0:00

Hello,

0:00

everyone, and welcome to

0:02

the Adventure Zone Stifel

0:05

Chase. A Fant Adjusted

0:07

Macro at Fantasy. Justin McElroy.

0:09

My name is Justin McElroy, and I will

0:11

be your your game master

0:14

for this this adventure.

0:16

I'm traveling back right. Like Captain Inn,

0:18

are we all supposed introduce I don't know. It's

0:21

counting. Probably just It's an why why

0:23

wouldn't you introduce yourselves at the beginning of

0:25

of a program. This is this is

0:27

Durager. My name is Justin McRick.

0:29

Someone's starting right now. Right?

0:31

Like, they're starting they heard about this podcast.

0:34

Yeah. from the friends -- Yeah.

0:36

-- got into it because -- I don't know. -- they've been waiting

0:38

for food Jamie to take the rudder.

0:40

Oh, I see here. And my name Justin McElroy. They

0:42

know that because It's mainly the j heads

0:45

here. Not ours. So you so you guys,

0:47

please. j heads sounds like a derogatory

0:49

term for people who are who

0:52

who do possess an

0:55

addiction to I don't know what AJI

0:57

guess, Jumping. Jumping.

0:59

Anyway, this is Griffin Maceroy, and I

1:02

also love to drink. Thinks. Just the name

1:04

is Good. Travis. Oh, actually

1:06

ruined your old man.

1:08

What's your name? I

1:11

am Clint McElroy. You mean me

1:13

not my character? Yeah. Not your

1:15

character. Oh, just a brief

1:17

note, a couple things before we start. Dad,

1:20

if I see you put another bite of food in your mouth

1:22

while recording, I will jump through the screen and kill

1:24

you. that's the first one. I'm a little

1:26

on edge. So just like -- Yes. -- just don't

1:28

eat on the podcast anymore. That's like the

1:30

thin one. Yeah. I know we know

1:32

that you did just wake up at

1:35

nine thirty in the morning. And so

1:37

your body probably does need

1:40

caloric intake to function

1:42

It's so wild now, but just

1:44

to be in the inversion of, like, dad

1:46

sleeping in and me and Justin and

1:49

Griffin having to wake up early with kids.

1:51

it makes me mad at you.

1:53

Well, he's earning It's not fair.

1:55

It's not fair. I went through

1:58

many years. So Okay.

2:00

leaving early.

2:01

Welcome to the world of Stifel Chase

2:04

as your as I've been working

2:06

on this this for many months now.

2:08

I've written this I'm not nervous.

2:11

I wrote a introduction. Okay.

2:15

And I wrote a name of believable. From

2:17

all my work, So I'd like to begin the table

2:19

setting now. And let's just say no goofs until

2:21

Justin gets into Yeah. Justin Justin

2:24

needs to focus down.

2:26

So there are

2:28

so there are nights. Let's take a

2:30

second run of this. Okay. There

2:33

are many nights from

2:35

other wizards, and they are all

2:37

are fighting outside of your

2:39

eight nights. Okay. Sorry. Go on. are

2:41

the children of knights and wizards that they're

2:43

combined your night wizards, and

2:46

welcome to the Court of the night. just

2:48

a record. Sorry. One more time. Is it k

2:50

night, or is it just n night? I feel

2:52

good to hear that. Night. voice

2:54

search. You have both. The

2:57

hours of both and the weaknesses

2:59

of neither. Right. Alright. So Whether

3:01

you guys out in the daytime. This

3:03

is not So we really went off that

3:06

no goof rule real quick. This

3:08

is all serious. Once it hits serious

3:10

mode though, that goofs will come to a

3:12

complete stop. You think Okay.

3:14

Welcome welcome welcome welcome to

3:17

to Stifel Chase. I would like

3:19

to first tell you a little bit.

3:21

Here's what we're gonna do. This is session zero. We're

3:23

just starting. I am wildly

3:26

uncomfortable because I haven't

3:28

done this before. and

3:30

my brothers and dad are gonna help me through it. We're

3:32

all gonna do this as a family. It's a team building

3:34

exercise. Not

3:36

a podcast. It's a deal. We're

3:38

gonna do some trustfuls, some low ropes courses.

3:41

We are gonna be playing the game blades in

3:43

the dark, and I'm gonna tell you more

3:45

about that. right after I tell

3:47

you a little bit about this this world.

3:51

It is set in the future,

3:52

not

3:54

like a thousand years, maybe

3:56

a couple of hundred from now.

3:59

And our story takes place. Well,

4:01

let me let me, you know, get ahead of myself.

4:03

Karmind Den was

4:06

a son in rural Georgia.

4:08

This is the story everybody. No.

4:11

He always wanna be an entertainer, storyteller, someone

4:14

who would lift us up with these incredible

4:16

stories and bring us together with valuable

4:19

lessons. Karmind, as

4:21

soon as he could scrape together the money, founded

4:23

a company, that we

4:25

now know today as Dentonic. the

4:27

first name in entertainment.

4:30

Denton started small. He was

4:32

operating a string of traveling carnivals

4:34

at state fairs, and they evolved into the

4:36

regional theme parks throughout the US.

4:39

I think like chain of six

4:41

flags or, you know, bush gardens, those parks.

4:44

Eventually, like, Denton was was

4:46

fight he had all these ideas and dreams

4:48

with his fighting municipalities and state and local

4:50

governments. at every turn,

4:52

every time he wanted to expand or change something or

4:54

do something different, he was constantly having

4:56

to to to fight with these groups.

4:59

So he did something

5:01

very dramatic in two thousand and thirty.

5:04

He grew tired of of fighting

5:06

and he disassembled the parks. And

5:08

he sold the land to Chinese multinationals. This

5:10

would have been in twenty thirty. And he

5:12

focused all his time into

5:14

just One, Stifel

5:17

Chase. It was nestled into a big expanse

5:19

of the same rural countryside

5:21

in Georgia that he once called

5:24

home. Stable tastes started

5:26

like the other parks. You know, top

5:28

notch roller coasters, decent food.

5:30

Nothing to write home about. But then, Rather

5:33

than sell the previous perks piece

5:35

meal, he brought

5:37

them to Stifel Chase and

5:39

he started organizing them and

5:41

building them up and taking all these

5:43

different mechanical parts, all these different worlds.

5:46

into a real,

5:48

like, epicenter of of entertainment.

5:51

And he coulda stopped there. But

5:53

as we all know, Denton's motto

5:56

is that he never knew when to

5:58

stop dreaming. He expanded Stifel

6:00

Chase in two thousand and forty with a second gate,

6:02

a satellite park, if you

6:04

will, the kingdom. of ephemera. Now,

6:07

ephemera, this kingdom is different.

6:09

It was not just a theme

6:11

park. It was immersive. It was

6:13

a a world where you could go and live

6:15

out your fantasies as

6:18

long as they were of the Knights and

6:20

Wizards variety. You and

6:22

this was wildly successful. We'll

6:24

we'll learn more about king of Imra in

6:26

a bit, but you should know that he continued

6:28

to grow

6:30

these parks and expand these new gates

6:32

and the Denton family continued

6:35

to grow these parks. And when they

6:37

ran out of land, they

6:39

went the only direction

6:41

they could up. So

6:43

now, these lands,

6:45

these layers, as they're called, are

6:48

these immersive worlds for

6:50

the rich to come and experience their

6:53

deepest fantasies. And

6:56

you three, work

6:59

there. You are

7:01

employees of Dintonic.

7:04

You are employees of Stifel

7:07

Chase. and you are going to

7:11

find your fortune there in the

7:13

cracks between the fantasy. There

7:15

we're people are misguided.

7:17

They're looking over here while they're

7:19

having this magical family moment, you'll be the

7:21

ones with your hands and pockets. We're

7:24

gonna meet you But we

7:26

are gonna talk about this game first,

7:28

blades in the dark.

7:31

Now this is going great. So you're you're a

7:33

question. You're doing a I don't know if you need I don't know if you need

7:36

the massaging. Oh, but if you are You guys I'll

7:38

put roll one massage anytime.

7:40

If anything's even palatable, just

7:42

like I'm in Oh, it's I'm I'm in

7:44

I'm in. Yeah. So let

7:46

me read this exact I'm gonna read this

7:48

exact text. for attribution

7:51

purposes, and then we'll talk more about it.

7:53

This work is based on blades in the dark,

7:55

which can be found up blades in the dark dot com.

7:57

It's a product one seven design developed

8:00

and authored by John Harper and licensed for

8:02

argues under the Creative Commons attribution three.

8:04

Boy, oh, unported license. One

8:06

of my favorite license

8:08

is That's what it is.

8:10

I will just say. That that is

8:12

the and you will see the system I

8:15

will say about this book very quickly. It

8:17

is the best and

8:19

stamp. The best one of

8:21

these I've ever written. It never gets

8:23

bogged down in mechanics. It's always bringing

8:25

you back to practical application. It's

8:28

so well written. There is a

8:30

great thing that he says that

8:32

John Harper says at the beginning of his games

8:34

that he contributes to in front of his name

8:36

Avery, and I wanted to

8:38

say that now. It is

8:40

The number one rule is to

8:43

play your characters like you're

8:45

driving a stolen car, and

8:47

I really like that metaphor. And that is what

8:49

we are going to be doing Blades in the dark is

8:51

a game about bad people doing

8:53

bad things. I'm so sorry. I

8:55

built my whole character using Bay

8:57

Blades in the dark. I did. That's Okay.

8:59

Yeah. I've exhausted something like

9:01

this. That is awesome. Sorry, Travis. Well, you

9:03

just let him get one out of his Travis.

9:05

If you can just give us a time

9:07

to rip. Like, let him get it out of his

9:09

system. Oh, I'll griffin by saying the word

9:11

bayblades. I have used up all of my bay

9:13

blade knowledge. Oh, okay. I've

9:16

now used it all up and Justin

9:18

you may continue.

9:19

Okay. So it's a it's

9:21

a game about scandals doing crimes.

9:24

different kinds of criminals and bad

9:26

people. But the the core of the

9:28

game, the metaphor of of the game,

9:30

is that it it is in

9:32

terms of scores or heist or

9:35

that, like, crimes. You know, you're gonna do

9:37

crimes. Yeah. You're gonna do crimes

9:39

in this world. We're gonna talk mechanical.

