Book and Ocean try to stand up for the little man... but also themselves. They are on the right side of history, but on the wrong side of a shotgun.

This one is mostly shrugging off GSWs and hurt feelings.

Welcome to, Oops!

All Apocalypses, a show where we explore the collapse of society by playing

fun, tabletop role playing games.

I'm your host, Stu Masterson, and I'm joined by two of my

most medium bestest friends.

Hey everyone, my name is Brady and I play book MacReady, a

kind and nitpicky detective type who just peed himself a little bit

And I'm Jacob.

I'm playing Ocean.

A gentle giant who's learning.

He's really not as intimidating as he hoped he was.

while we wait for Stu to get his shit together.

Does anybody, is anybody interested in taking a trip back

to book's, nook of book takes?

Of course,

yeah.

Y wait, sorry.

Let me sound like 20 kids at once.

Is that better?

No, I hated it.

Have either of you caught up on the last of us, which is now long

over for everyone else listening?

indeed.

Watch the finale.

What did you think of it?

I was a big

Out of 10.

10 out of 10, 10 out of 10.

Every episode better and less best than the last.

So each episode just better than all the ones around it.

And an ever-increasing mountain of good episodes,

I think I did a pretty good job basically being a one-to-one

remake of the ending of the game.

I think the Bill and Frank episode was the best,

my favorite.

and that was also where they deviated the most.

I agree.

I think that one was the best one so far.

Yeah, I'm guessing most of that wasn't in the game.

I'm the only one here who has not played any of the games.

But even though I'm the one PlayStation fan, I'm a true gamer, elite gamer

right here, PS Plus for 26 years.

You say that like PC isn't your main console.

That was Nintendo until I went to college cuz we

couldn't afford anything else.

No I loved it.

And I think that's the type of story that fits very well naturally with

Powered by the Apocalypse as well.

Cuz that whole story is about like scarcity and interacting.

It's mostly about interacting with other people, right?

Yeah, there's these hor horrific monsters, but that's how the

game's supposed to be played.

We make ours a little funnier than the rules probably

We hope.

but I think you could really cover that setting well.

If someone wanted to do a last of us one shot, I would be like,

Hey, play Apocalypse World.

I say, I think it'd be very easy to do in Apocalypse World

Listen, watch the last of us go give money to H B O.

They need it so bad because apparently they don't have enough money and

they cancel all the good shows.

apparently.

Okay, that has stalled enough time for me to find.

All of the questions we need.

This next one is pretty good.

The question this week to fall in love, if you're just joining us,

these are questions that a bunch of science nerds have determined.

If you sit across from someone and ask them sequentially, you will eventually

fall in love with each other or maybe know that you aren't a perfect

match and you should just ditch 'em.

So we're doing these questions between our two beloved characters book and ocean.

The question we've got to now is our sixth question.

When did you last sing to yourself, to someone else?

Question mark.

I think that the last time that book sang to himself was the day before

his parents left, and it was to his mom.

Ooh, tragic.

always have to be such a bummer.

Yeah.

I don't like, I don't think he consumes,

song was it?

It was, oh shit.

Oh, it was the cleanup song.

It was 100%.

It was the cleanup song from Barney.

It was the Barney cleanup song, canonically.

Okay.

It's so sad.

And it's sad if you think about in like a deeper way that you know,

he was young enough that he was listening to those kind of musics.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now you have you have a couple good hits you can listen to.

You've been introduced to Weird Al and you also have the full

extended cut of vessel by 21

Yeah.

I think that fact is gonna change very soon.

so to someone else, I'm guessing?

Never then, except like with your parents,

Since that one was the question, when did you last sing to yourself?

Did you get do a drunken karaoke night?

As of right now, the broken leg has karaoke night on Sunday at noon.

I'm gonna say yes,

It was so early for karaoke.

has attended karaoke night cuz people tend to get very drunk and loud

and talk on a couple of occasions.

He was in the back corner.

Basically just mouthing the words, but there was enough breath coming

out of his mouth that I'm gonna say qualifies as singing to himself.

And what song was that?

And that song was let's see.

The cleanup song?

No,

That's why he was singing it, because he had like

a flashback to his childhood.

that song.

Oh my gosh.

Okay, I got it.

Snow Patrol.

Hold on.

What's the song where he's in the corner being sad?

Yeah.

Hold on for one more day.

No, hold on.

That's Wilson Phillips, I think.

I think it's Snow

Is it the one where he sounds even more like Kermit the Frog than usual?

It's, it wasn't Snow Patrol.

It was changing by the Airborne Toxic event.

I love Airborne Toxic Event.

They're like top five of Stu's favorite

Fuck no, I lied.

It was sometime around midnight by the Airborne Toxic event.

Fuck, I'm so sorry.

Third time's a charm.

Even better song

so good.

That was 100% the song he was singing to himself.

Okay.

Ocean, same questions to you.

When was the last time Ocean saying to himself.

When was the last time he sang to other people?

So for singing for himself, I think ocean judging by like the amount

of like music playing memorabilia he has in his little car uh, I

think he's, he listens to a lot of music and so I imagined he probably

sings to himself pretty frequently.

Probably the last time he getting ready to get up for.

Get up and go.

So probably this morning in the chain of events here, singing to

other people, I don't think he's done in his lifetime that he remembers.

