Stories RPG Crossover: Gigacity Guardians 8 Another Brick in the Wall
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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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Hello and welcome back to Stories RPG, the podcast where we tell stories better together. So if you would like to play along with us at home and learn the game that we use to tell stories together, check us out at patreon.com backslash stories RPG to download all of the games for Star Sworn, Giga City, and more. And with me as always are the Giga City Guardians, Giga City Roll Call, Ape, Carnival, Apes, Ape, Carnival, and Firefly.

Champions of the city. Defenders of the peace. Heroes for justice. The Gigacity Guardians! Come on! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

With no further ado, if you've come with us this far, you know what's up. I'm going to give a quick recap from last session because we've got a lot of drama to get into, y'all. I don't know if I'm ready for this. I wasn't prepared for this drama. I'm ready for anything. You knew it was coming. Let's go. Yes, but I didn't know how it would look.

Well, to be fair- If I know something's going to be flying at my face from left field, I'd like to know, is it like a Frisbee or a ball or a pie? Flying object. And it's a brick. It's a superhero story. I think you can really, you can guarantee that literally there will be things flying at your faces, probably. And-

And metaphorically, since it's a story that I'm kind of helping guide, you probably know there are some things that are metaphorically going to come flying. Yeah, I just know that Animus needs some therapy. I do like a curveball. Why throw it straight if you can give a nice twist? Okay, so let me set the scene.

Uh, y'all are down in flip side. You have found out more than perhaps you realized you needed to know about the bricks where they live and how they live. You've met Giga Gaia, which seems to have the remaining consciousness of Scarlet King within it. Seems to be some sort of monstrous plant that is growing throughout the city. You've met sister Rose who appears to have some genetic connection to Jillian and

and is at least, if not a leader, a very honored figure who can gift non-powered people with the spores. You've learned that Microbial, who Animus rescued from Tusk Corp.,

is capable of shifting the microbiome of those who are infected with the spore to make them able to maintain the change, which they cannot do without his help. Scarlet King was the one who used to withhold the microbial treatments if someone disobeyed her, if one of her bricks disobeyed her. But now, Sister Rose and Microbial are allowing people to choose to join their community. You've met a host of other bricks,

You met electric animus. You met electric, uh, back at the beginning, you've seen skitter and echo low cat. Uh, Kentucky was in the, uh, the med room. I forgot to mention him last time, but he was getting bandaged up after his roughneck fight with two ton, uh,

And you've run into a few others. Upcycle, who does a lot of the gadgetry and looks like they've based some of their designs on Firefly, wearing some very elaborate junk-based armor that looks like it's taken some hints from Jillian's designs.

Yeah, we're going to have to file a copyright notice on that. We'll come back. Y'all have not monetized the Guardians halfway enough. That's half the reason that Giga City Gold has been so successful. You do not have a PR or marketing department. You should have, you know, action figures. What are y'all doing out there? Work. Perfect answer. All right, so... We've been doing work. Getting things done, that's what. So when we last left...

We had identified that, first off, Animus is the result of Tusk Corp experimentation with the spores.

Though she never understood the origins of her power, it is becoming clear that she was one of the early experiments with the spores. Whether intentional or unintentional is unclear, but clearly her microbiome has somehow shifted. So seems like it's possible they've used whatever they've learned from their capture of microbial to effectively stabilize their modified version of the spore.

I thought the salsa on Taco Tuesdays was just, you know, naturally spicy. It's the special sauce. Betrayal. It's the secret ingredient in the cafeteria.

Animus is thinking that like, how did they do it? I think we mentioned a water cooler last time. And I love that idea. Although I was thinking spores, you know, maybe through the vents, you know, they're just pumping the vents full of like microbes and spores and seeing who it takes on. That's so gross. I don't know, but I'm not going to look at tacos the same way again. Don't blame tacos. Never blame tacos. Tacos are never at fault. Tacos are Animus's favorite food. It's canon now. Okay. That's it. We've made a decision. Um,

Okay, so we had left with the startling revelation that both Werebear and Jillian have been injected with the Tusk Corp variant of the spores. Same as the individuals who were saved from the basement of Tusk Corporation, the ones who were victims in the Megapede attack. Which means...

microbial gave you a choice. He asked you if you wished to join them. You either decide to have your microbes shifted to accommodate for this spores effect on your genetic structure, or you decide to have it, them reject it so that, that the spores cannot take root in your system and change you. Okay. I feel like it's,

There are pros and cons. Could I hear a little bit more about what will happen? Like what kind of change is going to happen? Yeah, that was my question as well. Do you want to ask this in character of microbial or of, uh, or of sister Rose or, you know, cause they're all around Kentucky, by the way, has, uh, has gone over and found ape. Like he's getting, he's got a huge bandage on his side. Uh, and he's, he, uh, he, he sees you come in and

And he gives us a sort of like, you know, a kind of sideways eye at the rest of you. But he immediately like kind of limps over to ape and he sticks out a huge hand and says, uh, I owe you one. Thank you for your help. Oh, oh, no problem. But, and, uh,

If you want to pay me back, you can answer the question. If you were going to wear pants, would it be on just the front two legs or would it be on like all four with a big waistband kind of thing? Or like how exactly? He grins and he goes, I've never needed pants. And he like shakes his hair back. Oh, he said, me too, bud. I mean, you guys have a moment of pantslessness. You're like, yeah. Pantsless kinship. We don't need those human, you know, pants.

