Smash that like button, subscribe, and be a part of the 3rd largest Mysterious and Weird Things Happening in Urban Environments channel! Val gets into jewelry. Milo cat-naps. Aggie is green around the gills.
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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 collaborative storytelling and roleplaying podcast, powered by the rules of Dungeons and Dragons. That means a group of friends create a story together, chapter by chapter, that takes us beyond the tabletop to parts unknown. In the first campaign, we explored fantasy adventure, intrigue, magic, and drama. In the newest story, we tackle science, superpowers, a better future, and the responsibility to help others.
Every month, we sit down for the Afterparty, where we break down our game and answer your questions about how to play D&D and other roleplaying games at home. We also have segments at the beginning of each campaign to teach people how to play the game themselves. It’s a party, and you’re invited! Find out more at jointhepartypod.com.
Transcript
Amanda: Last time on Join the party...
Eric: You're not going to believe it, but Taylor Swift showed up to Aggie's holiday party. It was wild. I can't believe she was there. Oh, and Dr. Morrow reappeared Aggie laid down park ordinances against a guy riding a bear, Val was bamboozled by someone whose power is eating stuff. Milo debunked the death hoax. Clippy appeared in real life. But yeah, you know, but the important thing was that Taylor Swift was there and everyone saw her, and it was wonderful. And I heard that she went to a cabin that was right outside of LTC. and Evermore was partially written there. So pretty cool. But now spring has sprung. Let's see what grows out of the ground and let's get the party started.
[Theme music]
[Crickets chirping, lights buzzing, light traffic]
Eric: If this wasn't officially written down on the Lake Town City, three whiteboard, tentative name not locked in, Dr. Morrow made very important to say. Well, let's just call it the light on city three. If this wasn't definitely on the agenda, doing a stakeout of a juice bar on April 1st might not be the best idea. However, when you've got to come up with secrets, it's going to happen on any day out there. So our three heroes, Vulcani, Kilonova and Preserver are in the back alley behind Juice! the best juice bar, according to Emily Slaughter in downtown Lake Town City. It is so abandoned. If you've ever been in like a Main Street area where there's no actual homes and it's just stuff at 7:00 p.m., it's just a ghost town. Get it? Ghost town.
Brandon: No, I don't get it.
Julia: I don't know.
Eric: And that is the joke that Lucas has been texting Milo frequently when Lucas bothered Milo to know that they were going on a stakeout today. So, yeah, I'm going to ask Julia, because this is something I asked Julia about this in between the break. What are you looking for here at Juice?
Julia: Mushrooms,
Eric: Just mushrooms?!
Julia: I don't trust it one bit. These mushrooms? I don't trust them.
Amanda: Listen, at worst, they are some kind of front for a illegal mushroom smuggling cartel. At best, they are selling and making health claims for products that have no right to do that.
Brandon: That's true. That's true. Let's take them down and get the FDA involved.
Julia: Though, I don't feel like as superheros we have jurisdiction over that. But, you know, I guess.
Amanda: I'm just saying I think it's a helpful front in case we are wrong and do get caught. We can be like: "Very good. You passed your spot inspection!" And then run.
Eric: Like an hour before when Dez was giving you guys, like rope, he's like
Eric (as Dez): I mean, like, are you trying to take them down because of neo tropics? Like what? I don't it's just mushrooms.
Julia (as Val): I don't know what that is. What is that?
Eric (as Dez): It's like a - it's don't you don't have to don't worry about it. It's fine. Alright.
Julia (as Val): I know you have like a thing with food, so I just I don't know.
Eric (as Dez): Listen, if I don't make it myself, I just don't want it. That's why I just eat it. Let's not talk about this again.
Julia (as Val): Do you want more manigot? Because I have more in the freezer -
Eric (as Dez): I make all my stuff at home, please.
Julia (as Val): But you did eat the manigot I gave you, right?
Eric (as Dez): Yes, it's part of my time when I eat once a day, we already talked - we had talked about this!
Julia (as Val): Okay, okay! Okay.
Eric (as Dez): What I don't understand is what are we going off of. What, what are we worried about. Just because Emily Slaughter was there, we think it's fucked up? I don't?
Julia (as Val): Emily Slaughter was there. Sour Anthony was taking pictures from the rooftop. That's suspicious as hell. Anything he does is suspicious.
Brandon (as Milo): PERVERT!
Julia (as Val): And also he is a pervert, calling it now. I also think that, mmm, I don't know, like there's just a vibe. I got a vibe about this. I don't know.
Julia: Eric this is a out of character question. I know that we established the mushroom ring in the worldbuilding episodes, but have there been like news reports about that or anything or like is there any indication from the world of Lake Town City that our characters would know about in terms of the smuggling of mushrooms?
Eric: Yeah, if you want to make rolls on this, I have some general knowledge that we can take from the worldbuilding. But whatever you all want to roll on, I can give you information accordingly. If Milo wants to do arcana like for tech stuff. Or for talking to ghosts, if you want to do history, if you want to do nature, if you want to do
Amanda: Can I do insight as to like my knowledge of the pre city communities of Laketon?
Eric: Great. Sounds good.
[Dice rolls]
Brandon: I'm back baby! 3 +4 for 7!
Amanda: Eric, I don't have my glasses. What does that say?
Eric: Well Amanda is holding a nat 20 up to my face.
[Brandon laughs]
Julia: Oh cool cool cool cool cool.
Eric: For insight.
Julia: I guess I'll roll history
[Dice rolls]
Julia: A 9.
Eric: Okay, great. So let's all address this holistically. A lot of insight and a little bit of tech in history. So this is what both Val and Milo get. Truffles are kind of a big deal, like they are very much on the border of illegal and not illegal, like they're so expensive. They should be. But it's like not just a mushroom guy. So the organized crime family has dabbled in whatever was hot right now, and especially with the food boom and another massive city popping up over the last twenty years, coinciding with Food Network being a very big deal. Truffles are a prized commodity. And you've heard tell that people have been trying to make their own crop rivaling those in France and in Europe, in the marshy area. Of Lake Town City, for those of you who have the map at home in the bottom right where there's like some weird warehouses and the river once flooded up there and made that whole, like, marshy and nasty. Nat 20 for our good friend Aggie,
Amanda: I'll accept the Truffle Queen as my honorific.
[Brandon and Julia laugh]
Julia: The American Truffle Queen.
Amanda: Yes!
Eric: Hashtag Truffle Queen. Let's move inside to Emily Slaughter.
Julia: Hmm.
Eric: If you don't mind,
Amanda: Sure!
Eric: Because insight is about people. She was really just leaning in hard. She really was. However, anything that Emily Slaughter has her hands on is worth checking out. Here's what I'm going to give you, with nat 20: Emily has so many secrets. This is me making this podcast, right? Like, where does her money come from? How does she have government contracts? She's just a shady person. So, like, I feel like when Aggie and I don't want to put a scene for you, but I feel like that moment when Aggie came back from that meeting with Emily Slaughter, whatever you told Milo and Val, you were just like, I don't know what. This is weird. We need to check out this juice bar. And Val has had their second sight on it ever since. And finally, after cleaning up the mess with the gigabear and fixing like the winter is finally stopped, so you can be outside and do a stakeout for once. I think that this is this would be the time to do it.
Amanda: Yeah. I mean, maybe we can start our stakeout at the juice bar, but then move to tell Emily.
Eric: Yeah. If she comes through, I will also say Sour Anthony on the roof with a digital camera at one point in March when, like, nothing was happening, it was just like nasty and like 35 with like a wind chill that brought it down to 28 people leaked a photo of Emily Slaughter and Aggie meeting. And it was like "local superpowered woman Emily Slaughter meeting with important people all over the city, including including Aggie O'Hare, the custodian of historic Laketon!" And there was like mild gossip for a while.
Amanda: Much better than my previous press appearance. So I'll take it.
[Julia and Brandon laughing]
Eric: Sour Anthony's just a nasty boy who likes to take photos on his Nikon
[Everyone scoffs]
Brandon: Gross.
Eric: Alright. So it is now your were staked out in JUICE! I think this might be around close. So maybe like 9 p.m., 10 p.m. and you're staked out at JUICE! Where are all of you? How do you want to stake it out?
Julia: I feel like we're on the rooftop either across the street from the back door or in the building next to it so that we can look down into the alley and see the comings and goings.
Brandon: Yeah, I like that.
Amanda: I like that, too. I feel like before the stakeout, Aggie would definitely have looked up land records and ownership records for the store to see if there was like a shell company or if that company owned anything else in the city just with her access to City Hall and the archives, which is probably online these days. But I think also while sitting at the computer, she would have just typed in "Emily Slaughter" or the last name Slaughter and looked up landholdings for the family.
Julia: Oh, smart!
