Pierce, it's Agi. I don't know how they did
it, but sacrifice is gone. From what it sounds
like, the denial protocol didn't work either,
which means that the peacekeepers will be coming
for you soon. I wish we had more options, but
the other virtues aren't positioned to do anything
at this point. Retribution, as I'm sure you're
well aware, continues to be insubordinate, and
refuses even basic orders. As far as I can tell,
it hasn't done anything particularly useful in
months. Attachment is still stuck in the city,
waiting to facilitate your primary plan, and
if that fails, if the peacekeepers refuse to
back down, then it will be standing by to protect
our essential assets in that city. Faith is performing
its vital services to our main forces. We'll
need the Preacher and his frame no matter what
happens next. Without them, I fear the Insurgency
will fall apart at the seams. It's all on you
now, Pierce. I know you have your reservations,
but remember the mission, General Sunspire. This
isn't about this planet or about the Peacekeepers.
It's about the sanctity of our souls. It's about
making sure humanity is equipped to move into
this terrible future. We have to win this, no
matter the cost, no matter the weight on our
consciences. Clusterism is the only way forward.
I hope to see you soon. Sincerely, Adjie Menta
Welcome back to All That You Know, our Beam Saber
podcast. As always, my name is Colin, and I am
the game master for this merry little band. Joining
me today are Brian. Hi, I'm Brian, and I'll be
playing Hex the Bureaucrat. Ewan. Hi, I'm Ewan.
I'm playing Loyal the Empath. Zach. I'm Zach.
I'm playing Geist the Ace. And Adam. I'm Adam.
I'm playing Joseph the Infiltrator. Awesome.
Uh, very, very quick recap. Uh, last time, you
both fought retribution and sacrifice. Uh, sacrifice
almost killed all of you. Geist tried to put
on the crown, but was not given it by whatever
force controls that. Joseph called in his favor
from contrition, uh, and defeated sacrifice using
some borrowed power very easily. You discovered
that sacrifice, the virtue, was an artificial
intelligence inside of a frame. And you kind
of got out of there as soon as you could. All
the moon devils died before you even got there.
You've taken a few things with you, which is
a bag full of teleporter parts of unknown value.
Data from Crow taken off of that console that
was in the teleporter room, which will hopefully
lead you to wherever that was leading. Crow's
spores, which you don't really know how they
work, but from your basic knowledge, that's what
facilitates how a human turns into one of those
mushroom people that he was. Four, the remnants
of Sacrifice's frame. And then five, the knowledge
that the Moon Devils are dead and that the Peacekeeper's
military readiness is far weaker because of it.
Other than that, it is worth mentioning that
the Insurgency defeated Clock. which has kind
of been what we've been using this whole time
to judge the state of the Clusterist resistance,
has gone up to six out of eight, as you have
removed their arguably most powerful virtue.
And Geist, you have, I believe, filled up your
second drive clock to duke it out with Retribution.
Take him out. So we have that to look forward
to probably during the vignettes. I'm so excited.
I'm so excited for the vignettes. You are now
on Worthy's ship still. The swamp's kind of receding
behind you. The adrenaline has begun to fade.
And you are left with each other in the humming
ship. If you wanted to talk about anything, I
know Joseph kind of admitted that he had some
stuff going on then, and Geist was screaming
at God for a little bit there. Was that open
comms? Like, could we hear that? I believe it
was. I don't think he would have been in the
frame of mind to not have it be open comm, so
yeah, probably. Okay. Which, I mean, Loyal's
probably over the moon about that. He's probably
pretty thrilled. Finally, he's convinced him
to die. It's not really dying, you just become
something else. Yeah, becoming a corpse. Heyo!
did did i can't remember did joseph say that
he had something to do with sacrifice getting
killed or was that just like a random fucking
act of god as far as we know i don't remember
he specifically said that like that that i was
compromised i called in a favor basically um
but it's nothing you have to worry about it's
basically what he said in the last episode good
well as long as i have nothing to worry about
trust me okay i don't think joseph is probably
hanging out If you guys are together, I think
he's off alone, maybe like looking outside a
window or something. Yeah, he's he's separated
from the group pondering outside the window.
I feel OK, so if Joseph isn't with everybody.
Then I feel like Geist after so like insane adrenaline,
even like when we get back on the show, because
we all nearly got fucking killed and it wasn't
even close. It wasn't we didn't even know where
he was. Or where it was, I suppose. So I think
Geist probably sits in the changeling for just
like a little while to decompress, catch his
breath. When he finally comes out, he's probably,
I don't know, can his blue skin sweat? Does he
sweat like in those old Gatorade commercials?
Like he sweats like bright blue coolant? I feel
like we had this exact conversation and we even
talked about Gatorade before. Yeah, you know
what? Up to you. Maybe you can now. Who knows?
But maybe either way, his eyes are sunken. He
looks fucked up. He looks disturbed. And if Joseph
is off by himself, then I think Geist is going
to go over to everybody else and be like, we
need to talk about whatever the fuck it is that
just happened. What is there to talk about? sacrifice
has been their ace in the hole. He was like their
big one. That was, if sacrifice shows up, he
just shakes his head. It's like, our worst case
scenario for how powerful he was wasn't even
close. He was just playing with us all this time,
or it, you know, whatever the fuck it was. And
whatever Joseph did, killed him like it was nothing
possibly the most powerful military asset on
world and whatever it is whoever it is that joseph
is indebted to is capable of something like that
dude that doesn't bother you at all no glad they're
on our side it's gone now it's one less thing
to worry about guys just looks between The two
of them are in something like disbelief. So that's
it then. Whatever unimaginably powerful being
has one of our best pilots in his back pocket.
And it's just whatever. That's fine. That doesn't...
I feel like I'm going insane here. Does nobody
realize why this is a problem? I think we're
all feeling the same. But what is there to understand
about what we just saw? It can't fit within us.
I think Geist never really considered it that
way, and he just... If he had a mouth, it would
probably hang agape for a moment and then close,
but I think he just kind of stares. And, uh...
Yeah, then I think he turns around, then he probably
goes back into the changeling. Doesn't even say
anything. Very good. If there isn't anything
else, we can get into your rewards. Yes, that's
why we're doing baby the money. The money. Thank
you. So you kind of work for the corporate council
now, technically, and they kind of pay you. Is
that on our W2? That is, you are W2? Okay, no,
you're W9. Let's not be ridiculous here. Damn
it, Booth. Yeah, so your supply role is going
to be equal to your target's tier plus your faction
relationship. The tier of your target was four?
Very high. So you're going to get five dice to
roll. Holy shit. If you want to do the honors.
No, I'm kidding. That'd be fun. Let's each roll
one. Yeah, let's each roll one. But then we have
one extra. Oh no, Colin can roll one too. I can
be a person. Does cooking the books even matter
at this point? It would, but you can do it during
the actual downtime. Yeah, they'll definitely
want the resources. I got a four. Five? Okay.
Jesus. Amazing. Okay, so you get six plus two
materiel, but I'm going to tell you just right
now, ahead of time, that you're going to lose
two supply off the top because of some labor
issues in the city right now. No, is that our
complication? Unions? That is your entanglement,
and it is also kind of reflected by some narrative.
things as well. Okay, I'll bop that down to four
supply, two material. Uh, okay. Uh, you going
to gain four rep for your squad? Rep? Where is
the rep? What is that? Uh, wait, our rep tracker
should be empty, right? Uh, yeah. So yeah, let
me, let me, yeah, because we have weak, we're
tier two, and we now have four reps. So it's
actually almost full again. We almost have strong
hold. We just need two more. I feel like we should
get that just from killing sacrifice. I think
that's why we got four. Four is a shitload, if
I recall. Also, technically, almost no one knows
that you did that as well. That's kind of part
of it. We're undercover. Joseph, you're going
to gain one tick in your drive clock because
you've increased your connection with contrition,
which I believe kind of forwards your drive towards
freedom or a version of it. Yeah, I'll say that.
And that's the big clock, not one of the small
ones. That's the one down here. Yeah. And you
may now all spend one materiel each to remove
all level 1 harm and refresh 1d6 quirks on your
vehicles. Yes, I gave us one extra supply from
our airfield as well. Yeah, you got some little
extra supplies. Yeah, it's material, right? So
I'll tick off the two material we have and two
from the supply. So we're down to three supply.
This is before book cooking and everybody can
get rid of your shit. I got two level one harms
and one, or no, sorry, one level one harm, two
level one damages. So that's good. So we're taking
away a level one. Is it harm or damage? Both.
Harm and damage. Should have said that. And then
1d6 quirks. Provided you've used any quirks.
I know some of you did. I used all my quirks.
I very nearly ended right there. Let's go. I
was so close. Can I give my extra to someone?
No, I can take other actions. And what about
level two? What do we do about that? You're going
to have to doctor slash engineer during downtime
proper. All right. If everyone's set, we'll move
on to XP. Yes. Pilots. Mark XP if you expressed
your tragedy, history, or opening. Your backstory.
I feel like I did that. I feel like I definitely
did. I take two for that because of my retribution
scene. Yeah, why not? You know, we're getting
there. Then you'll get one XP if you struggled
because of your belief scars or vehicle quirks.
Does a fight count as struggling? I don't know.
I don't think fighting counts as struggling.
Okay. I feel like guys struggle with the crown
stuff. That is true, but that's not technically
a belief scar or vehicle quirk. Okay. That one's
kind of hard to check off, honestly. Yeah, I
don't think my scars did anything for me this
time. Address the challenge with methods determined
by your playbook. 1 -2 XP. You kind of know them
by now. Abase fighting. Empath is understanding.
Yada yada. You get it. You did? You certainly
did. I think we all did. I don't know. Bureaucrat
is procedural management. Empath is understanding
or poise. Never mind. So that's up to you guys.
I'm not going to police you too much on this.
One of the things that I think is really funny
about the system and just like the ace class
in general is just that like, I did violence.
I did it a lot and I do it every single day.
Yeah. We're definitely fighting. Definitely a
lot of piloting and violence going on. Squad
XP. You are going to get two XP because you faced
a guy up against challenges well above your tier.
We have leveled up again. You're going to get
one XP if you reinforce your reputation, which
is daring or discreet. I guess... I don't know.
I don't know. What do you think? I think that
this was daring as fuck. I don't know if anybody
is alive to know, but we literally just... Hot
dropped into what we had every reason to believe
would be one of the most heavily defended installations
on the planet. That is true, yeah. Does anybody
know? I just gave us one. Yeah, that's good.