At the very least, maybe in his past.

He sang a lot as from what he remembers, I just don't see him as the type of guy

that enjoys singing in public or singing to other guys or other people, or going

to karaoke events or anything like that.

Yeah.

He doesn't have that annoying personality.

No,

Yeah.

So me constantly and to other people, I sing to myself just literally all

day, always while talking in the middle of sentences with other people.

And then to other people probably in the background of, one of the

songs I've used in this podcast is probably the most recent.

If it counts me screaming from a halfway across my room into a mic

and then playing it backwards,

I just realized the implications of book's, parents making him clean up the

house the day before they abandoned him.

it's sad.

Gotta straighten the fuck up kid, cuz we're not gonna be around here.

I take it in a more positive way because I bet that's something

that's pretty soothing to

Oh, absolutely.

I think it was a normal routine.

Like I don't think that, it didn't feel like it was just

another

I was about to say, I don't think it was my, it was intentional on their

and you don't know why they left or if it was sudden or anything Yet.

Yeah.

They could have just been singing, cuz that's their regular routine.

So that's the last thing.

It's just a normal day and then the next day they're gone.

Let's get back to the cliffhanger of book, potentially dying after learning

all of those good things about him.

Insert music here.

Book.

You feel this cold metal pressed against the back of your neck,

what's the first thing you do?

Just right away.

In book's mind flashes the events of a couple days or a couple

weeks prior, depending on who you ask.

Where the salad fingers monster crawls its way out of the sewer and clutches

his chest and fear and panic rushes through his chest, his heart and his head.

Then a calm kind of falls on him because he now has stern presence

Ooh, what a good transition.

What a good way to segue that in.

and he can't see this person, so he is not gonna use

it yet, but he knows that he can.

Handle himself.

That might be false confidence because Ocean did a lot of the heavy lifting.

I am going to start by reading this situation,

Give me a read, a situation roll.

okay?

And I'm gonna use real dice, which I'm excited about.

Ooh.

This is a first for you.

That was a 12,

Ooh.

That's about as good as you can do with your first role.

You can ask me three questions right now

I think who's in control here is a good question because clearly

the person with the gun is can in control, but I don't know who that is.

you slowly look over your shoulder and you feel it

pressing harder to you to get the impression that you should not try to

move . He doesn't say anything yet.

But you look and it is one of Hickory's men that you've interacted

with, just minorly before named Rosco.

And he has this two large shotgun pressed right against the back.

Okay.

I think I know what poses the biggest threat to me.

I imagine it's the shotgun.

Are you asking.

No, actually, yeah.

You know what?

Let's make it interesting cuz I think that might inspire you to add some stakes,

Yeah.

So that is not the biggest threat to you right now.

He looks like he is holding off and not pushing the trigger, but he is

looking for what to do next from someone further to the side that

you're not able to get a good view on without turning your head right now.

So there's someone else in this area who seems to be calling the

okay?

I know that sounds like backwards for who's in control

versus what you just asked, but

Okay.

What represents the best opportunity for me to distract these men?

from, can you elaborate on that just a little bit?

You want to distract them from you?

From both of us.

I want their attention away from Ocean and myself.

So you know what you did, right?

You know why these people are after you, the kind of severity of your,

the grievances they have with you.

If there was a bigger threat or a bigger problem than they had to deal with,

they would certainly take care of that.

You are relatively small fry.

It's more you've offended someone greatly than an actual emergency.

Very interesting.

Don't know how helpful that

is

No, that's very helpful.

but it's the truth.

That is very helpful.

So book is the one that has the gun to his back in the scene.

Where would is Ocean in relation to all this?

You dove forward like a runner sliding into home plate

when you went behind this building.

So you have a much better view of what's going on here, but you

just get this fleeting glimpse.

You don't get the detailed information that he just got with his role.

But that there are four men here total.

They all are armed in some way.

The only one that they're gun currently drawn is the one who has

it pressed up against book's neck.

But you do see Pistachio Jones is on the far side away from you.

And they can obviously like see me like even though I dug into

the yeah, I imagine it's straight

You guys are basically in an alleyway that is enclosed off from the

rest of the town by these large drapes covering each end of the alleyway.

It's like a corner of four broken down buildings that you guys are pretty

separated from everyone else, but there's really no place to hide right here.

Am I able to make an action?

can do whatever you want.

Okay.

I would like to hook my cane around the person behind Me's ankle and try

to pull his feet out from under him.

Okay?

like a good way to get shot.

Yep.

Exciting.

Okay.

This is going to be doing battle, I believe.

I see you grimace at that.

To do battle you roll plus hard, and then the effects of that are going

to be based on trying something challenging and acting under fire.

So gimme that hard roll.

Okay.

The hard roll is coming.

Oh, no, that was a one.

Yeah, that was two minus one.

Okay.

I So I'm gonna try and help because I think the moment Ocean sees

book try and fight back, he's gonna step in and try and fight back too

Okay.

What are you going to try to do?

Explain what you're doing.

Ocean.

book is kind to loop his cane around his ankle to trip him, right?

I think Ocean is gonna step forward and just try and slug the guy as he's

distracted by distracted by book.

Then you also give me a do doing battle roll

Okay,

before you roll the help.

so right now does my, I count as a small gang

You do count as a small gang.