9:41

You're gonna be part of a crew. criminal crew,

9:43

you're each gonna have your own criminal

9:45

background and your own

9:47

criminal skills that you're gonna bring to

9:49

this little group that you have

9:51

we're gonna pick a type of character class

9:53

here. You're also gonna pick a crew.

9:55

And that crew is gonna

9:57

have different relationships

9:59

with the world, different ways that

10:01

they focus on interacting with the

10:03

world. And we were still kinda

10:05

hammering this part out. So

10:07

that is something I think that we

10:10

can come to a consensus on once we've

10:12

met all of our characters. So

10:15

with that all being said, and

10:17

boys, please feel

10:19

free to if there's questions or you

10:21

wanna stop me or I miss something or

10:23

I mean, and if you just feel like interrupting, you

10:26

know, keep that to your to yourself. But if you have

10:28

something real good, then

10:30

please, by all means. But how can we tell if it's

10:32

good or not until we say that loud, Justin?

10:34

The Travis McElroy story.

10:36

Yeah. The okay.

10:39

So let's start

10:42

with the you know what, Travis?

10:44

Let's let's pan to you. the camera

10:46

pans to you. Let's meet your

10:49

scoundrel. I am

10:52

playing beef

10:54

punchly. But wait

10:56

wait hold on wait did you change the

10:58

surname? What

10:58

what was it? I

11:00

thought it was beef strongly Oh,

11:04

no. I've always been punchy, but

11:07

I hope my wife is extremely

11:09

good. You know, watch is better. Beef

11:11

punchy or beef punchy Kans. Not

11:13

beef punch. Beef punchkins feels too

11:15

cute. Okay. Yeah. Beef punchley. But that's

11:17

not a smurf name. Right.

11:19

He is a cutter. which

11:22

in his game system is a dangerous and

11:24

intimidating fighter. Okay.

11:26

He is a very large

11:29

man very as

11:31

his name might imply

11:33

very beefy, former,

11:35

like, heavyweight boxer. But this is

11:37

not his real name. Beef punchy is his

11:40

alias? His real name is Linden

11:42

Julius. I

11:45

will never I I want you to know.

11:47

I have a cop. I will never

11:49

use that name. No. Everyone calls him beef.

11:51

It's fine to call him beef. Okay. But

11:53

that is that is more of his nickname than it

11:55

is his real name. But as I said,

11:57

he's a cutter primarily focused

11:59

in, like, hand to hand fighting and

12:01

grappling and that kind of thing. but

12:04

he is far more

12:06

intelligent and gentle than he

12:08

appears. But still, he is.

12:10

And I have taken the special ability

12:12

not to to be trifled with, which

12:15

means that he can push himself to do one of

12:17

the following pro form a feat of physical

12:19

force that verges on the superhuman. or

12:22

engage a small gang on equal

12:24

footing in close combat.

12:27

Alright. How much do you wanna know about beef,

12:29

Justin? I would like to know if

12:33

Basically, with heritage and

12:35

background, which is a a lot of blades in the

12:37

dark is really narrative, which is you

12:39

know, you might some people might say

12:41

dismissively, but when you're making a narrative

12:43

podcast is such good. So so

12:45

good. I'm sorry that I made the chef's noise

12:47

and also did a chef's kiss. I don't know that I

12:49

said the words. I I appreciate

12:51

it. Yeah.

12:52

I

12:53

would like to know, basically, for for heritage

12:56

and background, I'd like to know your relationship

12:58

with the

13:00

the the park and the company? Like, what what is

13:02

your what's your deal? What's your background

13:04

with with

13:05

Dentonic and and Stifel Chase?

13:07

So he grew

13:10

up in a small town, and he

13:13

hit, like, puberty grossberg pretty

13:15

late. He was, like, a small somewhat,

13:17

like, like, nerdy, gentle boy.

13:19

like, the, you

13:22

know, Wells for Boys kind of

13:24

guy. But too long. You okay.

13:26

Just wanna know about your relationship to the park. I'm

13:28

getting there. You wanna

13:30

leave something on the bone there, Travis. What if

13:32

somebody's like? I bet you're always a strong

13:34

kid. And then this is for me to you.

13:36

if they're always a strong kid, then you're like, actually,

13:38

I was it. Let me take you inside.

13:40

I don't need that damn thing. love. They're doing

13:42

a great job g m ing so far.

13:47

And so, basically,

13:49

he then was a heavyweight boxer for

13:51

a while. Then there was some

13:53

issues. And he

13:55

wasn't allowed to do that anymore, but he

13:57

was Good. I love that shit. Yeah. Thank you. You

13:59

just put that little check off issue right

14:01

there on the wall. We'll come back to it.

14:04

And so he, like, had a

14:06

name. Right? Everybody was, you know,

14:08

new of beef punching the boxer, but he

14:10

needed work. And so

14:12

he basically made a deal with

14:14

Dintonic and and Siebel Chase to

14:16

come and be like a

14:19

representative of beef

14:21

punchy. And we talk about,

14:23

like, that they work, like, at some

14:25

kind of arcade or there is some kind of, like,

14:27

punch out esque game. that

14:29

it's like beef punchless, punch out,

14:31

and he's like, hi, it's me. Fight me

14:33

in my prime kind of deal. So

14:35

he's not quite a mascot but that's

14:37

the feel of him. Sorry.

14:41

Sorry. But the idea of

14:43

an arcade game. with

14:45

a picture of beef punchly and there's like

14:47

a balloon coming out of his mouth that says, fight me

14:49

in my prime. He's

14:52

so tired. Yeah.

14:55

It's not it's not a flattering

14:57

or happy circumstance to be on.

14:59

You should know that my head cannon for beef

15:01

punchily is already king bow from

15:03

punch out. It's -- Perfect. -- is very

15:05

powerful. Let me say real quick,

15:07

actually, because III should have

15:09

established this. The layer that the

15:11

the these three currently

15:13

work in is called used tobin.

15:16

And used tobin is a layer

15:18

that is built around

15:21

nostalgia. It is the idea

15:23

of taking

15:26

the the experiences that you thought that you

15:28

would never have again and bringing

15:31

them directly to you for

15:33

a very reasonable

15:35

fee. And you

15:37

all work in in

15:39

Eusteban. We will talk about Travis mentioned the

15:41

arcade that you all are are

15:43

working in and we'll talk about that. To give you

15:45

an example, there's, like,

15:47

one of the attractions in used tobin is

15:49

called Super Slumber Party. where

15:52

every night there is a

15:54

gigantic park wide slumber party

15:56

where you can have nails painted and you

15:58

can eat huge piles of wood fire

16:00

oven pizza for thirteen dollars and

16:02

absolutely awesome. An entire twelve ounce

16:04

mountain dew that you get to keep

16:06

all for yourself, you know, to share with your brother and

16:08

no problem. But that is like the

16:10

kind of experience that used to have been

16:12

traffics in. It is about the feelings

16:15

that that you it's not

16:17

just like selling you

16:19

like Funkos with the

16:21

greatest American hero on them. Although

16:23

Funko Pop, please. any of

16:25

my characters are open for licensing for

16:27

a very reasonable fee. Come at me.

16:29

Love to get some of those phone codes going

16:32

anyway. but that's used

16:34

to been. It's it's not just about like retro.

16:36

It's not retro. Right? Retro has that

16:38

like clanging sort of

16:40

obvious shilling. This is

16:43

designed to, like, actually

16:45

give you the feelings of

16:47

of being young again or the

16:49

feelings of being young in an age that you never

16:51

got to experience but always seemed

16:53

very very pleasant. So, beef punchy

16:55

works at an arcade, former

16:58

puncher, maybe still a puncher. We'll have

17:00

to see. Well, he's still a puncher. He was a boxer.

17:02

There's a term for it. Oh. So

17:04

you you really have done

17:06

your homework. Dad, let's go

17:09

over to you. Clinton McElroy, tell me about

17:11

your character. I am

17:13

playing

17:14

Emrick.

17:16

Dredwey. Look at

17:18

that. Look at that. Look, dad.

17:20

Yikes. That's good, dad. Aymeric

17:24

Dredwey is a wish sperm. And

17:26

in this game, it's

17:29

about as close as we get

17:32

to magician, would you say -- Yeah. --

17:34

wizard. Someone who deals

17:36

in the in the fantastic.

17:38

Oh.

17:40

But number is Emerich

17:43

is Slim

17:47

Washfish is kind of the word I was

17:49

using. I I'm

17:51

I'm What is what is what

17:53

is You mean, like, white anglo Saxon, Protestant,

17:55

not like Yeah. Do you mean that way? I mean

17:57

what? I mean

18:00

slim and Think

18:03

Vincent Price. I'm I really was

18:05

thinking like Vincent. I don't when I think

18:07

of Vincent Price, I don't normally think what a Waspish

18:10

fellow, but okay. Okay. But he is

18:12

Waspish in the Waspish in the Waspish in the Waspish in the

18:14

Waspish. Yeah.

18:16

Literally Wasp. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

18:18

Yeah. He is a

18:21

a creation ear. Is that the

18:23

word you or

18:25

That's a fucking great word, Mac.

18:28

It's right at deck, maybe.

18:29

Create an ear. He

18:32

is one of those people who

18:34

has he's older. He's been

18:37

with with Denotonics for

18:39

for quite a while. And one of

18:41

the things that is a

18:43

key in the newest iteration

18:46

of attractions and

18:49

stuff at at at

18:52

Stifel Chase, are these hard light

18:54

constructs? Do we wanna talk about the

18:56

hard light constructs? Yeah.

18:59

Here. Yeah. And, dad, since you're

19:01

sort of the expert in hard light, I

19:03

think I will I will be sort of, like,

19:05

hopefully collaborating with you on, like, the

19:07

specifics of this technology. But The

19:09

basic idea is I

19:11

didn't want to have

19:13

magic as we would think about it in

19:15

in this, but there is a supernatural

19:17

element to blades in the dark. So I

19:19

started thinking about that, like, sufficiently advanced

19:21

technologies in the signature wafer

19:23

magic that Karl said and think. So

19:25

the

19:26

big, like, secret

19:29

to the success of Dentonic and the reason

19:31

that they've been able to expand

19:33

at this and evolve at

19:35

the speed they have. is this

19:37

technology called hard light, which is basically

19:40

solid holograms. Holograms

19:42

that have shape and

19:45

form and a a

19:47

physicality to them, which the

19:49

applications of that technology

19:52

are, you know, just as wide ranging as you can

19:54

imagine, to the point where

19:57

we we might think of

19:59

them as magic. And we are for this, like, sort

20:01

of, whisper purpose is that it

20:03

is a it is so advanced. It

20:05

is basically like a supernatural thing.

