The. Greetings and salutations
friends and lovers. Welcome to an extra special
episode of Game Master Monday, the podcast that plays a new one
shot in a new system with a new cast.
Every episode this week we are playing UST Unresolved Saphic
Tension by a Disaster Queer. Tonight, you'll be hearing three
individual vignettes using an abbreviated version of the
game's mechanics. You shall be meeting the
individual cast members just before their scene begins.
But to begin, let me tell you about Unresolved Saphic Tension.
Unresolved Sapphic Tension is a game about oblivious women
loving women characters who both have feelings for one another.
Throughout the course of our scenes, our players will be
using rock, paper scissors mechanics to determine what
approach they will be taking to drop hints to their true
feelings. These approaches are processing
or turning inward to better understand your hearts,
revealing or laying yourself bare before them, and teasing or
whatever it takes to earn a place under their skin.
Processing beats revealing, revealing beats teasing, and
teasing beats processing. Whomever wins the Rock, Paper,
Scissors will give the other player a clue and become the
initiator of that scene. It will be that player who
decides where they are, how they meet, and how they drop a hint
to their true feelings. The first player to receive 3
clues becomes the initiator of the final scene where all truths
are revealed. However, players also have the
option to enter a Dark Knight once per game.
Each player can disrupt the cycle of interactions by using
this move, causing them to brood, ponder, and initiate a
scene away from their partner. When the scene concludes, they
must decide if they've grown closer together, in which case
both players gain a clue, or drifted further apart, in which
case both players lose a clue. This is the game.
Now. Allow me to introduce our first
scene, A pair of princesses from rival nations, previously
engaged but no longer reuniting at a ball after a long and a
brutal war. Our players are.
Hi, I'm Mia, pronouns are Shi, her and today I'm playing
Aurelia Chandelier. Hi I'm Sadie Pasley.
I am Shi they. I am playing Brynia Airfest.
She her pronouns. And so, without further ado, I
bring you to scene 1 of unresolved Savic tension.
Brenia has taken very few moments to herself, but in the
flurry of preparing for this courtship ball, she has found
herself tucked away in the garden, finding a quiet moment.
Her hair has been pulled back nicely, it's very short, dark
green, her makeup has been made-up a little bit too heavy
for her taste, and she is wearing a very well tailored
coat and trousers. She looks around, tries to see
if anyone might be around because she really doesn't want
to be found just yet. Aurelia is heading to the ball
in a carriage, accompanied by her parents, the King and Queen
of Estrania, and only one servant to helm the horses.
And she sits, hands placed in her lap, stoic, quiet as
moonlight pours in. Through the window of the
carriage we can see that she has a dark silver line gown, long
sleeves, and a very tasteful splash of glitter across the
sides and across her chest. She has a very almost sombre
sort of look on her face, smoky makeup, a dark lip.
And while her parents discuss and chat strategy, planning,
intent for the upcoming evening, she listens, and she can't help
but think back to the years apart, the time before someone
she thought she knew and someone she hopes to see.
I can think of no better place on where to start then.
So we're going to go ahead and go into the first round of our
game. You all should have tokens in
front of you, and you're going to choose which approach that
you would like to speak to the other person with.
Whoever wins the approach will set the scene and initiate the
conversation. The other player will gain one
clue. As a reminder, 3 clues means
that they will figure out your whole deal.
Aurelia's chosen to tease and Britney has chosen to process,
which means Mia. You win this round.
Teasing and beats processing. So we will give a clue to
Britney's character. How does Aurelia approach this
other Princess? I imagine that the ball has just
started, so no grand act or performances just yet.
Everyone's still kind of funneling in.
And just like her counterpart, Aurelia is drawn to places of
seclusion, of isolation. Just for a little bit.
Before everything kicks off and she stumbles into the garden to
see a certain silhouette there in the moonlight and Aurelia
Orrea approaches. It is a bit stuffy in there.
No more stuffy than any of these things.
Really. I'm surprised that the host of
the event is saying such things. Are you not enjoying yourself,
Prince? Of course, of course I'm
enjoying myself. The wine is nice, the the food
is lovely, the music is divine. Are you asking me?
Are you telling me? I don't know a thing about
music. You know me.
It's it's fine. What about you?
I was hoping to see and finally meet the hero of the war, of
course. Not a hero.
I just did my duty, did what needed to be done.
It's not as glamorous as I thought it would be when we were
children. Yes, I'm finding very few things
are nowadays, but come your subject should see you.
Of course. And and you, you should dance.
Do you still dance? When do we find out?
You know what? Let's.
She'll offer her hand if the Prince would take.
It. To guide her back into the ball
and once the music switched up she would sit down her glass and
go OK, well, lead the way. You know what?
I never was much of A dancer here.
How about I go find someone who is much better to dance with
you? I'm sure that the lovely ladies
of any number of kingdoms would be more than happy to dance.
I'm going to check on my father. Whatever the Prince wishes.
You part ways for the scene now by going about your individual
lives and continuing your stories as we go into Round 2.
So for this round, Mia, you are now the instigator, the
initiator. So if there's a tie that will
favor you, you know, teasing and processing in the other
direction this time. Well, we know this one.
Teasing beats processing. And of course, with teasing,
what we're saying here that whatever it takes to earn a
place under their skin. So you are now the initiator,
Sadie. You give a clue to Mia's
character. So we cut back to Brynia.
Where are we, where do we find ourselves and how do you
approach your partner? Brynia has been standing at the
edge of the ball, watching as Rhea has been dancing with
several other women, and Brynia thinks to herself, how is it
that she let Raya get under her skin?
She used to be able to dish out just about as much as she could
take, you know? And so she finishes a glass of
wine and decides to to approach. She is not going to be bested
just yet. Raya, how have you found your
your dance partners? Oh, behind this, they have been
lovely. Of course, this is a, a
wonderful ceremony that you and your family have put together.
I I I'm very lucky to be here. And yet I think maybe I would
like a dance, although perhaps more of a sort like we used to,
and I kind of make a motion towards a blade at my side for
old time's sake. Here in.
No, the courtyard. Not here, right?
You can see that Rhea is very flustered.
I think in the time they had spent away from each other
during this fall, a few of the other nobles in court have been
sort of whispering about her and her Kingdom.
And those have traced their way back to her ears.
And she seems to be feeling a little more insecure than she
was when she originally arrived. And but she'll go and follow
you. I'm kind of taking this as a
sympathy. Perhaps.
Bernie leads you out to the courtyard, and setting aside her
blade, she takes in a deep breath and sighs.
It really is stuffy in there. Yes, I I suppose I've forgotten.
Well, I I did promise a a dance of a sort so.
Do you feel up to it now? As long as you don't mind the
chance of tripping over your lovely dress, I'm not going to
go easy on you just because you're in a dress.
I've never dreamed of it. Nor because I'm better than you
with a sword. Oh, OK.
And Raya will take out, I think, a thin, elongated dagger.
Bernie also pulls out a a dagger of similar size.
While I won't go easy on you, it wouldn't be fair with a with a
full sword. She takes her position and
begins to dance with the sword. How does how does Raya respond
in in motion? Is is she nervous or like does
she fall into swordplay like when they were teenagers?
I think there's definitely a few missteps at first.
Even even though they did that as children, she was never as
skilled as Brenia. But after a few rounds she seems
to get back into the step, enjoying probably Brittany is
teasing and encouragement and she eventually she just like
bunches up her dress and maybe pulls out a piece of ribbon and
ties it so that she has a little more room to sidestep and dodge.
After a few rounds, Brenia stops.
She's breathing a a little bit heavy, even though this level of
swordplay is not too difficult for her.
Well, Raya, this has been nice. Oh, are you done already?
I'm sorry, did I tire you out? You know what there?
You hear a voice calling from the castle.
You're like, there you are. The everyone is still waiting
for you. This, this is for you after all.
Are you going to return to your guests or not?
Yes, yes. Could you get Raya some water
please? Sure, there's plenty of water
inside the ballroom. Yes, yes.
We'll be more than happy to provide.
A towelette something. Of course.
It's fine. Thank you.
Thank you, Raya, for indulging me.
I must go see to the to the guests.
Now before we towel you off as well, for I mean this is
unseemly. It's, it's fine.
I I have a handkerchief right here.
Well, great. I I quickly dab my face and rush
in, avoiding eye contact with either of them.
And then we'll go into our third round.
So we have Processing for Aurelia and Revealing for
Brynia, which means Aurelia will win this round because
Processing beats Revealing and Brynia will pick up her second
clue. So the Initiator goes back to
you, Mia. Where do we find ourselves now?
After more drinking and some dancing, Rhea heads.
Upstairs. To I imagine it to be like a
second level that has like a balcony where you can see into
the lower main floor and she finds that Bren almost hidden
amongst the shelves, maybe looking at some books or already
with an open book in hand and. She'll casually come up,
randomly picks up another book and goes I don't really like
this author. Do.
You. He's very intelligent, he has
many good things to say, good advice, and yet his ego ruins it
all. I agree, so many words and no
substance. You know, despite it all, I
missed you. I'm sorry, truly.
You know the Trovians have not found another mine.
I don't think they ever will. No.
And I believe that would make sense.
It is now under your family's jurisdiction.
Sometimes I wonder if things would have been different if I
hadn't killed Beau. If you hadn't, I likely would
not be here. Landrick loved him, you know I.
Remember. My sweet kind brother loved
that. I don't know if Beau actually
was as hateful and as greedy as the rest of them, but I will
never forgive the Trovian family for what they took from me.
And that's your right. I barely saw more and we saw
what was left of it and I can't imagine what your people had to
survive through. We've always been strong the the
Trovians were never going to win, but it did last longer than
any of us had over hoped. It ended because of you and I'm
not. I'm not trying to poke fun.
I know that I was hard and maybe in a different life didn't have
to be Bo. It could have ended much more
peacefully, but we'll never know.
What we have is now and now. Now I have dozens of marriage
offers, dances, drinks. All I ever wanted to do was
fight. I looked up to my brother, but I
didn't. I didn't want his crown and yet
here I am anyway. I'm sorry to put such a heavy
conversation on you. It's much better than small talk
or politely veiled insults. So.
