Afterparty: 37-39. Legends of the Meeting IV-VI

Is Lustrious not worried at all about this all falling apart? How devastating when Archemedes didn’t remember Cammie’s name? And how is Salix ordering lunch for this conference properly? All that and more on this IN-PERSON TOGETHER ON THE ROLLING BONES TOUR Afterparty!

There are still shows coming up on THE ROLLING BONES TOUR! Get tickets for the NYC, Philly, or DC live shows, either in person or online with VODs, at https://jointhepartypod.com/live

Dive into our ship combat mechanics, classes from Mage Hand Press, the countries of Verda Stello, and other changes we’ve made for C3 HERE!

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Cast & Crew

- Game Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver

- Co-Host (Umbi), Co-Producer, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle

- Co-Host (Chamomile Cassis), Co-Producer: Julia Schifini

- Co-Host (Troy Riptide), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin

- Theme Song: Lyrics by Eric Silver, music by Brandon Grugle. Vocals by Brandon Grugle, Lauren Shippen, Julia Schifini, Roux Bedrosian, Eric Silver, Tyler Silver, and Amanda McLoughlin. Available for purchase here.

- 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, a pirate story set in a world of plant- and bug-folk, or marathon our completed stories with the Camp-Paign, a MOTW game set in a weird summer camp, Campaign 2 for a modern superhero game, and Campaign 1 for a high fantasy story. And once a month we release the Afterparty, where we answer your questions about the show and how we play the game. New episodes every Tuesday.

Transcript

Amanda:  Hey, hi, hello and welcome to the After Party live from The Rolling Bones Tour. It's not live, Mischa's editing it. Thank you, Mischa. Hi, everybody! We're live and in person in the sitting room of a wonderful Airbnb, owned by two retirees who are cavorting around South America in the words of their niece, Jill. Thank you, Jill.

Brandon:  Thank you, Jill.

Julia:  Shout out, Jill.

Brandon:  This episode is sponsored by Jill.

Eric:  And Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino radicalize people listening to these ads. 

Amanda:  That's a joke that you'll understand if you purchase the VOD to the Minneapolis live show, which you can do today at jointhepartypod.com/live. Or tickets to the additional things that we haven't even done yet such as, at the time of this publication, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.

Julia:  Whoa.

Brandon:  Fuck yeah.

Amanda:   Hell yeah, dude.  So we're going to do a full tour recap, but in the meantime, there is so much to talk about. Anyone want to give me just like of— a context-free highlight of what you've enjoyed from tour so far? Julia?

Julia:  Tote Road Shagamaw. Tote Road Shagamaw.

Amanda:  Say it again.

Julia:  Tote Road Shagamaw.Tote Road Shagamaw.

Eric:  Road Shagamaw. Tote Road Shagamaw.. Here we go now.

Amanda:  Oh, yeah.

Julia:  Tote Road Shagamaw. Tote Road Shagamaw.

Eric:   Tote Road Shagamaw.Tote Road Shagamaw..

Brandon:  Woop, woop.

Eric:  The year is '72 and things are on the streets.

Amanda:  So good. You will have to watch the Minneapolis live show to understand, I'm so sorry.

Eric:  We— we've eaten so many good sandwiches on the tour already. This is like day three, and I've had two of some of the best sandwiches I've ever had in my life.

Brandon:  Which one was the first one?

Eric:  The one in Seattle, the one we have with you.

Brandon:  Uh-huh.

Eric:  At a Caribbean sandwich place.

Brandon:  Yeah.

Julia:  It's called Bongos.

Brandon:  Bongos.

Eric:  And it was named— my sandwich was named after Desi Arnaz, that's how you know it was the top.

Brandon: Is that why it's called the Desi?

Eric:  Yes, buddy. Yeah. And because you shove it in your mouth like Lucy and the Chocolate Factory. And then also we had some really good bahn mi’s that we Airbnb-ed to this place.

Julia: Yeah.

Brandon:  Oh, yeah, that was tasty. 

Eric:  It was so good. 

Julia:  It's been a real—

Amanda:  And—

Julia:  —reminder that I'm like, "Hey, guys, I don't really love sandwiches." And every meal has been a sandwich.

Amanda:  Every lunch has been a sandwich.

Julia:  Okay, yeah.

Amanda:   Because we've had lunch at like 2 o'clock before the, you know, 7 or 8 o'clock show time, so that we're not, like, totally full of sandwich, but we are fueled. And it's just like— it's— it's hard to find something else at that time.

Julia:  Yeah.

Brandon:  Julia, is it difficult to be living in a family right now of three— of three sandwich heads and— and one not sandwich head?

Julia:  I survived. You know, like I got a bowl when we went to Bongos instead of getting a sandwich, even though I had a sandwich the day before.

Amanda:   It's true. Again, much, much more tour content to come, much more tour to come, which I'm very excited about. 

Brandon:  Fuck yeah. 

Amanda:  But folks, let's get into the many excellent questions that we got here from Join the Party listeners for Legends of the Meeting episodes 4 through 6. 

Julia: Woo.

Brandon:  Yee.

Eric:  Woo.

Amanda:  Alright, we begin with Legends of Meeting 4: Episode 37, which was our ship battle, which—

Brandon:  Battle.

Amanda:   —I had so many more questions about the layout that made it into the edit, so Brandon, thank you for cutting those. And Eric, thank you for answering the same question that I asked several times.

Brandon:  I did the same thing. I had to cut both mine and everyone's, just questions about like, "Okay, so this is a boat, Eric? So—"

Amanda:  There are stairs?

Eric:  You've been living on the boat the entire time, it's a boat, right? Okay, it's a boat. It's a boat.

Julia:  But Brandon—

Brandon:  And there's a left and right?

Eric:  Yeah.

Julia:  But Brandon's never been on a boat. 

Eric:  That's true.

Amanda:  Yeah, that's true.

Eric:  Brandon's never been on a boat.

Brandon:  My grandpa— we did grow up but my grandpa loved boating, and he did have a little motorboat, and I still know fucking nothing about boats. 

Amanda:  Also, a motorboat is just like a coffee mug with a motor on the back. 

Brandon:  That's true.

Amanda:  Like, there's— there's no— there's nothing else in it. 

Brandon:  Yeah, that's true, that's true. 

Eric:  Amanda, I saw your dad stepped through your mouth when you said that. You turned into a 55-year-old man who lives on the North Shore, it was crazy. 

Amanda:  Eric, some great stone walls around these parts of Minneapolis, I gotta tell you.

Julia:  Hmm.

Eric:  Oh, absolutely. 

Amanda:  Oh, yeah. 

Eric: Two things, one, I still remember back from Campaign Two, where the whole point of that first arc was— because you guys were low-level superheroes, was like you were just fighting some— some stupid street toughs. And it's like, yeah, they have a stupid boathouse on a stupid pond and Brandon is like, "Oh, a rich boy." And I'm like, no, they're idiots. They're idiots that have a boat there."

Brandon:  I still maintain that anyone who has a boathouse and at or near your residence, you're rich.

Eric:  No, they don't ha—they only have the boathouse and they all have to share it, that's the thing. 

Amanda:  Yeah. Also, Brandon helpfully was like, "Are we sure people will know what a boat house is?" And All three of us were like, "Yes, they will."

Julia:  It's pretty self-explanatory. It houses the boats, Brandon.

Brandon:  The thing that you'll also don't know is I did some sound design for— I think it was the Bright Sessions a long time ago. And I had to ask both Lauren and Briggen, "What the fuck is a boathouse? What does it sound like? What sound design would be around it? What's the river— is it inside— is it indoors or outdoors?" That's another context for each spoiler for the tour.

Eric:  It's a sound of moldering wood, that's what it sounds like.

Amanda:  Creaky wood, yeah.

Julia:  It sounds like mildew.

Eric: Yeah, it sounds like mildew.

Brandon:  But—

Eric:  It sounds like water slowly eroding wood, but no one else is noticing it other than Mother Nature.

Brandon:  But they have like one side open where the boats go in, is that right?

Eric:  Yeah. 

Amanda:  A boat garage.

Eric:  It's a— it's a boat garage. It's a shitty wooden moldering boat garage.

Brandon:  Oh.

Amanda:  It's like if a— if a deck had a roof.

Brandon:  If a deck had a roof.

Eric: Yeah, it's like a garage, but it's all made out of wood, and then there's another level where people can hang out and smoke, like, terrible vapes. 

Julia:  Yes. 

Brandon:   Alright, audience tell me if you already knew that.

Eric:  But to talk about this, because I know you all so well, I know that I did a good job when Julia emotes at me. And when we're doing a fight, I know that I'm doing a good job when she's just radiating frustration that she can't dominate what I'm doing. I know that I've made it properly difficult if Julia has now just absolutely wiped me and is shooting anger beams at me over the Zo— over Zoom.

Brandon:  And us, because we're not doing the right thing.

Eric:  And I'm like, "No, Julia, you're in a different place. Cammie won't be able to help anyone else."

Julia:  It's— it's difficult not being omniscient and omnipresent.

Eric:  Just emotional. Yeah. How did you feel about this type of fight?

Amanda:  Loved it. It was so much fun. I feel like Troy wasn't as useful as I've wanted him to be, but you know, it's a Troy Riptide story, that's okay.

Julia:  Listen, sometimes, you know, you play a martial class, and they're very useful in certain stuff.

Amanda:  Yes.

Julia:  They're not so great in other things, and I think that's true of any class, really. But Troy is really good at the shit that he does. 

Amanda:  Thank you, thank you.

Julia:  So that's the important part.

Brandon:  Yeah. It good, I like. It good, I like, Eric. 

Eric:  Yeah.

Amanda:  It good, he like.

Eric:  I— I thought this whole thing was like— you know, you have pirates around, we've established and we get into it in the next episode. Like, yeah, everyone wants your key, and they will do anything to get it, and they've been looking at you and they know who you are. Maybe people have been disseminating information about the people who have the key, and the various keys. And of course, like there's no, like, scanning process to figure out who got the key in the first place because there's so many maze keys around, right? So that's why they're like, "We're going to steal it and I'm gonna do it in any way possible, and y'all just got hit."

Amanda:  Eric, you've perfectly set me up for my presentation on why the blockchain is necessary for establishing ownership once and for all of the keys. 

