[SPEAKER_02]: Previously, on World's Away.
[SPEAKER_07]: What I've just sent you are copies of a hidden slate that I found in Mateo's apartment.
[SPEAKER_07]: There's correspondence between He and Alpha, along with an agreement for Alpha to meet Mateo in person, and the video logs show that the meaning was with Aiden Kuros.
[SPEAKER_05]: Marra, and I think when you turn around, you see Anna Hickwell standing there, kind of having navigated the maze to get to you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Right now, my colleague, Lila Malik, is planning a conciliation session with Evelyn Lee.
[SPEAKER_04]: I came here both to understand you better, understand your planet better, and to request you, encourage, aid in curious, to also sit for a session.
[SPEAKER_07]: While I'm not sure if Ramon Harara is or is not the murderer, I would be willing to bet that Alpha knows exactly who did it.
[SPEAKER_07]: That Aiden Kuros News, who killed Simon.
[SPEAKER_05]: Send this message just before you leave.
[SPEAKER_05]: And make sure you don't waste any time getting to have a team.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't think we're going to have a second chance of this.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Once this treaty is signed, I'm out on a shot.
[SPEAKER_07]: Your strength is information.
[SPEAKER_07]: You're able to connect those dots.
[SPEAKER_07]: And maybe you do walk away.
[SPEAKER_07]: But before you do, there's one thing you should know about, Ramon Herrera.
[SPEAKER_06]: So this is an end.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think so.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Leila goes in for a hug, and then also hugs Mara, because yeah, Mar is gonna pile on.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's gonna be a group hug.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a group hug.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_07]: I was deeply uncomfortable and you see in its face.
[SPEAKER_07]: Captain Alba asked just now for us to talk Robert out of participating in this mission because this is a bad idea and she's absolutely right.
[SPEAKER_07]: This is a bad idea for everyone participating.
[SPEAKER_07]: So I'm going to give you one last chance.
[SPEAKER_07]: You have the opportunity to walk away right now.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think there's a long pause, and then you see Charlie take a step forward, but then they turn to their left and walk into the valiant, and then they're followed by Lieutenant's Davis and Rye and Robert Brooks, the cook.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is it that brings you this moment?
[SPEAKER_02]: What is it that you're hoping to determine?
[SPEAKER_06]: I need to know if material knew that they told us to leave.
[SPEAKER_06]: I need to know.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Welcome to World's Way, an actual play storytelling podcast.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm your Game Master John Ossup, and here with me, we've got Haley Daria.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hello.
[SPEAKER_05]: Warren Wolfanks.
[SPEAKER_04]: Prague Nosturbate.
[SPEAKER_05]: Boop.
[SPEAKER_05]: Michael Brass.
[SPEAKER_04]: Go Gators, National Chance, baby.
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm honestly not prepared for this one.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, but there's also going to be prognostobator.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yep, that's what it was.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Damn.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hit to see it.
[SPEAKER_05]: All right.
[SPEAKER_05]: So last episode, we ended with Lila and the Sierra inside the landscape as Mara and Arna left on their mission to destroy the devices that were on Aventine's Moon.
[SPEAKER_05]: But it's finally going to jump ahead a little bit.
[SPEAKER_05]: And maybe this is to after Lila and the Sierra after you ended your indexing session.
[SPEAKER_05]: So where do we see the two of you after you've left the landscape and are back in the reality of the sentient station?
[SPEAKER_06]: I think maybe it's the next morning and we're having breakfast or like pouring a bowl of space flakes into a bowl.
[SPEAKER_06]: And talking about what we need to accomplish before the strike happens because they're sort of a ticking clock now.
[SPEAKER_05]: And can I ask, you know, the value is no longer here.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so I assume this is happening in the new sort of apartment that you secured for the Minerva project on a sentient station.
[SPEAKER_05]: I can't remember how much of that we described last episode, but do you want to get into a little bit of like what the space you're in looks like at least or what the, you know, where we see the two of you as you're having your breakfast and engaging in this discussion.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I mean, I think we described like a minimally furnished, nice, but very like starter kit stuff stuff that like would come with apartment for four on a sunshine station.
[SPEAKER_06]: So largely sleek, largely metallic frames and some like basic, you know, covers and cushions for furnishing.
[SPEAKER_06]: I counter that's also sleek.
[SPEAKER_06]: And like what is like a tiny kitchen unit?
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you kind of on like those breakfast stools, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_05]: Like the kind of bars.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, I think one of us is probably sitting in a bars stool and the other ones on the other side in a counter.
[SPEAKER_06]: We need to find way to.
[SPEAKER_06]: Nope.
[SPEAKER_06]: Let me try one more time.
[SPEAKER_06]: My daughter.
[SPEAKER_06]: My daughter is.
[SPEAKER_06]: Excellent.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's staying in.
[SPEAKER_06]: We're going to need to find a way to secure agreement from presently and aid in Kiros in order to move past the basic terms of this new agreement and broach the subject of decommissioning all of the lustre destroying devices.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm happy to start working with President Lee to soften the ground.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Lila has been sipping on a cup of not folders because Mara took that with her, but whatever basic curing type coffee there is.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think she nods and says,
[SPEAKER_02]: My initial session with President Lee did not accomplish as much as I would have liked.
[SPEAKER_02]: I agree.
[SPEAKER_02]: We need to find some sort of compromise, but I struggle to think of what it could be.
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't think it will be as impossible as you're suggesting.
[SPEAKER_06]: Frankly, when I look at their stated proposals, neither of these statements is in direct opposition to the other.
[SPEAKER_06]: Not narrowly.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Lila looks at this year with kind of a questioning look in her eye and I think she says,
[SPEAKER_02]: Perhaps not literally in contradiction, but I think we both know that Aventine and Earth approach this conversation very differently.
[SPEAKER_02]: We all endured the same war, but everyone has responded to it differently.
[SPEAKER_06]: I know they're going to see those statements as in direct contradiction to one another.
[SPEAKER_06]: But I think we can guide the conversation to more amicable places.
[SPEAKER_06]: Frankly, President Lee's election was one on the idea of peace.
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't see why committing to not using force against another planet is in contradiction to her beliefs.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we will pull out her slate and pull up the exact wording of what Lee and Ramone wrote on the board and she'll recite
[SPEAKER_02]: When deciding the direction of humanity, the will of the majority must be respected.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what presently wrote.
[SPEAKER_02]: And from Aventine, no planet may use force to limit the independence of another.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think inherent in the Republic statement is that if the will of the majority is not respected, then force may be required.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well not necessarily, there are other means of exerting influence besides force.
[SPEAKER_06]: Restriction of trade, tariffs, sanctions, the support of alternative political candidates or parties or philosophies.
[SPEAKER_06]: There are ways in which a violation of this agreement could be enforced without violence or force.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think the fear is the person who lays down their weapons first is at the mercy of the other.
[SPEAKER_06]: So we get them to all lay down their weapons at the same time.
[SPEAKER_06]: Frankly, the provisions suggested by the delegate from Anshar presents a bigger problem in my vision than the one from Ramon.
[SPEAKER_06]: No planet shall obstruct or restrict free trade between human settlements.
[SPEAKER_06]: If we can't restrict trade and we can't utilize force, we're left with very few options.
[SPEAKER_06]: And even those we're only left with because of Arno's work to soften catalogue player's position.
[SPEAKER_06]: And then I think that there's a moment of like a epiphany as like I'm scrolling through them for a sec.
[SPEAKER_06]: No planet shall obstruct or restrict free trade between human settlements.
[SPEAKER_06]: Each planet can freely decide whether and with whom it associates.
[SPEAKER_06]: No planet may use force.
[SPEAKER_06]: What if the governing body, the enforcing body, wasn't a planet or a planet's government?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think Lilo raises her eyebrows at that and takes another sip of her coffee before she answers.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's worth proposing.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'll approach this object with president Lee.
[SPEAKER_06]: Can you handle it in keros?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think she says, if he'll agree to talk to me, certainly.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, with all that said, and I think now she looks up to make eye contact and says, how are you feeling after yesterday?
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm all right.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think I've got a better idea of what I need to do next.
[SPEAKER_06]: And frankly, I'm glad I'm getting an opportunity to talk presently before I do it.
[SPEAKER_06]: He's indexing always like that.
[SPEAKER_06]: Is that what you did with Arnold?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Leo kind of looks at this year with a little bit of like I didn't want to use this word, but calculating looking her eye, just trying to maybe understand what he's getting at, but I think she says.
[SPEAKER_02]: It depends on what you mean.
[SPEAKER_02]: In some ways, the landscape is different for everyone.
[SPEAKER_02]: But generally, when we index a lot of the set pieces are similar, did you notice how she answered your question without answering your question?
[SPEAKER_06]: She lied lyingly.
[SPEAKER_06]: The liar said lying legally.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you Senator for the opportunity answer this question.
[SPEAKER_06]: The thing is as much as I would like to use any of my moves here to dive deeper.
[SPEAKER_06]: This year is not in any way suspicious.
[SPEAKER_06]: This is what Leela does for a living.
[SPEAKER_06]: He asked her to do it.
[SPEAKER_06]: She did it.
[SPEAKER_06]: It was helpful.
[SPEAKER_06]: Like there's just no suspicion behind this man's eyes.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think so as much as a moe would like to read Lee Laffer feel in this moment this year just sort of nods appreciatively I wonder if like if there's any curiosity about like how much you know we had the flashback at the end of the last episode I guess I'm like I mean this is me like wondering about the merits of this but also about maybe your curiosity in this year is like
[SPEAKER_05]: how much of that did Lila, if anything, did Lila experience.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, it was that even a thing that you were like, this year was thinking about, you know, as a thing that we were experiencing as the players.
[SPEAKER_05]: And if so, like how did that translate?
[SPEAKER_05]: We don't really show that before.
[SPEAKER_06]: The thing is, I think that I was experienced to get it full.
[SPEAKER_06]: Right, and this year hasn't moved past that moment in a healthy way.
[SPEAKER_06]: Like, I have not left Aventine, and I've been running from it.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, the first time I saw the twin sons above Consus.
[SPEAKER_06]: I started whistling the tune.
[SPEAKER_06]: And when we were in the wilds of Faronia, and I had to hunt shoot a barrel to make it explode, like I was whistling that tune.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I don't think that I have grown past that might have been living in that moment, and the subsequent months for years and years.
[SPEAKER_06]: And so I think that Lila actually has anything got to see or got to experience with Nassir, him not running from that for the first time in years.
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know how much Lila saw, right?
[SPEAKER_06]: Like question, that is a question I would have, but I would assume she heard the music and saw the painting because Nassir heard the music and saw the painting and like painted the painting.
