Creating Characters for Candela Obscura: Tide & Bone

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AABRIA: Any ideas on the playbook you want? NOSHIR: I'd love your help in guiding me on where I'd be the most useful. Okay, so-- ASHLY: Damn, he's already got like three pages already written. (laughter) AABRIA: Oh, did you not do a full five-sheet for? ASHLY: No! AABRIA: A full essay? (laughter) SAM: Where's your Pinterest board? ASHLY: Where's your Pinterest board, Sam? SAM: I have a full Pinterest board. AABRIA: I have a Pinterest board. (laughs) ASHLY: Show it. SAM: It's not about this game. (laughter) SAM: It's for my kitchen remodel. ASHLY: (laughs) GINA: Yeah. ♪ (mysterious music) ♪ AABRIA: Hey, welcome, y'all. We are in our session zero for the third installment of Candela Obscura. I'm so excited to be your game runner, and I could not be more pleased that you all are at the table. Thank you for saying yes and thank you for being here. Fuck, this is great. ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: I already did a cuss, we're doing good. ASHLY and GINA: (laugh) ASHLY: Are we allowed to cuss, because that's going to be an issue, right? AABRIA: Yeah, everyone can do cusses now. ASHLY: Okay, great. AABRIA: It's good. (laughs) GINA: The seal's broken, we can just-- AABRIA: Yeah, that's the most important thing as a DM, be the first one-- LIAM: Just not in the first-- AABRIA: -- to drop an F-bomb. LIAM: -- 30 seconds of the stream. (laughter) LIAM: There's some weird Twitch rule about it. AABRIA: It's called setting expectations. ASHLY and GINA: (laugh) LIAM: By the way, all I know so far, is that I want to be very old. ASHLY: (laughs) LIAM: So I'm not going to stop talking like this, I'm sorry. ASHLY: He's been talking like this all day, by the way. AABRIA: All day. ASHLY: Since high school. AABRIA: This is Liam's real voice, and he finally feels comfortable enough to use it. LIAM: Letting it out. (laughter) AABRIA: Cool. So let me just run you through our game plan for the day. We're going to talk about tone and tempo and the themes of the game, then we'll get into character generation. My philosophy about all of this is games and stories are made and broken in the <i>mise en place</i> of getting everyone locked into not only who you are as a character, but what you are to each other and who you are to the world, because those are the hardest things to manipulate once you're in it. Once it's in the oven, we can do small corrections, but if you're like, oh, I don't really understand why I am with this group, or how I understand the world, or how I interact with it, those are really hard to course correct, and you can feel the strain of trying to do so once you're running. So this will be our big time together to try to lock all of that in. My goals for you for character gen, I would love to see 80% completion. If you get to 100%, you know exactly what you want to play and it's just about building relationships, that's great. But as long as you have a sense of what your character is and what they want, we can always manipulate the mechanics. I'm a tinkerer, I love tinkering up until the moment the cameras run for real, so don't feel any pressure. If you've made some choices and we've played it out and you walk away from this at 7:00 and you're like, "Actually, I don't fucking like "anything I picked." (laughter) AABRIA: We can tinker with that, we can build stuff that's specific to your desires. But understand what you want from a character, and we'll make the mechanics fit. LIAM: May I ask a question? AABRIA: Sure! SAM: Oh jesus. LIAM: In some games-- ASHLY: (laughs) Sam's already sick of it! AABRIA: Commitment. He's already done, and it's great. LIAM: Think how done I feel, I'm 97 years old. (laughter) AABRIA: You're doing this to yourself! LIAM: Ah, yes. AABRIA: (laughs) LIAM: In some games, the players, the characters meet for the first time, but are we a crew? AABRIA: The understanding here will be you all know each other, you've interacted in maybe other circles, depending on how familiar you want your character to be with Candela. But you will all have known of each other, but this circle has never existed before this moment. LIAM: Ah. ASHLY: Oh. LIAM: Is that how it works in the lore of the world that sometimes you're with one circle for 10 years and then you get moved to another? AABRIA: Yeah. I mean, my understanding of Candela, and we have the people that made the game right off camera, but they're not allowed to fucking show up. ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: So what I say is true forever right now. (laughter) AABRIA: I think some circles do stay together and stay tight and go on multiple adventures together. For what I want to discuss here, I think it's important that you all have connection to each other, but you've never experienced this kind of synergy. So there are still things to discover about each other, but there's still enough connective tissue that you're like, "I don't have to introduce "everything about my character in minute one." There is some knowledge of how people work and assumptions that can be made because, again, we've got three episodes. I guess we'll talk about this really quick, the tempo of everything. We've got three episodes, they are a month apart. That means we have a beautiful audience that's going to forget 90% of the shit from episode to episode. SAM: Mm-hmm. AABRIA: So there's going to be some interesting ideas. I would like you to think about these, at least for your characters, as a three-act structure. But know that I want you to come out strong with what your character's deal is by the end of the first episode. Episode Two, we heighten and get into the high drama of what your arcs are. Three is our resolution for all of that. So knowing that secrets are fun and interesting, but especially in RPGs, they're only as fun as they can be once people know, once the audience knows, and once you have to wrestle with what it means for yourself to be known and laid bare. LIAM: Pull that ripcord. AABRIA: Pull the ripcord. Please do not sit on fun secrets forever. As we're building characters, you will be sharing those secrets with me. Share what you want with the group, we'll have one-on-one moments where you share them with me, and I will always be there by your side to be like, all right, time to throw that next gear, because it's only as interesting as what comes next because of what's happened. LIAM: My secret is that I hate all of Ashly's characters in every medium. (laughter) AABRIA: I love that! ASHLY: Does that mean that my oeuvre exists within Candela Obscura? SAM: Yes. AABRIA: Yes, yes. (laughter) ASHLY: It's all fake people and then me. (laughs) AABRIA: You're the only real one. LIAM: I already I hate it. ASHLY and AABRIA: (laugh) ASHLY: She's too talky. LIAM: I don't truck with her. (laughter) ASHLY: Gab, gab, gab. AABRIA: "I don't truck with her," is the cutest old-man statement. (laughter) AABRIA: Ah! I love ancient Liam. LIAM: She's quite good in that game, if you haven't played it. AABRIA: (laughs) ASHLY: Oh stop. LIAM: Still hated her. ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: The hair toss was very good, by the way. ASHLY: Mm-hmm. AABRIA: Amazing. ASHLY: I haven't had hair for very long, so I'm really enjoying it. AABRIA: Enjoying it. ASHLY: Yeah. AABRIA: It's beautiful, it's beautiful. Any questions about this first thing before I jump into tone? AABRIA: No? Great. GINA: No. AABRIA: All right, the tone for this. We are all very funny people, and no one is more, in the CR canon, I think I am the goofiest, fuck it, well, no, that's Sam. GINA: (laughs) AABRIA: Second goofiest game runner here. But the tone has to be dark. This is a lethal system and a serious world. It's fun to have fun, and you can't live in horror and tension forever and you can't live in horror and tension forever without that off-gassing by making jokes. Not saying that that's not a part of it and that I don't want that. But if you do not take this world seriously, if you don't take the stakes and if you don't take the NPCs and their perspective and their rationality and reasonability seriously, this will shoot our story in the water. So I don't mean to lecture, but this is one of those games where you have to hold the tone, you have to be here and care as much about what you're doing and what the world is doing back to you just more so than other games. This has to be grounded. Magick is rare, and the things that you're dealing with are beyond most people's ken and is, unlike in Dungeons & Dragons where you're like, yeah, I just fucking do magic, here's a fireball, the existence of phenomena in this world is terrifying to most people, and lethal not only to the people that are affected by it, but to the world itself. We'll get more into that as I talk a little bit more about the theme and what my top-down idea about what the meta-story will be is. So yeah, actions have consequences, I will be a little consequence monster, and the people that you are going to interact with are reasonable and grounded. So if you come in with some big-ass Looney Tune energy, I'm going to bump in a way that I hope you understand is not me not enjoying a fun moment or a fun choice. Even if you don't see me curve you away from it, know that me reacting seriously, or with derision or dismissal, it's fidelity for the world and not a reaction from a GM to the players, so. But the-- ASHLY: No goofs. AABRIA: (laughs) Yeah. Do not have fun! SAM: No fun. ASHLY: No goofs, okay. SAM: No fun. AABRIA: You can have goofs and you can have fun, but just know that if I bump, unless I pull you off to the side and say something later, when we shut it down. GINA: (laughs) ASHLY: Oh my god, that's my nightmare. (laughter) AABRIA: I've truly never-- SAM: (as Aabria) "Ashly, "can I see you for a second?" (laughter) AABRIA: I've never done that, I don't think I will need to. But there have been times where I've run games where I'm like, I am playing the bummer in the world. Then I'm like, please don't take this personally, I'm being the world, and I don't hate what you guys are putting out there. So I just wanted to flag that early. LIAM: I think if you go in with the intention to play serious, there will still be 10% to 15% of tomfoolery-- AABRIA: Oh, 100%. LIAM: -- because that's the nature of it. AABRIA: Exactly. LIAM: But if you go in trying to be hilarious, then it will break the shit. AABRIA: Yes, And I'm only adding that extra thing because I haven't played with, or haven't run for most of you. SAM: It's for me, she's saying it for me. (laughter) LIAM: I should never put the both of you in the same room. AABRIA: So when we talk about, but pulling someone up besides Sam, and trying to lock it in. (laughter) SAM: This whole speech is for me. (laughter) AABRIA: I've been trying so hard not to make eye contact with you. SAM and ASHLY: (laugh) AABRIA: But I know there's always conversations about tone up top, so that's the big one. Yeah, we've talked a little bit about tempo. And yeah, theming. For me, the arc words for