Brandon:  Oh, no, we lost that tape. So weird.

Julia:  Weird.

Brandon:  I think there's a glitch in the— in the tape there for a second, but—

Eric:  Orello comes out and says like—

Eric (as Orello): I invented something new, it's called the blockchain.

Eric:   And it's just a new anchor. 

Amanda:  Yup, yup.

Eric:   It's a cinder block on a big chain.

Amanda:  Very good.

Brandon:  Yeah.

Eric (as Orello):  It will— it will keep everything secure.

Brandon:  It is made out of ivy, and it's very pretty. 

Eric (as Orello): No, it's secure, it's made out of metal. 

Brandon: Oh, okay, okay.

Eric (as Orello): That's why it's new, that's why I invented it.

Amanda:  Eric, Eepyfella wants to know, "Was it intentional for the party to assume that the dandelions situation was a Ratbert-related thing? Or did you just underestimate their connection drawing abilities, even if the connections they draw are not quite right?

Brandon:  There's another—

Julia:  I think my—

Brandon:  —Discord user that has the same question and it's me, Brandon.

Julia:   I want to say, I think my connection things are usually right.

Amanda:  They are usually right. Yeah, by the players overall, just two-thirds of us are usually wrong, Me and Brandon, and one-third of us is usually right, Julia.

Brandon:  Julia.

Amanda:  Luckily, we have enough sense to listen to Julia.

Eric:  I need Julia to be right, because it means that my clues are working. 

Amanda:  Yes.

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric:  That's what I need, is like I feel destabilized if I'm like, if you— if so— no one gets your puzzle, you're not a puzzle master—

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric:   —you're an asshole. 

Julia:  Yeah, I was talking to—

Amanda:  Yeah.

Brandon:   I'm gonna put that on a T-shirt for you too, Eric.

Eric:  Thank you.

Julia:  I was talking to someone about that recently, where we were talking about, like, laying clues out for people in, like, writing novels and stuff like that.

Eric:  Yes, foreshadowing. Yeah

Julia:   Yes. And like your foreshadowing has to be good so that when the reveal happens, people can look back and be like, "Oh, there were clues the whole time but not so obvious that people are like— 10 pages and they're like, "Well, obviously, the butler did it."

Eric:   Right.

Julia:   You know what I mean? 

Eric:  You know, the classic one of this— I mean, Amanda, you're such a Lost person, so like that was Damon Lindelof.

Amanda:  Yes.

Brandon:  You’re lost? What— what went wrong?

Amanda:  Not— not like in life, more about the television show.

Brandon:  Oh, okay.

Julia:  Oh, okay.

Amanda: Lost (Damon Lindelof). Lost (2006).

Eric:  Yeah. It's like they struggled with that constantly because they were the first TV writers to go online which they should never do. But of course, classically, the second season of Westworld, everyone figured out what it was and then they changed it because they're assholes. That's confirmed, the writers of Westworld changed the end, the puzzle box, because they didn't want people to get it, because so many people have gotten it so quickly.

Brandon:  That sucks.

Julia:  Alex Hirsch did that with Gravity Falls, but leaked fake stills to throw people off the scent.

Eric:  Yeah, 'cause he's a thoughtful, nice man. 

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric:   I like him a lot.

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric:  That's why Gravity Falls rips.

Julia:  Yes. 100% but the— I like that way, being like, "I have this vision, people guess what that vision is. I'm gonna fuck with them just a little bit, so that it fucks them up."

Eric:  That's like— that's like he was talking to the internet, like it was an active— these TV writers were, like, actively upset that the internet figured out their puzzle box before and, like, it sucks. 

Julia:  Yeah, that's right.

Brandon:  Yeah. 

Eric:  You're just telling your audience to— to shut up and not participate.

Brandon:  Just like Marvel who intentionally leaks bad information to leakers on the internet, yeah.

Julia:  Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.

Eric:  Yeah. Yeah. It's like you see your audience as combative and you're like, "Wait a second." 

Brandon: Yeah. 

Eric:  "What am I doing? I'm making something to be consumed."

Brandon:  What's the point of this?

Eric:   No, they're the ones who are wrong consuming it. So yeah, it's like if you're— some people get it— make it up. I wasn't thinking explicitly about it, honestly. I was just kind of thinking about like, "What would this trap be?"

Amanda:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  Because I wanted this to be like a creeping thing, and I wanted the combatants to be not the primary aggressor.

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  I wanted you to be fighting a trap. And I thought it was fun doing— because we never do things in enclosed spaces in Campaign Three, because things are usually outside. So it was nice, like, letting something come up through the hole, and then go up, and then you guys need to decide how you want to defeat it. And what Umbi did, which he didn't know he was doing, but he was defending the prize.

Julia:  Yes.

Eric:  But you guys didn't even figure out what it was they were trying to get at, because you knew it was like a lot of dramatic irony. I knew what you had, you knew what you had, but the bandits didn't. 

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Eric:   So you were defending things that you didn't even know you were defending, so that actually ended up working out really interestingly.

Brandon:  The prize being the key and the key mold, right?

Eric:  Well, they didn't know you have the key mold.

Brandon:  Oh, but I knew it.

Eric:  They just wanted the key, and that's why I kept asking you, where is the key?

Brandon:  Yeah. I knew what I was defending because you're giving us good hints of what they were trying to get at. That's why I went to the office.

Eric:  We— yeah, you were just like—

Brandon:  Yeah.

Eric:  —"I'm gonna lock down our stuff."

Brandon:  The— the special important stuff.

Eric:  But you didn't know I wanted your stuff specifically.

Brandon:  Sure.

Eric:  And you didn't even know that I knew— that my NPCs didn't know—

Brandon:  Yes, correct. 

Eric:  —that the— yeah, the key mold existed, because people don't even know about the key mold.

Brandon:  Right, right, right. Yeah.

Eric:  Which I thought was real— which I thought was really funny. And you were like, "Why is no one in this room?" I'm like, "That's a good question, Brandon." That's the— because they didn't make it there— that's— because Troy lit—

Brandon:  Or invisible men. 

Eric:  Yeah, invisible. They were invisible, right. Because Troy lit them all on fire, that's why. Nonny electrocuted all of them and Troy lit them on fire.

Julia:  We did a great job with that. 

Eric:  That was awesome. I thought it was really funny. 

Amanda:  Speaking of which, Ginger would like to know, "After seeing the difference of Bartlett and Nonny in combat this episode, with one electrocuting people and the other immediately getting killed, is there any chance that the new Bartlett will get some upgrades? If so, what?"

Brandon: I just want to say, first of all, rude. Bartlett is valid and important at any skill level.

Amanda:  And has one hit point.

Brandon:  Bartlett is— is more of a extension of, like— of my characters ability to, like, see various places, like it's—

Eric:  Yeah.

Brandon:  —like— like eagle eye bird situation, like a Assassin's Creed Eagle situation.

Eric:  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brandon:  Yeah, that's like one of it.

Eric:  Where it's like— it's really more of a power that we put into a living creature. 

Brandon:  Yeah. As opposed to like an actual Nonny, yeah.

Julia:  Right. And Nonny is designed for combat as the witches class. 

Eric:  Wait a second, wait a second. Hold the phone, sir, stop the presses.

Brandon:  Okay. 

Eric:  Are you saying— Mr. President,  tear down this conversation.

Brandon:  Okay.

Eric:  Are you saying that you can express characterization and differences between characters through game mechanics? 

Brandon:  I don't think so.

Julia:  I think if we emailed Mage Hand Mike he might say yes.

Eric:  Mage Hand Mike, you're crazy for this one, boy.

Brandon:  We can in West Germany, but not at East Germany.

Amanda:  Tough.

Eric:  Mr. Mage Hand Mike, tear down this walls.

Julia:  Also Nonny's usefulness is almost solely from you allowing me to attach a electric whip to her.

Eric:   The mechanics fit. That's fine. I'm fine with that. 

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric:   I am— I stand by that. Nonny was around for long enough. You found— God, let— let's trace— can we trace this backwards?

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric:   We're— we're 40 episodes-ish into Campaign Three at this point.

Brandon:   Uh-hmm. Exactly, 40.

Eric:  Oh, yeah, we're exactly 40. I— I— snip that. I just— I know numbers. I'm so good with numbers.

Julia:  Snip.

Eric:   Let's— let's work backwards. So you've had Nonny the entire time because the witch class soups up the—

Julia:  Familiar.

Eric:  —familiar, right? So Nonny is there, Nonny has been there, Nonny has participated. You got the electric whip from the base-building mechanics that we invented, that you have to choose and spend items, spend currency on, and then you had to roll on a 1 D6 table.

Julia:  Uh-hmm. And then I got Brandon mad at me and that's what happened with the Aubergine situation.

Eric:  Right. And then the Au— and then Aubergine sprog from there, that's one— where— it's like we're watching the family tree that goes all the way off to the left. And then you found magics that allowed us to do it inside of Valdas Spire of Secrets because you were investigating the entire time. And it said  explicitly in the text that you could do that, theoretically. I—

Julia:  Benign dismemberment.

Eric:  Like, there you go. Like it just— it fits and then, of course, now you're applying it, so I can't be mad. Like, it all makes narrative sense or gameplay sense, honestly.

Brandon:  Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm. But maybe— the answer the question, maybe Bartlett upgrades in the future, who can say? I don't know.

Eric:  I don't even know, because I don't even think you can, because of—

Brandon:  But maybe I'll get an electric whip type situation, you know? Who knows?

Amanda:  Or maybe in the— like using Bartlett as an intercom, like we did when holding out at a Havana's house, maybe he'll get some voice mods, so you can have some— you know, some like cool or creepy effects.

Julia:  That would be kind of cool. That'd be interesting. 

Eric:  That would be cool. 

Brandon:  That'd be fun. 

Amanda:  Eric, Ben and also others wanted to know, this is Ben's specific question, but we got this one a few times. "Were the expanding foamy dandelion pollen inspired by something in real life, or just by that one scene in The Incredibles where Mr. Incredible gets squished by the expanding foam balls in Syndrome's lair? Phenomenal choice, no matter what the answer is.

Julia:  That's it. I hope that's it.

