WHOOOM! So what kind of kid are you? Are you the type who just hangs out at the defunct theme park? Or do you do what the magical lady with white hair says? Or do you go off on your own at find the power-swapping guy with the big jacket?
We’re playing Masks for this campaign! You can access a running list of all the NPCs from Campaign 4 here.
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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: Last time on Join the Party.
Eric: It's midterms, baby, and it all comes down to the Power Apex Workshop with Coach Boneman. All of our super seniors are having a tough time in the practice trials. Craft can't do weather on command. Rowan makes Coach Boneman literally fall apart, and Connor is feeling pretty emo at the moment. It might be because he's being pursued by suited agents from Heroes 4 Hire, but Craft and Rowan, and Julia and Amanda don't know that. Weird thing, one of their classmates changed his powers from something weird to Blizzard. He admits that he swapped them out at the Funbratory, the defunct theme park that's science-themed, that all of the kids are hanging out at. Just look for the guy with the big coat. Of course, everyone goes down there, and they're having fun being teenagers and, you know, climbing all over defunct roller coaster stuff. But they're confronted by a spooky lady with white hair covered in lots of tchotchkes, who asks, "Who wants to hunt ghosts?" I want everyone to know, I ain't afraid of no ghost, and bustin' makes me feel good. Let's get the party started.
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.
[theme]
Eric: Hey, this is the episode cover of Midterms II. I named the arc Midterm because you guys in the past learned that because I wrote it out. But it's just Midterms with, like, three exclamation points.
Brandon: Wee!
Julia: Aaah!
Eric: Midterms. And the cover is the— God, I need to remember how to pronounce this again.
Brandon: Midterms.
Eric: I don't know why I wrote this. I did Ad-Magistration, and now here I am doing Funbratory, funbratory?
Julia: Funbratory.
Brandon: Fun-bratory.
Eric: Funbratory. Jesus. I wrote these. I made up these words. I'm doing it to myself, truly. The problem is that I wrote in my notes, Funboratory, and I think that's why it's messing with me.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Like I wrote it— like, it's Dexter from Dexter's Lab, saying it out loud.
Brandon: Uh-hmm. Yeah, yeah.
Julia: I mean, I— to be fair, Dexter's Lab is the reason I know how to spell laboratory, because it's spelled the way it's pronounced, which is laboratory.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Omelette du fromage.
Julia: Omelette du fromage.
Eric: Hey, Dee Dee, get out of my room. It sounds so much sadder when you don't do it in the Dexter voice, honestly. Yeah, it's— I'm writing— I have written down Funboratory and I think that— I think I might just start saying that. That's much better.
Julia: No.
Eric: Do you not— you like Funbratory more better, Julia?
Julia: I like Funbratory better. I don't know why, but I do.
Brandon: Part of the fun is that there's no canonical way to say it.
Eric: That's why they shut it down, Brandon.
Brandon: That's why they shut it down.
Eric: That's why they shut it down. So this is a highlight spot the difference.
Brandon: Oh.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: On the left side, it's 1995 and the Funboratory is up and running. The Funbratory is up and running. And on the right side is the— in its current state, with teens in the night, hanging out in the abandoned park. So there's lots of differences. The majority of the cover is red circles.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: That's pretty funny. I like that.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It's like, "Hey, this kid wasn't vomiting on the floor." No, actually—" no, there's a child and then an older teen, and they're both vomiting on the floor at the same time.
Julia: And it's the same kid years later.
Brandon: Whoa. Whoa.
Julia: Wow.
Amanda: Aah.
Julia: Whoa. Spooky.
Brandon: Spooky.
Eric: Brandon, please don't read my notes ahead of time. I'd actually really appreciate it if you didn't do that.
Brandon: Well, you can't stop me from hacking.
Eric: No, that's what— explicitly what I'm asking you not to do.
Brandon: Hackers gotta hack.
Eric: It's rude. So last time on Join the Party, remember what Eric said in the past in the beginning of this episode?
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Right now, woman, bright white bob, so spooky, so many tchotchkes hanging off of her is standing kind of in the— in this dilapidated laboratory archway that kind of leads out into, like, the main area where everyone is hanging out, hanging off of abandoned roller coaster tracks, swinging on the swing ride that doesn't exist anymore, but they're all beakers. And you gotta, like, get in ooze, which is gross, because it was, like, plastic. It was sealed before, but now it's not sealed anymore. So if you got to sit in there, you get stained.
Julia: Gross.
Eric: Turning the experimental caramel apples booth into a kissing booth.
Brandon: Oh.
Julia: Wow.
Eric: Or maybe it's a therapy booth. No, it's 2025, it's a therapy booth.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Isn't that the same thing, though, Eric? Isn't that the same thing?
Julia: Yeah, I'm constantly kissing my therapist.
Eric: Yeah, that's why the copays are so hot.
Amanda: I'm constantly kissing for therapy.
Brandon: I meant that, what Amanda said, but I like what Julia said better.
Julia: Hey, hey, a PSA for everyone, don't kiss your therapist.
Amanda: No, no, no.
Brandon: Unless you want to unlock secret level 34.
Julia: No, don't do it.
Eric: Wow.
Amanda: Drama?
Eric: Is that— that's from— that's in Blueprints? You have to kiss your therapist? Hey, let's just go around one time. Name a magical/mythological tchotchke that is hanging off of this woman, in various ways. I haven't described her clothing. Other than that, she has a severe white bob, and she looks very goth-y and spooky. So you have to tell me what it is and how it's attached to her body in some way.
Julia: I have one.
Eric: Please.
Julia: It is a silver Victorian hand mirror.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: Oh.
Julia: That is kind of, like, attached to her belt, utility belt style.
Brandon: I like it.
Julia: And in the hand mirror, you just get a glimpse of a woman's bloody face, and then it disappears when you blink.
Brandon: Ahh!
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: That's good.
Brandon: Ahh!
Eric: That's good.
Brandon: Ahh!
Eric: Julia, it's scary how we think the same way, because I was also think she was wearing, like, three different necklaces.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Just like— in a kind of just layered fashion, like each one is— one is a large circle, one's a medium circle, and one's a small circle. And only when they start to intersect do you see the terrible green eye.
Julia: Cool.
Amanda: Good.
Julia: I'm also picturing her with tchotchke bandoliers.
Eric: Oh, yeah.
Amanda: Hmm.
Eric: She can have bandolier.
Julia: Uh-hmm. Bandolier full of tchotchke.
Eric: I like it.
Amanda: She, of course, on the lapel of her jacket, has pinned a little, like, silver whistle. You know how, like, old-timey military ribbons are sort of, like—
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Amanda: —affixed? And then on the string dangling is the metal. It's like that, but with a whistle. This is Hades dog whistle, and it summons all dogs living and dead from within a 100-foot radius.
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: It's terrifying.
Eric: That's pretty good.
Brandon: I want that dog whistle.
Julia: That's so scary.
Brandon: I love it.
Eric: You know that video that goes around with the little kid looking at the bear and says, "Can I pet that dog? Can I pet that dog?" But, like, imagine that with, like, Cerberus.
Julia: Or just skeletal remains of the local pets.
Eric: Yeah, the black dog just wandering around. "Can I pet that dog?"
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: "Can I pet that dog?"
Eric: "Can I pet that dog?"
Brandon: Connor is standing there, looking at this woman just real quick before we get to the tchotchke. Connor does have his entire hand wrapped in cotton candy. He put his arm in the cotton candy bowl.
Eric: Oh, sure.
Brandon: And just, you know, wrapped it all in cotton candy and just eating it.
Amanda: Incredible.
Julia: Well, sugar doesn't go bad, so—
Eric: I really appreciate your sense of priority when it comes to world-building.
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: I really appreciate it.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: I— it also is funny that someone restarted a cotton candy machine, though it's still in there.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: And Connor looks over and sees that she has a desiccated hands, which is very clearly a monkey's paw.
Eric: Hmm.
Brandon: Hanging on the bottom of her shirt, jacket, whatever she's wearing, on the bottom of there. But this one has seven fingers.
Eric: Ooh.
Amanda: Oh.
Brandon: And it's only holding up one finger, and it's the middle finger, so it's just flipping us off.
Eric: That's good.
Brandon: What does that mean?
Amanda: Just for vibes.
Brandon: Who knows?
Julia: Who can say?
Eric: Yeah. I bet— you know, Brandon, I bet she's wearing a duster. You know she's wearing a duster.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: That mid— that tea length, cool jacket.
Brandon: A tea length duster.
Eric: I have written in my notes that she has a lot of tchotchkes, so I think we have to go back around and say more tchotchkes.
Brandon: Oh, okay.
Julia: Hmm. We should do it serpentine, so back to Brandon.
Brandon: Oh, okay. She is wearing a thing that I'm going to think of right now, which is, you know, like on a globe— like a globe stand where they can spin equatorially, whatever you call that.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brandon: It's a small one. It's like a handheld one, but instead of a globe, it's an eyeball, and it could just spin freely. And it does blink occasionally.
Eric: Oh, sure.
Julia: I hate that.
Amanda: Very scary.
Julia: I hate that.
Eric: That's just hanging off of a belt loop, I'm sure.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: It's good. I'm not realizing she's probably wearing a vest, but maybe that's just the tumbler in my brain, right?
Julia: No, she's full steampunk, and we're fine with that.
Eric: Yeah, there's like—
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: It's like she left her big top hat at home, but there's probably all— everything else is in there.