So, meanwhile, you've just had a very intense moment where Microbial leaned over and the cap, it looks like he's wearing a hat, but you realize it's actually a mushroom cap. It's part of his body. And he sort of places you underneath the halo of his head and touches forehead to forehead. And then he pulls back a little and says, you have a choice to make. I cannot make it for you, but we do have those who can help with your decision.

Who can help with my decision? So Sister Rose says, all of us are comfortable answering any questions you have, but we cannot help you make the decision apart from offering you knowledge. She says, there is one among us who can help you decide what matters most to you. Who's that person? Microbial says, we call her Clarity.

Oh, I like that. That's appropriate. Can I meet Clarity? He says, certainly. He makes a gesture. And you see, she's actually in the room with you. She's been walking around and sitting with the different patients, monitoring them. Most of the patients from Tusk Tower are apparently in some kind of unconscious trance. There's a few of them who are up and like,

clearly processing a lot of things. So Clarity is a, she looks like an older lady. She's kind of frumpy. She's wearing sort of a shapeless robe and her hair is kind of wild. She's got a whole lot of jewelry on. She's brick red, but her hair has not changed color. It's stark white. And she's got a very kind aura about her. Otherwise she looks human. Her skin's a little rough and

And it's reddish, but it's not dramatic. As you're watching, she sits down next to a patient and takes their hands and they talk a little quietly. And then they look into each other's eyes. The patient, it's a young man. He looks like he's probably in his twenties. He's a little disheveled. It looks like he probably was going to work. He kind of opens his eyes a little and he says, I need to go home. And she nods and she says, okay.

that's lovely. I think you should do that. And he kind of nods and they kind of share like a, like a solid knot. And then she sort of pats him on the back and she says, for now, why don't you take a rest? She stands up and kind of catches microbial's eye and comes over to you. She says, who are our new guests? Would you introduce me? Microbial says, well, certainly this is Jillian. And he, he gestures animus animus.

Sam Brody. He gestures at riptide. Brody goes, Hey, like very chill. So what are y'all, what would you like to do? Say, um, I would like to ask sister Rose and, and microbial before I make any decision. And, and I would like to, to hear more about what is going to happen to me. Um, if I were to say yes, and I were to be a brick, um,

I have a lot of responsibilities in my life that I don't feel like I can walk away from. And especially like my mom and my family, I don't think I can not do those things and not be a high school student and all of that kind of stuff. So I'm curious about like what is going to happen to me both to like my body and then also like kind of functionally as a result of that. Like, can I still be a person and like, can I still live my regular life or no? Sister Rose and Microbial kind of share a look.

And Microbial actually looks at you, Animus, and he says, perhaps you would be better to ask your friend. This is a new variant of the Spore. It is modified from when they took Sister Rose.

Honestly, I kind of just figured out or was told that what I can do might be a result of this. I didn't always do this, this, whatever this is. And while I'm talking, I'm kind of messing with that bracelet a little bit that I keep around my wrist. I'm trying to figure out, am I still me? Am I someone else? Is this different? Sam, he sits down next to Jillian and he says,

Look, I don't have the same thing you got or any of y'all, but I can say that, well, if you don't know how it's going to turn out, powers are going to change you one way or another. You can't keep living the same way because you're different. I don't know if I said that right, but that's kind of how I think about it. It sure changed my life.

He says, you ain't never had powers outside the suit. You get to take it off, you know? I can't take this off. And he kind of flexes his hands a little bit. And he says, and I know Animus can't neither. Sister Rose says, it is an adjustment, but we have a community of people who understand what it is like to live differently.

Clarity interjects here. She sits down on the other side of you and she says, if you wish, it is my role here to help in decision making. I cannot change what you think, but I can help you understand what you want. That is my gift. And everyone has different gifts. All of them kind of nod. And like Sister Rose says,

One cannot be certain of exactly how the spores will interact with your genetic material. Anima's kind of sensing that she probably didn't help as much as she wanted to with her initial statements, because there's a lot going on in that brain, a lot going on in that mind with emotions and things and trying to untangle things and self-doubt and questioning and probably a little bit of disassociation, trying to figure all of that out.

Then like takes a deep breath with werebear's help, a little bit of like a solid grounding presence there and says, look, I'm not going to tell you that this isn't all a little bit scary. I'm not going to tell you that thinking back on it, whenever this may have happened to me, it was comfortable. But I think that whatever this turns into, whatever you decide, if you decide to go through with it,

I also feel more like me than I somehow did before. Obviously, it affects people differently. I haven't met anyone else yet who's been through what I've with these kind of abilities that I can do now with feeling these different things and projecting them. I hope I do find someone like that and maybe I could ask them questions. But it seems like maybe that was how my body made it its own.

And maybe yours might feel like that too. When you say, I feel more myself, a whole bunch of bricks say something under their breath and they all nod. And the thing that they say is, in imperfection, wholeness.

And Microbial says it under his breath, and you hear Sister Rose murmur it, Clarity murmurs it. And all of you have this like, wait, what? Something kind of ripples through the room. When you say that, there's this little response from the bricks. Okay, so I won't lie, that was a little bit creepy, everyone saying it all at once, but I don't disagree. A little culty, kind of. I wasn't going to say it. Okay.