Eric:  I watched the clip from that this morning, from— no, this morning, here this morning, and I'm like, "Dang, dude, that's sick." No, I was not inspired by this. I think The Incredibles have crossed over on the internet specifically because TikTok loves just posting stuff. It's like— it's really up there with Spongebob that—like, now it's like the internet's favorite media property. And goddamn, the world-building in The Incredibles is so good as a superhero property.

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  Also, the voice acting, Holly Hunter is so good— 

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric:  —as Elastigirl, she's incredible. You know that scene specifically, that happens right after the really dram— actually dramatic, I watched the scene this morning.

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  Where Mr. Incredible is seeing all of the superheroes who got killed. 

Julia:  All of his friends.

Eric:  And, like, they made up, like, 50 superheroes, you all see for a fraction of a second.

Julia:   And if you, like, pause it—

Brandon:  Oh, yeah.

Julia:  —you see, like, in the wedding scene at the beginning of the movie that many of those people are also in the— like, at his wedding.

Eric:  Uh-hmm.

Julia:  And it's so fucked up.

Amanda:  Oh, shit.

Eric:  It's incredible. 

Amanda:  It's so fucked up.

Eric:  So— so like that happens like— there's an incredible world-building happening. Yeah, no, I just wanted to, like, slow you guys down, and that was part of the— the trap. It's like—

Amanda:  Hmm.

Eric:  — the trap was you can't punch it or you can't— if you explode it and you shoot at it, it splinters off. So it's like Troy, Umbi are— I mean, here's the thing, I also knew that Umbi will—

Brandon:  Trombi.

Julia and Amanda:  Trombi.

Eric:  The Trombi, bam, bam, bam.

Amanda:  Yup.

Eric:   I also knew that, like, Umbi was low on health, that was the other thing. I wanted to wake you guys up in the middle of the night, and we had math to do— to figure that out. So it was like Umbi's low on health, how are we going to figure this out? Is it going to continue to weigh you guys down? And I want to make sure you guys have penalties that will go forward dealing with those things. Your physical penalties that might be necessary if pirate ship pops off.

Amanda:  Speaking of which, things popped off with a little spell called speak with dead. Cammie, Julia, how long have you been hiding that on your character sheet?

Julia:  I've had it for a while now, and it was really exciting. So my— my ethos for Campaign Three has always been used as many Valda's spells as possible and try to avoid kind of classic fifth edition spell list. But sometimes they're just very useful. Like, counterspell is a useful spell to have. Dimension Door is a useful spell to have. Like, there are some, like, classic ones.

Eric:  Shout-out to Dimension Door that Piney has been doing, but it's a dimension window for Piney.

Amanda:  Uh-hmm.

Julia:  That's why he gets so many, because that's a high-level spell.

Eric:  I know, Piney is just like, "No, no, no, no. I do not want—"

Julia:  No, no, no, I'm out.

Eric:  "—to be in this conversation, no." Yeah, it was classic enough— and the whole thing about this— God, that the D&D movie leaned into this so hard that you only had five questions. 

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Amanda:  Yes. 

Eric:  And, like, there is a 10-minute scene about that one rule that Gary Gygax wrote in 1972.

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  I love IP. So good.

Julia:  I think ours was more fun.

Eric: I think ours was more fun as well. It was great. So I'm glad you brought it out and it's— so you got to sprinkle the classes. Like, if you're— if you're the kind of person who throws fireball around, your friends don't like you.

Julia:  Exactly. It's obnoxious.

Eric:  You know, it's like— there's— it's always like that thing, is like all— this is a— it's a tabletop RPG, you're doing it together, so fireball effects, everyone, it's a large thing. Oh, you only have five questions, here we go. So it's like if you use it sparingly and don't just, like, make it in your entire personality. 

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric:  It's— it's very lovely. 

Julia:  And also, Mage Hand Mike worked hard on creating new spells for all these different classes and stuff.

Eric:  Shout-out candy blast—

Julia:  Shout-out candy blast. Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew.

Eric:  —which is obviously for the witch class.

Brandon:  There's one fireball user in every group of friends, and if you don't know which one of those, it's you.

Amanda:  You're right, you're right.

Julia:  I will say shout out to Mischa, it's me in that campaign.

Amanda:  So I mean, the Meeting 5 was filled with all kinds of stuff. We didn't just stick with the dead, we also checked into the meeting. Umbi made the plan about the lighthouse. But most importantly, Dominique says, "I felt so hard for Cammie when Archimedes didn't remember her name. Has this ever happened to you? Like somebody, not necessarily being malicious, didn't remember you each time you encounter them."

Brandon:  Can I just say? That was one of my fucking favorite thing that you've ever done to Julia.

Amanda:  She looks so pained and it was so funny.

Brandon:  It was so funny.

Julia:  It was devastating, truly devastating.

Amanda:  So good.

Eric:  I love Archimedes Sevens so much. She's one of my favorite NPCs. 

Amanda:  Yes.

Eric:  I like it, because it's like, what if someone from The Hunger Games was in our campaign?

Amanda:  Basically.

Julia:  And also a big nerd.

Eric:  He's just a big— he's a big nerd, but he only knows it like— he's a big nerd, but instead of knowing Star Wars stuff, he knows like all of the knots. He's so great. Oh, the other thing about the pirates, so the thing is, I knew the name of the pirates before the— the Nondescript pirate crew.

Amanda:  Yes.

Eric:  I written that down, and I'm like, "Dang, I didn't get a chance to use that in the fight." And then Julia was like, "I want to talk to one of those assholes." And I'm like, "Hell yeah."

Amanda:  Yeah. 

Eric:  Well, that was the thing. You guys were so suspicious of Radbert immediately, which is like fair and fine, but I didn't get a chance to explain what was happening, that, like, pirates were just hitting you guys. Because that happens regardless, you know?

Brandon:  Yeah, yeah.

Eric:  Because we're in a pirate world. So I'm glad I got a chance to talk to you that, and then we let— we wound our way to Orello and to the weird chest on the beach.

Brandon:  Yeah.

Eric:   Which is gross and creepy, and maybe it was Radbert coded. 

Julia:  Hmm, hmm.

Amanda:  Hell yeah. Has anybody had their name misremembered when somebody really should have? 

Julia:  Yes, but also the reverse happens to me a lot. I'm terrible with names—

Amanda:  Yeah.

Julia:  —and faces. And I remember specifically, like, in the first like three weeks of college, I was like walking out of my dorm and someone's like, "Oh, Julia." And I looked at them, I'm like, "I never met this person in my life. I don't know who this person is."

Eric:  Oh, no.

Julia:  And I was like, "Oh, hey, how's it going?"

Amanda:  Yeah.

Julia:  And just like 10-minute conversation, I was like, "I don't— I don't know who this is. I don't remember the context in which we met. Oh, no." So—

Brandon:  I have a similar problem, yeah. Like, I— I— I'm fine with faces. I can remember your face, but I will not remember your— anyone's name. And so I just default to like, "Yo, what up? How you doin?" You know?

Amanda:  Nice to see you. 

Brandon: Yeah, and just do not say the name.

Amanda:  Not to meet you, never to meet you.

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Amanda:   My hack for this as being married to Eric, who remembers the name, face, and origin of every person he knows. 

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Brandon:  That's great.

Eric: I'm pretty good at it, yeah.

Julia:  Amanda, my favorite line, and I did steal this from Hey Riddle Riddle, but it's, "It's always nice to meet you."

Amanda:  Great. 

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Brandon:  The old Hollywood trick is "It's so good to see you," or something. 

Julia:  Yeah. 

Brandon:  Because that implies that you've seen them—that it could imply that you can— that you've seen them before previously, or it's the first time you're meeting them. 

Julia:  Yeah, that's a good one.

Brandon:  Yeah.

Eric:  That's a thing that someone who's been psychologically marinated in Chicago Improv comedy comes up. 

Amanda:  Yes, yes.

Eric:  I'm like, "I can see the genetically modified."

Amanda:  Yes. 

Eric:  It's like this chicken had a giant breasts and was engineered for that. I can see how it's been modified to be the single most relatable thing you could say in a conversation. 

Julia:  Yes. Correct.

Amanda:  Speaking of fitting things in, "How in the world," Dominique asks, "does Archimedes fit in his tiny boat? The boat is so tiny." 

Brandon:  Yeah.

Julia:  Have you ever seen a sailboat, and you're like, "There certainly couldn't be like more to the sailboat."? And then there's like a full cabin underneath. I think it just like looks like it's not a big boat, but then there's a lot of cabin space that is just, like, underneath the water.

Amanda:  It's aerodynamic.

Julia:  Yeah.

Amanda:  But it's not like tiny in square footage.

Julia:  Yeah. Exactly.

Eric:  Yeah, it's all below the water, I think.

Amanda:  Just like me. All below the surface.

Julia:  All below the water, baby.

Amanda:  All below the surface.

Eric:  I mean, that sailboat, as I said, was based off like the most expensive sailboat, like one of those ones— it— aerodynamically made, carbon fiber, blah, blah, blah. And it's like made only for like one or two people to sail it. So yeah, that was the whole thing. It was like he big, but he can just, like, slide down. But I think that there's only like— he's in like a bunker in— down there, like it's only big enough for him and the ability to, like, reach out and give some, like, nutrition goo. 

Julia:  Yeah.

Amanda:  Nice. 

Eric:  He's— when you think about Archimedes too much, it's sad.

Brandon:  Does he— is he one of those people that replaces all of his meals with that shake drink or whatever?

Amanda:  Soylent.

Julia:  Soylent.

Brandon:  Yeah, Soylent.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Eric:  Yeah. The den mothers who taught him to— that's raising him to be a builder candidate, say that food is fuel. You know what they do.

Brandon:  Hmm. Hmm.

Amanda:  Yeah, he's basically a Silicon Valley bro, but also, like, that's the only life he knows and he's fine with it. So, you know, that's not sad. That's— it is what it is.

Julia: He's a Nepo finance bro. Interesting. 

Amanda:  Yes. Yes.

Eric:  Listen, al— 70% of all builders were related to a previous builder. 

Julia:  Facts. 

Eric:  It's like the Bush administration.

Amanda: I was just gonna say, it was annoying when—when builders 41 and 43 were father and son.

Eric:  They're both named George Bush—

Amanda:  Yes.