20:07

You're one of the few people

20:09

who have the, like, prowess

20:12

to shape and you

20:14

know, rejigger hard light

20:16

constructions. And not just

20:18

magic. Right? Because one of the things

20:20

inblades in the dark is ghosts Right? Right. Hardlight is yeah.

20:22

Hardlight holograms are standing in

20:24

for ghosts. And when you first

20:27

described the sort of, like, Disney World

20:29

analog of

20:31

of animatronics. Yeah. And

20:34

this this being that, like, hard

20:36

light like,

20:38

living fig living in quotation

20:40

marks figure Mhmm. So,

20:42

yeah, that's hard, like, I kinda ran

20:44

with that and kind of

20:46

the background was that EMrick

20:49

was, if

20:52

not, the

20:55

main guy that first came up with

20:57

the Hard Light constructs. At

21:00

at

21:00

the least

21:01

he was one of the first

21:04

innovators with it seen as the

21:07

the father of Hard

21:09

Light and other

21:11

people and the company have taken

21:13

credit for it. And -- Oh.

21:15

-- Emory. -- is is

21:19

not a very forceful person

21:22

But found himself demoted, found

21:24

himself pushed to the

21:26

side while other people benefited

21:29

from his genius and

21:31

it wrecked his life.

21:33

I mean, he still works for them, but it's

21:35

in this very, you

21:38

know, he's been pushed back

21:40

to to used to Ben.

21:42

Instead of being one of

21:44

the innovators, now he's like practically just

21:46

a maintenance guy. Who

21:49

keeps the machines working? I

21:51

love this, dad. What

21:54

is what is the

21:56

special that you We'll get more into, like,

21:58

some of these different character classes.

21:59

But, like, what's your special

22:01

move that you that

22:03

you went with? I think compel

22:05

the in the special ability? Yeah.

22:07

Right. So yeah. The special ability. Which are

22:09

the special abilities? Does does Zimra have? Yeah.

22:11

I think Complel, he

22:13

can attune to a ghost feel for but

22:16

we'll say Hard light. Hard

22:18

light field. Yeah. And force a

22:20

nearby ghost to appear and obey

22:22

a command you

22:23

give it

22:26

and, you know,

22:30

this will allow him to to

22:33

use even hard like constructs that

22:35

he hasn't created -- Mhmm.

22:37

-- he will be able to

22:40

control Dad,

22:41

do you feel like hard light

22:44

is projected from a

22:46

source? Or

22:48

hard light is, you know, made

22:50

by a bunch of tiny nano machines.

22:52

Like, how how do you think hard light

22:55

works? I would say that instead of a whole

22:57

bunch of nanites, I

22:58

would say there is one, one

23:02

nucleus, one one

23:04

device that projects like a little b. Yeah.

23:06

Yeah. Yeah. That that you would have a little a

23:08

little Did you say b or b?

23:12

Well, I said b because I'm literally

23:14

thinking of there's a a hard light projection

23:16

in red dwarf, and it's like a

23:18

little capsule. that, like, projects

23:21

rumor whenever they leave the ship. Oh, I

23:23

thought you I thought you said

23:25

being Sure. But what am I saying here? a

23:27

lot of fun here. We wanted to sound

23:29

like the other words. It

23:32

it the think there was some very small device

23:34

that projects outward and and

23:37

creates these. So maybe to maybe

23:39

you to make that sort

23:41

of work. you need to find some

23:43

sort of projection source

23:45

in the world. Something that's doing

23:47

something else that you can repurpose in

23:49

that way. Maybe we have some with you. I don't know. We'll figure

23:51

it out. Alright, Justin. I had a quick

23:54

question about anything Travis.

23:56

Mhmm. So

23:57

we talked about, like,

23:59

So far, both Dad

23:59

and I have mentioned, like, the beef end

24:02

up having you get a job there, and that

24:04

Embraerk was, like, demoted, but still

24:06

works there. how much of like ubiquitous

24:09

employer is then tonic in this

24:11

world? Does it like at some point

24:13

everybody ends up working there? is

24:15

it like a much smaller, like

24:17

how influential you know what I

24:19

mean? So

24:21

it's the kind of place where you live

24:23

it's the kind of place where

24:25

you you post up there. I'm thinking

24:27

about, like, people who do,

24:29

like, a tour you know, on

24:31

a or a on a cruise ship maybe, that sort of

24:34

metaphor where we are, like, living

24:36

there and what have you.

24:38

A lot like a

24:40

canvas. sort of yes.

24:42

But a lot of

24:45

the people who are

24:47

there are

24:48

there for the money,

24:51

but really money is not that

24:53

important because they live

24:55

there.

24:55

There's this idea of

24:56

coin and blades in the

24:59

dark, and coin are

25:01

are big chunks of cash.

25:03

like, it's a coin is, like, a lot of a

25:05

lot of money. Running

25:08

around money, you don't really track. Right?

25:10

So, like, do I have the money to

25:12

get a sandwich? Yes. You have a sandwich money

25:14

that just assumed. Right? It's not that I got

25:16

that. I got that

25:18

guy back. you're never watching an episode

25:20

of CSI where they're like, and I'm

25:22

gonna get a cup of coffee. Oh,

25:24

no. I don't have any money for

25:26

coffee. Does do a scene of me going back to get somebody for

25:28

coffee, for vanadium. Right. You just I just

25:30

want you to know my first action in the

25:32

game is going to be buying a hundred sandwiches.

25:35

for nothing and then selling them in bulk

25:37

for coin. If you oh,

25:40

if you buy them in bulk, it's gonna cost you

25:42

coin. We don't have coin. What

25:44

we have is This is kind of a slangy thing, but

25:46

people call them sweets. So rather

25:48

than coin, you have sweets because it

25:51

is the equivalent cost of

25:53

a deluxe two

25:55

bedroom suite in the

25:57

layer of your choice. So a

25:59

lot of

25:59

people who are here are

26:01

there to

26:02

try to get enough to

26:05

stay there in one of these

26:07

layers that is a fantasy of

26:09

theirs. So they are

26:11

both clients, but also the

26:14

employees. So that it's

26:16

sort of like imagine like an employee

26:18

discount Okay. Yeah. So imagine

26:20

though if it was, like,

26:22

basically, the only thing that brought

26:24

you any pleasure or joy was was

26:26

your company. So, like, that that's

26:28

how deep most of these people are. In fact, we have

26:31

this idea of factions from also

26:33

from plays in the dark and for

26:35

me, for for Stifel

26:38

Chase, these factions are gonna be

26:39

represented by different groups within the company,

26:42

but also dimmisons of different

26:44

layers. Because we've been divorced

26:46

from a space or a

26:48

region, a physical geography, that

26:50

we are living in. We're inherently tribal

26:53

creatures. Right? So we are

26:55

drawn to creating

26:57

these tribes to form our identity.

26:59

And for these people, their identity is

27:02

where they work. Right? Yeah. They're not

27:04

just a maintenance man. they

27:06

are part of the cogs and

27:09

gears, which is the faction

27:11

of maintenance people because that's how

27:13

deeply they identify. with

27:16

that and how how much that

27:18

means to them. If you are I

27:20

remember working at Best Buy and for

27:22

whatever reason, we decided our

27:24

store had a rival we with

27:26

another store. Who the fuck is? But, like,

27:28

that was a thing. And then we, like, went to a

27:30

conference and, like, chanted it to them. It

27:32

was horrifying. so I can really

27:34

relate to this. If you are if

27:36

you are an employee if

27:38

you are a a cast member,

27:40

let's say, of the

27:42

of infant item, which is the sci

27:44

fi layer. It was the second layer

27:46

that Dintonic built. But if

27:48

you're an employee of infant item,

27:51

then you are a member of the siderial

27:53

age, which is your faction

27:55

of people that are from the

27:57

scifi world. you need to stay on the goods and

27:59

you might encounter people from these other layers.

28:01

That is a possibility even though travel between the

28:03

two is not that not

28:05

that common when you're an

28:07

employee. orgass. Is the end game us trying to

28:09

reach the heavy side layer? because if so, I need

28:11

one now. because I'm gonna change my

28:13

character dramatically. If that Great point, Griffin.

28:15

Let me just my book of all the

28:17

things I was going to do for the next few months and,

28:20

okay, it's in the trash because you already It

28:22

has to be old deuteronomy. Yes.

28:24

It's mandatory. I just call that

28:26

tab. Steve O'Chase is purgatory.

28:28

You win. Okay. Anyway, does

28:30

that answer your question Travis? Yes,

28:32

it does. How big of an employer in this

28:35

world is Dintonic? Yeah. Well, what do

28:37

you think? I mean, it kinda

28:39

feels like to compare it to you. And

28:41

I I hope past sessions era, we can not compare

28:43

it to Disney constantly. But to think

28:45

about that you have Disney World. Right?

28:47

Does the Disney World, Disneyland,

28:50

your Right? You have the Disney parks, and then you have the

28:52

Disney television, and you have

28:54

Disney movies, and you have Disney

28:57

stores, like so

28:59

right. Is it like I

29:01

imagine if all that was boiled down into the

29:03

parks business. Right? And you can

29:05

start to get an idea of the scope of

29:07

this, the sweep of this. Got

29:10

it. Dintonic does not

29:12

produce outside

29:15

media. Right? They're not, like, in the movie

29:17

business, they're not they're in

29:19

this business. because no experience that you would

29:21

have on the outside, no

29:23

movie, no TV show, no book,

29:25

nothing would

29:26

wait like

29:27

equal what you are

29:29

doing there. In fact, that's

29:31

a little bit of the

29:34

the charm is that, like, you don't

29:36

exactly know what you're going to be getting

29:38

into when you're there. Right? So it's that

29:40

helps it make it seem more

29:42

immersive too. because if you're seeing a bunch of characters that

29:44

you already know, it's like, oh, you're pretending to be

29:46

this guy. Okay. Griffin,

29:48

I believe that leaves you. Tell me

29:50

about your character. I

29:52

will be playing Montrose

29:55

Pretty is his

29:57

name and That's a

29:59

fine name. Montrose pretty is a slide.

30:01

Is the blades in the dark blue?

30:04

He loves going

30:07

down. those diagonal things. Oh, I thought people could get

30:09

on him and slide down him.

30:11

Yes. He is fifteen feet long.

