Stories RPG Crossover: Gigacity Guardians 5 Bricks and Mortar
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Hello! Welcome to Stories Podcast. I'm your host, Amanda Weldon. Today's story is a crossover episode from Stories RPG, our play-at-home, listen-and-learn game that helps people of all ages tell amazing stories together. Tune in for a regular episode of Stories Podcast later this week!

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So welcome back to Stories RPG. This is the podcast where we use a game to tell stories together, and you can too. I am joined as always by the Gigacity Guardians. That is Firefly. Tell them who you are.

Hello, I am Jillian Jays, who is a high school student by day, and I am also Firefly, who is the leader of the Giga City Guardians by night. I'm also Amanda from Stories Podcast. Yay, Amanda! And also the amazing Ape Canaveral. Ape Canaveral, he is a...

Rocket experiment gone. Right. I would say. Anyway, he's here. He's with the giga city guardians and he's doing his best, which is pretty great. Impervious to harm. You forgot that. That's so critical. And then animus, the dark horse, the newbie, tell them who you are.

Yeah, newbie is correct. This is less than 24 hours from meeting Giddick City Guardians, and I am right, it feels like, in the middle of mess. I am Animus, office worker turned guardian, and I am ready to take down TESCorp. Champions of the city, defenders of the peace, heroes of justice.

The Giga City Guardians!

Ooh, and on that note, we left last time in the middle of a drama clock. So I'm just gonna set the scene for you here to remind you where you were, which was on the edge of your seats.

Um, you were Firefly and Specs are back at the lighthouse. They were engaged in a high stakes hacking duel with the sort of mysterious, uh, superhuman hacker ellipsis who has been jacking their tech and also sort of taking back the drones he's been controlling. Um,

Animus was deep within Tusk Corp, having managed to get past security and has found a strange fungus-like figure in a room that had been broken into, surrounded by people who look...

um, very out of it and very afraid. And she was feeling a lot of grief off of this figure when we last left her and ape, we left, uh, as, as Scriv put it last time, eating an ab sandwich, um, crushed beneath a massive, shockingly good looking oversized centaur brick who had fallen and slid into him after a pet, you know, casually placed a banana in his path. Um,

and currently is surrounded by a pile of bricks, people who look like they were either abducted or rescued, you don't know, from Tusk Corp, and you've just been joined by two of Giga City Gold, Two Ton and Gyro, who seem like they really want to get all these people back or possibly, you know, just beat on these bricks. It's unclear.

Um, there's a lot of drama going on and nobody really knows what's happening, at least on your side. So when we left off, each of you had taken one move a piece from everyone. And then Scriv, you've made a second move. So now Firefly has a move.

An ape has a move. Two moves left until this drama clock runs out, and you must get at least two triumphs in those moves. So you cannot afford to fail. Who would like to start? I'd like to resolve this centaur just crushing me and this brick crushing the centaur who's crushing me.

Um, it's two ton crushing the center or crushing me. I'm going to, I guess I'm going to say to the center, um, just in between, like, like, boom, what's going on with this. It's also, it's going to be kind of squeezed cause you may be invulnerable, but your, your lungs still require air. So you're probably, it's going to, Hey, you like, there's going to be a little bit of a strain to squeeze it out. Yeah. What's going on here. Uh,

You feel this massive shift. The body kind of rotates a little and shoves. You kind of are able to squeeze out sideways. You see that this brick, this massive centaur has got his hands locked with two ton and they're kind of pushing against each other. Two ton all of a sudden lifts up and so does the centaur and they both begin to float and

And Tutan flips on top of him and up into the air and then suddenly plummets down again. And you scramble sideways as he does and he slams the centaur into the pavement. And it looks like it hurts. It feels like it hurts. You feel the reverberation. Meanwhile, Gyro? Gyro has just flown past feet first. Remember, he has those massive boots that allow him to redirect gravity. And grabbed one of the figures.

And then he flips and flies up and he lands on a building top and deposits it and then jumps down to go get another. The cat looks over at you and hisses and goes, look what you've done. Do you even know what's going on? And then she hurls the claws up into the air. She whips her claws back and you see these little metallic glints fly through the air. It's like she's chucking metal claws. Are they flying at me?

No, she's chucking them at Gyro. Oh, that's fine with me. Skitter is trying to pull the bodies. He looks over and he goes, Hey, uh, Monkey Dude, are you gonna be, like, useful or something? Like, what do you want? This is the bug kid? Yeah. Oh, he did call me Monkey Dude. Kinda like it. Ha ha!

Have we asked any of their names yet? Nope. No, but we've just heard Skitter. Oh, I just let that slip, did I? Yeah. Too late now. Now we know. Eep. Anybody who's played the game at home will know Skitter from the game. I just had to kind of throw up my hands like, whoa, whoa, whoa, really slow down. It's probably not going to work. That's fine. I'm going to yell at the bug man and the cat lady and it's going to be like, hey, what's going on? Why are they after you? Why are you running? Just give me the quick and dirty here.

