Emptying out an arena, seeing the story forest for the trees, and working a magic SmartBoard. This is the Afterparty, where we sit down after every episode to break down our game and answer your questions about how to play at home.
Find Us Online
- website: jointhepartypod.com
- merch: jointhepartypod.com/merch
- patreon: patreon.com/jointhepartypod
- twitter: twitter.com/jointhepartypod
- facebook: facebook.com/jointhepartypod
- instagram: instagram.com/jointhepartypod
- tumblr: jointhepartypod.tumblr.com
- music: brandongrugle.bandcamp.com
Cast & Crew
- Dungeon Master: Eric Silver
- TR8c (Tracey): Brandon Grugle
- Inara Harthorn: Amanda McLoughlin
- Kohl: Julia Schifini
- Creative Contributors: Connor McLoughlin, Heddy Hunt, Julia Schifini, Mischa Stanton
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is a collaborative storytelling and roleplaying podcast. That means friends creating a story together, chapter by chapter, that everyone from seasoned players to true beginners can enjoy. Where else can you get adventure, intrigue, magic, drama, and lots of high fives all in one place? Right here.
After each episode we sit down for the Afterparty, where we break down our game and answer your questions about how to play Dungeons & Dragons and other roleplaying games at home. We also have the Punchbowl, an interview series with people pushing D&D forward creatively, communally and socially. It’s a party, and you’re invited! Find out more at jointhepartypod.com.
Transcript
[theme music]
Amanda: Hey, hi, hello! Welcome to the Afterparty, where I am suffering from a severe onslaught of exposition.
[Eric laughing]
I don’t know about you guys.
Eric: So hurtful!!
Amanda: Whoa, boy, whoa, baby. I don't know if I can take all of this long form plot coming to bear…all at the same time.
Brandon: Was that a Milligan joke?
Amanda: No.
Brandon: Oh, okay.
Amanda: Bear though, which I like.
No, not that it's abrupt. Or bad. It just that there are so many questions being answered! And I don't know how to deal with that.
Eric: Sorry that I've been so cagey before…
[Amanda laughing]
And now I’m being straightforward. Listen, Franny just wants to be your friend and she will tell you everything you need to know.
Brandon: [chuckling] The more you say that, the more I think that she's gonna be the Big Bad.
[Amanda & Eric laughing]
And we’ve just been screwed the whole time.
Julia: And we just handed over 2 artifacts to her.
Brandon: Yep. Is she an actual friend…?
Amanda: Wow, Julia Schifini!!
Brandon: Ahh!
Eric: Oh!! Julia Schifini!
[Everyone joins in being surprised]
Amanda: Welcome!!
Eric: [chuckling] Were you here the whole time?
Julia: No, only in your dreams.
Eric: Ah, of course.
Brandon: Welcome back.
Julia: Yeah. I almost died last time.
Brandon: You did.
Julia: That sucked.
Amanda: But you had a long rest that lasted for 3 episodes…now you're back.
Julia: That's me. I'm back!
Amanda: We didn't tell you a lot off mic about what actually happened in between.
Julia: No, I just came back and y'all were ruining my dressing room.
Amanda: Yeah.
[Eric chuckling]
Brandon: Yeah, about that…
Eric: [still laughing] That feels like so long ago.
[Amanda laughing]
Like we're past that, we’re saving the world Julia.
Julia: I've moved on, and so have we all.
Brandon: But like, in real life, if I broke into your house, like you'd be chill about it…right?
[Amanda & Eric laughing]
Julia: It really depends on the state that you left my house in, probably.
Amanda: Yeah, did you clean it when you left? If, so…okay.
Julia: Did you at least run the Roomba?
Brandon: Yeah, of course.
Julia: Alright, cool.
Brandon: Yeah, yeah.
Julia: Then we're good.
Eric: Listen, I broke into your house. Mike made a big mess. But now...he left.
Amanda: No, but really, what did you expect to come home to?
Julia: Not that!
Amanda: [chuckling] How did it compare to what you found?
Julia: I thought I was just gonna come, and go to work, and like do my thing. Maybe do some wrestling. And now I'm trying to save the world? I don't know.
Eric: In my head, Kohl was just like out getting fries.