I'm learning how to do those a little bit.
Let's just hope it's better than your dancing.
A knife to my spleen, why don't you?
They'll notice I'm missing yet again.
But of course, I'll leave first so no one thinks anything
nefarious is going on. Heavy conversation in the
library will bring us into the 4th scene with Sadie holding 2
clues and Mia holding 1, so you'll choose whichever approach
you feel is appropriate. Dark.
Night of the Soul for Raya. So that means we're not going to
give out any clues just yet. We are now in The Dark Knight
phase of the game. Mia, you will take over a scene
here. You are now by yourself, away
from your partner. The implication being you are
brooding something that you are pondering to yourself and Sadie.
When your character finds a window, you will find them,
describe how you found them and why you were looking for them,
and then whatever happens in that scene will decide if you
both get a clue or if you both lose a clue.
After the conversation with Bryn, Rhea feels adrift.
She tries to slipped back into the party mood of the ball and
can't seem to fake it anymore and unintentionally indulges too
much in her drink and she wanders the halls singing loudly
to herself until she stumbles upon probably 1 of the very
lavish many guest rooms. She pushes open the glass panel
doors that lead out into a balcony that overseas the
gardens. She looks out in the moonlight.
She starts tearing at her dress for more comfortability, and she
kind of slumps up on the railing as she finishes a bottle that
she actually just took from one of the servants instead of a
glass. Brunia is down in the garden
taking out some frustration on some poor unfortunate hedges,
looks up and sees Raya on the balcony and recognizes the the
distraught body language. It's been such a long time and
yet and yet Raya just looks exactly the same when she is
upset and Brenia can't help herself.
She runs over to the wall and using some some plants, some
vines, the crevices and the wall, she she scales it up to
the balcony. What are you doing here?
Why? Why aren't you enjoying the
ball? What do you mean?
I am enjoying the ball? See.
Ah, I see. You know what?
That's that's an awfully big bottle.
I'm going to go get you some water and I will be right back.
Oh no, it's OK, I have another one and she pulls out a smaller
flask. Is that water?
Yes, of course. And then she'll fling the empty
bottle over the the lead, shattering on the stone.
Even after all this time, you are so dashing and so
chivalrous, it's like no time has passed at all.
That's not true, is it? No, no, it's it's not true.
Chivalrous. Don't, don't ever say that about
me. Not when I didn't come for you.
I'll admit I dreamt many nights that it would be you to open
those doors, but I never blamed you for it.
I mean, how could I, you and your people and your brother and
all my family could do is fall in line out of fear?
Sure, they wanted to save me and protect me, but I helped to make
those weapons. I sure they weren't going to
last very long, but that doesn't mean that the death toll wasn't
high. And I suppose I got in this
pretty dress, did all this makeup, and for what?
You know what? I I don't know what to say.
I should. I should have come for you
anyway. You had no choice.
But you did. And I hate that I'm not sure if
I care. I definitely had a choice behind
those bars as they were threatening my people.
And who would expect you to? You wanted to be a fighter, you
wanted to be a hero, so as soon as the opportunity arose, no
wonder you didn't think of me. I'm glad you got what you
wanted. Got what I wanted, Rail.
We were children, I mean teenagers, but we were children
and children dream of war and valor, honor, glory.
At least I did as a child. I'm not a child anymore, Rhea.
If things are different now, why do you still look at me like
that? I can't bear it to look at you
and and see reflected in your eyes, someone I don't see
anymore. What don't you see?
I'm I'm still me, even if I can't seem to forgive myself,
even if I still blame you just a little bit.
Please tell me I didn't change all that much.
It's. The problem?
You didn't. Just as sweet and pigheaded and
brave as I know you. And then it's in your right not
to. I mean, how could you?
How could anyone? I think Rhea walks off.
Raya, do you feel that you grew closer to to Brinia?
Yes, I think having that moment of passion together, even with
the exchange of hurtful words, Raya kind of sulks out in one of
the many hallways and is remembering the good times that
they had. Is also though considering how
tough it would have been not just in losing her brother and
her her soldiers, but also the mental toll that it would have
been to not only survive that but suddenly become the air.
And she realizes that even though their situations were
very different, they were both still isolated in a way that,
like before when they were teens, the one who knows the
most is the other. Brennia slumps down on the
balcony and pulls out a pocket mirror to wipe her tears,
because she realizes that she has begun crying.
And she realizes that talking with Raya about the war and
about everything that went on was like looking into a mirror,
and that they each have their own guilt and their own grudges
regarding what has happened. They are both victims of
unfortunate political machinations from an outsider
country, and they both want desperately to be seen to be
understood. They want to be the children
that they once were, and while they can never go back to how
things were, there's definitely a possibility for a future
forward. Let's see what that future holds
for us then, shall we? Since you have agreed that
you've grown closer together as a result of hashing everything
out. That will bring Brynia to her
third clue and Irelia to her second.
Which means, Sadie, you are the final instigator.
You have received all the clues. Somewhere in that, thinking of a
path forward together, it clicks.
She also wants that path forward together.
And she wants it with me. And since this whole story has
taken place over the course of a single ball, what do you do as
the evening starts to wind down? The guests have started leaving
the ball, and Brynia, realizing that she may lose her chance to
connect with Raya, starts frantically running out into the
drive, trying to find Raya's carriage.
She sees carriage after carriage peeling out, and she's not sure
exactly which one is Raya's. And then she storms back into
the ball, and instead of finding Raya among the guests leaving,
she finds Raya loitering among the servants who are cleaning
up. Raya has not left just yet.
Goodness, I, I thought you might have left already.
You're you're here. Yes, it would seem so.
I thought I should get some water after my embarrassment.
Raya, you have a towel, but here, let let me get you some
water, because even if it's an excuse, you do still need some
water. Right.
I, I'm sorry. I think that you know what?
I, I've been so cagey with you tonight and I, I've acted like
I, like I haven't forgiven you. And yet the truth is I, I just,
I haven't forgiven myself. I know, I know how we were and I
know what I would like. And I would like to be the
person that you know what? No, no, I I don't want to be the
person that you knew when we were children.
I want to be a better, a better person than her.
I want you by my side. You're you're not joking.
No, no, of of course not. But if you, if you want me to
joke, I I could, I could mention something about how you'd have
the Trovian land as as recompense for, you know, the
time that you spent with them. The time I spent with them.
Please. Ren I, I want to be a better
person too, and I can't think of anyone better to be by my side
to make that happen. But I, I want you to be sure I,
you know what this would cause amongst the court.
Raya, truth be told, my parents have been hoping that we would
get back together after all this time.
And I was hoping too. But I, I guess I just thought
that you'd never forgive me. And I thought that maybe I was
just too too broken, too too cynical for Someone Like You.
I thought that maybe I just settle for someone who was a
pragmatist and not worry about it.
But that's not what I wanted. Are you sure I can be serious if
you want me to? Raya, you can't be serious for
too long. Who would doodle in my
notebooks? That is a good point.
I will admit my artistry has sort of declined in the well
with the war and all, but. How hard is it to draw 2 circles
at an Oval? I suppose that's fair, but you
know, we're adults now, so I'm going to make sure it's
anatomically correct at the very least.
Respectable well to doodles in notebooks.
To pad dances and sword fighting in the garden.
I'd like that. I'd like that very much.
We pan out of this ballroom scene. 2 Royals from opposing
kingdoms who have a lot to figure out.
But I but I'm rooting for him. I think they'll do it.
Lots of therapy. Lots of therapy, lots of
medieval therapy, and that's unresolved sapphic tension.
A wonderful tale, if I do say so myself.
We must move on to our next story.
But first, I'm here to briefly introduce you to an AD add.
Please enjoy this message from our friends over at Myth Craft
the podcast. Welcome back to Myth Craft the
podcast, The ties that bind. I'll cut you in on the action
Bribe, extort, threaten, it doesn't matter.
Just make sure they're on our side, finding informants to
report back to you. We need someone inside.
Got a long road ahead of us. It's going to be a bloody one,
but blood runs thicker than water.
Nix is going on a fishing expedition.
I won't tell anyone that you gave me this poison.
It's a remarkably simple process of feigning A slight stumble and
placing this thorned earring. That's unbelievably dangerous.
Yes, this is a test. I'll deal with them.
She's. Great.
Dia's going to get up. Oh no, he is going to walk
across the room. He's not.
Nia's going to stab one of them in the shoulder.
Oh, whoa. Cover me.
What? Cover.
Just cover me. What?
You how? I'm going to load the gun.
Rendo starts snarling so all of his yellow teeth can be seen.
I'm going to hold out both of my hands as lightning begins to
form. Going over to the car with the
gun and saying you better get out of this vehicle right now.
I don't know how I got to this wake, but I'm happy to be here.
Thank you to Mythcraft for assisting in sponsoring our
show. Now let's continue to the
unresolved sapphic tension. Our next story takes us farther
into the future, the far-flung time.
The space travel is common and sapphic tension is high.
We will meet two star crossed lovers, one working a tollbooth,
one driving among the stars as they have their now seemingly
daily encounters. Our players are.
Hello I am Mistress Winter. My pronouns are she, her and I
will be playing Valeria Val Xavier, also she, her.
Hey I'm Taz, I use she they pronouns and I'm playing cast
who uses she her pronouns. And so, without further
awaiting, let us go into our second vignette of unresolved
sapphic tension. What is there to say about Val?
She hopes that you don't say a lot.
She is a long hauler in space. Essentially she drives a
shipping truck here to there, planet to planet, delivering
goods. She's relatively new at it, but
has settled into the role after a couple of trips.
There may or may not be some sketchy things that she is
transporting on behalf of some unsavory people, but Val is a
very colorful, flamboyant spirit.
Loves a lot of color despite living in a world of steel Gray
in her cockpit. I would challenge everybody to
think of Kaylee from Firefly. If you've ever seen it, you know
the the whole mechanical jump mechanics jumpsuit and but like
pops of color everywhere. She has this blonde hair that
she's got pulled into two messy pigtails and they look like
they've just been dipped in a color.