Eric:  —which works in our worlds.

Amanda:  It does.

Eric:  Which works in our worlds.

Amanda: It does. Damn, you're right. Alright, folks. We also of course—

Eric:  I'm imagining someone throw a— throwing a shoe at a mulberry bush.

Brandon:  I'm now imagining him retiring 30 years later and painting dogs badly.

Amanda:  Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's like looking back, the first one was not as bad as we all thought.

Brandon:  Right.

Amanda:  That's kind of where it all started to go to shit afterwards.

Brandon:  Yeah.

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  Someone leaning down to tell a mulberry bush about 9/11.

Brandon:  Which is a bunch of, like, grubs or, like, a bunch of, like, little baby larva read—

Amanda:  Uh-hmm.

Brandon:  —listening to his bedtime story book. 

Eric:  Yeah.

Amanda:  Tough.

Brandon:  Here's a—

Eric:  It's fine. They're god kings, it's fine.

Brandon:  I don't want to insert too many Troy things, but I did make— I tried to make an 9/11 reference last night at Minneapolis show, and it did not go over well.

Eric:  They don't understand the—

Julia:  No.

Amanda:  They weren't—they weren't—they weren't here on the grounds for 9/11.

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric:  I think about that a lot, how like—

Amanda:  9/11? Sorry.

Julia:  Brandon was drinking, Amanda.

Amanda:  I didn't him see him.

Brandon:  That's so funny.

Eric:  Let's move on. Let's move on.

Amanda: Okay. Alright.

Eric:   I don't want to finish— I don't want to finish my thought.

Amanda:  Episode 38 of course ends with a reveal that the Key for a Gaze is a walkin', talkin', rootin', tootin' anthropomorphize key. I sure didn't see that coming. Players, how did you react to meeting the Key for the Gaze?

Julia:  I truly thought that it was going to be like a wild like— this took over someone's body and it's extremely fucked up body horror and then Eric was like, "No." I'm like, "Fair enough."

Brandon:  Yeah.

Amanda:  "No, he's good. No, he's good."

Julia:  "Yeah. He's just— he's just a guy."

Eric:  This used to be a tree and it got compressed into a key.

Julia:  Yes.

Brandon:  Yeah, I just thought it was going to be some, like, artifact with an eye on it or something, or like it looked at something that was part of, like, the— the trap to get there, or whatever it is.

Julia:   Right. Like, you had to, like, look through the key in order to—

Brandon:   Yeah.

Julia:  —like see the— the hidden path or something like that.

Brandon:  Yeah, Eric outsmarted us. 

Julia:  No, he's just a fucking guy. 

Brandon:  He's just a guy.

Amanda:  VictoriaRose importantly wants to know, "Did the Key for a Gaze ever come across to other people as a Key for the Gays?"

Brandon:  Hmm.

Julia:  Hmm.

Amanda:  G-A-Y-S. 

Julia:  Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.

Brandon:   What is the Key for the Gaze?

Eric:  All keys are for the gaze in Verda Stello.

Julia:  Have you ever seen a lesbian with all the keys? 

Amanda:  That's it.

Julia:  There's a song about it.

Amanda:  Ring of keys, baby.

Eric:  Ring of keys is the Key for the Gaze, yeah.

Amanda:  Ring of keys (Verda Stello's version).

Eric:  Yeah, I'm glad you all enjoyed it. You all freaked out. It was pretty cool. 

Brandon:  It was really cool. 

Eric:  I enjoyed that. I mean, I'm still out here trying to amuse and surprise all of you. I feel like things were a little bit slow in the middle here. Like, when I was trying to establish the world, the— acknowledge that, like, all these pirates were looking at you, the size and the breadth of everything. And then we spent, like, longer chunks of episodes like talking to NPCs, which again is fine. I really do see a lot of this, like a point and click adventure. You guys taking your time looking at what you want to look at, and then we— we kind of run that down. But it's like— you know, we spend that whole episode talking to all the NPCs of the pre-party, and then, like, you guys talking to the dead— fo— running down this mystery. I was like, "Oh, I gotta put my surpri— I gotta start doing my surprises because this is already Episode 5.

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric:  And I know that episode one didn't really count, but you know what I mean. So, yeah, I don't know. I was very excited to, like, reveal that, because it's something I've been sitting on for a while now, that I really have wanted to tell you for— for a minute. 

Julia:  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Amanda:  So fun. 

Eric:  I was like—

Brandon:  And also your pirate voice for Key for a Gaze.

Eric:  It was my classic pirate voice.

Brandon:  Very good. I know, it's very good.

Eric:  Yeah.

Amanda:  Very good.

Eric: I didn't know it was good. I just—

Brandon:  Well, I didn't either.

Eric:  Yeah. Well, thank you. Yeah, it's Geoffrey Rush as the guy from Pirates of the Caribbean—

Julia:  Barbosa, yeah.

Eric:  Yeah. It's Barbosa say— say, "You— lady, you don't live in— believe in ghost stories, well, now you're living in one." 

Brandon:  "You're in one."

Eric:  Yeah, that's the whole— that's the key phrase. I love it.

Julia:  It's— it's good. It's good shit.

Amanda:  The key phrase, get it? Because it was— it's the— it's the phrase that's puts you in the voice of— of the key.

Eric:  Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. That's Amanda's secret word.

Amanda:  Thank you. Moss wants to know, "Eric, how long have you been planning the meeting and how do you decide which keys the other contestants had?"

Eric:  Honestly, a lot of that stuff came to me more naturally, because we do know where all of them are at this point.

Amanda:  If we take the One Shot Legends Across the Tides, yeah, as cannon, our characters don't know, about players know. 

Eric:  Yeah.

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  So it's like— so Kid Cervantes has the cloud key. We know and we've already established that there are a lot of maze keys. The Key for a Gaze is living and out here living their best key life.

Amanda:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  And then the key that still hurts has thorns on it and it's just out there. So we do— we've seen all four of them, right? We've seen all the Dragon Balls. So it's like, that was— it made it actually kind of easier that I'm like, "Oh, now, I know where all"— honestly, it wasn't that hard to determine because I just knew it. Like it was— it was self-evident in that way, which was nice. Which is why, again, you play— you— you got to take as many sessions as possi— the more sessions you can take one at a time, the better, because it will just make your whole— all of your planning as easy as possible.

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  In terms of the NPCs, I kind of like— we all—the people we've met are then relevant. There are things in anime— I mean, this happened in One Piece, and I love it. But, like, there's one episode where they introduce, like, 10 new pirate crews. There's a whole thing where like— where it turns out that, like, Luffy ship with— the main guy and, like, all of our friends, the straw hat pirates, are, like, part of like this new crew of pirates that are ripping shit up. And, like, they are old pirates who have been around for a very long time, but now there's this new, terrible crew. And then we meet, like, eight new crews that are all absolutely wild. And I'm like, "I can't just keep introducing more— more important NPCs."

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  So it's like the Key for a Gaze was my fun new NPC, but it's like the people you've met are relevant because they're doing the thing.

Julia:  Right.

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  We've established this before that, like, you guys are, like, you know, seekers, you're hunters in a very like— for those of you who watched the seminal movie, Ready Player One, but also read the book. It's like— you know, you're Gunter, it's like, you're looking for the thing instead of just participating in the pirate world. So it's like, yes, of course, Lucky Edie's there. Of course, Archie's there. Of course, even Drews is there. Of course, Orello is around. Of course, all these people were there. And it's fun talking to NPCs in a specific context, which is what I think Lustrous was trying to do in the first place. 

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Brandon:  Yeah.

Amanda:  Oh, yeah.

Eric: Like, let— I'm rich enough that I can make a context, let's make a context. That's what rich people do. 

Amanda:  Yeah.

Eric:  Like you— rich people— I was watching Billions on the plane. That's what I was learning, Brandon, on the plane. I was learning about what it's like to be billions.

Brandon:  Oh, hey, listeners, it's just you and me here now. Did you know that bulldogs were originally bred to fight bulls? Thank you. 

Julia:  Brandon watched instructional video on the plane this time and I looked over, I'm like, "Is Brandon watching a dog training video? He doesn't have a dog, what's going on?"

Amanda:  That's alright, Julia. He— he hasn't been to a glacier either, and yet he watched videos about those.

Julia:  Uh-hmm. Facts.

Brandon:  Actually, I have been to a glacier, I went to one in Alaska. 

Julia:  Yeah.

Amanda:  Oh, nice.

Julia:  Remember, he saw the bald eagles on the dome.

Amanda: Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah, America.

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  Hmm. And at one point, they brought this guy in to like, do a— it's like a financial crimes deposition and Paul Giamatti— he's like, "Hey, yeah, so tell me about X." So—and Bobby Axelrod is this like rich guy and they're investigating for financial crimes. And this guy says he's like— he's less of a person, more of a nation state. And I really like that. It's like if you are the kind of person who has enough power on the Great Salt Sea, you are as important or information flows through you, or you can create contexts to get people to do what you want, or be where you want, honestly.

Brandon:  Yeah.

Eric:  And then see what they do, like your little toys, that's what Lustrous was trying to do. 

Brandon:  I love that.

Amanda:  Love it. And Eric, how far back from the rhyme did you know that the Key with a Gaze was, like, alert and had an eye?

Julia:  A guy. A guy.

Amanda:  I like how he just described personhood as alert and have an eye.

Julia:  That's me.

Brandon:  That's what it says in the dictionary, yeah.

Amanda:  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Eric:  Only after I've had my coffee. 

Brandon:  Am I right?

Eric:  Am I right?

Amanda:  Am I right?

Eric:  A while, I think around the time that I started— when I made the rhyme, I needed to figure out what they were. And I don't know when I decided the key was alive. I knew that it had an eye, an— a seeing eye, and it was going to be closer to something the— the thing you suggested, Brandon.

Amanda:  Damn, dude.

Eric:  But I definitely knew that, like, at some point, I'm like, "Oh, it'd be interesting, if it was alive." I had other ideas. Like, you know, maybe they like— someone found it and brought it there. Like, look, I found the Key for a Gaze and it turns out it was alive, like they kidnapped them. But I kind of liked that—

Amanda:  Oh, yeah, that'd be haunting.

Eric:  —that the key had their own agency, yeah.