Julia: Yeah. She just had a real good sandwich.
Eric: [chuckling] And then she comes back to all of this.
Julia: I personally just want to go get a sandwich with extra dressing now.
Eric: Little extra dressing room, coming right up.
Julia: Mhm.
Amanda: Yeah, sorry you haven’t been able to fight. I bet you fight real good.
Julia: I bet I do too.
Amanda: But so far, we’re just doing a lot of talking.
[Eric laughing]
Julia: I bet - I bet I'll get to fight…next episode.
Brandon: Isn’t that what wrestling is about? It's just like a bunch of people talking in a room.
Amanda: Mostly.
Brandon: That’s what wrestling is.
Julia: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brandon: Yeah, I've never seen it.
Julia: Mmm, okay.
Brandon: But that's what I've heard.
Julia: It checks out.
Brandon: And it’s all fake.
Julia: I – excuse me, it’s real to me, Brandon.
[Brandon chuckling]
Brandon: Yeah, the conversations are fake.
Julia: Yes, it’s the conversations are fake.
Eric: The conversations are real; the wrestling is less real.
Amanda: So usually I try to take this chronologically, but in this case, I need to know everything about empty arena matches. What the heck is this?
Julia: So, I'm trying to think of some…
Amanda: This is real?
Julia: Yes, this is a real thing. Usually it is a pre-recorded match because obviously you need to have a pre-recorded match.
Amanda: But it takes place in a – in a literal empty stadium?
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: For what purpose?
Julia: I think one of the most famous ones was one that was done at Madison Square Garden actually, uh which is very close to here.
Brandon: They booked MSG and then just [chuckling] didn't have anyone buy tickets?!
Julia: So, no. What they did was they had an empty arena match. And they recorded the empty arena match before people came in for the actual show.
Brandon: [in understanding] Ahhh…
Eric: That’s dope.
Amanda: So, a long mic check?
Julia: Yes, a very, very long mic check where people just, uh, threw each other around for a bit.
[Brandon laughing]
Amanda: In college, I worked at a theater where SNL and Jimmy Kimmel sometimes shot like prerecorded bits to air later. They were my favorite jobs to work because it would start pretty early, and I was up early anyways. They'd be like there at 7 in the morning.
Brandon: This was seven in the morning in college, Amanda?
Amanda: Yeahhh.
Brandon: Oh my god. [laughing]
Amanda: Yeahhh.
Brandon: We had very different college experiences.
Amanda: We did.
Eric: I was super asleep by that time.
Amanda: Um, but they had to have house managers there. So, I just got to show up, hang out in a chair, and read, like in the back of the auditorium while they shot whatever and there were no patrons, there are no tickets. It was beautiful. I could wear sweatshirt if I wanted to.
[Brandon chuckling]
Amanda: It was like the best.
Eric: And like a professional film crew…so you didn't have to do anything?
Amanda: Oh yeah, no. We had – the lighting and sound guys had to calibrate the stuff and make it look good. But I was just there to hang out. It was great.
Brandon: That's awesome.
Amanda: Is this usually a particular kind of match? Or serve a particular purpose for the storyline? Or just, it's like a thing that they can do.
Julia: Um, it's usually a hardcore match. So, like they can use weapons and stuff like that to injure each other.
Amanda: Great.
Julia: And the point of not having the fans there is basically like, they can do whatever they want. And no one's gonna stop them, kind of thing.
Amanda: Wow.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: Wrestling, is wild y'all.
Julia: Wrestling is wild.
Eric: That's why it's part of our Dungeons and Dragons game.
Brandon: I've seen to 2 wrestles…in my life.
Eric: Good job…
Amanda: Oh, really?
Eric: Good job.
Brandon: And I don't remember anything.
Amanda: Fair enough.
Brandon: I do you remember the undertaker. Uh, he scared me.
Amanda: As he should.
[Brandon laughing]
He’s a scary dude.
Eric: He's a very scary man. He's scares me now.
Amanda: I remember seeing Julia’s husband and some of our friends from high school redoing famous wrestling matches on stage where I was in charge of them during high school theater. Technical, you know, work nights. That was always a mix of fun and just like “Oh, no. Oh no, you’re going to break your necks”.