Currently it's a blue that is kind of fading into green as it
does, and the dashboard of her cockpit has been littered with
romance novels that she's read through several times and little
tchotchkes that she's picked up from her she's collected from
her stops. Cass is a tollbooth worker at
the Achilles Interstellar Space Station.
She not only works at the toll booth, she lives in a little
dorm room attached to the toll booth.
She lives a pretty mundane, boring life.
She would describe it as such, but cast herself is a mid 20s
girl with golden skin, dark curly hair.
She loves comic books, reading them, writing them, making her
own. She doesn't do a lot outside of
the toll booth, so you can usually find her just chilling
in her big beanbag chair in her room, scribbling and doodling
and doing whatever she can to keep herself occupied between
spacecrafts coming through. With that, with your characters
established, we're going to start crushing.
So you're going to pick an approach for your upcoming
interaction and then act out that interaction.
The winner of the round reveal something of their true feelings
for your Steam partner, and you grant your partner a clue.
We have Processing for cast and Revealing for Val, which means
Taz, you win this round. Processing beats revealing, so
you will approach this as follows.
With processing, you are turning inward to better understand your
heart's vows, laying yourself bare before them.
So you're going to set the scene here, Taz, where are we when we
see your two characters meet for the first time?
You probably already have a history together because you
already have the crush, and you're going to just guide us
through that and instigate your conversation with Val.
I'm sitting alone in the toll booth at the Achilles
Interstellar Space Station, and I'm sitting between my walls of
holographic screens and monitors, and it's been a pretty
slow day so far. I haven't had too many
spacecrafts come through when suddenly the alarm goes off.
That lets me know that someone has entered the queue and I look
at the monitor and it shows me a an image of a cargo hauler.
And I can tell immediately that this cargo hauler has string
lights up against its front window.
And I see a lot of vehicles come through this tollbooth, but I
know immediately that that vehicle belongs to Val because
she's the only one who has those string lights up.
So I get really excited. I crumple up the little doodle
that I was working on and I toss it into my trash can and I see
the cargo hauler pool up to the window.
Without even taking a break I roll down my window and just put
my hands on the desk and lean out with like the biggest smile.
Just excited to see Val again. Val rolls down the the
proverbial window and it looks like she's been crying.
She has in her hand one of her romance books that she's just
finished up and sniffles. Hi cats.
I'm sorry I am like such a mess right now.
Cass is immediately concerned, which maybe she shouldn't be,
and she starts to overthink that this is just some girl who's
come through her toll break a couple of times.
But she's crying and I'm really worried about her, so I'm going
to grab my little box of tissues and hold it out and be like, are
you OK? What happened?
No, I'm fine really. I just I get into these moods on
occasion. I closed the the book and kind
of hug it to my chest for a moment.
This this one was just so sad and it corresponded with
craters, edges, new ballad, which just was heartbreaking.
And it, I don't know in is it, is it too much to say that it
kind of reminded me of you? Time freezes.
I stand still. I don't know how to react to
that, and my heart begins to flutter a little bit, thinking
about Val, thinking about me. And I go to the only place that
brings me comfort, and that is saying, wait, Crater's Edge has
a new ballad. Oh, right, yeah, you, you said
last time that you it hadn't been airing on your your
planet's radio or the the killer.
Yeah, yeah, this, this, yeah, it's really great ballad.
It's it's called Lost in the Nebula and it is absolute comet.
I just absolutely love it and but you'd have to listen to it
and and you'd totally know why, why, you know, you kind of came
to mind, but. Could I listen to it?
Oh. Sure, kind of Val like sticks
her head out the window and looks past her trawler to see if
anybody is really waiting. Slow day so nobody's waiting.
I can afford a few few minutes so press on my console to to
play the song again, which has been on repeat for at least 10
rounds so far, and crank it up a little bit and it is this like
heart shearing melodic pop ballad that makes her start
crying all over again. She listens to some of the
lyrics about stars in her eyes and traveling across galaxies to
see each other and cast is like this makes you think of me.
Well, I, I mean, like Cass, Cassiopeia, the, you know, the
star constellation from the Milky Way Galaxy.
Yeah. Wow.
Yeah. She.
Well, yeah, she just references Cassie, the stars like that.
It's all awkward and. So it makes me think of me and
it, and it makes you cry. I, I mean, not, not the, the
thinking about you makes me cry. I was.
I was mostly crying over my book, Right?
Right. I think this song is beautiful
and I really like that it makes you think of me.
Oh. And as soon as I say that, like
I feel in my heart that it is the truth, I know that I've
thought about Val, but I never thought that Val thought of me
back. Val kind of twists a finger
through one of her pigtails anxiously, just totally lost as
to how to respond. She lets the the song finished
playing out and stops it. And how's your solo week been?
It's been pretty much like this. I've been pretty slow.
I drew a couple new comic strips.
Oh really? Yeah, nothing crazy.
I kind of glanced at one where there is a girl featured that
has pigtails and if you look at it close enough maybe it looks a
little bit familiar, but I'm never going to say that.
Val kind of checks out some of your new artwork.
Anything as good as that, And she points to the sketch of the
band members of Crater's Edge. The piece of art that you gave
her the first time that she came through your lane, that she has
magnet, a magnet holding up on her bulkhead and it hasn't
moved. The the you can see that like
the dust has kind of created a a little window around it as long
as it's been there. And you kept that.
Well, of course, I mean, one, it's my favorite band.
You know that. And you know, I you're, you're
good. I like I like your stuff.
I like that you like my stuff. I think that's a a great spot
for a, another shuttle to come pulling up behind yours, Val.
And it becomes apparent how long you have spent talking to this.
The, the, the, the station worker that sends me an
intergalactic toll booth, if you know.
And yeah, you see the the headlights of another trucker
behind you, essentially. Yeah, my alarm goes off again.
That once again signifies that someone's in the queue.
So I pull out the scanner and I say I need your point card.
That will offer it for the quick scan.
I almost unable to take her eyes off cast for a long, long
moment, but then forces her forces herself away to tuck away
her card. Safe travels and I let out like
this long side that's a little bit disappointed because that
interaction did not last as long as I would have liked it to, but
I know that I have work to do. Yeah, I'll, I'll see you soon.
And rolls up the window, ignites the engines and pulls out of the
station, headed for whatever drop point has been assigned to
her this time. And off we go into the next
scene. We have teasing for Val and
forecast revealing. Now you will once again be the
one dropping the clue to Val, and since you still had a
revealing, your approach will be laying yourself bare before
them, saying something true. And of course, Val, you will be
teasing whatever it takes to earn a place under her skin.
It's probably been a week, week and a half since the last time I
saw Val. But same situation where I'm
just sitting in my tollbooth. Let's say this time I have a
little ball, like the kind of use for juggling, and I'm just
throwing it up into the air, catching it, throwing it up into
the air, catching it because I've got nothing else to do in
this tiny little space. But then before I even hear the
alarm go off in my tollbooth I hear loud blaring pop rock music
coming from the distance and my heart just starts jumping.
I'm like oh shit I I hope that's foul.
And I stick my head out the window and lo and behold, there
is the cargo hauler. And I tidy up my hair a little
bit and make my space look a little bit nicer, and put up a
new little drawing in the background for Val to see.
And I wait for her to arrive to me.
The Kai Rene drifts into place next to the toll booth.
The window is already down, already safe within the the
space station's little atmosphere, artificial
atmosphere, and Val is leaning on the window, just all grins
and sly smiles. I am so fidgety because what the
fuck that's so cute. But yeah I see Val and I can't
help myself. I just have to say, hey Val, you
look really cute today. Really.
I mean under all this, this grease and and and dirt.
Maybe it was just that your head was laying and the fact that
you're playing my favorite band and that you're just generally
adorable. But yeah.
Hi, Welcome to the Achilles Space station again.
You know, you are just so adorable when you get all
flustered. Like it's the highlight of my
trip every time and it's going to make this next part like
super easy. So I've made enough of these
routes that I might be able to afford some tickets to the next
Thrice Moon Music Festival. And I, I, I don't know if a
certain person would want to go with me, but.
You say a certain person and her demeanor falls.
She's like, oh, oh, do you, you, you have a a good friend that
you're thinking about taking. No, no, I don't.
I don't have anybody else. Like this girl is totally
friendless like. Wait, then who were you talking
about? I was I was going to ask you,
but you seem not to be. Interested.
Wait, you were going to ask me? I mean, I could totally keep
these, these tickets, I could scalp them.
I could get a lot of money for them, right?
I've never been to Moon thrice, I've never been to a concert,
I've never seen Crater's Edge. Are you serious?
Yeah. I mean, yeah, yeah.
I'm shaking, I'm so excited, but then I look around and I'm like,
I, I would totally love to and that's so stellar And I, I
really appreciate you asking me, but I can't leave because
there's no one else to do this. Like her brain glitches a little
bit as she tries to process this.
Wait, wait, you don't? Do you ever leave?
I don't ever leave. I, I, they, they found me on a
different planet and they specifically brought me here to
work and they pay for my housing so I am full time around the
clock. She is really having a hard time
processing. Well, when is nice race?
I mean, maybe I could figure something out.
Well, I mean, if there's nobody else to do this, how, how are
you going to do that? I mean, you're, you know,
you're, you're, you're not just a little robot in a box.
But but what? When is it?
Oh, it's in three solar months. I mean, that gives us plenty of
time to figure it out. I would, I would actually love
to go with you. OK, cool.
I mean, you know, if you still want to.
No, I totally want to Me and you and Crater's Edge.
Are you, like, serious? Yes, it's going to be totally
common. Like it's going to be great.
I look at Val adoringly, like not only have I never seen any
music live or been off of this space station since I got here,
but no one's ever given me anything before, especially just
one of my passerby's, and it makes me think that maybe she
could be more than that. We've synced up our our calendar
for it and there there is definitely a halting Oh man, my
engines won't won't go. Oh no, Oh, but I don't want to
hold people up. So going to linger Malinger as
long as I can before rolls out the window and takes off getting
a call from my handler. Then we'll go into our third
scene. Val has chosen to do The Dark
Knight, which means the clues are left in limbo for now.
So what we'll be doing here is you will be describing what
you're doing instead of interacting with Cass.
