How do you build a massive mountain lobster? How long did we know that some folks were pixelated? And what hot dogs are the best hot dogs? All that and more on the Afterparty!
Here’s the Shadow of the Colossus D&D zine, a completo, Crif Dogs, and a Seattle dog.
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Cast & Crew
- Dungeon Master, Co-Producer: Eric Silver
- Co-Host (Milo Lane), Co-Producer, Editor, Sound Designer, Composer: Brandon Grugle
- Co-Host (Aggie O’Hare), Co-Producer: Amanda McLoughlin
- Co-Host (Val Vesuvio), Co-Producer, Editor: Julia Schifini
- Multitude: multitude.productions
About Us
Join the Party is a D&D 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. Begin with Campaign 2 (The Join Campaign) for a modern, sci-fi superhero game, or marathon all of Campaign 1 (The Party Campaign) 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, hello and welcome to The Afterparty. Not the last one.
Julia: No.
Amanda: The one before the last one, which means the penultimate.
Julia and Eric: Oh!
Amanda: A word that I just thought meant 'last' until I was about 26.
Julia: Whooo!
Brandon: Until I was like, you know, 18 I thought it had something to do with, like, written pins like, like pen like the ultimate. I was very confused. I was I was not a very smart-
Amanda: That would make sense.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: -teenager?
Eric: I thought, yeah, I thought it was everyone's favorite writing device that they use.
Brandon: Yeah, me too.
Julia: The ultimate pen.
Amanda: The ultimate pen!
Julia: Wars were fought for that pen.
Brandon: So this is the level of jokes you can- that we're gonna have in this Afterparty.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Brandon, there's an entire hot dog question section. People wanted to know the actual vibe we're bringing to this episode.
Amanda: I love that you said toppings or bottoms, like literally, maybe 120 seconds into the Episode, Episode 56. But we'll get there and due time folks, stick with us. Let's begin, of course, with Episodes 54 and 55. Join us, the kaiju fight. So let's start with this question from Caffeinated Gram: "Eric WTF…" Of course. "...ERIC WTF seriously, how does one go about creating custom monster that are well balanced?” Can you tell us a little bit about what made you think of this giant mountain lobster? Is it just because we let that creature go at the end of the first arc from the dock into the lake? Whence comes this giant mountain lobster? And how do you start coming up with stats for it?"
Eric: That's exactly what happened. I always wanted Monty to come back in some sort of capacity. And I thought that this could start to kick off a lot of the stuff. And it was kind of tied in with some of the bad people who are around in this arc. We had gotten kind of a sign. We have had some other animals before . They've been awakened animals. But we haven't had a giant animal before. We haven't really figured out what the People's River been doing, it floating around.
Brandon: Nice.
Eric: Thank you. That was an aquatic pun. I did that intentionally.
Brandon and Julia: Nice.
Eric: And we really didn't get a chance to go in there because we had to go from Wyvern's perspective in Bro, you had to be there. So we got some stuff about what was going on- what was going on in the area. But I always wanted to bring this in. I was very interested in trying to figure out how to make a giant fights, like a Kaiju fight like your small thing is big in the way that you do in Shadow of the Colossus, which is my main inspiration, I ended up doing a lot of research on how to pull this together. And I found a zine called, On the Shoulders of Colossus by John Battle, you can find their itch, johnbattle.itch.io And you can also find the link in the episode description. And there was this idea of putting those little squares on various limbs and body parts, various body parts of a giant Colossus, for those of you who haven't played Shadow of the Colossus is a PlayStation game where you're literally fighting massive beasts. But of course, like that's the entire game and that becomes like a puzzle like, how am I going to attack this? Is there something that I need to do to bring it down, and it's always like, I'm going to climb up here, I'm going to do this particular strategy, I'm going to get on the head and that's where the weak point is. And I was using that stuff to your advantage. So then when I showed you that map, you know that has all the squares on it. Those are like all the access points, and the various different types of body parts that the kaiju had. And then it was like, you can climb this you can run up it but it's difficult terrain, you can jump on it. Or with the fact that the tail if you broke it's impenetrable armor with a DC 60 attack roll-
Amanda: Eyy!
Eric: -put together then you would crack the armor and the tail would lower so you can run up in that way, so there was a lot of different ways to do that. In terms of balancing, let your players interact with your enemies however they want. Did I think people were going to jump from the highway on to the top of the mountain lobster? You're goddamn right I didn't!
Brandon: I mean, that's a lack of imagination on your part. I mean, that was clearly the right move, Eric.
Amanda: You described a raised highway and a giant thing and we all let- I know physics.
Eric: Oh! You know, I forgot to look at all of your character sheets. And base building game like Fortnite was- I didn't see that on any of your- any of your thing. So I didn't think that was going to happen.
Julia: We're all proficient.
Amanda: Eric, we’ve really grown during the course of this campaign and that's something that we all became proficient in. We all took one level of Fortnite subclass.
Eric: You should have told me because you were, you all told me it was for dancing, and I thought that was fine. But then you decided to do base building instead. So trapping the kaiju there I thought was really smart and then you were able to jump on. But of course, you know you gotta roll with the punches, but you still throw challenges in the way which is while you're gonna get slapped by a mountain giant- mountain lobster claw. Like there's a lot of things that you need to balance at the same time, like getting shot by lasers, getting hit by the claw like. I, you have stat blocks but you have to allow it to be- to show up in any situation possible. And then if someone has an interesting idea, how are the game mechanics going to fit in that?
Amanda: It sounds a lot like your kind of index card method of DMing or metaphor that you've used in the past, which is, you know, people encounter it in whatever order they encounter it, doesn't mean you can't take a card that was not used from two sessions ago and put it in front of your players now.
Eric: Yes, I was trying my best. And also, it was fun taking the old Monty statblock that I had and reworking it to fit with a colossus, which I thought was really fun.
Amanda: Oh my god, I forgot that Monty had stats and attacked us.
Eric: Yeah, he's good boy, he's a good boy.
Amanda: Good boy, big boy. This comes from Cece, problematic midtier: “DM question for Eric: what makes you choose different versions of turn taking? traditional initiative versus everyone on one turn etc”
Brandon: I've been wondering as to how you, how you actually make that decision?
Eric: That's a good question. I guess what I want to ask you three is how did you feel about needing to meet the kaiju where it was at, because I felt that that was very important. But I did want to make this kind of, like, staged idea. Like, your, you have to run, you know, like a video game level, you have to do like half a level and then the other half is a boss battle. Like, how did you feel kind of moving through? And what is the fastest way to get to the mountain lobster?
Julia: No, I thought that was a great idea. And it, you know, if the mountain lobster was just like, right there when we came out of Dr. Morrow's house, the stakes wouldn't have felt as high. But the fact that it was actively destroying our city, and we had a race against time. It really kind of raised the stakes on giant kaiju fight, which already has pretty high stakes on itself.
Brandon: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I loved it. Because, exactly, I think it gave a nice pace to the actual playing of the game, you know, like it ups the stakes-
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: -while we're in it, which I feel and hope translated to tape.