The cat lifts up one of the bodies and goes, if you want to know anything, come with us and grab someone. And like starts running. The kid, the kid's like, I'm too small to do much of this, but you can help him out and points over at the big guy. And he goes, hey, Ken, you need a hand? The big centaur looks over and goes, no, I'm fine.

And as he says that, you see Tutan jump up lightly on his feet, clearly weightless, and flip above this guy's head, Ken's head. And Ken lifts up too. It looks like he's made both of them weightless. And then suddenly turn into a ball and slam back onto the back of this massive centaur. And you hear the pounding and you swear, Ape, there was some cracking in there. That guy does not look good. He's really giving him a wham.

And you hear the centaur go, oof. All right. Ape is going to jump between these two. He's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Why are we beating this guy up? You try to jump in between them. He's literally on top of this guy's back. So the closest you can come is you kind of like jump next to him and you're like, hey, what's going on? Tutan looks over at you and he goes, a guardian?

And then he reaches out, touches you, and he does this. Flick. And when he flicks you, you lose mass. And you go flying away. Floating through the air. And you lose the mass reduction right over the water. You plunge like a rock. And you're in the water. All right. I'm out about it, certainly. Just really quick Googling if chimps can swim. Okay.

Oh, I'm sure. Chimps can't talk. I'm sure. So you've got some extra skills most chimps don't have. You're a space aviator. So pilots have to go through certain kinds of training, right? I'm sure you had to go through training. Wait a minute, zero G. When he's massless, wouldn't Ape Canaveral be like super good at zero G movement? 100%. But if he's in the water, the water is a little different thing.

I'm, I'm, I'm ready to say you go flying. Of course we, we can always edit. This is a story we tell together. We want to tell the best story possible, right? And we want it to make sense, but we also want it to make it be dramatic and cool. Do you want to make a move here to do something to flip this weightlessness in your favor? Yeah. So I've been, been weightless before. I understand how it works. I understand physics. Um,

I lift up kind of as I'm drifting by stuff, my hands kind of flailing. I'm going to try to catch a chunk of a rubble from all this destruction and I'm going to chuck it away from me to use that force to push me in the direction I want to go. Where do you want to go? Where are you going to try to redirect? I'm going right back at this guy. If he throws me again, I'm going to do it again. Are you, are you going for the face? Are you just like, ha!

Like, I don't know how you're going in, man. Yeah. I'm going to try to, I'm going in both feet up dropkick style if I can manage it, but I'm going to, I'm going to roll for it. And I think. Is this a, okay. This is a move. That's what I needed to know. If it's a move. All right. What do you got? That's going to help you with this move. Definitely my drive. I'm getting back into space, my space time. This is your space training. I buy it. I buy it. Um, cannot be harmed. Not super useful here. I,

I don't know. You're about to throw yourself at a guy who's pretty dangerous, but okay. That's true. I would give you your rash and cocky. This is like, you're, you're quickly making a move here. Yeah. And I don't really have a plan for when I get back there. Cause he already kind of dealt with me once, but I'll figure that out when I get like, Hey, what's going on? And he flipped you away and you're like, I don't care. I'm going right back in. Yeah. All right here. Let me give him my role. Take three die. Oh, you're adding the power to. All right. We'll, we'll take it. I'm being very nice with y'all.

Not great. A two, a three, and a four. Oh, wonderful. Okay. So here's what happens. That's success. That's triumph. But with a trouble.

So you land on this guy's face and he immediately goes up because you grab hold. And the problem is if he changes mass, it doesn't make much difference if you're digging your fingers into his scalp. And that's exactly what you're doing. Yeah, my toes. Are you yelling at him while you're grabbing onto his head? Are you like saying anything? Are you just shrieking like a chimp? What's the move here? Definitely, I grab with my toe, grab like basically his lapels with my toes. And then I just lean in, I grab his face in both hands. It's like, what are you doing? Yeah.

Okay. You're like, what are you doing? And at that point, um, the, the centaur stands up and throws both of them. God. And you go flying and this is the trouble. You're spiraling through the air. He kicks you off and you go, you land on the ground and you're going to take a heart of damage, but you are free. And this guy is off the centaur.

The others have started throwing the bodies that they've got onto the centaur gyro slams into the back of Ken's shoulders and then, then shifts and like turns, grabs one of the bodies, flips his boots the other way and shoots back towards that building.

The big guy staggers a little, and then he starts running for what looks like one of those big... It's the edge of the port, but there's one of those sewer outs down there, and it looks like he's going to just jump in. The other two are each dragging a body and trying to run after him. There's a couple more bodies left, and Gyro just headed up to the other area. Abe's made up his mind. I've made up my mind. I don't trust these gold guys. This whole thing seems sketchy and not in their favor.