Amanda: I'm so glad you mentioned steampunk, Julia, because I think she has a monocle that is, like, the Benjamin Franklin- Nicholas Cage style of spectacles.
Eric: Oh, hell yeah.
Amanda: Where there's, like, red, blue, and clear and invisible—
Brandon: Oh!
Amanda: —lenses.
Eric: Oh.
Amanda: And they let you see different aspects of a person, so you can see like the aura. You can see them physically. You can see the, like, power vibe, distinct from the magical aura. And then lastly, you can see what kind of underwear they're wearing.
Julia: X-ray specs.
Brandon: She got it from the very back page of this comic where she sent in five cents to get the X-ray spec lens.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Ben Franklin actually invented that. That's true.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: That's how we got syphilis, actually.
Amanda: Huge perv. Uh-hmm.
Eric: Yeah. Notorious perv, Benjamin Franklin. That one's true.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: In the weird light of the Funbratory, I imagine there's like a string of lights, it's like around this archway, and it goes like red and then blue, and then green, and then purple, and then yellow, and white, and whatever. And only when the yellow one comes on do you see that there is a thin spider silk vest on top of her vest.
Julia: Cool.
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: You know, obviously, it was knitted by Lolth, the Spider Queen. She went to the canonical Dungeons & Dragons: Underdark and got the vest.
Julia: Cool.
Brandon: That's good. Is it, like, Kevlar? Is it, like, protect against, you know, stabbies?
Eric: You don't got to get ready if you stay ready.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Is what I have to say about that.
Brandon: Okay. I guess.
Eric: Yes. But, like, in a cool, mysterious way.
Julia: You can stab her and find out.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: Julia, it seems like there's one more— there's, like, one more tchotchke, like, that's there.
Julia: Oh, jar of dirt.
Brandon: Oh, you got me. You got me.
Eric: Is it just like in the pocket of her duster?
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: No, I'm asking.
Julia: No, it's like hanging there from the bandolier.
Eric: Oh, sure.
Julia: It's like— it's surrounded by so much, like, things that used to be shiny, but are now dusty, and then it's just, like— in the middle is like a very small, like, capped, corked jar of dirt.
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: And you're like, "What's that for?" And she's like, "Hmm."
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: It’s like, "Don't worry— yeah, don't worry about it." I love it. I'm imagining, like, a full page spread, just like— of, like, those character portrait drawings that I love when artists do, and we're just, like, pointing out all of these things while she's standing there.
Brandon: It's like an I Spy book.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Yeah. And on the rest of the bandolier, there's a lot of monster hunting equipment. There's vampire stakes. There's silver bullets. There's, you know, citrus fruits that ghosts hate.
Julia: Right.
Brandon: Which ones are those? Yuzu?
Eric: Yeah, yuzu—
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: —and grapefruit, specifically.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: That's why Japan has no ghosts. They only have Yokai.
Brandon: Oh, and it's grapefruit because the ghosts don't want to take out their medication? They don't want to mess up their medication?
Julia: Yeah, it's gonna mess with their cholesterol medication.
Brandon: Yeah, that's why they don't—
Julia: I got you.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Eric: Yeah. I was gonna say they don't like palomas, but I liked yours better. That's good. That's very good. She steps out of the shadows, and some of the teenagers notice her step out, but other are engrossed in their conversation. And I think on the bandolier is a little gong, and she takes one of the stakes, and she hits a gong. [dings] And the gong just, like, reverberate— we see, like, the reverberation, the spooky, wiggly reverberation of the gong throughout the abandoned Funbratory.
Eric (as Liminality): So who wants to go on a ghost hunt, kids?
Amanda (as Rowan Miriam Rosen): I was down until you said, "Kids." Now, I'm a little concerned.
Julia (as Shelley Craft): Yeah. Now, I feel weird about it.
Eric (as Liminality): I don't know, how old are you? 11? 14 and a half? I don't know.
Julia (as Craft): What?
Eric (as Liminality): I don't know how old kids are.
Julia (as Craft): I'm a legal adult.
Brandon: Connor says—
Brandon (as Connor Lyons): Yeah, we're clearly adults.
Brandon: And then he takes a bite out of his cotton candy and bites his hand on accident.
Brandon (as Connor): Ow! Ah, shit! Ow.
Amanda (as Rowan): It's gonna take a long time to wash it off, bud.
Brandon: Maybe being a sticky hand will be helpful for catching the ghosts. Who knows?
Julia: Uh-hmm. Just like your pants being off is always helpful for whatever mission we're on.
Brandon: My pants are not off now, Julia.
Julia: Not now. Instead, you got sticky hand.
Eric (as Liminality): Oh, I just— I thought I was giving you an opportunity to do something cool with your night, but if you guys just want to play— you know, kind of play grab ass with each other, instead of capturing a ghost and seeing into the ethereal plane. I guess that's fine. Just stay out of my way, or come with me if you want to do something sick.
Julia (as Craft): I mean, we are teens hanging out in an abandoned amusement park. That's pretty cool already, I'm not gonna lie, but—
Brandon: Yeah, I was gonna say player Brandon says, "Have you met teens? All they want to do is grab ass." And then Connor says—
Brandon (as Connor): I want to see a ghost.
Julia (as Craft): Oh, okay. Who— who's ghost?
Eric (as Liminality): Hey, everyone who wants to see ghost, you can come with me, Liminality.
Eric (as Bryan): Oh, can— I follow your streams. Oh, this— I can't believe this is— you're here.
Eric (as Liminality): Oh, oh. I mean, I don't even really think about that. I'm too busy finding evil demons and haunt Jupiter in Lake Town City, but thank you for being a fan. What's your name?
Eric (as Bryan): Oh, it's Bryan with a Y.
Eric (as Liminality): Bryan? I'll remember that.
Eric: And I think you can see, like, now there is this, like swirling, rippling effect that is happening around her, which kind of picks up her necklace, her necklace, her stacked necklaces, and they come off of her neck. And that green eye comes together and encircles around her, almost like a floating little drone. And she looks at the green eye and says—
Eric (as Liminality): Hey, Bryan, don't you want to come on a ghost hunt with me?
Eric: He's like—
Eric (as Bryan): Yeah, yeah, I do.
Eric (as Liminality): Come on. Let's go find the ghost who's haunting the abandoned Funbratory.
Julia (as Craft): Do you know who it's a ghost of? This seems to be your area of expertise.
Eric (as Liminality): We have to— the thing you have to do is you have to do research at the place. You have to get EMP readings and watch the ley lines, and see into the ethereal plane, see where it's touching all of the different places. But I'm able to do that—
Brandon (as Connor): Oh.
Eric (as Liminality): —if you know you kids want to help me with that.
Julia (as Craft): So no.
Brandon (as Connor): I've heard about ley lines. That makes sense to me. What's your name, by the way? Sorry, I haven't seen your TikToks.
Eric (as Liminality): I just— didn't we— you didn't hear me when I said—
Julia (as Craft): She said it was Liminality.
Brandon (as Connor): Oh, that was your name?
Eric (as Liminality): I'm Lim— yeah, I'm Liminality.
Brandon (as Connor): I thought that was a descriptor of yourself.
Eric (as Liminality): It's both. That's why it's such a good name.
Amanda (as Rowan): My hero name is Gravitas, so, like, we're really similar.
Eric (as Liminality): Wow. Gravitas, so nice to meet you. Incredible. What's your thing? What do you do?
Amanda (as Rowan): Oh, just manipulating gravity. Does gravity work on ghosts?
Eric (as Liminality): It doesn't, but good— well, we could test it.
Amanda (as Rowan): Cool.
Eric (as Liminality): Interesting. Now, I have a important question. I wonder— now, don't be embarrassed. It happens to lots of kids and nobody's watching. It's just us and— it's just us and the green eye, but have any of you kids been swapping powers lately?
Julia (as Craft): I didn't even know that was a thing you could do besides having sex.
Eric (as Bryan): Yeah, yeah. Weird. I've definitely done that from all the sex I'm having.
Brandon (as Connor): Is this lady asking if we fucked?
Amanda (as Rowan): If you're trying to ask if I'm a virgin, that's not really appropriate.
Eric (as Liminality): No. I think it's the problem with only receiving important information from rumors, is that you don't get all the information. Your teachers, your parents, the school administration, the Jupiter government, they don't want you to know that someone is selling the ability to swap powers. And I think they're here right now. And I think the ghost is helping them. The ghost of the Funbratory.
Julia: I was gonna say, is this somehow related to the ghost?
Eric (as Liminality): When a gho— now, you kids don't know enough, but know a lot about ghosts, but a ghost needs a vessel. And that moment when your powers are swapped out for another, that is the moment of the ghost can enter you.
Amanda (as Rowan): Like the sex?
Eric (as Liminality): So it's a little like sex.
Julia (as Craft): I was gonna say, it sounds like sex.
Brandon (as Connor): Liminality, can I tell you something right now?
Eric (as Liminality): Yes. What's your name?
Brandon (as Connor): I am fucking, all in, let's go.
Eric (as Liminality): Incredible. What's your name?
Brandon (as Connor): Connor.
Eric (as Liminality): Connor. Connor—
Brandon (as Connor): Wait, wait, no, no. Let me think of something cool and ghost-y. Ley—
Eric (as Liminality): No, you don't have to fit my brand. We could just do it together.
Brandon (as Connor): My name is Ectoplasm.