Yes.

So you will deal additional harm and take less harm.

You are overall against a gang right now, so it will be even footing

when shit's going down, but yeah.

Okay.

Basically after this, you're against a small gang.

Okay.

That's a nine.

On a nine, you hit both with a seven to nine.

So with a an attack someone, you get to choose one from that list.

And for the act under fire there is going to be a complication.

So what do you want to do with your attack?

Someone you can either inflict terrible harm, seize hold of something, get them

out of your way, impress, frighten, or dismay them or pin them down.

I'm gonna pin them down.

Okay?

So there's still going to be, you don't need to roll help, since that

was so successful there's still going to be a complication associated with

this though because book did fail.

Utterly any of them make success.

So as you come up, he feels almost at the same time as he sees you pushing yourself

up off the ground and heading towards him with your fist pulled back ready to just

Superman punch him in the face He feels.

This cane getting pulling on his ankle and he whips it back and book your cane, goes

scattering against the wall B behind him.

You just lose your grip on it.

You weren't in a good position to hold onto it, but ocean is able to come up

and just sock him right in the face.

I think you do two harm.

Yeah, I get plus one harm.

Uh, I have plus one harm and plus one armor.

So yeah, two harm I think.

Just like with punching somebody, is that just like a base one harm, I assume?

Yeah,

So total two harm.

Okay.

So you knock him down.

He, this is, you did pin them down, right?

Yeah, so I'm like grab him by his scruff and like hold

his arms behind and like hold him in front of us as like a shield.

Okay.

As you are collapsing to the ground, you hear his gun go off and bullets

just tear through the front side of your shin and you take three harm.

Okay.

So I take one arm cuz I have one armor.

Because you count as a gang and you have one armor.

Yep.

And I'm not gonna make you roll a harm, move for that cuz I'm expecting

there to be more harm shortly.

But he's on the ground.

You see this other collection of people all start pulling out their weapons.

What do you do?

But.

Now that I've.

Now that Ocean has successfully gotten the shotgun away from me, I'm going to

turn it, look at that other collection of people and I am going to, okay, hold on.

How stern is that presence?

I don't know that stern presence is really going to help me

out here unless someone needs my help.

Oh man.

We're just doing battle, aren't we?

Which

you currently do not have a weapon.

I was about to say, I don't think we can take the group, so I think we

need to try and probably talk 'em down

I was gonna, I was gonna try to do, I am, I'm going to use stern presence,

Okay.

Roll it.

right?

And I'm rolling.

Plus hard, which I have minus one on, so that's awesome.

Excellent.

God damn it.

These real dice are not being kind

That was a four.

You're getting better though.

They're working their way up.

What does it say?

Be, prepare?

Does it just say, be prepared for the worst or

on a miss.

Something else catches my attention.

First ask the mc what does.

So you go and you try to scan their eyes briefly to see how they're

feeling, their immediate reaction if you can impart something on them.

But right when they are, when you're trying to catch their gaze, you

hear some weird scuttling behind you outside of the alleyway, so you can't

see them, but it seems like someone's coming up pretty quickly and it

definitely distracts you for a moment.

So there's more people headed in this

Okay.

Ocean . Why don't you take over

Okay.

All right.

Holding the guy.

I'm gonna be whoa, whoa, everyone.

Let's just cool our jets here.

Everyone calm down.

Let's put the guns away.

. Stu: Pistachio Jones walks up and

into the shadows very dramatically.

And he takes a step forward and he goes, now why would we be doing that?

I don't sh I don't see any reason that we should be putting our guns down.

We seem to have you right

don't see any reasons why you should have put guns

in our face in the first place.

We heard that you were quickly leaving one of the local establishments

and we thought that maybe you had a little something to hide or you weren't

thinking of paying and you treated me with a great amount of disrespect.

And he's walking closer and like slowly pulling out a revolver.

As he's saying this

Does The guy that I'm holding have a gun on him or like

a pistol that like pull out of his

He has that whole shotgun that is now angled down.

You're like pressing it against the ground after it's shot towards your shin.

But yes, he has that

Uh, I want to try and grab like hold the guy like with his

neck and then grab the gun like hold the shotgun like, hold on now.

Put that gun down.

Okay.

Give me a try.

Something challenging as this guy's gonna fight back from

being removed into this position.

All right.

Try something challenging is what you said.

Yes.

Okay.

God, we're so bad at trying something challenging.

That's not a bad rule though.

That's a nine.

Okay.

A nine.

You're able to with ocean like reflexes, you roll up onto your feet holding

this guy by the neck and you, your massive size and strength just grips

this shotgun with by just the grip and aims it towards Pistachio Jones.

But by the time it took you to do all that, everyone has also pulled

their guns and they have them on you.

So you guys are in a very lopsided Mexican off.

Except we have a gang on our side.

yeah, that's true.

You both have a gang

I am going to step forward basically in front of

everyone holding their weapons.

I'm going to walk calmly to my cane.

I'm going to bend over.

Pick it up and turn to everyone and try to sway them.

Okay.

That's first gonna be an act under fire.

Nobody's sh

And if you roll bad, it's gonna be literal.

Oh, I roll plus.

Cool.

Cool.

Cuz I'm good at that.

So that was I rolled a nine, but that is an 11.