I am going to kind of turn and now prepared for this guy, my monkey toes firmly grabbing the ground. I'm going to place myself between the fleeing people and Giga City Gold. I'm going to take off my sunglasses. Just give them a quick...

just clean them off, put them back on and then just put up the Dukes again, anchored to the ground by my toes, hoping firefly and them are aware of me. I would give you one, one modification. You might want to stand near some rubble because these guys are pretty agile. They could easily just leave you alone. Chuck some, check some cement at them and they got, they got more problems.

Yeah, I was imagining kind of blocking the way, but if it's a big way, yeah, I'm going to make myself as big as I can and try to occupy their attention. There's a couple of bodies. There's a couple of these people who they were trying to carry who are sprawled on the ground, and you can see them now. They're in hospital gowns. One of them groans and kind of staggers to their feet. Their skin is pinkish.

Gyro has just left for that, that building top. The big guy, two ton looks at you and goes, Oh, ellipsis is really going to like this. And he grins really big. And then he touches his ear and he goes, you're going to want to get some video on this. By the way,

You didn't get all the drones, Firefly. Just to be clear, you got that swarm that was chasing them. What do you mean? I thought I... You got the swarm that was chasing them. Oh, no. There's more. Remember when Animus closed with the building, there were swarms of drones kind of circling around? Yes. The swarm you got was the one that was originally chasing them. And you are aware, Specs goes, well, we got feeds. One of the swarms peels off.

You hear the voice again. You're still getting the dot, dot, dots on your screen. And he goes, this is fun. You're not bad at this. Oh, my God. This is infuriating. I do not like that kind of taunting at all. But I am not bad at this. And I do appreciate the compliment. Yeah.

You're like, I'm really mad, but actually, thank you. I hate you, but thanks. Game recognized game. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So there's another, there's what's showing up on my feed now. What are we seeing? You can see that there's about three or four swarms of these things. It's massive. It's become kind of like a hovering thing and they're plowing towards the waterline. And you can see their feeds are going live. And Specs is like, I'm getting them out as soon as they pop up, but he's got multiple feeds.

I don't know how he's doing this. Okay, so I don't know how he's doing it either. Can we ask him? Sure. Go ahead. It's clear he likes to banter. Sure. If you'd like to banter, by all means, banter. Yeah, you're not so bad at this yourself. What are you doing? What's your plan here? Generally, I like to win.

Sure. What are we trying to win for? What's the object of this game? He kind of chuckles and he goes, oh, that's adorable. You want me to tell you everything? That's cute. Does that work for you? Usually. Often. Yes. He laughs a little more and he goes, well, I suppose there's quite a lot of narcissists in this game. And then you see the things like hover and they zoom through.

Scriv, down in the basement, I will mention again that little fungal person looked up and said, are you going to get us out of here? I'm just going to say yes.

Okay. So, okay. Some quick hints here. Ready? Yep. These are some things that I'm thinking of because I didn't know how you got, you all were going to do this. This is part of the fun of collective storytelling, right? You don't know what people are going to do. And so you all kind of have to come up with ideas together and ask questions about what would make sense next. Here's what I can see. And then y'all can tell me what you see for each other. Cause we've got, remember one move left. So here's what I see.

Firefly and Specs, you could potentially use your hacked drones, the ones you at least have control of, to try to find a way out of the building.

For Animus and this group of people. Okay. And so we did continue to have control of them even though we lost the screens? Like we couldn't get the visual feed on them? Okay. Correct. Basically, all he did was prevent you from broadcasting. He didn't want you putting this out into the world. Okay. But we can still move them around. Yes. You've managed to keep the signal. You've completely gotten them off the channel.

All right. Then there's another option. You can always go firefly and tear after the drones that are catching up with, with ape. You don't know what it's going to do.

to the mutagen in your veins, Werebear is fully out and he's suited up. He woke up when you started yelling at the computer and banging on it because you were mad at, at, uh, at ellipsis. He kind of got up and he's like, what's going on? And he, he saw on one of the feeds, he's like, whoa, hey, that's eight. And then like four seconds later, he's in his suit and he's like, oh buddy. All right, I'm ready. Like he has no idea what's going on. His hair's all goofy looking. Um,

So there's possibilities here for you doing multiple things with one move. May I interject? Yes, please. So I think I know how to get out of the building because I found my way in. I could potentially find my way out. However, I'll probably ask for some backup from some of the other guardians to meet me outside because I know I'm not necessarily like a direct fighter, but I really want to make sure that we keep these people safe.

And I want to try to get them out to safety somehow. Not necessarily you, but if we have other guardians who could potentially meet me and we can team up. I will say this much about that. It is very dangerous for any of the guardians to be on film at this point. Okay. If any of the guardians get spotted near this mess, you don't know how they're going to bend it.