Brandon: Yeah, extreme terror? Yeah,
Julia: They would do table ladders and chair matches.
Amanda: Oh yeah. There were like 12-foot ladders. They had folding tables, they would jump off the stage on to tables…
Brandon: Where were your teachers?!?
Julia: Not there.
Amanda: There were no teachers! There was one teacher who was like playing guitar in his classroom while the rest of us built sets.
Julia: Yep. Yeah…
Eric: Hey, did you guys do high school theater in high school?
Julia: I don't know, did we?
Amanda: [defensively] Eric!! I don't come into your house and call you out for doing the same anecdote a lot!
Eric: What do I do?
Brandon: [laughing] Dungeons and Dragons.
Eric: Yeah, for running - you don’t come into my house and tell this story that your inhabiting!
Amanda: Symbolism? I don't know.
Eric: [tauntingly] Nahh, uhm.
Brandon: Eric, I want to know…so we basically got all the plot revealed to us at this point?
[Eric cackles]
Amanda: Yeah, yeah.
Brandon: This is the first time this has happened.
Amanda: It was cool. Brandon, how was your Sunday? [slowly gets quieter] Oh, we just found out that the whole campaign we’ve been working on for over 2 years and…
Brandon: Just found out that my species - that I'm the one of my kind.
Amanda: Yeah, mhm.
Brandon: They're all evil, apparently.
Amanda: Your dad is Satan.
Brandon: My dad is the devil. And um…
Julia: Not Kohl though.
Brandon: Uh, yeah, it's fine. How do you feel about ruining my life?
Julia: Aww.
Eric: I mean, if you're surprised about this, though, like, I don't know where you've been for the last 40 or so episodes. Honestly, it feels weird for me to do this large chunk of like, exposition, because people have been giving you parts of them, before.
The Speaker did this like, in the beginning of this arc, the Undying Light has popped in and out to give you like prophecies and things like this all kind of like arranges everything. I mean, I said this about The Speaker too but it's like, this stuff was pretty close.
Brandon: How long have you had baked in your head? That's a weird way to say that.
[Eric & Brandon chuckling]
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: How long have you had that just like rattling around in your in your brain space? Or did you come up with a lot of it recently?
Eric: The overarching part I think I had for a pretty long time definitely around Pool Party, I think is when it really started to take shape. Um, and you know, every single thing goes forward, then you can like link different storylines with each other.
The first episode is Johnny turning Tracey on and I'm like, how is that possible? What does Johnny have that makes Tracey like come back to life? And I'm like, oh, it's because the Undying Light powers electronics. It has that ability. And I think it's something that's been kicking around in my mind for a while but it’s pretty good.
Amanda: How about, the stars from episode 1 or 2?
Eric: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I knew that. I knew that something was going to come out in the first episodes. But I didn't know if it was the Council of Bright necessarily, but I knew that they were something, a story, locked behind those 5 stars.
Amanda: Wow.
Brandon: I just like, I like that you said a story locked behind the stars. That's good.
Eric: Yeah, man.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: That’s how it do.
Julia: Very good.
Amanda: That's awesome. Oh, man. In my notes for the afterparty. I wrote fantasy SMART Board.
[Eric squeals]
And I really appreciate how that exposition - cause I didn't feel like you were telling us a story. It felt like Franny was giving us information that we had, like enticed out of her, which I really appreciated.
Eric, how much sort of preparation and writing down that narrative did you have? Versus in character, in the moment, telling us this background?
Eric: I wrote a lot of this down because I realized that Tracey wasn't interested with the bits and pieces I was giving him. So, it felt like I needed [laughing] to kind of lay it out for him because Tracey would not acknowledge I guess the story about himself unless you tell a whole story.
Let's think about the times that you've seen warforged before. It was in the basement of Bachelorette Party. Where do those warforged come from? You can turn warforged into mech suits? It's like, well, that's weird. And then like the fact that people were so confused that Tracey was happening, there was the nursery rhyme about the Council of Bright in the library of, um…
Amanda: God, anything that rhymes is creepy.
Eric: Franny was kind of leading some of this stuff out there. And I realized that just like, either Brandon didn't see the forest for the trees, or Tracey didn't. Either way, like I definitely wanted to make this very clear, because it felt like it wasn't hooking anybody.
