How do we feel about Emily Slaughter? What are field day events like at a superhero high school? And how many card games can we come up with over the course of the podcast?
We’re playing Masks for this campaign! You can access a running list of all the NPCs from Campaign 4 here.
Sponsors
- The Sprouting, an eldritch horror actual play podcast.
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Cast & Crew
- Game Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host, Co-Producer, Sound Designer, Composer (Connor Lyons): Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host, Co-Producer, Editor (Shelley Craft): Julia Schifini
- Co-Host, Co-Producer (Rowan Rosen): Amanda McLoughlin
- Artwork: Allyson Wakeman
- Multitude: https://multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is an actual play podcast with tangible worlds, genre-pushing storytelling, and collaborators who make each other laugh each week. We welcome everyone to the table, from longtime players to folks who’ve never touched a roleplaying game before. Hop into our current campaign: the drama and excitement of a superhero high school! Or marathon our completed stories: Campaign 3 for a pirate story set in a world of plant- and bug-folk, the Camp-Paign for a MOTW game set in a weird summer camp, Campaign 2 for a modern superhero game, and Campaign 1 for a high fantasy story. And once a month we release the Afterparty, where we answer your questions about the show and how we play the game. New episodes every Tuesday.
Transcript
Amanda: Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to the Afterparty, where midterms are over, but that just means the countdown to finals has just begun. I'm Amanda, you're super nerd. Hi, everybody.
Julia: I was like, "Are we doing introductions where we say our names now?" Because I'm ready for it.
Amanda: We got the arc for it and then—
Julia: I'm Julia.
Amanda: —you say the super thing that you are.
Julia: I'm— did you say nerd? Because now that's the only thing—
Amanda: I did.
Julia: —stuck in my head. Uh, I'm a super dork.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Cute.
Brandon: Hi, I'm Brandon. I am super sleepy.
Julia: Aw.
Amanda: Aw.
Eric: I'm Eric. I can control fire.
Julia: Fair.
Brandon: Whoa!
Amanda: Yeah!
Julia: Sick. Sick, bruh.
Eric: It's crazy that hasn't come up yet. It feels irrelevant.
Brandon: Yeah, you really should have told us that. We could've made a lot more money than making a podcast.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Brandon, you're— you'd be surprised. It's not very monetizable. If I could figure out how to make a Substack of my controlling fire, that'd be sick.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: We have so many wonderful questions from the listeners of Join the Party today, folks. Let's jump right in, shall we?
Julia: Let's do it.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: All right. This is from actual teen listener, Pointy Purple Penguin, "In honor of me starting my senior year pretty soon, how'd the super seniors feel about starting their final year? What were they most stressed about? Are they planning on going to college? And if so, what major or university? And if it's already first semester midterms, college apps must be looming, is there gonna be an arc about those?"
Julia: Who can say about that last one?
Brandon: Was this the same person in Discord that was like, "Hey, I realize I'm younger than this character"?
Amanda: Yes, they sure did.
Julia: Uh-oh.
Amanda: They sure did.
Brandon: Oh, boy. Oh, boy.
Amanda: But this is 2030x so, you know, anyone who is conscious enough to listen to this podcast right now, certainly, biologically older than our characters, but spiritually—
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: —you know, we might not be there.
Brandon: That's true.
Julia: Who can say? I can't picture Craft wanting to go to college, desiring to go to college. What Craft would even potentially major in? Probably philosophy, I would imagine. It would actually be really funny if it was meteorology now that I think about it. Shit. That's really funny.
Amanda: Yeah, it would.
Eric: Craft becoming a local weather person would be the single funniest thing that could happen, honestly.
Brandon: You'd be the most reliable weather person. You get a 100% accuracy.
Julia: Yeah, because I'm the one controlling the weather, baby.
Brandon: Exactly.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: That sounds like a weather person name. Though, the weather person that was on Good Morning America, that my mom watched was— his name is Sam Champion.
Julia: Good.
Eric: And I'm like, "Shelley Craft, similar, honestly."
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Sam Champion, Shelley Craft shaking hands emoji.
Brandon: Then they kiss.
Amanda: Ooh, ooh.
Brandon: Oh.
Julia: Oh. Oh.
Eric: God, I hope not. I hope not. Sam Champion is like 70 now.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Brandon, do you think Connor is college bound?
Brandon: Yeah, definitely. I think he's definitely stressed about going to his senior year because it's the last year and it's like, if you do well in high school, if you're doing well in high school, and generally speaking, like, academically and socially, it's like, "Oh, it's the last year, I still kick ass." You know? And then what's next? So it's definitely stressful. Yeah. And I think Connor would go probably, like, a state school, nothing fancy, and, like, probably get a degree in communications, you know?
Amanda: Nice.
Brandon: Nothing fancy.
Julia: Connor's a SUNY boy. Wait, Connor going to a SUNY school for communications is exactly the background that Val had in Season Two and that's extraordinarily, like, funny to me.
Brandon: Val, Connor shaking hands emoji.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm. Same person, really, when you think about it.
Amanda: The Connor to Val pipeline is well-established, though understudied. Maybe it's something for Craft to focus on in her senior thesis.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: The only person who should be studying communications is Craft, because she's going to be a weather person.
Julia: Yep.
Amanda: True.
Eric: Bitch, come on.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Just like— let's think about something for a second. Martha Lightning, our local news person from North Country Public Television.
Brandon: Is that really her name?
Amanda: Nah.
Julia: Nah.
Brandon: Okay.
Julia: Canonically, now it is.
Amanda: Sure it is now.
Brandon: Oh, oh, you mean our in-game local—
Julia: Yes.
Brandon: —television. I understand now.
Julia: For Jupiter.
Brandon: Yes.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: How about Rowan?
Amanda: I don't think Rowan is ready for the real world and so, like so many students before her, thinks, "I guess college can't hurt." But honestly, I don't think she is focusing on it. She'll probably take a year off and do some like Talmudic study or something like that.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Smart, smart.
Eric: The ranking system that we see all the time, I think, is— I'm trying to, like, address that a little bit, because it always felt true, right? Especially for my high school. Specifically, it always felt like a competition. Like this internal idea at American high schools, and it's like, "Oh, only one student can come from this high school, only three students can come from this high school to go to this college." So it always felt true. I think the fact that the ranking system is up there too, because in my head, there's, like, a direct job recruitment stuff going on, like, so the government can literally see or these companies can literally see how well the students are doing as dictated by the algorithm and by, you know, Wordsmith and everything. So I think there's a combination of things there. I mean, I— you can apply to college, but I wonder who has thoughts about that going forward.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Hmm. All right.
Brandon: Would Miss Rita be the person we would talk to, like— for, like, college application advice or is that someone else?
Eric: Yeah, because she's the senior class like—
Julia: Liaison.
Eric: —liaison, yeah.
Julia: I like to say liaison as French as possible.
Brandon: Liaison.
Julia: Liaison.
Amanda: Oh, damn. I didn't expect that. Julia, speaking of your voice, here's a question from Emily.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: That segue was creepier than I anticipated. "I just finished listening to Brandon's Party of Fun from Party Planning two and a half years ago and discovered—"
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: "—that, Julia, when she's sick, sounds just like Craft, or maybe Craft—"
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: "—sounds like sick Julia. So did you intentionally make Craft's voice sound like your voice when you have a cold or was that an accident?"
Julia: I think it's more there's only a certain amount of things you could do with one's voice, that is easy to do for a long period of time when recording an actual play. And so in this case, that just happened. It was a coincidence.
Brandon: Actually, though, ignoring completely Julia's answer, Emily found the Jeopardy Daily Double in my Party of Fun Party Planning episode. So Emily— because you realize that the— in the future, Julia would make a character named Craft, who sounds like that, you get a 100 points.
Amanda: Oh, my gosh.
Julia: Emily just won Brandon's Party for Fun from two and a half years ago.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Exactly. And is that a great reminder that if people are interested in individual episodes of Party Planning but don't wanna become a monthly patron for whatever reason, they can just purchase each of them on our Patreon, like as a one-time thing if they wanted to at patreon.com/jointhepartypod.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Julia: True facts.
Amanda: Wow.
Julia: Wow.
Amanda: Who knew? Another very important question about logistics and linguistics here from Brae, "If you were a ghost who could only speak using slang from a specific time period, which period would you want it to be?" Let's start with Eric and go counterclockwise.
Eric: Oh, I already said mine. It's this one. It's so stupid. I don't understand any of the slang. If I was a ghost needing to try to convey to people about rizz, seems embarrassing.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: So wait, you would opt into this embarrassment?
Eric: I— even if I'm a ghost, I'm already— it's already happening. Like if I have to tell someone—
Amanda: That's true.
Eric: —"Help me out on God," I'm like, "No, it's sick."
Brandon: I like the idea that you die and become younger.
Amanda: Yeah,.
Brandon: And then you're a ghost in the future, you know?
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: You know all those time hijinks?
Julia: Or like in the episode the Ghost learned all the slang from the people hanging out at the Funbratorium.
Eric: Well—
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Well—
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Well—
Julia: Huh.
Brandon: No, I think that was a young kid that died.
Eric: Maybe.
Julia: The ghost said, "I learned slang"— I just did the transcript for this. The ghost said, "I learned the slang from the kids hanging out here."
Eric: That's true. Yeah, I guess I did say that.
Julia: Canonically.
Eric: Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's just— the current slang, I think, maybe that means I'm old. I just— I find it very funny.
Julia: Fair enough. Fair enough.
Eric: It's like, "It would be so bussin' if you helped out my soul."
Julia: I think I would want to do, like, Roaring Twenties like, "23 skidoo." [scats] That's the kind of slang that I would want to do.
