[00:00:00] Speaker A: As the four of you come back to yourself, what is the feeling? What is. How do you react as your memories were toyed with?
[00:00:12] Speaker B: I think Varun emerges out of this with tears in his eyes.
There was so much grief and pain and loss and what he had to endure and remember and feel that when he emerges out this. This tears burning against his eyelids and he wipes against them and realizes that they've been toyed with.
How dare you.
How dare you.
And he is shaking and he is crying.
And emerging out from his right hand a high pitch noise like that of a Tibetan bowl and a. His chakra emerges in his hand.
He is deeply upset, almost bordering anger. But anger is not quite correct. It is a deep seated sadness that demands retribution.
[00:01:33] Speaker C: When Ren enters this space, she is incredibly calm. On the outside, there's no evidence of a Wren who laughs, who jokes, who makes light of every situation.
She's just calm.
Because of course, of course she's never going to get the words that she wanted to hear because that wasn't real.
That memory was a fabrication, was a lie, was a toy to make her a plaything.
And she is almost hollow. She feels nothing except it's time to get the job done and let's deal with someone who makes a living off of treating people like playthings.
[00:02:35] Speaker D: I think that almost trading places in contrast to Ren's calm is Chloe's absolute rage. Not just that her memories were violated and her mother's face was stolen, but rage at the shame that she feels for having connected with this person and seeing herself, I think in the manipulation that Natasha has just done to them.
[00:03:14] Speaker E: I think for Arjun, he.
He's felt anger, he's felt rage at Natasha before. But after this new stunt that she's pulled, manipulating not, apparently not just his memories, those of his friends as well his teammates, he's just disappointed. Honestly, like this is even like for as bad as Natasha is, even he.
He at least thought she had some standards.
But this is just.
This is just a new low. And so if anything else, he's. He can't even be bothered to get mad at her. Like he is just fully, fully unsympathetic. Just disappointed in her.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: With this new found and final realization, the actual fight begins.
Natasha laughs again, her piercing chirping laugh.
Oh come off it, all of you.
We're here to fight, aren't we? How much more do I have to finally explain and drill into your heads?
It's so much better to just hide. Whatever's real isn't real anymore, doesn't have to be anyway, so give me all you got.
I have a meeting after this.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: I'll show you real.
[00:05:08] Speaker C: Let's go.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: And va'ruun will launch an attack which is probably.
That's probably the first time he's ever done that.
All right, I am double checking the moves. Oh, I might have accidentally moved our actions on the.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry if I did.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: You can move it back. It's okay.
[00:05:32] Speaker C: You're like, I'm so mad. I'm going to rearrange reality.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: I'm so angry. Literally, Literally. Varun is like, he's called on the chakra and he expands it its size by two notches and is literally about to throw it at her. A high velocity like a discus, just going to launch it at her. So I believe that's just a strike. Unless you'd like to suggest another move for me.
[00:06:08] Speaker A: Sounds like strike to me, baby.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: All righty.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Where's my face?
[00:06:13] Speaker B: Alrighty, let's see how this goes.
Well, this is direct force, I think. Yeah. Which I have. Honestly, I could make an argument for that. This is an argument, but that doesn't seem right. No, this is direct force. This no stealth. And that's a minus one for me. Time to roll. Well, I rolled well. Surprisingly that is a 10.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: A 10. Beautiful. Okay, on any hit you remove the opening and break one of the foes qualities.
What does it look like? When we can we sort of. We see again these irritating like computer heads like of all sorts of like old and like new.
The faces on it again depicting these annoying kind of cute maybe Tamagotchi faces but similar to some of yalls memories. This projector screen of the many faces of Natasha that she's curated to put up on social media.
Just flipping through many glamorous faces, many glamorous outfits. What does it look like, Varun, when you destroy one of these heads of this computerized hydra?
[00:07:45] Speaker B: What it looks like is that the chakra wheel spins and then it increases in velocity and speed and it embeds itself into the screen, shattering it at the same center of where maybe one of the glamorous shots was put up. Like it's a. It's a face picture that has sparkled to life on the screen and it just shatters that screen and we see the chakra beginning to kind of like shift and move within it, attempting to return back to Varuna this time. So it's just cracked glass and the horrible sound of like metal like shattering it over and over again.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: Absolutely.