30:13

No. He is a

30:15

slide is a manipulator and

30:18

spy according to the

30:20

the the playbook here.

30:23

There are a a

30:25

few sort of adjacent roles

30:28

that he does not exactly fit into.

30:30

There's a playbook called the Spyder, which

30:32

is all about sort of leveraging

30:35

influence and connections and stuff like

30:37

that's not really him. There's also

30:39

a lurk which is about being

30:41

incredibly sneaky and dextrous, that is also not him.

30:43

He is more of AAA

30:47

salesman sort

30:49

of impresario type. His

30:52

I think his place in the

30:55

deltonic, is that

30:57

it? Then the pentatonic. pentatonic. And the pentatonic

31:00

is in the trap. He

31:03

he was AII think just a sort of cast

31:05

member, like, I

31:07

don't know if there are mascots here,

31:09

but if there are mascots

31:11

here, he he would he would

31:13

fill that role sort of big grudgingly. There are

31:15

a lot of them. while on the

31:18

side, Montrose

31:21

had a connection to the

31:23

to the underworld. to the belly

31:25

of crime that happened here

31:27

was part of a crew,

31:29

not a very important

31:31

part of that crew

31:35

and to leave

31:37

some spaces on the map blank,

31:39

left that crew on

31:42

bad terms. and now has

31:44

this different role working with

31:46

working with the others at this

31:48

at this arcade or at least that is what we

31:50

have talked about so far, although it seems like

31:52

that might be subject to change.

31:55

He is, I would say, a charismatic

31:58

opportunist, and I think

31:59

he sees a

32:00

lot of potential in the skills

32:03

that fist neatly

32:05

and That's not my name. It's beef. Please

32:07

don't make this get more confusing. There's a lot

32:09

of proper nouns here. that beef and

32:11

emirick bring bring to the table.

32:13

And so that is is

32:16

I think why he is teamed

32:18

up with them. Okay.

32:20

So, yeah, former former

32:23

Scoundrel in the traditional sense.

32:25

you it it's worth noting, and I don't know

32:27

if this is the way this is gonna swing,

32:29

but it is worth noting that

32:32

characters in blades in the dark are not

32:34

meant to be permanent. They

32:36

can die. They it is

32:38

not that wild to think of. There

32:40

is they can retire. They

32:42

can leave the the game. They can

32:44

be arrested. They can be

32:46

arrested and sent to prison. Like --

32:48

Yeah. -- this this has real

32:50

actual stakes. And that is all I will

32:52

say is that I am not. Real

32:54

actual stakes, Justin, because it's I'll

32:56

make believe. It won't hurt me. Well,

32:58

that's been true. people. if

33:00

people have a a fun time listening to

33:02

it, that's that's real.

33:04

Why? That's true. Oh my god. You're trying

33:06

to get a minute. I'm gonna My

33:10

Can I say special ability? I'd love that girl.

33:12

I've taken an ability called cloak and

33:14

decker. One of the items

33:16

that slides get access to is a find

33:18

a skies kit. sort of integral

33:21

to the thing. And I have

33:23

this vision in my mind of

33:25

a he's always wearing a

33:27

mask. like AAA

33:31

hard light mask. Mhmm. I'm

33:33

envisioning sort of like hexadecimal

33:36

from reboot or the face just kind

33:38

of like changes to display certain emotions.

33:40

The cloak and dagger allows you to

33:42

use a disguise or other form of

33:44

covert misdirection, and then you

33:47

get bonuses to a

33:49

role, to confuse or to flex suspicion. When

33:51

you throw off your disguise, the resulting

33:53

surprise gives you the initiative in situation.

33:55

Now, are you so

33:58

this is a is this a mask you're always

33:59

wearing? I

34:00

think so. How does

34:03

that figure into your, like, day to

34:05

day life as I take it off

34:07

to eat spaghetti. when I eat

34:09

my spaghetti, I take it off so I don't get the mask

34:11

all dirty and messy. Right.

34:14

But what is your

34:16

day job? I mean, we work at this arcade. Right?

34:18

So you're the guy who worked oh, have you

34:20

met have you ever heard of

34:22

mantras pretty? yeah, he's a very

34:24

curious on that guy. Yeah. He is. It

34:26

is weird that he works in an

34:28

arcade and is always wearing this

34:30

mask. Well, I can't look like a mask,

34:32

I assume. Right? Well, it's

34:34

not I mean, I I don't think it's

34:36

photorealistic. I think it looks like a map. I think

34:38

when mister Pretty rolls up, like,

34:40

you are you are in source of but you know what? He's into that. okay

34:42

with being being memory also. But

34:44

yeah. But it's awesome. But I just wanted really

34:47

I'm really trying to drive into

34:50

is good. Yeah. I'm gonna drill down. You're a character that

34:52

is defined by their ability to

34:54

sway other people. And on

34:57

the other hand, You're also a super creep who's always wearing

34:59

a mask. Like, it's it's rare I

35:02

I'm trying to align the two in like I have

35:04

to know what what does the mask look like because

35:07

I'm picturing, like, one of those completely neutral,

35:10

like, just white mask that, like, that one

35:12

dance troop, I think, is Jabber

35:14

Walkiewears. It's terrifying. What does that actually

35:16

look like? Please, girl

35:18

five. It's Sky Fox. I'm a

35:20

revolutionary. No. It's not a Sky

35:22

Fox mask.

35:23

the I

35:24

think it just it looks like a looks like a it

35:26

looks like a a human face but

35:28

slightly exaggerated. No. Okay. So

35:30

like the so like the clear mask

35:33

that they wear in heist. Like, just a high degree.

35:35

Okay. Perfect.

35:37

the if

35:38

you have our liquid mask, something that's

35:40

I don't want a valley an uncanny valley here, Grandma. I'm I

35:43

think it is an uncanny valley situation,

35:45

but it's it's it's

35:48

beautiful. Now, just as long as we're having fun, I'm looking at Griffin's

35:50

character sheet. I see that Griffin has given

35:52

himself four items that are

35:55

completely without purpose because we are not doing a heist

35:58

right now. But Groove has just made a note that

36:00

he's got some weird stuff in

36:02

his pocket. Oh, those are load

36:04

free. So I was like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've got ice ice. For sure. For

36:06

sure.

36:29

Hi. I'm Hal

36:32

Loveland, and I'm Mark Gagliardi. And we're the

36:34

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37:53

Okay.

37:54

So those are

37:56

our three characters. Next,

37:59

we are going to

38:02

to make a crew. And this part is a little more or

38:04

less, like, defined at this

38:06

point. Yeah. Oh, let me talk first about the

38:08

different types of

38:10

characters. Next, we are going to make a

38:12

crew. And this part is a little more

38:14

or less, like, defined at

38:16

this point. Yeah. Oh, well, let me

38:18

talk first about the different types of cores that we have.

38:20

Very briefly. We've never we've never played a

38:22

game that had this

38:24

particular element in it where,

38:26

like, the organization

38:28

is just as much a game mechanic

38:30

as the individual characters. The crew

38:32

is a character. Think of it that way.

38:34

And actually, if you wanna be particular

38:36

about it, the crew is the constant. Yeah. These

38:39

these cats can come and go.

38:41

But the crew and, you know,

38:43

we could even like find

38:45

some if if there's another person who

38:47

wants to join. I mean, eventually, this crew is

38:49

going to be I mean, God willing and

38:51

the creek don't rise. have

38:54

a lot of people other than you all. Right? It will

38:56

be an expansive criminal empire if all goes according

38:58

to plan. So

38:59

we the

39:02

have several

39:02

different crew crew types that you can

39:04

choose from. We've got --

39:07

Hold on. -- assassins,

39:10

which I mean, does what it says right on the ten there. Killam

39:12

I mean, why not play in the game what we already

39:14

do in real life? That doesn't seem to

39:18

have us. Mercenaries. Don't tell them. Mercenaries and thugs

39:20

are bro bros. If you're a

39:22

bravo crew, then you start

39:24

battles, extortion,

39:26

sabotage, smash and grabs, burley, burley

39:30

criminals. Kaltz is

39:34

acolytes of a god in

39:36

this case. I'm not exactly sure what the analog

39:38

would be, but I'm sure we could have some fun with

39:40

it. Hockers sell vice

39:42

they they sell vice items. or different

39:45

types of vice. Shadows or thieves and spies who do

39:47

burglaries and espionage and

39:49

robberies and sabotage. and

39:51

then smugglers transport contraband.

39:54

They execute clandestine deliveries,

39:57

territory control, and expeditions outside

39:59

the

39:59

city. So Those

40:02

are the ones we have to choose from.

40:04

What are you all we had

40:06

talked about Hockers. How are you feeling

40:09

about that right now? Based

40:12

on what you have told us about this

40:14

world, III

40:16

think that owning a small business is

40:18

a fun idea. from a

40:20

gameplay perspective. You'd also talk

40:23

about how these layers are

40:26

separated. Yes. And

40:28

and so Smugglers

40:30

also seems like it would

40:32

be, you know, a

40:34

narratively it

40:37

would it would fit I worry

40:39

that it the the jobs would get a little bit samey if

40:41

it just get this thing from

40:43

one place to

40:46

to another. But Hockers is

40:48

what we had discussed

40:50

before this episode. Yeah.

40:52

Yeah. I like the I think I

40:54

can also see in this world how Hockers has the most of,

40:57

like, growth potential as

40:59

a business goes.

41:02

Oh, where I can see the especially if you talk like,

41:04

the LAYER

41:07

layers expanding through

41:10

those. instead of it being like everybody has to come to us to get the

41:12

jobs done, we're trying to expand

41:14

our influencer being able to

41:16

sell this stuff or offer whatever

41:19

our goods and services are. I I

41:21

think that's good. I'm kinda

41:24

interested in

41:26

bravos. because that

41:28

also sounds like a lot of flexibility,

41:31

battles, extortion, sabotage,

41:34

smash and grabs, will dad,

41:36

I I think that the the the only thing

41:38

I would push back against combos is that

41:40

it sounds like you have two

41:42

people who are physically not super threatening.

41:45

so that for a crew that is built around

41:48

like physical violence and physical

41:50

actions, bro bros may not be the best fit because

41:52

you don't have the a

41:54

lot of the muscle. I

41:56

also would worry because I thought about bravo

41:58

chickpeas beef would do well there, but I

41:59

also worried that in a

42:01

park like this, in a setting like

42:04

this, I worry that

42:06

being too

42:08

aggressive and, like, smashing

42:10

grab kind of thing is gonna draw

42:12

a lot of attention from, like,

42:14

potential we could get fired which

42:16

isn't like a thing that would happen if we were just like playing in the New York City, you know,

42:19

kinda play. So it's just like, oh, we

42:21

gotta go underground for a while. if

42:23

somebody's like, yeah, beef programming when you show up the

42:26

words and diet. Yeah.