So the way it, the way it feels when they say it is like, it's almost like they're saying, they're saying amen to what you said. Oh, I've got tingles. This is the thing for animus. What you feel from them is you feel like recognition and, and welcome. Like you feel this very strong, like you're, you're here. You're with, you're with the right people. Like, yeah, that's us.

You're sort of sitting there and you're thinking through all this, Jillian, and you feel a hand on yours. And you look up and it's Clarity. Her eyes are pink, but they're very, like, kind. And she says, I understand that this is a lot to think about. If you'd like, I can help with that. I won't know anything you don't want me to. It's not a two-way street. I'll just help you sort through a little bit of how you're feeling.

I don't want to postpone this decision. I would like to, I feel like we have a lot of things to do. So I think we should kind of get on with it. And I think that Clarity, I would love to hear what Clarity has to say. So yes, please. Clarity doesn't say anything. She just looks into your eyes and holds your hands. And all of a sudden you feel all the noise in your head fall away.

It's like all of those little voices telling you all the things you need to worry about. Oh my gosh, I have tests coming up. And wait a minute, Jorge saw me going in here and I don't have any way to explain all these other people who I was with. And what happens if I get outed as Firefly? And I can't believe I did that to the bricks and I feel so guilty for that. And is this my way that I have to use to pull? All these ways in which you owe other people or feel indebted, all these stresses and anxieties that sort of are haunting you and...

and really clouding your judgment, they all kind of fall away. And Clarity looks at you and says, "Now, what question do you want to answer?" And you don't say anything, but the question that you immediately think of without any hesitation is, "Should I do this?" And she says, "Good. What do you want to do?" She sees it in your eyes. She sees the confirmation that you know what you want to know.

And she says, what do you want to do? In that moment, you have completely forgotten to feel like you owe anyone. You're not worried about what you owe other people. The question is, what do you, Jillian Jays, want? And you feel uniquely able to answer that question. So there you go. If you'd like, you can roll for this answer. Or you can decide based on your character what makes best sense. But this is unique clarity. You know what you want to say.

And it's about you, not anyone else. I want to say yes. Okay, so you look at her and you say, yes. And you turn to Microbial and you say, I want this. Microbial, like, there's a bunch of them who kind of like, there's like an intake of breath. Sam is like, and he goes...

well, crud, I guess I gotta go too now, huh? Like, you laugh when he says that and he kind of grins at you and he kind of scratches the back of his head and he goes, I've always been a weirdo. Ain't nothing new about being weird for me. Okay, Microbial says...

Please, lie down. Within moments, he's simply touching you and like coming close to you and moving around your body. And you don't feel any different. There's no like distinct sensation because what he's doing is at the microbial level. He's seeding your body with all these tiny microbes, fungi, bacteria, viruses that will help stabilize your body through the spores transition.

And we will cut the scene there. All right. I will say that y'all have had enough rest. You've all had a chance to take a breath, to calm down, to get your bearings. Everyone can heal a heart. Nice. Because I was down one too. Everybody was a little bit roughed up, but you're all back into fighting shape so that I can really, really lay the drama clock on you.

I have to have you ready. You have to be healthy enough for me to really drama you. You do need a plan to figure out what you're going to do about GigaCity Gold and Tusk Corporation because you've got a deadline, Monday. This is, by the way, to be clear, this is Sunday. This is Sunday morning, bright and early. You've got one day left. So Ellipsis gave you an ultimatum.

He said, you have to agree to stand down and step away by noon on Monday, or I'm releasing the details of who you are to the press. And he made it very clear that he would also help you with your little condition if you agreed to step down and step away. There are different ways we could play this. You guys could decide, all right, we're going after GigaCity Gold. Let's get them before Monday. Remember, there's also a summit event

on Monday where Tusk and Gig City Gold are pushing the mayor and the chief of police, the commissioner, to issue a state of martial law

to start arming citizens against the brick invasion. They want to try to revoke and change some of the weapon laws to allow for citizens to protect themselves from what seems to be an invading to them, or this is the idea that they're promoting, an invasion of bricks, who we all know are attached to Scarlet King and dangerous, right? After all, we were so lucky Firefly defeated them last time.

So that's the situation you are in. You have a decision to make. You have until Monday, high noon, before Jillian gets outed as Firefly and the summit is going to be held. And Ellipsis told you he was going to release it then in his smarmy smug way. I don't think we can wait around. We get to go.

Yeah, we can't just, we're not just going to like step back. I don't care if he gave us a deadline. I don't think that that's the right thing to do. We're not just going to like step aside and let them do whatever. That's not a, you know, that's not a thing that we would do. I'm kind of thinking though, because we could do, we could do all this planning. We could go back and forth. But I think for us in the current state, our better plans happen when we're coming up with them on the fly. Yeah.

We're not planners. When there's stuff that we've got to deal with and respond to because our best laid plans previously have all gone awry. You didn't lay them. You just kind of ran out the door and were like, let's go mess with Tusk Corp. It was still a plan. It was still a plan. It was. Okay. I think we got in here through the hole in the Tusk's Tower floor, right? Isn't that how you escape? That's how Animus did.