[SPEAKER_06]: So I think I'll turn to Lila and say,
[SPEAKER_06]: when you index with someone, how much of what they experience to you experience, and how much do you retain?
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't.
[SPEAKER_02]: I couldn't see every thought that you had.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's nothing like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I saw what you painted, and I felt some of the emotions you felt.
[SPEAKER_02]: But your secrets are still yours.
[SPEAKER_02]: I did hear the hints of a melody though.
[SPEAKER_02]: Was it something special to you?
[SPEAKER_06]: I am going to go get ready and see the president.
[SPEAKER_06]: Good luck with Aiden Gears.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we'll announce and says, I'm not sure which of us needs to look more.
[SPEAKER_06]: Definitely you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like that's the scene.
[SPEAKER_05]: So this point I want to cut to the valiance, and maybe it's a day into your two to three-day journey to the Amantine system.
[SPEAKER_05]: I assume that as part of this, you've been reviewing the documents that Sion left you.
[SPEAKER_05]: They're sort of last act as part of the request that you left with them at the bench.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think that from those files, you've started to develop a sense of what the layout of the facility is, where the most defended or threatening places are, and also where might be good places to plant these devices or kind of counter devices that more as developed.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you also are trying to determine where makes sense to land the valiant.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think kind of like the situation on Tyros, even with the stealth system, it might not be the best idea to show up with the ship right at their front door.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think you see that, well, there might be many places to land the ship in the distance from this facility, since the moon is largely uninhabited.
[SPEAKER_05]: One route might give you more cover than others, and that is going through a now closed lustromine, which is actually one of the facilities that you were tasked with protecting on the planet.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so, as you're reviewing these files, I want to know what is Arna thinking, and also where do we see the two of you on the value?
[SPEAKER_05]: As you're passing the time, this sort of comp before the storm.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think Arno finds it almost amusing, and that his own personal history would be recursive in this way, and that he would need to go back to the place where this all started for him, and that of course, of course he would end up unfamiliar terrain, but that this time there wouldn't be an admiral to bail him out.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that Mara has older self away in the laboratory space.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think she's unsettled.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think the problem is that she doesn't know why.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think, you know, she's been around the block a bit.
[SPEAKER_04]: She understands trepidation.
[SPEAKER_04]: She understands that she can't really fathom what she's about to get herself into, but she's doing it anyway because she believes in it.
[SPEAKER_04]: But the problem is something isn't adding up in her head.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I think she's been in the laboratory thinking through contingency plans, looking through all of the data she's seen thus far, replaying a bunch of conversations in her head.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I don't know if it's helping, but this is the process that she goes through to try to figure out when something feels a miss.
[SPEAKER_05]: So if you're holding away in the lab and kind of contemplating these contingency isn't enough, you're reviewing the plans, reviewing the documents for Sion, at some point does one of you go to see the other end of Sohu.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think Arno looks up from his plans with that really familiar feeling of exhaustion that comes from pouring over the same set of facts over and over again until they start to become meaningless.
[SPEAKER_07]: And he pulls out a slate and sends a message to Dr. Bolova and it's just says lunch question mark.
[SPEAKER_02]: Arno has always had such a way with words.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think interestingly enough, he gets a picture message back, and it's just a picture of two guns, and she says after.
[SPEAKER_04]: Is this a sex thing?
[SPEAKER_07]: He messes back.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm sorry, after what?
[SPEAKER_04]: I think it takes her a second because I think Mara believes she was perfectly clear with sending someone just a picture of guns, obviously.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I think she'll send back.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'd like to do a little target practice first.
[SPEAKER_07]: Do you want company?
[SPEAKER_07]: Question mark?
[SPEAKER_04]: She sends there are two guns in the picture aren't there?
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm sure my original message was perfectly clear.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: She's frustrated.
[SPEAKER_04]: Why there's a back and forth?
[SPEAKER_04]: Can we cut to the next scene, please?
[SPEAKER_05]: Where do we think the target practice happens on the valiant?
[SPEAKER_05]: And is this like virtual in some way?
[SPEAKER_04]: It can be virtual, but I thought we did have a small target area near the gym, but maybe I'm completely inventing that exclusively for the sole purpose of this scene.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you might be completely inventing that for this little purpose of the same, but that's never stopped us before on the show.
[SPEAKER_05]: So, where does Arnold find you?
[SPEAKER_04]: We're exactly where I just described.
[SPEAKER_07]: At the gym, okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think Arnold comes down there, looks around, realizes there's absolutely nothing suitable for a target practice over here, and instead directs you to our beloved space Honda Odyssey, and sets up some targets on that instead.
[SPEAKER_02]: Where is shooting up the Honda Odyssey?
[SPEAKER_02]: Damn.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think this is also like, all in, you know, it's like we had described the gym as being in the vehicle.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Just as for a Honda Odyssey, I think Mara kind of rolls her eyes and is like,
[SPEAKER_04]: I think the wall of the valiant is perfectly suitable to absorb the blows of blunt force air.
[SPEAKER_04]: And she kind of like has a gutter in her hand, and maybe like rotates it a little bit at Arno.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think Arno affliction is a funny, funny, a gutter at me.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're not loaded.
[SPEAKER_07]: Uh-huh.
[SPEAKER_07]: I don't know that.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's true, and you are the professional.
[SPEAKER_02]: Did Mara completely forget everything we covered in our weapons training?
[SPEAKER_04]: That's what she's trying to reconnect with, apparently.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I think she sets up across and, you know, maybe there's she's printed out a few like classic kind of targets, not human-shaped.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, you know, and I was just gonna go along with it.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I think I think Mara goes down range, you know, kind of positions herself, studies her feet, locks her arms, looks down the sight.
[SPEAKER_04]: There's not really a sight on it, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: But it looks down the length of the gun and takes a shot.
[SPEAKER_07]: Just one.
[SPEAKER_04]: She's going to start out with one, but are you just going to sit there and watch her?
[SPEAKER_04]: Are you going to, what are you going to do?
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I think I think I was going to sit there and watch.
[SPEAKER_05]: How do we think this goes the first shot?
[SPEAKER_04]: Poorly.
[SPEAKER_05]: And just how I understand what you're saying about the blunt force here.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, you're actually shooting, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: That's still weird.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like a pressurized air thing.
[SPEAKER_04]: That'll make it some sort of marking in the paper such that you know.
[SPEAKER_05]: You're kind of like practice rounds.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're not, I'm not just like blasting.
[SPEAKER_04]: It was about say loads.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not just shooting guns in the whole of the shit.
[SPEAKER_05]: This is just a repeat of the, uh, whacking off.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think if these are loaded with practice rounds, maybe we hear a zing as the shot fires.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think we see a kind of glancing mark off the side of the, maybe it's like the, that's in the rear view mirror, but I don't think that that's what it is, but maybe in the same place you'd expect to see a rear view mirror, there's the kind of like front side thrusters, you know, like little reaction control units.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think it kind of glances off that a good couple feet from the target.
[SPEAKER_05]: Got a lot on your mind.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think she kind of looks up and is like, no, why ever would you think so?
[SPEAKER_04]: And she like sets up again.
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe again, she looks down on her feet.
[SPEAKER_04]: She scores up her feet.
[SPEAKER_04]: She kind of wiggles her shoulders a little bit.
[SPEAKER_04]: Looks down the gun and takes another shot.
[SPEAKER_05]: What happens with that shot?
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to leave that up to Arno.
[SPEAKER_07]: If you were practicing your trick shots, try to catch somebody behind with ricocheting bullets.
[SPEAKER_07]: I might stick to the basics first and you know, try to hit your target.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think she kind of throws her hands down with like the gun and she like exhales sharply and she does the set up again.
[SPEAKER_04]: But this time I think she'll kind of verbalize it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Play your feet, relax your knees, take aim, exhale, and... Where your hips pointed.
[SPEAKER_04]: What?
[SPEAKER_07]: Where your hips pointed.
[SPEAKER_04]: Towards the target.
[SPEAKER_07]: Like towards, but not at use your hips as the center for your shot and align the gun.
[SPEAKER_07]: Take a deep breath in and as you exhale, hold the trigger.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that's what I've been doing.
[SPEAKER_07]: If you had been doing it, you would have hit your target.
[SPEAKER_04]: She's upset and she's staring at our no, but she'll try to adjust taking into account the coaching that he's giving her and she'll take another shot.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think you hit this time.
[SPEAKER_06]: I have a question.
[SPEAKER_06]: I thought Mara was like, I don't know about like a trained shooter but like had familiarity with shooting weapons.
[SPEAKER_04]: Not like this gun.
[SPEAKER_07]: Understood.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_07]: And I think like the distraction is really more what I was trying to get out over here.
[SPEAKER_07]: Like whether Mara can hit a target or not is sort of irrelevant.
[SPEAKER_07]: I just think like the nerves are getting turned.
[SPEAKER_07]: That's why she's missing.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thanks.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think she looks at where she's hit the target and says there's something I'd be appreciated about this practice.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's easy to know when you fail, easy to know when you succeed, and you can iterate endlessly until you execute flawlessly.
[SPEAKER_04]: Not a lot of variables to fuck up.
[SPEAKER_07]: That's true.
[SPEAKER_07]: In practice, it's a little harder when they're shooting back and you're dodging for cover and uncertain if they stop shooting because you hit them or because they want you to think that you hit them and are waiting for you to get out from undercover so they can get you instead.
[SPEAKER_07]: And it all happened so fast, but practice is good.
[SPEAKER_04]: It feels like we've been out here for so long, and I know that we've learned so much, but so many things just still seen contradictory.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not questioning the mission.
[SPEAKER_07]: I am.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, and I shall host or the gun.
[SPEAKER_07]: There's always uncertainty going into this kind of mission.
[SPEAKER_07]: And sometimes you just have to make a decision with the facts that you have.
[SPEAKER_07]: I know that we would want for more, but we don't always have time to get everything we want.
[SPEAKER_07]: For all we know, everything that we've done up until now has been wrong.
[SPEAKER_07]: Maybe Sion didn't leave that last message for me.
[SPEAKER_07]: Maybe it was intercepted and swapped out.
[SPEAKER_07]: Maybe we're walking into a trap.
[SPEAKER_07]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_07]: But the best decision that we could make is to take this opportunity, hoping that we can neutralize these devices and prevent total war again.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Naz.
[SPEAKER_04]: And says, and whatever comes after,
[SPEAKER_04]: and she'll take her gun out and line up another shot and pull the trigger.
[SPEAKER_07]: We won't have the luxury to worry about what comes after until we get there.
[SPEAKER_07]: or I guess it's more accurate to say, unless we get there, our planning promises us nothing, it's just a chance.