Excellent.

Yeah.

You walk over calmly.

It does seem to diffuse the situation a little bit and you put yourself

in a good position, roll your sway, depending on how good you roll,

come up with what you're gonna say.

Okay.

Okay.

Oh fuck.

So that was sway some one is plus Cool as well.

So that was a seven.

Okay.

That is a mixed success.

Okay.

What do you say to him?

And then I'll react

ladies and gentlemen, I know this situation got off to a rocky

start, but we wish you no ill will.

In our earlier conversation, Mr.

Jones was simply, and I must have done a very poor job of expressing this.

That was simply us expressing our commitment to follow

your requested instructions.

Of providing attacks after our power was restored, and I believe that fair

exchange of goods and services is and can be still amiable to all of

us if we just lower our weapons and consider that proposition calmly.

An interesting proposition you say, or just going to pay your due tariff.

From where I see it, and he pulls out this ostentatious pocket watch he looks

at and he goes, if I don't have that payment within the hour, there's going

to be a severe penalty applied to it.

So if you are looking to pay, you better get moving.

Now, the terms of that agreement again was that my power will be

restored and then I will pay the tax.

The power is beyond my control.

I just help collect the money.

That's someone else's job.

I don't have power coming to my place of residence, what am I paying for

protection city, he, I promise you, the light bringer gives power to

whoever needs it and whoever can use it.

He has to ration power sometimes.

Maybe a week you'll be a little low.

Next week, y'all power the whole time.

You just gotta hold on and believe in him and he'll get us.

To a successful,

pistachio, my friend.

I want, I would love to see that, but this protection that you're providing was

just realized in a very threatening way.

So I think that if you can give me some more time and if you

can and in that time my power is restored, then we can all walk away.

Happy individuals.

you owe the money.

You have one hour of gate here.

If you don't, there's gonna be a penalty.

You're gonna have to pedal it off.

rolled a mixed

look at Ocean and I shrug in his direction, and then I hold my hand

out to Pistachio Jones for a handshake.

to shake it, Okay, I'll like it.

I don't like this, but pistachio loves it.

And he walks forward, he twirls his pistol around and holsters it, and

then reaches out with his hand and gives you a very meaty handshake.

It just engross your entire hand.

You feel his thumb and pinky touch

on the other, the back of your hand.

Disgusting.

All right, since it seems like we're on am not amiable, but less

likely to be shot terms, I am going to.

Kick the guy that I'm holding away from me, but I'm gonna

keep holding onto the shotgun

Okay?

And I'm

he goes.

I'm keeping this.

He goes, Hey, that's my gun.

You guys attacked us first.

We take this,

We.

I was just trying to detain you until we could figure out what was going on.

I need my gun.

You guys have plenty of guns.

You can't tell me Hickory doesn't have more guns to offer.

Give me a sway roll.

You guys shot first.

It's only fair.

Oh my God.

That's a 12.

12.

I'm not even, that's dead series.

Look at that bad

With a 12.

He pistachio.

Looks like he's coming to back him up, like to force you to give him the gun.

He starts walking towards you and, but you look down at this man who you stole his

gun and he realizes how big and imposing and how quickly you dealt with him.

And he actually turns around to pistachio.

He goes, oh no, it's fine.

That one is, that was not working very well.

Anyway, it's that's a bad gun and he Takes a few steps back.

Possession goes well, time's ticking.

You better get going.

So Stu breaking the fourth wall here a bit because of the

wonderful audio quality we have here.

I did not hear how much time Pistachio Jones gave us.

So he told you one hour, that is like a little tight, like you have

to go and get it, but that is not like some absolutely absurd amount of

time and it also doesn't make a ton of sense for like why you need it.

You think this is just him flexing his power and making you

do something for him right now?

It's not the fact that he needs it or the fact that you're

not going to be able to do it.

He's just saying, I can make these people go do

And the amount that he demanded was one car battery.

Yes.

The only way that he would've known that we had one car battery

at all is if he was following us.

But I think I have an idea.

Okay.

Do you guys scutter off?

Yeah, I'm get, yeah.

We'll,

we'll,

It's way less violent than I thought it'd be so far.

We'll see where you go with it.

But

so real quick looking up for the stats of this shotgun, do you have 'em

Just happen to be on your hands too.

three harm close

Messy,

Messy.

three harm close, messy.

Well, We finally have a real weapon now, so that's nice.

Okay.

What?

What's your

turn to Ocean af.

I'm assuming that they leave,

Yeah, they move outside of this kind of quarantined off, but

they seem like they set up there.

No waiting for you

so I'm gonna turn to Ocean and I say I'm sorry that

I just lost us a car battery.

Do you want to head to Johnny Hertz's place or should we head

home and actually go get that thing?

I think we better get that car battery.

I don't, I think we got a pretty tight schedule.

If we don't want to end up pedaling for weeks now, we might gotta

think I have an idea.

And Hey car battery's a car battery.

At least we're still

alive.

I agree.

But I think I have an idea for, something we might be able

to do, but let's hurry home.

I

by home, I mean to your home.

Not mine.

Mine has no power.

You hurry along.

Ocean limping a little bit as the bottom of your leg is clean, fucked up, but

you make it back to Ocean's Place.