But that's something that I will tell you that Jillian is having an absolute heart attack about. You're realizing like, oh boy, this is no joke. Like if they catch us, if they catch ape out there fighting with giga city gold, oh boy. Cause you don't know how they're going to spin it. But if these are the people that Tusk was saving and you are seen protecting a bunch of bricks who were stealing them away, that looks real bad. Got it. Got it.

I'm just on the comms like, hey guys, things a little crazy out here. The Giga City Gold is bad, right? They seem bad. Yeah, I think we can all agree on that. I found some captives. They're in really bad shape.

I need to get them out somewhere safe. I got some here too, and they're on a roof. I can't get them and fight these guys. We need some help. So the things I have to consider in this moment are, number one, I'm worried about the things beyond the camera. Number two, there's captives that we need to save. And...

They are with Animus, who is our newest person, who even if she can get them out of the building, we don't know about like how like the rest of the escape maneuver. Three, I've been injected with an unknown drug.

or something. Something is in my body that makes me feel bad. And I shouldn't really even be out of my hyperbaric chamber right now, but I am. And so is Werebear. And those are our like resources at this time. And then Ape is also in trouble and needs like support.

And needs to not also be on camera during that time. So this is a tricky situation. And I don't really know what to do. And I feel like, unfortunately, that I have to suit up. I think I have to put the suit on. I think I have to help the captives.

Okay. Can specs do the drones for me? Yeah. I want specs to do the drones. Yeah. Okay. There's a bond. Yes. Yes. So specs can do the drones. That's one dice of this move. Even though you're doing multiple things here, it's still one move. Okay. This is what's cool about the narrative flexibility here. We can do as much with one move as we need to. Yeah. So,

We've got your suit. You're going to blast off and you're going to try to nab the folks that were on the gyro grabbed. And you've got the location now because you know where those drones that you hacked were originally going. So you're headed there. Specs is going to try to get the drones that he's controlling to lead you, Animus, and this crew out of the building. You don't think wherever those others got out, you don't think that they got out

Um, up top. You think they probably came in underneath. You think there's something going on there. So that's two. Do you have anything else that's going to help you here? Uh, yeah, it's that, um, I really can't stand ellipsis. So I really, this is, this is fueling me right now. Cause I really, I need to, I need to outsmart that guy. I need to have a win. So, yeah, I mean, and that matchstick temper would also be perfectly appropriate here. All right. Three full dice. Let's see what you get.

I'm doing it now. Oh, I got a six, a five, and a three. Awesome. Yay. You can even level that up. Hold on. You can even boost that because you didn't use your boost last time, did you? Yeah. I did not use my boost last time, and I would like to because I want a big win. Beautiful. Beautiful. You earned it on this one. It's fine. All right.

So you go blasting off. You scream through the sky. You see you've got like little target locks and you're over boosting. And Firefly, when you get going, this suit has supersonic capabilities. It's incredible how fast you can move and it's heatless. So you are tearing through the city at a breakneck pace and you feel it.

You're just like, this is what I needed to do. Like, you've been so frustrated. Every piece of this has been so confusing and it hasn't just been a straight up, easy to understand fight, a goal you could wrap your head around. And right now, you really just want to win. And the speed and the air rushing past you, they invigorate you.

And you see Gyro flipping down back to the port. And you also see those drones hovering up. You actually tear through the drones.

And you literally, when I say you tear through the drones, you destroy, like you blast directly through them. There are shatters of golden dust. And lands, slam onto the rooftop. There are three figures there. And you can see Ape down there squaring off with a guy who looks like this is a huge meaty dude.

Two-Ton's massive. He's really big. His hands are like shovels. He's got fingers like snozzages. It's rough. Okay, so you land right next to these bodies, and you've got a call here. You can just rock it off with the bodies and just laugh as they tangle with Ape.

Or you can try to take them like you can spot. You can see down near the edge of the port, there's a sewer out and you can see some movement in there. You can see these bricks running and they look like, you know, the big guy, he's limping. It's clear he's not well after that tangle with two-time. You could catch up with them. It's up to you. Ape's been here. So Ape's gonna, when Ape sees Firefly, big smile.

You know, look up and say, uh, Hey, follow them into the store. I don't know what's going on, but that's where they're going. We got to ditch these gold guys. You go after them. Yeah. Okay. That's where I'm going. I want to go there.

Okay, you are you taking the bodies? These these patients, they seem like they're unconscious, but they've been stashed here by gyro. You think you can like grab them and still carry them and like hold them aloft. But it's up to you because if you leave them here, you're not sure. Oh, wait, I'm sorry. I want to take them and save them. That's what I want to do now. There's a whole pile of more of these people going into the sewer out. That's the issue.

If you grab these and go away with them, you're leaving the other ones to go with the bricks. I have to make a bigger pile. I have to make them all come together. And then there's got to be something in my suit. My suit must have some kind of like net situation or like a... You got straps, actually.