One of the faces broken. The last thing, the last face, the last curated image seen on it is just like a very jarring screaming face of Natasha. It is still one where there's like glitter on her eyes and her lipstick is still like perfectly put together, but her face screaming and then it is broken. Broken machines at the end of the day, they are useless. The giant form of this hydra, this digital monster.
The height, the sheer mass of this thing reduces and it is more that the size of a human.
But her voice, rather than growling, it sounds like there is just intense metallic creaking.
One of the computer heads as the other one, the first one broken, the first one down uselessly just drags its head on the ground again. Of this setting, this location where nothing seems to stop and start.
One of the heads slams into the ground of this world and it sounds loud, it sounds heavy and way more vicious than it seemed before.
That was Va'ruun's turn. Who is next?
[00:10:07] Speaker C: So as one of the hydra heads falls due to Va'ruun's attack, Ren is going to try and find an opening because she doesn't. She doesn't have this anger in her to strike right now. And she doesn't have the levity to make a joke or to act how she usually does.
So I'm going to try line it up and we'll see how that goes.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: When you size up the enemy to locate a weak spot. Roll plus coins.
[00:10:53] Speaker C: Perfect. I'm gonna. I failed. So I'm going to expend my gear, which is a lucky charm I can expend to reroll on this roll. Totally going to do that. Cause I got a two and a one.
Ooh, okay. And I got a one and a one, so.
[00:11:12] Speaker E: Oh God, that.
[00:11:15] Speaker C: So as Ren's running, I think she's just unfocused. She's dazed, there's. She's not really there. It's almost like she's calm because she's dissociating. And as she tries to look for an opening, you can see one of the Chinese fortune knots on her outfit shrivel up and fall as if burned by ash burned to ashes fall off of her. But she is just dazed and not all there. She's confused for sure.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Natasha, with that Ms. Wren laughs in your face again. This horribly annoying like but cute like pixelated face of something just laughing at you. Those almost like static electricity feeling like the little hairs on your face raise as she laughs.
We always say that there is such thing as good luck. But the people who make the true Fortune are the ones on top.
Technically, I can choose the condition you get here. But just going off of what you've said about Wren's emotional state right now, distracted, upset, what condition would you say Wren would be right the most right now?
[00:12:51] Speaker C: Probably callous.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Callous. Okay. Yeah. Again with the laughing computer face in front of you right now. She says that thing that fortune is made.
Wren, you feel not a limpness in your body, but just this slack.
Whoever's around you can see this light in your eyes, your face in something just sort of lose its momentum, lose whatever advantage you were trying to provide to the group.
Arjun, you standing next to her, it's almost like a physical feeling, whether or not it's because of the void. But you can feel that something is lost from Ren right now. And Ren isn't seeing it. You are seeing some of her essence being taken away from her. Almost as if being downloaded as there is like a sneaky wire. There is some cord touching Ren right now from this grand computer monster in front of you. Arjun, is there anything that you'd like to do?
[00:14:09] Speaker E: Yeah, I'm gonna see if I can, I guess, help Ren basically get out of that. So I guess that would probably be a stand by me.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: I think when you reach out to bolster an ally role, Co cups double.
[00:14:21] Speaker E: Check what my cups is. And I know right now I have disadvantage at that, but I think because of my shadow move, I get to mark a void to ignore the disadvantage because of it.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: Beautiful. Okay.
[00:14:34] Speaker E: And by the way, that skill is called Impossible Perfection for anyone curious.
Literally, that is the name of the skill.
[00:14:40] Speaker A: Beautiful.
[00:14:42] Speaker E: All right, so I have a. I have a plus one two cups, no disadvantage.
[00:14:50] Speaker B: Let's do this.
[00:14:54] Speaker E: That's 10.
[00:14:55] Speaker C: Oh, there we go.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Amazing. Okay, what does it look like? As you bolster Ren, you remove this, like, corruption. Digitized corruption, basically attempting to be done to her.
