Worlds Beyond Number - Fireside Chat for Chapter 2

Episode Date: March 12, 2024

The cast discusses which Pokemon they would sleep with. They also answer questions and spill behind the scenes tea on Chapter 2 of The Wizard the Witch and the Wild One, but mostly the Pokemon thing. This is what the patreon is like all the time. Come and join us there for only 5 doll hairs a month. JOIN THE PATREON HERE, COME ON!Worlds Beyond Number is:Brennan Lee MulliganErika IshiiAabria IyengarLou Wilson and is produced, designed, and scored by Taylor Moore at Fortunate Horse with exquisite design and editing help from Jared OlsonSPECIAL THANKS TO: Tazer Army, Shannon, and Amanda Freberg!Transcript of this episode coming soon! You can find transcripts of all our episodes here, for free, on our Patreon.Our album art is by the great Corey Brickley 

Oh, everyone, and welcome to the fireside chat for our Chapter 2 arc of the Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One. I am your host, Erica, and you may know me from the fireside chats, as well for those of you who are part of our fireside on our Patreon. We normally have these discussions just for the pals and the Patreon, but today we are going to be talking about Chapter 2, the same. Citadel arc. And it's going to be out there for everyone to hear.

So come one, come all, and meet my fellow hosts here by the fireside, Abria Iyengar. Ah, hoo-hoo, crackle, crackle. It's so nice to be like on the other side of the veil talking to everybody. Yes, and what is crackle-cackle? I don't remember anymore. Ah, very good. Brennan.

Fire noises. Brennan Lee Mulligan. A hoo-hoo, crackle, crackle. You can find these catchphrases and more by the fire side. That's right, as well as bits. Bits that are so deep and twisted and tangled that you're not quite

sure if Brett and Lee Mulligan actually had a child. I didn't know for so long. I still think it's great audio work. I think it's him and Taylor just going to work. Oh yeah, absolutely. And our final

member of our podcast. It's me, Lou Wilson. I'm just here for the birthday, for the birthday celebration, I'm here. I'll tell you, the minute we're done celebrating, I'm fucking gone. You got to get back on that jet ski. Exactly.

I've got quests. I've got personal quests that need to be fulfilled and lots of friends to hang out by the fireside. But for this one, you get the real deal, baby. For those of you who are not normally joining us for the fireside, we will always have a stand-in for Lou Wilson. and though they may sound very similar to our friend, they are in fact other fantastic improvisers, comedians,

workers at the Metropolitan. Museum of Art, yes. Craig's some geek. Yeah, Craig. Craig is, you know, or pilots like Dick Goose. Right. And then Tomahawk was sort of our man on the ground. Yes, he was easy.

He's a more kind of physical chap. Yeah. Yeah. as well as the Donovan All of these incredible fictional men You can find more Fictional Wow, what are you saying?

Well, I mean, I say fictional I mean, you know Yeah, what do you mean? Fiction spinning men Story and storytellers Oh, yeah, right? Like, for example, there's an aisle at the library that says fiction

Is that not the fictional aisle? Oh, that's sure. Sit with that for a second. Our love... Makes you think. I'm going to come back to that art Makes you think. So for a lot of Chapter 2, Brennan was absent for our talkbacks.

So some of this one and we will actually have a future episode where we apply Brennan with world building questions. But today we are talking about Chapter 2. and I don't know, do we want to just do a little quick rundown of what happened? So if you're listening to this episode, you have just concluded Chapter 2, which means you swirled through dreams in Amay's mind as the curse cut from her by the sword wavebreaker had her realized all of the lost memories of a lifetime of serving as Grandmother Wren's apprentice. You watched her come to within the majesty And wonder of the citadel,

The Irian, the glass tower at the center of the Arulyan Desert. And you saw some of Suvi's life As she was granted her name cloak, The Wizard's Sky, appointed to the Tower of the Glove as the Apprentice Archmage of the Archmage Silence. Boyfriend! And your boyfriend, Silver! Oh, we're calling it?

So we can, like, label it like that? You're the one that just screamed, boyfriend? Yeah, while he wasn't in the room. Like a good girl. should. That's a true. I have been, this is a true story.

The first time I was referred to as a boyfriend by my now wife was in third person while I was present before we had talked about it. No. Correct. Respect. The way God intended.

Respect. Where it's like, calling shots out here. A hundred percent. It's so funny because I feel like there's a thing in our society where it's like you have, you have a connection and you, you downplay it, but every once in a while you have a connection and someone up plays it,

where you're like, oh, I hope we're moving the direction of being partners, and it's like, oh, well, we're taking it slow. No reason to label it. And then you're out in society and someone like, well, this is my boyfriend. And you're like, so out in the light of day, I'm good enough to be a boyfriend, huh? Okay. Okay. Oh, my God. But yes, Silver. Love it. We saw Bear, the strongest man in silver, Ursula, training with the sort of the Citadel Steele.

And incoming too, so we had the big party in Gavril where you were reached... The name clook ceremony. The beautiful name clook ceremony. And then being reached out to by ice fairies with no genitalia or lower GI tracts.

What the fuck was that? You turned down into a fucking transformer. He became a decepticone and... You may have heard a hacking laugh from Taylor Moore. Our incredible producer and sound design are at the production camp recording this right now. The fairies, the ice fairies, sold of a conclave of the coven of elders that would befall in several days' time that Amme needed to get to.

At the North Pole, the palace of injury, the witch of wind and stars. and after that, Ahmed did a speed run of Grandmother Wren's old allies within the Citadel. He went to the Kassov collection, a terrifying place where conjurers seal spirits and paintings and portraits on the wall.

There Ursulon detected senses of his sister, found the fiend Obelphind, who spoke to him, trying to get him off the wall. There was a moment of almost violence between Suvi defending her home and Citadel against what she saw as another part of Quest fever where her spirit brother Ursulon was charging recklessly off into action

and you cornered Pomeroy, the jailer of the Cassanoff collection and a spirit who, you know, it was a nasty customer who revealed that grandmother Wren had his true name. You met the wizard sly. Uncle. The head of the office of preemptory catastrophic deviation

who told you that if Amé was unaccompanied by Suvi to the council, her station would be destroyed, and she would die, who said that if Ursula didn't get a shield, Suvi and Ami would be dead within the year, just called a bunch of really heavy shots, scooped a bunch of rubies into his jacket, and teleported away. And then you met Galt and his daughter, Hanna, who work at Tulliver Mill,

and you got yourself a shield, which Versalon painted with a tree, using some spirit from his sister, Calliah, who was revealed to you have been disguised for years in the mortal world as the wizard's stripe. after that. There was a crackdown as there was some treason afoot in the

Citadel. Steele returned. Fort Kieran was attacked farther afield by forces from Gouthmi. Steele told you that Yorin, an old friend of your parents, was there. And then the shit really hit the fan as time was of the essence. Amme felt she needed to leave.

