1195 – Dog Quixote and Puppo Panza | Journey Into The World of Friends Ep4
This is the lulling place where the first notes of friendship start to play.
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Episode 1195 – Dog Quixote and Puppo Panza | Journey Into The World of Friends Ep4
[START OF RECORDING]
SCOOTER: Friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, roleplayers everywhere, whether you’re running the game or you’re playing the game or you’re…whether you consider yourself an adventurer or adventure-adjacent…and you say, that doesn’t even make any…I say, are you sure it doesn’t make any sense? I’m adjacent to an adventure. You’d say, what’s the town next to Phandalin called that’s not in…? You say, that’s…what’s the trail next to Triboar Trail? What’s the…I think there actually is adventures south of the Sword Coast, but just…what are those islands called just off the Sword Coast that aren’t involved in any adventures?
Those are the Adventure-Adjacent Isles. So, if this doesn’t make any sense to you, it probably means you’re in the right place 'cause it’s time for Sleep With Me, the podcast that’s here to keep you company and take your mind off of stuff and put you to sleep. Talk about…I’ve forgotten more rums than have existed. So, I’m so glad you’re here. It’s time for Sleep With Me. This show does not make a lot of sense. I’m here to be your friend in the deep, dark night and help you fall asleep 'cause you deserve a good night’s sleep. What we got coming up here is support; that’s how the show is free for everybody that wants it to be free for them, and then there’s a long, meandering intro.
If you don’t like the idea of the support for the show, don’t miss out on the intro because the intro is a show within a show meant to ease you into bedtime, and then there will be our Journey Into the World of Friends, friends designing and playing…or kind of…friends in the friendship of adventure while creating adventure for a roleplaying game. But the role I’ll be playing is your friend in the deep, dark night here to take your mind off of stuff and keep you company. I’m so glad you’re here. Thanks for coming by, and thanks for making it possible, my patron peeps.
INTRO: [INTRO MUSIC] Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing? Trouble getting to sleep? Trouble staying asleep? Well, welcome. This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep. We do it with a bedtime story. Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press Play. I’m gonna do the rest. What I’m going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you could set aside whatever’s keeping you awake. It could be something…thoughts that you’re thinking about, thoughts about the past, the present, the future, thoughts about nothing and thoughts about making love out of nothing at all. I don't know; that just popped…I had a thought about that, so I shared it with you. But I don't know why my brain thought of that.
I said, thoughts about nothing…my brain said, well, I have thoughts about nothing at all. I’d say, I thought you had thoughts about making love out of nothing at all. Then some part of my brain snickered and laughed and said, why don’t you keep your hobbies to yourself, Scoots? I say, okay, thank you for…yet another humbling moment with my thoughts. It could be feelings, anything coming up for you emotionally related to the thoughts or feelings or emotions that are left over from the day or that are just there. It could be physical sensations, it could be changes in time, temperature, routine, work schedule. You could be going through something, you could have something coming up, or you could be going somewhere or having someone coming to visit.
Whatever it is, I’m here to take your mind off of stuff and keep you company so you could fall asleep and to let you know you’re not alone in the deep, dark night. That’s why I go through a list of stuff. I don't go through a litany of lists, though. Once again, any time the word ‘litany of lists’ comes up, another song comes up which I still never definitively remember if it was…these are eighties songs, I think. There was a song by Hall and Oates, but I’m not…still not sure. Is it A Kiss on My Lips or A Kiss on My List? Oh no, it’s list, 'cause it’s of the best things in life. It wouldn’t make any sense. I just…I probably figured this out in another intro, but I just figure…I remember I asked my daughter and she looked at me the same way you may be looking at me now, and I’m not making this up. True story.
I wasn’t doing a bit; I said, I forget again. Is it kiss on their lips or on their list? She said — as my brain repeats it — they’re lists, dad. On the list. It’s list. Maybe she even went on to say, because you couldn’t…a kiss couldn’t be on your lips of the best things in life. That doesn’t make…that sounds like something AI would say. I think something AI would say, though, would be kissing. Are we talking about kissing? Sorry, that’s another…that was a joke. So, it is a list of the best things in life. Maybe I’ll remember from now on, because I say, oh, okay, it would be…it’s kinda like these are a few of my favorite things. You wouldn’t say…I don't know why I’m relating it back to that, but that’s a list of favorite things. Is there anything else listed in the song Kisses on My Lips of the best things…? What are the other best things in life?
That’s a real question. Hall and Oates…I don't know if I’d…if I was putting…if I was making a list right now, I’d make it because that’s top of mind, but I’d put…I’d say, whose kiss? Question mark. Hall and Oates? Question mark. Then I’d probably try…then…who here…if you listen to Sleep With Me, you probably could relate to this fact that if I had to make a list of the best things in life, it would be performative — I’m not kidding — and with crushing performance pressure. I’d have to say, is anyone else…are you gonna watch me make this list? They’d say, you’re all…this is a thought experiment. Correct. What are the chances someone’s gonna read this list, and will they know it was me that wrote it? I don't know. I can’t say what’s…okay, 'cause that’s two different lists, then.
Unfortunately…I wish…that would be first on my list; I wish I was the kind of person whose list of the best things in life didn’t matter if someone was reading the list or watching them list the list. But unfortunately, the person who I am, I would probably make two different lists. Mine would be…that would be the honest…I’d say, could you give me four or five millennium to come up with that list? ‘Cause right now I have whose kiss, and then…well, then I put in parentheses ‘a kiss would be nice, though, for real, but maybe I need to do more kissing to determine if that kiss is the best thing…one of the best things in life.’ Okay, Hall and Oates is on there, and then…but now I can’t stop thinking about you watching me making this list of the best things in life, or me squirreling it away and then someone finding it.
Or, what really would happen is I wouldn’t do it on a piece of proper paper; I’d make the list on multiple Post-its that would become scattered around places I’ve been, maybe stuck to my bottom. Okay, let me add a third thing; Post-its…dot, dot, dot. I’m just…I don't want to forget anything. They say, you don’t have Post-its on the best…? I say, no…I don't know if I would put Post-its on either list. This is just my list…just so you know, if someone found it, what if…? That’s a rom-com, right? This is a pretty long tangent to go on, but that’s what would happen to my rom-com. I’d say, no, no, no, that was just a list…a brainstorming list for my list of the best things in life. They’d say, you put whose kiss on there? I’d say, no, no. Again, that was when I was…it was…Hall and Oates? Who…? They’d say, who is even Hall and Oates?
I’d say, well…and they’d say, is Post-its your number-three thing of the best things in life? How many question marks are…? I’d say, this doesn’t sound like a rom-com to me. If it was a fan of The Who…but I said, whose kiss. But maybe I mis-wrote it, so maybe there’s another part of the rom-com where somebody else finds the list and we fall…they…but I say…that would be pretty…this is starting to sound rom-commy. They’re a big Who…fan of The Who. They say, holy cow, it’s at the top of my list, too. I say, who’s at the top of your list? That was accidental. We walked right into a old vaudeville joke there. But I’d say, who’s…wait, who was at the top of your list? But they would say, who…yeah, The Who is at the top of my list. I say, oh, The Who.