[00:15:11] Speaker E: So as soon as he notices that, I guess, cable that's doing whatever it's doing to Ren, Arjun is going to basically swiftly take out his Urumi sword and just basically with one swift motion, kind of chop it off, severing the connection between Natasha and Ren and sort of making sure that Ren's okay to, like, be able to continue with Stan.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: With me on a 10.
They may also heal a condition or gain fleeting advantage. Ren, which one would you prefer to have?
[00:15:46] Speaker D: Yeah, let's take.
[00:15:48] Speaker C: I don't know, let's take the condition off. Let's take the condition off for storytelling.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: The callousness just drains from your body suddenly as you Realize, Arjun, your friend helped you.
[00:16:02] Speaker C: Oh, my God.
Wow.
[00:16:08] Speaker D: Oh, my God.
[00:16:10] Speaker C: And she does a little heart with her hands and she's like, wow, that was so cool. You are chef's kiss always.
[00:16:20] Speaker E: You can see him sort of like brush like, brush like his hair off and responds just like it wasn't really anything.
[00:16:27] Speaker C: Oh my God. Humble nothing.
[00:16:31] Speaker E: It's kind of like that. It's kind of like that. It's kind of like that fake. It was nothing almost kind of thing, like very, very actor, like hottie actor kind of thing he does.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Red's gonna go.
[00:16:43] Speaker C: Red's gonna go. Flex for me. Show off your muscles.
[00:16:49] Speaker E: Oh, my God.
Can you focus, please?
[00:16:55] Speaker C: Okay, what is what. We just have to like beat her, right? Super easy.
[00:17:01] Speaker A: Chill out. As red as there's. There's also like this giant, like not giant now, monster, but still this monster in front of you. And the world is like unclear where it stops.
Chloe. Halcyon.
[00:17:16] Speaker F: I mean, Halcyon. Halcyon is ready to go. Halcyon's ready and raring. Especially after their speech didn't go too well.
So, I mean, Halcyon's got. Got the scythe out and is probably going to try to pressure the.
Natasha.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: The.
Yes, Natasha.
[00:17:41] Speaker F: Yeah, Natasha.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:44] Speaker F: And I think, I mean, yeah, I guess probably to try to get like an opening on her.
And I think with all of the time that. That Halcyon's been spending in the gym, they kind of like are doing some like, like twirls with the scythe, trying to be a little bit distracting and then. And then go and charge at.
At the hydra. So let's see how this goes. Okay, hold on, hold on.
I believe that is a grand total of of 8.
[00:18:27] Speaker D: Yahoo.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: And this was pressure.
[00:18:30] Speaker F: Yeah, this is pressure.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: Okay, what would you like to pick? Expose an opening, creating advantage, Pin them in place or give an ally a window to act freely?
[00:18:42] Speaker F: I think I'm gonna expose an opening. And yeah, I think it's more through like just, just, just going, you know, balls to the wall, waving the scythe around, just trying to get any. Get at her in any way that Halcyon can. Kind of a furious fury swipes with the scythe.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: With this opening, Halcyon is creating a new blue fire. Chloe, what would you like to do?
[00:19:14] Speaker D: Yeah, I think that while Halcyon is doing these sort of almost wild swipes at Sheradred, this Hydra, Chloe will run forward and just in cold, precise rage, just try and bite through one of the cords attaching one of the heads. Maybe Yeah, I think the voice was sort of coming from the room at large rather than a particular head, but maybe there was one that she was like, no, that's the one. That's the one that's judging me. That's the one that she goes for.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: Are you striking?
[00:20:02] Speaker D: I'm striking.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: Let's do it.
[00:20:06] Speaker F: Let's go, let's go.
[00:20:13] Speaker D: Oh, okay. I have a plus one. So that is a.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Wait.
[00:20:17] Speaker D: Yes, that is a seven. It is not the one that I have disadvantage on. I don't have disadvantage in striking yet.
[00:20:23] Speaker A: So Amazing.
[00:20:24] Speaker D: A partial success.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: The opening is removed and you will break one of the foes qualities. But also pick one, they're gonna single you out, Chloe. And what that will look like.
You will unravel this hydra in front of you. Before you were able to break it.
You go for one of the screens, the one.