Steele needed more time. Suvi was caught in the middle. And the party split. Oursalon traveled. to find his sister Kalaya as an old woman with her family in Galthmi after a brief encounter with the man in black. Sufi was comforted by her surrogate mother's

steal who told her that they will always underestimate us, but there's something we can do and gave you a sky ship. And then Amme awakened the spirits of her cottage intoma that she had truly inherited and then stepped on a plate

and vanished into the far north as the deck of the meridian was covered in ice. and Ursulaan is still on his way and that's chapter two. That was impressive. That was really good. I'm not going to clap. The problem is we're clapping at the same time

so it feels like a single clap. And that's chapter two. There it is. That was... That's been our time. Thank you so much. We'll see you in a month. This was an arc in which

I actually just sent a video to Shannon our lovely community manager, of all of us starting out the arc, and Brennan saying, okay, well, arc one was, you know, there was a quest, like a pressing plot. This one, I'm just going to let you guys be in the sandbox and we'll pick up wherever it is that you wish to go. If you feel like a couple episodes in, where is Brennan going with this? The answer is, I'm going where you go.

you kind of drive this. And considering this was sort of the fun times arc, supposedly, where we get to, but we do get it for one good episode of us in the bloody carnival and Chura's Chowder. And, you know, there was a lot of driving done by Ursula and Suvi of what we were looking at in the Citadel and what it all looked like and how they felt about it. And that was fun. And we should probably just be back there eating chowder.

Yeah. Why can't we have soup and sexy carnivals more? Brennan? Yeah, with hot Tom, freaky Tom Hardy. Oh, freaky Tom Hardy. Hey. With the dolly mustache. When we get Tom Hardy with a dolly mustache and a top hat.

And first of all, let me be very clear, Lou Wilson is why we have giant clams full of amazing stew. Yeah. That was so good. That was so good. Take me back. Can't even eat seafood. That is the thing I forgot is true.

Hey, this is a fantasy, all right? Yeah, this is your power fantasy. We're living a fantasy where my characters can eat all the seafood they want. I just need you to know that the idea of a risotto slow cooked inside of a massive clam is like it's a perfect. I just want it so bad. cracking it open the steam, the broth, the rich fatty broth. And maybe a pearl. Maybe a pearl.

Maybe a pearl. Maybe one day I'll make it. I see it very clearly in my mind. I could create it. I know that I could. And I know I have the skills to do it. And I just have to buy the giant clan from pottery barn. And when I do, I will be complete.

Unbelievable. In the notes for this episode is going to be a little link. We're just going to have a little registry. Yeah. If anyone wants to help me. If anyone wants to buy me a giant clam. I need two halves. Yeah, I feel like, I don't know, one of, we've talked about this before,

but one of my favorite parts of fantasy books and fantasy movies was the food. It's, you know, the Japanese food in Miyazaki and the, right? Yeah, so good. And the, the, uh, the, uh, all the little feasts in redwall. Yeah, that was the candy chestnuts, which I, I recently had. Chestnuts are fucking disgusting. They're so gross.

I don't like them at all. A roasted chestnut? Awful. The thought of a roasted chestnut? My favorite thing. Oh my God. No, but the candied chestnuts where they're like soaked in

sugar, like for days on end and stuff. You guys can't see a bruce face, but there is no winning. I love a good moist chestnut. That sounds tough. That honestly,

a good. Doesn't that sound delicious? I was on a little hill by myself, and then you said that the way you said that, and then they joined me. That sounds like something Tim Curry would suggestively call you. Well, don't you just a moist. Would.

And that got me back. Oh, my God, would. You would. Yeah. Yeah. What were we talking to you about? Wow, I brought up Tim Curry, and you both straight up blue screened.

I watched fucking pinwheels form on a pre-ed, Erica's face in that moment. Do you know how often that happens while we're recording this? We're like, what was that NPC like? Hold on. Yeah. Sube does something bitchy. I don't know. I'm in my mind palace.

How big is the don't know? How big is the don't on this one? Speaking of which. Cheeks. Roll for cakes. Come on, Brendan. Come on, Brendan. Bring us back. Speaking of which, wait, there actually is a don't. There's a donkeys. Of course.

Yes. Per every arc talk back, we got to talk dog. This one comes from Ben Fogel. Ben, you are the way, the truth, the light. Thank you for keeping us honest on the podcast. Ben asks, oh, I just had so much Thai food. That's not what Ben asks. That's a statement from me.

Ben asks, who has the most bodacious badonka-dunk in the Citadel? Besides, of course. Pomeroy and Ah! Wait, no. That's spider. Spider body, right? Spider body. He got a big old ass full of silk.

Exactly. Another tetherland. You said that like it, you said it like it was a little sexual, too, which really threw me off. You're telling me that you don't ever see a spider and just sort of rub your hands together. Damn, girl.

I knew Brandon was the monster. Look all that. What that abdomen? What has this podcast become? We're penetrating a new audience right now. Yeah, penetrating, hello. Hey, yeah, bad, hey, blah, hey, blah. She love.

I mean, what does she do? She loved. What did she do? I don't get that reference. Yes, you do. We watched Twins. I really want to lie in my head as we do this All I get here is I don't know who the song is

By the one they go No seven out of the morning I'm gonna chase you out of her There's just something about watching Walking behind a giant spider with your hands Pressing at him We're all rubbing our hands Just crossing a New York street

And you're like What do I have to do to get my head bitten off by you? Yeah What's that the works too? Incredible I'm going to lose of a night of the morning. I'm going to chase you out of her. And the answer is the wizard Slate.

Ooh, yes. What? The Wizard Slate. The most caked up in the Citadel? It's not silver? No. Why would you not? Okay.

Not the most kicked up. No, no. I could imagine. I feel like Slate does unreal squats. Yes. Slate's doing those squats that are like that video where the guy is just like, there's a whole crowd of people around them. Yeah.

Yeah. It's that kind of like... Slate gets in the squat machine and does a rep and goes, that's a little tougher than normal and someone points out that she didn't unlock the bar. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. The whole thing went up with her. Yeah, for sure. But let's be clear, if Silver was the most kicked up in the Citadel, Suvi has a different interaction with him when he's ready to go.

She's like, I'll burn down. I will kill all of Galfmein myself. You stay in this little fuck room. You wait for me. My little level two ass is going to go end the war real quick. I'm going to find Yorin and handle this now. I want to say, and I hate to, I always hate to disappoint. I always hate to disappoint. But I think the wizard's slate is up there if the measure for bodacious badonk is purely visual.

I think you see the wizard's slate in the gym and you go, wow, impressive. Congratulations. A specimen. A specimen. But remember, Slate has a permanent stone skin effect. So I don't think that if, if part of the Bedonk experience is the jelly, is the jiggle, I don't think there's a ton of jiggle to Slate. Fuck.

Yeah. That's so real. But we said canonically, we said, Mr. Racomante. Oh, that's true. Tom Hardy. Canonically. Cononically, Losarro. I think Losario's got it going on.

For sure. Lassario for sure. But Slate has like a G-OD. Yeah. So it's like... It's like rock hard. Yeah. You busted open.