Eric (as Liminality): All right, Connor.
Julia (as Craft): Actually, Connor, that's a cool as fuck name.
Amanda (as Rowan): Not bad. That's not bad, bud. That's not bad.
Eric (as Liminality): It's still Connor.
Julia (as Craft): That's cool.
Eric (as Liminality): We'll run it through— we'll do the test— I can do some testing with my audience.
Amanda (as Rowan): Connor Plasm.
Julia (as Craft): Connor Plasm.
Brandon (as Connor): Connor Plasm.
Amanda (as Rowan): Think about it.
Brandon (as Connor): I'm thinking about it.
Eric: She walks over to you and puts her arm around you, and the green eye kind of floats in front of you.
Julia: Is that her, like, camera?
Eric: Yes. Yes, it is.
Julia: Is she streaming this?
Brandon: Oh.
Eric: Yes, it is.
Brandon: That's cool.
Julia: Oh, I hate that.
Eric (as Liminality): Hey, ghosts and ghouls. This is my friend Connor here. What do you think about coming up with new— a new, weird name for Connor? I like Connor, but he's floating Ecto Connor and Connor Plasm. If you have a— any other ones, put your suggestions in the comments.
Brandon (as Connor): Hey, kids, don't do drugs.
Julia (as Craft): Unless you want to the team.
Amanda (as Rowan): Plug the team. Plug the team.
Brandon (as Connor): Oh, also— what— do we have a team name? Shit.
Amanda (as Rowan): No, the best team is us.
Brandon (as Connor): Oh.
Amanda (as Rowan): Come on, pick up your feet.
Brandon (as Connor): Also, the best team is the best team, which is me, Craft.
Julia (as Craft): What's up? Do drugs.
Brandon (as Connor): And Gravitas.
Amanda (as Rowan): Only if you want to.
Eric (as Liminality): So that incredible team's gonna help me fight this— is gonna help me find this ghost? I guess they're the only ones not— they're the only ones who's gonna do it, not like these other kids who are playing grab ass.
Julia (as Craft): What about Bryan? Bryan seemed really excited.
Amanda (as Rowan): You don't forget about Bryan.
Brandon: He's so excited that he's, like, puking on the side of the camera.
Julia: Oh, it's him from the cover.
Amanda: Oh, no. He got too excited. He up chucked.
Eric: Incredible. At that moment, while Bryan hurls, there is a crash behind you. Someone has pushed over a bunch of trash cans, and someone is running off into the Funbratory. What do you all do?
Julia: Who is it? Can I see?
Eric: There's panels of someone running off in the broken— with all the broken lights, so you see only every or 15 feet, just like little spotlights from the street lights on main— on the scientific method, main drag.
Julia: Oh. Okay.
Amanda: They really leaned into the theming on this.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. But you can see that their coat is billowing behind them as they run.
Julia: Is that a person with a big coat?
Eric: Maybe, I don't know. Whatever. Yeah, I don't know.
Brandon (as Connor): Liminality, Liminality, should we— is that a ghost? Should we follow?
Eric (as Liminality): What do you think we should do, Buster Cadet?
Brandon (as Connor): Buster Cadet?
Julia: Uh-oh.
Eric (as Liminality): Buster Cadet, Ecto Connor.
Julia: Hmm.
Brandon: Okay, okay.
Julia: Okay, okay, okay.
Brandon (as Connor): I think we should go ghost bust that motherfucker.
Eric (as Liminality): Then, go at it. Here, you might need these.
Eric: She reaches into a pouch that is on her bandolier, and she throws them down, and they just look like a bunch of marbles. But each the one of them has— you don't see the eyes, but it feels like they're looking at you. It's like—
Eric (as Liminality): Here you go, buddy. Step on them.
Brandon (as Connor): Step onto them?
Eric (as Liminality): Step onto them.
Brandon (as Connor): Okay.
Amanda: Rowan holds out an arm as if to, like, brace Connor if he falls.
Brandon: Yeah. Grabs Rowan's arm and sort of gingerly steps afoot onto the marble.
Eric: As you step, the marbles stick to your feet, and they expand, and they look like ghostly roller skates.
Amanda (as Rowan): Oh, my God, I want one.
Eric (as Liminality): Step on.
Amanda: Rowan steps on.
Eric: Congratulations. You also have ghostly roller skates.
Amanda: Hey.
Eric: Here's the thing, I have a move here, every time you want to use one of Liminality's magical tchotchkes, roll plus freak. On a 10 or over, turns out you have magical aptitude.
Julia: Whoa.
Eric: And it might be a little bit easier the next time you try to use it. On a seven to nine, you use it, but there is a cost or a consequence. Probably something that's gonna freak you out. But— and on a six or lower, oops.
Julia: Uh-oh.
Eric: Oh.
Brandon: Uh-oh.
Eric: On a six or lower, you become more wary of magic, and maybe you feel a type of way about people who use magic or not.
Brandon: Hmm.
Julia: Wow. All right. Let's do it.
Eric: Hell yeah, dog. So if you want to use the ghostly roller skates to catch up with the jacketed guy, feel free.
Brandon: I mean, yeah, let's do it.
Julia: [dice roll] I rolled a 10.
Eric: 10.
Julia: Six plus four.
Eric: Hell yeah.
Brandon: Nine.
Julia: Oh, pretty good.
Eric: Oh. Pretty good.
Brandon: Plus nine plus three for a 12.
Julia: Oh, sick, bro.
Eric: Jesus.
Amanda: And seven plus one for an eight.
Julia: All right, pretty good.
Eric: Wow. So all of you are doing the— are using the magical roller skates?
Julia: Hell yeah, dog.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Hell yeah. Craft, Connor, hey, you could be a Ghostbuster if you wanted to. I didn't even know that was a possibility when you got out of high school. Like, there's college, and there's trade school, and there's work for the government. And apparently, you could just be a ghost hunter.
Brandon: And there's Ghostbusters. Yeah.
Julia (as Craft): It's just like mad scientist, but instead of, you know, evil, it's ghosts.
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah.
Amanda (as Rowan): Now, if I said Buster makes you feel good, would that be like an innuendo that I need to know about? Just kidding, I know about all the innuendos. I'm from New York City.
Julia (as Craft): Oh, hey.
Brandon: "I'm bustin' here."
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah, in my neighborhood, if you hear that, you run the other direction.
Eric: Both of you get plus one to the next time you want to use something magical.
Julia: Sick, bruh.
Eric: Magical, spooky sorceress, any of that good stuff.
Julia: Cool.
Amanda: Sick.
Eric: For Rowan, I think you—
Amanda: I can be very powerful and hot?
Eric: Yeah, you— that's definitely what happens. For Rowan, so the three of you, I think, are all able to keep pace. You are— catch up quickly to the person in the jacket, running down scientific method corner. And Rowan, you feel this creeping freeze, coldness coming up from your feet.
Amanda (as Rowan): Oh.
Eric: And you look down and you see that, like, the ghostly marbles that turned into roller skates have kind of enveloped your whole foot now and are climbing up your ankles with—
Amanda (as Rowan): Uh-oh.
Eric: —terrible ghostly tendrils.
Julia: Oh, no.
Brandon (as Connor): Rowan, Rowan, look at your feet.
Amanda (as Rowan): How do I take these off?
Eric: You are now too far away— you're too far away from Liminality for her to give you any sort of advice.
Julia (as Craft): It's probably fine. It's just ghost fingers. That's fine.
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah, a ghost finger has never made anybody feel bad.
Julia (as Craft): No.
Amanda (as Rowan): Okay?
Brandon (as Connor): I think you'll have been reading too many romance novels. This seems bad.
Eric: As you're catching up the person running away in the jacket fluttering behind them, reaches into their jacket and then starts throwing lightning bolts over their shoulder.
Julia (as Craft): What the fuck?
Eric: Poof! Zap! Szz, szz.
Julia: I think Craft just, like, tries to skate in front and absorb them.
Eric: I mean, do you want to?
Julia: Yeah, why not?
Brandon: Ooh.
Eric: Hell yeah. Why don't you give me a roll for that? I think that's you unleashing your powers. Let's see what happens.
Julia: That sounds right.
Amanda: Sick.
Julia: [dice roll]
Eric: These are, like, such Zeus-esque, Hercules-esque thunderbolts.
Julia: Seven.
Eric: Seven?
Julia: Seven.
Eric: Oh, no.
Brandon: It still works, though.
Julia: Yeah, it still works, but it's temporary or unstable.
Amanda: I hate it when things are temporary and unstable.
Brandon: Yeah, same.
Eric: I'm always saying this.
Julia: Ain't that just life, baby?
Brandon: Uh-hmm.
Eric: On a seven to nine, mark a condition or the GM will tell you how the effect is unstable or temporary, up to you.
Julia: Hmm. What do I want? I think I want to mark angry for now.
Brandon: Ooh.
Eric: Oh, why are you angry?
Julia: I don't know. I— just, like, I'm annoyed at the situation. This was supposed to be a cool, fun night. This person's shooting lightning bolts at me, and I'm reminded of Coach Boneman also trying to make me do things with my powers that I didn't like. And now, I'm just so fucking annoyed.
Eric: I like that, because I think that you get— you take a thunderbolt right to the chest, so you're pissed off about it. So what do you do with all this extra lightning energy coursing through you?
Julia: I shoot it back at him.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Get him.
Eric: God, what does that look like?