Amanda: Nice.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: I would want to do like ad 30.
Amanda: Oh, my God.
Julia: Jeez.
Amanda: Old English?
Brandon: And see what the fuck that slang is.
Amanda: Proto-Germanic something?
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Okay, fair enough. Fair enough.
Amanda: That was slang than just an incomprehensible language.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Well, Amanda, they would— they definitely had slang, of course. We just don't—
Amanda: Sure.
Brandon: It's all the— it's all Greek to us, you know?
Amanda: That's— you know?
Eric: No, Brandon, it's all Latin.
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: They're Romans.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: I think I'd probably choose the '50s, like a sort of greaser, you know, Hot Rod style. I just think it'd be fun to be a ghost that's getting, like, you know, diner food and talking about, like, going on dates to the prom.
Julia: You just want to do a Danny Zuko impression. We know, we get it.
Amanda: Yeah. A little bit, a little bit.
Eric: My second choice is diner jargon, so—
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —I'd be okay with that.
Amanda: Very good. SharpSnooter would like to know, "If you guys could swap one of your IRL skills out, just like the superpower swaps that we now know exist, what would you give up and what would you swap it for?"
Brandon: Do we have to sleep with someone?
Amanda: No.
Brandon: In order to do that?
Amanda: No, this is magic.
Julia: No, you just—
Brandon: Okay.
Julia: —have to pay Todd, like, 50 bucks.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Oh, okay. I would swap— well, no. I'm not going to go over power, because I could say like, "I would swap my ability to cook, to be the smartest man in the world." You know, that's stupid.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Um—
Julia: This is a really hard one. This is like genuinely hard.
Amanda: This is perhaps the longest pause I've ever observed in the recording of an Afterparty.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: I know.
Julia: Like, I know what I would want to get—
Amanda: What would you want to get?
Julia: —but I don't know what I would give up. Like, I want to, like, just suddenly have the ability to play an instrument, like guitar or—
Amanda: Ooh.
Julia: —bass or something like that.
Amanda: That'd be great.
Julia: But I don't know what I would give up. Maybe my ability to pee really fast.
Amanda: I wish I could excise from my brain all of the, like, previous operating systems worth of computer knowledge. Like, when I was a kid, I really prided myself on my ability to, like, put together a computer tower, like, plug in all of the accessories where they had to be and, like, troubleshoot a DVD drive or a CD writer. None of that stuff is relevant to my life anymore. So if I could give up, you know, the ability anything that came with my like Windows 98 PC growing up, then I would love to be able to speak any language fluently. Or even if I had to choose a language, speak a different language fluently.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: That's good. I like that.
Eric: I would trade my ability to drive really well so that I could sing.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: 100%.
Julia: Wow.
Eric: 100%.
Julia: Dang.
Amanda: That feels like a manageable trade.
Julia: Would you not be able to drive at all? Like you completely lost that skill set or it's just like you downgraded to a, like, acceptable driving level, but not really good?
Brandon: Or just one of them shitty drivers?
Eric: Okay. So envision the worst driver you know—
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: —under the age of 50.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Because, like, I don't want to muddy up the data set by incorporating age reasons, right? Like, think about the worst driver you know, who can drive, but he's never chosen to drive on a road trip, right?
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: And then I want to drive their ability, and trade that for a consummate ability to sing.
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: I like it.
Julia: All right.
Eric: Okay. Now we're gonna all— go gonna around and we're gonna say who we were thinking about, who’s a bad driver and say their first name, their last name, their address, and their social security number.
Julia: Dox ‘em. Brandon?
Brandon: Um, this is really hard. I don't know what I would give up. And I would also think, now that Amanda said it, I think I would also love to speak multiple languages fluently.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Because, like, obviously, we can— eventually, we'll be able to get around pretty well with, like, translation apps and stuff. But, like, there's never going to be a substitute for, like, true fluency.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: And so, like, I would really love that. But I don't know, maybe I just give up, like, gardening or something.
Amanda: No.
Brandon: Because I don't want to give up any music ability. I don't want to give up cooking.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: You know?
Amanda: What if you had to give up ever using a solvent again?
Brandon: Ooh, Amanda, that's really fucking tough.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: That's why I asked, bud.
Brandon: I give up acetone.
Amanda: One specific solvent. Still pretty good. Here is a question from Penguin, "Has it been established what ages the gang are? I know they're all in the 17 to 18 zone of being seniors, but I feel like it's important to define who is the oldest, youngest, and middle among them."
Brandon: It has not been defined, for sure. We just sort of, like, fudge it when we talk about it.
Julia: I think Craft's the oldest.
Amanda: That feels right to me. I think Rowan—
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: —is probably middle or youngest. I feel like it depends on how much we want Connor to be a like middle child peacekeeper—
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: —versus Rowan's kind of, like, a strange youngest child energy, which feels like it suits. But what do you think, Brandon?
Julia: That feels right.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Feels right to me.
Amanda: Okay.
Julia: Yeah, sick. We figured it out. Good job, gang. Now, Eric, which of the teachers are our parents?
Brandon: Yeah. I'm a Rowan, Amanda's a Craft, and Julia is something else.
Julia: I'm the only child. I'm a Glimmer.
Amanda: Oh.
Brandon: And so is Eric or something else.
Eric: Oh, I'm a Samantha.
Brandon: You're Samantha?
Julia: Fair enough.
Eric: I'm all— I'm a Samantha Moon, Hannah Horvath son, Ted Mosby rising.
Julia: Ooh.
Amanda: Wow.
Julia: Tough.
Eric: You know, Julia, you're born when you're born. I can't control it.
Amanda: I think you might have to update your ghost slang to, like, the 20-teens, because that was a time capsule of a reference.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Now, that Girls is really coming back, now that Hannah— not Hannah Horvath— pretty much the same. Now that Lena Dunham has a new show coming out, so I feel like a lot of people are talking about Girls again.
Amanda: They are.
Eric: And I'm like, "Finally, my time has come. I'm sharpening my knives. If anyone wants to talk about season one of Glee, I'm around as well." You know what I mean?
Amanda: LibraryChick wants to know, "What have been your favorite class skills to use so far?"
Julia: I think I really like the— I'm forgetting what it's called, but the like, "Hey, I'm on your side," kind of thing.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: That's very fun to do. And I like that the ramifications are really bad if I roll poorly.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: So that's fun.
Brandon: I mean, for me, like, I really like the supernatural senses thing. It's really— been really fun to play with, as well as sort of the transmuting flesh thing. My moves aren't, like, crazy creative, but it is fun to do unstoppable where you just smash your way through something and get what you want.
Julia: Hell yeah, dog.
Brandon: That's always fun.
Amanda: I feel like all of mine are concentrated in the burn and the flares, but I think the specific flare that I'm currently enjoying the most is probably constructs. I know I used it a little bit so far, but just the idea of making anything up to the size of a person that I can also animate on its own, gives me so many exciting ideas and options, like during an encounter.
Julia: Hell yeah, dog.
Brandon: Are they called flares? Your, like, moves?
Amanda: Yeah. So the category is called burn. That's like the—
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: —thing I can do, and then the flares are the specific moves.
Brandon: I just— I don't remember— is this, like, from fucking— I can't remember what movie this is from, where Jennifer Aniston has a— she worked at, like a fucking Chili's-esque restaurant.
Eric: You're talking about Office Space.
Brandon: Is it Office Space?
Eric: And you're talking about flair— the flairs are like the TGI Fridays—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —style thing.
Brandon: Yeah. I just imagine Rowan with, like, her flairs, those buttons on her wrist.
Eric: It's somewhere in between Jennifer Aniston in Office Space and Jean Gray from the original X-Men movie.
Julia: Imagine Jean Gray just had a bunch of buttons that were her different powers on her X-Men uniform.
Eric: She gets two suspenders' worth when she's Dark Phoenix.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: All right, folks. We had so many good questions about our characters of the world, and I'm going to save some more for the end. But let's get into the end of the Midterms arc. So much happened here. We had to figure out why Emily Slaughter had so many masked men working with her and get out of that sticky situation with helicopter and many goons, et cetera. I just want to start by saying, Brandon, how do you feel about how all of this plot went down?
Brandon: Me as a person? Great plot. Connor as a character? Not great.
Julia: I hate that.
Eric: Hell yeah. I've been watching a lot of Degrassi lately, helping some teens through some trauma.
Brandon: I don't think, like, it really makes any sense to him that he's being sort of— what he feels like is being hunted for something that he didn't really do. Like, obviously he did it, but like it was an unintended consequence for his actions, and now he has, like, an actual corporation on his ass.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: So, yeah, I think it just— everything sort of feels unfair to him at this moment.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Valid.
Julia: Can I say? Craft was so annoyed with y'all that you're just so down to hang out with Emily Slaughter.
Amanda: Yeah. Julia, what do you think was going through Craft's head? Was she questioning at all the loyalty of her comrades or was it more of a confusion?
Julia: I think it was more, like, Craft was like, "Do they not realize how fucking suspicious she is acting right now? Like, do you not get that she's trying to, you know, black bag Connor here?" It was a 100% like— Craft is like, "What are you doing? Clearly, she has ulterior motives. What the fuck, guys?"
Brandon: Well, Connor was thinking— I don't know what Rowan was thinking, but Connor was thinking, "Oh, this person works at Heroes 4 Hire, and that was my next plan, was to go to Heroes 4 Hire and figure out what the situation was." So he was going to use Emily to get to the company, the offices, you know? That was his thought. He was just being naive and narrow-sighted.