42:28

It also seems like if we have this

42:30

hard light

42:32

pioneer, and this, you know, famous boxer

42:34

and this this charismatic

42:37

salesman, like, it seems

42:39

like those align with Hockers. really

42:42

well. It's just a matter of fact, what do we

42:44

what do we honk?

42:46

That kind of eliminates shadows

42:48

too because be a lot harder to

42:50

be a spy if everybody knows who you are.

42:52

Hey, that's Steve. I love Hockers. are

42:54

yeah. Hockers are Let's go with Hockers.

42:56

Yeah. Stick with Hockers. Yeah. Just can you describe vice

42:59

in, like, a short a short

43:01

way? because I feel like that

43:03

will inform what what

43:06

we hawk because vice is a

43:08

mechanic in in the game. Right.

43:10

Yes. Let me search for vice

43:12

real quick. Yeah. Let's mention the Blades in the Dark

43:14

website. Oh, yeah. If you are

43:16

curious about this game, you should

43:18

buy it and get the book and read it

43:20

because it's one

43:22

of the coolest like RPG

43:24

books I've ever read, but there

43:26

is also this online resource with

43:29

which you can, like, look up anything we talk

43:31

about very So device is

43:34

something that you would use

43:36

to blow off some steam. which is an

43:38

actual mechanic in the game. Yeah.

43:40

They call it they call it stress.

43:42

But that that is

43:44

what vice is. It is

43:46

what you do to cope with the stress of what you do in your

43:48

day to day your

43:50

day to

43:51

day lives. Which

43:54

could be gambling? It could be luxury? It

43:57

could be Religion,

44:00

legit. Yeah. Yeah. Ob Obligation

44:02

-- Weird. -- one of them. -- is a good one?

44:04

Weird. Yeah. Obligation is interesting. So

44:06

vice is not just a metaphor for

44:08

for drugs and alcohol. Right? it

44:11

it it you could have

44:13

an obligation to your

44:16

family and which is your vice. Like -- Yeah. -- your vice

44:18

is that I have these to rotten kids and I have to

44:20

take care of them. They're like, I mean, that's your vice. Yeah.

44:22

If you think about it in the fast and the furious

44:24

terms, it's like, oh, I, you

44:26

know, I I would do anything for family even

44:29

get myself in trouble, that kind of thing. Right. Exactly.

44:31

You can over indulge in vices, which has

44:33

bad consequences, but pleasure and

44:36

stupor are the other two vices

44:38

that we haven't mentioned yet. I feel

44:40

like we are missing

44:42

a trick if we do not

44:46

focus what

44:48

our like hawker business is

44:50

around the fact that we

44:54

employ a famous boxer and a hard

44:56

light pioneer.

44:58

I have an idea. Okay? And I think that

45:00

this could fit in really well

45:02

with what used to bend kind

45:04

of represents, but taking it to

45:08

this like extreme that would not

45:10

be approved by

45:12

the, you

45:13

know, the

45:15

higher ups. What

45:18

if we could use

45:20

your intellect beef and

45:22

your hard light skills,

45:26

Emric, and

45:28

create moments

45:30

you can spend with the

45:33

with the dead. that

45:36

we recreate based on your

45:38

description of some

45:40

past person, and then you

45:43

can spend time with them.

45:45

That's like that's tough because, like,

45:47

there's several places in used to have been to do that.

45:49

Like, that that is a a big part of the

45:52

service they offer. I am

45:54

interested in the fact that they Dintonic

45:56

is is peddling,

46:00

like, they are dealing

46:02

vice. Like, they're dealing like the immersive fantasy

46:05

experiences. So like,

46:08

I don't want something that overlaps with that because they are

46:10

peddling vice. Like, you know, so it's like

46:12

at a certain point, it's like redundant. You know what I

46:15

mean? Like, you can't operate within

46:18

that. then one way to

46:20

think about it is, you know, if they are very

46:23

very very strict, about

46:27

keeping

46:27

the different layers

46:28

separated.

46:31

Right? Insulated from

46:33

each other. Correct? That

46:37

is the key to what

46:39

we do if we're going to

46:41

have an illegal

46:46

a reason for our illegal

46:48

existence. Okay. I I have a I

46:50

have a thought that I wanna hit you

46:52

guys with. Hit us. What

46:54

if you are smugglers, but

46:57

what you are

46:59

doing is smuggling you're basically

47:03

peddling to

47:05

dintonic

47:06

fans on

47:09

the outside. So, like, what you're doing is you

47:11

are stealing things

47:14

from the -- Oh. -- from

47:18

Stifel Chase. that you can resolve. sell to

47:20

no. No. No. The real --

47:22

The real deal. Yeah. -- the real deal.

47:26

I mean, you're set yeah. You're

47:28

buying you are stealing things from Siebel Chase that you can

47:30

sell to collectors on the outside.

47:34

Oh, I like that. How does

47:36

that grab you guys? I like

47:37

that a lot. That gives us a lot of

47:39

reasons to go to the

47:42

different layers. Travis

47:44

Griffin, you you seem on this. I'm I'm I'm

47:46

trying to think of how that would complement

47:50

our characters. Like One thing I wanted to throw out that I thought of as a

47:52

vice that we had not

47:54

considered luxury,

47:57

but for employees. So

47:59

you talk

48:00

about the sweets. Right?

48:02

This luxury experience that everyone's trying

48:04

to earn money for. Right? So,

48:07

like, the toiletries towels, a manicure

48:10

experience like they get, you're talking about at

48:12

the slumber parties, or

48:14

these kinds of, like, luxury

48:19

experiences, but we are

48:21

hawking them to employees.

48:24

that the pool employee can pay for the

48:26

same kind of luxury experience that a guest would have. That's

48:30

interesting.

48:30

that's interesting

48:33

Because what you're talking about is

48:37

yeah Yes. I like that

48:39

a lot because it you

48:41

aren't relying on guests

48:44

to fund the venture. You're pedaling

48:46

venture to Whether

48:49

or not it's luxury, I feel like

48:52

that's the angle. Right? It's

48:54

like, what is the vice

48:56

that people who worked there. I that

48:58

guest would want it. I like the luxury

49:00

idea, but, like, what does it look in

49:02

a concrete

49:04

state? Like, what is, like, the practical application of what you're

49:06

talking about? Do you have a hotel? Do

49:08

you have a spa behind the RK?

49:10

I mean, what is it that you're

49:13

What I think what if this

49:15

is this is how we leverage the hard light thing? What if it is like a

49:18

hidden and plain sight

49:20

like the

49:22

Mirage? and it is a

49:24

place that employees know

49:26

where it is, and we are

49:29

able to cloak get it

49:32

with with with Emmerich's

49:34

like hard light capabilities

49:38

the other

49:40

way around. is the hard light is what

49:42

creates

49:42

the like spa experience.

49:45

And otherwise, it's

49:47

an empty room. Right?

49:49

So it is a thing we can take with

49:52

us when we

49:52

go to different

49:55

layers of, like, we

49:57

take the Mirage with

49:59

us. and offer

49:59

this luxury experience. Or

50:02

you or you have okay.

50:04

Okay. Building on both of

50:05

these ideas. What what do you

50:07

think about this? So what you're

50:10

stealing what you're stealing

50:12

is the or what you're

50:14

trying to accumulate are

50:15

hard

50:17

light programs. that you

50:19

don't have. Like, you're going to

50:21

the other layers to find elements

50:23

that you can use

50:25

in the mirage. and make

50:27

the mirage which could be on the

50:30

different layers, there could be

50:32

hidden mirages, you know,

50:34

throughout as you expand. right, to the

50:36

different layers, to have Marages on each

50:38

one, and you're basically, like,

50:40

improving the experience

50:43

for employees. You know what it very thematically for

50:46

what I'm thinking about for the art,

50:48

thematically very satisfying. It's also what

50:50

it reminds me of is, like,

50:52

when we worked at a where when I worked in the Best Buy and it

50:54

was literally, like, there's space between

50:57

these two refrigerators back

51:00

to back if you wanna go just, like, lay down and you can't see it on

51:02

camera and, like, you can, like, lay down

51:04

back there and the bosses

51:06

won't know where

51:08

you are. Right. This did the same thing. Yeah. Taking a break. I did

51:10

the same thing when I when I worked

51:12

to Barton Brothers and back

51:14

in the stockroom, we used to build

51:16

a gigantic

51:18

forts out of paper towel

51:20

and toilet paper boxes that

51:22

the bosses didn't know about and

51:25

we'd sneak back in the breaks.

51:27

What about, like, the liminal

51:30

room? Like, the space between

51:32

layers that

51:34

that we can we that fulfills

51:36

this role for That's occupied. That's

51:38

occupied. The liminal layer is

51:40

occupied? Yeah.

51:42

So we'll we should

51:44

have we should

51:46

have okay. So I

51:48

don't know what you have heard. from

51:50

what we have been discussing in the past twenty minutes. Rachel probably You might

51:53

have just heard a big record scratch.

51:56

So guys

51:58

talk

51:58

to me about where we're at. Let's let's recap

51:59

this this hawkers. What do you all what are you

52:02

all selling? Where are you doing it?

52:04

Etcetera. So

52:06

here is

52:07

what we're looking at. Right? We ran through the different vices that a hawk

52:09

and a good hawk. And what

52:11

we

52:11

realized was

52:14

any vice that a guest would want

52:17

is already being catered

52:19

to by the park. Right?

52:21

Whatever

52:21

the experience is and

52:24

that means that the opportunity that the market

52:27

is employees. So

52:29

what we offer is

52:31

a luxury experience in

52:34

that, it is basically

52:35

like a hard light

52:37

break room, a hard

52:39

light sneak away

52:42

take a nap on the company dime kind of experience

52:45

for employees

52:46

where we have a

52:49

hard light projector that

52:51

we can set up in an empty room

52:53

or whatever to be this luxury experience for

52:55

them and then breaks down in an instant

52:57

and we can carry with us. And

52:59

so we are trying to expand this idea to have more

53:01

of these programs, to have more of these

53:04

projectors so we can have these, like,

53:06

kind of secret

53:08

break rooms generating

53:09

money for us.