Julia: I think it looks kind of like— I'm trying to think of what a good comparison point is. But, you know, you've seen a lot of superhero media where someone gets, like, shot full of energy, and then they start glowing, and then they shoot it back out.
Eric: Sure.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Just, like, whips around you, shooting it back out of your chest. Absolutely.
Julia: Yeah. 100%.
Eric: Well, you know, wonderful. This is a comic book in kind, so he just goes, "Zzt, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop." And, like, his limbs going everywhere, and then crumples to the ground in a smoking pile.
Julia (as Craft): All right, I got him, I guess.
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah, I'd say you did. Nice job.
Amanda: Rowan clomps over in her increasingly cold boots.
Julia (as Craft): You want me to take those off for you now?
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah, that would be really helpful. Thanks.
Julia: Craft just tries to rip them off Rowan's feet.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Hey, why are you guys following me? I was just— I'm trying to get some air and—
Eric: [buzzes] Just static electricity coursing through him. You turn him over— this guy's in his early 20s. Just the worst goatee you've ever seen in your entire life. His hair is greasy, too many eye bags for someone who is in their early 20s. Rumpled flannel shirt, ripped jeans, and he's now, like, has turned onto his back and is trying to crawl away from the three of you.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Hey, I don't— we don't have any trouble. There's no trouble. I just didn't want to be there with the lit— with— I didn't want to be here with a fucking narc.
Julia (as Craft): Hey, cool jacket.
Brandon (as Connor): No, no. There's no trouble. Yeah. No trouble here.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Thank you. Say— oh, are you guys narcs or you're just, like, deputy narcs? Like, why are you running after me?
Julia (as Craft): No.
Brandon (as Connor): Are you a ghost?
Julia (as Craft): Do you know a guy named Jamie?
Brandon (as Connor): Oh, do you know guy named Jamie? And also, are you a ghost?
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): I'm not a ghost. I— you know, Jamie— oh, I meet so many people. I have so many friends. You know, it's just— oh, hey, I'm Toddrick. So nice to meet all of you.
Eric: And he tries to, like— also, he's crawling away, shrugging backwards as he's trying to, like, shake each one of your hands.
Julia (as Craft): You can stop trying to crawl away, and also shake our hands. That's a weird combination of things to do.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Oh, no. I just— you know, I'm just trying to— you know, you got to protect yourself. You got to watch out for you. You got to have eyes in the back of your head, which I do have.
Eric: He has just, like, this shaggy haircut, and he turns around, and he pulls his hair up, and there's two eyes just in the back of his head.
Amanda (as Rowan): Ah!
Brandon (as Connor): Ah!
Julia (as Craft): Toddrick, you seem like an interesting person with a lot of weird, eclectic powers.
Brandon: Hmm.
Eric: He looks at you right in the eyes, and he says—
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Well, the soft serve machine at McDonald's is broken.
Julia: Was that a thing that Jamie gave me like a thing to say?
Eric: Jamie didn't tell you, but you might get that impression.
Julia: Oh, fuck. What do I say to that?
Amanda (as Rowan): I really love the McFlurry.
Amanda: Rowan's staring into his eyes, making intense eye contact.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): All right, you said, McFlurry, that's fine, Yeah. What do you want? What are you looking for?
Eric: He opens up his jacket, and there are 10 rows of five on each one of this jacket. It's like this just incredibly dusty, beaten up like long brown— dark brown leather jacket, and each one has this little strap because it holds in these vials. And inside is just like this swirling, crackling energy of different colors. And some of them are labeled. Some of them are not. Like, one of them says, "Cool wings" and another one of them says, "Badass wings." One just says, "Fire?"
Julia: Oh, shit.
Eric: And another one says, "Not love potion." And he's like—
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Yeah, I got lots of stuff, but can we— hey, can we do this somewhere else?
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah, yeah. Take us to where you usually go.
Julia (as Craft): What, you don't like the scientific method main drag?
Brandon (as Connor): Oh, we could go to the women of Science Museum, where it's just Maria Curie and no one else is in there.
Eric: The worst part about it is that there's only 75% of her in there, which is crazy. While you're saying that, the street lights start to pop on with this, like, ethereal blue light. As Liminality is, like, walking up, pointing at one, light comes down, pointing at another light, comes down. She's like—
Eric (as Liminality): So you guys— can't you guys catch the ghost? Who is that? What's going on? You gotta stay there, so that I can get it all on film, so we can cut it together.
Julia (as Craft): Oh yeah, hey, Toddrick, do you know anything about a ghost?
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Know a ghost? I don't with ghosts. I don't even watch horror movies. They give me the hebas jeebus. And I can't do hebus jeebus if I'm high.
Brandon (as Connor): What?
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): On weed.
Julia (as Craft): Oh.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): In my recreational time.
Julia (as Craft): Okay.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): That's what I do.
Julia (as Craft): Cool. Same.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Can we go? I gotta go.
Eric: He kind of scrambles up to his feet and is trying to get out of here before Liminality walks up.
Brandon (as Connor): Liminality, can you turn your camera off?
Eric (as Liminality): Never. Why?
Brandon (as Connor): Because—
Eric (as Liminality): That's not a personal choice of mine. That's just the curse I have of the green eye.
Brandon (as Connor): Oh, okay.
Julia (as Craft): Connor, why don't you go with Liminality? And then I'll go talk to Toddrick and his—
Brandon (as Connor): Okay.
Julia (as Craft): —stupid fucking name. And then Rowan, you can do whatever you want.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): You have a— hey, what's your— hey, I don't comment on your stupid fucking name. I bet it's like Miss Frankenstein or some shit.
Julia (as Craft): You can go fuck yourself. How about that, Toddrick?
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): You can go— it's— first of all, it's Toddrick Swapper. Fuck you.
Brandon (as Connor): So it's— it seems like you guys are getting along really well, so I'm gonna go with Liminality. Rowan, where do you want to go?
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Sorry, I don't want to go with Miss Frankenstein's monster. Sorry for misnaming you before. I didn't mean it.
Amanda (as Rowan): I'm gonna go with Toddrick. Craft, I think you should do some more reconnaissance here in the Funbritorium.
Julia (as Craft): Okay.
Amanda (as Rowan): Is that okay?
Eric: You hear, "Pyoo!" And then you see some fire lines behind. Toddrick is gone.
Brandon (as Connor): The fuck?
Julia (as Craft): Well, he said he was going into the Marie Curie thing, so you could just follow him there.
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah.
Eric (as Liminality): What, you let the ghost perp go?
Brandon (as Connor): No.
Eric (as Liminality): I guess, yeah, we gotta build suspense. We gotta see what happens next. You lose them—
Julia (as Craft): Yeah.
Eric (as Liminality): —and then you find it. It's smart. That's smart. I need more storytellers here there, because I don't know if you— ghost hunting is like movies. It's still stories. That's the human experience.
Brandon: Connor puts his arm around Liminality and says—
Brandon (as Connor): Keep telling me more about this as we walk away this way.
Julia (as Craft): Where— where's the ghost usually seen? Probably not the Marie Curie wing of the Women of Science Museum.
Eric (as Liminality): No. Ghosts never bother women.
Julia (as Craft): Ghosts hate women, yeah.
Eric (as Liminality): Ghosts hate women. It's something I've bumped up against my entire career. That's the real glass ceiling, is that you can't see ghosts through them.
Eric: Yeah. What do y'all do?
Brandon: I'm gonna take Liminality away from here.
Eric: Okay.
Brandon: Just keep ghost hunting.
Eric: Hey, Brandon, can you hop off the call really quickly?
Brandon: Yes.
Julia: Oh, I'm also probably gonna go with Liminality.
Amanda: Cool, yeah. Right after Rowan.
Eric: Okay.
Julia: All right, cool. So I'll also get off?
Eric: Sure.
Julia: Cool.