[SPEAKER_07]: I've scoped out the area and around the facility and have a team to be.
[SPEAKER_07]: And I think I know where we can land the valiant safely and minimize the chances of being detected.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's actually somewhere I've been before.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, this will holster her weapon again and just fully turn to Arno.
[SPEAKER_07]: During the war, I was stationed at an outpost there before I joined F-sock.
[SPEAKER_07]: It was the kind of mission that you give to somebody and hopes that they can't possibly fuck it up.
[SPEAKER_07]: But I did.
[SPEAKER_07]: It was only really one rule to follow, and that was to not leave.
[SPEAKER_07]: And there was a call for help.
[SPEAKER_07]: So I left.
[SPEAKER_04]: And who did you help?
[SPEAKER_07]: Some stranded soldiers whose shuttle had crashed.
[SPEAKER_07]: I suspect, though I've never confirmed, that they were on the mission that started all of this and had the original devices.
[SPEAKER_07]: Or at least, that's what makes sense since my actions there got the attention of Admiral Mendoza.
[SPEAKER_07]: And she thanked me for what I did that day by welcoming me to Fsock, rather than discharging me and sending me back home.
[SPEAKER_07]: That's classified by the way.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't think all of this started there.
[SPEAKER_07]: It did for me.
[SPEAKER_04]: And what were the ramifications of you leaving your post?
[SPEAKER_07]: I got chewed up like a dog toy until Admiral Mendosa swooped into, well, saved me from the consequences of my own actions.
[SPEAKER_07]: Then I joined Fsock and
[SPEAKER_07]: Well, I suppose what came from that was a healthy understanding that the rules are really only the rules as long as they're useful.
[SPEAKER_07]: And we took on a mission or two that probably saved lives, but that I don't think people would have been too happy about knowing in the first place.
[SPEAKER_04]: Is what we're doing here?
[SPEAKER_04]: Is it most akin to you leaving your post or staying at it?
[SPEAKER_07]: Staying at our post would have been letting Nico Torres start another war.
[SPEAKER_07]: Leaving is preventing it ourselves.
[SPEAKER_05]: This year, if you're meeting with President Lee, where do we think that happens?
[SPEAKER_06]: I think that there are Republic offices on a sentient station.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think there are actually probably close to where maneuver project HQ is.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I think we described it as like that them never project HQ is in a in the Republic's diplomatic complex on the sentient.
[SPEAKER_05]: So it makes sense.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think that in the way we're like, uh, Astrid was in like an office that's like not always in use, but that's reserved for Astrid.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think the head diplomatic office of the Republic is regularly in use.
[SPEAKER_06]: And the President of the Republic was never, no, whatever thought the President of the Republic would come.
[SPEAKER_06]: So I think that President Lee has essentially like taken over the head office, but it's like very clearly not her office.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think that they have like done the advanced work so that like if she's taking a call, the space behind her is like prepped with her stuff.
[SPEAKER_06]: So it looks like her office from this like head on.
[SPEAKER_06]: But I think like off to the side, you probably see like a stack of nickmacks or like photos or whatever that belonged to someone else.
[SPEAKER_06]: We're about patty wax and bones for dogs.
[SPEAKER_06]: Of course.
[SPEAKER_05]: What do we think the office looks like?
[SPEAKER_05]: Just describing it a bit.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, I think it is actually one of the larger rooms we've seen on Ascension.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think that the Republic footed pretty much the whole bill for Ascension, which I like started to be built before the war.
[SPEAKER_06]: Back before there was anything besides the Republic, right?
[SPEAKER_06]: Ascension was planned.
[SPEAKER_06]: And so I think that it's got a window that overlooks the park.
[SPEAKER_05]: Is it like big enough for there's a window on the other side?
[SPEAKER_05]: Like that there's a window also looking out into space.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, so it's like if it's overlooking the park and there's it's on one side of the building, like is the other side looking out into space?
[SPEAKER_06]: So I would say no because I don't think that's in the republics aesthetic.
[SPEAKER_06]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_06]: Like I think it probably could be, but I think or like maybe there's a room in this complex that has it.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think this office is overlooking the park, which is the part of the station most designed to look like Earth.
[SPEAKER_05]: So that's the case.
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe it's like a kind of corner office, but it's the corner of the the inside of the station.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think that I am welcomed in by a president's body person, like the person who is sort of always with them at all times.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think that they're functioning right now.
[SPEAKER_06]: Almost as like a secretary and a body person, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_06]: Like, I don't think of the diplomatic delegation from Earth could be everyone, right?
[SPEAKER_06]: So I think that they brought like,
[SPEAKER_06]: It's not the president's right hand person for anyone who's unfamiliar with the concept of a body person.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's a person whose job it is to make sure the president has what they need, whether that's like water or notes or information on somebody walking up to them or whatever.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like they're made of honor.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's not like they're made of honor, yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think if you're welcome to maybe this is the kind of office that has like a small dining room table and it also maybe it's just big enough to have that as well.
[SPEAKER_05]: And maybe on there, there's a tray with tea or something like that.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think presently greets you and offers you a seat.
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe we cut into the middle of the conversation every here or say, I trust you're making progress under conversations with the delegates, assuming that's true.
[SPEAKER_05]: How long will it take to get the others to a place with all agree?
[SPEAKER_06]: Things are actually going incredibly well, Madam President.
[SPEAKER_06]: At this point, there are only two major holdouts to universal adoption of the stated principles.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think when you say that, maybe she leans back in her chair and crosses her legs and says, well, we always knew the Aventine was going to be uncooperative.
[SPEAKER_05]: Who's the other holdout?
[SPEAKER_05]: You, Mem.
[SPEAKER_06]: I assume that you are not currently in a position to accept all of the stated principles, though I would be pleased to hear I was incorrect.
[SPEAKER_06]: And there's a sheepish look on my face, though not an apologetic one, right?
[SPEAKER_06]: Like one where I'm like, that it's like, I have to say this, but it's kind of, I don't mean to like embarrass you.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think when you say that she strains up and leans forward in her chair and looks at you and I think after maybe two or three seconds, it may be they feel pretty long to you to see her.
[SPEAKER_05]: She kind of exhales and shakes her head and sort of, you know, almost like a light laugh and says, you're lucky that I've grown to like you to see her.
[SPEAKER_06]: Noted, ma'am.
[SPEAKER_06]: And there is like a slight smile on my face when she says that.
[SPEAKER_05]: To answer your question, I have concerns about several of the proposals, most of which I think could be overcome with enough effort and good faith discussion.
[SPEAKER_05]: What the delegate from Avantine wrote to adopt that would bring us back to an era before the Republic.
[SPEAKER_06]: I have been discussing the matter with the other members of the project, and we believe we've found a solution, both that maintains the will of the majority, and which may appease avantine sensibilities.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think when you say that her prow slightly froze, it's like she's intrigued or kind of trying to process.
[SPEAKER_05]: And they she says, and this is something you think Aventy and Will agree to.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm not entirely sure, ma'am.
[SPEAKER_06]: We're broaching the subject with you first, though Ms.
[SPEAKER_06]: Manak has been tasked with raising the subject with the Aventy in delegation, and specifically, Aden curious.
[SPEAKER_06]: We have a high degree of confidence that if Earth and Aventine would find this proposal amenable, we could quickly secure by him from the rest of the Verge Planets.
[SPEAKER_06]: And then I think I will, while like giving her space to talk, I will pull up on a screen, the stated proposals.
[SPEAKER_06]: I also think of the bottom of the list.
[SPEAKER_06]: There is a draft proposal for Lee list principle.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think I might come back to that in a second.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think what we see now is her working at the list and realizing that you're pulling up the just the sort of list of the principles of the pillars.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think she says, well, then your idea, what is it?
[SPEAKER_06]: In reviewing the proposed principles, man, it became clear that no delegate had seriously envisioned anything beyond a loose coalition of planets making commitments to one another via their elected representatives.
[SPEAKER_06]: Three of the initially proposed principles were all designed to reduce the ability of one planet to influence another.
[SPEAKER_06]: and I'll highlight Cartila Clair's principle, which has now been struck through the principle from the end char deligate and remounts principle.
[SPEAKER_06]: But what if the regulatory body responsible for ensuring that all of the principles were upheld?
[SPEAKER_06]: Wasn't a planet at all.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think I will like pull up not the next slide, but like it'll be a transition on the screen.
[SPEAKER_06]: and there will be like figures of dozens of representative bodies from throughout human history, and there are like functions and structures, including the Republic's current government.
[SPEAKER_06]: We're proposing a classic Republic of sorts.
[SPEAKER_06]: One that would see equal representation for every member of the species.
[SPEAKER_06]: But through its founding and governing statutes, would restrict Earth from overturning the will of a majority of urge planets as a result of its much larger population.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think like I'll switch it again and I'll pull up like a very specific
[SPEAKER_06]: governing document with, like, sighted examples, and I'll actually boop it to her slate.
[SPEAKER_06]: Like, you'll see me like flip it.
[SPEAKER_06]: We can still get a thing on her slate.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, come on, use the correct terminology.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're right.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's blip.
[SPEAKER_06]: I have been with you as long as I have been back amongst the republics people.
[SPEAKER_06]: And, man, it isn't just a political slogan when I repeat over and over again that I believe in the values of the republic.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I know that's something we share.
[SPEAKER_06]: I also know that you are opposed to war and violence if they are unnecessary.
[SPEAKER_06]: a feeling that I have made very clear over the years.
[SPEAKER_06]: This is an opportunity to build something that lasts, not just a tenuous piece, but a lasting, persisting, republic that unifies all of humanity.
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't want to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors and leave such a body toothless.
[SPEAKER_06]: But we will never achieve unanimous consent if Earth is holding the reins.
[SPEAKER_06]: And the will of the majority is no longer enough.
[SPEAKER_06]: This will require unanimous consent as it will mean decommissioning the military command structures of both Earth and Aventine to create an additional body that would be responsible for them.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think my question is, what move is this you're using here?
[SPEAKER_06]: So I honestly think it's actually a combination of two moves.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think this is of the people when you make a person feel like they share a real connection with you.
[SPEAKER_06]: But I actually think that what I'm trying to get this person to do is to enter a risky situation.
[SPEAKER_06]: Like it's to take a risk.
[SPEAKER_06]: So I actually think this is posicamitatus.
[SPEAKER_06]: Because I don't think that the chance of success here is guaranteed.
[SPEAKER_06]: Like I'm trying to convince President Lee to take a chance on a system of governance.
[SPEAKER_06]: that is similar to one she's familiar with, but that requires her to relinquish quite a bit of power to some greater body.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I'm like appealing to our shared sense of belief that like the needs of the many outweigh the desires of the few.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, that's interesting.