This route, Val has been briefed that the contraband that she is
shipping is high visibility, so people are on the lookout for,
if not her specifically, then whatever she's she's hauling is
on people's radar in this particular way through the toll
booth. She's going to run it for the
first time and land on a an inhabited asteroid nearby to
make the drop, and the entire time that she's there trying to
get whoever is supposed to pick it up, whatever universal mob is
claiming the goods, Val is constantly glancing toward the
station, both concerned for the authorities and also concerned
and wondering about her the the the object of her affections.
When the cargo hauler speeds past me, I'm kind of caught off
guard at first. That's not something that
happens very often, and it's a little bit scary when it does
happen. But at first I just think, oh,
another person trying to get out of paying their tolls.
But then I I look at it as it drives past and I see the dented
door and a little flip of the string lights and I realize
that's Val's holler and I'm terrified.
Like did something happen to her?
Is she OK? Did someone invade her ship?
So the space patrol is already on their way following the
hauler because that's what their job is.
But I'm going to radio them and ask them to let me know what
happened. Me and Bob the patrol guy are
pretty close. So, I mean, there's pretty much
just the two of us here. You know what?
I I was totally on a call and just totally blew past.
Didn't mean to, didn't see it. I mean, yeah, sure.
OK. Everyone tells me that every
time you still have to come back and pay the toll for toll.
Fine toll, you still have to come back and pay.
Oh yeah, of course I will do that right now.
Yeah, there's not a lot that I can do about it.
But I do have to give you this any hands like a green piece of
paper that say, all right, you have to display that in your
like your, your front, you know, shield the glass for the next
couple of weeks. So we can note that you
previously ran as long as there's no further infractions
for a month, you can take it down.
But for now, we just have to mark that you did that.
Come on, Bob. What?
It's my job. I get to do 2 things and this is
one of them. You know what?
You've been so nice, Bob. All right, I will put it in.
And she puts it in the the front windscreen among a gaggle of her
baubles and stuff so that it is not visible like at home.
And she climbs in. And so I'll meet you back at the
station then, yes. You got to follow my car back to
the station. OK, sure.
And you feel? Important.
Let's just go along with it would.
You she will follow Bob back and pull into the lane.
She'll come around like the the the wrong way, so she has to
roll down the opposite window and lean across her console.
For the first time ever, Cast leaves her booth and she runs
out the back door and then around to the front.
And when casts, when Val leans through the window, she like,
pulls her into this big hug. And you can see, like, her face
is red and she's been kind of sweating.
She's like, Oh my gosh, are you OK?
I was so worried about you. What happened?
Oh. Val is very surprised at this
sudden display of affection and care.
It is something that she has not had a lot of before, and she
doesn't know what to do with it. But she's not going to turn it
down either, so she She returns the hug somewhat awkwardly and
kind of Pats Cass is back. No, I'm, I'm OK, I'm just, I was
being totally oblivious. I was lost in one of my books
and just kind of missed the toll.
Oh my gosh, so you didn't get hijacked?
No, no, no, nothing. Nothing sinister like that.
No, who? Who wants to go after my
collection of Ambassador? Ambassador Cabos's bobble heads
pointing back to her. Yeah.
I glanced at the bobble heads. I don't know what that's about,
but yeah, I'll release my hug. Do you?
Are you OK? Now do you want to pull over and
take a minute? Actually, I should, I should
probably get going. But we're still on for Crater's
Edge though, right? We're we're still still on for.
I hope so. The moon thrice.
Yeah, as long as you still want to, but you don't seem OK right
now. Oh, I'm, I'm, I'm totally fine.
Just, you know, getting pulled over kind of change you up a
bit. So yeah, yeah, tell, tell, tell
Bob to to, you know, chill out sometimes.
But yeah, I, I should, I should really get going.
I'm, I'm sorry, but it's really good to see you.
OK. Well, see you next time.
OK, see you soon. And she'll kind of blow a kiss
in a wink and reverse out after having scanned her card this
time. Yeah, after you leave, Cass is
actually pretty devastated that you were so into a book that you
forgot to stop at her toll booth because you guys have been
hitting it off so great. How could you just not even
think about her when you enter into her Galaxy?
And I think based on that reaction, we can see the results
of this. Dark Knight is a loss of a clue.
So we'll go into your next scene.
Feel free to choose your approaches for when you
encounter each other after that really awkward day.
Val has chosen processing and Cass has chosen revealing, which
as we know processing beats revealing.
So we're going to give a clue to Cass and that means Val.
You may now set this next scene you are processing, which means
you are turning inward to better understand your hearts and you
may begin your scene and drop your clue.
The tyranny drifts into cue this one a little bit busier this
time. So Val has a long time to think
about this next interaction, and the idea of cast brings this
just flood of emotions. She doesn't feel good at all
about having lied to her last time.
She wonders if she's ruined what they had been building and is
it's really hoping that it's not unrepairable.
So shit. Her mood's a little bit somber
as she glides into place this time around and lowers the
window very and give. It gives a very cautious look to
Cass, not wanting to initiate and wait for how to see how Cass
is feeling. So.
So Cass is not. She definitely recognized the
holler again. I mean, she knows that thing
like the back of her hand, but she wasn't as bouncy this time
when opening the window. She's a little bit more
standoffish. She doesn't want to put vibes
out there that are not reciprocated.
So she is very professional this time.
And she opens and she says welcome back to the space
station. Val, how are you doing today?
I'm I'm doing good. You know, this one's a short
one, I think. How are you?
Oh, you know, and I actually had a little bit of excitement
today. That's always fun.
Learned a new trick on my yo-yo. Would you?
Would you want to show me? Do you Do you actually want to
see? Why not?
Sure, yeah, I bring out my hot pink light up yo-yo and I show
you how I swing it through a triangle and it's very cool.
First of all, I absolutely love the yo-yo.
Totally my style. No, that was totally comet.
I think you're being nice, but thanks.
No, not at all. Like I, I can't believe that
you, you're not like some tournament grandmaster or
something. I I have a lot of time on my
hands, but honestly, I don't think I could go to a tournament
if I wanted to because somebody's got a man in the
booth. So how's that book coming along?
Did you finish it? Was it worth it?
It it was, yeah. Would you would do you want it?
Yeah, yeah, I would love a new book there's.
I've read every book I have like 3 times already.
She'll pass it over it. It gets you got to kind of work
your way through the beginning, but it gets really good.
The the the night falls in love with the Princess and they have
this beautiful scene by a lake. When I take the book, our
fingers brush and I feel like a jolt of electricity rushed
through me and everything that I had lost suddenly comes rushing
back into me and I am suddenly really excited again.
The the the night she kind of reminds me of you so.
Is it like that ballad? Yeah, kind of.
Yeah. Well, see you next time.
Definitely. OK.
Let me know what you think when I when I come by.
I will. Window goes up and she kind of
waves through the The Dirty glass before she takes off into
the universe again. And I sit back in my chair and I
grab hair from both sides of my head and do this like fake quiet
scream into the air like what the fuck is happening right now
because I cannot get a grasp on this girl all.
Right. We're going to choose our
approaches here for the next scene and we'll we'll see who
figures who out. So we have revealing for Val and
for you, Cass. Teasing.
OK, so revealing, of course,
beats teasing, so that's going to be a clue given to Cass.
Once again, the this one, this one, this time through the, it's
pretty quiet, you know, in terms of solar time, it's dead of the
night. Not a lot of other ships
floating around out there. And she'll pull in, let the
system do its scanning or whatever, and lower the window.
And she steals her Val. Val steals herself for this next
encounter with the woman that has somehow become a keystone in
her life. This week's been particularly
hard for her. There's been some family drama
that she's got on her mind. Hey Cass, it's good to see you
again. So since it's the dead of the
night this time, the Cass was in her room, and when the hauler
entered the line, the flashing red lights went off, waking up
Cass. So when you see her this time,
she's a little bit more disheveled than usual.
She's not wearing her hat. Her polo looks like it was just
thrown on, and it looks a little bit messy.
And she comes out yawning. And when you say, hey, Cass, she
does notice that you're a little off, but she's still excited to
see you. And she says am I dreaming or
what is happening here? I don't.
I can't think that I'm anyone's dream, even though Val will
stare at Cass's disheveled look and just think how endearing it
is and how she wishes that she was in that that bed with yes,
yeah, no, no, no dream never, never been anyone's dream.
Hey, you're not allowed to tell me what I think about at night.
I mean, fair. I I wouldn't want somebody
telling me what I can dream. So how are you?
You look upset. Oh well.
I've. I've been dealing with some some
family stuff. My my dad is the one who got
kind of got me into trucking and.
It's. It's hard to feel like there's
somebody who depends on you, but yet they don't appreciate it.
And I don't know, I with you, I, I feel appreciated, even if it's
just for my point guard. I appreciate that you bring up
my day and I guess my nights now too.
But wait, actually, I have something that could cheer you
up. I'm going to run back into my
room really quick and I'm going to grab the book that Val lent
to me and bring it back out. And I'm going to open it to the
last page, which, you know, if you've ever read a book, the
last two pages are usually blank.
But they're not blank because I I drew a cartoon for you and
it's the Princess and the night, and I am the Princess and you
are the knight and it's really cute.
I was bored the other night and I thought you said it made you
think of me. And as I was reading it, I guess
I kind of thought of you too. So.
This is for you. Val accepted, accepts it very
delicately, like it might fracture in her hands.
And she looks at the artwork and what she had imagined while she
was reading this book, and how the thought of cast and the
story of this book melding together in visual form just
sends her spiraling over the emotional edge.
And she will practically leap out of the window, throwing her
arms around Cass's neck in pulling her into a tight hug.
I was going to make myself the night but I kind of feel like
I'm stuck in a tower sometimes in this tollbooth so just made
sense. It's still perfect.
Thank you. You're welcome.
And she'll pull back and wipe away some tears, smearing grease
across her face even more. I'll help you wipe away a couple
of the tears that you miss. And her eyes will just be
glittering, not only with her eyeshadow but with grateful
tears. And she'll pull back, realizing
that she's really exposed emotionally here.
So she's rewinded a little bit, but not enough to completely
disconnect. You know, you're really talented
and I can tell that you're a hard worker because you're
always working. You know you don't have to do
anything that makes you feel unappreciated.