Eric: Nice. Let's do investigation, plus your superpower. So add your proficiency.
[Dice rolls]
Amanda: 13. I'm going to roll a luck point. This is important.
[Dice roll]
Amanda: No worse, 13.
Eric: Alright, 13, hey, this looks like a regular juice bar, I guess that there is an area where they have storage, which is kind of bigger than specifications, which Aggie cares a lot about specifications, but it just seems like a juice bar. I don't know what you were looking for. Like if there was a secret underground lair, like there were stairs going down or something.
Amanda: No like, if it was like a suspicious shell company or if it's like, yes, this is like Juice Bar Inc. and they own 10 juice bars in the city. Like anything fishy going on there.
Eric: Yes okay yes. JUICE! Is all over the city, but of course, it's only in the terrible places like the gentrified area of Thornhill and downtown Lake Town City. It is like nowhere where actual people live. It's like only in the working areas. There is one pretty far out, like on the outskirts of town, which kind of looks really strange, really close to the welcome center, which is strange because the rest of them are densely populated within there, nothing within it with a 13. You can't find anything on Emily Slaughter. Her parents died pretty young, so she was going to make technically an emancipated minor when she was 16.
Amanda: Oh that's sad.
Eric: But she's just been kind of, you know, doing what she does.
Amanda: Okay, I think in Aggie's mind, that just means that any suspicious holdings are under a shell company but will pin this for now.
Eric: Yeah.
Amanda: So I'll I'll relay that to the squad as we meet it.
Eric: Yeah.
Brandon: Milo walks up from behind with a medium celery juice in his hand and says,
Brandon (as Milo): Hey guys.
Julia (as Val): What-what are you doing?!
Brandon (as Milo): I-I-I I figured we might-I might get hungry or thirsty on the, on the stakeout.
Julia (as Val): So you got juice from the place we are staking out.
Brandon (as Milo): Where else am I going to get juice Val?!
Julia (as Val): Suspicious juice place, Milo!
Brandon (as Milo): Where else can I get my celery juice?!
Julia (as Val): Is there mushroom in there?
Brandon (as Milo): No, of course not.
Julia (as Val): Are you sure about that? Did they list all the ingredients?
Brandon (as Milo): I mean, am I sure about anything and anything? I don't know, but I didn't order it.
Amanda (as Aggie): I really like that. Anytime my siblings ask me a question I don't want to answer, I'm just going to say "how do I know anything about anything?" Thanks Milo, that's very good.
Julia: That's a good call.
Eric: Milo, can you make a perception check with disadvantage for me?
Julia: Make a constitution save.
Amanda: Yeah. I would need a gastric saving throw after drinking celery juice.
[Dice rolls]
Brandon: 3 +7 for 10.
Julia: How are you rolling so poorly?!
Brandon: Well I got 15 on the other one. So that's good.
Julia: Okay, alright.
Brandon: Yeah!
Eric: Milo doesn't remember anything from inside. He just like "I got a juice, I was hungry!" Also, it's probably because Lucas has been bothering you is like
Eric (as Lucas): Hey how's the stake out going? What are you doing. How are you preparing for it? Is it going well? Is it good?
Brandon: And Milo puts him on do not disturb mode.
Julia: Sick.
Brandon: I also just want everyone like since Milo became a superhero, he's been really into, like, detoxifying and strengthening his body. So he's like-
[Everyone laughing]
Brandon: He's like cleansing, you know, but he hasn't really he doesn't really know how to do it. So he's just been doing a lot of celery juice.
Eric: Hey, can you make a constitution saving throw but with disadvantage?
Amanda: It's really embarrassing how Milo tried to start the hashtag celleryuary, and it didn't really catch on.
Brandon: Well, one of I was nat 20, but the other one was a 15 +1 for 16.
Julia: It's not bad!
Eric: You know it you're actually sticking to it, even though that this might ruin your body eventually because you stopped eating protein. Congratulations. You actually like the taste of celery juice, now good job!
Brandon: He's like the "the more wispy I get the more powerful I am!"
Eric: I'll commune with the spirits more! Alright. So around 10:05 p.m., all the lights in, JUICE!!! Go out, that's juice with three exclamation points if you didn't know.
Brandon: Oh, let me change my notes.
Eric: Thank you, and out the back alley, like a college aged guy comes out really, really pale. Tons of freckles like super curly red hair-
Amanda (as Aggie): Milo that your brother?
Brandon (as Milo): What?
Amanda (as Aggie): Oh no that looks like my brother, I just saw that- that was a self burn. Okay.
[Eric and Brandon laughing]
Eric: He comes out carrying, like, the garbage, like tons of it and holding it far away from his body. He's like, "aw fuck, gross, so nasty, gross."
Amanda (as Aggie): I hope they compost that.
Eric: So yeah. Yeah. Now he's crazy throwing stuff in in the dumpster.
Amanda (as Aggie): We should go through that trash when he leaves.
Julia (as Val): Oh hundred percent.
Amanda (as Aggie): Also they should definitely be composting. So I'm, I'm definitely going to check the label of those bags. They're not compostable, I swear to God.
Brandon (as Milo): Yeah, that's right. Do you think there's any like juice that they like- not expired but they had to get rid of because the sell by is gone?
Julia (as Val): Oh, my God, Milo, you are not going to dumpster dive some juice.
Brandon (as Milo): We're going to go in there anyway, Val!
Julia (as Val): Okay, you're going to drink dumpster juice, alright.
Amanda (as Aggie): LIsten, Val and I have put up with the celery, the whole celery diet. I know it's working for you. You feel really good about it. Your body, your choice. I get it. But I really am gonna have to draw a line at dumpster diving for juice.
Brandon (as Milo): Fine, fine, fine. Let's just just keep watching. No, we don't need to talk anymore. It's fine.
Amanda (as Aggie): Okay.
Eric: It's really expensive!
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: Eric coming in to say it is really expensive.
Amanda: I do want to say that I think Aggie's been getting slightly more swole this year. And I feel like as Milo wisps up and Aggie bulks out, I think that's some kind of like tumbling routine or like gymnastics, like tossed in the air situation. I think we might be practicing that. So we're going to lay that seed for the future.
Eric: Getting so close to fastball specials, that sounds great.
Julia: It's because we've been doing yoga together, right, Aggie?
Amanda: Yes.
Julia: Yeah, we've been doing a lot of yoga together.
Eric: There's a lot of our Hitomi is really into the silks circus-
Julia: Oh hell yeah! That's so hot.
Amanda: We start with the vinyasa flow and then I leave and they move on to silks together.
Eric: And then Hitomi is like rolling herself up like a calzone up and down.
Julia: Incredible.
Eric: Incredible. Yeah. So the little redheaded college age boy, he just he throws the trash bags into the garbage can and then he watches tiktok, for like ten minutes until you hear a voice inside me like that.
Eric (as voice from inside): [Muffled voice through a door] Where are you?! There's a spill! Come and clean it! I got a manicure, I can't help! I can't clean it! I can't do it!
Eric (as College Kid): Oh yeah. Come in. Come on. Just hold on one second,
Eric (as voice from inside): NO YOU GOTTA DO IT RIGHT NOW!
Eric (as College Kid): Okay, I'll come inside!
Eric: And then they comes inside. You can see through the window that there is a severely bobbed woman holding a mop out to him, but like not being able to touch it because her nails have just been did.
Julia (as Val): Okay,
Brandon (as Milo): Fun boss.
Julia (as Val): This seems like an unsafe work environment. Just sayin.
[Amanda laughing]
Julia: Eric I'd like to sniff the air to see if I can tell the flavor of garbage that's just been thrown out.
Brandon: Delicious.
Julia: What should I roll for that?
Eric: Perception with disadvantage, you monster.
Julia: Why disadvantage?!
Eric: Because you're sniffing!
Brandon: You know exactly why.
[Dice rolls]
Julia: Alright, 18, 2. Alright. It's a 2.
Eric: Yeah. With a 2, you can't sniff the air for stuff though Tuna does show up and say,
Eric (as Tuna): I couldn't smell anything either. So it's fine.
Julia (as Val): It makes me feel better.
Eric (as Tuna): It's fine.
Brandon (as Milo): Oh, hey, Tuna. Um, while you're here. Do you want to just like go-go in there and like-
Eric: Tuna disappears.
[Everyone laughs]
Brandon (as Milo): Fuck. If you want to seven Tuna you can. Uh, yeah I do. I'm going to Tuna.
Julia: He also gets investigation advantage on investigations when he's using smell right? That's a thing.
Brandon: He does, yeah!
Eric: Yes. So yeah Tuna comes back like
Eric (as Tuna): Oh sorry I was on the phone. I couldn't, I didn't know what you were doing.
Brandon (as Milo): Don't-
Julia (as Val): With whom?!
Eric (as Tuna): Don't worry about it. I have friends.