Endless job. Yeah. If you spank Slate, your hand hurts. Yeah. You made a mistake. Yes, absolutely. A million percent. That's fair.

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And how is Mr. Reckamante doing? Yeah. I think, did we just... Did that get described in... What are you about to say, dude? Oh, that's the thing.

I thought we talked about... him getting rid of, but I don't remember if I wrote that harder. Well, you said that they were dragging people out of the bloody carnival during the ratings. Yeah, Lasario is implied. I think if we had seen a visual of him, it would have been like bloody face, like crack on the top of the head.

This arc would have gone so different. If you said they hurt his face, you think the justification machine would have worked with that? They were going to wail on the ass, and he said, not the ass. That's how it makes more money. Lasario tries to go through the justice,

the pain of LaSario tries to go through the justification machine gets stuck on that ass. Yeah. He breaks the whole thing down. It's like those little old-timey dryers where you like pass and you like pass and you ring it through and ring it. The machine is thin. In Suvie's mind is just Lasario's butt.

The beers can't get ground. It's like, I can't make this work. She goes and kills the wizard silence that night. That night. We just see her like flamethrower full ball of clobba. Just literally being radicalized. Being like, if Losario's ass isn't a part of the Citadel, then the Citadel falls tonight.

Yeah, you want the radicalization to Suey threaten that fucking ass. Oh, my God. So if you're listening to the podcast, you know that what you can do to help the movement is get caked up and make somebody believe. Yep. We just come back when we returned to the Citadel in, What's the name of the town at the bottom? Haverward.

Yeah. Havreward. Everyone's just fucking, there's squat racks everywhere. Everywhere. Everybody's wearing those shorts, those leggings from Amazon. Everyone's got hands over the head, tucking the tailbone. Just like, do you hear the people sing you sing a song? Goblet squats are a societal good.

Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow, you just made two jokes that were specifically for me, I think. This one's for you, baby. This one's for you. Hey, this one is a very broad one, but I think it's the best one. Oh my God, this one's also from Ben Fogel.

I think we also have them from Ben Fogel. Ben? Ben, what are you doing? That's crazy. We have a spreadsheet with thousands of questions. Thousands. Thank you. And it happens to a light on two.

And if you're one, wondering how to submit questions for these talkbacks. They are submitted over on the fireside, which is our name for our Patreon. And a huge thank you to all of our incredible patrons over on Patreon, who enable us to be able to make this show and share it with the world, and we are so deeply and profoundly grateful.

What a tone to slip into after talking about butts for 15 minutes. But this is a very broad one from Ben Fogel. Ben, which is just a nice one to sort of kick off with after the Badonk discussion, which is just, what was your favorite moment from this chapter, from this arc? Like, favorite NPC, favorite choice, like, character made. I definitely have, I feel like mine, I definitely have mine picked out for the three of you from this one. But I'm just interested what your favorite moments from the chapter were.

Mine's absolutely the exit. there's something inside of all the things that aren't said but are very clear within the nature of the story and the amount of trust that goes into we're going to make some moves that maybe that maybe you wouldn't make in at a table or telling a story where you're like the party stays together and we all do the next thing together but like there was a moment where I was like okay these are the people I love and like most in the world, let's, let's, let's go for it. Yeah.

So I just really liked that we were able to pull off the exit from the Citadel the way it happened because it was just exactly right for where everyone was and where everyone is now. And it just, it feels like it sets up so many cool things. I would say for me it's definitely the night out and the haver word now that I know what it's called. because I do think they're something to like Arc 1 is great and we get to watch these friends

who you watch meet in the children's adventure and become friends and become intimate and then they come back together at Arc 1 but there's a lot of like purpose in Arc 1 there's a lot of like

we got to get this thing back and then I got to have Quest fever and I got to save this guy and there is something to that night out that's like oh these are true friends like there was something very fun to getting to play a kind of significant chunk of time as what does it mean for friends to be friends and to share space. And this is why, like, it felt like a fun moment to be like to dramatize

friendship and specifically the friendship that exists between these three. I found it to be, I think like picking, backing off of yours, it gives you the strength to do something bigger because you get this moment of actively engaging with the intensity of that friendship. and knowing that that is real and not just like a label, it is like a, it is active and it is alive, and it becomes the inspiration to make more dramatic choices. So I think as a player, I think to actively play out the joy between these three people in a joyful space was very, was one of the moments where I was like,

oh, we're about to, we're kicking, we're in it, we're in it. Yeah, yeah, I think, man, I was thinking, I was like, Is my favorite part the ending and the leaving, or is it when we were out having fun? And so I'm glad that you two covered that because it's exactly what I would have said. I think just overall, I love how this arc really did. I love our first chapter and I loved playing it. It felt so like the beginning of a grand adventure. this one really subverts gameplay and us being like a game and it kind of has become like oh we're very much telling a story like we do all of the things that are quote unquote wrong for a game right you split the party i mean we did a little bit of that i think it felt like us pushing boundaries like in the beginning in the first arc of like ursula on leaving and then all of us had split for just one episode

But this one of being like, oh, it's party conflict and like difficult, complicated feelings. And it's not over something like, you know, as, as Abria had said in the last Talk Deck episode, a lot of times, you know, in stories, bad communication is just the result of, oh, you can just, you should have just said this one thing and everything would be better. But this was conflicting personalities and different duties and like unset things unsaid and just like everything that led to like something that you would truly never be able to do in a home game. Right. Like other. But like we were like, yeah, this is our home game. And we wanted to play it like this. I, yeah.

So that. And then also the justification of a party being together and why they care so much. because especially if, you know, if you're listening to this now, you may not have heard the children's adventure. That gives so much context. You can definitely enjoy The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One without having heard the children's adventure campaign. But it adds so much context to people and to these characters and so much of their backstory. I think that the Citadel arc does that job, like picks up that job for people, especially who haven't listened to. the children's adventure. It's like, oh, I see

why these people work together and why they're together and like why they love each other and it gives stakes to whatever happens next. And to the, it gives stakes. Lou's answer of the night out on the town gives context to Abrea's answer of like believing and why they are like that and why it matters to us. So that, that was, that's crazy to me. And as far as playing, I think the two prove that Brendan and I did for Ame's coma flashback was one of the most satisfying things I've ever gotten to do. I was terrified because Brennan said, up top,

I'm going to throw you some curveballs, we're going to start out and it's just you and me. Like, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, like, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, and just being able to feel like, yeah, I held my own in that, you know, and yeah, like, yeah, like, You held your own. Oh, my God, I fucking wept my eyes. Like, the thing where, where you, like, it's the darkest we've ever seen Ame get. There's a moment in the beginning of this chapter, the first episode of this chapter, where we hear, like, Amme, who wrote, who wrote, be kind and is the witch, and she's got the cottage and she's helping and she's got this little fox that she's trying to be like, don't you be naughty kind of thing.

And we see her as a teenager going, I could make them think. I think I was normal. Right? Yeah. The perfect context setting for every, like, again, it's the setting something up at the beginning that pays off at the end. Like, the grab and the beginning of what will mechanically be, like, Amme's retributive curse.