This is the source of the faces, of the ability to take and modify from the memories that live superficially in all of Yalls minds.
Before you bite it in this slow motion quality, Natasha attempts not through reason, not through anything compassionate or warm.
Almost loads what seems to be a picture of your mother's face. But again, it was never a full version of it. It was never with the details and the crinkles of your mom's eyes, not a picture from when she was younger or even now. And with your teeth, just this primal part of you with your body, almost as if destroying something with your bare hands, but this time with your mouth, with your teeth. The thing that gets people to cave in to your opinions, to your words, just rend and rip open electrical wiring.
And the head of this thing, just rather than being destroyed completely, just blips out. The power in this monitor just stops when broken.
This particular screen, although it goes dark in the final screen, piercing laser light spears from the cracked other body parts remaining in this hydra.
And there is now a blinding quality.
Anything involving line of sight or specific ranges will have a sort of disadvantage. As bright lights just begin to appear, spearing again from the remaining Hydra body that is present before y'all. Natasha screams in agony.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: You just bit me.
[00:23:03] Speaker D: Sort of pulling away, shying away a little bit from the face that was her mother's for a second. And then from the bright lights, Chloe leans into it and it just like hisses at her.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: There was so much potential in you, Chloe.
You were gonna finally remove an eyesore from this city and then there was going to be so much more at the top.
But you see a body that is just breaking in front of you in front of all of you, she singles you out here. And again with this heavy new body, this vicious one that is blinding, that skews all vision of her, she is going to.
In response to the more primal nature, although ill advised potentially, this machine takes the broken parts of her with kind of like finger like digits used in wrapped cording of these cables, and just sort of takes almost like the hanging low heads that are just broken and done with and starts to wind them up like some kind of computer head mace. And she's going to strike you. Chloe, you are going to take a stress tick in infamy and also a condition here.
Although the like elegant nature of your avatar, you kind of like huddling down to like hiss in the face of this thing. And she smacks you with these two.
Again, not giant anymore, but heavy, disgusting, broken, shattered pieces that are also hot with the light emitting from it.
I will give you the option here. What condition will you take?
[00:25:18] Speaker D: I think that Chloe is not used, not really used to being struck back at and certainly not by someone at her same level.
And so this cows her.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: We will go back to va'ruun. There are.
You can see that this body, va'ruun is breaking down right in front of you.
Two of the three Hydra heads that attempted to hypnotize you, take your memories and bastardize them.
There is one more to be dealt with. But this body is vicious and it is piercing.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: I think Varun, in the heat of pain, of anger, of lashing out, his weapon is still lodged and realizes he does not have a physical weapon to throw anymore.
And a lot of his companions are being viciously retaliated against.
So he like furrows his brow and tries to look for an opening somehow. And I think what I would like to do is line it up. I think Varun begins kind of like darting around. As Natasha is retaliating and behaving in a vicious manner.
He would like to essentially play decoy and try to get closer to find a weak spot that Natasha might be holding.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: Give me those coins.
[00:27:14] Speaker B: All right, I'm gonna hand you the coins.
Okay, that's.
Christ, that's a seven.
[00:27:27] Speaker A: Okay, that does hit.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: That does hit.
I just, I just saw in the line. I was like, oh, that's a seven. And I looked at a line, pick two. I'm like, okay, great. I love this. For me, the two that I will pick are the foe sense and attack my way. And the opening only lasts for a few moments.
[00:27:49] Speaker A: Okay, I will ask for whoever to ready kind of themselves. Who? Wren, I believe, is the one after Ruhn. Technically. But yes.
Ren, would you like to go after? Would you like to strike next?
[00:28:06] Speaker C: Yeah, but.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: Okay, cool.
[00:28:08] Speaker C: We could also do a showtime with everybody.
[00:28:10] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, Showtime.
[00:28:12] Speaker C: We could also.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: Yo.
[00:28:14] Speaker E: A team showtime would be awesome.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: Okay, sure. Let's do that. I love that. Varun, you are musical. You are musical outside. But in this castle version of yourself, you were able to lead the way. Even though there is part of it that's faltering, there's part of it that is still sensitive.