Eric: I'm imagining Connor reaching into his wallet and then showing Craft the playbook sheet, and be like, "No, I have unstoppable. It's right here."
Julia: “You don’t understand.”
Eric: "I can do it. I'll just go— I'll just jump out of the helicopter. It's right here."
Amanda: Rowan was trying to do the thing where, like, you ask your roommate to brunch with your parents when they visit you at college, because there is something you don't want to tell them or acknowledge, or you want just like a social buffer between you and, like, the questions that you assume that they will ask. And so she was trying to be there for Craft and maybe even convince Emily that Craft is great and she needs to get off her ass.
Julia: Right. That's why Rowan asked for any embarrassing stories about when Craft was little.
Amanda: Yeah, butter her up. You know, soften it up.
Brandon: I thought you're gonna say that thing when you're in college and you go to brunch with your roommate's parents because you're broke and you're hungry.
Julia: Yeah, that too.
Amanda: Primarily that.
Julia: That, too.
Amanda: Primarily that. And maybe, if you're lucky, someone will order a mimosa.
Brandon: Ooh.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: I see here a question from Eric. I wonder which one that is. "How are we all feeling about Emily Slaughter?"
Eric: There was a lot of conversation in the Discord about— whether or not people like or do not like Emily Slaughter?" And I think it's the boundary of, "Do I like the character or do I like the person?"
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: But, man, I've been having so much fun using her as a bad parent, which is a very well-known archetype in teen dramas.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Like my parent is bad, they are still older than me and have power, but like, this is what happened. That's what I was thinking the whole time when we were walking to the helicopter and when she showed up, because I didn't really know how that episode was going, other than this is kind of going to escalate, and we got to get back to Todd. I think, at one, point when Todd's like— well, Todd wants $50,000. I guess Emily Slaughter will give him $50,000 and, like, bang, there we go. So then it's like she's gonna invite you to brunch. The way that Masks is riding the line between teen drama and superhero drama. It's like they're going to black bag Connor, but also getting invited to brunch by your friend's bad parent is totally something that would happen in Degrassi just as much as anything else. So I've been having a lot of fun with her, but how have the three of you been enjoying as people who also played through campaign two? How have you been enjoying or not enjoying Emily Slaughter coming back?
Julia: I love it for the conflict. I love it for the conflict.
Amanda: I love the presence of her character in our game as a thing that gives us something to play off of. In no universe do I think Emily Slaughter is like a good or amusing person. I would probably, like, periodically thought, like look at her Instagram just to be able to, like, talk about with my friends how fucked up she is as a person. You know?
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: That's fair.
Brandon: Yeah, I basically agree. Yeah, I think she's a fun character, and I'm glad she's here so we can bounce off of her, but also fuck Emily Slaughter.
Julia: Respectfully, fuck her, so—
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I was posting the clip, and I remember that I said, "Oh, you think the US Supreme Court is going to help you?" And I'm like, "Jesus Christ." She's so powerful, and I think that she thinks she can do anything, which is the scariest part. And when you think you can do anything and you have done anything before, problems just melt away, and that's very scary for— especially with the three of you deciding whether or not you were going to go in the helicopter or not and having your own problems, I guess, for Connor and Rowan. And Craft, you're like, "Hey, she's really scary. Don't do this."
Julia: Yeah. I think you're underestimating her.
Eric: You're underestimating her ability to make you literally disappear, Connor.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Oh, yeah.
Eric: She might.
Amanda: In no world would Rowan have ever gone in that helicopter. I don't think she'd even have gone in a van. She would have been like, "Well, we'll meet you at brunch."
Brandon: Okay. The van is worse than a helicopter. We have to—
Amanda: You can roll out of a van. You can't roll out of a helicopter.
Julia: I can't jump out of a helicopter, my guy.
Brandon: I mean, if you are naive and you are approached with a unmarked van or a helicopter, which one is sketchier?
Amanda: The helicopter.
Brandon: The van. No!
Amanda: Because dogs can follow your trail in the van.
Eric: I agree with Brandon. You guys would not have gotten into a van. That's why she tried to put you into a helicopter. Like that is the— it's like this power flex and an adult offering you brunch—
Amanda: Right.
Eric: —is the same thing. It's like, "I have money to buy you brunch and a mimosa, so also get in my helicopter because it's from the US military." Like, that's—
Amanda: I don't know, man.
Eric: —what she was trying to do.
Amanda: I'm gonna go ahead and advise all of the actual teens listening to get into neither an unmarked van, nor unmarked helicopter, and finally, obviously not an unmarked boat, either, of any adults that you don't know.
Julia: Unless you're really good at swimming.
Brandon: Even if they're marked, don't get into a helicopter.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: They— you know, they fall out of sky a lot.
Amanda: Yeah, that's a hard limit for me.
Eric: I want to give a shout out because we kind of blew past them, because we revealed so many other agents. I want to give a shout out to agents Snapdragon and Honeycrisp.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Who were following Connor around that whole time. They reminded me of the agents from Umbrella Academy—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —who I just really loved, who were like— and it's a very like Quentin Tarantino thing, is, like, make some weirdos up and then put them in black suits with white shirts. And I just love them so much, and how they didn't have faces. They were just fun to mess with. And then, of course, as so many of them all named after apples, by the way. So many of them piling out of the helicopter was just really fun, even though--
Julia: Shout out to the one guy who ended up as Granny Smith. That sucks for him.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: I did not understand they were apples, because Snapdragon is a flower in my head, so I was—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah, I was about to ask you where the names came from.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Good stuff.
Eric: Snapdragon and Honeycrisp.
Amanda: Here is a question from Emily. "It seems like there's always a thematic condition to take when something calls for it. Like when Rowan took angry at the end of the midterms arc. Does it just happen to work that way? Are there ever bits edited out as you try and figure out some reason why a certain condition makes sense?" I can start here, which is, I feel like there is usually a way to tie a condition into the plot, because Masks is really well-constructed as a gain, and as a teen, especially, you got big feelings, you know, big feelings about something that's happening to you, whether or not it goes right or wrong. So, you know, tell me if I'm wrong, Brandon, but I think there's at most, like, a few seconds of me being like, "Hmm, which condition should I take? Less so trying to, like, shoehorn, you know, the condition I end up selecting into the plot?" It's more like what is— at least for me, it's what would my character be feeling right now? And then, "Ah, shit," that'll have bad consequences for me in one way or another.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah, that's exactly right. I don't think it takes much thought for us to reason out which one makes sense in the moment, you know?
Julia: Yeah. And I think part of it is just being in touch with your character enough to be like, "Oh, their reaction to this would be angry, or they will feel guilty after that or—"
Brandon: Right, exactly.
Julia: "—et cetera, et cetera."
Eric: There's a reason why it never tells you what condition to choose. You'd need to just choose a condition.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So that's the game. It's a good game, folks.
Julia: Hell yeah.
Eric: Did you see Masks Second Edition is coming out next year?
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Ooh.
Julia: Exciting stuff.
Eric: Did you see it? Because I put the screenshot in the Slack.
Julia: I did see that.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Oh, okay, great. I'm very excited. I'm very interested to see what they're going to do. There's definitely, like, just inherent clunkiness in Powered by the Apocalypse stuff. Like, I just want them to rewrite the book honestly, as someone who learned how to play this on mike, so I'm very interested to see how it's gonna shake out.
Julia: Hell yeah, dog,
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Amanda: Wonderful segue into this question from Chloee, "Are there any conditions that y'all wish you could take that aren't on the table with Masks?" Now, thinking back to my own teenage experience, it's mostly feelings that are not emotions, like overwhelmed.
Julia: That was the exact one that I was thinking, Amanda—
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: —it is overwhelmed.
Amanda: Maybe some kind of, like executive function paralysis of just like, "Everything is so much that I cannot do any of them," and then I, you know, fall asleep like a dog.
Julia: I also think that it would be interesting if there was like a— you've amassed too many conditions— I know there is like a thing if you hit all of the conditions but, like, if you've amassed like three, then you become overwhelmed, which is a certain category of—
Brandon: Yeah. That'd be fun.
Julia: I don't know. I don't know.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Just thinking out loud.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Ooh. Executive function paralysis would be negative two to any move that is a playbook move—
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: Ooh.
Eric: —and not a basic move. Because I always think that's interesting how, like all the conditions only are for the basic moves.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: That's a really good point.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: I mean, anxious is one that is clear that's not actually on the list to me.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Like, you know, everyone is always anxious as a teenager. So I guess insecure is slightly that, but it's like--
Julia: And also afraid. I think it's— it balances kind of between those two, right?
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Yeah, but I don't know that— I think it is slightly different from both of those.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: But I don't know.
Julia: I know it's distinct, but yet—
Eric: I guess this one is Game Master specific, but you know, I'm surprised that there isn't accidentally having an erection in class, as a condition.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: Yeah, that'll do it.
Brandon: That's a harder— that—
Eric: Yeah, dude. Bang.
Julia: Fuck.
Brandon: That's a hard condition is what I was gonna say.
Julia: Boo.
Amanda: Moving on, we have some great questions from Soup Dumpling. So Soup not only has a puppy, shout out Tilly, but has also been relistening to the entirety of Join the Party, and has proposed something that I think really deserves to be studied. So here he goes from Soup Dumpling, "In my relisten of the entire podcast feed, I am back to the start of Campaign Four. There are some threads I forgot about due to more pressing matters in active arcs. So let's start with number one, did Rick Powers and Moonboot/Dr. Ram conspire about luring the Cloud Cousins to the school? How do they know about that closet if not?"
Julia: I think so. I think almost definitely.
Brandon: Wait, are they asking if Rick Powers and Dr. Ram conspired?