53:12

If you've ever seen, like, it's there's,

53:14

like, rent by, like,

53:16

fifteen minute nap rooms and

53:18

airports sometimes, it's kinda like that.

53:20

That's what we wanna set up. So let's Mirage is seems like a really cool

53:22

way to refer to

53:24

these things.

53:25

Where are you Yeah.

53:29

Where are you?

53:29

The time has forgotten who came up

53:30

with it. The It was great. It

53:33

was ten minutes ago. You know, it's There

53:35

was a season of friends at the

53:38

table called twilight Mirage. That was sort of a They stole

53:40

it from us in the past? The

53:42

holographic. No.

53:44

Like holographic Okay.

53:48

So when they try not to call it Maraj, it's

53:50

like it's basically like what it it I

53:52

mean, it isn't such a good name. I

53:54

mean, that's there's a reason they use that because

53:56

it's like It's like the best thing to

53:58

to -- The

53:59

charade. --

54:01

the the the the

54:05

you too. I'm on twilight room. How It

54:07

doesn't matter. Twilight room.

54:10

Marriott, Nirvana. will

54:12

come up with something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You all go

54:14

into weird dictionaries and come up with something

54:16

good. Where do you operate out of?

54:19

What's like your your home base? So right now

54:22

because I wanna stick with the

54:24

arcade so bad. I think we're just right now

54:26

operating in the back room of

54:27

an arcade. that the that

54:30

boss lets us use that

54:32

ram. So there's a kindly

54:34

old

54:34

boss. I

54:36

think so. Daniel Bosch, who does not what does

54:39

he say? Poppy.

54:42

Marvin Mervyn? Nervyn.

54:44

Perfect. I'll be Murphy. See,

54:46

that's all it takes sometimes. That's you

54:48

guys said this to be easy. I had no idea

54:50

how easy. I told you Just wait for two people to

54:53

say things squish them together and he got

54:55

a new character name, Bobby Mervyn.

54:59

Poppy Mervyn, and he runs this arcade which

55:01

is called Poppy's

55:04

Place. It's called

55:06

Poppy's

55:08

Place. What kind

55:10

of games do they have at Poppy's Place?

55:12

So I think it is, uh-huh,

55:15

like ski ball and air, I think it's like

55:17

full blown Boardwalk or Yeah.

55:20

Boardwalk arcade. Well,

55:22

your punch

55:23

out game needs to

55:25

be in there too. Oh, yeah. Well, but they have

55:27

those they have those, like, speed

55:29

bag games at at

55:31

this type of establishment. I feel like So instead of it being, like,

55:33

AA0 it's maybe it's, like, also, like,

55:35

an arm wrestling, one of those where it's, like, the

55:37

fake arm is up. Fox

55:40

arm. Yeah. I wanna see a

55:42

bunch of of Okay. Yeah.

55:44

Steve wasn't a boxer. He was a

55:46

professional arm wrestler. Really?

55:48

Okay. Great. Yeah.

55:49

Wack of vol. We have

55:51

that whack when a bowl pops up out of the

55:54

ground. That's fine. Punchley part was more of

55:56

a threat. Like, if the arm wrestling

55:58

doesn't go good, I know. My

56:00

last one could be great. It could be snakes.

56:02

It's just his last name. Just his last name.

56:04

I don't know what to tell you. That's

56:06

something to do with

56:08

punching. Yeah. Beaf leverage is a different guy. When I'm talking

56:10

about beef leverage,

56:12

I help you guys know.

56:15

that the more kindly you make puppy

56:18

mervyn, the higher the

56:20

likelihood that you will have to kill

56:22

him. Like, I've been telling

56:24

you now. Okay.

56:26

So your crew is starting

56:28

out at a Poppy's place.

56:32

we are going to choose your tiers zero,

56:34

which means that you're barely even

56:36

a thing. You have

56:38

a stronghold, which means

56:42

that you're pretty tight on your on your place that you're

56:44

in. You have two coin

56:46

to to to use

56:48

to further your

56:50

your ambitions. and zero

56:54

reputation. You're just formed. You got your home

56:56

base. Given what

56:58

you've done, what kind of

57:00

reputation do you feel like? If

57:02

any, do you think that you have

57:04

with the the rest of the

57:06

of Stifel

57:08

Chase? I don't I don't the rest of Stifel Chase,

57:10

not much. Not much? I think. Yeah. Because

57:12

it it just depends on how much crossover

57:15

there is, like, you know, maintenance

57:18

people that may be moved

57:20

from part to part or layer to

57:22

layer. Maybe there's, like, one or

57:24

two of of those who have been to our break room and have, like, gone

57:26

to other things and mention it to other people.

57:28

This would this would also

57:30

be how you boost

57:32

your reputation is

57:34

how you advance your cruise. So if you think

57:36

about the kinds of things that you would like to

57:38

be perceived, right, that would increase

57:42

this reputation, the sorts of actions you'd like to take. And this is a

57:44

this is a thing we are choosing off of the

57:46

list. So can I read the

57:48

reputation, dishes? ambitious

57:50

brutal daring, honorable professionals savvy, subtle,

57:53

or strange. I okay.

57:55

So I think Oh, maybe

57:58

it's subtle. This idea of,

58:00

like, you're not gonna get in

58:02

trouble. Like, your your secret is

58:04

safe. If you use

58:06

this thing, like, if you go take a break on the company dime or

58:08

whatever, your secret is

58:10

safe.

58:10

They know how to keep their lips

58:12

shut. Okay.

58:14

Dad, how do you feel about that? Yeah. Yeah. I

58:16

like that. Okay. That also helps in the

58:18

big scheme when people are like, hey,

58:21

I've heard that discretion is like your

58:24

strong suit. I have another job

58:26

for you. Yeah. That

58:28

requires that. Right? So, like, I think

58:30

that that it's a good

58:32

balance of doing the job and doing our goal

58:34

and

58:35

how those

58:36

grow each other's influence.

58:40

you guys

58:40

know yourselves. Right? Like,

58:42

you know the way that this is all

58:44

gone before. Right? And you understand what

58:46

I'm what you are saying to

58:50

me the facilitator of your fantasies is that

58:52

what you wanna do this time,

58:54

the watch word is subtlety.

58:57

that this is what you're saying. We're trying something

59:00

wrong. You know, I will not

59:02

advance you as a crew if

59:04

you're like, yeah, we blew the whole building.

59:06

Well, no, that's as long as we don't track

59:08

that do keep back

59:10

home. Right? today. That's

59:12

fine. As long as we don't bring that always down

59:14

on our clients. Settle.

59:16

Settle. Settle

59:18

date. Tastes Well, subtle

59:20

operators. Okay. So you're subtle.

59:23

the Okay. I

59:24

am not gonna establish a

59:27

hunting ground specifically right now

59:30

because that is not a mechanic

59:32

that I am having needing to deal with

59:34

at this exact moment and I wanna leave

59:36

some room to find out about

59:38

it. Choose a special

59:40

ability. There is a list here of special

59:42

abilities. I'm not gonna read them off because it

59:44

would be a long time, but is

59:46

there one that appeals to one or more of

59:49

you if you look at that special abilities

59:51

box there in gray? I mean, I

59:53

know it's the first

59:55

one,

59:55

but silver tongue.

59:58

I like

59:59

silver tons. I

59:59

also kinda like

1:00:00

ghost market, but that brings up questions

1:00:03

for juice. Like, do hard

1:00:06

light people come to our

1:00:08

thing? we do not

1:00:10

discriminate. They do not pay in coin. What do

1:00:12

they pay with? I mean, we could do

1:00:14

the good stuff since we have a

1:00:17

pioneer of hard light in our crew.

1:00:19

And isn't

1:00:20

that what we're

1:00:21

offering our customers?

1:00:24

is high quality I mean, good stuff.

1:00:27

I mean, they're they're there to get

1:00:29

the best of the

1:00:32

best. I I

1:00:34

silver tongues is appealing to me because that

1:00:36

is very much the character I am playing.

1:00:38

And if we're playing Right? If

1:00:41

we're playing subtle, I think the

1:00:43

three of us being

1:00:46

good

1:00:46

at, like, talking to people

1:00:50

is a safe bet. Also, I don't think any of us

1:00:51

have command. I do. I have one

1:00:54

in command. It seems like having

1:00:56

more command, like being able to

1:00:58

make people I can

1:01:00

convince people of anything. I think if we do this

1:01:02

1II would have three points in

1:01:04

sway. I mean, if you take that one, like,

1:01:06

you can put it in one of those

1:01:08

three.

1:01:08

Yes. This

1:01:09

is one special building for the

1:01:11

whole crew. Correct?

1:01:12

Correct. Yes.

1:01:13

I think that's the way to go. As much as I like -- Yeah.

1:01:16

-- good stuff. I think Okay. So, Justin,

1:01:18

here's what we've decided. Since,

1:01:20

as you have said, the watch

1:01:22

will be subtlety, we are going to

1:01:25

choose silver tongues as our special

1:01:27

ability as a crew. Alright. So you all

1:01:29

are taking silver tongues. Yeah. We're taking

1:01:31

silver tongues, and so we each get to

1:01:33

add one to command console or

1:01:35

way. Now I can't

1:01:38

see dad or griffin's character sheets,

1:01:40

but I already have

1:01:43

one in command. and command is basically

1:01:46

to intimidate or threaten,

1:01:48

lead in action with

1:01:48

one of their cruise gangs, command

1:01:52

obedience with your force of

1:01:54

personality. I think I'm gonna take

1:01:56

that. Yeah. Another point now to add two

1:01:58

points in

1:02:00

command. I have two in soy. I might actually take one in consort because

1:02:02

if we are trying to pedal our wares to

1:02:05

other mhmm, like organizations

1:02:08

with the park. It seems like being able to

1:02:10

talk to them on a sort of

1:02:12

broad scale. Sway is more

1:02:14

like convincing someone of something

1:02:16

or using deception.