Then 2 XP. I'm just going to give you 2 XP for
the inner conflict or instinct of the squad or
goals. This was like a lot of them, kind of all
culminating. Then 1 XP on top of that for a successful
operation. We have almost leveled up twice. We
have three. Three squad XP missing. Big. Pretty
wild. You killed a big bad guy, I mean. Yeah,
we're pretty fucking epic. Well, Joseph did.
We're all contrition dead. Well, you know, your
network is your net worth, okay? So true. Gotta
be hustling, gotta be grinding. Literal network
in this case. Before we get into our downtime
actions, uh we should talk about the things you
took with the the mission out of the mission
with you which would be crow's spores the teleporter
bits you took to a lesser extent sacrifice um
i don't know if you're gonna be able to do anything
with that unless you i don't know scrap it or
do a long -term project uh and then most importantly
is the teleporter data itself that you got um
from crow's body uh are you reporting that into
like nyla you have like a teleconference setup
i imagine If you want to do that. I think we
have to tell her everything. Yeah. Don't we?
Like, do we have any options? I mean, you don't
have to, but you should, probably, if you care
about the cause. Yeah, and also that's like,
hey, yeah, no big deal, but we fucking killed.
Should we tell about the Joseph part, though?
Like, are our characters huddling up about getting
our story straight? Geist is inclined to tell
her everything. Maybe we should talk about it
because I feel like there is legitimate reasons
not to. Yeah. Let's have an in -character scene
of this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we get back to
our lovely, beautiful, home sweet home. Ice cave
in the ice desert. Does Geist initiate this?
Yeah, yeah. I think, I don't know, do we have,
I assume we have, what's our teleconference room
like? I'm imagining just like... Like, literally
just, like, ice room, but there's, like, a conference
table and, like, a TV in one wall where, like,
the meeting screen pops up. Yeah, it's however
you want it to be, really. So I feel like we're
getting ready to have our briefing, and before
we do, Geist gets everybody in and he's like,
alright, we gotta decide what we're gonna pass
along, especially, uh, well, with regards to
how Sacrifice was killed. What do we tell her?
X looks to Joseph. Joseph looks to the floor,
and then he looks back up. I don't really care.
Ultimately, it's your choice. If you feel like
she's going to react in a bad way, get a little
scared about how we did that, then we don't need
to. But I don't see how we can tell her we killed
Sacrifice. I don't even think she'd believe it
if we said we did it. There had to be some other
way. I'm more worried about the fact that one
way or another, Nyla's going to be sitting in
a military prison in a year's time, assuming
she doesn't get killed. Is that information dangerous
for her to know? I don't think so. If I may,
given how compromised things are in general right
now, I don't know if we stand to gain much by
telling her. I think you're right. All she needs
to know is there's a piece off the board. Whether
or not she believes it, I don't think it fucking
matters much. We'll just say we did it the old
-fashioned way. Okay. Alright, everything else
though... Okay. Let's do it then. I guess he
pushes the button or dials in. I hate this stupid
fucking program. My question for you, is this
a video setup? Is this a hologram? Is this just
like a radio? I imagined it being like a video
screen. How about we join video off? We can turn
it on. We can turn it on. She just sees the room
full of weirdos. There's like cops with her,
you know? Yeah, it'll just be your voices instead
of your images. I mean, it's plausible deniability.
Sure. We'll do it audio only. Webcams are off.
Yeah, sure. You join audio only. I think Nyla's
also audio only. She's just kind of like that.
Yeah. And I think she just says, like, over,
like, some scratchy speakers. Report. Mission
complete. We pulled. Information from the installation.
The moon devils are all dead. Sacrifice is dead
too. There's like a long pause on her end. Sacrifice
is dead? Yeah. Did the moon devils kill it? No.
They might have softened him up. I don't know.
He was definitely what killed them. Well, that
kind of shows off. We'll send the specifics in
the data file. It's not what we thought. Well,
I'm glad that at least we have that. Without
the moon devils, we don't really have anyone
on standby to defend the city anymore. I have
to recall the bone pickers, shutterbugs, what's
left of them. Damn. Alright, send over the data.
Try to figure out what's in it. You just stay
put, and I'll tell you what we find. Alright.
Did Crow leave some kind of last will and testament
or something? We got some spores. I don't know,
maybe he wanted something done with him. Does
people even have kids? I don't fucking know.
It's a little more complicated than that, but
sure. Yeah, well, just hold on to them for now.
I don't know when we're going to see each other
in person, but I'll make a note. Whoever comes
after me, if I don't see you before then, which
I probably won't, we'll handle it. Just put it
in a fridge somewhere. Okay. Don't open it. Yeah,
I wasn't planning on it. It'll kill you. Oh.
Yeah. Alright. Gross. We're opening that, right?
We're opening that thing. Out of character, how
it works is that you inhale the spores, you explode,
and you become a new being that is partially
you and partially the previous spore's owners.
That's not too bad. So if one of you wants to
become half -crow, You know, sure, huff that
shit. I don't know. That'd be complicated. Will
it allow me to bump my pilot skills up to four?
You'll do anything for, like, a skill dot. I
respect the hustle. I don't think the mushrooms
could colonize Geist. It doesn't have enough
meat. That's true. He's got a brain, I think.
I do have a brain. I got a real pilot up in there,
too, I think. He's getting crowded up in the
old noggin. Hey, guys, check this out. This is
Jackass. Turns into a clicker. Yeah, okay. Do
you have anything else for Nyla? I don't think
so. I think we're gonna put basically everything
in the report, including the fact that it's an
AI. Do we mention the teleporter parts? I think
we should tell her everything. I'm guessing you're
including that in your report, probably. I think
we should give her everything except the exact
circumstances for how Sacrifice died. Yeah, I
think that's Gucci. Alright, you send that over.
She doesn't put much ceremony on it. She's kind
of a dead woman walking in a lot of ways. She
just kind of turns off the Zoom meeting. Right
as you send that out, Hex, you receive a text
message. Which states, Harold, very surprising
work your team has just done. Rumor has it that
you may have taken some bits of technology with
you from the warehouse. I assure you that whatever
you are planning to do with them is not worth
the consequences that would follow. I'm prepared
to offer you an exceptionally generous exchange
for those parts. Let's say 10 supply for those
bits. Signed, TK. Do we know that Harold has
had dealings with her? No, I don't think so.
I mean, I told you guys about the warehouse and
that we met, but I didn't say anything. Like,
we kept talking. Was that brought up? Oh. Well,
I imagine I would have included the Tyrell meeting.
I don't know. I don't know that you did tell
them. I think you may have told... Maybe you
told Nyla in private. Yeah, I think that happened.
I guess it's up to you, Brian. Let me think.
All right. I have another thing to discuss. It
kind of looks to everyone in the room. So those
teleporter parts, we have a choice here. I left
something out when I talked about my work with
the warehouse. When I got there, I found myself
face -to -face with Tyrell. I was alone, though.
There was nothing I could have done. Tyrell crying?
Let me finish. Nyla already knows. Yes, face
-to -face with Tyrell crying. She wanted to buy
me out. Obviously, I'm still here. Nyla knows.
That didn't happen. But I guess somehow she found
out what we just took from her. Right now with
us, it's pure scrap. She's offering a pretty
rich amount for it. Even if we don't take the
deal, we could use this to weed her out. Wait,
she wants to buy the parts we just stole? I mean,
Hex shows him the message. Why is there a heart
emoji next to her name? TK less than three less
than three. I didn't mention this because it
didn't seem relevant, but it seems like it's
relevant again. I guess we all have our secrets.
She's the enemy. She's like one of like five
people in cluster as high command. We can't take
this fucking deal. This is the only inkling we
have of whatever the fuck it is they were doing
over there. You're going to take her word for
it that it's not useful to us. That's fucking
insane. So we could use it to weed her out. What,
like set up some kind of sting? I don't know
if... I mean... Geist grows pensive for a moment
and thinks. Like set up... I don't know if we
have the resources for something like that. I
don't know if anybody does. She's a big deal.
Yeah, it seems like a fun idea, but can we really
divert to that right now? Maybe they just take
one of their biggest pieces off the board. She
sounds like she would meet in person for this.
Maybe we could finally get some answers. If I
could be there. If we could question her. I want
to know what she wants to do with these. I'll
let you know she wouldn't come alone. When I
met her, I was surrounded. She's careful. She's
not sloppy. If she just sent this message, I
feel like she would even know that we're discussing
this right now. Hex turns off his phone. He seems
to be very aware of many things. Well, I mean,
it's also possible she assumed that Hex might
just steal them. Yes, but look at the look at
when it sent. The send time is on there. It said
right when the end of the call. Oh. Something
to think about. Fuck. It's a good detail. I don't
like any part of this. I feel like if we try
and barter for information rather than money,
or, like, supplies, the whole reason that she
wants to take them is so that we can't get that
information. We absolutely cannot trust her,
to be honest. What if we simply ignore her and
see what happens? Will she use force, then, to
get what she wants? How desperate is she, really?
Maybe she'll offer more. Perhaps. I like where
your head's at, Joseph, now. What are we going
to do with more supplies? Your phone rings. Joseph
crosses arms and nods at it. I thought I turned
this off. Or maybe, you know what? You did turn
your phone off. Whose phone is on? Joseph doesn't
have a phone. I don't think Geist has a phone
anymore either. I feel like he ditched it when
we went dark. How about the web conference? Yeah,
the computer you're in front of starts ringing.
What the fuck? Actually, that wouldn't be...
Specifically, I wouldn't... You do have a hidden
base. I'm not going to have her fucking ring
your phones, though, definitely. If you guys
don't have a phone, it's going to be Gopher,
so I'm just going to say that. She walks into
the room. Yeah, Gopher comes in and says, Hey,
sorry, team. I have a call. For Harold Hex? Oh,
I'll take it. Thank you. What timing. All right.
Hex, ushers go for out before putting on speaker.
Harold. Harold. Did you get my text? I just got
out of another call. Yeah. I appreciate the offer.
We're going to need to take some time to consider
it. That's perfectly reasonable. I'm more than
open to negotiation on this, but I really should
emphasize to you that these are worth a lot to
me personally, and they're really not worth much
to you. It's really just trouble for you in a
very, very big way. On a very existential scale
for you. Okay. Is she on speaker? Yes, she is.
Oh yeah, is that a lie? That is an existential
problem. Does your ability work over the phone?
No, it does not. I need to see people's hearts.