If you're heading straight there, you have plenty of time of getting in

Stu, I have a question for you.

How common are car batteries?

Does Hickory have cars in his fleet?

Does he know what one would he recognize?

One

yes.

They have cars.

A lot of people have vehicles of some manner.

Not maybe most, but definitely Hickory has a fleet of vehicles, mostly

just like normal, traditional cars.

Nothing like the spider.

because I was gonna see if we could like, forge one, not

forged, like in an anvil, make a forgery of a car battery by filling

filling like an ammo can with rocks.

So you know that it would've to be a little more advanced than that.

But you know that a lot of times these batteries aren't even used.

They're just like tokens of exchange.

So there could be one car battery that gets passed on for a long

time, so it not being functional may not immediately come back on you.

But it also could, it could be this car needs a new car battery

and they try one of these.

But that's definitely feasible.

It would be difficult to do in the amount of time without being late.

So are we just,

So your risk in having to pedal it off, it's up to

ocean, are we just handing this over or are we gonna try to

take one pull one over on these guys?

Should we like, load up on shit and try to fight them for real, but prepared

I don't think we'd be able to take 'em.

We might be able to, but I don't feel,

You're a whole gang

yeah, I am a whole gang, but I don't know how in character

it would be for Ocean to want to like fight these guys over our car

how where did we, where are we gonna meet them?

near Frida's Place, just like right outside of it.

Like basically the same place you met him before.

Frida Alley.

Sorry, not Frida's Place.

You don't know where Frida's Place is.

So basically same place.

We got that.

We got hung up.

I am going to propose something.

Okay.

that we drive to Johnny Hertz's place.

We tell him to get on the radio and blast that Pistachio Jones and his goons are

gonna be at that location at that time.

And if anyone shows up, basically I'm gonna try to start a little riot.

I think we should try to start a little riot.

If anyone shows up, we try to fight our way out of it.

If no one shows up, we give them the car battery.

I like that idea.

Yeah, I think that's good.

I think going to Johnny Hertz, seeing what he can stir up with people

Because he is not that far from Frida's alley, right?

Now you guys were almost to his place when you got caught.

We could like start mentioning about have him, like broadcasting the

fact that Hickory's now sending his goons like, hassle people over money

that they don't even necessarily have.

Yeah.

We're lucky in that we do have a car battery, but if he, they'd

come to us a day early or a day earlier we would have nothing.

All right.

So I hop in the Jeep, I fire her up.

I look at the terrible paint job that I can see on the hood, and I'm

motioned to, I motioned ocean to hop in.

Nice.

Nice.

Yeah.

You guys peel off and head towards Johnny Hertz's Radio Shack and you're

able to get there using your vehicle.

You get there with enough time to definitely talk to him and still make it.

So you brought the car battery as a backup plan in case you

need to give it off though.

Okay?

So

you

case we're just screwed.

As you show up, there's a flashing on air sign on the Johnny Hurtz shack

like there was before, but it looks very

Okay.

I just I walk because the time is of the incident essence.

I hop out immediately.

Don't even wait for Ocean to get outta the car.

I'm assuming he's right behind me.

I run up the stairs, open the door, and I pause for a moment because Johnny hurts.

Or, sorry, I pause for a moment because Pistachio Jones knew that we had a car

battery and I don't know how he knew.

And to play it safe, I use stern presence on Johnny Hiz to see if he's deceived us

Okay, gimme, gimme that hard roll.

Yeah, he's the only one that would really would have known unless

Oh wait.

Actually, Ocean.

How far behind me are you?

Uh, I'm assuming I'm following

Okay, nevermind.

I was going to say,

unless you need me to tail behind a

I actually, yeah.

Can I, Stu, can I modify that slightly?

I turn behind me and I go, gimme one second, and then I close the door

behind me and I walk up behind Johnny Hertz and I use compassionate presence.

Ooh, different roll, I think.

Cool.

Indeed.

That fell off in a way that I can't read which way is facing up.

I'm gonna roll 'em on the floor.

You're bad at dice.

Nine plus two 11.

Excellent.

So I'd say full success.

I think you get both of those

The main thing that I'm interested in is if he's done

something that he's ashamed of.

You see no shame.

And Johnny hurts his face.

He is.

You open that door and he's in the middle of the big rant.

He sees you, his eyes kinda light up actually, and he smiles

at you as he seems to start

I always knew that I could trust Johnny Hertz.

Is there, do you

yeah, I actually, I do want to know if he's holding onto pain

because I'm wondering if they also tried to stake him up for cash.

Right now it doesn't seem like he is, he seems really happy with his current

situation since you guys got him this through the Earth communication device.

And he thinks at least he's communicating to a much wider audience.

And you hear him go, I'm gonna have to jump to a quick commercial

break for you guys real quick.

We got a guest in the studio.

He may come on mic soon, I'll let you know.

And this is Johnny Hiz.

Simon off for about two minutes.

See you then.

And he hits a big button.

He, it's a big loud button with a loud click sound when he is.

And he comes out and goes, Hey, it's Johnny Hertz here.

What's book doing?

Visiting my place?

You trying to spread some

I turn around really quick on a wave ocean in,

Aye,

and I say, Hey, Johnny.

We actually, I hope this is okay.

We could use a favor.

