Realis 13: Conference on Clouded Dokine 05 Transcriber: logan [0:00:00 - 0:11:00], thedreadbiter Opening Recap 1 Investigating 5 and Reprise [48:30] 44 and Reprise and [1:21:00] 68 Refraction [2:04:30] 96 Somewhere New [2:17:00] 104 Opening Recap [“Realis” by Jack de Quidt begins playing] Austin: I mean, what if they, what if you’d taken the final day? Would this person even be called the Final Day? Would they be called the Second Day? That’s not as, that’s nothing. Keith: No. Austin: Yeah. Which kinda cements the importance of the final day. [Art laughs] Keith: It’s important apocalyptically, but it’s not important to the festival. Austin: Right. Art: Someone has to be on the final day. Keith: Someone has to be on the final day, and we pray for them and their families. - Austin (as Echoing Voice): We have pursued other options. We’ll pay you for your work, and if you’d like to finish it, that’s fine. If not, it’s as it’s fated. - Austin: ‘Skipping Stone - Ulled’ is what it says as like, the deliverable. Keith: And they didn’t deliver it. Austin: They sure didn’t. Keith: ‘Cause we have it. Austin: You have it. Well they were— Keith: Until hence. Austin: Until hence, exactly. Until hence, you have it. Exactly. - Austin: You’re pulling, you’re pulling, you’re pulling, and the door slams open as you pull a sort of reflection from the mirror, and it is the reflection of your young friend, Candide. Keith: Jinkies! Austin: Candide looks like she has seen something that you haven’t seen. Fear stricken. Screams. And then turns and runs back out the door. - Austin (as Candide): It’s something I wish could happen. Ali (as Hye): I guess if you want me to treat you as part of the crew, I’ll take your advice here. Austin (as Candide): Really? Ali (as Hye): Whatever we do, it’ll be something we all agree on. Should I wait for you? Austin (as Candide): No. Maybe we’ll meet again one day. - Austin (as Mirrored Candide): Events can conspire to create anyone. - Ali (as Hye): Whatever she saw and fears for us is something real. Apparently the Final Day is uh, literal. Keith (as Wellaway): I mean… Ali (as Hye): Oh, we all knew that, okay, Wellaway. - Keith: We did all the stuff and then we’re gonna go? Art: I mean, it seems pretty bad. Keith: I’ve been saying apocalyptic. - Austin (as Candide): The whole city… it was chaos… - Ali (as Hye): It’s danger! We have to leave. - Austin (as Candide): The fire spreading, the wings were burning up… (Skip.) - Keith (as Wellaway): The mirror said you would betray us, does that mean anything to you? (A skip.) - Austin (as Candide): The Empest were here… (A skip.) - Art (as Donnie): You’re gonna give up on your dream? (A skip.) - Austin (as Candide): There was a creature in the smoke, in the clouds… (A skip.) - Keith (as Wellaway): It feels like we’re giving up good ‘stopping this’ time. (A skip.) - Austin (as Candide): The moons were imploding… (A skip.) - Art (as Donnie): It’s gonna happen there, so we should be there. (A skip.) Ali (as Hye): We’ll need guidance from the moons. - Austin (as Candide): I think it’s already too late. (A skip.) - Austin: It’s like someone ignited it. - Austin (as Candide): I left you all behind… - Austin: A fire begins to emerge. (And then you’re gone.) [music ends] Investigating Austin: What do you do facing the information that you now have? Where are you at? And again, maybe thinking about what your characters all know, part of this is like, is the kind of reaction that Candide has had, and is the information provided by the cryptic mirror child true? Is it real? What does it mean, do you believe it? Are you afraid? Wellaway, how much is achieving your Dream driving you versus other stuff? Et cetera. Keith: Um, well, I have a Dream, obviously. But I also have a Band and our Band investigates shit like this—maybe this is the biggest or worst one, but this is what we do. Austin: Mm-hm. Keith: And they’re not totally separate. Like, my Dream doesn’t say, y’know, I wish people would love me because I do such a good job at being a clown. Austin: That’s true. It sure doesn’t say that. Keith: So the Dream is neither, y’know, the Dream is not pushing me in one way or the other over like, no I have to do my show. I want to do it, Wellaway wants to do this show, but it feels like there’s no reasonable path to risking the implosions of the moon to do the best night of a comedy festival. Austin: Yes. The second one. Keith: The second… Austin: Of three. Keith: Of three. Austin: The middle one. Keith: AKA the best. Austin: The best, the best night. Yeah, I gotcha. Keith: Most sought after. Austin: Alright, well then here we are. We’re still late in the evening, we’re light night night one. We are middle of the night, you know, I don’t know what the clocks are like here on Dokine but as we have been describing things, we are past dinnertime, we are past bedtime for most people. People—We’re at the one, two AM type hours. Maybe even later, because it’s a festival week. People would be out later, and I just described like, the fancy space needle lounge and bar being fuckin’ empty so maybe it’s like three or four AM at this point. Maybe it’s closing time. Keith: Wow. Austin: Dokine has a late closing time. At least this particular part of Dokine, this flying city. Which has a name, it’s, uh, where is it? Is it Arridea? Arridea, yeah. Keith: Dokine, the city that barely sleeps. Austin: That’s right. Keith: I mean, extremely broadly, I think that the thing that we should be doing is tracking down the other worldly Fatalists via the mercenaries. Austin: Alright, so let’s just start there. How do you track down these mercenaries? Keith: I have two Sentences that work for this. “I always reveal the truth,” it’s primed but it’s a level zero Sentence. I always reveal the truth of where these guys went is totally legible to me with that. But then also, “I am always quick in wit and bone when avoiding detection,” that’s a level one Sentence. Again, feels good at tracking. Feels like I would need to know where they are before I can use it. Austin: I think that’s true, yeah. Keith: But I think that revealing the truth has a good chance of being unopposed if we don’t know where they are yet, they wouldn’t know that we’re looking for them, they may not be able to oppose it. Someone or something else might. But I don’t know, any other thoughts? Art: Yeah, I think it’s a good start. Austin: Alright, so what is your intention, how are you using that Sentence to try to track them down? Keith: Um… Austin: Remember also, you can think about this in terms of montage. You don’t have ot think about this as like, it’s one action. We can play with scale here. Keith: It’s true. It’s a big city, it’s busy, it’s late. It might be hard to find—I would say, if I were to decline your invitation to zoom out, I might go back into Mr. Topaz’s room, call the front desk, and ask if they saw where my friends went. Austin: Sure, you wanna try that? Keith: I would love to try that. Austin: Alright. I think that unfortunately this is a, you don’t even need to spend the Sentence thing because the front desk did not see these people leave. So you call the very laconic front desk receptionist, says, um, Austin (as Harry): Oh, those two? No, I didn’t see them leave. Keith (as Wellaway): Oh, do they have rooms here? I have their names. Austin (as Harry): I could, uh, pass a message on for you. Keith (as Wellaway): I would love to know their room numbers. Austin (as Harry): Oh, um, I can’t just tell you their room numbers. But I know their room numbers, and I could… pass on a message to them. Keith (as Wellaway): Is that—are you winking? Austin (as Harry): What? Keith (as Wellaway): Are you winking? ‘I could pass on—I can’t tell you, but I could I could pass on a message’—[Art laughs] Is that a wink? Austin (as Harry): Who would I be winking at? Keith (as Wellaway): Me. Austin (as Harry): No… Art (as Donnie): Wait. That sounded like it could’ve been a wink. Keith (as Wellaway): Yeah, was that a wink? Was that a second wink? Austin (as Harry): No… Keith (as Wellaway): Hmm… it’s really hard to tell if you’re winking over the phone. Art (as Donnie): Yeah… Austin (as Harry): I’m not winking. Keith (as Wellaway): [cross] Okay. Art (as Donnie): Oh, that’s even worse! That’s the winkiest wink… Keith (as Wellaway): How about when you go to deliver them a message, why don’t you come up here and get a generous tip from me on your way? [Ali chuckles] Austin (as Harry): I’m calling them on the phone. So no. Art (as Donnie): Great. Keith (as Wellaway): Okay, I’m starting to think this guy’s not winking. Art (as Donnie): Oh, we used to be… I was gonna say we used to be a country but that doesn’t make sense. [Austin and Keith laugh] We used to be a moon! Keith (as Wellaway): I’m gonna switch things up. Sir, I’m trying to bribe you. Austin (as Harry): Ohhh! To pass a message on? I’ll do that for free. Keith (as Wellaway): To give me the room numbers. Austin (as Harry): I can’t give you the room numbers, it’s against the policy. Keith (as Wellaway): Not even for a bribe? Austin (as Harry): Oh… I see. I thought you were bribing me to deliver a message. Keith (as Wellaway): No. Austin (as Harry): Well how much is the bribe? Keith (as Wellaway): Um, how’s three loops? Austin (as Harry): It’s more than two. Keith (as Wellaway): Does it work as a bribe for you? Austin (as Harry): For giving you the room numbers? Keith (as Wellaway): Yes. Austin (as Harry): I don’t know… Keith (as Wellaway): Okay, well take your time and figure it out. ‘Cause that’s what I’ve got. Austin (as Harry): Three loops. Hmm. I would take four, five, two loops. Or, four, five, six loops. But if you don’t have that much, then I can’t— Keith (as Wellaway): Is that in the hundreds? Are you saying hundreds of loops? Austin (as Harry): Four, five, two loops, or— Keith (as Wellaway): Got it. He’s winking. Guys, he’s winking. Four, five, two loops, or— Austin (as Harry): But I guess you don’t have enough loops. So I can’t take the bribe. Keith (as Wellaway): Four, five, two loops, or what was the other amount that you would take? Austin (as Harry): Four, five, six loops. Keith (as Wellaway): Got it. Perfect. I actually do have that amount. Austin (as Harry): Oh. Okay. I’ll— Keith (as Wellaway): Wink. Austin (as Harry): Wait. Are you winking? Keith: Click. Austin: Wow, you’ve made an enemy tonight. Keith: I have? Austin: You just said— Keith: I’m going to give him the loops. Austin: Okay. Okay. Okay. Keith: The three loops. I will write this because I have three loops for my work on Ulled. Austin: Okay. There we go. Keith: Three loops. Give to front desk guy, the weird one. There. That’s now in there so that I don’t forget. Austin: Great. Thank you. I appreciate it. I had a name, but it has been so long since we’ve been playing, I don’t know it, and my notes are a fucking mess. So, anyway. It was like Doug. You know, it was just like a guy’s name, you know? Keith: Yeah. Austin: Anyway. You have the numbers. Keith: Yeah, 452-456. Austin: Yeah. Ali: [gasps] Keith: Did you just get that, Ali? Ali: [giggling] Art: Ha! Austin: Oh my god. Keith: Is that the sound of Ali getting it? [Art and Keith laugh uproariously] Austin: I think that it was… [Ali joins in] Austin: Incredible. Hye is so pure. [laughter continues] Art: Oh my god! Austin: That was such a genuine gasp. Ali: [still laughing] That’s the second one in this show, too. Austin: Uh-huh. Art: We should just… Ali: God… Art: Good night, everybody. Austin: That’s about as good as it’s going to get. Ali: [laughs again] Austin: Whew! All right. Keith: It took me a second, too. Austin: Yeah. What is the wink? The wink, sometimes a wink is like a little, you know? There’s a little wink. Art: Yeah, sometimes it’s a little wink. Keith: Let’s go. Austin: Alright, you head towards that part of the hotel, which is, I think, you know, you’re up in one of the nice suites or something, right? I’ve described, you are not, these people do not get to live there. They are in a pair of rooms that are… much smaller. You can just tell because there’s more rooms per floor on this floor or this wing or whatever. And there’s just this sense of like this area isn’t being as nicely taken care of, you know? They’ve not vacuumed the floors here today. There’s an ice machine instead of you have a nice ice maker, you know? Ice machine in the hallway, I mean, you know. Keith: A hotel classic. Austin: A hotel classic. What do you do? Keith (as Wellaway): Do we knock? Ali (as Hye): I expected us to have a solution that was more intimate. Keith (as Wellaway): Intimate? Ali (as Hye): Well, you know, like a… I don’t know. Keith (as Wellaway): Like we kiss them? Ali (as Hye): No, like chanting upon them in an environment where we could… Keith (as Wellaway): Like a meet cute. You thought we’d meet cute with them? Ali (as Hye): Yeah. Austin (as Candide): You say meat cube? Keith (as Wellaway): That’s so funny. I didn’t think that at all. Austin (as Candide): What’s a meat cube? Keith (as Wellaway): A meet cute. Austin (as Candide): Oh. What’s a meet cute? Ali (as Hye): Well, when you meet s— Keith: Who’s here asking this? Who is this? Austin: Child. Candide. Kid. Keith (as Wellaway): It’s like in a movie when two people have an unlikely chance encounter where they fall in love or something. Austin (as Candide): Oh, like you and that guy, the clown on the street in, uh, back in Ulled. Keith (as Wellaway): No, that was different. That was just a meet. Austin (as Candide): Oh, I thought it was cute. Keith (as Wellaway): Okay. Ali (as Hye): Well, I suppose we knock. Austin: You’re knocking on 452 or 456? Keith: All right, there’s the wolf man, and then there’s the 50-kill assassin? Austin: That’s right. Keith: I knock on the one that has more fur near it. Austin: Yeah, 452. Keith (as Wellaway): All right. [knocks] Austin (as Entire Carousel): [snores] Austin: You hear this motherfucker snoring. Ali: See, this is why we had to meet them at the frigging bar. Keith: They wouldn’t have been at the bar. They’re here sleeping. Ali: But they’re snoozing and we’re just gonna be like, hey, can we talk to you? Austin (as Entire Carousel): [snoring emphatically] Keith (as Wellaway): [knocking] Austin (as Entire Carousel): [bleary] Who’s…? Relia, go away. I’ll see you in the morning. Keith (as Wellaway): It’s important. Austin (as Entire Carousel): No, it isn’t. Keith (as Wellaway): Yeah, it’s important. Austin (as Entire Carousel): You’re cowish. Keith (as Wellaway): We found him. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Hm? Keith (as Wellaway): We found him. We can get our jobs back. We found him. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Okay. One… Let me get my gear. Keith (as Wellaway): No, no, we don’t have time for gear. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Who are you? Relia would never say we don’t have time for gear. Austin: Bwommmm. You hear the gun charging up. Art: [laughs] Keith: [laughs] Let’s see. I would like to use my Sentence, “I am always quick in wit and bone when avoiding detection.” Austin: Okay, yeah, I’ll allow it. Keith: To imitate this person’s voice, which I have heard. Austin: You have heard. Keith: And say, there’s a first time for everything. And then say this guy’s name. Austin: Entire, Entire Carousel. Yeah. Keith: Entire. Austin: Yeah. This person’s going to try to Counter—your intention is to deceive. And to get them to open the door, presumably. Keith: Yeah. Austin: To get them to open the door. Okay. He is going to try to Counter you and fail with “I always sniff out enemies of the consortium.” And opens the door. Gun holstered. Keith (as Wellaway): Ta-da! Austin (as Entire Carousel): Gah! Keith: I do like a— [bursts into laughter] Art: [laughs] Keith: And that’s another Sentence, actually, I’m going to use the Sentence “I always bring joy with my antics.” Austin: Oh, very fun. Very, very fun. Art: It worked. I had a great time. Austin: Yeah. Shoulders slump, does like a little peek through the hallway and then like chuckles and goes back into the room. The lights are on. It’s a fucking mess in here. You know, guy who lives—who, quote unquote, lives out of his suitcase, but the suitcase is empty and the clothes are all over the floor and the little, you know, stool or the bench in the corner. And, you know, the TV is on, showing highlights for the--it’s a it’s like a mist hologram TV. And it’s showing highlights from the Crux, the big prize fight on the Crux and et cetera. Right. And like fell asleep to it being on. And, yeah. But it’s muted. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Ahh! I can’t believe you got me. [sighs] Take a seat. Austin: And like, just with a paw, clears the dirty clothes off the bench for you and then sits back down on his own bed. Keith: I sit. Austin (as Entire Carousel): You’re Wellaway, right? Keith (as Wellaway): Mm-hm. Yeah. Austin (as Entire Carousel): I almost got you back in that hangar on the atoll. Keith (as Wellaway): Did you? Austin (as Entire Carousel): I think so. Keith (as Wellaway): Okay. Austin (as Entire Carousel): What do you want? So, Wellaway. Hm, Hye… Keith (as Wellaway): Hi. Austin (as Entire Carousel): I don’t know the kid. Austin (as Candide): Hi. Austin: Says Candide. Austin: And then just doesn’t offer a name or anything. And he goes, Austin (as Entire Carousel): You’re the ghost. I don’t know your name. Art (as Donnie): Join the club. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Rough for you, too, huh? Sick of this moon. Art (as Donnie): It’s not great. Keith (as Wellaway): Is that a wolf joke? [laughs] Austin (as Entire Carousel): Yeah. It’s a wolf joke. What do you want? Keith (as Wellaway): Information. Austin (as Entire Carousel): I don’t know anything. Keith (as Wellaway): Hey, we heard those guys fire you. Or that guy. That’s ruff. Wolf joke. Art (as Donnie): These are getting worse. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Is this your material you’re going to use at the show? Because I advise against it. Keith (as Wellaway): No, no. We just want to know about them and also about that they’re going to blow everything up. Austin (as Entire Carousel): They can’t blow everything up. How would they do that? Keith (as Wellaway): Unclear. They’re going to collapse the moons. It seems very bad. Austin (as Entire Carousel): That sounds like shit. Keith (as Wellaway): Yeah, it sounds like shit. Austin (as Entire Carousel): When are they doing it? Keith (as Wellaway): What? Austin (as Entire Carousel): When are they doing it? Keith (as Wellaway): Final day. Austin (as Entire Carousel): When is that? Keith (as Wellaway): Day after tomorrow. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Well, we should leave, then. Keith (as Wellaway): Well, I think it’s a bigger problem than just here. I think it’s a… system-wide issue. Austin: His ears kind of, like, you know, snap into a different, like, into attention a little bit. Austin (as Entire Carousel): That’s… That seems unlikely. These guys are… They’re assholes, and they’re… They got enough money to pay me and Relia, but they don’t seem like ‘threaten multiple moons’ type of weirdos. Keith (as Wellaway): Well, we think it’s like a weird cult called the Fatalists. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Yeah, yeah. Keith (as Wellaway): From another version of Realis. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Ah. Well, I met him in this version, so. Keith (as Wellaway): Right, they came across. And to me, Keith: I look back to my allies, Keith (as Wellaway): and I think to them, it seems like what they want to do is collapse the difference between the two in a way that would cause a lot of death. Austin (as Entire Carousel): A lot of death happens every day. I can’t help you with this one. I’m sorry. Keith (as Wellaway): You don’t have any information? Austin (as Entire Carousel): What do you want from me? I show up. I take a contract. Keith (as Wellaway): Am I not winking? Can you not see my wink? Austin (as Entire Carousel): The winking doesn’t work. It doesn’t work on me. I don’t—what do you want from me? I was sleeping. Keith (as Wellaway): I just need to know how to find them. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Right. Well, you know what room he’s in. Keith (as Wellaway): He’s not in there. There’s just a mirror. Austin (as Entire Carousel): What do you mean there’s just a mirror? Well, then he left! Keith (as Wellaway): We don’t know how to get through the mirror. We pulled someone out, but it wasn’t the guy. Austin (as Entire Carousel): What do you mean, out the mirror? Keith (as Wellaway): Out the mirror. Austin (as Entire Carousel): What do you mean? Keith (as Wellaway): We pulled someone out of the mirror. Austin: The Candide-like reflection, yeah. This guy doesn’t seem to know what the fuck you’re talking about. Keith: But you said that he went in the mirror. Austin: Who did? Keith: The wolf guy. Austin: No, the wolf guy did not say that. Keith: He didn’t? Austin: No. Keith: I said there was just a mirror, and then what did he say? Austin: I don’t remember, but he’s not been in the mirror. He was in the room. He said, well, you know what room he’s in. Keith: Right. Austin: This guy meets a guy in a room and gets a contract, and then meets a guy in a room. I mean, he didn’t get the contract in that room. He got fired in that room. That seems to be the extent of what he knows about that room. Keith (as Wellaway): Okay. And what’s the guy look like? Austin (as Entire Carousel): Oh, you know, kind of round. Little guy. Hair at the temples. Has some other people I’ve seen him with. Kind of a tall, lanky motherfucker. The guy I deal with, Topaz, is just kind of a prick who thinks he knows everything. Keith (as Wellaway): And you’ve only ever seen him in that room? Austin (as Entire Carousel): No, we took the contract to begin with back on, above Ulled, actually. Ali (as Hye): And the contract was just about the spheres? Austin (as Entire Carousel): It was about getting a little box and then getting these little marbles. Yeah. And then you all were kind of in the mix with it. Keith (as Wellaway): Mm-hm. Ali (as Hye): Wait, what do you know of the box? Austin (as Entire Carousel): There’s a little box that has some sort of marble clue. I don’t. It’s not the part of this I’m good at. I’m good at getting people and getting things. But apparently I’m not good enough, because I lost the job. Keith (as Wellaway): Yeah, sorry about that. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Well, reality of the occupation. Keith (as Wellaway): Realis-ity. Austin (as Entire Carousel): It’s not clowning time for some of us. Ali (as Hye): Were you aware of the attack that happened on the Serene Atoll? Austin (as Entire Carousel): Yeah, I was there for that. I was there with you when it— Keith (as Wellaway): Yeah, remember? He almost got us. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Yeah. Ali (as Hye): No, no, I mean, were you aware of… Did you know in advance what they were intending? The destruction? Keith (as Wellaway): Oh, the bugs. Austin (as Entire Carousel): The Empest? No. That was weird. That came out of nowhere. Keith (as Wellaway): Yeah, we think that was them, too, I think. Austin (as Entire Carousel): You think that was them? Why would they want that? That just made everything harder. Keith (as Wellaway): I don’t know. Yeah, it did. Maybe it’s a consequence. Maybe it’s just consequences. Austin (as Entire Carousel): There’s just weird stuff happening right now, all right? And that just happens, and I don’t like it. I trust stuff I can touch. I don’t trust… holes opening and big bug ships coming out of them. I don’t trust strange lights in the sky. I trust the gun I have in my holster. I trust Relia and her knife. I trust that I get a bounty and I deliver it. Keith (as Wellaway): Or don’t deliver it. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Yeah, or don’t deliver it. I trust it. Real stuff. Ali (as Hye): How did you get in touch with your employer when you needed to? Austin (as Entire Carousel): Tasker’s Menagerie. We got a bureau puts us in touch. Keith (as Wellaway): Hmm. Ali (as Hye): Sure. Keith (as Wellaway): Would Relia know more, maybe? Austin (as Entire Carousel): Probably. Keith (as Wellaway): Should I? Can we ask? Austin (as Entire Carousel): You want to go wake her up? Keith (as Wellaway): I mean, I picked your door. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Yeah. Yeah, that was the right call. You might be dead by now. Keith (as Wellaway): She seems kind of mean. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Yeah. Keith (as Wellaway): What if you vouched for us? Austin (as Entire Carousel): She is mad at me right now, buddy. Keith (as Wellaway): How come? Austin (as Entire Carousel): Because I almost got you back on the Atoll and I didn’t. Keith (as Wellaway): Well, doesn’t seem fair, does it? She was there. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Yeah, okay. Keith (as Wellaway): She didn’t get us either. Austin (as Entire Carousel): All right. Get up. Let’s go. Oh, Lord. [pained noise] All right. Ali: Aww. [laughs] Austin (as Entire Carousel): Fucking hell. Okay. Keith (as Wellaway): Dogs are barking? Ali: We’re giving everybody such bad days. Austin (as Entire Carousel): So bad. Austin: You know, puts the… The gun in the holster, puts the holster on rather, gets out the door, goes over down the hall a little bit. Same side of the hall, a couple doors down. Austin (as Entire Carousel): [knocking] Relia! Relia! It’s Carousel. We got… Relia, open up. I don’t know, maybe she’s gone. Keith (as Wellaway): Do you have a key? Austin (as Entire Carousel): To my boss’s room? No! Keith (as Wellaway): I don’t know. Austin (as Entire Carousel): It’s not like that. Ali (as Hye): Well, how would you get in touch with her? Austin (as Entire Carousel): Oh, we got beepers. Keith (as Wellaway): Beepers? Yeah. Ali: [snorts] Keith (as Wellaway): Gotta get beepers. Ali: Oh my fucking God. [laughs] Austin (as Entire Carousel): Let me go—let me go make a call. Austin: Goes back into the room. Picks up the phone that’s on the desk. It’s like a little gilded number. Dials the front desk. Austin (as Entire Carousel): I’d like to make an outside call. Yeah. Austin: And then says the number. And then I guess dials in the message on the beeper. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Well, we’ll see. We’ll see if we get a beep back. Do you want any tap water? Keith (as Wellaway): No, I have more than I can drink at home. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Sink material, I get it. Keith (as Wellaway): [laughs] Austin: And then gets a beep back, and it is a four-letter code. It’s just like, I think it’s just LMRTB. Keith (as Wellaway): Last meal, write that back. Austin (as Entire Carousel): [snorts] You’re closer than you think, but only in a sort of broad, abstract way. “Leave moon, return to base.” But last meal, talking about the moon blowing up or whatever, could be on our way to our last meal, who knows. You know, I… I kind of wish— [echoing] I kind of wish I could come with you guys. Austin (as Entire Carousel): You know, it’s not like it’s… I know we’ve been on the wrong side of each other for a little bit, but you’re fun! Circus need a wolfman? Keith (as Wellaway): Hm. Well, yes. Any circus needs a wolfman at almost any point. Austin (as Entire Carousel): And I’m a tracker and a bounty hunter. Keith (as Wellaway): I thought you were going to say you’re attractive. Austin (as Entire Carousel): And I’m attractive. Keith (as Wellaway): [laughs] Ali (as Hye): What? Keith (as Wellaway): Tracker helps more, though. Austin (as Entire Carousel): One second, one second, one second. Austin: And he turns around and begins reaching into his inside coat pocket. And he puts on sunglasses! And he’s like, Austin (as Entire Carousel): I’m attractive! Austin: He’s looking like a cool wolf man! Keith: This doesn’t change things for me. The tracker was really the thing. Austin: Oh. Well. Art: Put him on the Teen Wolf scale. Austin: Was there a scale? What? Keith: You mean like, where does Teen Wolf sit on the Teen Wolf scale? And do you mean the Michael J. Fox Teen Wolf? Austin: Or the new one? Art: I do mean the Michael J. Fox Teen Wolf. Austin: You don’t mean like the MTV Teen Wolf. Art: No. Keith: Oh, I thought that was a… What’s the one that had Supernatural on it? Austin: CW. Keith: CW. Austin: He’s way hotter than the Michael J. Fox Teen Wolf. But he does have sunglasses. Keith: The Michael J. Fox Teen Wolf was busted. Austin: Now, I gotta tell you, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Because here’s the thing. Take a look at this Michael J. Fox Teen Wolf. Not good, right? Keith: No, not at all. Austin: Now watch this, because I just proved my fucking point. Keith: Coming from someone who spent many years obsessed with Michael J. Fox. Austin: Now look at him. With the sunglasses on. He looks great! The sunglasses really fucking work for this guy. Keith: Okay, great—the sunglasses are better than the other sunglasses. Austin: Look at him! Keith: The best thing about Teen Wolf is that he looks like that and the entire school is fucking obsessed with him. Austin: I would be. It’s the sunglasses. Ali: You’ve never seen a wolfman? Austin: Damn. Art: And he rides to school on top of the car. Austin: That’s funny. Anyway, he’s like, can I come with you? I think he’s sick of being number two of, you know what I mean, in the bounty hunter duo. And he’s been basically abandoned by his boss. Keith (as Wellaway): You do have a mean boss. Austin (as Entire Carousel): She’s the 50 kill assassin. Keith (as Wellaway): What does that even mean? Austin (as Entire Carousel): She’s killed 50 people, like as an assassin. Keith (as Wellaway): That doesn’t seem like that much, I guess. Austin (as Entire Carousel): It’s hard work. What do you mean? How many people have you killed? Actually, wait, no. How many people have you assassinated? She’s killed more than 50 people. She’s assassinated 50 targets. You see? Keith (as Wellaway): Okay. I see now… Austin (as Entire Carousel): Each one of those can be 100 people or whatever, you know? Keith (as Wellaway): Right. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Or just one. Keith (as Wellaway): I guess that… Austin (as Entire Carousel): Because a target tends to have bodyguards and, you know… Keith (as Wellaway): Well, it’s all production Ali (as Hye): But it’s the 50-kill assassin. Right? Austin (as Entire Carousel): Okay, I guess you’re right. Yeah, it is the 50-kill assassin. Ali (as Hye): You’re really putting this woman on a pedestal. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Yeah, you’re right. Keith (as Wellaway): Thank you, Hye. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Well, she’s the 50-kill assassin. Maybe she hasn’t been… You think it’s all PR? Keith (as Wellaway): He almost got me with that difference between kill and assassin. But you’re right. It says 50-kill assassin on it. So that might only be five assassinations and 50 kills. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Has she even get one over on me? Because I have more than 50 kills. Keith (as Wellaway): She got two over on you at least. Because she’s gone— Austin (as Entire Carousel): She makes me kill seven or eight people each assassination we do. Ali (as Hye): And you’re not tracking this? Austin (as Entire Carousel): Well, no, I’m tracking the assassinations and the bounties and the, you know, all the rest of the stuff we do. Ali (as Hye): But you’re not coining it and putting it on a little card. Austin (as Entire Carousel): No. Ali (as Hye): See, this is why I think you need a change. Keith (as Wellaway): You’ve probably got fifty kills. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Yeah, but I don’t think Entire Carousel, the 50-kill assassin, would do well at the circus. Ali (as Hye): No, but you’ll be Entire Carousel, um, we, the Wolfman. Austin (as Entire Carousel): We, the Wolfman. Keith (as Wellaway): We have a carousel. You could be like the mascot for the carousel. Ali (as Hye): Right. You could do that. You could run the carousel. It would be funny. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Okay. Keith (as Wellaway): Carousel’s carousel. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Carousel’s carousel. Ali (as Hye): And we always need new hands with the… Ali: What’s my stick guy’s name? Austin: Oh, my God. Every episode. Keith: Oh, my God. Ali: [laughing] I like being able to… Austin: Do you? Do you like him? Because every time I’m like… Keith: Don’t like him. Austin: I don’t think you like him. Ali: That was Paul the Whittler. Is the stick guy not even here? Austin: The Whittler? Keith: That’s a totally different guy. Austin: That’s a totally—you’re talking about the—are you talking about the—which guy are you talking about? Ali: I’m talking about the… Oh, Charms. It was Charms, the guy who sells meat on the stick. Austin: Was his name Charms? Ali: Yeah, because it was the fortune teller and Charms. And that was funny to me. I got him that urn. Keith: [laughs] Austin: Now I understand. I see. You did get him that urn. Keith: Oh, you mean Charms’s urn? Are you talking about Charms’s urn? Austin: Yeah, of course. Yeah. Uh-huh. Ali (as Hye): Well, we always… Charms always needs more hands at the station. Austin: Right. Meat on the stick guy. Kenneth Charms. You’re right. Yes. Ali: Kenneth Charms. Thank you. Austin: Kenneth Charms. Yes. True. There’s also the banana clown. Keith: I’m glad you got there because it is genuinely the first time you’ve remembered his name. Austin: Yeah. Uh-huh. Whew. (as Entire Carousel): All right. Well… Okay. Well, if we’re all gonna… You know, if you’re serious about this, I could be totally open with you. If she left, left left, we gotta get going. Return to base means the whole place is torched, you know? Keith (as Wellaway): Damn, very late breakfast. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Very late, yeah. So, um, I don’t know what you all are up to, but I think it’s… Keith (as Wellaway): We were trying to stop whatever the thing was. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Now, I know we all just discredited her, but the 50-kill assassin, when she’s done a job, she’s done a job. She wouldn’t have left if there was any question. Keith (as Wellaway): Damn. 50 mil assassin. Austin (as Entire Carousel): What’s that mean? Keith (as Wellaway): Like, million. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Oh, that’s. Huh. That would be a lot more than 50. Keith (as Wellaway): She torched the whole planet. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Yeah, that would be 50 mil, probably. Keith (as Wellaway): Moon. Sorry. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Yeah, please. Thank you. Austin: Stick to the lore bible. Keith: Planet is a social construct. Austin: Yeah. Art: Well, let’s not get into that. Ali (as Hye): Well, this isn’t the first suggestion of leaving we’ve heard today. Keith (as Wellaway): Oh, from Candide? Austin (as Entire Carousel): Who’s that? Keith (as Wellaway): Just a kid that cursed us. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Oh, wait a second. You guys are cursed? Keith (as Wellaway): Yeah. Is that a problem? Austin (as Entire Carousel): I don’t like curses. Keith (as Wellaway): Oh, yeah, we do. That’s why we’re cursed. Austin (as Entire Carousel): I don’t know. I don’t presume. They didn’t say anything in the dossier that you were cursed. Did that happen recently? Art (as Donnie): Yeah. Austin (as Entire Carousel): We would have tried to use the curse against you if we knew you were cursed. Keith (as Wellaway): We were not cursed at that point. Austin (as Entire Carousel): I see, new curse. Ali (as Hye): Patterns. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Patterns? Ali (as Hye): Well, perhaps the spheres are telling us to leave. Keith (as Wellaway): Yes, perhaps the spheres are telling us to leave. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Are you guys okay? I don’t want to come hang out if you’re always bickering. Keith: [bursts into laughter] Austin (as Entire Carousel): I don’t have like a whole, you know what I mean? I don’t have many options in terms of where to go next. Keith (as Wellaway): Look, when someone can read the moons, it’s hard to tell when they just want to do something or when they say the moons want to do something. You know what I mean? Art (as Donnie): Yeah, sometimes it’s like, the moons want us to get Thai food tonight. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Wait a second. Ali (as Hye): I would never! Austin (as Entire Carousel): Sometimes Relia was like, it was imperative for this assassination job we had that we had to get Thai food. You’re telling me we didn’t need— Austin: There’s no Thailand in Realis. What are we doing? Keith: No, Thai food is stuff like noodles that have been knotted. Austin: I see, yeah. Uh-huh. Ali: Oh… Austin: T-I-E food, I see. Keith: Yeah, yeah. Art: But still a lot of fish sauce. Keith: Yeah, just coincidentally. Yeah, coconut. Keith (as Wellaway): Okay, we’re cursed. Your boss is gone. And says something’s happening. Candide said something bad is happening. This is admittedly above my pay grade. One might say apocalyptic. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Hmm. Let’s go. Let’s get out of here. What are you? You in a circus or—you could become bounty hunters with me! We could start our own little thing. Or we could do both. Keith (as Wellaway): We’re already sort of bounty hunters. I mean, like. We’re like one degree off. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Let’s turn up the oven. Like, increase the degree, you know what I mean? Keith (as Wellaway): I don’t really find bounty hunting more valuable than what we do. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Okay, well, let’s… Keith (as Wellaway): I don’t know, what do you guys think? Art (as Donnie): I think a wolfman is an attraction. Keith (as Wellaway): You also think the wolfman is attractive? Art (as Donnie): Is an attraction. But I mean, not bad. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Thank you. Keith (as Wellaway): It just doesn’t feel like part of what we do. Art (as Donnie): We’re a business! Well, we work for a business. Ali (as Hye): I think we should go back to the ship and discuss our options with Curly. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Hmm. Keith (as Wellaway): Okay. Austin: And pretty quickly, having done that, you depart from Dokine. I think we have a good idea of how that might go. And where are you headed? You know, I think you’re not wrong. He becomes an attraction. He’s already attractive, you know. So now he’s just an attraction. Keith: As long as he keeps those shades on. Austin: As long as he keeps those shades on. [laughter] Austin: You know, you get to Principia, the next stop on your schedule, and he draws a lot of—some people, you know? Keith: Oh, he’s an artist. Austin: Yeah. No. Well, wait a second. Let me look at Sentences and see, could he be an artist? I don’t think he’s an artist. Keith: Okay. Austin: No. Hmm. No, not so much, unfortunately. But something strange happens in the night. Looking up at the moon you left behind. And it’s not long, you know, this is not like days and days after. This is what would have been the Final Day of the festival. Keith: So it’s day after. Austin: It’s the day after, yeah. It’s a little earlier than… Like where the Final Day would have taken the stage is the final keynote address. Do you know what I mean? The yellow clouds of Dokine seem to turn not ashen gray, but like marble gray. The quality of the moon seems to shift. And in fact, something very strange happens, which is it seems to slow its rotation. You know, it seems to be frozen in place, locked in stasis. And without that momentum, in this very scientifically valid story we’re telling, it does not have the momentum it needs, the velocity it needs to continue its orbit around Realis. And probably around the other moons, the very careful waltz-like rhythm of the Quartenion dancing around each other begins to shift. And it kind of gets bowled into Ulled. And the gem in your staff cracks. What do you do? What’s the plan? Because the Final Day is real. And you have an instinct. And that instinct is, if you don’t stop it, it will come for you. Maybe Curly holds an impromptu meeting and is like, what’s the plan for the circus? How do we get out of here before things get worse? Keith: Curly’s asking us? Austin: Yeah, well, he’s asking everybody. He holds a meeting with all of the leaders of the circus. You know, all of the attractions are there. And all of the attractives, too. Keith: Yeah. Austin: I mean, speaking of, I think he’s like… Keith: Split down the middle. Austin: It’s split down the middle. Keith: Attractions on one side, attractives on the other. Art: There’s like two mean people at the door telling you where to sit. Austin: Boo. I think, in fact, Entire Carousel is like, Austin (as Entire Carousel): We should go fight that thing. Keith (as Wellaway): Fight—in what way? Austin (as Entire Carousel): Well, you know, if something is hurting the moons. Austin: He does like a punch into his fist. Keith (as Wellaway): But what is hurting the moons? Austin: He does another punch into his fist. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Something that does that can’t just be allowed to, you know, it’s bad for everybody. Ali (as Hye): But we’re merely a circus. Do we have allies? Austin (as Entire Carousel): Merely a circus. I’m Entire Carousel, the 57-kill assassin/attractive wolfman. You’re Hye— Keith (as Wellaway): And are you forgetting that you did this? Austin (as Entire Carousel): Wait. Keith (as Wellaway): You’re the guy who did this. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Who? What? Me? Keith (as Wellaway): You and your boss did this. Austin (as Entire Carousel): What do you mean? Wait a second. Austin: Everyone turns to look at him. Austin (as Entire Carousel): I didn’t do any of this. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Keith (as Wellaway): I wasn’t going to say shit, but you and your boss set this whole thing in motion! Austin (as Entire Carousel): What are you—I didn’t do— Austin: I think this is looking bad for Entire Carousel. Austin: You know, you who are a long-term value member of, though I think Curly is like: Austin (as Curly): You knew that? You knew that and you invited this guy in? Keith (as Wellaway): Well, he seemed like a rube. Austin (as Curly): You just said that he did this. What do you mean he did this? Keith (as Wellaway): His boss did this. He was working for the person that did this. She ditched him. We found him trying to find her. Austin (as Curly): And you brought him in to us. And that’s why he’s like, oh, we got to fix this, because he’s guilty. And by extension, you’re guilty. Keith (as Wellaway): By extension, we’re guilty? Austin (as Curly): You invited him in. Maybe you could have fixed this with him. You didn’t fix it with him? Keith (as Wellaway): No, there was no fixing. Austin: And he’s like, Austin (as Entire Carousel): Well, we can still fix it. We could go—does this thing have guns? Austin: It does not. It’s a train. It’s a train. Keith: It’s a train. Trains can have guns. Austin: Yeah, space trains can have guns. It’s true. I don’t know that— Keith: All that it takes for something to have a gun is for you to put a gun on it. Austin: That’s true. Keith: Let’s say it has one gun. Austin (as Entire Carousel): I don’t think that’s going to cut it. Keith (as Wellaway): No, it’s not going to cut it. Austin (as Entire Carousel): We go, we get more weapons. We could do some magic stuff. You got that staff, Hye. Donnie’s a damn ghost. Spirit energies, that’s a weapon. And otherwise, the whole Quartinion is toast. Keith (as Wellaway): I would love to do something, but I don’t really know what that means. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Fine, I’m going to do it myself. You guys don’t want an attractive wolfman here anyway, I guess. Ali (as Hye): No, no, we should make an investment in our own preservation. We’ll help you. We owe it to ourselves to… Keith (as Wellaway): Hye, what are we gonna… What do you mean? What do we even do? Ali (as Hye): Well, we gather resources and we shield the ship and we… Keith (as Wellaway): Okay, shield the ship. I’m with you there. Ali (as Hye): Perhaps there— Austin (as Entire Carousel): Hey, don’t you know people on Crux are like warriors and gladiators and stuff? Keith (as Wellaway): Do you have a pocket gladiator army, Hye? Ali (as Hye): I certainly know people with connections and the funds to, you know, spend. And, you know. Keith (as Wellaway): Oh, yeah, you’re always talking about your patrons. Ali (as Hye): Well, yes. I, yes. I, yes. Keith (as Wellaway): Oh, suddenly… Suddenly shy about the patrons. Art (as Donnie): Wow, I didn’t know we were talking about this kind of scratch. Keith (as Wellaway): What’s that? What’s that, Donnie? Art (as Donnie): I didn’t know we were talking about this kind of scratch. Ali (as Hye): Well, money moves on Crux. Keith (as Wellaway): Money moves. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Money moves. Art (as Donnie): Money moves. Ali (as Hye): You know, for the betterment of life. Keith (as Wellaway): That’s the guy we should get working here! Money Moves on Crux! Austin (sleazy): Fuckin hell yeah, Money Moves. We all gotta go get Money Moves. Money Moves could fund a private army for you. Austin: Has anyone seen Candide, by the way? You just kind of lost track of Candide. Keith: I thought that Hye said Candide ran away. So yeah, we lost track of Candide. Austin: No, no, no, because Hye went and talked to Candide and came back and, remember? All that happened. So, you know, y’all kind of like left Candide in the hotel room or whatever when you went to go check out Wolfman’s hotel room. And we just haven’t really brought them up again. Keith: Oh, okay. I see. Austin: Yeah. Keith: I thought that that still happened. But I get it now. Ali: Yeah, I assume Candide came back with us in the way that sort of Candide always just shows back up. Austin: Yeah, the way that Candide will like, yeah, just kind of… you know, blend into the background until they have something to say. They don’t pop up this time. There’s the classic pause where then Candide would be like, oh, I’ve been in the scene the whole time. And that does not happen. Having seen what happened to one of the moons and then the other moon, two bowling balls cracking against each other in the sky, Candide has fled in the midst of this. In any case, going to Money Moves. Let me zoom out a little bit here. Going to Money Moves, who is one of your patrons, apparently. Ali: Apparently! Austin (as Money Moves): I think Money Moves is very nervous about everything that’s happening in space right now. Austin: Sorry, that’s Money Moves talking. Keith: Yeah, I can tell. As soon as you were Money Moves I could tell. Austin: Just boom, locked in on Money Moves. Austin (as Money Moves): Money Moves says, we’re going to need an army. Money Moves doesn’t have an army, but Money Moves… has money. You’re gonna lead this army? You’re gonna fight against whatever’s happening on these other moons? Art (as Donnie): Look, as a unit we’re hilariously underqualified to lead an army. Austin (as Money Moves): All right, then you probably shouldn’t lead it. Money Moves doesn’t make bad investments. Art (as Donnie): Hold on. Ali: I mean, I could be doing some Bastila type—I don’t know that I could be doing some Bastila type stuff, I don’t know that I could do the like put energy into the air to make people fight good? But I could do the like— Austin: Yeah, we haven’t really seen any, like, big powerful magic from Hye in that way. We’ve seen, I guess that’s not true, you summoned the Empest ship that time. Ali: Accidentally, yeah. And I summoned that big shield, so I can certainly do things like that. Art: Yeah, I think we can help. Keith: You can do battle meditation. You can read the moon. Austin: Yeah, that’s Bastila, yeah. Art: Oh. Ali: Yeah. Austin: Yeah! You know. Maybe you get to work at that. You get to work at trying to, like, sharpen those sorts of battle meditation style. It’s not literally battle meditation. What you’re doing is high-level syzygy. You know, you’re predicting stuff and immediately giving, you know, commands based on that. Keith: Predicting enemy movements. Austin: Yeah, predicting, but also things, weirder things. You know what I mean? The currents of space and time type shit, you know? Luck, to some degree. The kind of intangible stuff. Keith: I mean, if you could have someone, you know, they say pick your battles. If you could have someone who could literally pick the battles to do. Austin: Yeah. Keith: The vibes are off on this one. Don’t do it. Ali: [giggles] Keith: The moon says don’t do this one. Austin: The fights, quote unquote, against this thing are strange. You’ve not found the form of the Final Day. But it is spreading through Realis as a system. That Empest fleet I just mentioned returns, but it returns effectively frozen in place. The ships are being launched as missiles. And so much of the war is like destroying incoming debris that’s being launched as projectile weapons from across space. You know? Entire cities get sent this way, lifted and sent this way as sort of… as if they were asteroids being launched. Space stations, other ships, whole moons. They’re not even being launched so much as they’re being frozen in this sort of permanent stasis in such a way that targeted such that the natural gravity of Realis lifts them or pulls them or draws them in terrible arcs towards other targets. You know, sometimes the whole moon will get destroyed so that the Final Day has more ammunition, has more pieces to toss around. and Reprise [48:30] [ “and Reprise” by Jack de Quidt starts playing] Austin: But that’s not the thing, the core of its power here is not that. You know, I think at some point you’re facing just this onslaught of the moons. You know, after they hit things, they eventually will fall into Realis and then just like, that’s it. That’s just gone now. But at some point you come, you kind of come back to this area of the Quartenion, and you see simply a strange light in space, almost gaseous, almost liquid. It’s amorphous, really. It’s like an amorphous light. You can’t quite find the borders of it, and you can’t quite make sense of it. And you realize, the last thing you realize, as the marks on your body begin to glow, is that the true power it has is freezing the thing in place. The fact that it can then launch it is just a fun aftereffect. It’s just a fun bonus. Hye, I think that you can sense it just before it happens. The fates of anyone who dare opposes it just sort of stop. It’s not that they’ve died. It’s that it’s the same… Okay, what’s this person doing tomorrow? The same thing forever. They’re caught in a moment indefinitely. Austin (as Entire Carousel): [echoing] I kind of wish I could come with you guys. You know, I kind of wish I could come with you guys. I kind of wish I could come with you guys. [music ends] Keith (as Wellaway): Oh, well. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Now, what I’m worried about is I wasn’t told to leave the moon until just now. Keith (as Wellaway): Yeah, I was thinking that, but I didn’t want to upset you. Austin (as Entire Carousel): I don’t know that I have a way to leave the moon. Ali (as Hye): Oh, jeez. Austin (as Entire Carousel): I hope the shuttles run late. Does anyone want to help me get all packed up? Keith (as Wellaway): No. Austin (as Entire Carousel): You gonna knock on my door in the middle of the night, you’re not going to help me get packed up? Ali (as Hye): I’ll help you. Austin (as Entire Carousel): All right. Keith (as Wellaway): You don’t have to do that. Art (as Donnie): You don’t have to do that. Ali (as Hye): We’ve inconvenienced him. Keith (as Wellaway): He made his bed, and by that I mean didn’t make his bed. Austin (as Entire Carousel): I was sleeping in it! Keith (as Wellaway): It was a metaphor. Art (as Donnie): You don’t make the bed before you leave a hotel. Keith (as Wellaway): No, it was a metaphor. You know, like a messy room. Austin (as Candide): That’s my favorite part of hotels. Austin: Says Candide. Austin (as Candide): You’re allowed to be messy. Keith (as Wellaway): You’re not really allowed to be messy. Austin (as Candide): Why not? Keith (as Wellaway): Like, it’s not against the law. Because it’s rude. Austin (as Candide): So? You’re rude all the time. Keith (as Wellaway): That’s different. Art (as Donnie): Hm. Keith (as Wellaway): Figure it out and write it in the book. Austin (as Candide): [sighs] Fine. I’m going to go to bed, have fun helping this guy pack. Keith (as Wellaway): I’m not helping this guy. Austin (as Candide): Bye. Keith (as Wellaway): I’m going to break into the other room. Ali: [giggles quietly] Austin: All right. Ali: All right, I’ll buy you some time helping this guy! Austin: Yeah, uh-huh. And so it goes. You’re over at the other door. Keith: Presuming that I have the skill to crack the door, and the issue here is needing to do it without being seen, I can use “I’m always quick in wit and bone when avoiding detection” again. Austin: It has clearly been too long since we’ve played this game. Keith: Tell me about why you’re saying that. Austin: How have you gotten into locked doors before as a group? Art: Oh, I can just walk through. Austin: Right, right. Keith: Right. Yeah. Austin: Assuming that it’s not. Keith: I feel like this comes up every time where I’m like, well, I could probably pick the lock. And then it’s like, I can just walk through and open it. Austin: Yeah. Ali: Well, I used that funny spell for the ghost store once. Austin: That’s true. Keith: That’s true. Austin: Yeah. Art: But this probably isn’t going to be a ghost store. Austin: You gonna try it? Art: Yeah. Austin: Slip right in. Normal hotel door. Unmarked by any sort of magical otherworldly seals. Keith: That’s really good for us. Austin: Also, the room seems to be empty. The bed is made. Keith: The bed is made. Hmm. Austin: It looks like there is. It looks like it has been cleaned. Keith: Not a metaphor. Austin: Not a metaphor. Keith: All right. Is it worth looking in the trash bin for scraps of paper, incriminating evidence? Austin: Always worth a look. Keith: It’s always worth a look. Austin: What is your intent? What are you using? Keith: “I always reveal the truth,” and the truth is, did they leave any evidence behind under the bed or in the trash bins or any other place that might have gotten missed by… Austin: What type of evidence are you looking for? What are you trying to learn? Keith: I want to learn something about the Fatalists that she would have known that Carousel wouldn’t have known. Austin: Yeah. Keith: Yeah, that’s basically it. Austin: Yeah, okay. There is a… Yeah, let’s say slipped under the bed. That feels more likely than just tossed into the trash. Like, did the scan to clear the place out, but something had slipped under the bed. Or, like, got caught under the baseboard radiator or something, you know? Keith: Fell and just didn’t get picked up. Austin: Yeah. There is a sort of maybe a note written to herself. Or, you know what it is? Keith: Classic note-to-self situation. Austin: Classic note-to self, it’s a little sketch of how to attach something to something else, basically. And it is a… How to attach a bomb to a place, is what it really looks like. The truth you’re learning here… And maybe it’s actually, let me give you more than that, because otherwise this is not enough. It’s like a map, or like a little hand-drawn turn, you know, you’ve just sketched out the city grid, basically, and there’s a place that’s circled on the front of it, and it’s very clearly, it’s that tower that we just were at with Candide. It’s the top of that tower. And then it’s like a little diagram for how to attach this thing into the big needle on the top of it. Like how to lock something in place that’s not described. And it seems like instructions about a different objective or a different job or something. Keith: Okay. It’s concerning. Austin: Mm-hmm. Keith: What makes me think it’s for a different job? Austin: You know, maybe there’s some sort of language being used. Maybe there’s a note here. I’m trying to think of a note that would be like… It’s hard when you’re working with like, oh, this is a super talented assassin who would not just write a note that says, here’s what I was really doing here. Anyone else has an idea of how this was a giveaway? The essence of it is that it’s… You know, I think I think maybe the note is explicit. It says, like, don’t tell Carousel, underlined, you know, it all but says “the real job,” you know. Keith: Now, I would hate to discard the GM telling me it’s a different job, but it could be just that getting fired was cover for doing this for the Fatalists, I guess. Austin: I mean, that’s, yeah, I think that that’s totally viable. Yeah. Keith: Okay. Austin: A totally viable way of reading this. Keith: I will keep what you’ve said in mind. Austin: Sure. Keith: I show it to Donnie. Art (as Donnie): Mm-hmm. Keith (as Wellaway): Seems bad and like a whole other thing to worry about. Art (as Donnie): Yeah, mm-hmm. Austin: But otherwise, place is empty. Keith: Hey, does this feel like a higher scale of thing than we’re normally involved with? Art: [scoffs] Austin: Yeah, something is off. That instinct, I know that you were asking Donnie that in character, but I want to underline the sense of, it feels like you’re in the wrong book. Keith: Yeah. Austin: You know what I mean? Keith: Right. Last week, it was Hardy Boys. Austin: That’s right. Well, last week you were escaping an exploding space station because… Keith: Sorry, last week was metaphorical. Austin: I see. Yeah. Uh-huh. Unlike the Final Day. Keith: Right. Last issue. Austin: Yes. Yes. Art: Yeah, it does seem like our pay grade has gone way up. Keith: But the paycheck has not. Austin: No. Keith: Wait, actually, hold on. Art: Well, we don’t get paid for this. Keith: “With the treasure of the Jubilant Jewel, nothing is too expensive.” Austin: This is true. Keith: So maybe actually our paycheck did also go up. Austin: Your paycheck did kind of go up. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Art: Mm. Keith: I’m so glad that that front desk guy took the three loops that weren’t part of that. [laughs] Art: Uh-huh. Austin: All right. What are you doing? You finished packing, Hye. Everything’s… He’s like, Austin (as Entire Carousel): Oh, thank you so much. I guess I’m going to get the first shuttle out of here. Ali (as Hye): Um. Yes. Keith (as Wellaway): Hey, what do you know about this? Austin (as Entire Carousel): Oh, she give you that? What is this? Keith (as Wellaway): No, it was on the floor. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Where? Keith (as Wellaway): In her room. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Oh, why did you go in her room? She’s going to know that and blame me probably somehow. Keith (as Wellaway): For clues! Art (as Donnie): What? Keith (as Wellaway): She won’t know. She’s off. She’s off-planet. But look, you’ve got to be careful up there. Austin (as Entire Carousel): What is this? This looks like a diagram for attaching a thing to the big tower. Keith (as Wellaway): Yeah. And what else does it say? Austin (as Entire Carousel): It says, don’t tell—hey! Keith (as Wellaway): Yeah, right? Austin (as Entire Carousel): I’m sick of this. I’m going to go see if there’s a shuttle out of here right now. Keith (as Wellaway): Yeah, you look out. Austin (as Entire Carousel): You look out. Keith (as Wellaway): No, I was being nice. Austin (as Entire Carousel): Yeah, I bet. Fucking clown. Art (as Donnie): Whoa. Keith (as Wellaway): That’s fine. He can say that. Austin: [laughs] And slips past you all, leaving the door into… Let me tell you, did not make the bed. Did not make the bed, left some stuff behind, empty beer bottles on the dresser in front of the holographic TV, the mist TV, and just left with a duffel bag filled with his stuff. Keith: That was half helpful. Austin: Yeah. Keith: Got a trail, at least. And maybe a bomb to defuse. Austin: Sure. Keith: Oh, Hye. We found that there’s maybe a bomb to defuse. Ali: A bomb? Keith: Yeah. Ali: Huh… Keith: Don’t panic. Art: Is it possible that this is, like, a joke? Keith: If you really, really want to say, like, possible possible, yes. Art: Like, that this is the end of the thing? Keith: That this is the end of the thing. Art: That, like, we’re in some sort of, like… Austin: Cosmic joke. Art: Gag? Yeah, that at the last performance it’s going to be revealed that they’re… This is like a hidden camera thing or something. It’s going to show footage of us running around trying to stop this thing and then be like, ha ha, it was nothing. So like my ta-da from earlier, you think that they’re going to do a big ta-da after we try and stop the moons from blowing up? Art: Yeah. Uh-huh. Keith: Yeah, you know, I actually think that’s more likely than the alternative. But only just. Art: I don’t know how we would figure it out, you know? Keith: Talk about the butterfly effect. Art: I don’t know how to prove it. Keith: This is punked. Austin: Mm. I see the connection. Art: Yeah. It’s early 2000s here. Austin: Ashton Kutcher. Art: Oh, that’s right! Ashton Kutcher was in both of those. Wow. Maybe this whole thing is, yeah, it’s an Ashton Kutcher. Austin: Anyway, what do you do? Let’s stay on track. Keith: I think we gotta go to The Needle. Remind me about this tower? You said that we were just there with Candide—that makes—that rings— Austin: You were not. Hye was there. Ali: Hye was. Keith: Oh, Hye. Austin: Yeah, Hye went and met Candide there. Keith: Oh, that’s where Candide had run off to. Okay. Art: Wait, wait. Hold on. Hold on. Can I use… “I always force others to confront the truth about themselves” to sort of check my theory. I could use it on Wellaway, and then Wellaway can confront the truth that this is an elaborate prank being pulled? Austin: It is not an elaborate prank. Yes, I understand what you’re doing. It is not an elaborate prank. Ali: You should use it on Candide. Art: Oh, yeah, that’s a much better idea. Keith: Yeah, hey, we do have a character that’s not confronting the truth about themselves. Ali: Or is, I guess. I don’t know. Art: Okay, but I was really invested in this joke idea. And I feel like we’re just moving past it for the obvious correct thing to do. All right. Yeah, let’s do that one. Austin: Okay. You’re going to go wake Candida up. Art: Yeah. Ali: Well, can this wait until morning? Art: I don’t know. Can it—what do you want to do tonight, then? Keith: If the Space Needle blows up, you’re going to feel like a jerk for saying ‘can this wait ‘till morning.’ Art: But, like, I’m here to be… Ali: I don’t know Donnie’s Sentences in character, so that’s not even… I just think, you know, I just feel mean waking people up, man. Art: No, you’re right. You’re right. It is kind of mean to, like, bust in and… Keith: It’s canonically an urgent situation. Austin: It is. Ali: Sure. Art: Yeah, but, like… Are we not still polite? Ali: Do you want to go to the tower and then meet Candide in the morning? Art: Yeah, we’re going to do things in order. Keith: Yeah, that’s fine. Ali: And what are we going to do? Just investigate, I guess? Look for a bomb? Do we have a bomb diagram? Keith: Yeah, I have a map. Ali: You have a map? Oh, whoa. Austin: Yeah, well, the map is like, here’s where the tower is. And then you see a sketch. You could probably reverse engineer where that thing is. It’s like attached to a strut on the kind of roof of the tower. Like, on the top, like, dome. Keith: Yeah, the point. Austin: Below the needle, but above the lounge. Yeah. Ali: And do we see any people, shady people around? Austin: Are we there now? Or did we go to the tower? Last week, we’re kind of, like, blurry right now. Can we get some clarity? Where are we? What’s happening? Ali: I would go to the… My impulse is to go to the tower over waking Candide up. Austin: Sounds good. Keith: Yeah. Austin: All right. You’re able to climb that tower again. I think the lounge itself has been closed. But, I think we, again, we can move kind of quickly here because we know how you get through locked doors and this is not a magically locked special door. You know, you’re able to let them in. Donnie, you’re able to open the door, which is like a special, there’s like the front door to the lounge, but there’s also like a maintenance shaft door. You have to climb some ladders here. And you are hit by, again, the beauty of this place. You step out onto the roof of this place, and you could just see forever. You could even see the blue light of Realis Itself beginning to come over the horizon as the next day begins to emerge, the second of the three days of the festival. We’ve been on this first day forever. And the beauty of it all is just… kind of imposing. You can even see another one of the city-states flapping in the distance, another one of these big butterfly cities just at the edge of your vision. And there—you find the place that it sort of seems like maybe the type of intersection of the struts that seems like something like the one that’s been drawn here. The first one you check, there’s nothing there. The second one you check, there’s nothing there. The third one, there’s nothing there, but there’s something off. And it’s hard at first to notice it because it’s not—there’s nothing physical there that’s different. What’s different is that there’s no color there. There’s a sort of amorphous blob, almost like a collection of air has been decolorized. And you look through it, and whatever’s on the other side of it has lost color. It’s sort of like, or it’s lost color, but there is a sort of sheen. There’s a sort of like white—not radiance. Radiance is the wrong word. But a sort of like—and like an effervescent white, it’s like there’s a gas in the air that is like a little glowy, but also is removing color from the world. Keith: Is it like moving? Or growing? Austin: It’s amorphous, so it’s changing shape constantly. Keith: It’s shimmering. Austin: It’s kind of, I’m imagining it like if you had like a cloud of something, a cloud of gas, it’s slowly, it’s doing something. It’s reforming its shape the way, you know, a cloud of gas under, you know, in wind current would, the way a cloud moves. It does seem like maybe it’s gaining volume. And maybe there’s a lingering smell in the air. There’s a sense of like… It smells like… It doesn’t smell like Dokine, I’ll tell you that much. It smells like ash. It smells like old dust. It smells like mud. A little like Ulled in places, but not like Ulled, different type of mud. Keith: Does anything about it remind me of the feeling that I got when I inspected the paper lock magic thing? Austin: Yes. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. You’re talking about how when you noticed that the paper lock that looked like a CVS receipt but was then revealed to be a sort of like esoteric other-languaged talisman. Keith: Yeah, it gave me an uncanny otherworldly feeling. Austin: It does have that feeling. It’s not the same otherworldly feeling, but it’s similar in that sense of this is not, this is a little window into another world, another reality. Or another time, another another version of something. Keith: Well gee, I’d love to get rid of it. Austin: Sure. What do you do? This is the middle of the night still, right, yeah, okay. Art: I thought you said it was almost daybreak. Austin: Yeah, sorry, but I’m thinking, I was trying to remember who’s around, and people are just waking up, let’s say. You know, the sun is just—or not the sun. The sun, of course, is dead. Realis is, the blue light of Realis is just creeping over the horizon, yeah. Keith: I feel like I’m the least capable here of doing something about this. Ali: Is there anyone around? Austin: You’re on the roof of this place, no. You’re on the roof of this place, it’s 5am, you know? Ali: Okay, okay, there’s not—like they didn’t put guards here. Austin: No, no. There was some security below that you were able to presumably sneak past. I didn’t want—I’m trying not to slow things down with ‘did you sneak past one guard,’ you know. Ali: Okay. What happens if we like throw a thing at it? Austin: Do you try? What do you try to throw through it? Ali: If I have a single lope or whatever. Austin: Yeah, yeah, the smallest of the currencies. Ali: Yeah. Austin: It passes through, and when it lands on the other side, it has changed, it has lost the color from it. And I think it may even, it may even, I need to double check, it may even change in shape. I think it just changes, it just loses color. Ali: I have to be real careful with my Ephemera, because I only have one more use of it. But I do “always know how to ritually summon the power of the moon, so long as I have my equipment.” Austin: You do. Ali: I wonder if they’re, like, would it, mm. I want to remove this thing and interact with it in some way, right? Does anyone have a big funny bottle or something? Keith: Yeah, I always carry a comedy bottle. Ali: [laughs] Art: A big funny bottle? Ali: Yeah, it has to be funny. Art: Mm… Ali: Yeah, I want to do some sort of like, drain a spell. Austin: To like drain the power of this thing. Ali: Yeah. Austin: Okay. And that is using your traditional, that is using your… “I always know how to summon the power of the moons, as long as I have my equipment.” Ali: Yes, as long as I have my equipment, yes. Austin: I think… The thing that this thing can do is wild, so… Ooh… This is just a very anticlimactic way. I’m wondering if I want to pull the trigger on this. And maybe I don’t. Ali: Well, I, yeah, I mean— Austin: Let me—no, no, I mean, we’re here, right? What were you gonna say? Ali: Right, I was gonna say like I want to know how it responds to being interacted with and this is a doomsday bomb, so. Austin: It is not a doomsday bomb. The doomsday bomb already—the doomsday bomb already went off. Keith: In there. Austin: You’re looking at the doomsday. The doomsday is here. It’s growing slowly. You begin summoning the power of the moons, Hye. What’s this look like, visually? Ali: I think it’s, you know, standing underneath it but a little to the side and raising up her staff and, you know, saying a thing about calling upon the moons and, you know, naming the moon of steel influence or whatever, you know what I mean? [laughs] Austin: Yeah, sure, love it. Love it. As you say the final words, the first of the things that Candide saw, or the first one that Candide has explained, comes into being. You freeze completely in place. “I will fix in time and place all who see the purity of my form.” The Final Day is in front of you, growing. Ali: Eyghh. Wuh-oh. Austin: You can’t move. The power of the moon does not arrive. Whatever sort of magical effect triggers is, like, around you, whatever—if there’s some sort of glow, if there’s some sort of, like, energy that gathers, it has started to gather, and then it sort of just freezes in place. This is not how NPCs are supposed to work. NPCs are not supposed to have Dreams. What did the Candide mirror say? It said that the Final Day makes dreams real. Hye has frozen in place, Wellaway and Donnie. Art: Yeah, uh-huh. Keith: And there was no, that’s not a Sentence, it’s a Dream. Austin: It’s a Dream. Keith: So it has no level. Austin: It can be stopped by another Dream, but that’s it. Two Dreams can collide and neither will happen. Keith: I’m not feeling super strong about our Dreams here versus that. Art: Yeah, I think Donnie, as a circus ghost, values freedom so much. The sense of… To be still is to be dead, right? Austin: Yeah. Art: And so I think this triggers sort of like a flight response. I wish we could escape. Be gone. Get away. I think we just go. Keith: Yeah. Art: I think Hye isn’t going to make it. Austin: A statue on top of the tower, effectively. The first of many that will be here, I think, on Dokine as you flee. Art: Yeah, it’s a fucking shame. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not happy about it. Austin: Yeah, yeah, I get you. Are you fleeing together? Or are you splitting up? Are you going to the Jubilant Jewel? Are you… Art: I don’t know that we could get away with that. Think we can get away with that? Austin: Taking Hye’s ship? Art: Yeah. Austin: I mean, what are they going to do about it? [laughs] Art: Yeah, fair enough. Yeah. Keith: The ship might have questions, or the person who fixed up the ship. Austin: Yeah. The Red Red Rose, now. Keith: The Red Red Rose. Austin: When you arrive, you learn the Red Red Rose. The name seemed to fit them, you know? Art: Yeah. Austin: Yeah, I think has some questions but also understands the desire to flee extremely well. Yeah, it’s bad here! Keith: Yeah. Austin: I think as you’re explaining what’s happening—this is not, the Red Red Rose is not like, “all right, well, now we got to go tell the Krinskys about this.” The Red Red Rose is like, “we have to go as far as we possibly can from here, immediately.” Art: Yeah, I think the Krinskys are on their own, too. Keith: If only we got those communicators. Austin: Phew. That would have changed a lot. I gotta tell you. Keith: Yeah. We talked about it so much. Art: We can’t go backwards. Austin: Where do you go forwards to? Art: I think you nailed it right there. Forward. Austin: Okay, just as far away as you can go? Keith: Outside the four moons? Austin: Yeah, I mean that’s the thing about having—yeah. Art: Outside as many moons as we gotta pass. Austin: Interesting. Okay, do any of you, do either you know how an Orphan Vessel works or like how to access any of the information it has? Keith: Ask it. Austin: I guess ask it, right? It can— Keith: Be nice to it. Austin: Yeah, I think, I think it is, it remains a little, it needs a little direction. It’s not just going to take you somewhere. It has a lot of information at its, not fingertips, but in its databases. Keith: Chip tips. Austin: It has a lot of chip tips. It doesn’t—it wants some direction from y’all. So is it just like finding the furthest away moon it can possibly find from here and going there? Is that the thing that you’re saying? Keith: Moon, comma, habitable. Austin: That’s an important note. Yeah, there are definitely some inhabitable barren poison moons here. So. Keith: If there’s 15 moons in a little cluster and one’s further away but sucks and one is closer but rules, I’ll go to the rules moon. Austin: Sure. Then that’s what it is. Keith: Or the no rules moon. Austin: Hey! Love it. Ali: No rules just right? Austin: The outback moon. I got you. The bloomin’ onion moon. Yeah. It’s like instead of being—in that cluster, instead of being represented by marbles, they’re represented by different root vegetables that have been turned into appetizer dishes. Keith: I thought you were going to say that the moon looks like it’s peeling open and there’s like a bunch of kind of tendrils kind of coming out from a root base. Austin: That’s great. That’s what it is. Yeah. Keith: And you can live all along the inside of the ridges and stuff. Austin: You can live all along the inside. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 100%. Keith: Massive surface area. You know, 10 trillion people. Austin: What’s it like there? What’s your life look like on the onion moon? Art: I mean, it’s just… This is going to sound weird, but it’s sort of just like head down, right? Like inconspicuous, you know, onion farming? Keith: Onion farming on the onion moon. Austin: On the onion moon. I like this. Keith: There’s high demand. Austin: Yeah. Keith: For some reason, people are always craving fried onion. Austin: I think you… Art: It’s like the idea of an inconspicuous ghost is sort of like funny. Austin: Yeah. No, I think it makes sense. Though I think it’s kind of funny because I think the group that you—I say the group. Some people start to show up, as if pulled here. There are people that you’ve seen before, Donnie. One of them is the great champion of Crux, Dame Judi Dead, who you saw in the mirror. Do you remember in the mirror you saw these other people briefly? Keith: How did we name someone Dame Judi Dead? Austin: You know, you just haven’t been to Crux yet. You would know all about Dame Judi Dead if y’all had gone to Crux. Keith: Yeah. Austin: Yeah. And so I think that that’s part of, you know, Dame Judi Dead shows up with like some other Crux survivors. And there’s a sort of hard to even… explain this, but the Judicious Boar is here with you. Shows up. Keith: One year hence? Austin: One year hence shows up. Keith: Did we get the thing from? Austin: You could not get the thing from Hye. No, you don’t have the marble. The marble is long gone. You don’t even know what happened, halfway—I mean, all the way across Realis. But the Boar is like, well, you know. I think greater issues than the marble at this point. Or maybe that’s not true. Maybe there is a sort of enmity that you find from the Boar and the survivors from Ulled, who take up like a different set. They live in like the higher like set of the onion peel, you know, other tendrils higher up, and keep distance from you. Keith: The first bites. They’re called the first bites. Austin: They’re the first bites. Exactly. And there is like a, I think the people who show up last are people who were from Dokine, but they feel like they are, like, shaking in and out of reality itself. They’re juddering between different… they’re kind of ghostly, like you, Donnie, but not dead people ghostly, not spirit ghostly, like ethereal. Whatever was done to them by the Final Day really shook them up. In fact, when one of them tells you about what happened, they can’t keep their own story straight. It’s like, oh, when the Final Day took stage. And then they’re like, oh, when Final Day paraded through the streets. Oh, when Final Day arose, you know, aside the city, floating in the air. Oh, when the Final Day, you know, blossomed above the city from the tower, which is what you know. And you live life here for some time. You’re a little space colony. Who stays up later at night? Between the two of you. Keith: I don’t know that Donnie sleeps. I think they don’t sleep. Art: Yeah, I don’t know that Donnie sleeps. Keith: We might have established that Donnie doesn’t sleep. Austin: Give me a little picture. Where do you hang out at night? Or, you know, when you have time by yourself, where are you hanging out? Art: Well, I mean, I’m already, I was like drifting through the onion pasture, but like it’s very low. They’re very low to the ground. Keith: Yeah, they grow underground and they sprout like spring onions. Art: I was hoping for a corn. Keith: That can’t be true, Art. You can’t have been thinking of onions growing from stalks. Art: I knew they grew underground, but I was hoping that they grew very high. Austin: Oh, I see what you’re saying. You’re saying that, yeah, you’re saying, what if there was, like, really long… They have a flower. They’ll flower. You know? Art: Yeah, just, like… a spirit on a night drifting through the onion flowers. Frankly, we haven’t established that Donnie needs to be a consistent height. Austin: We have not. Art: Could be small Donnie. Keith: And it would surprise me if they did. Austin: Drifting through the onion flowers. I love that. You’re the first one there who notices it. and Reprise and [1:21:00] [“and Reprise and” by Jack de Quidt starts playing] Austin: There are less moons in the sky than there normally are. You’re missing part of the night sky. There’s an area that’s just dark. It’s probably worth saying this again, Realis doesn’t have stars. It has lots of moons. Some moons are far enough away that they reflect the light of Realis itself such that they look like stars. You know what I mean? The way that Venus looks like a star to us at night in the night sky. And so there’s a sort of star field in that way, except that some of it is being covered up by darkness now. And so that’s odd. And over the nights to come, that darkness begins to spread. The moons are themselves seemingly erased from reality, bit by bit. It gets quieter somehow, like there’s a background noise that used to be there, and it’s just not anymore. And soon you’re alone. You, the corpse sun above, Realis astride. The great void below. And the light that is the Final Day. Turning its vision on you. Art (as Donnie): [echoing] I wish… I wish we could escape. I wish we could get away. I wish we could escape. I wish we could get away. Didn’t have to do this. Didn’t have to be us. [music ends] Art: Well, but—can’t—but we can affect Hye. No, I might not understand it mechanically. Austin: No, Art, talk through what you’re saying. Yeah, Hye has seemingly been frozen in place, unstuck from time, from the passage of time. But yeah, you can affect Hye. Hye is not… That conflict is over. Hye lost that conflict. Hye, you should mark that Sentence, right? Ali: Oh, sure. Austin: The moment has moved forward, you know? Art: So I would like to sort of pull Hye back to time. Austin: Yes, totally. Art: Using spectral power, I assert that all spectral power really does is pull something into the present time. Austin: It sure does. Art: A ghost is a thing from the past pulled into present time. Austin: I love this. This is good, yes. And you explicitly… Keith: Yeah. And I believe… Austin: It explicitly says “support myself and allies,” right? Art: Yeah, yeah. Austin: That is this, 100%. Keith: And I believe this also gives you back your token. Austin: This is not a ritualistic Means. Unless there’s a ritualistic element here. What’s the ritual? Keith: I think it’s worth doing a ritual to get back your token. Austin: Yeah, talk to me about what the ritual is. This is an encouragement to, it’s not, I guess importantly, yeah, like it’s not, you’re not just going, “ooh, I gotcha!” You’re doing something ritually, you know? Art: What would the opposite of a séance look like? Austin: Oh, I love that. That’s a great question. Art: Because a séance is like a mortal person contacting a ghost. Austin: Yeah. Art: What does it look like if a ghost… Austin: We call that a haunting. Keith: Yeah, it’s a haunting. Austin: But I know what you mean. What’s like, yeah. Keith: I was going to go with néance, but haunting is true. Art: It’s not a say-ance, it’s a hear-ance. Austin: A listen-ance. Art: Yeah, listen-ance. Keith: Listen, aunts. It’s me, a family comedian. Art: Yeah, part of this is I’m thinking of the Means of drawing Hye back into this place is sort of a lot of the same… What’s the opposite of sitting in a circle and like chanting? Austin: Or maybe it’s the same thing. You’re just chanting towards a different