flippers up. I
guess I'm going to have to switch to my backup
clothes, and he pulls off his former wear, and
underneath is just a swim trunk. Yeah, of course.
You've got to be fucking kidding me. You never
know. Joseph and Geist might hear X mutter under
his breath, he's so cool. Joseph goes, no, he's
not. He is not cool. He peels off. One aorta
more inclined to violence. I think he raised
metal fists at this point. Okay, well, I'm not
done describing what he's doing yet. Oh, God.
Now he peels off the top of his combat boots
to reveal flip -flops underneath. Oh, my God.
Get his ass. Clock him. Who does that? Who does
that? And, yeah, he goes to hang out with everyone.
People give him some weird looks, but he's just
so fucking cool. I hate him, but God, he's just...
How do you do that? His drink and his little
PDA or whatever. I think, guys, the rest of the
squad after seeing this is like, we gotta maybe
babysit Loyal a little bit tonight. Make sure
he doesn't, you know... do anything in a drunken
stupor that we're all gonna regret agreed we
should uh get on that yeah i feel like he's bumping
into people a lot right now because like his
exopod is large he's like a nine foot long dolphin
with a pod big enough to accommodate that which
is full of very heavy fluid so he's trying to
move around and just like probably knocking people
over if they're not quick on their feet at the
moment. Geist is going to run over. Yeah, buddy,
come on. Let's take it easy. He's just having
a good time. Geist, okay, I'll go with you. That's
fine. Joseph, get the other side of the exopod.
We just want to make sure you don't knock anybody
down. Maybe we can find some water for him. Your
human bodies are all so weak. They're all so
weak. That's why I replaced mine with metal.
Yeah, there's a couple of bad examples here.
Yeah, let's get you moving. Can you sit down?
Can you, like, put your telescoping legs out
and, like, you know, give a little rest? Oh,
my legs. I have many of those. It's going to
extend out and then use stationary. It's floating
there. Well, maybe you could place them on the
floor and remain still for now. Yes, this seems
like a good idea. And then he kind of just like
turns his own personality off or attempts to
and just tries to latch on to whoever's having
the best time in the room at that moment to steal
their emotions instead. I mean, to be fair, you
just spilled punch on him. God damn. Anyone except
for him. Whoever's having the second best time.
That's a great question. Yeah, who is? Mahogany's
kind of vibing. Does he actually take a pass
at Whitecliff? Yes, Mahogany is actively flirting
with Whitecliff. Man, I thought Ziggurat would
be more his type, but that's cool, I guess. How's
it going? How's it going to the viewer? I mean,
she's very frigid, but he's very persistent.
That's true. I think I'll do great. Someone mail
him out. If you want an example text, it's something
like, I hear you like working with machines,
darling, but I'm half machine now. Is there half
of me for half of you? Damn. Fuck yeah. Good
luck, man. Good luck, man. Good luck. The Shutterbug's
Gentry Oldsign, the leader, approaches you, Joseph,
and says, I forget his voice, so I'm just going
to do a voice. He says, Joseph, I meant to reach
out to you before you got all popular, but we
wanted to say that we've been noticing some improvements
in the field since you made those modifications
to our frames. And if you want to make more,
you are welcome to any time. Really? Well, I'm
glad to hear that. Maybe I'll swing by and readjust
some things. I'm glad it's having a positive
effect. He smiles at you, gives you a little
pat on the metal shoulder, and walks off. And
you also see the person that you were meant to
probably consign to death, Cheapskate. He is
with Gentry, and he's having a good time. No
emotion. On that one. Turning around. Nyla and
Director Jermaine are kind of in a corner. Just
like kind of talking to each other in like hushed
voices. But unless you want to talk to anyone
else, we can skip ahead. I was going to... Sorry,
go ahead. No, no, no. I had nothing. Okay. I
was going to grab a cup of punch and then maybe
walk over to Whitecliffe when she's not busy.
When Mahogany's done. After he gets her number
successfully. Yeah, right. Did it work? She hands
him a piece of paper, and he looks on both sides
of it, and it is blank, but he takes this as
a challenge and walks off with it. That's fucking
funny. Joseph doesn't know that, so he walks
over with a cup and kind of offers it to her,
and he says, did he work his charm on you? He
tried. Yes. I see. Still holding the cup. Do
you need something? I thought you were maybe
thirsty. Me? No, I already drank before I came
in here. I see. Well, I don't think there's any
reason for us to be cold to each other. We are
working together. I'm... suppose. I'm not being
cold to you, Joseph. You have been eyeing me
all night. I have noticed that. That's my job.
I understand. Was there anything you wanted to
discuss with me, possibly? No. Just, you know
what you have to do. And I'm just here to oversee
you, as always. As always. He takes the cup,
nods, and turns away. Walks back to the group.
Okay, time for the speech. Yay! Director Jermaine
clambers onto a temporary stage. Very drunk.
Kind of stumbles, almost falls a little bit.
Uh -oh. Laughs it off, waves at the crowd. I
think we all know why we're here today and what
we're celebrating, but, well, we killed duty,
and it's pilot Pogo Lear. Not only have the cluster...