this, or at least as I'm planning now, all of this stays very nebulous until we figure out what everyone's characters are, and then the actual story gets written around the characters. But what I've walked in with it today is that idea of old wounds untreated will fester, about the things that you covered over in a moment of tension or a moment of crisis, but you never went back and healed it. Those can be physical wounds, there's so much in the way this game feels as a player where you are taking marks and giving yourself scars and using those scars to treat your array of abilities. How does a scar change who you are as a person? So really leaning into that, and not only for your characters, but what is Newfaire's relationship to both its recent past and its ancient history, Oldfaire, things that we've talked about a little bit before. This is a city that was built on top of a place of phenomenal power that destroyed itself, that was left alone and treated with that radioactive, Pripyat's nuclear-meltdown distance Pripyat's nuclear-meltdown distance until it became no longer tenable to stay away. Newfaire came about because people went, "We have to go somewhere," and that was driven by war and by politics and all of those things. But if you don't treat the underlying problem, the radiation, both real in the magick and the bleed and all of the mystical shit in the world that we'll be dealing with through Candela, but also just the psychic trauma of a place that was destroyed, but was abandoned for so long that we never learned the lessons, that those lessons must be born out. Someone has to facilitate that healing or you start to make the same kind of problems all over again. As the world advances in technology, as you live in that float post-war, as you live in that float post-war, you have to learn the lessons. Someone has to learn the lesson, someone has to facilitate that healing or the world will collapse. So that's kind of where I'm sitting and thinking right now. That idea that the acknowledgement of injustice, the acknowledgement of past wrongs and past wounds and past scars is not analogous to restitution. So yeah, going back and healing old wounds. So that's the arc words I would like you to think about as we go into our character gen. Does anyone have any questions? I've talked for a very long time. (laughs) SAM: That's great. AABRIA: Aw, thanks! Cool, okay. We'll get into character gen. I know some of you have already picked playbooks, picked your roles and have some ideas about character. We'll do character gen as a group, and I will throw up, in the event that someone wants a fun secret about their character that would be pinged by their catalyst or question for the group, please give the answer that you have given to Candela. There's no way that all of you interacting with Candela Obscura have not been asked overtly the questions in your catalyst in question. What happened to you to alert you to this world, to all the things unseen, to phenomena, to the thinning, to the Flare, and why are you here? Now, if it's not your truth, we'll discuss that one-on-one. But there is a party line that you've been giving for long enough that it would be second nature. So I would ask that you give that to the group because that's what they would know about you. Then if you have any secrets you want to reveal, you can keep those for the one-on-one. I'm not saying you have to have it, but if you do, that's the space, don't feel the need to throw it all out there if you don't want to. Now, if you want to, you can always say, "Here's my character's secret, "I want the table to know "because I want everyone to play with the secret." That's great. SAM: Mm. AABRIA: I just want to give you two options so you don't feel compelled to be like, "Well, I have this weird thing "that I want to come out, "and I want it to be a little surprise for everyone." Totally fine, fucking lie. AABRIA and SAM: (laugh) GINA: (laughs) AABRIA: So that's good. So yeah, let's go ahead and talk about character pitches. NOSHIR: Yeah. AABRIA: I'm going to start with Sam. SAM: I got nothing, don't start with me. (laughter) AABRIA: Incredible. I'm going to start with Noshir. SAM: I'm a blank slate. (laughter) NOSHIR: Okay. AABRIA: Any ideas on the playbook you want? NOSHIR: No, I feel like the character I'm interested in playing-- AABRIA: Yeah. NOSHIR: -- could field a couple of different disciplines. AABRIA: Sweet. NOSHIR: So I'd love your help in maybe guiding me-- AABRIA: Yeah! NOSHIR: -- on where I'd be the most useful. Okay, so-- ASHLY: Damn, he's already got like three pages already written. (laughter) ASHLY: Noshir's got a-- AABRIA: Oh, did you not do a full five-sheet for-- ASHLY: No! AABRIA: A full essay? (laughter) SAM: Where's your Pinterest board? ASHLY: Where's your Pinterest board, Sam? SAM: I have a full Pinterest board. AABRIA: I have a Pinterest board. ASHLY: Show it. SAM: It's not about this game. (laughter) SAM: It's for my kitchen remodel. ASHLY: (laughs) GINA: Yeah. LIAM: This is why Noshir's roles are all excellent. (laughter) ASHLY: It's true. (laughter) NOSHIR: My Asian sister not doing her homework. (laughter) NOSHIR: I'm shocked and horrified for you. AABRIA: You can't laugh at that, Sam, you simply cannot. (laughter) AABRIA: You simply cannot. SAM: I don't know what's going on. (laughter) NOSHIR: He knows, he knows. (laughter) NOSHIR: So I guess I'll start with a nursery rhyme. AABRIA: Ooh. ASHLY: Ooh. NOSHIR: Mother Mercy, ensconced in white, tends the hungry day and night. Loving mother to the poor, dare not enter through her door. Mind this verse lest you should meet, please mind her smile and mind her teeth. Your name is known to me, Great Maw, now unbind us from tooth and claw. ASHLY: Dang. NOSHIR: This and many other nursery rhymes and lullabies were the way that our mother, Vimala Savarimuthu, would lull me and my twin sister Aadtika to sleep. Vimala, as anyone in the Newfaire lands knows, was a very famous archeologist. LIAM: I knew that. (laughter) NOSHIR: Exhibit A. ASHLY: (laughs) NOSHIR: She came to academic prominence with the discovery of one of the largest, most intact caches of Oldfaire remnants ever found. From that, her academic celebrity skyrocketed and she ended up traveling and doing numerous expeditions, leading digs in the Faraways. At night she would ask to put us down with those nursery rhymes, and I was 10 at that time, practically an adult, as far as I'm concerned. I did not have need for lullabies, and yet she insisted. More importantly, she insisted that my twin sister and I sing them back. One night, trying to get one up on my, One night, trying to get one up on my, I will happily admit, smarter sister, I wrote it down to study, and the anger that my mother met me with was something I will never forget. She burned the paper and told me explicitly that these are rhymes to be told by mouth and never to be seen by the eye. I didn't understand at the time what she was saying. I do now, unfortunately. Many nights she'd go walking on the grounds of the estate in the dark by herself. If I looked out my bedroom window, I would see on occasion a bold glow light the treeline and then suddenly disappear. I came to understand that I wouldn't see my mother for weeks. Then a month later, still no sign of her. Two months later, no sign. It was my sister who found her, an abandoned well at the edge of the treeline far at the edges of our estate. She came back covered in dirt, mud, her hands torn, screaming about Mother and a buzzing. I didn't understand what she was saying and my father kept arguing that she was simply being hysterical. But I knew something was gravely wrong, and my father did not seem surprised. He sat and watched the clock, and after thinking for 10 minutes, called our business manager. Then he waited 30 more minutes and then called the fire and rescue brigade. They came with ladders and ropes. The well was abandoned, 30, 40 feet deep at the least. When we arrived, we found ourselves in a swamp, ankle-deep in blood. Blood was welling up, poor choice of words, over the stones. All of a sudden there was a great roar that shook the trees, and the blood violently receded. As we heard that rushing sound, there was a sudden glow of light from inside the well and then nothing. We were left with essentially a marshland, scattered bits of clothing and bone, but almost nothing to go by. A medical examiner came back with a report that was rather scant. The blood was not human and didn't match any fauna that he had record of. The bones were too little and too few to determine gender. However, in the margins were notes about what looked to be the indication of gnawing from human teeth. So my mother was declared missing. I would take long walks, trying to reason with what had happened. One day, amidst the mud and blood, found the broken remnants of what must have been her collar, torn and shredded. I knew that something was terribly wrong. My sister never recovered. (sighs) She wouldn't eat. She wouldn't sleep. The halls echoed with her cries. My father resorted to sedating her, and then finally introduced us to a nun, Sister Rahema, who would be looking after her and was now in charge of her care. Sister Rahema was head to toe covered in a white robe Sister Rahema was head to toe covered in a white robe with a heavy cowl that always hid her face, large, ornate porcelain buttons alternating from her high collar all the way to the floor. I don't know how I knew this, but I knew that I was staring at the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. It stirred something in me that made me feel ashamed, if I am honest. I determined from that moment on that I would never leave Aadtika alone. So the next day, when she went to do her gardening, I decided to follow. I kept my distance. As the sun rose, they crossed into the forest. As the sun was setting, she was still moving. I didn't realize how far she was going and I hadn't packed a thing. I kept an eye on their lanterns and shortly after, the lights went out and I was left stumbling in the dark. Eventually, I heard a tinging sound and tried to trace it with my ears and then found myself falling probably about 20 feet and landing on a hard slab of stone. My sister was there, digging. Even in the scant light, I could see that her hands were raw. I called to her and she said nothing. I got up and shook her and realized that her eyes were open, but she was unseeing, digging at a feverish pace. Then I heard this buzzing sound and turned up to see Sister Rahema at the lip of the pit. In that moment, Aadtika came to life. She embraced me and turned to Sister Rahema and said, "You see, I told you he would come." I looked to the Sister and then heard in my head, "Two to make the key," and the stone underneath me started to move. I was terrified and tried to run out of the pit and my sister fought me. I didn't mean to, but I kicked her. When she fell, she hit her head, and upon rising, seemed as if she had come out of a dream. A look of such regret and horror A look of such regret and horror came over