Amanda:  Yeah. Well, folks, we have many more questions to come, including some excellent sandwich-related questions, Julia, still yourself. But first, I'm going to nip into the kitchen here in Minneapolis and get us all some more cold brew. 

Julia:  Thanks, Amanda.

Brandon:  Thank you.

[theme]

Amanda:  Hey, everybody, it's Amanda. We are so, so grateful to all of you who have made it out to The Rolling Bones Tour. I am recording this just before our Boston show, which is halfway through the tour, so still plenty of opportunities to come and see us tonight as you're hearing this episode in New York, or the next day in Philadelphia, or the following day in DC. And remember, if you can't make it in person, you can make it with the video on demand. Just buy a ticket anyway, as if you are coming to the show, and we will send you a link to the VOD as soon as we can after the show. We are so stoked, and we're also sending signed posters to anyone who buys tickets to four or more shows. So you're welcome, and thank you, and we love The Rolling Bones Tour. Also on account of said tour, I don't know who has signed up for the Patreon in the last week, but thank you so much if you have. We will absolutely thank you by name when we are back. You helped make this tour, and the show, and our livings possible by being patrons, and supporting the show, and supporting our work at patreon.com/jointhepartypod. I'll also tell you that multiple times on this tour so far, I have seen people say, "Oh, wait, are you Tinker Beast? Oh, wait, are you Ginger Snap?" Like, their Discord usernames. And be like, "Oh, my God. I love your work." And embrace each other in, like, the audience of shows because they recognize each other from Discord. And if that's not the best sign that I could possibly give you to join our patron-only Discord, I don't know what is, baby. Patreon.com/jointhepartypod. People all over North America are making plans to go see the total solar eclipse happening in just a week and change. And if you want to learn all about celestial bodies and planets and why things are the way they are, or maybe what people have thought about eclipses over time, you got to check out Pale Blue Pod. This is the astronomy podcast for people who are overwhelmed by the universe and maybe a little bit scared, but do want to be its friend. Where astrophysicist Dr. Moiya McTier and comedian Corinne Caputo demystify space one topic at a time. They are the absolute best, who are the people I want to sort of ask a question that feels a little bit vulnerable to and then they'll give me a great and funny answer that will help me feel more at home in the universe. And if that doesn't, again, persuade you to check out the show, I don't know what will. New episodes come out every Monday, so go on and check out Pale Blue Pod in your podcast app. We are sponsored this week by Factor, who make delicious ready-to-eat meals that make eating much easier, which I know I am always looking for. No matter what you're doing, whether for example, you will be home in your apartment for about 18 hours for the New York City live show that you may or may not be doing for your Dungeons and Dragons podcast. And you're like, "Hey, what the hell am I gonna eat because I haven't been home in 10 days? And also I'm not going to be home for 5 more." I have great news, which is that you can absolutely use Factor for a situation like that. They have two-minute meals, so they have restaurant quality meals ready to heat and eat which are super, super useful. They have snacks and smoothies and more. I loved their protein shakes, the one that was the, like, cold brew flavored protein shake with almond milk already. Oh, my God. It was so good and so useful when I get to just kind of grab it on my way to the next thing. And if you are in the habit of ordering takeout, they've done the math, and Factor is less expensive than takeout. Plus, every meal is guaranteed to be delicious and nutritious. So if you want to check out Factor, go to factormeals.com/jointheparty50 and use the code Join the Party 50 to get 50% off. That's 5-0. The code is Join the Party 50, 5-0, at factormeals.com/jointheparty50 to get 50% off. Next, we are sponsored by Mox Boarding House, another of the fantastic local game stores that we are partnering with here on The Rolling Bones Tour. Now Mox Boardinghouse is a dining experience that offers fine foods and drinks along with a board game store, filled with all of your favorites, plus many, many more, perhaps, pre-favorites that you have yet to discover. They are located in the Pacific Northwest with one in Portland, one in Bellevue, and one in Seattle. They look absolutely incredible. They have a huge selection of products from magic cards and D&D to Warhammer 40k, and more. And the team is super, super sweet. They're there to help you with questions and recommendations. So whether you want to use their free game library while you enjoy a meal or drinks with friends, or maybe your enemies, I don't know, you can do that there. And also, they can recommend new stuff that you can try. Meet new players, enjoy daily events. Seriously, events are happening every single day there, and help grow the gaming community in the P and Dub by checking out Mox Boarding House. And finally, we are sponsored by Never Post, a podcast for and about the internet. They ask questions about why the internet and the worlds, because the internet is a huge part of our world, is the way it is. Every episode starts with news of the week, followed by two stories about things you didn't know you wanted to know about the internet. And listen, they're not trying to explain the internet to you because you're on it, you're here, you get it, but you might have questions. Like why are influencers changing the way that the English language sounds? Why are YouTubers retiring on mass? And why does reading the news on my phone make me so tired? They have lots of ideas, but also the team brings in people like linguists, lawyers, psychologists, et cetera, to help explain and answer some of these questions. The show is great. Made by a friend of the pod, Mike Rugnetta and team. So go on ahead and find Never Post in your podcast app or at neverpo.st. That's Never Post, but the— they have little dots between them, the O and the S. Alright, folks. I'm gonna go ahead and get to the venue for our Rolling Bones Boston Tour, and in the meantime, enjoy the rest of the After party.

[theme]

Amanda:  Alright, folks, we're back and some of them have—

Brandon:  Oh, you got some little Juicy Lucy sliders, Amanda?

Amanda:  I did.

Brandon:  Thank you.

Julia:  I'm getting so hungry.

Amanda:  And they have fried egg on top because it’s brunch

Brandon:  Ooh, I love it.

Julia:  Guys, I'm getting so hungry. We can't make these jokes.

Eric:  I love that. Now, I want that.

Amanda:  Alright, almost done, almost done. Juicy Lucys after this, it's our little reward for our content. 

Julia:  Yay.

Eric:  I'm very excited that you said almost done and then people look down, and there's 30 more minutes. 

Amanda:   At least.

Eric:  I'm fine with that. That's— that's the Multitude promise.

Amanda:  The thing is you say almost done, and so the person's thought is, "Oh, yeah, I can do this." And then 20 minutes from now you also say almost done.

Eric:  Oh.

Brandon:  Hmm.

Julia:  Amanda is socially engineering it.

Eric:  Oh, it's the best kind of hacking.

Amanda:  And also engineering. 

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Amanda:  That's— Eric said that by mistake and I'm like, "Oh, no, no, you're right." Like, I'm sure out there, there are mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, civil engineers all kinds of engineers. I'm sorry respectfully, social engineers went to school for longer than all of you. 

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  Respectfully—

Amanda:  The school of life. Sorry, I had to finish the joke. 

Eric:  Respectfully from everything I hear about Jake's job, I think civil engineering is social engineering.

Amanda:  Yes.

Julia:  Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.

Amanda:   Alright, folks, with our cold brews in hand, and are Juicy Lucy sliders here in front of us, Ginger would like to know, "Is there a fully stocked kitchen at the convention center, prepped for whatever lunch choice was made? Or did someone have to place a delivery order for catering level amounts of sandwiches? I need to know about how they could wait until an hour before to decide how to feed this many people.

Brandon:  Okay.

Julia:   I want it to be the latter because that's my convention experience at every convention—

Brandon:   Here's— yes.

Julia:   —we've been to.

Brandon:   Yes. I— Eric, don't even bother,  I got this.

Julia:  Yeah. Eric, shut up.

Brandon:  Here's— here's exactly what's gonna— what happened, is that Eric put a joke about lunch on the blackboard, and then we took it, and ran with it. So here's what the answer is, officially, from the editor is that there was catered lunch for the first day, and then there was, "Did we like the lunch? Should we do that again, or order something different for the next day on the agenda?" Now, very importantly, it is DoorDash, via ship, that came.

Eric:   I mean, I did—

Julia:  Wait—

Eric:  —this intentionally because I made it a convention center. So, like, everyone who's ever been to a convention is like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like this joke. This is funny, this is funny."

Julia:  The DoorDash is actually just a regular pirate ship, but it's made out of doors.

Eric:  Oh.

Amanda:  Oh, see, I was thinking a door that skimmed across the waves like a stone. 

Julia:  I think just scavenge doors that they found—

Amanda:  Yeah.

Julia:  —like wrecked on the sea.

Eric:  I mean, I think it's both. It's a lightweight ship, because if— it's made out of scavenged, there's only so many you can— so much you can do, and then it skips because you have like a big fan behind it.

Brandon:  And you can only fit one person on it, that's a Titanic reference. 

Eric:  Nice. 

Amanda:  Nice.

Julia:  I like— I like the idea of a fan boat, though, on the—

Amanda:  Very cute, right?

Julia: —on the water.

Amanda: Yeah.

Julia:  It's very cool.

Eric:  Now, imagining a Rose just letting a hot boy die.

Brandon:  That also works in our world.

Eric:  It works— yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Brandon:  George bush and Rose.

Eric:  That's what I'm saying.

Amanda:  Yes. Ginger also asked, "For a guy who's had people sneak up on him before, Lustrous seems to be very trusting that this pirate convention will go off without a hitch. Are there any secret measures that maybe were planted ahead of time to stop any possible wrongdoers like Audrey? Or is he really going to be caught slipping again?"

Brandon:  I— is the answer wealth, Eric?

Eric:  Yeah, it's wealth.

Brandon:  Okay.

Amanda:  Ah, wealth insulates you, gives you a false sense of, like, imperviousness.

Eric:   A 100%. Yes, that's what it is.

Julia:  He's also got Salix who's like a huge, you know, basically, bodyguard.

Amanda:  True.

Julia:  And they are cool as hell. 

Brandon:  Yeah.

Eric: Yeah. Salix is tight as hell. I love Salix. And yes, I mean, it's a combination of that, too. It's like— also the thing about this whole meeting is like this isn't a goddamn Continental Congress, it's a meeting of pirates. So it's like, what does things not going well mean?

Amanda:  Hmm.

Eric:  What are they— what are Lustrous' KPIs here? You know what I mean?

Julia:  Good question, good question.

Eric:  So it's like to us, yes, this is obviously nonsense and ridiculous, but like what does Lustrous want? What does Lustrous think is success? I think is an interesting question, which we address in— in the third episode here. 