Straps. Perfect. There are three bodies that have been three patients who have like sprawled out and have been reclaimed by gyro before the bricks managed to get into the sewer out. You can carry three. This is ape speaking. You can carry three. Just get in there. What are these guys going to do to you? I handled them easy. You'll be fine. Okay. All right.

I didn't handle them easy, but she doesn't know that. Piece of cake, piece of cake or a piece of banana. So that's what I do. I'll take all three of those and then I'll go where, uh, where everyone else is. So you strap them in and you kind of lift off and you see gyro streaking towards you and you just kind of like drop. And then you, you head for the sewer out. Yeah.

Ape, you see Gyro going after Firefly. And would you like to just chuck a piece of concrete and knock him off course? You guys have fixed the drama clock. So this is a freebie. You get to bong him one if you want.

Yeah. I'm trying to make sure they can't follow Firefly. So if they're flying, then yeah, I want to, I want to chuck a big, it's like a Thor's hammer. It's a big piece of rubble with a rebar sticking out of it. Nice. And I'm going to swing around and hurl it. Well, those two big dudes going at each other had bashed up the asphalt around here and you managed to find a big, a big chunk of it and you fling it right at gyro's legs. You hit one of his boots. I,

And all of a sudden he goes wonky and he starts falling sideways and he sort of like is, is accelerating and two ton goes crap. And then jumps like really high and goes floating after him. Clearly he's going to try to, to grab him. You have a choice. Do you want to go to the sewer out or do you want to ditch? You can hear the cops coming through the streets. You can hear the sirens. Um, if you stay here much longer, they're going to find you.

Yeah, I'm going to go to the sewer and I'm going to tell Animus where to meet us. And I'm hoping that she can get there. You're like, Animus, meet me at, and then you're like, a place in the sewers near the, like, you can, this is the kind of thing specs would ping. But Abe is just like, yeah, there's a sewer out. I'm going in. And off you go. Yeah. Meanwhile, at Tusk Corp. Yeah.

Yep. You hear Specs, Animus. Specs is like, oh, nuts. He's like, she got out of the chamber and, ugh. Okay, hold on. I'm going to find you a way out.

The little drones start circling around and he goes, I got it. I got it. Follow the drones. Okay. Thanks. And they, they lead you down the corridor. You're stepping over these people are scrambling away from you. The, the little fungal figure is like everyone up. And like, they all kind of stagger together. Is a small one, like a child. Yeah.

He's probably only, you don't know if it's a he, I should say they, they are probably about three and a half feet tall, but they don't look like a child. Okay. They're kind of thick bodied and have very short stubby arms. They're wearing some sort of like a vest over a hoodie and a couple of different things, lots of bags and pockets. And there's one thing sticking up above the shoulder and it looks sort of like a shoulder slung sword and you realize it's an umbrella. Yeah.

Oh, okay. It's not a sword at all. I was about to get really excited about the sword. Yeah. Prisoners generally aren't allowed to have these sorts of things, or we don't know if they're a prisoner. But hey, an umbrella can be good too. This is true. So I ask them, are you able to walk? Better yet, are you able to run if we need to?

He says, most of them can't talk yet. I've been doing what I can. They can't talk yet. But they can walk, I believe. And he turns and he kind of holds up his hands a little and they sway a little bit. And then like, there's a couple of them nod and one of them shakes their head. And then they all sort of start staggering towards the doorway. And he says, I don't know how long we have. Am I still feeling that sorrow from them? What am I feeling from them right now? He feels very sad. They feel sad.

Almost like floating. The grief is coming off of the little figure, them. Yeah. Okay. I'm going to reach out my hand. Yep. We're going to get you out of here. But I'm going to need you guys to be brave, but we'll do this. Okay? And I do want to touch just a little bit of that.

power just to help to like kind of harden the resolve a little bit as we get ready to go i'm not i wasn't gonna make it a move but you get the feeling that the little guy is very determined um these others okay it's almost like you can't feel their emotions they're not okay

I'm going to let that marinate while we're walking in the back of my mind. They're not feeling nothing. They're a little bit like dampened, but they're staggering after you and they seem to be convinced to follow the little guy. Okay. You guys follow, you follow a trail of, of sort of broken doors to a side stairwell that goes down to a garbage area. And there's an open port.

And the little drone sort of like hops and goes down into the chute. Okay. We follow. I'm going to use that passive kind of sensing again to try to see if in case there's anything that comes up to intercept us that I'm somewhat ready, but we'll follow. You're not feeling any emotions from down there, but it's dark and it's garbagey. Ooh. Smells lovely. Yeah. It's really tasty. Ooh.

You go sliding down into the dark. There is a splash when you hit, and then there are more people splashing around you and you have a little bit of a nasty moment trying to sort of get everybody together. And finally, you're all sort of standing up and the little one is, is deeper in than anyone else. They're up to like their chest, you know, you've got up to your knees and they look at you and they go, I thank you.