her face. She screamed at me to run, and the next thing I knew, Rahema was holding me fast. Before I could think of what to do, my sister cried out, "Your name is known to me," and before she could finish the phrase, Rahema took a clawed hand and ripped out her tongue. I had heard that nursery rhyme so many times. It came to me unbidden. In a panic I screamed: Your name is known to me, Great Maw. Now unbind me from tooth and claw. As I did so, the porcelain buttons on her robe opened to reveal a massive jaw. I saw a look on my sister's face and realized that I had said it wrong. The line is "Now unbind us." ASHLY: (whimpers) NOSHIR: In my fear, I called it only for myself. A hoard of locusts exploded out of Rahema's mouth and enveloped my sister. I tried to stop her and she struck me in the side and sent me flying. That was the last I remembered. I woke up to a grisly gash down my side, part of her claw still embedded in my bone. From that moment on, I've dedicated myself to finding out more about this creature, Maw, and what she has done to my sister. I'm now a professor of archeology myself, following in my mother's footsteps. She has left us with an amazing fortune, which I have used freely. I think many in the academic circles would consider me a fop. (soft laughter) NOSHIR: And that is fine. Let them think what they want to think. The more I've learned, I've started to hear about this organization, Candela Obscura, whispers and murmurings. My mother had been given a choice. The relics she was given would save her life and allow her time with us. In exchange, she would work for Newfaire and the powers that be. It was now certain that agents of the Otherwhere had already extracted information on the dynamo and hydroelectric power. Electric supremacy was no longer ours for the taking. The only way we would survive a second assault was a preemptive strike of magnificent power, a show of tremendous force. The only thing that would do that was found in these ancient relics. So my mother was quested with finding the weapons that would give us that edge. I don't think she really had a choice. I'm driven now to find my sister, learn more about and destroy this spirit known as Maw, who I've now learned is a creature born from famine and starving children, locusts and starvation in corporeal form. When she feeds the hungry, she feeds them empty sustenance and then draws that life force. She gave that to my sister, and that is how she survived because she needed her to bring me, the twins, to unlock something I don't understand. So I've joined Candela Obscura in an effort to uncover many secrets. ASHLY: I don't want to go anymore. (laughter) ASHLY: That was so good! AABRIA: It was so good. ASHLY: What the heck? LIAM: Well, it's all downhill from here. (laughter) ASHLY: Goddamn it! GINA: Can I not go next? (laughter) SAM: I thought maybe my guy could maybe be named Orville. (laughter) NOSHIR: He makes popcorn. ASHLY: Nosh, that was so cool! AABRIA: Perfect. That was so incredible. ASHLY: Oh my god. NOSHIR: I apologize it was so long. AABRIA: Oh. ASHLY: No! AABRIA: Never apologize. Again, we talked about this a little bit before. Give me as much as you want to give. It is for me to establish pace and make sure that spotlight is being moved adequately. If I like something, goddamn it, we're going to stay with it. These cameras will run until I say stop. (laughter) AABRIA: It's three episodes, but they can be as long as they want to be! (laughter) AABRIA: We'll be here for days! That was gorgeous. LIAM: Very stirring, yes. AABRIA: Yeah. That is stunning! ASHLY: That was nice, actually. LIAM: I'm going to give you less. (laughter) AABRIA: Give me nothing. (laughter) AABRIA: Yeah, that's phenomenal. We'll get into it a bit in our one-on-one because I have a lot of of fun juice back in that direction because yeah, there's so many questions around someone that has been in proximity to so much. Most people experience a weird thing in their life that their brain will work hard for maybe an hour to come up with enough of a reason to forget it happened. Then there's 0.1% of the population that goes, "I cannot explain this another way," and that's who Candela comes and finds. Then there is what you went through, which is being raised in proximity to great and horrifying workings of the world and the truth of this place. So to come finally as an adult, so fully, not understanding, but with eyes a little less foggy, less foggy than most is just such a, that's a very fun point of entry. I'm obsessed with Oldfaire, so we're going to have a lot of fun. It feels so fucking weird to be like, cool. I think you should be the Professor. (laughter) AABRIA: Just to get it back to mechanics, but fuck mechanics. NOSHIR: Works for me. AABRIA: Yeah, I think the Professor, yeah, works really well. But there's definitely something I want to play in around conversations around the nature of your study that maybe there's some mechanics from this, like a Slink role that might also be applicable. I want to hear what the rest of the group is thinking, but I think there's some fun mods, too. I am a professor in the way that like Batman is like a foppy businessman, and like what's the version of you that's out in the world? A professor. What are you to yourself in your own heart might be reflected differently in the mechanics, but-- NOSHIR: Yeah. AABRIA: Yeah, that's really cool. (laughter) AABRIA: Cool. Well, why don't you sit fucking tight because (groans) you got to go next. I'm so sorry. GINA: Fuck. ASHLY: Oh my god. AABRIA: It's okay. Zero pressure. Just tell me what you're thinking about a character. ASHLY: A little pressure! I just have one idea. AABRIA: Yeah! ASHLY: That I want to give you power to fuck with my character-- AABRIA: Cool. Oh my god, thank you! ASHLY: Which I might totally regret doing. AABRIA: Probably! ASHLY: But basically. So I pulled Doctor. AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: Because I basically want to do like a Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde thing. (oohing) ASHLY: So I kind of want to do, like-- You know, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or like the Hulk, where basically there's like another entity that's like taking up half of the space up here. So I kind of want to give you the power-- AABRIA: I love you! ASHLY: -- to decide when it comes out or if it comes out. So I don't know exactly how that works mechanically, but like if I have to do checks to see if I can calm myself down or whatever. But basically that I would be struggling between. But I don't know if that gets so complicated. Like do I need a different sheet for when-- Which one's bad? Jekyll or Hyde? I never remember. They both sound scary. ALL: Hyde. LIAM: (regular voice) Hyde. (old man voice) Oh shit! (laughter) AABRIA: (shrieks) GINA: I heard it! AABRIA: Don't leave that in! Cut that out! ASHLY: It was Liam for a second! GINA: I heard it! (laughter) LIAM: That's my Mr. Hyde. (laughter) AABRIA: If you want to play in a world where it is very, like, RNG driven, we can figure out a fun mechanic-- ASHLY: Cool. AABRIA: -- to be like how's it going. ASHLY: Mm. AABRIA: That like the more you fail, the closer you get to collapse into a thing that could be very fun and involving like a bit of a spin-down of, "Okay, this is a trigger moment for you. "Roll to see if you hold onto yourself." But with every time you have to test yourself, you get closer to, like, a statistical likelihood that it will happen. ASHLY: Yeah. I wonder if we could do a thing where like if I fail, I become a monster, then you control. NOSHIR: Whoa. AABRIA: So here's the thing. ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: I love, I love, love, love being a monster, but I also love letting people be a monster. ASHLY: Yeah. AABRIA: So if you want me to be a monster, I'll happily do it. But if you want to experience some of that untethering from normal-- There's something very cool in the fact that this is Critical Role giving us a new world and a new system and a new context and a new idea of what kind of stories we can tell. I think there's a fun space to play here with what the role of a player is and what the role of a GM is. I'm here to facilitate a story, but I'm also here to empower you to tell the kind of story you want to tell. If that is villainous and very PvP driven, I'll sit here and be a fucking referee if you want to go and be a big baddie. We can be that villain together. I can put it in your hands, but we can come up with something that allows you to-- ASHLY: Okay. AABRIA: -- feel empowered by that switch. Just know I love PvP, I'll be rooting for you the whole time. (laughter) AABRIA: Fucking kill them! Aim for Sam! Yes! (laughter continues) ASHLY: So we would come up with stats for my monstie basically. AABRIA: 100%, yeah. So I think I'm going to take it and say it's not going be a playbook, it's going to be a monster stat. ASHLY: Great. AABRIA: Cool? ASHLY: Great. LIAM: I will end you, Burch. (laughter) ASHLY: I'll fucking come for you, Liam. AABRIA: I want the body count that you've got in this world. Goals, a dream. SAM: What did you pull? What's your sheet? ASHLY: I feel like Doctor. SAM: Oh yeah, you said Doctor. AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: As my normal vibe. AABRIA: Mm-hmm. ASHLY: I don't have anywhere near as elaborate of a backstory as Noshir! AABRIA: No, you're good! ASHLY: That's what I would be. The basic idea being that at some point I tried some less than, not ethical, but less than safe, I guess. AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: Medical experimentation-- AABRIA: Nice. ASHLY: -- on myself and it went awry. AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: So I'm still a doctor, and I think playing into that idea is fun, that I heal in some cases and then destroy in others. AABRIA: I love that. SAM: Are you an ear, nose, and throat doctor? ASHLY: Yeah. (laughter) ASHLY: I'm a gynecologist, actually. SAM: Okay. (laughter) AABRIA: My question for you, as you are building this doc, how aware are you of your monstrous counterpart? Do you know when you break bad or is it just like-- ASHLY: Yes. AABRIA: -- "Then I went to sleep "and then I woke up and there's blood. "But whatever, I'm a doctor." ASHLY: I think it would be more interesting for me maybe if it's more Hulk-esque. AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: So that I am aware that I'm going to break bad. AABRIA: Vibes. ASHLY: I'm trying to avoid breaking bad, and it's probably not fun if I don't break bad, so there should be some sort-- AABRIA: Oh, it's going to happen. ASHLY: Yeah, it's going to happen. Great, great. Okay. AABRIA: Here's the thing about making it a mechanical thing is there's always a universe in which the mechanics fail. ASHLY: Right. AABRIA: We'll come up with a good buzzer when I'm like, fuck a die, it happens. ASHLY: Yeah. (laughs) (laughter) ASHLY: Right. Right, right, right. Okay, good. So I think I'm constantly on edge, I'm trying to keep it in check. AABRIA: Beautiful. ASHLY: Yeah. AABRIA: Then I