Oh, I thought…and then this other person…maybe it will be that…and then somebody else would say, Whos from Whoville? Then you got…that’s a component of a rom-com there. You got a little love triangle going. But it would all be…I mean…oh, maybe it could be one of those body-swap movies, too, to over-complicate it. You say, is part of your list of the best things in life on your bottom? I’d say, maybe. Yeah, because when I put down Post-its, I meant those super…the industrial Post-its that I’ve bought. Okay, I’m sorry, though. I’m trying to introduce a sleep podcast to new listeners. I was trying to say…I don't even know how I…oh, I don't know where I went…I mean, I was just at the beginning of the intro. That was a serious meander. Oh, whatever’s keeping you awake, you’re not alone.
That was my main message. That’s the most important part of the show you’ll hear, and I just had nine minutes of accidental filler. But it was…that’s part of what works about the show, pointless meanders and superfluous tangents as I send my voice across the deep, dark night. The goal of the show is twofold, or the…whatever, the reasons for the show. I don't know. So, now I’m…better put that on my list. Goal…have goals? Is your list of the best things in life a question-based list? I’d say, yeah. That’d probably be the wisest thing I ever did. Say, this list, I’m checking them twice. Gonna find out if this is the best things in life listy or not as nice, or just on the list of my favorite things. Also, I’m having a…now I’ve found that I’m in this rom-com, I’m gonna need multiple performative lists.
‘Cause then what would happen in the movie is they’d write fake lists to make the person not love them, creating even more complications. Maybe there’s some sort of espionage thing. Like, maybe they work for some sort of super-advanced Post-it factory and those are the Post-its with the secret ingredients. I don't know. But I don't know; that’s why I make the show. I do know a couple of things, though. You deserve a good night’s sleep. Really, you do. You deserve a place you could rest where you could get the sleep you need, where your life is more manageable. Because everybody deserves that; a bedtime you don’t have to dread. That’s what we’re all looking for, a lot of people that look…listen to this show. That’s what I was looking for.
I didn’t want to feel so lonely and hopeless in the deep, dark night, and I just wanted to get to sleep. So, that’s kinda what led me to make this show. So, whether…oh, if you don’t like the show, sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothankyou has other sleep podcasts and sleep stuff on there because you still deserve a good night’s sleep. The thing about being alone…I know this is a podcast. I’m not perfect but I can be here digitally for you. But the thing is that it’s not just me. There’s hundreds of thousands of people who listen to this show who have been through it, who have been tossing, turning, mind racing, trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep, and they know how it feels. That’s why they come back and listen to the show again or they share about the podcast or they support the podcast, 'cause they know how it feels in the deep, dark night.
They know you deserve a good night’s sleep, and a lot of them can probably relate to what you’re going through, whatever’s keeping you up, and that’s what I mean when you’re not alone. It does…this is its own multiverse in some sense. Even if you’re listening and someone else is listening five minutes from now and someone else is listening five years from now, we’re connected, really. So, let’s see, what else happens? Send my voice across the deep, dark night, I use lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones, pointless meanders, all to keep you company and take your mind off of stuff. This is a podcast you don’t really listen to. You just kinda listen to it out-of-focus, clearly. You just saw whatever happened for eight minutes. I tumbled down a meander-hole and it was enjoyable.
It didn’t go anywhere but it didn’t go nowhere, either. So, this is a podcast you could…some people listen to me at a mumble, but some people are listening. I don't know, so you could kinda figure it out as you go along, because this show isn’t here to put you to sleep. It’s here to keep you company while you fall asleep, to take your mind off of stuff, to be your friend in the deep, dark night, your bore-friend, your bore-bae, your bore-sib, your bore-bud, your bore-bestie, your neigh-bore, your bore…what did…? Borbie; that’s the new one. I think I’ve listened to another intro where I said some other word, but Borebie is sticking. I think it was like bore-bear? Bore-bur? I don't know. Borebie’s good, though. I’m just here to keep you company, and if you’re skeptical or doubtful…most people don’t like the show when they first get here.
It doesn’t work for them right away, because you’ve probably tried a ton of different stuff and it’s been frustrating. You’ve probably spent a lot of money and you probably have a expectation that a sleep podcast that’s been around for over ten years or so has…would follow some sort of traditional format and not talk about a rom-com based on lists based on you accidentally going on two different tangents about eighties songs. So, just see how it goes. That’s what most regular…most people that pay for the podcast, that support it, that have supported it for years or support the sponsors, those are the people I hear from the most, and they say, you know, I didn’t like the show at first or I didn’t get it. It took me a while to realize oh, yeah, you just kinda barely listen like a friend that’s rambling on and on and on.
So, that’s…yeah. Oh, structure…oh, structure of the show throws people off. Yeah, I think that’s the other thing I don’t want…so, the show starts off with a greeting; friends beyond the binary, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, so you feel seen and welcome, you say, I could check this show out. Then there’s support so the show could be free, because there’s a lot of people who aren’t in a position to support the podcast and benefit it…benefit from…benefit…that it’s there for them whenever they need it, and that there’s about 600 free shows you could listen to at any time. So, you could listen to your…pick your favorites and stuff. The support allows that, and the people that support the companies that support the show.
Then there’s a long, meandering intro, and for some reason, if people don’t like the support, they lump the intro in with it, and I don't want you to miss out on the intro. I guess you’re already listening to it. But for next time, the intro is a show within a show, but it’s not so much here to put you to sleep, just like the podcast isn’t here to put you to sleep. The intro is meant to ease you into bedtime. I just heard from someone named Matt M. who started supporting the podcast who said, hey, at first I skipped the beginning of the show, then I realized having a bedtime routine is what really works, and that’s true. So, some listeners are getting ready for bed, some are in bed getting comfortable, but a lot of listeners are doing some sort of other chill wind-down activity. That’s just what’s work…whatever it is to ease you into bedtime.
Then after the intro is some support, and then there will be our bedtime story, our episodically modular series. You could listen to it in any order; Journey Into the World of Friends, about friendship and gameplay and adventure. It’s a really nice one. So, I’m glad you’re here. I really appreciate you checking the podcast out. Give it a few tries. See how it goes. But I really hope…and I’m not looking…performatively…here’s the thing; if you relate to having that…that’s what it’s…another thing that unites us in the deep, dark night. Not everybody who’s listening is gonna realize that or have…share that thing, but there’s a lot of people listening who have that relationship with the world. You say, you’re right; I would have…I mean, especially if it was at school. I’d say, what are the…?
I mean, I wouldn’t 'cause I wasn’t a good student, but I’m projecting onto a good student. They’d say, what are the parameters of this best things in life…? I’d be thinking about if the person I had a crush with…I’d tried to design my list for them, or if I…in a similar way to a crush, I’ve had some sort of mentor situation or some authority figure I was trying to impress, which usually I’d have that relationship at school, but I’d say, okay…I’d use my list of the best things in life to get what I thought were the best things in life, which in rom-com fashion would turn out not to be what I really want…what I really wanted or needed. I don't know what it would be, but that’s just what would…that’s just what happens with me. I’m a performative list-maker, when…even when alone.
I mean, not…I’m not a high-performing performative list-maker, either. I’m a low…you say, okay, this is why we procrastinate. People say, why do you procrastinate? Well, do you have two or three hours during the intro of a sleep podcast for me to explain to you…? I say, well, golly, I just made twelve lists of the best things in life. Ran out of…that’s why I’m at the store, sir. What are you doing? Huh, funny…that’s funny because I just ran out of paper because…out of…but trying to…yeah. I was brainstorming lists of the best things in life that I didn’t believe in, believe it or not. They’d say, you’re hired. That was a…I’d say, okay. Thought this was a rom-com but now it’s turned into something different.