Yeah. Get seated with the, like, how, the ways in which that could be exploited by Amme's little moment of, like, I could make them lightly. Like, there is a sense of great power and the ways in which we watch, uh, grand, Grandma Wren like scramble to like, okay, okay, okay, hold up, hold up. And it's like, it's just so good. You guys handled that so well. It was everything.

I was like, let me just be as far away from the microphone as possible so I can make my tiny noises and no one can hear them. But like, y'all crushed. It was so good. There's a very interesting thing. Yeah, the moment, and especially like the moment where I was surprised by because there's a moment where, you know, we talked to this before, but Ame is rebellious. Grandma Wren gets big and goes like, that's not okay. Amay doubles down and goes like,

well, I could make, you know, like, and you fucking, you can feel the shadow lengthening in the roof. You can feel how Amé gets to wickedness. There is no witch to whom the door to wickedness is not unlocked. And, uh, what a phrase. And so there's a like moment where you see,

it's like, oh, that's how Amet would get there. And I was surprised. that Grandma Wren hugged you. It was a weird instinct in myself. I was like, oh, you can't, now it's something else. And you immediately broke down. It was heartbreaking.

The thing of, when you said, you know, because she says, you miss your friends, don't you? Which is a total zag in the conversation. And you immediately go, to them, I was on, to everybody else, I'm just, oh, to them I was ame,

and to everybody else, I'm just a witch. Yeah. And, ooh. Oh. A parental figure played by Brennan Lee Mulligan responding to one of us going like, my friends left me and I feel crazy about it and I acted out a little bit. Parallel. Oh, my God. Yeah.

And it's like, it was in that moment that it's like, you're going to be such a good dad. If you have a kid. If you have a clear. What I know you will be a good father. If you have a kid, unclear. It's actually, because obviously everything in life, you're always stuck. When you tell stories for a living, you're trying to study everything in life to come into a greater knowledge of human nature, the world, the relationship between cause and effect and consequence. Because whenever you're making art that's about a story, you're trying to make a map for the world, right? A map is useful because it is like an inaccuracy. It's like it's small. I can, all this in a bag. The map is not the territory. So like this, its smallness is its usefulness, but you want it to be as faithful as possible. And it's interesting playing those parental characters,

and especially as a new dad. There's a really wild- Wait, so there is a kid. I will confirm here in this moment. Wait, hold on. I am actually- Let me take a deep breath. Take a deep breath.

Oh. What a weird breath. Is that good for you, Taylor? Did you like that? Why did you vocalize so much in that breath? What? It wasn't even an exhale. Dude, say the nice thing about being a fucking dad, dude.

What the fuck is it? I'm gonna rush you before I do that. What? You went, bro. You went. What, is that not how you guys, when you guys were in yoga class and they say, you should be activating your vocal cords when you breathe. Oh.

Is that not? I'm going to tell you, in voice over some games and shows, not true. They want, well, yeah. They're like, can you breathe but make it a noise? It's called tennis breaths. Yeah. Yeah, Brendan, I just ten his breaths, all right? Listen, this is what a non-vocalized breath should sound like.

Okay, Gordon is the spirit of the wind or some shit, because I've never done that. That's like the mountain that they go into and return of the king. Like when they do the first perspective thing, that's the... Okay, that way, Abria does not get that reference because we did in fact not make it to the third one. We will get to a point in this campaign, I promise you, where you guys have a host of unsolvable problems, and I will give you one army of super ghosts to solve half of them. Okay.

I'm going to put that on a car. Write it down. Write it down somewhere. And make him sign it. We are an army of super ghosts. Wait, was that actually? No. No spoilers.

In all fairness, I make that joke a lot, and I think this was the first one where I was like, this was the first one in which we did not watch that one yet. I don't think I get that. Something true about being a dad is that there's something that you bring a kindness you pay to people in emotional moments in your youth that you learn as you become a more empathetic person is to mirror emotions. We've all had that moment where a friend is upset and you get a little bit upset to be upset with them. They're like, someone did this fucked up thing and you're

like, that's fucked up. Like you get mad to be mad with them so they're not alone in their anger. And looking at that grandmother Wren scene, there is a part that I have even having a very, very itty-bitty child that is you actually have to switch that part of your mind of like when you are in a parental role, you cannot mirror the emotional turmoil of a child back to them because you're actually supposed to be the sandbox in which that emotional life has lived. And it's really interesting because it's a transition. You go from being like when I'm in deep community with people, I'm mirroring their emotions back to them to make them feel heard and seen. But now a baby is freaking the fuck out about a diaper,

a bottle, whatever. And I can't be like, it is a disaster. We're absolutely right. We're this is a fucking nightmare. What are we going to do? The metric has changed for what it takes to make someone feel safe with their emotions. When you are with someone you consider a peer or like you're like, I'm making it safe by saying like this emotion is safe and I will feel it with you versus someone that needs to know like a baby that needs to know that like I'm protecting you from further damage while you like move through this and I'll help you move through it. I will say have you ever cried back at a baby?

It does work. Let me be clear. It's so funny and it works. It does work. This is a thing people do? Stop, they will stop and just be like, what is your deal? What is your deal? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. You can, you can confuse a small child by giving them their energy back to them. Yes. Yeah. It is really, well, tantrums are funny. That's the best thing, too, especially, like, I have a young nephew. And, oh, hold on. Erica has just handed me a little card that says one ghost army, and there is a signature line.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sign it, dude. Sign it. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Very good. We just give this to you. at some point in the campaign and you just make them appear, right? A million percent. This is truly frightening. Why am I doing this?

I love it. But it is beautiful. Oh, no, where did little, I'm just holding the world's made of gasoline and I'm holding a match, Lee Mulligan. Yeah. Ghost Army coming up. But, yeah, it's a very real.

I'm taking a picture on that now. Yeah, put that in the slack. all have it. Like moody's. Yeah. Notarized. But the, yeah, the reflecting the emotions back thing is for you.

So with Grandmother Wren in that, in that moment, I love that. I feel like the moments that really stick out to me, there's so many. But yeah, that moment from Amé in the flashback to Grandmother Ren, the moment of Ursulans in the Kassov collection. Oh, God. So good. So, so, so. intense. And then Suvis bring them to me.

Are these moments of like ultimate peak, like these strong, strong, strong, difficult emotions. You guys are the fucking best. It's great. What was your least favorite? My least favorite. Well, okay. Those are my favorite. I think as

players, each of you punctuated this chapter with so many incredible moments. Those three are the ones that jumped to the top of my head at first of like a depth of profound, performance like like Suvi's monologue about like they never listen and Ursula just being like I'm actually saying shut up which is just like so intense. That was so good.