Brandon (as Milo): Tuna, you don't have friends.
Eric (as Tuna): Okay, well you didn't have to say that in front of everybody.
Brandon (as Milo): You know-you know - okay, don't don't do that again. Don't don't don't.
Eric (as Tuna): Mrrrrow.
Brandon (as Milo): Do you would you mind going into that JUICE!!! And uh - and just like keeping keeping an ear out and and a nose out for anything suspicious?
Eric (as Tuna): Yeah. I'll go check it out. That's fine. But you're going to rub my tummy and you're going to do it poorly, even though it's exactly what I usually want. And like after fifteen times then I'll be okay.
Brandon (as Milo): Great. This relationship has gotten weirder. Okay, um,
Eric: Tuna scampers down just swan dives off of the side of the building but then just floats down, and then phases through the door. At this point, as you guys have been staking out, I guess Tuna has been there in there for a little while. You hear the sound of motorcycle revving.
[Eric makes revving and skidding noises]
Eric: And pulling into the alleyway is the Knight of Mirrors.
Julia (as Val): This motherfucker's back again.
Eric: The Knight of Mirrors does are incredible like Fast and Furious C-turn. Like they didn't really stop momentum until, like, all the way around the corner into this alley, fully into the alley, just landing perfectly in front of the dumpster. The Knight of Mirrors stays on their bike but leans over and starts rooting around in the dumpster. Seems like they're also have a magnifying glass out. It's very interesting.
Amanda: I'm going to jump down there.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Yeah, I want to go down there, too. I'm going to climb safely because I'm not a monk and I don't have slow fall.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Yeah, I think Aggie would get down there first.
Brandon: As we jump down in order to get the Knight of Mirrors to stop looking through the dumpster, I'm going to cast one of my new spells, heat metal on their motorcycle.
Amanda: BRANDON!
Julia: I love it.
Brandon: And it's going to hurt their butt because it's it's like it's like a seat warmer, but like broken, you know?
Eric: That's just terrible deltour.
Amanda: I don't support this.
Eric: Sure. Yeah, okay. The motorcycle gets really freaking hot. I think this is like it's like the motorcycle overclocked because it's like a computer. So you hear it getting like hotter and hotter like their fans inside that are spinning up. Are you being seen as you're doing this?
Brandon: Yeah, I think we're like jumping down, right?
Julia: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah.
Brandon: And I'm going to say a catchy, pithy catchphrase that's like.
Amanda: Uh huh...
Brandon (as Milo): If you can't take the heat, stay out of the dumpster.
Julia: Jesus.
Amanda (as Aggie): Okay, woah hi, I don't sign off on this.
Julia (as Val): I kind of sign off on it. Where the fuck you been.
[Brandon laughs]
Eric: Yeah I think the Knight of Mirrors goes
Eric (as Knight of Mirrors): AW OH FUCK AHHH!
Eric: But stays on top of the motorcycle and immediately revs forward and tries to run Milo over.
Julia: I'd like to dash and block that, if possible like grab the front wheel.
Eric: Yeah! They try to run Milo over. Yeah Val you get this, you can hold on to it. This motorcycle is incredibly hot and terrible. Be like
Eric (as Knight of Mirrors): What-what w I stop. Please just stop. Please stop getting these- I can't get off. Just please stop making this hot. I know this- please stop.
Brandon: Okay I end the spell.
Eric (as Knight of Mirrors): I need I just.
Eric: It's garbled still in there, in their helmet and it's like someone had turned the volume down on the speaker of their helmet but they're still yelling in it.
Eric (as Knight of Mirrors): Jesus fuck, I thought I felt that after all the stuff you guys have done though the winter, you'd be able to get the shit together. But apparently you still hate me. I understand what kind of a stake out- is this a stake out?!
Brandon (as Milo): It's our stake out.
Julia (as Val): Yeah. Says the person who who drove up in a very loud motorcycle.
Amanda (as Aggie): What are you doing here?
Eric (as Knight of Mirrors): Shit- yeah, I am- I'm investigating. I'm investigating some suspicious activity and I don't know why I have to do it. I'm doing my stakeout. I didn't know you were doing a stakeout. I don't have time to just like, look around and talk to you or any of these things. Cause we didn't coordinate, and you just made- made my freaking motorcycle super hot. Don't do that! Don't do that ever again. It sucks.
Eric: The Knight of Mirrorpoints at Milo
Eric (as Knight of Mirrors): That fucking sucks. Fuck you don't do that.
Brandon (as Milo): Well stay off our turf then!
Eric (as Knight of Mirrors): What turf?! It's Lake Town City!
Eric: At this point, you hear another- there's another screech coming over through the street. A sound you wouldn't expect there to be on a city street. It's like a klaxon, not like a police siren, but it's the one that goes like woow, wooow, woow, wooow. And you see that screeching up with a lot less grace than the Knight of Mirrors is a massive van with an airbrushed image of a skeleton doing the rock and roll sign and a backwards hat on and on the side it says "BONES DOES IT AGAIN"
Julia (as Val): If you're staking out, you're staking out. Let's hide.
Eric (as Knight of Mirrors): Hiding is usually not the thing that I do. I'll see you later.
Eric: And speeds away past the van.
Julia: Okay.
Brandon (as Milo): Behind the dumpster?
Julia (as Val): Yeah hide behind the dumpster.
Eric: Okay, do you want to do pass without a trace as well?
Julia and Brandon: Yeah!
Eric: Okay, let's do first for heat metal. Let's do your spirit surge my man.
Julia: Oh boy, Brandon.
[Dice rolling]
Brandon: 12.
Eric: There you go. So you're going to cast pass without trace on the three of you?
Brandon: Yes.
Eric: Cool.
Amanda: This is definitely a thing we've practiced too, it's like we're discovered last minute. You know, Milo knows to do this.
Julia: I like the idea that, like, Milo throws his cowl over us and then we disappear to shadows. I kind of like that imagery.
Eric: I love that, like the cowl is like a curtain. Yeah. So, yeah, now you all have stealth. If you want to hide behind the dumpster, all of you make stealth rolls.
Julia: Great. And it's +10 right with pass without a trace?
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia: Great.
[Dice rolling]
Julia: Ahaa!! Nat 20 baybeeee!
Amanda: 21!
Brandon: 28.
Julia: HOOO.
Eric: Yeah, you guys are firmly behind a dumpster in the cloak of shadow is around you as this van pulls in and you see three guys hop out, one is like six foot tall, just scruffy looking tall white dude with like a overgrown beard, but like it was intentionally overgrown, like it was really long. And he's wearing a T-shirt that looks like it's skeleton bones.
Julia: Cool.
Eric: But the skeleton has bone muscles. It's very it's very confusing.
Amanda: Ah yes, the buff skeleton look, I love it.
Julia: Val is so confused about the anatomy.
Eric: Yeah, no, the skeletons jacked is what you want to get across. There is a jacked Asian dude, but he's like five foot six, yeah, hops out as well, and he's wearing a Jack O'Lantern as like a mask-
Julia: Because they're very cool.
Eric: And then there's like mid 40s, just like really slouchily dressed older white guy holding a TV camera, like one that you would get from like a local news station would have it. He's bracing it on his shoulder. And at this point, the guy with the long beard with the skeleton T-shirt hops out and be like
Eric (as Buff Skeleton Guy): Just another day for Bones Body! Here, checking out Lake Town City. There's a bit of suspicious stuff happening. And we can all trace it back to this spot right here. JUICE!!! With three exclamation points. Really weird, isn't it?
Julia (as Val): These guys fuckin ghost hunters? What is happening here?
Eric: He points to the Jack o lantern gentlemen and is like,
Eric (as Bones Body): Hey, Jacked O'Lantern, as my lawyer and best friend, what do you think is happening here?
Eric: And the guy with the Jack O'Lantern on just kind of shrugs and looks around and the cameraman like,
Eric (as Cameraman): Yeah, so, hey, Bones doesn't really seem like there's anything here.
Eric (as Bones): Oh, there's definitely something here. Once I pull out my gear!
Eric: And he goes into the van and there's like what looks like a potato gun, but instead of a potato, there's just a can of some spray on it, and he just like fires it and he really does fires it at the dumpster. And there's like a low grade boof and like purple smoke comes out and kind of like fills the air everywhere, and he's like
Eric (as Bones): This is how we determine how all the weird stuff happens in this area. Let's check it out.