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Amanda:  Yeah. And as he says, he's gathering people, he's not responsible for the outcome. He's gathering people here because someone has to. 

Eric:  Yeah.

Brandon:  That sounds like something you say in front of congress when you've accidentally killed a bunch of people at your conference. 

Amanda:  Oh, yeah, that's— that's corporate responsibility. 

Julia:  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Eric:  When you're brought in front of congress, and you say, "I don't remember." That's what you're not remembering. 

Amanda:  "I don't recall." 

Eric:  "I do not recall." But yeah, like when Lucky Edie is—is withholding information and Lustrous is annoyed by it, it's like you're here to spill the tea, that is it. What are we doing here?

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  Like, why did you show up? Why are you getting the key if you are not go— if you're going to be these cards to the chest about it, you know?

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Julia:  God, I hate Lucky Edie.

Amanda:  I know. Ninscholos wants to know, "Why does the gaze key know what a salmon is? Or at least saying it can find a fish? And why is it a carnivore if it's eating the chicken salad sandwich?"

Brandon:  Well, it's Chicken of the Woods salad.

Eric:  Chicken of the Woods, okay.

Julia:  Yeah.

Amanda:  That's right, that's right. So that's a mushroom, yeah.

Brandon:  Yeah. But I think that's a who can say, right? 

Eric:  Because it was a funny joke. Exactly, it was a funny joke to say.

Brandon:  That he knows the salmon?

Eric:  The— the Key for a Gaze, there's a lot of stuff that we have not determined about where it comes from, what it is, why it's here, what does it understand? Yeah, I mean, we don't know what the deal with the key is. And the fact that the key knows about the salmon, everyone knows about the salmon. It's— that's what you have to remember, is like the salmon and this prophecy is like the guiding idea. It's almost like— regardless of whether or not it's true or not, it's like Manifest Destiny. Like everyone in the United States knows about Manifest Destiny, Europeans. It's the idea that like the people who colonize the United States started from one side and had to go all the way to the other side.

Amanda:  Where God wants us to.

Brandon:  Just like ordained by God, yeah.

Eric:  Yeah, God told us to. You know, it's like the idea that, you know, the Egyptians thought the pharaohs were god kings or Charlemagne thought he was a god King, you know? Or the sun— the sun king, you know? It's like— I'm saying a bunch of European history. It doesn't matter. Like this is— it's a forming world building myth of the world that we're in, so of course, the key knows about it.

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Brandon:  I— I— don't answer this, Eric, but yeah, I— I do wonder what inside knowledge this Key with a Gaze has, though, so we'll see.

Amanda:  Yeah. He said the word fish which nobody in this campaign has said for 39 episodes. So something's going on.

Julia:  Besides like the idea of like the angler fish and stuff like that. I

Amanda:  Yes, yes.

Julia:  It's always combined or something else, though. 

Brandon:  Yeah.

Julia:  Like Avatar rules.

Eric:  Right.

Amanda:  Exactly.

Eric:  The animals are av— Avatar rules. That's right. 

Amanda:  Dominique has a few very important questions. First—

Julia:  Bring it.

Amanda:  "—Has Troy considered asking Aubergine (cough, cough, Francois) for kind of a baby sling to carry his little pumpkin close to him?" Importantly, Troy has learned weaving, so he has made a little baby sling, like the hammock can become a baby sling—

Brandon:  Like a papoose. 

Amanda:  —for the pumpy.

Julia:  Does Troy have a loom somewhere in the ship?

Amanda:  I think it's more like macro may. 

Julia:  Oh, okay.

Amanda:  So he can do it handheld. 

Julia:  Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. 

Amanda:  Dominique also asks, "Is Umbi running anime style with his arms behind him, make him the new Hokage?"

Brandon:  I think Julia told me I couldn't Naruto run for some reason in the episode.

Julia:   I think I did say that.

Brandon:  I don't remember why but—

Julia:  Just— it's wrong.

Brandon:  —I just— I— in my head, I had the picture, it was a Dragon Ball Z scene. I'm sure it happens multiple times. But like you have a big folk close-up of someone's— of like a villain's face or something and then it cuts real— like it jump cuts to the hero running towards them, but it's like at a far, far, far distance.

Eric:  Starting far away, and then getting closer, and closer, and closer.

Brandon:  And so you see a— all you see is like a huge dust cloud and someone go like [running noises]

Amanda:  Uh-hmm.

Brandon:  And then cuts between those two, you know?

Eric:  Yeah, I—

Julia:  Like the Road Runner? 

Brandon:  Yeah, yeah.

Eric:  I want to talk about that for a while. There was nothing funnier to me than like Umbi walking around like he cut class. Like, that was so funny.

Amanda:  But you're so right. Like, I— you know, I'm—I'm gonna say, this is a good plan of ours, to say that when everybody else is occupied, like we don't know who was responsible for the shooting. We don't know, if somebody got to the lighthouse earlier or if somebody's like set up camp there, planning to sabotage us specifically, the meeting in general. And so it makes all the sense in the world to do it during the, like, summit that all of us were brought there for.

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Julia:  Facts. 

Brandon:  Quick related, but unrelated question, how— if any of you three actually skipped— skipped class, did you all throughout in high school? 

Amanda:   Never once.

Julia:  No, I don't think so.

Eric:  There were times, and I think that YouTube can agree with this, where it's like you got approval from a theater teacher.

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Brandon:  Oh, I mean, but not approval.

Eric:  Oh, not approval?

Brandon:  Just cut—

Amanda:  No.

Brandon:  Just cut class. Am I the only one who's done this? 

Julia:  Yes.

Amanda:  Yes.

Eric:  I think— I—

Julia:  You rebellious nerd.

Eric:  Because, like, the— all the things that we did, I think we got the thrill of cutting class just by being in the school in off hours, which is like—

Brandon:  True.

Eric: —if you did too many extracurriculars, you're just like in the school when you're not supposed to. It's kind of the vibe.

Amanda:  I would often be pulled out of class to go fix an AV problem in the auditorium for a different teacher, and then didn't return to class, so that's my version of that. 

Eric: Yeah. Like, we did something close to that, I think.

Amanda:  Yeah. It was very fun. And folks, we have a hot delivery right in from The Postmaster, Librarychick. 

Brandon:  Ooh.

Eric:  Oh, luckily, it went through international customs, so it has a sticky note on the side that tells us exactly what it is.

Brandon:  Do we owe VAT on this or—

Amanda:  No, Librarychick to care of that for us.

Brandon:  Great, thank you.

Julia:  Thank you, Librarychick.

Amanda:  Thank you. "With the level of technology in Verda Stello, it seems to me like there would be TV, what kind of TV shows would our crew watch?"

Brandon:  Well, there's canonically a TV, or at least television sets.

Amanda:  Yes.  There are— there's report, there's news. 

Brandon:  Yes.

Julia:  Yes.

Amanda:  But I have to assume, it's going to be like—

Brandon:  Yeah, entertainment.

Amanda:  —TV for entertainment. 

Brandon:  Yeah. I'm assuming puppet shows mostly, Eric?

Amanda:  Yeah, probably.

Eric:  Yeah. Honestly, I think this is something closer to like 1940s and '50s style movies, you know? How it's like you get a lot of stuff together, but it's more, like, recorded theater or something that like you gotta communicate news in that way. So, yeah, no, we're not talking about like mass media yet. It's kind of just like rudimentary stuff. No one's monetizing television yet, I think.

Amanda: Yeah.

Brandon:  Hmm.

Julia:  I think Cammie would watch like shows like Julia Child on like—

Eric:  Oh, yeah.

Julia:  —PBS and stuff like that. But if we were talking more modern stuff, Cammie would love like a Great British Bake Off kind of style show.

Amanda:  Uh-hmm.

Brandon:  Hmm. Uh-hmm.

Eric:  Sure. I like the Julia Child thing, that's like— that level of PBS is like what is on TV right now.

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Amanda:  Yeah. I think— I— I like to imagine Troy getting really into documentaries and airplane educational videos in that— in that genre of like, you know, historical armor-making, and gardening, and all kinds of stuff that he can learn. 

Brandon:  What's that competition show of, like, sword for— weapon forging or iron forging or whatever?

Julia:  Forged in Fire. 

Brandon:  Forged in Fire. Yeah.

Amanda:  No, the competition would make him cry, but he would— he would watch only the, like, very idyllic. Like, there's this one BBC program where it follows like a— a manor house garden through all of the seasons, and it's like 12 episodes one for each month. 

Brandon:  That's cute.

Amanda:   It's just like what you do to prepare for the garden. I watch that shit all the time.

Julia:  Uh-hmm. Uh-hmm.

Amanda:   It's so consuming.

Brandon: Yeah. I need to watch that. That's great. 

Amanda:  Yeah. Question from Torbo the Shield, "What does Troy think of Tater Tots? They're basically little French fry barrels. I made Tater Tots for the family tonight, and after I saw it, I couldn't unsee it."

Brandon:  I love it. I just—

Amanda:  Right?

Brandon:  —I just realized that we're also firmly in the Midwest and we can have hot dish.

Amanda:  We could have hot dish. 

Brandon:  Yeah, I've never had it before.

Julia:  Explain to the people with hot dish is.

Brandon:  Well, I—

Amanda:  Do you think they have hot dish at the Mall of America? 

Julia:  Oh, there's got to be a place that does hot dish at the Mall of America.

Brandon:  Like a hipster hot dish?

Julia:  Yeah, probably. 

Brandon:  I don't know. I'm not 100% sure. I just know there's Tater Tots on top. 

Amanda:  It's like casserole with a Tater Top topping, you know?

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric:  Hot— Hipster Hot Dish was my band in college.

Amanda:  I'm so sorry that Pitchfork has shut down, so they can't review your EP.

Eric:  No, they already did it. They gave me a four.

Julia:  Aw.

Brandon:  Hey, Eric, for Pitchfork—

Eric:  Pretty good, pretty good.

Brandon:  —pretty good. 

Eric:  I made it in my dorm. Me and Donald Glover, we're doing it together.

Amanda:  But no, Torbo, I think that you're completely right. Tater Tots are little barrels what— are made of shredded potatoes and Troy would absolutely love them if he ever had them. 

Brandon:  Well, here's a question though, is it a barrel? Because a barrel has— does— I think a barrel has to be empty on the inside.