guess this is the thing to think about, you don't have to answer now. God, so many of these questions are like, come up with a really foundational thing, like a pillar of personality in this moment. But just yeah, thinking of what does Candela think about you? ASHLY: Mm. AABRIA: Is it the Hulk in "The Avengers" where they're like, "We understand "sometimes it gets real rough big guy, "but we believe in you." Or is it like, "Either you work with us, "or you are underground." What is the-- ASHLY: What do you think your character would think of it? AABRIA: Ooh! NOSHIR: Well, I think he'd be fascinated and I'd probably look through ancient lore to see if there are stories similar to the lycanthrope and other afflictions that could help answer where your sickness comes from. There might even be artifacts that can help establish some level of control for you. ASHLY: Okay, so you'd be a bit more amenable to having me around. NOSHIR: I mean, I'm going to wheel you around in the Hannibal Lecter-- ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: Oh yeah! Fun, fun. NOSHIR: All the time, all the time. AABRIA: Just give you a little hug suit. It's great. (laughter) GINA: A hug suit. (laughter) AABRIA: Oh, I love that. Sweet. That's super fun, yeah. Don't worry, keep the idea. ASHLY: Cool. AABRIA: It's a great idea. ASHLY: Great. AABRIA: Yeah, we'll come up with custom mechanics for that because that's very fun. ASHLY: Sick. I feel like it would be a thing where it's maybe an anxiety trigger. AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: As opposed to a Hulk where I get angry and then it happens-- AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: -- that it's like if I, pardon me for using Cthulhu things, but if I fail too many sanity checks or something, it happens. AABRIA: I love that. ASHLY: So then it becomes like I'm a cornered animal. AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: So, it's not destruction for destruction's sake, but it's like I feel like I'm under attack and it doesn't matter who's in the way kind of thing. NOSHIR: Self preservation. AABRIA: I would simply proffer considering anxiety, or the Cthulhu problem of it all, of if it is stress incurred by spooky shit, why are you with Candela? ASHLY: Sure, sure, sure. AABRIA: So it's one of those things of, yeah, come up with a good reason. If anxiety and proximity to weirdness is the trigger, then why are you forced to stay with Candela? Or if it's a little more like, I'm here with Candela because we're working together cooperatively and this is of my own volition, then what about those triggers do you think you have a handle on? That becomes the button that I get to press. ASHLY: Got it. NOSHIR: Can I-- AABRIA: Yeah. NOSHIR: Is Candela, by its nature, good? AABRIA: (laughs) What a fun question. ASHLY: (laughs) NOSHIR: You join us and maybe we have a cure for you, but you better dance. AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: Right. AABRIA: That's the thing about secret societies. Now we're going to get into how I feel about secret societies, which is when you make it a secret and that's a part of it, there is that idea that they are filling a need in this world. Weird shit happens, thinnings happen, the Flare is real, and they are handling it. But we're going to try to keep it quiet in order to make sure people don't panic. That also circularly creates a system where there is a portion of the population that is engaging with and in proximity to very weird shit and doesn't know that what they're experiencing is real and valid because there isn't someone going, "Yeah, that is real." NOSHIR: Right. AABRIA: Because they're all keeping it on wraps. So, there's goodness to Candela because they're solving problems and putting their lives on the line to create peace and safety in the world and handle these things that are so big and so crazy. There are problems of philosophy of is it important, because we've got other esoteric organizations with different ideas about everyone should know about all of this all the time. Yeah, if you are several years out of a world war, you're like, no, that makes more wars because now there's a new resource that can and will be weaponized. There's a good reason for all of these organizations to feel the way they feel, and how you want to feel about Candela. Let's talk about that if you have an opinion because I can use that to form how Candela feels to you as you move through these assignments. So, my answer is they're good, and the way they go about it is not bad, and the way they go about it is not bad, but has holes to it. So, lean in as much as you want to lean in. NOSHIR: Mm. Mm-hmm. AABRIA: I'm here to shake pillars. When they asked me to come do this, I was like, how much can I rock the foundation of your book? ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: They didn't-- NOSHIR: Here comes Samson. AABRIA: They still let me be here. So, let's go. (laughs) Liam, would you like to go? LIAM: (elderly) All right, so. AABRIA: Oh my god. ASHLY: (laughs) Did you forget for a second? AABRIA: I did! (laughter) AABRIA: I thought he was going to talk normal. ASHLY: Yeah. (laughter) LIAM: I'm going to speak in broad terms, I don't have-- AABRIA: Yeah, for sure. LIAM: -- an intricate story, but I have ideas and Sam and I are going to be a bit of a package, but we're working it out. GINA: Oh boy. ASHLY: Oh, you are? SAM: We're working something out. LIAM: We're working something out. SAM: We don't know what yet. GINA: I'm right in the middle. AABRIA: I'm going to warn you, project a little more than you think you need to, especially when the music's going. It gets a little quiet over here. LIAM: Okay. AABRIA: So. LIAM: So I would like to play with the idea that I've been part of Candela for a very long time. Obviously, the longest in this group. I'm going to play somewhere between 85 and 95, maybe even as old as 100 years old. That might be too old if we're going to be running through caves or some shit. (laughter) SAM: But 85 is fine. (laughter) LIAM: I would like to be in a wheelchair. SAM: All right. LIAM: Okay, so I am tinkering with some version of the Occultist, I believe. AABRIA: Mm-hmm. LIAM: That is because when I was a-- My involvement in Candela is, it's become a bit of a family tradition. When I was a boy, and I need help crafting what this origin event was. AABRIA: Yes. LIAM: But I think that I was traveling with my parents on a sea vessel of some sort, and there was an event. There were many people on this ship. My father, when this event was triggered, shielded me, and the only two survivors on the ship were my father and myself. I was probably 15 or 16 at this, maybe 10. This is what I'm saying, it's a work in progress. (laughter) AABRIA: You were an age. ASHLY: (laughs) LIAM: Yes. No older than 16. Somewhere between 10 and 16. I think the event was triggered by an individual or individuals on the ship. I think that, this is totally different from our real world. There's a lot of corruption in this society. (laughter) I think whatever happened on that ship was explicitly to grind up regular folk for some purpose. was explicitly to grind up regular folk for some purpose. Through a fluke, my father and I survived, but my mother died on that ship. So while it hit everyone, it was personal, So while it hit everyone, it was personal, it was very personal obviously. So it filled my father, and even me at that young age, with drive and purpose to both understand the things that were done that day and seem to have existed here in Faireland, Faireville? Fairetown? SAM: Newfaire. AABRIA: Faireville. LIAM: Faireville. GINA: Faireville! ASHLY: I like Fairetown better. LIAM: And Oldtown as well. GINA: She said Faireville. AABRIA: Yes. GINA: I'm getting a horn. AABRIA: It's Newfaire. GINA: I'm going to get him a horn. AABRIA: Yeah. LIAM: What? AABRIA: Well, the question is, was it Newfaire when you were there or is Oldfaire because you're old as shit. LIAM: It was Newfaire. NOSHIR: God dang. LIAM: Yes. AABRIA: I was just messing with you. SAM: How old is Oldfaire? AABRIA: It's 1,000. LIAM: Like 1,000. SAM: Oh, okay. LIAM: Yes. AABRIA: I'm making a fun little goof. ASHLY: (laughs) LIAM: So our lives became filled with a purpose of dealing with corruption in positions of power that so many respect without question. AABRIA: Mm-hmm. LIAM: Which you can't openly go to war, that's hard to do. AABRIA: Yeah. LIAM: Then also understanding the radiation and all the things that happened. Since I've been part of Candela for so long, once a decade I run into something akin to the story this gentleman shared at the table. It's not every week, but-- AABRIA: Yeah. LIAM: Shit happens here. Anyway, eventually my father passed on Anyway, eventually my father passed on the family business and for a while my brother and I also worked together for a time. Work on that, maybe he was either killed or retired because it was too intense. Then I started my own family and now I travel with, and this is something we're working out, my son or grandson. AABRIA: (gasps) LIAM: I'm not sure. NOSHIR: Holy crap. AABRIA: That's so cute! SAM: Maybe grandson. ASHLY: Yeah! NOSHIR: Depending on how old you're supposed to be. SAM: You're super old. ASHLY: (laughs) NOSHIR: He's 60. SAM: Yeah, if I'm your son, I'm already retirement age. AABRIA: That's so funny. GINA: Yeah. Yeah. AABRIA: Just two fucking old-- LIAM: I can dial it a little. SAM: No, no, don't dial it down. LIAM: I could do 85. ASHLY: I'm in a cage that we're wheeling. So it's like three wheelchairs. AABRIA: There's so much wheeling happening. (laughter) AABRIA: No one's moving under their own power. SAM: Maybe grandson, and then I can be mid-30s or something, right? Is that how the math works? AABRIA: Yeah. GINA: Yeah, that works. That's about right. LIAM: It's possible, it's possible. AABRIA: I have a question for you. LIAM: Yes. AABRIA: This has nothing to do with later knowledge or your time with Candela. When whatever happened on that ship happened, did it work? Whatever great working that was? Was it successful? LIAM: Yes, I think that we were unnoticed and discarded. AABRIA: No, no, no, no, no. LIAM: How do you mean? AABRIA: You survived. LIAM: Yes. AABRIA: Whatever that thing was, the great swallowing of humanity in order for something to occur, did it work? Do you feel like, "Oh, I somehow--" Why'd I set an alarm? "-- I somehow skirted whatever happened, "but whatever happened fucking happened." LIAM: Yes, a ship went down and a door was open. Something along those lines. AABRIA: See? Good to know. LIAM: As a boy, I remember a man or a woman orchestrating it. AABRIA: How serious would you say-- Sorry, we don't have to connect this? (laughter) SAM: A very serious-- AABRIA: Medium serious? (laughter) LIAM: I think Occultist because I've spent years studying and trying to harness those things in a small way and trying to harness those things in a small way in my own right to help fight fire with fire to a degree. AABRIA: What are you worried about coming? LIAM: Say again? AABRIA: What are you worried about