The opening only lasts for a few minutes, but maybe a few minutes is all that you need.
You are going to take a tick.
Ow.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: Ow.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: It's gonna be an infamy.
Okay, as you line this up, whatever Natasha is thinking at this moment, she is, like, seeing you pose or posture. And she's. Again, there's just this shrill laughing just by her body breaking down. And what do you think you're going to do?
You have a family that doesn't appreciate you. Your brother, of all people, doesn't understand you. Maybe you should have a conversation with him. He'll have something very interesting to posit to send your way. And as she is laughing at your attempt.
And it hurts. And you know it hurts. You don't know exactly what she's talking about, but whatever it is she's trying to just stab you with, to press on you with Ren, your friend Arjun just let you see a new light, took callousness away from you. And with Va'ruun's opening, Ren, with you paving the way here, with Halcyon's light, with Chloe's influence and understanding of this world and our Djinn, you, the absolute victim of Natasha's reign, this disgusting power.
Ren, why don't you strike with advantage?
[00:30:35] Speaker D: All right.
[00:30:37] Speaker C: Do me best.
[00:30:39] Speaker E: I believe in you. You got this.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: I believe. I believe. I believe.
[00:30:45] Speaker C: Okay. Thank God. That is an eight plus one, so that's a nine.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: Let's go. Let's go.
[00:30:54] Speaker C: Ren's attack is eerily similar to Varun's initial chakra throw. And she actually looks at Varun, who is being buffeted by these attacks that Natasha is launching, and she calls out, hey, watch this. And she just chucks her scissor sword all the way over. And then, regardless of where it lands, she flashes two big thumbs up at Varun and she goes, don't worry. We got this. Cheer up.
[00:31:31] Speaker D: We got it.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: Okay. She's hitting me.
[00:31:37] Speaker C: Don't worry. She'll. She'll stop. Maybe. It's okay. It's not a big deal.
[00:31:46] Speaker B: Also, shut up, Natasha. You know nothing about my brother.
[00:31:50] Speaker C: Yeah, what did she say about your brother?
[00:31:55] Speaker A: This happening, it's happening in seconds. Y'all are speaking so fast to each other. Your scissor sword goes through.
There are no roles here that are necessary. But to also ask Chloe and Halcyon, before Arjun gets that last hit, how would Chloe and Halcyon like to help also round out this showtime, this, like, group attack?
[00:32:25] Speaker F: I mean, honestly, I feel like Halcyon's just ready to, like, war cry.
Kind of like if they could give a buff just through the power of yelling, like, let's fucking go.
[00:32:43] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely.
[00:32:45] Speaker F: All of, yeah, all of, like the frat bro gym rat energy that they have carefully kind of cultivated gets released. And it's also, it's very joyous as well, I think in kind of like, like seeing the hope return to their friends, seeing things come together, knowing and having this belief from, like, from, from the information that they've received that, like, they are here to, to save things and that it is possible and this is the moment where we can make it happen.
That kind of emerges from within.
[00:33:25] Speaker D: Yeah. And Chloe, I think, is thinking about the last thing Natasha said to her and thinking about how the top isn't where we need to be thinking isn't where we need to be focusing.
And as she sort of reflects on that, a little bit of her own piece of the void, that sort of horrible red sea from her little bit of the castle sort of breaks into the room and almost like quicksand sort of helps incapacitate this hydra, setting it up better for the rest of the team and Arjun.
[00:34:18] Speaker E: So feeling bolstered by Halcyon's gym rat war cry of encouragement, feeling empowered by Halcyon's war cry. Seeing the. The Sheradrin be incapacitated by Chloe's Mchloe's attack, kind of seeing it sink into the quote unquote quicksand.
And thanks to Varun distracting it and Ren launching her scissor sword at it, Arjun is going to pull out as a roomie and almost it can do a grappling hook. Will essentially grapple onto onto Ren's scissor sword, use it as a sort of like, launch point to a launch onto onto Natasha sort of above her.
And as he's falling down, starts kind of spinning with his blade in hand, almost think like sonic spinball, like do like a sonic spin dash kind of thing. But he's just falling directly where her neck would where the last I guess head is right before he gives that final blow, he's going to of course as well as, as someone as flashies and would do shout out a very dumb one liner. Dumb action movie one liner.