Right. So I think you lead us back up through there. Let's bust in. Let's drag Ellipsis out into the daylight. Well, do we know where Ellipsis is? I don't think we know where Ellipsis is. I think we have to figure out who Ellipsis is and also the connection to Tusk Corp and Giga City Gold. I feel like there's a lot of like shady dealings that I think they're trying to keep secret. So we have to like expose those things and expose Ellipsis and what he's trying to do in order to make sure that the public is on our side.

I like how Abe's like, dude, let's go assault the tower. And you're like, wait, no, we need to know everything first. That is very true to both of your personalities. Yeah.

Yeah. I think we use the drones against... I know we tried to use the drones before, but that's because we didn't know who owned them. There's got to be some way to figure out where the drone's home is, right? Yeah. Triangulate and attack. Exactly. Sure. When you say it like that, I'm fine with it. There's got to be a way. I'm just going to touch my earpiece and be like, Specs, I know you're getting all this, right? Did we set up a relay successfully? Yeah. So Specs, by the way, is like...

Okay, I'm having a really hard time keeping up with what's going on. What the heck are you doing down there? Specs, I'm here with a mushroom man, with a cat man dude, with a big plant that used to be a witch, I think. Listen, man. They have names, ape. Come on.

Listen, listen. Specs, can you triangulate where the signal from Ellipsis was coming? We just need to know where Ellipsis is, even if you can only get it for a second. He says, actually, that's what I've been using the extra time to do. I've been monitoring all the social feeds and I've also been trying to track the signal. He's bouncing it off of Tusk Tower, but it's not coming from Tusk Tower. That's not the origin. See, Firefly? Good thing we didn't break in. Yeah.

That makes perfect sense because they're shady. They try to hide their tracks. Of course they wouldn't put everything in one place. He goes, also, I've been trying to look up public record appearances of ellipses. He only showed up visually on feeds.

Like in the last couple months, I'm not even sure. Like we've never seen him out. Like, did you guys ever run into him when he was like out there in the field? No. Do you have a real name? Do you have a location? Do you have anything that would suggest that?

A name other than ellipsis. He says, that's asking for a lot. All I've got right now is, you know, well, honestly, just like a creeping sensation up my spine. But also, I do have a location. Okay. But he goes, it's weird, Joey. Where is it? Under the school.

Let's go to the school. Under the school. Can we get there from here? We better suit up first. Yeah. All right. He goes, well, you guys are already pretty deep. This signal is coming from deep. It's pinged off several relays. I don't think, like, I'm not sure if you could actually get down there from the school, but it's got to have an entry level in like a sub basement or I don't know. Maybe we can get there from here somehow.

How far do these tunnels go? We need to get Firefly in her armor, though, first. We gotta get you in the old tin can.

Um, yeah, I don't want to do that while I'm still with all of the bricks, though. I want to wait. Let's figure out where we are in relation to this place in the school. Let's figure out who can get us there because I think we'll need like a guide and then let's get a little ways away and then I can try to summon the suit. How does that work? I think we said that I could call it to me. Yeah, you probably have to roll for it. Oh, yeah, definitely. Sure. It's going to be one of those little like, you know, the launching little backpack that like drone style like flies around and finds you.

Um, I will say that as you're having your conversation on your earpiece, ape, uh, you feel a hand on your shoulder with like a few little claws coming out. And that cat comes in close, close next to you and says, did you think you shouldn't share that you brought someone else with you? I didn't bring anybody. What are you talking about? She picks the earpiece out of your ear, holds it up to sister Rose and goes,

Apparently they've been talking to someone else this whole time. They're not here. It's not like there's a little guy in that thing. But he's nice. It's like a radio. Don't worry. Echo looks down at you and goes, our secrecy is our only defense. There are those who would see us dead. I'm the best defense there is. Don't even worry about it. She rolls her eyes and she says, I saw you. I'm not impressed.

Okay, well, here's the deal. We are all in a lot of trouble. At some point, we're going to have to trust each other. So are we going to get caught up around understandable concerns and hesitation and walls that have been built up? What do we need to do to show you that we want to help and that we're serious about this? Exactly. Because I've never punched a cat, but if I have to... Ape, no. No!

Skitters. You're going to go back in the backpack. So at this point, I'm going to, I'm going to say sister Rose puts a hand on echo low cat's shoulder and says,

"'Echo is one of our most ferocious defenders. Most of us believe in nonviolence, but we also do not limit anyone's choices. We are all individuals, and we must make our own decisions. This is why Echo and Skitter and Ken went above. They made that choice without any direction from the rest of us, although they did tell us before they left. Echo, I trust them.'

Low cat kind of looks at sister Rose looks down at eight and then like, just kind of nods. Skitter goes, yeah, no, the ape guy's cool. Yeah, I'm cool. I take my earpiece back. Thank you. Just kind of brush off a lot of earwax. That's accumulated. Pop it back in. That's disgusting. It's perfect for the record. I do want to say if echo look at is one of your most ferocious and passionate people down here,

I think we need your help specifically. Skitter goes, dude, it's just like fantasy hunt. Come on. You love that game. Echo like gives him a look like, like an eye roll look. Although again, it's that expressionless cat face. It's really hard to read. And she kind of looks down at him and she goes,

to trust somebody if you're with them. And Skitter's like, I'm going, man. You can't stop me. Skitter, do you have any powers or are you just kind of a little bug dude? He goes, are you kidding? He runs up the wall and he's upside down and he looks down at you and he goes, and you should see what happens when I spit. I want to see what happens when you spit.