Just as much as you're stuck in this tower, I think I'm kind of
stuck in this job. Well, I guess if you ever need
to escape, you know where to find me.
I I do, and I'm grateful for that.
Now I'm going to need you to scan your point card.
How many times through do I have to go to before I get a free
one? The trick is actually pulling
into the space station and spending a night and then you
don't have to pay the toll. And.
You know what? Like the hotel at like the
hotel, there's a hotel. Long distance travelers.
It doesn't matter what's been said has been said.
Her face turns bright red as she realizes that in some way you
just propositioned her and she doesn't know what to do with
that. I'm sorry, that was very
unprofessional of me and it was an accident and I didn't mean it
and I think I'm just really tired and should go back to bed.
Yeah, I, I should probably get going.
Thanks again. And she holds the book to her
chest one more time before she places it in a kind of place of
honor on her dashboard. See you next time.
I'll be here. Have a good sleep.
Thanks. So with thing said, clues given
Our current points here are cast with two clues and Val with one.
When you are ready, begin your approach teasing for.
Mine was revealing. Look at that, revealing does
beat teasing. So no matter what happens after
this round, we will learn something true after this one.
But in the meantime, we go to you cast.
Just another day at the toll booth.
In one hand I'm throwing a ball up in the air and I'm catching
it. In the other hand, I've got a
yo-yo going up and down. And lo and behold, that cargo
hauler that I recognize, it comes right back through and I
am dying a little bit inside because I don't really remember
what I said. I was exhausted and tired and
sometimes in the middle of the night you don't process the
words that are coming out of your mouth.
So when you pull up to my window before even greeting you, I.
I am so sorry about what I said the other night.
I don't want to say that I didn't mean it, but it was
really forward of me and I'm so embarrassed.
Hey, it is all good babe. Like this is this is just fun
and you looked absolutely adorable last time.
How do you just get out of bed and look as fabulous as you do?
I guess you know, bed head just works on me.
It it really does like, I don't think there's any way that you
could look bad. Oh yeah.
Yeah, like I cannot imagine you in any look.
That would be a bad look for you.
That's really funny, I was thinking the same thing about
you. How are you doing?
Better than last time I'm I've I've made some headway on
dealing with some of that family drama.
So you know that maybe the end is insight a little more than I
thought it would be, but at the same time I want to just keep
doing this. I I mean like coming to see you
and scanning that point card. Oh yeah, I, I, I want you to
keep coming by and scanning your point card.
And Cass is fidgeting a little bit and twirling her ponytail in
her hand and she doesn't know what to say.
She feels really awkward but doesn't want this to stop.
It's like a good awkward, like an awkward that she never really
thought that she would experience.
I really like it every time you come by.
It is really the highlight of the time period since the last
time you came by. Well, good, because you know,
the feeling's mutual and you know, you just, I almost have to
come through here. It doesn't even matter if I, you
know, if the the planet that I'm headed to is on this side, I
kind of want to just come through to come through and see
that pretty face. Cass just starts laughing and
like covering her face in a little bit of a fluster.
Well, I appreciate that. Any good books lately?
I've I've got like access to one of the Andromeda libraries.
I'll definitely have to check that out sometime.
Oh definitely do, though the subscriptions can be kind of
pricey so. I was thinking like I could
check out yours, but yeah. Oh.
Oh, right. Duh.
Yeah, I I didn't. I.
Let me get you. The point card.
Right, yes, OK here scan and all right next time think that head.
Pavel. Well, to set the scene for our
final scene, I think anyone with eyes and ears can tell that
these two are into each other, and maybe they both realize it
at this point. But let's see who's going to do
something about it. So you're going to choose your
final approaches and whoever receives the clue.
So IE loses in this instance will be the one who sets the
scene, puts all the pieces together, and is the one who
initiates the truth. So we'll see who that will be.
Processing beats revealing casts.
That means you get the third clue at some point during your
sitting in that booth. Or maybe there's something
coming up in the near future. It just hits you all at once,
like an intergalactic semi truck.
Oh, Val likes me. And what you do with that
information is now completely up to you.
Where do we find you? When the alarm goes off this
time and I see the holler, I am going to exit the booth and I'm
going to go stand outside of it on the little Rd. track where
the ships fly through. So when she gets to my window,
she's not going to see me there. But if you just look right out
the front, you'll see that I'm standing there and I'm kind of
awkwardly waving to you and trying to like get you to pull
in beside the booth. Val will look very confused for
a moment, but maneuver the Quran a into dock at the station,
still kind of sticking out into the lane, so other ships will
have to skirt around and lower the window.
So everything all right, Cass? Yes and no.
Do you feel comfortable coming and talking to me for a second?
Sure, Yeah, I I mean, I'm not in a hurry this time, thankfully
so. And she'll turn off the ignition
and said everything to to float and steps out onto the dock.
This is, this is. Listen, there's no way that our
paths crossed and brought this light into my life just to throw
me back Into Darkness every time you drive away from me.
Every interaction we have brightens my day, and I can't
wait for the next one. I find myself staring at the
monitor, hoping it's you coming through.
And in three years at the space station, I've never once
recognized anyone else's spacecraft just by the dent in
their door. And I, I, I just, I don't want
you to just be another passenger passing through my life.
I don't want this to just be a blip.
I feel like the stars aligned so that we can meet.
And I don't want to let you go again without telling you how I
feel about you, which is that I don't want you to go.
I want you to stay. And maybe not, not not like
forever. Well, maybe, But I want, I want
you to hang out and I want you to come in and listen to a whole
album with me. And I want you to sit so that I
can draw your eyes without having to remember what they
look like just from the image in my head.
And I want you to read a book and at my desk and tell me how
you felt about it when it's done without having to wait three
days after you read it. And whatever this has been, I I
want it to be so much more than what we've been given so far.
Val takes all of this in her face, reacting to the various
admissions and dreams of things that you'd want to do together,
and all of it is a mirrored desire and want to do those
things. But there's this undercurrent,
increasing sadness that that it's something that she can't
have. I'm not.
I'm not going to be coming back, Casa.
Oh yeah, yeah, that's also another version of how we
thought this would go. Totally.
No, it's it's not you. Like if I had my way, if I was
completely free, I want all, I would want all those things.
I, I would want you to draw me because you're amazing.
I I would want to be right at your side every day.
I last time I'd wanted to be in your bed with you looking all
dishevelled and cute. I just, I, I've been put on a
new route and it's, it's, I'm going to be gone for much, much
longer and I won't need to come through here anymore.
No, but I don't. I don't think so.
What? I don't like that that's not the
ending that we're supposed to have.
So what? What would you propose?
Something different. Stay here with me.
Let me come with you. You would want to come with me?
Yeah. There's a whole universe out
there, and I would love to explore it with you.
I. Would love to take you.
So take me. OK, get your stuff then, I
guess, yeah. I go and I grab my comic books
and my yo-yo and I jump into your arms so you can carry me
into your cargo hauler. I carry you a bridal style
across the dock and help you up into the cabin, into the cockpit
and I will shout back at everybody who's waiting still in
line to get checked through. Tolls are free and jump, pulling
and pulling her into the first kiss that they share, saying
something very corny, very cheesy, like I guess I've
rescued my Princess. Then I kiss Val back, which I've
been wanting to. Do for.
A really long. Time now.
And as she speeds us out. Into the.
Galaxies I lower the window. And shout.
Sorry Bob. A very busy Bob.
Looks up from the space station watching.
Ship after ship blow past the toll booth just takes his badge
off quietly. I was like I'm going to do
anything else but this. This sucks with Maddie.
And. With you flying off.
Into the Galaxy, that. Is unresolved sapphic tension.
A joy to see such young love flourish in the stars.
And now, my friends, we bring you to our final vignette, a
tale of two rival time travellers finding each other
throughout all of history. All players are Hi, I'm Tori.
Pronouns. She, her, and I will be playing
Max. Pronouns OSO she, her.
Hello everyone, this is yudi. Pronouns she, they, and I will
be. Playing Elena pronouns she her,
and so with our introductions out of the way, our.
Hearts all. Set Let us see the conclusion to
unresolved sapphic tension. OK, so Max short for Maxine?
Very much gives the kind of Butch mechanic vibe.
Always wearing a different set. Of overalls, however,
immaculately clean overalls, dark skin and dark hair shaved
at the sides with the intricate kind of cut out of a clock.
Of different times. Hands again shaved on the side
of the head. Hands are clean.
There's always some kind of smudge of oil or grease or
something on her cheek, a pocket watch in the front pocket of her
overalls. And she is kind of like the the
muscle, if you will, of building a time machine that might have
somehow worked. And that is how she knows our
next character. So Elena is.
In many ways, very. Very different from Max.
She is definitely shorter than Max, though her presence tends
to make people overlook that often.
She is Hispanic, has the sandy skin, though it's very obvious
she doesn't spend a lot of time outside.
She has long brown hair that is usually put up in a very messy
bun that looks like it was just very rushed or without care to
how it actually looks more just to get it out of her face.
She's very average build, just always hidden by this very long
coat. Now the coats are always
different every day. She has a lot of coats but there
is always a coat. She has glasses that she needs
to see, unfortunately, and always has a small notepad and a
pen. In the pocket of her coat.
Tends to have some hard candy. In another pocket she wears A
wristwatch that has entirely too many little dials and hands on
it. She's very no nonsense for the
most. Part and it is.
Very obvious from the way that she carries herself.
Elena is your numbers. Girl.
She is always looking at Max put things together and then.
Once we attempt. To turn it on, she's the one
running numbers and telling Max OK, loosen it a little bit here
and let's try. Maybe if we can move it to the
other side, the current will be better and it was just on the
other side. Grunts picks it up, moves it to
the. Other side of the room, much
like when a married couple is attempting to place a.
Couch in their living room and it's just a every time, just a
couple of inches. Off.
That is sort of the vibe for the most part of them building this
time machine, as Elena's just walking around and staring, not
noticing her face is entirely too close because she's so just
focused on the thing in front of them with their little notepad
and a pen. And if you look at it over her
shoulder, you can. You don't even know how she
understands any of the scribbles on there.