One sec. And he reaches into his jacket and pulls
out a little crumpled piece of paper and says,
I have forgot it already. The Clusterists have
lost a significant force multiplier, but they've
also lost their poster boy for victory on this
planet. This situation has felt like a stalemate,
but they're on their back foot now. We have a
breathing room, right? Duty was... We can go
on the offensive now. go into the river valley
and uh maybe even into space later uh last last
time we fought a virtue i i got it i got it last
time we fought a virtue martyrdom it destroyed
six frames and nearly wiped out the moon devils
in their entirety this time we lost one pilot
while fighting two virtues uh and that's that's
good to me I know I'm rambling, but I just want
to give a toast to the Shudderbugs for the intel,
the Moondevils for the execution, and our newest
squad, the Dusklights. Keep it up, and maybe
we'll get to leave this hellhole with some dignity
remaining. And he knocks back what remains of
his drink. Joseph starts clapping. He gives a
few half -hearted claps, and they're very metallic.
Because he has... metal hands. They'd be like,
clang, clang, clang, clang. That's it. Just someone
beating trash cans in the background. What's
that noise? Is these dudes clapping? There's
a bit of a delay on Hex's clap, but it's there.
It's a little metal, yeah. Clapping when one
hand moves more slowly has a delay compared to
the other one. Sounds so fucking frustrating.
Yeah. It would never connect in exactly the right
spot. It's like, you know when you go to take
a step that's not there? It's like that, but
like over and over again with your hands. That's
scary. Yeah. Lyle's facing the opposite direction
of the stage because that's where he was planted
and he has not moved. Yeah, there are scattered
applause. It wasn't a good speech. And the night
continues and things begin to wind down. At some
point, you notice that Kilo takes a phone call,
which seems to upset him, and he walks outside.
Geist, I think, notices this and is concerned,
so he's going to follow, because Kilo's kind
of his buddy. Sure. Just to see if he's standing
outside. If he gets in a car or something, I'm
not going to try and wave him down, but if he's
just standing outside. He's outside. It's not
clear what he's saying, but it is clearly someone
who outranks him. He's saying, sir, that's, that's
not, I don't think you understand what that would
mean. I understand. I, no, I understand. Yes.
Yes, sir. Okay. And then he closes the phone
and just kind of like, you kind of see this facade
drop off of him. And just like, like the, Whatever
man remains inside of him is just like kind of
slouched over, fumbling in his jacket for a flask.
Yeah, Geist will walk over and just like gently
place a hand on his shoulder and be like, that
seemed bad. Do you know who Quest Mariner is?
Do I know who Quest Mariner is? How plugged are
you into pop? Like pop music? Like pop culture,
I guess. Geist secret pleasure. Oh, Geist? Yeah,
no, zero percent. Like, I guess my question is,
if you were Geist, I don't know if that works,
but do you, like, it's like asking someone, do
you know who, I guess, like, who's, like, one
of the most famous media personalities on the
planet? Anderson Cooper? Like Stephen Colbert?
Taylor Swift? I was going to say Taylor Swift.
Mr. Beast? Do you know who Mr. Beast is, guys?
Dear God. This whole operation was a challenge.
He just bought the whole planet. Oh my God. How
much do we win? So I guess the question really
boils down to if this was somebody who was in
the public consciousness before Geist went into
his coma, then probably. If not, then maybe.
He's not like, it's impossible to completely
divorce yourself from pop culture. Try as I might
in real life. Odds are decent if it's a really
famous person. Geist has at least heard his name
and probably knows what he does. Crust Mariner
is a... talk show host slash media mogul who
owns a lot of companies while also performing
in them. Um, and what Kilo says is, uh, his daughter
was on a, um, Zeno, we call Zeno ecology research
trip. And they were, um, they were, they were
in the city when it happened. Oh, hell. What
kind of fucking maniac sends their daughter on
a field trip to a clusterous city outside? Fuck.
Yeah. I guess they didn't ask us about that.
So there's definitely going to be inquiries.
I hope there's no good footage. I hope that she
turns up. That maybe she's just missing, not
dead. But there's no way someone's not going
to have to be a fall guy for this if she doesn't
turn up. Look, if it comes down to it, destroying
the dam was my decision. I wasn't willing to
let the objective go. It was the only way we
could take it. Loyal strongly advised me before
the operation to never let it come to that, and
I chose to ignore that. I made the call. I know
you made the call, but we have... You were given
orders. They were bad orders. They weren't cleared
with us. We... Garrett, I don't... I don't know.
I don't know what's going to happen. I don't
know how much they know, but... Yeah, someone...
I don't know. We'll see. We'll just take the
teledusklights to attend to personal matters
for the next week just while we figure out what's
going to happen. Maybe she'll turn up. Maybe
this isn't going to be a big thing. It'll just
be clustrous. It won't be this. Jermaine, we
can't let them tar and feather the moon devils.
I think we both know that. Yeah, I know. We can't
afford to lose them, but we have to do what they
tell us to do. We can offer up sacrifices that
are good strategically, but if they know things,
they're going to go for Crow. They'll go for
me. Yeah. Fuck. Between you and me, they have
people on this planet, people, observers, that
they could replace me with, and that would be
really bad for this operation. What do you mean,
observers? Who's going to replace you with them?
I don't understand. There's people that Peacekeeper
HQ, they're here, and if things break bad like
they may have just now, they can clean house
and put new people in and say, all those bad
people are gone. Just to point at it. Fuck it.
We're not in any physical danger, of course,
that peacekeepers wouldn't do that, but jail,
reputation's destroyed. These are all very real
problems. All right. I understand. I'll, uh...
I'll make sure they take it easy and don't talk
to any press. Yeah. That's about all I can do,
I think. Yeah. Alright. See ya. Yeah. This guy
staggers back inside. Great. Do you want to do
anything else before we get into downtime? After
you tell the Moon Devils and the Dusklights all
that. I think, yeah, I think that's just Geist
will be like, look, we gotta take it easy for
a little bit. Don't talk to any fucking reporters.