Ercelon's so chill. Yeah. When he says shut up it means so much more. When someone who's never cross who's never like upset gets upset, it is fucking freaky. It's frightening. Yeah. But in terms of favorite moments, I actually do have to, I actually do have to. I do have one

and it's a just it's for a thing that had a lot of seriousness and a lot of steaks especially as like as things ran up towards the end a bathroom full of sausages

and you're not just drunk drunk Amé and Sufi like you're so pretty you're so pretty you're going to be such a good oh my god

you're Adelaide Ursula with the Fox talking about different herbs in the sausages outside of it And the fox simulating sex. Like, put your mouth on my butt.

I'm about to not want to do this anymore. Yeah, I say that now. That's a bad thing I think at times that he was describing. Yeah. That is a little, I'm like, shut up, Briot. You've got to keep your head in the game right now. The whole thing is that the Fox, that's the intrusive thoughts win. Yeah.

Yes, truly. It's all interesting. Perfect. But that and then the little, the little. A little ice fairy with no asshole. Not atoll. Non-at-to. No genitals.

And like, yeah, I just, that moment felt both so funny and heightened and also so real because I have been in the club bathroom being like, oh, you're so beautiful. You're so beautiful. Oh, my God, I love you. I think all the time about, like, making a party and doing it, like running a D&D game of just a group of adventurers that are girls that met in a club. And that's like how they feel. Because I would kill or die for any girl I, like, I've met in the bathroom that feels away.

Oh, for sure. You're crying and you did your, like, birthday makeup. Yeah. Which is a whole other thing. And yeah. And that's the thing to you is that, you know, the rules, the code says that if you are asked for lip gloss or pallor or whatever or like a zip up in the back, you give that. Exactly. Like, I know it took you 45 minutes to do that cut crease makeup.

and some boy is making you cry, I'm going to snap his neck. Where is he? It's just such a fun energy. It's so great to you because I feel like that is the kind of, we're so deep in this world at this point that that kind of moment where

it's my favorite thing to do when comedy mixes with drama in a way that neither negates the other. If you look at Star Wars, that message from Princess Leia could have started playing by accident while someone was in the bathroom. You know what I'm saying?

And you would be observing it and go, this is of incredible galactic significance, and my dick is out. And both would be true at the same time. So to me, that's playing that scene of there's insane calm. It's like, it's Suve's name, Cloak Day, a love interest is outside. Ursula is here, these fairies.

They're in the citadel. How did they get there? They're talking about some shit that really fucking matters, but they're silly. Ames drunk, this is a bad time for this. It was like, it's,

I just love the, I sometimes talk about like the Casablanca thing of like that movie has every tone in it. Like it's a comedy, it's a romance, it's a drama, it's espionage, it's like all of it, right?

Perfect. And so moments that get to, moments that get to be 100% comedic and 100% dramatic, and both tracks are, running at the same time, you're like mashing them up. Yeah. I love that. And also I, yeah, the fallout of that of like Suvee going after Silver and Ame, just like eating the cure wounds cake.

Yeah. Like, which is like specifically to prevent like the exact thing that was happening of the drunkenness. But also the quote I have from this is like, I shall bear this the news hither that the grove of the well is no longer safe and that the witch of the, world's heart hides by the side of the wizard's sky in a bathroom covered in sausages. That's it. There it is. There it is. That's my tone.

That's the, like, that's my, that's the key I want to be in, you know? There's something so funny. Like, we've talked about it before, like, in improv when someone just calls out what's happening. And you're like, don't just say what's happening because it's, it makes me feel stupid as shit. But yeah, that is what's happening. That's what we said. That's what we said.

It's the, it's the easiest. slam dunk laugh line in the world to just say what's happening. Yeah. And it's always helpful. It's always actually helpful to be like, so just to clarify, we are all in the bathroom. Like, it's always helpful, right? Yeah, I think that is my, that is like the perfect sort of encapsulation,

that scene is a perfect encapsulation of this arc of like, well, it's all happening and we have our pants down. And I love just Ursula being outside, being an absolute homie being like, sorry, you can't go in. People are having sex. You know, you just say what comes to your mind and what you know people won't intrude on. You say people are having sex in there. Nobody's going in there. That one guy was like, I recognize that Fox's voice.

I don't believe. The Fox participating was not what I expected. Can't plan for that. He wanted to help. She just likes helping. It's the most helpful. I'd love to combine these next two questions because they don't think they're related

by the askers, but I kind of actually relate them. The first question is from Chase Curtin. Thank you, Chase. Thank you, Chase. Which is, is it difficult playing characters with positions of power in world at such low levels? And I actually think that kind of combines

with another question, which I think is interesting, which is from Charles Hart, which is, while D&D is typically a combat-focused game, Arc 2 had basically no combat. Was this an intentional choice? How do you all feel about a game with less combat? And I actually see these concepts as being related.

I'm not sure if everyone agrees with that off the bat, but I think the idea of the parts of this game that challenge assumed conventions of tabletop. You will have world power when you have kids. character power. And that character power will be gained through combat and combat will be plentiful. Right? These are all sort of assumptions baked into, I would say, the culture of the game and not the mechanics of the game. You don't have to fight all the time in the rules of 5E. But it's assumed culturally, even sometimes like not in the text, but in the miasma surrounding the, there's just

sort of an idea that you will be fighting all the time and that as you level up you will have a higher station in the world but it's not explicit uh how do you guys feel about that my minor pushback on that is like I think there is something inside the skill checks that the fact that like a lot of your leveling up will increase your ability to have your way uh even like in conversation like there's a little bit of that too but that also comes down to the dice and some of us have had a more fraught experience with efficacy because of how they roll. We're not going to name names. But generally speaking, I do agree, and I'm going to make the rest of my point later,

but I want to hear whatever Erica I was about to say. No, no, no. I see, I see Lou. No, I was just thinking about the efficacy of some of our abilities to roll. And, you know, some of us are rolling 31s and are just, you know, we're not going to name names. Yeah, we don't have to. You know, we're all the same level, but some of us roll 301. In all fairness, I didn't know we were capable of getting a 31, like, on a thing this early.

And I do have some questions about that. If your sister hung out in the place that you're hanging out kind of like years before and left a residual magic around, I would argue that all of my family has hung out in this place that I am at and I don't think I left. Nobody left you residual magic? No. No. No. Best role is when I called the cops.

And that's interesting. That's interesting for me. funny to me because nobody has called the cops with more self-awareness and import. Called their cops my cops. These are, yeah, we were talking about this earlier. They're not just cops. I called the cops. I called

my cops to do a cop crime for me. Like if you have a house in Beverly Hills and you call the cops, you know that the police, this is an entire force that has been created to benefit and protects you. Specifically, I think about the time that, you know, they're the

crackdowns and Mr. Rock Comonti's beautiful face got hurt. But like the gang goes up to an Imperial Guard and says, like, hey, what's going on or we're concerned? And he's like, it's okay. You don't have to work. Like basically his answer was created to put Suvi at ease. Pat, Pat, little wizard, you're fine and you're going to be safe. Yeah.