Amanda: I think so too. It reminded me of, like, the Grand Central fight at the end of the first Avengers movie. Where I really got a sense of like, there were other people around us also doing stuff, which definitely happened in that like long sequence as well, where, you know, you can see people kind of in the background doing things, or you kind of cut into different portions of like different heroes dealing with different threats. But the version of this was like stuff was happening in the background are traces and consequences, right, like going one route may meant we lost opportunity somewhere else. And the chance to coordinate with my fellow players in fighting the obstacle and like challenging that beast felt really nice. I sometimes feel during initiative, like, you know, that's the point of initiative, right? Is that you- the order in which you go is not determined by you, it's determined by fate. But having the chance to kind of coordinate against such a big obstacle felt really right and kind of balanced.
Eric: I also really liked that as well. I liked how you had to make choices and how to get there as fast as possible where they navigate what was going on, and having to deal with these many challenges before you got there like Brian Roper and a paramilitary squad, like saving your most hated enemy from a car crash. I thought those were all really interesting, and you dealt with them with aplomb. But that would have slowed you down and we might have had a different situation. There was another question that was asking about what would happen if you didn't intervene with the kaiju?
Amanda: That's from, the QUESTION SURGEON MICHELLE SPURGEON: What-
Eric: Say, Spurgeon!
Amanda: What kind of "...path could the kaiju have made if our heroes hadn’t acted so fast?"
Eric: Yeah, he went 100% would have went from Lake Champlain across the city to Downtown, ultimately ending up with Juice!! with two exclamation points where it would have gotten bigger somehow after eating its supply of one up mushrooms that were still kept in the back. So it would have been a problem. This is also where January and Dez were. You would have met up with them as they were like in downtown waiting for the kaiju to get there but you were able to stop it at a kind of a like a pit point that you were able to- that you were able to figure out by getting there fast enough, though it did destroy a Gaga and they're gonna do a Broadway review to raise money to put the school back together.
Amanda: Stephen Sondheim's hologram will be there. Barbara, AKA Barbara said Will Solita now be called Demolita because it's been demolished?
Eric: 100%! [sings] Seasons of us. But to add to the original question, I like using different initiatives, depending on what we're doing. The game system should fit this sense of scope. This was a big fight with a big monster that also had involved movement and you're getting there. So I thought that you taking turns and fighting against the clock was more important than having an actual initiative, actual initiatives or when you have a specific battle and the thing you're focusing on are the tactics of that battle. So like who is going to go when, when order of who is attacking and where is really important. That's why I like using it. So it's usually like in an enclosed arena, there are a lot of different people involved. Like there are a ton of different enemies there are you also have allies at the same time that those are important or when specifically, it's important to who goes when is when use initiative. But you can also do something really loose, I mean, I've been- I've been thinking about PBTA, Powered By The Apocalypse games a lot. And there's a real good flow into how those fights go, that you can kind of just, like, do actions and some of those actions are punch, and some of those actions are something else. And you can really learn depending on- on how different games fit together.
Brandon: Can I ask you a question about that?
Eric: Please.
Brandon: When we are actually in the middle of doing that, like how do you make it so the moves are equitable? Like, are you just depending on us three, knowing how to play well with each other? Or like, is there a way that other DMS could know how to do that? Or like, what are you thinking when you're deciding like, alright, y'all done a move or y'all have done two moves, it's probably about time the monster goes, or Julia hasn't played in a while, Like, Juia, go. You know what I mean?
Eric: Yeah, for PBTA games, especially like masks or monster of the week, it is if someone is doing too much, you say, hey, what this player, what are you doing? That is very much something that a keeper is supposed to do. With these games- I mean, literally, I'm game designing like I'm making up a fight's game mechanics. So it doesn't need to still be fun. But I think that it's usually like one team goes, then another team goes, that's something that you might find in RPGs in video games, like you're putting your JRPGs, your Final Fantasies, et cetera, or different ones where you slot in different timelines. Or like something like Lancer is also like one team goes, other team goes. And that's usually like big punches where HP is really high is when you can do have one team go or the other team go. I think there's things that you can pull from D&D's past, like the surprise round is something from 3.5, where like, you would get an extra thing for getting the jump on- on someone else. But then you have to roll initiative anyway. But because the surprise is different than that, which I also find very interesting. So if it was going to be like one team goes and the other team goes, and let's say use Brandon, your Milo snuck up on someone because they're invisible, they would get an extra attack, but then I would do something like alright, well, it's gonna be a team fight. You all need a roll initiative. And we're going to use the average and compare that to the other team's initiative average. So like, I do need to, like, make up a game as it- as it is, and games have to account for making sure everyone gets to participate.
Brandon: Shout out to Pokemon Legends: Arceus where I get one move, and then the three Pokemon I'm fighting gets 17 in a row and I die automatically.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: Exactly.
Amanda: Julia, Abby would like to know how it felt to get right at the DC for hitting the sweet spot on the couch, especially when Eric made it maximally dramatique. Good for the show. Bad for us.
Julia: I mean, you were there too, Amanda. So like, I feel like it's a question for both of us. But it really felt like in a comic book or in like a TV show or something like that when, like, all the powers unite, and you see the swirl of everyone's different superpowers. And then-
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: -the power of friendship wins the day. That's what it felt like.
Brandon: It was your rings together, you get-
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: -all the different elements? What were they have said.
Julia: Yeah, Captain Planet explodes out of our rings, and [mumbles]
Amanda: Yeah, yeah. That's the one cartoon my mom watched when she was a kid was Captain Planet and so she would occasionally try to, like, make the Captain Planet thing happen. But like my younger siblings were too young and they were just like-
Brandon: Is that that old, the cartoon?
Amanda: - and runaway? I guess so. I mean, mom's pretty young but...
Eric: Did someone was it a really a fight of who had to be heart? Was that the issue?
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Your mom was like no one of you gets a monkey and they're like [in a child's voice] it's stupid - [Eric mimics a whining child].
Julia: Maybe your mom was thinking of the Wonder Twins, was that a thing? Because they also had rings?
Eric: That also was rings.
Julia: That united and allowed them to have powers.
Amanda: It could be.
Brandon: My favorite band from the 70s is Earth Wind and Fire and Monkeys.
Amanda: Yay!
Eric: Hey! Hey! we're Earth Wind and Fire!
Amanda: I mean ever since the preserver to Multitool change over the first thing I thought about when choosing this subclass from NOCAPES available at jointhepartypodcom/merch was, "Damn, I would have some fun combo moves with the rest of the team and I would definitely have put so much energy into figuring out how to do that." So the chance to enact that on tape and for that to be you know, like, cinematic and lovely moment in the story was so fitting. I don't know if you plan for that, Eric. But it certainly worked out, I think.
Eric: It's funny that you were leaning towards that because although I had a an idea and I had written this down even before we had come together about how to take apart the colossal armor as I had said that the there if you did want to try to destroy this thing, you had to defeat the colossal armor before the its weak points were exposed. You had to do a combo of 60 on an attack, which was what you ended up doing but you could have poured like checks and magic into this together and it just so happened that you want to do that anyway and I kind of like I guided you through how it actually fit into the game mechanics. So I wrote Combo 60 on a single attack pouring magic/checks and one attack busting through the armor will lower- the lower the tail and the underbelly is the throbbing weak point. I don't know if anyone heard me say the word throbbing.
Brandon: Yeah, I think I heard that. But it went-
Julia: Yeah, once or twice.
Eric: I said it many times and people complained, and people complained about it.
Amanda: I don't know. The Discord had nothing to say about it. So...