Eric: As they push through the purple smoke, he looks around and be like,
Eric (as Bones): Huh? Usually when people throw things out, they know they have something to hide, but there's nothing in here, so they don't have anything to hide. I knew it at that point the woman with the blond hair comes out and the other red headed kid and they're all like yelling at each other. She's like,
Eric (as blonde woman): What is happening?! Excuse me, I am Mrs. Jackie Pugh, the manager here at JUICE!!! With exclamation points. And you need to get out of here. And Clement has his phone out, is filming the whole thing on TikTok and they basically just kind of get into it. Bones says,
Eric (as Bones): Don't worry, ma'am, I'm Bones Body local weird thing investigator. I have a really popular YouTube series. It's fine. This is all above board. We've talked to people. Have you noticed anything strange going around?
Eric: And at that point, is there just kind of yelling at each other in the purple smoke? All three of you look down and you see that like so before there was kind of just like the figment of ghostly outline around you, which is usually when Milo does stuff to you. But now you guys are like a little bit glowing purple. It's like during like a paint party or during the the holiday of Holi. Now you're like covered in like this purple dust. And you also see that Tuna is kind of just floating around in the purple stuff. Being like,
Eric (as Tuna): Hey, what is all this is all looks so fun. I never get to play with this.
Amanda: I'm going to just quietly cast Sanctuary on Milo, because if this situation is targeting magic, then that's where it's going to come from.
Brandon: Do it. Thank you. Oh, Eric, I don't think I ever saw pass without a trace either.
Eric: Yes, I would do that now.
Julia: Now is the perfect time, Brandon.
Eric: I would - don't worry. I was going to ask you. Yeah, as Bones is going on about his YouTube numbers and how everything is above board and it is all being filmed, also, the camera guy comes up and asks everyone to make sure if they consent to being filmed, and what does Bones says,
Eric (as Bones): Wait a second, I feel something. This is. Strange...
Eric: Milo, what- did you roll your spirits?
Brandon: I did, I got an 11.
Eric: Okay, so you're fine. Wonderful. So Bones is looking around and he's like,
Eric (as Bones): Is that is that a cat? Brett, zoom in on the cat. BRETT ZOOM IN ON THE CAT!
Eric: And you can just see the outline of a cat is flying and floating around in the air.
Julia (as Val): Should we retreat while they are distracted by Tuna?
Brandon (as Milo): I don't know.
Brandon: I'm trying to see if I could dispel Tuna. I don't think I can. I think it's up to them.
Julia: God damn it, Tuna.
Eric: And that's when Bones says.
Eric (as Bones): I got it! It's a ghost cat!
Eric: And he takes like what looks like a bunch of paint balls, and throws it at Tuna and they all explode. And then Tuna goes,
Eric (as Tuna): No! The actual afterlife!
Eric: And disspells, and Milo, you lose a third of your HP. Just lower your maximum by a third.
Brandon: Shit. Can Tuna, make any sort of dex save or anything. They have a +4 to stealth and a +2 to dec.
Eric: Yes, I rolled that. And Bones won by like 5.
Brandon: Oh.
Julia: Are we able to, like I dunno, get out of this alleyway via a fire escape or something like that back to where we were hiding before?
Eric: Yeah, absolutely. You can definitely get out of here if you want because of the fracus with Tuna, and I'll let you just do that. But Milo, as you this might be a little harder for you and you might need a hand up on the fire escape,
Brandon: Hobble away.
Julia: Oh yeah, Vals' grabbing him and pulling him up.
Eric: Yeah, you can sneak back up the fire escape as Bones is crowing currently and be like,
Eric (as Bones): Oh, finally our we've been in we've been in Lake Town City for three hours, and I finally got my first catch!
Julia (as Val): Ugh, these guys suck.
Eric (as Bones): Listen, it's not the panther, but a ghost cat has to be close.
[Julia and Amanda groan]
Eric: And right now he's plugging. He's like "smash that subscribe" all that good stuff.
Julia: This guy's the worst.
Eric: And all the JUICE!!! People and and bones and his crew. Jack the lantern and Brett are kind of just working it out. What do you want to do?
Brandon (as Milo): I am going to kill that guy and then bring him back to life and then kill him, and then bring him back to life one more time, and kill him again.
Julia (as Val): Are you okay? Because you look like... Bad like-
Brandon (as Milo): No I'm not
Julia (as Val): Worse than after Christmas bad.
Brandon (as Milo): I'm not okay. That hurt a lot. I don't know what it was and I want my cat back.
Julia (as Val): You want the cat back? Because sometimes it seems like you don't like the cat-
Brandon (as Milo): YES I WANT THE CAT BACK!
Eric: Aggie, you get a text from Dez who's like,
Eric (as Dez): Hey, just-just a status report, is everything going okay?
Amanda (as Aggie): No.
Amanda: Second text.
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda (as Aggie): Something happened to Tuna, meeting you back at the lab now.
Eric: Dez text back and says.
Eric (as Dez): That was the cat, right?
Amanda (as Aggie): Yes, see you in twenty.
Amanda: And I think we should all retreat to wherever we parked the truck, you know, stealthily and head back to the lab to try to, like, do some tests or something.
Brandon: Yeah.
Julia (as Val): Do we not want to wait until these YouTube hours are gone before we - check the reason we came here? I don't trust that just because he has some cool spray and he says there's nothing there doesn't mean there's actually nothing there, you know?
Amanda (as Aggie): No, sure, I can- I can stay with Milo and you can do the exploration, but I get sort of lost sight of that original mission and all of this.
Julia (as Val): Yeah, okay, that's fine.
Eric: Yeah. Val, as they just talk about smashing that subscribe, people signing really actual releases instead of Brett just saying it, they kind of wrap up. It takes them a while to back out of the alley because Jacked O'Lantern is not a great driver and yeah, they get out of there. Val you check the dumpster. There's just a lot of bottles of cashew milk that seem to be have expired two days ago, but there's nothing in there.
Julia: There's nothing? No no mushroom anything?
Eric: No, honestly, there's no weird things in here. If you're looking specifically for mushrooms, there's no actual mushrooms there. Maybe there's mushroom powder, which is like the stuff in there. But like, there's nothing here you can actually use for your investigation.
Julia: Okay.
Eric: Wonderful. Okay, as you will go back and Aggie, as you drive way back back with Milo catless, you're still glowing a little purple. So you have to put sunglasses on inside.
[Brandon and Julia laughing]
[Transition note]
Amanda: Hey, it's Amanda. I didn't have time to prepare an anecdote for today because I was listening to the new Taylor Swift album for too long and then the new Mountain Goats album that I went back to Taylor Swift and then back to the Mountain Goats. So I guess this mineral is brought to you by new music from artists you love. I want to thank each and every one of our supporters on Patreon, especially the people who joined this week, Lauren and Catherine and Kelsey, thank you so, so much. You and the rest of the hundreds of people who have joined our Patreon to make it possible for this to be our jobs. And looking back on 2020, it feels like we did that whole Mad Max thing and like escaped disaster. So if you want to be part of our Patreon family and help us make our daring escape from media consolidation in 2020, we are always looking for more people to join.You get our Discord NPC stories where last week Eric dropped more Join the Party winter seasonal songs. It's incredible. An exclusive three part mini series called Join the Team, where our friends and Eric play a high school football drama game that he co-wrote with friend of the Show Mischa Stanton, and all of the stuff that's been there for four years of our Patreon. That's including campaign one. So if you're able, please do join us for as little as five dollars a month at Patreon.com/jointhepartypod. If you haven't checked your patrón in a while, by the way, please do. Over one hundred of you out there are still in the old ones. So you're not getting those sweet, sweet rewards. And trust me, you want to read these holiday songs. They're great.
Did you know that multitude publishes free resources for creative people of all kinds, whether you are a podcast or a creator or just interested in learning more about how our shows get made? We have dozens of free articles, recordings and videos for you. So go check that out at Multitude . Productions / Resources.
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And finally, keep an eye out next Tuesday, we're so excited about it, we can't sleep, you might say we're unsleeping.
And now back to the show.
[Transition note]
[80's arcade music]
Eric: Hey, you've been doing this for about six months now and you're running down some leads, so we're going to do a montage of things. I think there's a montage of Dr. Morrow like testing all of you, swabbing the purple glowing stuff, all of you running it through a bunch of computers, and that she just like she sort of frowns at a computer and then shrugs to you.
[Everyone laughing]
Eric: There's a lot of poking and prodding of Milo. January throws a bunch of like catnip at your feet, and then hides and sees if it brings Tuna back. But Tuna is not there. And then January frowns and shrugs.
Julia: Awww.
Eric: Yeah! Let's for this montage here, I want to go around in a circle and just do some things that maybe you wanted to resolve since the last arc, or as we go from December to April here, anything that you might have resolved in the last few months other than the entanglements. Let's start with Aggie and we'll go - let's go in alphabetical order. Let's go Aggie, Milo, Val.
Amanda: I think over that time I've definitely gotten some unannounced visits from my siblings, and I think there was definitely a time where we were like walking around Laketon and somebody had a heart attack, or like got a serious cut in front of me. And without thinking, I like ran over there and did my little orange spark healing situation while they weren't looking to help them. And Ryan was just like on his cell phone and didn't notice.