And before we go into our first. Movement and give this.
To to you Max to react. Here you're the muscle.
You're the the thing that makes the math function, the one who
translates it from from page to operation.
And one day, of course, it works.
Every time Elena throws out a new solution, a new thing to.
Try. There's a little bit of a
admiration in Max's eyes at like, how did her brain think of
that? With a little bit of playful of
noise that I got to move this piece another centimeter.
Is it really going to make a difference, Elena?
But OK, anything for you. And then one moment it almost
works. And we almost have that success
and that great big hurrah until I did it.
Let's. Get into the first scene.
So if Max chose processing, Elena chose revealing.
Processing beats revealing. So we're going to hand the scene
over to Max Udi, you can fill one of your hearts on your
character sheet. You will now receive a clue from
Time Traveler. Max Max, Where are we?
We're in the lab where Max and Elena spent many.
Hours together working on their time machine.
It's a year prior from machine. Working, let's say.
A year. Prior from present day where we
started. You see a year.
Younger. Max storming out of the door
angry and a year younger. Elena, sitting at the desk and
current Max sees the scene, has a moment of sadness at what is
happening and a kind of strong look.
In her. Eyes while seeing the scene as
if she. Wants to.
Take hints and notes from it to make it better.
This. Is the.
Day the last time we spoke and. The day that our.
Partnership are working together.
Ceased, sort of officially. It had been a big fight.
Elena doesn't usually fight, you know, Emotions aren't.
I think she doesn't get fired up over much.
But this time, we did. And.
It made Max walk out Elena. Is.
Present day Elena is standing a couple feet away where the past
versions of themselves clearly cannot see.
And she would know because, well, she was there and she
knows what they do after. So you know, it's easy enough to
place you in a spot where they won't see you.
Does I suppose Max would have been the 1st?
Present. Day Max would have been the. 1st
to spot present day Elena as she's just staring at a year
ago. Max Storm off I think in that.
Moment if you were to look up you would see Max.
Having a very excited happy smile on her face knowing you
being here means you did it. You were able to time jump and
also hope and there being a reason you.
Chose to come here. For the same reason that she
did. And then it's quickly hidden on
her face. Elena here is.
A wrestle. That she knows wasn't there when
this all happened. She has a very good memory.
She looks out and sees Max, and her first reaction, Max, as
you're looking at her, is surprised.
She is surprised. And then?
Realizes what? That must mean.
And you also finding a way to finish the machine by yourself
and the surprise changes into another motion that is quickly
hidden. She sort of seems to clear her.
Throat a little bit and. Looks at you in the eyes and
motions for the both of you to, you know, step outside of the
purview of your past selves. You did it, we did it, and I'll.
Follow you, it's going. Outside I'm.
Glad you're here. Why?
Why did you choose? To come back this time, I wasn't
expecting to see you here. You did it.
As well finished it on your own. That's it's pretty incredible
and she's just avoiding your question entirely.
I I mean, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have gone.
This far without you I'm just I'm happy you're here I think
that you know the way we. Parted and all that would have
stopped me from attempting to complete our project.
Did you? Oh, Oh no.
It's with a brain like yours. I knew.
You wouldn't stop until you did. I I am not shocked that you
figured it out. I'm just shocked that you
decided to come back here to this time and place as I did.
Yes, well. It was something that we did
mostly together, so it seemed sort of wrong, I guess, to take
my first trip into time without some sort of you in there, I
suppose. So I came here.
So you were. Thinking about me and.
She kind of, just sort of. Isn't looking at you or facing
you. Right on.
She's kind of like oh wow, look the tree.
Max will move herself so she's right in front of your eyesight.
You know this lab, I know you're not looking out for any certain
reason. There's nothing up there.
Yes, well, you're making it a little.
Hard to. Look at you right now.
I suppose you look a tad bit too smug.
I don't know how I feel about that.
If I recall, you liked my smugness.
When we were partners back in the.
Day work partners back in the day right right Max how do you.
Know when you're. Allotted time in a specific year
is running out. I think it's the pocket watch I
have and I'm assuming it'd probably be like similar for
Elena. 'S wristwatch, yeah, it'll be.
AI guess like an. Alarm clock A little chart room
starts going off. In the front of.
My pocket as Max's. There's something.
Beeping from inside one of Max's pockets.
I think she brings it out to look at it.
Elena sort of struck at the choice.
Like it's a pocket watch and it's somehow beeping and you
know Max has a certain. Aesthetic and.
I'm sure they did that on purpose, and also they probably
thought it was funny. And Elena sort of snapped back
into herself as her wristwatch begins a similar deep Oh man, I.
No, not, not. Not yet, We just met.
Maybe it's for the? Best.
This was interesting. Smug.
Smile, maybe see you soon. I doubt it and.
She turns around and. Walks away, just kind of
disappears. All right, let's go into our
second scene, shall we? We have teasing and processing
so teasing does beat processing so.
Another clue is given. To Elena, bringing her to two
and Max has chosen teasing Elena's chosen processing.
So Max, you are again the initiator.
Where in time are we now? All right, we're in the middle
of a. Dance floor.
It's a club scene. There's a disco ball hanging
from the top, there's a jukebox playing some tune that sounds
like it's coming from the 70s, and Max is starting to bust a
move and is wearing still overalls, but now they have a
funky like yellow color with some flowers painted over them.
And she's rocking an Afro. In this timeline, Elena had
spent a lot of time. That's a lot of time to her sort
of sitting back in her, their original time in her home, just
thinking about that first encounter and sort of all of the
implication behind it and decides.
To that, she spent a lot of time.
Thinking and hurting and needs something different.
And unfortunately for her, if the only the most different
thing she could think of is this one thing that Max used to tell
her about how she wishes that she could go and be in that era
and experience, like the discotheques in that area, and
how much fun it is. And so Elena thinks, yeah, I
could, I could have fun. I need fun.
Sure, let's give that a shot as she puts on what she's
attempting to make an outfit out of things that she owns, which
is very hard. So she wears a a skirt that's
more like a pencil skirt. It's like some heels I.
Could the. Only pair of heels she owns.
Like, yeah. Totally as she clicks on her
watch and is transported, she. Obviously has.
A coat on, but this one is very colorful and very fashionable.
Very not her usual self. She wanted to try something.
Different. She enters this disco and is
immediately regretting all of her decisions that brought her
up to this point. Oh my gosh, that is so many
people. That is very loud.
I should have brought earplugs. I should have brought this
through. I usually think things through
and as she is trying to make her way across the dance floor to
where she assumes the bar area is because she definitely needs
a drink. It'll help with the noise,
right? That's what that's that's how
this works. It'll make it more bearable.
That's what I've heard. And as she's walking through the
dance floor, she spots a girl that looks a lot like Max.
Well. Well, well, you spend a year
avoiding me and now you. Keep chasing me across time and
space. Hey.
Hey, Elena. No, don't look away.
I know you saw me. Oh, hello.
I can. I have no idea it was you I
could. Barely hear you so loud and here
I just wanted to do something different.
Obviously. Has nothing to do with you,
right? Just something.
I remembered that you mentioned and I thought it.
Would be good for me to try it out now I am entirely.
Regretting that decision. I'll I'll give like a.
Gentle little hand on your shoulder.
Hey, I'm proud of you do. You want.
I saw you looking at the bar. Do you want to go somewhere
quote UN quote quieter? I haven't get a good place away
from. This very loud noise your whole
music, Yeah, yes, yes, absolutely.
I will go up to the bartender who I am.
Already friends with? And.
Going. To.
Going to get myself a drink and I want to get like a something
like a hot toddy, like a spiked tea and bring it back for Elena
the the bartender. Also.
Afro, it's just like looking back at you very like very 70s
outfit, like black dress shirt, silver vest, huge pants and it's
a staring bag. You like this is like a regular
bar. But I can see if we can make tea
back there. Sure.
I don't know if she just really likes tea.
I we didn't go out dancing. A lot.
Is there something tea adjacent you could make with alcohol?
I mean, yeah, I could make like. OK so I have like.
Tea leaves. Back there, I could do something
with like, I don't know, like I could do a whiskey sour, but in
a few. Oh, I have a lot of ideas.
They can run to the back of the bar.
Thanks, Grant. Liam, turn back.
That's my name. My.
Parents couldn't choose. He comes back with a concoction.
There's like a. Steam off of it but it's not
hot. And he goes.
I think this will work. I I I don't know what it is
about your vibe specifically, but it made me really want to
try so I think this will work. I'll just take it and pass it
off to you later. OK.
You're not trying to poison me, are you?
Do you want me to try it first? No.
No, no, that's. That's fine.
That's. Fine, we would have tried that
anyways. It's not your vibe.
I suppose this is alcohol in it, right?
Right. Elena, have Have you never?
I have before usually. Wine.
And under very specific circumstances, like, yeah, this
is fine. And she, she begins.
To sip on it. It's not.
It's a little strong. Stronger than?
As usual, not half back though. And she?
She just. Keeps sipping on it.
Look at that, you create a time machine.
And suddenly you're loosen up. A little bit as I've.
Mentioned. I have had wine before.
And that was entirely before we even had the idea of The Time
Machine. OK, look at you.
Trying new things? OK, here's one for you.
Have you ever tried the hustle like the?
Hustle. Yeah, like are you time
travelling? Trying to make money.
Is that why? You finished?
No. No, no, no, that is the dance.
Quite dance. Preposterous.
Actually. The.
The dance they're playing, the song.
Right now. A dance called The Hustle.
Yeah, have you tried? It you're trying new things now.
You seem to be following. Me, I am most certainly not
following you, but I. Did come here to attempt to try
new things, so I suppose. You can teach.
Me, this hustle, keep it up, keep it going.
I will extend my hand. And see if you'll come with.
Me to the dance floor. She looks at your hand, looks at
her tray. Chugs.
The rest of the drink. And that takes your.
Hands because there's no way in the.
Hell, she's going to do this entirely.
Sober. My God, I didn't know you.
Had it in you? Yes.
There's a lot of things you don't know.
Actually. I think you would see Max.