[SPEAKER_05]: The only thing I think about policy comment artists is, it's like, oh, when you, you know, that move crowd, please, or it kind of simply is when you're inspiring a crowd, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: And this is this is kind of a more intimate setting.
[SPEAKER_05]: I do like this though.
[SPEAKER_05]: All right, here's what I'll say.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you should roll of the people.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think that, you know, the questions on the list are the questions on the list, but I think that if you succeed, it might be that one of them has the effect that you described about Pasicombatatus.
[SPEAKER_05]: And we kind of think through which one that is.
[SPEAKER_05]: But there might be other, you know, if you succeed, you might have other questions to hold as this conversation continues.
[SPEAKER_05]: Got it.
[SPEAKER_05]: So go ahead and roll plus like.
[SPEAKER_06]: I have a follow up.
[SPEAKER_06]: Can I utilize stump speech?
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm sure to get advantage since I'm talking about our shared past.
[SPEAKER_06]: What's the fact that you're trying to make sure of?
[SPEAKER_06]: That I would never do anything that wasn't in the best interest of the Republic.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think you've convinced me.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, be grudgingly.
[SPEAKER_05]: This is your one persuasion of the GM, this episode.
[SPEAKER_06]: That's an eleventh.
[SPEAKER_06]: I wrote three fours.
[SPEAKER_06]: So that's eight on the die plus three, which is an eleventh.
[SPEAKER_04]: Eight on the die because he's killing it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Eight of them.
[SPEAKER_05]: All right, so for other people, when you make a person feel like they share real connection with you, you can roll plus slick.
[SPEAKER_05]: And on ten plus, you get a good read and you can hold three.
[SPEAKER_05]: And those options are, is your character telling the truth?
[SPEAKER_05]: What's your character truly feeling?
[SPEAKER_05]: What is your character intend to do?
[SPEAKER_05]: How could I get your character to blank?
[SPEAKER_05]: And what does your character wish I do?
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'll just say maybe there's a combination of some of those.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, for example, the intention and how you could get them to do something that might, you know, with that sort of angle of the policy commentatus get you to where you wanted to go here.
[SPEAKER_06]: So I think John, because I get to hold three.
[SPEAKER_06]: on a full success, I'm going to use one of my questions right now, which is how can I get your character to accept the proposal as written and accept the stated principles.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think what she says is,
[SPEAKER_05]: This proposal, if it came to pass and the rest of the verge sided with Aventine, it would give the smallest fraction of our species control over all of our fates.
[SPEAKER_05]: What is there that could prevent that from coming to pass?
[SPEAKER_06]: The same thing that prevented all of those planets from separating themselves from the Republic during the first honestist man.
[SPEAKER_06]: This proposal would require that earth not only utilized the verge, but that we listened to the verge that we invested in the verge, and that the people of the verge were not abandoned or oppressed.
[SPEAKER_06]: You sent four people, man, to complete a different mission.
[SPEAKER_06]: And in a few short months, while conducting that investigation successfully, I might add.
[SPEAKER_06]: We raised public sentiment for the Republic to the highest point it had been in decades.
[SPEAKER_06]: The problem we are facing with planets that want to leave the verge has never been an issue of philosophy, but one of practice because Earth has mistreated the verge.
[SPEAKER_06]: And now I'd like to ask my second question, which is what is your character truly feeling?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, not great after that.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I'm going to, I don't even think I actually answered your first question, but I think with that second one, I'm going to give you both.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you look at President Lee and I think in this moment, maybe to you, she's no longer the president or sort of your boss or the person that built you into the icon or the, you know, more and more and more accurately, the reason you became the icon.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you see a person who's conflicted because to take the next step and what you're suggesting, which is your ability to convince the Verge to persuade them depends on really you, Nassir.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think what she says is, if I agree,
[SPEAKER_05]: Do I have your word that you'll continue to do?
[SPEAKER_05]: What you need to to convince them?
[SPEAKER_05]: You do, man.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think when you say that there's a pause again, and then I think she closes her eyes and nods before leaning back in her chair.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think you can tell her face is still showing that same concern, but I heard certain that at least you've provided an answer to.
[SPEAKER_06]: Along the same lines, Matt, there's something else.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think she opens her eyes.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm going to preempt this by saying there aren't really words sufficient for the apology that I wish to give you for keeping this information from you for all these years.
[SPEAKER_06]: I can only say that I believed it was better this way, and that you were less compromised.
[SPEAKER_06]: But it is recently come to my attention that this information has made its way into the hands of eight curious.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I suspect it won't be long before, Aventine attempts to use this information against me, and thus you.
[SPEAKER_06]: During the strike on Aventine ordered by Nico Torres.
[SPEAKER_06]: My home was destroyed as reported, and I pulled my son and my husband out of the rubble.
[SPEAKER_06]: But my husband Mateo was not dead.
[SPEAKER_06]: And in fact, made a full recovery, if we're making the decision, not to return and rejoin the Republic, because the strike had killed us on Selim.
[SPEAKER_06]: He is now one Ramon, Herrera.
[SPEAKER_06]: The Aventy in delegate to this summit.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I, I already asked the question that I wish I could ask right now.
[SPEAKER_06]: So I think instead I'm gonna hold still only questions until she responds.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I'll just say I think if you want to ask it again, you could, and that's okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't think there's any rule that says you can't ask the same question twice in a different context.
[SPEAKER_05]: What is your character truly feeling?
[SPEAKER_05]: So before I answer your question, what reaction does this year expect to see from President Lee?
[SPEAKER_06]: I think for some foremost shock.
[SPEAKER_06]: right because like this is someone who has been there for me even through grief uh and like someone I've I wouldn't say like I'm close to why we're not besties but like someone who cares about me as a person and like I told her that my son and husband died and like half of that is a lie
[SPEAKER_06]: That's like the grief was real, but like I was both keeping information from her that could hurt her, like hurt her chances and like very personally taking condolences for a grief that I hadn't experienced.
[SPEAKER_06]: And so I think shock and maybe a little hurt.
[SPEAKER_05]: So that's what you're expecting.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think maybe this year is looking for the science interface and maybe you're even bracing for some kind of outburst of reaction.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think the expression that you see on her face is actually one of, I want to say it's somewhere between frustration and disappointment.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think she stands up from her chair.
[SPEAKER_05]: And it's not like looking away for you.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's just sort of standing at the side of the table where you're still sitting.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think she says, when I agreed to Mars plan, I warned him that something like this could happen.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think there's a very confused look on my face for about a second.
[SPEAKER_06]: And then I think the light bulb goes off.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think before you can react, actually, she says, if Kuros leaks this and it comes back to me, you understand that could be the end of this treaty.
[SPEAKER_05]: And that even if it doesn't, it would almost certainly be the end of my presidency.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes, ma'am.
[SPEAKER_06]: How long have you known?
[SPEAKER_06]: And I also want to say the look on my face.
[SPEAKER_06]: There's like a lot of feelings that I'm going through because like I've been lied to and manipulated at an even greater level than I understood.
[SPEAKER_06]: But it's hard to be mad at the person you thought you were lying to for lying to you.
[SPEAKER_06]: Like, I thought I was like protecting the president.
[SPEAKER_06]: But like, I was fully being played by the president.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I'm dealing with that.
[SPEAKER_06]: And like, there's emotion on my face.
[SPEAKER_06]: I just don't know that you could like pick one out because it's a lot of different things.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think she says, not when I first met you, but before we released the ad.
[SPEAKER_05]: Before that, our odds of winning seemed hopeless.
[SPEAKER_05]: And Marvin's right when he said this was our only real chance.
[SPEAKER_05]: The problem, of course, was the potential consequences of it worked.
[SPEAKER_05]: The more people who could say I knew, the more chances of everything we did being for nothing.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so to see her, I'm sorry you had to be misled, but I'm not sorry that we did it.
[SPEAKER_06]: It was a calculated move, man.
[SPEAKER_06]: As is this.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I'm going to send her something else on her sleep.
[SPEAKER_06]: Ramon Harera is unaware that you were in the loop.
[SPEAKER_06]: largely because I was unaware that you were in the loop.
[SPEAKER_06]: So I think it was a strong maneuver.
[SPEAKER_06]: I took the liberty of drafting my letter of resignation.
[SPEAKER_06]: Effective the day after the summit concludes.
[SPEAKER_06]: I also took the liberty of drafting a statement of my release in case you thought it cleaner to dismiss me rather than half me reside.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's pretty impressive that Mr. Rote his own, like the press release about his own firing, like that's what you got ahead of him.
[SPEAKER_06]: Mam, my purpose in your administration was a symbol of peace.
[SPEAKER_06]: First to help you get elected, then to maintain the fear of what war might bring.
[SPEAKER_06]: I have been useful in my service, in getting to the bottom of this issue, and in raising public support for the Republic throughout the purge.
[SPEAKER_06]: And frankly, my crowning achievement, if we manage to put off, will be this summit.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think the way I can best serve the Republic, and you, after this, is by following Nico Torres as advice.
[SPEAKER_06]: And going away quietly.
[SPEAKER_06]: I also think it unlikely they leak the information before the end of the summit.
[SPEAKER_06]: Ramona Rara is there delegate.
[SPEAKER_06]: revealing him as the husband of one of the most prominent figures in the Republic would harm his reputation amongst the Aventine.
[SPEAKER_06]: Additionally, Lieutenant Hines has been working rather diligently with the investigator here, and I suspect the Aventine consulate may be handling other things.
[SPEAKER_06]: Lieutenant Heinz has a rather adept way of creating trouble for people he doesn't like.
[SPEAKER_04]: And for people he does.
[SPEAKER_04]: Just for everybody.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think, as you said, there's last few lines.
[SPEAKER_05]: It was almost like she wasn't even listening to you.
[SPEAKER_05]: She was just looking at the slate, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think then she places it down on the table, but almost like, kind of slides out of her hand.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think it settles on the table and you can see that the slate is cracked, like from hitting the table at a angle.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think she says,
[SPEAKER_05]: Just a few minutes ago, you promised that you were going to do what was necessary for us to keep the virgin support.
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you supposed to do that if you go away quietly?
[SPEAKER_06]: Madam President, I am not imported enough to come after, except that I am a tool to get to you.
[SPEAKER_06]: If I am not a member of your administration, if Nico Torres and Hayden Kiros cannot use me to hurt the Republic, that it doesn't matter if my husband is alive.
[SPEAKER_06]: The faith I have built with the people of the verge of the last nearly a year has not been because of my story.
[SPEAKER_06]: It has been because of the work we have done here in the verge, and I am happy to continue that work.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think she sits down in the chair behind the desk now, so no longer at the table.