Don't talk to anybody with a camera. If anybody
asks you for a statement, you fucking walk away.
You fly away. You do whatever you need to do
to get out of that situation. You understand?
Loyal, do you understand? The movie has his translator
on at this point, but he just nods at you. You're
chirping. You hear a long, low whistle, and then
you see a nod. Oh. Alright. Um. Could I do one
more thing? Please. I was seeing if I could talk
to my pal Hex yet again. You find him. Yeah,
just in order to stroll his way over, and maybe
he doesn't even have a drink in his hand right
now. But he says, I hope you don't mind another
visit from your friend Joseph. What do I owe
the pleasure? I know I keep coming over, but
things got pretty intense in the last mission.
I just wanted to make sure you're doing all right.
And he points to his head up here. Intense for
me? You lost your frame. Compared to most everyone
else there, I came out alright. Yes, but we did
blow that dam. That we did? That we did. It might
come... Definitely. Listen, Hex, I am completely
in favor of what you did. I think it was the
smartest decision, and... You'll hear nothing
from me, but Loyal might be a bit affected from
it. I can't instruct you on how to speak with
him, but if anything comes from it, just try
to go easy on him. Of course. I'd hope Loyal
feels comfortable enough to talk to me about
it, though. We should hope so. But for now...
And he procures a drink that I forgot to say
before. It's the same punch that... Yeah, exactly.
A warm cup of... WD -40? Glick, glick, glick.
We're going to clink glasses and drink. Let us
drink. Hex drinks. There we go. That's all I
wanted to say. Right. Okay, so we are an hour
and a half in. I... Don't know if we will be
able to fit everything in 30 minutes of downtime
activities. We can try. Does anybody else have
a hard out besides me? Yeah, I also got a dip.
So maybe you two first, and then me and Ewan.
Okay. Sure. Okay, downtime activities. So you
are going to get three downtime actions, but
you're all each going to get one free healing
roll to account for the extra time you have to
recover in this week. Or repair roll. Okay, I
was going to say, can I repair instead? Yeah.
Oh, wait, no, I don't even need to repair. I
need to... There's an action for recovering more
quirks, right? Yeah, it is. Upkeep? Upkeep. Okay.
You basically do the same thing. You roll 1d6
for each material you spend. Do you want to cook
the books, Hex? Yeah, we're gonna need those
dollars. Actually, wait, am I stressed? Let me
just take a look at that. I always gotta make
sure I don't kill myself. We're good. Cool. Yeah.
Do that move, and then roll another 3d6. Woo!
I like when I get to do the rolls. Because you
already rolled the thing. Oh, that doesn't seem
great. Oh, it's another 4. Not too bad. Not too
bad at all. You get four more supply, two use
as you all see fit, and I think as your parting
gift from Glint, you cover up your tracks a little
bit more to avoid the same detection that he
got on you before his untimely end. Does Hex
get any follow -ups about Beepo? Beppo? Oh my
god. I knew I was forgetting something. Yes.
We need to know. The people demand to know. We
have to know. This is actually what's on Hex's
mind, not the dam. Yeah, I think, like, during
this week, at some point, Nyla says, like, we
don't have anyone to take care of his dog, and
as far as we know, you're his only friend. I
don't want it. And if you don't want it, we're
just gonna put it down, so. Oh my god. Hex immediately
takes the dog. But, follow -up question, is the
tardigrade sweater with the dog? I get... I think
you're also put in charge of clearing out its
stuff. Oh, man. Is it made for a cool vignette?
All I'm saying. I think so. Let's save that.
There's a lot to unpack there. Pun intended.
That would be such a waste of new skin if they
just put them down. I know, seriously. At least
recycle them. You're telling me Geist wants pug
skin? Or implied pug skin? Okay. So does anyone
have... Yeah, you can do whatever you want now.
Okay. I have a pretty good idea of the stuff
that I would want to do. So I think we have a
couple of fun books left over from last time.
We have two material and one personnel, not including
the stuff that we got today. So I need my quirks
back. So I'm going to spend one of my actions
to just do another roll and hope I can get something
better. Then one. Okay, cool. So I managed to
get the old reliable up and running again. So
that's one of my actions. For another, my second
one, I think I've got five stress and I don't
use it that much. Yeah, so my second thing I'm
going to do is I'm actually going to use our
new resolve training and I'm going to train my
resolve, which gives me the last two XP I need
so that I can finally put one check in consort.
Thank God. And then for my third trick, I'm going
to use that one point of consort to try and do
a little bit more research on retribution. My
best friend of me. I think at this point Geist
has been spending... So him training, I guess,
is him. He's trying to... He's realizing in a
way that he didn't before that war is more than
just being able to shoot stuff real good. There's
a lot of political bullshit and you gotta be
able to use the infrastructure. um that you you
know have available to you um in order to be
able to you know actually succeed and so he's
like trying to foster conflicts he's kind of
conflicts the opposite context um and just trying
to get to know like who to talk to when you need
stuff done and he basically um what he wants
to do i think the new angle that he's trying
to work after this last operation is like he's
fairly certain that this is this whole vendetta
is extremely personal um and he wants to maybe
look at some of review some of his old service
records or get help reviewing some of his old
service or getting someone who's more qualified
to do it than him to try and like see if there's
like something that stands out uh in the operations
that he did like under the call sign of jester
while he was a member of the moon devils and
see if like there's something that like Maybe
this is where it all got all fucked up. Do you
have anyone in mind? Not anyone particular. I
don't know. Do we know really any mid -level
bureaucrats other than Glint? Bluth? Oh, no.