Still. Teasing, but in a way that is
gentle if you would know her. Like gently teaching Elena to
make sure she's still comfortable but trying to teach
her the little moves to this dance under the disco ball.
She looks absolutely. Ridiculous.
By the way, I want to make that very clear.
Does she smile at all because Max would be looking out for?
Any sense of enjoyment? I.
Think it would probably be towards.
The end when she starts actually getting the hang of it,
eventually she's like, oh, you just repeat it.
That makes sense. And she does it again.
And she's like, look, I did it. But like in her head.
So she smiles to yourself because she did the dance
actually does her oldest brains. I knew those two.
Left. Feet could do.
Something and I think as she's. You know, dancing definitely for
the first time. Ever in a in a place?
Like this I think that is when probably it would probably have
been Baxis watch to ring first because she had been here for a
little longer and as smacks is watching Elena sort of smug with
herself at. Having gotten.
The dance moves right near the beat.
Why is it always at the? Most inopportune time.
I thought we were just. Like we were just.
And then Max blips out on the dance floor and this timeline
the song ends with. Elena not realizing that she had
been dancing by herself for the last maybe half a minute and the
song ends and she turns around to look for Max like see it
wasn't that hard and realizes that Max isn't there.
Then she goes back to the bar, orders another one of whatever
the hell that was, and it's almost done drinking it when?
Her. Wristwatch beeps as well.
She's just sighs, trags the rest of it to the horror of the
bartender and blitz out of time. Did I have too many?
Did she fucking vanish? So we we blip out of the
discotheque and that will bring. Us into our third scene, Elena a
bit more clued in to Max's feelings than Max is to Elena's
OK, so. Max has chosen to reveal but.
Elena has chosen to process and processing beats revealing.
So that means we're going to take it to you, Elena, where are
we in time where you are choosing to process?
Elena would find herself on top of what?
Looks like a hill. It's actually pretty dark
outside and you can see a lot of the city down underneath.
She looks behind her and there is this great white structure
with a Dome on one of its towers, so to speak.
She is standing outside. She looks behind her to this
very large white building, like a domed roof on one of its
towers, and the city sprawled out at the bottom of this hill
where the building sits. She is standing outside of the
Griffith Observatory and. As opposed to much of the.
Places where Elena. Likes to visit there.
Is actually a small hustle and bustle here tonight.
The stars are out and there are some people with telescopes out
on. The lawn.
In front of the observatory I guess there was supposed to be
some aligning of the planets or something and what looks.
Like. A university class sitting on
the lawn listening to a man with a telescope talk about sort of
the cosmos and the possibility and all of the things that we
don't know. As Elena leads sort of a small
ways away from this congregation of young adults leaning on the
edge of sort of this barrier that.
Is the only? Thing standing.
Between her and the rest of the city down below as she watches
them and looks up the. Sky and.
Then looks back in front of her to the city as there are a very
much younger than the first time we encountered our past cells
probably four or five years ago. Elena and Max sitting in for a
class field trip to the Griffith Observatory.
You hear familiar boot steps walking.
Behind you coming up behind. You we really can't keep meeting
up like this. And I'll sit down.
Next to you, she takes a big side.
She was. Sort of sitting on the bench
with her, sort of. Her body.
Overlooking the city had her back to the lawn and the
students. She hears you and you sit down.
And. She in her head is sort of.
Like I'm not looking. At her.
If I don't look at her, she's not here.
She realizes how silly that sounds and turns and sort of
meets your eyes. You know?
I do. You remember this?
Yeah. How could?
I forget it. You always were the smartest.
One in our class you really. Showed it off.
That day, I mean, yes, but. Not that he was quite inspiring
that day. I think sort of.
I think this was when we decided we wanted to do something.
Honestly, I. I wanted to say that I'm not.
Apologize of sorts because I didn't do anything wrong, but I
didn't think you would complete it without me, and I was well.
You did a very good job to have been able to finish it, and I
think you deserve to hear that. Wow, not you complimenting.
My brain. And so it does happen.
I did it. Without you.
Oh, I know we did. We did most of it together.
But it's still a feat to have, you know, finished it on your
own. You didn't have the rest of my
notes and I I. Took all of that.
With me when I left. So you did a good job and no I
am not following you as. You can clearly see by.
Me having arrived here first. And yet we still keep managing
to find each other. Same place at the same time.
Regardless of who. Gets there first, but thank you,
I don't take your compliments. Lightly.
And even if I didn't have your notes, I did have your voice in
the back of my head the whole time.
Moving that piece a little bit to the left, wrenching that
screw twice tighter than it should have been.
I this was a good day I think. For both of us.
And she looks back. At the sort of the little
congregation of people on. The grass.
It was simpler back then. Yes, things.
Things were. Easier.
Weren't they a lot more straightforward?
And yeah, I suppose simpler is the right word, but.
That class. This class I think was the first
time we really started talking to each other.
So if we, if they hadn't run out of the later classes and you
hadn't been forced to take this early class, we wouldn't have
met. It's kind of crazy to think of
looking back at it all and what we've managed to accomplish.
You do realize what this means, the making of these time
machines? What does it?
Mean to you? Well.
I mean. Sort of for the world and.
Do you know it's like chance brought us?
Together and we. Managed to do this in about four
or five years, give or take. But I try not to think too hard
of the implications I was. Just here for the the fun and
passion of it all. I guess when it kind of had more
of that pressure, it might have became a little too much for me.
Yeah, I guess. I guess I can understand that,
but you know, I've seen us. I have told you that you're
doing did a great job. I think I'm gonna go.
I'm gonna go tour the facilities now before I leave.
But yes, I'm proud of you. I suppose and she turns away.
Just very awkward. Wait, your what?
Say that again, just very awkwardly.
Walks into the building. This.
Time without even waiting for her.
No, no, you don't say. Say it again.
I'm chasing. I.
Think you would? Yeah.
You, you catch up to her. And it's as if that conversation
didn't happen, as she's just pointing things out inside of
the building and sort of has resolved to give you a little
tour again before her watch beeps first.
Thankfully, when you almost have reached the end of the museum,
inside, before I blip out, you hear.
Max say I'm proud of you too. Gone, so we leave.
The Griffith Observatory and we'll go.
Into our next scene. Wow.
Both picked revealing in the event of a tie, the initiator.
Is. The one who wins that round and
Elena, That's you tying up the clues.
So where do we find ourselves now?
When you encounter Max, we find Elena.
Standing outside. Well, looks to be.
An open garage. It's not a home.
Garage it looks like university facilities.
This is a very decked out garage, very long, takes up the
entire bottom of a building almost, and there is a hustle
and a bustle as a couple of different groups of people are
working on different things. And you can see on one side
being a lot, a lot more quiet than the other groups are past
Elena and Max. This one is obviously less.
Recent than their fight in our first scene.
But a little newer than that university trip where they had
first became friends. This is when they had already
had some sort of blueprints, and Max is showing Elena the first
iteration of their blueprints. There is this small machine that
looks almost nothing like what they actually ended up with two
years later, and they're both huddled over it very excitedly,
motioning with her hands out where everything is as she's
explaining all of these things. And from where Elena, current
Elena is standing, is across the way from that.
Those garages that always have their doors open when there are
people there for ventilation, you know, of all the sorts of
things that they're building in there.
But she is close enough to still be able to hear.
Max. Very excitedly explaining
everything. Max is probably doing likewise.
Maybe sitting on a bench? A few.
Feet away. Or across the street, not having
noticed Elena yet, but is also focused on what's going on in
the garage, scribbling in a notebook with more serious face,
I think. Than you usually.
See her with I. Think this time.
Elena notices. Max first.
She. Was looking at their past
selves. And looks down at her
wristwatch. She it felt like.
She was sitting here for longer than she actually.
Had. But she stands up anyways,
having sort of had enough for herself and giving herself some
more things to think about, and turns to walk away when she
notices Max sitting on another bench, and she walks up to her.
As you. Hear Elena sit down next to.
You on the bench and. Go well, well, well.
So who's following who now? Well, you're the one who sat
down next. To me, so I think it's still
you. No, no, that is not.
That is not. How that works?
I I'm pretty sure I arrived here first.
I cannot tell if you are. Teasing me or if you're serious.
I'm being perfectly serious. I'm pretty.
Sure, I arrived here first, not. At this particular bench, but
like in this point in time, whatever and.
Max is also. Closing the notebook.
She was scribbling it and kind. Of pushing it.
Out of your view, You were right about about.
What you said. Last time we met, these were
certainly easier times, simpler. Honestly, it was it was quite
fun. I think the first.
Couple of. Iterations of our machine just
coming up with it. I think it's definitely more fun
than, you know, just all the minute centimetre tweakings at
the end. It was exciting building
something new. It was I missed that fun.
And I'm looking up. Kind of like.
Wistfully at the scene in front of us, and I know I was very.
Not probably not the nicest. Lap Partner.
But it. Yeah, I enjoyed my time working
on it with you. And do you listen quite well?
Which? Helps you know so.
Of course, Elena, I am so. Impressed.
You build a time machine and suddenly.
You're, you're just opening up a little more I, I don't think.
Well, yes, it might be the time. Machine.
It's just the fact that I keep finding myself at times and
places like this, and I suppose it's more looking on the past
than anything. Things are so complicated now
and looking back on the simpleness.
And the fun and. All of that does you know it.
Tends to make. People a little more, I don't
know, open to their feelings or something.
I'm pretty sure there's a paper about it somewhere about
reminiscing and its effects on the brain.
And you know, that's. All I ever wanted from you.
It could be simple again. It could be fun again.
I don't know about that. I honestly I I thought you hated
me after. We parted ways.
No, not hated. Just frustrated.
Because. You.
Kept to yourself. As much as you.
Kept to to that notebook. I thought you hated me.
This is. The most you've ever
communicated and. Smiled and like danced under.
A disco ball, however many. Years whatever 1st and the last
time I'm doing that so I hope you enjoyed it.
Do you have fun? It was.
Interesting. I.
Did not hate you, I think of I was also.
Frustrated. It was stressful getting SO.
Close to our. Deadline not being done and just
everything I suppose got a little much.
It feels different now that it's done I think.
And for what it's worth, I never completed.
It without you and I'm a slide over my.