Something along the lines akin to hey Natasha, consider this a gag order.
Yes, and gets that last hit. But yeah, as, as he lands right after delivering that final blow, he sort of pops up and sort of gives off this.
Gives off this very sort of theatrical final bow as a sort of ending pose to the attack. To the showtime.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: The last screen breaks almost suddenly, as if this were like a football field and those big floodlights one by one, in like such a sudden succession, row after row, lights off, off, off.
And this world that even if it was just machinery sort of floating around, was just the odd cable coming from her body.
With the very last computer head in your hands, the entire world, this void, not even red, gets pitched into darkness, goes completely black.
And then suddenly all of you understand yourselves to still be in the void, but almost hearkening back to that almost iron vault like building that was just pumping out short circuiting robot monsters. These walking computer heads.
All of you see what looks all around you to just be the end of that meltdown room.
An endless, endless sea of piles of broken down bodies destroyed and cast away.
Robots, castaway machines.
This place is not glamorous, this is not curated. This is just the trash after everything, after everyone used.
And you're not seeing this room to be the bloodbath that it looks like. It was never a bloodbath. What is the modern day version of all of this? Are all just the broken down bodies of the people in their homes after having to do so much for so little, for none at the end of the day, these jobs that didn't respect them. Arjun, the head of Natasha, the remaining Hydra, the remaining monster is before you and the crackling remaining pixels of the expression that is there.
You feel her intent.
You feel what used to be Natasha's motivations.
And it just very slowly begins to write itself out to you. Not in her voice, just in finally her own words. All of you either crowding around Arjun or however this message gets conveyed. It was once about good journalism. It was once about news coverage.
It was about all of that before.
But then it became about what rooms I could get into unethically what rooms I could get into because of the power of it all.
I made my students who looked up to me open doors because they could.
Not that they had clearance, but I knew I could manipulate them into worsening the image of the community center of this place that I wanted so desperately to destroy.
For now that I think about it, no reason.
Old things cycle out for new, more glamorous prospects that may or may not have any use for the future population, the future generations.
It is just for dominion. It is just for power.
And as the void begins to falter and Halcyon, the thrum of the castle's shard, you feel coming from this computer head that Arjun Yu were still holding onto a blue crystal, sort of phase shifts, forms out of this head, goes into your hands, Halcyon, and goes into your heart.
And all of you find yourselves now in Natasha Sheridan's office, crowded around this. It is a very sizable location.
Natasha is sort of passed out, head against her table. And all of what, Arjun, you have in your hands now is Natasha Sheridan's typeface, header and footer and signature of an apology of her original intent, her motivation, and an apology to all of the students. And it is pages of a list of people that she is hurt and used. And Arjun, you have a specific page of an apology that's also there.
The world forms all around you.
Finally.
What do y'all do.
[00:41:57] Speaker C: If Natasha is passed out? Wren's going over and she's gonna take a selfie.
[00:42:02] Speaker E: Ren.
[00:42:03] Speaker A: Okay, beautiful.
[00:42:04] Speaker B: She's gonna be like, oh my God, guys.
[00:42:07] Speaker F: Halcyon. Halcyon immediately beelines and yeah. Throws up a little piece sound.
[00:42:12] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:42:12] Speaker C: Get in here, Ghoulie, get in here. Come on, everyone.
It just takes burst shots of just like every millisecond.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Each of those shots, Varun looks questioning and bewildered in different frames of the photo.
[00:42:29] Speaker D: Yeah, in the first one, there's like a baffled looking Chloe. And then all the rest is, you can see her progress sort of out of the background of the shot, shouting at you from behind like, are you trying to build a criminal case against yourself?
[00:42:44] Speaker C: Oh my gosh. Stop harshing the vibe. Look, she's unconscious. We beat her.
We should celebrate.
And if we wanted a selfie, I mean, come on, what's like a bajillion selfies going to do, right?
[00:43:03] Speaker B: You know, I, I would, I thought it was just the one photo, but, you know, but Jillian does increase and then he realizes that you're like still taking the photos and Varun is just like, ah, never mind.