Those should not come any further. And he looks at the drones and he says, I will not take you unless they leave. What do you mean, take me? They're showing us the way out. Do you know where to go? This is where I am most at home.

Specs on the radio goes, I'm starting to get some problems with the reception. I could, we've got too many pipes. It's concrete in the, can you hear me? The little person reaches up his hand and he says, I trusted you. Now I ask that you trust me. Specs, I'll check in when I can. Can you like sense motive? Yeah, I can sense emotions.

And that's going to be tricky with sensing motive. We're off the drama clock, but you can sense his emotions. Yeah. If you want to make a move on this, this is a move that you are choosing to make just to find out if you want. Or you can just roll with it and go with him. I think I'm going to roll with it. Yeah, he seems like a fun guy. I think I'm going to go. Oh, my goodness. Oh.

Oh, he's never heard that, by the way. Like, that's a character he's never had to deal with. The puns. Oh, we must protect them. Okay. So I'll just say into the, like, specs, I'll check in when I can. And like, it gets more garbled as the little one turns and leads you into the dark. Okay, we're doing it.

And I'm going to cut to the sewer out where Firefly, you have just screamed into this sewer out and almost plowed into this group of bricks who's struggling along the corridor. The minute you arrive, you hear a yell.

And it's like the cat, the cat like screams and starts throwing chucking claws at you like, like a hail. The big centaur turns around and looks terrified, literally look of absolute abject terror. And he, he just, he runs at you roaring and he says, just run, just run and like runs at you and starts swinging madly. Why? Why?

Yeah, that's a that's a good question. Why are they? Why? What is? Is there time to just inquire? Like, what's up? Why? Why are you upset with me? No, you don't. You don't have the time to ask that. They literally they look so I'll just let you know. They look like they've just seen somebody who like this is the this is what you do when you are faced with somebody who you are convinced is going to destroy you.

Um, they look terrified for their lives and for the lives of their friends. Okay. Of you. Right. Of you. Right. Which, and I'm not terrifying and I am only wanting to help people and I'm not somebody that's going to hurt them, um, without cause. So I would like to stop them from coming at me without injuring them. Uh, what kind of move would you like to make to try to do this? Cause that's a move.

especially because you're burdened by three bodies. You're carrying three people. Yeah. So I can't really like, I don't have full like agility at this time. Is there, do I have any like force? You could try to influence them. I mean, if they're worried about these people, you could literally say, I, I please don't hurt me. These people are innocent. You could try something like that. That might slow them down, but you don't know. Well, they're already throwing things at me, right? The cat.

Well, they started that. Obviously, they saw your firefly glow coming down the tunnel. And clearly, they have some reaction to you that is very powerful. Yeah. So I would like to try influencing them and say, like,

stop. These people are innocent. I don't want to have trouble. I mean, you no harm. Okay. The cat like flings the blades from her claw, from her paw. They go spinning and they strike right above your head. The big guy kind of just like blocks the tunnel and he goes, go, go, go. And like yells it behind at the rest of them. And the rest of them start running. And he's, he's just standing there like all squared up, but he's actually trembling. He looks really roughed up and he looks absolutely terrified of you.

Is there a history between you and the bricks? Oh, uh, there is a history. That is a thing that happened, didn't it? Um, because the bricks were at the Scarlet King and I, because I destroyed the Scarlet King and the bricks were there. Is that correct? Yeah.

You dropped a giant spore bomb onto the Scarlet King's lair where there were countless bricks trapped in jail cells underneath the earth. Cool. There it is. At the end of the first brilliant Firefly arc. Yeah. Granted, I want to make this very clear. You had a very difficult decision to make. Your suit was leaking, so you weren't able to go into the stratosphere to get rid of the bomb. You were worried about dropping it into the ocean.

because there's a lot of life in the ocean and you don't know what that would have done to the city. And the island on which the Scarlet King had built their fortress was crawling with some very dangerous and very aggressive brick mutants. And at the time, you weren't really thinking very deeply about the fact that there were a large number of people imprisoned there for the Scarlet King to experiment on. And to her credit, the ones that she did recognize were known criminals.

So I feel like what I need to do most of all, perhaps, is acknowledge and apologize or something. Maybe that would be more effective at this time, though I don't know that that's...

It's a little early in the hello space. I think you're having a moment here where Jillian is like, why is this person scared of me? And then there's like, there's like a series of flashes of memory that just click through Jillian's mind. And she finds herself suddenly like slowing down and like kind of just you lock eyes with this giant centaur. And he can't see your face behind the helmet.

But you have this moment where there's this change in your body language. He hasn't moved and he's just sort of like shaking, wounded. And he's like, I'm not letting you hurt my friends. And he's just like squared up, ready to like fill this sewer tunnel as much as he can. Yeah. I don't want to hurt his friends. Yeah. Tell him that. I would like to tell him that I don't want to hurt his friends. They need to see that you're not a threat to them. He says, put him down.