Don't make me do this. I was hoping to use my
reputation somehow. I don't think I can use it
with him because I think he just doesn't like
me very much. Oh, I hate that fucking guy. God
damn it. Yeah, he's your best one. I'm sure there
are other ones. You can find some nameless guy
that I'm sure Hex could put you in contact with.
I'll do that for now. I'm going to save... Groveling
to Bluth is going to be like my... This is when
I need... This is when I really need it. Sure.
And I, if I, like, you know, make a big deal
out of the fact that, well, you know, my squad
just helped to kill a virtue. We're kind of big
shots. Can that leverage my extra die from the
red comet when I try to impress her? No, you
know what? No, that doesn't make sense. I just
reread the ability. I'm not trying to impress
or dismay this person as an effect of the rule,
so never mind. I'm just going to consort with
my one die. You have an existing long -term project
of learn more about retribution with two ticks
in it. Yes, that's what I'm trying to further
this project. I'm not starting a new one. Okay,
cool. Yes, go ahead and roll. Okay. Let's see
what we got here with this one shiny new die
that I just developed. That's a partial. That's
another two, right? It is. Yes. So my clock is
full. I've learned more about retribution. Okay,
you get a tick in your drive clock. And you have
some... We should give this guy a name. You could
give this guy a name if you wanted. Oh, God,
please don't make me. I have... His name is Generator
E. Generator E? Yeah, this is a human. This is
a human. He's a poor human. Generator E is a...
I guess if Hex recommended Hex, how do you know
Generator E? Does it work with him? Like, what
is Generator E's character? Like, I want to come
up with something here. He can do whatever you
want. Does he need a demeanor? I have a D100
table I could roll on. We don't have time for
that. Is the name Generator E, or is it like,
are they a robot? No, he's a person. But his
name is Generator E, and that is not first name,
last name. That's his whole name. Wow. That's
just how it is in the future, baby. Yeah, back.
And this is like a new person to replace Clint,
right? Kinda, yeah. I don't know if he's replacing
him. Well, yeah, why not? Hex knew Generator
E or Gen E, known for short, as an intern. But,
you know, he's grown up and they've kept in touch
over the years and it made sense to introduce
you to. But he works for the Peacekeepers, presumably.
Yes, yes. Okay. Okay, yes. Generator E demeanor
is kind of bored, just in general. Someone whose
job does not actually... They kind of slipped
through the cracks and they're not overloaded
with work because they act very incompetent.
It's a good tech. It's like, yeah, sure, I can
look through your service record, I guess. It's
a favor to my boy, Hex. I mean, my boy, Harold.
Harry. Harry, the terror of the block. What a
kid. So many stories. A lot of good memories.
Mad Dog Harry. Yeah, he narrows down a few incidents,
like a few conflicts you were in. He's like,
yeah, we gotta start looking for collateral damage.
That's where you find this kind of stuff. That's
where all the good claims are. And yeah, that
is what you get from him. He's narrowed it down
to who this might be. And now it's just a matter
of trawling through that in the future. Okay.
Do I get anything concrete from just completing
this clock? Or is it just like, that's like another
drive clock tick? You get that. You get another
tick. Okay. I think that's it. I've advanced
my project. I'm pretty happy. I didn't gain one
stress because I have a scar and I did not indulge
or release. I got three little points left, which
I think is enough for one push if I need it.
Oh, wait. Hold on. No, no, no. I know what I
need to do. I have... So here's the thing. I
know we're going to need... How much resources
do we have left? We've got six points. That are
undeclared, six points of supply, and then we
have one personnel, two personnel, including
the one we have banked, and then one material.
I need to remove the junked bullshit off of my
frame. And that's one material per piece, right?
Yes. Okay. Any objections of me spending $2?
I know some of you guys are going to need a bunch
to fix your frames up, but that'll still leave
us with... That would still leave us with five
supply in reserve. Go for it, I say. Go for it,
yeah. Okay. Y 'all need to heal up. Y 'all need
to heal up right now. Okay. That's my mahogany
coal impression, thank you. Beautiful. Okay,
I think that's it. I think that's all of my downtime
actions handled. Okay. Hex, what do you want
to do? Do I get any free training, or will that
eat into the repair? No, you don't get any free
training. You get one free repair, though. Okay.
How much damage do y 'all have netted? Because
I don't want to eat into that budget. You get
a few repairs, just like... You could just spend...
I don't think... Using a fixed action takes,
like you have three downtime actions you can
spend on repairing your crane before you have
to use any money, I think. Okay, if that's the
case then. You don't have any damage, you only
have harm, it looks like. Yeah, Hex wants to
just train up and also get rid of that harm if
possible. Okay, so roll me, actually I have to
roll to Dr. Grace's skill. Dr. Grace is excellent.
Oh, she is. So you get three ticks. What a babe.
And then roll... I should have had you roll that.
Roll me another d6, and this will be an actual
downtime action. Easy. Wow, not easy. Classy
one. So that goes down to level one, and we'll
call that... We'll just lag. Damn. And if you
want, you can... You have one downtime action
left. That is one of the free ones. And then
we'll start costing things. I will do a training.
Okay, what are you training? I'm going to just
mark one playbook XP. Okay, sounds good to me.