Eric: Yeah, I think that I think that's really good. I like that maybe Ryan came by me be like,
Eric (as Ryan): Hey! Quinn was here!! So we should have some stuff. We should have some bonding time! I'm staying on your couch!
[Everyone laughing]
Eric: Now Ryan is here, and yeah, I think that totally happens. Like someone is choking, like at the morning news or someone's choking on a bagel like you like heal it out of them instead of doing the heimlich, and pretending to be doing the heimlich maneuver. I think there's another one where, like, someone is trying to do like winter or like it's too cold to be swimming, but they're still doing it anyway, like a polar bear sort of situation. And someone like falls off their their paddle board or whatever they were doing in like early March and is like drowning and cold. And then Ryan rips off his shirt and jumps into the water and saves them. And is like a big hero about it, and like everyone fans all over him, especially because he's ripped and he looks more ripped because he's like veins are bulging because it's so cold, and as he settles back up and puts his sweater back on, you could see, like, one of his gills is still just like kind of out.
Amanda: Eeeeee.
Julia: Gasp!
Amanda: I frown and loop my scarf around his neck.
Eric: He's like,
Eric (as Ryan): WHAT?! I don't need a scarf. I'M FINE!
Amanda (as Aggie): They're out! There are TV cameras here, Ryan! Come on.
Eric (as Ryan): There are always cameras I look sick!
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Milo let's do one!
Brandon: I think in the wake of this event in the alley behind JUICE!!! Milo's gotten a little bit more serious about this. He realizes that this isn't a game anymore. It's what they're actually trying to do. And there is actual stakes to it. It's not just, you know, let's watch a juice bar and drink some celery juice. And so I think he's going to do two things. I think on the one hand, he's going to maybe ask Dr. Morrow for, like individual training sessions so he can sort of hone his powers a little bit better.
Eric: Yeah, I like this. I think Dr. Morrow also has some like like some like 17th century like stuff that she recovered from Salem from the like looks at ghosts and stuff. So it's it's a lot of like you like trying to move a Ouija board like a Ouija with your ghost powers. And I like the training montage of that. And that's very cool.
Brandon: It's just spells "Milo"
Eric: Yeah! Then you spell Milo and then Dr. Morrow gives you a big thumbs up and she is like her hair, her her hair up in a giant sweatbands. So, yeah, you and Dr. Morrow get a little bit closer.
Brandon: And we do a quick scene montage of every evening, Milo coming home and trying to summon Tuna.
[Julia and Amanda awww]
Amanda: It's just a little calendar you cross off.
Brandon: Ohhoh, it's got a cat. It says "hang in there" on the top.
Eric: Val, what do you got?
Julia: I think it is Valentine's Day and Val has spent it with Hitomi-
Amanda: VAL!
Brandon: Valentine's Day. So goooood!
Eric: Valentine's Day.
Amanda: I'm sure they've never heard that before.
Julia: Oh, they've heard it their entire life. But I think Val, I don't know, breaks out like their nice pair of jeans for Valentine's Day and realizes that they still have the locket from Christmas in that pocket.
Amanda: Ooooh!
Brandon: Locket in the pocket.
Julia: Adorable. So they pull it out and like they're about to leave for their date. But they they're like,
Julia (as Val): Alright, the fuck's up with this?
Julia: And decides to open it.
Eric: Alright, Val, make a history check for me.
Julia: Aww, I'm not good at those, though.
Amanda: I thought, you're going to give it to Hitomi and then she'd be like kidnapped.
Julia: It's an 18 -1
Eric: Incredible, wonderful. Alright. So, yeah, you try to open the locket and maybe it's stuck with gunk a little bit. But you like you shake it fast enough that it warms up a little bit like you beating a pickle jar of the side. But it's like you're doing it super fast with your vibrating and it pops open. And on one side it looks like these are incredibly small photo or a photo that was old and then resized to be locket sized, and it's two sides of the photo of these two people dancing and looking so wildly happy of each other. Like you can't see that they're dancing, but they both have their heads and angles that you can see that they're just like throwing themselves into motion together. And one side you see that there is a picture of Dr. Morrow young, which I don't think you've ever seen before. I think as Dr. Morrow and Doc Brown are the same in my head, it's like Dr. Morrow has looked the same since she was thirty for like radioactive reasons, but also her as a person. And on the other side is a young man with his hair cropped very short and a big bushy mustache, because this was the 80s and everyone wanted to be Tom Selleck and very the little you can see a little bit of a crease of a white collar and a dark black tie and a black suit. And it has the idea of, you know, this is an old photo like you're looking at it and be like this was taken on film. And this is a film photograph. It also has the idea of like I'm looking at a person who existed in the past, like the image is strange. Like this is not a person I've interacted with in the flesh. This is an image that has only happened in the past. And you think about it and you're just like, "who is this dude?" And Val, you're turning it over in your apartment and you open your fridge up to get some leftover stuffed shells that Hitomi made for you. And were like pretty good.
Julia: She's learning.
Eric: She's doing alright. And the refrigerator door closes and you see a Christmas card from Milo... And his dad.
Brandon: Fuck you, Eric.
Julia: INCREDIBLE.
Amanda: It's the present version of the past person!!!
Julia: I think Val during a training session or something like that is going to, like, covertly drop the locket off somewhere where Dr. Morrow will find it later.
Amanda: Awww.
Eric: Oh, good. So Dr. Morrow has everything except for the keycard. Good to know. Let's go back to Aggie! Aggie! Let's keep the montage going.
Amanda: So I think like a lot of people, Aggie gets into a new subreddit, every sort of New Year's time. And whether it's like picking up a new hobby or like getting really into like bodyweight workouts or whatever it is, she's like surfing, you know, kind of deeper in reddit than she's been before. And I think she finds a sort of like locals only Lake Town City spread it where it's like, you know, "LT before the C" or something like that, you know, like people who are linked to the originals, or just like, you know, trying to find, like, the authentic Lake Town City. And so I think she sort of browses it and is like, "oh, interesting. I haven't heard of that bar before!" but then she realizes that she could do some searches. And so she starts trying words like iPad, Hockey Game Gutenberg, People's River, PR. Ma's and just tries to kind of like read over the last especially the last year of history on this forum and trying to see if there is anything new that could possibly lead them to learn more about Gutenberg, about mods, about the People's River or the bear situation. That's what I think Aggie does when she is curled up in her Land's End, all flannel pajamas.
Brandon: And Sushi's in your lap in your nook.
Amanda: Yes, Sushi is like between the laptop and my legs with, like, his head poking out.
Julia: Aww!
Eric: I like this. Yeah, I think Sushi gets up like does the cat thing where they're like NO! I don't want to be here anymore! And like pushes out of your hands and like jobs up on the keyboard and like you search for like Ma's Mech Suit, question mark and in this thing and they stepped on the space bar and it just kind of goes to like a random page. And there's someone has posted a creepy pasta in the Lake Town City woods. And like, you can't tell if it's a fake story or a real story, but they're talking about a person who was following them while they were doing like a night hike in the fall. And it got darker, quicker than they thought it would. And they were trying to find their way back and they got all turned around. And then it was like, oh, was like nearly dark, like the edge when there's only like a barely light in the sky where it is like only the purple of Twilight is to light around you. And they probably saw somebody in the woods. They went out to them and raised their hand and they didn't move. And then they got closer and like, "hey, you know how to get out of here? What do you do?" And they saw them. The person in the woods. They described it like someone took all of the pixels in the world and then reduced it really quickly. And this person looked blocky and oblong, like, you know, they were just a series of shapes. And then they turned back into a person and they were gone. It's like I never knew what they call them, the sixteen bit hiker. It's like "I never knew of the sixteen bit hiker could help me, but I didn't want to investigate. I got out of there thirty minutes later and I haven't thought about it until tonight."
Brandon: Creepy pastaaa!
Amanda: Interestiiing!
Julia: Spoooky!
Amanda: Then Aggie just typed in the word "drugs" and then just like shakes her head and closes the laptop.
Eric: Incredible. Alright, Milo what you got?
Brandon: At the same time that Milo is sort of building a bond with Dr. Morrow and upping his abilities, the event with Tuna has really made him paranoid. And so he's going to use the ID card at the museum and see what doors it will open, if any, and sort of try to investigate and try to find out any third party information about Dr. Morrow that he can.
Amanda: Cool.
Eric: I think if you're doing this at the museum, Lucas is following you like a puppy dog is like,
Eric (as Lucas): Hey, what are you doing? What are you touching this? Why are you scanning all these things?
Eric: And Lucas is following you as you scan every single door, and being like,
Eric (as Lucas): Oh, man, that's a cool door.