Eric: Oh, but it was really cool and everyone loved it when I said the word throbbing. I was visceral and everyone responded to it. This isn’t Nintendo's fault, y'all should go check out Yoshi's Island and look at all those dudes with a with a bandaged X on their tummy and a big red spot I don't know what else you want me to call it other than throbbing and of course I always thought the most interesting part was at the melee attack was 15 feet up. So I'm just like you can't just punch it you got to jump and punch it you got to see- I want to see what happens. So, you were able to pull that combo together which I thought was really cool.
Julia: Hell, yeah!
Amanda: One of Aggie’s other combos that hasn't made it into the campaign yet? It's called A Meat in 3. And uhh... I'll just leave that to you to decide what it is.
Julia: Yeah.
Brandon: I was very impressed and proud of you two because I had assumed Eric was like you three should do a team up power remove and, like, battle this lobster. But like, the last second moment I think it was Amanda to bring in the Knight of Mirrors to give you that extra boost like I think that even though I think the Knight of Mirrors roll pretty poorly it was like the extra 12 you needed or whatever.
Amanda: We needed it! Yeah.
[Julia assents]
Eric: Is that what I sound like? I- because I don't like you listening to back to myself, but do I sound like [mimics his supposed DM voice] oh, you should all do a combo move!
Julia: No!
Brandon: No. I sound like in my head when I'm trying to suggest things to people.
Eric: That's your inner voice doing me doing you doing me?
Brandon: Yes. Exactly.
Eric: Oh, okay.
Amanda: Well, speaking of voices, Eric, Absaaw13 would like to know, "Did Triplicate watch Inventing Anna and channel Anna Delvey during the battle? SO POOR!"
Eric: God! I wish there would have been so much fun. That would have been so much fun. I wish I had known that well enough for Triplicate being there. Not a VIP! Not exclusive! You can't use it!
Amanda: VIP
Eric: That would have been incredible.
Brandon: It's just a game of accent telephone because she was imitating-
Amanda: So good!
Brandon: -someone else.
Eric: I was realizing and I gotta start doing this in the stuff that we have coming up. When I want to do voices, they're already impressions and voices I already know and I want to start putting them in. I think it was when we are listening to our favorite podcast, hHey Riddle Riddle and we do an impression of Little Monkey Bones, who was a little whatever that means to you. But definitely in my head, they're like two people-
Julia: The meme explains it.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, little monkey bones, you know? And they're like, Hey, I'm the monkey bones. And I'm like, oh, that's just a South Park voice that they put on this character. I thought that was really great. And I realized that I've been doing a lot of voices because we've been watching all these speaking of-
Amanda: Well, the scammer documentaries.
Eric: All the scammer documentaries, and they all have very specific voice that was you take from somewhere else. Like Elizabeth Holmes is just like you just say the word 'technology' and it stands out.
Brandon (as Elizabeth Holmes): technology!
Brandon: I can't, I can't even do it.
Eric (as Elizabeth Holmes): we are going, we are going to revolutionize the way you look at blood.
Eric: And I love that voice.
Amanda: Eric, we're gonna get hit with an SCC violation if you keep going. Jesus!
Eric: And I want to put that on someone but I also realized that like Jared Leto's accent in we crashed is just him doing a Borat accent.
[Brandon laughing]
Eric: Because Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat voice is just his try him trying to do an Israeli because he put all the Jews of this Jewish stuff into Borat. So it's, he's just like-
Eric (as Jared Leto): My wife!
Brandon (as Jared Leto): My wife.
Eric (as Jared Leto): We crash, we work.
Amanda (as Jared Leto): We teach.
Brandon: No, we work. My bad.
Amanda: Brandon, all the same scam. You're totally right.
[Brandon laughing]
Eric: It's all fun. So I want to like put all of this I feel like I want to put all these voices together. I wish I had done the Anna Delvey voice for Triplicate that would have been perfect.
Amanda: We played this before the documentary came out, unfortunately.
Eric: I know. And that's on me, that's my fault. I should have waited to use best-
Amanda: Shonda has some shit she's cooking up and I need it.
Eric: Everyone's cooking in that fucking show.
Amanda: Everyone's cooking, I know.
Eric: Josh Molina shows up for five minutes as a billionaire. Muah! Perfect!
Amanda: Really?
Eric: Yeah, so good.
Amanda: It's really good. It's really good. We are going to recenter ourselves. Take a break, head to the kitchen, refill our chip bowls, our chips and dips our pretzel sized tray of pretzels. Our charcuterie board, our charcuterie table.
Brandon: Buffalo crayfish.
Amanda: Exactly
Julia: Buffalo crayfish.
Amanda: And-
Eric: I love that we were really still on our shit making making up food in the third to last episode of-
Amanda: Julia, do you regret introducing the-
Julia: No. No.
Amanda: -mountain lobster to this campaign?
Julia: No.
Amanda: Okay.
Julia: No.
Amanda: Because I don't.
Julia: You shouldn't.
Brandon: You ask us, Julia, has the mountain lobster her hat directly behind her camera?
Julia: Literally behind me. It's the one hat that I didn't put in storage when I moved.
Amanda: Yey!
Eric: Yey!
Amanda: Well, I'm gonna go do that in the kitchen, heat up some little pigs in blankets and we'll be right back.
Amanda: Hey, it's Amanda. So, I am in general a cold weather kind of gal. But there is something particularly wonderful about the first week in spring that I'm able to walk to work without a jacket on. And if I am particularly lucky somebody, like, barista or a neighbor or shopkeeper that I have been seeing a lot over the winter. And who sees me without my coat on says like, oh my gosh, do you have tattoos? Or oh my gosh, I like your tattoos. It is a very underrated part of having tattoos that people talk about your tattoos in a lovely way. And just that first moment of being able to go out into the world and saying like, yes, I have made my body into art and now people get to see it. I love it. So let me be your bad influence. Go get tattoos. Welcome to the midroll. First and foremost, thank you to all of our new patrons. Welcome Laura, Kus, Rudy, Knight of Aces, Clay, Dani, Sam, Kiwi, and VK. We really really appreciate your support. Did y'all know that the JTP Patreon Discord is straight up the happiest place on the internet? It is true. We have so many new friends in there as well after we hit our goals over the last couple of months. So there are tons like more than 100 new people to meet and new pets to see. Go to patreon.com/jointhepartypod and become a patron where you can also enjoy the dozens if not hundreds of bonus playlists and stories and recordings and audio that we publish over the last four years. That's patreon.com/jointhepartypod. Just as a reminder on our housekeeping there are three weeks left of Campaign 2! I can't believe it. Next week and the week after our last two story episodes of the campaign. No big deal. And finally a special After Party at the end of the book, the week after that. But when we said no more bad Tuesday's, we meant it, you'll have much much more coming your way after that. It's also a great day to check out another Multitude Show. This week I want to recommend a show that will always remind me of springtime because it came out almost exactly two years ago, the anniversary was last week. It's Next Stop. This is an audio sitcom written by our own Eric directed by our own Brandon and cast and assistant directed by our own Julia. This is all about the turbulent time of your mid to late 20s. When people are changing around you and you're worried you might not catch up. Across the 10 episodes of its first season. Next Stop follows three roommates through work, relationships, friendships and more. And true story, one of our main three characters is now in a Broadway play. One has been on Billions and one is a TikTok star. I'll let you guess who's who. So go to nextstopshow.com or search for Next Stop in your podcast player. It is delightful, we are so proud of it and we hope you enjoy. We are sponsored this week by Hero Forge. Hero Forge offers fully customizable tabletop miniatures with dozens of fantasy species and 1000s of parts to choose from. Their easy to use design tool lets you build your perfect miniature online using a fully 3D and shockingly in depth character creator right there in your web browser. Truly, if I have like 15 minutes between meetings, I will just build a character on Hero Forge because it is so fun to do. These custom minis come in a