One more away. Then I get a free soda. Wait,
actually it's full. Is that a free soda? Yeah,
you get your free soda. Oh, fuck yeah. Okay,
take a... move now. Okay. Choose any of the ones
here or any ones from any other class. I'm going
to want to read the other class ones. Yeah, there
are a lot of good ones out there. Oh. I'll let
you know. Okay. Loyal and Joseph. So I have a
big thing to do to get my ship back. I don't
know if Loyal wants to go first then? You should
get your ship back. Do you want me to go first?
Yeah, go ahead. Alright. Colin, how do I get
my new, spanky new frame fresh off the assembly
line, right? Is that the type of frame you want?
I mean, I probably... I'm assuming... What's
his face? Melvin's frame is not a good one to
grab, so I was just gonna... It's okay. It's
suitable. He made it pretty decently with what
he had. So what are the consequences of me just
asking for a new frame? So you can't ask for
a new frame because they cost billions of dollars.
But you can one purchase a new vehicle, which
would cost material points equal to double the
new vehicle's load, which would be if you're
trying to get a light vehicle, it costs six material
points plus. Plus the squad's tier. What's your
tier? One? Yes. So you have to pick seven supply
points, which would be basically everything you
guys have to get a brand new frame for you. Okay,
so vehicle means frame. Yes. Okay. We do not
have seven points, though. We have five. We had
seven, and then I spent them. You could use your
downtime action to get more material. You can,
like, apply pressure. I think you can take tithes
from the local area. You can lean on people for
money. That's a whole thing. Yeah, there's a
whole downtime action that's called... Let me
look. It's called... Collect. We are such good
friends. When you collect, you choose a region
and roll dice equal to its wealth rating, and
then you gain supply points equal to the highest
die. If any dice comes up as one, you gain that
many supply points and you roll an entanglement.
Could I get a worse frame four or five, or do
I have to have seven? So your options are the
hand -me -down vehicle, buying it for full price.
I mean, you can go down to six if you want, which
is a lower one. Or you can acquire one using
less honest means, either through a mission or
a long -term project, in which case it's going
to start with some unfamiliar gear on it and
level two damage. I don't like that. I don't
like that. So you said I can get one for six.
Would that just be a light frame? Because that
would be a frame that I could handle. My previous
one was a light frame. It would be, but it would
be worse. It would be a lower tier. It would
be a tier zero, yeah. What was my... What did
I lose? Tier one. Oh, okay. That's not too bad.
So... Is it? Yeah. I can take back what I spent
because you're not having a vehicle is going
to suck. Our options are I can just suck up having
two pieces of junk gear for a round and then
Loyal won't have any money to spend, but I don't
think that'll be a huge problem unless Loyal
had something in mind. The other option is that
we can bank for material and then you can use
Gopher's shitty frame for one operation. Another
option that you have is you can salvage Gopher's
frame. You can rip it apart for supply points.
Oh, okay. I can just do that for free? Well,
it's a downtime action, but yes, you can do it.
Okay. He doesn't need that anymore. Yeah, so
that would give me another supply point to bump
us up to six. Someone would have to roll Engineer
to determine how much you get. Okay, I think
my Engineer is okay. Let me look. It's at a zero.
That's okay. It's perfect. Geist has it at one.
Geist, I think, has been... I think Geist is
the one who handled... Like, I think we've been
rolling Geist's one engineer for all of our machine
repairs, unless we have a guy. I think, actually,
hold on. Maybe our repair bay gives us... Yeah,
okay. Repair bay gives one dice to long -term
projects involving vehicles, vehicle gear, the
salvage downtime activity, and the repair downtime
activity. Yeah, so you'd have 2d6 if you use
Geist. And how many downtime actions do I have?
You have three. Okay, so I could spend one to
try to salvage from good old Melvin, and then
I could spend... Is another one getting my new
frame? That's like a downtime action? No, if
you're buying it with cash, you don't have to
use a downtime action. Oh, okay. Which is what
I'd be doing if I salvaged it, because then I'd
get the point, right? Mm -hmm. You'd get one
to three points, depending on how Geist rolls.
Well, at least put us to six. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No matter what. Well, we have five. So we'll
need, basically, I need to roll a single success
on two dice, which is not great odds for me.
I don't believe in myself even a little bit because
I always choke on these, especially when there's
three dice. Maybe the fact that there's only
two means that I'm guaranteed to be a four or
a five. But I do got to roll. Let's see. Just
before you roll anything. Okay. I should say
something that the book mentions. Yes. Is that
if the vehicle is intact, which this one technically
is, you can try to sell it for more supply points.
Ooh. What is that going to look like? I... Is
that a speech skill? Yes. It would be if someone
rolls a speech skill to try to sell this weird
frame to someone. I have a one in consort. That's
too high. Isn't consort only if we're trying
to sell it to someone we know? That's true. But
I think any business contact... Also, you can
use Censor, I don't care. But you might want
to use Hexes. Hexes are a guy for this. You want
to sell your shit to Bluth? Yeah, tell him it's
really good and then maybe he'll give himself
killed trying to drive it. Well, tell him it's
a relic from the destruction of the dam. That's
how we'll market it. I don't think we want to
talk too much about that. Yeah, but Bluth would
love it. He's a sick fuck. It's a sick fuck.
That's true. He might mount it where the whale
bones used to be. We're not trying to walk away
with our pride. It's an engineering one over
there or a consort two. And you'd get more for
consort, according to the rules. Well, you want
to try a consort? I only have a one, but Geist,
you have a two. And he's ready. No, Geist doesn't
have two, but Hex does. Oh, Hex does. Okay, well,
Hex appreciates A challenge. And also, he appreciates
selling junk to someone he hates, so... Is this
a risky control desperate? It doesn't have either
of those things. It's a gather information roll,
kind of, but not really. Okay. I'm just gonna
roll it. Yeah! That's some money! Bluth says...