But anyway, I’m glad you’re here. I’m sorry if you identify with those things, but it’s…you’re not alone. If you have the need to performatively make lists in case other…you feel like other people are gonna read them and judge them, I do, too, and I don’t feel…I laugh about it now because I know I’m not alone. You’ve enabled me to do that, so thank you and thanks for listening to the show. I work really hard. I yearn and I strive. I really hope I can help you fall asleep. Thanks again for coming by, and here’s the ways we’re able to do it for you for free twice a week.
Alright everybody, Scoots here. It’s time for our episodically modular series, Journey Into the World of Friends. Don't worry; the characters…it’s a group of characters playing a game together. They’re actually designing a roleplaying adventure and they’re kinda playing it at the same time, and they’re in the midst of an adventure of friendship on top of it. So, a lot of adventuring going on. Yeah, a lot going on, so it’s…but talk about the world of friendship. I have a friend, and that friend’s name is Mr. Antonio Banderas. The friends beyond the binary, the ladies, the gentlemen, the boys and girls, it’s time for a journey into the World of Friends. Whoopee.
Scooter, I noticed we’re friends but you didn’t make any friendly pokes at my driving, my charm, my wit. You didn’t…also didn’t plug my movie, but that’s fine. No movie plug. Yeah. Alright, that’s Journey Into the World of Friends. Make sure to check out all of…go on Antonio’s IMDB page and then sign…if you’re in a position to do so. I think it’d be best if they…physical…if you want to…talk about physical media. That’s the first thing that enters my mind, is Antonio, 'cause…I’d say, you’re one chunk of…or hunky chunk of physical media, and this is Journey Into the World of Friends.
Alright, everybody, this is Grenada of Darmok, Grenada of Darmok, okay? So, everybody come in, please. Let’s get right into story mode and character mode, please. I know everyone is not feeling overjoyed. This indoors lifestyle, home lifestyle, I know, I know, I know. But we’re gonna deal with it as characters and in game right now, and I’m gonna start out. Don't worry; I could see by those furrowed brows how you’re feeling about me and my ideas, and that’s fine. But as characters, I can see why you feel that way, too, because we’ve been camping outside of this train station together for a while now waiting for that full moon or whatever it was, to find that mechanical being or spiritual mechanical being that we could meet with to get guidance as characters. We’ve been camping together in this incredibly boring place.
Not a lot of people here. Yeah, it’s not been easy, but…I’ll start because sharing a tent with Lord von Chill and being the new member of this party, even though the…being a new version of the…being a new…feeling new has me frowny-faced and trusted…trustated of frost…frust…trustrated of frust. Frust upon me…not feeling welcome necessarily and with…but without pointing the fingers of my sweet leather gloves…oh, go ahead, Lord von Chill, obviously. Yes, yes, I’m Lord von Chill, and I am tated of ire. Tated of ire. A field of tated ires. I’m also tall of skeptic. Oh boy, am I, towering over my field of taters of ire, tall of skeptic about this adventure that we’re sharing together as a group and as individuals and as smaller…coupling or non…you know. I feel like I’ve been excited about this adventure.
Could it be as free and okay as it feels or is it…is this not…am I…once again I find myself tated of ire. Oh, I guess my…go ahead, Zell. You seem to be…yes, I’m Zell. Thank you. I’m V of N, and loose…luss of gel at this shine and joy and freedom and imperfection. That’s all…yeah. That’s how…that’s where I am. I’m Eleanor of the Three Florences, and I’m gree of ang. Gree of ang. Maybe a little…because…to stay with the Three Florences, a little lee vang and maybe a gree of hang because there’s no snacks because…why are there no snacks? I think because there’s no snack rations given out. I don't understand the third odd…but anyway, that’s fine. So, yeah, I’m those grees of angs.
Emwatta here. I’m up a fed, dumps in the down, and less of power about all this right now. Okay, okay, Grenada of Darmok here. Since I’m leading today…this is what happens underneath the surface of all adventures. I think it’s important for us to remember that, that this is…the adventure only takes place above…this is below the below. But let’s go to…let’s run through what happened last week. I do have notes from last time. Eleanor led and we talked about choosing sides. Was there gonna be three sides, the Baron of the Boil, the park, and Vendul, then we worked on some development of Vendul, who will be our rival or our…could be our challenger.
We talked about motivations as a party and motivations as individuals, and I think thinking about that in a free-form way for future adventurers through the…Sultana, the oracle…machine that also is magic, and the child being or this ride-based being, and each of those tying into practical needs and wants versus some of the things that might run under those. Now, maybe one of those could be unlimited snack rations. Maybe they’re potato-based. That’s funny. We talked about being the backup for the Baron of the Boil, Leader X…what are their motivations. It’s interesting, too, the Leader X thing. Reminds me of other adventures I’ve been on as that…what do you call that? Sometimes someone appears early in the adventure you think is gonna be important and they’re not.
We talked about how there’s the water, there’s something going on that we probably can observe, that Vendul is using ride beings or maybe mechanical beings at first, we think, or some sort of force to do what we thought was trying to control the locks and the wave-based power systems and the water, but really what they’re trying to do is drain some of these waters because the water is a cork on top of this portal to another world. Vedul the Green…we must witness when Vedul casts his powerful spell to oppose the Baron’s forces. We went through some brainstorming about no bad ideas.
We also covered the polliwogs, our first adventure, and again, a lot of free-form people could rush through it in a quick way and just look at battling or if there was a DM that wanted to hold some sort of short trial…or if the characters were more interested in getting away or building towards solutions and communicating. I don't think we quite got down to what would happen next, a solution to all that, but we’ll do a little bit more reviewing. Toy labor, Vedul…what else do we need? Overall story…we’ve…have to start looking at the ending. Oh, locking in Vedul, Vedul’s level…these were kinda open-ended questions. I don't think we need to close at this moment. What is the arc of the polliwogs?
‘Cause again…so, are we trying to unite these two groups of polliwogs or just…what’s holding the polliwogs from telling on us or what are we offering them other than the fact that these other…other than the communication? Do we even need to answer those questions or could the DM be the one answering those? Let’s see, these are other things that may have come up towards the end of our session. What if the mechanical child…specific quests or emotional quests…is the…is Vedul actually the offspring of some sort…or being convinced they’re the offspring of some sort of dragon friend that’s not a friend at all…a goal aligned within emotional needs of each member of the party as a whole, magical cards; that we covered. Yeah, full moon; that’s what we waited for while we were so frustrated.
It disappears if you approach…listen in to it. These are specifics, but again, I guess we’re going through this adventure together now, and we’ll figure out the specifics. But yeah, maybe something also specific about this…beings in this ride that…the mechanical child being, and maybe that they’re being changed and discarded. So, a little bit more backstory but in the forms of clues and not clarity, but that they’re almost working on a schedule and they’re able to go home after work. Is this mechanical child actually a magic-use…I didn’t return to this on my research this week, but…is it a guest, wizard? Is it a part of the ride that learned how to use magic or has a magic staff?