Amanda: Well, I mean, it was always something more urgent at stake, like we could not because there was a literal threat, tunneling toward us, coming from the house in the basement of bachelor party, we couldn't like stop and interrogate that a lot. Or the sources were untrustworthy. So, I definitely get it. But this is the first, I think, NPC besides Kohl that we've decided to, like, make an alliance with and kind of listened to.
Eric: I definitely don't want to say, it's not a bad thing. Believe me, that makes me as a DM, I need to figure out what's happening and tell the story properly. Because like, if this is still a tease, and it's not like, obviously, I think it is to me, I need to have a presentation, I guess.
Brandon: Yeah. As player Brandon, I fully understand where you are going and what you are trying to get to. As like trying to get the motivation of Tracey, we've talked about this for like, Tracey, doesn't like he thinks of himself and is an individual. He doesn't it's like the metaphor we said before. It's like, it's neat to get my ancestry.com genealogy, but doesn't really affect anything I'm doing in the present.
So, like, the hook that you gave me this time was, hey, your dad is the devil. And all of your siblings are dead. And you still have no idea where you come from. And so, like the hook is, oh, now Tracey's and we'll see how this plays out. I generally don't know. But now we'll see if Tracey is still on the same page with everyone like, does he want to stop the Council of Bright from coming out? Back?
Like, I don't know, apparently the devil is the only thing that has any answers in any real way. And Tracey has been probing, uh, for how he's been made. And if apparently the only way to do it that anyone has any idea of how to make his species is this one guy. So, like, maybe he needs to get him back? I don't know. Like, we still don't know how to Tracey was made. We still don't know if he was made from the Council of Bright. But we still don't know if someone else has the secret. That's the thing, the carrot has been dangled in front of him, of having an actual people again. That wasn't the case before. He knows very realistically, pragmatically, if he just makes that medallion spin one more time, he could have a people. Whereas before it was like, “Oh, you're old.” You know?
Eric: I mean, that's all anybody knew, honestly.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: I mean, you got to go find somebody who's over 1100 years old to get those answers.
Brandon: Right exactly, yeah. The difference is like, knowing my great-great-grandfather lived in Germany in a cool time, and then someone saying, “Do you want to meet him?”.
[Brandon chuckles]
Amanda: Yeah, and that's a that's a classical motivation is for somebody to choose between, like enforcing, or protecting the life that they have now versus finding out more about where they come from. And that is really powerful. So, I'm nervous as Inara but I'm excited as a player to see how this pans out.
Brandon: Yeah, maybe Trace will have a heel turn.
[Julia & Amanda gasp]
I'm looking at Eric and Julia.
Amanda: Wow.
Brandon: Because I said a wrestling thing.
Julia: You used it right.
Brandon: I did a good thing.
Eric: Well, we’ll see!
Brandon: I don’t know why it’s called a heel turn still.
Julia: Heels are the, uh, bad guys.
Brandon: Yeah, but why – why are they called a heel?
Amanda: But like an open-faced sandwich versus the end of the bread. The end of their bread is great. Fight me!!
[Eric laughs]
Julia: No, I think it's like…
Brandon: Or like a foot? Is what I was thinking…?
Julia: Yeah, like, turning on your heel is like going the complete opposite direction.
Brandon: [in understanding] Oh….
Julia: Like making a 180.
Brandon: Okay, let's do the bread instead.
Amanda: I like the bread.
Julia: [laughing] I like the bread too.
Amanda: Because I think it's not that the person is subjectively bad. You just have to understand them better.
[Eric & Brandon laughing]
Brandon: [excitedly] Just like bread!!
Eric: Just like understanding bread better.
Julia: We’re making wrestling ay more complex than it actually is.
Amanda: Listen, listen. I've cast away my childish things like cutting the crust off my bread. The crust is what you live for.
[Brandon laughing]
Eric: Something that I was actually really proud of, this is like before the whole thing. I love that Casey's a pushover. Like [laughing] that was something that I wanted to communicate after Sarah, like just like brushed by him the first time. I'm just like, “Oh, yeah, you guys can just like tell Casey to fuck off like whatever”.