Amanda: That's right.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Or— oh, I don't think so. I think Rick Powers definitely conspired to let them in the school.
Julia: But we know that Dr. Ram knew that the Cloud Cousins were going to be there on campus.
Eric: Yeah. That's what Connor was overhearing when he was outside of the classroom listening to Rick Powers and Dr. Ram talk to each other.
Brandon: But knowledge and conspiracy are two different things, so like, did Dr. Ram know that Rick Powers was going to do that? Maybe. But did he help him do that? I don't know.
Julia: I think that means he's in on the conspiracy, at least.
Brandon: I mean, you get a accessory to conspiracy, for sure.
Julia: Sure.
Amanda: Yeah. Accessory to conspiracy was sort of my vibe as well. I assumed that maybe Rick had either, like, informed Dr. Ram or had gone to Dr. Ram for, like, assistance/"This is happening, and I'm gonna let someone know about it," when planning to lure them in. But I don't think that Dr. Ram, like, helped set it up or initiate that. It felt like a thing driven by Rick and then, you know, accessorized, so to speak, by Dr. Ram.
Julia: Fair enough.
Eric: I'm not going to tell you guys. I'm not gonna tell you shit.
Amanda: All right, all right. On to Soup's second plot that we may or may not have lost, "Two, the green ooze, the anti-Chad generally, and on the chair of Withers, where are they now?"
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Hmm. Who can say?
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: Who can say?
Eric: That's a good question.
Amanda: That's a who can say. I—
Eric: Nah, don't worry about it. Don't investigate that. It's fine.
Amanda: I'm sure that is never gonna come up. "Number three, connected to now the events of the Interview with a Villain arc, how does Emily Slaughter not know the names of Craft's team that she would have been constantly connected to and presumably talking about for the last three years?" Julia?
Julia: I know the answer. It's because she sucks.
Eric: Yep, there it is, because she's a bad parent.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yeah. So funny. "Four, how are there so many possibilities of strings to pull on in future arcs? Eric, WTF? How are you so creative? How'd you do this?"
Eric: It's my curse. It’s— that's what I get while also manipulating fire. It's—
Julia: Hmm. There it is.
Brandon: Would you trade your curse for manipulating water as well?
Amanda: Oh.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: No, they can— they— that's you. You can do music.
Amanda: Oh.
Julia: Fair.
Amanda: I do have a question, though, Eric, how does the game suggest or incentivize game masters to introduce new threads to pull on versus returning to or tugging on existing ones?
Eric: Oh, that's a good question. Powered by the Apocalypse games and I'm— this is both Monster of the Week and also what I've learned from Masks, and Brandon learned this when running Brindlewood Bay, because it's like a post-modern version of those things. It's really just like, "Here's your toolbox. Go figure it out." Like, "Hey, do all of these things—" like, I have a list of 22 principles I'm supposed to keep in my head at all times. Like, "Here's all these things you can do. Here's all these things you can do for these playbooks." So it's like, it doesn't really tell you. It's just like, "Here's 5,000 helpful hints at the same time." If I remember correctly, they want you to keep creating characters so that you can reintroduce other characters later, so that your players kind of latch onto them.
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: It's very much like superhero comic book storytelling, you know? Like make stuff up so that you can bring them back in the later issue. So there isn't an incentive, per se, more that you need to— much like a lot of game master suggestion, it's like, "Here's your toolbox. Just keep growing the toolbox." And I think you can see that from the NPC list that we maintain, you know? Like they just all exist. They're all there.
Julia: Yep.
Eric: And you can— I can pull on them whenever I want.
Amanda: Do you have a personal goal about, like, introducing things that in your mind are connected to end game or a broader plot or a bigger arc? Because we don't necessarily know what that is, but I'm sure you have been seeding things, that looking back, will be like, "Oh, of course." But don't recognize as significant in the day-to-day of, like, arc-to-arc stuff.
Eric: Yeah. But I— like, you know, I do that anyway. Like, I feel like I've been doing that just running campaigns, is like he seeds things up, you— if there are things to pull on, you do it. And I've been thinking about this a lot. It's like, you have these mini arcs, and you have the larger arc of the story that's telling, "I really am not supposed to plan that much." So there's only so much I can do. For example, I did not have Emily Slaughter written into my notes for the Midterms arc.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Right? Like I had Liminality, I had Toddrick Swapper, I had the ghost at the Funbratory, and I had Agent Snapdragon and Honeycrisp, because you're supposed to, like, come up with a summary— oh, and, of course, Coach Boneman, right?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So it's like, I, of course, I had, I have this summary of, like, here's stuff that would happen, I have all these characters that are like, here's what they would do if unchecked.
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: Much like in— back in Monster of the Week. But only when you introduce new things, you're like, "Oh, this person can intersect." Like, for example, Agents Snapdragon and Honeycrisp work for Heroes 4 Hire, right? So now, introducing Emily Slaughter and introducing more things related to Connor's aunt, to Anita Tigre, totally makes sense.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: But only once— I didn't have that idea until Julia said, "Oh, Emily Slaughter will just give us $50,000." But that wouldn't have happened unless you had pushed Toddrick Swapper, and I had written down his, like, want of— he needs money to get out of town. So, you know, all those things need to connect, and then you reach into your toolbox, and put something else on, so that it will make sense.
Julia: I wonder why he wants to get out of town. We never got an answer about that.
Eric: No.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Maybe him and Frög had a nasty breakup.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Aw.
Julia: Maybe.
Amanda: Really N64 guy vibes from the time loop.
Julia: Oh, yeah.
Eric: Real.
Amanda: And here's Soup Dumpling's final thesis statement, "In wedding party in campaign one, Amanda, quote, 'accidentally' asked if anyone has a pair of cards."
Julia: Okay.
Amanda: "In Campaign Three, Troy has one card Manny, which is two cards or a pair of cards, one of them says Manny, one of them does not." Among my most unhinged creations, true.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: "So what pair of card games are there in Lake Town City for campaign two and in Jupiter for campaign four, and is camp carry on prices from the Camp-Paign cards of waffle toppings, and she pulls two of them each day?" A 100%, Soup. Absolutely confirmed. She pulls them every day, and no matter how unhinged the combo, that is her breakfast daily.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Man, I can fuck up some waffles right now.
Amanda: Right?
Julia: Wow.
Brandon: That sounds great.
Eric: I think that if you listen to Join the Party enough— think of this way about any work of fiction, right? If you come up with these things, and you unearth all the text, and then you ask a question, I think you get to just come up with it.
Amanda: You're right.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Like, you tell us, Soup Dumpling. You were— this is your reward. You did your side quest, and now you get to tell us what that is.
Amanda: Agreed.
Brandon: Was that one card Manny just one card?
Amanda: It was two cards. One said Manny—
Julia: No, it was two cards because one says Manny and one doesn't.
Amanda: And that's why it's called one card Manny.
Brandon: Oh, I thought it was called one card Manny, because it was one card that says Manny on it.
Amanda: But then there's no game!
Julia: But then there's no game, Brandon.
Brandon: I know, that's what I was saying!
Eric: I thought one side said Manny and the other side said not Manny. It said nothing.
Amanda: No, no, no.
Eric: And then you slipped it.
Amanda: Very clear, I'm just kidding. I completely made this up as we went. But no, by the end of campaign three, there were two cards, one said Manny, one did not say Manny, and so the game is guessing which card said Manny. Incredible.
Eric: That was such fundamental worldbuilding to the Crags.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Like, the Crags is a place where they play One Card Manny.
Amanda: I know.
Eric: And we're like, "Got it."
Amanda: It was—
Eric: Totally understand that place.
Amanda: —one of my props for being from the Crags was, what game do you play? Like, what game did you bring? And that was it.
Eric: Right.
Amanda: Incredible. All right, folks, I'm going to pop into the kitchen and consult my deck of waffle toppings to see what I'm going to be bringing back out for snacks, so—
Brandon: Ooh.
Amanda: —give me just one second.
Julia: Let's do it.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
[theme]
Amanda: Hey, everybody. It's Amanda. This midroll is brought to you by the tendril of a bean plant reaching out to grasp a nearby branch. Thank you and welcome to those of you who have followed us for free on Patreon. We are so glad you're here, and this is a wonderful way to keep up with the show, especially if you're not on social media as much these days. In case you didn't know, we offer a seven-day free trial to our paid membership on Patreon. What that means is that if you hear us talk about how amazing the Discord is, how fun Party Planning is, how easy our ad-free episodes make it to catch up on the show, you gotta try it for yourself, y'all. So if you have a Patreon account, follow us for free. Start your free trial today with just a couple clicks at patreon.com/jointhepartypod. If you like Join the Party, you are going to love the other shows that are a part of the Multitude Podcast collective. Attach your Resumé is a show for Multitude, interviewing online creators about how their jobs work and how they got there. You can hear the personal stories behind seismic events in digital media. For example, I interviewed Carla Lalli Music, who is one of the people that was at Bon Appétit when all that went down about five years ago, and learn what concrete steps we as creators can take to build a sustainable media landscape. Season two just concluded, where you can listen to or watch Attach your Resumé at patreon.com/attachyourresume or in your podcast app today. We are sponsored this week by The Sprouting, which is an eldritch horror of an actual play podcast, which is set in an apocalyptic future where eldritch plants have taken over, magical bargains twist the fabric of reality, and each survivor struggles to trust their own senses as they try to see their goals through to the end. Now, you can listen to The Sprouting anywhere you listen to podcasts, but first, you can enjoy a sneak peek right now.
Speaker 5: With your long forgotten name, we call upon you.
Speaker 6: We call upon you.