Why did you bring them here? What are you doing here? If it's not to hurt us. I'm trying to, I'm going to put them down. I'm putting them down. Okay. And I'm trying to be helpful. I'm trying to help because it looked like innocent people needed help. That's why I came. He looks at you and he goes, sell it to someone else. And then he goes and he slowly collects those bodies and he's eyeing you the whole time and puts them on his back. And then he slowly starts backing down the corridor, his eyes on you the whole time.

What if you took the helmet off? I don't know if I'm ready to take the helmet off. Yeah. I feel like that's something I'd have to discuss with Specs. Just regarding taking the helmet off, I don't realistically like...

The reason to take the helmet off would be to show them that I'm not a threat. But I am the person, like, even if I take the helmet off, I'm still the person that did it. And, like, the only reason I would have, like, I think the only reason that I could seem non-threatening at that time is, like, maybe if they see that I'm a girl or something. But, like, I am still the person who did the bad thing. Like, I am still the person. So, like, they didn't know. I'm not thinking about this as being you're a girl or you're a kid. I'm thinking of it as being being able to see the expression on your face. Okay.

you are currently a faceless robot that has very negative associations for this particular person and for this group. So right now they can't tell how you feel. You could say, I feel this way, but it sure doesn't show. So I was imagining it as an empathy move if you wanted to try it out. But if you don't,

You can try to negotiate this some other way. He's backing away still. His eyes flicker. And you're, by the way, struck at this moment, all of you. He's disheveled. He's beaten. He's bruised. And he's just so beautiful. He's just the most beautiful. Like his hair is still like shiny. It's flowing. He's just, it's really unreasonable. He flicks past you to ape and he goes, thank you.

And he nods. And then he turns and he goes, I'm trusting you not to come any further. And then suddenly he turns and runs into the darkness with all the bodies on his back. We're going to follow him, right? No, I think that that's...

We would be scaring him so much. We would be the bad guys. That's amazing. Ape has visions of Planet of the Apes in his head, just a monkey riding a horse, and he's real keen on it. A beautiful, beautiful horseman. You'd be able to ride his shoulders. That's the best part. It's a piggyback ride and a horseback ride. They'd be a cool team up, honestly, like Ape on the back of Kentucky. There you go. There's his last name for you. Yes.

All right. So we're going to close the scene as Ken Tucky slowly recedes into the darkness with all the extra people. You've just given this strange brick, the last people who were rescued from Tusk Corp. And we also know that Animus is walking into the darkness, holding the hand of this strange little mushroom like person after they've asked you to trust them.

Um, specs is slamming on his keyboard, um, and sort of, sort of like in frustration cause he's lost you animus. So the next morning, um, you all feel like you were run over by a truck in apes case. You feel like you were run over by a truck shaped like a centaur. Um, and animus has not come back to the lighthouse. Riptide is making breakfast for everyone. He wakes everybody up and he's like,

Okay, so I saw a little bit of what happened, but you guys are like all over the news. And he clicks it on and he says, not actually you, but like, you know, all the stuff that happened last night. ♪♪♪

This was the scene at Tusk Corporation this morning where Fred Tusk has declared that Bricks, the mutant offspring of the Scarlet King, have apparently engaged in full terrorist actions against a major corporation. I'm going live to the scene now at the edge of Tusk Corporation. We can see some of the damage. Can you tell us what's going on there, Maggie?

Yeah. Good morning, Jim. I'm standing at the edge of Tusk Corporation. You can see some of the damage done to the building here. Some of the security cameras were able to catch some of what happened. I'm putting up what we've been given. There's a series of flickering images of a huge, it's Ken, charging through the halls, breaking down a door. There's a scene of the cat-like creature. You see them and she whips claws and the camera goes out.

There is a gathering crowd here, Jim, of anti-brick protesters. There's a lot of fear in the city. I've been talking with citizens on the street. Here's some of what they had to say. There's a cut between a bunch of different people on the street. Well, I'm just saying, I don't trust, you know, their kind. I mean, last time they were around here, you know what happened. That Scarlet King, I mean, they could be doing anything under the city.

Well, I just want to feel safe when I'm walking my dog at night. And I don't think that's too much to ask. There's a few others. The general vibe is super anti-Brick. And that's when Fred Tusk steps onto a stage and begins haranguing the crowd. You hear a lot of what he said before, but he's got some additionals.

I am calling for the establishment of an anti-brick task force. I'm going to be working with the mayor and the chief of police, and Giga City Gold will be at the beck and call of the city. And I invite, no, I challenge the Giga City Guardians to step up and do what they claim that they do. Guard this city! Riptide kind of turns and looks at you guys and he goes, So I made breakfast. And he points at the bowls and he goes,

It's just cereal. Sorry. And then he looks kind of awkward. And that's how we close. All of you are realizing that once again, things have been flipped in terms of public relations and definitely not in the guardian's favor. Abe says, Oh, it's cereal. All right. And he thinks about a captain crunch. He says, it's dead cereal.