Have you heard about Pistachio Jones hidden everyone up for these new taxes,

this new tariff that he's loving?

Yeah, absolutely ridiculous.

We have a lot of people, it's really hurting and the power's been even more

inconsistent lately is what I've noticed.

So it's like, what are we

I've had no power for over a week now and we know where Pistachio

Jones and whole Bandag Goons are gonna be, and we wanna let the people

know that this is their chance to fight back and to push back against

the light bringer and his bullshit.

Give me a sway

Okay.

Shit, that was a six.

is a full of fail.

I can try to help.

I would love to help because I don't think we can get too much worse than a six.

Uh, So Ocean will come in.

It's like Johnny, people are really hurting out there.

these goons just shook us down in the street here demanding a car battery

for something we don't even have.

I think the people would be very appreciative to be able to know

and be able to come and talk to Ol Pistachio Jones himself

to give him a little piece of

What if we pretend,

I think it could get you serious cred on

sorry.

And then I jump in.

What if I pretend that I took over and I.

I took over the channel and that takes the heat off of you.

And I get on the air and I tell people

Give me that help Roll

Ocean

so for that, I roll with book, right?

Yes.

Books, history.

I do have plus two with book right now.

That is a nine.

A nine.

Okay.

That helps, that pushes you to a mix success.

And with your given concession, that was gonna be what I was going to recommend.

Anyway, he goes, Yeah, I think as long as the heat, like I'm

gonna get some heat from this.

So I want you to know I'm taking a big risk letting you jump on air,

but as long as you take over it and lead the charge, say all the

words I'm gonna stay out of it.

But you have my voice modulating

clap Johnny,

and its

I clap Johnny on the shoulder and I say, Johnny.

You're a true friend.

Get on in there.

Any patsy on the back and he helps hook you up.

Put some headphones on your head, tells you which side of the mic to speak into.

Keeps reminding you to actually talk into the mic and quit leaning back.

And what's your impassioned plea to the people, the possibly dozen of

Okay.

I look at Ocean, and before I sit down and say, if you have ever anything

to say, now's the time, and then I move towards the mic and ocean.

If you want to go first, you're welcome to, or I can jump in and start.

I'll let you go first cuz it sounds like book has a more solid grasp.

know, You are a more personable individual than Ocean is, but he'll probably step

in at the end to add a little bit extra.

Okay, so I click the big button that Johnny Hertz pressed and a.

Resounding clunk resets my demeanor and I lean towards the mic I say, my friends

and my fellow citizens of Hamlet opening, I am tired of living under a thumb that

none of us voted for a thumb that none of us even really at least not that I

know of, especially not a thumb that is threatening us for money that we don't

have and giving us nothing in return.

If you're tired of that thumb, meet us at Frida Alley and then,

hold on, Stu, how much time do we have left before the hour's up?

We have roughly 15

Meet us in Frida's Alley in 15 minutes because Pistachio Jones and

his gang of jerks and bullies is gonna be there and I'm gonna be there too.

And I just realized that I forgot to say that I took over from Johnny Hertz.

That's fine.

Give me his sweat roll.

Okay.

Roll plus.

Cool.

That's good cuz I need it.

That is an eight.

And eight.

Okay.

The camera pans to the dozen of people listening to this through their radio.

At the bar, there's a small radio that someone has brought in.

It looks scrapped up and taped together.

And you can't see who's listening to it, but you hear your tinny

voice echoing through it.

And there's a hush over the rabble for a second.

At the soggy worm, Calista has a radio on the bar and she hears your

voice coming through it, and you see her kind of like sigh heavily and go

up to it, turn it down a little bit.

You see someone driving along in their car and they're like, hell yeah.

Hell yeah.

Every time you say one of these lines responding to it, getting amped up

and excited for what's going on,

is ocean.

If Ocean jumps in and he,

Is that gonna be a help or is that gonna be a different sway rule?

he can help.

This would be just

I was just about to say Ocean would like to, at this point, step

into, to help and add a little more to,

Okay.

give me,

to a full

gimme a different appeal.

I think.

So I would say books was very pathos heavy.

Move.

Go for like a logical or ethical approach.

That is exactly what I was gonna do actually.

, Ocean's gonna come up and say, folks, we're not calling for violence.

We're not calling for a fight in the streets.

All we want is for y'all to come and speak your mind and let Hickory

and his goons know how we feel and that they can't keep taxing us

like this with all of us together.

Hopefully we can all talk this out and things won't have to escalate any further.

But the more people come to show their support, the more Hickory will understand

that things just can't keep it going like this cuz there's more of us.

The nar are of him.

Okay, give me a help

advantage for that.

Beautifully eloquent.

That was good.

That is, I actually have, so do I roll over at four?

So like I

plus four.

Yep.

You still get that plus three and then if you get a 10 plus, you'll roll over four.

Then that is a 12.

Nice.

Okay.

Both of you get plus one history and you roll over.

As you hit the, oh, shit.

Hold on.

Let's, let me find things.

As you finish that sentence, Johnny Hertz's finger comes over and clicks

the microphones off, and you look up and you see there's some tears in his

eyes and he goes, Johnny Hurtz really thinks you might change something today.

I really hope I see you again.

And then he clicks it on and goes, Johnny Hertz was not involved in the proceeding

It's about say we hijacked his radio, fellas, we hijacked the radio.