The veins in their eyes. That was so useful right
now. She knew. She fucking knew. I mean, like,
she doesn't seem like she's lying. I don't get
the feeling. Do any of y 'all step in? I'm not
saying anything. Maybe I flip off the phone.
I just flip off the phone. And then I put my
hand back and I kind of look around. And then
I just get quiet. What's Geist doing? What's
Loyal up to? Geist, I feel like, has kind of
like a bug -eyed stare. This is an insane turn
of events for him. Because he's very much like
a... a military -minded guy, and so it's like
one of, like, the cop dudes on the other team
just, like, casually giving us a phone call to
ask us for something that we stole is... It's
insane. It doesn't happen. Like, this is a very,
very deeply insane situation, and so Geist is
just staring at the phone, maybe trying to...
Once his brain catches up, he might say something,
but for now, he's just kind of staring. Well,
Loyal does actually say, like, Why is it an existential
threat? Who's speaking right now? I'm here with
my squad. As you may know, we just finished a
mission. Yes, I'm well aware of the mission you
finished. So, answer the question. Give me a
roll. Ooh, I just got a new skill. Can I try
something? Maybe. He's got to get in the frame
first. No, I just got a second dot in command,
so I was just gonna try and lay it down. You're
gonna try to command Tyrell Crying. Yes. Fuck
yeah. That's... I mean... If it has any hope
of working, it's gotta try. How many dots do
you have in command? Two. I got three in sway.
I'll use my three dots. If it's all the same
to you. I will take literally any role of the
social variety. I'm doing the sway. Doing it
now. I'm not saying we have any objections. How
many do you have in sway? Oh, no! One, two, one!
Yeah. I have three dice, but it's not a cigar.
Okay. You should probably ask for the position
of that first. Since I'm magnanimous, I will
not totally fuck you over. I guess Tyrell Cryant,
what do you ask? Why is it an existential threat?
Yeah, that's what he says. I can't give you the
answer since you failed. But what she says is
I'm not even going to describe to you why it's
such an existential threat. I'm just going to
tell you why it's a threat from me. And that's
because I know where you are now. Okay? Can you
see us? What, are you going to come down here?
I think she sends you your coordinates. And just
what asset? Just what asset are you going to
send after us, Tyrell? My assets? You confuse
me with the resistance, and I think that is a
very large misstep on your part. Consider the
deal. It stands. I'm not going to drop the price,
but really, if I don't get those back, there's
going to be problems for you. How long do we
have? Uh, 24 hours. We'll see how it turns out.
She hangs up. Alright. What the fuck? How did
she find us? I don't know. But there may be some
truth behind what she said. Those are our coordinates.
She definitely knows. And think of the technology.
There might be bigger fish. My theory is she's
being helped by the Oro. Or someone who is also
very powerful, but maybe not as powerful as the
Uro. I think you're right. Maybe some connection
to them somehow. How long do the Uro live? Does
anyone know that? That's a good question. Like,
is their lifespan something that's known in -universe,
or is it that secret? If I'm being completely
honest with you, it hadn't ever occurred to me
to think of how long they live. But given their
level of advancement, I guess they're probably
immortal at this point. As long as they don't
have religious hangups on immortality, they would
be. This is fucked. We need to bring the defenses
online. She's going to tell the Clusterists where
we are. She is the Clusterists, right? Guys,
were you not listening? There's bigger players
involved. Why are you so ready to take her word
for anything? What reason does she have to tell
us the truth? It's good business. Is there any
way at all, Harold, that we could get her in
person? I want to ask her if giving this to her
will end the war faster than if we won't. And
depending on her answer, I think we should choose
ours. I don't think there's a way of doing that
without compromising ourselves. We're already
fucking compromised. We are. It's a fair point.
Look, if we're going to give this shit back,
then we need to use these 24 hours to learn as
much as we can about them. Agreed. Alright. Fuck,
I wish Shinra was here. Alright. I guess that's
it, then. We take about 20 hours to study this
shit, and then we give it back. You get the impression
that he would be saying that through gritted
teeth if he had any teeth left to grit. Yeah,
I think that's it. We should get to work. I'm
going to walk something back. I'm going to say
that she did not send you your coordinates, but
she did send you something, like a general vicinity
of where you could be that was accurate. So I
don't think she knows your exact location, but
she has a general idea of where you are. Okay.
I don't think that changes. But yeah, I don't
want to totally kill the main thing about your
base because of one role that you didn't know
the stakes of. But that is now on the table.
Plus, we don't know if she sent a general place,
if that means she knows our exact... So we're
still in the dark. She probably would have said
something like, oh, the ice desert, huh? Like,
not very clever. Yeah, exactly. You know, something
taunting. Okay. I think we can get into the actual
actions now. Yeah. Yeah. The teleporter parts
are in the hangar. Sacrifice is in the hangar.
gopher is like working on your frames already
um what do we want to do um who does anybody
have study i think that that's the skill that
we need and we desperately don't have does i
think feel like harold has one dot uh yes harold
does i got zero that makes you are the teleporter
intelligence expert unfortunately oh no What
are you trying to divine from the teleport parts?
Um, what should, yeah, guys, like, let's, let's,
what should I, what should I be getting here?
I don't know. We need to, I was in character.
I don't know what it, what it is. Yeah. Where
it came from, what it can do. We have nothing.
We know that the clusters are preparing to do
something big and something bad. This has to
be part of it. They went through insane lengths
to keep this thing hidden. yes i think the most
important thing is figuring out why she would
want this back so much yeah maybe it's that because
origin i don't think is what he's hunting for
more so like is this a one -way teleporter like
what is it so i'm going to i kind of mentioned
this last time but i'll just run it out it's
like reverse engineering this would be it's an
impossible task for you yes um getting a general
idea of like maybe what this specific part might
do, that would be a long -term project. Quick
analysis of how familiar are these materials?
That, I could see as just a straight -up roll.
I wouldn't even make you use a downtime action
on it. But just keep that in mind. I feel like
given the nature of abstracted time and downtime,
that last thing of just a quick overview is probably
all that we could really accomplish in one day.
Because I feel like In general, especially long
-term projects. It's right there in the name.
That's not something we're going to be able to
do in a 20 -hour period. No. We can do downtime
actions. If you want to cook the books, you can
do that. Let's do it. For one. I think you just
spend the action and then you roll... I think
you just roll those five dice again. Ah, damn.
Okay, so 5d6? Yeah. 6. That's not great. Nice.
No, it's really good. It's as good as it possibly
could be. And again, it was on the last one.
So that bumps us back up. Good job, Brian. We're
at nine supply. We are rolling in, and if we
take this deal, then we'll be at 19 supply, which
is actually... We can just buy our own army.
What would we even do with 19 supply? I don't
know. I feel like we can only stash eight. We
can only stash eight, and we actually have two
material and one personnel in the bank. So, like...
Can I use supply to get maize off the planet
somehow? You can spend supply on extra downtime
actions. I will say, because of the nature of
time, you cannot spend 19 supply on downtime
actions because then you can do literally anything
in the span of 24 hours. Incredible. But yeah,
you can stretch your time a little bit here.
He's got a big fake mustache on, walks into Brea
City and is like, I would like to spend one billion
dollars hiring every scientist you have in the
city, please. Yes, I have cash. What are we going
to do, say no? Yeah, that's a fucking lot. I
will think about what we can do with it all.
I think we can... I want to fix my frame. It's
kind of hurt. What if we bought the best frames
that exist ever? I mean, I feel like we already
have better frames than money can buy at this
point. I don't know. I feel like we can still
take some extra downtime actions, right? Just
not like 19 of them. Just not 19 of them. Anyone
who couldn't finish their drive clocks in a reasonable
amount of time, you won't automatically be able
to skip the line because that would be kind of
against the point of everything. I'm going to
train 19 times and just get all of my skills.
Well, we only have 19 if we give the teleporter
parts, right? Yes, that is true. But I don't.
Yeah, you're just spending the money, Geist.
You got dollar signs in your eyes. I don't think
we have any other choice, do we? Is that up for
debate? Is this a point of contention? No, I
think we have to. I think we have to, yeah. Let's
get the low -hanging fruit out of the way first,
because everybody's going to need to repair.
Yeah, let's work on the nine. Actually, it's
more than nine. Firstly, actually, I'm going
to get into it. I'm going to spend one material
from our supply base to get rid of my junked
fine mobility suite, because I fucking need that
in a big way. So that's done. Does anybody else
have junked gear on their frame? Because that's
an easy... I don't think I do. I have damage
on my frame. Level two damage? I have that. Yeah,
that's the fix action. I have a question. Can
I swap my probe weapon for my melee weapon now
that it's no, because they were the same thing?
Yes. But it's just not a probe anymore? Okay.
Yeah, you can switch it off. Yeah, so anyone
who wants to repair, I'll remind you, there's
a repair clock off to the right of your damage,
and you're going to roll gophers. skill? I think
three total now? And then... I'm gonna spend
that last point of material to clear more quirks
because I still have two. Sure. As long as we're...
Fuck me! One? You're kidding me. I'm so glad
we have all this money. I'll probably spend another
one later, but I'm gonna wait. Alright, so anyone
who wants to... Who needs to repair? I need to
repair and I actually need to heal as well. I'm
impaled. So what are we rolling for that? 3d6,
and then I will tell you each what you get. Yeah.
Okay. Okay, so you got a 5. Okay, so I'll just
tell you the results. If you got a 1, 2, or 3
as your highest number, you're going to get 1
tick in the repair clock. If it was a 4 or 5,
I think it's 2. And if it's a 6, it's 3. So Joseph,
you get 2. And you need to fill that up to drop...
Damaged arm down. Okay. So, can I do it again?
Yeah, and just remember that each time you're
rolling this, this is an action. A downtime action.
Do we still have three downtime actions, or are
we back to two? Yes, you are at three. You're
well -funded now. What's the healing skill of
our Beefcake Pacifist? Is it just two? It's two.
Okay, I'm gonna... Actually, no, it's one. Oh,
fuck. That's awful news. He's not good. It's
minus one. What damage do you have? Minus one
tier. I got impaled through my frame while I
was fighting. I think Gopher asked you, like,
what the fuck is this damage? It's so weird.
I was fighting Retribution. That is how it happened,
right? I don't know. I guess? I fucking can't
remember. This is going to drive me insane. Regardless,
you have weird damage on your frame from Sacrifice.
And he's curious about it in general. Yeah, it
was... I mean, Sacrifice was there. I don't know
if you've read the reports or saw any of the
footage, but he fights with a cloud of dispersed
drones and each one fires a little pinpoint laser.