Okay, we didn’t do…one of the goals we had this week was about looking at the iterations of this ride and some of the undercurrent of the ride and the history, which we…that was…we were unable to do that because of…we also didn’t have access. So, Eleanor, do you want to talk…? Yeah, this is Eleanor. So, we did want to talk about these ideas of…from the earlier time, that at one point this attraction has gone through different iterations, kind of reflective of the culture abroad. It was US-focused at first, even though it was considered an international ride, and based on…the music in the ride has changed, but it’s always been anthropomorphized animal toys and they’ve kind of changed, and there was also this [inaudible] period, and I think that is important thematically to think about that as, again, a subtle form.
Because even though this was a giant company, the people that work for the company tended to be of the rebellious nature, and so, they wanted to weave subtle acts of rebellion and progress values into the ride, even if it was in an undertone. When they refurbed the ride in that style with the J-pop soundtrack and those things, I think that was guiding some of that, similar to…but we didn’t get to really research that, because I wanted…I know it was originally, I think, a student movement or…so, yeah. Oh, it’s always associated with pop culture, but before it was pop culture. Then again I went through the…only the music, then the soundtrack has combined…as far as we could tell, three areas…eras of music.
One, I’m using quotes of a J-pop soundtrack and then a K-pop soundtrack before…at the…towards the end of the earlier times. Do you want me to keep continuing…I mean, looking at the first room? When we encounter the first room, what would be in there? Because it was supposed to be this idealized toy version of Europe. Everybody says, well, that’s great, but so…well, we decided to focus on…Zell, Watta…Zell, do you want to take it? Yeah, so, I think an important thing…and I don't know if we talked about this last week, but with no bad ideas, I think it came out of that…the good parts of the no bad ideas, that this would be a…okay, I feel like we have to picture this, right? So, we never came out with the specifics.
Well, we kinda got to the idea that the polliwogs said, oh yeah, we have that room…there is the first room of the ride, but it’s blocked off. We’re keeping them in; not us out. But also the idea that the polliwogs are territorial and they just wanted to live in their little world, and that was kinda the thing of Vedul. Thematically, that kinda transfers to the next room, is that the next room, they are also territorial. So, they’re happy that they…that there’s not access between the two areas and that they don’t exist within one another, and that as we sneak into the ride, probably through going…I don't know. I think that the idea…at least the setup would be that…the ideal way to go into the ride if we were doing it, what I would recommend, is not to charge into the room but to sneak in the room and listen.
I think that’s…we’d use Grenada of Darmok to listen, and we’d use all our…whatever our areas of strength are to find out as much as we could and progress as slowly as possible. Though, obviously whoever’s running the game that we’re creating, they could determine things a little bit differently, but that we would observe that, yeah, one…well, we never decided is the canal filled in this room. I kinda think it should be, and maybe it should be in every room. I think we had gone back and forth about that, and that maybe that’s how we access it, and that these mechanical beings, they cannot get wet or they can’t go in water. Maybe they…so, that somehow we’re going under the water but that we want to sneak into the ride…at least if we were doing it, I think we’d all agree on that, and that we would hide and observe.
I think out of the no bad ideas, does anybody want to take it of what we’re observing and what we’re seeing or…Lord von Chill, Watta, anyone? Well, Lord von Chill here. So, I could go over the…again, what history we were able to gather. But again, it’s a fiction anyway. Is that…? Yeah, there was very representative architecture of famous tourist areas. So, you had Big Ben, castles, a rainbow with a pot of gold, windmills, a few different stages for dancing and performing music, mountains, Eiffel Tower, a lot of iconic pieces of architecture or of landscape. Also stuff in the sky; suns and kites and then also some…oh, another thing was giant clocks. I know we have other things, but yeah. So, what we would observe is…now, we weren’t sure about this and it developed as the week went on, but that what we start to observe is that one, we’re struck by what great condition this room and the characters are in.
The friends; okay, so we’re referring to them as friends. Thank you. We said, wait a second, shouldn’t these things be falling apart? But that we start to look at them and say, okay, wait a second, they look like they’ve been patched together or…but they’re in great shape. They’re well cared for. So, that would be our first impression as we’re observing from a place, as Watta was saying. Or, I’m sorry, Zell. Maybe Watta, you could go through what we’re observing, but again, overall we’re seeing that…wait a second, are they…? Is it some sort of…they seem to be doing something together. Maybe at first we say, wait a second, are they coming after us? But it quickly becomes apparent that they’re in a rehearsal for a dance and musical show, but they’re also very frustrated because there’s no music.
So, they kind of are…huh, that’s interesting. Maybe they’re feeling a bit of how we’ve been feeling, like each group, and…but they still have the need to do this rehearsal. Even though there’s no music, there’s people with instruments…I don't think we…I talked about that. There’s horns, bagpipes, and they can’t play the music. Then the dancers are trying to dance, but how are you gonna dance…? They’re trying to keep time, maybe, and…yeah, is there anything else? Eventually we’ll get to the adventure part, but we know kind of what they’re missing. I don't know what else we could observe. Maybe we see someone…I guess this was something we discussed, but returning from work or some of them returning from work…I feel like this is part of the…these characters are being reserved for something else, some other purpose, and they are left alone where there’s other parts of this attraction that they’re not a part of.
So, they’re the furthest-removed from the day-to-day work. So, they’re being reserved for some other future purpose. Again, we discussed, well, are they going to do…or are they just left alone? Do they go off for training? Can we see any of them returning from training? Oh yeah, here’s the…for Stage 2 of Vedul’s plan. But we can see that they’ve been taken care of, and we also had these ideas about them coming to life, but I think Watta…why don’t you take it? Okay, yeah, so, we’re still in the…we know what we know of our brainstorming, but the idea that there’s gonna be factions within the ride…and that this is the special faction, and they view themselves as that way. They’re waiting for their purpose, so they’re somewhat pampered and cared for.
Now, of course they think their purpose is one thing, but Vedul, of course, has something not positive waiting for them. But also, interestingly enough, what had come up under the surface…because these are sentient, conscious beings. They have a sense of ease un, and reef, because they say, well, what’s…we’ve seen what’s happening with these other groups in the attraction. We’ve seen Vedul and the power of Vedul the Green, so what…we’re not feeling comfortable. When they…when we’re revealed to them, that reef is gonna be powerful ‘cause they’re gonna say, well, we gotta turn them over to Vedul and tell on them right away. But there’s something else they want greatly, which is the first thing…or the second thing we observe other than the conditions, is their actions rehearsing.
As long as we observe enough, we can clearly see that they’re rehearsing for performances and that they’re traded of frust but that they’re feeling really…they also love it. They may have another purpose for Vedul, but this is their purpose. In some sense, it’s a weird middle world that they’re in. Not to go off topic and get too far ahead of us, but that…I didn’t think about it this way. Their world has changed drastically and again, something we talked about is that maybe part of their sentience…did we write any of this down? So, the idea that this portal isn’t just a portal. It’s also a…there’s a well from our world sitting on it. So, this is…it’s beyond our understanding. That’s not just an excuse, but that…and this is what Vedul and these other beings that are trying to manipulate Vedul are trying to get to.
That source is a collection of power; not just magical power, but that in the before times, this became where that power was gathered. As people changed their states of being to other places, some of their essence was left behind in a non-sentient form. So, this is not a…we’re not getting into…what do you call that? Not reanimation or…but I guess…that’s okay; I won't…I don't need to remember. Rebirth or whatever you call it? No; this is just their energy, but maybe it has some remnants of that. So, maybe it is like that a little bit, but that that’s been gathered in a pool that’s somehow also sitting on top of this portal or something like that.