Don't blame Johnny for this.

So do you guys head out real quick, since your history

rolled over, you can ask.

You get to choose one of the following.

What's a secret I learned or realized about you?

I'm more open to you than I was again, plus one history with me.

Hey, I'm thinking of doing something.

What's your take?

What do you suggest?

What's our next step?

Let's make a plan together for what comes next.

quick question.

I only got plus one on that one because it was a 12th.

Okay.

But mine also rolled over.

Oh my God.

Okay, so you both get to ask these things and you're both really bad at

helping each other for a little bit.

Yep.

Unless one of us chooses to take the plus one history, the op more

open option, I guess that would take

Can you repeat the options now that I know that I need to pay attention?

What's a secret I've learned or realized about you?

I'm more open to you than I was.

Get another history with me.

Hey, I'm thinking of doing something.

What's your take?

What do you suggest?

What's our next step?

Let's make a plan together for what comes next for us.

All right, ocean.

It was your roll.

So why don't you go first?

So I've actually thought about this cuz I was thinking last,

I was thinking for, since us previous recordings, we've done the rollover

history to like say something new that you've learned about each other.

And for the most part we've only done kind of goofy things.

I've noticed.

And I was thinking, I was like, what is something I could say that could really

shake up the history with Book and Ocean?

And I think I want to do that.

So I think Ocean is gonna confide in book here after they've talked and

Ocean sees like all that book is done.

And Holly said to the people, he's gonna admit that the first time

he actually met Ocean or Book, he was coming to his place to rob him

because he was out of supplies and figured he would be a pushover.

Oh shit.

But then when he uh, offered him read the Can of Beans and offered to

split it with them, he was like, I can't, I can, it seems like a pretty good guy.

I can't bring myself to do that.

that was the start of their friendship.

But he's gonna admit to book ands like, look book.

I'm glad our relationships come this far.

I, I feel like I have to tell you this.

And he tells that to

I clap ocean on the shoulder and I tell 'em hopefully after today,

you'll never need to rob anyone again.

Because both of us are gonna

are

in the shootout.

And along those lines, I turned to him and I already turned to him, but I

turned to him even more and I say, would you say we go get this son of a bitch?

And I am in, in, in those words, trying to ask him his opinion and what his thoughts

are after our history rolled over.

Okay.

So how does that work?

Do you get like a bonus if you like act on that is how it

works or is it just nothing?

It's just flavor.

Just delicious flavor.

Okay.

I like it.

So I think what would be interesting, I'll cut out me saying this.

So you guys sound smarter if you take my advice, but I think what would be

interesting is if you give some insight into the level you're okay with going,

like how far you're okay with going.

If it does need to turn into big violence or if you are.

Thinking of outsmarting them in some way.

Something about your approach I think

would be

that's what I was, so

here.

ocean will nod.

Ocean nods.

And I really don't want this to get violent.

I want for the, I want us to do uh, best we can to like, keep

this as amicable as possible.

I think we should try our best to see if we can pressure them

to back down with the crowd.

if things get bad, then I guess we'll be shooting our way out.

I like where your head's at and I think that that maybe my

fervor got ahead of me a little bit.

What do you say?

We, no matter what happens, the first thing we do is we hand pistachio Jones

our battery, and we tell him that he gets this battery, but it's last

battery that he takes from any of us.

Ooh.

I like that.

That makes us like not come out as just like clear, like oh, we're being

dicks cuz we were taking our battery.

That, That puts us to like a moral high ground that we're taking cuz

then if we get hurt, then we're

I love it.

Let's try to beat everyone there so that a fight doesn't break out before

we even get a chance to say our piece.

Yeah.

That is wise.

You hop in the car, peel out head there.

Oh, actually, can I clarify?

I don't think, I don't want to take the car because I don't want them to

see that we have another car battery.

Can we run there or is it too late?

If we need to drive, we'll drive.

No, you can get there.

It's pretty close.

So you head there carrying your car battery prominently and you're trying

to get there before everyone else does.

So I'll say you can do that.

You gave him like 15 minutes.

You're able to get there in time.

As you approach, you see a couple things.

I'm not gonna make you roll for this cuz you can just see it.

You think it's pretty unlikely.

They specifically have heard the radio show.

They don't have any radios playing or anything like that.

They look pretty casual.

You do know that they do use like walkie-talkies and things, so if

someone else heard it, they could easily radio it in, something like that.

They look pretty casual though from here.

You'd have to get closer, make a roll to figure out anything

more as you're approaching.

And you do see pretty far in the distance, you actually see juniper

outside looking in your direction.

Ooh.

But that's the only people you see right now.

He's not approaching, he's like leaning against the wall,

like smoking a cigarette, like all the way outside the bar.

But he's definitely, you've never seen him outside of the bar before.

He's behind the bar counter 100% of the time.

So that is abnormal.

But those are two things

Can we read a situation?

Oh wait, no.

Does that make it charged?

It does.

Okay.

Nevermind.

I do not wanna do.

Or is it already charged?

Like it's a little bit charged.

Could be.

Could be.

I guess that depends on what we do next.

Yeah.

How are you approaching?

I would guess it

I think we should just go as open as possible.

Be as obvious as we can.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

You walk up and you hear pistachio Jones say looks like you've

made it in just a nick of time.