[theme]
Amanda: Hey, everybody, it's Amanda. And this midroll is brought to you by a cat purring on your lap so quietly and consistently that you can't hear it, but you can feel it. Thank you and welcome to all of the new folks who have joined us over on Patreon. Now, two ways that you can join us on Patreon. The first is you can follow us for free, which is a wonderful way to stay up-to-date with everything Join the Party is doing, new live shows, new merch. Anything we want to release, we will let Patreon know first. If like me or spending a little bit less time on social media these days, that is a really great thing to do to make sure you are up-to-date with everything. JTP. But if you are a paying member, if you pledge as little as five bucks a month to support Join the Party on Patreon, you get access to our patron-only Discord, which is incredible, and the biweekly Party Planning podcast. Now, at higher tiers, you can get things like ad-free episodes, early access to episodes, video versions of Party Planning, and more. So join us today, free or paid, at patreon.com/jointhepartypod. If you are enjoying Join the Party, you are going to love the other shows that are a part of the Multitude Podcast collective, especially Pale Blue Pod, an astronomy podcast for people who are overwhelmed by the universe but want to be its friend. If you are enjoying references here in Campaign Four to things like other timelines and other galaxies, you gotta know about astrophysicist Dr. Moiya McTier, where every single week, Dr McTier and a new guest demystify space on Pale Blue Pod. By the end of each episode, you will feel less overwhelmed by the universe, if you do, and more like, "Oh, my God, it is so cool. How amazing that I get to be a part of all of this?" Which, I don't know about you, but that's a feeling I need more and more of in my life. There are new episodes of Pale Blue Pod every single Monday, wherever you get your podcasts, so subscribe today to Pale Blue Pod. We are sponsored this week by Shaker & Spoon, which is a subscription cocktail service that helps you learn how to make handcrafted cocktails right at home. This is how it works. Every single box which you can get as a subscription or as a standalone box comes with enough ingredients to make three different cocktail recipes, which are developed by world-class mixologists. All you do is buy or maybe, like me, you have a bunch of random liquors that you don't necessarily drink often in the back of your liquor cabinet, and suddenly, you have all you need to make 12 drinks at home. That's right. Three different recipes, four drinks of each at just 40 to 50 bucks per month. I guarantee you, that is cheaper than any cocktail you are going to find out and about. With tip, I'm spending 40 to 50 bucks for two drinks out, and you can get 12 drinks at home with Shaker & spoon. It is so good, I promise. So invite some friends over and class up your night caps, or just be the best house guest of all-time and bring a shaker and spoon box to your next trip. Get $20 off your first box at shakerandspoon.com/jointheparty. That's shakerandspoon.com/jointheparty. Remember back in 2017 when I was a brand-new player coming to Join the Party, learning how to play a tabletop role-playing game for the very first time? I know that at the time, I was so excited to be a new player, because I got to show, hopefully, the other people listening who maybe had never played a TTRPG, or they're interested, or they're— they like DND in theory, but they're worried about, like, getting the rules wrong, that there is no getting the rules wrong in tabletop RPGs. It's here for fun. So I was so excited to learn about a podcast that I'm going to recommend to you today called Girls Who Don't DnD. None of the all-women team of players has ever joined a DnD game before, or any other role-playing game for that matter. They go from learning which dice is which to challenging the gods themselves. It is so much fun and it's so welcoming to people who don't necessarily know what to do when they sit down to join a campaign, because neither do they, but they quickly find out together. It's beautiful, chaotic, heartbreaking, so funny, and they're Australian. So for us Americans, the accent is top notch. So go on over to Girls Who Don't DnD in your podcast app. And I'm warning you, folks, it's pretty addictive, pretty heartwarming, pretty heartbreaking. You're gonna love it. That's Girls Who Don't DnD. And now, back to the show.
[theme]
Amanda: Rowan runs after Toddrick and kind of just, like, jogs to keep up with his lines of disappearing movement.
Eric: In the Hall of Women Scientists, it was definitely built out for more scientists, but they couldn't figure out that there were more women scientists other than Marie Curie, so it is hauntingly echoey in there. Rowan, as you step inside, your boots on the concrete floor, they didn't even put carpet in.
Brandon: Damn.
Eric: They couldn't afford it. Their women scientists grant ran out. It was Newt Gingrich. Why would he do that?
Amanda (as Rowan): Talk about 60 cents on the dollar. Damn.
Eric: It echoes through the Hall of Women Scientists, and it's just one wax figure of Marie Curie in there, and she's glowing, too. And the only light is just the radioactive light of Marie Curie cascading over Toddrick.
Amanda: As she's jogging, you hear just like with each step, Rowan goes like—
Amanda (as Rowan): Dorothy Hodgkin, Katherine Johnson, Cecilia, Payne, Grace Hopper.
Amanda: Just as she's keeping up.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Feels like an under use of space. They couldn't— they could have put some other stuff in here. Like they could have— I don't know. They could have missed Pac Man did, I guess, and just put some bows on some atoms.
Amanda (as Rowan): I mean, you don't got to do that when there's, like— I don't know. Jane Goodall is, like, alive right now.
Amanda: Checks watch in the 2030s, hopefully.
Eric: Yeah, in 2020. And Jane Goodall still alive in this universe. That's fine.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): So you looking for something? What do you want?
Amanda (as Rowan): Yes. So my powers are pretty powerful, and I was wondering how you acquire the ones that you give to others, because, honestly, being the only one who's got this is kind of old.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Oh, I mean, oh, you're one of those kids with awesome powers?
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Oh, okay.
Amanda (as Rowan):It's, like, so terrifying that I can't leave campus very much.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): I mean, it's a nice— that's a nice problem to have, isn't it?
Amanda (as Rowan): And I'm wondering if it's worth my while.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Listen, if you're here for a friend, it's easy. You got to tell me you're here for a friend. I can't help you if you're— it's not actually for you. I got to know their profile and what they're looking for. It's like— I'm like a matchmaker. It's, like, kind of like that. It's like Tinder, but imagine there's a woman in a village's Tinder. Like it's that, but for powers.
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah, but it's not like a mediocre dude. I'm like a really hot lady, so to speak, when it comes to powers. So I want to know—
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Right. And hot ladies don't go into the matchmaker. They're fine. So, like, if it's gonna be for a friend—
Amanda (as Rowan): Right.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): —just tell me it's for a friend.
Amanda (as Rowan): No, it's not for a friend. It's for me.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Listen, people— you might not understand this, because your powers are sick and really good and everything. But, like, people get stuck with stuff that they can't— that they don't know what to do with, so they give them up. Some people give them up. Some people swap for other stuff. I started with a few, and then it just went from there. You know, this isn't a job interview. I am not going to tell you everything, but you know, like, you got to imagine that there are lots of reasons why someone wouldn't want their powers anymore, and it's not just to, what— it's like middle of October, oh, you got midterms coming up with Boneman? Yeah, I'm sure. That's— I get a lot of business around this time.
Amanda (as Rowan): I want to know if you want to take some of my powers to sell to somebody else, and you don't got to give me a list rate, but I am curious what that tends to earn somebody, if that's even possible.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): Ooh, you're gonna give— you want to give it all up? Hot lady like you is gonna— the hottest girl the bar is gonna give up her hotness?
Amanda (as Rowan): I want to think about if it's worth my while. There's a lot of responsibility.
Eric: I need a roll from you. I think Toddrick is a little— has been doing this too long to just tell you.
Amanda: Sure.
Eric: Can you give me a provoke someone to get him to do what you want? Which I assume is tell you how is— how his shit works?
Amanda: I sure can.
Eric: Okay. What do you want to get them to do? What do you want to get Toddrick to do? Oh, you can— you know, you guys are friends now. You can just call him Todd Swapper.
Amanda: Todd is great, much easier. No. I want to get him to tell me where he gets the powers from and what he charges.
Eric: Okay.
Amanda: Fair?
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Okay. So to provoke somebody, I am going to add superior, which, right now, I have a plus one to.
Eric: Hmm.
Amanda: So I rolled a five plus one for a six.
Eric: Ooh, that's a failure, my friend.
Amanda: Can I do something selfish, though?
Eric: I'll give you this. I don't know if we've refreshed the team pool in a little bit, but let's say that you're going from one to zero now, and now there's zero in the team pool.
Amanda: Okay. So in order to do something selfish, I'm gonna say—
Amanda (as Rowan): You know, my teammates really don't get it, and I have a feeling that you do. It's perfectly fine to have powers about seeing through stuff, listening to heartbeats, you know, making some, like, nice sparks with lightning, but I'm the one with the big powers here, and I want to know. That's why I came after you, and not them.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): So what do you want it for? You want the money?
Amanda (as Rowan): I want to know my options. I'm a scholarship kid, kid. I don't got a lot.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): You got to do it for money, that I understand. Listen, I'll make a deal with you. I want to get out of town. I do. Don't tell anybody. But, you know, we're in this together. It seems like you don't want me to tell them what your thing is. I just need— you got to push some kids towards me. I'm just— I'm close for me to get— I'm close— I got my budgets together, and if I had, like 500 more dollars, I could just get out of here and stop doing this. And, frankly, stop being a 23-year-old hanging out with a bunch of high schoolers at an abandoned theme park. So you give me something to sell or kick some kids my way, I think would be— I'd be able to kick you— I'd be able to, you know, give you a finder's fee, or, you know, take a piece from what you got, and give you a good rate for it. I can do parts. I can do parts. You just got to tell me what parts you got.
Amanda (as Rowan): And is there any risks to me? Like, how does that work physically?
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): I'm pulling out one of your parts. Of course, there's risk. I'm good, but this is functionally brain damage.
Amanda (as Rowan): Honestly, that makes me a little wary, but can I sleep on it? Can I get back to you tomorrow? Same time, same place?
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): I really wouldn't flip on the guy holding 50 powers.
Amanda (as Rowan): Noted.
Eric (as Toddrick Swapper): If you're gonna go sleep on it, you better sleep and come back.
Eric: He says this with, like, the glow— with, like, Marie Curie's glowing visage behind him.
Amanda: And— yeah. And Rowan's thinking to herself like—
Amanda (as Rowan): Vera Rubin just died. Why isn't she in this, too? Oh, my God.
Amanda: Bring them back?
Eric: Okay.
Julia: Hello.
Brandon: Hello.
Eric: Hi. Amanda, get out of here.
Julia: Did everything go okay? No, wait, come back.
Brandon: Amanda, don't— no.
Eric: Bye, Amanda. Bye.
Julia: So we're gonna go hang out with an old lady.
Eric: She's, like, 32. That's so rude.
Julia: You said white hair, I assumed.
Eric: I— she does have— I mean—
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: She has like— got, like, ghost hunter, white hair. That's true.
Julia: Ah, okay.
Eric: Sure, sure, sure.
Brandon: As someone who is older than 32, let me tell you, that's old.
Eric: I know. It's the thing where, like, 17-year-olds are like, "Are you 45?" And I'm like, "No. I'm also not 23."
Eric (as Liminality): So who was that guy? Tell me about him.