Eric: And every so often he's like,
Eric (as Lucas): You're doing this for superhero stuff, right?
Brandon (as Milo): Yeah, yeah!
Brandon: I think at this point he's like fully in this with Lucas. Like, I think they're like almost Batman and Robin situation at this point because Lucas is one of the few people he knows he can trust at this point who's not, you know, on a superhero team with him.
Eric: Yeah, I think this is like in the more in the modern Spider-Man, it's like his friend who's not powered, but this is like "aw hell yeah I love that!"
Brandon: Yeah, exactly.
Eric: Also, Lucas said,
Eric (as Lucas): Hey, if you lie to me again, I'mma kill you. So you have to tell me everything.
Brandon: Just to note, he did bring some timbly tomblies to apologize to Lucas for not telling him earlier.
Eric: So you did formally apologize or did you do the thing where you just gave him the timbly tomblies and walked away?
Brandon: I spelled "I'm sorry" out with timbly tomblies in the box.
Amanda: And the cashier who you bought it from was so moved by you inexplicably telling them a euphemistic version of the story that four months later they launch a ad campaign called Say It, with Timbly Tomblies!
[Eric and Brandon laughing]
Eric: Yeah, you're doing this ID card, I don't think you find anything in the museum. So you've scanned every single one in here and it doesn't register it. I think you at one point you go to your favorite coffee place, one of the Thorn Hills around town, the good Thornhill, the good one. There's actually one that's like really close to your apartment. And that's like the secret good one. Not like the hipstery good one.
Brandon: Right.
Eric: And you're just kind of absentmindedly playing with the ID and the bathroom has like a scan, like they don't have like a key anymore. So you just try it on there and the bathroom door opens.
Brandon: Milo stops and he's with his mouth agape and he goes,
Brandon (as Milo): I don't have to make any purchases, use the bathroom anymore.
[Amanda and Julia laughing]
Eric: You also then go to all the a bunch of other Thorn Hills and like they open up too.
Amanda: Ooooh!
Brandon: Weird.
Julia: Okay, is this just like the mayoral? I don't have to wait in line anymore card? Like is that what this is?
Eric: Who can say? Eyes emoji. Bet that's not what you thought this would be, right? Right Brandon?!
Brandon: Correct. I didn't think it would open bathrooms.
Amanda: That is though what I would do if I were mayor of a town is just have access to all bathrooms in businesses.
Julia: Yep. Yeah.
Eric: Alright. Val, what do you got?
Julia: It's going to be Sunday gravy with my mom.
Brandon: Cute!
Eric: Aw nice!
Amanda: Yeahh!
Brandon: How does she make this sexy?
Julia: Yeah. Nothing, nothing. Nothing sexy about it. She actually makes the meatballs very small.
Eric: She's wearing a really tight 90's sweater that's just her fashion stuff.
Julia: And I think like over glasses of wine because that's what you drink when you're having Sunday gravy. Val's just like.
Julia (as Val): So have you heard from Dad lately?
Eric: I think your mom instinctually, like, pushes over the salt and throws some over her shoulder then spits on the ground.
Julia (as Val): He's not that bad!
Eric: And says
Eric (as Val's Mom): No.
Julia (as Val): Okay, cool.
Eric (as Val's Mom): Have you? Have you heard from your dad?
Julia (as Val): I mean, he sent me a Christmas card from him and the new wife and the triplets.
Eric (as Val's Mom): Ugh.
Julia (as Val): Oh yeah. I know.
Eric (as Val's mom): He could have just - I when I told him that triplets should always be named Huey, Dewey and Louie, I did not think he would take that seriously.
Julia (as Val): He didn't, Ma. He named them all V names.
Eric (as Val's Mom): They should have been Huey, Dewy and - UGH now I'm mad that he didn't name that Huey, Dewy, and Louie.
Julia (as Val): It's worse that they're all V names because like they're - it's Vito, Vinny and Viola.
Eric (as Val's Mom): Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. You're getting me riled up. Can we talk about something else. Let's talk about something else. You know who I did see recently who came by?
Julia (as Val): Hmm?
Eric (as Val's Mom): Only one in this that fucking family who I still keep in touch with Minerva, you know? Did you know her? You know her?
Julia (as Val): Yeah, I know Aunt Min, Ma. I saw Aunt Min too. I didn't know that you knew she was in town though.
Eric (as Val's Mom): Oh you know, Aunt Min? You saw her?
Julia (as Val): Yeah, I - YES! Ma.
Eric (as Val's Mom): Oh she didn't say anything about that when she came over yesterday.
Julia (as Val): When did you see her?
Eric (as Val's Mom): Yesterday. She was here. Yeah, she was. It was wonderful. We talked for a while. She asked me a bunch of just questions. We never really talk about me. I really like the way she talk about me. Well, the first part, she talked about her, but she really asked me some really some really personal questions like, oh, you know, like how do we how the art is going. What inspires me, talked about you and how I think that everything's going. What she asked me, my maiden name is like she's going to try to log into my eBay account.
Julia (as Val): I mean, did she ask your maiden name? I feel like that's something she would already know.
Eric (as Val's Mom): She knows my maiden name! She was - she was. It was nice. It was nice conversation. Yes. A lot about you. She loves you. That's what she said. She wanted to make sure you are on the right path. And were following your dreams as defined by the stars. You know her. She's kind of she's mooney. She then asked me my horoscope regular.
Julia (as Val): Okay, did you tell her anything? Well, let's get into the specifics of what you told her, Ma. About me as a person.
Eric (as Val's Mom): I told her that I was happy for you and said all of your jobs. I told her all the things you were doing all the time that you're spending with Dom 5. And I think he's a nice father figure for you. Because your father is just a mother fucker- that's and that's why I told her! All good things. Oh, you know what I did say? I said, you spending a lot of time with your - I told her about your new friends, and I saw that I was happy of all the time that you spend. I think that Aggie! Good influence! Finally!
Julia (as Val): Aggie is a wonderful influence. You are correct.
Eric (as Val's Mom): Is Milo getting skinnier? Please send him here, please.
Julia (as Val): Yes. No, I keep bringing him lasagna. I don't know if he's eating it, but I'm doing my best.
Eric (as Val's Mom): Apparently not. I'm just happy you found friends in adulthood. Really.
Julia (as Val): Thank you. That's a weird thing to say to your child. But I'll-
Eric (as Val's Mom): Who wants more sauce?
Julia (as Val): Okay...
Julia: Val just pours more wine into their glass.
[Arcade music ends]
Eric: Alright, so upstate New York is it really doesn't actually get warm until May, but there are those shout out to global warming, as Dr. Morrow would say. She has a she has a she has an apron that says that -
Amanda: Al Gore gave it to her.
Eric: Yeah!
Amanda: It's ironic.
Eric: Yeah. There's one perfect day in the middle of April, like April 9th. This is something that's been announced on the news. The weatherman at Seven and a Half News has been talking about this for like seven days out.
Eric (as Weatherman): Like we had a perfect day coming. I don't want to say too much, but it's happening.
Eric: And Hitomi say to Val
Eric (as Hitomi): Val, if I don't go outside. On the perfect day. I'm going to - I need, I need to be - take me outside, please.
Julia (as Val): Okay, I like being outside too.
Eric (as Hitomi): I need to be around people. Get all of your friends and tell them that we're going and having a picnic in the park on the perfect day.
Julia (as Val): Okay, we're doing it, I love this. Thank you. Thank you for making me be social.
Eric (as Hitomi): Great. Yes please.
Eric (as Hitomi): Also, if I'm not in the sun, I will turn into one of those mushrooms that are only found like under like like layers and layers of fallen trees.
Julia (as Val): Oh, truffles!
Eric (as Hitomi): Yeah, but the poisonous ones.
Julia (as Val): Oh, okay. That's hot, alright.
Eric (as Hitomi): I need to be in the sun. We need to be in the sun.
Eric: And Hitomi immediately blasts out, sends out an email blast to all of you. Lucas texts Milo and says,
Eric (as Lucas): Hey, I got the key logger from Apple and I'm going to picnic. Just so you know, Apple and Zach are out of town?
Julia: Oh they're dating!!
Amanda: Romantic getaway before the Air B&Bs get too expensive.
Julia: Yeah the off season Air B&Bs!
Brandon: To be clear, Milo still has no idea about this.
Eric: Oh, no. Lucas-
Julia: They keep telling you and you're just like naaaah.
Eric: Lucas is also just like I don't know where they went. So I'm hanging out with you.
Amanda: They're just friends who kiss.
Eric: Yeah, and Aggie, Hitomi asked you to bring the blanket. Capital T, capital B.
Amanda: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Julia: It's so large.
Amanda: Yeah. It's like a poly blend fabric, so it's water resistant. You can sit on the muddy ground and be fine. Machine washable!