I do think a celebration would be nice though.
[00:43:24] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:43:25] Speaker B: Chlorine, is this is your first takedown with.
[00:43:28] Speaker D: Yeah, Yeah, I didn't feel much like celebrating after the last one.
[00:43:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I, I, I can't, I Can't imagine you wouldn't. But now you're one of us and you've joined us on a successful exploration and that's. And you know, we took down someone who's hurting a lot, a lot of people and. Yeah, yeah.
[00:43:54] Speaker F: And now we're gonna save the world. And did you know I've never been to a party?
[00:43:59] Speaker C: What? You've never.
Ghoulie, we'll throw a massive rager.
[00:44:05] Speaker A: We'll just.
[00:44:05] Speaker F: Okay, don't worry. And then we can save the world after.
[00:44:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we'll do it at Arjun's place.
[00:44:11] Speaker C: Yes, let's do it there.
[00:44:16] Speaker E: Throughout all of that, Arjun is very silent.
He's basically flipping through all the pages of apology that is in his palms from Natasha.
He's especially fixated on the one that's addressed to him.
[00:44:32] Speaker A: The apology. Whether or not it feels right or wrong or whatever, it just. And I think we kind of experience this letter as the words kind of like ring in your mind, Arjun, as we follow everyone like beginning to set up the party at your apartment. Whether or not you really love the idea of like your home being used for that, but it is a party for your celebration.
[00:45:00] Speaker E: I think the party. I think the party being held at his home, like that is what snaps.
[00:45:04] Speaker B: Him out of it.
[00:45:04] Speaker E: I'm like, I'm sorry, the party's gonna be where now?
[00:45:08] Speaker B: Your house?
[00:45:09] Speaker E: Hehe. I got the key.
[00:45:10] Speaker B: It's fine.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: Fine.
[00:45:12] Speaker E: Varun, this is not why I gave you a key.
[00:45:13] Speaker D: I got the key.
[00:45:18] Speaker A: Natasha's words kind of ring in your mind as you, you, you read. It was never about like this overzealous fanaticism about you. It never came from a place of really desiring your. Whatever you had to say.
It was to just manipulate, like to exploit your space. It was to just pin something on you, like put a local story and spin as this person who was in tangible achievements that was in Caldera doing something for this quote unquote, this community.
You can see written with like still this disdain for what could have been. But it's all just like shit. That Arjun Yoo know in the future would not matter as much as it does now. Even to people like Chloe, like only a couple weeks ago who felt this way.
It was just to pin something on you. To just follow you. To follow you.
But how much she wishes that there was always a story there. There was always going to be something that you are such a talented person and that if she were a different person, if she were someone that still cared about the coverage the Journalism, the representation that you could have gotten. The people that she does know, even she knows, she could have been one of the people that could have really helped you get, like, bigger movies, get better representation, something. But she didn't.
[00:47:03] Speaker E: He'd really just sigh at all that. Just kind of wonder what could have been had she not gone down the route she did.
But he'll grab the page regarding him, but it will leave the others.
Leave the others over there because.
Or he might just use them as evidence, or he might turn them in on evidence regarding whatever happens, but he's keeping the one about himself.
[00:47:34] Speaker A: Absolutely.
As y'all party, as y'all like, get, like, food and things and, like, all sorts of favors, whatever y'all would like, because it is a night for y'all. If anyone goes through Natasha's wallet, even she has some cash. So, like, why not just take. Just take whatever you want.
[00:47:52] Speaker C: Loot her.
[00:47:52] Speaker E: Loot, Ren. No.
[00:47:57] Speaker F: I mean, she stole from the old people.
We can just take a little bit back.
[00:48:02] Speaker E: We do not follow y of the eye for an eye guys here.
[00:48:06] Speaker C: I just feel like Chloe said that dropouts are thieves, and so. I'm a dropout. I'll just take it.
[00:48:14] Speaker D: That is not what I said.
[00:48:16] Speaker C: I feel like I heard you say that. I just. That's crazy. Oh, my God.
[00:48:20] Speaker E: That doesn't mean you have to live up to that.