Speaker 5: In the words of the unspeakable language, we call upon you.
Speaker 6: We call upon you.
Speaker 5: By the spilt blood of the wicked who walk upon this world, sprouting the words of false idols, we call upon.
Speaker 6: We call upon you.
Speaker 5: On the land of the dead harvest that which brings the Earth itself into your service, your mouth, we call upon.
Speaker 6: We call upon you, we call upon you, we call upon you.
Speaker 5: Your mouth calls upon you.
Speaker 7 The Sprouting, a Call of Cthulhu actual play podcast by Blighthouse Studio. Find us on your Podcatcher of choice.
[theme]
Amanda: All right, everybody, we're back. What have you got on your waffle today?
Julia: Bacon and whipped cream.
Amanda: Oh.
Brandon: Bacon and whipped cream?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Savory sweet.
Brandon: Oh, that's good. I like that. Pecans and toffee and syrup.
Amanda: Yum, yum. Eric?
Eric: I was going to do it, and then my flame powers got out of control.
Amanda: Oh, nuts.
Brandon: Oh, no.
Julia: Oh, no. You burnt the waffles.
Eric: Oh, piss.
Amanda: It happens to the best of us. It's okay. All right, folks, let's get into the Elemental Bonds arc. We have, obviously—
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: —much more to go here, but we have started learning about the Mad Science meetup and much more. Here's a question from Tankee Doodle Dandy.
Julia: Cool.
Amanda: "There have been a couple of times lately when various things turn Connor momentarily opaque or not transparent or skin-colored. How does he feel about that? I'm getting perhaps some body dysmorphia vibes, but maybe not. Maybe being transparent feels normal to him now to the point that being non-transparent is the aberration." Brandon, how are you feeling about this?
Brandon: I think Tankee Doodle Dandy here is spot on. I think as a player, I don't feel super equipped to dive fully into body dysmorphia stuff just because I don't feel like a good spokesperson.
Julia: You don't feel that in your day-to-day lived experience.
Brandon: Well, yeah, I mean, everyone does to some degree, but I don't think it's like a— I just don't feel like I'm the right spokesperson for that, and I don't want to, like, lead anyone into a place that isn't good on accident. But I think, yeah, I think you're sort of on the right vibe there. I don't think Connor loves it, but I actually— I haven't decided— I haven't thought about whether— which one he feels good or bad about at this point. Like, does he feel more transparent is normal or does he feel bad— I mean, I guess if I'm playing by the rules of the game, he feels bad about being transparent, but—
Eric: If I can help you here, do you want me to read the principles I'm supposed to push on when dealing with the transformed playbook, the things recommended to me by the game?
Brandon: Sure.
Eric: I'm supposed to reject them. I'm supposed to show how they are feared or hated. I'm supposed to attack them with unthinking hordes. I'm supposed to remind them of what they've lost, and I'm supposed to see their true self.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Nightmare, especially for a teen.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Here's a question from LibraryChick, "The mention of trying to trick Wordsmith into creating bags of money really made me laugh. I was wondering if your characters had the chance, what would they like Wordsmith to create?"
Brandon: Bags of money.
Eric: That is so not how it works. That's not how it works at all. That's not how it works.
Julia: Now, because we've established sometimes Wordsmith says a word and then a, like, temporary version of it exists.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: But sometimes he physically manifests stuff if he says it in Esperanto—
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: —correct?
Eric: Right, right.
Julia: Okay. I don't know what Craft would want to use this for.
Amanda: Julia, not weed. Not super special weed just—
Julia: No.
Amanda: —for you.
Julia: No, because, like, I don't know, how do you specify that in Esperanto? You can't, really.
Amanda: Okay. Google translate weed English to Esperanto.
Brandon: What about dank? Does it have the dankest—
Julia: Dank weed.
Brandon: —in Esperanto? Connor would just do bags of money.
Julia: Well, that's very logical of him.
Brandon: Doesn't everyone just want bags of money?
Eric: You're gonna get bags of a currency that doesn't exist for a country that never existed.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: Bad news, guys. Marijuana is just mariĥuano in Esperanto. Sucks.
Julia: Damn. Damn.
Amanda: I think Rowan would want like, the complete text of Maimonides, or something, like huge editions of books that don't exist or otherwise just exist, like, in libraries, maybe replicas, you know, of, like, ancient texts, but, like, cool shit.
Brandon: Fucking nerd.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: This is so funny that you guys are, like, going up to Green Lantern and like, "Yo, can you make a giant penis out of the Green Lantern ring? That would be so sick." Like he's the keeper of the power. Wordsmith would never do any of this stuff for you.
Brandon: But if we trick him.
Julia: Yeah, what if we trick him?
Eric: Oh, okay.
Brandon: What if we trick him?
Eric: Yeah, prank your principle.
Julia: What if we say the fissuring will happen? Unless you make insert thing here.
Eric: The fissuring already happened, and we already covered that in a really emotional six issue arc.
Julia: It's gonna happen again
Amanda: Or we, like— we write a word on a chalkboard and then be like, "What did that say?"
Brandon: I walk up to him and be like, "Hey, wouldn't it be really funny if you told me that the word for bags of money in Esperanto?"
Amanda: Right. With, like, intention and magic behind it, please.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Wordsmith has been an educator for a long time. I don't know how you can prank him to create— what was it, mariĥuano for him?
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Mariĥuano.
Eric: Mariĥuano.
Amanda: Yesterday, this is true, I noticed that in my little like office supply organizer, the drawers for pen and pin are next to each other, and I was like, "This is someone's nightmare. This is someone's nightmare."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And that someone is named Brandon.
Brandon: It's mine, it's me.
Amanda: Yeah. From Penguin, "I feel like with everything that happened in the rest of the episode, we all, including me, just glossed over the fact that Anita has powers now. What the hell? Did Connor also gloss over that? How is he sitting with this?"
Brandon: I don't think it glossed over it. I think he panicked. He's definitely— it's not glossed over. That's the thing that is fucked up and terrifying for Connor right now.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Now, Eric, did she have to, like, special kiss somebody in the sort of, like void of time in order to get a power?
Eric: I'm not telling you. You guys gotta figure that shit out in game.
Amanda: No. I want to know.
Julia: We'll find out eventually, I think also— not to make light of Anita's situation, because it is wild that she has powers now after she was erased from existence and then brought back. I think if they were cooler powers, we would have made a bigger deal out of it.
Amanda: Truly.
Brandon: Well, they were just warming up. I think it's—
Julia: Yeah, you never know.
Brandon: —more over time, you know?
Eric: Wait, wait, was telekinesis not cool enough for you?
Julia: No.
Brandon: Well, she did say—
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: —she could only do the peanut butter and jelly right now, so—
Julia: Yeah, she did say that.
Eric: Sorry, I didn't come up with sandwich-omancy. I didn't, like—
Julia: Right.
Eric: —underline that. She can only control—
Brandon: Oh, shit.
Eric: —sandwich and sandwich-related things. Yeah.
Brandon: I give up my skill to breathe in order to have sandwich-mancy.
Julia: Wow.
Amanda: Don't say that. Penguin also added, "The twinkie scene in this episode really warmed my heart." Quote, "As someone who's Muslim and has to eat halal, I've experienced those panic moments all too often when you realize something you're eating is not okay. Well, halal and kosher not exactly the same, there are some overlapping needs, and I love seeing Connor and Craft respecting that. The question here is, how often does that happen and did they react/adapt to being told about the kosher diet? On a scale of one to 10, how protective are they against Rowan accidentally eating something she can't?"
Julia: I think Craft sometimes has to be reminded of the rules.
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: Like the fact that Craft was like, "Eat a hamburger," and you were like, "Oh, it was only cheeseburgers available." I was like, "Oh, yeah. That makes sense. That checks out."
Amanda: "But, like, the meat is great. Like, why not, man?
Julia: "Why not? That sounds great."
Brandon: There's nothing better than cheeseburger. So fucking good."
Julia: "A Craft single melted on top of a Twinkie, that sounds tight as fuck."
Amanda: Ooh, that would be good SpawnCon after Craft graduates, a Craft single—
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: —with the— I guess with a C.
Brandon: Connor definitely knows at least the basics of a lot of different religion practices and beliefs for—
Julia: Part of his training.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: —part of his negotiation training, you know?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: So I mean, he, he probably makes mistakes still, of course, because he's still learning—
Amanda: Yeah—
Brandon: —in the— at this time, but he did have to Google what was in a Twinkie, so—
Julia: Fair enough.
Eric: I'm imagining there was an entire unit on, like, how to negotiate on an airplane, so you need to know all of the dietary restrictions—
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: —especially if you're trying to make someone come on an airplane and get the food from there.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Well, because there's that one villain that it's like The Peanutter and he would go on airplanes and make children have anaphylactic shock.
Amanda: Brutal.
Eric: Not someone called The Peanutter being around children. No. No.
Julia: Oh, boy. Oh, no.
Amanda: This did remind me of a very sweet anecdote from my own life, when I was vegan for, like, seven or eight years in college and then just out of it. And after I had first gone vegan, I went to visit my friend, Ivan, friend of the show, in DC, and went to— we were at, like, a coffee shop and— actually, books for the people, a great coffee shop in DC.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: And I ordered a macaron, which I knew didn't have cream in it, but I did not realize at the time it had egg whites. And so Ivan—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Hmm.
Amanda: —is watching me order, like, a tea with soy milk, and then a macaron. And then he just, like, combusts and he's just like, "Is this a test?" And I was like, "Wait, what?" And he's like, "There's egg whites in the macaron." And I was like, "Oh, I didn't realize that. Thank you." And then he's like— he like— he was so nervous that I was, like, making a friendship test, and he's like, "Did I pass it?" I'm like, "I don't know." So we still—
Julia: "Yes."