variety of materials including their new color printed options, and they have downloadable model files for people to 3D print their unique designs at home. So if you have a 3D printer, hey, check it out. That's so cool. Design your unique miniature and get it printed in full color, no painting needed for those of us who think that painting minis is wizardry and science that is unavailable to us with Hero Forge custom color minis. Visit heroforge.com to start designing your custom mini today. And check back often because new stuff is added every week. We're also sponsored by Squarespace. Am I real podcast now because I get to say I'm sponsored by Squarespace? This is a super easy to use and beautiful tool for building your brand and growing your business online. I've been using Squarespace for more than 10 years to run businesses like my resume editing side gig in college, my very first podcast, this podcast and now all of Multitude. Making a website on Squarespace is in fact the part of launching a new podcast that we may or may not be doing soon that makes it feel really real. And they make it very, very easy to do. I love their beautiful custom templates, they have very easy to use SEO tools. So when people Google your business or your project, you can help make sure that you come up when they're looking for the thing that you are. And of course they have online stores to sell physical or digital products. I've done both and it's super easy. If you're launching a podcast brand or business, let Squarespace be your toolkit. Go to squarespace.com/jointheparty for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code: JOINTHEPARTY to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Finally, this podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp online therapy. Relationships take a lot of work. A lot of us will drop anything to go help someone we care about to go out of our way to treat other people. Well give them the benefit of the doubt. But how often do we give ourselves the same treatment? Recently, my therapist asked me to kind of talk to myself as if I was talking to a friend and it was so moving and shocking because I would treat her much better than I would treat myself. And this month BetterHelp wants us to use this ad to remind you to take care of your most important relationship, the one you have with yourself, that might be taking a walk, taking a break to hydrate and to stretch, petting, you know, a soft creature whether that's a pet or a stuffed air bison like I do, or it might be using a tool like therapy, and BetterHelp is online therapy that offers video phone and live chat sessions with your therapist so you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't want to. It is much more affordable than in person therapy, and you can be matched with a therapist under 48 hours. Give it a try and see why over 2 million people have used BetterHelp online therapy. Once more, this podcast is sponsored by better help and join the party listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/jointheparty. That's b e t t e r h e l p.com/jointheparty and now let's get back to the Afterparty.
Amanda: Okay, people to the hot dog corner.
Eric: [as a reporter] This hot dog is going to revolutionize the way we look at snacks. Amanda Seyfried, get that fucking Emmy, girl. She fucking deserves that. She was so good.
Amanda: She really does. Okay, we have many hot dog questions that Eric you have conveniently collected into the hot dog questions corner. First of all, Tinker Beastie would like to know what are your hotdog orders?
Julia: I am a ketchup and stone ground mustard. And I need that hot dog to be either, like, extremely crisp or like burnt on the grill. Yeah.
Brandon: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah
Amanda: I like it.
Brandon: 100% Yeah, I am similar. I either go really simple. Like I want a good hot dog. That's the number one thing, properly charred and like ketchup mustard, maybe? Or I go full out and like it's um, weird, you know?
Amanda: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Totally. I like all hotdogs like even- even like the worst cheapest grocery store kind on a grill on like the most flimsy like white bread bun with knockoff ketchup like I'm- I'm happy I like it. I'll put like a pickle and you know some like potato chips on top. Or not like any- any version of hotdogs, I think is great. Cut it up in your mac and cheese. Like, really? We were a hot dog family growing up and I love them. But much like Aggie I will- I will just get like street dog with ketchup. I don't really fuck with yellow mustard or even stone ground mustard. But I predict I think that Eric is going to I mentioned my most favorite hotdog place in New York City where I will get pretty much anything on the menu because it's all great.
Julia: Crif Dogs?
Eric: Yeah, so I'm gonna talk about Crif Dogs.
Amanda: YEAH!
Brandon: Also the best bar in New York City.
Julia: That's also true.
Brandon: Best place from New York City!
Eric: I first want to say just, I'm I'm very much like Amanda's family. We were very similar. I will put hot dogs as a meat substitute in lots of different things, especially mac and cheese. I've done that recently. It's fucking delicious. I was a ketchup person and my twin brother was a mustard person in the way that you have to choose things when your siblings, so that was- but I've come around on mustard, I love that spicy boy. Yeah, I want to talk about Crif Dogs, which is incredible, incredible hot dog place on St. Mark's in the East Village of New York City. Amanda, Brandon and I when we were drunk in college, we definitely went here many times. And Julia, I'm sure you did the same at whatever age it is you were drunk and had late night Crif Dogs.
Julia: Early 20s!
Eric: Let's go.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: They have tons of amazing stuff. I want to shout out two particular ones that are incredible. There's one called the Chihuahua, which is a bacon wrapped hot dog with sour cream and avocado. And then my personal favorite is the Spicy Redneck, a bacon wrapped Crif Dog with chili coleslaw and pickled jalapenos.
Amanda: My favorites are there's like a peanut butter and bacon one which I think has chips on top and then they have one with a fried egg and American cheese and a bacon wrapped hot dog.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Which Eric, you want to just go off about the construction of that hotdog? Because it is so amazing.
Eric: That one was great. That was pre pandemic that one's I'm not on the list anymore. I think it was like the Pregnant-
Amanda: No, it's there. It's called The Good Morning.
Eric: No, the pickle and peanut butter one.
Amanda: Oh! It was so good.
Eric: We we lost peanut butter in the pandemic, guys. It was called, like, the Pregnancy Craving or something because it was pickles and peanut butter.
Amanda: Whatever. Come at me. I love it.
Eric: No, the delicious way. This one, The Good Morning bacon wrapped Crif Dog fried egg American cheese. It was stacked like it was a bodega sandwich. It was so interesting. Like the egg was below the hotdog-
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: -and then the cheese was on top of everything else. I thought it was really, really interesting. And that was a new one that they brought to Crif dogs
Brandon: Can I blow both your minds right now?
Eric: Please.
Brandon: Do you want to have the best night you've ever have in New York City?
Amanda: Yes.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: You go to PDT assuming you can get in early, go early like see like third on the list like when they arrive when they open get in. So sit at the bar. If you sit at the bar, you can get Crif Dogs.
Julia: That's true.
Eric: Ohhhhh!
Julia: I did that right before I saw Hadestown by myself.
Brandon: Yeah, you can't order it at the table, but I think- I don't think but yeah, if you sit at the bar you get cheese tater tots cheese sauce with tater tots and hot dog and then the best cocktail you get ever and it's the best night.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Damn.
Eric: When the only time I've been there which is you go through Crif Dogs and then you go through a telephone booth into this speakeasy called PDT, Please Don't Tell and you're supposed to, like, punch in the number on the telephone, it's very good. The only time I went I sat at a table. So I did not know that.
Amanda: I haven't been there yet. I have to do it.
Brandon: Oh, its so good.
Eric: I went with Jeff because I don't know if you could tell. Obviously Jeff loves PDT.
Amanda: Maybe, maybe, Brandon when you're when you're back, we can try to make it work.
Julia: Yeah
Brandon: I used to go because Andrew knew the, like, host person so we they just skip the line. We got to get the line like four times, which is one...