[Background sounds of a crowded area, kids yelling, bike bells going off]
Julia: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, I think this is actually called Weston Park. I think over in like the 90's Weston like reclaimed this massive park that was intentionally left there by the city as it started to expand. But then Weston said they had jurisdiction over it and everyone was just like, listen, it's 1992, whatever, it's fine.
Julia: It's not a real city yet.
Eric: Yeah, so it was just called the park for a while. And then it was renamed Weston Park. But people still just call it the park, and everyone knows that it has like this massive field. It's kind of like that one section of Central Park that's like just the baseball fields.
Amanda: Nice big open lawn ringed by trees.
Eric: Yes. It's just like big and there's like a bandshell and everything. And sometimes they're outdoor concerts there and stuff and like, whatever the big park is in your city, it's like that. So you all you all gather on on the perfect day and it is slammed with people. But everyone knows that you have to share the perfect day as soon as it gets warm. So everywhere there's a you can find, you can like sprawl and everyone like has their picnics out and everything. Hitomi is wearing a winter coat, but then makes a dramatic reveal that she's wearing a sundress like
Eric (as Hitomi): FUCK THIS! WINTER IS OVER.
Julia: So good.
Amanda: Aggie very subtley takes off her Carhartt jacket to have a lighter, just denim Carhartt jacket underneath.
[Eric and brandon laugh]
Brandon: Milo's wearing a fairly hefty jacket and keeps it on.
Julia (as Val): Oh, bud.
Amanda (as Aggie): Aww...
Eric: Don't give- Lucas says
Eric (as Lucas): Don't give him sympathy. He needs to get stronger. Don't do that.
[Brandon and Julia laugh]
Julia: Val just hands him more lasagne.
Julia (as Val): Eat something,
Eric (as Lucas): You have that in your pocke?!
Julia (as Val): It's in tupperware! My girlfriend brought picnic stuff. What do you want from me?!
Amanda: Aggie brings like a sixty four ounce like industrial thermos that like men take the construction sites and it's filled with like the most delicate Paloma drink.
Brandon: Oooo!
Julia: Incredible.
Amanda: And she has cups to share as well.
Eric: Yeah. In Lake Town City public drinking is decriminalized because it's bullshit.
Julia: Valid.
Brandon: Milo says,
Brandon (as Milo): Guys, I'm sorry I didn't really have time to do any cooking, so I just brought this like deli tray thing. There's some pickles on it. I wanted some pickles.
Julia (as Val): Charcuterie. Fuck, yeah!
Eric: Lucas says
Eric (as Lucas): This is from both of us!
Brandon (as Milo): It's not from Lucas. It specifically from me. Lucas brought nothing because Lucas is selfish.
Eric: No Lucas has already written on the plastic top "from Milo and Lucas" like
Eric (as Lucas): Nah it says it right there! It's from both of us!
Brandon (as Milo): Weird.
Brandon: And Milo takes the plastic top off and throws it.
Eric: Lucas runs after it like it's a Frisbee. So the five of you are hanging out on the lawn. I think that it's this is like you get there early and everyone just kind of stays there until it gets dark again.
Julia: Quinn didn't come?
Amanda: Aww.
Eric: Sorry, Quinn went back to she's on another production. She was only there for the holidays, but she texted Aggie and says,
Eric (as Quinn): Oh man, say hi to all your friends, Val, Hitomi, and Lucas and Philo!
Eric: With a p h.
Amanda: Aggie responds with like three periods and then a question mark.
Eric (as Quinn): What did I spell Lucas wrong?
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda (as Aggie): Very funny.
Eric: She takes a photo of herself hanging out with Soirshe Ronan. And you guys are all you're all just hanging out and it's a lovely time eventually you see, like people are setting up at the bandshell, there's like a system in the bandshell for like presentations and stuff like that. But it seems like there's like a bunch of people running around to, like, erect a stage really quickly. There's like someone's like putting banners up on there. And Hitomi looks over there like,
Eric (as Hitomi): Well, is is there like a party? Did the city set up like a concert for people or a thing?
Amanda (as Aggie): Not that I know of. I didn't see any permits across my desk.
Julia (as Val): Yeah. Could be a pop up thing, which is always a lot of fun. But do I recognize any of the like stagehands or anything like that?
Eric: No, but actually that's an interesting question. Aggie, can you make a history check with disadvantage for me?
[Dice rolls]
Amanda: An 11.
Eric: Wonderful. Okay, so Aggie, you've kind of been invested a little bit more in doing like patrols of the city and trying to make everybody a little more responsible, like you're trying to coordinate this stuff. And it just takes a lot of time and energy out of your day and you're tired. I don't know, maybe you haven't been paying attention as much during the city council meetings, especially because Councilman Burdock is just continuously on his, like anti-weird things in the city. And ever since giga bear, it's just gotten kind of unbearable.
Brandon: NICE.
Eric: So maybe between you being tired and you're not wanting to hear it anymore, maybe you're tuning out the things that are not specifically about historic Laketon. With an 11, the last council meeting, he was ranting and raving about the gigabear again and said,
Eric (as Councilman Burdock): Someone needs to do something about this! I hate it. And this is not the Lake Town City that I grew up in and my parents grew up in and my grandfather who grew up in.
Eric: And you might have just like kind of tuned it out. But he's been making declarations that he was going to do something about this. But like, what can he do?
Amanda: Agreed, he always says shit like that.
Eric: You think about this and how in the last meeting he said
Eric (as Burdock): Someone needs to clean up the city! And I'm going to find the person to do it. And you think about this, and as Councilman Burdock then strides up to the front of the bandshell,
Amanda (as Aggie): This fucking guy...
Eric: And he's like hitting the microphone. He's like,
Eric (as Burdock): Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. Can you all hear me?
Eric: And like, it goes the terrible PA feedback. He's like testing it and more things are being put out. And there's a banner which says "Lake Town City welcomes Feel It In My Bones" featuring Bones Body.
Brandon (as Milo): Jesus Christ.
Julia (as Val): Come on.
Eric: And you see that Bones, Jacked O'Lantern and Brett are there standing behind Councilman Burdock. And you also see that Fritz Brightstone is there as well. The star hockey player that you met a little while ago. You'll see that Councilman Burdock has his wife nearby who's wearing like an immaculately emerald green Adidas tracksuit. He also has like seven kids, one of which is the quarterback for SUNY LTC, who you saw when Aggie kind of blew up a chunk of the field.
Amanda: She pulls her baseball hat a little lower.
Eric: Councilman Burdock then starts to talk and says,
Eric (as Burdock): Alright, thank you, everybody, for coming. I this is the beautiful, most warm day of the season. It's a perfect day! Alright!
Eric: Everybody claps like nicely and just kind of want to go back to their picnic day.
Eric (as Burdock): Well, I have all of your attention here. I wanted to tell you something really interesting that's happening here in Lake Town City. We have the sense that there is some weird, really strange, weird stuff, weird guys and gals and stuff and stuff happening here over the last season or two, last half a year. We know that there was the panther that was running around the city the Knight uhh that fella who's running around on a motorcycle pretending like they're Batman or something. And there is even a high schooler playing football who seemed that they could stretch a little bigger and ruining the sanctity of our high school football games. I don't like that, and I don't think anyone here likes that too. Do you want the sanctity of our high school football games tarnished?!
Eric: And like 10% of the crowd goes,
Eric (as Crowd): [Weakly] Yeah! I hate that.
Eric (as Burdock): And that's where I have a special announcement that we've invited famous YouTube channel stars, the people, the guys behind Bones, the in My Bones "Feel It All Up in My Bones Bodies" to here to investigate the weirdness here.
Eric: I think at this point, like some real loud dubstep starts playing as Bones then pushes the front of like,
Eric (as Bones Body): Hey everybody, it's me! Bones Body! Are you ready to rock?
Eric: And some people recognize him. So like a lot of people are noticing that a famous YouTube person is here. He's like,
Eric (as Bones): I want to show you all what's been happening here. And you see here in your city and the great hockey star Fritz Brightstone here to tell you about it. Fritz?
Eric: And Fritz comes up and he's like
Eric (as Fritz): Hey. [beat of silence] Hey. I hope everyone's having a real good, perfect day.
Eric: And people just applaud because they know Fritz, they're like
Eric (as Crowd): Oh, yeah, Fritz is here! Yeah!!!
Eric: And then Fritz like, back away quickly. Bones comes back and he's like
Eric (as Bones): Alright thanks Fritz! I just want to show you some strange things going on. Thank you so much to Councilman Burdock for inviting us here. We're just going to be around filming an exclusive series all about Lake Town City!
Eric: And a lot of people then start getting kind of jazzed about it. Like people were like, "oh, man, there's going to be like they're filming here? That's so great. I wonder, if I can be on camera! That's crazy!" Lucas is just like so like,
Eric (as Lucas): Hey, hey, fuck this guy, right.