The combination of the powers…mostly good powers leaking out of the portal combining with this also well of essence, magical, spiritual essence, whatever you want to call it, is what…this is what we…part of our belief system outside of this game, and that is what created sentience of the park, and that is why these beings are sentient beings. But they’re not…they’re new sentient beings. What’s interesting — and I guess you’d say it’s mechanical muscle memory — is they mostly are associated with their characters or their attraction, which I think is important for us to learn. They’ve been performing as these characters for so long that of course their sentience is gonna be part of that. Grenada, do you want to run through the summary and just do that? Sure. Thank you.
So, summary; so, okay, so these are top-shape animatronics. They probably…this…well, this has again now become a little more fluid. At first we were like, they go out to be repaired or touched up and probably trained, but we’re fuzzy on that, which would be…I don't know. But so, the other thing we didn’t discuss that they will have to reveal to the party is that sometimes they…there’s…even though they’re kind of a troupe, a performing troupe or a set of performing troupes that has learned to perform together, there’s some members of their troupe that are not…that have gone out for training or whatever and haven’t made it back. Also, these are kind of in the realm of no bad ideas.
There’s rumors of scrap heaps, of characters from the rides that have not followed the rules, and also this idea…and I don't know if it’s gonna be what’s reserved for them, but of Voltron…remember that character from…? There was a attraction at this park about it, or something; the Panda Force. I remember that it was combined. Yeah, they had Panda Force…that there’s some sort of other toy like that that’s very large and is a combination of the other toys, I think. But the important fact is if they feel like if they follow the rules, which we would again have to learn through interacting with them after we observed them, is that they’re forced to live…oh no, they’re allowed to live in this isolation, blocked off from the rest of the ride. They want music.
There is abandoned dance leader…originally we found…fell on the idea that there would be no noise and that they could only communicate via motion. But we decided against that and that there’s just no music, because we thought that would be kinda hard. Like, are they communicating by…telepathically? Because there’s a lot to communicate and it just doesn’t seem as fun. If it was just by lip-reading a physical motion or drawing or writing…these are the ideas. Then there’s still the question of do they actually…what do they need to make music? But I think we finally found that it was like, do we have to go get speakers? Is there some sort of magical intervention that has to happen? Do we have to connect them to power?
But then we kinda came up with the idea that yeah, no, their life force is…has an electric energy to it and it’s also drawing on the energy within the attraction, and that’s…kinda goes to why they can’t leave the attraction very far and that that mechanical being that we saw outside the train station is, again, just a projection, a magical projection, and not a real being. So, they don’t actually…these aren’t real…they don’t know that the instruments they have are not real. So, they don’t understand some simple facts, and…or maybe, again, talking about what happens beneath the surface, they don’t want…they have no desire to understand that it would be pretty confusing to be like, no, you’re just a part of a ride, but somehow you became sentient.
I guess you would just try to adjust to that if you knew it anyway and move on. So, telling them that they’re not real instruments even though their whole makeup is based on them playing the instruments for thousands and thousands of hours a year…also, the fact…this is important and I’m glad that it…they could be…that happiness is possible for them and we want to enable…the music will…and even…and they believe that, and actually it’s true. Now, they want to…they’re all…before our arrival, alls they wanted to do was gain the music to be happy when they’re not working for Vedul or waiting to work for Vedul. But now we’re in a opportunity to offer them change, but happiness is possible for them, also that they have some sort of secret or piece of a secret.
So, that’s…I think…does someone want to take it from there? Yeah, this is Zell. What if we pretend that we’re communicating with them now? Because I know we would have to communicate with them to get information about…what do they need. Probably would be rolling to find out can we persuade them to hold off on…do we need to surprise them, and should we split up and cover the exits? I think so. Did we observe long enough to know where the exit is or if there’s any secret places where Vedul could observe us? Everybody’s nodding, so…and again, there’s no DM, so, sure; that’s what we’ll do, and we’ll just presume we were somewhat successful. Then some of us with the highest charisma will reveal ourselves, and what we want to find out is hey, we’re not here to cause trouble.
We’re just trying to get some information. ‘Cause what we want as a party, we’d need to progress to the next room. But obviously the way they’re going and coming is probably observed by Vedul. I guess this goes to…maybe going to the…I guess we didn’t even discuss this, but maybe there’s something with us being the back-up for the Baron of the Boil that there was some sort of thing within the pumping station or the wave power station that the Baron has assigned us a task like that. So, our main tasks are…I don't know why we didn’t think of this sooner, but our main tasks are, one, to activate this device that, whatever, allow the free-form…free flow of the water in a more organic way, I would say, 'cause the wave-pumping stations are still gonna need to flood the area, basically.
So, the park would be flooded which would protect the power source, but it would also…the Baron of the Boil is just mostly interested in the water being able to go…so, there must be some sort of device. You know what I mean? That should be our main assignment, yeah? Then assignment two; just as important but not as important or is it? Find the Baron…find her son. But then we also have our other agendas, and I think that’s important because now…wow, we got lucky with this. So, we’re establishing a relationship with these sentient beings, the polliwogs, and now…so, we’re gonna want to find an alternative solution because otherwise it would mean the flooding of the park. Wow. We got really lucky here.
So, we’re…but we’re already…and maybe that creates a little inter-party tension, and then again with any NPC parties, we will meet in the future and the Baron’s son…that’s like, oh, no, no…even if you were to defeat Vedul, there would be another power who must get rid of this pumping station. But the result of getting rid of the pumping station would be that this park would be flooded. Maybe that goes to the…what they discovered, like Leader X or whatever. There’s no reason to explore this park, anyway. It’s just flooded. I guess the polliwogs wouldn’t mind because they’ll be fine. I think that’s powerful. Why did we not think about that? Because it’s like…and it ties into how we…what we believe.
We can’t let these poor sentient ride beings down that are non…I mean, they’re mobile with…but they’re…only can exist in their own area. Wow. I’m really grateful. This is a powerful thing we’ve stumbled on. Can somebody take it? I’m a little stunned. This is Eleanor; sure. So, we kinda came up with some…well, first we kinda brainstormed different personality traits and…of different…to try to think of what would be…what characters would be…we’d be encountering. We also came up with lists of things we could look to later, both of…from the game of smaller beings that we could compare stat blocks to, and later on mech…bigger mechanical beings we could compare stat blocks to. We also did a lot of research into these modrons which exist in another universe.
I think that was good as far as giving us some reference, but not too applicable because they live in a caste system. Oh, that was the most important thing, is that they’re drawing their life force from in return. That was the main thing we got that was already covered, is this well of life force. But they’re very logical, where I don't think these beings are gonna be as logical and stuck in conformity. Oh yeah, here it is. There’s the notes from earlier. How did we forget this? I guess with everything that’s going on. The park has the life force of everyone who was nearby, but they’re not ethereal beings. It’s just their force now, and that force has been released into the rides and the characters. It has somehow to do with the water, but not the portal. But they’re…those things are touching one another.
Who wants to do the names that we came up with for the characters in the room? Well, Lord von Chill; Dog Quixote, whom…and Puppel Pawnza. Puppel…but those two are confused. I like this idea. Those two are confused, so…Puppel Pawnza’s the leader of the band and the dancers, and Dog Quixote is the sidekick. I think…I just think that’s very funny. You all think it’s funny. So, those two…but so, that’s leader of the…running the rehearsal are those two. Then we have…what does this say? Oh, Bouffantaluffalo…oh, these are the…so, this would be the main source of trouble when we reveal ourselves; the Bouffantaluffalo guards. Those are famous in England, you know, that…they were in charge of the castle or something. So, they will be the main ones.