Julia (as Craft): He was just some guy who looked suspicious, and then I electrocuted him, and it turned out he was just a bystander. So—
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah, he's just a guy from the—
Julia (as Craft): —it happens.
Brandon (as Connor): —the ass grabbing, grab ass thing that you were talking about.
Eric (as Liminality): Hmm.
Julia (as Craft): He wanted to grab a lot of asses.
Brandon (as Connor): Teens, am I right?
Eric (as Liminality): Hmm, it happens.
Julia (as Craft): So, like, Liminality, where do people usually see this ghost that we're trying to be hunting?
Eric (as Liminality): Still gotta do more research. I gotta talk to more kids. I gotta look around, but—
Julia (as Craft): So you, like, don't have a pre-production team or anything like that? Like, no location scouts or—
Eric (as Liminality): You got to keep costs down. I spent all of my money looking for new magical tchotchkes.
Julia (as Craft): Cool.
Eric (as Liminality): It's a source of my power. My— I have the ability to hold on to so many magical energies at the same time and commune with them. So the only way that I can do better is by getting more artifacts. It's something you're going to know if you're going to go into the ghost busting business or even running your own LLC.
Brandon (as Connor): Probably not. I would love to just look at this ghost and say hello to them.
Eric (as Liminality): Oh, you're gonna go to college after this? I went to college. Musical theater wasn't worth it.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Brandon (as Connor): Ah, this makes sense. Yeah.
Eric (as Liminality): You're in town, more like town of ghosts that make you put urine in your pants.
Julia (as Craft): Piss yourself, yeah.
Eric (as Liminality): Piss yourself, yeah.
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah. So what kind of rumors have you heard about this ghost?
Eric (as Liminality): I'm one singular sensation.
Brandon (as Connor): Okay.
Eric (as Liminality): No, go on.
Brandon (as Connor): Still going. What kind of rumors have you heard about this ghost? Where should we— what are we looking for? What's the, like, lore, you know?
Eric (as Liminality): The ghost usually hangs out in the Hall of Prisms.
Brandon (as Connor): Oh.
Julia (as Craft): The Prisms?
Brandon (as Connor): The Prisms-dants.
Eric (as Liminality): Yeah.
Brandon (as Connor): The Hall of Prisms-dants.
Julia (as Craft): The prisons of Prisms?
Eric (as Liminality):The— I mean, that's what I call it, but it's more— it used to be education on lights and how it's neither a wave nor a particle, or both.
Julia (as Craft): Okay.
Eric (as Liminality): Now, I have to warn you, I was hoping to encounter it outside. Its domain is the Hall of Prism. So when you walk in, so many children haven't walked out. Haven't you seen the reports?
Julia (as Craft): Okay. Well, we're full-ass adults, so we can't get taken.
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah.
Eric (as Liminality): What? Oh, being— sorry, being 17 means you don't get taken by monsters? Yeah, that's true in every single horror movie ever. Oh, it's the—
Julia (as Craft): I mean—
Eric (as Liminality): It's the teens who are now an adult, who are now excited to have sex and drink warm beer. They're the ones who are safe from the monster.
Julia (as Craft): You said a bunch of children got taken, so that's different.
Brandon (as Connor): And we're walking, and we're walking, we're walking this way, we're walking this way.
Julia: Toward the prison of prisms, or vice versa.
Eric: Yeah, you walk over to the Hall of Prisms. Yeah, the Hall of Prism— I mean, it's— gonna be honest with you, it's spooky as hell in there. Have you ever been into a hall of mirrors that didn't have any of the lights on?
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: Like, it's abandoned. It is— just looks like in the way that when you look into a crawl space or a basement where there's no light, because, of course, it's like a— it has to be sealed so that the light inside of the prisms can teach you how ROYGBIV works, the electromagnetic spectrum, all that good stuff. But— so it's totally sealed in there. It is dark. And you only catch, like a glimpse of yourself— even into the front, you catch a glimpse of yourself like mirrored towards you from, like, a cracked entryway. There's a big arrow that says, "This way towards red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, indigo." Indigo is after violet.
Julia: Ah, that makes sense.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon (as Connor): So Liminality, is that, like— do we do, like, EVPs or do we do, like, the temperature thing with, like, a temperature gun, or, like, what are we looking for? What do we do?
Julia (as Craft): Or like a seance? Do we do a seance?
Brandon (as Connor): A séance?
Eric (as Liminality): What do you busters in training think we should do?
Julia (as Craft): You're the expert. We're just kind of here to chill out with you.
Eric (as Liminality): Well, I think the first thing we have to do is open up our minds to the ghosts that could be here. We sit, and we listen, and we keep ourselves open. And when we know it's in there, then we strike.
Julia: It sounds like advice from like a kindergarten teacher. Like, we sit down crisscross applesauce and put on our listening ears.
Eric (as Liminality): Here, you'll be able to hear better with these.
Eric: And she cracks three of the fingers off of the seven-finger monkey paw.
Brandon (as Connor): Oh!
Julia: Jesus.
Eric: And she gives one to each of you, just stick it in your ear.
Brandon (as Connor): Which way, the severed part or the nail part?
Julia (as Craft): The finger part.
Eric (as Liminality): Either way works.
Brandon (as Connor): Okay.
Julia (as Craft): Gross.
Brandon: Connor does it.
Julia: Craft watches Connor do it. Craft goes—
Julia (as Craft): Hmm.
Eric: Incredible. Brandon, you can make another roll using a magical item plus freak, and I'll give you plus one because you rolled so well last time.
Brandon: Okay, great.
Julia: Damn. You're adding plus four to the roll.
Brandon: Eric, well, how's an 11 plus three plus one? How's a 15 taste?
Eric: Hot damn. Hey, Julia, can you take off your headphones for a second? Hey, man, you put a magical item in your ear, and your power is already incredible extra sensory, thinking and feeling. You can hear everyone's thoughts in a 100-foot radius.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Inside there— and you can ask me one more if there's someone who I'm not including, but I'll tell you two things. Inside, you hear this kind of— the voice of another teen, of a teen boy, and he's just like—
Eric (as Teen Boy): Please don't come in here. Please don't come in here. I need this lady to go away. Please don't come in here. Please don't come in here. It's fine. Todd's gonna come back. It's fine. It's fine. Please don't come in here.
Brandon (as Connor): Ah, shit.
Eric: And you also hear the thoughts of two people who are crouched somewhere else inside of the prison of prisms. There are two people in there as well who are thinking about you.
Eric (as Snapdragon): So what we're gonna do is when Connor walks in here, we're— I'm gonna— when that kid— when that translucent kid comes in here, I'm gonna jump him, and we're gonna figure out what he did to his aunt.
Eric (as Honeycrisp): What is his connection to the ooze, and how did he hack into Anita's computer? There has to be some sort of connection there.
Brandon (as Connor): What the fuck?
Eric: And then you hear the two of them talk to each other.
Eric (as Honeycrisp): So how much waterboarding are we allowed to do on this one?
Eric (as Snapdragon): Well, I guess it depends if we match it with electro shock as well. You can't do it the same at the same time. It doesn't really do— it doesn't really give what you're looking to give.
Eric (as Honeycrisp): Sure, sure, sure. Okay, okay.
Brandon: Ah, pieces of shit.
Eric: And you could hear the thoughts of one more person who's nearby, if you have a thought.
Brandon: Okay, okay.
Eric: You're good?
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Okay.
Julia: Can I—
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Was that a put them back on? Okay, thanks.
Brandon: Connor quickly turns his head to Craft in sort of, like, shock, and it's like—
Brandon (as Connor): Craft.
Julia (as Craft): What?
Brandon (as Connor): Why are you thinking about that in this said moment?
Julia (as Craft): Why am I thinking about how this would be a terrible place to do mushrooms?
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah.
Julia (as Craft): Uh, wait what? Because it would be, but what the fuck, man?
Brandon (as Connor): Well, I was more thinking about, like, the other thing that was in the back of your mind that you were thinking about, but—
Julia (as Craft): That I hope Rowan's okay, because that guy's a creep.
Brandon (as Connor): Well, more like— you said you wanted to, like, "Well, I don't even liked them."
Eric (as Liminality): Wait, why is—
Julia (as Craft): Wait, what?
Eric (as Liminality): Wait, wait, wait, why is Row—
Julia (as Craft): No, hold on?
Eric (as Liminality): Who is Rowan with right now? What creep?
Julia (as Craft): Rowan has a crush on this guy, and she went to go meet up with him so that they could play grab ass.
Eric (as Liminality): You guys are more— I don't know if I can bring you on as busters in training anymore. It seems like all you're focused on is drugs and grab ass.
Julia (as Craft): Hey, Connor, what were you gonna say?
Brandon (as Connor): Well, I hate to tell you this, unfortunately, Liminality, but it's clear that you think that we're actually super useful and cool, and you want us to stick around despite what you're saying out loud. So, like, I think maybe let's cut the bullshit down a little bit.
Julia (as Craft): Hey, Connor, what was I thinking in the back of my mind?
Eric (as Liminality): Yeah, how do you— how did you know I was thinking that? I was— you're right. This was a bluffing tactic. I read it in a manager book. How did you know that? Do you— the monkey fingers aren't supposed to let you read minds. How are you able to do that?
Brandon (as Connor): I don't know.
Julia (as Craft): Hey, Connor, what the fuck?