1:02:18

Consortium is like hitting

1:02:21

the streets and,

1:02:22

like

1:02:23

like, having contact. Yeah. And I

1:02:25

think that that would be much more valuable for Montrose

1:02:28

Ready. So I need to add

1:02:29

one, two,

1:02:32

You can choose command consort command consort or sway. consort or sway. I

1:02:35

have two in consort and sway. Trap

1:02:37

has two in command. Do

1:02:40

you have any right now, Dan? Well, Sway

1:02:42

would sure help me in

1:02:45

trying to influence Hard light

1:02:48

structures wouldn't? It wouldn't. No. Sway

1:02:50

would be you would use a tune for

1:02:52

that. Like, because Sway would be

1:02:54

someone who has independent will. which a hard

1:02:56

light construction would not. So you couldn't convince

1:02:58

a computer of anything. Right? It would just now

1:03:00

I think it would make sense that if you

1:03:02

said that Amerik,

1:03:04

because of his former

1:03:06

career as a create

1:03:09

creation leader, has contacts

1:03:12

in, you know, maintenance or contacts

1:03:14

in that kind of thing for

1:03:16

consort, that would make a lot of sense to me.

1:03:18

Yeah. Like people you know to have, like, previously,

1:03:22

like, might be a good one. It's

1:03:24

up to you though. Okay. I'll put it in

1:03:26

consort. Okay.

1:03:28

Alright. Let's see. What's next for us?

1:03:31

I need to pick up two upgrades.

1:03:33

Two upgrades. We're not gonna read this

1:03:35

list. Just tell me what two upgrades you guys

1:03:37

want. There's a lot. It feels like hidden

1:03:39

would be great for us.

1:03:42

Yeah. Hidden is an upgrade. Your

1:03:44

lair has a secret location and

1:03:46

is disguised to hide it from

1:03:48

view. If your layer is discovered, use two

1:03:50

downtime activities in Paycoin equal to your

1:03:52

tier to relocate it and hide

1:03:54

once again. Yeah.

1:03:55

yeah Yeah. Case I'm gonna take hidden.

1:03:57

And then

1:03:58

one more. The

1:03:59

the ones up at the top in the gray

1:04:02

box are

1:04:04

like kinda recommended. So I

1:04:05

don't know if any of those

1:04:07

look interesting to you all. Oh,

1:04:09

man. I I

1:04:12

like Hawkers rigging because I like being able to conceal things.

1:04:14

It seemed like it would be up dad's

1:04:16

alley too, but I didn't know if if

1:04:18

that looked good to you guys.

1:04:20

Yeah. I I think that that would aid especially in field

1:04:23

operations. Yeah. Perfect. That's also

1:04:26

gonna be good for y'all because you'll be traveling away

1:04:28

from your own home base

1:04:30

a lot. So Yeah. And

1:04:32

especially if we take our projector thing with us, if we're taking technology

1:04:34

with us, we don't want our

1:04:36

shit to get confiscated or else.

1:04:40

Yeah. So here's what I'd like to

1:04:41

do very briefly. If you can

1:04:43

look at

1:04:44

the map that I

1:04:46

have made

1:04:48

for you of used to been. If you could load that

1:04:50

up. Obviously, the people at home

1:04:52

can't see this, and I don't wanna, like,

1:04:56

go over all the different areas of used to bend. This is sort

1:04:58

of like your neck of the woods. This doesn't

1:05:00

encompass the entirety of the park.

1:05:02

This map. But it Well,

1:05:04

that's very pretty, Justin. Thank you,

1:05:06

Dad. I will give

1:05:08

five adventure points, which is, by the

1:05:10

way, a currency that

1:05:12

I've invented For my arc, when you use something good, you can earn

1:05:14

adventure points that are redeemable for

1:05:16

prizes at the end of the

1:05:18

arc. So So five

1:05:20

adventure points to the first person that could tell me

1:05:22

what this is a map of. It's Camden

1:05:24

Park. Nope. No?

1:05:26

Camden Park. Nope. Is it Cedar Point?

1:05:29

Nope. The roller coaster is your big

1:05:31

hit. Wings Island. Which

1:05:34

part? Oh, yes, sir? I mean, that's the Royster.

1:05:36

Exactly. Kony Island? Yeah. It is

1:05:38

the Kony Island area from, like,

1:05:40

mid seventies. Oh, wow. Okay.

1:05:44

Anyway, there's a there's a map of all the

1:05:47

different nostalgic experiences. We're

1:05:50

not talking about Prize

1:05:52

Palace today. but are there any

1:05:54

others that you are interested in or would like to hear

1:05:56

more about? Or you feel like so here's what

1:05:58

I'm thinking. You do not

1:05:59

have a lot of

1:06:02

expansive context outside of used to been

1:06:04

for the moment. We will blow that out once things

1:06:06

start. But right now, in place of,

1:06:10

like, steep will chase wide factions. I'd like to think

1:06:12

of these like different stores and

1:06:14

restaurants of used to been as

1:06:16

like little factions just for this

1:06:18

first outing. So is there

1:06:20

any that you, like, have a relationship

1:06:22

with? Any that that you feel like we

1:06:24

wanna establish some narrative hooks with, like,

1:06:26

something that you have a

1:06:28

history with or ones that

1:06:30

you wanted to, like, know more about very briefly?

1:06:32

Whittle around you had

1:06:36

mentioned was hard light based of, like, you know, this

1:06:38

gram Whittling around is if

1:06:40

you ever

1:06:42

seen, like, an old

1:06:44

timey TV show or movie and you

1:06:46

see an old grandpa and

1:06:48

he's like sitting on the porch and he's

1:06:50

idling. Yeah.

1:06:52

I've never actually seen anybody do that in real life.

1:06:54

And most people who I have. I do

1:06:56

it. But Well, you're not a denizen

1:06:58

of this futuristic world, dad.

1:07:01

So you Nice. Like,

1:07:04

yet, it just gives you that

1:07:06

experience of whittling around. Now for

1:07:08

a exorbitant

1:07:10

fee, they will take images,

1:07:12

videos, details about your

1:07:14

own grandpa and recreate him

1:07:16

as AAA very basic hard

1:07:19

light projection I mean, he's not gonna, like, have great memories of

1:07:21

your lives together. But if you wanna pretend, you

1:07:23

can have your grandpa in there for a

1:07:25

price. That would be a

1:07:27

macro knickknacks. Anachronix is a

1:07:30

store that sells

1:07:31

physical objects that are

1:07:33

no longer produced. there

1:07:35

are, like, handles for

1:07:38

rolling up and down car

1:07:40

windows. If you ever wanted experience

1:07:43

that you can. They have rotary phones in

1:07:45

there. They have different device.

1:07:47

They have, like,

1:07:50

record players, cassette players, all

1:07:52

the, like, outdated technology, things

1:07:54

that shouldn't exist anymore, but they

1:07:56

have

1:07:58

found. And what

1:07:58

is back seat blast?

1:07:59

Back seat blast is a

1:08:00

great that's a actually extremely popular

1:08:03

attraction it used to been. In

1:08:05

back seat blasts, you have the experience

1:08:08

of sitting in the

1:08:09

back seat of your

1:08:11

parents' car and

1:08:12

It's raining a little bit outside as

1:08:14

the evening, and you've just been at a party, and

1:08:17

you're listening to

1:08:20

your Discomann but you

1:08:22

have the volume quiet enough that you

1:08:24

can listen to

1:08:25

your parents talking in the front

1:08:27

seat as the window when should wipers

1:08:29

move back and forth and you listen to your music and you

1:08:31

know with complete certainty that you are

1:08:34

as safe as you will ever

1:08:36

be. And

1:08:38

that's back seat blast. And it's too Twenty yeah. Yeah. It's actually very affordable. It's twenty

1:08:40

bucks for a spin

1:08:43

on back seat blast. if

1:08:47

you want the parents to look like your parents, they do have

1:08:49

some, like, free standard parents that you

1:08:51

can go with, but that's that's up

1:08:53

to you. Are they huge too?

1:08:55

Are the cars big to make you

1:08:57

feel small. Exactly. Exactly. Yes, Griffin. They're very big

1:09:00

cars. What about

1:09:03

all mixed up? all mixed up

1:09:06

is a store where there are thirty radios playing to different

1:09:11

AI generated stations. and you are

1:09:13

given a cassette where you have to dash from radio to radio to create a mix

1:09:15

tape of songs that you

1:09:18

that you love. I I

1:09:21

like the I like the idea of our crew

1:09:23

contact being somebody who is higher up at one of these

1:09:26

places who uses our services.

1:09:30

with is

1:09:31

And about a

1:09:34

former

1:09:34

coworker of emricks.

1:09:36

who

1:09:38

stayed in good favor. Maybe

1:09:41

maybe

1:09:42

somebody that

1:09:43

was instrumental in

1:09:46

getting EMrick

1:09:47

pushed out, but

1:09:48

Emrick doesn't know it. Okay. Yeah. It

1:09:50

doesn't need to be too complex because

1:09:52

we're gonna be out of here

1:09:55

pretty quickly. But, like, if you wanna say, like, a former, where do they

1:09:57

work, dad? Personally, I would like him

1:09:59

to work

1:09:59

at infant

1:10:02

item. because I wanna go there. Oh, I but we're

1:10:04

right now, we're just staying in Houston.

1:10:07

It's just stuff for this

1:10:09

first, like, little chunk. I would say the

1:10:11

two that sound the most hard light y

1:10:13

to me are whittle around a

1:10:15

back seat blast.

1:10:17

Right? They would require programmers. Right? People who

1:10:19

had program grandpa's

1:10:20

and program parents. Mhmm. So I think

1:10:22

it would make sense that if

1:10:23

the connection is,

1:10:26

like, somebody who worked with m wreck

1:10:28

that he whittle around or back seat

1:10:30

blast would make the most sense. Did

1:10:33

that have a preference? I have

1:10:35

an odd thought. Okay.

1:10:37

What

1:10:38

if the

1:10:40

the the

1:10:44

basic grandpa Hard

1:10:45

light construct is

1:10:47

one of Emrick's his

1:10:49

one of em rex

1:10:52

earliest creations creations and

1:10:54

he considers him to be his

1:10:57

friend. Oh, shit. So instead of his

1:10:59

son yeah. So our contact is

1:11:01

a hard light. Good luck

1:11:02

to you. What is your what is your

1:11:04

what is your hard light grandpa friend's

1:11:07

name? What's your imaginary

1:11:08

grandpa friend?

1:11:10

What's

1:11:11

his name? Eustace. EUS TACE.

1:11:13

Eustace Ben? Eustace

1:11:16

Chebon. He has the last

1:11:18

name. I mean, he okay.

1:11:21

I'm used to -- She wants

1:11:23

you. -- the the hologuard. Hold on. Let me make

1:11:25

a quick note about who

1:11:28

he is. because

1:11:30

I will I will remember,

1:11:32

but you guys may not. He

1:11:34

is a hard

1:11:35

light grandpa.