Amanda:  It's barrel-shaped.

Brandon:  Barrel-shaped.

Amanda:  It's not— it's not a barrel.

Brandon: So a fan but not like, you know, inherently excited by the thought of a Tater Tot?

Amanda:  Yeah.  Like a gardener who likes to wear earrings that are—

Brandon:  Yeah.

Amanda:  —vegetables and fruits. It's like—

Brandon:  Yeah.

Amanda:  It's not the— the thing but it evokes the thing.

Brandon:  I love it.

Julia:  Well, Brandon, what if you fill a barrel full of woodchips?

Brandon:  I think that's a barrel full of woodchips.

Amanda: Then it'd be a barrel full of woodchips.

Julia:  Okay.

Brandon:  That's what I'm saying. You can't really fill a barrel full of barrel, you know?

Amanda:  Ooh, it must be like a Russian nesting doll.

Julia:  Okay. A po— a potato barrel full of potatoes is a barrel full of potatoes.

Eric:  When you make a barrel, first, you have to invent the universe.

Amanda:  Oh, boy.

Julia:  Alright.

Amanda:  No, it's so true, it's so true. I think we had our most interacted with question on the Join the Party Discord of all time because—

Brandon:  Ooh.

Julia:  Uh-oh.

Eric:  Oh.

Amanda:  —because this question from EvieGrace had, like, dozens, and dozens, of people reacting—

Brandon:  Whoa.

Amanda:  —via emotes to it. And including Jaya from the pod saying, "Give this woman a joken." So EvieGrace says, "When Umbi was doing the commercial about not smoking, did he mean don't smoke, kids! With an exclamation point? Or 'Don't smoke kids, meaning small, tobacco plant children? Just wondering if Big Tobacco, the pirate ship, was doing only semi-nefarious things or truly nefarious things."

Brandon:  Oh, man. I think this might be a Eric question, because I don't want to put too much darkness in your world, but I do like that second option.

Julia:  Oh, it's pretty dark. 

Eric:  This— this is one of the war crimes Millie did.

Julia:  Oh.

Amanda:  Oh.

Eric:  She smoke kids.

Julia:  Whoa.

Amanda:  Tough.

Julia:  Kind of hot.

Brandon:  I— I think that's the campaign, it's like the amb—

Amanda:  Not a deal-breaker, but—

Brandon:  —the ambiguity in the grammar is the campaign. 

Amanda:  Yes.

Brandon:  It's like, "Don't smoke, kids." And also, "Don't smoke kids." It's like that's the whole part of the campaign, you know?

Eric:  That was really funny when we did that.

Amanda:  Yeah, it was, it was.

Brandon:  To be fair, I did edit it to make me sound funnier, because there was a large portion of silence where I could not think of a good joke.

Eric:  That's okay. That's fine. 

Amanda:  That's okay. That's— that's just Dungeons and Dragons, baby. That's podcasting.

Eric:  I'm sorry, Brandon, I'm looking at Google and it said, "Did you mean podcasting?"

Amanda:  VictoriaRose asks, "What kind of sandwich would everyone, player and character, have at a convention lunch?" I'm gonna start with Julia on this one, where there's often like a— a room temperature pasta salad, a room temperature green salad, and a couple of sandwich options at like a— I guess at least a US convention, what is your best-case scenario? 

Julia:  I mean, there is no best-case scenario in my mind. It depends on how I feel, but like if they have, like, some— even if it's cold, like a breaded chicken sandwich of some kind—

Amanda:  Oh, sure.

Julia:  —I'd surely go for that, and then just pile on some of the salad on top of that. 

Amanda:  Oh, nice. Yeah. Basically, it's like a salad with a chicken cutlet.

Julia:  Yeah. Or if I'm like I have no energy, I've eaten nothing so far today, I'll probably go for like a roast beef or something like that. 

Amanda:  Nice. 

Julia:  And again, like I'll eat like a couple bites and then I'd be like, "This sucks." And then I'll probably throw it away.

Amanda:  Alright, Eric.

Eric: I would also go for a roast beef. You know, I love breaded chicken cutlet, but it's so shitty that I just can't eat it when it's at a convention.

Julia:  I get it.

Eric:  So roast beef— also roast beef is like one that you know they're not going to, like, slather it with mayo.

Julia:  Hmm. 

Eric:  I feel like if I go for Turkey, it's like that's going to be 30% mayo.

Julia:  Yeah. 

Brandon:  Only 30?

Eric:  Yeah, right.

Amanda:  Minimum. My ideal is kind— is like what— I just realized now how odd this is, but it's a— a style of sandwich called Just American, which we all know what that means, but it's like, what the fuck does that mean? Which should just be like ham, turkey, American cheese.

Eric:  Yeah. 

Amanda:  Like a limp tomato and maybe some shredded lettuce. 

Brandon:  Like, the classic sandwich, yeah. 

Amanda:  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which, you know, I— I like the— the meat combo and I can peel off that American cheese real easy.

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Brandon:  I hate ham and cheese. I don't like ham.

Eric:  I do, too. I do, too.

Brandon:  I'd rather just have a cheese sandwich.

Eric:  I'm with you. As someone who didn't grow up eating pork products, there are pork products that don't make any sense to me.

Julia:  And ham is one of them.

Eric:  Ham is one of them. Like, sliced ham as a deli meat doesn't make any sense to me.

Brandon:  Yes. Yes.

Eric:  Bacon I think is stupid, and I think that pepperoni is stupid.

Julia:  You're wrong about that.

Brandon:  Everyone in the room— just so the audience know, everyone in the room except for Eric just shook their heads at the same time at that.

Amanda:  I— I know what Eric means, but the way you say it is for maximal content engagement, and so you're gonna get a lot of comments.

Eric:  This YouTuber thinks— yeah. Making the YouTuber all face— okay, here— here it is. Imagine you're someone who's never heard of bacon before. Amanda, you're someone who— who has not eaten pork products before. You're— you are—we're in the contextless, right? Someone comes up to you and says, "Here is this crunchy thing that you can eat, and you can put it on stuff. It's pretty good." Right? And then take a bite out of it, and it's salty, and it's crunchy, and it's good. But would you make it your entire personality? Would you say it's your best friend? Would you say it's your favorite food? I would say no. I think that bacon exists because of how the pork lobby and how America is—

Amanda:  Big pork.

Eric:  —obsessed with pork.

Brandon:  Eric, you— yes.

Eric:  And this is the— the crunchy— this is the crunchy version of pork. 

Brandon: You're like— you're on that like 20— like, what was it? 2009—

Amanda:  Late 2000s.

Brandon: —bacon tip—

Eric:  Yeah.

Brandon:  —situation— yes.

Eric:  Well, that's true. That one is true.

Brandon:  Yeah.

Eric:  That the pork lobby did in fact spend a lot of money—

Brandon:  Right.

Eric:  —making bacon people's personality. That's true, because the Asian wave of— like 2009, sushi was still like, "Oh, my God, sushi." So it's like we didn't know about pork belly just yet.

Amanda:  Yeah. Pork belly had not yet been normalized to white people as a thing you should eat.

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  So that's why they wanted to sell more pork belly and that's why they— bacon is made out of pork belly. That's what the bacon craze was. That one's real.

Amanda:  But I— I completely understand what you mean, where it's like, you know, you grew up in, you know, elementary and middle school as the like, "Oh, like I'm a— I'm a bro with a mustache on Reddit and I love bacon," as that was at its height. And then when you had bacon, it must have been like, "Oh, okay."

Eric:  It's fine. Even good bacon—

Brandon:  Yeah. Yeah, that makes total sense.

Eric:  I've had incredible bacon. I've had really good bacon from butchers, and I made it myself, and it's good, but not enough to call it my favorite food, not enough to look— seek it out on a restaurant. Julia is so dismissive. 

Julia:  Eric, don't— no. My problem is we cannot talk about this right before lunchtime. I'm so hungry.

Amanda:  Alright. Julia, we're close, we're close.

Brandon:  I agree completely, though. I wish— what— like if you're a person that says, "Oh, bacon," then you have too much enthusiasm about bacon. 

Amanda:  Sure.

Brandon:  And two, Umbi— both Umbi's and Brandon's sandwiches at the convention would— would be what I call a cookie sandwich, where you take two oatmeal cookies and then you put a chocolate chip in the middle of those two cookies—

Amanda:  Nice.

Brandon:  —and eat all three cookies at once.

Amanda:  That sounds great.

Julia:  Oh, yeah, I answered mine, but not Cammie's. And I think Cammie is just like, "I'll have a salad."

Amanda:  Yeah. Troy is any. Just whatever, give me like three people's portions of it.

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric:  When I was in freshman year in my— my dorm had a—

Brandon:  Where you in Hayden or whatever?

Eric:  I was in Wei— I was in Weinstein. 

Brandon:  Oh.

Eric:  And there was a food thing on the bottom like— the word is a cafeteria—

Amanda:  Cafeteria.

Eric:  —about where you can just swipe and they give you infinite food. And we would sit there for hours. And I made something called an ice cream sandwich, which is where I took two pieces of bread, and I toasted them, and then I took ice cream, and I put it between the two.

Julia:  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Amanda:  Incredible.

Eric:  Julia—

Julia:  Especially like a brioche, a brioche and then ice cream?

Eric:  No, Julia— Julia, it was shitty white bread

Julia: I don't care. I'm just thinking how to elevate.

Amanda:  That'll be great.

Eric:  It'll be good.

Julia:  Yeah.

Amanda:  That's essentially a French toast.

Eric:  Julia, thanks for supporting me. Thank you, dude.

Julia:  I got you, bro.

Eric: Thanks, dawg.

Amanda:  Alright, folks. Some rapid fire to end this episode. From Amnotagoldfish, "Are kiwi Greenfolk skin on or skin off?" Skin on.

Julia:   Both.

Amanda:  Skin on.

Eric:  Both.

Brandon:  Oh, but when they go swimming, skin off.

Amanda:  Oh.

Julia:  Here's the thing is we've seen like orange-sliced people. 

Amanda:  That's true. 

Julia:  So maybe the kiwi is sliced, a kiwi with skin on.

Amanda:  Hmm.

Brandon:  Oh.