Julia: Eyy!
Eric: Classic Andrew.
Amanda: You gotta. You gotta.
Eric: That is the most Andrew thing I've ever heard.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: You can also call right when they open and make a reservation.
Brandon: That's the second truth.
Eric: Oh!
Brandon: That's the shit.
Amanda: That's the move. Dominique_wki says, "Would any of the characters consider a completo (aka a chilean hot dog?)" And then they explained that a completo is bun, mayo to moisten the bun, sausage, diced tomato, maybe some kraut mash avocado, ketchup and mayo and maybe mustard on top.
Brandon: I'll fuck with that.
Julia: Everything but the mayo. I just-
Amanda: Fuck me up.
Julia: -mayo doesn't do it for me.
Amanda: I'm pro-mayo all the way.
Eric: I will say because this is a non American treat, I'm sure it will be treated with delicately and nicely instead of just slapping it on top, you know what I mean?
Julia: My issue is it's both 'mayo to moisten the bun and also mayo on top, maybe like mayo just to moisten the bun, but you already have tomato, so you don't really need the moistening from the Mayo because the tomato is going to be plenty moist itself.
Eric: No, that's true.
Brandon: I love mayo, I don't know what you're talking about. Put it on anything.
Eric: I wonder if there's a toasting element to that.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Because it seems like when this question asked her message, just this, it seemed like it was optional and it was something that they use for facilitation of their own delectable ideas.
Amanda: I mean, this looks legit y'all like I would, I would all of us I think would eat this hot dog. And then we may borrow bits of it in our home life.
Brandon: I want to give you my high-low of hot dogs ready?
Amanda: Yeah, I'm ready.
Brandon: High, bratwurst. Does that count as a hot dog?
Amanda: I think so.
Julia: Yes. It's a sausage that you eat in a bun. Sure.
Brandon: Yes. Bratwurst, sauerkraut, mustard. Best thing on a bun, period. Worst. Have you guys ever had a Seattledog before?
Amanda: No.
Eric: No.
Brandon: Oh my god. Okay. So when we went to PodCon here, Lauren took me to this cart that's right outside of the downtown convention center that the convention was at. And they have Seattle style hotdogs. And it's the thing here, and Lauren and Briggon were like, [mimics Briggon] "Oh, there's the best. It's the best fucking hot dog? Oh, it's so good." It's a hot dog topped with cream cheese and sauteed onions.
Julia: I mean, I get it but on top of a hot dog? Unnecessary.
Brandon: It- I tried one by it's so fucking gross.
Eric: I can only imagine how unwieldy the sauteed onions are on this thing. What's also fucking wild and what I'm looking for- looking at is that it's a hoagie roll, and not even a hotdog roll.
Julia: Oh, no!
Brandon: I don't know, man. I don't know, man. I love the city so far that I've lived in it, that's the one thing where I'm like y'all wrong. Y'all are incorrect.
Amanda: That feels like a real kind of refrigerator meal where you have like an eighth of a pound of cream cheese, one stale hoagie roll, a single hotdog and like leftover sauteed onions from steak night a few nights ago. And you were just like I don't know. But like even then chop up the hotdog saute it skip that cream cheese throw it out and just like use the bread to sop up like the juices that's that's a-
Eric: You get it.
Amanda: -better combo.
Eric: Yeah.
Julia: Nightmare. Nightmare.
Amanda: Nightmare. Nightmare.
Eric: I also want to say that I'm a proponent of using cream cheese as the cheese on a sandwich. Like that's not what's bothering me. It's the combination of all of those things that feel really, deeply upsetting.
Amanda: I'm just not into hot plus cream cheese.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: Like if I- if I ever get cream cheese or tofu cream cheese for the delicate tums among us, I never get on a toasted bagel because I don't fuck with that.
Brandon: Yeah, it's weird that you're wrong, Eric. But yeah, I like that you have that opinion. The only time you can have cream cheese is on- on a sort of sandwich is like on a toasted bagel with nothing else. That's fine.
Amanda: No, no, but like, we're like at home, we'll do like toasted rye bread, let the bread cool. Then put on like thin layer of cream cheese, lox, you know like pickled something pickled and delicious, you know? salt and pepper open face sandwich.
Brandon: But that's a better- that's better with a bagel if you had a bagel, right?
Eric: Let Brandon say his bad food takes.
Amanda: Okay. You're right, you're right. you're right.
Eric: Let him-- after Applegate. Brandon could say whatever he wants and we're just gonna let them hang himself.
Brandon: Cream cheese only should be on bagels!
Eric: No! Incorrect!
Brandon: Not mixed into something.
Eric: Incorrect!
Amanda: I also- I just want to just take a moment and chastise Marlbell, who really wanted us to eat up a good 20/30 minutes of the second class Afterparty of Campaign 2 with the question of, "is a hot dog a sandwich?" No one answer
Julia: No.
Amanda: No one say a thing, it's a trap.
Julia: Why is this continuing-
Amanda: it's a trap.
Julia: -to be a debate?
Amanda: We're not even getting further into it.
Julia: I don't think people are like-
[Brandon cackling]
Julia: -well if it's this is a ravioli and if it's this, it doesn't fucking matter, JUST EAT FOOD!
Brandon: Hotdog is a ravioli!
Amanda: Stop it!
Eric: Brandon the trap! It's a trap!
Amanda: All right, moving on to the rest of Episode 56: Hot dogs and Pixels. Love that. Mage Silverleaf would like to know "Was the hotdog scene a reference to shawarma in the Avengers?" Course it was.
Eric: Yes, it was the best part of that entire movie and maybe the best part of the entire Marvel existence on the silver screen was that one moment but because you know they could film it inside of a shawarma shop and not like a covered green screen studio somewhere in Atlanta. There was no CGI involved in it. It was this beautiful little moment and I wanted to recreate something like that after the kaiju fight. I thought it was really nice.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: I loved it. I'm sorry to introduce the thought of Aggie's transparency and organs, That was just a misunderstanding between Eric and muah. That, you know, snuck into the tape. I don't know, Brandon if any like Gremlins have taken over-
Brandon: The worst.
Amanda: -but... I regret it.
Brandon: Yeah.
Amanda: And I'm sorry.
Brandon: Sometimes the holy Gremlin just comes inside of me and doesn't allow me to edit things out. So...
Amanda: This subsection titled, Ship of the Century. Thank you, Eric. is all about, obviously the ship of the century, which Zaelavor would like to know, "Is Dr. Former Mayor Morrow and Hank’s ship name Hassandra or Cassank?"
Julia: I like Cassank.
Brandon: I like Cassank as well.
Julia: A good ring to it.
Eric: I tried some of the other ones out I thought Cank was interesting. And then also Dr. Mayor Director could just--
Julia: That's fun.
Amanda: That's pretty good.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: That's what their dog they're gonna adopt together was named. Dominique would like to know, "if Milo and his dad move to Dr. Morrow’s house, which will be their favorite rooms?" Are you gonna sleep in the telephone room, Brandon?
Brandon: Like that's a guestroom so I would definitely want to have my own room, you know, but that's definitely not going to be my favorite. The London room. Where else is he's not gonna go into the fucking Chile room and say, Oh, I'm in Foggy Chile town, you know? like, where else is he going to do his accent?
Amanda: No, you're totally right.
Brandon: Think- think before you ask these questions, people.