And it's like, oh, good. Thank you. That's what I wanted to know. Yay. I've been coddled. It's so good. Just like truly your ability throughout this entire arc to make the difficult decisions, the decisions that you would never make in a normal game,

but that you would make in a story you're trying to tell, is like with Hannah, like her childhood friend. Let's be clear about... Who it's, Abrea... Abrea didn't know how bad Hannah's life was going to be until we all walked into that room and I went, Well, CV also gets to not be aware because I'm like, this is one of my best friends

and it's going to be, hey, Brandon, how bad is this? Yeah. Hey, Brandon, how fucking bad is this? It's also funny to see the react. I don't know how I feel about the reaction as someone whose parents, like, I describe it being really hot and bad in there. You said she was stuck in this conversation.

You said a life and a friendship. She can't leave. I did say that. I did. I did say that. But the point is, but the point is that Hana and Galt look at their life. And it's one of those things where it's always hard to judge that thing of like, this is a hard fucking job. And they are laboring and they have to penny pinch and be aware of the budget.

They've been given by the wizards. And shit is stressful and it's hot in here. And they don't get to make a lot of calls. But also, if you were to talk. to Gult and Hana, they would be like, well, it's good to have work because we know people that are doing worse than we're doing. And so, you know what I'm saying? It's literally, which is how that goes, right? It's very funny because I've seen some people empathize with Hannah and Gulton that moment being like, fuck, like I'm trapped in a life and a friendship that I can't get out of and I empathize with that. And life is fucking hard. And that's what it is, it's the difference between hard and bad. Because I'll see some people, I'll see it like, you know, it's like, it's on the one. It's like, it's on the one. hand, if you see someone say, like, I empathize with Hana and Galt, that is a hard fucking life and there is no room for error in that hot little mill, and I'm so worried for them, and I go, you got it. And then I saw some people try to post the same as that, where they

were like, man, if I had to go to work every day, I'd kill myself. You go like, oh, you didn't get it. Or, like, you know, like, that's not what I'm, that's not what I'm looking for. It's, you know. But there is something really fun inside the, like, head canon of the things we've talked about, like, oh man, Hana had to exit the sort of track that, like, both Hannah and Suvie were on. And now Suvi gets to run around and be like, let's go get some chowder. I have to do some, like, nerd shit for a couple hours. And then everything's on my daddy's tab. And then you meet Hannah and you're like, man, when you get off the train a little early, it gets difficult. Yeah. Oh, no. Well, but specifically the fact that, because you and Brennan

had come up with the character backstory of Suvie, the hair, the, you know, you and Hannah, Hana had laid around in the area. Yeah, the erath fuck up. Yeah. And then you were like, I, you know, yeah, this is one of my best friends. And then you, just like Suvie, walked into that mill and was like, hey, girl, what's up? Yeah.

I'm the wrong energy. Right. The completely wrong energy. And then, like, watching you, like, dig deeper into that, I was like, I could never. Double down. I can, that's incredible. Double down. Double down.

Double down. Um, yeah. I was, I was going to go back to the original question. Oh, okay. Sure. Uh, you know, hey, if we're going to, if we're going to shout out Curtis and Charles, Charles Hart. Is that correct? Or this is, this is from, this is from Charles and Curtis, Curtis, Curtis, uh, Chase.

Chase. Chase Curtain. That's it. Chase and Charles. Uh, I, I think a lot kind of in reference to what you were speaking on, about like Amay's level up and I think there's something to it of like I feel like a lot of in built into D&D like leveling up is very much like like gaining muscle it's a lot of like like go out there get hurt still stand and still strong go out get hurt again still stand and still strong and I think there's something really kind of in line with the way that we're telling the story that is like Amay levels up when Amme gets to go home and think for a second And in that, like, the depth of understanding increases. And it's not about, like, the experience that is that she is growing from is not one in which, like, she came out the other side even when, like, death was at her doorstep.

But one in which she just, like, quite literally had more experience and then had space to kind of download that experience and was able to find new understanding and power through it. And I think that that is kind of the mashup between this like the lack of combat, but also being these low-level characters is like, well, yeah, the growth is not happening because we go out and survive. It's because we go out and live. And by living and experiencing, we grow. God damn. Like, that is the way we are living in these like power positions.

What our positions of power give us is access and the ability to live. and that living bolsters us. So I don't know. I think we're the way in which we are engaging. Oh, thank you. The way in which you're engaging with experience, I think is really cool. And kind of, I think, like you're saying,

within the, like, schema of D&D, but just not how it's usually engaged with. So we have had, like, truly, like, until the we hours conversations about the mechanics of games and telling stories and how our world, the real world, works. And I could talk for days about this and about how I feel like everybody at this table

specifically has leveraged the mechanics of systems, multiple systems, because, like, you know, as I've said before, I think Abria and I have played more non-D&D tabletop games than we have played D&D. And that is even with my sort of like years of experience before this with D&D, because like, You know, it's, we, yes, I think there's the argument a lot of people make in that D&D is spec for combat. And I would like to push back on that a little bit by saying that, yes, sort of the idea of power and, like, higher levels gain with it a general incentive and prowess in combat.

However, at the end of the day, I maintain that D&D is one of the best physics engines that we have for world building. It's like, oh, there are different abilities and skills and items and things and everything has a number attached to it. And so you can tell your story and you can adjust it accordingly, according to these numbers, both letting your story inform the numbers of like, for instance, us deciding to, level us up when we hit certain milestones or when we, as Lewis saying, go out and live and learn. And we let, especially, you know, in our, in the camp, in the children's campaign, which was our very fancy session zero, we let the numbers that we were getting and our experiences in the world inform each other in how we built our characters and the story that we ended up telling. because I think there were aspects of Ame that we said,

that I definitely came up with in the character brainstorming part of this that did not bear out when we started rolling and like specking specifically. Because like, you know, if you think about it, if we are D&D characters, like, if we start like working out, if I started working out more in real life, my strength score absolutely went up in real life, right? I learned different skills. I put more points into those skills. And I think that there is a relationship between the Dungeons & Dragons mechanics

and how we are telling this story specifically. I love like in Brose End, for instance, that predisposition towards violence that we explored in the system. But in this one, we are showing the sort of versatility. of this because at the end of the day, I don't think any of us have a specific brand loyal. We don't have a specific brand loyalty, but this is kind of the way that we are leveraging, we are leveraging mechanics in this game to fit our story. We are making it work for us. There's, and I think, too, the idea of like making it work for us. And there's a lot of conversations that people much smarter than myself have about the relationship of mechanics to the table,

right? Tabletop is this incredible art form and like, again, it's people like Emily Friedman and other amazing people shout out to Dr. Friedman who talk about this exact thing about the relationship between mechanics and storytelling, right?

I think that the only thing I can offer as someone who maybe is not as academic as other people, but certainly plays games a lot and plays them for story is sometimes when people, people will say something like D&D is a combat-oriented game. Like, D&D is a combat oriented game.

It's not for storytelling. It's for combat. The rules are all about combat. I, my reaction to that would be that that observation, and this is a little bit dismissive, and I apologize, but it would sort of be like looking at a stove and being like, this has nothing to do with food. You can't eat metal.