Brandon: Like you just pick him up from Area 1 and move him to Area B.
Eric: Yeah, like he's a big bounty hunter. But like really, he just has a job at a Radioshack and just like fuck off.
[Eric laughs]
Amanda: And I like how our knitted or crocheted walkie talkie works. That was fun to use.
Eric: Absolutely. I - that was a great item. I mean, Amanda actually came up with that during that session. She was like, “I need a way to talk to Franny. So, like, Is there like a magical like porthole I can use?” and I'm like, “That's a - Yes, there is!”.
Julia: Now there is!
Amanda: Sure.
Brandon: Julia, how much of this episode was just wild nothingness [chuckling] to your brain?
Julia: Um, I mean, I feel like I know y'all enough that I was like, oh, okay! I have somewhat context for this. So, I figure I'm just gonna roll with it.
[Everyone chuckling]
Eric: I will say that before this started, I was like, “Julia, how much do you want to know?” You're just like, “Just enough as Kohl would know.” And I'm like, “All right. Well, Alabaster picked you up, and you slept for 24 hours, then you have a black eye and now you're just like training for your wrestling”. And that's all you knew.
Julia: Yep. And then I came in after eating my sandwich.
Eric: And a large fries.
Julia: And so much happened.
Eric: And everything's broken.
Brandon: Can you get fries at Jersey Mike's?
Eric: I assumed that she wouldn't even go - Oh, she ended up going to Jersey Mike's.
Julia: I did.
Eric: Probably, I don’t know.
Julia: Because you said I could have gone to Quiznos and we joked that it was Jersey Mike’s.
[Eric & Amanda chuckling]
Amanda: You could have gone to Soup River for fries and then…
Eric: [yelling] SOUP RIVER!!!!
Amanda: And then also have gotten a sandwich.
Eric: [continues yelling] SOUP RIVER!!!
Julia: I legitimately want to go to Soup River right now.
[Amanda laughs]
Brandon: Does Soup River just have a bunch of dipping accompaniments, like that you can get? Is there like a cold bar where you can get like bread and fries? And like pretzels?
Amanda: There's the bread barge at Soup River…
[everyone gasps in astonishment]
And it goes around the river and you can pick out whatever you want!
Julia: I love this so much.
Amanda: Liquids and breads is all I need!!!
[Eric giggles]
Julia: Why is this not real?
[Amanda laughs]
Eric: [yelling] SOUP RIVER!
Amanda: Well, listen, listen, guys. When podcasting doesn't pay off, and we're the ones who don't get rich from it…
Eric: Hey…. heyyyy.
Amanda: We have our franchise idea.
Brandon: Or everyone listening, go to Patreon right now. Give us all the support, so we can use this money to start a storefront.
Julia: If we get 100,000…patrons.
Brandon: Yeah, I just need like $500,000 y'all.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: It’s just like…
Julia: We’ll make a Soup River!
Eric: Hey, hey, all the venture capital investors…Everyone else, leave the room. This is just for the venture California investors. Hey, what's going on?
Brandon: Hold on, I got to leave.
Eric: Get it Brandon, get out of here. Hey…
[Brandon imitates door closing, Eric laughs]
[Eric imitates shuffling]
Hey, venture capitalists. This Dungeons and Dragons podcast is definitely worth like, at least a few million dollars. Please invest in me and how I can do dumb character voices that people enjoy. Alright, everybody else come back in.
Brandon: [yelling from afar] DO YOU NEED ANYTHING FROM THE KITCHEN?!
Eric: No, Brandon, I'm fine. We have to finish the Afterparty.
Brandon: Okay!! Hold on.
Julia: I want a bagel, please!
[Brandon chuckling]
[Eric imitates sounds of people coming back in]
Eric: So, I just talked to the VC…
Brandon: Did they invest?
Eric: No.
[Brandon & Eric laughing]
Brandon: Oh…
Eric: [laughing] There's no money in other people’s games.
Amanda: They passed. The sharks swam past Soup River.
Eric: [more quietly] Soup River!
Yeah, I don't know, I feel a little self-conscious about this. I feel of two minds. One. I'm like, man, I need to tell my characters and my players what's going on in their world. So, that they're more informed and can do the things that they're supposed to do instead of like, waiting around in the darkness and being like, Oh, this all just happened? What are you talking about?