[giggling]
Eric: I feel like- I feel like Milo has really camped out in the British Room. I don't know if anyone else would willingly go with the British Room anymore.
Julia: Well, it's Milo's Room.
Eric: I think it's yours now.
Amanda: Yeah, like the guest robes and towels had been changed over to have your monogram on them. So cute.
Eric: They're all too into monogram, obviously. And Hank would sleep in the master bedroom with Dr. Morrow because-
Julia: Obviously.
Eric: -they're in love and they're-
Brandon: Gross!
Julia: I can't believe you would move back. I have no problem with people moving back in as adults with their parents. But Milo moving back in with the newly romancing...
[All laughing]
Amanda: That's so rude!
Julia: -the honeymoon phase. Let them have their alone time. Let them have the honeymoon phase.
Brandon: There's also Dez and January. I don't know what Dez lives, but there's also January, you know?
Amanda: You get to hang out.
Brandon: There's January.
Amanda: I guess- I would give him a good couple months though. I would not visit for like a good month after their commitment ceremony.
Julia: Yep.
Brandon: Well, he also needs to be there to make sure there's no Hanky Panky going on, you know.
Amanda: Oh, Milo, I have bad news.
Eric: Oh, god!
Julia: Also, I don't like that you use- you used that euphemism for sex.
Brandon: Hanky Cassandra-y
Julia: I don't like to... yeah, because it's hanky. Yeah.
Amanda: It is. Good point, Julia.
Julia: No.
Eric: They're making Whoopi!
Amanda: No. Abbyzammit would like to know, "Is Emily gonna be ok without an outlet for all her girlboss energy?"
Eric: Oh my god!
Amanda: Not a thing I worried about, but now I am.
Brandon: I think she got over, right? Like, she mature like wasn't at the end of the thing, you know?
Eric: I was not prepared for the amount that was going to be taken away from Emily Slaughter at this episode. She was going to be broken down and have absolutely no friends by the end. But you know that's the way the cookie crumbles. Here's what I'm going to say as even as we get to the last two episodes and I think we're going to talk about this more next After Party. The way these stories are told is that we only get to see as much perspective as the heroes investigate. We don't know a lot about Emily Slaughter, so she uses she might have been pushed to her limits, both from being when she was kidnapped and in this particular situation.ut I don't think we can say necessarily what's going to happen to her going forward.
Brandon: I could still have my headcanon though.
Eric: Oh, everyone should have your headcanon. I have my headcanon. But if we're not touching it, like he doesn't get recorded, you know what I mean? So I think there's going to be a lot of ambiguity still on Lake Town City even after these last two episodes.
Brandon: Well, it doesn't get recorded with us for I have my- my podcasts that I put out every week. That's my headcanon-
Amanda: Oh?
Brandon: -of... do you guys not do it? You haven't listened to my show?
Julia: I mean, you really should tell us more about these things.
Amanda: This is so embarrassing.
Julia: Because we want to support you, Brandon. But if you don't share your work with us...
Amanda: We didn't know.
Brandon: Oh, I have like 7000 patrons, so you didn't?
[awkward silence]
Julia: Well, how would we have known, Brandon? How would we have known?
Eric: Brandon, you gave me a banana that had the word RSS written on it and you said it was your podcast. And I'm like, I guess I ate the banana. If that's enough.
Julia: Now you have to slide the peel into your phone-
Amanda: Oh, no!
Julia: -and then that's how you get the access to the RSS.
Brandon: So you guys do listen then!
Amanda: Did you know, guys at night you put your iPhone and a banana in a paper bag, it makes the podcast ripen faster? And it comes out in an hour earlier?
Julia: That's how you get early access-
Amanda: It is!
Julia: -for Brandon's podcast.
Eric: I really don't like that Spotify isn't peel accessible.
Amanda: I know!
Eric: I think that they really need to do that.
Amanda: That's the whole point.
Eric: -if they're gonna be the head of audio.
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: So let's now get into Clarification Corner, Special Edition: Pixel Corner. This is like a collaboration speaker line where they release them at a certain time and that is not enough and you buy them but then bots buy them and rebuy them for more on the secondary market.
Eric: Yeah, I bought this for $500 on Stock X Yeah.
Amanda: Alright. Let's get into who was pixels, who wasn't, and what it all means. Starting with taxonomy.
Julia: Full pixels?
Eric: Yes, taxonomy was full pixels the entire time.
Brandon: And dead!
Julia: Always pixels since putting Taxonomy in the game pixels.
Eric: Taxonomy was always pixels. Yes.
Amanda: Okay, great.
Julia: I feel less bad about killing a person then.
Amanda: This might be a good question. To start with a few people were asking kind of how long you knew, Eric, that people were pixelated how long Gutenberg knew they were pixelated. What can you tell us at this stage? Because there's obviously still a little bit left to learn in the campaign.
Eric: Yes. So here's the ultimate. The thing about D&D is that it's not just as a storytelling medium, it isn't just about like, what did you do? And what are you putting in movie like a movie or a book, where it's like, I'm gonna put everything in here and it's good, then here's the story, right? Is that sometimes you want to make something fun for your friends, right? And you need people to explore it and make interesting game engagement. I've got a lot of questions about, like, the sentience idea of pixel people. And also some ideas of like, when did I know people were pixels? And when were they swapped out as pixel people like Shannon Redwine, AKA Shannon Whitewine? When did that happen, you know? So I don't want to reveal too much. This might be too much of me taking pulling the curtain back and seeing what's behind the curtain. I will say, as someone pointed out on our Discord, this was Raven eyed. They said, I feel like saying I killed a representation of my high school bully is a statement a lot of people wish they could have said.
Julia: That's true.
Eric: And like, and like that felt like I wanted to give that to Julia more of whether or not I knew the entire time that Hardbody was pixelated.
Amanda: Sure.
Eric: So I, there's some things I want to keep in mystery a little bit, but more so you know, sometimes you do things because it's fun or funny. And you want to make you want people to have a good time than in making, like, plot sense.
Julia: Right.
Eric: In some ways. I will say yeah, Taxonomy was there the entire time. I think that like Gutenberg, kind of like tried to make stuff and then it just kind of sent it out into the world. Like, he added directive for all of them as, like, unwilling spies and then kind of sent them out. Like whether or not they existed beforehand, I don't think so. I don't think they were self aware in that way or knew they were pixelated, necessarily. Unless he could like, you know, I had the idea that he had like a big- he had like a big monitor so he could like zoom in on one of them and see what they were seeing maybe or hear it or have a summary of some of the stuff you know, just like real bad guy shit. So but you know, I'm keeping it squishy so that we have, we have a good time.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah, not everything is hard. cold fact, right?
Eric: Yeah, not everything is a hard cold fact because I could even tell you unnecessarily but I don't want to because I think that we talked about spoiling the magic in the last Afterparty and this one I think might spoil it a little bit-
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: -if I told you all my crunchy secrets about who was pixelated and who wasn't. Yeah, for sure.
Amanda: I think I want to run by you my read on Sour Anthony.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: Was that his snacks were kind of made using the one up mushrooms and that was where he was getting his power from which you kind of guessed from the very beginning-
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: -that like his snacks you know we're powering him. But how does like pixels or pixel constructs kind of intersect with Vitamin M and or Sour Anthony? What is your headcanon?