coming? The idea of fighting fire with fire. LIAM: Oh. AABRIA: What fire do you feel the need to try to put out? You don't have to answer that now. LIAM: Okay. (laughter) AABRIA: I love it here! ASHLY: Okay. AABRIA: Incredible. Okay, is there anything else interesting you want to share about the world's oldest man? LIAM: My name is Cosmo. AABRIA: Cosmo! GINA: Cosmo! NOSHIR: He's back. ASHLY: He's back. AABRIA: He's back, baby! LIAM: But I think I want to noodle on it more with you alone. AABRIA: Okay! GINA: Cosmo. NOSHIR: Are we allowed to ask each other questions? AABRIA: Hundo p. NOSHIR: But when you say your father shielded you from the event, is that because he has experience with this sort of phenomena, or as a father he simply threw himself in front of you. LIAM: Yes! AABRIA: I will say, if anyone asks a question you don't want to answer to, you could just say no. LIAM: I honestly think that needs to be noodled out a bit. I'm not sure, but definitely the latter where it was of a father's instinct, which probably led to my mother not making it. NOSHIR: Mm. ASHLY: Aw. AABRIA: Hey, can someone have a mom alive, please? We cannot have a Disney. So a bunch of Disney princesses like, "And then my mother died, "and then I became what I am." LIAM: You're "Beauty and the Beast." AABRIA: Yes! ASHLY: That's right. AABRIA: Surprise, we're playing "Queen by Midnight," motherfuckers. Pick your princess. Anything else you want us to know as you're beginning to solidify? SAM: You said Occultist? ASHLY: Yeah. LIAM: Yes, yes. GINA: Which one? Oh, wait. That was-- LIAM: That's a Weird. One of the two Weirds. ASHLY: Do you want to be a Medium, then? SAM: Oh. LIAM: I might want to-- ASHLY: As the grandson. AABRIA: Oh, yeah. LIAM: Homebrew a little bit as well. SAM: I don't know if I want to follow in this... (laughter) AABRIA: There's no way to print out a second sheet, so you'll have to pick something. SAM: No, no, yeah, I think-- AABRIA: No, feel free. SAM: What are you? AABRIA: Again, these roles are suggestions and we can Frankenstein some stuff together. NOSHIR: Well, yeah, you're lugging around that wheelchair all the time. SAM: Yeah. (laughter) AABRIA: "I'm the muscle." SAM: Yeah, maybe. LIAM: Made of cast iron. (laughter) NOSHIR: It's like that Conan the Barbarian-- (laughter) AABRIA: Amazing. All right, Gina. ASHLY: Cosmo! GINA: Yes, hello. Okay. Man, I don't know. I've come up with a basic kind of thing and I'm thinking maybe a Magician. My character, I have not figured out a first name yet. AABRIA: Oh, we're not worried about names yet. GINA: Okay. She's about in her mid 40s, sharply dressed. I mean, gorgeous, very luxurious and she's the owner of the Cat's Eye Casino. Now, this casino is, I mean, bright lights, gorgeous. However, there is also a membership club at the casino. There's rumors about things that go on behind the velvet curtains. Beautiful women, rich elites that have memberships. ASHLY: Ooh. SAM: Oh, hello. ASHLY: (mimics Sam) Hello. GINA: The only way that you can join this club is if you are referred by at least two other members. She stands at 5'7", very lavish. She comes from money, obviously, she's an owner of a casino. However, her origins were, she came from a land many seas away, from a small fishing village. It was a very modest life. Her father was a fisherman, and she would help out around the house whenever she can, sometimes go out to the docks and wait for her father to return from work. She remembered hearing stories from neighbors, gossip from neighbors, about how, "My son went to the new world "and made something out of himself. "My uncle went, my daughter went," and there was always rumors and talks about this new world. One day, her parents decided to make a plan to sail to this new world, make something out of themselves to give her a future. So the day that they were to set off to sea, she kneels in the sand and she prays to the gods of the sea she kneels in the sand and she prays to the gods of the sea that this village worships. This is the religion that she was raised on. She prayed for bountiful wealth in the new world and safe passage, something to make this trip worth it, to find the riches that her family has always wanted. One night at sea-- Is this starting to sound familiar? (laughs) AABRIA: There were some very poignant-- GINA: Yeah. AABRIA: As you were talking, we were like-- ASHLY and AABRIA: Ooh. (laughter) AABRIA: It's not an, "Oh." I was like, "Oh, thank you." Everyone's scattered. It's like-- LIAM: Overlap. (laughter) AABRIA: Great, the Glass Sea. Good, the ocean's fucked. Continue. (laughter) GINA: One night at sea, of course, there is always a storm. It's a treacherous storm. Her father was the captain of this small fishing boat. The waves were ripping this boat apart. She was 10 years old. She was a small girl. She remembers this huge wave coming, just crashing into the boat, sending both her parents overboard. She clawed her way to the side of the boat and looked into the water, screaming for her parents. The last thing she saw was her father being pulled into the inky-black waters before another wave crashed into the boat, knocked her over. She fell to the ground, knocked her head, unconscious. She somehow still made it to Newfaire, but she was alone. She somehow still made it to Newfaire, but she was alone. She was just this child alone that washed ashore. She became a street urchin, stealing when she can. She was a little street urchin in the Red Lamp. She remembered sitting on the curb and just seeing all these gorgeous women walking by with fur coats and holding on to the elbows with fur coats and holding on to the elbows of rich, elite men. She remembers smelling their perfume when they walked by. She wanted to be like them so bad. Every night in her little makeshift tent, she would practice her speech to learn how to speak more ladylike, to become a more dainty woman. She saw how these women worked. She learned how to talk her way in or out of anything. She was a charmer. She became so good at it. I haven't figured out how yet. But eventually she got so good at it she rubbed elbows with the right people and built her way into owning her own casino, and basically a brothel behind the velvet ropes. AABRIA: That was what the red light was for. GINA: Yeah. (laughter) GINA: The girls that she works with, she protects them fiercely. You do not disrespect my girls. There are girls that she would take in from the streets. There are girls that she knew when they were all living out in the streets, she took very good care of them. ASHLY: Has everyone got dead parents? GINA: Yeah, right? (laughs) ASHLY: No goofs, no parents. AABRIA: No goofs, no parents. Someone's got to have a mom. It's you or you. Please have a fucking mother. LIAM: My father died of natural causes. (laughter) NOSHIR: Moms are Ashly's trigger. (laughter) AABRIA: Now, okay. NOSHIR: Oh god. ASHLY: Fuck! AABRIA: Well, at this rate, you'll never turn. Not a mother to be fucking seen. NOSHIR: Safe. (laughter) LIAM: I will throw in, a ship is not necessary for-- AABRIA: No. I love it. LIAM: So if you want it-- AABRIA: Let me be very clear. LIAM: It helps you, great. If you don't want it-- AABRIA: You said that, I went, "We're going to be okay." LIAM: Excellent. Got it. (laughter) AABRIA: The ocean is interesting now, let's go. That's very cool, fuck yeah. GINA: Got it. AABRIA: Sam. SAM: I think I'm a merman. (laughter) AABRIA: Okay, well-- (laughter) AABRIA: -- going to go big, vociferous-- Absolutely not, try again. (laughter) SAM: I don't really know. I'm coming to this with the most blank slate. I'll just throw out some ideas, and we can see what we roll with. I see that we have no muscle in the group, so that's a thing. AABRIA: Yep, 'tis. SAM: So something that popped into my head was maybe someone who is grappling with a lot of anger issues, like maybe good old Cosmo's grandson over here like maybe good old Cosmo's grandson over here was a bit of a shit and hurt some people, maybe. was a bit of a shit and hurt some people, maybe. Maybe with some shady dealings and was thrown in the clink, thrown in the slammer for a little while. Possibly because of some strings that the old man pulled, they released me early to under his supervision if I would help and join him in his Candela work or whatever. AABRIA: Are you giving me my Suicide Squad? SAM: I don't know, is that what this is? AABRIA: Thank you, sir. It's good. SAM: Yeah, sure. So part of the condition of my release was I had to take care of him and make sure that he's okay. So maybe I resented that at first or still do. But I also have all this misplaced anger and rage and I like to hit things. so this gives me an outlet to do that. Also, occurred to me that maybe in one of our first, I don't know, are they called "missions"? (laughter) AABRIA: Assignments. SAM: Assignments. Maybe I thought it was all a crock of shit and I didn't know what this guy was all about and then I get <i>attacked</i> by something and it fucks me up. and then I get <i>attacked</i> by something and it fucks me up. Maybe I have a big scar, who knows? AABRIA: Is it like a nasty scar or like a hot scar? SAM: Hot scar. (laughter) GINA: So right over the eye. NOSHIR: No hesitation. ASHLY: So immediate. I know, so immediate. AABRIA: It's the only note I'm going to write. GINA: It's always right over the eye, that's the hot scar. AABRIA: Yeah, of course. NOSHIR: Don't give him a merman instead of a hot scar. AABRIA: It goes through the eyebrow like a little bit. GINA: Oh, yeah. AABRIA: Ah! Thank you. SAM: Just right there? AABRIA: I'm just drawing that now, and not taking a note. LIAM: This may be Sam's first character who's over four feet tall and hot. (laughter) AABRIA: Excuse me, this is Loquatius erasure and I will not have it. That's my husband. (laughter) SAM: So now maybe there's an added element of revenge. Want to figure out who the fuck that was that fucked me up and get him back or get them back. But I think what Liam and I were talking about a little bit was, I don't think ours is a great relationship. ASHLY: Is it rude to try to pitch you something? SAM: No, pitch, pitch. I really came in here with a big question mark. ASHLY: Okay, great. SAM: So anything. ASHLY: I wonder if the anger could come from-- If Liam's character has been in this-- AABRIA: His name is Cosmo! ASHLY: I'm sorry, Cosmo. If Cosmo has been in this-- LIAM: I don't care for your acting, but your writing-- (laughter) LIAM: Your writing is sublime. (laughter) (laughter) ASHLY: Can we work this into a bit somehow? AABRIA: I love this. I love it here. (laughter) ASHLY: Just rag on me as a doctor when we start and I'll know what you're saying. But if you have been involved in Candela since time immemorial, since the big bang basically, because of how old you are. LIAM: 50 years. AABRIA: (old voice) All of this used to be orange groves. GINA: Older than Cesus. ASHLY: If you should've gotten out of the game at some point because it's dangerous. You had a family and you had a moment that you could've left and you didn't, and that impacted sonny boy over here, and that's where the anger comes from. SAM: Oh, like my mom's dead? (laughter) GINA: Get your own shtick, okay? AABRIA: I'm done. (laughter) GINA: It's taken. SAM: He was farting around in Candela and it spilled over into his home life and it killed my mom? (laughter) ASHLY: You seem really excited about it, though. AABRIA: Cosmo, is his mom your daughter? LIAM: What? I lost you. AABRIA: Then I say yes. SAM: Oh, yeah, right? AABRIA: I'm going to write yeah. SAM: Wouldn't that make sense? If I'm his grandson, that would make-- AABRIA: No, it could be married in. SAM: Oh, yes. AABRIA: It could have been son. ASHLY: Could be papa. SAM: Father, yes. Papa. LIAM: Maybe so, but you could also flip it. You could do a version where I was getting ready to retire because I'm <i>so old.