Got about five minutes left.

Thank you for getting that battery here, and he starts walking towards E two.

You guys are like twelve feet apart right now.

If you want to do anything, just say anything.

I'm trying to think of what we should like the best approach here.

Should we hold off on giving him the battery until we like make our statement?

Or should we like, look, here's the battery, but we have something to say.

I think we should stall until more people get here so

that our words carry more weight.

How are you gonna stall?

Just through words or

I am going to say to pistachio, we brought your battery, but we we have

some extra something, a little special just for you coming and I think it's

gonna sweeten the deal quite a bit.

Ooh

is that a sway?

Someone?

One.

he just goes, no, that's going to be an act under pressure since

your goal here is to buy time, you're gonna, this is you being cool.

Act under fire.

Sorry, I say that wrong every time because I DM other games where

it's called Act Under Pressure.

and I'm gonna say, you said we got five extra minutes.

We're gonna wait those five minutes to give this to you.

Ooh, power play.

Okay.

Let's roll.

Natural.

12 plus two

nice.

nice.

He sees that power play you make, and at first he wants to push back, but he,

you are a very strong imposing person.

Just your mere presence there and the confidence that

book walked up with as well.

He's I got nowhere else to be for five minutes, so if you wanna waste all of our

time here, that's completely fine with me.

And about the time you f he finishes that sentence.

You hear this, I don't wanna say battle yell, but almost a battle shriek.

As you look to where it comes from, you see those two chaos cultists looking amped

as fuck to get involved in this fight.

I thought we got a full success on

And they start running towards you.

One of them has five grenades in his hands and he just like rips all

the pins out with his mouth and is just holding these five grenades

as he starts sprinting towards you.

Oh

So you see them running, they are l luckily for you, a very far distance away.

Still.

They're coming all the way from the bar like sput, sprinting full speed.

And it definitely draws everyone's attention.

You see a few more people.

You see a car that is not very familiar to you.

Peeling around a corner like Tokyo, drifting into frame from around

the side, headed in your direction.

Book, you recognize this person.

This is Callista's boyfriend.

What's his name?

Do you wanna name him?

Sure.

His name

Shooting Mc Fu

his name is Den

Den Wallace.

Okay.

Den Wallace

What a name.

coming up, Callista's boyfriend and he's walking with purpose.

And he has a large hunting rifle slung over his shoulder,

headed in this direction.

But, and you still see Juniper, but he has not moved from his location.

He's just watching from where he is at,

Okay.

what he guys do.

So seeing the Ks cultists running out, ocean's gonna get a little

worried gonna gonna step for whoa, whoa.

Hold on now.

Because he sees like all these people starting to crown he

is like, hold on, nobody do

anything crazy.

As you say that, all of the hickory men pull out their guns.

All of them,

I'm gonna also, I'm gonna hold both of my hands up.

Wait, who's holding the battery?

I'm assuming it's ocean.

Cause he's big and strong.

I was about to say, I'm

assuming

yeah.

Okay.

I'm gonna hold both of my hands up, palms out.

I'm gonna say, everybody wait, we have something to say

before it goes any further?

And hopefully I'm gonna say that thing if Stew's gonna let me.

Yeah, go

ahead.

Say that thing.

Okay.

I don't have to sway anybody.

If you want the chaos Cols to stop moving where they're

at, you'll have to sway them

or you can say it while they keep running at you.

probably get them to

I do, I do

pull a bunch of grenades

I'm specifically, one of my hands is definitely specifically pointed at one.

I'm hoping that they haven't actually let go of the grenade, so that

he's still holding 'em, but like this, which is not a good way.

I the pantomime I just did for our audio only listeners was like

the guy holding too many pairs.

Or, Or just any man in a bar who just got five drinks for his friends

Yes.

Five drinks for his friends.

Um, roll to Sway, to sway the Chaos Cultists,

Okay.

that was eight plus two is 10.

10.

Okay.

They

You see the one with the grenades is like still going forward, and the

other one puts his hand on a shoulder and he says, let the man speak.

Nice

Book, uh, thinks to himself.

I never thought I'd say this, but I freaking love those guys.

And he turns I turn to Pistachio Jones and I say loud hopefully for all of the, the

gathering crowd to hear look pistachio.

I'm gonna give you this car battery, I'm gonna pay this tax.

But And I And I gesture to all of the people gathering around us.

Want you to know that this is the last tariff that you're gonna get

from any of us until we see some real change in this community.

I guess ocean at that point, tosses car battery.

Not

You said sway roll.

Yes.

Seven plus two, nine.

Nice.

It's pretty close to a full success.

Do you wanna try to help Ocean?

Yeah, I'd love to try to So he

First.

First.

so that was to sway somebody is what he did.

Mm-hmm.

but so you say that and it looks like he's teetering on the

edge he seems a little concerned by the sudden amount of people.

He definitely seems offended by what you said.

Like, how dare you talk this way to me.

And you look over you.

You like the position you are in.

You realize you are in front of several armed men with no protection.

You have your cane and that's it.

you look over at Ocean very slowly and you see him slowly reaching back

for the shotgun he's been carrying and his eyes are just like glazed over.

And I'm gonna have you do a one of your visions

Lets see

if this sounds like me.

It may be even more natural.