[SPEAKER_05]: And maybe this leaves Missier sort of standing in the middle of the room.
[SPEAKER_05]: And it's almost like isolated, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: You're, it's a wide open space that's not, you know, part of any of the set pieces in the room.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, you have the table, there's the desk, and then there's this sort of negative space, and you find yourself in the middle of it.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think after, you know, maybe twenty or thirty seconds, she looks up at you and says,
[SPEAKER_05]: One piece of this isn't adding up.
[SPEAKER_05]: If Kira is new about your secret, why did he make your husband the delegate?
[SPEAKER_06]: It's a good question, Mom.
[SPEAKER_06]: One I intend to get to the bottom of, and I promise you there is no one better suited to speak to Ramona Rara than I.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think she leans forward and then nods and says be careful this year.
[SPEAKER_05]: There's more than one way you might be compromised in this and I'm worried that eating keros understands that.
[SPEAKER_06]: Understood them.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think I stand to walk out and I am
[SPEAKER_06]: Coming to myself, a...tood we've heard at this point many times before.
[SPEAKER_05]: Leila, in the previous episode, Mara went to Annika Kwell and asked for her help in persuading Inkira to meet with you and to agree to do conciliation about the armistice or the new treaty.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think where we pick back up on that is you still haven't heard anything from the representatives of Valentin or any suggestion that he will actually participate.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you're with Mickey at AMA right now, but before we get to that, I want you to describe the room where you're in and what it looks like to be set up for this indexing session with the leader of Valentin.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think we have sort of common deared some rooms in the maneuver project offices.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now that we don't have the wardrobe for our base of strategy.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think maybe within that
[SPEAKER_02]: sweet of rooms.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have sort of carefully curated a room to not have a bunch of screens up and all of that, but to be a lot more calming.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think there's some like inoffensive art on the walls.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's some comfortable chairs.
[SPEAKER_02]: A
[SPEAKER_02]: not like a desk or a meeting table, but more of a coffee table type situation.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so the idea is to make it feel a little disarming and not so official.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I imagine that's kind of the way that Lila has set it up and maybe she's been hanging out in there, keeping up with all the developments and everything from here and maybe that's where she and Mickey both are.
[SPEAKER_05]: And where do we see Leela inside the space?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think she's I think she's sitting in one of the chairs and there's almost kind of lounging a bit because there's just not much to do except wait.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think if you're in one of the chairs, you know, maybe the shot is kind of close to you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Me actually here before we see Mickey walking over and then sitting down in the chair next to you.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think she says to you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, one of the best students I've ever known, one of the best translators I've worked with.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think, you know, as well as I do, that a translator can only help when people want to be helped, and when they want to put their conflicts behind them.
[SPEAKER_05]: Personally, I think there's more to aid in keros than the rest of the president's advisors believe.
[SPEAKER_05]: But if you really think that the only way to maintain absentee and autonomy is to fight into what a war, I'm not sure why he would come.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Lila has been looking down kind of, not making eye contact, but at the end of that, she looks up at making and says, nothing in my experience can discount a single word you've said, but some things keeping me hoping.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe this is stupid.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think she kind of smiles and shakes her head like no.
[SPEAKER_05]: And she says, not stupidly, la.
[SPEAKER_05]: I've told you before how blind faith can be a vice, especially in our line of work.
[SPEAKER_05]: But your confidence, that's always what I've admired about you the most.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think when she says that you actually hear a knock on the door to the room.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think before you can get up the door to the room opens and stepping through the door, we see a loan, Aden Keros.
[SPEAKER_05]: Every other time we've seen him, I think that he's been wearing the Aventine uniform.
[SPEAKER_05]: But this time, he is not.
[SPEAKER_05]: And what I want to ask the group is, what do we think he is wearing?
[SPEAKER_03]: Nothing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Sweats.
[SPEAKER_06]: Jorts.
[SPEAKER_06]: No, I think it's a workers outfit.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think his aesthetic is very of the people in his own head.
[SPEAKER_06]: But I don't know if they're like used workers close, right?
[SPEAKER_06]: Like I don't know that they're like got oil stains on them or holes in them or whatever.
[SPEAKER_06]: But I think that it's like at the very least it has the aesthetic of trying to look like somebody who like was working as a pioneer, either as a farmer or an engineer or whatever.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_06]: I know.
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know if it would be that they were like actual workers close that he like wore all the time and they have holes in stains or if they're if he's putting on a front, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_06]: It can cure us that well.
[SPEAKER_05]: Just to characterize that a bit though, I don't think that it interests is a funny.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't think that the clothes are, you know, they might not, you might be right that they're not staying, they're not worn, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe these were not, you know, clothes that he was wearing before the revolution, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: It's been, you know, a decade at this point.
[SPEAKER_05]: But to the extent that it's his aesthetic, I think that that aesthetic is genuine.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think he steps into the room and closes the door behind him.
[SPEAKER_05]: And again, you notice that he's alone and maybe it's almost as if he doesn't.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like isn't trying to make a shell of his attendance here, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe he's like, you know what I said, but he doesn't want to be seen, but you know, trying to be inconspicuous.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think he says,
[SPEAKER_05]: No matter what happens here, I'm not going to agree to give up the founding idea of our planet, even if I somehow did, I've intended to would never stand for it.
[SPEAKER_05]: But if there's a way to reach a piece that guarantees our independence, I'm willing to give it a shot.
[SPEAKER_05]: I agreed to do this because someone I trust told me that I should, how does she put it?
[SPEAKER_05]: have some faith.
[SPEAKER_05]: Don't let her be wrong in that, Lila.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think the second, Aiding Curios walked in the door.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Lila jumped up and went from her lounging position into, you know, straight spine, professional, affect and, you know, just stuck her hand out to shake his.
[SPEAKER_02]: After he gives that preamble, she'll nod and say,
[SPEAKER_02]: I understand, first Minister, it is an honor that you agreed to do this.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm hopeful we can find some common ground.
[SPEAKER_05]: So this point I want to cut back to the valiant and I'm wondering what Arno is doing after leaving the discussion with Mara with her at the shooting practice or at lunch afterwards.
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, he did ask when to get lunch immediately after meeting with Mara.
[SPEAKER_04]: I thought it was a group activity with the fuck.
[SPEAKER_07]: I don't know if you shut up or not.
[SPEAKER_04]: When do you mean we put a walk there together?
[SPEAKER_07]: Maybe.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's kind of hard to hide on the valiant.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's true.
[SPEAKER_04]: And Mara was to make sure that Robert is fulfilling his end of the bargain.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: This better be the best fucking blappel she's ever had in her life.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I think if you got lunch together, you did, and maybe, how I think I'll set that scene a little bit is, sorry, this is a fucking second.
[SPEAKER_05]: Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh my God, can you guys call someone to be like, hey, turn it down, D.C.
[SPEAKER_03]: Please, thank you.
[SPEAKER_06]: I do actually know one of the people who does calls for first responders in D.C.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'll shoot him a text.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, but we're trying to remember the fucking podcast here, like half of the rest of D.C.
[SPEAKER_05]: So, like, please comment down.
[SPEAKER_06]: That's true actually.
[SPEAKER_06]: I just occurred to me, maybe they're doing a service.
[SPEAKER_06]: And like there is like a natural predator keeping the population out of God God God God.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it's down.
[SPEAKER_02]: These sirens sponsored by the Southwest Business Improvement District.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's on this work.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's like, we're having a real not to use the end.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks for watching.
[SPEAKER_06]: I had to get that one in.
[SPEAKER_06]: I had to get that one and I just thought it was good.
[SPEAKER_05]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was I.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think if you did go to get lunch and, you know, I do think that Robert is fulfilling his end of the bargain.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think maybe it's almost like overly set up, like two or eight.
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe there's like a white table cloth on a small table though.
[SPEAKER_05]: We have two seats on it and everything's kind of set up.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like this is one chance to shine.
[SPEAKER_05]: I gave him specific instructions.
[SPEAKER_04]: Or did you know?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I'm sorry, but like the pre-secret mission, you'll always need to be very comforting over here.
[SPEAKER_07]: Like, I don't know, busted out all the stops.
[SPEAKER_07]: We got the chili Mac Emery's, uh, Dino Nuggies, and of course pizza.
[SPEAKER_02]: Martin, our definitions of comforting are not the same.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is not good.
[SPEAKER_06]: So I think, can I add one thing?
[SPEAKER_04]: I'd like to take away something actually.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think no and actually fuck that.
[SPEAKER_06]: I was you say I think they're the nine of ours.
[SPEAKER_06]: There is dessert.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes, yes, they're fucking art.
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know if that is.
[SPEAKER_06]: Chocolate Canadian dessert.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's a different color baking.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's so like I think they can be very fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think that I think that's probably a real R&O comfort food.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_06]: He has to answer R&O's comfort food.
[SPEAKER_06]: Salted fish.
[SPEAKER_06]: Oh, no, sorry.
[SPEAKER_06]: We don't even eat in the future.
[SPEAKER_06]: Salted.
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_06]: Anyway, continue.
[SPEAKER_06]: What's your comfort food?
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it's her mom's apple cake.
[SPEAKER_06]: How is the apple cake at the table?
[SPEAKER_04]: Poor.
[SPEAKER_06]: How is the blappled game?
[SPEAKER_05]: He trying to do this here is seen.
[SPEAKER_05]: My players fucked you.
[SPEAKER_05]: So if Arno and Mara should just finish their lunch, do we see Arno still sitting in the table?
[SPEAKER_05]: Or if not, where do we find him?
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you find him in the galley doing the dishes.
[SPEAKER_07]: What does that look like?
[SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, I think we're before.
[SPEAKER_07]: I don't know when different comfort because it was just something to take his mind off of what was upsetting him.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think in this case, it's more an act of care and comfort for the crew in that there's little that once we land, the mission is largely going to be in mind, Mars, but getting us there and showing up to their appreciated, I just want to do a little bit of upkeep on the ship.
[SPEAKER_07]: And maybe I am in my own thoughts as I'm doing this, because you're doing the dishes.
[SPEAKER_07]: It can get boring after a little bit of time, but I think that I'm in pretty good spirits.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm just going over the details in my head for the mission.
[SPEAKER_07]: And this is like as close to like game day ready as I think Arnold gets and that he's not really calm or happy, but he's just ready.
[SPEAKER_07]: He's prepared.
[SPEAKER_05]: And maybe we're seeing then like a very regimented system, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: So maybe it's like every dish has its place.
[SPEAKER_05]: You have like, you know, one side of the sink that's for the soapy water another for the clean water for rinsing.