[00:48:22] Speaker C: No, I just. Chloe said it, and, you know, she's part of the team. You guys said you have to live.
[00:48:29] Speaker A: Up to that, though.
[00:48:29] Speaker F: She's not gonna miss it. She's not gonna miss it.
[00:48:33] Speaker E: Well, see, here's the thing.
No, but, but, but, Wren, if you followed it, that means you'd be proving Chloe right. And do you really want to prove Chloe?
[00:48:41] Speaker C: Okay, I didn't want Chloe to be part of the team, but she is. So clearly what I want is matter.
[00:48:46] Speaker A: As that chattering is happening, Chloe remembering the words of Natasha as the monster, as the vassal regarding Va'ruun, and remembering the last conversation you had with Mithryn, your eyes sort of follow Va'ruun.
Do you go to him during this party, or do you just hold your.
[00:49:18] Speaker B: Tongue just to make this a little bit more agonizing? Oh, no.
[00:49:22] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:49:23] Speaker B: Oh, no. Varun is walking around with several plates of food and little snacks made for all of you or acquired in some way or another.
And he's just, like, moving between everyone who's bantering with one another, laughing and smiling.
And I think there's a moment where our eyes meet and he points to a bowl of like guacamole that he's made with another bowl of chips and is eyeing you of like, do you want some? I'll walk over there if you want some.
[00:50:05] Speaker D: And Chloe, I think, waves him off with a smile and tells herself that she's not going to say anything tonight because he deserves the party, but even she knows that it's because she's scared of the fallout, of what the reaction would be, and so gives you a.
[00:50:33] Speaker B: Toothy thumbs up before marching on over and placing the plate in front of Ren, who I assume would devour lots of guacamole if given the chance.
[00:50:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
Yes. Yeah.
[00:50:52] Speaker D: But I'll say that throughout the party Chloe is sort of on her phone a little bit and it was so easy for Natasha, she just had to get out of the Void and boom. A list of reparations she needed to make. But Chloe has to write hers herself.
And as you know, between bites of death and being pulled up to dance with Halcyon and just trying to not show how rattled she has been by this last move, this last sort of confrontation, I think that Chloe is slowly and steadily writing her list of victims and apologies.
[00:51:41] Speaker A: And there is so much more to say and so much work to be done.
But that is where we will end Caldera Heart's Story Yay Josephine Gary Dog Friend plays the Architect and edits the show. The biggest thanks to Minerva mcjanda for creating our System Void Heart Symphony. You can find Josephine producing actual plays at Bat House, RPG and Nameless Domain. Other podcasts you can find her include Someplace to Be, a System Hopping, Actual Play with an Indie Focus and Monster Fuckers Anonymous rating and dating your favorite monsters everywhere you listen to your podcasts. Thanks again to Goblets and Gays for hosting us and all the music you hear today is from Epidemic Sound Abhishek.
[00:52:24] Speaker E: Patonge he him plays Arjun Kumar. You can find him voice acting as well as starring in other TTRPG APs such as Zenith over at Sword and Key premiering August 29, as well as Ironsworn the Valley season two over at Nerds with Dice premiering September 5. You can also find him being a huge tokusatsu nerd
[email protected] Alyssaadisasterqueer plays Chloe Penitent.
[00:52:51] Speaker D: You can find them here on Goblets and Gays for our Pathfinder series Tyrant of the Dark Star, as well as on An Unwavering Force, a Star wars.
[00:52:59] Speaker C: Actual play Donna she her plays Ren Kong. You can find her voice, voice acting, playing other TTRPGs and overall being a goofy gal at Shabro on twitter.com Leanna.
[00:53:09] Speaker F: Albany's Any Pronouns plays Halcyon. You can find them acting, producing and generally goofing around at lianaalbany's on all platforms.
[00:53:19] Speaker B: Valiant Dorian Aliantdorian Ortsospiritbear plays Varun Pillay. You can find him as a main cast member of Transplant RPG the Chaos Protocol, hosting his TTRPG talk show dicey banter and designing wild hearted monstrous games like his in development. TTRPG the Beasts Within, a grungy action RPG with a werebeast twist.