Wow. Yeah. I want to check that out. I mean,
yeah, it's over there. He just points at the
pile of rubble in the corner. Well, that's what
that was. Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Hey,
wait, you brought a virtue here? Isn't that,
like, a really bad idea? I don't know. You want
us to leave the tech there? I don't know what
I want. It's an ongoing problem. Keep it to yourself,
Prime. First of all, are we taking the deal?
I think we are. I think that... Yeah. First of
all, I do want that. You said we could have a
free survey to get just like a base first impressions.
Yes. Yes. You have to roll good if you want anything
from this. Yeah. But I will give you first impressions.
You have study, and study never gets used, and
I'm a fan of the studiers. I have a lot of respect
for anyone who takes study. Okay? I have a lot
of respect for you, Brian. I don't know why I
took it. Do you want to study? To learn the plot.
Okay. Let's see it. Roll me that one dice, unless
you want to push yourself. What does that look
like? Picking Adderall. How many stress do I
incur with pushing myself? Two. Two. Hmm. I'm
going to spend money to de -stress, but for now,
I'll push myself. Okay. Two dice. What does that
help to? Alright. Here we go. Let's see what
you understand. 4, 4, 1. I don't think the 1
is supposed to be there, but it doesn't matter.
Yeah, it doesn't. Okay, parts to success. Here's
what I'll tell you. This is not human technology.
Absolutely not. This could not be manufactured
by humans in probably a millennia, given current
trends. It's extremely advanced. It is probably
priceless. Like, you know, giving this to a research
center in the union would likely unlock a lot
of understandings about like just the nature
of reality that we don't understand because humans
can teleport, as you know. Whoever is funding
the Clusteris has alien technology. Whoever,
and that's a very small list that you know of.
But there's a lot you don't know. So it is like
following Loyal's assumptions, it is either the
Uro or someone the Uro trusts a ton or someone
who are even more powerful than the Uro. That's
kind of your three options. Okay. I don't like
any of those options. No. Hex, very quickly.
you know consolidates these findings into a little
document and gives it to the team putting special
emphasis on the part that it's that it's either
the oro or another alien force i feel like loyal
is watching hex work just this entire time he's
kind of like floating near him blinking slowly
not saying anything floating impatiently follows
him to the group i mean what's your like this
is getting really into the weeds but what's your
like background in studying hex I'm just like
familiar with military technology or I think
it's through the context of like, are you just
really good at using like fucking future chat
GPT to help you research shit? I don't know.
In this case, I like that answer. I think it's
a lot of that. Yeah, that makes the most sense
in character. Yeah. Yeah. It's just high level
research on what the hell this could be. Yeah,
it basically spits out a lot of stuff that's
like, hey, this is impossible. Like, uh, fucking
this, uh, this doesn't exist on the periodic
table, table of elements. That's weird. Like
this element actually can't exist, uh, because
like that element is actually carbon and carbon
doesn't look like this and behave like this.
It's like this, uh, element is a like alternate
universe version of carbon. That's weird. How
does that even work? Um, and it's just a lot
of like, uh, dead ends where it's just like,
oh, I understand nothing. Uh, and that just kind
of. lends you to understand how fucked up this
is i like that that makes sense i i mean i think
yeah having some like contact association with
scientists very futilely tries to get like some
sort of like empirical data from this thing like
electromagnetic readings or something probably
all of which either makes no sense or is completely
inconclusive and like You know, puts it all in
a little a little document. He's like, well,
I guess I don't know if we can do anything else.
It's advanced. That's that's what we know. What
if we put all this stuff in a box with like a
really big bomb and gave it back to Tyrell? Do
you think we can get away with that? Why does
Tyrell want these parts specifically? If she
wants teleporter parts, can't she just go to
the warehouse that she knows about to get them?
Is she afraid that we have these parts? We don't
even understand them. How could she be afraid
that we would do something with them? I have
a guess. What's that? Serious stuff. This is
far beyond, I think, even the best technology
that the Seoul Union has been provided by the
Euro. I would be willing to bet that whoever
gave it to her is pretty tight -fisted about
it. And I think it's about control. I think that
Either Tyrael or whoever gave her that technology
doesn't want it to be spread around. I think
that's really what she's afraid of. And maybe
the people who gave it to her, you know, it'll
be her ass on the line if this gets out. That
is true. I think you're right. It's also very
expensive, I would assume. That theory is reinforced
in a lot of ways by the fact that they were destroying
it when you got there. And that was their number
one priority. And the stuff you took are the
undestroyed parts that they did not successfully
break. But we didn't take the full thing, right?
Like, is there still pieces of a teleporter over
there? There's still stuff there. Okay. We just
got some crumbs, and even that's bad. Yeah. You
got crumbs, and even the crumbs are bad. Oh,
no. So, I guess, team... Oh, wait, no, no. You
had a question, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, this is
a meta question and a weird one, but I had a
good conversation with a hippie seven -year -old
cab driver recently that makes me want to ask
this. Is there any... I don't know if this is
an empath ability or not, but is there any emotional
residue or intent on these parts that if I tried
really, really hard, I could sense somehow? Oh,
God. Psychometry. Yes. What you're trying to
do is psychometry, which I don't think is an
action that you even can do, but let me look.
Typical psychometry. Don't tell us to roll survey.
Something really, really bad will happen. It
always does. The parts are angry. I mean, you
can roll it. Like, if you want to try to fuck
with this, you're welcome to. What's the position?
Yeah, what's the position, GM? Okay, like, real
talk? Probably just, like, controlled. Quadruple
desperate? Controlled, like, limited, you know?
Yeah. I mean, so, sure, do it if you want. Even
so, I think loyalists plan to be like, I need
to take one of these pieces out onto the open
ice desert. Keep eyes on me. I'll be right back.
Okay. What do you have in mind? I want to know
more on a different level than you can. We should
do everything we can before we give it back,
so do what you have to do. This is a bad idea
out of turn, but remember what happened with
the martyrdom frame? That's why you keep eyes
on me. Use the anti -aircraft missiles if you
have to. We'll call me the fuck up. Alright.
Are we setting up like a whole arena? Joseph
is intrigued. Everyone aim your guns at Loyal.
He's gonna roll a survey. Alright. Fuck. Okay.
We're doing that. What is the scene? Whatever
one is easiest to carry or like whatever one
just calls to me the most. I think Joseph helps
you with this too. He's very curious. I guess
I'm kind of floating sci -fi wheelbarrow and
put this on there and like With it floating out
into like a mostly open area that can still be
seen by the base. And I can't stay out there
long as my water is going to get cold and freeze
me to death. But I like just zone out everything
else. If there's snow around and I can't see
anything else, that's better. It's just the entire
background in the world is white. Except for
this piece of just beyond anything that our current
reality understands. And I look at it and I ask
it, why were you made? And I do my one dot of
survey. This is a very spooky thing to do with
one dot of survey. As soon as I see the three,
I'm pulling the trigger. Control limited, you
know? I'm not gonna... Oh my god. It was a one!
Failure. I really like that you rolled it as
desperate, even though it's not. It does feel
that way, I know. Yeah, I guess there's... You
speak to this thing. Like, what were you made
for? Have you done this before? You seem awfully
confident. It's like Inland Empire from Disco
Elysium. You're talking to objects and getting
answers. I wish I had the idea to do this much
earlier in the campaign. I'm in my ideas phase,
but we're about to end the campaign, so it's...
There will be more. Yeah, that's sick. Yeah,
I think you ask this thing. Like, why were you
made? And there's... It asks you back. Why were
you made? Can I glean any emotion from this?
Anger? Sadness? Acceptance? Like, that's what
I'm really after right now. Uh, no, Loyal. It
asked you a question. Oh. You are compelled to
answer this. Oh, okay. I don't have a choice.
Why was I made? I think, automatically, he just
says... to exist in this world. Cool. The little
thing cracks slightly. Just a little bit. You're
in a risky position. You can ask another question
if you want. If you're going to do it again,
at least push yourself for an extra die because
this is too far. Let me see how much my stress
is because I didn't last time because I think
it's high. You have one stress left. If I push
myself, I'm going to get another scar. Maybe
this is a safe place to get another scar. I could
do all my stress and not have to do that as a
doubt. That is technically correct. You know
what? I want to do this. This is narratively
fitting. Ewan pushes himself. He's got to appreciate
that. He just fucking goes for it. You've got
to do this. I want to ask it again. Risky standard.
I don't know what emotions I'm feeling from this
object asking me a question because it's like
I don't think I've ever done this with an object
and had it speak back with such force as this.
So I'm learning a new thing about the universe
right now. Allowing the alien technology to give
you a trauma. I want to ask it again and this
will trauma me out. Are you sad? That's it. That's
all I ask it. And I roll my survey. And what
is now a risky position with one more dice. Yeah,
one more dice. Success! Finally! That is good.
Are you sad? Are you sad? Yeah, it's just like,
yeah, not really. That's fine. What is a hand
but isn't a hand? Tentacle is overdone, right?
Oh, I thought the thing was asking a riddle.
No, no. What's a very cool limb, you know? Yeah,
I'm thinking right now. Some sort of insect limb,
I don't know what they're called. I do like strands
of hair. Yeah, because like, what is that? Is
that a limb even? But it's coming out of me.
Yeah, that's a good one. It's coming out of me
everywhere. Insect limb I think is cool too.
Yeah. How do we combine an insect limb and hair?
It's made of strands of hair. There's an insect
limb that congeals out of hair. Yeah. There's
like hair spiders that have crawled out of the
cracks in this mirror and are crawling up your
exopods. They are black. But it's like More of
a black where like you've erased a layer on the
Photoshop file and you're just seeing the background
And it almost shifts is almost like a parallax
to it. There's a little white dots in it And
they kind of just like calmly walk up Your your
exo pod and then when they get to the rim where
the glass starts They can just walk through the
glass like it's not there and they're moving
very slowly, but for you time is is still and
Before you know it, they have, like, surrounded
your body. They start crawling into your eyeballs.
And, like, as they do, it starts to, like, tickle
a little bit. And, like, you realize that they're
fitting into place. Like, they're covering your
eyes. And you feel this feeling of being somewhere
else and seeing just so much of... the the sadness
of the world um of what's happened in the past
of like here the clusters have died um killed
you see probably you probably see retribution
given given that you know him now like him like
kneeling over his dead family after geist accidentally
shot them allegedly allegedly allegedly uh the
court documents are not conclusive um and if
i did it if you did it you see like Just death
and destruction and pain. You see things that
haven't happened yet. You see Brea City that
is just cratered, ruined. You see Geist's helmet
just laying on the dirt. Kind of like in the
image for this whole series. Oh my god! That
just came to you. And the sky is red. You also
see a lot of happiness. People who are alive.