</i> (laughter) AABRIA: So old! LIAM: You were in the slammer, and the provision of you being released was me taking you under my wing and then I have to keep going. AABRIA: I love a Candela that's like, "Hey, dude, your bones are baby powder--" (laughter) AABRIA: " -- but we need you, we need you!" (laughter) AABRIA: "We even have a whole emeritus system "where you could be a lightkeeper. "Nah, we need you in the streets "and take your absolutely awful grandson with you." (laughter) NOSHIR: We get the oxygen tank, rip up your DNR. AABRIA: "Hey, we got this chair, "it's so fucking heavy, "and we're going to wheel your ass into Oldfaire." (laughter) NOSHIR: I'm curious. Candela, because it's just how it works, are you a believer? SAM: That's a great question. I think maybe at the beginning of this I was not, but I've become. Seems like he knows more than me about this stuff and I'm just along for the ride? AABRIA: I love a cynic. I think that's a thing we don't-- that isn't built into the DNA of this because everyone begins with that catalyst-- SAM: Mm-hmm. AABRIA: -- and that question. It would be really fun to have someone that's like, "Yes, I've had a literal brush with this, "but I didn't arrive bought in in the same way, "so everything I will interact with "will have that first layer of like, "'This is fucking nonsense.'" SAM: Yeah, yeah, yeah. AABRIA: That feels really nice and a breath of fresh air if that's what you're leaning toward. I love it. LIAM: Especially since the rest of us are thick with creepy-deepy. SAM: Yeah. AABRIA: Yeah, yeah. (laughter) SAM: That does sound cool if-- ASHLY: You have a Jim in "The Office" looking at the camera vibe. AABRIA: Yeah, truly! SAM: You guys are all diehard Candela folks, and I'm like, "I mean, eh--" (laughter) NOSHIR: It's interesting the way psychological torment works, right? It's almost like in believing, that's actually a vulnerability, right? Because it gives them access. AABRIA: Yeah, 100%. NOSHIR: You know? AABRIA: We all watched "The Skeleton Key." NOSHIR: Yeah, whereas a skeptic is almost like an armor of a sort. AABRIA: Truly. NOSHIR: Like a resilience, that's interesting. AABRIA: I love that, I love that. ASHLY: Also, it makes sense that you'd be skeptical of it because your grandpa is 1,000 years old. AABRIA: Yeah, and the only evidence. SAM: I don't know half of what he's saying. It could be made up bullshit. Or it could just be his mind, he's losing his mind. (laughter) NOSHIR: Daughter and Cosmo. AABRIA: I do love this, you're building this fun circle between the two of you of you are doing this because it is the condition on which your grandson can be free and that idea that, "Why do you stay around? "Why do you keep doing it?" Even if the relationship is tense, if there is any relationship to speak of, you're like, "Well, I got to look out for him." So that sense of no one can really leave because you're chasing the other infinitely is really fun, and that's a really fun cycle to have come into conflict. Like, "I'm here because of you." "No, I'm here because of you." SAM: Yeah. AABRIA: It feels very cute. SAM: Yeah. AABRIA: If you're leaning that way. SAM: And I'm a mermaid. AABRIA: And you're a mermaid. (laughter) AABRIA: I'll write it down. Here's the thing, Sam-- GINA: It was him shouting at me from the ocean. SAM: But maybe, just a tiny-- AABRIA: I said no goofs, but I've never backed off a bit. I'm going to say not to you, to the camera, I'm going to turn his ass into a mermaid. (laughter) AABRIA: Episode three. SAM: But maybe just to keep your nautical theme going, I could be a dock worker or something if you need me down by the docks. (laughter) GINA: Can you turn into a reverse mermaid? AABRIA: Yeah, you're a wrong mermaid. ASHLY: Fish top? SAM: Oh, fish top? AABRIA: Dick out, fish top. ASHLY: I was thinking like a fucked up mermaid where it's half Sam, but just tiny little fish fins at the bottom. GINA: Aww! SAM: What about, has there ever been a middle mermaid? (laughter) AABRIA: A mid maid. SAM: So human head, human legs but just here is fish. AABRIA: Yeah, when you do crunches, roe comes out. GINA: Ew! (laughter) ASHLY: That's good meat too. NOSHIR: Interesting. AABRIA: Yeah, you got that Toro tummy baby. ASHLY: Yeah. Toro tummy. Yeah. LIAM: What, mechanically did you pull there? SAM: Well, I pulled Soldier, but I don't know. AABRIA: How do you feel about Criminal and we can sprinkle in some-- SAM: Criminal with some strength, yeah. Yeah that seems better actually. NOSHIR: Bruiser. AABRIA: Love that. SAM: Where's Criminal, Slink, Detective? Oh, maybe under Detective. Yeah. LIAM: (drawn out) Smooth criminal. (laughter) AABRIA: He said it so slow. SAM: Yeah, because-- AABRIA: It's crazy. ASHLY: Yeah, that had 20 o's in it. (laughter) SAM: -- in the book, the Slink seems like just a shyster underworldy guy, but not necessarily muscly. AABRIA: Right, I mean, for what it's worth-- SAM: A little muscle. AABRIA: -- we do have a little bit of muscle when the doctor goes berserk. SAM: Oh, that's right. ASHLY: That's not necessarily in your benefit. SAM: That's true. AABRIA: Yeah, that's fair, but I love the idea of Criminal and we can-- I mean, how do you feel about either taking Criminal for some of that, or if you want to re-skin Explorer? I think Explorer is a really fun thing of someone who-- What's the nature of your physical interactions with the world? Is it, "I do what I want?" Or is it like, "If I have a sense of lawfulness?" Are you chaotic violent, or lawful violent? Because I think that's the difference between the vibe of Soldier versus Explorer. LIAM: Are you threatening the busboy or using it only in appropriate situations? AABRIA: Yeah, because I think you can make a violent Soldier if you're like, "I have a moral code inside my head, "and in the presence of a violation of that, "I'm going to do what needs to be done." SAM: I feel like it's... I felt this nihilistic sort of thing? AABRIA: Yeah! SAM: Like sort of nothing matters a little bit. AABRIA: Sweet. SAM: So maybe that's more unlawful? GINA: You could have been a security guard at my brothel and then-- SAM: Or frequent your brothel. GINA: Or that. AABRIA: I don't think you could get in, you seem kind of nasty. SAM: Yeah, I do. AABRIA: And poor. SAM: Yeah. (laughter) SAM: So yeah, maybe I could have been security for you for a while and took something too far and killed a guy. NOSHIR: I can certainly see targeting patrons of her brothel. ASHLY: Yes. AABRIA: Oh my god, like a little extortion racket on the inside. Because I think there's something very interesting. We have talked a little bit more, just so you know, I have a little extra context. If the brothel is not widely known, then your clientele are people who are like, "I know you and you know me." GINA: Very elite. AABRIA: "And if we ever run into each other in the daytime, "we've never fucking met." There's very fun room for, "Great, "that seems like an easily exploitable resource." I will be walking through Regent Park and just be like, "Oh, hey, good to see you again, "unless you slide me five," whatever monies are. (laughter) SAM: Oh yeah, are there dollars? GINA: Yeah, what are our monies? AABRIA: Help, help! Rowan, Spenser, what's the money? Figure it out. SAM: (laughs) AABRIA: But yeah, if you want to be related, that's a good way to go about it. Don't worry so much about the... You know what? Grab Soldier and... SAM: I'm going to have three of them? AABRIA: Yeah. (laughter) AABRIA: And Explorer and we're going to Franken-build you something that feels like what you want. LIAM: Franken-build. SAM: Okay. AABRIA: Then I think it'll just be a separate conversation about what the Illumination Keys mean then, because that's sort of the-- At the bottom of your page you'll see three things that tell you, you're going to want to try to check them off by the end of every session. ASHLY: Oh! AABRIA: They're sort of north stars for how your character moves through the world. LIAM: Mine says "Act Bizarre." (laughter) AABRIA: I think you do it just by being fucking alive at your age. (laughter) AABRIA: In defiance of Cesus, you still move. So we can build something, if that seems very stressful-- SAM: No, no, I mean it already, Soldier, the Illumination Keys are, "Use Violence, "Protect Someone, Act Tactically." That's already pretty good. AABRIA: Yeah, then fucking do that and we'll just re-skin it. SAM: Cool. AABRIA: Delightful. Anything else you want us to know about your character as we actually sit and start? ASHLY: His name is Cosmo Jr. SAM: Cosmo III. (laughter) AABRIA: Oh, CJ. Little CJ. Hold on, that would be cute. LIAM: I like the anger thing because I feel like I'm obviously all up in here, right? So I don't even know how to interface with it, yeah. AABRIA: Bro, if you balled your fist, you'll break all the bones in your hand. I'm sorry, why am I being mean to your character? LIAM: Try me. AABRIA: Fuck around and find out. (laughter) LIAM: Fuck around. (laughter) AABRIA: My name is Fuck Around, and my grandson, Find Out. (laughter) AABRIA: We'll be here with some apple sauce in a minute. (laughter) AABRIA: This is great. ASHLY: Can you work that in, please? AABRIA: You have to, you have to. GINA: Please fall asleep randomly. LIAM: I won't do it that extremely. (laughter) AABRIA: You kind of got to at some point. Just a pivotal moment of you giving-- LIAM: You're going to give the longest, most important monologue and then in the side you'll just hear (snores). (laughter) SAM: Grandpa, wake up! (laughter) AABRIA: That's so good. I want to change in the lights, but I don't want to wake him up. LIAM: <i>J'Accuse</i>! (laughter) AABRIA: Perfect. ASHLY: You think you're in an Agatha Christie novel. AABRIA: Oh my god, that's great. Amazing, amazing. Okay, with that, let's go through, I'm going to have everyone go-- We're going to start with Sam, reverse order. And just quickly run down the line and just out loud once, what everyone's relationship to you is. SAM: Okay. AABRIA: Who is blank to me, is the question I want you to answer for everyone, starting with Sam. SAM: Hi, I'm Oscar Grimm. Cosmo Grimm is my grandfather and he's my family, but I resent him. ASHLY: She did say quickly. SAM: Oh, sorry. (laughter) AABRIA: Yeah, yeah. (laughter) AABRIA: Hey, thanks so much, bud. (laughter) SAM: Madame Glask, boy, I flip-flopped on this a bunch of times, but she is the most loyal person in my life and I would protect her with my life, let's say that. GINA: Nice. SAM: Dr. Elise Roberts. ASHLY: Elsie. SAM: Elsie-- (laughter) SAM: -- we're close. (laughter) SAM: Well, to be fair-- NOSHIR: This is going to be great. SAM: -- I'm dumb. (laughter) AABRIA: I'm killing your character off. GINA: He is a meat head. SAM: I identify with her, but in ways that maybe I'm not too proud of, but we both have the same fatal flaw and we help each other get through those dark times. AABRIA: Oh, that's nice. SAM: Dr. Rajan Savarimuthu-- NOSHIR: Beautiful. SAM: -- I hate this guy. (laughter) SAM: He's just such a fucking pompous wind bear. LIAM: Is he actually the enemy? SAM: Yeah, sure. AABRIA: Yeah, let's get an enemy on the board. ASHLY: Yeah! AABRIA: You're like, "Were it not for Candela, "I would deck this dude." Feels like a very cool-- SAM: He's a pompous prick. GINA: Wait, do we know why they hate each other? ASHLY: He's the doorman? (laughter) AABRIA: He calls him Mr. Doorman. (laughter) AABRIA: Amazing, Gina, you're up. NOSHIR: I call him Mr. Valet. (laughter) GINA: Let's see, we got, oh yes. God, Oscar Grimm here is-- SAM: You can call me Cary. (laughter) GINA: Oscar is my longtime security guard. He's probably, aside from the girls that work for me, he's probably my longest hired employee. Cosmo Grimm here is a good friend of mine that I've known for years. We have wonderful conversations together and share drinks and talk about the happenings of outside. Dr. Elsie Roberts is the doctor, the in-house doctor that we have for my girls. ASHLY: I would maybe clarify that I'm not in-house. GINA: Oh. ASHLY: I still roam about, but I do attend to you. SAM: Stop by. ASHLY: I stop by. AABRIA: But not in-house. GINA: My telecommuting doctor. (laughter) AABRIA: Telecommuting. We have Zoom in this world now. Fuck you, Rowan. (laughter) LIAM: It's just a mirror. AABRIA: What's the nature of the relationship? That is what she does for you, but how do you feel about her? GINA: You know what, it's almost like... It's just a service and I know that she is not very happy every time she's here. Maybe always has a sour face because this is beneath you. I guess I believe that you wouldn't want me to tell other people that you work here for my girls? ASHLY: Well, I probably see a lot of people from my old life. Well, I guess it depends on when I show up. So yeah, maybe I've bumped into like someone that I used to know at some point and you clocked it, I could see that, and maybe you chose not to pry, so maybe I appreciate that, but-- GINA: Yeah. AABRIA: I want to offer a nugget of positivity, that if your relationship to your girls is as strongly positive and as protective as you say, I think there has to be the, even if you have clocked some internality about how she feels about the work. This is someone that is taking care of your people, and I think there should definitely be some warm feelings about that. You are the one I trust, I could get another doctor, but it's you, and you do a good job and I appreciate you and we work together both within this world and within Candela. So I just want to proffer that there should be some sort of through line of a good working relationship and a good sense between you. GINA: I am grateful for your help. (laughter) AABRIA: Or absolutely fuck what I said and live your life. GINA: I'm almost prying, what was that look that you gave him? Did you know him? You don't have to say anything, but I feel like there would be times that I would try to poke and prod a little bit to get to know you. ASHLY: So you appreciate me, yeah. GINA: I do, for taking care of my girls, yeah. Dr. Rajan, yes? NOSHIR: Rajan, mm-hmm. GINA: Rajan. AABRIA: Please hyper correct us a bunch today so we get it locked in. NOSHIR: You got it. GINA: Rajan, okay. Dr. Rajan. I feel like our relationship has always been somewhat transactional. You come to my office quite often and you see my security guard, doorman, NOSHIR: What do I come for? GINA: Yeah, the connections to-- What does he come for? What do you come for? NOSHIR: I mean I know what I would come for, but I want to make sure I'm not stepping on what you want to do. GINA: Because you have intimacy problems, you're not coming for my girls. We have some sort of business together. I know many powerful people. AABRIA: It is a gambling den too, so-- GINA: Oh, that's right, do you have a gambling problem? AABRIA: It doesn't have to be a problem, it could absolutely just be this is a place to come and it's like a parlor. You're like, "Yeah, I'm here to pretend to gamble "a little bit, but spend time with other rich people "doing silly little games." It doesn't have to be a problem. It can be a problem, love a problem, but there's also people that are just like, "Yeah, I'm just here. "This is like my little home poker game, "just happens to be in the Red Light district." SAM: You guys did level one at UCP together and-- AABRIA: Fuck you. (laughter) SAM: Just became friends afterwards. AABRIA: I know no one from my 101 class. They are dead to me now. NOSHIR: Yeah, I think for Rajan, at least, I roll in high circles and knowing what people don't want you to know is power. You have that in spades, so I wouldn't be surprised if on numerous occasions I have solicited you and your girls to get leverage, right. I have solicited you and your girls to get leverage, right. SAM: Ah. (laughter) AABRIA: That's a fun question. Do you sell information on your clientele? GINA: That's the thing, I'm trying to figure out what do I get out of this from you? SAM: Money? GINA: I have the money already and discretion. SAM: <i>But he has so much money</i>. (laughter) AABRIA: He's got hella cash. ASHLY: He's loaded. AABRIA: However, that raises a very fair point. If you are known to be porous with your information, that's an interesting lever to push on. Is he the exception for some reason? If it's yes, no is also a fine answer and a thing we can talk about in the one-on-ones. SAM: Also, weren't you saying before, or you guys were talking about before how you do have, you're financially fine, but you're still not respected, I guess? So maybe he can get you entree to a different echelon of respect. AABRIA: Take you to the Met Gala. GINA: I feel that she does not care about the respect of the upper echelon like that. She came from the streets, so she does not care about image and stuff like that. She made her money and she sits in it happily, and she's seen what the upper echelon are like in her brothel. AABRIA: Yeah. GINA: She doesn't want to be, she doesn't care, she doesn't want to be involved in that. NOSHIR: What if I made the offer and you turned me down? There is honor among this particular thief, which aggravates me to no end, but interesting. which aggravates me to no end, but interesting. A woman of your station who can't be bought. AABRIA: That's fun. LIAM: You could also, don't have to, but stop the story with you already having leverage on you somehow where you are under her thumb for some reason. NOSHIR: Yeah, yeah. SAM: Oh yeah, she knows your secret or something. She's the only one who does. (laughter) SAM: Do you know the secret? You know the secret. GINA: I don't know, do I know that they were dating? ASHLY: I don't know. GINA: I know someone who likes you. (laughter) AABRIA: I mean, I don't hate a world in which, it's not on our little list, but a good way to say, "I don't know how I feel about you," is to be like, "You are a puzzle to me." It's sort of devoid of a value judgment, but I don't understand you yet and I'm trying to figure you out. Can you be bought, can you be cajoled, can you be bribed? That's an acceptable relationship to be like, "Hey, all professional courtesy. "I see you, you see me, we are good, "but I am spending active bandwidth "trying to figure you out and what you're--" because you're both manipulators at your heart. So it feels fun that you're like, "I haven't figured you out yet, "and the more I try to figure out, "I realize I am fascinated by you" NOSHIR: We're dancing. AABRIA: Yeah, you're dancing. NOSHIR: That's cool. AABRIA: If you want. GINA: Dance partner. NOSHIR: That's definitely fun. AABRIA: Oh, I love that. A little two-step Liam. LIAM: I had some ideas while everyone was talking. So obviously Oscar's family, which is complicated. I think that Madame Glask is my confidant in a way that no one else is. I'm more open and honest with her than I am with other people. I wonder if Oscar is working at your place staying at your place? SAM: Oh yeah, that's fine. GINA: Yeah, yeah. SAM: You're my boss. GINA: I have plenty of room, yes. LIAM: That was a favor to me. Then bring you in muscles, since I'm so feeble. SAM: I sleep under one of the beds that the ladies use. AABRIA: (springs squeaking) SAM: It's not a very good-- ASHLY: That was a really good sound effect. AABRIA: Thanks! I'm a voice actor now, I've been in one video game. ASHLY: (laughs) NOSHIR: Yeah, congrats, by the way. ASHLY: Okay. What video game? GINA: Oh yeah, that's right! AABRIA: Starfield. ASHLY: Yes! AABRIA: Where I sound exactly like myself in three different cities. GINA: I saw that tweet, and-- ASHLY: Oh my god! GINA: -- I need to go find you. ASHLY: Congrats! AABRIA: It's just me talking shit in techno babble. Anyway. NOSHIR: That's awesome. ASHLY: That's amazing! AABRIA: Thanks. It's just nice-- GINA: So cool. AABRIA: -- that I get to be like you a little bit. (laughter) AABRIA: You talk. Shut up! Let me have this! LIAM: I thought of a dynamic for you two that helps with Oscar-- AABRIA: Ooh! NOSHIR: Mm. LIAM: -- and his animosity. Which is if I-- so I think that Cosmo was lower class as a child, worked his way to middle class, and he's like an eccentric kook now who's wrapped up in mysticism and whatnot. But he's intellectual, and maybe he sees the two of you after a few years of working as the children he doesn't have, that are more like him in ways, which is difficult when his actual grandson is a rage monkey. (laughter) SAM: Blow it out your ass, old man! LIAM: He's sensitive to that, so it's never explicit. But he's very fond of both, and we're colleagues, but very fond of you both and proud of all that you've accomplished. He has to temper it to a degree, so it's not helpful to his actual family. But, of course he picks up on it anyway. NOSHIR: Poor Oscar, that must be so hard for you. ASHLY: (laughs) SAM: Didn't even notice it, rich guy. (laughter) AABRIA: I'm so happy. They have to be here. They need to be able to yell at each other like this. (laughter) AABRIA: Good. (laughs) NOSHIR: Maximum throwing distance. AABRIA: Delightful. LIAM: That's it, good. AABRIA: Good. ASHLY: For me-- AABRIA: Wait, did we get with Dr. Roberts? LIAM: Same. Same. ASHLY: Same. AABRIA: Got it. Got it. ASHLY: Same, same. AABRIA: Cool, cool, cool. LIAM: These are my children. AABRIA: Got it. ASHLY: So Oscar and I have this simpatico on our rage monsters within us. So probably I would not-- SAM: Mine's metaphorical. ASHLY: Yours is metaphorical, mine