Eric (as Liminality): Hmm. I think I got more mysteries than I— more mysteries than answers.
Julia (as Craft): Now, I want to know what Connor thought I was thinking of.
Brandon (as Connor): Well, so, here's the next thing that I think is a worrying for us moving along swiftly. There are—
Julia (as Craft): What the fuck, man? We're not gonna move on swiftly. I want to know what's going on.
Eric (as Liminality): No, we're moving on— what— what's— did you hear a ghost? Did you hear a ghost in there?
Brandon (as Connor): I'm not 100% sure. I did hear two people that I know that I am going to have to take care of real quick. There is also—
Eric (as Liminality): There are two— hold on, there are two people in there?
Brandon (as Connor): Well, there's—
Julia (as Craft): Are they kissing?
Eric (as Liminality): Why do you have to take care of them?
Brandon (as Connor): Well, there were three voices that I heard. Can't tell exactly, which ones are ghosts. I recognized two of them, don't think they're ghosts. Gonna go quickly talk to them real quick while you guys maybe look for the ghost. I think the other voice, probably not a ghost, probably just a sweet little boy who is looking for something, maybe. I don't know.
Julia (as Craft): I would assume a sweet little boy at an abandoned theme park might be a ghost.
Eric (as Liminality): Yeah. I mean, that's kind of textbook 101. Hey—
Julia (as Craft): It's like textbook ghost shit.
Eric (as Liminality): Hey, thanks, kid. I appreciate it. You're really doing— if this whole education thing doesn't work out, you could always work for me.
Eric: And Liminality is trying to shift your labels. She's trying to shift your mundane up and your superior down so that you just go work for her after school.
Brandon: You know, that's fine. I'll accept that.
Eric: Okay, cool. Incredible. And she pushes past you two and goes into the prison— into the prism. I— I've been saying prison of prism so much. I'm like, "What was it originally?" The Hall of Prisms.
Julia: Hall of Prisms.
Brandon (as Connor): Craft, can you follow— look, I saw it in Liminality's head and, like, she's not that competent, you know?
Julia (as Craft): Okay.
Brandon (as Connor): I don't let her hurt someone or, like, unnecessarily put someone on TikTok, you know?
Julia (as Craft): Where are you going?
Brandon (as Connor): I gotta go talk to a man about a thing. That's not— that doesn't mean that I have to pee, even though that says what that normally means.
Julia (as Craft): Can you be a little bit more specific with me?
Brandon (as Connor): I will talk about it afterwards.
Julia (as Craft): Fine, whatever.
Brandon (as Connor): Yeah. It's fine.
Julia (as Craft): I will hang out with the old lady.
Brandon (as Connor): I'll meet you up there in, like, I don't know, probably three minutes. This isn't gonna take long.
Julia (as Craft): All right.
Julia: Craft's gonna follow Liminality.
Eric: Sure. All right, let's follow Craft.
Brandon: Should I take mine off, then?
Eric: Yeah, for sure.
Julia: Yeah, get out of here, Brandon.
Eric: Yeah, get out of here.
Brandon: Rude.
Julia: Hearing all my thoughts and shit.
Eric: That’s what you get for splitting the party. That's what happens.
Brandon: Julia, I can hear your thoughts as Brandon, and I know you don't want me to leave so, like, don't forget about me.
Eric: Brandon, get the fuck out of here. Craft, you push into the Hall of Prisms behind Liminality. Liminality is, like, darting from corner to corner. That's the thing about this. Instead of a hall of mirrors, there are so many corners everywhere, because the light has to bounce off of everything to go through the Hall of Prisms.
Julia: Craft just has, like, hands in her front pocket, just kind of stomping along in her big boots, being like—
Julia (as Craft): This is dumb. This is bad.
Julia: Not saying that out loud, but that's the energy she's exerting right now.
Eric: Oh, for sure. Are you just, like, following behind her? What are you doing?
Julia: Yeah. I'm, like, two steps behind her.
Eric (as Liminality): What are you do— this is a ghost hunt. You're not ready yet.
Julia (as Craft): I'm not ready to hunt ghosts? I thought you were just doing like, preliminary investigation.
Eric (as Liminality): No, you're not ready to hunt ghosts. What if it tail— what if it uses you as a vessel?
Julia (as Craft): Then I'll just take my head off, and then it can't do that anymore.
Eric (as Liminality): You've done that before?
Julia (as Craft): Yeah.
Eric (as Liminality): For ghosts?
Julia (as Craft): Not for ghosts, specifically, but I can do that.
Eric (as Liminality): All right, if I need to, I'm putting your— I'm putting— I'm tying your head to my waistband.
Julia (as Craft): You can certainly try.
Eric (as Liminality): Okay. Fine.
Eric: She, like, hops from one mirror to another. Then there's a fork in the hallway, one going left, one going right, it'd be like—
Eric (as Liminality): Let's split up. I'm gonna go to the left. You're gonna go to the right. If you have a problem, just speak into the monkey finger.
Julia (as Craft): Okay.
Eric (as Liminality): What are you gonna say if you have a problem?
Julia (as Craft): Oh, shit. Ghosts.
Eric (as Liminality): All right. Good enough.
Julia: Hey, hey, Eric?
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Craft's gonna stick it in her ear.
Eric: Great, wonderful. Give me a magic roll. And remember, I'm giving you a plus one to it.
Julia: [dice roll] That is a six plus five plus one for a 12.
Eric: Six plus five?
Julia: Six plus five.
Eric: Oh, you had six and five on the dice?
Julia: Six and five on the dice, plus one—
Eric: Jesus Christ.
Julia: —to make it 12.
Eric: You're doing a good—
Julia: Craft is like—
Julia (as Craft): Did I learn something in that wizard tower? What the fuck is going on?
Eric: Should I be a magician? Should I do the magic track?
Julia (as Craft): Should I stop caring about science?
Eric: Yeah, I guess— magic and science are the same, I guess, when you think about it.
Julia (as Craft): When you think about it, though it really is.
Eric: In your ear, you are able to hear everything. Like, someone has turned up the sounds of the world to 11. And you hear the jingling of every single one of these— of the tchotchkes on Liminality's— the tchotchkes jangling off of Liminality's body, and you hear two things you didn't hear before. You hear shallow, controlled breathing going around the corner to the right.
Julia: I hate that.
Eric: You hear two people with shallow, controlled breathing, like rhythmic. And on the left, you could just kind of— you get, like, the ectoplasmic crackle, you know, associated with trying to use, like, those radio things to hear ghosts.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: To the left, which is the— where Liminality's going.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: What do you do?
Julia: I guess I'm gonna go towards the controlled voices that are rhythmic. Oh, that sounds so gross saying it out loud.
Eric: Okay, you keep walking. So as you get closer, you hear with every step of your big combat boots, it's getting a little bit faster.
Julia: Okay. Yeah, I'm just gonna keep going, I guess.
Eric: You just keep going. Oh, boy. Okay. I'm gonna need you to roll plus danger right now.
Julia: [dice roll] Dude, I rolled a 13.
Eric: Jesus Christ. Okay. So you step on a piece of broken glass, which kind of breaks the tension, and that is when two dark suited figures, each of them execute a, like, military barrel roll right in front of you. And each of them pulls out this, like, newfangled, very like 1970s, 1980s kind of ray gun, and they shoot to fire you. And tell me how you repel the shots.
Julia: I really like the idea that Craft has just, like, heard them hold their breath right before they rolled out and just steps to the side, and it like pings off a bunch of prisms.
Eric: Hmm. Ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. Yeah, I think it, like, lights up the entire prism hallway, and you get— seeing their faces. They're wearing these masks, but it's all computerized. It's almost, like, something like Daft Punk has that, like, robot masks, but, like, the whole thing is light bright. And you see one has a red smiley and the other has a green smiley. The one with the red smiley says—
Eric (as Honeycrisp): Don't move. We'll do it again. You are interfering with a covert operation.
Julia (as Craft): What the fuck?
Eric (as Snapdragon): Hey, that girl's a friend of Connor's. Let's get her!
Julia (as Craft): What?
Eric: And they both run at you. What do you do?
Julia: Oh, shit. I think Craft is gonna run towards them as well. Maybe with the— I don't know if the marble roller skates are still activated.
Eric: Yeah, you can still have them. Yeah, sure.
Julia: I'd like to activate them and, like, skate towards them. And just as I can see the kind of— because I'm very familiar with technology.
Eric: Yes, you are.
Julia: I think just as I can see them peak at, like, fully charged and, like, about to fire again—
Eric: Uh-hmm.
Julia: —Craft, like, baseball slides in between these guys and tries to, like, knock them over by hitting their legs.
Eric: Oh, you're directly engaging a threat, my friend. I love this.
Julia: I am. I am, indeed.
Eric: Roll plus danger, please.
Julia: Roll plus danger. Okay, here we go. Huh! [dice roll] That is a six plus five plus one for another 12.
Eric: Jesus Christ, Julia.
Julia: I want to fail. I'm one away from fucking leveling up. I would like to fail.
Eric: Okay. On a 10 plus, you pick two, resist or avoid their blows, take something from them, create an opportunity for allies who are not around.
Julia: Uh-hmm.
Eric: Impress, surprise, or frighten the opposition.
Julia: Okay. I would like to resist or avoid their blows.
Eric: Yeah, there you go.
Julia: And then I would like to take something from them.
Eric: Okay.
Julia: I want to take one of their masks.