Amanda:  True. Mell1118, "When purple potato Greenfolk eat stew, what's in that stew?"

Julia:  Whatever they want, baby. 

Eric:  What I'm now getting from like the separatist group in the— in the woods is like there's a real combination of various separatists I know from history.

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Amanda:  Sure.

Eric:  From just like "Oh, yeah, like a paella"  

Julia:  Yeah.

Brandon:  Yeah, yeah.

Eric:  Also, thank you for coming on the journey of me taking all the nightshades and turning them into Crags.

Amanda:  Oh, yeah, so fun.

Eric:  That's— and that's what Aubergine is doing. He's just hanging out.

Amanda:  Uh-hmm.

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Julia:  I miss him. 

Eric:  I miss him too.

Amanda:  I know, me too. I hope we see him soon. Moss left us a bunch of excellent questions that I will be saving for future Afterparties. The one that I most want to answer right now is, "What emojis would the crew use most when texting?"

Brandon:  Umbi's would be eggplant. 

Julia:  Great. I think Cammie is the, like, content blushing smile. 

Amanda:  Yeah, that's really good. And maybe the— the pink flower, like the cherry blossom flower.

Julia:  Uh-hmm. And also just a bunch of hearts. Cammie is like—

Amanda:  Yeah.

Julia:   —every message ends in, like, five different hearts. Sometimes it's the rainbow, sometimes they're all one color, you know?

Brandon: That's cute.

Amanda:  That's really good.

Eric:  Brandon, can I ask you a follow-up question?

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  Does Umbi just, like, indiscriminately use the eggplant? 

Brandon:  Yes.

Eric:  Okay, good.

Julia:  It's for emphasis.

Brandon:  It's like— it's like in words, like without taking out letters. It's just in between words.

Amanda:  Oh, no. Like pussy in bio?

Julia:  Tough.

Eric:  I like the— you know, also that Umbi, like, uses one of the emojis for the letter B and only use the emoji for the letter V instead.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric: That'd be funny.

Amanda:  I think Troy learned a semaphore when in a—

Eric:  Oh, sure.

Amanda: —basic training, and so he'll occasionally— I think especially with Cammie, she'd be good at this, text in semaphore just for fun. 

Brandon:  That's fun.

Eric:  Oh, yeah. Troy uses a lot of the flags, for sure.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Julia:  Cammie is like—

Julia (as Cammie): It's like little puzzle.

Amanda:  Exactly, yeah.

Brandon:  Yeah.

Amanda:  Alright, folks. Now, it is time for spoil the plank. Are we ready to walk the plank— 

Brandon:  Yar.

Amanda:  —toward the Mall of America? 

Julia:  Avast ye.

Amanda:  Alright.

Eric:  You best start believing in walking the plank, because you're doing it.

Brandon:  That was the first version they did of that and it just didn't quite stick.

Amanda:  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Julia:  They're like, "We're gonna ignore—"

Eric:  It's like Jeff—

Amanda:  Can you punch this out?

Julia:  "—the pirate part, we're just walking off the plank." 

Brandon:  Yeah, the test audiences said— yup.

Amanda: Punch this up, yeah.

Eric:  Hey, Jeffrey, give me some alts?

Amanda:  From Mel118, "What on earth is Lucky Edie hiding from you? "

Julia:  That bitch.

Amanda:   Who can say?

Brandon:  Who can say?

Eric:  Great question, great question.

Amanda:  From Dominique, "How was the Key with a Gaze able to arrive at the meeting? Why are they coming now, and not just after the Cascade dried up? And lastly, is Cammie going to try and be friends and reason with Audrey, the Rotten Queen?"

Julia:   Who can say?

Brandon:  Who can say?

Amanda:  Who can say?

Eric:  I wa— this is something I want to communicate. It's a great question. But I— like you have to understand the Key for a Gaze is like— I don't know, like a wanderer, like a lone gunman si—

Julia:  Yeah.

Eric:  —kind of situation. I know we've kind of established this with Kid Cervantes, but like the Key with a Gaze, whenever they started being alive, I guess, is like a— not well-known, but like a self-sufficient creature, so it's like doing stuff around.

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  You just like— they choose to reveal themselves when they want to choose to reveal themselves. They're a specific kind of person.

Julia:  I think it's like in mythology, like I'm thinking particularly in Norse Mythology, where it's like, yeah, you know, the god just kind of wandered around in disguise for many years.

Eric:  Yes.

Brandon:  Hmm.

Julia:   And like, you know, people had adventures with them, but they weren't necessarily like, "And I'm Odin, bitches."

Eric:  It's like, "Wait a second, you've been Thor the whole time? That's— that's upsetting. I can't believe you didn't tell me that, Julia."

Julia:  It's me, I've been Thor the whole time. I love to drink.

Amanda: I'm the problem. And finally, from Rax a Mess. This is a— a very cool theory, so ready?

Brandon:  Excited. 

Amanda:  "Because of the draught stones, there's implication that the Cascade has dried up before. We also have a couple of instances of people making their way in, even when the Cascade was flowing, such as Gloria and the designer of the Divine Labyrinth."

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Amanda:  "Since she's a historical figure, I would guess there was a drought in her time, and then that it would also be recorded."

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Amanda:  "So my question is, will we find a group that may have developed from a previous draught? From the communities we've seen on the Great Salt Sea, it feels like some of them would want to stay maybe, even after the Cascade resumes. So might we find groups that predate the current drought whose ancestors were from a previous one? Or Gloria seem to behave as if the Great Salt Sea was a secret, but a secret that at least some people did know about? So perhaps there's a colony of people who left in between droughts just to escape bureaucracy and make their own society following the whispered legend of the Great Salt Sea, and maybe they're still out there now?

Brandon:  I wouldn't be surprised if— once we got to the— assuming we do get to, like, the middle of the— the thing, where the salmon is, or, like, there might be some folks there that—you know, like in King Kong, like the people that live on Skull Island?

Amanda:  Yeah.

Julia:  I was gonna say like Atlantis. Like, it feels—

Brandon:  Yeah, yeah.

Julia:  —like such an Atlantis origin myth to me. 

Brandon:  Yeah.

Amanda:  Yeah.

Brandon:  That one is smarter and makes you sound cooler, so do Atlantis.

Amanda: Thanks. Well, Brandon, let me—

Brandon:  Make sure to just take that one, and— and put my voice and Julia's voice, and then we'll, yeah, do that one. 

Amanda:  Brandon, let me— let me do a little book end so you don't feel as alone. 

Brandon:  Okay. Okay.

Amanda:  I genuinely, with my full— my full brain—

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Amanda:  —thought, "Oh, yeah, yeah. What's in the depression of the bialy? Are there people there?

Brandon:  Yeah.

Amanda:  Maybe. Maybe.

Julia:  Well, the depression of the bialy is the Great Salt Sea.

Amanda:  Right. 

Julia:  Yeah.

Amanda:  But, like, what's in the very middle?

Eric:  I don't know. 

Julia:   Maybe it's people.

Brandon:  Maybe it's people.

Eric:  It's garlic.

Amanda:  Amazing. I really liked that thought, Rax. Thank you for sharing it. And folks, I gotta say, I really like hanging out with you, and performing live shows, and seeing people, and getting dice gifts, and making japes for our job.

Brandon:  Same.

Julia:  Same.

Eric:  It's good stuff. This has been going pretty well. We've already started talking about another tour. Like, I'm very excited about it. I know we only done two, and maybe, like, you know, Brandon's gonna turn into Keith Richards around Boston.

Brandon:  You'll— you'll see soon.

Julia:  Once we have to be in a car together for extended periods of time, it might— it might get all fucked up. 

Eric:  Honestly, I'm more excited about that. The flying is like stressful just because it's like scheduled to schedule, but like the— the driving— driving is just going to be tight. 

Julia:  Can we get Popeye's pizza in between Boston and New York, guys? 

Eric:  If we have time, yeah.

Amanda:  Probably.

Julia:  I'd like to do that. 

Amanda:  Yeah, that's really good. 

Eric:  So, like, I'm already— I'm excited about another one. Like, the more people who go to these shows, and the more people who buy the VODs, both contemporaneously and also when Amanda puts them online in our— in our shop—

Amanda: jointhepartypod.com/live.

Eric:  —then the more times we can be proving that we can do this.

Julia:  Hell yeah. 

Eric:  And it's already going well, so we're already talking about it, but it's like, "Let's come out and then tell us where you live." We're going to do another survey as we always do. We're going to do it in the summer. We're gonna do another survey about where y'all live and we're gonna go to those places.

Brandon:  Maybe we will do—maybe we can do just like a live only survey where it's like, "Just tell us where you live."

Amanda:  Yeah. Yeah. Y'all are showing up, you're showing out. We are so excited. The VODs look crisp. They look great.

Eric:  Yeah.

Julia: Crisp.

Amanda:  We're filming them with a real camera and then putting in the good audio, so that they are—

Brandon:  Shout-out to Amanda.

Amanda:  —quality VODs.

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Amanda:  Yeah, except in Seattle, where the audio is good, but not crisp.

Brandon:   Yeah. Shout out to—

Amanda:  Which is okay.

Brandon:  —Zoom Corporation who has, one, excellent recorder that I'm recording into and one that just— just broke.

Amanda:  Absolutely sucks.

Brandon:  Wee!

Eric:  The audio— I don't think we're going to be able to publish the audio for the Seattle, so you can only enjoy that VOD.

Amanda:  You can only do it in the VOD. Yeah.

Brandon:  Uh-hmm.

Eric:  Yeah. 

Julia:  Uh-hmm.

Amanda:  Incredible. I'm having so much fun. Let's all get some burgers, what, have cheeses inside.

Brandon:  Yeah!

Julia:  Yes, yes, yes. 

Eric:  Yur.

Amanda:  Okay. Bye, everybody. 

Eric:  So, what are you saying, that like if a skeleton was at the top of a hill in Minneapolis and then rolled down that, and then it would like turn into a snowball as it went down and it kept going?

Amanda:  Oh.

Eric:  What do you think you would call that happening? What would you do? Would you say that it was going to be over the —when it was doing it, you'd have to—

All:  Roll them bones!

Brandon:  Lucy Juicy.

Amanda:  Bye.

Julia:  Later.

Brandon:  Bye.

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