On the other hand, I feel very self-conscious that I monologued for like 20 minutes in a gravelly voice no less, but still. So, it's like, you need stuff like this, but you don't and like we're kind of moving towards the end game of the story. So, it's like, I know it has to happen, but I don't know. I feel both happy that I did this and conflicted and [chuckling] I hope that it is a good episode.
Julia: I personally when I'm listening to actual play podcasts, I love and exposition episode. I love learning about the plot in that kind of way. So, I was totally enraptured the whole time.
Amanda: Me too! I mean, I really just love being at the table and like listening to you paint your word picture, like we’re not in Astoria, in an apartment, you know, recording or they're in that dark room in the back of Electroshack, watching these cool bright lines tell the story of my world. That's so cool to me as a - as a player and as a character. It feels like my character is being rewarded for unlocking this source of information.
Because for a little while there, you know, we're chasing the immediate term thing like we're need to find Alonzo, or we need to, you know, get out of the city or we need to find this new city. But it feels like, I don't know, I was trying so many different things to unlock this kind of information. And so, to finally choose the right door and the right character and the right negotiating tactic to make her play ball, feels great.
Eric: I forgot about this! You guys made a fake item.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeahhh.
Eric: I can’t like - that threw me for a loop when y'all first did that. I don't understand what the end game was. Like I had to roll with it…
Brandon: I do not trust this hag, period.
Amanda: No, we didn’t either.
Brandon: Not even a little bit, I still don’t. She's not my friend. She will never be my friend. She did THE KIDNAP.
Eric: [laughing] She was also extremely afraid of you.
Brandon: GOOD.
Eric: I think that's…well.
Amanda: Well, what if she grabbed the artifact and that was like the last one, she needed? And she like, you know, disappeared into the astral prison?
Julia: We didn't really know what her motivation was, so…
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Sure, I guess like in my head, I'm like, okay, she's gonna tell them everything that they need to know about the world. And they're like, “WHO IS THIS WITCH!?!?
[Everyone laughing]
WHAT THE FUCK?!?”
So, I guess that makes a lot of sense to me.
Brandon: That's also something that I think a lot of like DMs could take away and honestly should take away for, of how to tell exposition within your story. Like this idea of doing it in fiction versus like the opposite approach, which can be like cinematically having a non-diegetic narrator. Someone who's like not in the fiction, but is speaking, sort of like in a voiceover on top of film, which is what a lot of people do. But what I really, really love about your DM style is that yeah, it's in fiction. Like Amanda just said, you're not Eric telling me a story, you’re a character telling my character, an important plot point.
Eric: Yeah, I guess that's like, my only cover is like, I feel like I'm doing a good job. If I have a character saying it. It's not just me. But I'm also self-conscious about things that I write down or not make sure if they work.
Amanda: I mean, it's not a cover, you know, you're not - we're not like walking into a new village and the first person is like the village lad newsy boy, it's just like, [newsie-voice] “Did you hear there was a robbery?” And like…
Eric: [excitedly exclaims in newsie-voice] EXTR-E EXTR-E! Read all about it!! The stars are keeping a man back!
[Julia laughing]
Amanda: Yeah, or like, oh, wow, here's an encyclopedia with a history of the world in the front! Oh, you didn't know? You know, you're not giving us information because it's now time for us to have the information, like our characters, you know, need this in order to move forward, sure. But also, we found the person, we did her task, you know? And this is the right time for us to know this stuff. And frankly, I don't think we would have cared or stayed to listen, if it wasn't this urgent, that we understand it.
Julia: Yeah, it definitely felt narratively earned.
Eric: Well, good. I was talking to Connor about this a lot. I was like, I don't know when I'm going to put this fucking monologue in the middle of the story. He was like “Yeah, just like make sure that it makes sense. And they're talking about it”. Originally, I had no idea what I was going to do. I was just like, oh, obviously, Undying Light juice can be used for many different things. I actually didn't write that down on the fly. I'm just like, yep, it's a - it's a move and bait thing. Sounds good. We're gonna do that.
Brandon: Which, look for Undying Light juice in your local CVS.