People celebrating. And it all kind of happens
at once. Like overlapping. The happiness and
the sadness. End of that. That is the answer
you get. And then the plate cracks in your hands
one more time. But it does not break. You can
ask another question if you want, but you'll
be in a desperate position. Just. Period. I think
he's traumatized. I don't think I can. But you
can. It's giving you a chance. I believe the
expression is just enough rope to hang yourself
with. I do have the beginnings of another question.
Give me a minute. What do we see, Colin? He's
just holding this plate -sized hexagon in front
of him. Wait, so we don't see the spiders or
anything? No, this is all very ephemeral. For
you guys, no time has passed at all. Loyal is
in frozen time right now. When is he going to
start? It's taking a while. Should we shoot him?
Might as well. I feel like Geist is in the changeling
and he's fucking like white knuckling the control
yoke. He's like standing like maybe even like
a decent distance away. Yeah, it's really hot
in here, Geist. He's fucking sweating. He doesn't
want to do it, but he knows he might have to.
I think Joseph is smiling, watching from behind
a snow dune. You can't see a smile on his face,
but he's smiling. He's smiling real hard. Crossing
his arms and smiling and just watching. And he's
doing a wink. Yeah, exactly. Maybe he's winking
without even knowing it. I think, Hex, you feel
powerful in this moment. And Joseph, you feel
very free. And I just feel hot. You feel very
hot. Okay, I thought of the question. Alright.
I think Loyal is in this space of no feeling,
no ego, seeing all this at once. And he just
says, is there any benefit to speeding up the
wheel? Elaborate. The wheel being the universe.
That's what he means by that. Making things occur.
Making things occur faster. To where they're
destined to go. Accelerationism. Yeah, sure.
That's a desperate situation. Okay, and then
my last survey. And I can't push myself again,
I'm assuming. yes you could not push yourself
because that would break even more rules yeah
is there a funny devil's bargain you want to
slap on just if you have something low if you
have one in the chamber yeah i do which is that
my devil's bargain is that uh tyrol crime's gonna
notice that one of these is missing because this
is gonna be destroyed oh i would say maybe we
shouldn't take that or we are fucked That's bad.
That sounds kind of cool, though. Technically,
we cannot stop you from taking it. This is up
to you. We have no say. That sounds cool. What
can she do to us if she notices we're gone? Yeah,
I want to do it anyway. Okay. You get another
die. Story without what I'm about to do. Oh no.
And you would finally understand if accelerationists
are right. That is the devil's bargain. Okay,
with my one plus die from this. And roll. A partial.
Oh my god! Thank god. Save the popcorn for later.
Okay. My heart can't take this shit, man. Jesus.
Okay. I think this one's actually more simple,
luckily. I know you want more of my beautiful
words. You see every event that will ever happen
all happening simultaneously, and you realize
that everything will happen at a fixed rate,
and there's no averting any course one way or
another. Everything is predestined. Everything
you fight for is pointless, and no matter what
you choose, there's only one path you can follow,
and you're going to take the level three harm.
Empty. As you no longer feel like you have any
connection with your actions. And what do I roll
to resist this? Well, to resist, you need to
have stress. Oh, so we're not doing that. Oh
my god, that's right. Okay. The plate is gonna
break. Now. Yeah, so what everyone else sees
is that he walks out there, looks at the plate,
and it snaps in half. and then just, like, crumbles
into dust. What just happened? Oh, and then I
guess Loyal collapses to the ground. Yeah, I
feel like the exopod just, like, turns off, and
it just falls onto the ice with this big crack.
And the plate looks like it's gone, and he's
just motionless out there. I feel like Ghost...
And he's not conscious anymore. Guys, watch this
for a second to make sure that no, like, random
reality is about to open up and start spewing
demons out or something. And then he stomps forwards.
And he's just like, Loyal, come on. Come on,
wake up. What's going on? Come on. Loyal, you
remember that tattoo you got rid of? Yeah. There's
a new one there now. What's it look like? It
looks like the shape of reality. You can decide
what that looks like. It's a spiral again. It's
just a spiral again. It is just a spiral again.
That's beautiful. I like that. It's not the shell,
but it's just the spiral. Joseph's going to walk
up and inspect as well. Would Joseph see this
tattoo too? Yes. He's very silent and very scared.
He does not feel good about this. You guys are
going to need to get some heavy equipment to
haul him out of there. Oh, Geist is in the changeling.
Yeah, you can just pick the exopod up. Like a
yucky bug. It's going to be like a snow globe.
Colin, can we collect the dust? I don't think
you can. It's like a windy ice field. I don't
know. Just for added flavor, I think what happens
is that the dust upon coming in contact with
the snow turns into snow. Oh. Hex just starts
shoveling the snow into his mouth. What did you
do? Geist doesn't even give a shit about the
dust. He picks up the exopod and starts sprinting
back to the base with it in his hand and he's
on the radio getting our really shitty medic
and also gopher and also probably the raptors.
down to the hangar, which I assume is our exterior
access point, and just, like, dumps the exopod
in the hangar and probably resists the urge to
crack it open like an egg and maybe gets Gopher
to do it. I think Joseph's going to stand where
you guys were. I think he's going to put his
finger in the snow, as Joseph would, and kind
of twirl it around, and then he just... I think
you probably all notice, after the plate breaks,
those various feelings I described start to subside.
So you feel less free, Joseph. You feel less
hot. Geist. I guess you feel less powerful. What
was that? Yeah, I don't think this holds his
attention very long, though. And he'll just get
up and go back to base. No snow cone? Joseph's
little human moments. Alien technology snow cone.
Yeah. Yum. That was cool. That was good. That
told me everything I wanted to know. Thank you.
Free will is an illusion. Welcome to existential
dread. Let's get this dolphin patched up. Yeah,
I guess. I don't know. Unless something happens,
are we just cruising back into downtime actions?
Or should we have a discussion? Us three? About
what just happened. You probably should talk
about what just happened. Why does he keep doing
this? Why do we keep letting him? Why do we keep
this dolphin? Joseph probably groups up with
you guys and says, well, only know what he learned
once he wakes up, but seems we lost a piece,
and we'll have to explain that to Tyrell. There's
no way she knows exactly every little widget
we took. I think she will. Joseph doesn't say
anything. He just stares at you. What are you
talking about? Come on, the moon devils were
fucking around with it. How would she have any
way of knowing what they fucked with versus what
we fucked with? I don't know, but she continues
to surprise me. For something this important,
I think they run that place like a clean room.
Let's not be naive here. What about loyal, though?
What do you think happened? I don't know. This
psychic bullshit. Why does Loyal do this? Because
we needed something. We couldn't just give this
back to them without getting something. It's
a good reward. I think Joseph felt the reward.
He's looking at the floor and thinking for a
bit, and then he decides to say it. And he says,
Loyal. Had new markings on his body. A spiral.
What are you talking about? Uh, well, like, I'm
sorry, what is he saying? Like, he got a tattoo?
Like, what is that? I don't understand the relevance.
This thing impacted him just from him thinking
about it. I mean, what does this say about the
other pieces? He got it just now? Yes, it appeared
on him. I helped remove his previous tattoos.
He had no tattoos on him, and now he has a spiral.
Well, what if he got one before we came here?
I don't think that happened. I don't know. We're
completely out of our depth. I have no answers
for you. I know. I just... Maybe it's a good
thing we give these back. Fuck. We don't know
what we're dealing with here. What if... The
Clusterists have this. They had this. What the
fuck do we... What hope do we have? I don't know.
I think this is beyond the Clusterists, but...
If it's being supplied to them. This is bigger
than the Clusterists. I think we're a little
out of our league, if I'm being honest here.
Yes. The Clusterists hate aliens. They hate Humanity's
arrangement with the Euro. Why would they accept
alien technology? Do you think they're that desperate
to win this war that they abandoned the reason
they were fighting it in the first place? I think
the Clusterist leaders Maybe have different motives?
Alright, whatever. You know what? I'm sorry I
fucking asked. None of this makes any sense to
me. I guess it doesn't matter until we hear what
Loyal says, so we'll wait for now. Yeah. Yeah,
I think that's that. That's that. I think we're
going to literally need to spend 19 supply in
order to recover a level 3 harm with a one die
doctor. Thanks, guys! we're all getting away
with this i mean loyal you are now awake but
you still need help harm uh what does that look
like are you just like despondent this is catatonia
basically yeah emptiness of i have nothing to
say ever again in my whole life yeah you keep
thinking of of things to say or do and you realize
like no that's actually not what i do right now
I know what I do next. That's late here. Okay.
Man, can you take haunted twice? Jeez. He's got
that level 3 damage in half. Ooh, reckless. I
like that. Because he now knows that fate is
just everything. Whatever he does is what will
happen. That crazy dolphin. This dolphin is crazy.
So crazy. He's now soft, haunted, and reckless.
Hell yeah. Haunted and reckless. That's a good,
perfect description. It's a full trauma gang.
That sounds like a really nice cocktail. Let's
make it after this. Yeah, exactly. You'll have
to post it on the Tumblr. All right. Oh my god,
yes. 17 parts, 19 parts vodka. One part urine.
A single mini marshmallow on top. Yeah, I like
that. Okay. Jeez, what a fucking detour that's
been. Yeah, holy shit. Has Loyal used all of
his downtime actions? I only had one level one
damage, which got repaired and everybody gets
rid of one thing earlier. Yeah, I think you guys
blew up a sacrifice before it even attacked Loyal.
Yeah, I didn't get hit. It was only you guys.
Wow, okay. That's really good. That means that
you have three downtime actions to throw into
trying to recover from this. Yeah. Which I hope
I can do. In the interest of time, just knowing
how these things shake out, just feel free to
spend three and it'll go away. Yeah, like, he
takes some time. Maybe he doesn't talk for a
day and he really thinks really hard and you
get a psychiatrist in there and you have to talk
at him. I don't know what you do. My one caveat
is that I think this takes longer than a day.
Yeah. So are you not with us with Tyrell? I mean,
you could go, but you have to be led there, you
know? So are we paying three from the supply
to make it go away? No, this is just his actions.
So you still got that money. Don't worry, you
got that money. We have nine supply that we need
on this. Yes, you can do more after that. With
money. Should you desire to. You need to fill
up. You got one more drive clock to fill up.