They don’t…they just listen to the music and they are actually guards. Flamingo dancers; that was an easy one. Lucky the Leopardchaun. Oh, Leopardchaun, so…'cause they had that. Chewy Toy Soldiers Band, or we said, oh, Toy Poodles Band. But I think Toy…Chewy Toy Soldiers made of chew toys, and maybe even a toy poodle’s hanging off of one of them. But they’ll be the band, right, one of the bands. Cat-Cat Dancers, of course. Cluckenspiel Band; that’ll be funny. Boule Ballet Dancers. I think we’ve seen this before, but I still like the image of ballet Boules. Boule Ballet Dancers. Goat Yodelers…we never came up with something for bag-piper. Then this character who is a little bit more sentient that we will meet but we started to brainstorm, Mary Blair Repair. Watta?
Okay, so let’s get back into the game mode. This is really working, is the further we get as characters into this game mode…so we’re talk…we calmed down the Bouffalo guards and said hey, we’re here to help. Tell us about what’s going on. We were watching you and we’re not…maybe we explain to them that we’re from another world, we’re not there to mess with them…we even find out…well, we’ve got…they’ve got a good thing going and no…of course there’s going to be one of them that we can’t trust that’ll go against us, but for the time being we find out that we can’t proceed the way they come in and out because there’s too many of Vedul’s real guards.
Obviously the other thing we talked about is that Vedul’s gonna be so powerful that there’s no way a party could face them…face Vedul directly now, but probably even later. Again, that’s what…that would fit with this great idea that made itself apparent tonight, that yeah, we’re not even there to battle Vedul. We could or any party could, but we’re there to enact this plan of the Baron of the Boil’s…find the Baron of the Boil’s son and get out. Maybe there’s even supposed to be a boat hidden, so we can just take the boat down to the Baron of the Boil. Then we say, well, was…we know what that…the whole thing with the mystery dragon…what happened with the boat. So, we talked to all of them and we say, okay, don't worry. That’s the truth. We’re not being duplicitous.
We’re just here…they maybe tell us, oh yeah, there was another party that came through at some point and they tried to go through that door; they got caught. That kinda makes sense, so, okay. Well, we can’t go through there. How long ago was that? Not…oh, that lines up with the timeline for the Baron of the Boil. What are you doing? Maybe we even find that out. Oh no; the Baron of the Boil…no, we’re draining swamps. Why would we be draining swamps? Oh, these other things that happen, so maybe we’re getting a incomplete picture of what Vedul’s up to. There’s also some sort of clue that maybe is not apparent at first of like, oh, well, why are you repaired? What happens to characters…? ‘Cause again, we have to get to this ‘how do we meet Mary Blair Repair?’.
Oh, so, actually, I thought we came up with the solution later, but basically you have to get to the point in the negotiations where they say, okay, well…and maybe they ask us if they could be alone to discuss, and they say, well, we do need something. We can’t get our musical instruments to work. Mary Blair Repair went to go find them and said we needed…I think they won't understand, but this Mary Blair Repair, that’s one of the people keeping them and everyone in working order. Maybe even Vedul knows about it. I don't know. She went to go get speaker wire, but they will say reeds…we use woodwinds or whatever, 'cause I think that’d be fun. But basically, we…they say, well, we have to play music. It’s in our hearts. Maybe they have one wire.
Maybe that’s how we confirm all this is possible, or maybe it’s been broken and we are able to fix it somehow, but it’s only one wire and then they…we see that actually when they use it, it activates their speaker and they are able to play their individual instruments. It could make sense from a magical perspective that it’s like, there’s speakers in Oregon in some sense, you know? It’s like a…it’s not like a mammal like us where it’s like, a memory has its own mini-brain or something connected to the history of the ride. Eventually they could sync it up with the dancing and stuff. If we’re really…no bad ideas; that is possible. So, they really want to be able to play this music, and they see it as a win-win. If you go find Mary Blair, we know where she went. Then they explain this idea of chutes.
Like, each room has a chute that goes down to some of the Handy Hallways from the other thing we learned about. They say, well, the only problem with our chute was that Mary Blair was going down this ladder and the ladder went down. So, if you could go find Mary Blair or the speaker wires, either one, that would be humungous for us. We say, okay, we think we could do that if you don’t tell Vedul. Then we already know, okay, well, we’ll have to figure something else out anyway to progress in the attraction. Maybe it’s down there where…the Handy Halls are famous. But maybe there could be one other thing they know. Or they say…oh, maybe they say Mary Blair had a map or something with her. She knows all about the Handy Halls 'cause she goes in-between those things, and maybe…you know what I’m saying?
Or maybe there’s more than one. Maybe it’s not just Mary Blair. I don't know. In the other rooms, there’s another repair-based being. So, then we find out that in the…on the Big Ben is where…if you go inside the roof of the Big Ben, that’s where there’s a shaft going down to another level, to the Handy Halls. Maybe it was for garbage or maintenance access. We don’t know. Grenada, do you want to take us home? Oh, sure. Thanks. Okay, so we talked about…yeah, maybe that’s where they used to put the trash or maybe that’s still where they put the trash now. It’s a chute to the lower level. It’s possible for us to use ropes and secrecy.
The good thing is it’s inside the Big Ben, so if Vedul’s minions come, the ride…as long as no one tells on us, which they would be motivated to not tell on us unless they were setting an apetra, which they could do that, but if we don’t return…if we do return with the speaker wires, they might think, okay, glad you gave us the wires. By the way, here’s Vedul’s minions. That could be possible. That’s probably a decent idea that we didn’t come up with, or we…maybe we do come up with it. Can we really trust them? But for the time being we can secretly…only known to the characters in this ride go down Big Ben to this next level, which would be a sub-basement, Handy Halls level. Then this is where we’d try to find the speaker wires, and we still are designing this room, right?
But that basically we’ll go down there next and then look for Mary Blair, speaker wires, what else we could find, but probably with the anticipation that there’s gonna be some things we have to avoid. So, what…let’s go…so, we do…did some dexterity checks or whatever, and obviously I guess I would be going first and testing everything out and saying it’s clear. Everybody’s coming with me and we’re saying, okay, we want to make sure we can get out, but if anybody…so, we’ll probably leave a second hidden set of something to help us come back up.
I would use a pulley, but we’ll put it down the shaft a little bit so then in case they tell on us, Vedul’s team won't see this pulley. I’ll hide it. So, we could still get out. But we get down to this Handy Halls level and there’s a pile of junk of old…some parts of the attraction, speakers, maybe even some speaker wire. As we all get down there, though, then we notice something’s…what…is something happening? We’re all getting really tired. We say, oh no, there’s a surprise down here, a sleep surprise, and we all start to fall asleep. We all roll and none of our rolls work out. We fall into a deep, deep slumber. Goodnight.