Eric: And Michaels…
Brandon: And Michaels.
Julia: It’s a great addition to smoothies.
[Eric chuckles]
Brandon: Yes.
Amanda: Yeah, listen, it's not illegal.
[Brandon & Eric laughing]
I mean, I went to college in that brief window where Four Loko was discouraged, but technically allowed.
Eric: True. The original Four Loko made people just like, run around and die.
Brandon: And this Undying Light juice…
Eric: And this Undying Light juice, yeah.
Amanda: Well, I'm living the CBD life. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julia: Well, they’ve started to crack down on it in like restaurants and stuff now. Kinda sucks.
Amanda: Well, they can't have my juice.
Julia: Nope. They can still sell it over the counter. They just can't like put it in food.
Amanda: Okay, fair enough.
Julia: New York City.
Amanda: Just saying. The only time I went to the hospital freshman year was when my friend who lived on my floor drank 3 Four Lokos and the next day during a fire drill needed to leave…
[Eric laughing]
And I decided to take her to the hospital.
Eric: 3 Four Lokos is wild.
Julia: That’s way too many.
Amanda: It’s too much.
Eric: It’s too many. Their constitution saves…
Amanda: No, no.
Eric: What I did like about the way that this played out was that I had the opportunity to tell a story. I thought it was just gonna have to come out of nowhere but just like letting you guys ask questions was very exciting for me. And I will say how well you do in the next episode…. absolutely has a bearing over what's going to happen for the rest of the podcast. Like I do not know - I don't know what’s…
Brandon: No pressure at all!
Eric: No, but…
Amanda: But Eric!! Then it's up to the fates in the form of the dice to determine what happens! That sucks!!
Eric: No, it's good. It's your gameplay and the way that you interact with this. I have like a bunch of different consequences for depending on how well you do, what happens here. So, like I'm very excited. Like I don't know what happens next. Like at some point is like, Oh, you guys let the fucking bone whale go and it eats Antipolis. And then you leave! That's fine. I honestly have no idea what's gonna happen next.
Brandon: Uh, spoilers. I will roll poorly.
[Eric laughing heartily & clapping in amusement]
Yes…
Amanda: Wow, that’s Eric’s favorite joke that he’s ever heard.
Eric: It’s a great joke. You might need new dice.
Julia: I can bring you new dice.
Brandon: I have 8 sets now.
[Mixture of sympathy & Eric laughing]
And they all suck!
Eric: I’ll have to give you my red dice.
Julia: Well, it’s because you’re leaving some of these on like, 2’s and 3’s!
Brandon: [teasing] Alright. Let's get that Juju crap out of here.
[Eric chuckles]
Julia: Just sayin.
Amanda: Well, I'm really glad Julia was here. Because in the moment, we looked at each other, you know, when the question was asked, like, Oh, well, we need a place to do this. And Brandon and I were like, “I don't know my guy...”. My first thought was, I don't know where zoobe lives? That's already kind of wrecked. [chuckling] But Julia was here and had an incredible contribution in universe, in plotline, in theme, and I'm super happy for it. This feels like the way it should be.
Brandon: Do we have to like - like pay you?
Julia: Yeah, yeah. That's it's, it's it's per idea.
Brandon: Okay, cool.
Eric: Very good. I was hoping one of you would say that.
Julia: Really?
Eric: I was really hoping, well, cause like in my head…
Amanda: It wasn’t going to be Brandon or me!
[Amanda laughing]
Eric: I honestly didn’t know! I was like someone was gonna think of it. I had 2 ideas. And then of course, if you guys threw something off the wall. Alonzo/The Midnight Man/ The Council of Bright, obviously want some juice, right? So, where's the juice? It's in the Electroshack, or in a turned-on stadium. But I also like the dark stadium way more. So, I thought that like everything else was going to go dark except for the stadium. But I really want to see what you guys come up with.
Amanda: Yeah, well, then the barrel of energy will stand out even more because it's in the middle of a of a void.
Eric: Yeah, that's a great idea.
Brandon: Now we are going to edit this to make sure that your idea does sound like our idea, but that's fine.
[Eric laughing]
Julia: That's fair. I get it.