Notebook to you. And on the first page it's just
like. A photo of us.
Back I probably have my arm around you and a cheesy grin
and. You have a little smile.
And on the back are some notes that you might have posted so
you. Might have left around that I.
Put on the back of that photo. Clever.
Very clever. I think, I think you always
swear. I made it easy to pick you as a
partner for this project. Smoke smiles back.
Yes, well, I. Did all.
Right here first SO. Just give it a second and we sit
in silence for about 3 or 4 seconds and you hear the beeping
come from Elena's wristwatch. God dammit again.
Well. Everything has its limitations.
Max leans back in the bench. Lets.
Out a giant groan. And then blips out.
Well, one way or another, that's going to bring us to our final
scene, so go ahead. And choose your final approach
for me teasing and processing. So Max toast to.
Tease and. Elena chose the process.
Which means Max wins. Elena gets the last clue
somewhere in the wormholes and transports of time alone with
her thoughts continuously bumping into Max, Elena puts two
and two together and realizes that Max feels the same way
about her that she feels about Max Elena has after.
Sort of realizing. What's going on?
Has thought. About this entirely.
Too hard. There are notes.
There are some tables with some numbers on them where she
attempts to math this out and make it make sense, because
feelings for her tend to be a little complicated and not as
easy and as straightforward as numbers are.
But out of all the people and how complicated everyone is, she
feels Max has always been. Relatively.
Simple for her to figure out and so she puts her.
Math down because she wasn't able to.
Make an equation, make sense out of that.
Can't put numbers on feelings necessarily.
And after some brooding and some thinking, wisps herself to a
cafe. This was a place where they had
actually only ever been there once.
They spent a lot of times at cafes around the university of
course, but this particular cafe they had I think.
Traveled a little bit. At Max's behest, that they see
something else besides the prim white buildings and the stuffy
books and all the people telling them what to do.
They needed a weekend away. And so we see past Max and past
Elena, sitting at this cafe in the middle of nowhere, writing
on. On some.
Napkins and obviously Elena's little notepad, with scribbles
and pages torn out and set up all over the table.
There is barely enough room for their actual coffee as a
waitress comes by and looks at the table and attempts to set
down their little mugs in the most unobtrusive place and
having a very hard time about it.
Max obviously notices move some papers aside for the waitress to
set everything down as Elena is just too wrapped up and the
thing in front of her on these papers doesn't even notice the
waitress on the coffee. They see current Elena sitting.
A couple of tables. Away staring at the two of them.
They're pastels. The day that they decided that
they were going to build a time machine.
You here. Behind you is a seat.
Taken. There's a small smile.
No. That's.
Not taken. Well, now it is by you, I
suppose. And she waves down the.
The waitress the same. One that had just dropped off
the drinks for their past selves.
Can can we add mocha to my table please?
Oh yeah, for sure, That's not a problem at all.
Oh, and refill her tea as well. Sure, I think we have some
extra. Tea leaves in the back.
I could do some of the. Tea leaves, I think.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I can do that.
Well, I can't say I'm surprised to meet you here.
But let's pretend. Fancy meeting you here?
Oh yes, quite surprising we keep bumping.
Into each other at. Places like this where?
We've really started. It all.
Kind of looking back. Behind me.
At past us. So how many more?
Timelines are we going to have to keep?
Bumping into each other before. Something is.
Laid out on the. Table and I'm not talking.
Time portal plans could say that.
Today, well back then, this day that we're in did change a lot
of things. It was the start.
Of yes. A job a most.
Successful job I'd say, and also the start of the.
Best days of my. Life, I'd also say.
Really. Would you say differently?
I, I don't know. Things certainly got more
stressful and more complicated and there's I feel like there's
a tension that wasn't there at the beginning.
As we went on. Do me a favor, turn off that
smart brain. Stop thinking about the past and
the future and just give me right now.
I'm going to kind of like. Put my hand on.
Your hand. She doesn't pull.
Away from your hand. You know you can't actually turn
your brain off, you know that, right?
The tea gets here and you feel her hand move a little, like she
was going to grab the tea with the hand that was holding yours.
And so you feel it like it's going to pull away, but she
thinks about it and grabs the mug.
With her other hand. Well, if I burn myself, it's
entirely. Your fault as she's using her
non. Dominant hand to drink her tea
just for the sake of not removing her dominant hand from
yours. Yeah, it's it's OK.
I know I'm hot. Take your time.
She splutters her tea a little bit.
She has. Dammit that.
Is hot the. Tea is hot.
I told you if I burned myself it would be on you.
Well, it's technically on me because I burned, right?
You know what? Yes, you are very attractive, I
suppose. Shock on Max's face.
At. Elena, actually.
Admitting something plainly but. You know.
She sets the tee down very softly in an attempt not to burn
herself anymore. I sat.
For some time. After our last meeting, thinking
about where I could go. I had the.
Most probability of finding you there as well.
I am not surprised at all Elena. No one knows me.
Better than you do. I just thought about.
Sort of where where would Max go?
And found myself here and. Here you are and I.
Was thinking that if you did appear here, I was going to do
something and if you didn't I was going to give up on it.
And yeah, here you are. And now I am rambling.
I just start rubbing your hand. You're doing great.
Take your time. She takes her hand away and
just. Sort of sits up a.
Little straighter and. Takes a big breath.
That is all. To say Max.
How? Would you like to to be partners
again for either scientifically or non?
Scientific purposes I. Will leave that up to you.
Elena, would you shut up and kiss me already?
I think in. Her panic.
Like her first thought is the panic of oh.
No, I fucked it up. It wasn't supposed to go like
this, but I can't just take it back and do it again.
And when Max asks that, she looks at her sort of surprised.
That you a. Little surprised that.
That you feel the same way because she was 100% expecting
to probably get rejected. She ran the numbers on it and it
was like a probability thing and it wasn't, you know, it wasn't
great. And she.
Sort of looks at you and she goes.
You do it. I'm too nervous.
How about you meet me halfway and I'll lean over?
Halfway off the table she sort of bends forward as well and
kisses you. And I would like to say at that
same time you see the. Past us.
Shake hands to make the deal of their partnership and you hear
Max present Max say it's about time and then takes her pocket
wash that's beeping and like chucks it as far as she can.
You know that won't. Stop you from going back, Elena.
Shut up and I kiss you again. Eventually.
This scene fades. There's a lot of ways you can
agree to something. Eventually you blip.
Out of this scene, maybe after enough recalibration you do find
that way to get back to the same time and do this the right way,
but for now an agreement. And that is unresolved sapphic.
Tension We hope you've enjoyed our trio of vignettes.
Unresolved Sapphic Tension is by a disaster queer.
A link to purchase the game is in the description.
We are large fans of their products and you should support
them today. Now where can you hear more?
Of our wonderful. Cast well, allow them to tell
you. Mia, thank you for playing.
Where can we find more of you? Ah, you can check out my card.
You can. Go to eosha.card.co.
Eosha is EOTIA if you're looking for some art.
I do some commissions but if you're looking to play just
reach out to me through my contact information there.
Stoked to have you, I was a big fan of you.
On monsters, other childish things.
So thanks for crashing our show. Sadie.
Where can we find more of you? Hi.
You can find me at Oak. Leaf Insignia at all the social.
Media places you can also find my website oak leaf Insignia dot
games where you can find out more about what I'm doing, games
that I'm writing, etcetera, etcetera.
One of my faves. One of my absolute faves.
Thank you for playing here. Winter, where can we find more
of you? As I said, I'm Mistress Winter,
you can find me on. Threads, Instagram and blue sky
at G Mistress winter. You can also hear me every other
week on all our faults. A Monster Hearts 2 actual play
podcast by the Tabletop Tailspinners network, as well as
in the cast of magnificence as. Suda.
Also from the Tabletop Tailspinners network.
Also every other week on Fridays.
Two of my very favorite shows. I love all our faults.
I love magnificence. People should be binging those.
I'm just saying. Taz, where can we find more of
you? Hey, hey, I'm Taz once again.
You can catch me on my socials at Reader.
And Rogue, I have a lot of projects coming up.
They are all secrets. So if you'd like to know where
I'm at and what I'm doing, you have to follow me and interact
with me and watch my Instagram Stories because that's where I'm
going to share all my deal. Once again, that's at Reader and
Rogue spelled the way it's said. I yeah, I I I'm part of one of
those secrets. I'm GM ING one of.
Those secrets, you're actually, I feel like you're a part of a
couple of those secrets. Actually, I'm probably.
I'm I'm all over the place, Tori, where can.
We find more of you. Oh.
Grant, thanks. For having me, I have a podcast.
Called the silly Merlion where I go over nerdy Lord of the rings
chapter by chapter with my Co host and then I also have a
podcast called after play where we do a TTRPG set in Middle
Earth. And then you can.
Find me on socials at under score Toriello after play one of
my favorite APS that I got to discover this year and.
I'm super stoked to have had you on the show here today.
Thank you, Greg, it was so much fun.
Thanks for having me, Judy. Where can?
We find more of you, yes, so y'all can go ahead.
And catch up with me at UD and. The Beast absolutely everywhere
on the Internet. I am a part of a whole bunch of
different shows going on in a whole bunch of different
channels. But for the most part you can
find me over at Somebody's Heroes as more when Sanatori in
this super epic 3 table mega campaign set in the homebrew
world. You could also go ahead and find
me doing vampire things over at Philly by night as Grabby
Alice's Narrows. She's a bitch, don't listen to
anything she says. I am also going to be a part.
Of a lot of things that are. In redacted Redacted redacted so
just stay up on my socials to see.
Where? I'm going to be at next because
we do have a lot of exciting things being set up.
Oh, I know about some of those redacted things anyway.
Listen, I'm a simple man if I. See uni is doing something, I go
check. It out because she's fucking
great. And as always, thank you.
For listening. Goodnight.
Also, Yuri, thank you for letting me fall in love with
Elena. It was a joy.
Thank you. It was.
Great. Thank you, Grant for having.
Us for choosing this wonderful game and yeah, you do a great
job at casting This is great Oh yeah, the table's got turned on
me. I don't get faint in my own
shit. What the Hell's happening this
is? Crazy.