is literal. (laughs) But I probably would not have lowered myself to connect But I probably would not have lowered myself to connect with you outside of that. SAM: Mm-hmm. ASHLY: Maybe you know that, maybe you don't. SAM: Doesn't matter to me. ASHLY: Okay, great. GINA: He sleeps under a brothel bed. I mean. ASHLY: (laughs) In active use, in active use. GINA: I don't know how low he can possibly get. AABRIA: That's the best part. SAM: That's my white noise machine. GINA: The springs. AABRIA: It's like being rocked to sleep. (laughter) GINA: He wakes up with spring marks on his head. (laughter) SAM: There's a scar. ASHLY: But we have an unlikely friendship. SAM: We do. Yeah, you're all right. ASHLY: (laughs) SAM: You're all right, Doc. ASHLY: You're the only person I let call me Doc. (laughter) AABRIA: Oh, that's cute. ASHLY: I am a begrudging employee of yours, basically. So I think I take my job very seriously, I don't skimp on the care that I give your girls. I resent you, I think, because you are technically a higher station than me now and I feel like I've had to lower myself to being in your employ. So, there's resentment there, I think. I think that for Cosmo, I thought I joined this circle in particular for your expertise and your knowledge and your breadth of experience in Candela because of what's going on. SAM: You got to talk louder when you're talking, I can't hear you. (laughter) ASHLY: Because of what's going on with me. And so, yeah, I feel a respect for you, maybe some mentory vibes. SAM: Ooh! LIAM: We all in this circle know about-- ASHLY: I was going to ask that actually. If we want to have me being a monster-- Obviously you know, because of our relationship. AABRIA: Yep. ASHLY: But I wonder if-- AABRIA: Bar it from whoever you want to bar it from. Yeah. ASHLY: So I feel like maybe you two know, and maybe you two don't. AABRIA: Love that. NOSHIR: Interesting. ASHLY: Maybe you knew something was going on with me. NOSHIR: Yeah. ASHLY: But you never figured out exactly what it was. NOSHIR: Right. Right, right. AABRIA: I mean, it makes sense if you were like, I've been prying on an ex and I watched a noticeable drop in station and haven't figured out what happened on a social level that caused this. That there's just the tidy blank of I know something is there because something happened because there's something missing. It should've been obvious. GINA: The shock of I've had a monster care for my girls, who I keep so near and dear to me, this whole time. Since I don't know yet, that would be quite distressing. ASHLY: Mm-hmm. GINA: Mm-hmm. ASHLY: So yeah, I think you guys would know. LIAM: Who knows? We know? ASHLY: You know. LIAM: We know. ASHLY: And Oscar. GINA: The family. ASHLY: I almost called you Osmo, Oscar. (laughs) AABRIA and GINA: (laugh) ASHLY: Oscar and Cosmo. SAM: Whatever. ASHLY: The Grimm boys know, and that's it. GINA: Grimm boys. Boys Grimm. ASHLY: So as she is your confidant, maybe I treat you as mine. AABRIA: Love that. NOSHIR: Interesting. ASHLY: And you're my ex-lover. AABRIA: (laughs) ASHLY: I'm trying to decide-- NOSHIR: I'm not clingy, I'm cool. ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: I'm cool, I just spent hella resources on trying to figure out what your fucking deal is. NOSHIR: Bought a new suit just for this occasion, but that's fine. ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: In this world, he's fine. ASHLY: Well, I'm wondering if it should be ice cold or if we have unfinished or unresolved feelings. Or if it should be like: Nah, it's done. What is your instinct? NOSHIR: On my behalf, I definitely feel I have unresolved feelings for you. ASHLY: Okay. NOSHIR: But of course, I don't know how you want to respond to that. AABRIA: I can't hear. ASHLY: I just hear squeaks from over there. AABRIA: I'm audience member number one. ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: I want this! ASHLY: Yeah, I think it's the same. Because we had a big, explosive fight and then that was the last of it. So, yeah. AABRIA: What did you guys fight about? SAM: Did you co-own a dog and the dog went with one of you? AABRIA and GINA: (laugh) NOSHIR: Who fucking cares about a dog? AABRIA: The dog is someone's catalyst. NOSHIR: I'll buy you a dog, okay? AABRIA: Goddamn! NOSHIR: I'll buy you three dogs. SAM: Oh, I hate this guy. ASHLY: He hates the dog. AABRIA: Must hate dogs. (laughter) LIAM: Ooh, will they, won't they? (laughter) LIAM: I'll be right back. (laughter) GINA: Oh my god. AABRIA: Bring us home. NOSHIR: So, Elsie, my first love. I think I've tried to look out for her the way I didn't look out for Aadika. AABRIA: Oh, yes. NOSHIR: But I overreached-- AABRIA: Great. NOSHIR: -- and imposed because I need to control things when I shouldn't have. That's what pushed us away. AABRIA: Beautiful. Save the ones you can. NOSHIR: I don't know what's wrong with her, but I know that she's been getting in trouble. So, headcanon, and you please kibosh this at any time. The first time she does whatever she does, and she gets caught, I'm the reason she makes bail. AABRIA: Love it. NOSHIR: You know what I mean? I never talk about it, never bring it up. AABRIA: Got it. NOSHIR: But suddenly she's free to go. I'm always trying to look out for her, but I'm lurking. AABRIA: Yeah, I love that. ASHLY: (laughs) AABRIA: Again, you're giving Gaslamp Mr. Darcy and I love it. (laughter) GINA: Wait, is that why he's always at my place? Because he knows she's-- Wait, no, he doesn't know that you work here yet. AABRIA: He'll find out. NOSHIR: Well, I wanted to throw that out, too. You know what? I'm going to hold that. AABRIA: Yeah. So give me broad strokes-- NOSHIR: Great. AABRIA: -- what everyone is. NOSHIR: Yep. AABRIA: Then we're going to do our circle stuff really quickly and then we're going into one-on-ones where I give you a little grilling. SAM: ♪ The light, the heat in your eyes ♪ (laughter) ASHLY: ♪ Oh, my darling love ♪ AABRIA: All right. Next up, Cosmo. That was great, I don't know what you said and I'm in the zone, I won't ask. (laughter) NOSHIR: For Cosmo, mentor. I look up to him. AABRIA: Yeah. NOSHIR: But there's also a lot I need to know. AABRIA: Yep. NOSHIR: So, I will gladly buy into the Padawan role if it gets me closer. AABRIA: Love that. SAM: Cool, cool. NOSHIR: I think I originally approached Madame Glask because I thought she would be willing to help me get leverage on shady folks. Surprised to find that you have principles that you don't yield on. GINA: I'm not impressed by your riches. NOSHIR: Which-- SAM: That makes two of us. (laughter) GINA: Why are you doing that? (laughter) NOSHIR: There's a begrudging respect there. AABRIA: Yeah. NOSHIR: Though I also-- LIAM: I know now why you cry. GINA and ASHLY: (laugh) NOSHIR: Like it or not, I judge her for her profession. AABRIA: Of course. NOSHIR: Manual labor over here-- SAM: (gawks) AABRIA: I've never been happier. I can't tell if I like the exes or whatever the fuck this is more, but it's got the same sexual tension. GINA and ASHLY: (continue laughing) NOSHIR: I never worry about Oscar-- AABRIA: Oh yeah. NOSHIR: -- until recently. AABRIA: Yeah. ASHLY: Oh. NOSHIR: And now you have my full attention. SAM: Ooh! GINA: Oh! AABRIA: Just so you know, you were talking earlier, I was like, "Sam, whatever it takes, "you've got to get in there and make this worse. "Get in there!" Didn't have to say it, but I will. NOSHIR: But I'll never play that card, right? I'm never going to let him know how much it bothers me. SAM: Sure. AABRIA: Yeah. Incredible. ASHLY: Spicy. AABRIA: This is spicy. It's so fucking good. Let's pivot from that, let's get into our circle. Last thing I want to do, other than saying thank you, this has been so wonderful, I have so much stuff to dig into and we'll be following up with all y'all both individually and in our big group chat with confirmation and asking where people are landing and locking in character and mechanics. I want to see if we can spend five minutes and get our circle name. LIAM: I got a bunch on a list. GINA: Yes. AABRIA: You made a list! LIAM: I'm going to say some of these out. I've said most of them already, but here we go. It's like 10 of them. Circle of Tide & Torrent. AABRIA: Ooh. GINA: I like it, I like it. LIAM: Circle of Tooth & Toil. SAM: No. LIAM: They're all alliterative. Great, cancel. GINA: Dentists. LIAM: Circle of Toll & Tide. GINA: Ooh. LIAM: Circle of Tide & Bone. I still like that one even though it's similar to an LVM. SAM: That one's great. ASHLY: I love that one. LIAM: Great. I'll say the S ones, and then we'll pick Tide & Bone. (laughter) LIAM: Circle of Sea & Sorrow. GINA: Oh. LIAM: Circle of Sea & Sojourn. Tide & Bone it is. GINA: Tide & Bone it is. SAM: Sea & Sorrow is pretty good. AABRIA: Sea & Sorrow is very good. SAM: We can be the C+C Music Factory. LIAM: (laughs) AABRIA: ♪ It's a good vibrat-- ♪ Is that-- (laughter) NOSHIR: I'd be good with either of those. ASHLY: Tide & Bone has consonants that feel good when you say them though, you know? (murmured agreement) LIAM: Yeah, it's satisfying. ASHLY: Satisfying. GINA: Tide & Toil is really nice, too. AABRIA: So say we all? SAM: For now. AABRIA: Okay. GINA: Tide & Bone, yeah. AABRIA: Lock it in. SAM: Yeah. AABRIA: The Circle of Tide & Bone has been created. Can you write it down? ASHLY: I don't have the paper anymore. AABRIA: It's right there. ASHLY: Thank you. Can I steal the pencil? SAM: (mock Australian accent) Oh no! ASHLY and GINA: Oh no! (laughter) ASHLY: (bad Australian accent) The Circle of Tide & Bone. (laughter) AABRIA: Oh no! (laughter) AABRIA: Beautiful. ASHLY: Did I mention that I have a horrifying Australian accent for my character? AABRIA: I love it! ASHLY: (bad Australian accent) Oh no, I'm a monster! AABRIA: Just be going, "Please." ASHLY: I'm really bad at it, too. LIAM: Oh, you saved it for the end. (laughter) AABRIA: No, please, you can be banilla dicks, you have to stop. (laughter) AABRIA: Well, that's it. Everything else will be reaching out and talking and bringing things from the realm of nebulous could-bes and bringing things from the realm of nebulous could-bes to what will be. Is there anything else you want to say to this group before we break? LIAM: I think this is going to be a lot of fun. ASHLY: I think so too. LIAM: I can't wait to get freaky with you guys. ASHLY: Yeah. AABRIA: All right, that's it. Can't wait to begin. SAM: Woo! AABRIA: Thank you. SAM: Thanks, Aabria! ASHLY: Thank you! AABRIA: Yeah! Yay! ♪ (light rollicking piano) ♪ ♪ (light rollicking piano) ♪ ♪ (light rollicking piano) ♪ ♪ (light rollicking piano) ♪
Info
Channel: Critical Role
Views: 73,205
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: Audio Drama, Candela Obscura, Occult, Sci-Fantasy, Critical Role, Sci-fi, Fantasy, Performing Arts, Improvisation, Fiction Podcast, Narrative Podcast, Aabria Iyengar, Ashly Burch, Noshir Dalal, Gina Darling, Sam Riegel, Liam O'Brien
Id: DoimgDfA6AM
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 95min 13sec (5713 seconds)
Published: Tue Jan 30 2024
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