end. Or maybe if you’re doing a dance, you know? Art: Or it’s like Wellaway, sit down. And it’s like forcing Hye into the position. Keith: It could be a séance, but for you. It could bring you more real. Art: [intrigued] Oh. Keith: Like, I can see you. What would a séance do to a ghost that I already know is there? Austin: Thereby giving you the power. Art: Sure. Keith: Right, if a séance is taking a ghost that isn’t affecting the world— Austin: I think that may move it into that’s Wellaway doing a thing and not. Keith: Sure. Art: Well, the idea to pull Hye back into the world. Austin: Yeah, I think Hye has to be at the center of this action that is led by Donnie. Art: Well, that could be like the thing, to pull Hye in, Donnie has to step further in. Austin: Oh, that’s fun. Yeah, I like that. You like, you’re effectively reaching further away unstuck in time and then pulling back—almost a fun echo of pulling the mirrored Candide where you’re like, you know, the thing that’s happening is something is getting unstuck and coming forward. I like that. Is it a séance? Does it look like a séance? Does it look like—we were getting close to a physical description, a second ago, I’d like to just get that physical description so that we know what it looks like. Art: Yeah. Keith: Snuff out a bunch of candles. Art: It’s like I’ve looked this clip up since we started doing this, but I want to go look at the “we’re here” scene in Poltergeist again. Or “they’re here.” Keith: That’s the TV scene? Austin: It is. Art: Yeah, but there’s like a hand, right? The hand comes out of the TV? Keith: I think so. Art: I’ve watched this clip before. There’s no way it wasn’t for this. Austin: Yeah, there is a hand. There is a hand. Keith: It was for this. I remember it. Austin: It was this. Yeah. There’s like a cool ghost hand, a cool, like, animated ghost hand that stretches out. Art: Yeah. So yeah, what if, what if it’s like, like Donnie puts their hands in their—we’ve said, we’ve said that Donnie looks like they’re wearing like a formal jacket. Puts the hands in the pockets of the jacket and like animated hands pop out of like the shoulders. Austin: Oh, that’s fun. Yeah. Art: And like reach into like the ether or whatever we want to call it, the… and. Austin: It’s the drift, is what it is, yeah. Art: Yeah. And while the process is happening Donnie starts to come into color. And I don’t want to commit to too many physical features here, but like. You know, the jacket is a deep brown. The shirt is a pale blue. The buttons start to look like they’re engraved. Austin: Yeah. Can I tell you something that’s never been true for you as far as your phenomenological experience of life has ever been? Art: Yeah, sure. Austin: You’re hungry. Art: Oh, wow. Austin: You have a hunger. You have a sense of, oof. Art: Sure. Keith: God, never been hungry. Art: And maybe like, you know. It’s not quite, but maybe it kind of smells like sweat? Austin: Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, yeah. Yeah, I love it. Hye. You come back. The spell sort of fizzles out, but you’re back in the current moment of time. Ali: What was my experience being… Austin: I was just thinking about this. It felt like you were stuck in time. You did not see anything that happened between then and now. It felt like you and everything else were holding your breath. And just completely still. Forever. To the degree that, like, even though we’ve experienced it as a few seconds or a few minutes, you know, the ritual was happening and Donnie’s weird ghost hands were coming out, it felt way longer for you. You were just in there, you know? In a world that wasn’t moving. Keith: Spooky. Ali: Scary. Austin: Mm-hm. And the amorphous, gaseous form of the Final Day continues to just kind of blob around, growing. Ali: I think I come to startled and freaked out a little bit. Ali (as Hye): We have to, we have to do something with that presence. Keith (as Wellaway): Are you okay? Ali (as Hye): It did something to me. It made everything stop. Nothing moved as it should have. I think this has the power to do as Candide said. Keith (as Wellaway): How do we close it? Ali: That’s a great question. [laughs] Keith: Wow, you got over that fast. [laughs] Ali: Out of character, that’s a great question. Keith: I mean, Austin told us, but I don’t know how to make that work. Austin: Wait, what did I tell you? Keith: You said that two Dreams can… Austin: Sure, yes. Keith: Yeah. Austin: That’s true. Ali: Oh, sure, sure, sure. Keith: But I don’t know what that means, really. Like, I know that I have a Dream, but I don’t know how to make… I don’t know how to do it that versus this thing. Austin: Well, so the way a Dream works is that you can spend it in place of a Means, effectively, right? Your Dream is not a… You don’t do it. It’s not like an “I always” Sentence. Keith: It’s because I’m working towards my Dream with this action, so I can use it in place of a Sentence. Austin: You can use a Dream whenever you want to win a conflict. It does not have to be even towards it. Keith: Oh. Austin: A Dream, you just get to use it once. Keith: Ever. Austin: Ever. You cross it out. Keith: So one of us uses our Dream once here. Austin: You declare it. It’s just like a regular conflict, except instead of drawing on—you describe intent like normal, et cetera. Keith: Yeah. Austin: Yep. Keith: Once per character. Forever. Austin: Forever. Keith: I think me and Ali have a real good argument for using our Dreams here. Ali: Yeah. Yeah, I was just thinking that mine… Oh, boy. I mean, mine necessitates the moons existing. Keith: Right. Ali: And they can’t implode if they’re going to align with each other. And, yeah. But, I mean, they all line up and then they implode. [laughs] You know, that seems… Keith: Right. I know, Austin, you just said that it doesn’t have to be towards the Dream. It just… Austin: It doesn’t. You know, the play example in the book is of someone using their Dream on something that is extremely not their Dream in a sort of tragic way, you know? Keith: Yeah. The thing that I guess I’m really stuck on is, like, what even, like, method would Wellaway have to do that? Austin: That is right. The fictional question is the question. Keith: Yeah, so it feels like Donnie and Hye have magic and ritual and ghost stuff, and that I’m a clown. And so I could use my Dream, because it makes sense to use my Dream, Dream-wise, but not character-wise. Austin: Yeah. Again, this is one of those things where it’s like, let’s say you had found a powerful ritual in the library to use here. And then that’s a thing that even Wellaway could do. You could use the Dream to make sure it had enough power to overcome the Final Day. You know? Keith: Okay. And here’s maybe where I could do something, unless someone else is like, I’ll just do it with my magic stuff. I have the instructions. Maybe I could glean a way to reverse… Austin: No, the instructions are about where to place this thing for maximum spread. I mean, I think maybe even a thing I’ll just give you based on now that you’re here. It’s up high because this is helping it blend in with the terrible atmosphere of Dokine, right? Keith: Yeah. Austin: ”Dokine skies are always crowded,” it’s going to spread as things fly past here. “Dokine’s light always alters the obvious,” the light, the strange changing colors of Dokine’s skies and the kind of deceptive light are going to hide it until it’s too late. Et cetera. Right, and so there is a way in which this is, this is a real “the Titanic hit the iceberg already” situation. Right? This is part of why Candide feels like it’s unavoidable. Keith: Yeah. Austin: This is also why Candide came here. Was to see, and this obviously maybe not something—Candide did not tell you this. Candide came here to see if the prophecy was already moving. Or the thing that they saw in the reflection was already happening. Ali: And then she… Saw that that was the case, yeah. Austin: Mm-hm. And was like, you have to go. Ali: Shoutouts to Candide. Austin: Did not necessarily understand what she was looking at, you know? Ali: Right, yeah. Keith: Yeah, here we are. Ali: Yeah, I will… I’m also looking at the Moon Sentences, even though I don’t know that there’s… Austin: Yeah, I mean, if we can speak in absolute clarity about what we now know. We know that the Final Day has Dreams instead of Sentences. We know that a Dream can only be beaten by another Dream, and it can’t even be beaten by. They just both fail. Dreams are not things that contain action in them. They are a way to declare—they’re a way to make any intent you’ve described, as long as it has a fictional grounding, achievable through willpower or destiny or fate or luck or camaraderie or any of these things that narratives often bend around. Right. As long as you can kind of ground it fictionally. But also, again, you’re up against the thing that seems to have Dreams instead of Sentences. So. And Dreams. Keith: So one of us has to use a Dream and then we can actually deal with it because then that Dream will have failed Austin: Because that well, once it’s— Ali: Well, it’ll have multiple… Austin: That is right, Ali. Yes. Ali: It probably has three Dreams at least. Right? Austin: NPCs tend to have three Sentences or four Sentences. Player characters seem to have four Sentences, two Bonds, a Dream, and any Ephemera they’ve picked up. Keith: I should shoot this thing with my gun. It destroys everything in its path. Austin: Ah, it destroys everything in its path, yeah. Keith: That’ll show it. Art: Unless its Dream is “I don’t get shot by a gun.” Austin: I don’t get shot by a gun. I have rewritten—it has a set of Dreams that are already written. I will say that. The other way to think of it is, there are characters that have, there are NPCs with like +5 Sentences that can only be achieved—and maybe that’s actually a better way of thinking about this. Because it has things that have the high, the impossible reality of a Dream. But it is, I guess it’s maybe fair to say, it is not, it did not seem to lose that ability necessarily when it used it on you. So actually maybe it’s worth saying they’re +5 Sentences more than it’s a specific Dream, but it would get Countered by a Dream the way that that happens, you know. So it is a thing that is breaking the rules of Realis. We are in classic the story breaks when independent rules counter the rules of the book type situation, you know. But you could Counter the Dreams. You could make it waste its Dreams by tossing your own Dreams to it. What you don’t know is what those Dreams are and which it would use to, you know. But its Dreams are apocalyptic things, you know. I think that that is clear with your interaction with it, Hye. Like, oh, it wants, one of the things that the Final Day wants to bring into existence is to “fix in time and place all who see the purity of its form.” I may as well just add that to a new NPC on your sheets also, so you have them all here. Let’s put it right— Keith: I mean, that’s a really good one to Counter if we were to Counter anything. Who knows what the other things are, but it would at least make it easier to work around this thing. Ali: Yeah. Austin: It is going to continue to grow. That is its—we’re standing on top of this tower as this strange thing continues to… And it grows in… You know, let’s have it grow here. Now. There’s a sort of like… “bdddloop” sound and it expands in a single, like, in a big way. It’s not like, oh, it’s slowly expanding. It’s like it’s doing the thing where you’re playing a game where you have to eat bigger things. And then all of a sudden you’re a bigger thing. You know what I mean? It’s like it’s jumping up in scale by class. Not by slow, you know, continuous growth. Keith: I guess the question that I have is, this is only the second planet. We have this multi-planet curse that we’re dealing with. And is there a version of the game where Austin is like, you all have to use up all your Dreams to get rid of this thing and then keep playing a bunch of the game, which doesn’t seem likely to me. Austin: No, this is existential. We are playing out an existential crisis in, not in the personal sense, in the broader campaign-wide sense. Keith: What I have to ask is, have you given us a thing to deal with that can only be dealt with by throwing Dreams at it as a way to encourage us to look elsewhere for ways to solve this or as a way to give us a way to deal with this thing? Austin: It could go either direction. Keith: It could go. Austin: But I think that this is, you know, you’re up against a thing that you could get clever with me on. You know, I don’t—it is a pre-written thing. I have its set of Dream Sentences in front of me. I’m not rewriting them. They are locked. You know? I don’t know which of them will happen. I will decide as you try things on it what it’s going to use to—you know, I didn’t know, oh first it’ll—I didn’t know that it was gonna be met on top of the tower here, right? You know, in my mind it was like it was gonna spread through the city and then you’re on the third day, you’re on the Final Day and you’re like holy shit this stuff is happening, you know? Keith: Yeah. Austin: But you did find— Keith: Hey, we work fast. Austin: You work fast. Well, you work fast and also like you’ve been up all day. You’ve been up all day and night, this is exhausting, we should be playing that a little bit. Though I don’t know that Donnie sleeps, so. I don’t remember. Art: I don’t think so. I think we’ve established no. Keith: Yeah. Talk about “resist stillness.” Austin: Yeah. Keith: [sighs] Austin: Yeah, I think we’re approaching the, you know, you have to take a particular action. It’s not just like “I don’t go to sleep” gives you “resist stillness.” It’s an Impulse. It’s something that you do with a move. But lord, your body wants to be still. Keith: I feel like I don’t have any immediately good ideas besides what we’ve talked about and feeling like I’m not equipped to start throwing out my Dream to do something as a character sheet. Austin: Sure. Keith: Not as a character, but as a sheet. Austin: Yep. Art: And I feel like there’s, like, I feel like we should be able to find the sideways way here, you know? Austin: That is not always available. Art: Well, we haven’t even… Keith: We could find the guy that we think could shut this off, and then they can go, I can’t shut this off. Austin: Right, right. Art: Yeah. Ali: Right, and I mean, who’s… Keith: You can’t, like the Titanic, you can’t shut off the hole in the hull. Ali: Yeah. Austin: You have found a hole in reality. Now, again, what that hole brings with it could be different. Keith: When you use a Dream, do you use it in place of a specific Class Sentence? Or do you just use it in place of using a Class Sentence with a dramatic intent? Austin: No. Correct. You use it in place of a Means. Which means, and a Means can be a Moon Sentence. A Means can be an Ephemera. You declare an intent. And then the Dream is your Means. Keith: Right. So I just mean there doesn’t have to be an analog to one of my Means. Austin: Correct. That is correct. Yeah. Keith: Okay. And can you read the Sentence that we know? Austin: I put it in, it should be under, it’s under Band/Faction NPCs. The Final Day, “I will fix in time and place all who see the purity of my form.” Ali: Yow. Keith: Anybody have a good pitch on how to distort the purity of its form? Austin: That’s a great way of thinking about it. Keith: If, you know, we have a lot of Sentences about the truth, you know, feeling like you have a pure form, that’s an extremely personal thing that is not rooted in anything that’s actually real. So if you can reveal to this thing that it doesn’t have a pure form, that sounds like a good idea. Art: Yeah I mean we could, we could, we could—no… I mean, the truth, we all have truth moves, right? And how pure is it? Austin: Yeah, it sounded like, Wellaway, your suggestion was like make it doubt the purity of its own—make it not see itself as a thing with pure form. Therefore, it can’t trigger that. Keith: Right. Yeah. Austin: I see what you’re saying. Art: Yeah. But like, how do you do that? Keith: Okay, this is a shot in the dark. What if we went, got that mirror, and pulled something out from the mirror here? Art: I don’t know that I can unlimited pull things out of that mirror. I mean, it might be worth a shot. Keith: I mean, two is not quite unlimited. Austin: Is not infinite. Yeah, sure, sure. Art: Sure. Ali: Or if we just, I mean, but what happens in the reflection? Keith: I don’t know. Ali: Yeah… Art: I mean, it’s a plan. And I don’t have an idea, so… Keith: It’s something. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what would happen if we did that. Like, there’s a version where it’s just like… That’s not how any of this works. Nothing really happens. Nothing comes out or something comes out, and it doesn’t have anything to do with this. And it was a waste of time, and it should be cut from the show. But there’s a version of it where it’s a really good idea. And something cool happens. Austin: I think it’s a fun—if your goal is like, yeah, I think try it. Fuck it. Try it. I do not make lock and key design, like, as, generally speaking. So this is not like… It’s not the secret that’s going to solve the boss fight. Do you know what I mean? Keith: But if what I want to do is, without having to figure how to use my Dream on this thing, show it a reflection of itself that isn’t pure, pulling something out from that mirror here. Austin: I don’t even know that you need to pull something out. It doesn’t seem like they interact in that way. Keith: I’m thinking of Candide’s reaction to the mirror. Austin: Yes, but Candide isn’t the Final Day, as far as you can tell, right? Keith: No, no. But the mirror is showing people something about. Austin: It showed Donnie something, clearly. Keith: Yep, 100%. Yes. The Sentence that you know about the mirror is, “When touched with magical energy, I always reveal an inescapable truth.” Keith: Donnie, you could fly. Can you get this mirror real quick? Art: Sure. I’m not even sure I need to fly. Austin: You can just hover it. Art: Yeah, I think I can just like summon it. Austin: I do need an image of you is, morning breaks and people start to go to work and all of this shit, you hovering this mirror to your destination. How are you, are you going through the back streets? Is there just a mirror hovering through the broadway? Keith: Hey, if ever there was a moon to do that. Art: I think it’s like 14 feet in the air. Austin: Mm, okay. Art: And like, I think that’s, most people just don’t see it. Austin: Yeah. Yeah, people are busy. People try to get to work. Keith: Yeah. Austin: Head down. Fantastic. Keith: Plus, it’s just the butterfly effect. Austin: All right. Yeah, of course. Of course. Of course. Keith: Sometimes things float. Austin: Yeah. Bring this thing through. You sneak it up. You’re dodging again the regular people who now work here. This place is going to start getting tourists soon. You sneak it through the security, you know, and up the many, many—maybe you get into like a maintenance elevator, Donnie. You don’t have to carry it all the way up here. Is this tire—oh, it is tiring! And yeah, so what is your plan here, Wellaway, you’re going to like try to show it itself in the mirror. Keith: Yeah. Austin: And I think that there is something really fun, actually. You’re going to spend, you know, that’s your intention. Your Dream is. Keith: ”I will hear, in whispers and shouts, an entire world speak my name together.” Austin: I do think there’s something really fun about crossing that out in order to make one other thing see itself as it really is. Instead of it being about attention being placed on you, it’s about making this thing privately see itself. In a real way you have actually responded to a public problem through private Means, also. And it will, and yes, I think it sees itself in exactly the way that you’re hoping, and no longer does it feel that it has a purity of form, and so it will not be able to use “I will fix in time and place all who see the purity of my form.” I’m crossing it out. Yeah, and I think that it’s just kind of like, I think it grows again at that point in a sort of fit of anger and energy. But is, you know, all of you are now able to kind of look directly at it. Hye, you’re able to like bring your magic to bear against it in a way that’s like, you know, it was your intensity and your focus of perception of it. When you’re like, I’m really looking at this thing. You get struck by what it is. It’s kind of, this is what happened the first time, right? It was able to use this thing. You’re struck by its kind of, again, its purity. I don’t even want to say beauty, but you just like, it has a sort of, you could see its completeness and you could see that it felt final. It felt real. It felt like it was inevitable in seeing it. You know, the type of thing that you see and you’re like, oh, there’s no way to overcome this thing. This is where we’re all headed. We’re all headed towards stillness. That is overcome now, because it doubts its own ability to do that. It unfortunately does have some other Dreams that you don’t know quite what they are yet. But I’ve crossed out that first one. You’ve stumbled into a really fun thing, which is you could trigger a Sentence and then be like how do we stop that? But there’s, whew, you know. Keith: Yeah. Seems dangerous, actually. Austin: Yeah. Keith: I could potentially try and figure out what else this thing might do using “I always reveal the truth,” which is also primed. Austin: Uh-huh. Ali: Oh, and the, oh, yeah. Keith: And it will either work because the Sentence works or it will work because it will Counter me with a Dream. Austin: Yeah. Ali: And then you… yeah. Keith: Which, it may paradoxically mean that it works regardless. Art: Wait. Would we rather try “I always frighten those who perceive me”? What if we can just? Keith: Scare it. Ali: Ooh! Art: Scare it right off. Keith: You don’t think it would be helpful to try and know some of what those other Dreams are? Before acting— Art: No, what if we just win? Keith: I don’t think Austin will allow it. Ali: Eh, you never know. Austin: You never know. Maybe it gets spooked. It hasn’t seen a ghost before. Ali: Play it clever enough. Austin: Yeah. And hey, it would potentially… It’s already primed, actually, huh? Ali: Yeah. Austin: ”I always frighten those who perceive me.” So that would not, in fact, prime it. You’re already there. You trying it? Art: I always frighten weird entities who perceive me. Austin: Yeah. Oh, that’s fun. Art: Yeah, I’m going to try it. Austin: What is your most ghastly form? What is it, the thing that you’re trying to make it look at when it looks at you? Art: I mean, usually just a ghost person is enough. You know, why don’t I just take something from recent memory? What if it’s a ghost werewolf? Austin: Oh, fun. Art: That’s two things. Keith: The ghost of a werewolf, so a dead werewolf? Austin: Okay, we don’t have to get morose. Keith: I just mean, you know, if something’s going to scare something, then like a monster that can be killed. Austin: Yeah, I see. Art: Well, but you can’t kill it anymore, it’s a ghost. Austin: You’re going to Counter this Sentence because it’s going to look past you and, as it says in its Dream, “I will erase the thousand moons with the clarity of my vision.” Ali: Whoa! Austin: Beyond Realis itself, on the other side, kind of, you know, the opposite end of the lunar sphere around Realis, there are small pops. And they begin spreading out beyond the edge of Realis as it comes across the horizon. The furthest moons away begin imploding. Keith: You made it mad. Austin: It’s coming closer, bit by bit. I’ll put this Dream in the Sentence, or in the sheets for you. This is bad. Keith: Yeah, this is bad. Austin: This is, you know, many moons are not as… Most moons, I would say, are not as populous as this one. This is a moon filled with many cities. We know, for instance, also that the way we’ve talked about it, the Empest, if they existed, this version of Realis exists in that exact direction. Not that killing loads and loads of the Empest is beyond the judgment of morality or something, but we know that that’s the place where the Empest in our version of Realis are. But they’re being erased. Moon by moon by moon. Every few seconds, another pop. It’s distant and strange here, revealing perhaps that sound can travel through the, in this version of Realis, through space between the moons. But bit by bit, it will reach here eventually. And more importantly, will reach more and more and more people who are now dying. Keith: Ali, this is your time. You got it. You depend on these moons. Ali: I have to. Yeah, I can’t, I can’t have this happen. Austin: No, kind of a big deal. Ali: I think this is a real disturbance in the force moment for me. Austin: Oh it’s, yeah, uh-huh. Ali: I’m like, ughh… Austin: ”That’s no moon!” Anymore. It’s been destroyed. What is your Dream? Ali: My Dream is “I will witness the alignment of the moons and bring fame to my sponsors.” Keith: Yeah, that seems relevant. Austin: Are you just channeling lunar power? What are you doing? What is your Counter here visually? Ali: Yeah, I think so. I wonder like and I… You know, I just want to, like, summon the energy to, like, start making the moons move. Austin: Ooh, fun. Yeah. Keith: But—oh, never mind. Ali: [laughs] Austin: You’re, like, moving their orbits in some way? Ali: Right, yeah. Austin: I like this because everything about you has been, I’m going to look at the way the moons are aligned. It is, “I will witness the alignment of the moons.” Now what you’re doing is realigning the moons. Ali: Yeah. Austin: Which is a fun reversal of what you normally do. Ali: And in like an immediate like snap action, like this is the only way to protect them sort of way. Like if there’s something about the way that they were predisposed on their paths. Austin: Right. Ali: To getting, you know, popped. [laughs] Austin: Yeah. Yeah, totally. Ali: Obliterated. Austin: The thing the Final Day is using is the clarity of its vision. If— Keith: Trillions of people falling over. [laughs] Austin: Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. Whoa! I like that you’re doing this with the urgency of like a parent putting their arm across the child in the car when someone cuts them off, you know what I mean? Like, “No!” Keith: That’s funny, yeah. Ali: Just. Austin: Yeah. Ali: Raising my staff and fucking trying to speak to the moons, who I speak to so often. Austin: You feel there is a, yeah, there is a, the gem of Ulled that you have in your staff lifts and it’s pulling upwards as if it’s lifting you into the air. In fact, maybe it does. It lifts you into the air as you do this, as if it’s pulling you towards orbit, basically. But you’re able to not float away. Keith (as Wellaway): Damn, I’m the only one that can’t fly? Austin: Well, this is unintentional. I guess, though. I guess “summon the power of the moons.” Yeah, probably could fly. Ali: You never know. Keith: This is an in character, you know, not really understanding what’s happening. Austin: Yeah. Ali: [laughs] Austin: Yeah, so that’s crossed out. It again goes buh-boom, and then grows a bit more out of anger or out of, you know, something. Keith: Desperation? Austin: Desperation, maybe. Yeah. Or certainty. Maybe like the classic, I don’t need to wait to do the thing. I can just do it. Keith: Yeah. All right. I’m going to do my last. My thing that I was going to do is, we each get to fail a Class Sentence against this thing. I’m going to try to figure out what else the thing wants to do by always revealing the truth. Austin: Ooh. Oh. What do you do physically? Because I know how you’re revealing the truth. I know what the terrible twist to this is, you know? Keith: Right. It’s that I do reveal the truth, but by failing the Sentence in the Dream… Austin: Well, you reveal the truth to… You’re trying to reveal the truth to you, right? I want to know what this thing does. Whatever you do will egg it on to reveal its truth to many other people here in Dokine. Keith: Yeah. You know, before we just put the rock through it and it lost its color. I’m going to start like not poking at it, but like sticking things into it to see and it’s like, okay, what else is this thing going to do? Austin: Yeah, and it is. It’s sapping the color from them, and it’s shimmering as you try to, you know, you put a stick in there. You put a pipe, you know, whatever you have around. There’s a toolbox. You throw a wrench through it. You know what I mean? You’re going Hitman mode on this thing. It is getting increasingly agitated, and then it kind of reforms itself. It goes from being this kind of, like, gaseous cloud to being, like, a fountain of gas, a fountain of air. The shimmer streams upward towards the clouds above. And as it does, fire kind of begins to spread through the air. “I will carry apocalyptic conflagration with the grace of my arrival.” The clouds of Dokine above and below begin to burn, and ash and cinder and fire begin to fall, rain from the sky across the city that you’re currently flying on. It’s, you know, in the distance as if, you know, all at once, the clouds are on fire, and that distant city that we saw, the wings of that butterfly light up and begin to burn. It’s going to crash into the corrosive clouds below. That are now also corrosive and on fire. Keith: Sorry, I carry with me a conflagration of what? Austin: I will drop it back in the thing here. Keith: Okay, great. Austin: ”I will carry apocalyptic conflagration with the grace of my arrival.” It’s arrived. You know, it’s debuted. You could imagine this was going to happen when it stepped on stage for the first time, so to speak. But instead, it’s arrived to the people of Dokine instead of the attendants of the show, you know? Keith: So there was never a comedian. Austin: There was never a comedian. Keith: So I was the second day and the last day. Austin: Let me tell you. Wellaway, you’re the closing act, buddy. Keith: Never before! Austin: Never before. Grand opening, grand closing. Not really, because we know grand opening was the other guy, but anyway. Keith: Grand middling. Austin: Grand middling. Ali: Mm, you’re better than that. Keith: No, the middle is the best day, I’ve been saying! Austin: The fire is spreading. It is terrible and beautiful. Keith: All right, we got one left, Art. Austin: How do you put out a bunch of apocalyptic fire all at once? Art: Well, not with spectral power to support myself and my allies. Austin: I mean, you could use some spectral power here, you know? It’s just that you’d be powering it with your Dream instead of powering it with just the power of the Sentence. Art: Sure, but I don’t know how to make… How do I give up on my Dream by doing that? Austin: Well, it isn’t about… It does not need to be… Again, your Dream is a sort of cache of power you’re drawing on, right? It is a… Keith: You don’t lose the Dream, you just lose the power to use it again as a move. Austin: Yeah, you can continue to wish for the thing, but this was like the Dream is sort of like the little—the Dream is like the nitro in the car in Fast and Furious and it’s like, did you use it at the time that you needed to win the race. And maybe you’re using it early. Maybe you’re using it in the race that’s not the final race of the movie, so you won’t have it again. You know? In this moment, it would be like drawing on whatever was driving you towards achieving that Dream, which is… Can you say what your Dream was again? Art: ”I will reunite with that which I was separated from.” Austin: Right. And so this is a classic, you know, oh, I really wanted to figure out where I was from. I really wanted to rejoin who I was with. Who I was. Keith: If you die here, you’ll never do that. Austin: If you die here, you’ll never do that. That’s a great way of thinking about it, for sure. Yes. And then on the other hand… If what it takes later is the power of this, you know, will, you won’t have that to grip onto anymore. And so there’s a give and a take on that for sure. But yeah, I think Keith’s version of it, you know, if you die here, you die again. If a ghost can die, you know, it’s going to be really hard to reconnect to that. Art: Well, with no moon to be on, what is even being a ghost? Austin: Being a ghost in space is one of my great nightmares. Keith: It’s one of my great television shows. Austin: Oh, okay. Art: Okay, I’ll make it rain. I’ll make it ghost rain. Austin: What’s ghost—oh! Art: I’ll make it like, and it looks like the rain in a black and white movie, not like the rain in real life. Austin: Is it like, you know, you pulled Hye out of time earlier. Are you pulling this rain out of time, also, like forward from? Art: I think it’s like pulling rains from people’s memories. I think that’s why it looks like a movie. Austin: That’s fun. That’s really fun. There’s thunder. Art: Not that like movies exist, really, in the same way but. Austin: Dokine is the place for it. Dokine has some some big weird, you know, things. Oh, another thing that got set on fire— Keith: That spaceship’s got movies. Austin: That’s true. Well, sometimes. I think, important, I described there being those giant matchstick like fighter, fighting guys. I don’t know if you remember this. They’re like big, like wooden. Keith: Yeah. They were on the… Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em. Austin: Yeah, they’re on fire. Also. The Rock ‘em sock ‘em robot slash matchstick samurai guys. They’re on fire from this, from the big fire. But they get put out. The smell of wood is burning in the air as this giant ghost rainstorm hits from nowhere, seemingly. Donnie, this is exhausting. Also, you get, you know, rained on for the first time. You’ve never felt the rain like this. I know you still have “I am always intangible,” but I think you still are. The rain is still falling through you, but you’re feeling it land on your skin at the same time, you know? Art: Yeah, that makes sense. Keith: Ghost rain. Austin: Ghost rain. It is ghost rain also, you know, so it’s like kind of specially built for you to feel it. Art: Ghost rain. Rain for ghosts Austin: Ghost rain. Keith: Ghost sandwiches for your new hunger. Austin: Yeah. Oh, you could get some ghost sandwiches. That sounds delicious. Go ahead and cross that Dream off and I’ll do the same for its third Sentence. Standing on top of the tower, you see something in the distance. I mean, people are screaming and yelling, right? All through the city, even as the rain starts. Because it’s like, oh my God, is this going to be poison, terrible rain? And it’s not, it’s good rain. It’s great rain. It’s rain to save them. But now the sky has been on fire. The sound of other moons bursting was heard. They didn’t see Hye freeze in time, thankfully. That did not happen to them. They’ve seemingly kept that from happening, at least at this point. At least in this reality. But you do see and hear people reacting to this in maybe the best way they know how, which is launching their spaceships. Among the ships— Keith: Like to escape? Austin: Oh yeah. You don’t see the shuttle that the Nerveless Chancers take. That’s still here. You do, however, see the Jubilant Jewel take off. Ali: Aw. Keith: Hey! Ali: Yeah, that’s up to them. Austin: They are not alone. And then you see the sort of black and white gray reality begin to take over. What was once on fire is now losing color as the Final Day spreads throughout Dokine and beyond. Do any of you have a Sentence that can Counter “I will refract reality itself with the most minor of utterances”? Keith: None of us have a Dream. Refraction [2:04:30] Austin: Right. Well, I have to say it when someone’s declaring an intent. There is the sound of thunder. First, the thunder that Donnie called with the storm. And then this, the Final Day, speaking a new reality into existence, shattering this one, refracting this one. In one reality, somewhere, the Jubilant Jewel does not take off, or it comes here and picks you up, or you see that the person at its controls has lowered a ladder for you. That is not this reality. In another reality, the rest of the Krinsky Family Circus does leave, does abandon you here, but that is not this one. In another one, Wellaway actually has a twin, and the twin is off doing the live show to make sure that there was still a day two keynote, it’s the most important day, so, you know, you’d have that covered. That’s not this reality, though. But it sort of shatters. What was this sort of— Keith: Wellaway. Austin: Maybe you actually see these a little bit in the reflection of the mirror that is here. The mirror that is here and that nevertheless somehow, supposedly, will be seen by Candide in the future, despite it being here now. And the reality that you are in just simply begins to break. We get the sort of, the whole world shakes for a second and we get images of the three of you reacting to the sort of shaking of the tower. Except that you’re, as you shake, we get the kind of like afterimage shadow versions of you. And some of you, sometimes you go left and sometimes you go right. There’s like a great, terrible destabilization here as the Final Day begins to replace this reality with something else. The kind of gray color that you saw, the black and white monochrome color, begins to spread across the clouds here. And as it does, the quality of them as clouds begins to shift. It’s not clear that they even are clouds anymore. They might be paint. They might be mud. They lose their sort of voluminous quality as the light no longer can pierce through them in the right way. People below shift in form. You look down in what was once a sort of metropolitan world where people were living in cities in the back of giant butterflies. One moment is an even grander metropolis and then is suddenly a sort of medieval village below. Reality is breaking in front of you. What do you do? What does the version of you that the camera spends its time on do, as other versions of you take off in different directions? Keith: It’s time for the politics of joy. Austin: [surprised laugh] Ali: [laughing] What?! Austin: That’ll save us. Finally. Keith: I use my level zero Sentence, “I always bring joy with my antics.” Austin: Oh, this is actually a great phrasing. This is a great framing rather. I love this. You’re each going to get to respond to the death of your/the refracting/the shattering/the shifting. Maybe, maybe it’s just a little shifting of reality with one Sentence. I want, yeah, I want, what is the final Sentence you usher? That you use as a new reality gets ushered into, into being? “I always bring joy with my antics.” Are you laughing? Are you smiling? Are you telling a joke? Keith: I don’t know. Because I did say it as a joke. But I do have that Sentence. Austin: I love it. You know, I think the thing that is happening here is… In a way, Donnie, your Sentence, or your Dream was “I will reunite with that which one I was separated from.” You were obviously separated from something else. You’re a ghost. You’re a strange spirit. You’re from another moon we haven’t even gotten to. But in this moment, you’re actually being separated from your buds, your friends. You’re being separated. You’re being spun out into other realms, other realities. So I think it’s kind of fun to be like, what is the final shot you each see of each other? What is the Sentence you’re using as that happens? And in this case, I do like, Wellaway, it being “I always bring joy with my antics.” Keith: I slip on a banana peel. Austin: From another reality. Keith: Yeah. Austin: Yeah. Great. Keith: A different Wellaway threw away a banana peel. As one of the things to throw into the blob. Austin: Right, of course. Keith: And it shows up here, and I— Austin: And everything is black and white here now, you can’t really tell what’s—right. Keith: Yeah, so I do a shrug of like, oh well, and then I go, you know, take a step forward and slip on the banana peel and then you hear like a [cartoon slipping noise] “woop-oop-oop-oop-oo!” Austin: Great. Consummate entertainer. Art: I think I’m using “I wield a special power to support myself and my allies” but the support is like the other Donnies are sort of like reaching through the realities to each other and trying to like make some sort of ghost net. Austin: Oh, this is really good for many reasons that you couldn’t possibly understand yet. Art: Rude, frankly. I think… Keith: Damn. Austin: Well, I was playing… Keith: If only Art was a little smarter, maybe… Austin: That’s not what I meant! I didn’t mean that! I didn’t mean… Oh, Art, you’ve got to take another class. Art, you have to go take one college credit and then you’ll be able to understand this. [laughter] Austin: Sorry, they’re making a net to kind of like stay, to be like, to stay connected, to stay real, to stay connected across the broken timelines? Art: Yeah. Austin: I love it. There is something about the net… I want to say it starts by looking like a net, but by the end, it starts looking like a wicker man. What was rope is actually wicker, more like wood, more like a sort of figure appearing in the rope. In the sort of spectral form. Art: Mm! Keith: Oh, so you made a monster. Austin: Eh! Art: I made reality into a monster, thank you very much. Austin: Thank you very much. Hye. Ali: Um, I think the Sentence I am going for is “I am always bound by my destiny to witness a cosmic event.” Austin: Oh—oh, yeah!? [laughs] Keith: Hm. Art: [laughs] Ali: I know, you know? Keith: Do you think this counts as cosmic? Austin: Mm. [laughs] Art: Hye just looking around, “Wow!” Keith: Wink. Ali: [laughs] Yeah, I think that’s my Sentence, but I think the actual, the thing that I’m doing is more like “I always know how to ritually summon,” yadda yadda. Because I do think that it’s like different Hyes doing different, like, the fortunetelling spell that she does where moons appear in a projection above the staff. But it’s like different readings each time, you know what I mean? Keith: Damn, we’re not going to get to hence. Ali: [laughs] I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Lord Bein. Austin: Listen. Time is long, as I am oft wont to say. Keith: But hence was specific. Ali: [laughs] Austin: Yeah, yeah. That’s true, hence was pretty specific. Keith: Hey, you got a whole moon in there! Austin: Mm-hm. Keith: That’s something. Is that anything? Austin: Might be. Ali: Yeah, I mean I do have one more use of this Ephemera, so maybe I can. Keith: Can we do a moon swap? Ali: A moon swap? Keith: Yeah! Take that moon out, put that moon in! Ali: This isn’t a moon, this is a horrible beast. Keith: No, we’re on a moon. Austin: Yeah, but this, sorry. I don’t—if your thought was that the Final Day was going to stop just at this moon, I, you know. Keith: Hey, but if you put the moon in the marble. Austin: Mm-hm. Keith: I don’t know! Look, when you’re drowning, you grab anything you can. Austin: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, well, and I think that if you did that it would be like… First of all, you’re on the moon that would be in the marble, right. Which is, that’s no good for you all. But what I do think is it wouldn’t even be, it would be like you’re making a new moon almost. Do you know what I mean? Keith: Sure. Austin: You would be putting the… Because we wouldn’t, you can’t just, I don’t know that that thing has the power to be like, aha! I am the other—as we discussed. Those marbles seem to be connected to each of the four moons, right. That moon is—that marble seems to be the moon of Ulled itself but as a marble. Or that marble seems to be the moon of Ulled itself but as a marble. But I think that if you were like I’m gonna use this to kind of push this moon into where that marble is, also, you would end up with something that is more like a weird muddy combination of moons in question. But you could, you could maybe do that. Keith: I think it’s better to smash two moons together. But that’s just me. Ali: What?! Keith: To smash two moons! The smash two moons plan. Ali: But we know—I. Austin: The plan that Keith is suggesting is that you could kind of like use the power of the one marble you have to try to limit how far the Final Day could reach by putting it in the sort of marbled form that you have the marble form of Ulled, basically. Ali: Oh, sure sure sure sure sure. Um. Austin: That instead of reality being refracted in a terrible way across all thousand moons, that it gets to one moon, one terrible moon, instead. Keith: And hey, I think that there’s a real interesting combination between the resist stillness moon and the find space moon. Austin: Yeah. Keith: Could create a normal place. Austin: I could tell you about the place that would get created, I think. It’s up to Hye if you want to try to limit this thing. Using the one move, the one Ephemera thing you have left here. Ali: I mean, it is a good idea. Austin: Yeah. Ali: But I… Austin: What’s this, can you read me the thing again? Ali: My Ephemera says “The Driftwood Staff always strengthens spells by creating a bond between two moons.” Austin: It does. It does do that. Which is kind of exactly the thing we’re talking about, in a weird way. Keith: Mm-hm. Mm-hm. Ali: [laughs] Yeah, I mean, the way that I thought about that was that it was a third projection that would exist in a space between the two moons that I wanted to use a spell for. Austin: Yeah. What’s it look like when you’re trying to use your driftwood staff? Ali: Yeah, I… I mean, the way that I have been doing it is by kind of lifting up the staff and sort of having the projection of Ulled, I guess, sort of realign itself? Austin: Right. Yeah. Ali: Am I going to fuck with Ulled if I do this? Austin: I mean, everything is about to be broken and shifted, right, so the answer is yes. Ali: Yeah, yeah. Austin: I think you’re going to break, to fuck with many, many, many, many things. Ali: My apologies to Ulled. But yeah, I mean, I guess maybe it’s, mm. I wonder how to make, like, Dokine a part of it. Austin: I think that this is, you’re trying to—you’re using the thing to do it. It is uncertain. You have a Means. Ali: Right, yeah. Austin: We don’t have to talk about the, you’re not rolling dice here, you know what I mean? And it is not, it does not seem to have a, this Dream of refracting reality is like not opposed to this, effectively. Or it’s not a… The action isn’t actually on the Final Day, it’s on the moons, in an interesting way. Somewhere New [2:17:00] [“Somewhere New“ by Jack de Quidt starts playing] Austin: So I think the thing that’s happening is you lift this thing up, this staff. Do you want to hover up again in the same way as before? Ali: Yeah, I mean. Austin: That seems fun. Ah, and I think that the… you know, as Keith kind of said, the gem inside of the staff begins to get new color added to it as the moon of Dokine begins to be blended in to the marble that contains Ulled, that is Ulled. And then it, so it gets the kind of bright golds and yellows of Dokine added in. But it doesn’t stop there, it also draws in the prismatic colors of Principia, the planet where Donnie, you were originally from, the almost beautiful, chromatic rainbow colors of that world. And the dark blue pockmarked colors of the Crux also get blended in here. All of the moons of the Tetraspherica seem to blend together. And we are somewhere else, now. A new moon. Something that has… only been made now. Through a sort of averaging out, a terrible combination of the four moons of the Tetraspherica. A place that— Keith: It doesn’t sound terrible. Austin: Well. The Final Day is still here, right. The Final Day has been, has become the new moon. It isn’t spreading anymore. It just sits here. Austin: For as long as long had been, the moon of Sapryc was a jewel in the many-leafed crown of the Leo Suzerainty. But in the eternal orbit of Realis, even the endless is obliged to end. And so it is, that one hundred forty years heretofore, the gem of Sapryc— Keith: Hence. Austin: One hundred and forty years hence—its blue waters and coral mountains, its fields of easy, green grain—was wedged from its slot. [music ends] No one knows when, exactly, color itself was wiped from this moon, but we suspect we know when the process began: The Imperial Empest, a once august empire, now voracious, glistening, and insectoid, fell upon the world like the locustal swarm they are, covering its southern pole with terrible speed. Though the Suzerain’s forces held for decades, in time the internal squabbling of their many dukes and marquesses became cracks in the northern continent’s walls. And thus, an opportunity. Not for the Empest, but for the Venerant See, largest church across the moons, those who preach asceticism, and austerity, and the purity of the empty space between the moons, yet who hypocritically hoard wealth and leverage power to their own ends. And thus, Sapryc, a gem on the floor, waiting to be added to their vaults. Nearly a century and a half later, and Sapryc remains war torn, split in two by the Strait of Cicatrix, with the northern continent of The Trunk and the southern continent of The Root constantly under attack from the forces of the other. Across villages and towns, disease spreads: None as terrible as the Bile, called that not in reference to the humor—no, the symptoms are boils, and fever, and pain—but for the anger riled up in those who catch the disease. [“Here Where We Begin“ by Jack de Quidt starts playing] Many have fled—but to do so is harder every day: Only one spaceport remains, in the overpacked city of Krater, along the Trunk’s southern coasts. And it is there that we begin this story, today. Jack, Janine, Dre, Sylvi. Let’s go over Foundation Sentences. [music ends]