[SPEAKER_05]: Everything is being arranged on the drying rack and in a very particular way where you have a lot of these sort of straight lines of the plates and the silverware.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think my question for you is, in this room, and in this space that we've seen before, we've kind of seen in a few different conditions, you know, the lights on, the lights off, aren't overing is uniform, the uniform on the floor.
[SPEAKER_05]: What is it in this space that reminds you of the maze?
[SPEAKER_05]: And by the maze, I mean the one from the landscape with Lula.
[SPEAKER_07]: There's a door to the dry goods pantry on the left.
[SPEAKER_07]: And you can see through a window on the center of the door towards the top.
[SPEAKER_07]: The lights off.
[SPEAKER_07]: In fact, the lights which is only on the inside.
[SPEAKER_07]: And the light from the galley itself isn't bright enough to really illuminate the space.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's a little shadowy.
[SPEAKER_07]: So if you were looking from where I was standing, for example, you might see the outlines of shelves, but you couldn't make out any other details.
[SPEAKER_05]: And as that catches or glance, what is it that you think you see throughout window?
[SPEAKER_05]: Or seed instead of?
[SPEAKER_07]: I think I see rough water.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think we're at sea and it feels like I'm on a boat just below deck and I can see the waves turning outside.
[SPEAKER_07]: There's a storm and there's a ship coming at the window but it's floating above the water.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think the way that this presents as you see that is we see the room your in start to shake and start to be rocked and maybe we see the water that's filling one of the sinks start to pitch and show a tilt as this ship that you're on is rocking and being buffeted by the waves
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think we hear the rattle of plates, and a crash is one or two of them fall to the ground, as everything's shaking and being tossed by this rough waters, and the lights are flickering above you.
[SPEAKER_05]: But then I think you'd look up and everything is back to normal and you're just holding the plate.
[SPEAKER_05]: Nothing's broken, everything's flat.
[SPEAKER_05]: What do we see on our nose face?
[SPEAKER_07]: shock, fear, a cold sweat breaking out, and shaky breathing.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think he puts the plate down, and rest both of his hands against the edge of the sink, and tries to steady himself.
[SPEAKER_02]: Shit.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's not looking good for Leela.
[SPEAKER_05]: Where do we find Mara?
[SPEAKER_04]: I think we find her in the laboratory.
[SPEAKER_04]: I really don't think anything has changed.
[SPEAKER_04]: If she thought that the shooting exercise was going to bring her calm, it didn't work.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I think that we see the lab space is just kind of an explosion of work.
[SPEAKER_04]: There may be a collection of slates that she's sourcing different files off of that are being exported, processed, and visualized on the monitors in the lab space.
[SPEAKER_04]: She might even have a book or four open.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think she's also looking down at her personal slate and flipping through notes that she's taken.
[SPEAKER_04]: after she's had conversations, like the conversation that she had within a cook well, or the conversation that she had with them, that she took part in with Arno with Luclair.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think that she is frustrated.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I guess my question is in running through all of these things, what in particular is making Mara frustrated and how do we see that reflected on her face or in the laboratory?
[SPEAKER_04]: I think the source of her frustration is that things don't add up about avantine or probably more specifically about eating keros.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that for the longest time he's been this kind of buggy man and for good reason, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: Our first introduction to this guy in a kind of impactful way in the story was
[SPEAKER_04]: theoretically in calling for the execution, public execution, assassination of Reef Gassaric.
[SPEAKER_04]: Or at least, again, this is our perception, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: This is kind of what we might have figured out.
[SPEAKER_04]: And that he is potentially the reason why Lillian Gale also has now perished.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I think that this just doesn't square with, I mean, even to reference specifically Antica, the conversation with Antica Quail, she emphasized how, like, meticulous and thoughtful, Aiding Curious was, and that he wouldn't strike out unless he had no other option.
[SPEAKER_04]: And also maybe just the personal interaction that Mara had with him.
[SPEAKER_04]: you know, like he wasn't accusatory or insulting whatsoever.
[SPEAKER_04]: He was actually complimentary.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I think she's having a hard time squaring the perception that has been built of this individual and the way that he executes power and the way that people perceive that he executes power.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I actually think
[SPEAKER_04]: In all of this, you see Mara just kind of sitting on a stool and just her face in her hands with her fingernails just like digging into her face.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I would like to roll into the abyss.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, shit.
[SPEAKER_04]: This isn't Mara's strong suit whatsoever.
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, I have a zero.
[SPEAKER_04]: So it's truly going to be up to the heart of the dice.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I just think that she has no questions about how dangerous the devices are and what they could do, how they could damage humanity.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I think there's just something annoying at her.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I'm going to roll.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think we've seen this move one time before that that was, I believe in the context of the landscape, and Leela's sort of explorations there.
[SPEAKER_05]: But in the Abyss, when you stare on blinking into the Abyss and are looking for forbidden or for god knowledge, you can roll plus alien.
[SPEAKER_05]: And in this case, this is kind of looking for your insights or what you can piece together about in Kira, sort of maybe as true intentions or what's going on that Mars missing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Here we go.
[SPEAKER_04]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's a four.
[SPEAKER_06]: You're so good at this.
[SPEAKER_04]: She's not feeling perceptive here.
[SPEAKER_06]: We do a lead on me to give her advantage.
[SPEAKER_06]: From across the galaxy.
[SPEAKER_04]: Somehow she got a two.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm a little experienced here.
[SPEAKER_07]: And with that, the best stairs back at you and roasts the shit out of your hypothesis.
[SPEAKER_07]: You know what, the best found your PhD thesis.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's a city.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, that good.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think there are two consequences of this aside from the XP, of course.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think the first thing is, maybe this is just the thought that is most occupying your mind about this, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think it's a question that you don't have an answer to.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think you were kind of reflecting about Incuro being presented to you as like a very strategic thinker, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: Somebody that has a plan for everything.
[SPEAKER_05]: and trying to add that up compared to all of the information that you've received, and also the behaviors that you've seen, and maybe that were attributed to him fairly unfairly, right, very points.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like you had mentioned, the impromptu assassination attempt against Rufus, or maybe more concretely the death of William Gail.
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, I think the part that you kind of keep coming back to is the press conference on ascension station.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I was where the Minerva project, along with remote herera revealed that both Earth and Aventine were arming themselves and preparing for another war in the verge.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think the thing that is troubling you is the question of why would in curious have allowed Mateo to back up your story?
[SPEAKER_05]: And seemingly not even bad enough from it.
[SPEAKER_05]: If curious is planned was really to prepare for this fight against Earth, or this was really Mateo helping you and that everything you're doing up to and including this mission they are on right now was the way to disrupt in curious is plan.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so I think as a consequence of that, I'm going to have you add a stress.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, let's fair.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think the other consequences I'm going to ask one question for the investors back.
[SPEAKER_05]: And that question is, for what does your character's darkest heart desire?
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that deep down
[SPEAKER_04]: if someone appeared and presented Mara with the choice of severing the verge and earth without a war, or keeping the interconnectivity of the galaxy, like of humanity, but lots of people are gonna die.
[SPEAKER_04]: She would pick lots of people are gonna die.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that if it comes to it, she'd rather see war break out than the potential for these devices to participate in ending FTL and the connectivity between Earth and the Merge.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think that's really selfish.
[SPEAKER_05]: Leila?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: What does it look like inside the landscape?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think by now we're familiar with Leila's kind of standard landscape setup.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're in this art studio.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a big wall on one side that's blank.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's paint supplies everywhere.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know that Lila has done anything special with the setting partially because I just don't think that she had enough information to know how to play it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think she's just gone for her kind of standard art studio layout.
[SPEAKER_05]: And what does the light look like outside the window?
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know if you've ever really described it in terms of, it was there a particular time of day.
[SPEAKER_05]: The only exception I can think of is when there was the thunder storm when you were inside Nadiya's mind.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think some of the other times we've seen it, it's been maybe a bright afternoon sun.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think now it looks more like evening, not quite twilight, but definitely some redder rays of light and kind of dimming outside.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I guess I wonder, like, we had never really talked about this of how much of the detail of the landscape is specifically yours to create and if there's anything that's influenced by the mind you can act with.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I guess I was wondering if maybe the light outside the window, like could there be some part of what the avantine sky looks like or the colors of their sun that kind of crept into the window there?
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe without the leave and noticing it?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's really cool, so I think maybe there are two sons in the sky.
[SPEAKER_02]: And maybe it is still kind of the evening light, but if you know what you're looking for, you'd be able to tell that it is more avantine than Earth.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think to kind of comment on Eden Kuros then, I think when we come into the landscape and see him, the look on his face is searching.
[SPEAKER_05]: He's kind of studying everything and taking it all in.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think maybe we see him taking very slow deliberate steps and just sort of examining or dissecting every part of the space and trying to understand it or make sense of it.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think he may be like touches the table that has the paints and the palette on it.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think we mentioned there's kind of a little table or something that's by maybe one of the columns in the middle of the room sort of separating the two areas with the paints happening.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I don't think he says anything.
[SPEAKER_05]: Instead, I think he eventually turns and looks back at you sort of pausing to see what the next step is.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think Lila, with a practiced air, gives him a quick tour.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's clear that he's curious.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think she's going to leave room for him to ask questions.
[SPEAKER_02]: But she's going to point out and say, this is the wall where you can embark on your creative expression.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here are some paints, and she gestures to that table.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm happy to help prepare some for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the rest of the space is simply here for you to feel comfortable and feel at home.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then she kind of gestures as though like inviting questions.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think maybe if you're holding a pallet or have any tools, I think he reaches over and takes them from you.
[SPEAKER_05]: But then I think he turns back and says,
[SPEAKER_05]: How will I know when it's done?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm here to guide you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, figure it out together.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you kind of, you just see his like, let move any kind of, it's almost like shrugging with his face without moving any of their part of his body.
[SPEAKER_05]: But then I think he steps up to the wall.
[SPEAKER_05]: But before I describe what he does next, my question for Yulea is, what is it that you're hoping to get from this first painting?
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you hoping to learn anything?
[SPEAKER_05]: Or what are you hoping to do as he begins his painting?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Leila has, you know, Leila and the Sierra have kind of discussed what they are hoping to push these two people towards.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think the first step before she can even try to convince him or sell him on.
[SPEAKER_02]: This potential solution is for her to figure out what his motivations are and kind of what he's looking for.
[SPEAKER_02]: And all of this, I think a lot of what Lauren said in our last scene, he's been this, you know, big bad, and he hasn't been.
[SPEAKER_02]: someone who's really humanized.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think this is the lowest kind of way of trying to just understand him as person and hopefully with that information, then that can give us what we need to get him to agree to this.