[END OF RECORDING]
(Transcribed by Leah Hervoly)
-
Journey Into the World of Friends
Body Swap Movies
https://www.gq.com/gallery/best-body-swap-movies-films-list-history
https://www.theringer.com/movies/2020/11/12/21560119/body-swapping-movies-history-freaky
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/promotion-two-became-one-history-body-swap-movies/
Changes to It’s a Small World Over Time
https://www.disneydining.com/magic-kingdom-its-a-small-world-wheelchair-doll-addition-js1/
https://www.thestreet.com/retail/disney-adds-inclusive-addition-to-iconic-ride
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/03/09/disney-its-a-small-world-change-isnt-big-but-is-notable/
Don Quixote
https://hub.jhu.edu/2016/09/29/egginton-cervantes-29sept2016/
https://geekinitiative.com/the-enduring-legacy-of-miguel-de-cervantes/
Lower Wacker Drive (Chicago)
https://chicagodetours.com/exploring-underground-chicago-layers/
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lower-lower-wacker-drive
DOWN TO BUSINESS
Adventure-Adjacent
Deep Dark Night United
Ruby (Spread the Word)
PLUGS
WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike Support; Newsletter; The Midnight Mission; Orlando Park Stop; Trevor Project; Patreon; SleepPhones; Emily Tat Artwork; NAPAWF; Anti-Racism Resources; Crisis Textline; Annual Survey
SPONSORS
Odoo; Polysleep; Helix Sleep; Progressive; Zoc Doc
INTRO
Thoughts about making love out of nothing at all
Why don’t you keep your hobbies to yourself, Scoots?
I’ll never go through a litany of lists
Is this a Hall & Oates song?
A list of the best things in life
What are the best things in life? A simple question
If I had to make a best thing of life, it would be performative
Making a list of kisses would be a real rabbit hole for me …
My list would be on a series of Post-It’s everywhere
My kissing list rom com scenario
And maybe The Who feature into this
Accidentally walking right into an old vaudeville joke
And maybe Whoville plays into this somehow…
An Over-Complicated Rom Com Body Swap Film
Industrial Post-Its
That was a real super tangent there
Performative Lists
Man, this imaginary movie could be really over-stuffed with ideas pretty easily
Borebie is a new one
Don’t miss out on the intro if you’re new
Let Matt M’s testimony convince you to start a bedtime routine
Designing a list for someone I have a crush on
I can laugh about it now, because I know I’m also not alone
STORY
Designing and playing at the same time
The Adventure of Friendship
Antonio’s intro
Scooter didn’t do any friendly pokes at Antonio this time
Check out Antonio’s IMDB page and support his work
Talk about Physical Media …
One Chunk of Physical Media
Grenada of Darmak – let’s get started
People aren’t thrilled with this Indoor Lifestyle
Now they’re playing
Camping in a courtyard, waiting to commune with a mechanical spirit
Grenada is not feeling welcome necessarily
LVC is Tated of Ire
Tall of Skeptic
LVC is not feeling great about this new adventure
Zel checks in
Zel is Lous of Jel
Eleanor is Gree of Ang because there’s no snacks
Em Watta is Up of Fed
The adventure only takes place below the below
Grenada is leading today
Baron of Boil
Vindul
The Park
Where does allegiance lie?
Sultana the Oracle Machine
Ride-Based Being, aka the Child
Explaining the whole Water Conflict
Recapping last week’s work
We’ve still gotta lock in Vidul
Resolving the Pollywogs problem
Distinguishing between the Child and Sultana
Questions about the Mechanical child
Historical Iterations of this Ride
They couldn’t access that information
Eleanor chimes in
Anthropomorphized Animal Toys
The workers of this giant company wanted to weave subtle acts of rebellion into the rider
Refurbished with a J-POP soundtrack
3 Eras of Music in “The World of Friends”
What would be in the first room
An Idealized Toy Europe
Zel takes it
Pollywogs are territorial
The Ideal Way to Enter the Ride
Sneak into the room and listen / gather intel
What are we observing?
LVC reviews the history
Representative architecture of famous tourist areas
Giant clocks were everywhere
This ride has been well cared for
In rehearsal for a dance / musical show
Frustration that there’s no music
A band that can’t play the music
Some parts of this attraction are being reserved for a future purpose
What are they waiting for?
Watta takes over
There will be factions within the ride
The Special Faction, waiting for their purpose, at Vidul’s beck and call
Sentient Conscious Beings (SCBs)
Questioning their purpose
A weird middle world
Did we write any of this down about their sentience?
The portal is beyond our understanding
But everyone is trying to get to the portal
A collection of power, magical and otherwise
Portal Powers combined with magical essence are giving the park sentience
New Sentient Beings in Tip Top Shape
They go out to be touched up and trained (probably)
Some of their troupe have not returned
Rumors of Scrappy animatronics who don’t follow the rules
A Voltron like Panda Force entity
Do we have to get speakers for the music? Can we use magic?
Their life force comes from the attraction itself
They don’t know that their instruments aren’t real
Before Fidul, they just wanted their music
But now they want a piece of the secret
Zel takes over
Let’s pretend we’re communicating with these beings now
Let’s surprise them and cover up the exits
Whoever has the highest charisma will reveal themselves
All they want is information
The Baron has assigned us a Wave Power Station
Task 1: Allow the free flow of the water in a more organic way
Task 2: Find the Baron’s son
We’ll want to find an alternative solution, or else the park will get flooded
That could lead to some intra-party tension
If they get rid of the pumping station, it will be flooded
Man, that’s really powerful. How did we not think of that?
Eleanor takes over
Brainstorming different personality traits
What kind of sentient beings would we be encountering?
Research into Modrons
Modrons are kind of applicable – our beings won’t be as logical
Dog Quixote
Puppo Panza
Puppo Panza is the leader of the band and Dog Quixote is the sidekick
That’s funny, right?
Bouffantaluffalo Guards will be the trouble
Flamingo Dancers
Lucky the Leopard-con
Chewy Toy Soldiers Band
Cat Cat Dancers
Cluck and Spiel Band
Bull-et (Ballet Bull) Dancers
Goat Yodelers
We couldn’t figure out anything for bagpipers
Mary Blair Repair
Watta chimes in
Let’s get back to game mode
We calm down the guards
No party would be powerful enough to face Fidul now
We don’t want to fight Fidul
They talk of another party
An Incomplete Picture of what Vidul’s up to
How do we meet Mary Blair Repair?
Then they explain that Mary Blair Repair went to go find their instruments …
Mary Blair Repair is keeping everyone in working order
Playing music is in their hearts
Repairing one speaker wire to prove our handinees
Each room has a chute
Follow the chute to find Mary Blair
Mary Blair knows all about the Handy Halls
The Roof of the Big Ben has a shaft to the Handy Halls
Grenada, take us home
We could hide in the Big Ben Chute if Fidul’s minions come
We could win the beings over if we find the music for them
But can we trust them?