We are all very excited to see what happens when you spit. Echo is like, Skitter? And he's like, what? He asked? He goes, you got to forgive my sister. She's like way overprotective. Sister? Did we know that already? Nope. You did not know that already. But you're finding things out. How old are you, Skitter? He goes, I'm 12. Like almost 13. No, no. Too dangerous for kids.

We can't, we can't be bringing kids along. Sorry, skitter. You're going to sit this one out, but skitter looks down at you. He goes, kid, he jumps down and he flips and he goes, I make my own decisions. And he goes, just like you. And he looks at you and he goes, besides, I'm about as big as you. And he goes, how old do chimps get before they're like, you know, full grown? Like, I don't know. I remember from school. It's like, I don't know, one year before they're like, you know, having babies and stuff. He goes, what are you like five?

No, I've been through extensive military testing, civilian rocketry. How long did that take? I'm just asking how old you are, dude. I'm not asking for your whole like resume. Oh, I like this kid. No pants and maybe five. I don't know, dude. Sounds like you should sit this one out. And he gives you a big grin.

No, I'm over 20 years old, little kid. And listen, he goes, how old is that in chimp years? Maybe you should sit this one out, grandpa. And he like, he grins again. And finally, Sister Rose goes, that's enough. She looks down and she says, we do not discriminate based on age or origin. Everyone is allowed to make their own decisions.

I just turned to Firefly. Look, Firefly, you're going to bring a 12-year-old with us into a very dangerous situation? Don't say Firefly. Don't say Firefly. Oh, that's perfect. That's perfect. You want to say Firefly because we've been very careful not to say Firefly. I think it's great. I think it's great. Oh, yeah. Yeah, Ape would say Firefly. Okay, so you said like, yeah, Firefly, are we really going to bring a... And like all of a sudden, it's like you could hear a pin drop. The whole room goes quiet. And Skitter goes, dude, you're fired?

And there's like this long silence and Sister Rolls holds up her hands and says, this is a place of peace. And Kentucky is like backing up and like squaring up and looking scared. And like everybody's just staring. And there's this moment you're going to have to say something, Jillian. It just threw you under the bus. Yeah.

Ape just threw me under the bus, which I'm mad about. I'm Jillian. I might also be Firefly, but I am Jillian here right now. And also, I mean you no harm. Somebody in the back goes, it's a little late for that. And there's like a murmur of assent.

Yeah, I'm sorry. I thought that I could be stealthy because I didn't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. But I realize now it seems kind of like I was keeping a secret and that probably is a little bit worse. So I apologize. Ken goes, you've got a lot more to apologize for than that. And there's like a sudden tension in the air. Could you say that again? Your voice is a little hoarse.

Stop. It's now the right time. Skitter cracks up. He's the only person in the room laughing. He like slaps you on the shoulder and he goes, see, we're going to have fun, dude. And he goes, awesome. I get to go on a mission with Firefly. This is so dope. Riptide pokes his head in the rooms and he goes, dudes, you got to come check this out. They got like a whole thing. Come on.

Uh, sister Rose is kind of like, yes, you should go and, and, and look at the docks and like, kind of like shuffles you out of the room. You should go here. Clarity is like turning around and like, kind of like trying to talk to people. Like there's some discussion going on amongst the bricks. You think it's time to leave for now. Maybe you can talk deeply with the community later, but probably this is a lot to deal with in short order. Yeah. Um,

Echo and Skitter are coming with you. Ken is a little dinged up. Riptide is like,

So my new bro eel. Oh, like dude, they got like the coolest sea critters I've ever seen. I mean, I guess like technically they're not sea critters. Some of them do like the saltwater thing, but mostly they're like freshwater, but they're like cool with a lot of the stuff that's in the freshwater in the sewers, like the sewer monsters. That's what they are. And like you get down to the docks and you seal CE electric and he's waving and

There at the dock is this massive globular mass of,

And as you're watching, he tosses something and it snaps out a tentacle and grabs it. And then it absorbs it. Ape picks up Skitter to throw him in. No! When you pick up Skitter, Skitter flips and lands on your back and he goes, cool, dude. All right, so run as fast as you can. No, no. I want to roll to get Skitter off of me. That's unacceptable. No. Go ahead. Go ahead. What do you got? Well, I was thinking rash and cocky.

Okay, this is definitely a brash cocky move. Yes. Yeah, I'm the greatest one there is. I don't like him trying to upstage me. If you pick him up, he's going to do some stuff. Skitter likes to mess around. He kind of reminds you of you, honestly. No, well, that's why I turned the firefight. I'm like, do you guys really want this small, annoying wisecracker around here?

We keep you around, don't we? Hey, hey. I am tall for a chimp. Very tall for a chimp. Yes, you are. Right over the plate and Animus just hit right out of the park. Nicely done, Scriv. Yeah. Animus is starting to feel more comfortable. Y'all haven't really seen the snarky side too much yet. I think I'll just take two. I can do Rash and Kaki and I can do Great Estate, but I don't know if King of the Urban Jungle. I don't know. No, that's not going to help you here. Yeah, I think I'll take two. Let me roll my two. Okay.