Amanda: 15 years later, we're like, "This is a test."
Brandon: What a cutie.
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: That's so funny.
Amanda: Okay.
Brandon: That's really funny.
Amanda: Okay. From No Hugs Just Bugs, "Why would the mad scientists have their party on the home turf of probably their greatest enemy in Wordsmith? Is it like a recruiting event for the high schoolers? Do they somehow know that Wordsmith is gone and are taking advantage of that?"
Brandon: Are they rubbing it in his face, you know?
Amanda: Or is it so— there's a target so big, it disappears.
Julia: Or last place they'd ever look.
Amanda: Right.
Brandon: That's true. The best place to hide is in plain sight, baby.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Any insights, Eric?
Eric: Whoever organized that thing, probably was thinking about that's enough.
Amanda: No. Who is it? Who is it? Tell me.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: I want to know.
Julia: Who can say? Who can say?
Amanda: Bugs also wanted to know, "What slightly unhinged or super-powered carnival games do you think were present at the midterminal velocity festival?"
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: I think they have— and I think I said this in the episode one of those blow-up obstacle courses.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Oh, sure.
Julia: But they're, like, really intense. Like, there's real spikes instead of, like—
Amanda: Uh-huh.
Julia: —blow-up spikes.
Amanda: Very good.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: I am— I really liked those— the water gun, like shooting at the target games or be like—
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: —horses racing or some other kind of progression.
Brandon: Yeah, it's just so fun.
Amanda: And I think there's that, but the psi is, like, eight times the normal psi of those water guns.
Julia: Yeah. You could blow someone away with that.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: You know, there's like a ring toss where you have to put the ring over the, like, bottle opening or whatever it is.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: But maybe it's something about, like, the bottles change diameter, and so you have to change the size of the ring—
Amanda: Ooh.
Brandon: —at the same time to match it, you know, with your powers or whatever it is.
Julia: I think there's also a pie eating contest, but the pies are somewhat sentient, so they try to fight you, so you have to defeat the pie before you can eat it.
Amanda: Oh, my God.
Eric: Damn, Julia, I should have came up with that one. That sounds like me.
Julia: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: Fuck. That's my answer.
Brandon: That is very Eric.
Eric: That's-- what Julia said.
Julia: They're all from the Mad Mage’s tower, right?
Eric: Oh yeah, they escaped from the Mad Mage’s tower.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Because they had the sentient sushi that made me feel bad about eating it.
Eric: Oh, right. Or they really wanted you to eat them?
Julia: They did, but it felt weird regardless.
Eric: Right? Please— yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where it's from. I'm like, "That does sound like something I would make up, for sure."
Amanda: Damn, Eric, you just failed your own Turing test. Or Julia passed it?
Julia: I don't know.
Amanda: Hard to say.
Eric: Hey, unrelated, do any of these photos have trucks in them?
Julia: I don't— hmm.
Amanda: Huh.
Eric: Have you even thought—
Julia: Huh.
Eric: —about trucks? And if they're in this— in these photos?
Julia: Can't say I thought about trucks, so—
Eric: Oh, how about stoplights? Are there—
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: —stoplights in these photos?
Amanda: Speaking of field day, Tankee Doodle Dandy says, "What random field day event would your PC be weirdly good at? There's cornhole, tug of war, water balloon fight, inflatable obstacle course, et cetera." And Eric, I have a version of this that's specifically for you, which is, if you had to create a, like, prime time game show on, like, Fox or ABC around a carnival game designed for you to excel at, what would the carnival game be?
Julia: To answer the first part of the question, Craft is so good at cornhole.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Julia: Craft, like, locks in and is just, like, in the hole every single time.
Amanda: Incredible.
Brandon: One of my least favorite words on the history of English language—
Amanda: Hole?
Brandon: —is cornhole.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Oh.
Brandon: No, cornhole. That sucks.
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: I just hate it so much.
Amanda: I'm so sorry.
Julia: You throw the bag of corn into the hole, Brandon. Cornhole.
Brandon: Oh, it's a bag of— it was originally a bag of corn—
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: —or is it supposed to be a bag of—
Amanda: Uh-huh.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Oh.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Corn goes in the hole.
Brandon: I never understood that.
Julia: Corn goes in the hole.
Brandon: I— but is it still corn in the bags?
Julia: No. Now, they have, like, bean bags that are made with the little plastic beans.
Brandon: Well, how I'm supposed to know that then, guys?
Amanda: It's not called bean hole.
Brandon: Give me a break. That'd be better, though.
Julia: Anyway—
Amanda: Uh-huh.
Brandon: I think Connor be good at the inflatable obstacle course, probably, but he would pop it, so—
Amanda: Hmm. I think— is it called a Plinko when it's, like, falls between little pegs?
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Rowan would do that, but change the course of the disc.
Brandon: Smart.
Julia: Understandable.
Brandon: It doesn't touch any of the pegs. It just, like, floats down gracefully.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I'm not sure how the good people over at NBC does not have a game show based around Skee-Ball.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Like their— how is there not like a giant Skee-Ball? Like you do trivia, and then you get ball— depending on if you get those trivia, you get different balls for it. And then there's like— they're in a— it's also like— there could be a giant one, a really small one, or it's really long, and you have to, like, roll it like it— like it's a—
Amanda: Curling?
Eric: No, you got to roll it like it's a life-sized ball.
Amanda: Oh.
Eric: —or something.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: Like, I don't know how there's not a Skee-Ball related— hosted by Steph Curry, obviously.
Julia: Obviously.
Eric: How there's not a related Skee-Ball game show? That doesn't make any sense to me.
Brandon: I am now thinking that in the Winter Olympics, we should have Skee-Ball, but it's skiing down a hill, and you have to try to, you know, land in the right spot.
Julia: You have to land in one of the holes. Like, it's the—
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Slalom.
Julia: —ski jump, but then you have to try to land into one of the holes.
Brandon: Yeah. I don't think it has to be a hole, honestly, because that would be dangerous. But, like, you know, you get different amounts of points for where you land and—
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: —the, you know, the boundaries are smaller for the higher points kind of thing.
Julia: More bullseye style.
Amanda: Cute.
Julia: Got it.
Brandon: Yeah, bullseye style. Yeah.
Eric: There is a mini game for Monkey Ball that was like that, where you had to, like, go all the way down, and then you had to send your monkey onto a middle of a—
Brandon: Well, thank you, Eric. We should call it Monkey Ball and put it in the Winter Olympics.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: It's not copyrighted yet. Don't worry.
Julia: Yeah. Definitely not.
Eric: I'm still stuck on Skee-Ball-athlon, which is where you have to ski down a mountain and you have to do Skee-Ball.
Brandon: And shoot a monkey at the same time?
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Amanda: So good.
Julia: Can I also say? So Jake and I were away this past weekend and the—
Brandon: Brag.
Julia: —person that we were staying with, her roommate's brother is like a world champion frisbee, golf player.
Amanda: What?
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Julia: And so he was in Finland, so every morning, we would eat breakfast and watch how he was doing, and he came in second in the world championship.
Brandon: That's awesome.
Amanda: Oh, my God.
Julia: Yeah. So I learned a lot about frisbee golf this past weekend.
Brandon: Just the one, like, pro sport that I literally don't understand at all. Like I don't— I understand that you throw a frisbee and catch it or something, but I don't—
Julia: No, it's just golf rules. Instead of a golf ball—
Brandon: Oh.
Julia: —you throw a frisbee.
Brandon: Oh.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: So the course is as big?
Julia: Yes.
Brandon: Whoa.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: That's cool. Okay.
Eric: I wish there was a frisbee golf course near me.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: I would get so into that shit. That sounds so great.
Julia: Yeah, dude.
Amanda: I'm trying to think of a pun, like frisbee hole, but that simply sounds like a medical condition and I don't want to get further into it.
Eric: It's in your small intestines, guys. Come on, light up.
Amanda: Don't be weird.
Julia: Don't be weird.
Amanda: Don't be weird.
Eric: Don't be weird.
Brandon: Don't be weird.
Eric: I need medium invasive surgery to fix my frisbee hole.
Amanda: All right, here's a question from Alex (Spaceman), "If the PCs and Eric could choose a mentor under a Lake Town City hero, like in My Hero Academia, who would they choose?
Julia: Ooh.
Brandon: Hmm, I haven't listened to campaign two, so this is gonna be tough for me.
Amanda: Make one up, make one up in Lake Town City. I would love to see— and not just because it's all me, but I would love to see Rowan hanging out with Multitool. And I think it would be so cool to see them compare notes on, like, how they approach problems, and their attitudes are just so different, and their powers are so different, that just trying to see Multitool wrap her head around literally changing gravity, is like, "Whoa, I could fix a lot of plumbing with this." You know?
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Multitool's not alive anymore, though, so that's kind of hard.
Amanda: Oh.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Oh, well, the multiverse doesn't exist, then I have a lot of questions about what happened at the end of Campaign Two.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Multiverse doesn't exist. I don't know what you're talking about.
Amanda: Oh.
Brandon: I have two answers. One, as we said earlier, Connor and Val would be a perfect pairing—
Julia: So funny to me.
Brandon: —for a mentor-mentee situation. But I also think that Cyberpunk and the guy from Campaign Two, who is like a weeb, who has a sword with like his, like, clay soldiers, people or whatever it is.
You know what I'm talking about, Eric?
Eric: Oh, that's right.
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: The professor. Yeah, it was the professor.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, the professor. Oh, my God.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: I think they'd be a good pairing.