Going down Big Ben to the next level
Finding the speaker wires
Let’s use a pulley system, so we can get out of the shaft if need be
We’re down in the Handy Halls
Something is off
And we run into a Sleep Surprise…
PATREON THANKS
Joanne, Gwen, Stacey, Kimberly, Tara, Theo, Tyler, A, Margot, Jordan, Matt, Lauren, Lisa, Jay, Thomas, Alex, Infamous, Tom, Joanne, Terra, John, PJ, Bob, Rachelle
SUMMARY:
Episode: 1,195
Title: Dog Quixote and Puppo Panza | Journey Into the World of Friends Ep4
Deep Dark Night United: Ruby (Spread the Word)
Plugs: WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike Support; Newsletter; The Midnight Mission; Orlando Park Stop; Trevor Project; Patreon; SleepPhones; Emily Tat Artwork; NAPAWF; Anti-Racism Resources; Crisis Textline; Annual Survey
Sponsors: Odoo; Polysleep; Helix Sleep; Progressive; Zoc Doc
Patreon Thanks: Joanne, Gwen, Stacey, Kimberly, Tara, Theo, Tyler, A, Margot, Jordan, Matt, Lauren, Lisa, Jay, Thomas, Alex, Infamous, Tom, Joanne, Terra, John, PJ, Bob, Rachelle
Notable Language:
- Adventure-Adjacent
- Litany of Lists
- An Over-Complicated Rom Com Body Swap Film
- Industrial Post-Its
- Performative Lists
- Borebie
- One Chunk of Physical Media
- Indoor Lifestyle
- Tated of Ire
- Tall of Skeptic
- Lus of Jel
- Gree of Ang
- Up of Fed
- Ride-Based Being (RBB)
- Anthropomorphized Animal Toys
- An Idealized Toy Europe
- Sentient Conscious Beings (SCBs)
- Repair-Based Being (RBB)
Notable Culture:
-
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Hall & Oates
- “My Favorite Things”
- The Who
- “Who’s On First?”
- The Grinch – Dr. Seuss
- Barbie
- Antonio Banderas
- Voltron
- Chutes & Ladders
- Big Ben
Notable Talking Points:
- Thoughts about making love out of nothing at all
- Why don’t you keep your hobbies to yourself, Scoots?
- I’ll never go through a litany of lists
- Is this a Hall & Oates song?
- A list of the best things in life
- What are the best things in life? A simple question
- If I had to make a best thing of life, it would be performative
- Making a list of kisses would be a real rabbit hole for me …
- My list would be on a series of Post-It’s everywhere
- My kissing list rom com scenario
- And maybe The Who feature into this
- Accidentally walking right into an old vaudeville joke
- And maybe Whoville plays into this somehow…
- An Over-Complicated Rom Com Body Swap Film
- Industrial Post-Its
- That was a real super tangent there
- Performative Lists
- Man, this imaginary movie could be really over-stuffed with ideas pretty easily
- Borebie is a new one
- Don’t miss out on the intro if you’re new
- Let Matt M’s testimony convince you to start a bedtime routine
- Designing a list for someone I have a crush on
- I can laugh about it now, because I know I’m also not alone
- Designing and playing at the same time
- The Adventure of Friendship
- Antonio’s intro
- Scooter didn’t do any friendly pokes at Antonio this time
- Check out Antonio’s IMDB page and support his work
- Talk about Physical Media …
- One Chunk of Physical Media
- Grenada of Darmak – let’s get started
- People aren’t thrilled with this Indoor Lifestyle
- Now they’re playing
- Camping in a courtyard, waiting to commune with a mechanical spirit
- Grenada is not feeling welcome necessarily
- LVC is Tated of Ire
- Tall of Skeptic
- LVC is not feeling great about this new adventure
- Zel checks in
- Zel is Lous of Jel
- Eleanor is Gree of Ang because there’s no snacks
- Em Watta is Up of Fed
- The adventure only takes place below the below
- Grenada is leading today
- Baron of Boil
- Vindul
- The Park
- Where does allegiance lie?
- Sultana the Oracle Machine
- Ride-Based Being, aka the Child
- Explaining the whole Water Conflict
- Recapping last week’s work
- We’ve still gotta lock in Vidul
- Resolving the Pollywogs problem
- Distinguishing between the Child and Sultana
- Questions about the Mechanical child
- Historical Iterations of this Ride
- They couldn’t access that information
- Eleanor chimes in
- Anthropomorphized Animal Toys
- The workers of this giant company wanted to weave subtle acts of rebellion into the rider
- Refurbished with a J-POP soundtrack
- 3 Eras of Music in “The World of Friends”
- What would be in the first room
- An Idealized Toy Europe
- Zel takes it
- Pollywogs are territorial
- The Ideal Way to Enter the Ride
- Sneak into the room and listen / gather intel
- What are we observing?
- LVC reviews the history
- Representative architecture of famous tourist areas
- Giant clocks were everywhere
- This ride has been well cared for
- In rehearsal for a dance / musical show
- Frustration that there’s no music
- A band that can’t play the music
- Some parts of this attraction are being reserved for a future purpose
- What are they waiting for?
- Watta takes over
- There will be factions within the ride
- The Special Faction, waiting for their purpose, at Vidul’s beck and call
- Sentient Conscious Beings (SCBs)
- Questioning their purpose
- A weird middle world
- Did we write any of this down about their sentience?
- The portal is beyond our understanding
- But everyone is trying to get to the portal
- A collection of power, magical and otherwise
- Portal Powers combined with magical essence are giving the park sentience
- New Sentient Beings in Tip Top Shape
- They go out to be touched up and trained (probably)
- Some of their troupe have not returned
- Rumors of Scrappy animatronics who don’t follow the rules
- A Voltron like Panda Force entity
- Do we have to get speakers for the music? Can we use magic?
- Their life force comes from the attraction itself
- They don’t know that their instruments aren’t real
- Before Fidul, they just wanted their music
- But now they want a piece of the secret
- Zel takes over
- Let’s pretend we’re communicating with these beings now
- Let’s surprise them and cover up the exits
- Whoever has the highest charisma will reveal themselves
- All they want is information
- The Baron has assigned us a Wave Power Station
- Task 1: Allow the free flow of the water in a more organic way
- Task 2: Find the Baron’s son
- We’ll want to find an alternative solution, or else the park will get flooded
- That could lead to some intra-party tension
- If they get rid of the pumping station, it will be flooded
- Man, that’s really powerful. How did we not think of that?
- Eleanor takes over
- Brainstorming different personality traits
- What kind of sentient beings would we be encountering?
- Research into Modrons
- Modrons are kind of applicable – our beings won’t be as logical
- Dog Quixote
- Puppo Panza
- Puppo Panza is the leader of the band and Dog Quixote is the sidekick
- That’s funny, right?
- Bouffantaluffalo Guards will be the trouble
- Flamingo Dancers
- Lucky the Leopard-con
- Chewy Toy Soldiers Band
- Cat Cat Dancers
- Cluck and Spiel Band
- Bull-et (Ballet Bull) Dancers
- Goat Yodelers
- We couldn’t figure out anything for bagpipers
- Mary Blair Repair
- Watta chimes in
- Let’s get back to game mode
- We calm down the guards
- No party would be powerful enough to face Fidul now
- We don’t want to fight Fidul
- They talk of another party
- An Incomplete Picture of what Vidul’s up to
- How do we meet Mary Blair Repair?
- Then they explain that Mary Blair Repair went to go find their instruments …
- Mary Blair Repair is keeping everyone in working order
- Playing music is in their hearts
- Repairing one speaker wire to prove our handinees
- Each room has a chute
- Follow the chute to find Mary Blair
- Mary Blair knows all about the Handy Halls
- The Roof of the Big Ben has a shaft to the Handy Halls
- Grenada, take us home
- We could hide in the Big Ben Chute if Fidul’s minions come
- We could win the beings over if we find the music for them
- But can we trust them?
- Going down Big Ben to the next level
- Finding the speaker wires
- Let’s use a pulley system, so we can get out of the shaft if need be
- We’re down in the Handy Halls
- Something is off
- And we run into a Sleep Surprise…
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