Brandon: Soo…
Julia: I've been a freelancer for long enough, I know what’s up.
[Eric & Brandon laughing]
Amanda: You can submit your train ticket expenses and we will get in touch with you about the rest.
[Brandon laughing]
Eric: Like 90 days from now I still would not have paid you.
Amanda: We’ll be in touch.
Brandon: Can you sign this 10 page contract real fast?
Julia: Uh, yeah.
Brandon: Don’t read it.
Julia: Nah, I don’t need to read it or anything. Cool, cool, cool.
Brandon: It’s chill.
Eric: It's true. Everything that you've created it actually now Brandon’s property. It’s fine.
Julia: It checks out.
Amanda: I actually recently had someone ask me for a 2019 W-9 instead of the one I'd given them in 2018 because their invoice was four months overdue. And I was like my guy! This was due in November! NOT my fault!
Eric: [chuckles] Got him!
Brandon: And that's the story of how Amanda murdered her first victim.
Amanda: First?
Eric: And that's the story all about how multitude really needs their money.
[Amanda laughing]
Amanda: Yep.
Eric: Well, Julia, I'm very happy you're going to be here for at least one more episode.
Julia: Me too! Don’t make it sound like I’m going to die in the next episode!
Eric: No! You’re not!!
[Amanda & Julia laughing]
Honestly, I – my…
Julia: I’ve already come very close…
Amanda: We’ll send you adrift on the bread barge in the Soup River, the way she would have wanted…
Julia: [laughing] Nooo!
[Brandon joins in laughing]
That’s so sad!!
Brandon: You just ruined all the soup! It’s just contaminated!!
Eric: Listen, when I die. I want to be sent out in a Viking bread funeral.
Julia: Yes, me too.
Eric: I just want to be sent out there and my boat becomes super toasted.
Julia: Put it on my will.
Amanda: A little crostini.
Eric: A crostini on the soup of life.
[Julia & Brandon laughing]
[Eric sings]
Amanda: That's it, that’s the whole thing.
Eric: I added these now so it’s gonna stop, now!
[Brandon laughing]
Amanda: Well, thank you, Julia. And we will see you next time.
Julia: It was great being here, thank you.
Brandon: Bye!
Eric: Bye!
Julia: Bye. You can't see me now!
[Eric sings again with Julia joining in]
Amanda: Okay, well, thank you for joining us in this newest bend of the soup river of life. I'm just really running with this.
Brandon: Are we all just really hungry?
Eric: I think so.
Amanda: We're so hungry. We're so hungry.
Okay, well listen as we go to shove some soup or bread or ramen in our faces, please join us at jointhepartypod on Twitter, on Instagram with Facebook group and of course on Patreon, which is your portal to the greatest bread barge on the internet, our Discord!
[Eric & Brandon laughing]
Where I am this week, please go in and ask the people in our Discord to tell us in our chopped the food channel, the greatest soup you have ever consumed. I really just want to know,
Brandon: I need to know your bread accompaniment as well.
Amanda: I need to know your bread accompaniment, man. Thank you, Brandon. That was the important part of that message. And I almost overlooked it.
[Brandon & Eric laughing]
Seriously, your support is what allows us to record this to pay the people who work on the show to keep this going. And to keep making time to do this wild stuff. I can't even approach estimating the number of dozens and dozens of hours that all of the people who work on the show put into it. And it's our pleasure. It also costs money and we need to put some soup in our bodies occasionally in between editing and writing.
So, thank you for your support. If you are in the position to give us even $1 per episode. It means the world to us. That's at patreon.com/jointhepartypod.
Brandon: Are you going to make the bread joke or...?
Eric: No. You go ahead.
Brandon: We need to eat soup. So, you got to give us your bread.
Amanda: Wow
Brandon: Cause bread is money, get it?
Amanda: What if people send us actual bread instead? That frankly wouldn’t be bad, yeah.
[Brandon & Amanda laughing]
Eric: Crostini. I just wanted to contribute to the conversation.
Amanda: Alright, I think we're all of critically low blood sugar. So, we are going to run, and we'll see you in 2 weeks with the new episode.
Brandon: Bye guys!!
Eric: You don't have to go home but you can't stay here.
[theme music]