So that is a three and a three, unfortunately. Lovely. You fail. He is on your back. You can't seem to, like you're having the hardest time reaching him and he's stuck on there. Like whatever kind of bug-like stickiness he's got, he's definitely like grabbed on and he goes, aw, hugs. And he goes, giddy up. And he digs his heels in. I want to, I think me and him both fall into the water.

Oh, I like that. Yeah. Okay. So a tentacle fishes you out. And Eel says, I see you've met Fido. He says, Fido, say hello to the lovely people. And a couple of tentacles come out and they wave.

He says, he wasn't exactly expected, but he's turned out to be a lovely help to the community. Aren't you a good boy? Who's a good boy? And he kind of like leans down and like scratches him. And Fido kind of like bubbles a little. Can I see if I feel any emotions from Fido? Yeah. Just curiosity. Oh, yeah. Fido feels like, you know, when dogs are like...

Throw the stick? Like the wiggly butts? Yeah, that's it. It's throw the stick. They get super wiggly like they're full of beans. Speaking of dogs, ape 100%, like does the full body shake to get all the sewer water out of his hair? Yeah.

Does your hair like fluff up? It flucks up and just flips sore water all over everybody. Yeah. Skittering like, dude, this jacket is down. He like gets the jacket off and he's like, do you know how hard it is to find something and then like, you know, poke extra arm holes in it? He goes, I get it. You don't wear pants, but come on, man. Just don't climb on me again and I'll get you a special jacket from the Guardian's headquarters. What do you think? He looks at you and he goes,

Okay, I dig yours. He's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This one's mine. This style is mine. We'll get you something different. Something a little more your speed, a little less cool, but something that fits you. Premonition of the future. He's going to try to be just like you. Sam comes over and he's like, so, uh, we doing this? And he goes, I don't know. Uh, and then he hits his little thing and he goes, suspects any luck? And Specs is like,

Well, I could tell you where the signal's coming from. Do you have a way to get there? Riptide grins at all of you and he goes, come on, can we do it? I totally want to surf on this bad boy. So what does it look like exactly? Does it look like a squid mask or is it, I kind of, I'm having trouble picturing it.

It's, so think of like amoeba-like pinkish red. You imagine that this thing might have been a slime mold or a fungus of some kind. I thought it was going to be like a squid type of thing. Slime mold sounds weird. Yeah.

Yeah. Do the tentacles like get reabsorbed? Like they come out and then come back? Yeah, they seem to be able to form extras. Yeah, exactly. It's a blob. It's like a blob. Can I tell you guys, if you really want to look this up, there's something in our garden called, and I'm not making this up, this is actually the name, dog vomit slime mold. No, I love it. Perfect.

Perfect. So it's like this weird, like yellowish red. It does look like dog vomit. We had to look up what it was because we thought it was a fungus. Slime molds are their own like,

like wall of the prokaryotic animal tree, they can actually move. They can move three feet a day. This thing looks like a plant, but it can like ooze along the ground. Here's the crazy part. Ready? It can actually absorb like dangerous rare metals from the soil and process them. Cool. That is incredible. That seems like a good thing to have in your garden. They're currently experimenting and trying to figure out how to like get it to move

be able to use it for like environmental cleanup if they can modify it in the right way. So, so this is a giant slime mold of some kind with like a sentient. It's a sentient slime mold. Wait, how big a points? No, he goes, uh, how big is this? Uh, squid man here. Fido eel goes, uh,

Fido! And like Fido surges up onto the like docks. This is like an area, it's basically docks and you can see there are some little, there's some little boat-like things and little boards. You're not sure how all of them work. Some of them look like contraptions. You're imagining Upcycle has made some interesting vehicles for under the city. When it surges up, like this huge wave of sewer water comes like over the edge and Fido is massive. He goes...

This is only a little bit of him. There's a whole bunch more probably under the tunnel. He can really change his shape quite a bit. So it doesn't take him long to get from here to there. He just kind of shifts his mass. Are you all in need of a ride? Skitter goes, dude, totally. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Echoes like, if you don't mind. Echo nods and kind of looks over at the rest of you and nods. And Werebear's like, all right, let's do this thing.

Can confirm Fido does have feelings. Let's be nice. Okay. It's like Fido has feelings. Don't be mean.

Uh, does, do you want to make this call? Do you want to call in phone, phone a friend for your, uh, your backpack of, of awesome. Yeah. Let's, um, specs. Can I, can you send me my suit? I, I wanted, I want to have it before I'm getting on Fido, our slime mold friend. Uh, so that we, I have it when we're ready. He goes, okay. Uh, can you ask somebody which sewer line you're on? Cause I kind of have your position, but I'm not sure which tunnels to use. Okay.

Sure. Echo Locat, do you know which sewer line we're in? Echo just turns her expressionless face to you and says, I don't need maps. She looks back at Eel and Eel says-

I think in the city waterways, he points at the wall, there's a sewer map that's been clearly laid out on the wall, and it's got all the different sectors. And he says, this is sewer line C, C46 in the city's layouts. Cool. And then he grins and he goes, used to be an engineer. Oh, neat. Yeah.

When you say neat, he kind of like, he like looks a little, he's like, thank you. All right. So you know where to send it. So you say this to Specs and Specs is like, okay, I'll try, but it might get lost. He says, let's, let's see what we could do.