Eric: Yeah, I think some of this is a little bit 'who can say'? but the glasses, the Hank Bands definitely reveal things that you wouldn't have seen otherwise. And again, this is what this was also a little bit for ease of use that like you see something's different about Sour Anthony and you guys were looking for pixel stuff, so maybe the pixels were involved in his snacks, But yeah, Sour Anthony I will say right now Sour Anthony does not have inherent powers. He was eating snacks, he was eating what mushrooms to give him flying powers the entire time.
Amanda: Classic.
Eric: Which is so funny that I didn't get a chance to say that because he was intimidated and sent out of town before, which is so funny. The one thing that he wants more than anything is for people not to know his stupid fucking secret. And he left without. There was nary a roll! It was incredible!
Brandon: I'm sorry, Eric, I don't mean to correct you. But you said flying, you really meant hovering right?
Julia: Yeah, cuz he can't fly. I don't care what his name is, he can't fly.
Eric: It's a good point. And I'll review it with the team back in the, back in the back. But I think that this will be the last time that I could say,
Eric (as Sour Anthony): Fuck your, girls. Fuck you and fuck you and you're cool and fuck you!
Eric: This last time I could say that.
Julia: I want you to know. That was one of my favorite scenes ever to roleplay.
Amanda: It was so well done.
Julia: Just threatening Sour Anthony to get the fuck out of town.
Amanda: Both of you did such a good job. It was a pleasure to listen to.
Brandon: Oh, sorry. I have a question here from at little monkey bones.
Amanda: Oh.
Eric: Nice.
Brandon: Eric, if one of 1/3 of the people enjoying the party are pixels which one out of Brandon, Amanda and Julia are pixels?
Eric: Here's the thing. Most people would say, Brandon. But I think that that's a ruse and it's definitely Amanda.
Julia: It's always the one you would least expect.
Amanda: The one you can currently smell?
Eric: Yeah, the one that's the one curr- I'm smelling. No, I think that they this is like when you play werewolf or you play like any of those lying games is that you might have a- you have a strategy to lay low and for someone not to notice you and you just try not to stay noticed as much as possible, and that's Amanda strategy for being a pixel.
Julia: Makes sense. Makes sense.
Eric: Also, thank you little monkey bones longtime fan, first time caller I really appreciate that.
Amanda: Alright folks, let's close out with some game and character questions. Couple questions about the podcast. And then our final spoily corner perhaps of the campaign.
Julia: Oh!
Eric: Oh my god, wait, that's hitting me. Oh, my God.
Amanda: Here is a question from Mod Brae. Thank you. Brae wanted to know how I felt about the potential truth that all this time, Aggie becomes translucent when she stretches? I disagree. I think my costume protects my modesty and my organs.
Julia: And like, even if it didn't, like if you stretched your handout we wouldn't see through your hand.
Amanda: Right. You just like if you put your hand, you know, close to a lamp. And you see like, you know, redness inside? That's fine.
Julia: No.
Amanda: Not, not Aggie.
Julia: In, in my world. None of that.
Amanda: No, no.
Brandon: So I agree but like so like you're when you're stretching out you're not becoming thinner. It's not like your stretchy dough, right? Like it doesn't become thinner, it just becomes more, right?
Amanda: I think the space between the atoms increases.
Brandon: Oh!
Amanda: That's my preservation of matter theory.
Brandon: Well, if there's more space, then you might become more translucent, you know?
[Amanda dissents]
Eric: Thank you, Brandon.
Julia: No!
Eric: Doing our own research.
Julia: No!
Brandon: I would say that you're adding more atoms essentially. So like your hand doesn't like stretch as in like it gets thinner and stretched out it just becomes bigger, you know?
Amanda: Yes. That is- yes, that's- that's the explanation I'm going with.
Brandon: Okay, okay.
Eric: All of the scientists who listen to Join the Party explain to us how this works.
Amanda: Or maybe Aggie is maybe Multitool is denser than normal. And so when she stretches to her full capacity, that matches the density it's like if you have you know, like a puff pastry dough that's like super folded up and then you roll it out to be regular thickness. It's not you know, there's- there's a lot there because many, many layers
Eric: Oh, Aggie's laminated guys.
Amanda: Aggie's laminated
Julia: Make sense. Makes sense.
Amanda: You bake her, she puffs up like filo dough.
Brandon: This is where the Dr Morrow black hole things come from. Aggie turns to a-
Julia: No, she's not allowed near any black hole.
Brandon: Aggie is so dense, turns into a black hole, destroys the world.
Eric: Brandon that's What If: Join the Party where Aggie stretches so much, she becomes a black hole.
Amanda: All right. This one's from Lena, connector of dots, "What is January's fave video game?" A follow up from Vennik, "Does January need a special controller for his little paws?"
Brandon: Oh! [giggles]
Julia: So Dez absolutely created a special controller for his little paws, right?
Amanda: Oh, yeah, I think so.
Julia: So that they can game together?
Brandon: I don't- I think it would have to be, it would have to be an arcade style controller, right? Because January doesn't have opposable thumbs.
Eric: Yeah, I was thinking something. I don't know if you've seen the extensible controllers with like, the really big pads. I wonder if there's, like, really big buttons. But since January is faster, you know, like we have fingers and hand and dexterous hands so we can hold the controller and push the buttons while we hold it. But I wonder if January can, like, tap faster. So it's more there the buttons are more discreet.
Amanda: I picture, like, an ergonomic keyboard where it's like kind of a semicircle and he you know, there aren't levels and like a back to the controller but he can like reach all the buttons at the same time.
Amanda:
Yeah.
Brandon: Oh, I mean January so it has the advantage of being able to use his feet too, you know?
Julia: Oooh!
Eric: Yes. Oh, January has pedals, like a horse.
Amanda: Like adaptive steering. I love that.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: I thought he's gonna jump On the buttons, but that's fun too.
Julia: No.
Amanda: Also cute.
Eric: I like the idea that that January goes into like a rig or something.
Amanda: Oh, yeah, the prototype was a DDR rig.
Julia: Oh, I love that.
Eric: Like an iRacing rig what they have now it's like a, it's like a chair and they just fully has all four limbs up. I love that a lot.
Brandon: I love that.
Amanda: Lena also asked, "Does Aggie have a designated pocket..." simply "...full of hair ties and bobby pins?" You know it
Julia: Naturally.
Amanda: You know it. Players, anything else you want to touch on before we hit, perhaps the final Spoilie Corner. I think- I think next time we may have a Spolie Corner of just like headcanon corners. So this is the last Spolie Corner.
Brandon: Or maybe, we do spolies for the next, the next thing we're doing.
[Eric and Julia thinking]
Amanda: I take it.
Brandon: I do have one thing.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: Eric, thanks for doing this campaign. It's great.
Julia: Hey!
Amanda: Aww!
Amanda: Thanks, buddy!
Brandon: I'm excited for the last couple of episodes. It's good!
Amanda: Folks, it's time for our final Spolie Corner of the campaign. Are we ready?
Brandon: Yeah!
Amanda: Emotionally physically.
Brandon: I'm holding on!
Julia: I suppose so.
Amanda: Spiritually? Lobsterally?
Brandon: Strapped in.
Eric: Crustaceally.
Amanda: Yes. Glacially. Think about just, like, time from a wide scale. Glacial time.
Eric: Let's do it.
Amanda: Michelle says, are all Stuart's locations some kind of clandestine office? Are they all OTA affiliated? Why was Dr. Morrow kidnapped outside of one. Did Gutenberg infiltrate the OTA?