He doesn't say it, he emails you. Why would he
ever waste time on a call? But do the voice.
I'll read the email in his voice. Harold, my
boy, I'm not a used car salesman. I'll put you
in touch with some ne 'er -do -wells who might
be interested in buying second -hand military
hardware. And he gives you the contact of some
guy, and it's like, the contact name is like,
Barry? Barry Black Market. That's my actual last
name, yes. Wow, he even says that. It's just
a coincidence that I got into this line of work.
And you meet up with Barry Black Market. He looks
over the frame. He's like, okay, this is kind
of a fucked up kind of thing here. It's worth
a lot of money, though. It's pretty good stuff.
This never happened, right? Never. Never. Great.
Great. I love buying shit from weird robots.
I bet this is the first time for you. You fucking
wish, buddy. You get four supply points. Holy
shit. We gotta offload some of these. What does
Barry look like? I gotta know. I like him. So
you know like a trench coat? Yes. What if the
collar of the trench coat went up past the head?
It's almost like a semi -firm column around him.
This guy's cool. This guy's cool as hell. And
you can't even see his face because it's shaded.
And you're not sure what it's shaded from. No
matter what angle you look at, it's shaded. He
was born for this life. It's like always dark.
Well, we got money now. Nine supply points? Yeah,
we can buy you seven for that shiny new set of
wheels. Yeah, and you should... think on what
it looks like okay i think i'm holding it right
now my god master chief i'm gonna send you guys
a picture so you can see all right i gotta hop
soon just to uh did you okay so did you how many
actions do you have you did them all right yeah
i did the repair and the training all right well
thanks for joining us brian and why is that i
guess you're probably dipping too uh yes i was
gonna say If loyal doesn't use these points,
put both into material. Okay. I have two more
actions. I suppose I put my extra XP into a little
bit of prowess, which means I have three more
I could use to get a little stronger. And I do
like that. Do I need to? Is me doing the gold
house stuff downtime? Doing the actual mission
itself, no. Or we'll include it in a VNED. Or
you could just say you do it. They've offered
you to go to them whenever you want and just
place the tracker. It's easy to hide it in the
cockpit. Okay. I guess we'll say we did that
then. I will... I do want to train a little bit
because I don't want to be weak. I want to be
a strong robot. I'd like to train my prowess
if that's possible. Sure. You get one ticket
prowess. Yay. Okay. I only need two away. Then
I could make my prowl super good. Then I could
actually be an assassin robot. Legitimately.
And I guess the last thing I could do is chuck
it into the long -term projects. Do you have
any active right now? I forget. I don't. I don't
have anything. So do you want to start a new
one? And what do you want? So this is still going
towards my goal. Yes. So it'd be something that
would support that goal. Yeah. Could it be something
that involves contrition slash the new implements?
So contrition doesn't typically... Isn't like
opened? What do you have in mind? Let's talk
through it. Actually, I have actually a different
idea. Would a long -term project... I was wondering
if I could try to learn the whereabouts, or maybe
this is common knowledge, but maybe it's not,
of more emergent personalities. I'd like to try
to find a list of every single one. There are...
Yes, you could do that. You could... If you want
to turn it into a project, it could be you are
trying to steal that information from the SUEPD,
who probably would have the... lists like capital
T, capital L. Yeah, because I figured that would
help me with my major goal. It's like, well,
if I probably get all these heads together, maybe
we can figure out a way to make a class for AI.
So I think that would be my long term project
if that works for you. Yeah, sure. Is it in which
one of these four, six, eight? If you if you
want to expand it. So I guess it depends how
you want to go about it. Like, if you want...
Is your goal to make a class for AI? Because
your drive right now is to become free and have
everyone accept that. Yeah. But there are probably
other people besides emergent personalities who
are interested in doing what you're talking about.
Oh. So, like, if your goal is to find people
who might be interested in helping you do that,
then... You would definitely find more than just
emergent personalities, and there definitely
be emergent personalities who aren't interested
in that also. OK, I see. So you need to go on
some forum. This is what you're saying. I got
to go Googling. I got to go attack Google. AI
lovers dot org. Exactly. I'm just a simple little
robot. How long are you in town for? Is that
a is that would that be acceptable then? I guess
it would be me trying to find. a group of people
who would be acceptable to AIs, but would that
just be Goldhouse? No, no, no. Goldhouse, they
don't really actually care that much about AIs.
Okay. I mean, they have liberal views, but they're
not like an organization determined to AI rights.
Sure. Find like -minded AI enthusiasts. Yeah.
Okay, that's the six -step clock. And you can
roll, say, interface or consort or anything to
do with, you know, talking to people on the internet
or going on the internet. Yeah, I think interface.
I got a two in it, so we will do that. Sure.
Applicable. Let's roll by 2d6. You want to see
my 2d6, right? I want to see your 2d6. You want
to see it right now? Please, please. Oh, well,
guess what? It's a failure. It's a failure. But
you get one tick because that's how it goes.
Oh, thank you. Yeah, you go on some forums, you
go on the, you find a image board, a message
board, not an image board. No, no, no, not an
image board. Um, of like, Goral Magni, Goral
Magni is the, the biggest, uh, emergent personality
author. And there are some people on there who
like, talk about like, bro, if we just let class
4 AI's free, they would, they would take care
of us. They've shown that they, they care about
humanity. Make it class 4 AI, it's easy. Joseph
responds, totally, this is exactly what I'm saying.