You got to do that. You got to do that. You got
to do that. Do you want to do T -Roll? Is it
a scene? It's got to be, right? It's got to be,
right? Actually, here's what I'll say. If you
have some fuckery you have planned or you seek
to get something out of this, then yes, it's
a scene. If you just want to take the money,
We can make it quick. I don't have a problem
with it being a scene, but I have... I mean,
I think at this point, especially after we lost
a piece, I don't think Geist is gonna try and,
like, put a... hide a giant, like, Acme bomb
inside the box or whatever. Yeah. They lost a
bit of leverage there. Yeah. At least serve as
a fuck you, you know? Yeah, sorry, we lost a
piece. It's okay, right? Hex text? Alright, we'll
take the deal. Okay. Great. She sends you some
coordinates, I think, on the... In the Dice Desert.
Probably in that circle where she said your base
was. But, like, on the north. Just, like, in
the fucking blizzard. It's like, be here in fucking
a few hours. We'll make the exchange. Geist is
going to be flying nearby, but, like, a few miles
out, but maybe able to drop a railgun shell there
if he had to. I'll be on foot. If, uh, Hex, if
you are, I'll be, I'll join you. I think, well,
yeah, are we, does Tyrrell give instructions
for the exchange? Uh, no, she doesn't. She says,
be there, bring the stuff, we'll make the exchange.
Okay. I think that, yeah, that is smart. It's
like, we'll have Geist fly around just in case,
but I'll go with you also just in case. Okay.
She doesn't even, she doesn't even say, don't
try anything funny, you know? Because she doesn't
even say that. She fucking knows. Yeah, you pack
it into a crate. You probably take a car there
if you wanted. Or your frames. It's not like
ridiculously far from your base, which is a little
concerning, but you know. Okay, yeah. We'll car
it. Frames nearby, but not in whatever range.
Yeah, you show up. There is a ship, I guess,
that is parked here. It's definitely like a combat
ship of some sort. Not one that you really recognize.
Like, it looks human -made. It doesn't look like
super alien or anything, but it's definitely
very modern. And there's like a group of people
here wearing like hard suits, like combat armor.
They have... Whatever. I don't know what the
forum supply takes. It's very ephemeral. But
they have, like, crates or whatever of stuff
here. And they just kind of, like, wait and gesture
for you, dude, to present the goods. Alright.
Hex pulls it out of the trunk or says, here it
is. You can check it. They start counting. Alright.
Like, one of them, like, hands it over to the
other guy. The guy, like, looks at it, like,
runs his finger over it, scans it with, like,
some device that you do not recognize, like,
places it gingerly in, like, one of those, like,
a pelican case, almost, and then, like, moves
it over, does the next one, you know, goes through
all of them, looks over to you, and he says,
Is that all of them? All the remaining ones.
One's missing. It broke. He, like, touches his
head. Like, he's communicating with someone.
He, like, nods. Nods again. Nods again. He takes,
like, three of the boxes away, loads them back
into, like, the ship behind him, and leaves you
with seven supply instead of ten. But then he
leaves. He goes back in the ship. Do you have
anything to say to him? No. I think that's a
fair consequence. I think we saw that one coming.
He starts loading the supply. I'm not even going
to fight it. Good. Okay. That's that. All right.
We drive back. You drive back. You have seven
more supply. No cheeky TRL messages? No, none
actually. That's great. All right. Ready to spend
some money? Let's fucking spend some money, gamers.
We're moving on to more stuff TM. I'm surprised
she wasn't just like, I heard you guys tried
to ask the orb a bunch of really annoying questions.
That's real mature, Harold. Real mature. I couldn't
stop him! The dolphin just went off on his own!
Don't talk to my fucking orb, bro! Don't talk
to my fucking orb! Bro, I wasn't even looking
at your orb that way. Are you looking at my orb,
bro? Hex text, Harold. Looking forward to our
next exchange. This number is no longer in service.
Harold frowns on the car ride back looking at
that. Something the matter? He puts on some really
sad breakup music. Yeah. Anyway, talk about it,
man. I think I took the wrong job. That was good.
Okay. Spending money. Also, I don't know where
else to say this, but my playbook XP has finished.
And I was going to just take the... action here
reflexes, or this ability reflexes. So that's
the one I'm going to get. Yeah. However you do
that. Which is whenever there's a question about
who acts first, you go first. I'm trying to see,
because if I don't regain stress, I will take
three stress. um if i don't cut loose oh yeah
but if i cut loose now i have a 33 chance of
overindulging which i think would be really bad
i think i just it would maybe make you roll another
entanglement live on the air we all know how
that i think it's just like you get to choose
there's like a really generous one where it's
like it's reduce your connection with whoever
you cut loose with because you make an ass out
of yourself Oh, nice. I don't care about that.
There's some easy ones in there. But Adam, you
had a question? Yeah, I was going to say, did
I finish my second long -term project here before?
Because I remember we once did that, and it's
still on here. I couldn't tell if that was the
first one or the second. Because I remember I
learned the thing about how I looked into channels,
and I learned that they were using emergent personalities,
like the clusters were possibly. Remember? Yeah.
And you got the thing about that guy who met
the AI. Yeah, exactly. So I was like, wasn't
that the second one? So I should be at if I wanted
to start one, it would be this third level. I
think you didn't finish it. I think that was
just like a lore tidbit I gave you. Oh, OK. That's
my guess. That's my guess. Gotcha. Just want
to check. Since I'm all pretty healed up, I probably
will spend it on a long term project. But other
people can do stuff first because that's not
really important. Who wants to cut loose with
me? You know, the party robots always here. to
get down. I don't want to ruin my, I don't want
to maybe ruin my relationship with Joseph, though.
But maybe it's your habit. Maybe you're an overlord
one day. You won't be in as good graces. Can
loyal even do this? Can dolphins even hang out?
Come on, bigot. Traumatized racist. Yahoo answers.
Oh, you could do it with loyal. I could do it
with loyal, but I don't... Isn't it if you cut
loose and you heal more stress than you already
have, you... get a bad thing happen to you because
I don't have no stress anymore. But also, if
you don't cut loose, you take stress equal to
how many scars you have. Have you had a scene
with Hex yet? I haven't. Not in a long time.
I would like to see that. Cut loose? How do we
even cut loose in the ice base? Two quote -unquote
humans. Would love to have that scene. Let's
talk over peanuts and whatever's in the vending
machine. I can't eat peanuts. I can't eat anything.
Allergic. Extra liquidy. Yeah, let's hang out
in the commissary. Maybe it's like late one night,
maybe. Can't sleep. Geist goes and sits in the
changeling for a little while. Gets pissed, goes
into the commissary. And Hex is there late at
night eating a jar of peanut butter, question
mark? Not maybe not peanut butter, but maybe
some onion, whatever leftover onion goods we
have. What can I say? It did something to me.
Onion soup. Yeah, Geist, I guess he walks over
to, I assume we have like a freezer in here.
with like a bottle of like some bourbon in it
or something. Yeah. He grabs the bottle and then
he goes and sits down at the table near where
Hex is and pulls out his little syringe that
he keeps with him and he screws off the back
and fills it up and injects it into the little,
the little circular, the food injection port
on his torso. And then he takes a deep breath
and he looks exactly like, you can't sleep. No.
Do you even need to sleep still? Yeah. I mean,
I'm supposed to. Nothing in here technically
obliviates the need for that, but ever since
Ziggurat poked around with my spine, I don't
know. It seems like I need less. I don't feel
fatigued the same way. Maybe he could get something
that fixes that. I know Bluth made everyone's
life hell once he did. Maybe. Did you ever think
it was going to shake out like this, like really
get this bad? No. I don't think I thought about
it enough. This is so far beyond anything I ever
signed up for. You know, anything I ever expected
being a soldier could be like. What about you?
You feel more like a soldier and less like a
bureaucrat yet? You know, Garrett, I don't think
we can relate on much, but I think we have that
much in common. This isn't what we signed up
for. I think I feel more like a soldier at this
point. Congratulations, Juju. Would you go back,
if you could, I mean, before all this? If you
knew somehow that things were going to get this
completely fucked, would you have stayed there
filling out your forms and, you know? You know?
Probably. But here we are. It's fucked up, but
I don't know. I don't know if I could have done
anything different, even with all the hindsight
in the world. I mean, I was so angry. It consumed
everything that I was. And now, I don't know.
It doesn't seem so important anymore. You don't
feel angry? I wouldn't say that. It's just...
It's not how I thought it would be. On that last
drop, I really beat the shit out of Retribution.
I feel like I maybe could have killed him. And
I didn't. I think I've realized that even when
I do, you know, it's not gonna change anything.
I'll be just as... Fucked up as I ever was, she'll
still be dead. His family that I killed, they're
all still dead. You know, what does revenge really
get you? Did you ever have a plan for after?
No. Never. Didn't think I needed one. I'm gonna
be honest, I still don't. I don't see a way for
this to shake out where any of us walk away the
way that we are now. Just a hundred. I think
that's an educated guess. Takes a little spoon
from his soup. I think that's it. That's probably
a good place to... Let's see if I embarrass myself.
I do! We hate each other now. Oh no. Impropriety!
Make an ass of yourself. I thought that was relatable.
Damn. Get the fucking soup out of here. smacks
the bowl you spill your syringe bourbon all over
Hex on the way out I don't know why I did that
I'm sorry my shirt how does that look I don't
know I feel like I need to say something to make
that fit yeah that was good I feel like we connected
really well we connected too good for there to
be you can always take a different consequence
Let's roll an entanglement! No, let's not roll
an entanglement. What are the other options here?
I can make Geist go AWOL, which I don't want
to do. We can take minus two trust with our patron
faction, which I think is an awful idea. Or we
can roll another entanglement, which I think
is probably worse. Minus two trust, I believe,
is actually smaller than you think. Yeah? Because
the big one is the relationship level, I think.
And you need nine trust to go up. our relationship
level. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll do that then. What's
important is how we contextualize this, because
you can ignore the word brag, but, like, what
do you do here that lowers your trust with, I
guess, the corpse, the corporations. Yeah, the
corporate council. Fuck, I don't know. I don't,
like, I feel like it might be something like
Geist. I don't know, some way to like fly in
the face of their regulations or openly show
that we don't respect him. I have an idea. I
think. Yeah, I like this. Maybe one of you says
something like, I can't believe we made a fucking
deal with Tyrell crying. Right. OK. And like.
What if the room is just bugged? I like that.