1:11:37

grandpa Yeah. Really?

1:11:38

And the fact number has been that Hard Light

1:11:41

Grand Hard Light constructs are AI.

1:11:43

They are not people. I wanna make this

1:11:45

really clear going in -- No. -- I

1:11:47

know. Alright. But that but that's the world that that Emrick lives

1:11:49

in. Okay. I mean, he and

1:11:51

I think Eustace

1:11:54

is is because he's been reprogrammed so many times, you know,

1:11:57

and changed form so many times,

1:11:59

he has a very

1:12:00

bad

1:12:02

memory. Okay. Alright. So you have a you have a friend there

1:12:05

over at the the

1:12:07

whittle around

1:12:08

who is a hard

1:12:10

light grandpa. uses Siobhan the first grandpa sounds

1:12:13

like a like a

1:12:15

from software boss. Alright.

1:12:19

Now, this is a plus one you have with him.

1:12:21

One, I need somebody else to come up with

1:12:23

somebody you hate in

1:12:26

used to been. Oh, you know what? I'm gonna say the

1:12:30

the proprietor of

1:12:34

a macro Nik max. we've

1:12:36

had to deal with to, like,

1:12:38

get parts for things. What is what

1:12:41

the is their

1:12:44

name, Griffin? I don't know. Tell me more about

1:12:46

them, Travis. Well, they're a real company person. And

1:12:48

so we have to

1:12:49

be really careful about how

1:12:52

we ask for the pieces

1:12:54

and they're really nosy, and they are trying to figure out what we're

1:12:56

doing.

1:13:00

I

1:13:00

like okay. I really like the first off,

1:13:02

I've just discovered that I have no idea how to spell the word proprietary.

1:13:06

Here we are. I like the idea that there are some hard

1:13:08

light things that aren't worth programming, and

1:13:10

it's just easier to get the

1:13:13

things from an Acronix x. Like, just to have

1:13:15

you ever tried to model a, you know, what

1:13:18

whatever it is, the wax cylinder on a

1:13:20

ventral. It's easier to just get

1:13:22

the fucking thing. Well, and we we there's not like a

1:13:24

radio shack for us to go to to

1:13:26

get technology. You only take apart so many

1:13:29

machines before people start to notice. So sometimes you

1:13:31

have to, like, buy, you know, old, tiny

1:13:33

stuff to use in place of

1:13:36

other things. And just like that, I

1:13:38

have the name. His name is Victorola

1:13:40

Gold. Trola gold.

1:13:42

Okay. Great. Fantastic. Okay.

1:13:45

So we

1:13:48

have established someone

1:13:51

you don't like, someone you

1:13:53

do like, that's that's all very

1:13:56

well and good The the

1:13:57

last thing I wanted to to touch on real quick in terms of sort

1:13:59

of like red

1:13:59

lines or things that

1:14:02

we feel like are sort

1:14:04

of out of bounds

1:14:06

for this, and we're setting some, like, parameters, which is something we've tried to be better about modeling even though, you know, it's four of

1:14:08

us. We all know each other pretty well.

1:14:10

So there's not as much discomfort, but

1:14:15

you know, I do think it's important thing to to sort

1:14:17

of establish. So for me,

1:14:19

I one of the things that

1:14:21

I don't enjoy and will not be part

1:14:23

of this Ark violence against Yep. I don't I don't love it,

1:14:25

and I don't like I don't wanna, like, hang

1:14:27

out there. I will also

1:14:30

I mean, how many kids related question,

1:14:32

like, how many kids are here? Right?

1:14:35

because this does not sound like a child friendly experience necessarily

1:14:37

in in the sense that

1:14:39

it is like a

1:14:41

nostalgia play for I'll say this. You don't well, you don't see a lot of kids in

1:14:43

used to been for

1:14:48

sure. Okay. That is about what you know,

1:14:50

I think. I mean, I don't see a lot of kids in your neck of the woods because, like, they're living the dream. I they're

1:14:55

creating this, Alja. That's where they

1:14:57

make it, you know, childhood. I also think I mean, I think it's

1:14:59

important just to establish as a baseline too because we're talking about, like,

1:15:01

vice and fantasy and

1:15:04

stuff. And anything

1:15:06

related

1:15:06

to human trafficking or, like, sex trafficking set,

1:15:12

like, is is off the table,

1:15:14

I think. There being a distinction between sex work and human trafficking. Yeah. Of

1:15:16

course. Anything else

1:15:19

that anybody

1:15:19

doesn't mean? I will

1:15:21

not be protracted torture. No. Not. And then we have no word nasty

1:15:24

nasty characters, but that's a little

1:15:26

too It's a little too

1:15:28

nasty. for

1:15:31

me. Yeah. And I think

1:15:32

the level of violence or

1:15:34

at least high

1:15:38

yeah. High violence But I think, I mean, in all seriousness,

1:15:40

I think almost to

1:15:42

the, like, Deadpool level.

1:15:45

You know what I

1:15:47

mean? So it's still Fun.

1:15:49

Fun

1:15:49

times. Yeah. Fun violence. I yeah. Yeah. That's what I do. And that I

1:15:51

you should know by

1:15:52

this point everything I do

1:15:54

in my creative endeavors. I strive to

1:15:59

to be like deadpool. Yeah. So he is he is something of

1:16:01

an icon and a hero for me. So he

1:16:03

will aim for deadpool. Well, okay.

1:16:05

But but I mean, there's a subtle difference between

1:16:07

a James Bond movie where he's mowing down people left

1:16:09

and right. If it's important to

1:16:12

you

1:16:14

personally. Okay? that there be

1:16:15

I I need you to

1:16:16

be specific about this because it is something

1:16:18

that, like, this will be this is

1:16:20

a violent game. This is a this

1:16:23

can be a nasty game. So,

1:16:25

like, I want if there's specific things

1:16:27

that to like, I talking like i'm

1:16:30

that that's the cards they were talking about here

1:16:32

about here.

1:16:32

I take I love it all. I don't have any

1:16:34

problem with it. Okay, great. So my dad's

1:16:37

a nasty dog

1:16:39

who loves murder. Well, this

1:16:41

is where I think we can get into, like, the x card and the

1:16:43

red yellow and green. So we have a verbal x card

1:16:48

on because we're an audio medium and it's just

1:16:50

easier that way because who knows what to be looking at? If you say, hey, Bud, then

1:16:52

that means I'm gonna stop, but

1:16:54

we're gonna talk about what's happening.

1:16:57

that's not a it's not a magic catch phrase. We would say, like, hey, Bud,

1:16:59

I'm uncomfortable with this because there might be times where our characters say, hey,

1:17:01

Bud, and we know

1:17:04

they can't. They better not.

1:17:06

because the secret relates to a verbal x card that I have a stat. Tell me something

1:17:08

Griffin that will be a

1:17:10

good verbal x card that you

1:17:13

that I could say

1:17:15

with certainty that y'all will not be Part cheesy.

1:17:17

ah

1:17:19

our cheesy Part

1:17:20

cheesy. It's not a sexual stand. Banana stand. Banana stand.

1:17:22

Okay. We're what we're gonna go with is hey bud. So

1:17:25

if something is is uncomfortable with

1:17:27

you, just say hey bud, and

1:17:30

we'll we'll talk through it. And that'll either

1:17:32

be on mic or it

1:17:34

won't. Okay. So now, i'd like to

1:17:36

close I'd like

1:17:38

to close. It

1:17:39

is time isn't

1:17:41

that important

1:17:42

here, but for

1:17:44

simplicity's

1:17:45

sake. Let's call

1:17:47

it one PM. at

1:17:49

over at Poppies. What oh, Emrick. What do

1:17:51

I find

1:17:52

were oh emmerich

1:17:54

what i find you

1:17:56

you doing? Tinkering. I just

1:17:57

came off my

1:17:59

lunch break.

1:18:01

We're

1:18:04

very sad. I had a little

1:18:06

cucumber sandwich and I ate it back in the corner. And then

1:18:08

I go back

1:18:11

to tinkering on a still

1:18:13

have a few minutes left

1:18:15

my lunch and break. So I'm working on a personal project. so i'm working

1:18:17

on a personal project montrose mantras?

1:18:20

there's a new hire

1:18:22

here who works at the concession and

1:18:28

I'm trying to

1:18:30

sort of gauge suddenly their interest in our product.

1:18:32

in our products

1:18:35

Okay. And beef. Beef

1:18:37

is arm wrestling the machine. And like

1:18:39

loudly proclaiming, like, so realistic. Just like

1:18:41

the real thing, me

1:18:43

and my prime. and,

1:18:47

like, trying to get attention to

1:18:49

it. And I don't

1:18:51

know. He's probably not that

1:18:54

because thing. At at that exact moment,

1:18:56

it was 103

1:18:59

PM. There was a

1:19:01

loud sort of a crack

1:19:03

un unwindly, impossibly, impossibly

1:19:06

loud, the sound

1:19:09

of a crack

1:19:11

outside above you. What would you all do?

1:19:13

Don't overthink it, guys. Yeah. I'm

1:19:15

gonna peek outside cautiously.

1:19:20

Okay. EMERC. Are you gonna

1:19:22

take a look? I I think take a look but kind

1:19:24

of position

1:19:26

myself behind beef. Okay. and

1:19:30

then mantras. I don't wanna break my stride here. So I'm just gonna kinda keep an eye on

1:19:33

the other

1:19:36

two and see what

1:19:38

their reactions like before I decide. So you're standing in in relative

1:19:41

proximity.

1:19:45

The sky in Eusteban is during

1:19:47

the daytime, at least, always the

1:19:49

same. It's the way

1:19:51

the sky look on

1:19:55

a snow day where you wake up and

1:19:57

it's brighter than it should be.

1:19:59

It's

1:19:59

impossibly bright

1:20:02

because the sunlight is being reflected off the drifts of snow. It's

1:20:04

always that color and used

1:20:06

to bend, except for right

1:20:09

now, at this

1:20:12

exact moment, you

1:20:12

hear another crack

1:20:14

and you see above you a

1:20:19

break in the sky. It looks

1:20:21

to be maybe a

1:20:23

thousand feet across. and

1:20:27

then it cracks more and you see that it's starting

1:20:29

to crack into

1:20:31

something that approximates a a rectangle,

1:20:34

a gigantic, thousands of feet wide, rectangle.

1:20:37

And then