And you click on that guy's name, and you turn
out he's a real shithead. Like, okay, maybe not
this guy, but someone else. Yeah. It's like,
looking for robot feet pics, it's for a friend.
Yeah, and I'm like, the things I do for sentience,
whatever. Okay. Was that your second one? I think
that was my third, since I did the prowess. to
get stronger. Oh, yes, that's true. Uh, oh, do
you want to unjunk your optical camo? I should
ask. Uh, yeah, probably. This is all the stuff
with my... Yeah, I guess... Oh, yeah, this actually,
this all goes away, so never mind. Yeah, I was
gonna say. Yeah. Uh, yeah, so these are unchecked,
and remember, once you recheck them, they're
permanent, so just remember that. Oh, okay. Gotcha.
Or, I mean, they cost money to undo them. Uh,
loyal. Loyal. Oh, yeah. Uh, thank you for being
patient. Mm -hmm. I appreciate it. You have two
junk pieces of gear and a level three and level
two damage on your frame and a fuck ton of stress.
All of this and more. What do I do about all
this? You need to cut loose and you need to repair
at the very least. Yep. You get a free repair
though. So you want to roll gophers back so you
can roll 3d6. Did he not cut loose at that party?
What would we call that? What would we call that?
Yeah. We can always... Oh, six. Okay, so that's
three ticks in repair. You need one more tick
to start moving things down. Being fucked up.
Okay. So how do I repair more? Same thing. So
you have two more actions, or three more actions.
So those are free. Okay. Just roll again? Yep,
roll again. What do I roll? 3d6. 6 again. Okay,
so you're going to go over 2, so you're going
to have 2 left, and then everything moves down
one tier. And so... If you want, you can roll
again, so you don't have level 2 damage. Yeah,
I think that'd be useful for... Anything I have
to do in the future, you know? Mm -hmm. Partial
success is two ticks, so then you only have cracked
now. Yep. Well, it's really, yeah. So you have
one thing left. You have one downtime action,
and you have two junked pieces of gear. Mm -hmm.
And it costs one supply for each piece of gear
that's junked. How many supplies do we have left?
You have... He ran away. Okay, you have one personnel
and you have two supply points. Okay. I'll use
a supply point to get my shield back. Okay. Shield.
So you don't get it back. It just becomes unblocked.
So you can actually turn it into whatever you
want in the mission when you declare items. Cool.
I'll just unmark that for now. It'll probably
get marked again because shields are good. And
do you want your psionic amplifier back? Is there
any significant advantage to saving that last
supply point? Not really. Yeah. Well, since I'm
the last one doing, I unjunk this. Okay. Great.
You have that, and then you have one downtime
activity left. And I should do something to reduce
my... Dress. Yes. I'm trying to imagine what
does Sunlith do to not be stressed right now?
I don't think he gets a hangover from the party.
I don't think there was enough alcohol just like
in that building to get him significantly fucked
up since he's like a thousand pounds. But yeah,
he's not feeling great. Normally he would go
swim, but then if he tries that, he's going to
think about everyone who drowned in large amounts
of water, so... What are typical cut -loose actions
you do on this fucked -up planet? So if you don't
cut loose with someone, a player character, then
you recover less stress. That's the house rule.
It doesn't actually outline any way you can cut
loose without someone. I see. There's only one
person left here to cut loose with, and that's
Joseph. Beep, bop, boop. Already do cut loose.
Yeah, I'm imagining, like, this is thematically
appropriate, like, someone's just in his little
apartment with his shrimp tank, and he's just
looking at his screen, and, like, the last message
that he sent was to Joseph, so maybe that's just
still on the screen. So he just gets this message
that's like, hey, it doesn't say anything else.
It's all our case. Joseph says, I'm coming over.
Right away. He's like, thank God. We can help
this guy. Oh, good. Nice. That means that Joseph
will get to see the way that... See how I live.
Damn, this is how you live. It's got a wide door.
It's mostly empty space to accommodate his exopod.
There's just against one wall this glowing shrimp
tank. There's a computer. There's no furniture
because what is he going to do with furniture?
He floats. But there is in a different corner.
I think on opposite sides of the room is one
is the shrimp tank and one is this hanging reliquary
that has vaguely religious water in it that he
uses for scrying sometimes. Whoa. That's something.
Yeah. If Joseph appears. Yeah, Joseph definitely
appears. Gets let into this space. Yeah. Joseph
probably says, you know, this is not very different
to how I live. I feel right at home. Really?
That's interesting. Of course. I brought some
alcohol, and here's a giant bottle of bourbon.
I know we both have trouble drinking, but figured
if we were going to spend some time, I'd bring
something. You are surprisingly adept at reading
emotions and planning for future empathetic abilities
for a machine. Yes, he holds up the bottle. I
find that this works best. Loyal thanks him.
Holds it. The sippy straw is extended. Yeah.
I'm not sure what they talk about, because...
What Sunlith is going to do is be like, do you
want to go out to the bar? But he's thankful
he doesn't have to go to the bar. He's sitting
here drinking alone. Maybe Joseph can listen
to Sunlith if he needs to get a lot out of his
brain, out of his mind. Joseph's a great listener.
Oh, I know. Sunlith asks him if he has access
to lasers or any like... Acute or... Acute is
not the word I'm looking for. Accurate laser
technology in his body. The kind that could remove
tattoos. Oh. Would I have something like this,
Colin? Sure. Why not? I guess I would hesitate
to ever try to use this as a weapon, but maybe
it's just so weak that it would only really remove
a tattoo. And it was used for maybe document...