I like that a lot. That's really fun. That's
much better than my other idea was just that
Geist gets really drunk and then sends Bluth
an email that's like vital intel open immediately
and it's just like goatsy. What if we see one
of the fucking Joanne spiders in the ceiling
with like the recording button on? Oh no, Dusklight's
family. You have committed treason. Deploying
countermeasures. I hope you like mustard gas.
That was pretty good. yeah okay I think because
yeah you yeah you lose some trust in the corporate
council but you know who cares really yeah fuck
those guys okay I'm gonna spend a whole bunch
of money now okay hell yeah um I'm first of all
going to be incredibly selfish and I'm just going
to spend one To get that my last cork back I
don't even have to roll because I only have the
one and then I'm gonna roll to get rid of my
I Need to roll with our shitty doctor to get
rid of my damage. So I'm just gonna see how much
that costs So that's one tick so that's three
and then so I spend Does anybody object to me
spending for that'll leave us with 11? Nope I
know, it's just disgusting. Okay, I am now fully
healed and my frame is fully healed and I'm ready
to kill again. Perfect. Should we bring Loyal
back to life? Loyal is back to life. Yeah, we
got him. It's been my downtime being depressed,
not eating or drinking, which is actually not
that severe for a dolphin given they have blubber
and they're essentially evolved to be desert
creatures because there's no fresh water in the
ocean. I think the doctor just gave Loyal, like,
a watch of sleeping meds. It's like, you just
need to rest and reflect. Maybe he gave you some
mushrooms. Like, do you want to really find yourself?
God, that would make it worse. No, he needs to
not have any more of that right now. I know I
could do my long -term project. That's what I
was going to work on. Yeah, sure. Is that spending
one to roll something? Yeah, you're going to
spend one to roll... to work on this. Just to
contextualize this a little bit, we need to at
least spend four more or it is wasted. Okay.
Yeah, I'm down to just work on my, because it's
at four out of six and I feel like... You're
trying to find more AI enthusiasts, right? Yeah,
yeah. I'm back on the fucking web. Interface,
I think we recalled that was a good one for you.
Oh, yeah, it's a skill. It's a skill. Yeah. You
spend one of the resources and... Do the skill.
Okay. Let me go into my character sheet here.
Where is it? Success. All right. That means that
fills up. You are successfully fine. Like my
name. So after prowling, prowling the forums
as you do for a while, I think you like someone
eventually reaches out to you, right? After you
leave like a very intelligent, sexy comment about
AI rights. And I was like, hey, you seem cool,
bro. Come join us in our private chat room. We're
a little bit more serious about this stuff. And
you find a surprising amount of people, even
local to Terabrea, who are very, very pro -AI.
Very, very enthusiastic about things. It's...
To the point it's surprising, given your rather
traumatic experience with humans and how they
treat emergent personalities. Do they bring up
the Clusterists? Do they have opinions on that
in here? Yes. Some of them are Clusterists. Okay.
There's like, oh, well, you know, the Prophet's
words about AI specifically has to do with how
they're servants of these outer forces, but that's
obviously not true because we made them. You
know, it's all very context specific. I mean,
like in our communions, I'm always trying to
bring some positivity to them. And, you know,
maybe I'm making a difference. So it's very nuanced,
like most problems. Hmm. Interesting. Yeah. And
like no one in here is like is like anti -emergent
personality at all. Like this is very, very exclusive.
People are probably talking about some terrorist
shit in here. full disclosure um like like there
are like more casual conversations but like some
of it is like yeah like i fucking uh we're planning
on like doing a raid on a emerging personalities
division facility and like cut their power or
something like that you know yeah um like to
give you some more concrete and this is nothing
you can really act on immediately but like they're
talking about they're organizing springing a
bunch of like rogue immersion personalities,
uh, from a prisoner transport, like a few sectors
over or whatever. Uh, yeah. Uh, do I have the
ability now that I'm in this server to invite
people to the server? Yeah. Cause I was thinking
maybe I send milk cake and invite just like a,
Hey, check this out. Why don't you come in and
join me? I think milk cake says we're already
aware of this. I'm already in here. Yesterday,
the meme? That was me. Bro, you think this isn't
my terrorist plot? Who do you think the admin
is? Okay, I'm so sorry. Yeah, I think Milcake
appreciates it in the roundabout way Milcake
can appreciate things. In a weird way where it's
like, it is good you have found this. These are
good resources. Perfect. And then you can check
off a drive clock. So you have three now. I just
checked it for you because I'm nice like that.
I'll take these away, don't worry. Okay. Loyal,
I believe you have something you really need
to do. Yes, I need to spend some money to finalize
those two ticks and then get Maze off the planet
clock. And I wonder what my options are for that.
So here's my recollection. I should have written
this down. This is important. I remember. I believe
the last thing was the Warden doesn't think Maze
is useful. So now she's like, Slated to be sent
off planet to a prison, basically, for like indefinitely
because she killed people and she's a murderer.
But like the next steps would be changing that
in some way, getting her like either remanded
to someone else's custody or to your custody,
God forbid. And then like getting accommodations
off planet one way or another for a war criminal.
And that could be like criminal where you're
like, you need to like hire some people to get
this prisoner out. Or, you know, whatever you
want. Yeah, I was thinking hire a smuggling operation
to be like, all right, we are taking the prisoner.
Sure. They take her someplace better than a prison.
Do you want to say goodbye to her? Yeah, he can't
do it in person anymore. Well, that's not necessarily
true. Oh, she could be brought here. I mean,
yeah, technically. I was saying you go to the
city. You could do that. That's true. I do have
free range, but I'm kind of obvious. I'm supposed
to be in hiding? Yeah. You can disguise as another
dolphin. You can pretend to be your dad. There
are other dolphins. We've confirmed this. I do
want to have one last talk with her. I'm just
trying to think of the most thematic place for
it. Also, as far as spaceships, TM, Um, like
the city is like the, the big place. Those are.
Yeah. I think it'll be like wherever the change
off is where she's getting in, where it is supposed
to be the prison ship, but it is not. Yeah. Well,
I could try to be there. Talk to her one last
time. Uh, okay. So the plan is to have someone
intercept her when she's being transferred, uh,
like take her to a site B and then get her out
and you meet her there. Okay. I like that. Let
me write that down. So I remember for your vignette,
cause that's what it will be. Mm -hmm. Where
are you taking her? I guess we could talk about
that during the vignette. Yeah. All right. Let's
make some rolls to determine... You have three
ticks left on this clock. So... Is this a sway?
You're just talking to some fucking criminals?
Where do you find these criminals? Yeah, I'm
not very... Our man Barry's got the hook up.
Yeah, I would use whoever I trust who I can talk
to in the base right now to be like, hey, do
you know any trustable smugglers? I have a job
for them. Yeah, I mean, that really depends on
who you trust. Who do you trust in the base right
now? It's a small group. Why do we trust Barry?
Why do we say Barry? Barry isn't here, but he's
your only sketchy guy you know. I see. You know
who would volunteer to do this? Who? Captain
Spud. Actually, no, he absolutely wouldn't. He
fucking hates Clusterists. He would put a bullet
in her head. Never mind. Yeah, I'll get out of
here. Yeah, I don't have anyone. Maybe I would
ask Joseph to, like, hack into some channels
and find me a hub where there are smugglers advertising
their services and, like, hire whoever's the
most expensive. Do I have to do this? You don't
have to do anything, but you could. I think you'd
have to convince Joseph, because last time we
had a serious talk, you tried to kill him. You
shoved him against a wall. That is true. I was
not trying to kill, but it was shoving. He did
not like it. He did not like it at all. It was
just the prank. You could probably maybe talk
to him and try to get that to work, but that's
where Joseph's at right now. Yeah. X might know
some sketchy people, maybe. Bluth. And Bluth
also is Bluth, so, you know. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Honestly, Bluth might actually be your best bet.
Okay. You're right. We found the right person.
How does that conversation go? You call up Bluth.
He asks Dolphin, I don't have much time. Hello,
Bluth. I'm... Calling to inquire about whether
you have people -moving resources at your disposal.
Discrete people -moving. What? I need to get
someone off -planet, and I need no one to know.
Well, do you have money? Of course. Because it
will be very expensive. I would not be calling
you if I didn't have what you want. Hmm. Yes.
Well, I would be lying if I said I hadn't done
it before, and since you are such a loyal member
of the Corporate Council, I suppose I could extend
my resources to you. My secretary, Generator
E, will send you the payment details, and you
too can hash it out. Please don't call me on
this number again. Thank you very much. Hang
up. Yep. Yep. Cool. You talk to the secretary.
I've rolled, I guess, consort or sway. Okay.
Realistically, I mean, guile, wit, and charm.
You know, that's fine. Okay. Yeah, roll me a
sway. Sway. Cool. Three dice. Do it. What is
my position? You don't have a position. It's
just a long -term project. You just roll it.
It's going to be fine. It's going to be fine.
It's going to be fine. You can always do it again.
Partial says two, so you need to do it again.
Oh, okay. Jenny is very hung up on the fact that
you're stealing from the Seoul Union, specifically.
It's a little tough reprimission. And the military
police are already around, so it's very sketchy.
So it takes a little bit more convincing. So,
deduct another resource. We're keeping track
of that. We're down to eight. And roll again.
Alright, it's done. Jenny finds some people.
Says it's better if you know less. But there
will be a place in the city, like one of their
auxiliary docks, where they will bring the prisoner.
It's a very tight time window. Like, you will
not be able to talk to her for longer than, like,
five, ten minutes before they have to get the
fuck out of Dodge. And take her wherever you've
decided to take her, which we'll discuss. And
that fills up your last drive clock, so you and
Geist have two full drive clocks. You can accomplish
your goals. And we'll have vignettes where you
do those things. It took us a year. It took us
a real year in real life. It took you a real
year. I told you it would take a lot of fucking
work. It did. Except, I guess guys just had to
get punched in the face and punch people in the
face. But that's hard, too. Those missions would
have been a lot easier without retribution. Yeah,
definitely. Okay. We need to spend one more dollar
one way or another. Anyone have clocks? Do you
have any projects ongoing that you need handled?
No, the warehouse was the big one. What about
a skill movie? Unless you want to start a new
clock and I could just spend Bippo's Pleasure
Palace. Whoa. Bippo's Pleasure Palace. I believe
you already purchased his Pleasure Palace because
you spent a million dollars on his flight. Oh,
yeah. That's true. Well, no, that's a million
more. He deserves it. I mean, if you can just,
like, literally pay to train and get one XP for
anything, or two XP in Resolve? Okay. Or whatever
it was. What do we have the training for? It
should say on the sheet. Squad sheet. Resolve,
yeah, yeah. So you can get 2 XP in Command Consort
Swayer interface track, or 1 XP anywhere else.