Eric: God. Okay, which one do you want to take? The green one, the red one?
Julia: Who's the one that said, "That's a friend of Connor's."?
Eric: The one with the green.
Julia: I'll take the green, then.
Eric: Okay. Tell me how you do that.
Julia: I think they fall.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: And I— as I see them kind of falling, I, like, put a hand out, and I just kind of from underneath their chin, rip it off.
Eric: God, that's so haunting, because— it's so scary in the— it's so scary in there. I think just illuminated by the light of the other mask, you see that the face— there is no face underneath.
Julia: Oh.
Eric: It's just smooth skin, nothing.
Julia: Craft goes—
Julia (as Craft): What the fuck?
Eric (as Honeycrisp): What the fuck? Give it back to me.
Julia (as Craft): Why do you look like that?
Eric (as Honeycrisp): I— if you're one of those super power kids, you gotta tell us what's going on with Connor.
Julia (as Craft): What do you mean?
Eric (as Honeycrisp): What do you mean? You know what I'm talking about.
Julia (as Craft): No, I don't. Connor's my friend. He's got clear skin sometimes. What do you want to know about Connor?
Eric (as Honeycrisp): What do you know about the disappearance of his Aunt Anita? I know you know something. This is your chance to do something what's right.
Julia (as Craft): He would have told me if his Aunt Anita was suddenly fucking missing.
Eric (as Honeycrisp): Or maybe he wouldn't have told you because he was involved, so tell us everything you know.
Julia (as Craft): I— this is literally my first time hearing about. God's honest truth.
Eric (as Honeycrisp): All right, he's hiding it. Let's get out of here.
Julia (as Craft): All right, I'm keeping the mask, but see you later.
Eric: They both— one with— the one still wearing the mask and the one not wearing the mask now, fire the ray gun at the mirrors just so then it goes ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, just flying, just bouncing all over the place.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah, good distraction. Good call, good call.
Eric: Craft, you get down, and then they— you hear pat, pat, pat, pat, pat, pat, as they run out the front of the Hall of Prisms.
Julia: Gotcha.
Julia (as Craft): Well, not ghosts.
Eric: Yeah, I'm gonna tell— yeah, it wasn't ghosts. I'm gonna tell everyone to put their things on.
Brandon: Hello.
Julia: Hello.
Eric: Hello.
Amanda: Hello.
Julia: I'm stressed.
Brandon: Oh, no.
Eric: Connor, where you going, buddy?
Brandon: I'm going over to the— I'm gonna follow the voices I heard.
Eric: Yeah, here's— okay. Here's what happened. So you wait, Liminality goes in, Craft goes in behind her, and you wait a second, and you go to the voices?
Brandon: Sure.
Eric: Okay. Here's what you hear.
Julia: I'm stressed.
Eric (as Honeycrisp): Get out of the way. This is a covert evaluation. Wait, that's one of Connor's friends. [explosions]
Brandon (as Connor): Oh, fuck.
Eric (as Honeycrisp): What? Oh, what the fuck? Give me back my mask. If you know something, you have to tell us.
Eric: [explosions] Pat, pat, pat, pat. As the two bested agents, one with a mask with red light bright smiley face, and the other holding their face in their hands without a mask, comes running out towards you.
Brandon: I'm gonna tackle their asses.
Eric: Great. Let's directly engage the threat.
Brandon: Okay, so I roll plus danger.
Eric: Roll plus danger.
Julia: Oh, is Amanda supposed to be here or—
Eric: Oh, yeah, Amanda can be here.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: That's fine.
Amanda: Love to be on the podcast.
Julia: Same. Big same. Time to shine.
Brandon: So I got a six on the dice, plus three for danger, minus two because I am afraid, so seven.
Eric: All right, that's a hit. On a seven to nine, you can pick one. You either resist or avoid their blows, taking something from them, create an opportunity for your allies, or impress, surprise or frighten the opposition.
Brandon: I'm gonna take their ability to run away from them. I'm gonna take their ability to run away from them.
Eric: Got it. I love that.
Brandon: To escape it, you know?
Eric: I like that. I think that you can get them in the tackle as they try to shoot you, and they shoot you close range with these, like, 1970s, 1980s ray guns that they have. You are taking it so close and it just burns the front of you.
Brandon (as Connor): Aahh!
Eric: Hey, I need you to take in condition, my man.
Brandon: Okay. So the only two I have left are hopeless and angry, so I'm gonna take angry.
Julia: It can't be hopeless.
Eric: Hmm.
Julia: We're saving that for prom.
Amanda: Brandon, how'd you get three conditions?
Brandon: Oh, you know, sometimes things happen in life.
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: And I could not tell you.
Julia: Oh, word?
Amanda: Uh-hmm.
Brandon: Connor's going to calmly and firmly say—
Brandon (as Connor): Hey, ever— hey, guys, stop, stop, please, calm down. What's happening? Why are you shooting everyone? Who's shooting? What happened? Calm down. I'm Connor. Nice to meet you.
Eric (as Snapdragon): We know— I know— I— we know you're Connor. Let us go and come with us. We need to know what you did to your Aunt Anita.
Brandon (as Connor): Well, it see— what did I do to my Aunt Anita? Well, it seems like you are not in a position to ask for me to come with you right now. So I'm going to hold you down and you're going to explain what you mean by what I did to my Aunt Anita. What do you mean?
Eric (as Snapdragon): I don't think you're in this position at all.
Brandon: While I'm sitting on top of them, I'm gonna sort of transmute my flesh and just become more of a blanket to just cover--
Julia: Oh!
Brandon: —like all of my weight on top of them. And that's a lot of weight. It's a lot of weight, Eric.
Eric (as Snapdragon): We have to activate protocol Omega.
Brandon (as Connor): Don't activate any protocols. What are you talking about?
Eric: And the other one with their head still trying to cover their not masked faces—
Eric (as Honeycrisp): If that's what we have to do, we have to do it.
Brandon (as Connor): You don't. You don't have to do that.
Eric: And Connor something is feeling— is getting hotter and hotter and hotter underneath you. You can stay and take a powerful blow, and hold, and I'll let you hold one of them, or you can jump off and release them.
Brandon: Can— I don't know if this will work, because this might not be powers, but will my power negation here help at all?
Eric: No, this is a contraption.
Brandon: What if I make a hole where I feel the— I transmute my flesh and make a hole where the heat is feeling.
Eric: If you wanna unleash your powers, you definitely can. I would totally let you do it. I'd say on a middling success, on a seven to nine, the way that it's unstable or temporary is that you hold one of them. If you fully succeed, you can hold both of them. And if you fail, they both escape.
Brandon: Okay, let's try that.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Roll freak, plus freak.
Eric: Plus freak. I love it.
Julia: He's a freak. He's a freak. He's super freaky.
Amanda: If you don't love me at my plus freak, you don't deserve me at my plus mundane, and I'm always saying this.
Julia: Wow.
Brandon: Now, at the merch store. Well, unfortunately, Eric, that's an 11 plus three for a 14.
Julia: Pretty good.
Amanda: Hey.
Eric: How the fuck are you guys rolling so good?
Brandon: So, yeah, Connor is gonna widen the area where he feels the heat, so it's just an empty space right there now, make a hole in himself.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: And say—
Brandon (as Connor): Can you please stop? I don't know what you're trying to do, but I'm just trying to talk to you, and it seems like you're trying to omega your way out of the situation when you don't need to. I'm not gonna hurt you.
Eric: That's so funny. I think, like, one of them— the one with the red mask is trying to wriggle away, and the other one is just like— they have activated this, like, plasma pulse that is just burning them. It's just burning them through. And there's— you will, like, open up your body to, like, kind of let the burn happens as this, like, kind of chemical burn just, like, envelops their torso.
Brandon (as Connor): Now, you're doing this to yourselves, so you can stop it.
Eric: I think at that point, Craft and Rowan, and Rowan, you two can definitely run up here.
Julia (as Craft): Oh, Connor, you found them.
Amanda (as Rowan): What is happening?
Brandon (as Connor): I didn't want you guys to see me this way. I'm sort of a blob right now.
Julia (as Craft): Yeah, that's the weird part about you that's going on right now, for sure.
Brandon (as Connor): I don't think I told you about that, did I? That I'm a— I can be a blob now?
Julia (as Craft): No, I don't think I've seen that, but it doesn't surprise me.
Amanda (as Rowan): Yeah, Connor, we see you in basically blob form, but, like on a on a stretcher at all times.
Eric: The one with the— in the red light, bright mask, kind of looks up at Rowan and Craft, pleadingly as much as you can with just a red kind of light, bright face—
Eric (as Honeycrisp): Please, Connor did something to his Aunt Anita. We need to find out what it is. Help us.
Amanda (as Rowan): Okay. There's no way that's true.
Brandon (as Connor): I didn't do anything to my Aunt Anita. Can y'all maybe take their masks off?
Julia (as Craft): Oh, no, you don't want to see them without the masks.
Julia: And then Craft holds up the one mask.
Brandon (as Connor): Uh-oh.
Eric (as Snapdragon): You want to see us with our masks off? Fine.
Julia (as Craft): It's just that they have no face.
Brandon (as Connor): Ugh.
Eric: The one with the red light, bright mask kind of, like, shakes it off, and you're looking at a figure with no face.
Brandon: Connor throws up.
Julia (as Craft): Damn, Connor.
Brandon (as Connor): That's disgusting. You are disgusting.
[theme]