All right. What do you got that you can use for this? Let's go. Well, I built the suit. Boom. And it's my power. That's why. Specs is my wingman. This is true. And my best friend. That's true. Can I use my dream, which is I will make amends with those I've harmed because I think that this is part of that. Ooh.

I like it. Yeah, because you are definitely doing this to help the bricks. If you don't get rid of Giga City Gold, and especially Ellipsis, you're going to have some trouble. All right, here we go. Roll them bones. Okay. High rolls four. All right. Success. So it's a success with the trouble, but I could use my special power, my special ability. You could to move it up to a full. If you wish, or you could save your special for when drama clocks happen.

Is there any way I could take the, take the damage for it? Like say it comes in, it's coming at a little off center and ape does like a diving catch, but it really kind of nails him.

You're invulnerable. I always imagine heart loss for Ape has more to do with feeling embarrassed. Like, I almost imagine that you took a heart of damage from Skitter just being able to completely elude your grasp and riding you like a pony. But I don't know. That's totally legit. If you would like to leap in front of it and take the hit, totally. We could also say that your next move loses a die because you're kind of like your bell got rung by the hit.

Or we could say that you lose a heart. Your call. Yeah, let me take the lost die on my next roll, I think. Okay. I think it's coming in real fast around the corner. And first, everybody's excited. And then kind of looks and it's like, oh, it's not slowing down. And Jill is just a human without a suit right now. If it hits her...

you know, it's a big hyper metal backpack. Like, well, worse Fido is getting really upset. And if you don't intercept, it might clobber Fido and you don't know how Fido is going to react to that. So I like this as a, as a heroic ape moment, ape,

tell us how you do it. What does it look like? This thing is coming speeding in. It looks kind of like, it looks like an air pod lozenge, but it's backpack sized. You know, it's that perfect, smooth oblong with a little bit of a narrowing at the tip. And it's, you know, it's jetting along with that firefly glow. Cause it's using the firefly engine and you can see the light coming down the tunnel and a Fido's getting really upset. And Jillian's like,

Steps out onto Fido and is like, ready for it? And you see it's not slowing down. First thing, I'm not mad at Skidder. I just think he's too young. But you know, if he's going to come, he's going to come. Abe's not going to deny someone. But Abe's going to say, listen, if you're going to come, you're going to be safe. Reaches down into Fido and just like pulls out a tendril of amoeba and puts it across Skidder's lap like a seatbelt. Like...

Just kind of buckles him in. It's safe. Yep. Just for safety. Keep the buddies safe. And then, yeah, turns around and says, I got this, Jill. Coming in a little hot. Hot tamale. And gets in like a baseball catcher stance. Pounds the glove a couple times. Sam looks at you and goes...

You're a little small for the, and like, that's when it hits. Yeah. So then it just, yeah, completely smashes me through the wall, through the second wall, big pump of concrete, but I do get it. And I kind of, kind of stumble out a little crooked and I say, here you go. Thanks. Thank you. Echo says, let's get a little further away from central before you and nods at the backpack. Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, so you're on top of Fido and he's sort of squelching his way through the sewer tunnel and you are leaving the light of Flipside behind. That phosphorescent glow fades and within a few turns, you're submerged into absolute pitch black. And that's when Jillian hits the button. The suit lights up and suddenly in the middle of Fido's back,

bathed in this strange glow from the Firefly engine. The suit begins to emerge from the backpack like a flower blooming in fast motion. All these petals and intricate hinges all wrapping around her until before you stands the most powerful superhero in all of history, Firefly. The voice when it comes out is powerful. What do you say, Jillian? We're ready.

♪

All right. So we have finally moved to what is closing in on the final arc of the Giga City Guardians saga. At least this first one.

And, uh, wow. I don't know. I had a lot of fun. It was cool watching y'all think about some of the choices you now have. And I'm super excited for what's happening next time. Let's talk about some shout outs and, uh, and some, some lines. Um, I would like to shout out ape for being a great team player and catching the suit slash taking the damage. Amen. That was a hot tamale. And I would like to, I would also like to shout a bad for always well-timed horrible puns. They were great.

You're sounding like a little horse. That was great. I loved it.

But I got to give first shout out to Scriv for, I was trying to throw out, Ape threw out the annoying kind of little guy line, hoping somebody would put him in his place and Scriv nailed it. That was so good. That was so good. We keep you around. You prepped it perfectly though. Got to shout out Skitter or Michael, I guess, for making Skitter just a good foil to Ape. Just kind of like Ape, but also just ratchet it up to the point where he even annoys Ape.

And just kind of break apes cool a little bit is good to see. He's a favorite of mine. There's a version of Skitter. He goes by different names in all of my games, but Skitter's my favorite guy. Yeah.

I wanted to shout out Amanda for wrestling with the big questions. Thank you. I thank you very much. No, it was, I mean, you, I watched you being like, Oh my God, powers are no power. It was great. Like, thank you for leaning in and embracing that, that plot line. I think, you know, I just, I don't know. I'm excited to see where it goes. I think it's exciting that you said yes.