[SPEAKER_05]: So in that case, I think the move for right now, this is embrace eternity.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so go ahead and roll plus alien and then we'll see what you learn from this painting.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, thank goodness.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nice.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a twelfth.
[SPEAKER_02]: With my plus three.
[SPEAKER_06]: Awesome.
[SPEAKER_02]: Glad I got that four out of the way for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_06]: To be fair, if you had a plus three, you would have rolled a seven.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, not helpful.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was rolling a D-twelfth I would have.
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, if you rolled two, two's on D-twelfth, so would have been helpful.
[SPEAKER_02]: Shut up now.
[SPEAKER_05]: There's like a lot of siren in the background.
[SPEAKER_05]: So, you know, luckily for what we just cut that up.
[SPEAKER_04]: So earth shattering will.
[SPEAKER_05]: So go ahead and mark that move as discharged.
[SPEAKER_05]: So embrace eternity when you gently reach out and mingle your mind with the energies and or as of something living nearby, you just charge the revenue role plus alien.
[SPEAKER_05]: On a ten plus, the connection is open, you can ask two questions in the list and they can ask one.
[SPEAKER_05]: And the questions are, what do you seek?
[SPEAKER_05]: Who are what do you wish to protect?
[SPEAKER_05]: Who are what do you love?
[SPEAKER_05]: What are you willing to sacrifice for your beliefs?
[SPEAKER_05]: And what do you have faith in?
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, team.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would love some input on this.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm looking at who are what do you wish to protect?
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you have faith in?
[SPEAKER_02]: And what are you willing to sacrifice for your beliefs?
[SPEAKER_02]: Any thoughts on which of those two?
[SPEAKER_06]: I actually think what do you seek is the most important question?
[SPEAKER_07]: I would love to know what he would be willing to sacrifice because we've got this idea of like two curuses.
[SPEAKER_07]: I really want to know which ones the real one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_06]: to me the most important question is what do you seek because.
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, not to met a game, but also like John has voiced two different player characters.
[SPEAKER_06]: They're like, we don't know what the fuck didn't hear us once.
[SPEAKER_06]: And he's like, why would he have let Mateo?
[SPEAKER_06]: He said it twice.
[SPEAKER_06]: He said to me and he said it to Lauren.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm not calling him a hack.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm just saying he made it really clear.
[SPEAKER_06]: And so I would love to know what do you seek.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's for me, it's either, what are you willing to sacrifice or what do you wish to actually know?
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sorry, I'm a hundred percent what do you wish to protect?
[SPEAKER_07]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, it's a thing.
[SPEAKER_07]: Really?
[SPEAKER_07]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm so into what are you seeking?
[SPEAKER_07]: What do you want to sacrifice for you, really?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm on the same page as Mike, I think those are the two most important ones.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think Seek is the most important one.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think sacrifice is like answers the question of which heroes is this?
[SPEAKER_06]: Who are what do you wish to protect?
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know a lot of the times when we do that with these like bigger figures.
[SPEAKER_06]: Like we did something like you did something like this with Reef Kasark.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think you actually literally embraced eternity with Reef Kasark.
[SPEAKER_06]: And it was like the future generations of like the people of the verge and I'm like that's great.
[SPEAKER_06]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_06]: I understand who you are.
[SPEAKER_06]: But like
[SPEAKER_06]: Get fucked.
[SPEAKER_06]: Like we have.
[SPEAKER_06]: Like, oh, I'm not talking to the DM.
[SPEAKER_06]: I mean, these characters who are larger than life, that is their, it makes sense, right?
[SPEAKER_06]: But like, I just want to know what this made us, what is he trying to do?
[SPEAKER_06]: Like, what is he trying to do?
[SPEAKER_06]: Because he's playing a game and none of us are on the same page.
[SPEAKER_07]: Can I further complicate this by just asking a question over here in that, what time frame do you want these answers to be actionable in?
[SPEAKER_07]: Because if it's over the course of the game, then it's very clear that what do you seek and what do you want to sacrifice to really interesting?
[SPEAKER_07]: But if it's like, for this piece summit, who or what do you want to protect is really compelling for making the case that like, we need to get Aventine on board for this summit just before, you know, we commit war crimes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's an interesting point about like, how do you actually get to know him to leverage?
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's why I was interested in what do you wish to protect or what do you have faith in?
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think protect is the better one of those two.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm willing to go with that one.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like the only thing that I'm kind of split on is what are you willing to sacrifice for your beliefs?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just, like, maybe that gives me a really helpful answer where I can say, oh, if he, as long as Aventine retains X, he's willing to give up Y. Well, like, that would be great to know.
[SPEAKER_07]: Because I know we've talked about this on Mike, but not in character about like, oh, the tale of two kerosers.
[SPEAKER_07]: But like, have we said that to you explicitly is this a question that Lila even has?
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I think it's fair that she would be wondering about that because I think for anyone who is thinking about this problem, this makes sense to be wondering about of like, what are, like, what are his motivations here?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, what is he trying to do?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm just saying, like, in terms of rank ordering the questions at the top of Leela's mind over here, like, what it makes sense that she would care about that more than what do you seek?
[SPEAKER_06]: I think seek and protect the metaphysical question of like which Aiden curious is it like what if it's both right like what do you seek and what do you protect if we're definitely locked in unprotect ask the question of like affirmatively what do you want and negatively what do you afraid you will lose and I think that if you're what you're trying to do is understand curious in his motivations what he's actively go out going after and what he's afraid of being taken away that's the current and the stick right and that will give you everything you need
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I feel like, I feel like what do you see because interesting, but may not be as poignant for Mike, as you said, like, how do we get him to agree to this, like in this moment?
[SPEAKER_02]: So.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I will go with who are what do you wish to protect and what are you willing to sacrifice for your beliefs?
[SPEAKER_02]: But if you want to throw in any others, I'll take those two.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think he steps forward to the wall and I think the first shapes that begin to take place are these towers that are painted in a dark gray.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think maybe the gray has some lighter spots, almost like there's light reflecting off of them.
[SPEAKER_05]: But these towers that look constructed, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: They look artificial against the backdrop of the rest of the mural.
[SPEAKER_05]: They almost to you begin to look like fingers outstretched toward the sky.
[SPEAKER_05]: And as the background of this mural starts to take shape, you can see that in the sky there are two sons, and so seemingly this would reflect his experiences of his home planet of Aventine.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think the thing that you notice is that those towers that are almost like these fingers, again, reaching out, they're stretching out not toward those sons in the sky, but rather to a cluster of stars that's sort of almost faintly visible in the morning light far off into the distance beyond them.
[SPEAKER_05]: Your first question was, who are what do you wish to protect?
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think as you're looking at the smell and beginning to understand it's significance or what can be gleaned from it from your perspective as the practitioner.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you noticed that these towers that at their base, they're beginning to crack.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think that what you glean from that is that Adencare believes that Aventine is vulnerable.
[SPEAKER_05]: Vulnerable in a way that if things don't go exactly right, not in the long term, but in the immediate future, maybe at this conference itself or soon thereafter, that his vision of Aventine or the identity of Aventine will cease to exist.
[SPEAKER_05]: And that's avenging not just as a planet or as a society, but as the bridge toward the future of humanity.
[SPEAKER_05]: In terms of what he's willing to sacrifice, I think looking at this painting, the focus is pulled upward, like the towers of this outstretched hand and the hand is reaching up to the stars.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think you let your focus shift and sort of explore the bottom of the mural, the foundation upon which this towers are built.
[SPEAKER_05]: And you can see the remnants of trees, of grass, of life that stood there before the towers were built.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think you can feel that there's pain in the ground.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think you can feel that there is guilt about the people who have been threatened or the people who have been killed.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think that you understand in looking at this painting and in looking at the man who's painting it.
[SPEAKER_05]: that even if he is not a predator, even if he's not the devil, or at least not in this context, he is willing and he is able to kill to whatever extent is necessary to project what I said before.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: Now I get to ask you a question.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure, do.
[SPEAKER_05]: Who are what do you love?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think the answer to that question is different from what it was before the started.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think before the Minerva Project started, Lila had a very defined kind of worldview and obviously she loves her family and stuff like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think she would have said that she loves her art.
[SPEAKER_02]: She might have even said she loves her job.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think these past several months have stripped all of that away.
[SPEAKER_02]: She's far from her family.
[SPEAKER_02]: She is more and more in doubt of her ability to get people to do what she believes they need to do and is therefore getting more and more desperate.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't think that she really knows anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: What it is that she loves.
[SPEAKER_06]: My question for us as listeners is, you said that Lila's been changed by her journey, right?
[SPEAKER_06]: Love like her understanding of the way things are.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I remember very early conversations between Lila, Arno, Lina, Lila, Nisi, or Lina, Mara, where you were like, why the fuck is this galaxy this way?
[SPEAKER_06]: And I guess my question is, is you say now that your idea of love is shifted?
[SPEAKER_06]: Are there ideas of love that you have seen that did that in us, in NPCs, in anybody?
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what that is necessarily her idea of love has changed.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think her idea of herself and her role has changed.
[SPEAKER_02]: And she's very untethered.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think she came into this with, you know, the understanding that it was a diplomatic mission.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then it turns out it wasn't that it was this Lester thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then it turns out it wasn't that it was actually maybe aliens.
[SPEAKER_02]: And along the way, I think she has just
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, she's in a completely different part of the world.
[SPEAKER_02]: She's like, twenty-five years old.
[SPEAKER_02]: Her pre-frontal cortex is like, barely mature.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, she is, this is a lot.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think there's, I don't think it's necessarily that there was something that she saw that made her lose faith in love or anything like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's more she just doesn't really know who she is anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as a result, I don't think that like the things that she loved before are still accurate.
[SPEAKER_02]: She's just not that person.
[SPEAKER_05]: So my follow up question is what appears on your mural that reflects this?
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think back when I first described it mural, I think I had said that, you know, there was a foreground with across roads, but there was also a background where there were multiple shapes and figures that maybe represented parts of Leo's life and parts of her identity.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think if we look now, it's not that those parts are completely gone, but it looks like there have been several coats of paint on top of them, so they're faded.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think maybe it looks more like the night sky.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think maybe we see you adding infrastructure to that.
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe it's sort of the reflection of lightness and molecular color.
[SPEAKER_05]: We see out the window.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think the focus shifts back to Eden Kira sort of over your shoulder.
[SPEAKER_05]: And we see him holding the brush in his hands and sort of looking at the wall.
[SPEAKER_05]: And he has this intensity on his face.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's not the same as the sort of curious look that he had before.