Go for a serious thing. I don't know if it reads. That was a great final line. Yeah, no, that's beautiful. Thank you for lightening the mood there. ♪♪♪

All right, y'all. Time for some shout-outs. I'm up in the drama. We're getting close to our arc here, so I really appreciate how much y'all leaned in today. So let's start with shout-outs and then move to talking about whether you want to have some lines added to your stories. I would like to do a shout-out to Firefly for making some snap decisions. And in mine and Animus' eyes, really...

showed why you are the leader of the guardians with like delegating the drones to specs and suiting up even though you know things are still a little bit uncertain with yourself and just zooming right in um but then also kind of like sensitively handling whatever was going on with those bricks but yeah well done chief

round of applause thank you very much i would like to give a shout out to animus for taking a big risk by following the the fun guy whose name we don't yet know i will ask their name i promise next time i'm trying so hard not to tell you i'm trying so hard like i want to share everything they seem very nice

I'm going to take a line, and I think what I want to give Ape just over these last two episodes, you've been doing a lot of movement-based stuff, and I want to kind of codify that. Yeah. Let me workshop the exact line with you guys, but basically kind of able to move rapidly through difficult terrain, but I don't know exactly how to phrase that. You mentioned urban jungle before, and you're the king. King of the urban jungle sounds really cool. Yes!

And I think it should go on a t-shirt. King of the Urban Jungle is definitely, that's definitely the deed. Thank you so much. Well, and that lets you chuck the concrete. That goes with King of the Urban Jungle too, right? Like that's perfect. Perfect. Scriv, your boss. That's great. Thank you. He said it.

I wanted to give a huge shout out to Amanda for really dealing with like one of the cool things about stories, but also one of the tough things about story games is you have that dual experience of you feel like the character, but you also feel like an author.

And one of the hardest things for people when they start out is making the shift between author and character. They'll get really emotionally into a scene and they're like, Oh boy, like, I don't know what to do. And it's hard to step back for a second and be like, okay, what would be fun for the story? Cause you're so in the moment. And I, I saw you in so many moments feeling conflicted as Jillian Jays, where you were like, what would Jillian do? And you were Jillian in those moments. You were like,

Oh no, but if I don't do this and like listening to the way you process that, I just was so grateful that you were willing to go there with us. Cause I know that can be, you know, vulnerable territory and you leaned into it. You, you trusted us to, to help you through it and you, you made it through with awesome, awesome, awesome moves. So I just was really impressed. Thank you. Um,

I have a line that I would like to add because of kind of what we revisited with the bricks. And I think I want to put it under, I'm going to call it a dream. But what I think it is, is that I need to rectify a past mistake that I've made. I harmed the bricks and they didn't deserve it. And I need to make it up to them.

make my peace yeah like like uh make amends with yeah i will make amends with the bricks with those i've harmed yeah that's uh that's that's deep yeah i wanted to i wanted to introduce that eventually and i didn't know if you would meet up with them in this episode and i love that you came face to face with one of them and kind of got to process that i appreciated that a lot it was very dramatic okay it

Does everybody feel okay with their lines? Did Animus add a line this time? I'm thinking through it. And because I'm still new to the system, I'm thinking through and hearing examples of what different lines could be. And I'm hearing your King of the Urban Jungle line. It's making me think about the thing I did with like channeling Werebear. Yeah, that's what I was hoping you'd do. And trying to consider, you know, is there a line there? And is that something I could potentially repeat later?

Yeah.

Well, that could even allow you to do some cool stuff where you like pretended to be somebody. And even though you don't look like them, because you're emotionally channeling their vibe. You give off that energy. And it's. You like people wouldn't look twice at you unless they were like looking directly at you and really paying attention. You would feel like that person. I'll think through some some like words that fit that well. But I want to I want to dig into that a little bit. I'll process it, though.

That's a cool concept. Yeah. The rule, I think of it less as a system and more just like, what's a line that defines you, right? Like a story. So as long as you've got, and that's the hard part, the fun part is finding the right words that really make it

make it come alive and make you able to use it when you need it. Okay. Um, okay. On behalf of everybody on the gig of city guardians crew, thank you so much for coming with us on this adventure. Stay tuned next time to find out about flip side microbial and all the rest of the bricks under the city. And also what Fred Tusk is up to.

And finally, you can find us wherever you get your podcasts and check us out at patreon.com backslash stories RPG, where you can also find the downloadable game so you can play along with us. Thanks so much, everybody. And we'll see you next time. Bye everyone. Thank you. Bye. Gotta ride that horse.