Eric: I thought this was really funny because Stewarts are just gas stations.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: They're- they're all over the place in upstate New York.
Amanda: There’s many hundreds.
Eric: So the fact that coincidentally one is a secret base and the other one Dr. Morrow went to get snacks at them and got kidnapped there-
Amanda: Pretty good.
Eric: -is very funny and I love that Michelle drew in a direct line between the two.
Julia: It's like getting kidnapped outside of 7/11
Amanda: Julia, I was just gonna say I bet I can track most of my sort of, like, tragic and also important life events to, like, a Dunkin Donuts or 7/11. Like, if I want to do most things in my life in New York City have happened in proximity to a Dunkin Donuts. Like, let's just be honest.
Julia: They're all around.
Amanda: Yeah, or like are like a Nuts 4 Nuts cart.
Brandon: I think y'all are thinking way too small. Like clearly, regional chains are only chains because they are co opted by the government as spy and based things why else would there be a chain than anything Stewart's, government conspiracy, you know?
Julia: It's in everyone's franchising contract that the government does have access to build a secret base whenever you like, franchise a chain.
Eric: Honestly, I'm surprised that wasn't in some sort of YA book or some urban fantasy novel that like the fact that there are so many Starbucks around is that Starbucks is run by a, like, the fairy court, the seelie Court.
Amanda: True.
Eric: And that is why it needs to have enough so that they can have presences within the United States and then without, with around the world.
Brandon: Exactly.
Eric: And like Seattle was the first place to-
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: -where the for the easiest place to access from the Seelie area, like from the fairy wilds. I don't know. I- someone use that in their YA book.
Amanda: This is what we've been saying for years about the Cracker Barrel you walk into one Cracker Barrel, you're in the same liminal space.
Julia: Yup, yup. You can be in any Cracker Barrel.
Amanda: Everything on the menu has onion in it. Amanda, stay out!
Brandon: The same liminal racist ass space.
Amanda: I know. I did read a book recently about the history of the supermarket, which was riveting, and this is not that far off from how 7/11 started. So I'll let you guys look up the book to learn more.
Eric: The Seelie Court.
Amanda: Uh-hmm...
Eric: Okay.
Amanda: It's called The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket.
Julia: Good shit.
Brandon: Love it.
Amanda: Alright, Spolie Corner. Is there a concern that with Val’s family in the M trade, they are dealing with Gutenberg too?
Julia: I mean, not until this moment.
Brandon: Everything just clicked into place and Julia's head.
Amanda: Is Emily working with Gutenberg which is why her whole team was pixels and she just got found out?
Amanda and Julia: Who can say?
Eric: Who can say? Maybe we'll never know.
Julia: She seemed to be very adamant that that wasn't the case.
Brandon: Yeah, I think our characters believe that she didn't.
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Enough that you wanted her to become the 'and friends'
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: I find that so funny that, like, you have an enemy for so long and you have your group of friends and as soon as you systematically destroy them being like, hey, you could be a franchise would you like that?
Amanda: Just called the hostile takeover!
Eric: You bear hugged Emily Slaughter.
Amanda: Yeah!
Eric: Yeah, we did you super pumped Emily Slaughter.
Julia: We did.
Eric: This is going to revolutionize the way that we look at superpowers in- Oh, I was doing Kermit-
[giggles]
Eric: -in Lake Town City.
Amanda: Emily is like, I don't know, is it VIP?
Eric: Very VIP, very exclusive.
Brandon: ‘And friends’ is my favorite friend spin off, alright, continue
[Eric hums a tune]
Amanda: Will the LT3 come to regret inviting Emily into the inner circle?
Julia: Who can say?
Brandon: Who can say?
Amanda: Is Tegan in danger because Multitool asked them to participate in the investigation?
Julia: Uh oh, who can say?
Amanda: It's Room pixels? Is Room okay?
Brandon: Oh no, who can say?
Eric: No, Room is just a giant mushroom.
Amanda: Oh, phew!
Eric: That's different.
Amanda: Okay, okay.
Eric: Room is sustainably resourced, now all natural organic, one up mushroom that grew to an enormous size and unrelated to the snacks of Sour Anthony. Only related in the way that like trail mix is related to an oak tree is Room related to Sour Anthony.
Julia: You're saying you did make a giant bear out of pixels though. So if Gutenberg decided to make a giant mushroom out of pixels, we wouldn't know.
Eric: That's fair, I will tell you I will ease your fears, Room is not- is not pixelated.
Julia: Phew!
Brandon: Good. Thank you.
Eric: If you guys look at a major character, they're probably not pixels, but they might be. But they might not be.
Julia: Rude.
Eric: You know what I mean?
Julia: Rude answer.
Brandon: You just said nothing, Eric.
Eric: That's fine, I know.
Julia: Could be, could not be. Who can say?
Eric: They're probably not. Unless I keep it in my pocket for something else.
Amanda: Oh, and finally, Will someone please punch Gutenberg in the face before this campaign is over?
Brandon: I volunteer as a tribute!
Amanda: Who can say? Alright, people that was our penultimate, AKA second to last after party. You're welcome, high school students we say fuck a lot, but we also do teach SAT words from time to time.
Brandon: I think it's okay that high schoolers hear us say the word fuck.
Eric: Did you guys see we got recognized by the Peabody society for best podcasts and radio that's supposed to be actual play, but it's really just swears and creation of food and fictional locations?
Julia: I'm so glad they made that for us.
Amanda: I know.
Brandon: I can't believe we won.
Julia: It's nice to feel valued.
Brandon: We've lost every year.
Amanda: It's nothing to do with the fact that I made a significant contribution to the Peabody society on behalf of Multitude but you know, glad it happened.
Eric: We're fine. I actually have Amanda's birth certificate right here and I'm opening up the manila envelope and I'm pulling it out. And it's Amanda Peabody McLoughlin.
Brandon: I was just about to ask her you chose the Peabody’s, or is this the Peabody’s? Because those are two very different awards.
Eric: Sorry, these are these are the Peabody’s in which you go to a specific Street in Boston and a bunch of guys say what the fuck is a podcast, kid?
Julia: And then they hand you an award.
Amanda: Yeah, I was gonna say Peabody is my favorite drag king.
Eric: That's also good.
Julia: That's a good one
Amanda: Oh, people, I love you all. I'm so excited. As a reminder everybody, we have two more story episodes coming out next week and the week after and then a final After Party. The after party at the end of the book. So as always make sure you get your questions in as you listen to those episodes and enjoy this journey with us but we meant it there's no bad Tuesdays we're not taking a break people there's Join the Party content every Tuesday for the rest of the year and beyond.
Brandon (as a monster's voice): For the rest of our lives.
Amanda: You're gonna have to wait and see what comes next.
Eric: Bye, guys!
Julia: Later!
Brandon: Peabody!
Amanda: May your rolls trend ever upward.
[THEME]
Brandon: IMLITTLEMAHN--
[EVERYONE LAUGHING]
Amanda: No notes!
Julia: ...after the credits.
Eric: You nailed it. You got it.
Brandon: IMLITTLEMONKEYBONES
Amanda: If we had a soundboard that will be on it and toppings are bottoms would also be there.
Brandon: Toppings are bottomings, come on.
Amanda: Toppings are bottoming and just the loaded silence of Eric waiting until I was done with my thing which I appreciate, honey, to say, ‘I’ve seen that setting on Grindr’.
Transcriptionist: KM
Proofreader: JM