Like, this is not, like, clearly this contraption is just for moving gas. around and having a clock on it. If it was about food, there'd be some food here. Instead, all of the machinery is just about creating heat either in this cavity or this other place, but what you should get is a machine that actually is made of food or has food in it or there's some food. And the reaction I would have to that observation is,

I'm going to bring the food. The food is my favorite part. I'm the food machine. I go to the grocery store and get food, and I cook it on this stove. So some of the things that people will say, these mechanics are destiny. Because D&D has so many combat mechanics,

you are destined to tell combat stories. I fundamentally disagree. Combat is the part I'm the least interested in simulating through improvisational storytelling rules. So I need a game to do that, for me while I take care of emotions, relationships, character progression, because that shit is intuitive and I understand it well. I don't intuitively understand how an arrow moves through fictional airspace.

Yeah. I think, too, also, that people think a lot about, like, when they play D&D, yeah, it's, I think what the thing that you bring, the food that you bring, is consequences. And this is something we discussed a lot, because in a violent world, a world that is predisposed to violence. where violence can solve a lot of things, there have to be consequences. Otherwise, it is just kind of a free-for-all

and can be just a combat-driven game. And also, if you want that to be your game, that's great. You have to decide what system is right for you and what kind of story is right for you. But I will say, it's so easy for me to get a gun in real life. So easy. Like, I can go out right now, and I don't even know if we have a waiting period.

Like, do we have a waiting period? You just have to know. Erica is waving a gun around in the studio. right now. I could choose somebody right now, right? Also, like, I can, like, most people in the world that I have a problem with, I could definitely take in one-on-one combat or at least, like, get them while they're asleep.

It's so easy. It's so easy. This is what Hobbs was writing about. However, right? However, there are consequences to my actions, and that is the same for D&D. And so I can choose to do the thing that is sort of easy to do. do to solve my problems, but there will be consequences. I will say, like, I agree 100%.

But I do understand that, like, if you are talking about, like, I'm here to make a meal and what I have is a stove, I think there is something inside the, like, and that is a temptation to make hot food for this meal. So I think that there is something inside of the, like, I'm here with a stove. Well, I got to cook something with the stove. So I do think that like the actual thing that is fun to wrestle with when we talk about D&D specifically is the constant temptation as you level up to become more and more of a hammer and see everything as a nail. Because the things that you're getting, those early cues for what you can do are the things that you're like, yeah, I don't want to have to make up how effective you are killing people. So here's a bunch of like simulation, like mechanics to simulate that.

but if that's the first thing I'm looking at every time I get a little stronger in the world, I'm going to get queued or I'm going to feel a little pressure to do that. There's absolutely a point in D&D where you can jump out of an airplane and survive. Monks can just not die from falling out of her.

And it's hard when you recognize that to go like, how do I not factor that into my decision making? Oh, of course, yeah. There's a lot of things that are influenced by the mechanics. And specifically, one of the things, like, if I were going to, to me, I don't think I would ever, the things that I miss would be like, oh, I wish there were more spells oriented towards social interaction. Or I wish there were more opportunities for skills to do, da, da, da, this other thing. But I don't go to a place where I want a game to start providing storytelling decisions. Yes, that's the big one that we always talk about. And for a lot of systems, they're geared towards. story, as we say, which is fantastic

and, like, they might be right for you. But for those of us who, like, we have in our brain this story, well, we don't have in our brain the story that we want to tell. But we want to improvise things, too, and we don't want a story proscribed to us.

What's happening in the studio right now? Nothing's happening in the studio right now. We're taking to the Lord and prayer, don't you worry about me, Brindley, Mo. We're going to cause a ruckus? Is that what we think? Pepper! Sometimes, you know.

Listen, we've said this on multiple other things, too. The only, yeah, the thing is, it's, again, like, the machine analogy of whether it's a stove or a bicycle or whatever it is, it's just the thing that I, it depends on what you're bringing to it. There are lots of people who actually want the experience of a machine or mechanism to help them tell a story, to literally be like, I would actually love if there was part of this machine that provided some food for me. I don't know necessarily what I want to eat tonight. So something that gives me a selection would be great. I think for me, that's not the experience I'm looking for. Yeah. And it's a certain degree of when people pitch it to me, this is just the analogy I want to eat.

If someone were to be like, you know, if I'm like, oh, I love my bicycle. I ride around on it and it does the work of walking, which is hard for me. Someone would be like, you know, instead of a bicycle, I have a machine that also picks where you go. And I would be like, well, that's not the part I have promised with. Or to go back to the stove analogy. It's like this stove comes with a bunch of food. It's like, well, I don't want that food. I want to make my own food.

I'm trying to be a chef. I'm trying to make a specific kind of meal, you know, like. For sure. A bunch of pre-made meal kits and stuff. Which actually, in real life, I go for. I love having my little pre-made meals. But when it comes to storytelling, yeah, I think we want as much of a sort of physics simulator in some ways as we can. And then choose what we do with it.

But that is definitely, I don't know, I just love that there is a diversity of options available. And it can provide you the tools you need for the story that you want to tell. And in terms of you guys being low level and having important world positions, like which are the world's heart and the art and the art major apprentice, I think that's a well-taken thing about the skill check thing, that if you are in charge, you should have high-skill checks. And the should is really critical there because there's a lot of institutions that have people at the top that don't have great skill checks.

Dog, truly. Like, I think about that all the time of like, oh, yeah, she's the Archmage Apprentice, but she's like a level two wizard, and her mom's here, and her mom tells her what to do all the time. Like, it was just like, yeah, whatever. Kamala Harris can't fight her way out of a wet paper bag.

Like, we're not worried about that part. Like, yeah. Seems he's not good at punches yet, and that's not the point. Kamala Harris just doing a fucking thing. It's just swinging. Yeah. At a ribbon cutting somewhere in D.C. Looked out.

God. Media Swartz! Oh my God. Things would have been so much better. We did it, Joe. Oh, my God. Yeah, I do think about it. And it is true to life in that, like, oftentimes, larger than life, things happen to you.

Yeah. Or you move through the world in such a way where you have a lot of... Like, truly, every single person has so much responsibility in life. Like, they have the power of life and death, whether it's over themselves or people around them or a whole company of people or something. But it's you have to take what you have and how do you leverage that? Like what are your clever ways of problem solving that aren't buying a gun, I guess? To continue that horrifying enough.

You don't have to keep doing it. Bring it back. Put the gun away. Hey, put it away. I'm sensitized to it. See, this is good trigger discipline. My hand, my finger is not on the trigger. You got to keep it not on the trigger.

I have a question. pointed at anything that you don't want. Sorry, this is horrible. I do not own a gun. I have a question, and it's very silly, so you have to answer it, and you don't get to explain it, and it's from the wizard's salacious. What spell would make the most fuckable tamori?

Oh, this is like a Vaporion thing? Ew, what? What? What do you want to say about my favorite Pokemon Vaporio? What the fuck are you guys? Don't fucking one slur me again. So if Brea asked, do not onceler us again, I swear to God. Do not fucking onceler us again.