Julia: I think Craft and Kilonova would be fucking hilarious. I think Craft would just roast Milo the entire time during that internship.
Amanda: I need that podcast so bad.
Julia: Very funny.
Brandon: Milo would act so, like, adult and, like, try to be so, like, calm and cool and professional as he was trying to mentor this kid.
Amanda: I feel like Zach Rose and Apple would sit you down and be like, "Don't fuck this up. She is so cool. We need her around."
Eric: Who's to say we're not gonna do that? Who's to say?
Julia: Who can say?
Eric: Who can say?
Brandon: Who's to say?
Julia: Who can say?
Eric: Who knows?
Amanda: By the way, if you're missing Campaign Two, great time to buy our limited edition final episode of Join the Party at—
Julia: Only a few left.
Amanda: —jointhepartypod.com/merch, not too many left, folks. Fewer left than there are US states, contiguous ones at that.
Julia: Whoa.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Question from Penguin, "Who is the weirdest teacher at Water's Edge Academy that you wouldn't think would be good at their job, but is actually the best teacher on campus?"
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: "Like I'm thinking about a rock golem, for example, who teaches geology and is also really good at having heart to hearts with students and everyone feels comfortable around them or something like that."
Julia: I think there's a talking velociraptor who teaches—
Brandon: Paleontology?
Julia: I was gonna say medieval history, but I want it to be more like— I think it's like medieval literature.
Amanda: Nice.
Eric: Yeah, real.
Julia: And they're really cool and great at giving advice.
Amanda: Aw.
Brandon: In my head, I was like, "It'd be funny if they taught paleontology." But then I was like, "That's really fucked up, that a dinosaur would teach about the dead bodies of his relatives." But then I realized that that is what people do.
Amanda: That is.
Julia: That's anthropology, yeah.
Amanda: That's history. It is.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: You're very right.
Brandon: So it's really not that fucked up.
Amanda: I am struggling— maybe you guys can help me think of the character, but the subject that I want to do is math. I had a really good math teacher in my senior year of high school who—
Brandon: Wow, brag.
Amanda: —was very good— no, no, Brandon, bragging is telling you, "I got a five on AP Mathematics."
Julia: Boo.
Amanda: But telling—
Brandon: You got a five on—
Julia: Boo.
Amanda: It's not a brag to say— I did.
Brandon: —AP Math?
Amanda: I did. That the teacher was really good—
Brandon: Jesus Christ.
Amanda: —and made me feel— like if I didn't understand something, it was because the subject was hard, and there— I just had to keep trying different ways until I got it. Not that it was impossible or that I was wrong. And so I want there to be a math teacher who was really good at, like, catering to different learning styles and making students feel fundamentally, like, empowered and, like, they are capable of doing more than they thought they were.
Julia: Brain in a jar.
Amanda: Brain a jar.
Brandon: Brain in a jar.
Amanda: There you go.
Brandon: That's really good. Amanda, why the fuck are you making podcasts and not doing, like, physics?
Amanda: Because I only got a two on AP Physics.
Brandon: Okay.
Julia: And also, she doesn't want to.
Amanda: That is why I'm good at spreadsheets.
Brandon: Why aren't you doing theoretical mathematics?
Amanda: Brandon, it's because our achievements in fundamentally racist school systems have nothing to do with our ability to do actual life.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Anyway—
Eric: College Board sponsors this podcast.
Julia: Yeah. Famously.
Amanda: Eric, they— there is a number. There is a number. There's an amount of money they could pay for me to read an ad for College Board and—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —it has six digits. I'll tell you that much.
Eric: Real.
Brandon: It's as high as my SAT score was.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: Yeah. Not— good start.
Eric: $8?
Brandon: Got him. Idiot.
Eric: You spelled your last name with two O's like a dumbass?
Brandon: Groogle.
Amanda: Here is a question from I breathe fiction. Great name. "There's a point in episode nine, about seven minutes in, where Eric calls Julia out for her wardrobe consisting of Target Boys XL items. Now, as a fellow AFAB person who shops at Target, have you noticed anything good over the summer, Julia? I've been experiencing a lot of autistic burnout, and have not had the mental or social energy to do more than work and spend time with people I already know, but I do need new clothes, so I have to know, is it worth the trip?"
Julia: I haven't been shopping at Target lately because of their changes in their DEI policies. However, I would check out their website, and you can, usually, like, select it from your store and then go and pick it up, rather than having to spend time in the store, if you want to do that. I'm also going to do a quick aside and say, this weekend, I was trying to find a very specific sweatshirt, and I went to, like, two different stores, and they're like, "We're all sold out of adult sizes." And I— second story, I looked at the woman, I said, "Do you have a Boys XL?" And she's like, "I'll check the back."
Eric: There you go.
Julia: And then I did buy a sweatshirt in a Boys XL, so it's not just Target.
Amanda: Yay.
Julia: It's all Boys XL.
Brandon: They're like, "I'm so sorry. We're out of adult sizes." And you're like, "Uh, did you look at me?"
Julia: The girl looked surprised and then she was like, "Huh."
Amanda: Shout out. Yeah, that black boycott of Target has removed something like $1.4 billion of shareholder value from Target, which is a great thing to do, because they walk back—
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Amanda: —their commitment to highlight black-owned businesses.
Brandon: Guys, can I also just say? Target sucks. Stop going to Target.
Amanda: Yeah. Bad place.
Brandon: Target sucks.
Amanda: Shout out Pastor Jamal Bryant, who led that and organized that boycott. Very effective. Boycotts, they work really well. What I can—
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: —say is that you can get previous seasons of Target Boys XL clothing without supporting Target if you go to your local thrift store. I have been going to my local thrift store a lot. I've been going to the Savers chain. There's a few on Long Island, but there are all over the country, and they organize everything by size. So you can just go through and see, like, everything they've got that's in your specific size. And they have youth.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Hell yeah.
Amanda: They have boys, they have women, they have all kinds of stuff. So I highly recommend you go there.
Eric: I want to give a shout out to Abercrombie for all the people who want to buy masculine clothing, especially in regards to how American Eagles doing right now. Abercrombie much better than before.
Amanda: Speaking of—
Julia: "Abercrombie smells better than it did when you were a teenager."
Eric: Hell yeah, it fucking does.
Brandon: Did they turn on the lights finally?
Amanda: They did.
Eric: No, Hollister— it's still dark in Hollister. The lights are on in Abercrombie.
Amanda: In Abercrombie, the dressing rooms have customizable lighting so you can do, like, a warm tone or a cool tone, or higher or lower.
Brandon: Wow.
Amanda: So you're not, like, turbo blasted with fluorescent lights that hate you.
Brandon: What if I want to be turbo blasted with fluorescent lights, then?
Julia: You can do that.
Amanda: We don't kink shame, Brandon. We can't ask why.
Brandon: We can't ask why.
Amanda: It's a— quite a philosophical question from Asterpoetry, "If superheroes existed in real life, would that be cool with you guys? Like, would it be ethical?"
Eric: Oof. Oh, boy. I— it's funny to think that, like, this was a really big and important issue, like when it came out in the comics, with the actual Civil War arc. I know that it's been, like, corrupted by the Marvel movies and kind of like a watered down version of it, but I always thought it was so— I just always thought it was so interesting, especially because, like, you know, Steve Rogers being like, "Hey, no, I saw what the US government does with unchecked power, and it was bad. So, like, let's not do that." So I think it just it relates to ideas of like, you know, the US, military industrial complex and policing and things like that. So I think we already have similar sort of conversations that we're having. In another way, I will say that I have never had the fantasy of wishing I had superpowers more than I have now, as opposed to, like, when I was seven.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Just in terms of, like, how clarifying it feels to want to have power in a way that you— and having the responsibility to actually try to help people instead of using it for your own gains. So—
Brandon: Having a clarity of purpose, you know?
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: Yeah, and clarity of purpose, and, like, wishing I had that so I could go do something in a way that would— that was good for others, and using the power— wielding the power responsibly. So, you know, it's a complicated question. I think it's like we're already having— it's such a good metaphor for everything we're already talking about. So I think, you know, that question is already been posed, for sure.
Brandon: It's so funny that you say that, because I don't think it's complicated at all.
Amanda: Tell me.
Brandon: Well, on the one hand, no, I don't want supers to exist only because that ends up with a lot of people dead and property damage and all that kind of stuff. Like that— the actual, like, ramifications doesn't sound fun to live in. But accepting that, that's obviously a silly argument there. Of course, it's ethical. They're superheroes. They're not super villains. Like it— Superman deals with this in the latest movie, no spoilers, but like, assuming we are talking about superheroes as they're written, where they have good moral compasses, morality supersedes government interests in all cases.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: So, like, no, I don't give a shit if America is mad that Superman stops a war between Russia and Ukraine. Like, fuck America at that point.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Like that is clearly the ethical, moral thing to do in that case, to stop people from being harmed. So, like, yeah, I don't have any issue with that at all.
Julia: Yeah. I think, like, the, like moral question, then, is like, well, why is this person with powers able to decide what is moral and what is not, and when to step in and when not to step in?
Amanda: Hmm.
Julia: But I agree with you, Brandon.
Brandon: Well, some morals are absolute. Like, not all morals are relative. Like, in terms of, like, stopping harm, like stopping people from doing harm to other people. Like, that's a pretty relatively speak— like, mostly speaking that is a moral absolute. Like, I can't think of an example where, like, someone harming someone else is good.
Julia: Yes.
Brandon: You know?
Julia: That's fair.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Totally fair.
Amanda: Fascinating.
Eric: Yeah, I think that it's hard to answer this question without either, like, totally rethinking the universe, which is why I think— I love superhero genre so much in the first place.