Julia (as Val): Oh so fuck this guy.
Brandon (as Milo): Yeah. Hey guys, you might wanna start packing up the picnic.
Eric: And Hitomi is just like
Eric (as Hitomi): They're going to leave in a second. So what's the problem?
Eric: I think that Lucas looks at Milo, and then looks at Val, and then looks at Aggie, and Lucas like makes eyes at Milo and being like,
Eric (as Lucas): [Trying to act normal] Yeah, what a what is the why should we leave?
[Brandon laughs]
Eric (as Lucas): This doesn't affect us at all. Right.
Julia (as Val): Unhelpful, Lucas. Unhelpful.
Brandon: I shove a slice of ham into Lucas' mouth.
Eric (as Lucas): Mmm ham!
Eric: And I think that at that point that's when Bones he's like,
Eric (as Bones): Listen, it's not a presentation unless we hit the drop!
Eric: And he hits a button and the bass drops in the dubstep song, and he turns it off and is like,
Eric (as Bones): Guys, just kidding, let's be serious here for a second.
[Everyone laughing]
Eric (as Bones): I wouldn't be here if I wasn't if I wasn't going to show you something real. You know, people think that ghost hunting and monster hunting and power hunting is a new that's a new thing that I came up with. People think it's not real. People think that ghosts, goblins, Bigfoot, the sea monsters, they're all real. But, you know, they're all know, they're all fake. I figured that out. But, you know, a ghost might be a real when they're attached to superpowers. That's right. Superpowers. I think that we have something happening right here in Lake Town City.
Eric: And then someone shouts,
Eric (as person in crowd): Yeah, they save us from shit. What are you talking about?
Eric (as Bones): Oh, I see. I have some skeptics here in the audience. I'll show you what I'm talking about.
Eric: He goes back into the back behind the bandshell and grabs what looks like a bird cage and hauls it off to the side of him.
Julia: I think Val's hand is like starting to like rage shake. And they just kind of grab Milo's shoulder and be like,
Julia (as Val): Stay.
Eric: In the cage has like a little electrodes and stuff all over it, like just lots of, like tech, it seems to be attached to it and be like,
Eric (as Bones): I'm going to show you what's really happening here in this town, this whole city. It's weird. And this I have proof of it. It's a ghost cat.
Eric: And he throws out the sheet off and Tuna is leaning against the cage, paws up, looking confused and a little hungry and super unhappy.
Brandon: At that exact moment that the curtain is flung off of Tuna's cage, Milo's eyes turn into the dark purple and green galaxy and he's going to cast call lightning and he's going to call a giant lightning bolt down to strike the bandshell and hopefully in this perfect day so everyone leaves the picnic.
Eric: I love that. Can you do a spirit surge, my man?
[Dice rolls]
Brandon: 18!
Eric: 18, wonderful.
Brandon: I'm up to 6!
Eric: What's your AC?
Brandon: 15.
Eric: Wonderful. Okay, so as soon as you do that, the lightning bolt strikes, lots of people scream and then Lucas immediately tackles you
[Julia laughs]
Eric: like
Eric (as Lucas): Milo! There's a bee on you. Watch out!
Eric: And Lucas full on tackles you. Yeah. The lightning strikes the bandshell and I think that all of the P.A. system like sputters. It goes out and then people just scatter and be like "THIS WASN'T A PERFECT DAY AT ALL!"
Eric: Bones points up in the sky and is like,
Eric (as Bones): YEAH! SEE!
Eric: He's like shouting now because there's no P.A. system. He's like
Eric (as Bones): SEE?! IT'S WEIRD! IT'S ALL WEIRD!
Eric: The councilman puts his arm around Bones and tries to lead him away.
Amanda: I'm running after Tuna. Where's he going?
Eric: Yeah, I think they're cleaning up. And Aggie, you're you're heading forward. Yeah, you're right at the bandshell. Jacked O'Lantern is is taking the trap and is holding it. And as people are breaking the thing down because they think like a storm is coming.
Amanda (as Aggie): Excuse me, do you have a license to bring an animal into a live performance?
Eric: Jacked O'Lantern looks at you for a second and then goes into like he has a backpack that's right there and gives you a business card. And it says "Jacked O'Lantern, lawyer and best friend of Bones."
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: I'm walking right past him to the councilman.
Eric: He puts a hand on your shoulder and squeezes pretty forcefully for you to stop.
Amanda (as Aggie): Excuse me, I need to talk to the councilman,
Eric: Jack steps in front of you with his menacing Jack O'Lantern eyes.
Amanda (as Aggie): We're colleagues. What are you, his bodyguard?
Eric: He flips over the business card and it says "lso bodyguard" on the back.
[Brandon and Julia laughing]
Amanda: Well, this is city business, so you can't stand in my way.
Eric: He roots around in his backpack and pulls out like a print out that this was an official city event sponsored by Westin and Councilman Burdock, and the friends of Councilman Burdock and his lovely family, C-pack.
Amanda: Do I get the sense that the cage is protected by a spell or like a magical aura?
Eric: Yeah, do and arcana check.
[Dice rolls]
Amanda: 15.
Eric: It seems like some of the weird tech that Dr. Morrow messes around with, but also like it's not her style. She's as we say, she's like Doc Brown, mad scientist and like, throws things together to see if they work. But this is like almost sleek. This is almost like overcompensating for not really knowing what they're doing. So someone like threw a ton of electrodes on it/
[Brandon and Julia laugh]
Brandon: Same.
[Eric laughs]
Eric: Yeah me too! S
Amanda: I guess do I get the sense that there is anything except for just mechanical engineering going on?
Eric: Yeah, there's something there's definitely something else.
Amanda: I pull my neutralizing spray out of my jacket pocket and spray it all over the cage.
Eric: Hell yeah. That's awesome. So that's usually used for counterspell. But let's roll on it, my man.
Amanda: Yeah.
Eric: Why don't you do an arcana check.
[Dice rolling]
Amanda: I got a 12. I'm going to use a luck point.
[Dice rolls]
Amanda: Alright, 12 is best I got.
Eric: Well -
Amanda: Ahh I'll do my third luck point, fuck it.
[Dice rolls]
Amanda: 17.
Eric: I rolled worse than that. So, yeah, you spray down the cage, all the electrodes come off Tuna like falls through the bars of the cage and he's like
Eric (as Tuna): MMMMMM! Sweet freedom. Finally, I thought it was going to be stuck in hell forever. Christian Hell, that's what I believe in.
[Everyone laughing]
Amanda (as Aggie): RUN.
Eric: Jacked O'Lantern grabs your wrist and tries to wrestle the special spray away from you.
Amanda: If Tuna is out and running toward Milo, then I'm not going to like put up much of a fight.
Eric: Okay, can you do a strength check for me?
Amanda: Yeah!
[Dice rolling]
Amanda: 14.
Eric: Okay, as you're watching Tuna fly into the open air, the man with a Jack O' Lantern a head squeezes your wrists, dropping the bear mace and then runs towards the van, which is revved up. And you hear Bones from the back says,
Eric (as Bones): Hey, Jacked O'Lantern! Get in, we're leaving. This place sucks. It has weird lightning!
[Brandon laughs]
Amanda: So he's taking the can with him?
Eric: And he's taking the kid with him yeah.
Amanda: Okay, that's fine. Has Tuna made it to Milo?
Eric: Yeah. Milo, you look up and you see the Tuna is flying towards you dramatically.
Brandon: Tuna is invisible to other people now, right.
Eric: Yeah yeah yeah!
Brandon: Well I mean, I can't really do anything to show that I'm talking to a ghost cat. So Milo's just going to make meaningful eyes with Tuna.
Eric: Tuna flops on your face immediately and says,
Eric (as Tuna): Oh, I didn't miss you at all.
[Brandon and Amanda laughing]
Amanda: Alright. So Tuna's safe. I'm just going to like do a little like I'm watching you eyes thing to Burdock.
Eric: Yeah, I think City Councilman Burdock is like collecting his family into a giant minivan and he sees you doing this and is like
Eric (as Burdock): I don't know why you like this place as freaking weird as it is.
Amanda (as Aggie): Unlike you, I have some class, so I'm going to let you go home with your family. We'll talk at the next meeting. Count on it.
Julia: Oooooo!
Eric (as Burdock): There's something weird about you, O'Haire, I'm going to figure it out.
Eric: And he slams the door, the sliding door of his minivan and hops in and drives away.
Amanda: And I just yell,
Amanda (as Aggie): Wouldn't have it any other way!
Amanda: And then I look around for any kids,
Amanda (as Aggie): Mother fucker!
[Crowd voices fade away]
[Brandon and Julia laughing]
[Theme music]