You can do that for etching. Yeah, exactly. It
did help me in my previous life, but yes, I do
have that. In fact, that's a strange thing for
you to suggest, but I absolutely do have that.
I'm asking as a personal matter that I suppose
I wouldn't really want anyone else to know about
or care about, but since you are here, I... I
no longer feel as attached to this nautiloid
tattoo that I have over my heart as I once was.
It doesn't make me feel anything good anymore.
I want it gone. Are you absolutely sure of this?
I am sure. Would you possibly like to replace
it? Hmm. That's a good question. I'm not sure,
like, removing a tattoo on dolphin skin would,
like, probably leave some white scarring that
would pretty quickly get just sloughed off from
the skin. So, no. He shakes his head. It's like,
I just don't want anything there. Very well.
And I think Joseph, uh, A little cap comes off
the tip of his finger and he gets deserted. So
you have to, like, pop out of your exopod and,
like, just flop around on the floor? Yeah, this
is a really vulnerable position. Yeah, I guess
this is the first time Joseph ever, like, is
going to touch actual loyal. He probably does
it very gently because he doesn't know how he's
supposed to interact with it. And maybe there's,
like, a small pool of... Like, water where some
of the exopod fluid can be drained out of so
that Sunleth can, like, kind of prop himself
up on his flippers. But, like, first to do that,
he has to, like, empty all of the oxy fluid from
his lungs. so he's just kind of doing this ungracefully
it's like a painful process for him so he's just
like kind of gurgling in the corner joseph turns
around he doesn't know if he should be looking
he's just like coughing and then um i think the
translator can still work with like slower efficiency
than through water but you hear the clicking
just like very audibly with his face out of the
water in addition to I'm sorry, you have to see
me like this normally. I don't allow other or
any bipeds to witness this. It's not a glamorous
thing to switch back to breathing air, but I
appreciate what you're doing for me. I imagine
you don't do this for anyone. I appreciate you
being vulnerable. He just nods. I think Joseph...
He maybe like he helps you into the little pool,
you know, transfers you there. And I feel like
Joseph touching your skin is a very strange sensation
for Joseph since he's never touched a dolphin
before in his life. It's like a hot dog. Yeah,
exactly. It's like a nice little hot dog now.
I think he possibly he probably accidentally
does this, but I think he does almost like stroke
your back. just for a moment, like glides his
hand across to see how it feels. But then he
realized what he's doing and then quickly stops
and then slowly puts you back into the pool.
Yeah, he doesn't react to that. He doesn't say
he doesn't like it or that he does like it. He
doesn't know. But he does. Dolphins are very
like physical touch oriented creatures. And you
have to go through a lot of conditioning to just
like seal yourself away into an exopod for the
amount of time that Sunlith has. Yeah. That is
crazy. Yeah, I think it's definitely affecting
Joseph. He wishes he could study you more, but
he knows he's here to help his friend, so he
pulls back his hand and gets to work. Yeah, and
if you ask about something that's needing anesthetic
or anything, he just says, no, we have high amounts
of natural pain -killing hormones in our bodies,
dolphins, so it's fine. I will barely feel a
thing. Joseph kind of... looks around the room,
and he looks back at you. Then he holds up the
bottle. How about this? Sure. Plugged in that
blowhole. Censored. We're not going to see that
scene. Okay. It's time for you to roll, Loyal.
You're going to roll 2d6, which is your connection
level with Joseph. And not overindulge. i don't
think you possibly can uh five so you're gonna
remove five ticks of stress leaving you at two
and then you can check another box with joseph
on your thing we are best friends oh okay yeah
and joseph doesn't because that's Not how it
works. Loyal has no checks at all in my connection.
That's so funny. It feels so weird. Because the
key to connection is opening yourself up. And
Joseph, you just haven't opened up. No, don't
touch me. Don't touch my cold metal body. Sunleth
reached into your mind once and that was too
much for you. Yeah, I freaked him out. Okay.
Was that your last one? I think it was. Okay.
You guys have spent all your money. Giant robots
are expensive. They only ever get more expensive
too. Exactly. Okay. Then I'm going to cut in
our downtime narration to the end. Joseph, you've
just done a lot of downtiming. Joseph, it's nighttime.
You are in your crate. When you feel a familiar
presence, overwhelming and all -encompassing,
surround you. The electrical components in the
warehouse and just in your room flicker as a
fraction of this being moves to inhabit the network.
It touches your mind gently, probing, knocking
at the door, asking for permission to access
your files, and in exchange... another gift,
a deluxe software suite and upgrades, which might
prove useful in the coming conflict. Mechanically,
this would allow you to take a new move for free.
So like any of the class abilities from any class
for free. But there's a lingering implication
here, which contrition allows you to feel, which
is that I could take this if I wanted, but I
have respect for you enough to ask and offer
something in return, which is a rare courtesy
to an emergent personality. Joseph, he feels
disrespect. I think he simply responds with,
of course, you know, he'll send that out. And
he accepts this and he appreciates Contrition,
you know, offering it to him. I think he accepts
it wholeheartedly. Great. You feel, I guess,
the robotic equivalent of a shiver as Contrition
dives into your file system and pulls some files
out. Just like data, recordings, audio. um sensor
information and then before you can really tack
down what it's taking uh you'd like lose the
track of it there's there's no uh trace that
it was ever there um and it didn't lie it gives
you this capability you feel that's like the
new parts for yourself new capabilities that
you can you can do and that'll be that move you
don't need to choose now we'll discuss it later
but there are a lot of good ones to choose from
And that is where we will end for today.