[SPEAKER_05]: This is, it's not fury because he doesn't, he's not, it's not anger, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: It's, I guess this is the look of fire, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: He just is,
[SPEAKER_05]: intensity intensity yeah just that there's like you could keep going into it this a thousand more times if you needed to but he sort of stopped and is paused and I think he looks back to you and he asks what is it that I'm supposed to learn here or that you're supposed to learn here
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Leo falls back on kind of a road answer as she, as you said, finishes up the changes to her mural.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think she kind of pleasantly smiles and says, well, first minister, this is a chance for us to explore the options and to really see things in a new light.
[SPEAKER_02]: Have we made any progress?
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you think?
[SPEAKER_05]: If we're being honest with each other, I'm not sure that we have.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hard not to feel lost.
[SPEAKER_05]: Not lost in my belief, not lost in what we're trying to achieve, but perhaps lost in what comes next.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Leo and Dodds, and I think she comes over to look at his painting in a little bit more detail.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think she says, that's understandable.
[SPEAKER_02]: It feels as though we're at a turning point.
[SPEAKER_02]: is though quite a lot and just on what we do in the course of the next few days.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think Lila is going to reach for another brush and she's going to take the palette that Kira has placed on the table.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think she's gonna pick it up and dip her brush into that palette and begin to make some changes to his mural.
[SPEAKER_05]: Roll plus alien, but I think because you already learned what you did from the mural, I believe you can do so with the dance.
[SPEAKER_02]: You are so merciful.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, yep, that would be a twelfth.
[SPEAKER_05]: Suggestion.
[SPEAKER_05]: When you use your power to subtly influence the mind of some weak build living thing, you discharge the move in your role plus alien.
[SPEAKER_05]: On a ten plus, though either follow a single command from you for a short time, that doesn't risk their life or go against their instincts.
[SPEAKER_05]: Or you convince them of something without providing proof as long as you don't lie.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think I'm actually going to go with the second one.
[SPEAKER_02]: You convince them of something without providing proof so long as you do not lie.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think the point that Lila is trying to make is that, yes, there is a vulnerability to have in teen and that
[SPEAKER_02]: the independent thought that he supports and so passionate about is actually like like it's growing and he's succeeding and that
[SPEAKER_02]: this agreement to, you know, work together and cooperate in some sense on some sort of council, like that could never compromise the spirit of what Aventine is and of what he's building and of like where Aventine can go and humanity can go.
[SPEAKER_05]: What does Lila change in the painting?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you mentioned in your description that it looked like the towers were that there was something on the ground that the towers had kind of.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is tough.
[SPEAKER_02]: Does anyone have any thoughts on how to symbolize this in the painting?
[SPEAKER_06]: I think that what you're trying to convince him of is that he won't be shackled, and neither will Aventine, that Aventine won't be held back if he agrees to this.
[SPEAKER_06]: And so everything John described is of the verge.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think what you can add to this is an image that signifies the existence of the Republic in his vision that doesn't detract from him reaching beyond.
[SPEAKER_06]: And so what I would suggest is adding another constellation to this guy.
[SPEAKER_06]: Not necessarily that he's reaching towards, but maybe off to the side.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think I've mentioned before that there's a constellation.
[SPEAKER_06]: That is the same on both Earth and Aventine.
[SPEAKER_06]: And so I think you could add that constellation.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, shit, that's good.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think it's Earth's a major and Earth's a minor.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's two.
[SPEAKER_02]: Excuse me, that's two constellations.
[SPEAKER_06]: It is two constellations.
[SPEAKER_06]: And I have them both one tattoo.
[SPEAKER_06]: I actually said this one tattoo on the front of my shoulder, it went on the back.
[SPEAKER_06]: So I think you can add or some major in her Summiner to the sky, and it doesn't remove the avantine of it all, but it does link back to Earth.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, that's fucking good.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think if you're adding the constellations to the sky, maybe under palette you take a little bit of white and maybe you mix in some gray and maybe even some blue to create the color of these stars.
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe you take a relatively fine brush and place it into the pan and go to put it on the wall.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think just as you're about to start adding these kind of like pinpriced these dots right that are making these stars, I think Eden Kuros reaches out and touches your hand or your arm, your forearm, and says, I thought you said that we would know when it was finished.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Leila doesn't turn back and just continues with making the changes and says,
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, I would guide you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I think she finishes making the changes to the mirror.
[SPEAKER_05]: Back on the valiant, we see the entire skeleton crew on the bridge, as the ship is preparing to drop below light speed and enter the avantine system.
[SPEAKER_05]: And before we describe what that looks like, if I'm correct that you'd want to use the valiant stealth system to try to avoid detection, I'd like one of you, Arna and Mara, to roll silent running.
[SPEAKER_03]: What the fuck is that?
[SPEAKER_06]: It's the role to use the stealth system.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's a plus-like role.
[SPEAKER_06]: I rolled it last time.
[SPEAKER_06]: Good luck, y'all.
[SPEAKER_06]: Lauren, what's your plus-like?
[SPEAKER_03]: Plus one.
[SPEAKER_07]: Mine is also plus one-hall in the museum if I have something for this.
[SPEAKER_03]: Uhhh.
[SPEAKER_06]: You got planned to then plan to follow-up.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, no, no, but I have- No, I have other shit.
[SPEAKER_07]: All my stuff is plus-door.
[SPEAKER_07]: I know I've complained about this many times.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm like, my- The fuck is it all plus-door?
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I have my technician, if I spell techno babble or regards to vehicle shipper machine are modifying or repairing out vanage going forward with modifications or repairs.
[SPEAKER_05]: I just don't know if that's what's happening here.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's not, but you know, well, well, it could be if it helps.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's going to be good no matter what happens.
[SPEAKER_05]: I know that's not what you want to hear, but it's going to work.
[SPEAKER_07]: You already got the bad roll out of your system.
[SPEAKER_07]: I might still have a bad roll.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm just looking at, I'm going.
[SPEAKER_06]: No, I'm doing it with the vanage.
[UNKNOWN]: No.
[SPEAKER_04]: way to get advantage.
[SPEAKER_05]: No, no, not that more.
[SPEAKER_05]: Unless you have, I mean, if you want to help or not, you can help.
[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, what is that in the cyst?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, what's your place?
[SPEAKER_06]: Wait, wait, my plus two.
[SPEAKER_06]: If you're plus stalwart.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I'm a plus two on stalwart.
[SPEAKER_06]: You both are plus two or four.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's the exact same rule for either one of us.
[SPEAKER_06]: So one of you help and the other one do it.
[SPEAKER_06]: It doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_07]: All right.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'm going to help the scientists.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: Pull up my hand.
[SPEAKER_05]: If you're going to help, I mean, before you do that, just my question is, how are you helping?
[SPEAKER_05]: It can be what you're saying.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think I see Dr. Bolova still a little wired, kind of like she was at the shooting range.
[SPEAKER_07]: And I walk a binder and I just offer a friendly, this is your area of expertise.
[SPEAKER_07]: You've done it a thousand times.
[SPEAKER_07]: Whatever the mission, the process of you doing this remains completely unchanged.
[SPEAKER_07]: You've got this.
[SPEAKER_07]: That's a seven.
[SPEAKER_07]: All right.
[SPEAKER_06]: Take stress and run with it, aren't I?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Get stressed, fucker.
[SPEAKER_05]: Really not me.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm a seven tonight and you can choose one option for the list.
[SPEAKER_05]: And that's your efforts.
[SPEAKER_05]: Help them.
[SPEAKER_05]: They have a vantage.
[SPEAKER_05]: You can let them clear a stress or you aren't push your limits or expose to danger of complication for efforts.
[SPEAKER_07]: I will help them.
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: Before I say it with the consequence of that is, go and roll with the vantage.
[SPEAKER_04]: Take seven, eight, nine, ten.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's a perfect success.
[SPEAKER_06]: Look at that third die.
[SPEAKER_06]: That was the six.
[SPEAKER_06]: You're welcome.
[SPEAKER_06]: That was far too stressful.
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't like that.
[SPEAKER_05]: The last one is you got this, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: So maybe it's, I've described this kind of blue glow right from the, when the ship is kind of traveling faster than light.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_05]: Once or twice.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think in it you see the waves.
[SPEAKER_05]: As you maybe it's like you step away from Marshalder and you see the waves.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think the bridge rattles.
[SPEAKER_05]: So do go ahead and mark one stress, which I believe is for.
[SPEAKER_07]: I fucking hate you because we are almost at the end of this fucking arc.
[SPEAKER_07]: And I have one stress to a calamity.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's an awful calamity.
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, no.
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think as you see this, Mara, you sort of pull the, I don't know if there's like a knob or an accelerator.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, what do we think shifts the value back to sort of normal space or normal speed?
[SPEAKER_05]: What's the control on the bridge to do that?
[SPEAKER_02]: What if it's a lever?
[SPEAKER_05]: I like the lever idea.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think maybe it's like maybe that only distinction is instead of one that kind of just as cranked, maybe it's something that's like the whole thing is flat, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: So it's like you move it and it kind of just moves horizontally, despite having some sort of size to it.
[SPEAKER_05]: So then you slide this back and kind of we can see the normal stars reappearing through the the windscreen on the ship.
[SPEAKER_05]: And far in the distance, we see two lights shimmering over the edge of a planet.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's kind of like how the sun looks when it's peeking over the edge of an eclipse.
[SPEAKER_05]: This kind of beads of light.
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you can tell that this is the two sons of Avantine.
[SPEAKER_05]: And my question for all of you is, what do we think the planet Aventine looks like from orbit or from a distance?
[SPEAKER_05]: We've heard the several descriptions of it from flashbacks from this year about what it looks like on the ground, or these what parts of the planet look like on the ground?
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm interested in what we think it looks like now from hundreds of thousands of miles away in space.
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I have thoughts.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, go.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was going to say is it primarily a water based planet or I was going to say it.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think it looks like a pale blue dot.
[SPEAKER_06]: It's like the same as earth.
[SPEAKER_06]: The story of finding Aventine is the story of like the paradise we found, right?
[SPEAKER_06]: The first earth like planet.
[SPEAKER_06]: I think it makes sense that the first planet we found is the one most like earth.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I think as this shape grows larger, we see off to the right side of the view screen, a gray white, rocky, almost ashy moon.
[SPEAKER_05]: As we see this moon, avantine to be, grow larger in the view screen.
[SPEAKER_05]: Down on its surface, we can start to see the outline of structures.
[SPEAKER_05]: These marks left behind by our predecessors, including the outline of the mind that I mentioned to you earlier on out that maybe marks where the value is descending to land.
[SPEAKER_05]: And from outside the ship, as we see those shapes grow sharper and sharper into focus, our vision is interrupted by a blur as the now nearly invisible valiant move silently across the frame.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.