I do actually know what you mean. You can't make it a thing that if I just say things I liked from the early 2000s, you're going to start screaming at me that there's a small portion of the internet that wants to put things in those things holes. Yeah. It's a small portion. It's not small portion. It's not small. Like, I just every, but there's the thing is you can't fault Lou for this moment.

Because I swear to God, every time we do this fucking podcast, it's like, oh, like, so the question we got is like, who's the most, who's the most bucksome, like, B, B, W? And someone's like, oh, this is the thing about Yurtle the Turtle, right? And I have to go, what? How did you connect the first thing? We've made them uncomfortable. Don't fucking high-five. Don't fucking high-fived. Eric's gun. That's so good. A friend of the pod Raka Shunker When we were working on Slack At college he moved back in the day

Had a reaction image Which was Yoshi with a really big butt Yeah Yeah Now you both post She still posts that Yeah she posts it on Instagram

All the time She'll be like happy Valentine's Day Yeah Here's Yoshi with a donk Yeah Yoshi would have a cloaca though As we all know

What Don't fucking do this is Di Yose. Right? Now, wait, why did you say Vaporion when... Yeah. Why did you? No, because Vaporon's like, okay, whatever.

We're going to make it really nice for these guys. The what? It's the, like, mermaid. You know how, like, mermaids? You're like, oh, I'm a sailor. I would see a mermaid. I would make sweet love to a mermaid. A Viporion is a mermaid of Pokemon.

There's... Was that a neutral way to put that? There's got to be more fuckable Pokemon out there. Okay, well, but here's the thing is that... Bell Sprout, without a doubt, right? Bell Sprout is mostly mouth. So, but here's the thing is that vaporium... I thought about this so much.

Bell Sprout and its many forms, obviously. Here's the thing, though, is Bell Sprout is a small Pokemon. You're looking for a Weepin' Bell, probably depending on your size. A Bell Sprout is approximately flashlight-sized. I think the point stands. Yeah. What's the most... I hate that we're here.

What's the most... I feel like I'm just, you guys, I'm racking my brain for the most human Pokemon, and I keep coming back to Mr. Mime. Well, it's not, okay. That's scary. That's just too, the idea that it's like, oh, come on, Mr. Mime could jerk you off.

Mr. Mime and Candlelight, just like caressing its face. Is it a he? I don't know. It is Mr. I'm not going to gender Mr. Mime. Aren't they all named Mr. Mime? Yeah, but also, also.

That's right. You're a bad person, you're a bad person, and you're a bad person. Specifically, the Mr. Mime that was with Ash's mom absolutely has been taking care of her ever since. How did we, is this? So if you joined us by the fireside, you said how did we do this? You did it. Bell Sprout got Mr. Mime pregnant, and now, join us over on A.O.3 for the think about how that happened. Okay, but the question is, what spell would make the most fuckable to mourn?

Okay, I would say it depends on what you are into, because while people have made... Oh, okay, yeah. That's it, keep going. Nailed it. No, no, no. While people have made compelling arguments for Viporion as the Pokemon, you know, what with the, you know, hydration and the... It's about size.

And hydration and the acid armor. So, you know, it can be, you know, manhandled, I guess. And then also, you know, the different moves that it has. You're dragging us back to the fucking Pokemon game. No, but I'm saying like, it's like, yes, that's all well and good. But, like, I don't want, like, just buy a fleshlight, right? Yeah, I don't know. Instead of fucking Vaporion?

Yes. Okay. Yeah. My guy. I agree with that. Quick. Quick. I feel like it would also depend.

Like, would it be, like, charm? You're not allowed to explain. You're not allowed to explain. You're not to decide. Entangle? Cloud of daggers. Nye. Brennan bring us home.

All about the mangles. Power word kill. But, like, level. The French call it le Pettimore. Oh, there it is. I actually, maybe. Are you looking at a spell list? Yeah, I'm looking at the SRD, baby.

That's not fair. I'm looking at the SRD. I had to do that from, like, my heart. Power and kill and true resurrection, uh, uh, maybe Wish? I mean, wish feels like the, like, easy, obvious one. And true resurrection, like, that's really just handling, like, a refractory period problem.

But, like, yeah. I don't know. Limon's tiny hut. Ooh, I like that one. May, oh, okay. Wait, it's a mage hand. Made it. That's Mr. Callum!

You want to fuck Mr. Callum? Absolutely. Let me be clear. Mr. Callum. Let me be so clear. Would and you get like baked goods after? Are you fucking kidding me? Just sitting in bed covered in croissant flakes.

Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Lord question. We're doing stuff for the game. Has anyone ever tried to have a relationship with a Mr. Callum in the citadel? There are parts of the world building.

that need to remain in the Pandora's box of what remains unseen and unsaid. I know I want to know. Well, we're about to do the world building talkback, so we'll make him answer it on that. So join us by the fireside. If you want to know if anyone's tried to date Mr. Gallum. Hey, wizard slappy.

I got to talk to me. You know that we installed a recording stone in the bakery. Oh, no. Oh, no. The wizard surveillance state really put one over on us again. Pan Opticon. Taylor, where are we at time-wise? Amazing.

Okay. Well, on that. We did none of the things. And also vaporia. No. Well, if you are looking for more of this kind of deep, important discussion, please join us over at the fireside. For just $5 a month on our Patreon, you get access to this and other bits such as maybe Brennan had a child.

Also, the witch class. The witch class, yes, yes, yes. Which is, speaking of mechanics and world building and social spells, yeah, I wanted something that this specific physics engine did not have, which was a Little Witch and Brennan and Maisie Veselac. Veselac. Mesa Lack. Yeah, Brandre Sotterd. All.

The team on the Witchfuss, we had Branden Stoddard, Macy Veselac, Hannah Rose, with art by Tucker Donovan. And we had art, Tucker Donovan, and, of course, the Alme portrait by Lorena Lamer. And the graphic design by Ruby Lavin. Yeah. And also, Brandon, because Brennan never says himself. He says himself. He's on the team, too. You're on the team. I helped. Yeah.

So, truly thank you so much to everybody for listening to this. And we're joining us here by our wide open campfire fireside. Campfire fire side. Oh. Oh. Oh. I'm Erica Isha E. And I'm here with Abria Aangar.

Ahoo, who, crackle, crackle. Hey, Dandelion. The gift for Amé was tea. See if we got Amay some tea for when she woke up. Brendan Lee Mulligan. A hoo-hoo, crackle, crackle, and, yeah, I guess Mr. Mine. And the elusive, Lou Wilson. A-hoo, crackle, crackle.

I'm never bringing up anything that existed between the year 2000 and the year 2009. I feel. I feel like after 2010, we're safe. But 2000 to 2009 just feels like a minefield at this point. Ask us about our sonic OCs. The aughts are fraught and knuckles is black. Nuck of your book. All right, everybody.

Thank you so much. We will see you next time. Here on the fireside. They pour you on, really, really. Discussions have been. It also has four legs, which makes me feel weird about it. Correct, well, I think. I mean, that is a cap.