That doesn't push to a level up, so if anyone
has something more pressing, but otherwise I
could just dump it. Nobody does. If nobody wants
it, I'll put it in my playbook XP track, but
anybody could do that. Yeah, no, go for it. I
don't need it. You can put it in. Okay. My drive
clock needs one more, does it? I need five more.
Okay, once it gets here, it doesn't do anything?
Sorry. So right at the drive clock, there is
a thing that says spend a full drive clock to
do any of these things. So that's four of these.
If you wanted to accomplish this goal, your actual
goal, but come free and have everyone accept
that, you need five more of these, which is probably
not in the scope of this. But I will say, having
this could be very helpful. Having like a full
drive or half a full drive clock? Yeah, because
the half of the drive clock means you can negate
any damage, change a roll to the six or give
like all the assist benefits to one of your teammates,
which is pretty good. Is this during our mission?
That's during our mission. Oh, I thought it was
like right now. No. Wait, can we go back on that
then? Can I try? Yeah, absolutely. Because full
disclosure, I do not see a lot of use for your
money following what is to come. Okay. You heard
the man. Spend it. So don't have any regrets.
I don't think you'll be able to get all of these,
but having that one extra would be helpful. Yeah.
So what do I have to do to do that? Is skill
or? We can just call a continuing of your linking
up with these AI people. I almost imagine you
were like, you at this point, having linked up
with Contrition. are like okay i kind of can
see how this is gonna end i'm gonna we're gonna
finish up here i'm gonna go join up with this
group we're gonna do whatever contrition tells
us to do and maybe you're just like laying the
groundwork for that in a lot of ways like just
doing preparation while there's extra fucking
supplies it's like well no one's gonna use all
these fucking like c4 blocks i guess i can like
just pack these away to my personal belongings
i'll bring them with me you know um i Just thought
of something. I know Colin's going to be really
happy that I did. Technically, any of us can
spend three points to take the enhance action
three times and get an extra quirk. That is true,
too. Do I have at least one then still to get
my drive o 'clock thing up? I'd like to do that.
I would just say subtract two dollars, Zach.
Yes. And then we'll just give that last drive
o 'clock to you, Joseph. Okay. Like this is easy
for Joseph. You don't have to roll anything.
You're just squirreling away supplies and like
kind of making your exit plan. Yeah. But I mean,
like, how does that feel for Joseph in general?
I think he's I feel like he's been making his
exit plan in the last like five missions. Like,
yeah, that's where his brain's at right now is
constantly. He feels like every mission is about
to be his last or like. yeah after like communicating
with contrition it's just like okay things are
gonna drop soon and i gotta be ready for it so
like that's why he's almost been kind of blase
with all the decisions that have been happening
around him so like i think it's not hard for
him to convince himself to like start taking
resources from the team because he's like they're
not gonna need him once everything's right and
once everything's in its right place like who's
gonna need c4 right yeah like everything will
work itself out so he's just like well i might
as well Pack this away for myself. And if I get
caught and people get angry, who cares? Because
things are moving forward anyways. Yeah. All
right. I like that. That's Joseph. Who wants
extra quirks? We got enough for two people to
get them. We should actually, I should make sure
first. Does everybody have five quirks right
now? Does anybody only have four? I have four
quirks. I think most people have four. I think
you're the only one who got the five. Nobody
else did that? Oh, fuck. Okay, well then two
of you absolutely should get an extra quirk because
that's huge. Who wants them? I think the most
combat appropriate people should get it. Yeah,
I think I should not get a quirk because I feel
like I'm least effective in my frame. I would
vote for the other. And he's moving out anyways.
Yeah, exactly. Geist approaches Joseph in the
halls. Hey, do you want another gun for your
frame? He's holding a big box full of explosives.
No, man, I'm good. I'm going to head out soon
anyways. You guys handle that, all right? Yeah,
have fun. Yeah, all right. All right, that's
the rest of our supply then. Wow. We have one
personnel in the bank, but yeah. Loyal and Hex
can each take an extra quirk on their frame.
Let's go. Great. Finally. I can't believe I forgot
about that. We've had this fucking, what is it?
One of our things, the testing facility. Normally
it takes six actions, but for us it only takes
three because we got that upgrade like right
at the beginning. We just didn't use it. We finally
got to use it. You use all of these excellent
supplies provided to you by Tyrell Cry and your
Arguably largest enemy. Who would have thought,
right? And I mean, I think we're like, there's
nothing else you guys want to do, right? There's
no money. There's no actions. We have one personnel
left, but I think we're just going to hold on
to it. Let's get like a... You all kind of know
what's going to happen next. Geist is going to
go after Retribution. Yeah. Nyla did tell you
to stay put, but... Yeah, Nihilus has a lot of
things. But I think it's been like three days
and you still haven't heard back from her. And
if you reach out, she's like, this is taking
longer to crack than I thought. Just hold tight.
And you got shit to do. You got shit to do. Loyal
kind of knows that you're going to have to come
face to face with Maze, see where she's at and
who you're going to be setting into the world.
Joseph, you have an assassination slash torture
to do. Oh yeah. Your first legit mission from
Catrician and probably lead into more, it feels
like. And Hex, I don't know what you're gonna
do. Yep. I mean, so like, what do you all look
like? Geist, I feel like, is very calm. He's
uncharacteristically calm. I think Joseph is
too. Yeah. We've got some kind of a serene peace.
I feel like Geist probably has the least idea
of anyone, maybe not Hex, maybe they're about
the same, that everything is ending. He knows
everything's bad. He knows that Loyal just was
communicating with the bad orb, the bad alien
orb. He knows that Joseph has probably been compromised
by some unknowable entity capable of killing
the most powerful combatant in this war. I think
he knows that stuff bigger than him and bigger
than this conflict is happening all around. And
he's just like, well, I'm just going to focus
on what I can change. And he just wants to he
wants to finish the job. He wants to win the
war. And then I don't think he's thinking far
past that. Hex is tired of this. Tired of all
this? Yeah, he just he doesn't look engaged anymore.
I think after the the Icefield incident. He's
very much just sick of this. What does he want
the most right now? Just to be done? Finish this
mission, go home? Does he care about the war
at all? Does he even care about ending the war?
No, I think that's the big shift. This is just
a fucking 9 -5 to him. Let's get this over with,
let's get home. Is Hex quiet again? He's warmed
up to Bluth. That's fucked up. What are your...
Do you want to work for Tyrell Cryne? Do you
want to work for Bluth? Do you want to just,
like, retire if you can? Hex is... I think Hex
wants to go for either the highest bidder or
retire, but that doesn't look like it's in the
cards, considering he's a war criminal. Yeah.
I feel like Bluth... I could see that. I could
see a miniseries with Bluth and Hex. It just
makes sense in my brain. Better call Hex. Don't
call that guy. Don't call that guy. He's dangerous.
Joseph, what do we see for you? I'm trying to
think like, I think Joseph is just counting down
the hours until he, I assume at this point, he
like, he knows when he's going to do the assassination.
It's all planned out. He's just waiting. And
that's probably the worst part for him. You know,
it's just like, I let's just hurry this up because
like in his mind, you know, like he doesn't know
what's going to happen, but he feels like once
I do this thing for contrition, Like, things
are going to complete themselves and it's done,
you know? I think that you get, like, the, like,
clarified parameters of the mission. Like, you
see, like, everything else. Like, arrive at Greywood
Sands this time. Like, go to the apartment building.
Kill this lady. Make sure that her friends see
her in pain. Leave, return to base. Finish your
next mission. And then, like, there's just, like,
a dot, dot, dot after that. Like, we'll move
from there. Yeah, like, it was all just, like,
he said yes to everything before, but then when
he finally gets that message, he's like, oh,
I guess it really is happening, huh? Like, those
are the coordinates. Maybe the last dot on, like,
the list after complete your next mission is,
like, exfiltration. Like, finish your last mission
with the Dusklights, and then I'm pulling you
out. Like, prepare for that. And he's like, wow,
things are gonna move forward. And I think, um...
I think he's just... He's pondering. He's thinking.
He's thinking to himself, I think. Maybe in the
hangar, maybe like looking out things. He's probably
just aimlessly trying to fill time. You know,
that's probably why he's hoarding explosives.
He doesn't know what else to do with himself
right now. You know, it's just like this could
be helpful maybe for later. I got to do something
because I'm just waiting, waiting for that time
and waiting for it to happen, you know. But he
is available to talk if anyone wants to talk
to him. He's not avoiding the team. No, he's
not avoiding the team at all. In fact, it almost
looks like he wants to talk to you guys, you
know. If you if you want to do like a chat with
everyone, I think the start of next mission after
your vignette would be a great time for that
personally. OK, yeah, I was like I could have
a chat with Geist or something like that. I was
thinking, but I don't I don't know what we want
to do all right now. I only see that from a production
standpoint because this episode is already really
long. And I always want to end on like one look
at each character. You guys will have time to
talk. I'm not going to be like start of next
mission. OK, your bodies are exploded. Oh, fuck.
Why didn't you tell Geist you always thought
his mouth looked weird? Fuck. Jesus Christ. You
will have a time for that one more time into
the breach moment, you know? Okay, so yeah, I
think he's just aimlessly filling time, and it's
probably the worst time in his life right now.
He just wants things to happen. And then, Loyal,
last look. Yeah, he finally comes out of his
room once he's Done feeling empty. It has recovered
to having no harms anymore, miraculously. And
he's spending all of his time in front of the
fossils in the ice wall. I don't know what else
is around there. Storage boxes, cargo stuff,
haulers. But he doesn't really leave that spot.
And he kind of has his ego just a little bit
fuzzy. It kind of extends out of him, maybe five,
six feet COVID distancing measure. So if you
get close enough to him to ask him a question,
you feel this acceptance and just readiness for
something. It feels like being taught like a
spring, just waiting for action and knowing your
purpose, knowing you are a spring. And knowing
what you're going to do next, it's just like
a lot of energy and it's not entirely negative.
And if anyone tries to talk to him, he just asks
them, do you think this world is worth fighting
for? I think with the last look we get after
you say that, is this you alone looking up the
skeleton of a dead creature in the ice wall,
asking it that aloud, not even knowing you just
did it? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. That's it. And
we'll end there. And scene. Beautiful.