I'm excited. What's your mom going to say? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know yet. So we'll have to see, but I'm excited. I'm excited to do it. Right on. I'm going to echo that because I think that's going to be a really, really cool storytelling thing. And I almost feel like,

Having that is going to be so instrumental to rationalizing and kind of bringing together all those conflicting feelings and emotions that Firefly has been having. Because now there is a part of you that links you completely to like all of these different people as well. All of the people in the flip side. Yeah. Flip sides, bricks, animus, werebear. About the only person who's not infected at this point is Abe and Riptide. Yeah.

who's enjoying surfing on. As far as Ape knows, he can't be infected, but you know, there's always a first time for everything.

We don't know if it works on apes. I mean, you can talk though. How do you know it hasn't already happened? You're an ape that can talk. And you're indestructible. Like I have a feeling. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Do you feel itchy? Do you have any weird breath marks? That was a cool rocket accident. Not your weird mushrooms. I'm about to say still you're only, you know, probably about five. I think if you're 20, you're almost, you know, you're almost done. You're like middle-aged. You're like, you know, that's the equivalent of human 60.

Oh no, I looked up ape age lengths. Don't worry about that. Okay. How about, how long does a chimp last? Chimps can live from 35 to 65 years. So if you're 20, you're like, you know, 60. It's about, it's about right. He's like a human 30. No, not if you're only living 35 years, tiger. That's on the low end. That's on the low. I like the idea of eight being older. I,

I like the idea of ape. I put like the cockiest. I like your toddler ape. Yeah. Yeah. Toddler. Toddler ape is really funny. Listen, ape thinks he's 20. I guess we can see as it goes how old ape actually is. Chimps are fully mature by one year old. So it makes sense for him to be like, yeah, I'm five. He's got a toddler's energy. He's great. I feel like ape would use that to his advantage though. Like look at everything I've accomplished at five. That's awesome.

I'm only five years old and I'm one of the best superheroes in the world. Like, totally. Yeah, he might admit that if he doesn't have to get one over on Skitter. Well, that's actually, so this is the best part. I love that. Dan, thank you because I've been trying to figure out some emotional hooks for Ape because Ape is so unflabbed. Like, just like, yeah, everything's cool. I'm great. I'm the greatest. And I love that Skitter drove him nuts.

Like the minute he was like, yes, I thought it was first off funny that he was like, oh, you're too young kid.

And Skitter was immediately like, wait a minute. How old are you? Like the fact that he didn't say like, yeah, I'm five and I'm the best five. Like instead he was like, well, I, I'm old. Like that was great. Watching Abe have to be like, I don't need to defend myself. I need to defend myself. Like it was great. I love it. That's why I like Skitter as a character. It's good for Abe. It's good for Abe to be on his heels sometimes. That's wonderful. All right. So any lines?

I finally wrote some things down that I've been thinking about since last time. Okay. So I'm not going to add more bonds. Okay. I already have the bonds of Firefly, Werebear, and Josh Phillips.

J lips. At some point I want to, if we were going to go up to the tower, I would have tried to say like, tried to find him. It's like, Hey, we're good. But, um, I have a new drive. Oh, you have a new drive. I've got a new drive. So what I've, what I've written down now, um, previously it was undoing the wrongs of Tusk court, but now I know it's a lot more complex and animus is getting that sense. Um,

And I now have written down in Drive, having now faced some unsettling truths and discoveries beneath the city, Animus is now learning what it means to be part of a community and how it feels to want to protect that community. Okay. There are a lot of unanswered questions, but Animus definitely...

knows that flip side needs to be safeguarded and animus feels very ready to do that i think i think you always want to keep it shorter and you want to keep it less goal i love the the idea what about protect and build community yes okay yep so a feeling of like you you want to be it's this desire to connect

You're no longer feeling protective. Yeah. Yeah. It's not about revenge. You know, disgruntled, disgruntled office worker being really frustrated about a lot of different things, not really feeling the revenge, but now having something else to work towards. It's a positive, positive drive. I like it. What do y'all think? Ape?

I feel like for Ape, Ape wants to take the hit for his friends. Ape is starting to feel like if somebody's going to get hurt, it might as well be him since it's not going to be lasting. Oh, I love that. If somebody's going to get hurt, it might as well be me. Would that be a bond or a quirk, you think? What do you think? That one feels like...

Hmm. That almost feels like a drive, right? Like that's what motivates you. Do I add a second drive? Yeah. You're going to jump in front of whatever is coming for your friends. It's interesting. Y'all are really starting to sound like guardians. Fancy that. I wondered if, because now I think I'm a brick, but we don't know what my power is going to be.

but that is something, but maybe, maybe because it's not revealed yet, we can't really use it, but maybe put it as a mystery bond or something. Mystery is, is, is one we haven't used yet, but it's a great one. Mystery. I am a brick now. Who knows what that means? Question mark. Yeah. Where do I put that? Is there a word for the hybrid brick that like has the powers and the spores, but not the brick skin? That's what I was wondering. Do you want a name?

Do you have one or should we think of one? I don't have one. You guys are the, I mean, Tusk would say you are a Tusk Corporation Series 1 modified human. Oh, hell no. All right. That's something to think on for next episode. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. It sounds like y'all are prepared for next session. This has been an episode of Stories RPG. And please, if you'd like to play along with us, the finale is coming and it's in the game as well. You can find that on patreon.com backslash stories RPG. And we'd love to see you next time. Take care. Everyone say bye.

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