Brandon: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Like, either we're doing a magical realism thing, where we're dropping, like, it's exactly the same, but we're changing one thing, or like—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: —we have to totally rethink everything. Like, in the beginning of My Hero Academia. That's why I love My— it so much, because it's like, actually, 90% of people have superpowers and it's totally different, and then everything changes accordingly.
Brandon: Yeah. That's different, for sure.
Eric: The question is, are superheroes ethical? It's like, maybe. I— we also would have to introduce with like, well, who is the distribution of people who get those superpowers. Like, the whole thing about Superman is Superman was created by, you know, two Jews in the 1930s, who were like, "What if this guy from space beat up all the robber barons? That'd be so sick."
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: So it's like, even we're starting from such, like a literary construction, someone inventing it, and not having the randomness that is the actual lives. It's like, if people had superpowers, the universe would kind of just distribute it accordingly to those people, and then we'd have to figure out what happened, who those people would be.
Brandon: But I don't think that's true, because the way that superheroes are written is like they are inherently also have decent ethics, you know, like, generally speaking. That's what a superhero is.
Eric: No, not necessarily. I think that, you know, the superheroes where there's the super villains are the people who kind of sort themselves accordingly, and the stories that are being told. I'm saying that, like, if it was real, there would be a random distribution of people who got super powers, and then we'd reckon with who those people are. Like, this whole thing about Superman, right? Superman's a good dude and lucky that he was the one with powers. And then every single person's written, 'What if Superman was evil?" stories afterwards.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: But I don't— but the question wasn't, what if superpowers existed? It's, what if superheroes existed?
Julia: I think if superheroes existed, awesome, but then that usually does imply the existence of people—
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: —with powers who don't have strong ethics.
Amanda: Yeah. I also think—
Eric: True.
Amanda: —our current culture and worldview is very oriented toward justifying that the people with power are also good, and so superpowers existed. I think by definition, we would sort of, you know, alter or shift our morality to make those people into superheroes, because people don't want to think of themselves as villainous. But it does remind me that, like I think all of us have— with, like, the capacity to influence the world, have a version of a superpower. And so I think that our particular lot in life, you know, compared to somebody else, does have a super-powered kind of difference in our ability to make actual change. And so I, you know, want to conduct myself as if I was the one with the powers that Kal-El brought me from space, and try to use that, like to your point earlier, Eric, to make things better for people. And I think that's a good worldview to bring into—
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: —2025 and beyond.
Brandon: Agreed.
Amanda: Fascinating. Great job, everybody. Final question, thought, anecdote here from Ellie, "I want to tell you how much I appreciate your podcast. Y'all helped me survive my junior year of high school, which was definitely as miserable as everybody said it would be, with most of my joy for living intact." Ellie, that's pretty good. Good job. "It gives me so much joy that I get to go into senior year at the same time that you are all playing high school age characters. And on the different note, I had a weird Afterparty question, what are your character's favorite study methods if they study? Is there a specific place on campus that is a popular study spot for all students? I can't wait to listen to the rest of the campaign, and I hope you enjoy playing as much as I like listening."
Julia: I don't think Craft does a lot of actual studying. I think we saw the extent of Craft studying, which was reading the Wikipedia page for snow.
Amanda: She sure did.
Julia: Yeah, and that's about it.
Brandon: I want everyone to answer this, and then I have a second question as well question as well.
Julia: Okay.
Brandon: One, I think that Connor doesn't study because his entire academic career, he's just always been number eight or whatever, you know?
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. I wanted to ask about that, because I think that we only underlined that during this particular episode, but did Con— does Connor know that? Does Connor notice that?
Brandon: I don't think he thinks it's weird. Like, I don't think he notices— I think he's just like, "Oh, yeah, that makes sense. You know, whatever."
Amanda: "I'm gonna say me, so—"
Brandon: He's never tried to get up past that.
Eric: Right.
Brandon: So it's never been like him railing against it and failing to get a higher grade. So—
Eric: Is this the first time that Connor has, like, bombed something, and then seeing that eight is that— that his thing hasn't dropped? I guess I just wanted— I want to know.
Brandon: Bo, because the— like that direction, as opposed to, like, trying to get ahead, that direction is, like, more opaque, because—
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: —you can rationalize it by saying like, "Oh, well, everyone else failed, too."
Amanda: Hmm.
Brandon: Or, you know, "Everyone else is dumb or whatever it is." You know what I mean?
Eric: Right. The curve kept you at eight.
Brandon: Yeah. Like you can shrug it off very easily. But I just want to know, did everyone here study in high school at all?
Julia: I kinda.
Amanda: I never once studied. I didn't know how to study. I did—
Brandon: I didn't know?
Amanda: —not need to, but that did sure serve me bad when I went to college and had to.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: I did all my work.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Like I did all the readings, and I did all the work, but I never, like, studied beyond that.
Amanda: My specific brain was well-suited to what we had to do in school. I do think, though, that Rowan does— and I had to study a lot when I, for example, convert to Judaism, where you have, like, a study partner, and there's a whole, like, rationale and way that you do it, but basically, you learn via dialog and, like, follow through and accountability with someone else. So I think Rowan has applied that to school, and in my brain, she has, like, a study friend that is not really connected to their social group otherwise. And maybe it's— oh, that's a great question. Okay, I'm gonna think about who Rowan's chavruta is, because I think she definitely has one.
Brandon: Hell yeah. Love that.
Eric: I studied in high school. What the fuck are you guys talking about?
Julia: I think I was just a good test taker, so I didn't often have to study—
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: —as a result.
Brandon: Yeah, I was too.
Eric: And that's why I'm the Dungeon Master and you guys are the players.
Amanda: Wee.
Eric: Like— yeah. And that's why I read the books and you guys are like, "What do— how does team work again?"
Amanda: Wee.
Eric: Sure.
Brandon: And that's why I failed accounting, Eric.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: All right, folks, that brings us to Who Can Say?/Next Issue on Join the Party. From the Question Surgeon, Michelle Spurgeon, "How in tarnation did 50 mad scientist bad guys get onto campus? I thought their security was unmatched."
Julia: Well, apparently not. We've been getting evil folk on campus all semester so far.
Brandon: Yeah, the security is just kids.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Volunteer kids.
Brandon: They're not great.
Amanda: Yeah. Great question. From No Hugs, Just Bugs, "Mildly concerned about the whole Connor remaining at number eight thing, despite not taking midterms, speaking of. Is this Heroes 4 Hire or Anita herself pulling strings? Is it someone behind the scenes deliberately manipulating things to control where Connor ends up after graduation? I am concerned."
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: I don't know. Who can say?
Amanda: "And secondly, something feels off with Rowan not being able to control powers around Coach Boneman. I feel like someone's messing with her, trying to keep her from maybe ranking too high, or is Voidie perhaps gaining more unconscious influence and power in the world?" Who can say?
Julia: Who can say?
Brandon: Who can say?
Eric: That would be bad? I hope that's not happening.
Brandon: Or maybe Coach Boneman just like thinks— wow, this is going to be weird to say, but let's imagine Rowan's 18, and Coach Boneman thinks that she's cute and so she just melts, you know?
Eric: That's— Brandon, that's how— that's not what's happening. No, and I refuse. No, that is not what is happening. I also love Coach Boneman. I didn't get a chance to do it because that's not really how the arc shook out. We ended up doing other stuff instead. We ended up doing the whole Heroes 4 Hire thing and focusing on Aunt Anita. But I really love Coach Boneman. It's like imagine your gym teacher cared, you know? Like, incredible.
Amanda: Our gym teacher was, like, a 25-year-old surfer who all he wanted to do was nap in class and he was like, "Y'all want to do yoga? Whatever." And then, like, let us nap in the weight room. It was beautiful.
Julia: You can nap whenever you want. Uh-hmm. Yeah.
Brandon: Hell yeah, dude.
Eric: My gym teacher kind of didn't really do anything when I dislocated my shoulder in gym class, so— you know?
Brandon: Oh.
Amanda: Tough.
Brandon: That's bad.
Amanda: Well, next is, you wanna Join the Party, hopefully, we see more attentive teachers in Water's Edge Academy. But folks, thank you for your questions. Thank you for listening. We are so excited to bring you more episodes every dang Tuesday, because you know what we say over here at Join the Party, every Tuesday is a good Tuesday.
Julia: True facts.
Brandon: And give them waffles, Amanda.
Julia: And waffles.
Amanda: Uh-hmm. Maybe— ooh, maybe waffle Tuesday.
Julia: Waffle Tuesday.
Brandon: Waffle Tuesday.
Amanda: Delish.
Julia: I'm too hungry for this. We can't keep doing this.
Amanda: All right, everybody.
Eric: I talked to the school board. We can't do Waffle Tuesdays.
Brandon: Shit!
Amanda: Ah, fuck! Fuck. Well—
Eric: How about Reheated Hamburger Tuesday?
Julia: Oh.
Eric: We can do that. That's in the union contract, is that good?
Brandon: I'm gonna start playing hooky on Tuesdays.
Amanda: Yeah, gonna—
Eric: Hey, guys, is a Reheated Hamburger Tuesday ethical?
Amanda: Ooh.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: Gotta sit with this one.
Julia: Hmm.
Amanda: And in the meantime, everybody, bye.
Julia: Bye.
Brandon: Bye.
Amanda: May your rolls trend ever upward.
Eric: Hey, all you super friends. You want to get good together? You want to skip math together? You want to punch bad guys together? It's not that I haven't used my words, it's that nobody listens to me and I can shoot fire. 1, 2, 3, 4.
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